Card Of The Day: Dontrelle When He Was Dontrelle

Back for another Card of the Day. Today we go to the 2006 Fleer Ultra set.

2006 Fleer Ultra Dontrelle Willis #89

What happened to this once great pitcher? This man has crushed my team's chance of victory on many occasions. With Florida he won a World Series, won Rookie of the Year, finished second for the NL Cy Young Award, had 2 all-star selections, had a 22 win season, and set many franchise records. This guy was just plain old nasty. I was at Shea Stadium for a game he started vs. my Mets when he hit not one but two home runs to lead the Marlins to a win from the mound and at the plate. He was just that GOOD! I somewhat lost track of him when he went to Detroit being out of the NL East and all but did see enough to wonder what happened to him. Maybe a Tigers fan can shed some light on this for me. I know injuries became a factor but still.

I collected this set and completed the base set 1-200, and the insert sets, but gave up on the sp'd Lucky 13's #d 201-250. I did pull the Kenji Johjima #251 Redemption card that was rumored to be inserted at one per case. I actually recall grabbing 3 packs at the register that day on my way out of the store and hit for that plus a Tejada jersey card out of the 3 packs.

As far as Dontrelle Willis goes, for some reason I just started collecting his stuff. I always liked the way he pitched (except against the Mets) and also read how he was such a positive contributor to the community. He is truly one of the good guys. I have at present 21 of his game used cards plus one more on the way via trade. They are readily available for sale on Ebay usually at a good price so I generally add them to other auctions I win from the same seller.
This card is available from the freebie box so just speak up and it's yours.

Thanks for Reading!