Anthony Telford, 1992 Score #853

I don't know if you've heard, but the Internet makes the world a pretty small place. Case in point: Today Anthony Telford left a comment on a blog post I wrote about him two years ago. Fortunately, I had kind words to say about him, and vice versa. It's a gentle reminder of something that I know I occasionally take for granted. If you share your words, thoughts, and opinions online, anyone can read them at any time. Choose those words carefully. (For instance, I should probably hope that Sidney Ponson never Googles himself!) Anyway, I'm glad that Anthony dropped by and liked what he saw, and I think I'll have to do as he suggested and put a card in the mail.

Anthony Telford, 1992 Fleer #29

Looking for more information on pitcher Anthony Telford, I came to his Baseball Reference Bullpen page. It didn't have much to offer, except for a scan of one of his cards, which he had signed with his name and the Bible verse "Rev 3:20". Lots of professional athletes have been known to quote scripture along with their autographs, but I haven't seen many of them who have borrowed from the Book of Revelations. For those who are curious, the verse reads as follows:

"Here I am! I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me."

While only Telford knows what significance those words have in his own life, I can see how he might have done a little soul-searching in the mid-90s, when he bounced from the Orioles to the Braves to the Athletics to the Indians to the Expos. By the time the 1997 season rolled around, Anthony was 31 years old and had pitched only 20 major league games, the last of them with Baltimore in 1993. Incredibly, he made Montreal's roster in 1997 and went on to pitch 285 games of relief for the team over the next four seasons, fashioning a 3.71 ERA in that span. Telford's career didn't last much longer after that, but considering his late-in-the-game renaissance, he certainly seems to have been blessed by somebody or something.

Anthony Telford, 1991 Topps Stadium Club #330

When Topps set tongues a-waggin' with their first foray into "premium" cards, everyone assumed that they had established Stadium Club as a response to the challenge presented by Upper Deck. Sure, these full-bleed photos, with their vibrant colors and Kodak-whatsit technology, might have been a return volley to Upper Deck's beautiful full-color, front-and-back photos and holographic stamps and so forth. But if you ask me, the true purpose of the inaugural issue of Topps Stadium Club was to finally produce a card worthy of the finely-detailed chest hair of Anthony Charles Telford. Heck, that's practically neck hair. I think this can be considered an error card, in fact. The blue name bar should read, "Anthony Telford's Chest Hair".