A Very Late Opening Day

For as long as I've been watching Major League Baseball, Opening Day happens in early spring. Topps built a whole set around it, and they helpfully list the date right on the Blue Foil parallels. 

2020 Topps Opening Day Blue Foil #168 A.J. Puk

March 26th, 2020. That's when the season was supposed to begin.

Earth had other plans.

It ended up happening four months late, kicking off in late July 2020. I could be cheeky and call this A.J. Puk card an uncorrected error (along with all the rest in this parallel set), but really it's just disappointing and tragic.

I suppose it's fitting that I'm just now getting around to blogging about this hanger box of 2020 Topps Opening Day, after a year and a half of it sitting on my card shelf. They got the season started on time this year, but a springtime Opening Day isn't something that's carved in granite, and isn't something you can always rely on, even though you always thought you could.

And now, so it goes with Topps as a whole. Ever since the early 1950s, collectors could count on having Topps baseball cards available for purchase. Over the years they've been for sale for as cheap as a nickel or as much as hundreds of dollars a box, and everything in between. But there was a seismic event in the baseball card world a few days ago.

On Thursday, it was announced that Fanatics, a sports apparel and memorabilia company with a less-than-stellar reputation, will have the exclusive license to print MLB trading cards starting in 2026. Even more shocking is that Topps will lose their MLBPA license to use player names and likenesses after 2022. 

There has been much speculation in recent days since this news hit the wire, not to mention the sudden implosion of the deal Topps had with a SPAC to go public at a valuation of over $1 billion. That's off the table now, replaced by a gaping void of uncertainty.

Using their MLBPA agreement, Fanatics can step in as soon as 2023 with unlicensed player-only cards like we've seen from Panini for most of the past decade. But as I understand it, that's an exclusive license, leaving Topps in the awkward position of being able to use MLB team names and logos but no players. 

I can't imagine the powers that be will allow airbrushed cards from Fanatics to coexist for three years with, I don't know, Topps cards of nothing but batting helmets and stadiums and mascots. As it stands now, I believe that scenario would be contractually possible, but that certainly isn't what anyone has in mind.

My prediction is that either Fanatics will buy the rights to the existing MLB license from Topps, kicking off this transition even earlier than we had expected and leaving Topps to fend for themselves with little more than their various soccer and pro wrestling products, or my preferred option at this point, they'll just buy Topps and their vast stable of brands outright, albeit at a far lower valuation than Topps was supposedly worth just a few days ago.

Business is war. 

And monopolies are double-edged swords. Surely we all wouldn't be so concerned about the future of card collecting if Upper Deck had been able to compete with Topps since 2010.

In any case, here's how I feel about it:

2020 Topps Opening Day #122 Jorge Alfaro

Just add this whole saga to the ever-growing list of Things We Can't Count On Anymore.

Let's also not forget that the prospect of another labor dispute is clouding the waters. But regardless of what will happen in the future, Topps has quite a history, and it kept going all throughout 2020.

2020 Topps Opening Day #89 José Altuve

"'José's the heart and soul of what we do,' says Astros manager A.J. Hinch", or so says the card back of José Altuve's 2020 Opening Day card. It would turn out that Altuve and other Astros were at the heart of the cheating scandal from 2017 and beyond, something that got shoved to the back burner by the pandemic, along with everything else. As you might imagine, there remains some pretty bad blood between the Astros and Dodgers, but all in all, it didn't really make the waves it might have during a normal season. A bunch of the players involved have since moved on to other teams by now anyway.

2020 Topps Opening Day #14 Alex Verdugo

Alex Verdugo wasn't on the 2017 Postseason roster, so he didn't get to see the Astros cheating scandal firsthand, but he did suit up for L.A. that year, and traditionally, that's enough to earn a ring. Despite being on some extremely talented teams, he has yet to appear in an actual Postseason game. That might change this year depending on where the Red Sox finish in the standings, which is where Verdugo plays now.

