Long time no blog. My apologies (who am I apologizing to?). I’ve been short on both time and cards of late, thus, no blog posts. And while I’ve had a few TTMs trickle in, nothing that I simply had to blog about.
I don’t have the luxury of a LCS and the dearth of product available through retail is well documented (I can’t even find Fairfield repacks these days). To top it off COMC has basically stopped shipping orders, so the well is dry. But I had an itch to open packs, and I have an itch to write something so… I’ll force it.
There is a sports memorabilia store at the local mall that doesn’t typically sell cards. But I took a stroll while my wife made a Sephora run, and noticed they had a few overpriced packs near the register.
Their inventory:
- 2020 Topps Big League (retail packs) -- $4
- 1988 Topps -- $2
- 1992 Donruss Series 1 -- $2
- 1992 Donruss Series 2 -- $2
I grabbed one of each of the two Donruss packs because I am that desperate to open something.
I pulled a Thome rookie, a Joe Carter Diamond Kings card, and a couple others that made me smile, but what I like about this set is the Highlights cards.
1991 was the first year I followed the goings-on of the MLB season. I have a false memory of watching the latter innings of Nolan Ryan’s 7th no-hitter with my father. I’m now sure it’s a false memory, because the game would have ended after my bedtime. Must have watched the highlights.
I am certain that I watched Rickey Henderson break Lou Brock’s stolen base mark (the same day!).
Anyways, the highlights cards in Series 1 and 2 Donruss were a nice trip down memory lane. And I had no memory of this particular event:
The card features Hall of Famers Goose Gossage and Nolan Ryan, teammates in ’91, for the unlikely occurrence of reaching large, uneven numbers for their respective categories in the same game.
Ryan notched career win number 308, and Gossage career save 308 in the same game.
On July 23, 1991 – so the card tells us – Ryan went seven innings against the Boston Red Sox, departing with a 5-4 lead. Gossage came on with two outs in the eighth and nailed down the win.
For Goose, it was his first save in nearly two years – he pitched 1990 in Japan. It was his only save of the 1991 season, and he’d record just two more (one in 1993 with the A’s and one more in 1994 with the Mariners) before the second man to eclipse the 300 mark retired.
Ryan retired after the 1993 season with 324 wins
I love that Donruss highlighted this bizarre coincidence and squeezed two legends onto one piece of cardboard.
Geez, those are some expensive packs! Interesting factoid on that Gossage/Ryan card, one that I probably won't remember, but still neat.
ReplyDeleteP.S. It's good to see a new post from you again :)