2008 albuquerque isotopes dav team set review

2008 Albuquerque Isotopes DAV team set
Official Score – seeing eye DOUBLE
Manufacturer: Disabled American Veterans (undetermined printer)
Sponsor: Disabled American Veterans
Retail price: FREE SGA– not available for purchase

I’d like to promise that this will be my final post about the Isotopes this year, but you never know. I definitely wanted to get this review completed this calendar year since the Isotopes and Marlins have parted ways, in order to clear the path for many posts dealing with new (and old) Isotopes and Dodgers connections.

DAV night at Isotopes Park took place on July 25, 2008. Official attendance that evening was recorded as 13,390 fans. Only the first few thousand fans through the turnstiles received this special limited edition 10-card team set. Between the free baseball cards and an Isotopes loss to the Sacramento Rivercats, there wasn’t a dry eye in the house.

Here’s the checklist.

1 – [195] John Baker (c)
2 – [196] Chris Barnwell (if)
3 – [197] Andrew Beattie (if)
4 – [198] Tagg Bozied (if)
5 – [199] John Gall (of)
6 – [200] Bobby Keppel (p)
7 – [201] Jai Miller (of)
8 – [202] Lorenzo Scott (of)
9 – [203] Taylor Tankersley (p)
10 – [204] Ross Wolf (p)

Most importantly, the 2008 Albuquerque Isotopes DAV team set included cards of three players that were not included in the regular 2008 Albuquerque Isotopes team set. They are as follows:

Ross Wolf has made quite an impression on me over the last two seasons. Always a pleasure to talk to, and I can’t remember a conversation that I’ve had with him that didn’t end with him thanking ME for coming out to the ballpark.

Taylor Tankersley pitched very well for during his stay(s) with the Isotopes in 2008. The Tank hurled 31 and two-thirds innings over 29 appearances, managing to keep his ERA at 1.71 in spite of a WHIP of 1.55. Taylor has one unique signature.

Lorenzo Scott was one of two Isotopes players on the 2008 roster who shared my birthday. Again, that is a surefire method of having one’s cards highlighted on this blog. If I could run half as fast as Lorenzo, I would have been a track star.

Tagg Bozied put together a great season for the Isotopes in 2008, hitting .306 with 36 dingers in 425 at bats. He was also one of the true characters on the team as is apparent in this video of Tagg Bozied announcing the starting lineups prior to one of the games.

I’ve blogged about Chris Barnwell before, and it appears that the girls at Dinged Corners have a slight crush on him. I think I read that Chris is a free agent, but I’m not completely sure about that. Do you notice anything “missing” on Barnwell’s card? That’s right- a signature. Unfortunately Chris had to leave town for personal reasons right before the end of the 2008 season, so I didn’t get have the opportunity to tell him how much I enjoyed watching him hustle day in and day out. I’ll be sure to tell him the next time he passes through Albuquerque- then hit him up for an autograph.

Overall, the set includes a fair share of pitchers pitching, fielders fielding and hitters hitting. My only real complaint is that 80 percent of the cards depict players in black jerseys instead of spreading the love and representing the other uniforms worn throughout the season.

Card surfaces are a semi-gloss that required no treatment prior to autographing. I believe you can tell from the scans that the autographs add a great deal to the overall look of the cards. If you flip one or more of these cards over, you shouldn’t be surprised to find only the DAV ad mentioned in previous reviews of these limited edition team sets.

You cannot purchase these cards from the Isotopes team shop- online or in person. I did see one sell on eBay recently for just less than six bucks, so that could be an option. Probably if you put your thinking cap on, you would be able to think of one baseball card blogger who might just have an extra one of these sets (unautographed) available for trade…

– Kris

Tags: Albuquerque Isotopes, DAV, Kris, minor league baseball, PCL, Triple A baseball