Infamous With The Leather

When I first moved to central North Carolina more than ten years ago, the baseball star of the moment in these parts was Delmon Young.  He had been the first overall pick in the 2003 draft and had made his way all to the Triple A Durham Bulls by the time he was a 19 year old.  He hit .322 in A Ball, .336 in Double A, and .285 in his first stint in Triple A.  Sure, the Triple A numbers were a bit of a step back, but he was 19.

His star faded a bit.....

but eventually he made it to the Majors and played ten years for the Rays, Twins, Tigers, Phillies, and Orioles.  Delmon was probably best known was his clutch hitting in the Postseason.  He played in playoff games in all his Major League stops minus the Phillies, still appeared in the Postseason that season though.  

Delmon won an American League Championship Series MVP and had several other October performances that were spectacular.  

It's a loaded statement. I know there are a lot of people who do not really like Delmon.  Ready for it...

There were many things that Delmon Young did not do well.  

The most notable was his inability to field.  I said most notable.  

I would like to share some of the results from a Google search of the words "Delmon Young fielding"    

There is video of this too.  I like this still shot, but the play is as bad as you can imagine.  

Didn't catch it.  

Still hurts my brain to think that Delmon was ever on a National League team.  He led all Phillies outfielders in errors, and was in the top five regular players in that stat the year he played there.  Delmon played 64 games as a Phillie.  

The ball is not even in the picture here, but Delmon clearly was hoping the ball would be hit elsewhere.  

Which brings me to my latest Delmon Young card.  I found one of those cards that would have been a small fortune back at the height of his uber prospect status.  Since Delmon is not even playing at the moment, he's still just 34, this card was considerably less expensive.  

From the later years of the Upper Deck Sweet Spot sets when they used materials other than baseballs for their signing surface.  The 2007 set used the traditional ball cards, which faded terribly, these leather cards, and a lumber/bat card.  I cannot remember if the signers had cards made out of all three materials, or if it was just selected materials.  I kind of lean towards players only appearing in parts of the autograph sets.  

Making a card with any sort of illusion that Delmon did anything with a glove during his career is probably a bit far for some of us who took the time to watch him play a few games.  Perhaps the background material on his autographed cards for Sweet Spot could have been a little bit better.  

The main attraction to this card is the fact that is serial numbered to just 10 cards.  I am not sure how much this might have cost back in 2007, but I probably would have just shrugged and moved on with my day if I had seen this on EBay.  As someone who just dabbles in collecting Delmon Young cards, mainly because he was a really good Durham Bulls prospect, this feels like an exceptional find.  

Back of the card....

is the usual standard Upper Deck back.  I like the Devil Rays markings on the cards.  Both here on the back and the front with Delmon's hat and jersey.  Overall, a really hard card to find at a great price of one of the more hyped players I have ever seen roll through Durham,  Even if they do not "make it", they are still fun to collect. 

Le Grand Baseball Card

At one point I had a want list on this blog.  I was terrible at keeping it up to date, so I scrapped it.  I  still have the small list of cards, but it is now on a miniature yellow legal pad that sits on top of some of the boxes in my baseball card closet.  The list is usually almost all Durham Bulls or Cardinals related cards.

Several of the cards on my list are out there, but beyond reach in terms of what I am willing to pay.  Others are not there, rarely pop up, and are hard to nail down when they show up.  Every once in awhile, I am able to wait it out and find what I want at a price that I am willing to pay.  My most recent success on my want list was a Frank McCormick autograph, which I picked up last month.

This card took me almost a year to land.

I recently had a deep regret with my want list.  If I made a list of the top ten to fifteen greatest Durham Bulls players of all-time, I can go into my card closet right now and show you several nice cards of each of those players, along with some sort of certified autograph.  All except one of those players.

I have several nice Rusty Staub cards.  One of my most recent card of the player Expos fans nicknamed "Le Grand Orange" is out of the 1982 O Pee Chee set.

Not expensive, not flashy, not glossy, no foil, no fancy fonts or lettering, not short printed, not serial numbered, just a nice 1980s baseball card.  It's nice to have some players to collect who played before the card boom in the early 1990s.  Love that the card is half English and half French.  

So, here was my regret.  

