2008 Bowman Chrome Jason Heyward

Who is this? Braves prospect Jason Heyward.

What is this? An autograph card from 2008 Bowman Chrome, card number BCP121. The card is serial numbered 306/500.

Where'd I get it? Trade with Heartbreaking Cards of Staggering Genius.

How much did it cost? Got it in trade.

Why is this so special? Man, I haven't posted in a long time. I need to get on the ball. I've got all my 2009 pet projects more or less up and running so expect more posts in February.

Simply put, Jason Heyward is a Freaking Beast. He's the #3 overall prospect on Keith Law's top 100 prospects list and after the year he had in Rome last year, I'm not surprised. He's been compared to Cliff Floyd and Fred McGriff and some even say that Golden Boy Jeff Francoeur is just keeping his right feild spot warm for when he arrives in Atlanta. Yeah, he's that well thought of. He's also another local prospect, from Henry County, GA. Do not be surprised if he is in Atlanta very soon. I had been hunting for an affordable autograph of him since his cards started coming out in the fall of 2007 and Heartbreaking floored me when he sent this card in a trade. I've got a big surprise waiting to sent to him, but as anyone knows who's traded with me before, I'm kind of slow. I'll get to it soon though. I have to say of all the cards I got in 2008, other than the Florida Agriculture Mark Lemke card, this is my favorite.

2004 Donruss Estrellas Tim Hudson

Who is this? Braves (and formerly A's) pitcher Tim Hudson.

What is this? An autographed 2004 Donruss Estrellas card.

Where'd I get it? Trade with

How much did it cost? Not much.

Why is this so special? This card came me via Andy from 78 Topps Cards who got it from avid from TribeCards who traded it for a book offered up by Andy on his 88 Topps Cards blog. Now it's with me and will not be going anywhere. Donruss Estrellas was a neat Spanish language set that Donruss put out in 2004. Pacific used to have the monopoly on Spanish language cards, but I guess Donruss picked up the banner when Pacific flopped. This is a simple, attractive set with a few insert sets to chase. I'm not sure exactly where the autograph came from though. There weren't any autograph inserts in that set so this is probably a TTM or spring training autograph. Or is it? Could this just be some fool scribbling on a card? Well, here's a bunch of autos for comparison. Let's see, Big loop to start off? Yep. Two lines for the H? Check. A smaller loop followed by a flourish at the end? Yessiree Bob. Eh, that's good enough for me. If it's not Tim, it's the work of a master forger and I'm a bigger fan of criminal masterminds than I am of All-Star pitchers. Don't count out a master forger creating this masterpiece, with some luck Tim might be able to come back from Tommy John surgery by the end of next year and then this sucker will be worth TENS of cents. Muahaha! I love when an evil plan comes together.

Index Card Brad Komminsk

Who is this? Braves boondoggle Brad Komminsk.

What is this? An autographed index card.

Where'd I get it? BP Sports Card Show 11/16/08.

How much did it cost? A quarter.

Why is this so special? There were several Brad Komminsk autographs in the binder where I found this one, but I purposely picked the ugliest one as it represents Brad's career better. This card wasn't actually signed in lime green, it most likely was black ink that faded after being left out in the light. Brad is the epitome of AAAA player as he utterly ruined pitchers in Triple-A, but couldn't hit his weight in the majors. I'm not exaggerating about that, his lifetime batting average was .218. He was a first round draft pick though and he killed in the minors so he ended up being the future franchise for the Bravos back in the early 80's. Even Hank Aaron labeled him a "can't miss" player and... wait, what does that say?!

In 1983, the Braves reportedly turned down a trade offer that would have sent Komminsk to the Boston Red Sox for Jim Rice.

WHAT!?!?!?!! OH GOD! WE COULDA HAD JIM RICE? FOR BRAD KOMMINSK???? OH GOD OHGOD!!!!! MURPH AND RICE IN THE SAME OUTFIELD?? JIM GIVING DALE PROTECTION IN THE LINEUP WHEN HORNER'S KNEES WENT ALL WONKY??? OH GOD!!!

Ugh... I'm gonna be violently and copiously sick. I-I'm sorry folks, I can't write about Brad Komminsk anymore. I have to go cry for a few weeks.

Oh. God.

