A Venerable Old Card Part 4

A few weeks back I was doing a little bit of research on an article I was writing for my other gig when I ran into a cool old Tom Glavine card from his time with the Richmond Braves.  The card was a giveaway sponsored by local camera store Bob's Camera.  I have spent a lot more time on Minor League cards this year, so I decided I would try to track down a copy of one Bob's Camera card.  That was several months ago.

Not to say that I have not tried to find a copy of a card, I have, but they are really hard to find.  Add in the fact that the cards are a little bit pricey when you run into them.  Who wants to spend a ton of money on a card of a 4A player?  Sure, if it was Justin Ruggiano I would be all in, but he was never a Brave.  I am also not really into spending a few hundred dollars for a player like Glavine.  So, I went for the middle ground, here's my Bob's Camera card....

This is from the 1991 set, which is one of the easier sets of Bob's Camera cards to find.  The set doesn't have any hide names it, but they are still decent Major Leaguers.  The cards are also an odd shape.  When my trading partner first sent me a scan I thought the card was going to be the size of a Topps Giant card.  However, they are eight inches tall.  More of a large ticket stub.  

Anyway, I was happy to pick up a copy of Deion Sanders.  Not one of my favorite players, but he wasn't a career Minor Leaguer either.  I was also curious as to whether Deion actually played for the Richmond Braves, or he was sent down on injury rehab.  I have Minor League sets capitalize on Major League players rehabbing and include them in their team sets.  That was not the case here.  Deion spent almost a full month in the International League during the 1991 season and did not exactly set the world on fire with a .262/.312/.469 line.  

Definitely a great find and neat addition to the collection.  

Six Pack of Stadium Club Part 3

Third night of cool Stadium Club cards.  I am going with nineties players who appeared in the set tonight.  I spent most of the decade in high school and college which afforded me the opportunity to watch a ton of baseball.  Not all of these players are necessarily great Hall of Famers, but they were still all really fun players to watch.  Here's tonight's six cards......

#285 Tony Gwynn - Padres

Gwynn starred for the Padres over two decades.  He had some great years during the nineties including a run at .400 in 1994.  It's great to see a card of Gwynn in with some of the other great players in this set.  There is something nice about seeing a picture of Mr. Padre with a bat in his hands.  

#54 Bip Roberts - Padres

Back in 1996 Score printed a base card featuring Padres utility player Bip Roberts wearing a sombrero.  It's hard to say a card of a baseball player wearing a sombrero is iconic, but I will go ahead and say:  The 1996 Score Bip Roberts is an iconic baseball card.  Cool to see a little bit different view of the Bipster and his sombrero.  

#93 Andy Van Slyke - Pirates 

Van Slyke came up as a Cardinal, but his best years were spent on the good Pirates teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s.  I liked Van Slyke.  He played a good center field, had some speed, and a little bit of pop.  The Pirates kept Van Slyke while allowing Barry Bonds, Bobby Bonilla, and Doug Drabek walk in free agency.  

#82 Deion Sanders - Braves 

There were three two sport stars during the 90s: Bo Jackson, Deion, and Brian Jordan.  I always thought of Bo Jackson and Brian Jordan as two sport stars who gave up football over time and became full time baseball players.  Deion kind of went the other way.  He spent time at the beginning of his career with the Yankees and Braves while starring for the Falcons as a football player.  Later in his career he became less and less of a factor in the baseball diamond.  Towards the end of the 1990s he was basically out of baseball.  I always remember Deion for speed.  I love this card of him running.  Ummm, he's got a hole in pants.  

#95 Rob Dibble - Reds 

Dibble is an interesting choice for a Stadium Club appearance.  I know he has made a few appearances in some Topps products recently, but thought this card was cool.  Dibble was a classic end of game closer from yesteryear.  Huge leg kick with a really big fastball.  My best memory of Dibble?  Giving up the fourth home run to Mark Whitten during this game.....

#226 Dennis Eckersley - Athletics 

This card is just awesome.  

Friday Five: Top 5 Sets from 1995

After a personal down year in 1994 the baseball card world took a turn for the unexciting in 1995.  There were not a lot of cards to be excited about during the summer of 1995 and the sport was also coming back after a painful labor dispute.  I still found some sets to put together that year and will spend a few minutes sharing some of my favorites from 20 years ago.  This post is also making me feel a little bit old.

5. (tie) 1995 Topps Traded- One of the real problems with the 1995 card products was the lack of star rookies.  Important rookie cards drive excitement with collectors.  At the time of the card releases there was a pretty big rookie card floating around that year, we'll get that later, but there are also cards that have become important with time.  The Carlos Beltran/Juan LeBron card is a great example.  Beltran was a really well thought of prospect around the time of the 1995 Topps Traded release, which continued for more than a decade later, but it's not like this card...or is it this one.......

