Ugueth Urbina - Junk Wax Prospector
It's been a while since I wrote a new Junk Wax Prospector, but I've got a good one for you today!
Ugueth Urtain Urbina (Ooo-GETT URR-tain Ooor-bee-NAH) is the only major league player with the initials of UU (not to mention, UUU). After a slow, yet steady rise through the Montreal Expos farm system, Urbina became an All Star and once one of the brightest relief pitchers in all of baseball...
(Photo from the 1999 Sporting News Baseball Yearbook)
Then it all fell apart...
In 1992, my fandom of the Montreal Expos was still in it's infancy. I was following top prospects all over baseball, but a few of the deeper farm systems showed bright on my radar. I knew that was a strength of the Minnesota Twins, whom I followed everyday via dueling local newspapers.
A subscription to Baseball America further broadened my horizons to some other teams and prospects that I should be paying attention to... Finally I had a roadmap and plan for collecting and prospecting, that went beyond the coverage I'd been getting from Baseball Cards Magazine and The Becketts... After picking up issues here and there, I became a subscriber in the 1991-92 offseason. Just in time for B.A.'s series of spotlighting each team's top ten prospects.
#6 for the Expos caught my eye...
The name was filed away for later, I had other Expos prospects on my list... Cliff Floyd, Rondell White, Greg Colbrunn... They all ranked higher in the spring of 1991. Besides, Urbina had no cards to even pay attention to...
In mid-summer 1992, Topps released their now-annual Bowman set. After reviving the brand they put out of business (30 years earlier) in 1989, Bowman had become a set no one really wanted to buy. The cards were boring and uninspired. No one cared about Bowman. No one bought them and no one wanted them. After putting out three consecutive years of sub-par product, the cards were a joke in the collecting community.
However, for 1992 the Bowman brand had been completely revamped. Now printed on thicker, white glossy stock and UV coated, These cards were finally nice looking! Topps didn't do a great job in explaining the revamp of Bowman, so it debut to little fanfare.
Even when the much improved 1992 set hit the market... Still no one bought it...
That summer, I found the local WalMarts card section was absolutely FLOODED with 1992 Bowman 23 card Jumbo Packs, at $2.99 each. I bought a couple when I first saw them, and really liked the cards. The checklist was deep and filled with each team's top prospects and star players. Almost immediately, they became my favorite card set of 1992.
1992 Bowman Jumbo Box and wrappers.
The pack with a $9 tag came from a late 1990's card show. The other two are original 1992 WalMarts wrappers.
So I bought a lot of 1992 Bowman Jumbo packs. No one else was, so I kept cleaning WalMarts out. Then they'd restock more of them by my next visit.
A recent search online sees unopened 36 pack boxes of 1992 Bowman Jumbo Packs available for between $499.99 and $550! (Complete sets still sell for around $150.) Unlike the great 1991 Stadium Club set I was talking about a couple of weeks ago, 1992 has greatly appreciated in value, and held steady for over 25 years now!
We'll call them roughly $15/pack today.
Without getting into a lengthy appreciation for 1992 Bowman, (because I'm planning a lengthy Whatever to discuss my very appreciation for that set.) I will say that it's one of my absolute all time favorites still today. To the degree that I hand collected the entire 705 card set, almost exclusively out of retail packs in 1992. At low retail prices, during the months of silent overlooking from the hobby...
But once that set blew up, no one overlooked 1992 Bowman...
1992 Bowman
Buying as much as I did, I ended up with a great inventory of multiples. For example, I have 6 Mariano Rivera rookie cards, all from those WalMarts packs. Mariano Rivera will likely be another feature in the Junk Wax Prospector series, as I was a BIG Rivera fan in the early 1990's...
Bowman was also the first card set of 1992 to feature the Montreal Expos in their new uniforms. So those were highly sought after (in addition to the gold foil subset). And the bizarre plan of featuring so many of the top prospects wearing street clothes and badly posed high school photographs.
This set was weird, and awesome and full of rookies that I wanted to collect.
And no one else did!
One of the first packs of 1992 Bowman I opened had a checklist card inside. As I read through the names, I stumbled onto the name: "Ugueth Urbina". I'd forgotten about Urbina's appearance in the Expos Top Ten Prospects feature in Baseball America, about six months earlier, so the name didn't ring a bell...
So much for my mental filing system...
But with a name like Ugueth Urbina, I needed that Bowman card!
1992 Bowman
I was so not expecting this... But damn if that picture doesn't rule.
There's a freaking cannon in it!
I flipped the card over and remembered that Ugueth Urbina was a top prospect for the Expos!
Oh yeah, I am so a fan of this guy!
Oh yeah, I am so a fan of this guy!
Which makes him the subject of this edition of the Junk Wax Prospector...
