2007 Topps, Kevin Kouzmanoff

#263 Kevin Kouzmanoff

I was supposed to post this card before the Miguel Olivo card, but I apparently got a little out of order. So, here it is.

This is another Kevin Kouzmanoff card that Padrograph Rod sent my way. I posted the first one a couple of weeks ago and it can be seen here. This one is cooler than the first one because that one was a sticker autograph. This one is most likely a TTM success as it is personalized to Rod.

This is the second card that I have posted on here of a card that is personalized to someone other than me. The first one was also from Rod, but it was an old '71 Topps card of Ron Slocum that is addressed to Gary. Maybe that should be a new collecting project of mine- collect personalized autographs addressed to other people. Surely those would go for a little bit lower price.

On the last post about Kevin, I talked about his career with the Padres. They dealt him to the A's prior to the 2010 season and that began the beginning of the end for him. He had a decent year in Oakland that season, hitting 16 home runs and driving in 71. But, his average drooped to .247. In 2011, he was hitting just .221 before the A's sent him to the Rockies mid-season. He finished up hitting .255 in Denver before being banished to the minor leagues for the next couple of seasons.

Then he caught a break last year when he was in the Rangers organization and Adrian Beltre got hurt. He got called up and went on a tear. In just 13 games, he hit .362 with 2 home runs and 10 RBI. His efforts were rewarded with his only Player of the Week Award. But, Beltre came back and it was back down to AAA to finish off the year. He was unable to parlay his success into a permanent spot or to force a trade. So, he finished off the year in AAA and then called it a career after the season was up.

Kevin finished his career a .257 hitter with 87 home runs and 371 RBI.

The signature on this card did not stick to the gloss too well. I had that problem with some of the '07 set, too. Most of the cards that I got signed in then set was back when I did not know about prepping. But, most of my cards came out OK until I got to the Update and Highlights set. Those were the ones that I had the most problems with.