“The 88 Games Caught as a teenager by Ivan in 1991 were exceeded in baseball annals only once.  Frankie Hayes (at age 19) caught 89 Games with A’s in 1934.”

1993 Topps Series 1:

1. #331 Kenny Lofton (Topps All-Star Rookie)
2. #103 Jody Reed
3. #329 Mike Maddux
4. #135 Mickey Tettleton
5. #357 Phil Stephenson
6. Gold #108 Jose Lind
7. #360 Ivan Rodriguez
8. #98 Derek Jeter (Draft Pick)
9. #60 Roberto Kelly
10. #369 Jaime Navarro
11. #48 Bert Blyleven
12. #149 Rheal Cormier
13. #46 Eric Fox
14. #30 Fred McGriff
15. #307 Dan Serafini (Draft Pick)

Oh yeah, and I also got a Derek Jeter rookie card… not featured today because it’s the second one I pulled.  I pulled my first Jeter rookie card on March 10, 2009.

“J. was signed as a third round Draft selection of the Twins, June 12, 1990 by Scout Cal Ermer.  He graduated from Glen Este (Cincinnati) High School where he participated in baseball, football, swimming, & karate.”

The “J” stands for “Jayhawk”.  Jayhawk Owens was a minor league manager after his playing career until 2007, when he was fired from his manager position with the Chattanooga Lookouts.

1993 Topps Series 2:

1. #708 Greg Olson
2. #562 Bob Zupcic
3. #468 Matt Whiteside
4. #457 Tracy Woodson
5. #443 Terry Leach
6. #737 Wilson Alvarez
7. #611 Tom Gordon
8. #446 Luis Mercedes
9. #470 Rob Dibble
10. Gold #606 J. Owens
11. #681 Darren Holmes
12. #530 Sterling Hitchcock
13. #676 Rudy Seanez
14. #518 Benji Grigsby (Draft Pick) (Rookie)
15. #787 Mike Matthews (Draft Pick) (Rookie)

Tom Glavine is the clear leader of this match-up.  By the All-Star break in 1992, Tom Glavine was 13-3 with a 2.57 ERA and 78 Strikeouts.  Dave Fleming was 11-3 with a 3.20 ERA and 56 Strikeouts.

1993 Topps Series 2:

1. #587 Manny Alexander
2. #441 Todd Pridy/Don Lemon (Future Stars)
3. #817 Bobby Jones (Coming Attraction)
4. #814 Scooter Tucker (Coming Attraction)
5. #642 Milt Hill
6. Gold #410 Dave Fleming/Tom Glavine (Topps All-Stars)
7. #400 Bo Jackson
8. #731 Donald Harris
9. #608 Bill Doran
10. #584 Casey Candaele
11. #665 Darrin Fletcher
12. #730 Charles Nagy
13. #640 Doc Gooden
14. #527 Mike Fetters
15. #492 Tom Lampkin

“Graduated from Trinity (Manchester, NH) High School in 1978 where he played baseball, football, hockey and soccer.  Attended University of Lowell (Mass.) 3 years playing baseball and hockey.”

1993 Topps Series 1:

1. Gold #54 Mike LaValliere
2. #246 Gregg Olson
3. #78 Greg Harris
4. #20 Tim Salmon
5. #219 Bip Roberts
6. #316 Dave Nilsson
7. #212 Rick Reed
8. #287 Mike Gallego
9. #143 Jeff Huson
10. #70 Roberto Hernandez
11. #101 Jim Bullinger
12. #65 Brett Butler
13. #236 Kevin Campbell
14. #89 Eric Anthony
15. #83 Reggie Sanders (Topps All-Star Rookie)

1993 Topps Series 2:

1. #701 Mike Piazza/Brook Fordyce/Carlos Delgado/Donnie Leshnock (Prospects)
2. #419 Mark Thompson (Draft Pick) (Rookie)
3. #575 Monty Fariss
4. #629 Cris Carpenter
5. #664 Calvin Jones
6. Gold #425 Joe Girardi
7. #639 Mike Bordick
8. #674 Mark Gubicza
9. #496 Reggie Jefferson
10. #414 Juan Guerrero
11. #646 Rich Scheid (Rookie)
12. #707 Donn Pall
13. #689 Eddie Zosky
14. #554 Arthur Rhodes
15. #675 Tim Raines

Another crop of early 90′s prospects here.  What became of them?