1992 Classic Best Minor League
1992-93 Fleer Excel
His 1992 season with the Polecats drew a record of only 7-13, despite an ERA of 3.22 and a WHIP of 1.15. As an 18 year old... Urbina was quickly becoming a Top Prospect in my collection.
The hobby still couldn't care less about the Expos... So no one really cared about Urbina either...
1992 Upper Deck Minor League
This was such a nice set for the top prospects, and not nearly as overproduced as most of your junk wax of the day... I'm a happy owner of not only the base set, but both insert sets. All completed via wax packs...
1993-94 Fleer Excel
Urbina opened the 1993 season with the Burlington (Iowa) Bees, of the Class A (High) Midwest League. This is the only card I own of Urbina in a Bees Uniform. There's probably a good play on words that can be made between Bees and Urbina, but I just don't feel like looking for it...
1993-94 Fleer Excel League Leaders
After going 10-1, 1.99 ERA in 108.1 innings for Burlington, Urbina was promoted to the Class AA Harrisburg (Pennsylvania) Senators of the Eastern League, to finish the season.
1994 Upper Deck Minor League
Urbina's 1993 half-season at Harrisburg only produced a 4-5 record, with a 3.99 ERA in 70 innings. Strikeouts were low and walks were high, but he was only 19 and already in AA... Still very Top Prospectory in my mind...
1994 Bowman
1994 Bowman's Best
1994 Classic Best
While seemingly every Urbina card pictured him with the Harrisburg Senators, Classic at least used a photo that allowed you to read the team name across his chest...
I really like 1994 Classic Best...
Urbina spent all of 1994 (his age 20 season), repeating the AA level. Going 9-3, 3.28 ERA, 86 K, 43 BB, in 120.2 innings. The numbers were an improvement, but not as dominating as most hoped. (Like me!)
1994 Classic TriCard
And this card is just really cool!
1995 Upper Deck Minor League
Another nice picture, but getting a little redundant with the Senators photos...
1995 Upper Deck Minor League Organizational Pro Files
The point of the card was to cover the top prospects for each of the team's farm systems. The problem came from the clunky design and the foil board card stock, which really never made any card look nicer. In addition, there is a great deal of wasted space, which doesn't work well with the photo. Especially when the best they could come up with was Urbina firing a shot put...
USA Today Baseball Weekly, Spring 1995
Even USA Today had to jump on the Harrisburg Senators bandwagon while trying to cover
Urbina's stint in the Venezuelan Winter League.
Urbina's stint in the Venezuelan Winter League.
This clipping hung on my bulletin board for a long time. Note the pinhole at the top.
1995 Bowman
Instead there was no World Series...
1995 Bowman's Best
This was my favorite Bowman's Best set Topps has ever made. But damn are they atrocious to scan.
This card looks great in person... Honest!
1995 Upper Deck
The first non-Topps produced Major League card of Urbina was definitely a nice one. An upper torso pitching pose, obscuring his face, while surrounds by some sort of strange teal organic nebula. Not sure what Upper Deck was going for here, but it surprisingly works.
1995 Upper Deck SE
Expos collectors had to wait for series 2 in 1995 for their Ubina fix, but their wait would soon be rewarded with multiple Urbina's per set, in addition to his appearance in multiple (not a) parallel sets. Card manufactures were no longer interested in self-restraint coming out of the players strike...
1995 SP
Upper Deck has made some damn nice cards throughout the years. And does Ugueth have braces on his teeth? This 1995 SP Ugueth is a sweet base card no matter how you slice it...
Urbina began 1995 with the Class AAA Ottawa Lynx. But just two weeks into the season, Urbina was called up to the Montreal Expos, and made his Major League Debut on May 9, 1995, against the Phillies in Philadelphia.
His line for that game: 2 IP, 3 H, 2 R, 0 BB, 2 K. Decent line for a debut. Especially a 21 year old.
1995 SP Championship Edition
Between the regular SP (which was an okay set...) and the SP Top Prospects (which was better...), by the time Upper Deck got around to printing the SP SP Championship Edition, I'd lost all interest in SP. To this day, I've never owned more than 10 cards from this set (which I'm pretty sure was a retail exclusive back in 1995). At least they made a really nice Urbina card...
Urbina bounced between Montreal and Ottawa during the 1995 season. Going 6-2, 3.04 for the Lynx, in 13 games (11 starts), and 2-2, 6.17 in 7 games (4 starts) for the Expos.
1995 Zenith
1996 Bowman
Topps loves it's textures! They just can't keep themselves from patting their own backs over past woodgrain designs, but they sure do love their burlap as well... Not even going to begin talking about their love of marble...
Just not a fan of 1996 Bowman!
1996 Bowman's Best
Or this...
