1997 Cal/Car All Stars, John Mizerock

#26 John Mizerock

I got this card signed in '08 at a Royals game. John was the Royals bullpen coach at the time and I got this card signed by the bullpen while John was smoking a cigarette (actually, I got it right after he smoked it). He signed all three cards for me and a fourth at a later date. I'm not sure which is which now, but you can see them here, here, and here.

I like how this sets reverses the colors for the two leagues. I also like cards of players/coaches signing autographs. Those are fun cards to have signed.

John was the manager of the Wilmington Blue Rocks in this card. They are still playing in the Carolina League and they are still affiliated with the Royals, though they were not for a few years. John managed at every level for the Royals and was even an interim manager in Kansas City once. He won at every level and has even been a base coach for the big league club. But for some reason, Dayton Moore and Trey Hillman thought that he was best suited for a bullpen coach. That is until this season ended and they decided they need a former pitcher for a bullpen coach. So, for the first time in a while, John is no longer a part of the Royals organization. I wish him the best of luck.

1997 California/Carolina League All Stars, Tim Garland

#7 Tim Garland

This is the second card that I got signed by Tim Garland at a Lancaster JetHawks game in 2008. Tim was the visiting Stockton Ports batting coach at the time. I got the first card signed prior to the game. I bought this set and a couple of other for cheap right before the game started. This was by far the best set that I bought as there are many established Major League players in it. I was also pleasantly surprised to find this card of Tim in there as well. I was able to get this card signed after the game.

In 1997, Tim stole 85 bases and earned himself a spot on the California League All-Star team. The only problem with that was that he was about 27-years old at the time. That is kind of up there for a high-A player.

Tim seems to have had an on and off career. There are a few gaps in his stats. Read the first post to see what I mean. Make sure you check out the comments on it, too. I sure I will get some great comments on this one in a few months from my favorite anonymous commenter.

Tim is representing the San Jose Giants in this card. The SJ Giants are still alive and kicking in the California League.

I have no idea who made this set. There is no copyright data on the back or anything.

1997 Bowman Chrome, Heath Murray

#270 Heath Murray

Here is another Padrograph. This is the third Padrograph so far for my '97 cards. Heath got more Major League playing time than the first, Joe Long. But his brief career doesn't come close to matching the second's, Matt Clement.

Heath was a third round draft choice of the Padres, coming from the University of Michigan. After four seasons in the minors, Heath got his first taste of Major League action. Between 1997 and 2003, Heath appeared in 88 games, mostly in relief, with the Padres, Tigers, and Indians. He has a career record of 2-15 with a 6.41 ERA. He recorded 94 strikeouts in 158.2 innings and he also walked 94 batters. 2002 was his last season playing ball.

Does anyone know if this is the first Bowman Chrome set? Unlike the newer sets, I think that you could actually tell the difference between the chrome and regular sets in 1997. They look to be numbered one to whatever and do not have all the crazy letters in front of the numbers like Bowman now does. When I finally get to the newer sets, I will probably just do them all together. That way I won't have to bother finding out if a card is from the chrome set or if it is a chrome card inserted into the base set.

1997 Bowman, Jamey Wright

#403 Jamey Wright

Here is a card that I got signed back in April. I had the day off on a Monday, so I went to Kansas City to get some autographs. I got to the ballpark around noon and stayed for about three hours. I was planning on going go to the game, but I was freezing after three hours in the parking lot and decided to go home. I got home in time to see the game on TV. I ended up missing a pretty good ballgame. But, I was warm, though.

Jamey was a starter for most of his career. He has spent time with the Rockies (twice), Brewers, Cardinals, Royals (twice), Giants, and Rangers. In 2006, the Giants started to use him as a reliever and the Rangers followed suit the following season. In his first year with the Rangers, he posted the best ERA of his career, 3.62. It jumped up to 5.12 in his second season and the Rangers let him walk. He signed with the Royals last off-season and posted a 4.33 ERA with them this past year. He is now a free agent.

