pacific at the plate

like many of you, i received a big ol' box of cards from play at the plate a while back. i posted some of the stuff that was included, but figured i should show more of the haul. i had specifically requested cards from pacific - the makers of some fantastically designed cards in the late 1990's and early 2000's.  there weren't any that were too crazy in what brian sent (no 2000 invincible, for example), but there was some good stuff nonetheless.  here's some of it.

1998 pacific paramount eric karros

1998 pacific paramount jose canseco

1998 pacific paramount tony gwynn

1998 pacific paramount orel hershiser

it is difficult to accept the reality of hershiser wearing a giants' uniform.

bobby bo was well represented in the box - here's his 1999 pacific

and 1999 pacific crown collection

cards.  plus, an alex cora card from 1999 pacific crown collection

former dodger prospect john franco is wearing a green cap for st. patrick's day on his 1999 pacific crown collection card

so that warrants an inclusion in the post. franco pitched in over 1100 games - i hope getting rafael landestoy back was worth it for al campanis and company.

here are some cards from 1999 pacific aurora - mark grudzielanek

raul mondesi

and reggie sanders

the sanders has an o-pee-chee type feel to it, without the text. i appreciate the lack of airbrushing on these types of cards.

finally, i mentioned that there were no cards from 2000 pacific invincible, but there were a few from the 1999 invincible release.  here's gary sheffield's card

and a couple of ben grieve seismic force inserts

they are actually the same insert with different photos.  the backs have identical text and numbers, but also use different photos

the portrait photo on the back goes with the one that has a portrait on the front, i believe.

this is just a small amount of the pacific goodness brian sent.  i scanned a bunch more, so you should see a couple more posts of this kind of stuff.  i can't get enough of pacific - the weirder, the better.  thanks brian.

a few more double play turns and some other cards from the heart of texas

here is some more goodness from the box of cards that i received recently from brian at play at the plate.

a few more double plays that are new to my collection - 1999 pacific denny hocking

1999 pacific crown collection rey ordonez

2000 fleer ultra tony batista

and a couple from 2001 fleer tradition - ron belliard

and pokey reese

i'll give fleer some credit for bringing to mind 1956 topps without being totally obnoxious about it.

brian included a 2002 fleer ultra eric karros gold medallion edition parallel

which cleanses the palette between vintage-y looking cards, more of which you are about to see.

a good portion of the box included cards from 2002 upper deck vintage.  this was the set that was basically 1971 topps with the photo moved above the team/player/position text.  here's the carlos febles card from the set

looks like a rundown.

strange to see david ortiz in a twins' uniform after all these years

one of the more interesting cards in the bunch was this ichiro card

with him legging out an infield hit, which he often did.

now, upper deck would tell you that they were paying homage to 1971 o-pee-chee, which is why the backs of the cards are yellow

this would be what the latter series of o-pee-chee looked like in '71, with the rectangular photo like topps had for the entire set run.

anyway, we know that o-pee-chee claim to be tenuous at best since upper deck wound up altering their 2009 o-pee-chee set to look nothing like the 1977 set which it was rumoured to be featuring prior to its release.

whether by design or not, some of the cards do remind me of 1971 topps, like this bernie williams card

that reminds me of the tommie agee card from 1971, just a bit more 'zoomed in'.

here are a few cards from the postseason scrapbook subset

an alfonso soriano walk-off in the alds

jeter walk-off in the world series

i'm not sure why upper deck chose to say "a last at-bat" on soriano's card, but "walkoff" on jeter's

more jeter love from game 5 of the world series

he drove in two runs and took to breakdancing at home plate, apparently.

finally, however, let us recall the fantastic end to the 2001 world series, thanks to mark grace and luis gonzalez

that was awesome.  just like the box of cards brian sent.  i'll be showing some of the pacific goodness in another post or posts.  stay tuned…

final tributes like it's 1999

2 hall of famers played their final games in 1998 - paul molitor and dennis eckersley.  in 1999, upper deck tried to fool us by producing a final tribute card of wade boggs, but that proved to be premature.  here are some bona fide 1999 final tributes of molly and eck that i have in my collection.

1999 fleer tradition paul molitor

look at those full career stats on the back!

molly's career had begun at the same time i began collecting cards.  he was my favorite non-dodger for a while (until steve garvey went to san diego), and i was happy to have been able to see him play in person when he joined his hometown twins.

i don't have eck's 1999 fleer tradition card, but i do have his 1999 pacific crown collection card

it's only got one season of stats on the back, but a whole lot of espanol

here's molitor's

with a paul waner (dodger double dipper) mention

molitor also got a card in the regular 1999 pacific set

which has the full career stats on the back

molitor also got a card in the pacific private stock set

but the career stats on the back

take a back seat to the box score from the twins' second game of molitor's final season.

topps didn't produce cards for either of these guys - not even a checklist or highlight card - but upper deck did them justice with base cards and the 'final tribute' shield.

here are eckersley's complete career stats

and here's molitor's 1999 upper deck card

which, for some reason, leaves three seasons off of the back

molitor is currently 9th on the all-time hit list, but will be surpassed by derek jeter as soon as today (jeter is sitting on 3318 career hits).

as for the head-to-head stats, 11 of eckersley's 2401 career strikeouts came from molitor, and 13 of molly's 3319 hits came off of eck.  overall, eckersley got molitor out most of the time as would be expected, but molitor won the war - he hit .310 with a 1.024 ops off of eckersley over the course of their fine careers.

here comes rickey

yes, we're still turning two here on the blog, and right now damion easley has his hands full, literally, as  an a's player is sliding towards him on this 1999 upper deck card.

the o.co or network associates coliseum or whatever it is these days is an oft featured locale for double play turns for some reason, and we've seen quite a few athletics getting forced out at second base as a result, including rickey henderson.  and it just so happens to be henderson who is breaking up the double play in this case, as we see on damion easley's 'same play' 1999 upper deck choice card (apparently it was no longer collector's choice)

as far as i can tell, rickey is out on a 1st inning 1-4 forceout on may 7, 1998 as ben grieve makes it safely to first thanks to rickey's slide.  grieve would be forced out at second on the next play to end the inning.  thanks baseball reference!

here's bill mueller's card from the same set (hello tom goodwin)

and a denny hocking card from 2001 upper deck victory

let's get in the way back machine for this 1990 score jeff treadway card

not sure why i haven't shown that one before.

staying with the braves, here is their other double play turning jeff - jeff blauser on his 1998 upper deck collector's choice card

and then later as a cub on his 1999 upper deck card

1999 upper deck also gives us dp turns from former dodger wilton guerrero

shane halter

kevin stocker

and that perennial twin killing turning machine, walt weiss

among others.

here's tony womack's 1999 fleer ultra card

and miguel cairo's 1999 pacific crown collection card

and finally, mike benjamin's 2000 topps stadium club card

still more to come...