I spent a little bit of time last month working on my collection of 2006 Durham Bulls baseball cards. That was the first full year that I lived in North Carolina. It was easily one of the most talented Bulls team that I have seen. High draft picks, Top 100 prospects, future Major League All-Stars, a World Series MVP, and plenty of other solid Major League players.
The team was also easily one of the worst Bulls teams that I watched in terms of on-field play and their finish in the standings. In the 15 years, I have been watching the Durham Bulls, it's the only one to finish in the bottom 5 teams in the International League.
In spite of their lack of wins, the 2006 Durham Bulls is still a fun group of players to collect.
You've probably seen a few of these guys.
First up is a pair of B.J. Upton autographs. Nothing too hard to find, not sure why I am only getting around to these two at this point.
Above is a 2003 Topps autograph out of the base set. The card below is from the 2005 Upper Deck Origins set. Both on-card signatures. These would have been pretty pricy back in the day. Both cost me less than $5 combined.
Love this autograph.
Next up is a pair of autographs from James Shields.
Never a huge fan of Shields during his playing career, but I have grown to appreciate his time in Durham a little more since he retired. He was a good player in Durham, just never understood the hype around him in the Majors. Shields has a career Postseason ERA of almost 5.50. Why is he nicknamed "Big Game"?
Back to his time in Durham. Shields pitched the first home opener I ever attended for the Bulls in 2006. He pitched 6 innings and did not give up an earned run. The Rochester Red Wings did manage to score 3 unearned runs against Shields. Upton hit a walk-off grand slam to win the game in the bottom of the 9th.
I did not have a single Shields autograph in the collection. At some point I owned one, but it appears I traded/gave it away at some point.
Next up, Delmon Young.
Last Delmon autograph is a Topps Finest card. I think I avoided all of the silver sticker autographs that I could back in the day. Delmon has a ton of sticker autographs, so I usually stuck with the Upper Deck cards since the stickers were clear. These are dirt cheap now.
Last card.
The 2006 International League MVP.
Kevin Witt was a good prospect for the Blue Jays in the late 1990s. They released him at some point and he bounced around between several teams before making his way to the Bulls in 2006. He ended up hitting 36 home runs and driving in 99 runs in just 128 games. Pretty good player, even if did not even amount to much in the Majors.
I have several Witt autographs, but I never got around to adding this card. He's not someone with a great signature, but this one is really weak. The card only cost me $2 after shipping. Not sure I can really complain at that price.
Wow. That is a lot of talent for a minor league team that didn't end up doing so well in the standings.
ReplyDeleteThese are just some of the players on the team. They also had Ben Zobrist, Rocco Baldelli, Sean Burroughs, J.P Howell, and Edwin Jackson. There was a seriously large amount of underachievement here.
DeleteI'm kind of amazed that I was actually familiar with 4 out of the 5 guys! Both of those Upton cards are different looking, especially the second one with it's big chunky green border.
ReplyDeleteThe Upton is from an Old Judge remake/spin-off set that Upper Deck did in the early 2000s. I really like a lot of the cards in the set.
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