Friday, October 28, 2011

1994 Topps Series 2

Greetings!

At this moment, Game 7 of the 2011 World Series rages on. Most are saying this goes down in history as a classic Series. I guess any championship that gets to the seventh game can be considered to be a classic.

In honor of tonight's Game 7, here's a pack from the last year there was no World Series. From the shoebox of unfiled packs, here comes some 1994 Topps Series 2!!!



I checked the collection and this appears to be the only pack of Series 2 I purchased / received. Looks like a jumbo pack of some sort since there's 29 cards to go through:





#549 Ron Darling


#763 John O'Donoghue / Mike Oquist (Baltimore Orioles Coming Attractions)


#508 Wayne Kirby


I vaguely remember Darling with the A's. The back of the Coming Attractions lists the scout who signed the player. Per Baseball-Reference.com, O'Donoghue went 0-1 with a 4.58 ERA in his only season with the O's (and the majors). Oquist lasted a little longer, going 25-31 with a 5.46 ERA over 7 years and 3 clubs (O's, Padres, and A's).



#574 Willie McGee


#754 Jason Myers (Draft Pick - Giants)


#739 Jon Ratliff (Draft Pick - Cubs)


#770 Mark Kiefer / Troy O'Leary (Milwaukee Brewers Coming Attractions)


Odd to see Willie in a non-Cardinals uniform. Ratliff was a big Cubs prospect but then disappeared. Going back to Baseball-Reference.com, Kiefer pitched for 4 years with the Brewers, going 5-1 with a 4.29 ERA and 1 Save. Troy O'Leary is the clear winner of the Coming Attractions sweepstakes, playing from 1993 through 2003, peaking with the BoSox and finishing with the Cubs.

#689 Omar Olivares (back)


#736 Dave Valle (ToppsGold)


#689 Omar Olivares (ToppsGold)



It's a Valle sandwich! The card back meets with my approval, with the picture and full stats. ToppsGold was not impressive in this set since only the name and the Topps logo gets the gold treatment. Then again, I don't remember ToppsGold being all that anyway.




#760 Ryan Hancock (Draft Pick - Angels / ToppsGold)


#719 Tom Pagnozzi (ToppsGold)


#503 Steve Frey


#541 Jeff Juden


#569 Mike Felder



#495 Mickey Tettleton


#399 Frank Castillo


#430 Dave Winfield


#592 Jay Howell


#531 Rob Deer

The back of Deer's card showed he led the league in strikeouts 4 times, including 2003. He was traded from the Tigers to the Red Sox that year, so the card shows he stuck out 120 times for Detroit and whiffed 49 times for Boston. If you don't look closely, you'd think 49 strikeouts lead the league that year.



#556 Guillermo Velasquez


#677 Eddie Guardado


#688 Brian Dorsett


#486 Wally Whitehurst


#738 Greg Harris




#429 Bryan Hickerson


#593 Omar Vizquel


#687 John Smoltz


#476 Dave Hollins


2004 was Omar's 6th year in the majors...and he's still going!


Well, that's all she wrote. Time to see if the Rangers can make it interesting again. Thanks for reading!

2 comments:

Todd Uncommon said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Todd Uncommon said...

Second straight pack with a Smoltzy. Nice work.