Dominican Baseball Card #13 and #14: Willy Mo Pena and Jose Offerman

The Dominican Baseball Guy missed the last baseball card update due to Thanksgiving and all the updates he was doing regarding the 2010 All-Dominican Team and other end of year awards.  So here are two cards to finish off the month.

First off is a Willy Mo Pena card.  This is a 2007 Topps, believed to be part of a team collection because it is numbered BOS5.  They are pretty cool, glossy cards, that are heavy in weight.  The Dominican Baseball Guy likes them a lot.

From 2002-2008 Willy played with the Reds, Red Sox, and Nationals.  He has always had lots of power, hitting 77 HRs and 225 RBI in those eight big league years.  Willy played part of the 2009 season for the Mets AAA team, and then played most of 2010 with the Bridgeport Bluefish of the Independent Atlantic League.  Last summer, the Padres signed him to a minor league deal, so he could be in the big leagues next year at some point.

Willy has played for the Tigres del Licey in the Dominican Winter Baseball League for many years.  Last season, he won the final Player of the Week Award in the Dominican Baseball Winter League, as the Dominican Baseball Guy blogged.  As far as I can tell, he has not played in the winter league this year, which is suprising considering all the success he has had in previous years.  Willy is from Lagunda Salada, DR.

The #14 Dominican Baseball Card is a Jose Offerman 1991 Bowman #182.  These are perhaps some of the most boring cards ever, but it is a Dominican Baseball Card, so it is worth a blog.

Jose had a productive major league career in 15 MLB season.  He played 1600 games and made two All-Star teams, with the Dodgers in 1995 and the Red Sox in 1999.  Jose also had a successful career with Licey in the Dominican Winter Baseball League.  He won some domestic championships and Caribbean Series titles with Licey, then went on the manage them in 2008-2009.

His career ended with two incidents.  The first happened while he played in the Atlantic Independent League, in which he charged the mound with a bat.  He never played in the states after this incident.  The second incident occurred during the 2009 Dominican Winter League, in which he punched an umpire and was banned for life.  So, guess his career is probably over, since he is banned for life from two leagues, and probably has little shot of a return to MLB or the minors.  Jose is another from San Pedro de Macoris, DR.