For years I have watched different Rusty Staub autographs.  Sometimes I lost out on auctions.  Sometimes the list price on eBay Buy It Now cards, or singles on COMC were high.  I found one or two on Facebook trade groups, but could not match up with my trading partners.  Eventually I just ran out of time.  

Staub had been in poor health for awhile and passed away this past Spring.  If you are reading this, and do not know much about Staub, it's worth your time to take a few minutes to watch the video MLB put out to remember him after he died.  He played a bunch of different places in his career and seems to be a fan favorite with each of those fan bases.  

I always thought of Rusty as an old guy on the 1980s Mets teams who came off the bench to pinch hit.  As a young Cardinals fan in the 1980s, I equated him with Steve Braun.  I learned better later in life.  

Anyway, as card collectors we all know what happens after a player passes away.  The prices of their cards are hyper inflated.  Twenty dollar cards magically become fifty dollar cards within half an hour of the news hitting the internet.  Thirty dollar cards become hundred dollar cards.  It shakes out over time, but sometimes it takes awhile.  Someone still has a Staub autograph up right now listed for more than $100.  

That's just sad.  My hopes of finding a Staub autograph have been low over the past four or five months.  Have not even tried to track one down, watched one on Ebay, check to see if there are any on COMC.  Nothing.  I quit and I walked away.

Anyway, I was trying to unload a pretty nice Cubs card that I pulled out of a pack of cards a few weeks pack and found a trading partner on Facebook.  They floated out a few Cardinals cards, but I had them all, or they were Randal Grichuk and Luke Weaver.  I ended up looking through an online photo album and ran across a copy of a Staub autograph.

I asked.  The Cubs card, a Javy Baez autograph, I was trading was roughly a $20 card.  While I was not watching Rusty Staub autographs apparently one sold for a little less than $20 on Ebay.  I missed that one since I was not even watching, but it helped land one in a trade.

and here is my Rusty Staub autograph....

I was actually leaning towards this one over the Greats of the Game card.  While that card is an Expos card, it is also a sticker autograph, and the goldish framing on the edges of those cards gets a little chippy in my experience.  While I was not a huge fan of the 1980s Mets teams, this is the best autographed card of Rusty out there.

Back of the card.

The standard Upper Deck Richard McWilliam letter here.  

Overall, a great card and one that should have been crossed off my want list long ago.  Better late than never.  

Project Durham Bulls #31 - Jason Schmidt

1993 Durham Bulls 

Background- 

Schmidt played for the 1993 Durham Bulls team, which was his third season in professional baseball after the Braves drafted him out of Kelso High School in Washington state.  He played the entire season with the Bulls, making 22 starts, in his second season in A Ball.  In 1992, he had spent a portion of the season with the Macon Braves in the South Atlantic League.  The Braves would would Schmidt up to Double A in 1994, and he made his Major League debut with the team during the first month of the 1995 season.  He was eventually traded to the Pirates in exchange for Denny Neagle.  Schmidt ended up spending six season on the Pirates in the mid to late 1990s, pitching for some pretty terrible teams.  Nothing spectacular in Pittsburgh, just a good solid starter who provided some good innings.  

The Giants traded for Schmidt in 2001.  Easily the best years of his career were in San Francisco.  He had a decent regular season in 2002, his first full season with the Giants, but pitched a great game in the second game of the National League Championship Series against the Cardinals to help the team reach the World Series.  The Giants ended up losing that World Series to the Angels, but they won both games that Schmidt started during the Fall Classic.  Schmidt lost out on the 2003 Cy Young Award to Dodgers reliever Eric Gagne, but he won 18 games, won the National League ERA title, and also struck out more than 200 batters.  

Schmidt would stay with the Giants until the end of the 2006 season when he signed with the Dodgers.  He pitched a total of 10 games with the team over the length of the three year contract he signed with them, and managed to make $45 million doing it.  That's $4.5 million per start.  

Card- 
The Upper Deck Sweet Spot autographed cards have to be one of my favorite early 2000s baseball card lines.  You can spot these cards from a mile away, not really sure that the scans really do these cards enough justice.  The thick card stock and depth that the ball piece on the front creates is completely lost with the scan.  This Schmidt card is from the 2004 set, which looks a lot like the rest of the Sweet Spot sets from this time frame, minus that one year where all of the autographs faded off of the cards.  Pretty sure that 2007.

