1998 UD3, Gary Matthews Jr.

#209 Gary Matthews Jr.

Here is the last card from 1998 and it has a lot going on in it. Of course, this is a Padrograph from Rod that features Gary Matthews Jr. This card is from the UD3 set and it has about everything that you would ever want a card to have. It has foil, three photos of the player, a bar code, and some other special effects jazz. You don't see too many cards like this anymore. This is about as far away from Topps Heritage as you can get.

This card makes the list as one of my favorite Padrographs. The reason for that is because of "The Catch".



The reason I like that card is because I was at the game where Gary made the catch.

I was on leave at the time and my buddy and I decided to head down to Texas to see the ballparks in Arlington, Houston, and Frisco. The first game we saw was on July 1st in Arlington. The Rangers were hosting the Astros for a Saturday day game and we had tickets for the bleachers just to the right of center field.

Mike Lamb came up to bat in the eighth inning. It was his fifth at-bat of the day and I happened to look at my scorecard when I noticed that he was a single away from the cycle. I have never seen a cycle before I was pretty excited since all he needed was a single.

Well, he ended up crushing the ball to deep center field instead. I was just watching the ball, wondering if it was going to make it out or not. I see Gary chasing the ball down out of my peripheral vision until he started to get close to the wall. Then I lost sight of him for a split second. Just as the ball was about to land in the batters eye, I see the top half of Gary pop out of nowhere and make this circus catch. It was unbelievable. It was hands-down the best play that I have ever seen in person and it happened about fifty feet from where I was seated. I couldn't wait to see the replay on Sports Center later on that night. That is going to be a tough catch to top.

I'm still waiting on seeing a cycle, though.

1998 Upper Deck. Will Cunnane

#501 Will Cunnane

This is the next to last 1998 card and it is also the next to last Padrograph. This one features relief pitcher Will Cunnane, a former member of the Padres, Brewers, Cubs, and Braves.

Will played parts of eight seasons in the Majors and he made 184 appearances, 12 of which were starts. In those 184 games, he was 13-12 with a 5.26 ERA, 3 saves, and 234 strikeouts. 2004 was his last season in the Majors, though he still kept at it in the minors until 2008. He finished his career with the Newark Bears of the Atlantic League. It seems like quite a few of the players that I have signed 1998 cards of ended up in the Atlantic League.

I don't have too many cards from the '98 UD set. When I first got them, I loved the look of them. Now I am not too sure about them, but they are not bad.

1998 Topps, Dave Martinez

#134 Dave Martinez

Here is a card that I got signed by Dave Martinez this past September in Baltimore. The Rays were in town that day and Dave is their bench coach.

Dave seems like a great signer. I have asked him to sign for me twice and each time I came away happy. He signed three cards for me in '08 in Kansas City and another two or three cards for me in Baltimore this year. You can see one of the '08 cards here which links to the rest of the ones I got that year.

Dave has an interesting signature. His first name isn't exactly readable, but if you know who it is from, you can kind of see that it probablty says Dave. I can't say that for his last name. His last name looks more like Egyptian hieroglyphics than Martinez.

As for '98 Topps, they do not seem like anything special to me. Plus, their '99 cards have the same color border as these do which is kind of a negative for me. At least the '99 cards have less foil. But I must point out that these cards scan much better than most cards with foil on them. I guess that that is a positive.

1998 Topps, Kevin Brown

#6 Kevin Brown

Here is a card of the six-time All Star, Kevin Brown. I got this card signed through the mail, most likely in 1998. This was either the last or next to last ttm return that I had for about seven years (Sandy Alomar Jr. was the other one).

Looking back, I am kind of surprised that I got this card returned and signed. At the time, Kevin was one of the premeir pitchers in the game. From 1996-1999, Kevin was 69-35 with a 2.51 ERA. During that time, he never threw less than 233 innings or had an ERA over 3.00. Plus, he struck out over 200 batters in three out of the four years.