The Beltran rookie card is certainly popular, but I am not sure it's value really reflects I guy who is a borderline Hall of Famer.  The guy has been a great player for the past fifteen years or so and has done a lot of damage in the Postseason.  This set also has a Hideo Nomo rookie card, and while he was the more important rookie at the time of the set's release, his cards have lost a lot of their mojo and there are better rookie cards of him floating around.

5. (tie) 1995 Topps- There were some bad efforts by Topps around this time, but this set stands out for me.  The photography was on par with the Upper Deck sets, and while I liked the clean borderless look of the Upper Deck set better, this was still a really nicely designed product.  While it lacks important rookie cards I still really love looking at this set.  One interesting wrinkle to this set is the CyberStats parallel which projected the stats the players would have ended the 1994 season with if the strike had not cancelled games after August.

I do not have a full set of the CyberStats cards, but this would be a really really fun project to complete one day when I have a little bit more time.  

4.  1995 Emotion- I really liked this set.  Strictly a design thing.  I am not sure they are really too expensive, exotic, or difficult to find.  This Fleer product offered collectors full card photos with an adjective describing the player stamped onto the card.  The complete set can be found for $10-$15 on Ebay, but the boxes are only $25-$30.  Why not have a little fun and put the set together yourself?  The set is 200 cards and the most important card in the set is the Hideo Nomo rookie card.  I love this card and it's always been my favorite Nomo rookie card.  

I am not sure about the adjective on the card, but I love the photo showing Nomo's unique delivery.  If you are not into picking up the whole set this card is a great mid 90s single card to own.

3.  1995 Upper Deck- These cards were really simple, but I loved the looks of these cards.  The photography was really nice and there were some cool inserts to go along with the base set.  In particular, I am a really big fan of the autographed cards.  

By the mid 90s I felt like Upper Deck had reached the company's base sets are worthy of a look from any collector.  There was also a Minor League version of this set put out by Upper Deck that has the same design and a few nice cards in the set.  

2.  Bowman- The 1995 Bowman set was weak on design, but it did have a few really nice cards in the set.  No they were not Hideo Nomo.  The big three rookies in the set belonged to Andrew Jones, Scott Rolen, and Vladimir Guerrero.  Nice names and in the late 90s/early 2000s this set was really hot.  Unfortunately Jones and Rolen faded due to injuries or strike outs or temper tantrums.  Vladdy was a great player, but the last few years of his career seemed to have softened his hobby power.  Still, this is one of the more important Bowman sets from this era.  

1. Select Certified- This is a small, 135 cards, set that was only given to Hobby stores.  This set had a low production run for the time, something like only 60,000 boxes were made, and had some cool features which made it competitive with the Topps Finest set.  The Mirror Gold cards were the equivalent to the refractors and played very well with collectors.  This product also had a Hideo Nomo rookie which was deemed an important card at the time.  Naturally it's lost a lot of it's value.  This thick set is another fun set to flip through 20 years after it's release and can be found for a few bucks on Ebay.  Although the boxes do tend to sell for a decent amount ($45-$50).  

Prime Time

2003 Fleer EX Deion Sanders Jersey/Autograph 

The best autograph of a football player in my collection.  Deion Sanders was a very talented athlete in his prime, but was clearly a much better football player than a baseball player.  I am not saying that Deion was bad at baseball, but almost exclusively a one tool baseball player.  Speed.  His early years in Atlanta were probably his best time spent in baseball.  I would specifically point out his 1992 season where he helped the Atlanta Braves win the National League pennant.  During that season "Prime Time" lead the National League in triples, posted more than 20 steals, and registered an OPS+ of 130.  

During the mid 90s Deion focused more on football, but always seemed to show up somewhere every summer during the baseball season.  My best memories of Sanders after his time with the Braves was a Red.  He did a cool Jackie Robinson tribute with his uniform in 1997.  I remember seeing him hit a home run off of Matt Morris, run really slowly around the bases with huge turns, and then get booed.  Somewhere Carlton Fisk was irked.  

While this does not crack the list of great cards in my collection it's certainly a very interesting card and I am happy to add it.  Topps has actually started producing autographs of Deion which feature him as a Brave.  Pretty nice on card autographs in good products.  Deion has also popped in a few Panini products.  One of them features him as a Yankee, which is fine, but another has him as a logoless Giant.  Not cool.  Given the increase in signed Deion cards, I would guess his value will come down a bit in the coming years.  Great autograph to pick up if you watched baseball during the 90s.  

