Moving right along with pack number 16 of 1993 Stadium Club…I will start by saying that there are only 149 different cards on the checklist for series 3 of 1993 Stadium Club. This box will yield 336 cards, so there are bound to be a lot of doubles. The last few packs have had a bunch of dupes. This one is no different. Here we go!
#707 Ken Griffey Jr. Seattle Mariners (I doubt anyone is going to complain about getting dupes of the Kid. Has anyone taken the Mariners for the next break yet? Remember they had Griffey, Martinez and Randy Johnson in the mid-90s)
#699 Kevin Reimer Milwaukee Brewers (Reimer hit 20 homers for Texas in ’91. He hit 13 for the Brew Crew in ’93, but never saw the leagues again)
#637 Tom Henke Texas Rangers (The Terminator makes another appearance)
#722 Kevin Young Pittsburgh Pirates (In 1999 Young batted .298 with 26 homers, 22 steals, 41 doubles and 106 RBI for the Bucs)
#705 David Hulse Texas Rangers#749 Joe Carter MEMBERS CHOICE Toronto Blue Jays (The back of the card mentions that Carter told his teammates after Game 6 of the ALCS that they could ride his shoulders to the pennant, and they did)
#692 David Hulse Florida Marlins#744 Guillermo Velasquez San Diego Padres
#743 Charlie Hayes Colorado Rockies
#627 Paul Molitor Toronto Blue Jays (Always awesome to pull a Hall of Famer… The Ignitor batted .500 with 2 homers and 8 RBI while winning his second World Series in 1993)#646 Joe Magrane St Louis Cardinals
#640 Dave Martinez San Francisco Giants (Martinez was just a platoon outfielder with the Giants, but in a few years he would bat over 300 in 2 straight years for the White Sox and in 1998 he would be an original Devil Ray)
#665 Greg Maddux Atlanta Braves (In ’93 Maddux won a Gold Glove and the NL Cy Young, but didn’t make the All Star team… Go figure)
#663 Mike Moore Detroit Tigers (Moore was an All Star with Oakland in 1989 and won the World Series… in 1993 he was 13-9 for the Tigers)
#650 Tom Glavine Atlanta Braves (How many Braves pitchers can we have in one pack? Glavine led the NL in wins for the third straight year in ’93, plus he was an All Star, but he finished 3rd in the Cy Young vote behind Maddux and Bill Swift of the Giants)
#650 David Cone Kansas City Royals (Coney could battle it out with Tom Henke for 3rd best pitcher in this pack. Conehead won 11 games for the Royals in ’93, but he won the AL Cy Young the following year for KC when he was 16-5 in that strike shortened season)#681 Troy Percival California Angels (I think this is the 5th copy of Percy’s rookie card. I wonder if somebody is gonna get bipped with this)
#708 Steve Bedrosian Atlanta Braves (3 Braves pitchers in one pack?)
Okay, this pack beats the heck out of the last one. A Hall of Famer helps, plus Griffey, Maddux and Glavine. Maybe the best pack of this brand so far… 8 more to go. Troll out!
#684 Barry Bonds San Francisco Giants (1993 was the Quad-Fecta for Bonds… He started in the All Star Game, won a Gold Glove and Silver AND won the NL MVP… He also paced the NL in homers and RBI and batted .334. Had Andres Gallarragga not hit .370 that year. Barry Lamar could have taken the Triple Crown, too)
#615 Jim Abbott New York Yankees (Abbott finished third in the 1991 Cy Young vote when he won 18 games)
#706 Cris Carpenter Florida Marlins (Again, not to be confused with the far more successful Chris Carpenter)
#637 Tom Henke Texas Rangers (Mr. Henke started his career as a Ranger, spent 8 years in Toronto and returned to Texas in 1993 where he saved 40 ball games for the Rangers)
#109 Tom Glavine Atlanta Braves (10-time All Star, 2 X Cy Young Award Winner, 4 Silver Sluggers, 5X leader in wins, 305 career victories, the best left-handed pitcher in the National League since Steve Carlton-is all that enough to get in the Hall of Fame? Add to it the fact that he has a higher career batting average than his 1st baseman brother Mike and I think we have a winner)
#113 Troy Percival California Angels (This guy is one of the first inductees into the Hall of Guys Named Troy for sure! In ’96 Percy made his first All Star team and struck out 100 batters in 74 innings in a year when the league averaged .330/40/120-okay, I made the part about the league average up, but…)
#134 Scott Rolen Philadelphia Phillies MEN OF SUMMER (the good folks at Pinnacle predicted that Rolen was a leading candidate to win the Rookie of the Year Award. Well, he did! Pinnacle was dead on with their prediction on this set of cards that was released after the season ended. Great job Pinnacle, you guys need to take that act to Vegas! 
