Catcher
Phil Ouellette played ten seasons of professional baseball, mostly in the Giants organization. He made the major leagues in 1986 with San Francisco. Now Director of Sales at
SledgeBats, a company which manufactures training bats that help players make the transition from aluminum bats to wood, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.
"In 1987, my roommate Matt Williams
and I posed for each others triple AAA cards. We were both injured and
on the DL at Phoenix, Matt with a bad knee and me with a broken hand. I
posed as a left-handed pitcher and under his name. My hand had only came
out of the cast a few days earlier. I posed left handed so the pressure
wraps would not show up on my right hand.
Matt dressed as me and as
catcher on one knee. His right knee was still in a sling thingamajig. The
card company printed the cards without checking the proofs. The cards are
very rare and worth big $$$. I have only seen 6 of them in all the 25
plus years people have sent cards to me to sign. We both had a great
laugh when
they came out and we were so good looking too. Well... we were just
average looking boys with big dreams.... since we could not play
injured. We healed some and got better. Matt had a great long career
while I kept breaking bones in hands. Life is not all bad luck, I have 3
boys that are baseball studs. You will see them play soon. Shortstop,
Catcher, LH Pitcher."
Thanks! I could not find a picture of the card of Williams posing as a catcher - there is no card of Ouellette in 1987 Phoenix Firebirds set. Have any of you readers seen this picture?
Here is a card of him from my collection, from 1990 CMC.
No comments:
Post a Comment