Last week I posted a card of Scott Livingstone and talked about a crazy, come from behind win for the Rockies. Jamey Wright was the starter in that game for the Rox and he got rocked.

I got this card from checkoutmycards.com.

1997 Bowman, Matt Clement

#207 Matt Clement

Here is another 1997 Bowman Padrograph. This one features Matt Clement, a guy I never think of as a Padre. If it wasn't from this card, I would probably be oblivious to the fact that he ever wore a Padres uniform. But, he did in fact make 67 starts for San Diego over two plus years. For some reason, I always picture him as a Cub. I think the reason for that is because of a game I saw him pitch on TV in 2002, his first season as a Cub. I was in college, so the game had to have been somewhat early in the season. But I remember it because the Cubs announcers (probably Chip Caray and Steve Stone) mentioned that he kind of looked like Abe Lincoln with a goatee instead of a beard. So to this day, when I think of Matt Clement, I think of Lincoln, too.

Matt was never a number one starter type. But, he was a great innings eater and you know that those are always in demand. The most wins he had in a season was 14 as a Cub in 2003. It was gaurenteed that he was going to strikeout at least 130 batters a year and he had a career high of 215 in '02. He had a career ERA of 4.47. Like I said, he wasn't number one starter material, but you can see why he would be in demand (although he would have been the Royals number one starter if he had played for them).

In 2006, Matt only made 12 starts for the Red Sox before having season ending shoulder surgery. He missed all of the next season rehablitating. Prior to 2008, the Cardinals signed him to a Major League contract and he was put on the disabled list before making an appearance in Spring Training. He was released by the Cards without having thrown one pitch for them. The Blue Jays signed him to minor league contract this past year. Matt failed to make the rotation out of Spring Training and retired.

According to Wikipedia, Matt is now the head basketball coach at the high school he attended.

1997 Bowman, Joe Long

#152 Joe Long

He is a Padrograph from Joe Long. Joe made 8 relief appearances for the Padres in 1997. He pitched 11 innings and gave up 10 earned runs. He struck out 8, but he also walked 8. He had 1 wild pitch, gave up 1 home run (to Chris Widger), and hit 1 batter. But, he didn't have any balks.

That was the only taste of the Big Leagues that Joe ever got. He spent the next two years playing AAA for the Expos and Pirates. He played for Newark, of the Atlantic League, in 2000 and then hung them up after that season.

This card would have been a really good looking card if Topps would not have put the flag on it backwards. Good job, Topps.

1997 Best Lancaster Jethawks, Jim Slaton

#2 Jim Slaton

Believe it or not, this is actually the third Jim Slaton card that I have posted on here. I got all three cards signed at an Oklahoma Redhawks game in '08 while Jim was the pitching coach for the Las Vegas 51s. The first two cards were posted in this blog's infancy over a year ago. The first one was posted in August of '08 and the second one was done in October of '08. So far, that is the biggest gap between cards that were signed together.

I didn't say much about Jim in the first two Jim Slaton posts, so I will take care of that now. Jim had a 16-year career with the Brewers, Tigers, and Angels. He made one All Star team as a Brewer in 1977 as he went on to record a career high 17 wins. After the season, the Brew Crew shipped him to Detroit for Ben Oglivie and then was able to sign as a free agent the following season. He had a career 4.03 ERA and he is the Brewers all-time leader in wins, innings, starts, and shutouts. He started coaching after his playing days and he was still the Dodgers AAA pitching coach this past season.

As for this card, I got the team set for cheap at a Lancaster JetHawks game last year. The 'Hawks revamped their logo prior to last season and they were trying to get rid of anything with an old logo on it in their gift shop. So I was able to pick up two or three old JetHawk team sets and a California/Carolina League All Star set for a buck or two each. It is hard for me to believe that it takes a logo change to drop the prices of old team sets. It amazes me that some teams keep trying to sell five to ten year old team sets for the usual eight or nine dollars. You would think that they would drop the price after a year or two.