2007 Bowman Danny Putnam

Who is this? Bridgeport Bluefish outfielder Danny Putnam
 
What is this? An autographed card from the 2007 Bowman set
 
Where'd I get it? Danny Putnam signed it for me after a doubleheader between the Newark Bears and Bridgeport Bluefish last week.
 
How much did it cost? The card came out of a random pack of Bowman cards purchased in 2007
 
Why is this so special? Putnam had a cup of coffee with the Oakland Athletics in 2007, but now he's playing for the Bridgeport Bluefish. And he's not having a particularly good time of it -- through 25 games, he's hitting .173 with 1 home run and 9 RBI.

I saw him hit that home run -- it was a solo shot in a blowout. He almost had another one. In the second game of the doubleheader, the Bluefish trailed the Bears 3-2 in the final inning. Armando Benitez came in to finish the game and struck out the first two Bluefish batters. Putnam came up and hit a fly ball down the left field line, where the fence is only about 300 feet from home plate. I thought it was gone and we had a tie game, but John-Ford Griffin was able to make the catch for the final out.

After the game, as he was heading back to the locker room, I took a chance and asked Putnam to sign my cards. He couldn't have been nicer, though he did joke that he'd only gotten 11 percent of that last pitch -- if he'd gotten 13 percent, it would have gone out.

Putnam has a nice signature that's fairly close to the facsimile signature on the card, though he signs "Danny" instead of "Daniel." The green Bowman cards work really well for the Athletics, but aren't so great for other teams.