1978 Topps Rowland Office

Who is this? Braves legend Rowland Office.

What is this? An autographed 1978 Topps card.

Where'd I get it? EBay or something.

How much did it cost? Probably not a whole lot.

Why is this so special? When I was a kid Rowland Office was the Expo who looked like the photographer surprised him on his 1981 Topps card. Today, Roland Office is the patron saint of my favorite Braves blog. Rowland was actually a mainstay of the Braves' outfield in thew '70s, although I didn't know that until much later. Rowland made is debut in 1972 as a nineteen year old, then returned to the Braves in 1974. He manned the outfield for 6 years before he was granted free agency and signed with Montreal. Rowland also played two games with the Yankees and was signed by the Phillies but never got called up to to club.

Rowland never put up great numbers with the Braves, but then again, no Brave did in the late '70s. He's better known today for his odd name and, um, unique looks. That whole late 70's team has always somewhat alien to me. I didn't really get pathologically obsessed with the Braves until about 1980 or '81, And I wasn't really interested in older Braves other than the Biggies like Aaron, Mathews and Spahn. Then when I started to appreciate more the older teams I dove into the really old ones like the 1914, 1935 and 1948 clubs. Then the '91 Braves hit like a tornado and I had a new set of players to obsess over. As a result, now I'm in my 30's and the Braves of the last '70s are still as foreign to me as they were when I was a kid looking at that '81 Topps card. I've had the cards for years, Rowland, Buzz Capra, Mickey Mahler, Marty Perez, Cito Gaston, Adrian Devine... but they never really connected with me (other than Knucksie, but his career crosses though several Braves eras) like the teams of the '80s.

A few years ago I came across a lot of 1978 Topps Braves cards, all autographed, on one of the auction sites. I knew a deal when I saw one and snatched it up. Now I have about a third of that that team set signed (including this guy, no relation) including Rowland. Now, the 1978 club will never be burned into my mind as indelably as the '82 squad, but this card of one of the icons from that era helps to provide a connection for me. By the way, you can barely see it against the dark warmup jacket, but the signature is gorgeous. Thick, bold and confident. You can see the signature better here, but it's not as nice looking as mine. Cood looking card, good looking sig. Office even manages to draw a walk on the back of his card. That's the way to get on base, Rowland!

2008 Allen & Ginter Jeff Francoeur

Who is this? Braves Natural, Jeff Francoeur.

What is this? An autograph card from 2008 Allen & Ginter, card number AGA-JBF.

Where'd I get it? From reader Todd S.

How much did it cost? Traded for it.

Why is this so special? An autograph from a player on my favorite team from my favorite product, what's not to like? Now I just need to find something to send Todd... What is it with Royals fans? The team hasn't done anything in 20 years and there are legions of fans out there clamoring for their cards. Royals and Indians especially are trading gold. I'm sure I have something up my sleeve to send. Anyway, there's not much to say about the A&G autos that hasn't been said. The cards look great, the signatures usually look good despite the tiny auto space on the card, the black borders are spooky and mysterious, just great looking cards. The back even calls out machine Francoeur a Star Outfielder. Not after this season... in fact, Todd may come to regret trading this off as there have been rumors of a Frenchy - Brian Bannister swap for a few months now. I don't think it'll happen though, you don't sell low on a fan favorite like Jeff. I think this year was just part of a natural progression. Two years ago he hit for power. Last year he started walking more and hit for average. This year he fell off a cliff. That means next year he''ll do the exact opposite and hit .300 with thirty homers and walk 50 times. In my dreams, perhaps.

2006 Bowman Originals Beau Jones

Who is this? Braves pitching prospect Beau Jones.

What is this? An autographed buyback card from 2006 Bowman Originals, card BDP33. The card is hand serial numbered 155/576.

Where'd I get it? Atlanta Sports Cards.

How much did it cost? A buck.

Why is this so special? I'm still wondering how I got this card for a buck. There must be an ancent Indian curse on it or something. It's another buyback card from Bowman Originals, which had two of these encased autos in every very expensive pack. And I just picked this one up for a buck, lucky me. Beau is another in my increasingly large lefty reliever autograph collection. He was the #41 overall pick in the 2005 draft, was once in Baseball America's top 10 Braves prospects list and was sent to the Rangers in the Mark Teixeira trade. Ah, now I know how I got it for only a buck. He's only 21 years old though so in a few years this might be a hot card. Or not. I mean, he's a lefty reliever for Texas, even if he makes the bigs Arlington will wear him out no matter how good he is. Of particular note is how closely the autograph squiggle matches the squiggle printed on the original Bowman card. That's consistency!

