One-Third Of A No-No

I have been fortunate enough to witness two no-hitters in person since I started this blog a few years back.  The first no-hitter was thrown by Cubs pitcher Mike Montgomery while he was pitching for the Durham Bulls.  The second was a combined no-hitter between three college baseball players playing for the USA Baseball Collegiate team.  Ever since the no-hitter thrown by Montgomery I have enjoyed collecting his cards.  The same would have been true of the college players except they weren't really on too many cards at the time....

Two and half years later and two of the three players from the USA Baseball no-hitter have made their way into the Minors.  I finally have a chance to collect a few of their cards.  A.J. Puk was selected near the top of the first round by the A's and Ryan Hendrix was picked by the Reds.  Tanner Houck is in his final year at Mizzou.

I have posted a few Ryan Hendrix cards this past summer almost immediately after the draft.  I have held out a bit on Puk since he was a highly regarded prospect and his USA Baseball cards tended to run a little bit higher than most of the other cards in those products.

Puk has popped up in some of the late year Bowman products and his cards are much more affordable now.  So, I finally picked up my first autograph of the top pitching prospect......

This is also my first autograph from last year's Bowman's Best.  It's an airbrushed picture from his time at the University of Florida, but still a good looking card.  I have high hopes that A.J. Puk will be a good Major League pitcher, but if not, I still always have the no-hitter....