I can see that Topps was aiming for a Bowman twist on 1993 Finest with this card, but it falls way too flat on it's face. These also are no fun to scan...
1996 Finest
During the 1996 offseason, Mike's Sports Cards (RIP) had a bunch of 1996 Finest singles available for a decent price. I picked up this Urbina single for 50 cents, along with some other singles and a few packs of 1996 Finest...
1996 Finest Refractor
And got the Ugueth Urbina Refractor parallel inside one of them!
With the exception of a few brief stints with Class AAA Ottawa Lynx (I really wish I had an Urbina card picturing him with the Lynx....) and the West Palm Beach (Florida) Expos of the Florida State League, Urbina spent almost the entire 1996 season in Montreal with the Expos.
1996 Leaf Preferred
Donruss brands spun off a sub-brand named Leaf, who spun off yet another sub-brand with Leaf Preferred as the 1996 season moved onward. See what I mean about the 5 manufacturers choosing to over-saturate the market post-strike? To the point of redundancy?
Urbina turned in a very nice rookie season, pitching to a 10-5 record, with a 3.71 ERA in 33 games (17 starts) in 1996. He saw a huge increase in strikeouts after moving to the bullpen for the last two months of the 1996 season, finishing the season with 108 strikeouts in 114 innings.
A drastic increase from where his previous numbers had been.
1996 Leaf Signature Series
Although Donruss/Leaf did go bankrupt a couple of years later, so maybe they weren't onto something...
The base card design for Leaf Signature Series was nice and clean too. But what I really want to know is... What exactly did Urbina stuff down the front of his pants before this pose?
1996 Collectors Choice
The Expos were now sold on Urbina as a power reliever, and he was set to be Montreal's closer going into 1997. I was disappointed, as I wanted to see Urbina to dominate alongside Pedro Martinez in Montreal's rotation...
1997 Donruss Rated Rookie
I've always felt that 1997 Donruss is a very underrated set. It was overlooked by me upon release and I've never owned much of it. It kind of bothered me that the long running Donruss subset "Rated Rookies" had now been separated to an insert set. That being said, a nice choice with including Urbina...
Though he was no longer a rookie in 1997...
1997 Bowman
Black beats burlap!
1997 Bowman Chrome
Chrome beats black!
1997 Bowman Chrome Refractor
Refractoryness beats Chrome!
1997 Fleer
My Urbina collection needs some interesting Urbina photos...
Give me Urbina doing something that I don't normally see...
1997 Pinnacle
Like yelling at someone!
But, is Ugueth yelling at the umpire? A fan? Felipe Alou? Or catcher Darrin Fletcher?
1997 Pinnacle was one of my least favorite base sets of the year. I just couldn't stand the giant foil blob covering up so much of the photo. And I bought very little of this product...
1997 Topps
I also did not like 1997 Topps at all....
1997 Ultra
Not the greatest photo of Urbina, but I loved the snot out of 1997 Ultra!
Which would have been named my favorite set of 1997, if it were not for...
1997 Upper Deck
The addition of a date and brief summary for the photo used on every base card has only been done with 1997 Upper Deck, and is something that added so much to a card set. Even if it was just a very simple statement of the obvious (as this example is...), that date gives the picture a whole lot more historical significance than just a picture alone.
Why has this idea not been replicated?
The next four card sets (all represented by Ugueth Urbina) were all 1997 releases that I didn't buy any of. I picked these up from a guy who was dumping all of his 1997 cards, then I tossed the ones that I didn't want. Since I have little emotional attachments here, I will quickly rank them by appearance....
#4 - 1997 Donruss Elite...
Ick... Muddy Foil board... I strongly dislike Foil board cards...
#3 - 1997 Leaf
So sleepy...
#2 - 1997 Score
Terrible design, nice photo... Were you even trying, Score?
#1 - 1997 Collectors Choice
Nice design, nice photo...
Ugueth Urbina spent the entire 1997 season in the Major Leagues for Montreal. His record was a respectable 5-8, 3.78 ERA, with 27 saves in 63 relief appearance. The gamble on Urbina's power numbers paid off for Montreal, as Urbina struck out 84 in just 64 innings.
1998 Upper Deck
Urbina's finest season came in 1998. He was an All Star (in Denver) and threw a stellar 6-3, 1.30 ERA, 34 saves, with 94 strikeouts in 68 innings.
I remember walking through the 1998 All Star Fan Fest at the Convention Center in Denver, and seeing Urbina's All Star Game Signature Edition Expos hat on display and really wanting it...
They were behind glass and not for sale...
1999 Fleer Tradition
1999 Fleer Tradition features one of my favorite clean designs, and was a fun set to try and complete. I think I may still be a few cards short, I'll have to check at some point. That set is 1000 miles away from me right, so I cannot be sure. I am sure that I really like 1999 Fleer Tradition...
