Cal Ripken, Jr., 1997 Upper Deck Predictors #P7

This here is a Predictor card. They were inserted in packs of 1997 Upper Deck, with scratch-off foil covering up the four bats on the front of the card. As you can see, somebody scratched off all four bats, thereby invalidating this card. At any rate, the idea was that you would scratch off one of the four, and if your player achieved the designated feat in any game during the 1997 season, you would win a super-nifty redemption card of said player. Since Cal Ripken's four checkpoints are all revealed to us, let's see if this card would have been a winner.

First off, Cal had no multi-homer games in 1997. He'd had three such games the previous year, including a three-homer game at Seattle on May 28, 1996. He didn't drive in five runs in any single game in '97, either; he peaked with four on three separate occasions. Nor did Junior have any five-hit games. He had a single four-hit game in the nightcap of a doubleheader against Boston. So a grand slam would be our only hope with this card. Survey says: Winner! He had a pair of salamis in 1997. The first was a seventh-inning tiebreaker against the immortal Pep Harris of the Angels on May 6. The other came on June 30 against the Phillies and former Oriole farmhand Calvin Maduro. Cal always did have a knack for the dramatic moment.