Darth Cheney
Footballguy
The Topps traded sets....those dumping grounds for veterans making mid season moves and rookies who were called up. With virtually no action shots and all head shots (Mr. Candelaria....put your Yanks had on real quick and stand still), these cards weren't going to set the world on fire.....and with overproduction and a lack of future HOFers from this era..these cards have more value as coasters than collectibles...(if I ever own a bar...I'm going to bring all my cards in for use as coasters). But on its 20th anniversary, I decided to take a closer look at the set...and was pleasantly surprised. The set is ripe with rookie cards for good players of the era...Roberto Alomar, Tino Martinez, David Wells, Robin Ventura, Mark Grace and Ron Gant.....and had some real potential with Jack McDowell,Charles Nagy, Andy Benes, Jay Buhner, Roberto Kelly,Brady Anderson, Chris Sabo, Walt Weiss, Jim Abbott and Damon Berryhill rookie cards. Its's nice to see such old faces as Glenn Hubbard, Rich Dotson and Rafael Ramirez again. Players of yesteryear look less like athletes and more like the patrons of a dive bar....Who can forget Mackey Sassers clueless expression or the fact that then Cubs manager Don Zimmer looks exactly the same. And how does Topps expect one to read the career stats of Dony Baylor and Buddy Bell with their tiny font? All in all a nice retrospactum to the players of my youth.....Alfredo Griffin....we miss you.
