I was pretty excited to get this one back the other day. I got it the same time as I got my Chuck Woolery.
I'd been looking to send Jose some cards for awhile, but couldn't find a good address for him. All the research I could find dated all the way back to 2008. In 2004, Jose bought, at least part of Puerto Rico baseball team, the Santurce Crabbers, part of the LBPPR, renamed the team the Manatà Atenienses and moved the team to the largest barrio in San Juan. However I couldn't find the team anywhere or on the LBPPR website, so I had to wait. Then I found out he had been named as the Manager for the Fort Wayne Tin Caps in Indiana, a Single A farm team for the Padres. Game on!
Jose was originally signed by the Padres back in 1986 as an amateur free agent, but ended up getting traded to Milwaukee with Ricky Bones and Matt Mieske for Gary Sheffield in 1992, where he made his big league debut. He played for the Brewers from 1992 to 1999 when he was traded to the White Sox where he played for 5 seasons, then went on to play with the Dodgers for a year and finally ended his career with the Mets.
I ended up sending Jose three cards to the Tin Caps park in Fort Wayne and he sent all three back very nicely signed. I was also excited to get these back because I hadn't had any successes with late 90's early 2000's players yet. It's tough to decide which spot Jose will officially get, 1999 Topps or 2000 Topps, he's holding both places right now, and both cards look great.
1999 Topps
2000 Topps
I couldn't resist sending him a 1994 Upper Deck card. I don't know why I love these cards so much. I'm not a big fan of the smooshed black and white photo on the left, but these landscaped cards look so great autographed. The name plate and company logo are out of the way, the team name is also non obtrusive and the card has a great big photo on it. After I got Pat Listach to sign one for me I decided to try and send a 94 UD whenever I could.
TTM Stats
Date Sent 5/10/12
Date Recieved 5/29/12
Address Used
Jose Valentin
c/o Fort Wayne TinCaps - Parkview Field
1301 Ewing Street
Fort Wayne, Indiana 46802
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