2020 Topps Opening Day #28 Mookie Betts

In fact, he was part of the trade that sent Mookie Betts to Los Angeles. Consequently, as a Rockies fan, I've been seeing a lot more of Betts than Verdugo these days. It always surprises me how well I find myself knowing the Dodgers lineup. They play the Rockies a lot, they're often on the nationally-televised games, and they make the Postseason constantly. Like it or not, they're a force to be reckoned with.

And they have become the New York Yankees of baseball, according to A-Rod.

2020 Topps Opening Day #48 Francisco Lindor

Those Yankees are not to be confused with the crosstown New York Mets, which is where Francisco Lindor is now playing. His career has taken a significant downturn, much to the chagrin of the new Mets owner.

The card back mentions that Lindor was an All-Star in four consecutive seasons, but that's a streak that was snapped this year. In future years, we'll have to remember that there was no All-Star Game in 2020, so seeing a gap in the list of All-Star seasons isn't necessarily indicative of a broken streak. Notice that Lindor is wearing the official Indians All-Star patch on his left sleeve, the one with the Rock & Roll-themed guitar.

This would be a good place to mention the new Cleveland team name, the Guardians. That will go into effect next season. I like the name, I understand why they're changing it, and the detail-oriented side of me appreciates that they'll keep their place in line on an alphabetical list of team names. I'm sure that was the lowest of priorities when choosing their new name, but maybe keeping the last four letters in place was intentional to maintain a degree of connection to their history.

Here's the Tom Hanks-narrated video of their new identity, named for the Art Deco-style Guardians of Traffic statues on the Hope Memorial Bridge in Cleveland.

2020 Topps Opening Day #162 Max Kepler

I found some nice horizontal photos in this box, such as this one of Max Kepler's home run trot. I haven't said much about the 2020 design, and didn't really even post about the 2020 Topps base set until last month, but I have to say it works better in horizontal orientation than it did in 2017, when the design covered up a lot more of the photo.

It's worth mentioning here that Topps has already released images of the 2022 set design, and while it's certainly more readable than this year's set, I don't know how well I'll be able to differentiate it from most of the Bowman sets we've seen in the past decade.

Anyway, I like how the Twins are clearly making the most of all their scoreboard graphics. It leaves little doubt as to what just happened on the field. Kepler hit a career-high 36 dingers in 2019, so I'm not even going to try pinpointing this photo.

2020 Topps Opening Day #131 Eddie Rosario

During what was definitely a different play, Eddie Rosario slid into home to put another run up on the board for the Twins. I can't tell who the blurry third baseman is in the background; if I had to guess I'd say a Kansas City Royal. If that's correct, you're looking at the only two active teams I haven't seen in person. 

Eddie Rosario has since switched leagues, joining the Braves in return for Pablo Sandoval. It was a weird trade, because Rosario is currently on the IL, and the Indians promptly released the Kung Fu Panda the same day they acquired him. Really all Cleveland was trying to do was offload Rosario's contract. 

Incidentally, Eddie Rosario was involved in one of my all-time favorite heads-up plays, where he scored from first on a single to short left field. That isn't the play pictured here, but the clip did feature current Rockies first baseman C.J. Cron at the plate.

2020 Topps Opening Day #127 Kirby Yates

I used to go to a lot of games. Eight or ten a season was common. I haven't been to a regular season game since the pandemic hit. Yes, there was the All-Star Game and Home Run Derby, and I do have tickets for one game in September, but that has been a serious adjustment. 

I used to even fly to other cities to see games once in a great while. That also has not been happening, nor do I have any idea when it will again, but I did see Kirby Yates pitch for the Padres in San Diego in July 2019. He was asked to come in and get a six-out save, which he was unable to do. The game went to extra innings, and even though the Padres loaded the bases down two runs in the 10th inning, they had no choice but to send a pitcher in to pinch-hit with two outs. That ended the four-hour evening in predictable fashion, at which point I began hunting all over the Gaslamp Quarter for a late-night bite to eat.

