Red Bull

I have generally never really been much of a fan of energy drinks.  I have been through college twice, plus a whole bunch of other classes, and had the joy of waking up and taking my turn changing diapers and feeding two children in the middle of the night.  Throw in the fact that my job can sometimes require the occasional all-nighter to finish up paperwork, or whatever, and it's probably pretty surprising that I have not downed dozens upon dozens of Red Bulls, Monsters, or whatever your energy drink of choice happens to be.....

I have always been more of a Dr. Pepper, tea, and coffee type of person when it comes getting a jolt of energy.  Both types of drinks are loaded with all sorts of sugar, caffeine, and artificial sweeteners, but my category of sugar caffeinated drinks have a little bit easier let down at the end of the day.

Ultimately it really doesn't matter what my energy drink of choice is when I see a nice Durham Bulls card.  When spirits are naturally lifted and I feel energetic without any help from our good friend caffeine.  This past week I ran into such a card which was owned by one of my favorite Facebook trading partners.

The card....

Yes, this is one of those low numbered parallel cards.  I own the base version of this card and featured it awhile back on the blog at some point this summer when Topps first put out their Pro Debut product.  Looked a little bit like this.......

The difference of course being what is on the back of the baseball card.

since there is a really limited number of Durham Bulls cards put out by major manufacturers every year I was more than happy to add this card to my collection.  I have actually seen the plate for this card floating around.  If I had know I was going to land copy of the red parallel I would have gone for putting together the rainbow of this card.  

Beyond the Snell pennant I also picked up a few other autographed cards of some prospects.  They are a mix of Cardinals and Rays prospects.  I liked that these cards feature players in college uniforms.  

Hudson and Carlson are both Cardinals prospects.  Hudson was a top notch pitcher at Mississippi State and was a first round draft pick of the Cardinals last summer.  He had a good debut last summer with the Gulf Coast League Cardinals and A-Ball team in Palm Beach.  All of the games he pitched last summer were as a relief pitcher.  Not sure if that's his long term track with the team or if they were just limiting his innings after playing a full year of college baseball.  

Carlson was also a first round draft pick of the Cardinals and played with the Gulf Coast League team.  Not a great season for Carlson, but he turned 18 during this off-season, so a lot of time for a guy with a big frame.

and finally Ryan Boldt who was a second round pick of the Rays.  For whatever reasons the Rays have had some problems with developing position players the last few years.  Boldt started out in the New York-Penn League last summer with the Hudson Valley Renegades.  Not a great season for the former Cornhusker and we will leave it at that.....