j.d. drew had a good run

j.d. drew hit the majors with a bang in 1998 when he slugged 1.436 in 14 games for the cardinals. those high expectations were hard to measure up to over the course of a full season, and eventually drew was dealt to the braves. after putting up a career year there in what was a "walk" year, the dodgers signed him and now we have legion cards of drew in dodger blue.

i noticed that the ones i had in my scanned folder all showed drew running.  

here's his 2005 upper deck update card

which used a donruss design combined with a blackberry device. really strange.

here's his 2006 topps bazooka blue parallel

and his 2006 topps gold parallel

those two topps produced cards certainly show images captured within seconds of each other. here's one more - drew's 2006 topps chrome black refractor parallel

that is, of course, identical to the flagship gold parallel.

drew did more than run as a dodger, even though he was injured for much of his first season with the club. the second year, 2006, he played in a career high 146 games and drove in 100 runs for the only time in his career helping them get to the postseason. i recall being hopeful when drew was signed, disappointed when he was injured so much in 2005, and then content with his performance in 2006.

i was even more hopeful when the dodgers decided not to re-sign drew (or kenny lofton) after the 2006 season, as i figured that meant matt kemp would be an every day outfielder. however, the dodgers went and signed juan pierre and luis gonzalez and kemp was left to wait a bit longer.