2008 Bowman, Jacob Butler

#BP5 Jacob Butler

Here comes the first of many of the prospect and draft pick cards from 2008 Bowman. Most of these guys will be career minor leaguers, but there will be a small handful that did at least appear in a Major League game. Jacob Butler is not one of those guys.

I got this card signed at a Wingnuts game in 2009 while Jacob was with the St. Paul Saints. How is that for some bad luck? He does good enough in 2007 to get a card in the 2008 Bowman set, only to find himself in an independent league in 2009. Nonetheless, Jacob was a cool dude and very talkative.

Prior to meeting him, I wondered if the facsimile signature on his card might have been mistakenly taken from another player and put on his card. If Topps put the wrong picture on Brian Bannister's card, it is possible they could have put the wrong sig on a card, too. Besides, look at that signature. In now way, shape, or form does that look like Jacob Butler. So, before he signs this card, I ask him if they got the wrong signature on the card and he tells me that that is his sig. I was surprised and asked him why it looks like it ends with a "y". He said, "well, that's uh, uh, uh I'm not really sure what that is" and then slaps down a nearly identical signature on the card.

In 2007, Jacob had a full season in high-A in the Florida State League. Like I said, he did good enough to warrant this card, hitting .273 with 23 homers and 85 RBI. He got moved up to AA the next season and his numbers fell to .242, 16, and 64. He was just 25 years old at the time and the Jays cut him loose after the season. He played two seasons of independent ball before calling it a career.

I was looking at all the places that I got cards signed for this set and I probably got them signed in over a dozen ballparks across ten states. So, I made a map for this set showing all the places I got a card signed. Yesterday's card was signed in Oklahoma City and this one was in Wichita. I will update the map whenever I add a new place.

2008 Bowman, Chin-lung Hu

#208 Chin-lung Hu

Here is a card that I got signed at an Oklahoma Redhawks game in 2008. The Redhawks were hosting a Mickey Mantle bobblehead giveaway, so I rounded up a group to make the four hour trip to OKC. The Las Vegas 51s were the visiting team and they were the team I focused on 'graphing that day. The 51s were affiliated with the Dodgers at the time and that is how I got this card signed. Interestingly, the Dodgers affiliate is now Oklahoma City.

I was excited to get a couple of cards signed by Hu at the time. But, Major League baseball never panned out for him. He played bits of five seasons in the Majors with the Dodgers and Mets and he hit just .176 over 193 at-bats. He did okay in his first call-up with the Dodgers in 2007, hitting .241 with two dingers 29 at-bats. Those were the only home runs he would ever hit as a Major Leaguer. Things went downhill from there. By his last appearance in the Majors, with the Mets in 2011, Hu went 1-20 with 11 strikeouts. He would spend the next season in the Atlantic League before calling it quits.

In 2006, I went to a Jacksonville Suns game (who were the Dodgers AA affiliate at the time) and I remember seeing some interesting tee-shirts at the gift shop. They read "Hu's on second". I almost bought one.

2008 Bowman, Brian Bannister/Luke Hochevar

#193 Brian Bannister

I know I said in yesterday's post that I was only going to be posting cards of players once. If I had more cards after that, they were going to get lumped into a group post like the one I did yesterday. I guess I lied, because I have posted multiple cards of Brian Bannister. In fact, I once quit blogging for about forty-five days because I did not want to do another Brian Bannister post. But, I thought that this card was pretty neat and I had to show it off in its own post. For the record, I did skip Billy Butler to get to this card.

Anyways, one year at Royals Fanfest, I was in line next to an older kid and he did not have a card of the player that was currently signing at that line. I had extras, so we made a trade. He gave me his stack to look through and I found this card, which I had not seen before. I instantly noticed it was an error because it says Brian Bannister and has his facsimile signature and stats on it, but it has a picture of Luke Hochevar. So, I traded for this card, but wasn't really sure what I was going to do with it.

About a week later, the Royals Caravan rolled through my town and Bannister was one of the guys on my leg of the tour. I took this card with me even though I was unsure if Brian would sign it for me. When I got up to him, I asked him if he would sign the card even though he isn't pictured on it. He was like "oh sure, I have a few error cards out there". Then, once I had Brian on the card, I knew I had to get Hochevar on it.

Fast-forward two years later and I am again at Royals Fanfest and I am in Hochevar's line. I get up to him and I show him the card and tell him that I was hoping he would be able to sign it for me. He just sat and stared at it a few seconds and was speechless. I take it that he had never seen the card, let alone signed one. He finally came to and signed it and was even curious when I had got Brian to sign it.

So, here it is- my only dual signed card with one player pictured on it. While it is not the coolest card in my collection, it is definitely unique.

