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!
23 Chipper Jones Atlanta Braves (the Braves stack is getting TALL!)
#122 Bobby Abreu 1997 Rookie Houston Astros (wow, I had almost forgot that Abreu broke in with the Stros…He just signed another 2 year contract with the Angels and the guy can still score and drive in runs. He swiped 30 bases this past year and has 348 in his career-that’s 6th best active and 108th All Time. His 256 homers are 36th among active players)
#13 Tony Gwynn San Diego Padres (Speaking of great hitters… One of the best, EVER! The first HOFer in this pack)
#14 Eddie Murray California Angels (HOF number 2, the greatest switch hitter of all time! Murray hit 22 homers for the Angels in ’96)
#3 of 20 Andruw Jones Atlanta Braves Melting Pot insert, serial numbered 149/500 (There are 20 cards in the Melting Pot set and they are seeded 1:288 packs-this is a CASE HIT!!!! Numbered to 500 is like being numbered to 5 now. Remember they used to serial number to 20,000 back then. Regardless of whom it is or who gets it, this is a freaking case hit and I am excited!!!)
#81 Jim Edmonds California Angels (Edmonds hit .304 with 27 homers in ’96)
#94 Paul Molitor Minnesota Twins (This is the 3rd HoFer in this pack! Molitor batted .341 in ’96 and drove in 113 runs with only 9 homers. AMAZING!)
and card #707, a four player rookie card featuring Tigers shortstop Allen Trammel and Hall of Famer Paul Molitor!!! 
Again, this was a total and complete surprise so you can only try and imagine the complete elation of your long-winded Troll who was actually rendered speachless. 
With these two cards safely secured in the binder I was down to needing just 4 more cards to finish this set that I started working on over 30 years ago. 
From carrying packs home in my pocket on my bicycle, to discovering proper storage methods, this has been a very long quest for me. The blog-o-sphere has helped immensely! I still need to upgrade a few more cards. I used the checklists as checklists
and I often carried certain cards for good luck. Like card #580 that went in my back pocket before my first non-tee-ball Little League game. I was the leadoff hitter and second baseman on my team. We were the AJ Ahrens Paint Company Yankees and we went on to be city champions. I was 3-5 with a triple in that game. My first at-bat I got on with a bunt base hit and I am certain that I was guided in that at-bat by the man in my pocket, Rod Carew. 
As of 1978 Rod had spent his entire career with the Minnesota Twins and he owned a .335 career batting average and 6, yes SIX batting titles at this point. He has won the crown in 1977 with a .388 average. 
I really can’t believe I still have this card after all these years. I also can’t believe that I remember that game… I don’t think that I will ever get rid of these old cards, but I would like to upgrade them for the sake of the set. I do want to take a moment to thank Dan, Greg, Frank, Louie and anyone else who has helped me along the way. I want to send a huge THANK YOU! to Wicked Ortega for getting me so much closer. That package gave me the two biggest cards in the set and brought me to within 4 cards of completion, but it wasn’t the last package I got from Senor Ortega. I mentioned the package of around 50 Negro League players, 
Roberto Clementes and Rays cards which I still need to post, but he sent another one after that. This package, although it didn’t have quite the same level of star power did include three cards of superstars of their eras. Three All Stars, three more cards that I desperately needed for this set. He sent another package including 6-time All Star Hurler Vida Blue (wearing a shirt that is undeniably his own), 
Nine time All Star and main cog of the Big Red Machine, Dave Concepcion
and another 4 person rookie card, this time featuring Allen Tramell’s double play mate for many years, Lou Whitaker
who was a 5-time All Star himself. This post has said thank you many times, but those thanks are well deserved. Alfredo went above and beyond the call of blogger duty to hook me up with these cards. He didn’t owe me anything in trade, he just knew that I needed them and sent them over and I appreciate it SO MUCH! So, with those 3 cards in tow, I need just 1 more card to finish this set completely. One more card to have each and every card numbered 1 up to 726. Who is this thorn in my side coming between me and the fulfillment of a 30 year long quest? Of course, it is a member of the Boston Red Sox, it is card #295 of 1973 All Star pitcher “Spaceman” Bill Lee. 
Slap this card up on a Wanted poster or slap in it an envelope and send it my way. My card shop doesn’t have it and none of the shops in my general area have it either. It is the only thing standing between me and the completion of a set that I began to collect as a five-year-old. One last thank you to my friend Alredo “Wicked” Ortega and a promise from me that this will be the second to last post on this blog regarding ’78 Topps cards. If and when someone sends me the Spaceman card, I will post it there, otherwise all posts will be relegated to my new blog- 
Troll out.