2008 Goudey Kelly Johnson

Who is this? Braves second baseman Kelly Johnson.

What is this? An autograph card from 2008 Goudey, card number GG-KJ.

Where'd I get it? EBay.

How much did it cost? $2.84 from larryvan.

Why is this so special? I'm not going to lie about it, Kelly isn't having that great a year for the Bravos this season. He's definitely regressed a bit from last year, especially in on base percentage. It's gotten so bad that trade rumors are flying, which is ridiculous considering his age and the fact that no one really wants him right now. I think it's just a situation where everybody stinks right now, with the possible exceptions of players not named Chipper. The idea behind the trade rumors might be due to the fact that the Braves have a truckload of infield prospects right now. I'd still rather see Kelly at second instead of Lillibridge or Prado, or at least move him back to the outfield which is a real weakness right now.

Trade or no trade, Kelly has had a signature card in both the '07 and '08 versions of Goudey. I really like the way they look so I've been looking for the Braves relics and autos from Goudey since last year and have been fairly successful so far. The '08 team set for Braves relics and autos is a lot tougher than last year though, Chipper and Glavine are in the autographed set and there appears to be a short printed Spahn jersey card. I can make a good run at it though and this great lookign sig from Kelly is a good start.

2005 Fan Favorites Mark Lemke

Who is this? Mr. Dirt himself, the immortal Mark Lemke.

What is this? An autograph card from 2005 Topps Fan Favorites, card number FFA-MLE.

Where'd I get it? Boston Sports Cards offa eBay.

How much did it cost? $5.99 with FREE SHIPPING MOJO!

Why is this so special? I'm a little bit in love with Mark Lemke. He's the hero of the stolen 1991 World Series, subject of the greatest card ever, inspiration for the Homestar Runner cartoon, his career is most similar to Sibby Sisti's and he is now one of the Braves broadcast crew who get me through many a long night at work. These guys did a better job summing up his career than I could so go there for a full bio.

This is my first certified Lemmer signature, mainly because this is his only certified signature. I found this out by poking around in Beckett's alphabetical checklist. I have an old copy from the early '00s that is mostly useless nowadays. There have been so damn many cards released in this century that the old book is the size of one of the old Sport Americana Annual price guides while the latest one is the size of the Yellow Pages from a large city. Beckett offers player checklists online now so there's probably not going to be another phone book put out for a long time, but I'm the kind of guy who likes ruffling through a lot of pages when I do research. The last time I was at the local card shop, I snuck a peek at their copy of the book. It had all the cards up till 1998 that were in the old book, and his 2005 Fan Favorites cards. That's it. Lemmer's been in one release since he retired. He's not even in any team issues sets. It's a travesty! Of course this means if I want to become the Mark Lemke Supercollector, I can use my old book as a checklist which is cool. I've got a start on his 2005 releases here now. If it weren't for those goddamn press plates, ould actually maybe pull off getting one of every Lemmer card. I've got the autograph though, which is better than an old hunk o' tin.

1997 Donruss Signature Series Michael Tucker

Who is this? Braves outfielder Michael Tucker.

What is this? An autograph card from 1997 Donruss Signature Series, Millennium Marks serial number 0300.

Where'd I get it? Who knows?

How much did it cost? Couldn't have been that much.

Why is this so special? Michael Tucker was hot as anything in 1993 or 1994. I remember seeing his rookie cards all over the place. He was the Next Big Star! Him and Mike Kelly. I ignored him because he was a Royal and bought up all the Mike Kelly cards before he became a Star. Mike flopped and Tucker was traded to the Braves in 1997. So of course I snagged as many of Michael's cards as I could get my hands on. He had a good year with the Braves in 1997, an ok one in '98 and then got shipped off to the Reds with Denny Neagle. The only problem with this is that we gave up Jermaine Dye to get Tucker, and received Bret Boone from the Reds in return. OUCH. And this wasn't the 37 homer Mariners Boone, this was the hitting .252 stinkerooni Boone. So yeah, that didn't work out too well. Tucker had a decent career although he never came close to the star status predicted. He still lasted 12 years in the bigs as a platoon outfielder and had one last hurrah with the Mets in the 2006 NLCS. Plus he's fondly remembered by Royals fans apparently. I'm not sure where I got this, I probably paid too much for it in any case. It's still a Braves auto with a nice sig with the uni number inscription. It's got numbers stamped on the back too, wheee!

