1996 Leaf Signature Extended Autographs, Jose Hernandez

#78 Jose Hernandez

I had been planning on going to a hockey game yesterday and, just recently, it was announced that they were going to have an alumni game prior to the actual game. On Wednesday night, I noticed that one of the guys playing in the alumni game had actually played in the NHL and there were some cards of him from the early '80s. So, I went over to checkoutmycards.com and I was able to find three cards of him for less than a dollar. But, since I needed them on such short notice, I had to pay the higher shipping charge of nine dollars so they would get here by gametime. Since my total for the cards was so cheap, I ended up buy three more cards from the 1996 Leaf sets. I'll post one of them tonight and one tomorrow and the third one will be posted whenever I get around to posting it.

The first one is of the much traveled Jose Hernandez. I got this card for $1.28. I bought this card for a couple of reasons. The first is because I remember Jose for striking out so much. Why that is a reason to go out and buy a card of him, I don't know. But, I did it anyway. The second reason why I bought the card is because I got Jose's autograph at a game in 2000. Back then, I wasn't collecting baseball cards, so I got him to sign a ball signed by three other Brewers. Now, I finally have a card signed by him, too. I think I may start looking for certified autographs of guys that I only have their autograph on baseballs.

Jose played in the Majors for fifteen seasons and he saw time with the Rangers, Indians, Cubs, Braves, Brewers, Pirates, Rockies, Dodgers, and Phillies. He was an All Star for the Brewers in 2002 and he had three seasons where he had more than 20 home runs. But, like I said earlier, Jose struck out a bunch. He racked up 1,391 strikeouts in his career while collecting 1,166 hits. He was a .252 career hitter, but imagine how much better he could have been if he could have made a little bit better contact. Oh well, he was still good enough to last fifteen seasons in the Majors, so he was obviously doing something right.

I got to see Jose play four times, and in those games, Jose had three hits versus two strikeouts.