2008 Tristar Projections, Duane Below

#62 Duane Below

First off, I fianlly made it back home after a little ballpark trip with the family. I have always wanted to take my dad to Wrigley Field and I finally had that chance last week. Chicago is about twelve hours away from here. So, with my three year old, I had to break the drive down in segments so we would all survive. Because of that, the five day trip took us to four ballparks. Besides Wrigley, we took in Busch Stadium, Bosse Field in Evansville, Indiana and Impact Field in Rosemont, Illinois. Personally, I had a blast. I am not too sure about my fourteen year old and wife, though. But, I am glad that they came along, nonetheless.

As far as this card, I got it signed at a Royals game in 2011. Duane was with the Tigers at the time and he signed two of these cards for me before the game started. I still have the other one he signed, so it is available to anybody that needs it.

Duane pitched in the Majors for parts of three seasons with the Tigers and Marlins. In that time, he pitched in 44 games (3 starts) and was 2-4 with a 4.27 ERA. He last pitched in the Majors in 2013 and has pitched in Korea and Japan since then. He is still playing now as he is working on stepping off of the rubber to throw to first in the Atlantic League.

2000 Just, Shane Heams

#244 Shane Heams

Here is a card that was sent to me by Paul, of Paul's Random Stuff. It is always cool when a package arrives from Paul. While Paul wants an autograph from every single Mets player, he is also like me in the fact that he will take an autograph from anyone he can get. A good example of that is this card of Shane Heams.

Shane never made it to the Major Leagues, but he did get a few looks at the AAA level. That's not too bad considering that he was the 1138th pick in the 1994 draft by the Mariners. In his first season of pro ball, he was an outfielder that hit .197 in 61 at-bats. He was then converted to a pitcher and he pitched two seasons with the AZL Mariners before getting released and picked up by the Tigers in 1998. By 2000, Shane had made it up to AAA and also represented the USA in the Olympics, helping to bring home the gold.

Unfortunately, Shane didn't do too well at AAA as he spent parts of the next three seasons there. The best ERA that he had in his four AAA stints was 5.53 in 14.2 innings. It looks like he retired after the 2002 season. He then reemerged in 2004 with the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League. He pitched for them for two seasons before finally hanging them up for good.

Shane is pitching for the West Michigan Whitecaps in this card (at least that is what the card says). The 'Caps are still playing in the Midwest League and are still affiliated with the Tigers.