2007 Upper Deck, Josh Hamilton

#630 Josh Hamilton

Here is the third and final card that I got signed by Josh Hamilton at a Rangers game in 2008. You can see the first card here and the second one here.

When I was making that trip to Texas, the only cards of Josh that I could find were two 2007 cards and an older card of him with the Devil Rays. I know for a fact that I had his 2008 Bowman card of him which showed him as a Ranger. But, I was unable to find that card. I, of course, found it a couple of weeks later which is usually the case for me when I cannot find a card I am looking for. Since I always take three cards per player, I try to mix up the teams as much as I can if the player has been around a bit. One Rays, Reds, and Rangers cards would have been perfect at the time, but I screwed that up, especially since the Rangers are the team that Josh is known for.

So far this year, Josh has missed all of Spring Training with an ailing knee. He had two operations on it last year and is still trying to work himself into game shape. As of right now, he is hoping to be back in early May.

When I went to Josh's MLB page, I did not recognize him. His profile picture on there has him sporting a three inch long goatee.

2007 Upper Deck, Kyle Davies

#546 Kyle Davies

Here is one last card of Kyle Davies as a Brave. The last card of Davies I posted, an '07 Topps card, featured him with the Royals. At the trade deadline in 2007, the Royals obtained Davies in exchange for reliever, Octavio Dotel. Dotel would pitch in 7.2 innings with the Braves while Davies played in Kansas City into the 2011 season. For better or worse, I would say that the Royals got more out of that trade than Atlanta did, especially after missing the playoffs that season.

Royals GM, Dayton Moore, came over from the Braves organization and, through the years, has brought over a few former Braves. In the earlier years, there was Davies, Wilson Betemit, and Jeff Francoeur. It is kind of strange that Dayton has been with the Royals for a solid decade now, yet he is still bringing over reclamation projects from the Braves. Over the past two years, he has brought in Kris Medlen, Peter Moylan, and Mike Minor, with Minor and Medlen both coming off of Tommy John surgery. You would think that over that much time, he would have less ties to the Braves. But, being a small market team, I guess he just looks for any advantage he can get.

As for Davies' time with the Braves, he pitched there for two and a half seasons and went 14-21 with a 6.15 ERA. He wasn't much better with the bat as he hit .141 with two dingers and 9 RBI. His home runs came off of Aaron Sele and Randy Wolf.

I got this card signed by the Royals parking lot in 2008.

2007 Upper Deck, Felix Pie

#519 Felix Pie

Here is a card of former Cubs prospect, Felix Pie. I got this card, and two others, signed at an Orioles game in 2009 while Felix was playing for them.

I met up with Ryan, from The Great Orioles Autograph Project, at that game and he showed me the ropes of 'graphing at Camden Yards. We ended up by the Orioles dugout just before game time and that is when Felix entered the dugout from the clubhouse. I asked him to sign and he looked like he really didn't want to. But, he came over anyway and signed my three cards and not much more after that.

Ryan, by the way, just got back from Spring Training down in Florida and has a ton of autographs to show off. Check them out if you get a chance.

Felix's time with the Cubs was relatively short, but he sure got a ton of cards made of him during that time. He spent just parts of two seasons in Chicago and could never really get it going. Over 130 games, Felix hit just .223 with 3 home runs and 30 RBI and had more strikeouts than hits. After the 2008 season, the Cubs shipped him to Baltimore for Garrett Olson and a minor leaguer.

2007 Upper Deck, Kei Igawa

#502 Kei Igawa

Here is the third and final card that Kei Igawa signed for me in 2009. Kei was playing for Scranton/Wilkes-Barre at the time and he signed the three cards for me while in the stands charting pitches. You can see the first card I posted here and the second one here.

Needless to say, but Kei's career in the States did not go as well as he, and the Yankees, had hoped. He managed to pitch in just 71.2 innings with the Yanks and those did not go well. In those 16 games (13 starts), Kei went 2-4 with a 6.66 ERA. He walked 37 while striking out just 53 and giving up 15 long balls.

Instead of pitching in Yankee Stadium, Kei spent most of his time in the U.S. pitching in PNC Field in Scranton. He spent the majority of five seasons pitching for the SWB Yankees and he did okay with them. He was 33-22 in AAA with a 3.81 ERA. Over 469.2 innings of work, he struck out 373 while walking 136.

After the failed experience with Major League Baseball, Kei went back to Japan and pitched three more seasons in their Pacific League before calling it a career.

2007 Upper Deck, Joe Randa

#404 Joe Randa

As of right now, this is the last card of Joe Randa that I have to show on here. Since he is frequent visitor at Royals Fanfest, that could change in the future. But, for now, this is the last one.

With this card, I have now posted a card of Joe with each of the the five teams he played for. You can also see posts of him as a Royal, Tiger, Padre, and Red.

Joe's final season in the Major Leagues was spent in Pittsburgh in 2006. That season, he played in 86 games and hit .267 with 4 home runs and 28 RBI. For his career, Joe hit .284 with 123 homers and 739 RBI.

Joe's best season was probably with the Royals in 2000. That year, he hit .304 with 15 home runs and 106 RBI. He did have a really good year late in his career, as well. In 2005, he split the season with the Reds and the Padres. Though he hit just .267, he had career highs in doubles (43) and home runs (17).

I got this card signed at Royals Fanfest in 2009.

2007 Upper Deck, Willie Bloomquist

#193 Willie Bloomquist

Here is the third card of Willie Bloomquist that I have posted on here. I posted his '07 Topps card back in November and a minor league card back in 2010. Those first two cards were signed at Royals Fanfest in 2009. This one, on the other hand, was obtained outside of Kauffman Stadium in 2009. There was a slight mist that day and that precipitation affected the outcome of the signature on this card. There are two spots where it got wet. One looks like it got hit with a drop and the other looks like the Sharpie ran through a wet spot. Luckily, it did not do too much damage as you have to look for it to see it.

When I posted that last card of Willie, I speculated that his career may be up after getting released from the Mariners last season. It appears that is actually the case after Willie announced his retirement last week on Twitter. It was a cool Tweet that showed Willie taking a swing in batting practice. He hit a dinger and walked out to a bat flip. It read "Make your last swing your BEST swing. Farewell @MLB. Thank you for 14 amazing seasons. It's been an incredible ride".

2007 Upper Deck, Mark Teahen

#121 Mark Teahen

Here is a card of former Royal, Mark Teahen, that I got signed outside of Kauffman Stadium in 2008. If my records are correct, he signed two for me that day.

This is the second card of Mark that I have posted on here. I posted the first one, a Bowman card of him with the A's, in 2010 and it can be seen here.

In 2004, Mark was part of one of the worst trades in Royals history. Prior to the All Star game that season, the Royals dealt Carlos Beltran to the Astros in a three team trade with Oakland. Beltran was in the last year of his contract and the Royals knew they had no chance of resigning him. So, they made the deal and got Teahen and Mike Wood from the A's and John Buck from the Astros. While Teahen and Buck were very good players on a bad Royals team, neither one of them came near to being the player that Beltran was at the time. It also says something that Beltran is still playing while the guys the Royals got in return have been out of the game for at least one season. And Beltran is at least three years older than the other three guys.

But, that was how the Royals operated back then. Luckily, that has changed a little bit.