For his career, Kevin had 211 wins with a 3.28 ERA and 2.397 strikouts. He played for the Rangers, Orioles, Marlins, Padres, Dodgers, and Yankees. He made six All Star teams, pitched in two World Series, and was a Wolrd Champion with the 1997 Florida Marlins.

Unfortunately, all of his highlights may ultimately be overshadowed by a couple of negatives. In 1998, he signed a 7 year/105 million dollar contract with the Dodgers, only to have three healthy seasons with them. Then, at the end of 2007, his name came up in the Mitchell Report.

It will be interesting to see how Kevin Brown is remembered twenty years from now.

1998 Team Best, Ryan Minor

#31 Ryan Minor

Here is a cool minor league card that I won in a contest last year. The contest was held by the Paul, of Paul's Random Stuff, and all I had to do was answer a simple question. I had name all of the professional teams that drafted Ryan. The trick to the question was the Ryan was also drafted by the Philadelphia 76ers of the NBA. He obviously chose the baseball route instead.

His playing career lasted ten seasons. During that time, he got into 142 Major League games in a four year span with the Orioles and Expos. He only hit .177 in those games with 5 home runs. The Dodgers even experimented with using him as a pitcher, but that plan was short-lived. After a few seasons of playing and coaching in the Atlantic League, Ryan is now the batting coach for the Delmarva Shorebirds.

Ultimately, Ryan will probably be remembered as the guy that replaced Cal Ripken Jr. when Cal decided to end the streak.

I thought that it was kind of neat that he is now coaching the same team that he is playing for on this card. Obviously, the Shorebirds are still around and they are still affilated with the O's.

1998 Pacific Online, Greg Myers

#645 Greg Myers

Here is a Padrograph from Rod. This one features Greg Myers on a Pacific Online card. This is my only card from that set and I know nothing about them. I don't know if they were available online or if they are called that because of the web address that were printed on the top. It is hard to believe that in 1998, just over ten years ago, the internet was still a relatively new thing.

I remember Greg Myers, but mostly just by name. I was shocked when I looked at his stats and saw that he played in the Majors for parts of 18 seasons. Throughout his career, he was primarily a backup catcher. There were only three seasons when he appeared in over 100 games. He spent time with the Blue Jays, Angels, Twins, Braves, Padres, Orioles, and A's. He appeared in two World Series games with the Padres in 1998 and four more with the Braves the following year. He was 2-10 in the two Series with one RBI.

2003 was his last full season in the Majors. That year, he appeared in 121 games (a career high) and he hit .307 with the Jays. That was the only time he ever hit over .300. He only appeared in 14 more games the following two seasons. He didn't play in the minors at all during that time, so I can only guess that he must have been hurt.

Still, I think that it is pretty cool that he had a career year in '03 at the age of 37. He had career highs in every major offensive stat except for doubles and triples. He is a career .255 hitter and without his 2003 stats, his career average probably would have been under .250.

I hope that everyone is having a great Christmas!!

1998 Donruss, Jose Silva

#248 Jose Silva

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday, but work has been knocking me down lately. Christmas is going to be my first day off since last Tuesday and I needed some time to recharge the batteries. I was going to skip todays post as well, but I feel a little refreshed after a nice two hour nap.

Here is a card of Jose Silva that the Troll sent me this summer. Jose played in the Majors for seven years with the Blue Jays, Pirates, and Reds. He was a reliever most of that time and he has a career ERA of 5.41 with 4 saves. Jose made his Major League debut in 1996 and none of his Major League stats really stands out to me.

The one thing that does stand out is that Jose is still pitching professionally. Since 2004, Jose has been pitching in the Mexican League. He has spent the last four seasons with Monterrey and he saved 18 games for them last season. He is even pitching in the Mexican Winter League right now with the Tomateros de Culiacan. I have never taken Spanish, but I'm pretty sure that he is playing for the Culiacan Tomatos. There are just not enough professional teams around anymore that are named after fruits or vegetables.

I hope everyone has a Merry Christmas tomorrow!