#69 Wade Boggs New York Yankees (1996 was the year that Boggs finally got his ring, went for a ride on a horse and hit .311 for the World Champs… In just a couple of years he would find himself on the Devil Rays)#36 Jay Buhner Seattle Mariners (Buhner hit 44 homers and drove in 136 in ’96)
#137 Hideki Irabu New York Yankees#106 Alex Ochoa New York Mets
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card +8
#116 Andrew Jones Atlanta Braves (In the ’96 Series Jones tied a record by homering in his first 2 at-bats and set a record becoming the youngest player (19) to homer in the Series)
#121 Wilton Guerrero Los Angeles Dodgers (Vlad’s “big” brother used a corked bat and his 140 pound frame to knock 4 homers in 1997)#114 Michael Tucker Atlanta Braves (Tuck was the Royals first round pick (10th overall) in 1992 but went to Atlanta for Jermaine Dye before the 1997 season. He hit .286 in Atlanta, but struck out 116 times. He did worse in the NLCS hitting .100 in 5 games against the Fish)
Another one down! I just might finish this puppy off! Only 8 more to go! Before I sign off, please be sure to go check out the awesome Groundhog Day Contest over at the Play at the Plate blog. Go Rays! Troll out.
#457 Bob Walk Pittsburgh Pirates (Ah, pitchers with unfortunate names…)
#530 Tim Hyers San Diego Padres
#349 Ivan Rodriguez Texas Rangers (I feel as though a play at the plate may be in progress)
#360 Reggie Sanders Cincinnati Reds (I’m not gonna say this guy wasn’t good, but was he ever as good as you thought he could be? Oh, and I just realized his middle name is Laverne, like and Shirley…)
#508 Dave Henderson Kansas City Royals (There are literally 3 people in the stands and Henderson took the time to sign for all of them. Was the game in progress at this time?)
#271 Randy Myers Chicago Cubs (I mean, this guy is a professional athlete…Caption THIS card/picture and win a free slot!)
#509 Bo Jackson California Angels (Prior to this the only card I had seen of Bo on the Angels he was flying an airplane)
#69 Wade Boggs New York Yankees (Hall of Famer in the pack!!! One thing I don’t like about this brand is that it doesn’t show career totals for stats on the back. It does break them down month by month, which is cool, but I wanted to know where Boggs was at in terms of hits and I don’t feel like looking it up. He did bat .311 for the Yanks in ’96)
#24 Rey Ordonez New York Mets MEN OF SUMMER Insert (this is the first insert we’ve pulled out of this one. This is a 150 card insert set and the odds are 1:7. I bet this was a bear to finish back in the day. Theoretically you would have to rip 1,050 packs and not get a double. Remember there were no card blogs back in ’97!)
#137 Hideki Irabu 1997 Rookie New York Yankees (I’m not sure if the Yanks paid him by the win or by the pound, but he made a lot of US dollars during his short big league career-over parts of 6 seasons he posted a 34-35 record with a 5.15 ERA)
#36 Jay Buhner Seattle Mariners (I wasn’t sure if I had shown what the back of the card looks like. This one shows Jay’s signature pants stain and shows that he hit 12 homers in May and 44 for the season in ’96. His final line in ’96 was .271 BA/44 HR/ 138 RBI. Damn.)
#16 Mike Piazza LA Dodgers (Speaking of rings… Piazza never won his. He never won the MVP award either. He was in the top-10 in voting 8 times and finished second in ’96 and ’97, but he never took it home. His stats in ’96 were awesome for anyone, especially a catcher-.336/36/105. Nice. He brought things to another level in 1997 when he hit .362 with 40 homers and 124 RBI, but he finished behind Larry Walker in every offensive category and also in the MVP voting.)