I also used to eat in restaurants. It was nice.

As far as Kirby Yates, he's recovering from his second Tommy John surgery, and is out for at least the 2021 season.

2020 Topps Opening Day #33 Vladimir Guerrero, Jr.

Holding all else equal, which is a bold assumption these days, Yates will be teammates with Vladimir Guerrero, Jr. once he returns to the mound. Those Blue Jays are an exciting young team, currently sitting in fourth place in the AL East despite having a solid winning record. Vlad shares the infield with Bo Bichette, who sings his praises on this card back. 

On the card front, the design is graced with the Opening Day logo, the well-deserved Topps Rookie Cup, and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. wearing a monogrammed elbow guard. That's when you know you've arrived.

2020 Topps Opening Day Opening Day #OD-14 Toronto Blue Jays

On to the inserts. I found four in this hanger box, plus the blue parallel shown at the top of this post. This one is from the redundantly named Opening Day insert set, documenting the actual outcomes of the first day of the 2019 season. The Blue Jays hosted the Detroit Tigers at the Rogers Centre on March 28th, 2019, losing 2-0 in 10 innings.

Speaking of the Tigers, Miguel Cabrera, who went 0-4 that day, was right back in Toronto today and hit his 500th career home run.

2020 Topps Opening Day Opening Day #OD-15 Washington Nationals

Fresh off their improbable World Series championship in 2019, Topps gave us a look at how that historic season began for the Washington Nationals. They opened at home, facing off against Jacob deGrom and the New York Mets. The Mets took game 1 of 162, part of what led to the Nationals starting off with a frequently-cited 19-31 record. As we know by now, they turned things around dramatically to win the first World Series in franchise history.

2020 Topps Opening Day Spring Has Sprung #SHS-20 Rafael Devers

Opening Day is obviously preceded by Spring Training, and Topps gave us a look at that portion of the baseball season with this Spring Has Sprung insert set. 

Spring usually springs a bit later than March in most parts of the country, hence why teams fly south to Arizona and Florida to shake the rust off. The set describes how certain players approach the preseason, such as Rafael Devers of the Red Sox joking around with teammates in between heavy training sessions. We're told he hired a personal trainer during the offseason, and he "showed up ready to dominate".

2020 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-8 Bernie Brewer

I'll close this Topps Opening Day post as I usually do, with a Mascot card. I didn't find Dinger, or even the Mariner Moose, but I did at least get one Mascot card, a mustachioed Bernie Brewer, nowhere near his yellow slide in left field.

I was shut out of the other insert sets, including Team Traditions and Celebrations, Sticker Collection Previews, and a few others that have depressingly long odds to pull.

I read in Joe Posnanski's column recently that "The very best version of baseball is how the game was played when you were 10 years old." I think the same is true for baseball card collecting. 1994 Topps Black Gold, for example, ranks up there as one of my favorite insert sets of all-time. It was rare but possible to actually finish. There weren't a zillion of this, a zillion of that, 1/1s, things you'd never have any hope of seeing, especially as a 10-year old. On the other hand, collectors older than me might look at 1994 and cringe at how many sets there were, how some cards looked like a multicolored windbreaker got caught in the printing press, foil, and how even then there were parallel sets like Stadium Club First Day Issues that no one had any hope of completing.

Of course, there are no guarantees that Fanatics won't take everything we dislike about the current hobby right now and make it even worse. Availability issues, high pricing, short prints, far too many variations and sets to collect, excessive focus on rookies, quality control, and so on.

Sometimes it feels like we'll be lucky to have cards at all in 2026. Not that I really have room for more anyway, and even if Topps collapsed tomorrow, I'll still have enough cards to keep this blog going for a lifetime, and I think that's true for all of us.