1999 saw more of the same from Urbina. a 6-6 record, 3.69 ERA, 41 saves and 100 strikeouts, over 75 innings.
The years of 1998-2004 are very lean in my collection. Ugueth Urbina has a bunch of cards in these years that I simply don't own. I may have at one point, but they would have falln victim to one of the multiple thinnings out. Before I had the better sense to get rid of non duplicate Expos cards...
2000 Fleer Tradition
Urbina lost most of the 2000 season to injury, pitching in only 13 games (However, he tossed 22 strikeouts in those 13.1 innings).
And why did Fleer go from that really nice borderless photo of the 1999 set, to an absolute rip off of 1954 Topps?
2000 Fleer Focus
In late 2000, I spent far too much on a wax box of 2000 Fleer Focus from ebay. I liked the look of the set, which harkened back to 1981 Topps, while maintaining it's own identity.
After an injury marred 2000, Urbina came back to pitch in 45 games for Montreal in 2001. Though his numbers showed the injury of the previous year, hadn't affected his numbers (57 strikeouts and 21 walks in 46 innings), Urbina failed a physical, which resulted in a midseason trade to the New York Yankees being voided.
Urbina was instead traded to the Boston Red Sox a few days later.
Personally, I don't ever want to look at a Boston Red Sox uniform again in my life, so I'm only going to feature Expos cards going forward. I think I have cards of Urbina in other teams uniforms, but I'm not certain outside of complete sets... Either way, I have none scanned.
A few years back, I was looking to fill some gaps in my collection and purchased some missing Expos team sets off ebay. These next three Urbinas came from those ebay purchases....
2000 Pacific Collection
Yeah, I kinda like this design as a low-end base set.
2000 Skybox Impact
I think this is a Fleer product, but I've forgotten who did what in the card market during these years... And I don't feel like looking it up. An okay design...
2000 Topps
Some days I like 2000 Topps... Some days I don't...
After a couple of seasons with Boston, Urbina signed with the Texas Rangers as a free agent after the 2002 season. Further diminishing my interest in his career...
Luckily for Urbina (and me), the Rangers traded him to the Florida Marlins (for Adrian Gonzalez) in July 2003. The Marlins who were on their second march to a World Series Championship, to then immediately be dismantled in favor of whining about lack of revenue in an obsolete stadium...
I hate Jeff Loria...
2000 Upper Deck
After the 2003 season, Urbina had a tough time finding work. He led a very loud and public campaign to convince the Minnesota Twins to sign him to close for their 2004 team. The Twins had just lost former closers LaTroy Hawkins and Eddie Guardado to free agency, and Urbina thought he was the best man for the Twins job. Minnesota had just traded for Joe Nathan, and was going with him to close games. Urbina ultimately signed with the Detroit Tigers for the 2004 season, only a few days before Spring Training ended.
2001 Ultimate Victory
Urbina pitched acceptably for Detroit in 2004, and the first half of 2005, before he was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in early June of 2005. Urbina fared okay for Philadelphia, and reached a career high by appearing in 81 games, though he only had 10 saves between his two teams.
His last Major League appearance came on October 2, 2005, in RFK Stadium, against the Nationals in Washington. Seeing as the Nationals used to be the Montreal Expos, that seems like an appropriate bookend.
From all indications, Urbina intended to pitch in 2006...
On November 7, 2005, Ugueth Urbina was arrested by Venezuelan police on attempted murder charges.
An incident occurred on Urbina's farm on October 16, 2005, where Ugueth attacked five workers on his property with a machete. Urbina had accused them of stealing a gun from the property and also attempted to pour gasoline on them during the fight.
After his trial, Urbina was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to 14 years and seven months in prison, on March 28, 2007.
Ugueth Urbina's Major League Baseball career was over.
*****
Urbina was released from prison on December 24, 2012,
after serving seven and a half years of his sentence.
Within days, he was attempting a comeback (at age 38) with the Venezuelan winter league.
However, there was no reciprocal interest in Urbina getting a return to Major League Baseball.
I did not acquire this autograph in person. I picked it up at a shopping mall card show in late 1998. A dealer had multiple binders of autographed cards for each team. He said that he had gotten them signed at spring training games. While It seems rather dishonest to me to sell cards like this, and I don't often take part of that segment of the hobby. However, there were a few Expos that I really wanted autographs of, Urbina chiefly among them... With little reason to seriously question it's authenticity, I picked up this Urbina (along with a few others) from his table for a decent price.
I bought it because I liked Urbina as a player, and he has a very nice signature.
I'd never expect that I'd bought an autograph of a potential arsonist of other human beings...
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