2005 Sweet Spot Classic Phil Niekro

Who is this? Philip Henry Niekro, the finest knuckleballer to ever knuck a ball.

What is this? An autograph card from 2005 Sweet Spot Classic, card number PN.

Where'd I get it? Champion Sports Cards.

How much did it cost? $16.

Why is this so special? The scan sucks, but the card looks great. That's supposed to be copper foil on the front but after three scans I gave up on it looking like anything but mud. The ball is white, the stitches are red and there's a nice blue ballpoint signature right on the sweet spot of course. The ballpoint is key here as anyone who has ever watched their hero sign on a leather ball with a sharpie can attest. This is my third Knucksie auto on a ball, One is on an American League ball and the other was signed in blue sharpie in person so I don't mind the smudge. Phil was my favorite pitcher when I was a kid so Knucksie autos always welcome in my house.

I got this at the local card shop today. There wasn't anything I was really looking for, if I wasn't out running errands in the area already I probably wouldn't have gone. I found a Chipper card I didn't have, picked up the Trading Card History giveaway cards for the week an looked through the wax. Topps series 2 - meh. UD series 2 - I like retail better. SPX - $19 a pack, oh joy. They had Chrome packs for three bucks each or 6 for $17. The box of Chrome was was sitting on the autograph case so I absentmindedly looked in the case. They had a Brooks Robinson auto card for $18. Shameful, concidering the Chrome autographs of nobody prospects hiding in the box will book for at least that. I saw Phil and did a double take. Knucksie apparently got promoted from the Braves ghetto into the top shelf of 'good' autograph cards. the price tag said $20 and there was a 20% off sale. Sooo... I could get a pack of SPX or a handful of Chrome and chase an auto of God knows who, or get the signature of my childhood hero. Tough choice.

2000 Topps Traded Tony Pena Jr.

Who is this? Braves shortstop Tony Pena Jr.

What is this? An autograph card from 2000 Topps Traded, card number TTA39.

Where'd I get it? Same eBay seller as the Klesko.

How much did it cost? $1.29

Why is this so special? This card kind of illustrates the danger in interweb shopping sprees. Ok, it's a Brave, he did actually have a cup of coffee with the team in 2006, I like his pop as a player, but good lord, it's Tony Pena Jr. Mario Mendoza is worried about losing his relevance with Tony starting in KC. To wit: Chipper Jones would have to go 0 for 331 in order to drop to Tony's batting average. Great Googely Moogely. Still, you have to be a pretty damn good player to keep your job while hitting about .150. Or maybe he has photos of David Glass shopping at Target, who knows. It was cheap, I like this autograph set, it's an on-card autograph, and most importantly, it's a Brave. Plus Tony can't his any worse this season, can he?

1993 Team Stadium Club Ryan Klesko

Who is this? Braves first baseman Ryan Klesko.

What is this? An autographed 1993 Team Stadium Club card, card number 26.

Where'd I get it? EBay auction.

How much did it cost? One penny.

Why is this so special? As I stated over here, I've gone on some real eBay binges lately. One such binge recently netted me four cards for this blog. Here's how it happens: I'm looking for something completely unrelated, often not to buy but for a blog post. I find a cool auction and click on the seller's other auctions. I find something I ABSOLUTELY MUST HAVE. Then I look through the rest of the listings to see if I can combine shipping and save some money by spending even more money. I discover in the fine print that if I buy 10 or more auctions, I seve even MORE on shipping. Now, I'm buying the store because I am an idiot. I ended up with a ton of cool stuff though and it was all under 15 bucks. Gotta love penny auctions. That's where I got this card. Here's the disclaimer from the listing:

I GOT THIS CARD IN A COLLECTION I BOUGHT. IT LOOKS LIKE A GOOD SIGNATURE BUT I CAN'T GUARENTEE IT, THIER'S NO PROOF EITHER WAY,BUT I'VE LOOKED AT COA AUTO'S BY HIM AND IT LOOKS PRETTY GOOD.