There are not many Jason Schmidt autographs out there.  Outside of this Sweet Spot card there is also a Leaf Signature, a 2007 Topps Trading Places insert card, and one of those oddball mid 1990s Signature rookie sets.  Easy decision, especially considering that none of the cards are really breaking the bank in terms of price.

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets From 2001

It's time for a Friday post which means the top 5 sets from a past year.  This week we are going with 2001.  It was a really good year for card collecting, at least in book it was, so here is my strong top 5 products from that calendar year.  Much of the awesomeness of 2001 can be credited to Albert Pujols, Ichiro, and some really cool and innovative sets.  Here's this week's list......

5. 2001 Pacific Private Stock- So Pacific had an MLB license and they lost it in 2001.  Some people say it was a Manny Ramirez bat card that used a corked bat others say MLB was just tired of them and wanted to rip up their license for no good reason.  Whatever you believe, Pacific give MLB the middle finger on the way out and collectors were the winners.  Did Pacific have an agreement with Mark McGwire?  No, they still made a bat card of him in 2001 Pacific Private Stock.  Sammy Sosa, nope, but he's in there too.  Pacific put out their final baseball product as a per pack relic set which featured bats, jersey pieces, and patch pieces.  Many of the cards from this set can be found dirt cheap, but there are some really cool pieces out there.

4.  2001 Archives- Topps tinkered with the idea of an Archives set back in the mid 1990s when they released a rehash of the 1954 set to celebrate the legendary set's 40th birthday.  The 2001 product was a celebration of the first 50 Topps sets and featured great players from the entire run of Topps base sets.  Each player in the set was showcased on a remake of their rookie card and final card in a Topps set.  Some of the cards are an exact replica while others had a little bit of editing.  Say, didn't Jerry Koosman used to be on that Nolan Ryan card up there?  The set also featured a very strong run of autographed cards.  Some of the short printed signatures can be tough to find and very expensive to buy.  The set came out in two series and was a pretty tough set to assemble.  

3.  2001 Sweet Spot- You could always count on Upper Deck to push the envelope and this was one their more innovative sets.  It ended up sticking around for a chunk of time, but when this product came out collectors loved these autographs.  I loved these autographs.  The signed ball pieces in the middle of the card are made from actual signed balls, not sure I totally believed that, but that's how the product was marketed.  There were a lot of good modern players in the set, but also some cut signatures of players like Joe DiMaggio.  In time, Upper Deck would split this into two sets with the Classic version featuring older players and the regular Sweet Spot product housing the modern players.  Some of the later version also had some quality control issues.  

2.  2001 Playoff Absolute- This was a brand new product in 2001 too and one of the better things put out by Playoff before their run as a card company came to an end in the mid 2000s.  Each box came with a stamped autograph baseball in addition to the cards which featured loads of cool autographs and relic cards.  Playoff tried to push the envelope with this product and at the time it was a really cool and popular product with collectors.  It also was the beginning of the dreaded sticker autograph which was featured in a few other Playoff products that summer including Donruss Classics.  I collected this set for the rookies which were pretty valuable at the time of the products release.  My favorite....

The first 25 copies of each of the rookie cards was autographed, but are almost next to impossible to find anymore unless they are someone like Pablo Ozuna or someone Cory Aldridge.

2001 Topps Heritage- A no brainer and easy pick for the number one spot this week.  Topps did a great job with the first Topps Heritage set and it has become one of the best modern baseball card sets of all-time.  It launched the Heritage brand, which is not going anywhere and has become just as important as the Topps base set, and also remade one of the best Topps base sets of all-time.  The base set of Topps Heritage looks great with loads of short prints to challenge collectors and a slew of great autographs to chase down too.

Off Schedule Old School ManuPatch

My schedule is way far off this week.  It actually started sometime last week, but I am a creature of routine, which includes this blog.  The last two weeks I worked four hours last Monday, then did not work again until Monday this week.  I have not worked since.  My schedule gets off track and then my blogging gets off too.  Like right now it's 2:30 in the morning and I am wide awake because I took a nap yesterday.  What's going on in Raleigh right now?  This.....

Well, I may not be working again the rest of this week, but it's supposed to be 70 on Monday.  Looking forward to that.  I am also going to try and get back on track with my usual blog posts.  So many drafts right now, so let's knock out a cool card that showed up a few days ago in my mail.....

