2024 Twitter purchase: an old pitcher from an old friend

Tonight's should be a quick post as I'm showing off just one card, but it's a cool one from someone I don't get to mention too often these days. My BB4L/GB4L ((Alison) Brie buddy for life/Gracie (Lawrence) buddy for life) Greg of Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle, who can now mainly be found on Twitter, was doing a thread where he sold a bunch of stuff back in February. I was mainly interested in picking up a card for a TCDb friend but was thrilled to get another one for myself in the deal, with $25 going to Las Vegas's biggest Clayton Kershaw fan.

Here's what I was excited to nab:

And the Jeopardy question is "Who are two pitchers who were fairly significant prospects back in 2008?" Andrew Miller was Detroit's first round pick in 2006, #6 overall out of UNC (oddly enough, one pick before a Dallas high-schooler named Clayton Kershaw and a few before Tim Lincecum and Max Scherzer went back-to-back) and was Baseball America's #10 overall prospect in 2007. At the end of that year he and fellow first-rounder Cameron Maybin were the co-headliners of an eight-player deal that brought Miguel Cabrera and Dontrelle Willis to Motown. Though he never turned into a top-of-the-rotation starter, he did become a fairly valuable bullpen weapon, mostly with the Yankees and Indians. I'm sure Detroit fans still appreciate him to this day for his part in Miggy spending 16 years in Detroit!

Meanwhile, Richard Joseph "Dick Mountain" Hill was a fourth-rounder of the Cubs out of UM in 2002. While he didn't have that first-rounder shine or make appearances on all the top-100 lists, by 2007 he'd been in the league for parts of three seasons, including his first full one, where he went 11-8. Who knew that the year the above card was made--2008--would be his last in the Windy City, before stops in Baltimore, Boston, Cleveland, LA/Anaheim, the Bronx, back to Boston, Oakland, LA, Minnesota, Tampa, Boston again, Pittsburgh, and San Diego? Who would have thought that he'd reemerge as a solid veteran presence in the rotation as he got older, nearly throw a perfect game, and appear in 19 total MLB seasons (with 2024 still on the table!), and remain active longer than the guy drafted four years after him?

Yet that's how the story played out for the two guys on this 2008 Upper Deck Premier Premier Pairings Autographs dual auto, which is numbered on the front /25. And also, who knew that this card would mark a pretty cool milestone in my collection: hit #150 of Mr. Hill? Even I didn't and I'm the one that keeps track of this stuff! That's pretty rad to me as he continues to account for more than 1/3 of my Michigan Baseball PC with the next closest contender being Zach Putnam's 35. My count includes 35 1/1s and something like 99 cards featuring his signature. What a crazy ride my collection of him has been to parallel his own wild career.

Many thanks to one of my favorite old friends in Greg. This one's for you, my dude!:

Everyone else who isn't aware of the absurdly talented band Lawrence, please enjoy the above video and others in their "Acoustic-ish" series (featuring some other absurdly talented musicians) and get on the hype train, because they're amazing!