Tony, the Killer, and Carew

Living overseas and being a Twins fan and a baseball card collector presents a very unique challenge. I’ve been to maybe 5 or 6 games in 16 years and since I’ve got back into collecting I’ve been to exactly zero card shows! I have met a few fans and fewer collectors over the years and I relish the moments when I get to interact with either. Every once in a while, life teases us with coincidences that sometimes make you just shake you head in bewilderment. I’d like to share a story that, on one hand, has nothing to do with being a Twins fan or being a baseball card collector but on the other hand, has everything to do with both.

 

A few days ago, I went to pick up my kids from their after-school daycare. As I walked in, wearing my all-red, Twins hooded sweatshirt, one of the staff asked if I liked the Twins? I don’t think I need to tell you what my response was, but as I was just about to walk out the door and mark the comment down to polite chit-chat, I just happen to hear her say that her son was once drafted by the Minnesota Twins. Whoa…wait a minute here…”your son was drafted by the Twins? The Minnesota Twins? The Minnesota Twins that play major league baseball?” I guess I shouldn’t be that shocked. After all, the Twins have probably drafted a thousand guys. But what are the chances of me running into the mother of one while living at a small Air Force base in the UK? I know…I know…no big deal. But for me, it was nice to have at least a minor “Twins Moment” in my life away from Twins territory. That could have been the end of it, but here is where the story takes a nice turn and the reason I wanted to share it with you all.

 

The son who was drafted by the Twins was Jake Jacobs, a 21st round choice (607th overall) in 1996 out of Pine Forest High School in Penacola, Florida. Jake played four minor league seasons before an injury led to his premature exit from baseball. Jake had a promising career with the Twins and was named Gulf Coast League All-Star in 1997 after posing a 0.29 ERA, 10 saves and 55 strikeouts in 23 games (31.1 innings).

 

None of this information, aside from Jake getting injured, was given to me by his mom. In fact, when I told her I’d look for some information about her son on the internet, she said she would be surprised if there was anything out there…after all, he never made it to the majors. I knew I’d be able to find a few links, but was very surprised (I shouldn’t have been) to find two of Jake’s cards right here on TwinsCards…and according to Beckett, these are the only two cards that exist of Jake! After finding a few more links, I sat down and sent here an email with everything I had found and attached the two images of Jake’s cards.

 

The reaction I received from Jake’s mom is the reason I’m writing about this encounter. She was ecstatic! She had asked her son for a card once, but before my email had never seen her son on a baseball card. She told me that Jake had taken his injury and subsequent retirement from the game pretty hard and that he never really talked about it much; therefore she didn’t ask about it much. As we spoke, you could tell how excited she was to talk about his brief stint in the minors and it was obvious to anyone within earshot that she was a very proud mother. She was amazed at the amount of information out there and informed me she was going to send it off to her son. I certainly hope that Jake has found the site and hope he enjoys seeing the images from his past. If my site statistics are telling the truth, there have been 15 visits in the past week coming from search engines looking for “Jake Jacobs”. So if you have stopped by looking for more information on Jake Jacobs, we’re glad you found us and see the bottom of this post for more links to Jake Jacobs on the web.

 

Needless to say, it’s stories like this that make the hours upon hours that are spent on this site entirely worth it. I can’t take credit for putting the two Jake Jacobs cards on the site, but had it not been for the dedication of everyone associated with this site, we would have never been able to treat a very proud mother to a memory that she will cherish forever. Guys like Jake Jacobs are as important to this site as Kirby Puckett, Harmon Killebrew or the 1975 Topps Twins set and we’re glad that we could play our part in helping keep a small memory alive…and a smile on a mom’s face!

 

UPDATE: Through the kindness of Mr. Twinkie himself, two unautographed, Jake Jacobs cards are heading towards the UK as you read this. When they arrive, I will have the distinct pleasure of handing Jake’s mom the only two cards that picture her son as a professional baseball player…cards that, until just a few days ago, she never even knew existed. I’ll update this post after I deliver the cards and let you know her reaction.

 

More Jake Jacobs links:

Jake’s Baseball Cube Page

Jake’s Baseball-Reference.com Minor League Page

SABR Minor League Database Page

 

It’s bad enough when they misspell your name in the old school yearbook. Or when you finally appear on that nightime talk show and they dredge out the photo of you in your leisure suit days.

 

Imagine the joy when the card companies can’t tell the rookies apart from each other. Maybe they all look alike, with the too tight hats and the clean uniforms hoping for a spot in the starting 25 as the team moves north-south-east or west after spring training.

 

I found a couple of gaffs in the world of Twins baseball cards.

 

The first is Bud Bloomfield, drafted from the Cardinals minor league system and played ever so briefly as a middle infielder for the Twins in 1964. One hit in his seven trips to the plate. His Topps card (only one, in fact) actually shows a picture of Jay Ward with Bud’s name.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bud happily informed me of this fact when I wrote him, telling me he is much better looking than Jay and that should have been the giveaway. I’ll let you judge for yourself. Here’s the real Bud Bloomfield in a fantasy card image.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jay Ward did have a real card in 1964, the other showing him hatless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming over to the Twins from the Los Angeles Dodgers system in a trade for Bert Cueto, Ward played 21 games in ‘63-’64, returning briefly to the majors six seasons later with the Cincinnati Reds before embarking on a career managing in the Indy leagues.

 

I did some bad homemade re-workings of the 1964 cards which can be seen in “Twinkies Autographs” section of the site.

 

To find another name/photo gaff, we have to jump all the way to 2002. That’s when Topps Total issued a rookie card for prospect Brian Wolfe, showing Grant Balfour.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Grant had already been carded by Bowman, Donruss and Fleer in 2001, and did have his own image with a Topps Total card that had the right name with the right-handers picture. Just for the heck of it, I had both players sigh the misprinted card.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since injuring his shoulder and sitting out the 2005 season, Grant was picked up by the Cincinnati Reds who were hoping he could bolster their depleted bullpen in 2006, but it was another year of rehab. Balfour is now with the Milwaukee Brewers organization.

 

Brian Wolfe, shown in this 2002 Bowman card, was drafted by the Twins in 1999 and played in the system thru 2005 when he was given his release. He was picked up by the Brewers organization, who included him in the Corey Koskie trade with Toronto before the 2006 season. He is currently with the Blue Jays AAA club.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Of course, the other fun in collecting Twins player cards is when you run across guys labeled as Minnesota Twins players and go “who are these guys?” There were rookies (Mo Ogier for one) who shared card space in the early days. Nowadays, with the need for card companies to produce the first image of any prospect, so many players that will never see a major league ballpark are often on team labeled cards, but it wasn’t always so.

 

In the first couple of decades of Twins cards, we had a few players traded to the team in the offseason that were expected to be major league participants, but never showed. Ken Retzer had a 1965 Topps card, he came over in a trade of catchers (Joe McCabe) with the Washington Senators. Larry Cox has a 1975 SSPC card labeled “Minnesota Twins” on the back. He was a catcher obtained from the Philadelphia Phillies for Sergio Ferrer. And Ken Reynolds, 1973 Topps, obtained from the Phillies for Cesar Tovar and then traded to the Brewers before spring training ended.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

But a couple of real oddities are:

 

Eduardo Perez from the 1994 Fleer Ultra series. He played 13 big-league seasons, but never remember him once donning a Twins uniform, going near a Twins training camp, or being any part of the organization. Yet there it is….Minnesota Twins.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Pascual Perez, another 11-year veteran who has “Twins” on the team glove in this 1983 Donruss release.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If there are any others out there, please feel free to share, as so many cards have great secondary stories!