That said, Rolen did deliver the goods while playing the huge shadow of Mike Schmidt in Philly-he didn’t make anyone forget MS, but he showed he was decent enough at the hot corner-has Philly got anyone better since?)
#74 Mike Mussina Baltimore Orioles (A lot of people are on the “Get Moose in the Hall” bandwagon already, I myself will wait till he is on the ballot to weigh in… 7 Gold Gloves, 9 times in the top-10 in Cy Young voting, 12 times in the top-10 in ERA, 270 wins, 2813 strikeouts and only 785 walks… Those are some nice stats. The thing that impresses me the most about Mouse compared to anyone else who will hit the ballot anytime soon is he retired after his best year. His lone 20-game win season came in 2008, the year he hung it up, that impresses me)
#41 Charles Nagy Cleveland Indians (Nagy never impressed me as a great pitcher, but he didn’t have to be. He played on one of the best offensive teams ever and he took the mound every 4 or 5 days and won a lot of ball games… I think he went 7 consecutive seasons without missing a start, too. Oh, and he was born in the same hospital as my Mom and signs TTM-so I am a Charles Nagy fan!)
#7 Ken Griffey Jr Seattle Mariners (A Junior hot pack! I showed off the back of Mo’s card the last rip, Jr is just as jaw dropping)
#139 Ken Griffey Jr Peak Performers Seattle Mariners (The back of the card states “At 27 he (Griffey) is a definite threat to break Roger Maris’ single-season record of 61 homers)
#19 Ellis Burks Colorado Rockies (I scanned the back of the card because it shows Burks ’96 stats and shows the at the plate high five he got from the Big Cat so many times that year-1996 was the season that he absolutely exploded and put up HUGE numbers… Batting .344 with 40 homers, 128 RBI, 30 steals, 211 hits, 45 doubles, 142 runs scored and a league leading .639 slugging percentage… If he had duplicated that performance in even 1 other season he would probably get a vote or two for the Hall…)
#47 Albert Belle Chicago White Sox (Speaking of MONSTER power numbers… Belle outdid Burks that year with 48 bombs and 148 RBI)
#35 Ivan Rodriguez Texas Rangers (Pudge hit .300/19/86 in ’96-I’m surprised he was able to keep his starting job…)
I didn’t like Zaun in the Rays lineup last year, but the way he handles a pitching staff is AMAZING. I was really hoping he would stay with the Rays (as a backup) until retirement and then hang on as a pitching coach. I think GZ will make a fantastic pitching coach in the future. Now onto other deals… 
The first deal the Rays made was trading Aki (to dump his payroll) for Jesse Chavez (who was going to sure up the ‘pen). Now the Rays have dealt Chavez to the Braves for Rafael Soriano (who makes much more than Aki did). I’m confused. Don’t get me wrong, I am not upset that Soriano is a Ray. 
The dude is a flame thrower and a legit closer. Nothing is as exciting as having a guy in the bullpen that can hit triple digits and get the ball over the plate in the late innings. If they use JP Howell (around 80 MPH) to set him up, his 98 MPH fastball will look like 105. For this year (2010) I think that the Braves are in a better situation with the more experienced Billy Wagner, but having Soriano in St. Pete is exciting. What confuses me is I thought the Rays were trying to dump payroll, not pick it up. RS will make six and a half million this year. That isn’t completely out of line for a guy who struck out 102 batters in 75 innings-he is an exciting player to watch. He may put more fans in the seats and fans that show up might stay for the whole game with a legit and exciting closer in wait. It just isn’t congruent with their idea of value over quality. If money isn’t an object than why were Kazmir, Jackson, Akinori and Hammel dealt?