The Trading Post #110: Summer of '74

If you're not following Summer of '74, a newcomer to the blog community, head on over and take a look. Matt and I have already swapped cards once, and a 1994 Topps-focused post he did in October caught my eye. He showed a bunch of base cards from an unopened box of Series 2, and offered the one-per-pack Topps Gold parallels, which I happily claimed. It and its 1993 predecessor were the first parallel sets I chased, and I enjoy them just as much today.

There's lots of mid-1990s Topps goodness to be found over on Matt's blog, including Tuesday's post about 1995 Topps. There were lots of clouds involved. But in 1994, before the strike, Topps was still sticking with pretty traditional photographs. They dabbled with images on the back in 1992 and 1993, with stadiums and headshots, respectively. But in 1994, they finally followed Upper Deck's lead and gave us action shots on the back, too.

1994 Topps Gold #669 Tim Wakefield

Tim Wakefield's front image in 1994 Topps is more interesting than the back. Before he began his long tenure with the Red Sox, he spent two seasons on the Pittsburgh Pirates. It's an unfamiliar uniform, because Wakefield was getting lots of national exposure when the Red Sox were regularly appearing in high-profile playoff series, often against the Yankees. And he's known for more than just giving up the Aaron Boone home run. He took the victory in Game 5 of the 2004 ALCS, a 14-inning marathon that kept the Red Sox alive and enabled them to finally break their curse.

I've been watching a lot of sports documentaries this off-season, including many episodes of ESPN's 30 for 30. The other night, I saw the Four Days in October episode, chronicling that improbable comeback that the Red Sox made while being down 3-0 to the defending pennant winners. Wakefield didn't have a huge role to play that year, but he won his ring nonetheless. He is, on the other hand, a prime figure in the Knuckleball documentary, his signature pitch. I feel that Topps' photography on this card is appropriate, the slow shutter speed blurring Wakefield's hand and the ball, adding to the mystery and unpredictability of the knuckleball pitch.

1994 Topps Gold #625 Charlie Hough

Charlie Hough threw it too, and we can see the grip much more clearly. It's another unfamiliar uniform, as he spent most of his career with the Dodgers and Rangers, squeezed onto the back in the tiniest of fonts. But he was a Marlin in 1993 and 1994, their equivalent of Bryn Smith, another veteran hurler who kicked off the Rockies' inaugural home opener. As I've said before, I know many other fans never knew of this period in Hough's career, but given when I started collecting, seeing him in the Marlins' early turquoise colors looks a lot more normal to me than to longtime Dodgers and Rangers fans.

Sadly, this was Hough's final Topps card. The shrunken 1995 set didn't have room for him, let alone another line in his career that spanned a quarter-century. It's a sunset card and an unfamiliar uniform all wrapped up in one, along with a highly unusual pitch that only two current players use.

1994 Topps Gold #460 Orel Hershiser

Orel Hershiser had a much more conventional pitching style, and thanks to 1989 Donruss, we know he can juggle. He could actually hit, too, earning the elusive pitcher's Silver Slugger award in 1993. The sentence on the back tells us he was near the .404 Major League record for batting average by a pitcher before settling at a still-impressive .356. His 1988 season has a lot of red on it, the same year he pitched a record 59 consecutive scoreless innings. That helped his season statistics climb as high as 23 wins, 15 complete games, and 8 shutouts, on his way to the NL Cy Young award, not to mention a World Series ring. Surprisingly, none of these players are in the Hall of Fame, but Hough and Hershiser had a decent shot.

By the way, if Topps did then what they do now, just giving us five years of stats, Hershiser's amazing 1988 season would have scrolled off the screen by the time his 1994 card was printed.

1994 Topps Gold #470 Rafael Palmeiro

Rafael Palmeiro holds the dubious distinction of being the first All-Star MLB player suspended for using steroids. Yet, at 53, he's talking about making a comeback. If it does happen, I hope it ends up being more than just a publicity stunt. But it would be interesting to see such a giant gap in his statistics if he gets a 2019 Topps card.

