My Jay Canizaro Collection

[ronfromfresno]

I'm sure most, if not all of you have never heard of Jay Canizaro. He was a top prospect for the Giants in 1996 and he replaced one of my all time favorites at 2nd base, Robby Thompson. During that off-season the Giants sold off some of their game used items, and I had the great fortune to have a Mom who was willing to pay for a couple of jerseys, one of them being a Jay Canizaro.

I started to follow his career and when the Giants AAA team moved here to Fresno in 1998 I had the opportunity to see Canizaro play on a regular basis. A lot of the members on that Grizzlies team would give me grief before game when they'd see me in the stands, while I was trying to get autographs, wearing Canizaro's jersey. Even the Grizzlies manager, the great Giants third baseman, Jimmy Davenport asked me how much I paid for the jersey, I responded that I had paid $75 and he told me that he wouldn't have spent .75 cents on it.

The jersey I purchased in 1996:


That was a great summer, Fresno had a great team, I had just turned 20 and had enough free time to see a ton of games. I had a lot of opportunities to chat with Canizaro and other members of the team on many occasions mostly during pre-game warm ups. I was interviewed for a couple of newspaper articles about the fans, I talked regularly with the Grizzlies radio announcer Johny Doskow before games and was even invited to a round table disscussion, where fans could give their input about the Grizzlies plans to build a new stadium in downtown Fresno.

Canizaro was a fringe player with the Giants getting a couple of late season call-ups but no major playing time and he was released in 2000 and joined the Twins where he spent a couple of season as their starting 2B.

I enjoyed the experiences I had during the 1998 season and continue to collect Canizaro items. According to Beckett he has 54 cards, I own 52 of them and my white whales include the 1992 Oklahoma State Cowboys team set card and a 1998 Shreveport Captains card that I'm pretty sure was never produced. Of the 52 cards that Canizaro appears on I have several of them auto'ed. Plus I have several game used items of Canizaro spanning his minor league and major league career.

Myself and Canizaro in 1998:


Some stats and links to various buckets:
Cards: 52 of 54
Autographs: 25+
http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii14 ... 0PC/Cards/


Auto'ed Balls: 4
http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii14 ... Baseballs/


Game Used Bats: 14
http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii14 ... 20PC/Bats/


Game Used Jerseys: 10
http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii14 ... C/Jerseys/


Game Used Helmets: 2
http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii14 ... C/Helmets/


Thanks for taking a look, sorry for the huge pictures and the long read.
Here is a link to my Canizaro bucket:
http://s263.photobucket.com/albums/ii14 ... zaro%20PC/

 

[sdsportsfan1214]

Great writeups and story man! very cool collection and thanks alot for sharing

 

[marhjan]

Very nice PC! Thanks for sharing and good luck tracking those minor league issues down.

 

[ronfromfresno]

Thanks for the comments guys, I sure hope I can find those minor league issues down at some point, been looking for 10 years now but I will find them.

 

[ThoseBackPages]

Fantastic Read!

What is he doing now in 2010?

 

[RL24]

That is an amazing collection!

Fantastic Read!

What is he doing now in 2010?

Found him in 2006...

http://www.slate.com/id/2139038/


What an article! It's all about The Code in baseball, and will explain to people why nobody is saying what Chris Carpenter really said to Dusty Baker....

 

[bongo870]

that is one sick and yet cool collection you have ther. Way to go!

 

[ronfromfresno]

That is an amazing collection!

Fantastic Read!

What is he doing now in 2010?

Found him in 2006...

http://www.slate.com/id/2139038/


What an article! It's all about The Code in baseball, and will explain to people why nobody is saying what Chris Carpenter really said to Dusty Baker....

Unfortunately, Canizaro was mixed up in the steriod issues facing Bonds but so was most of baseball. Last I heard Canizaro was working for an oil company in his home state of Texas.

 

[packbusta]

AH yes, Beiden Field in the middle of the summer. Nothing like a baseball game in 108 degree heat. Ron, you still attending Grizzlie or Bulldog games?

 

[ronfromfresno]

AH yes, Beiden Field in the middle of the summer. Nothing like a baseball game in 108 degree heat. Ron, you still attending Grizzlie or Bulldog games?

Not as much as I used too, life and three little kids take up the time I used to spend at the ballpark. I ddin't attend any Bulldog games last season and only went to a handful of Grizzlies games.

 

[theplasticman]

Nice!! I had no idea your card collection of him was that complete.

 

[ronfromfresno]

Nice!! I had no idea your card collection of him was that complete.

Not as hard to complete a Canizaro collection as it has been to try and get close to complete for a Clark collection. But I'm the most pround of being able to track down so many minor league jerseys, they truely are fantastic to me.

 

[theplasticman]

Nice!! I had no idea your card collection of him was that complete.

Not as hard to complete a Canizaro collection as it has been to try and get close to complete for a Clark collection. But I'm the most pround of being able to track down so many minor league jerseys, they truely are fantastic to me.

Agreed. I'm like that with Bucky Jacobsen. I have 2-3 of his minor league jerseys. Super cool items.

 

[RL24]

Unfortunately, Canizaro was mixed up in the steriod issues facing Bonds but so was most of baseball. Last I heard Canizaro was working for an oil company in his home state of Texas.

I was really surprised to read that he was mixed up in it, mainly because... I'd never heard of Canizaro! I didn't follow baseball too closely for a while there, too painful as an Indians fan. :lol:


Then I met Jason Jennings and really got back into collecting, which in turn rekindled my interest in baseball. I have a few Jennings jerseys, it's nice collecting somebody you can get their whole jersey for so cheap. I've seen Rickey Jersey CARDS sell for more than my Jennings gamers. :lol:

Speaking of, Jason Jennings is from Texas too... wonder if Canizaro can get him a job? He's back from his second arm surgery, but NOT really tearing it up in AAA.

EDIT: I just reread what I wrote, and I didn't mean to say he's tearing it up in AAA. At all.

 

[ronfromfresno]

RL24, it's always interesting to me to see why different people collect who they collect. Personally getting the Canizaro jersey was the begining of the end for my card collecting at the time. I began to focus on full game used items, and had a blast trying to track down as many Canizaro items that I could. My break from collecting lasted almost 10 years and only restarted when my twins were born in 2006, I wanted to put together a TTM auto'ed set of 2006 baseball, NASCAR and football cards for them to have some time in the future and putting those sets together gave me back the itch to start collecting again.