Tuesday, November 25, 2014

1996 Leaf Signature Series Extended, Jason Christiansen


#28 Jason Christiansen

Here is a card of Jason Christiansen that I picked up from COMC for ninety-nine cents. I bought this card because I got Jason's signature at a Cardinals game in 2000. Since it was 2000, the autograph was on a ball and not on a card.

That was quite the road trip. I can't remember what prompted my buddy and I to make the trek to St. Louis. I actually don't remember a whole lot about the trip. The only thing that I vividly remember is staying in the most ghetto motel that I have ever been in.

The place looked pretty normal from the front, so we went in and got a room. Then we drove around to the back where the actual rooms were and we were like "WTF did we get ourselves in for". There were two or three rooms where people were sitting outside on lawn chairs drinking forties. We quickly found our room and hurried inside. Inside was not much better. The furniture looked like it was picked up from yard sales as nothing matched. On top of that, the chain lock was hanging from the door and not attached to the wall like the door had been kicked in at some point. Then we checked out the bathroom and discovered that the toilet from the room above ours was leaking and dripping straight into our toilet. Needless to say, neither of us dropped a deuce that night. We didn't sleep that well either.

Jason pitched in the Majors for eleven seasons with the Pirates, Cardinals, Giants, and Angels. He pitched exclusively out of the bullpen and posted a 27-26 record with 16 saves and a 4.30 ERA. His best season came with the Pirates in 1998 when he appeared in a career-high 60 games and had a 2.51 ERA, 6 saves, and 71 strikeouts.

Here is a picture of the ball that Jason signed. It is a cheap souvenir ball and the Sharpie signature has bled a bit. Mike Timlin also signed the ball. I need to get a card signed by him as well. He also has one in this set, but right now it costs twice as much as this card did.

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