As you can see, these Topps Gold cards didn't survive almost 25 years in a pack unscathed. Most are fine, but a handful, like this one, show clear signs of being stuck together. It's not too bad, and Matt told me as much when we were talking specifics. It's clear enough that it's possible to see the number 22 on his right batting glove, meaning he might have borrowed it from teammate Will Clark. But it looks like he's wearing the same one on the card back in a home jersey, and I doubt he made a regular thing of it. The Cuban superstar could surely afford his own batting accessories.

1994 Topps Gold #612 Jim Thome

About the only sure-fire Hall of Famer in this illustrious group so far is Jim Thome. His 612 home runs are likely to buy him a ticket into Cooperstown any day now. But in 1994, he had yet to play a full season, and was just getting his career going. The back of this moderately damaged card still has minor league stats going back to 1989, and mentions his 1993 MVP award in the Triple-A International League. 

Coincidentally, just like Palmeiro, Jim Thome wore #25 for most of his career. And his batting gloves match.

1994 Topps Gold #690 Mo Vaughn

I can't think of Mo Vaughn without remembering him tackling George Bell as he charged Aaron Sele on the mound. Sele was clearly throwing at Bell, who was having none of it. But as he, um, went to the mound to have a word with the opposing pitcher, in comes Mo Vaughn like a Mack truck and body slams Bell like a bowling pin.

Tempers were hot in 1993. That clip took place just a month or so after the legendary Nolan Ryan / Robin Ventura brawl, and I clearly remember the benches clearing not once, but twice at my first Major League game on June 15th, 1993 between the Rockies and Dodgers.

Years later, during another Dodgers visit to Denver, none other than Jeff Kent was hit by a pitch and both teams rapidly ended up on the field. That game, July 4th, 2005 was a fireworks game, and I'm sure that many fans in attendance just wanted the extra-innings affair to conclude so their kids could see the pyrotechnics. I enjoyed that part, sure, but I'm sure I was in the minority of fans who were excited about those final two nail-biting innings.

1994 Topps Gold #397 Tim Salmon

I haven't said much about the design. 1994 Topps never climbs very high on the Topps set countdowns, but it always holds a special place in my heart. Lots of people seem not to like the home plate shape that makes up the photo frame, but it reminds me of the baseline frames that UD frequently used in their first few sets. And it gives us that lovely patch of green at the bottom, set behind the player's name in a script font. In Topps Gold, that's much easier to read in 1994 than in 1993. And once in a while, the Topps Rookie Cup graces a card with its presence.

Tim Salmon was the 1993 American League Rookie of the Year, sharing the honor with Mike Piazza on the NL side. The first fishy Angels star hit a couple more home runs in 1993 than noted slugger Mo Vaughn. And one fateful day that year, he'd play a game in Baltimore.

1994 Topps Gold #477 Arthur Rhodes

Arthur Rhodes was the starter for the Baltimore Orioles on April 17, 1993. The Rockies and Marlins were just infants, but elsewhere in the league, Rhodes had faced the Angels before, early in his 20-year career that lasted until 2011. Tim Salmon was getting his first taste of the Big Leagues, nearly being nabbed by the lefty on a pickoff attempt, but making it to second on an error. He'd walk twice that day, first in the third, and again in the ninth by the late Todd Frohwirth. Following the Orioles' third error of that day, Salmon made it to third base, which brought up the the Angels' own third baseman, Rene Gonzalez.

With Salmon at third and Gary Gaetti at second, Rene Gonzales hit one weakly toward the third base side.

1994 Topps Gold #664 Jeff Tackett

And that resulted in a play at the plate. Salmon was out, but the Angels still had the lead, and they'd hold on in the bottom of the ninth to win it.

Gary Gaetti was on third base when all this was happening, and he had his own play at the plate card in 1993 Topps. The Angels were playing lots of small ball in this era, apparently. There were seven stolen bases in this game, over half by Chad Curtis. They were then known as the California Angels, but they had a brand new logo for the 1993 season. Also visible on Jeff Tackett's left sleeve is a small commemorative patch, marking the year the Orioles hosted the All-Star Game in their shiny new retro park, Oriole Park at Camden Yards.