I saw this card a few weeks back on Ebay and decided to splurge a bit on picking up this cool old Upper Deck Manufactured Patch.....

I have done plenty of posts in the past about ManuPatches, but the earliest manufactured patches were actually originally in the early Upper Deck Sweet Spot products.  The first year with the patches was 2002 which had patches of player numbers.  I was not a huge fan of the design and look of those cards, but the following year Upper Deck put out cards with team logos on the cards.  I really liked these cards back in the day and pulled one of two of these back in the day.  I also quickly sold the cards.  

I really liked the look of this Big Mac card, and for less than $5, decided that this would be a fun card to add into the collection.  As a Manu card fan, I am actually going to put this out there...I am not really excited about the Manu cards in this year's Topps cards.  I pulled one out of my Series 1 box, but immediately turned it around in a trade.....

The Sweet Spot card is really simple and Upper Deck only put out ManuPatch card for a few years during the early 2000s.  Topps has now put out a ManuPatch card for the last seven or eight years.  Maybe it's time to give the ManuPatch cards a little bit of a rest...

My Top 50 Players on Cardboard-#37 Joe Mauer

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard
#37
Joe Mauer


2002 Bowman Heritage Joe Mauer RC

Hobby Impact-
Mauer started off in the baseball card hobby as a very desirable and highly sought after player.  The statement is somewhat true today, but Mauer has definitely lost a little bit of his steam around the hobby.  I am sure that a big chunk of the reason for the drop in Mauer's popularity has to do with the fact that he plays for Twins.  In my opinion, while I view Mauer as a very good player, I think he's someone that people in the hobby overestimated and have therefore cooled on.  I am sure that many collectors were think Mike Piazza when they first laid eyes on Mauer, but instead they got something different.  Different is not always a bad thing, which some collectors have failed to realize in this case.

Mauer still has a very strong hobby following, and while prices on his cards have tailed off during the past decade,  you are still going to pay a pretty good price when you run across a nice Mauer card.  One of my first decent Mauer pulls, outside of his rookie cards, was a 2004 Upper Deck Etchings autograph.  I do not even remember what it was numbered out of, but everyone who signed for that set signed a ton of cards.  Which is a good thing with Mauer's hobby presence.  He does have a ton of cards including a wide selection of autographs, relics, and low print runs.  My favorite autograph of Mauer in my collection:

2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Joe Mauer Autograph 

Generally, premium Mauer cards are going to sell and sell high.  I nice autograph of the Twins catcher can easily approach $50 with a low print run.  Most common autographs settle somewhere in between $25 and $40 based on brand quality, sticker, non-sticker, etc.  Again, Mauer has a healthy stock of autographs floating around on the secondary market with many being on-card.  If you want a cheap sticker autograph, those are out there too.  Pretty good price for a Hall of Fame autograph.

On The Field Impact-
Mauer is one of the best hitting catchers of all-time.  Before I get into the numbers with Mauer, let's not forget that Mauer is only 30 and still has plenty of time to add to the numbers that he's posted during the first part of career.  Whether or not he remains a catcher or not almost does not matter at this point.  Given where Mauer ranks among catchers currently, and his company on those lists, point me in the direction of him being a shoe-in for Cooperstown.

I have really been digging the JAWS ratings on the baseball-reference site.  If you have not clicked the link on the bottom of a player's page you should check it out for sure.  The JAWS rating for catchers places Mauer as the thirteenth best catcher of all-time at the mid-point of his career.  The players in front of him include Johnny Bench, Carlton Fisk, Pudge, Bill Dickey, and Yogi Berra.  There are a few non-Hall of Famers on that list like Ted Simmons, but a lot of those are errors the Hall of Fame writers should correct.  Translation: Tell me again why Ted Simmons isn't in the Hall?  Mauer is a better average hitter than anyone on the list, but lacks some of the pop that players like Bench, Berra, and Piazza possessed.

How good of a hitter is Mauer?  One of my favorite, non-numbers, factoids about Mauer is the fact that he has broken up three different no-hit bids in the ninth inning.  I am not sure if anyone else has every accomplished such a feat in MLB history, but it's a cool enough factoid that Major League Baseball has put the three hits into a video montage on YouTube.



