The Past is NOW the Future

This card ranks right up there with the Diamondbacks' Bullpen Car, or the Astros' funeral for Carlos Beltran's Glove. It's silly, and I love it!

I remember thinking that Turn Ahead the Clock was a fun promotion, but in Seattle there's genuine nostalgia for it. It does seem strange to me to have a 20th Anniversary celebration for a jersey, but I can't deny the fact that it's a welcome breath of fresh air.

Speaking of the 1990s - I took the opportunity to raid the COMC site for its late 90s and early 2000s treasures.

1997 SP looks fantastic, even today. I don't think I had anything from that set before. Bonds before Bonds was BONDS, though he was still getting intentionally walked at a crazy rate. Gonzalez had a ridiculous June in 1996 - 15 homers, 36 RBI, and a .407 batting average.

In the 90s, Inserts look amazing and base cards look almost like inserts.

Collector's Choice had a photofile's dream insert called "Big Shots" - this one of Ripken was my favorite.

And then there's Colon, who is still cruising along in the big leagues today!

This subset tried to predict where Colon would be in 2001 in the new Millenium. The 28 year old (Ahem, TSC couldn't predict that Colon's real birth year was 1973...) didn't find himself as a closer, though he did finish one game that season- he just happened to also be the starter. He would have his first 20 win season in 2002, and it was arguably better than his Cy Young year in 2005. In 2000, Colon was close to the predicted K rate, he fanned 212 batters in 188 innings.