Topps must have been really proud of this card. In the 1993 factory set, they included a 9-card pack of 1994 preproduction cards. The colors were a little different, and as I recall they changed one photograph selection, but it's more or less accurate. In that set, you could find major stars like Nolan Ryan, Kenny Lofton, Juan Gonzalez, and also this Jeff Tackett card. The official version added his 1993 stats, and removed the Studio-like paragraph about Jeff's hobbies and family, replacing it with the inning he pitched in Detroit on August 11th, 1993, and his cameo in the movie Dave, which Topps tells us was a TV show.

TV shows and movies have been elevated to a similar plane in 2018, but in 1993, not so much.

Also, Tackett seems to have grown an inch in the 1993-94 offseason. His preproduction card had him at only 6'1".

1994 Topps Gold #586 Brent Gates

There were a few other cards that caught my eye, like this one showing a post-hustle Brent Gates giving a forearm bump to a fellow teammate. There's a tiny Minnesota Twins cameo in the lower right, but I can't tell who that is, nor the recipient of said forearm bump. That might be a coach or batboy on the left, and Gates may have just slid into home, which could identify the unknown Twin as catcher Brian Harper.

The green patch that's already on 1994 Topps goes particularly well with the A's color coding. Some of the color choices are a little odd, like yellow for the Red Sox lettering. But the green and yellow works well, even if the shades are ever so slightly different from the actual photo.

1994 Topps Gold #784 Gabe White / Rondell White

I often had a tough time deciding where to put these two-player cards when alphabetizing them by team. Would I use the player on the right or left? Was that consistent with the top or bottom on the card back? What if the right and left varied from front to back? Would a featured Rockie take precedence even if he was in a less-preferred location? Four-player cards were even harder. These were all very important decisions to make when organizing my first-ever factory set.

These cards are now quite rare, so it doesn't come up as much. And every so often, I go through my old factory sets and organize them by the players who ended up making more of an impact. Rey Ordonez over three guys you've never heard of. That sort of thing.

But I always appreciated this Expos card for giving me two guys with the last name "White". Either way, it would fit. Gabe White had an 11-year career, including two as a Rockie, and his only postseason appearance was with the 2003 Yankees. Rondell White had an even longer career at 15 years, making it to the postseason twice, and the All-Star Game once, in 2003. During that Midsummer Classic on the South Side of Chicago, he pinch hit for Barry Bonds and promptly grounded into a double play on the first pitch he saw from Mark Mulder.

1994 Topps Gold #155 Todd Stottlemyre

Last up is Todd Stottlemyre, a Blue Jays pitcher that was one of the first American League players I saw on TV. There was no interleague play in 1993, my first year watching the sport. So other than that All-Star Game in Baltimore, where the announcers bantered about nothing while Andres Galarraga had the first-ever Rockies All-Star at bat (and was flirting with a .400 average), I didn't really see any American League play until the postseason. A couple names stick out in particular, Wilson Alvarez and Todd Stottlemyre. Their two teams battled it out for the AL pennant that year, with the Blue Jays beating the White Sox. I probably didn't see Game 1 or Game 2, as Game 1 was on a school night, and Game 2 was a Wednesday day game. Early in 4th grade, I was unlikely to see either of those.

But Wilson Alvarez started Friday night's Game 3, and Stottlemyre in Game 4 the next day. It was likely my first taste of AL baseball, the Designated Hitter, and names I'd only seen on the occasional card instead of on TV regularly. It was also the only World Series I'd see until 1995 for obvious reasons. Todd Stottlemyre started Game 4 of the 1993 World Series, but thanks to a 15-14 roller coaster, did not remain the pitcher of record for long. By now, though, we all know that Joe Carter came through with a historic home run in Game 6, helping Stottlemyre and the rest of his Blue Jay teammates earn their second ring in as many years.