The Rays will have a decent battle for the starting rotation this spring, a good battle for the starting second baseman job, the right field spot and hopefully the role of designated hitter. I would be thrilled if they were able to move Pat Burrell, but I don’t want to see them have to dump a key player or prospect to do so. Baltimore may be the only team dumb enough to take (and afford) him and I really like the Orioles. Seems like the Yankees could afford him though-maybe trade him straight up for Eric Hinske? Anyway, I am glad to have a closer-Soriano wasn’t on my radar or wish list, but I think he has a good arm in the few games I saw him pitch (on TV) and I am pleased with his acquisition. If they can stumble through the remainder of the offseason, not trade any of their nucleus and perhaps find a sucker, I mean taker, for Pat Burrell, I would be elated.
I have held one before-I can distinctly remember looking at one that was priced at 50 dollars many years ago. I would have jumped at it, but I was about 48 dollars short and my Mom didn’t want to advance my next years allowance to me, so I didn’t get it. I did purchase a Star Company rookie of MJ’s and sold it for a profit and then invested all of that money into an ’84 Topps Traded Dwight Gooden card. I wasn’t meant to make money at this hobby-ever. Dayf also mentioned Jerry Rice’s 1986 Topps card as the most iconic football rookie. This is not the blog to host that discussion, but I encourage another blog to pick that one up because it could be an exciting topic to argue. I would vote for the ’89 Score Barry Sanders (which I also invested a lot of money in). Like I said, card collecting isn’t and should never have been an investment for me. He chose the 1980 Wayne Gretzky in the hockey department. Captain Canuck was the first to nominate Gretzky, so he ended with 2 votes. That is pretty impressive for a hockey card to get multiple mentions in a baseball card contest. I guess that is why they call him the great one. The last card that dayf picked was Adam Bomb from Garbage Pail Kids series one. 
I didn’t get on the GPK bandwagon until series 2 and I was always partial to Mark Bark, but I wouldn't argue with dayf's pick of Adam Bomb-that card was and is huge. Okay, back to baseball…. Before I name the Top-5 vote getters I wanted to mention those that didn’t get any votes… The Big-3 from ’83 did not receive any nominations. Wade Boggs, Ryne Sandberg and Tony Gwynn were 3 of the most coveted rookie cards when I entered the hobby, this was surprising. Jose Canseco and his ’86 Fleer and Donruss cards were huge! I think there was a time when the Donruss was selling for over 100 bucks, very surprised that Canseco didn’t garner votes. The 1984 Don Mattingly did get some love, but in ’84 the bigger cards (in my neighborhood at least) were Ron Kittle and Darryl Strawberry. These were the first cards that really cemented the idea that you could open a pack of cards that you bought for 50 cents and turn around sell one of those cards for 4 dollars. It blew my nine year old mind. The big rookies from ’85 weren’t mentioned either and this surprised me because these 4 cards went through the roof price wise and people went crazy over them-I am speaking of Roger Clemens, Eric Davis, Kirby Puckett and Doc Gooden. 
Okay, moving on…
He was 5 cards deep with the Topps and Fleer. Placing 4th with 4 votes is the 1985 Topps card of Mark McGwire on Team USA. MM was a non-factor on the team and was supposedly a last minute inclusion in the set. I had several copies of this card and sold them at the right time-perhaps the only time I made money at this. My ex-wife promptly blew my profits on something stupid, so in the end I lost. Anyway, it is still an iconic card-according to this vote; it is the 4th most iconic card of the 1980’s. In third place is the most iconic 3-panel rookie card of the decade. I think that if the vote was for the most iconic player and not rookie card, this man would have won. He brought America back to baseball and in a lot of ways he saved the sport. McGwire and Sosa did the same thing, but then ruined it all. This guy was all class as a player and as a citizen. When I found out I had an exclusive interview with this man, I threw up. I got through the interview without throwing up, but was completely star struck and really wasted the opportunity AND I broke all the rules of ethics by asking him for an autograph. I haven’t done it since, but I don’t regret it-he’s Cal Freaking Ripken and his ’82 Topps card takes third place. In second place is the greatest player of all time (in his opinion at least). 
