06 July 2011

who's that lurker?

paul o'neill's 1993 upper deck card features a blurry foreground lurker wearing dodger blue during a spring training game.
i wouldn't blame you for not knowing that it's brett butler, since he's not bunting.  butler has a ton of cards where he is shown bunting.  talk about being type cast.

here's his 1993 donruss card
and his 1993 topps stadium card.
try as i might, i cannot confirm nor deny that these cards feature the same at-bat.  while everything looks the same, butler bunted fairly often, and there is not enough evidence to sway things either way.

here's his 1994 pinnacle card, featuring a nice dodger stadium shot
just like his 1994 upper deck card
sadly, i can't tell who the lurker is in this photo.
even after butler left the dodgers for a short time and then returned, he kept on bunting.  here's his 1998 upper deck card
which qualifies as a final tribute since butler played his last game in 1997.  i'm not sure why ud didn't slap the 'final tribute' shield on the card.  anyway, we can see that butler didn't go down swinging - he went down bunting.

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