Showing posts with label Mike Mussina. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mike Mussina. Show all posts

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Still Tearing up Wrappers... Pack #23 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press

We are all the way up to pack #23 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press… I am on a roll folks! It is a brisk 29 degrees out here in the parking lot at work, but I just exited the rest room which has one of those forced air hand dryer/warmer thingies so I am ready! Here we go:
#56 Ken Caminiti San Diego Padres (Talk about a career year… 1996 brought Caminiti these numbers-.326, 40 homers and 130 RBI. He won a Gold Glove, Silver Slugger, was an All Star and won the NL MVP Award. Never again did he come close to those stats, but 2 writers chose him on their HOF ballots in 2007-I suppose he does beat David Segui-in addition, I will say this card showing him swinging from the left and right side is pretty sweet!)
#74 Mike Mussina Baltimore Orioles (I hadn’t seen a Moose card in years and he appears in consecutive packs… I scanned the back of this one to show how poorly a great pitcher could pitch in 1996. 19 wins with a .275 batting average against and a 4.81 ERA? That WAS the mid-90s)
#80 Gary Sheffield Florida Marlins (The Fish were Sheff’s 3rd team, he is up to 8 now… His 1996 numbers were just as grand as everyone else-.314/42/120)
#28 Dante Bichette Colorado Rockies (Dante only had 31 bombs, but he drove in 141, which still wasn’t enough to lead the NL-oh, sorry about the sloppy scans...)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card Bernard Gilkey New York Mets
#77 Travis Fryman Detroit Tigers (Travis drove in 100 runs in ’96 and didn’t crack the top-20)
#97 Joey Hamilton San Diego Padres
#123 Vladimir Guerrero Montreal Expos (He’s a Ranger now, he was an Expo then)
That was quick! Now I just to post 13 more of these and I am done with X Press! On that note, I might be done for the night... Troll out!

Monday, January 11, 2010

Ripping Pack 22 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press-Warning, Pictures of Pitchers May Follow!

After ripping this pack I was a little shocked, so shocked that I felt it should have had a warning label on it. Get on the ball Pinnacle; this is the year of the slugger! Had they been more on top of things I might have read this prior to ripping… Warning: This pack may contain cards of pitchers, more than 1!
Now that everyone is prepared for the horror of it all, its pack #22 of 1997 Pinnacle X Press…
#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)
#??? Swing for the Fences Game Card- -7
#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!)
#139 Ken Griffey Jr Peak Performers Seattle Mariners (Okay, the first 4 out of 5 cards were pitchers, ya had to know a slugger was hiding around the corner)
#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)
Okay, another pack down, I have a few more hours before I am off to work and then school and then work again, so I am gonna keep this thing in motion… till the next one, which will be pack #16 of 1994 Pinnacle, Troll out!-Wait, troll not yet out... There will be a mini contest attached to the next rip which will be up in about 2 hours, so stay tuned...now, TROLL OUT!!!!!!!!!