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.

2000 Fleer Tradition, Ben Davis

#11 Ben Davis

For starters, this is a die-cut card. To make scanning easy, I usually scan my cards by the sheet. That's why you can see the back of a Topps card in the scan. Any guess on what card that is?

This Padrograph is of former top prospect, Ben Davis. Ben played at the Major League level for the Padres, Mariners, and White Sox. The former first round draft choice (this is the second Padre first rounder of the week) hasn't played in the Major Leagues since 2004, but he has played in the minors every year since.

Ben's best season was probably 2001. That year, he played in the most games in his career and batted .239 with 11 homers and 57 RBI. He also broke up a Curt Schilling no-hitter that year by bunting for a hit in the eighth inning.

In 2008, Ben got released by the Orioles. He signed with the Camden Riversharks, of the Atlantic League, as a pitcher. He pitched in 6 games for them and posted a 3.00 ERA in 21 innings. The Cincinnati Reds must have been somewhat impressed and signed him to a minor league deal last season. Ben pitched in 9 games with their Florida State League team and had a 3.09 ERA with 4 saves before an injury shut him down. I have no idea if he is going to try to make a return this year.

2000 Fleer Tradition, Kory DeHaan

#U83 Kory DeHaan

Here is the second Padrograph from 2000. This one features a former Pirates draft pick, Kory DeHaan. Kory played for the Pirates organization for three years and in his final year, he hit .268 for their AA team. The Padres must have saw something that they liked because they picked him up in the Rule V draft during the off-season.

With the Padres in 2000, Kory got into 90 games and batted 103 times. He hit .204 for the season and hit 2 home runs while driving in 13. One home run came off of Darren Driefort and the other came off of Kyle Farnsworth.

He ended up back in the minors for all of 2001. He spent most of 2002 in the minors as well, although he got a look during a September call-up where he went 1-11. In 2003, it was back to AAA for him. After 54 games and a .202 average, Kory called it a career.

Last season, Kory was the hitting coach and interim manager of the Chico Outlaws of the independent Golden Baseball League. This season, he is going to be an instructor for the Padres rookie level team in Peoria, Arizona.

2000 Fleer Focus, Carlos Febles

#100 Carlos Febles

When I first heard of Carlos Febles, I was watching Sportcenter in 1999. They had a little segment on about Kansas City's "Dos Carlos", Febles and Carlos Beltran. That was the first I had heard about either of them and I was shocked to see that the Royals were getting some national attention. Dos Carlos were tearing it up at the time and ESPN was touting them as the front runners for the Rookie of the Year award. Well, Beltran went on to win the award and Febles didn't even get one vote.

Unfortunately, this Carlos' career only lasted six seasons. His last game was in 2003. For some reason, the injury bug always found him. I'm not a hundred percent sure, but I think a wrist injury was what ended his playing career. The Royals then-GM, Allard Baird, was a big fan of Carlos and Allard wanted to make him a coach. That's how I got this card signed.

I got this card signed two years ago at a Lancaster Jethawks game. Carlos was the 'Hawks hitting coach. The 'Hawks were the Red Sox high-A team at the time and Allard Baird is the Sox assistant to the GM. So, Allard kept his word and took Carlos to the Red Sox organization with him.

Carlos is still the Sox high-A hitting coach. He is now doing that for the Salem Red Sox of the Carolina League.

I have no idea what is going on with Carlos' signature. I think he signed his last name in Chinese.

2000 Bowman, Omar Ortiz

#387 Omar Ortiz

Finally, I am back on track. This is the first card from the new millinium. I was in college when these cards came out and collecting cards wasn't one of my priorities. So most of the cards from 2000 and 2001 are going to be somewhat recent acqisitions and this card meets that criteria. This card came from Rod, of Padrographs, when he sent me the giant stack of signed Padres cards about a year and a half ago.

Omar never reached the Major Leagues and he only played professionally for five seasons. He was the Padres first round draft choice in 1999. After two seasons in the Padres minor league system, he ended up as property of the Marlins. I can't find out how he ended up with them, though. I don't know if he was released, traded, or a Rule V pick. He pitched two full seasons for the Fish, reaching AA in the second one. He was 4-8 with a 5.38 ERA there. That was his last full season in affilated ball. The next season, he pitched a few games for the Rangers A team and the Marlins AA team before ending up with Edinburg in the independent Central League.

Some Wicked Cards

This past weekend, I got a nice little package in the mail from Wicked Ortega of My Past Time...I Love It fame. In it was a healthy stack of Royals. Here are the highlights.



He sent me almost a packs-worth of '93 Flair Royals. I wish I would have had a couple of them when I went to Fanfest. Those cards would look great signed. There were also four cards from the Score Select Traded set, a set that I didn't even know of before I got the cards. So, cards like that are always going to be fun. He also included a large group of Royals cards from the late '80s and early '90s. The Saberhagen card in the picture is from that lot. That card's back is pretty cool and it has the headline "SABERHAGEN HOLDS PALE HOSE HITLESS". Very cool card.

Plus, most of the cards are of former players that have been to Fanfest at least once. So I shouldn't have a shortage of cards for next years event.

Thanks Wicked!!

1981 Donruss, Andre Dawson

#212 Andre Dawson

Here is the fiftieth signed card I have for my mini-'81 Donruss set. For those of you scoring at home, I am at the halfway point. Fifty down, now fifty more to go.

I found this card in my mailbox on Saturday right before I headed to work. It took about three weeks to get this card back. I sent the card to him with a ten dollar check made out to the Andre Dawson Foundation. I usually do not like paying for autographs, but I figured that I would take advantage of Andre's low price before he raises it. It was a good thing I sent this card to him when I did because he sent back a pamphlet with the prices he charges for various signed items. The first thing I noticed is that he now charges twenty bucks for a signed card. So, I guess that I timed that one just right.

Andre certainly has a unique signature. I can't quite tell what is going on with his first name after the "A". But, from all of the autographs that I have seen of his on the net, I can tell that he takes his time when he signs since all of his 'graphs look the same. As a collector, I really appreciate that.

Thanks to Brian of 30-Year Old Cardboard for inspiring me to write to the Hawk and for sending the address to mail it out to.

'81 Donruss Tracker: 50/100