seriously. it's mariano rivera. sure, at the time this 1998 upper deck card was issued, he had just one year of closing duties under his belt and they were eliminated in the playoffs in 1997. but he did help the yankees (boo) win it all in 1996 and would soon become the most dominant post season closer ever.
i am guessing this photo was taken at home in panama, perhaps during a tourism promotion. there's no baseball, no uniform, no stadium - nothing about this says baseball. it reminds me of those special interest subsets - players with their dogs or motorcycles or whatever. not a base card.
Actually Mariano's first year as closer was 1997 - and he gave up the ALDS winning home run to Sandy Alomar. A lot of people at that point thought he couldn't handle the closer duties. Guess he turned out all right though...
ReplyDeletethanks bo. i stand corrected. i forgot that wetteland went to texas in 97.
ReplyDeleteThat card sucks.
ReplyDeleteThat's not Rivera. That's Robert Horry, I mean, that's Will Smith.
ReplyDeleteStill sucks.
ReplyDelete