TTM Stats
- Sent: 2/10/2020 | Received: 1/4/2021 | 324 Days
- ’06 Topps Bazooka
- Address: Los Angeles Dodgers Spring Training Address
The Story of the Autograph
Mark Prior is a former right-handed starting pitcher in the major leagues. He played from 2002 to 2006 and spent his entire career with the Chicago Cubs. He’s currently the pitching coach for the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Prior was born and raised in San Diego, California. In high school he worked with former pitcher and pitching guru Tom House. He was good in high school and the Yankees first drafted him in the first round of the 1998 MLB Draft with the 43rd overall pick. He instead chose to go to the Vanderbilt but would end up transferring later to the University of Southern California. He won the Golden Spikes award as the best player in college and then was drafted with the second overall pick in the first round of the 2001 MLB Draft by the Cubs. He made his major league debut the following season on May 22, 2002.
He had a pretty good rookie season with a 6-6 record and 3.32 ERA. That got him some Rookie of the Year votes, but it was the next year where he started to shine. In 2003 he was an All-Star and went 18-6 with a 2.43 ERA. That got him both Cy Young and MVP votes that season. The combination of he and Kerry Wood would seem to be something pretty formidable, potentially for years to come. The Cubs went on to the playoffs that year and unfortunately the Marlins, and the Steve Bartman incident, didn’t let it go any farther than that.
The next season started several years of injuries. An achilles tendon injury and elbow problems would start to limit his seasons. A comeback liner gave him a compression fracture that put him on the IL again. The shoulder problems in 2006 would be the next issue. That would also make it so he wouldn’t appear in the majors in 2007 either. He tried to make it with other teams but just never could make it back past the injuries.
The Score on Mark Prior – 6.5
This was one of those attempts that I made because I was watching other people’s returns and decided to go after it. I love this Bazooka card style and it’s a great card for him to sign. It came out pretty strong. This is not an era of cards that I have many of so I was really lucky that I had anything for him.
Thanks Mr. Prior! I’m giving this return a 6.5.
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Information gathered using Wikipedia and Baseball Reference.