Chris Nowak on baseball cards

3B-1B Chris Nowak played nine seasons in the Devil Rays and Brewers organizations. His best season was 2006, when he hit .3018 with 11 HR and 103 RBI for Visalia. Overall, in 793 games he hit .285 with 60 HR and 460 RBI. Now Assistant to the Client at Central Office Systems in Waukesha, WI, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

- Do you have any stories about cards of yourself or of other players?  
My story is about my first Bowman Heritage card.  They were pulling guys off to the side in spring training to take staged “action shot” pictures to place on their cards.  Of course there were some higher prospects that were getting pictures taken like Wade Davis, Reid Brignac, Andy Sonnanstine to name a few.  All of them were very serious, no smiles, and acting very cool.  I was happy to even get asked to take some pictures because as a 19^th round pick you don’t expect much.  I too wanted be cool and did my action shots with no smiles and very serious…until they said "last one".  The last one I went with the full smile and let them see that my parents paid good money for my orthodontic work.  Guess which picture Bowman picked?  Yep, the last one!  Looking back I am glad they did because now I have this story to tell you and those who read your blog.  I have more stories, that is what baseball is…a bunch of great stories, but I will leave you with just this one.

 

 - Do you have a favorite card of yourself or of another player?  Well this one is my favorite of course, but my favorite card of another baseball player would have to be anything with Andy Etchebarren on it, he had a great unibrow.  I can say this because he was the last manager I had in the Atlantic League, and he was one of the guys that renewed my confidence in myself and my love for the game.

 

- Do you collect baseball cards?  No I don’t, but my step dad did. 

Thanks!