someday my prince will come

back in the day, topps, with their 726 card set, made cards for middle relievers and third string catchers.  the dodger team set from 1978 features three catchers (steve yeager, jerry grote, and johnny oates) and several relievers (terry forster, charlie hough, elias sosa, lance rautzhan, and mike garman).  then, sometime in the 1990's, there was no love for the non-starters, and in many cases, non-stars. 

topps and fleer and donruss and upper deck and everyone else figured i would much rather have multiple mike piazza cards than get a single card of a guy like tom prince.  thankfully, we have 1998 pacific online.

in 1997, prince played in 47 games while piazza starred for the dodgers in what was an mvp-worthy season.  in his 5 seasons as a dodger, that was the greatest number of games in which prince had played, and this pacific card may be the only one produced by any of the card companies.  he played in 3 games at atlanta in '97, but i am too lazy to look them up to see which game may have conjured up the photo used on his card.

i decided to send a copy of this card off to prince c/o the pirates, for whom he works these days as the manager of their gulf coast team.  more about that later.  here are some other gems from the dodger set.
darren hall

hall pitched in 63 games for the dodgers in 1997.  his 2.30 era was second only to antonio osuna's 2.19 that year on the dodger staff.  still, no darren hall cards other than this one.
did you know thomas howard played for the dodgers in 1998? or ever?

i don't blame you if you didn't.  thomas joined the team as a free agent prior to the season but was released at the end of june after hitting a forgettable .184 in 47 games.  thank you pacific for recognizing his service as a dodger, as bad as it was.
scott radinsky

that is a nice looking card, except for the web addresses and all the frivolous pacific glitz.  it's a nice photo i guess is what i am saying.  radinsky did get a 1999 fleer card, but he was on his way to the cardinals on that one.  i also sent a card to radinsky c/o the indians, but haven't heard back.

so, back to prince.  i sent the card to him in september of 2010 after seeing some successes on sports card forum.  almost 13 months later, he returned the card, signed nicely.

awesome.  thanks, pacific, for the backup catcher love.  i miss the old topps.  and topps total.