A Jonny Gomes Twenty Card Salute!

If you are not a Jonny Gomes fan you may not care to read this. I am and its my blog, so, get ready for some pro-Gomes stuff. This is actually a tribute to one of my favorite players, ever. I have never met Jonny professionally, never got to interview him or even cover him as a player, I have only known him as a fan. In 2005 the Devil Rays were not a good team. Carl Crawford was emerging as a superstar, but Aubrey Huff was already on the decline and the rest of the team, although talented, just weren’t getting in done. I was a Crawford fan, I still am, but there weren’t a ton of bright spots on this team that would lose 95 games that year. The brightest spot for me was a young, gritty outfielder that swang for the fences every time. He was Jonny Gomes and he hit .282 that year, hitting 21 homers. He got a little love in the ROY voting and made the Topps All Rookie Team. He also became an instant favorite of mine, and the wife, too. We both had number 31 jerseys and chanted go Jonny go at the Trop. This was before the cowbell, before they started winning, when you couldn’t spit without hitting a Yankees fan at the ballpark. These weren’t good times for the Rays, but Gomes gave the fans something to cheer about. He became a fan favorite and loved the role. He signed autographs before and after every game, smiled at the media and generally brought a sense of hope to Tampa Bay. Before long he was joined with Aki, BJ, Carlos and later Evan and the rest is history. When the Rays made it to the World Series last year, Gomes didn’t make the roster, but he was on the top step of the dugout every inning working as a cheerleader. I loved to see that. What I didn’t love was that the Rays didn’t make any effort to resign him after that season. They sent him packing left him unemployed. He finally got an invite to spring training with the Reds and tore it up all spring long, but still started the year in AAA. Fortunatley he was able to hit his way out of AAA. He played 37 games in Louisville and hit 9 homers, wow! Gomes has 115 minor league homers over his career. Anyway, that earned him a call-up to the Reds. It didn’t get him a starting job, though. He played and when he did, he hit, but he didn’t play every day. He made the most of his chances though and hit 3 homers in one game in a Reds win a few months ago. This was his second 3 homer game, that is twice as many as Hank Aaron had. He concluded the season with the Reds having played in 98 games. With that chance he hit .267 and his slugging percentage was a healthy .541. He had 17 doubles, 51 RBI and 20 homeruns. I was hoping that he would hit #21 so I could give him a twenty-one card salute, but he didn’t, so we will leave it at 20. Readers have been super generous with their Gomes cards and this past month I have gotten a few as gifts. It really surprised me that people would wanna part with such awesome cards and get nothing in return, but when you don’t have a connection with a player, you just don’t care. I guess I have given away quite a few nice cards these past few months just trying to get them in the hands of folks who will appreciate them more than I do. That said, I wanna extend a huge thank you to all of the Gomes gifters out there and the traders, too. I would have liked to write up these trades all fancy, but I did make write-ups for the other cards in the trade anyway, but please understand that I really do appreciate every card that comes in to my collection via trade. When I started this blog I think I had 3 Gomes cards, now I can pick my twenty favorites. Nice. Okay:
These first three came from Jeff of Closet Full of Cardboard fan, he’s a Rays fan, too, and a super awesome collector and person. I LOVE the refractor!
2006 Topps Turkey Red Card #565 2005 Upper Deck SP Collection Card #65 2006 Bowman Chrome REFRACTOR Card #47 (serial #126/150) This card I have somehow ended up with 2 copies of, Paul, one is yours if you want it!
2008 Upper Deck Series 2-UD JERSEY Card #UDJ-GO Now, a bunch of signed Gomes cards-he is a GREAT signer…
2006 Fleer Card#116 2008 Topps #5592006 Fleer Traditions Card #63 2008 Upper Deck Card#90 2006 Topps All Rookie Card #23 These next four cards came from my buddy Kerry over at Cards on Cards…
2005 Upper Deck Card#412 2006 Upper Deck First Pitch Card #1872009 Upper Deck Series 1 Card #365 2004 Upper Deck Card #458 This card was my first Gomes Certified Auto, courtesy of Stale Gum dot com
2007 Upper Deck Star Signings AUTO Card#SS-JG Here is a random Gomes that I don’t recall where it came from, but I like…
2006 Fleer Ultra Gold Card #49 This card came from Wicked Ortega…
2008 Topps Chrome Card# 182 And my first Heritage Chrome Gomes, I really need to find a way to get these to scan better…
2008 Topps Heritage Chrome Card# C251 My first Allen and Ginter auto of Gomes…
2006 Topps Allen & Ginter Certified Auto Card # AGA-JG And now two of my favorites and we’re done…
For the record, I hate manufactured patch cards. I don’t like the idea at all, but since they make them, I love getting them! This is the only one I have, but I have already decided that I need to spell out Go Rays…
2006 SP Authentic By The Letter Auto Card# BL-JG (serial # 116/175) And the new winner for thickest card I own, this thing is well over a ¼ thick!
2006 UD Sweet Spot Signatures Card #136 (Serial number 201/275) This is a fancy looking card and I do really like it, but why isn’t the Trop in the background and what ballpark is that? Regardless, its cool. Thanks to all who have sent Gomes cards my way, this is my drawn out Jonny Gomes 20-Card-Salute!!!
Please check out the contest over at Carl Crawford Cards, he’s giving away a Jonny Gomes autograph and the blog rocks! Go Jonny Go! Wherever Jonny Gomes ends up next year, I will be rooting for him. One of these days he will get the chance at a 500 at bat season and look out! Photos at the top of the post are used without permission from the Associated Press. Troll out.