The rest of 2008 Allen & Ginter

#221 Tim Hudson
#237 Zack Greinke
#307 Pat Neshek
#US50 John Buck

I have over 250 cards signed from 2008 sets. Since I am doing good to average a post every other day, it is going to take me a year and half to get all of those cards posted. So, to help speed up the process, I am going to cut some corners for the first time ever on here. The new rule is that each player gets one post. If that player comes up again, he gets lumped into a set round-up post like this one. The one exception would be that if I only have one card from a set signed, it is getting its own post regardless. It only saved me three posts on this one. But, when I get to Topps, it will save me more than thirty posts.

Tim Hudson- Kansas Stars game in 2016

Zack Greinke- Royals Fanfest 2009, my first Greinke card on here since 2012. Can you believe I actually gave away a signed Greinke Sports Illustrated on here once?

Pat Neshek- TTM 2009, my first return from Pat

John Buck- Royals parking lot 2008

The links take you back to an original post of that player.

2008 Allen & Ginter, Lisa Leslie

#AGA-LL Lisa Leslie

For the first time on this blog, here is a non-baseball related autograph. That is one of the fun things you run into with Allen & Ginter. Surprisingly, this is the only signed non-baseball related A&G card that I own. While I have pondered sending out a few to get signed TTM, I have never pulled the trigger. A few that I wouldn't mind getting are Mark Spitz, Henry Rollins, Richard Petty, and Tommy Lee. Whether I ever get around to getting any of those signed is another question.

As for this card, I won it in a contest from Night Owl back in the day. I have no clue what I had to do to win it or why it was being given away. But, it featured an autograph, so I entered and obviously won. It also came with a relic card of Mark Buerhle.

Back whenever I won this card, I was always getting in on blog contests. Some I would win and most I would lose. But, anymore, it seems like I rarely bother entering contests. While there a many cool ones out there, I just don't care enough to enter. All I really care about are autographs. If those are not part of the prize, I am not interested. I figure it is better to let someone win that might actually enjoy the non-autographed prize then for me to enter just for the sake of entering.

Having said that, if Night Owl were giving this card away now, I am not sure if I would even enter. Sure, it is an autographed card. But, I don't like basketball and really do not like women's basketball. On the other hand, though, it is Allen & Ginter and it is of a person I have actually heard of. Lisa Leslie is one of two female basketball players I am aware of.

One year, I bought a box of Ginter and got a redemption card. I was pretty excited until I read who it was. It was the head basketball coach of the UConn women's team. Luckily, Topps was unable to fulfill it and they sent me a signed card of Gary Sheffield instead. That is a win in my book.

Editor's update: I lied. I also have an '09 A&G signed and framed card from a volleyball player. My bad.

2008 Allen & Ginter, Brandon Phillips

#285 Brandon Phillips

Here is a card that I got signed through the mail back when Brandon Phillips signed through the mail. At one point, he was a pretty reliable TTM signer. But, he hasn't signed anything TTM since 2009, which just happens to be the year I sent this to him. I sent it to him during Spring Training and I got it back just as the season was starting. I sent along an Indians card with this one, but that one did not make it home. I am not sure which card I sent him, but there is no way it would have came back looking as good as this Allen & Ginter.

Brandon played in nine Major League games last year with the Red Sox and hit just .130 in his limited action. Considering that he will be turning 38 this summer, I think the chances of him getting picked up by a team are slim. But, you never know.

If, in fact, he is done playing, he had a good career. Spending parts of seventeen seasons in the Majors with the Indians, Reds, Braves, Angels, and Sox, Brandon was a .275 hitter with 2,029 hits, 211 home runs, and 951 RBI. He was a three time All Star that snagged four Gold Glove awards and a Silver Slugger. He had double digit home runs in eleven seasons and he even reached the 100 RBI plateau once.

2008 Allen & Ginter, Bob Motley

#261 Bob Motley

Here is a card that I got signed at All Star Game Fanfest when it was held in Kansas City in 2012. It features Negro League umpire, Bob Motley.

Bob umped in the Negro Leagues for a dozen years, where he shared the field with legends like Hank Aaron, Satchel Paige, and Willie Mays. After baseball integrated, Bob tried working his way into the Majors Leagues, but never got higher than AAA. In 1979, he did get the call to come work in the Majors during an umpire strike. But, he was unwilling to cross the picket line in order to reach his dream.

Prior to his umpiring career, Bob was a Marine in World War II. He saw action on Okinawa and received a Purple Heart after getting shot in the foot. Bob was recovering from his wound when he started umpiring softball games near the hospital grounds.

Sadly, Bob passed away just over two years ago. He was the last living Negro League umpire. About two months after that, the Negro League Museum in Kansas City unveiled a bronze statue of him.