Mauer is also an above average defender behind the plate and has captured a total of three Gold Gloves.  Some of his defensive work has taken a hit recently with injuries and knee issues, but he still shows off every once in awhile.  One of the coolest meaningless catches I've ever seen in a game:



Pretty good grab there.

Favorite Card-
It was a toss up, for me, between the 2011 Topps base set card and his 2002 Topps T206 variation card.  I am actually going to side with the 2011 Topps base card here, but the 206 card is pretty sweet if you are a Mauer or Twins collector looking for a good card to track down.

2011 Topps Joe Mauer

I love this card, because it shows Joe Mauer doing what Joe Mauer does best: Hitting.  This action shot shows a good picture of Mauer's great looking left-handed swing and I like the background too.  You get a little glimpse of the limestone in Target field just above Mauer's bat too.  Great card by Topps.

2002 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Fergie Jenkins Autograph

The Cardinals and Cubs are on tonight, but I am flipping my television over to the College World Series Game between the my NC State Wolfpack and the UCLA Bruins.  It's pretty unusual that I would purposely miss a Cardinals-Cubs game, but honestly the rivalry does not have much juice to it at the moment.  I am sure that Busch Stadium is packed and I am sure that there are a few Cubbie Bear fans running around doing a little bit of talking.

Despite the large crowd the internet chatter around these games has died off considerably in the recent years.  Sure the Cubs are almost mathematically eliminated from the playoffs, but that never stopped this rivalry from being one of the best in the game.  Yes, the Cardinals have been to the last two National League Championship Series and have won two more World Series over the last decade, but that did not stop Cubs fans in the past.

I think the real difference at the moment centers around the fact that the Cubs are pretty much hapless and hopeless.  In the 1980s the Cubs had star players like Lee Smith, Ryne Sandberg, and Mark Grace.  There was always next year and they actually made the playoffs in 1989.  Same in the 90s and 2000s.  A little more Sandberg, throw in Sosa, Prior, and Kerry Wood.  Mix in a playoff appearance in 1998 and 2003 and you've got a happy fans base.

I know lots of other fans bases that would be irked only making the playoffs once a decade, but the system seemed to be working great for the Cubbie Bear crowd.  Now, I am not sure what has happened to the Cubs.  Their team is horrible, there is no help on the way, and their fan base seems a little bit depressed.  Cardinals fans seem to almost feel a little bit sorry for the Cubs.  Maybe.

With the series coming up, I took stock of my recent Cubs acquisitions and noticed that it had been a long time since a new Cubs card had appeared in this space.  There was a Lee Smith card last week, but it was clearly posted in a Cardinals themed entry.  It's been a few months, so for less than $10 I picked up a Hall of Famer appearing in a Cubs uniform.

2002 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Fergie Jenkins Autograph 

I actually try to pick up as many Hall of Famers signatures on cardboard as possible, so despite being a Cub, I was quite pleased to add this nice looking card to my collection.  Factoring in the price and the great look of this Sweet Spot autograph and I am feeling good about allowing a Cub card into this space.  Here's hoping for a Cardinals win this evening, also Go Pack!  

2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Miguel Cabrera Autograph

It's hard to find anything that is the least bit affordable these days when looking for cards of Miguel Cabrera.  He was never a really cheap player to collect and then after winning the Triple Crown last year his cards started pushing even higher than they had been in previous years.  Last year I actually made an effort to pick up a few Miguel Cabrera cards throughout the season.  At first I could find an autographed card of Cabrera pretty easily and pick up the card for less than $20 in trade or cash.  By the end of the year common autographs of Cabrera were selling for no less than $30 and premium autographs sold between $75-$100.

This year has made Cabrera cards insane.  It seems like the average Cabrera autograph has gone up by another ten dollars since the beginning of this season with Cabrera looking like a threat to possibly repeat as both a Triple Crown winner and the American League MVP.  For example, one of the cheapest and most overproduced autographs sets of the last decade was the 2004 Upper Deck Etchings set.  Cheap stickers, cheap cards, and completely overproduced.  There are usually a minimum of 1,000 cards of each autographed player produced.  So, what did the last Cabrera copy sell for on Ebay?  $40. Base Topps autograph for $60.  Imagine what card shops are charging....

I am happy to say that I picked up my first Cabrera autograph of the 2013 season and I managed to snag it for less than $30.  Better yet is the fact that it is a Sweet Spot card, always a cool set, and the autograph is legible and fade free.

