Loot and photos

I'm going off-topic a bit to show off a few items I received from other folks. Also I'm looking at lots and lots of photos from 1993 Upper Deck Series 2 below--many great ones and some odd ones.



First up is a 1973 Doyle Alexander sent from Kevin in trade for the book and card I sent him. This is an insanely beautiful card. I love how young and fresh-faced Alexander looks, plus the three guys in the background, plus the tarp, plus the stray bats on the field, plus the ad for First Federal. It's just an awesome card.

I've decided that for my next project after 78 Topps Cards, I'll be looking at both the 1971 and 1973 Topps sets. So I'm taking any cards from those sets as trades now. If you see any cards in this post you want, you can send me a single card from either of those sets in trade.

The next card is an autographed card of Tim Hudson. The neat thing is that the card is in Spanish both front (shown above) and back (not shown.) I've never seen a card written in Spanish before. Anybody know anything about this set of cards? This one came in as a trade from Tribe Cards.

The rest of the cards in this post are all from 1993 Upper Deck Series 2. These are packs I won in a contest from Night Owl Cards. In the above set of scans, we've got special reissues of a classic David Justice card as well as a classic Reggie Jackson card. Note that the UD Heroes design for the Reggie Jackson card very closely resembles the 2008 UD Heroes set that's out now. We've also got the Derek Jeter rookie card, although I swear that guy doesn't look like Jeter at all. We've also got a very unusual but cool Strawberry card. It's obviously posed but does a great job of capturing his distinctive and very high leg kick.



Next up are 4 unusual Phillies cards. First is a sort of cool action shot of Eisenreich catching a fly ball, although it's odd that they chose to use a photo with the glove covering almost his entire face. On the back of the card (not pictured), they show him collapsed on the warning track and his face is completely hidden. Next is Incaviglia looking very much like he has just struck out. Next is Ricky Jordan, usually a first baseman, looking as if he's making a catch in the outfield although it's hard to tell for sure. Is there a Giants fan who can identify which part of Candlestick park that is? (I note that Jordan did play 11 games in left field in 1992.) Jordan makes another appearance on Milt Thompson's card, with Thompson looking a bit unsure of the close touching. I'm pretty sure that's Dale Murphy on the left.

Finally in this set are two cool sunglasses photos. Check out the reflections on the Wells card, and the sheer bling of the Cole card. (See below for the back of Cole's card too.)




Here are a series of unusual shots: Greg Vaughn toweling off, an umpire completely in frame on Kevin Seitzer's card, a supreme ass shot of Bob Scanlan, a wicked cool angled shot of Rey Sanchez jumping over Larry Walker, Vinny Castilla about to eat a baseball, and Luis Sojo about to commit an error, probably.



Here are a few nice card backs. Ellis Burks has just shimmied out of the way of a pitch, but caught like this without the baseball in view, he looks more like he's avoiding a bee. Kevin McReynolds' bat has split all the way down! Lloyd McClendon looks like a huge dork with his cap coming off, but at least UD made some money from Gatorade for this advertising photo. Scott Servais is shown, unusually for a catcher, trying to throw out a baserunner. I have to assume this photo was taken during drills. Alex Cole is being shown interviewing and we can see his awesome sunglasses again, plus a nice pretty bracelet that the camera operator is wearing. And check out the bottom right of the Charlie Hayes photo. How cool is that little wave of dirt that Charlie just kicked up while moving for the ball?



Here are some team checklist cards. As is usually the case, these illustrations are hit or miss. First up is the Bagwell card, which if you ask me makes the best possible use of the Houston rainbow. Next up is Bobby Bo, as the card says, and for some reason the headshot in the lower left reminds me of the Transformers. Anybody else get that vibe? The Eck card is nice. Robby Thompson, however, looks like a pedophile. Strawberry looks just fine. Randy Johnson looks like he was drawn by a child. Much better than I could ever do, but a lot worse than most of the rest. These illustrated cards are, on the whole, pretty damn awesome.



Here are various cards featuring team stars. There are two different cards featuring Barry Bonds, Matt Williams, and Will Clark. It's truly amazing how tiny Bonds looks. The three Astros in front of the Astrodome is great, especially with such youthful photos of Bagwell and Biggio. That Rockies card is the most phallic and homoerotic a card can get without showing actual male nudity. I put the Pirates card up here for the nice shot of downtown Pittsburgh and a very youthful (and still active) Tim Wakefield on the left. And finally, that Padres card is very cool with Gwynn, Crime Dog, Sheff, and, ahem, Phil Plantier.



Wrapping it up are a few more horizontal cards. Big Daddy is kicking up a bunch of dirt. The back of the card (not pictured) has Fielder looking through the kind of camera lens used to take these photos. We have a Manny Ramirez rookie card, and an awesome multi-frame Phil Hiatt card. Then we have an illustration of Sammy Sosa that looks nothing like him, and a very weird Albert Belle card. All the Native American stuff, while true to the Indians name, is fairly contrary to the way the Indians team has identified with their namesakes. And showing Belle breaking a bat is kid of creepy. Finally, we have Gerald Clark looking very pissed after getting knocked down at the plate.

There you have it--the 1993 Upper Deck Series 2 cards are really great, and thanks again to Night Owl Cards for giving me the chance to check them out. (I still have a bunch of unopened packs, too!)

Once again, if you want to trade for anything here, see if you can dig up a 1971 or 1973 card and email me at 78topps at gmail dot com.