So yeah, it's an autograph card with no COA and dubious provenance of a player that could be described as a 'minor star' if you're feeling generous that day. Who freaking cares? It cost me a penny. The signature doesn't look a whole lot like my other autograph card of him, but it does look like the signature on another '93 Stadium Club card. I remember clearly that these exact cards were signed, placed in a blister pack and sold in Wal-Mart and book stores in the early nineties with a COA, so this could be one of those cards. Or it could be a total fake. Again, it cost me a penny. Ok, plus 50 cents for the shipping. Where else could you get such a thrilling mystery for 51 cents? Maybe a used book store in the bargain section. I'll save my money for the cards and read up on the mysteries online.

2006 Bowman Originals Jason Marquis

Who is this? Braves pitcher Jason Marquis.

What is this? An autograph buyback card from 2006 Bowman Originals, 2000 Bowman Chrome card number 12. The cards is numbered 14/16.

Where'd I get it? Flea market dude.

How much did it cost? Ten bucks.

Why is this so special? This is a situation where I went looking to buy an autograph card no matter what and ended up paying more than I planned for a player I don't like. It's a Brave, it's short printed and it's purdy so no big deal. Bowman Originals was a high-end product where Topps bought back a bunch of old Bowman cards, got them signed, serial numbered them, slabbed them and stuck 'em two per pack with a few base cards to fatten up the box. They weren't quite as expensive as these packs, but they weren't cheap either. There was only one card numbered to 25 or less per every 8 boxes so believe it or not Jason here was the case hit. I still got it for ten bucks and I still think I paid too much.

Jason is a solid pitcher but he's rubbed me the wrong way from his time with the Braves. He always seemed to underachieve with the team and it didn't help that he got into Bobby and Leo's doghouse frequently. Then he gets traded to the Cardinals in the JD Drew deal and immediately wins 15 games. Meh. Now he's pitching for the Cubs. Double meh. But, like I said before, it's pretty, low numbered and a Brave. Interesting choice by Jason on the signature location. He squished it up next to the facsimile signature and it looks a bit like an unkempt squiggle.

2005 Topps Finest Jake Stevens

Who is this? Braves pitcher Jake Stevens.

What is this? An autograph card from 2005 Topps Finest, card number FA-JST.

Where'd I get it? EBay auction.

How much did it cost? Would you believe a quarter?

Why is this so special? Yeah, I know. An autograph for a quarter? A refractor autograph for a quarter? I shiny, pretty, red and blue with little diamonds all over it refractor autograph for a quarter? And it's a Brave! What's up with this? Jake Stevens was a third round pick of the Braves back in 2003. He had a fantastic year for A-Ball Rome in 2004, winning 9 games and striking out over a batter an inning. In 2005 he hit all the top prospect lists (and check out the names on that linked list, holy frijoles!) and had 'rookie' cards all over the place in '05 card issues. He technically was in Upper Deck's prospect premieres set in '03, but those don't count this week. As his card issues went up, so did his ERA. He also had disciplinary issues, and got suspended and demoted. He still managed to pitch one game in Triple-A Richmond last year, getting a win in long relief. After that though all news dried up on 'ol Jake, which is strange for a 23 year old former top prospect. After some digging I found this link that stated he retired after getting suspended (or maybe cut) from the team last year. I got some confirmation on a autograph hunter blog, and if anyone would know they would. I guess that's why it was a quarter. It's still a Brave, and it's still shiny and it's still signed so who cares.

2008 Bowman Tony DeMacio

Who is this? Braves scout Tony Demacio.

What is this? An autograph card from 2008 Bowman, card number SC-TD

Where'd I get it? EBay auction from Baseball Card City.

How much did it cost? Ninety nine cents and that included a 2008 Bowman Chipper Jones blue parallel numbered to 500.