Mike Piazza went on to play 16 seasons in the Major Leagues and is regarded as one of the best hitting catchers of all time.  He officially announced his retirement in 2008 and ended his career with a .308 career batting average with 427 home runs.  He will likely be inducted into the Hall of Fame someday.

Brook Fordyce played in the Major Leagues 10 seasons and was regarded as a good hitting catcher, especially in the 2000 season when he hit .301 with 14 home runs.  He retired in 2004.

Carlos Delgado is surprisingly still playing baseball in the Boston Red Sox organization.  He is 38 years old and has 473 career home runs.  He probably wants to hit those remaining 27 home runs to reach the 500 club before he retires.

Donnie Leshnock was drafted by the New York Yankees and never made it past the single-A level.

1993 Topps Series 2:

1. #738 Lance Painter
2. #434 Jack Armstrong
3. #412 Jamie McAndrew
4. #516 Alex Arias
5. #409 Greg Maddux/Roger Clemens (All-Stars)
6. Gold #428 Todd Zeile
7. #698 Ted Wood
8. #628 Kelly Gruber
9. #724 Guillermo Velasquez
10. #498 Bud Black
11. #651 Rafael Bournigal
12. #539 Kerry Woodson
13. #751 Eric Hillman
14. #602 Henry Mercedes
15. #725 Billy Hatcher

Maddux vs. Clemens at the 1992 All-Star break looks like a pretty even match-up.  Maddux was 10-8 with a 2.40 ERA and 106 SO, while Clemens was 9-6 with a 2.31 ERA and 120 SO.  While it might look like Clemens has the upper hand according to those numbers, Maddux pitched a couple more innings than Clemens but gave up 11 fewer hits.

1993 Topps Series 2:

1. #723 Kenny Felder (Draft Pick) (Rookie)
2. #425 Joe Girardi
3. #475 Jeff Reardon
4. #606 J. Owens (Rookie)
5. #572 Trevor Hoffman
6. Gold #742 Rene Arocha/Alan Embree/Brien Taylor/Tim Crabtree (Prospects) (Rookie)
7. #727 Jonathan Hurst
8. #713 John Doherty
9. #792 Joe Boever
10. #682 John Candelaria
11. #577 Tim Costo
12. #734 Anthony Young
13. #716 Steve Cooke
14. #779 Rich Monteleone
15. #630 Mark Grace

Let’s see what happened to these starting pitcher prospects:

Rene Arocha was a high-profile defection from Cuba back in 1991.  His career was cut short by injuries and he retired in 1998 at the age of 32.

Alan Embree is a career middle reliever who is currently a 40-year-old relief pitcher for the Boston Red Sox.  He has pitched relief in 878 Major League games since 1992.

Brien Taylor is famously one of the biggest 1st round draft picks to fail.  He hurt himself in a fight in 1993 and never made it to the Majors.

Tim Crabtree was a middle-reliever 1995-2001 and was an integral part of the Texas Rangers bullpen in the late 90′s.

I’ve been opening a lot of packs from 2008 and 2009 lately and I’d like to get back to opening more old wax again.  I wrote a quick pack randomizer spreadsheet function that will randomly pick an old wax pack for me to break whenever I feel up to it.  Today’s random old wax pack is 1993 Topps Series 1:

1. #279 Todd Burns
2. #158 Kevin Koslofski
3. #196 Pat Kelly
4. #199 Junior Ortiz
5. #253 Jose Guzman
6. #74 Steve Buechele
7. #212 Rick Reed
8. #316 Dave Nilsson
9. #219 Bip Roberts
10. Gold #387 Devon White
11. #203 Bernard Gilkey
12. #173 Andres Galarraga
13. #266 Rene Gonzales
14. #171 Doug Jones
15. #311 Jay Howell

Wow, ripping a pack of old-school Topps junk wax really puts card collecting into perspective.  No autos, relics, serial numbers, gimmicks, rainbows, refractors, or any of those “mojo hits” a lot of collectors look for these days.  Just 14 regular base cards and a gold card.

Back in 1993, I would have been really happy to get a Devon White gold card.  He was a 30-year-old 5-time Gold Glove winner and 2-time All-Star at the time.  Unfortunately for Devon, 1993 was pretty much the peak of his career.