Sunday, December 4, 2011

Chad Moeller, 2010 Upper Deck #82

I just can't turn away from 2010 Upper Deck. They're responsible for the only documented proof that Chad Moeller was a Baltimore Oriole, at least as far as baseball cards go. His 30-game stint as a water-carrier for Gregg Zaun and Matt Wieters is forever immortalized in this Spring Training action shot and an indistinguishable black-and-white inset portrait. Of course you won't find the "Orioles" name or any of their copyrighted logos on this card, per legal mandates after Upper Deck lost their MLB license. UD's self-censorship was notably slapdash, perhaps willfully so, with cap logos and jersey wordmarks peeking out on dozens of cards in what's looking to be the last-ever Upper Deck baseball set. It's as though they hoped that no one would pay attention to the photos at all if the other design elements were sufficiently dull. That makes Moeller an apt subject, as his .258/.313/.438 performance in 100 trips to the plate for the O's makes him forgettably acceptable as a backup catcher, forever fated to recede into team history alongside Craig Tatum and Lenny Webster and Jeff Tackett, on down the line.

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