Why is this so special? Ok, let's be perfectly frank about this, if Chipper Jones wasn't on this card I never would have bought it. The bonus card of Chipper helped too. Still it's no more strange than the umpire's autographs from Bowman Heritage and it's light years less ridiculous than the Rip Master auto from Finest. I just wish the checklist indicated what team the scout was associated with. I can't seem to find this info anywhere other than to plow through eBay listings for the few sellers who scanned the front and back of the card. I'd pick up any other Braves scouts out there for sure.

I agree with the sentiments with of card set at least, scouts have a huge impact on the success or failure of ball clubs and they really aren't given any respect at all. The Braves have relied on a steady stream of farmhands coming up to the show and performing well from Tom Glavine to Yunel Escobar. The penny pinching Twins have been successful by relying on young, inexpensive talent. The Tampa Bay Rays are leading their division out of nowhere because they hit on so many high draft picks. The Marlins have the lowest payroll by far and remain competitive due to their young players. Meanwhile the Yankees and Mets keep trading all their prospects for high priced vets and you see where they are right now.

One of Skip Carey's favorite things to rant about during Braves broadcasts is how dumb it is that scouts aren't even considered for the Hall of Fame. They're the ones who find all the Hall of Famers after all. I wouldn't have seen what Tony saw in Chipper, I know that for sure. I was too busy complaining because Van Poppel refused to sign with us even though we desperately needed good pitching to replace all those rookies that were getting hammered. You know, Glavine, Smoltz, Avery... the bums. Meanwhile Tony saw something in Chipper he didn't see in anyone else and convinced the organization to make Larry the #1 overall pick. Now that Chipper is one home run away from hitting his 400th, while batting .400 in freaking June, I sure am glad that Tony knew what to look for!

2003 Upper Deck Yankee Signature Series Bobby Cox

Who is this? Yankee third baseman Bobby Cox, the Pride of New York.

What is this? An autograph card from 2003 Upper Deck Yankee Signature Series, card number PN-CX.

Where'd I get it? Online somewhere.

How much did it cost? It was a bargain at thrice the price.

Why is this so special? Why is this so special?? Are you serious???

2280 wins and counting.
15 Division championships.
5 Pennants.
1 world Series Championship.
8 time Sporting News Manager of the Year.
137 ejections without once acting like a complete baby.
Moved Dale Murphy to center field.
Traded for John Smoltz.
Drafted Chipper Jones.
Has been an sports icon in Atlanta longer than anyone except for maybe Hank Aaron and Furman Bisher.

Plus he was the starting third baseman for the 1968 New York Yankees, played alongside Mickey Mantle in his final season and was the 1968 Topps All-Rookie third baseman.

Why is this card special... why I oughta...

2008 Finest Josh Anderson

Special sneak preview to force me to write this post tomorrow!

Who is this? Astros Braves outfielder Josh Anderson.

What is this? An autograph card from 2008 Topps Finest, card #159.

Where'd I get it? The Bay of E.

How much did it cost? $2.25. Or $2.50. Something like that. Too lazy to look it up right now.

Why is this so special? Last offseason when Andruw Jones was dumped like a sack of old rubbish, the Braves started looking around for potential replacements. The consensus for Andruw's ultimate replacement was Jordan Schaefer, who was supposed to be Grady Sizemore with gold glove defense. Jordan hadn't had too much seasoning in the minors though so other options were considered to help bridge the few months it would take for Jordan to roar through the minors and jump into center field at the Ted like Dale Murphy in his prime. The first move they made was to swap reliever Oscar Villareal to the 'Stros for Josh. Oscar came over in the Johnny Estrada deal from Arizona and earned the nickname "The Vulture" for his propensity to end up with cheap wins in middle relief that should have gone to more deserving starting pitchers.

Josh became one of a small herd of "Great glove, great speed. weak bat" minor league outfielders competing for what was now a backup outfield job since they picked up Mark Kotsay and his tweaky back. Braves farmhand Gregor Blanco eventually won the job and has played well enough to steal some at bats away from Matt Diaz. Josh is playing very well at Richmond, but Kotsay will probably have to end up in traction before he gets a call-up. Of course Jordan Schaefer was supposed to be banging down the clubhouse door by now. Unfortunately he got sent down to the minors and got caught trying to put a folded dollar bill into the HGH machine. If only he had exact change he might not have gotten suspended. Frank Wren has done a good job with the team so far, but he hasn't learned an important lesson from his mentor. When you try to pull a pump and dump scheme on a "hot prospect" you have to make sure you pull off the dump after the pump.