2004 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Miguel Cabrera Autograph

The foil on the bottom right hand corner has started to flake off in two spots, but it's still a really good card to grab for the price I paid and given the fact that the market for Cabrera cards is likely to climb through the summer if he can stay near the top of the leader boards in the three triple crown categories and be among the favorites for the American League MVP.  I will go ahead and file this card away for awhile, but I am guessing I will come out ahead on this very shortly.

A Pair of Piazza Autographs

I spent part of my time the the two weeks helping a friend and vintage collector pull together the last few cards in their quest to complete several late 60s Topps sets.  I am not a huge vintage collector, but I always try to buy or trade for vintage cards in person to make sure the quality is there.  So, while I don't necessarily have the quantity of vintage cards possessed by some collectors I definitely have some quality.  My trading partner also grades out their vintage cards, so that one card in the trade, a 1971 Topps Nolan Ryan, was tied to its grading report.

The card came back with a nice grade and I picked up two great autographs in exchange for the help with the sets.  Initially, I was trading for one Piazza autograph and a handful of smaller cards, but decided to go with two large pieces instead.

2000 Upper Deck Legends Legendary Signatures Mike Piazza

2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Signatures Mike Piazza Autograph

Piazza doesn't have a ton of autographs and most of his autographs over the last seven or eight years have all been sticker autos.  If I am going to get a high end autograph I would prefer it be a non-sticker, so I ended up with these two.  The first is from the 2000 Legends set.  It's your pretty typical late 90s-early 2000s Upper Deck set, but the autographs are all in card.  The Sweet Spot autograph is nice since it is one that hasn't faded, but Piazza is on the Padres.  

For most the Padres were definitely not Piazza most memorable team.   However, he played a key role in the 2006 World Series championship for the Cardinals.  The Cardinals ended the 2006 season with only 83 regular season wins.  They played the Padres in the first round and were obviously not favored.  Jake Peavy was pitching the first game of the game of the series and was cruising through the first three innings.  Chris Duncan singled to lead off the fourth with Albert Pujols coming up to bat.  Peavy got Pujols to pop up behind home plate, but Piazza dropped the ball.  The next pitch landed over the right center field fence.  The Cardinals momentum built off of that play and ended a few weeks later with the team's 10th World Series championship.   

2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Miguel Cabrera Autograph

One more trade from Facebook for the holiday weekend.  I completed this trade with Brian who is another great trader on Facebook.  He's got a ton of good cards and is great to deal with.  This was a card for card trade with a Matt Moore autograph going back in return for this beautiful card:

2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Miguel Cabrera Autograph

I've been trying to add to my Miguel Cabrera collection throughout the summer and actually have a few more nice pieces on the way.  This is my second Cabrera Sweet Spot autograph with my other coming from the 2005 set.  I really like the design of these cards and it's a big reason why I miss Upper Deck somedays.  They are also good cards to chase down because they tend to be condition sensitive.  For example, here is a Kurt Suzuki autograph I own:  

2006 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Kurt Suzuki Autograph 

The faded autograph is really common on the Sweet Spot cards.  Take a few minutes and search Ebay or COMC and you will see dozens of Sweet Spot autos that look like my Suzuki.  Anyway,  I am really happy with my new card!  

Today's Mail...

New card coming in on a trade for a Jason Giambi autograph and a nice Pujols Topps Pristine bat card.  This card is a 2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Miguel Cabrera autograph.  I've always liked the Sweet Spot cards, but found two problems with them.  First, the boxes of Sweet Spot are really iffy.  I think I've open half a dozen in my life and gave up on the last box when my Sweet Spot autograph was Mark Lorretta.  Not dissing Mark Lorretta, but you expect better with a nice box.  Second, some of the autographs fade over time or the quality was low when the cards were initially signed.  I have a Adam LaRoche (better than Lorretta?) that looked horrible out of the pack and has only gotten worse over time.  This Cabrera autograph however is great because I didn't have to buy a whole box of Sweet Spot cards and he did a great job of signing the card in black ink pen.  Cabrera is probably my favorite non-Cardinal and non-Ray that I collect at the moment.  My in-laws live in Northern Michigan and are big Tigers fans, so I pay attention to their games and love watching Cabrera.  Curious to see how he does this year playing third again and batting with Prince Fielder behind him.