2002 Topps Chrome, Leonard DiNardo

#691 Leonard DiNardo

I thought that this was a cool card before I even got it signed. For one, it's a Topps Chrome card that looks so much different in color to the base set. The base set was a bronze color and this one is silver. I don't buy many Topps Chrome cards, but I don't think that they chrome them up like they did in this set. The second thing I like about it is that it calls him Leonard, rather than Lenny like he goes by. The final thing I like about it is that it features him as a Met. I didn't know that he was ever a Met. It turns out that he was drafted by them, but taken by the Red Sox in the Rule V draft two years later. I had no idea.

I got this card signed last summer on my College World Series trip. Lenny was playing for the Omaha Royals at the time and I was able to get this card signed in betwen games of a double header in Des Moines, Iowa. It's kind of a sloppy autograph because Lenny had a hot chocolate in one hand and my Sharpie in the other. I had to hold my book for him while he signed. But, that's how it goes sometimes when 'graphing.

Lenny was the pitcher of the year last season in the Pacific Coast League.