Baseball card stories from Jamie Ogden

Jamie Ogden played eight years in the Minnesota Twins system, including over 300 games at the Triple-A Level. He is now a President's Circle Realtor at Edina Realty in Minnesota. He is also part-owner of a restaurant called Manitou Station in White Bear Lake, MN. He kindly took the time from his busy schedule to reply to my questions about baseball cards.

- Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?
My favorite card varies. Some are my favorite based on the feeling I get when I was collecting them. For example, Mattingly and Gooden rookies were so big to trade for when I was in 6-7 grade so seeing those cards now bring back a great amount of memories!

There are 2 cards I have from my collection that stand out from sentimental value and money value. One is a '58 Roger Maris rookie I got from Santa in 1985 and the other is a 1985 Star company Michael Jordan rookie.


- Do you collect baseball cards?
I did and still add to it on occasion. Now my children are beginning to enjoy it so we can share in it together. As time has gone on, the card collection business is best enjoyed when it is centered around memories and relationships. Now I like to collect cards of players I played with or against as well as players who are people who share my faith and good role models.

- Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or of other players?
Yes, I was a collector when a few of those error cards came out. The most famous was the Billy Ripken Fleer card in '89 that included inappropriate words on the knob of his bat.

That was very unfortunate and too bad they ran with that card but it left an impact on me. So, when I posed for my first few cards I wrote my nickname on my bat and wrote my girlfriend's (now wife) nickname on my batting glove for fun. Being in High School during the card boom certainly had an impact on the thoughts I had when posing for my own.

Thanks! I couldn't find any good pictures of cards with him wearing batting gloves (it appears 1992 Fleer/ProCards #619 would show them if anyone has that card) but here he is on a 1992 Classic Best Kenosha Twins card with his nickname, "Oggy," clearly on his bat handle!


The only card I have of him in my collection is from the 1992 Classic Best base set, in which his gloves are too far away to see.