It's been a while since I did a theme week, and since I'm headed to San Diego on Thursday, this seemed like a good time for another. I sort of stumbled into it when I realized that I wanted to use multi-player cards for both Sunday and Monday, so now it's officially Combo Card Week.I just picked up this card in my most recent meet-up with Ed, a loyal reader and avid collector. I love it for several reasons. Fleer's Super Star Specials were always great for unconventional shots of your favorite team's players posing with guys from other teams. In this instance, they were able to find four players from the Orioles and White Sox who had all played at Auburn University. You've got one of the greatest athletes of the 1980s (of all time, really), the young star who would become the greatest hitter in Pale Hose history, a stud closer with a killer curveball, and some random righthanded rookie who pitched 11 innings. In a funny coincidence, Stacy Jones pitched only two more innings in his major league career...for the 1996 White Sox. It's somewhat fitting that the gradient border fades to white on Stacy's end of the card. There's also a great view of the new Comiskey Park behind the quartet, with the famous scoreboard on full display.
In case you're interested, this picture would have been taken during the weekend of August 2-4, 1991. The visiting O's won two out of three. Ben McDonald beat Alex Fernandez 3-0 in the opener, despite Chicago outhitting the Birds 8-5. Bob Milacki tossed seven strong innings to best Jack McDowell by a score of 6-3 in the middle game. But ancient knuckleballer Charlie Hough salvaged the finale, shutting out the Orioles and rookie Mike Mussina 1-0. Gregg Olson saved the two Baltimore wins, the Big Hurt went 5-for-10 with 2 HR and 4 RBI in the series, and Bo (who was still sidelined with his hip injury) and Stacy Jones did not play.
"Ancient knuckleballer" is an intriguing way to be known in the world. The Superstars card is a new one on us, very cool. For some reason Frank Thomas and Bo Jackson on one card leads to a feeling of advanced age.
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Ancient Card Collector
Of course being a "knuckleballer" is a skill that allows you to be ancient and still very effective. The great Hoyt Wilhelm pitched until he was 49, the Niekro brothers lasted until ages 48 and 43, and Tim Wakefield turns 43 this summer and is still going strong (I didn't realize he was that old).
ReplyDelete"Ancient Card Collector" - I had a similar moment of premature aging on the plane to San Diego yesterday. I was browsing the in-flight music selections and found Alanis Morrissette and Nirvana listed under "Retro". This is the music of my early teen years! Impossible.
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