Freaky Friday

One basketball great playing baseball, and one baseball great playing basketball. Like the post from yesterday, each of the cards shown in this post were added to eBay orders after finding the card I was actually looking for. 

 

Moving on to a real 2-Sport star, Bo Jackson! His 1990 Score card is getting a lot of hobby buzz lately, which shows Bo wearing shoulder pads and holding a bat. This "AAMER Sports" oddball is even better if you ask me. It even comes with a bootleg Rookie Cup!

The card back features his career stats in both sports so far. you could see he was just getting started in both with a great deal of potential still to come if not for his hip injury.

A few bootleg Kirbys and a Pizza Rolls Vikings card - This image looks like a Renaissance painting!

Here's the back of the Puckett cards, in all their non-descript glory. 

Here's a Barry Larkin rookie card from the folks at The Press Box.

Do you like to collect oddball cards, or do you prefer to stick to major brands?

Thanks for reading!

1994 Topps Traded Set

Rickey Henderson was back with the Oakland A's again in 1994, fresh off a World Series championship with the Toronto Blue Jays. When the Topps Traded set was printed, the season was in full swing, but Topps did not know that it would end just a month later.  No World Series winner, no Wild Card playoff (it was the first year with the 6 division alignment), and several players had promising seasons cut short.

The 1994 Traded Set was not a big rookie class, but it did yield a few interesting draft picks, and an overseas sensation, Chan Ho Park from Korea.

Long before the major card manufacturers started using an "official" Rookie Card logo, there was this much more understated text underneath the Topps logo on the back of the card.

Included in the set was a Topps Finest preview set- with 3 MVP candidates from each league and a rookie of the year candidate. The backs had the 1994 stats for each player through July 10th (awkward!). Frank Thomas ran away with the award in the AL, he was hitting nearly .400 for the season at the All-Star Break (he finished at .353), and rattled off 101 RBI, scored 106 runs, drew 109 walks, and hit 38 homers in just 113 games. The NL MVP was missing, but Matt Williams would have been a solid bet. He was the NL leader in homers (43), won a Gold Glove and a Silver Slugger.  Maddux wasn't really in the running for MVP, but he was the NL Cy Young Winner.

There were more Hall of Famers in the set, including a 2 card retrospective for the definitely permanently retired Ryne Sandberg.

2019 Inductee Lee Smith joined the Baltimore Orioles, and Pedro Martinez headed north to join the Expos. The team would finish with the best record in baseball, but were unable to prove their mettle in the post season due to the strike.

Twins! Walbeck and Stevens came over from the Cubs in the Willie Banks deal, and Stevens would ultimately become the team's closer. Alex Cole joined the team as a free agent as Kirby Puckett moved to Right Field. The one homegrown product? Utility infielder Jeff Reboulet!

Hall of famers were not the only ones making moves, some familiar faces also found new digs (or, in the case of Bip Roberts, returned to old ones). Ron Gant is modeling the awesome 1869 Red Stockings patch the Reds wore all season long. The rest of the MLB teams had "125th Anniversary" patches, and the Pirates wore patches for hosting the All-Star game.

A handful more transactions, including Will Clark leaving San Francisco, Bo Jackson heading out West, and Omar Vizquel serving as the final piece of the puzzle to jump start a mini Cleveland Dynasty in the mid to late 90s.

Loaded With Potential - The 1986 Topps Traded Set

Here it is! In my opinion, the 1986 Topps Traded set is the best of the cardboard box sets. Maybe not in monetary value, or design prowess, but to me this is the set with the most excitement! The rookie class in the set is second to none, and any set with myth/man/legend Bob Walk is a keeper.

The Hall of Famers in the set are of the grizzled veteran variety, though when the set came out, I'm sure most baseball fans and analysts would be shocked that these were the only three guys. Niekro was still tossing his knuckleball, Seaver was maybe not as Terrific as he once was, but still an excellent veteran pitcher. Dick Williams is a Hall of Famer for his managerial career, which included the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox of 1967, 2 World Series Titles in Oakland, turning the Expos from and expansion team to a playoff contender, and taking the Padres to their first World Series in 1984.

On to the Rookies! Bonds may still be joining the three Hall of Famers someday, he is the All-Time leader in Home Runs, Walks, Intentional Walks, and won 2 batting titles, 7 MVPs, went to 14 All-Star games, 8 Gold Gloves, and 12 Silver Sluggers. Bobby Bonilla will get his last paycheck from the Mets in 2035, part of a unique contract structure that is worth reading about. Jose Canseco, of course has been covered at length on this blog and others. The Oakland great probably could have been in the Hall as well if not for the Steroid controversy swirling around him. Bo Jackson may have been the most hyped of all. A Football Superstar and Baseball prodigy, Bo was an athlete without a peer in 1986.

He played just 53 minor league games before being called up to the Royals, and would only return for injury rehab stints in later years. Probably no other player in the 80s was filled with so much potential for greatness, and the hip injury he sustained as a Raiders running back robbed him and fans of a promising baseball career. Jackson has no regrets, however, and his comeback in Chicago and with Angels proved just how remarkable his determination and strength was.

This set was so loaded with rookies, there's a whole crop of just 1st basemen / future 1st basemen!

This post doesn't even include guys like Todd Worrell, Milt Thompson, Pete Incaviglia, Dan Plesac, who had solid MLB careers.

Just one Twins player in the set, so you know I'm not playing favorites - they'll get the star treatment in next week's post on the next year's traded set. Pastore was a long time Cincinnati Reds pitcher, joining the team in 1979. '86 was his final season in the big leagues.

Some of my favorite pictures from the set. Technically, that's a Jim Leyland rookie card, as the Pirates were his first managing gig. I just heard a fun anecdote about Franklin Stubbs on an MLB Network clip. Mark DeRosa was talking about Michael Brantley, and mentioned that his swing reminded him of Garrett Anderson, very smooth and fluid mechanics. DeRosa went on to say one of his minor league hitting instructors was Franklin "Ticket" Stubbs, and that Stubbs told DeRosa that he needed to have a love song playing in his head at the plate, so his body could move to the right rhythm to hit.

Oh No! Poor Claudell has the dreaded "airbrushed pinstripes" treatment from Topps. He'd go on to have some of the best seasons of his career in the Bronx, though, so he got the last laugh.