autographs of the little known

whether meant to be checklist filler or prospecting investments, i have never really been a fan of bowman's attempts at providing cards of players in single a.  by the time it all started in the early '90's, i was losing touch with the dodgers' farm system and didn't know who the top prospects were in aaa, let alone rookie ball.  anyway, upper deck seemed to do the same sort of thing in the 2000's, and as a result, i have some cards of players whom i do not know.  and not just cards, but relics and autos, too.  like this 2003 upper deck spx andrew brown jersey and auto card.

i was surprised to learn a few months ago that brown actually made it to the majors with the indians and a's later in the decade.  also surprised to learn that he was twice traded for milton bradley - first from the dodgers to the indians, and then from the padres to the a's.  once again, i was surprised to find that he was still pitching professionally in 2010.  nothing against brown, he was just never really on my dodger radar.

at least brown eventually pitched in the bigs.  not so for orlando rodriguez, whom upper deck had sign at least 999 stickers for their 2004 sp authentic release

rodriguez made it as high as aaa in 2005 and was most recently pitching in the mexican league in 2010.  he may have been injured along the way, as he apparently didn't pitch in 2004.  hopefully signing all those stickers wasn't the problem.

and then, there were the scout autos.  i know there was lots of consternation about these cards when they were distributed in 2008 bowman.  i mean, who are more little known than scouts?  still, i sought this one out. 

ralph avila has been a scout for the dodgers since 1970, and was the first scout to make a presence in the dominican.  he signed pedro and ramon martinez, raul mondesi, and others for the dodgers, and helped establish the baseball academy system that most teams use today.  sometimes it's good to know about the little known.