Clearly, I have been seeing a lot of 1995 cards recently, because the 125th Anniversary patch that MLB players wore on their right sleeves throughout the strike-shortened season of 1994 keeps popping up.
1995 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #153 Joe Girardi |
In fact, this one is really quite similar to my "Wallet Card", a 1994 Topps Gold Joe Girardi. In that card, Girardi also has his mask off but the rest of his catcher's gear on, and it, too, is a gold parallel.
Not that gold foil was all that hard to find circa 1995. In fact, it was pretty much the de facto standard. It was even more everywhere than that patch I keep pointing out.
I wrote in my previous trade post about the matte finish 1996 and 1997 Fleer sets, and as luck would have it, one of these appeared:
1997 Fleer #312 Quinton McCracken |
2000 Upper Deck Gold Reserve #263 Neifi Perez |
I am not sure what that "14" is that's scrawled on the side of the batting helmet. At first, I assumed that Perez grabbed Andres Galarraga's helmet, as The Big Cat wore that number for the Rockies, but he was a righty, so the ear flap would be on the wrong side of this helmet. Plus, you can just barely make out the numeral 5 on the back of the helmet, matching Perez's uniform number. Just a notation for the equipment manager, I suppose.
Speaking of Andres Galarraga and his #14 batting helmet (note the ear flap), check out this thick card that, yes, contains gold foil:
1995 Emotion #125 Andres Galarraga |
Galarraga may indeed have been an "Observing" player, as I'm sure almost all professional athletes are. Come to think of it, wasn't he more on the "Participating" side? I was the fan. I was the observer.
Anyway, this is a pretty "Cool" shot of him "Looking" (sorry, I'll stop) through a pretty high end camera with a monster telephoto lens attached. That's a Canon EOS-1 that shoots film (compared to the digital EOS-1D, which is widely used by today's sports photographers), as digital photography was still in its infancy in 1995. That huge lens has Canon's trademark red ring, signifying that it is a "L" lens, Canon's top-of-the line product.
As an aside, did you ever wonder why those huge lenses are white, instead of black to match the camera? It's not really a brand thing (that's what the red ring is for), but it's for heat management, according to Canon. A black lens would absorb rather than reflect heat, which would cause it to expand, potentially causing image distortion or problems focusing. This isn't significant in smaller lenses, which is why they're still black.
The more you know.
Moving along, there was a near-complete Rockies team set from arguably the best set of the overproduction era, 1993 Upper Deck.
1993 Upper Deck #720 Willie Blair |
What other collectibles do you remember in 1993? It was a tad too early for beanie babies (of which my sister had a nice collection), and Magic: The Gathering was just barely getting off the ground.
1993 Ted Williams POG Cards #11 Florida Marlins / Colorado Rockies |
By 1993, I was already firmly entrenched in the world of baseball cards, but by the time I hit 5th grade (1994-1995), many of the other kids had dived headfirst into the world of pogs. Lots of games took place during lunch and recess (vaguely resembling tiddlywinks), and I remember a few kids that had elaborate "slammers" and colorful plastic tubes filled with the cardboard discs.
I owned one. And it was shiny.
My only pog. |
Back to cards, this seems like a good time to move on to the section with green cards.
2008 Upper Deck First Edition Starquest #SQ-7 Matt Holliday |
Also from 2008 is a Helton card from the Baseball Heroes set, commemorating his NL batting title in 2000.
2008 Upper Deck Heroes Emerald #59 Todd Helton /499 |
As I mentioned earlier, this trade package mostly contained Rockies, but there were three or four cards from other teams.
2000 Upper Deck Black Diamond Rookie Edition #64 Jose Vidro |
Now, I'm definitely not the world's biggest Barry Bonds fan, although I do believe that he should be in the Hall of Fame, despite his use of steroids.
1995 Fleer Lumber Company #3 Barry Bonds |
That Bonds card marks the first one I can cross off that list through trading! The Angels, In Order earned a spot in Infield Fly Rule history with this trade.
But he didn't stop there.
2011 Topps Town #TT-48 Troy Tulowitzki |
That, I'd say, is a successful trade.
great post - and a generous helping of Rockies from Angels In Order!
ReplyDeleteGood stuff going both ways. If interested I have another blog all about the 1995 Emotion set http://95emotion.blogspot.com/
ReplyDeleteThanks again for the trade, working on another stack already.