Looking back this may be the best rookie card of the 80’s, but in 1980 the hobby was still very much underground. I don’t think that this card brought the national attention or notoriety that the Mattingly, McGwire, Canseco or Griffey rookies did. I don’t think that is a bad thing though. All that notoriety caused prices to skyrocket (temporarily) and caused the mass overproduction of everything for nearly a decade. I think that Henderson deserves an award for NOT ushering in the junk wax era. Well, I have cited the cards voted from fifth to 2nd place, you can probably guess the winner by now… This card did change the hobby-it launched a new company that was at the top of the game for twenty years. This card has been the face of that company for that long, too. All of Upper Decks success started with Griffey and they rode that train for 20 years. Griffey didn't rewrite the record books like Upper Deck predicted, but he still has had a great career even though he didn’t break Hank Aaron’s record. KG Jr's career is almost up and Pete Rose is still the hit king and Griffey doesn’t have a ring for every finger, but he is still a first ballot Hall of Famer whenever he decides to call it quits and he launched a card company that stood in against the big 3 and outlasted two of them. The Most Iconic Rookie Card of the 1980’s is Upper Deck card # 1 of the 1989 Upper Deck set. 
It was literally the first Upper Deck ever, Ken Griffey Jr. You voted for it Blog-O-Sphere and so it is, the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Junior card #1 is the most iconic rookie card of the 80’s. Thanks to everyone who voted! You probably want to know now which name was yanked from the hat this morning. The drawing was done as soon as the wife woke up, while I was still up from the night before (insomnia sucks) and the drawing was done before makeup and a shower so photos were not permitted. This is the name that was pulled. 
If this is your screen name, please comment here with the card that you select. I will get it in the mail for you on Monday. Thanks to everyone for playing along, for voting, for reading this blog and for all of your comments and feedback on the previous post. As for the ad question… They will not return until the 2 readers who were upset say they are okay with it (at least one of them) and I receive a check from Google for the money they owe me. Once the season begins and traffic increases I am considering bigger ad offers. Another blogger has recommended Yard Barker and I am considering them, does anyone else have any advice? If I can get a decent ad offer then I can spend more time covering spring training-maybe get some good pictures, perhaps do some interviews, we will see. Again thanks to everyone who participated in the vote. Congrats to the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. card for being voted as the Most Iconic Rookie Card of the 1980s and congrats to Wicked Ortega. Sorry to Beardy-I think this is the ONLY blog that you haven’t won a contest on… Before I sign off I thought I would remind y'all to check out my wantlists. 
I am slowly going through the 600 Rays cards that Joe sent me and the 
I think it stands at only 24 votes so far and right now the first great rookie of the decade and the last one are in a neck and neck race for the finish. I speaking of course about the 1980 Topps Rickey Henderson being locked up with the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey Jr. PLEASE 
Speaking of contests… As you may or may not know, I am a part of the panel that will be voting and selecting the winners in this years inaugural blogger awards. The awards are being hosted by Drew from 
One of the awards is the Blogger Rookie of the Year. The perquisite is that your blog was started on January 1, 2009 or later. The voting isn’t opened up for this just yet, but I am going to ask you all to start thinking about it. I hope to be able to “host” this particular award (that has yet to be decided) but I am interested in getting some talk going on it. 
I personally started my blog in May of 2009 (so I believe that I would qualify…) and most all of you were here when I got here. What I am asking for right now is some suggestions or at the very least some names of blogs that would qualify. Feel free to comment with your own blog, or suggest some others that you know were started in 2009. I think this is a pretty great award idea, but again I am ignorant as to when everyone started their blogs, so PLEASE comment here with the names of some blogs that were born in 2009. 
Thanks in advance dear blog-o-sphere! Oh, if you wanna get the wheels turning-some of the other blogger awards will include Blog of the Year (MVP!), Most Generous Trader, Biggest Box Breaker (another one I might need some suggestions for), Most Creative Blogger and Coolest Blog Design. Go Rays! With the acquisition of Kelly Shoppach we will be unstoppable! By the by… The cards scanned in this post don’t have any actual relevance to this topic-well not really… They are all former Rookies of the Year (and mainly bad-ass cards) and that is what I am looking for help with. So once more so we are clear... 
These aren't nominations, just mentions so I know who qualifies. You can list thirty blogs including your own as long as they were started in 2009. If you have any questions or input, please contact 
