Project Durham Bulls #41 - Mike Mordecai

1990-1991 Durham Bulls 

Background- 

Mordecai was a collegiate standout at South Alabama and was drafted in the 6th Round of the MLB Draft by the Braves in 1989.  His first season in the Minors was split between the Braves low A team and Double A team, but ended up being sent to Durham for his first full season in 1990.  I am not quite sure why he repeated Durham again in 1991.  He had a .280/.379/.406 slash line with the Bulls in 1990, but he did only appear in 72 games.  Perhaps an injury.  His 1991 season with the Bulls was not nearly as good as his first, but the Braves promoted Mordecai to Double A the following season.  Mordecai played a few games for the Braves in 1994 and became a full time utility player for the team starting in 1995.  He was released by the Braves during the 1997 off season and ended up signing with the Expos.  Eventually, Mordecai was traded from the Expos to the Marlins with Carl Pavano for Cliff Floyd.  Mordecai appeared in Major League games through the 2005 season.  He dabbled with coaching in the Minors and at the high school level for a few years before taking a coaching job with the Toronto Blue Jays. 

Card- 

Mid 1990s player.  What sets are you going to find their autograph in?  Leaf Signature is one of the best bets.  The Bulls had quite a few players from their early 1990s and late 1980s teams appear in this set, along with the Donruss Signature set.  There are a decent amount of former Braves players from this era who went through Durham, but a fair number of those players do not have an autograph available.  I am actually sort of surprised that someone had made an autographed card of Mike Mordeacai.  It's not like there are a lot of Mike Mordecai autographs in general.  With all of that said, this is a great set of cards.  The design is fairly simple, lots of clear space at the bottom of the card with an autograph, and we were in an era of cards with sticker autographs.