Finest Waino Graph

There are way too many players who sign for brief periods during their career and then suddenly stop.  It's kind of a bum deal when it happens and really limits the type of collection that card enthusiast of that player can assemble.  For example, Yadier Molina had a fair number of signatures in 2004, 2005, and 2006 before he seemed to completely disappear off the radar in terms of certified autographs.  Luckily, Molina seems to have returned to the scene this year with several different autographs in a few of the Topps releases this year. 

Unfortunately for Cardinals fans ace pitcher Adam Wainwright also seems to fit in with this crowd.  He has plenty of signatures from 2006 and a few in 2007.  Wainwright was a rookie relief pitcher with the Cardinals that season and managed to end up being the team's closer during their run to the 2006 World Series.

The few cards that were credited to Wainwright during the 2007 calendar year were sticker autographs, so it is probable that they were actually signed with the batch from the 2006 season.  Apparently it's a pretty common practice in the baseball card biz.  See all the Gary Carter autographs or last year's Topps Silver Slate Autographs.  

Needless to say that it a little bit disappointing that Wainwright has not signed in eight years, but I am sure there is a really good reason.  Perhaps like Yadi, maybe Wainwright will reenter the world of certified of autographs.  In the meantime collectors are left tracking down autographs of the Cardinals ace from the mid 2000s.  I recently stumbled upon a copy of Wainwright's 2006 Topps Finest autograph.  

 

I already own a copy of this card, but could not pass by a chance to trade for another copy of this awesome card.  The Adam Wainwright Finest autograph is one of the few Wainwright autographs from the mid 2000s which has several variations.  Older Finest sets do not have all of the color variations that the current Finest sets have, but there are still several different versions with different serial numbers.   While it would be nice to have several more Wainwright autographs to chase down, I am still happy to have a few out there to find.