The bullpens at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park are on the field and close to the seats. When I attended games where Archer pitched, I would always try to arrive early and take in his pre-game throwing and bullpen session. He has great stuff, a live arm.
Archer was a very popular member of the Bulls. In part because of his on-field talent, but he also grew up and went to high school in Clayton, North Carolina which is short drive from Raleigh. A few years ago I was able to actually meet him at the USA Baseball facility during the offseason. Sort of an under the radar free signing.
I do not do a lot of in person signing, not really much into tracking down autographs, but I will go to free signings. Archer was very out going. He sat and talked with the people who came out to see him, answered questions, and took the time to personalize items. I got a ball signed and he wrote a short message on the side of the ball.
My son, who was three at the time got a Durham Bulls card signed by Archer. It's the only baseball card that he has owned that has not met some terrible ending. The smudge is from the day it was signed.
Needless to say, I have collected a few Chris Archer cards over the years. However, with him now moving over to the Pirates it might be a little bit harder. The Pirates are not exactly low on my list of teams, certainly not the Cubs, but they are in the same division as the Cardinals. That complicates things a little bit. Plus, I would have really liked to have seen that Cardinals trade for Archer. That was a reported possibility.
It could be worse, I could be seeing cards of Archer on the Cubs or Brewers. I will still dabble in Archer cards from here on out, but I will still primarily focus on cards from the Rays years. Since we are at the end of an era, I wanted to take a few minutes and share out a few of my favorites from the past seven to eight years of Chris Archer cards. A little bit of everything.
Speaking of Archer cards on the Cubs.....
Plenty of good cards in this set. Plenty of sticker autographs in this set too, but fortunately the Archer signature is on the actual card. I would still own it if were on a sticker though.
I have barely touched the whole patches and swatches and pieces of stuff that players might, or might not have worn at some point scene over the past few years. However, this card is pretty ridiculous. Would not surprise me that Archer wore this jersey for 5 minutes once, but at the same time maybe he wore it more. Possibly even in a game.
Minor Leaguers no longer wear these patches, but they used to be on the back collar of their jerseys. Here is a picture of Archer wearing a jersey with the patch, it's above the flag.
At minimum, the card is an interesting conversation piece.
Archer is a pretty good signer, lots of autographs out there, but this 2013 Heritage autograph is easily my favorite. Clean design, nice signature, not much not to like with this card. There are shinier autographs, low serial numbers, autographs with huge patch pieces, but I think that sometimes simple is better.
Favorite insert, actually a parallel.....
is this acetate card from the 2014 Topps set. Great looking card, I love the colored front with the black and white back. If I had to own just one Archer card it would be a coin toss between this card and the Heritage autograph.
That's it for the moment. I will continue to follow Archer's career as a Pirate and wish him many wins against the Cubs, Reds, and Brewers. Let's just stick to some no decisions against the Cardinals. Either way, I will continue to support your tweets about books and bookstores.....
If I drank coffee I would follow those tweets too. Later Archer.
Damn... that patch is sweet! Is it a 1/1? As for still collecting Archer, I totally understand. I'll still buy Rickey Henderson cards with him featured in other uniforms (if it's super cheap), but I mainly target his Oakland Athletics stuff.
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