The Legend Of Bud "Chuck" Norris

I do not care about Chuck Norris.  I do not care about Chuck Norris jokes.  I do not care about Chuck Norris movies.  I do not care about Chuck Norris anything.  I have never had much use for anything Chuck Norris outside of his brief cameo at the end of Dodgeball.

I guess the general consensus is that Chuck Norris is some sort of bad ass.....

which is why Cardinals fans gave the nickname "Chuck" to pitcher Bud Norris while he was pitching for the Houston Astros earlier in his career.  He was a bad ass, at least when he played against the Cardinals.  

The overall numbers for Norris against the Cardinals have come down a bit over the years since he left the Astros and spent time with an array of other teams, but here is a sampling.  In 2009, his rookie year, he pitched one game against the Cardinals and two hit them over seven innings.  

In 2010, Bud "Chuck" went 3-1 against the Cardinals.  It seemed to continue on for awhile, but eventually he left the Astros and started wandering around to a bunch of different teams.  I had actually completely lost track of him until he ended up on the Angels last year.  I watch for Albert Pujols at times.

I was surprised to see Bud "Chuck" Norris closing out games for the Halos.  Even more surprised to see that he was actually good at closing games.  

Even more surprised when the Cardinals signed him this offseason to close games.  

Cardinals sign reliever Bud Norris https://t.co/mckfcZln8w

— viva el birdos (@vivaelbirdos) February 12, 2018

 

So, I guess that Bud Norris being a Cardinal means that I need some sort of cool baseball cards of him for my collection. I flipped through some boxes of cards and found a few Bud Norris cards, but nothing that was really special....

Meh.  

I was actually half way expecting there to be zero cool Bud Norris cards.  Just a bunch of base cards from Topps products from the past decades.  This is 95% true, but there are a few exceptions.  I was able to find one of those recently......

Should have guessed that he would have a Bowman autograph.  This card is from the 2008.  I generally like these Bowman autographs, but this one is a little bit shaky for a few reasons.  

First, the yellowing on the bottom is not just from the scan.  It's actually on the copy of the card that I own.  I have never seen this sort of yellowing on a Bowman Chrome card.  I went back and looked at some of my 2008 Bowman cards, cannot find another card with the yellowing at the bottom.  

I thought that the yellowing might be from being in a smoker's house, I do not smoke myself, but a previous owner might have done so.  The card really does not smell smoky though.  My second problem with this card is a design feature.  

That cheesy Certified Autograph Issue graphic in the background.  I get why it's there, but there are many places that Topps could have placed that on this card besides smack dab in the middle of the picture.  Should be off on the side somewhere.  

The card is slightly imperfect, but I am guessing that Bud Norris will likely only be on the Cardinals for a year.  In the long run, I will probably remember him best for his Bud "Chuck" Norris performances against the Cardinals from earlier in his career.