I got this card in a righteous snit trying to prove that I could get the approximate contents of a Finest mini box for way less than the local hobby shops were charging. I succeeded, mostly, although I'm still a couple common cards short of a box. That is true in all areas of my life so no big deal. The Braves basically have three "rookies" with autographs sprinkled liberally though out the early sets and I already had sigs of Brandon Jones and Clint Sammons. Interestingly enough, all three Braves official MLB rookies didn't make the team out of spring training and have not played a single inning in the majors this year. This is a decent enough card though, Josh's signature is a little squiggly but distinctive, the auto is on the card (increasingly a rarity) and it's a refractor so I can actually scan the thing. The thing that bugs me about it is it still has Josh not only in an Astros uni, but still has Astros as the team! Did Topps not get the memo about the trade? It could be worse though, just ask Brandon Jones.

2007 UD Elements Scott Thorman

Who is this? Braves first baseman Scott Thorman.

What is this? An autograph card from 2007 Upper Deck Elements.

Where'd I get it? Flea market dealer.

How much did it cost? Four bucks.

Why is this so special? Well, it's a Brave so it's worth the four bucks to me if not anyone else. It's funny how one roster mistake can start a chain reaction of screw ups. Smoltz moves from the closer spot back to the rotation, which turned out to be a good move. He was replaced by Danny Kolb, which most decidedly was not. Our solid set-up man, Chris Reitsma, replaced Danny and Chris couldn't hack it either. Now we have no setup man or closer so Schuerholtz trades for Bob Wickman, who we should have signed in the first place. Bob is fat and old so we go out and get some relievers to protect against the inevitable collapse. Adam LaRoche is a solid first baseman, but Scott Thorman is waiting in the wings and the organization decides Adam is expendable. LaRoche goes to Pittsburgh for Mike Gonzalez who ends up hurting his arm. Thorman was supposed to replace Adam LaRoche at first, but neither his bat nor his defense was anything close to Adam's production. Thor can hit the longball, but hovered around the Mendoza line while hitting them. Now we have no first baseman, a fat cantankerous closer and a lefty getting Tommy John surgery. If Bill Bavasi wasn't dumb enough to trade Rafael Soriano for Horacio Ramirez things would be really bad. Luckily the scouting department is better at evaluating the draft than evaluating closers, so we had a farm system stocked enough to snag Mark Teixeira from the Rangers. So when it was all said and done, the Braves went from Russ Ortiz in the rotation, Adam LaRoche at First and John Smoltz as the closer in 2004, to Smoltz in the rotation, Teixiera at First and Soriano as the closer today. I'm going to go out on a limb and say that ended up being a net improvement. It just took a really strange and terrible path to get there with Thorman being a key step along the way.

It eventually worked out for the Braves, but it's not working out for Thorman. He's now hopelessly blocked by Teixeira to the point where he doesn't even merit a spot on the roster as his backup since Tex never misses a game. However, since Mark might bolt for greener pastures at the end of the year the Braves can't trade him either since he might be next year's starter by default. So now he's stuck in Richmond, where he has one hit in 21 at bats. Poor Thor. This card is as big a mess as his career. First of all, the card is a pun. Upper Deck Elements... it's got gold foil... so we call it Au tographs... because the atomic symbol for gold is Au.... and gold is an element... clever eh? No. It isn't. It was old and trite in 1996. And there's too much foil on the thing. And the design is lazy, the back looks exactly like the front. The stupidest design decision was to make the autograph sticker wider than the space for the autograph to go. Luckily Scott has a bizarre signature that doesn't take up too much room and stays in the white space. I can kind of see where Scott is going with his signature. There's an S, then a dot, which rhymes with cott, so you have Scott. Okay, fair enough. then he starts the T but gets bored with it all on the crossbar and just squiggles a wavy line instead of horman. As a result, it's more of a doodle than an autograph and I can't look at it without seeing a crude line drawing of a woman's face. It's an optical illusion too, look at it one way and the woman is looking at Scott, look at it another way, and she's staring straight at you with her bangs covering her left eye. So he lost his job, is stuck in Triple-A and has a goofy looking signature. Poor Thor.

