Saturday, April 18, 2015

2006 Bowman Heritage, Justin Huber


#SG-JH Justin Huber

This is a card that I picked up from COMC for $1.95. Whenever I make a purchase from the site, I usually try to snag a cheap autograph to top off the sale. This was a nice one as it was on-card and of a Royal who never signed a card for me.

Justin is an Australian who played in the Majors for parts of five seasons with the Royals, Padres, and Twins. He never got any significant playing time as the most games he played in any season was 33 with the Padres in 2008. That just happened to be his best season as he had career highs in average (.246), home runs (2), and RBI (8). Those two home runs were the only two he ever hit and he got them off of two very good pitchers- Cliff Lee and Randy Johnson.

Justin finished his career a .224 hitter with those 2 home runs and 15 RBI.

I saw Justin play with the Royals seven times. At one game I was at, I even met his dad. He was fun to talk to. He said that he made the trip over about once a year to watch his son play. We talked about baseball in Australia and he told me it did not have much of a following, that it was basically a club sport. When I think of a club sport here in the States, I tend to think of rugby. And I have a hard time picturing a American club-playing rugby player making it to the highest level of rugby in the world. So maybe it is a little more advanced than that. After all, they now have their own winter league. Justin finished up his career there in 2013.

Justin is listed as a first baseman on this card, which is the position he played for the Royals in 2005. But his base card in the set lists him as a catcher, a position he never played in the Majors. He did catch in the minors, but it is strange that the two cards list different positions.

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