Featured autographs - Drew and Sal Butera

As a mini-collection idea, I thought about gathering cards of MLB players who came off the bench as back ups, defensive replacements, or pinch hitters - maybe I wanted recognize certain MLB players' roles as 'working actors' who provided bench strength as opposed to the better known starting players.

As is, maybe I just make mental notes of certain guys that fit this category, whenever I bust a pack of cards or go through loose cards - one of those players is the younger Butera, who has followed in the footsteps of his father Sal as a big league backup catcher.

The elder Butera played in 359 games in parts of nine seasons in the major leagues in the 1980's - he had two stints with the Minnesota Twins and was part of the 1987 Twins World Series champion team.

The younger Butera was drafted by the New York Mets, but started his MLB career with the Twins like his father - before getting traded to the Los Angeles Dodgers in 2013.