Hank Aaron Signed Photo

Who is this? Hank Aaron, Home Run King.

What is this? An autographed photo of Hammerin' Hank.

Where'd I get it? Atlanta Sports Cards in the late '80s.

How much did it cost? 8 or 10 bucks, I think.

Why is this so special? Everybody knows who Hank is, so I'll tell you how I got this thing. The card shop I went to as a kid was Atlanta Sports Cards in the Green's Corners shopping center on Jimmy Carter Boulevard. I got my vintage collection started with their commons, bricks and bargain bin cards. I usually had no more than ten or twenty bucks to spend when I went there so big purchases were rare. One day when I was there they had a stack of autographs for sale. They had either done a big signing session with Hank or had purchased it from someone who had. They had a bunch of signed Aaron photos there for premium prices that were out of my range, but the guy behind the counter showed me some 'rejects' they had cheap. There were the photos that were smudged, or marked or where the autograph just looked weird. I'm pretty sure they were selling them for eight bucks each, but my brain refuses to believe that a Hank Aaron autograph could ever have been priced with only one digit so let's say ten to keep my mind happy. This was probably a really big chunk of my cash on hand, and when you take into consideration that there was an arcade full of video games calling me downstairs it might have taken most of my card money for the day. Even so it was the biggest no-brainer I ever had to buy that photo. I looked through the pictures and found one that was reasonably unsmudged (although I really didn't give a flip about the smudging since it was an autograph of HANK) and looked through the cheap boxes for cards that day. This photo currently is stored away with this.

2006 Bowman Heritage Jarrod Saltalamacchia

Who is this? Braves catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia.

What is this? An autograph card from 2006 Bowman Heritage, card SG-JS.

Where'd I get it? Same eBay seller as the Chuck James.

How much did it cost? $4.10.

Why is this so special? When I was ripping piles of Bowman Heritage in the winter of '06-'07 (and spring... and summer... and fall... this stuff didn't move off the shelves too fast) this was the autograph card I most wanted to pull. Once the MLB Draft started being updated live online, I had gotten into the habit of obsessively hitting refresh on the page at work to see the Braves' picks. I remember the pick of Salty in the 1st round in 2003. That was a pretty good draft, 4 years later and over half the first rounders are in The Show. Jarrod stuck with me as a player to watch (and with that name it's hard to forget it) and when Javy bolted to the Orioles, he seemed like he could one day be the catcher of the future. In 2005 Johnny Estrada got hurt, Brian McCann got called up and played like he was a veteran. At that moment, Jarrod got hopelessly blocked in the Braves organization and the trade rumors started swirling.

Stuck behind McCann, Cuban prospect Brayan Pena and a multitude of veterans brought in year to year as a permanent backup, Jarrod was stuck but kept hitting in the minors. Last year he got his chance when both McCann and Brayan Pena got hurt and the Braves needed someone who could play behind the plate every day. He played well, and the Braves tried him out at first base since the Scott Thorman experiment bombed so badly. When the trading deadline came up, the Braves made a move and sent Salty and a truckload of other prospects to Texas for Mark Teixeira. Mark has hit like a beast ever since he put on a Braves uniform, but giving up Salty still hurts. the Braves have the early advantage on the trade, as Jarrod lost the starting job in Texas to Gerald Laird and got sent to triple-A. Next year things could swing the other way though as Mark is going to want a rather huge contract and Texas can't keep Saltalamacchia's bat out of the lineup forever.

It's a big reflection on the state of the hobby where two autograph cards can be picked up for less than the price of the packs they came in. Chuck James and Saltalamacchia aren't really household names or anything, but they are young players who have actually played in the bigs and have a bright future if they stay healthy. Stuff like this is really making me rething the wisdom of mindlessly ripping the latest product looking for hits when the ones I really want are usually in the bargain bin. I'm not really a prospector, but I'll bet this card is worth more than four bucks in a few years. The actual signature is interesting though. Jarrod opts for the minimalist kanji style of autographs. It's like a miniature Zen Garden in blue ink. I envisioned Jarrod having a huge bold John Hancock like signature, but now that I think about it with twenty letters in your name simple is best.

I also just learned that Jarrod's daughter's name is Bunter. Whatever you do dude, please don't name your next child Homer.