Thursday, September 8, 2011

1989 Upper Deck, Jim Eppard



#614 Jim Eppard

Here is the second and final card that I got Jim Eppard to sign for me after a Colorado Springs Sky Sox game this summer. Jim is the hitting coach for the Salt Lake Bees and he was nice enough to sign this card for me after a crushing ten inning loss to the Sox.

I had to buy this card from checkoutmycards.com because I could not find a single card of Jim in my collection. That was kind of sad, especially because I know I have his '89 Topps card somewhere. I took that card with me to a Bees game in 2008 and I did not get it signed. I haven't seen it since. I posted about this very problem with Mike Mason a week and a half ago. I think I may make it my goal this winter to get all of my cards organized and vow to keep them that way. We'll see how well that goes, if it even goes at all.

Jim played parts of four seasons with the Angels and Blue Jays from 1987-90. His biggest season was in '88 and that was the only time he had more than 12 at-bats in a season. That year, he got into 56 games and he came to the plate 126 times. He hit .283 that season with a OBP of .347. He had 3 doubles, a triple, and 14 RBI. That may not seem all that great, but it certainly isn't bad for the fourth outfielder. Sure, he didn't have much power, but at least he got on base.

After his last appearance in the Majors, Jim played three more seasons in the minors. In 1991, he was with a high-A team. He was back in AAA in '92. And in '93, he was with the St.Paul Saints of the independent Northern League. If you check out the Saints roster from that year, you will see that Jim was teammates with Leon Durham, Kevin Millar, and Rey Ordonez. Minnie Minoso even had one at-bat with them that season. That sounds like it might have been a fun team to watch.

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