My Top 50 Players on Cardboard-#32 The Two Sport Star

At some point in the late 80s the baseball world became intrigued with the two sport star.  There had been many players over the years who had dabbled in second sports, but the 80s saw the first athletes who tried to take on two different professional sports full-time.  Early examples of two-sport stars in baseball included Duke basketball star Dick Groat, Michigan State football player Kirk Gibson, San Diego State basketball player Tony Gwynn, and Dave Winfield who was drafted into the NBA and NFL.  While these players dabbled in sports outside of baseball, none of them made their second sport much of a career.  Enter Bo Jackson.  

1987 Topps Bo Jackson 

Hobby Impact-

Within a span of six years, three big two-sport stars popped who crossed the line between Major League Baseball and the National Football League.  Jackson was the most talented of the trio and was seen as an All-Star/All-Pro caliber player in both the NFL and MLB.  I think the highlight that best defined Bo Jackson was his lead off home run in the 1989 All-Star game.  

The All-Star game home run catapulted Jackson's fame as a two-sport star and also brought attention to another rising two-sport star breaking into Major League baseball with the Yankees.  Deion Sanders was a great football player.  He was never really that great at baseball, but at the peak of his career in baseball he was at least average.  Deion was a little bit more flamboyant than Bo Jackson.  Where are the videos of the touchdown dance?  Silly NFL.  Link to (S)cam Newton doing the dance.  

1990 Leaf Deion Sanders

Sanders was also the longest running of the two-sport stars, but he took several seasons off from baseball along the way basically missing out on three years of his career.  While Bo Jackson had a career ending football injury that also limited his baseball abilities, Sanders always seemed a little bit lost on the baseball field.  

The last of the three two-sport stars from my time in collecting is outfielder/safety Brian Jordan.  BJ was not in the majors while he was a professional football player and the Cardinals paid Jordan a 1.7 million dollar bonus in 1992 to quit the Falcons and only play baseball.  Many point to the Bo Jackson injury as a precautionary tale with the two-sport players and the Cardinals obviously wanted to protect their investment in Jordan.  

1992 Topps Traded Brian Jordan 

Since the Cardinals bought out Brian Jordan out of playing football there have not been any active Major League Baseball players moonlighting in another sport.  While several players like Todd Helton, Seth Smith, or Darin Erstad have been good college football players, they are often given the choice by the teams owning their rights to either quit baseball or quit football.  Rickey Williams, of NFL fame, was a minor leaguer in the Phillies organization, but gave up baseball after the Saints drafted him out of the University of Texas.  Others like Chad Hutchinson, Brandon Weeden, and Drew Henson started off in one league and then changed their minds.  

Basically, all of these players are pretty collectable.  There are plenty of Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders collectors floating around and the other multi-sport athletes have their moments too.  I had a Brandon Weeden Bowman Autograph in my collection for several years.  He was kind of a nobody, but got hot going back to college at Okie State.  Autograph card sold.  Thank you.  

On the Field-

Jackson had the greatest impact of the big three two-sport stars when he was healthy and on the field.  At the height of his playing career he was an All-Star caliber player for the Royals made plays that baseball fans ha never seen.  My favorite beyond the All-Star game home run was the running catch he made...

I am not quite sure what Deion's highlight as a baseball player would be.  He did play for the Braves in the early 90s and did pop up in a few important games, but really had very little impact on any of the games.  Living in St. Louis I got to see Deion several times and the only thing about Deion that sticks out in my mind was him wearing his socks up for the 1997 season for Jackie Robinson.  Nice gesture.  

Really, Jordan ended up having the greatest impact of the trio.  By greatest impact I mean that Jordan was an above average player for a good portion of his playing career.  In fact, as a Cardinals fan I am not sure the team would have made it to the National League Championship series without his help.  Jordan a clutch home run against Padres closer Trevor Hoffman to close out the NLDS against the Padres and was the real run producer of that team before the picked up Mark McGwire the next season.  

Jordan also played a longer time than Jackson and Sanders putting together a 15 year career.  His career OPS+ of 105 does not look that great, but his last three season were all in the 60s.  His career OPS is jut slightly below .800 with his last three seasons been consistently in the .630s.  Baseball-Reference has is comparable batter in the latter stages of his career as Raul Ibanez, but then his last three years he turns into Melvin Mora.  In other words, Jordan just hung around a little too long. 

Jordan's real importance to the game though was that he was the first two-sport player to have a line drawn in the sand, which still seems to exist today.  You can football, you can play baseball, but you cannot play both at the same time.  

Favorite Card- 

A 90s classic.  

1990 Score Bo Jackson