Thanks to Matt for sharing these 1994 parallels! Clearly this set is a special one to me. To a card collector, there's nothing quite like your first factory set, and more broadly, to a baseball fan, there's nothing quite like your first season.

Antique Mall Mystery Pack: Blue Jays

I'm sure most collectors my age subscribed to Beckett as kids. Maybe some of us still do.

For a while, they had a feature where readers would add humorous captions to various baseball cards. Something along the lines of "He's at lunch. Can I take a message?" on one of those call to the bullpen cards.

1994 Score #43 Roberto Alomar

And I always wanted to caption a card like this as "Hurry up and take the picture! I can't hold this pose much longer!"

Comedy gold when you're ten.

Anyway, another one of my Antique Mall Mystery Packs from the Brass Armadillo jogged that particular memory, even though this pack was a bit less interesting than the Mets or Pirates.

1994 Score #427 Paul Molitor

In fact, there was quite a bit of Score product in this pack. I recognize these guys from the 1993 World Series, the last time the Blue Jays were in the postseason. Especially after that Tulowitzki trade, I'm pulling for them this year, but their prospects for advancing are not looking great, as they're down three games to two to the Royals and headed back to Kansas City.

Night Owl wrote a post last week about the prevalence of "hatless" players in some early Topps sets, but a good mix of that and action shots like Alomar's make for a pretty good set. Of course, these dark blue borders are seriously fragile (note the damage on the left edge), but that doesn't stop 1994 Score from being my favorite of their whole run.

1993 Score #602 Tom Henke

1993 wasn't bad either, and I remember getting a pack or two of this product from my dad for a Hanukkah present. The font's a little hard to read, but it is a surprisingly bold design for being so minimal.

I've worn glasses since before I was 5, so seeing a pro ballplayer wearing them was always cool. And I'm not talking about crazy goggles like Alex Cole or Chris Sabo, just plain old nerdy glasses. Greg Maddux wore them from time to time, too.

1994 Topps Gold #511 Devon White

This is totally a trip down memory lane, which is exactly what antique stores are selling, I guess. One-per-pack 1993 and 1994 Topps Gold cards were prized treasures of my early collection, and 1994 Topps was the first factory set I saved up enough to purchase. I've seen this card plenty, though this Gold parallel is a new addition.

Devon White was an important part of the Blue Jays' back-to-back World Series wins, and judging from all that mail, he was quite the fan favorite.

1993 Upper Deck #425 Carlos Delgado

Carlos Delgado had yet to make his mark on the majors the last time the Jays were a contender, and he looks so young in this photo! The back of this card details how he was tearing up the minor leagues in 1992, well on his way to wielding the wooden tools in that bat rack to hit darn near 500 home runs before he retired.

1993 Upper Deck #339 Duane Ward

I don't remember Duane Ward as well as some of these other guys, but it's a perfect example of the legendary awesomeness that is 1993 Upper Deck. Pre-game stretching while on the road? Might as well blow a bubble.

I didn't really have a good appreciation of the closer role (when are we just going to break down and call it a "position"?) until I started playing Fantasy baseball in 2005, let alone an understanding of a "save situation". Still, Ward was good for 45 saves in 1993, and even got the W in the final Game 6, thanks to this next guy.

1994 Score Gold Rush #73 Joe Carter

One can hardly say a word about the Blue Jays, especially this time of year, without mentioning Joe Carter. His home run in Game 6 of the 1993 World Series was only the second time anyone won the whole darn championship in walkoff home run fashion, other than the (in)famous Bill Mazeroski. There have been plenty of walkoff home runs in World Series history, names you're sure to recognize, like Kirk Gibson, Carlton Fisk, and Derek Jeter. But only Carter and Mazeroski got to raise the trophy immediately after rounding the bases.

It's a tall order for the Blue Jays at this point, but if there was ever a team to add to that list, its the 2015 Jays and their stacked lineup.

Up next, the Houston Astros, which will be the last Mystery Pack of a 2015 Postseason team.