hey - look at this! it's tom goodwin's 2000 upper deck sp authentic card!
i didn't realize goodwin was so...shall we say...bulky? or that he hit from the right side. or that he looks just like adrian beltre.
goodwin was the dodgers' first round pick in 1989, and he made his debut for them in 1991. he was selected off of waivers by the royals in 1994 and spent the next 6 seasons in the american league. that included the 1999 season, when goodwin was a texas ranger. so, this must be a photo from 2000 when goodwin rejoined the dodgers (double dipper post coming soon), right? well, goodwin started the 2000 season with the rockies but was acquired by la at the trade deadline, and he did face the cubs at wrigley in august, but how likely is it that a picture from a late august game would wind up on a card that same year?
really there is no need to wonder about this - clearly that is adrian beltre, not tom goodwin. why a guy like goodwin would be featured in a limited set like sp authentic is beyond me. my guess is that upper deck intended to include the dodgers' highly touted young third baseman in the set, but some amatuer at upper deck saw the photo and thought beltre's uniform number looked like '28' rather than '29' due to the wrinkling of the jersey. goodwin, who had worn 42 for the dodgers his first time around, wore 28 in his second stint.
it gets worse, and a bit better. here's tom goodwin's 2000 upper deck spx card.
at least they got the picture on the left correct - that is tom goodwin. on the right we still have adrian beltre, this time a few moments after the photo on the first card. we also get a better view of todd hundley following the flight of the ball while lurking in the on deck circle.
i wonder what collectors think of these sorts of cards, especially the first one. it's kind of like the 1995 topps traded carlos beltran rookie that is really juan lebron and the juan lebron card from the same set that is really carlos beltran. i think the card that says beltran was always valued higher than the one that actually featured his picture. i don't know how many tom goodwin collectors there are out there, or adrian beltre collectors for that matter, but i would be curious to know if they include these cards in their collections.
it doesn't matter for me, though. upper deck at least got the team name on the card right.
I never know what to do with these cards. 08 Topps pictured Brian Burres on Erik Bedard's card but they weren't switched. Burres was also on his own card. It makes me want to get them signed by both guys.
ReplyDeleteThat top Goodwin card never did look right to me, but I never examined it enough to figure out what the deal was. Thanks for clearing it up.
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