The first emotion that comes to my mind when I see this card is hope. The hope of those heady early days of the Nationals, when it seemed like Brad Wilkerson and Livan Hernandez were enough. When Wilkerson was hitting for the cycle in the first days, and it looked like he was going to be the face of the franchise, handling things like local ads for my bank. I was bummed when he was traded away, but then watched him decline and falter in his time with the Rangers. What the hell had happened?
Even though I was following the Nats more than Wilkerson, I still kept an eye on him as he bounced from organization to organization and, finally, ended his career earlier this year. Thanks for the great times, Wilkie. We’ll always have ‘05.
