The Ryan Hendrix Experience

I spend a few days out of every summer watching some of the best college baseball players compete for the USA College Baseball team.  The team's home is only a few miles from my house and I enjoy getting to see a lot of future Major Leaguers play there over the years.  I could go back through my programs and make some big long list of players I have seen over the past decade, but I try to stick to stand out plays and moments with the team.

The team is usually run similar to an All-Star team.  You get glimpses at players, sometimes they impress, sometimes they do not.  For example, I saw Dansby Swanson a summer or two ago and was not all that impressed.  Just sort of bland, but I am sure it was just those few games that I saw him play.  I never saw him play a game for Vanderbilt.  I heard he was pretty good while he was playing there.

While Swanson did not impress, I once saw Vandy alum hit a home run that cleared the centerfield berm in the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.  Excuse Enny Romero warming up in the foreground, but the berm is in the background with the distance to the wall being 400 feet away.

I am not sure how big that hill is, but the home run was easily one of the most impressive shots I have seen at this stadium.  While Alvarez has not turned out to be the power hitter that many envisioned while he was playing in college, I still enjoy finding his cards all because of that home run.  Which brings me to my latest baseball card pickups based on a game I saw last summer.....

The ending to the game was totally subdued considering what is happening in this video....

This was the end of a no-hitter that took place in a game between the College National Team and the Cuban National Team last summer.  Again, the team is run like an All-Star team, was a combined no-hitter between Mizzou's Tanner Houck, Florida's A.J. Puk, and Texas A&M pitcher Ryan Hendrix.  Maybe while I was on my break at the beginning of the year I picked up a card or two of Houck and Puk, but have still been working on Hendrix.  

Actually, of the three he is the easiest to find.  I actually ended up being able to pick up three of his cards from Panini's USA Baseball offering for next to nothing.  The first is a triple jersey card with two pieces of digital cam and one blue piece of jersey.

Don't get me started on camo jerseys.  For more on this topic, just follow my Twitter page.  It comes up every two months.  Back to cards.  I also picked up a pretty straight forward looking autograph of Hendrix.....

The autograph is on-card, but there is no serial number or anything on the card.  I did not open any of the Panini stuff with the USA Baseball autographs in it last year, but it's my understanding that these are the most common autographs and appear to be dirt cheap for many of the players who were not the highly regarded prospects on the team.  Which brings me to my last card of the former Aggies pitcher...

I know that these cards with the clear autographed slabs are the Panini equivalent to the Topps sticker, but they just look so much better.  I dare say they cool and I might actually like these cards when I can find them.  Keep that quiet.  This card is serial numbered to 99, and while many of these clear signature USA Baseball cards sell for decent amounts, the Ryan Hendrix version did not.

I am going to kind of call it good on Ryan Hendrix cards with USA Baseball unless something really cheap comes across my screen, or I can get one in a throw in with a trade.  However, Hendrix was picked by the Reds in the fifth round of the MLB Draft a few weeks back....

Perhaps I can find a Reds autograph in Bowman Draft or next year's Bowman product.  If not, I will always be happy with these USA Baseball autographs and getting to watch him help toss a no-hitter last summer.