Thursday, July 18, 2019

Thursday Customs, The Eugene Emeralds 2014, page 1

Back in 2014 my wife and I attended numerous Salem-Keizer Volcanoes and Hillsboro Hops games to see each team play the Eugene Emeralds.  At the time the Ems were the short season rookie league affiliate of the Padres.  We would go to the games and set in General Admission on the right field line.  In Salem that involves taking a lawn chair and sitting next to a low chain link fence next to the visiting bullpen.  I would take pictures before and during the game and make cards out of them.  I ended up getting most of the team signed.  I am working on a set for this years short season rookie league team the Tri-City Dust Devils.  We will be going to Salem at the end of this month to take pictures and make cards and hope to get them signed.  I thought I would try and find out where each of the players and coaches in this set were now.
Travis Radke  Travis missed all of 2016 recovering from Tommy John surgery.  We saw him again in 2017 with Tri-City starting to work his way back.  He is currently pitching for Lake Elsinore.
Marcus Davis Marcus played through 2016 in the Padres and ChiSox organizations and is now a hitting consultant.  He went back to school and got his masters degree.
Aaron Cressley.  Aaron played through 2016 in the Padres organization and then I can't find anything else on him.
Adrian De Horta.  Adrian is currently pitching in the Angels organization.  He was released by the Padres in 2018 and signed by the Angels.  I have a Elite extra Edition card signed by him from 2015 in my Padrographs.
Bryan Verbitsky.  Bryan played through 2017 and is now the Head Coach at Long Island Baseball.
Auston Busfield  Auston played through 2018 getting up to AAA.  He voluntarily retired in January of 2019.  I have a Bowman card of him in my Padrographs. 
Colby Bluberg.  Colby is still playing ball.  He played in Puerto Rico last winter and has played for two independent teams this year.  
Jalen Goree.  Jalen played through '14 and is on facebook now.
Jose Ruiz. Jose was a catcher when he was with the Ems in 2014.  Now he is a relief pitcher with the White Sox.  He has pitched in 26 games this year.  I have a Venezuelan card of him from 2018.


3 comments:

Tony Burbs said...

Love the design on these customs - better than most of the minor league team sets I've ever seen!

Brett Alan said...

That's awesome to have signed cards where you not only created the customs, but took the pictures, too! Definitely a bright, eye-catching design, just right for this kind of set.

Fuji said...

Must be something in the water... because you guys in Oregon sure have awesome custom card making skills.