1993 O-Pee-Chee Phillies

You know how some events in your life always remain in your memory, in almost perfect detail, like the birth of your first child, or when you finally passed your driver's exam?  For some goofy reason, I can remember the first time I saw cards from the 1993 O-Pee-Chee set. I don't remember the date but I remember where. I was with my family at the Oxford Valley Mall in the Philadelphia suburbs. Out in front of the Woolworth's store they had a table of items for sale. Among them were packs of 1993 O-Pee-Chee. I'd seen O-Pee-Chee cards before this at flea markets and card shows but I don't think I'd seen an actual pack for sale. So naturally I had to buy a few packs and open them immediately. To my surprise, they had an original design! They didn't look like 1993 Topps cards in any way. I know, weird story.

Anyway, 1993 was the first year that O-Pee-Chee published their own designed baseball cards. They also had a second set that year, O-Pee-Chee Premier.

Recently I've been looking through my list of needed 1993 Phillies cards. I managed to find the 14-card Phillies set on eBay.  1993 was, of course, that the improbable Phillies made it to the World Series, only to be defeated by the Blue Jays in 6. Here are some of the cards from the O-Pee-Chee set.

Rookie Amaro only played 25 games for the 1993 Phillies and did not appear in any of the playoff games. He was traded to the Indians before the 1994 season. Today, of course, Amaro is the Phillies General Manager and is taking a lot of heat for the performance of the 2014 Phillies, a team he largely built.

Daulton was the Phillies leader in 1993. He had 2 home runs and 7 rbis in the playoffs.

Duncan had 10 hits (a .345 average) in the World Series.

Dykstra, as the lead off man, had a fabulous year in 1993, leading the league in hits, runs scored, at bats, and walks. In the World Series, he probably would have been the MVP if the Phillies had won.

Green had a 16-4 record for the 1993 Phillies but he got shelled in his only World Series start, 2.1 innings pitched, 7 earned runs.

Hollins was an All-Star in 1993 but didn't have much impact in the playoffs.

Kruk batted .316 in 1993 and was also an All-Star. He did pretty well in the playoffs as well, hitting .348 in the World Series.

Wild Thing had 43 saves in 1993 with an ERA of 3.34. What he's mostly remembered for is giving up the walk-off home run to Joe Carter which won the Series for the Blue Jays.

Schilling lost the first game of the World Series after giving up 6 earned runs in an 8-5 defeat. He came back to win the 5th game with a complete game, 5-hit shutout.

Random Cards From My Collection #39

Card #20194
1990 Reading Phillies ProCards #1220 Mark Sims

Comments on the card: Enormous minor league set put out by ProCards. Nice design. Pretty much all of the cards featured the players posed rather than action shots.
When acquired: Don't know but I have the entire Phillies set.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: The Phillies minor league system was abysmal then. This guy was their 32nd round pick in 1982. Never made it to the majors.

Card #26751
2011 Topps Gypsy Queen #118 Mike Pelfry

Comments on the card: The first year (of 2) for Gypsy Queen. I like this set better than 2012. The 2013 set is due out on April 1.
When acquired: 2011
How acquired: Paid $0.44/card for 4 rack packs. I eventually bought a hobby box.
Player's season: Mike was 15-9 for the Mets in 2010 but only 7-13 in 2011.

Card # 22464
2003 Topps 205 #9 Edgardo Alfonzo

Comments on the card: One of my favorite sets from the first decade of the 21st century.
When acquired: 2010
How acquired: Paid $0.33/card for a hobby box on eBay
Player's season: Edgardo signed an $18 million, 3-year contract with the Giants prior to the 2003 season. His first season with the Giants seems to have been a disappointment as he batted only .258, almost 50 points off his 2002 season.

Card #32954
1993 Topps #350 Joe Carter

Comments on the card: The second year that Topps went with white card stock like all the other companies were doing. A radical change in design of the back, with a color player photo and a vertical layout. I always liked this set.
When acquired: Don't know but probably in 1993.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season:1993 was another All-Star year for Joe as he led the Blue Jays to their second consecutive World Series. He hit a dramatic 3-run homer Game 6 off the Phillies Mitch Williams, clenching the Series for the Jays. I'll always remember where I was when that happened.

Card #20769
1993 Triple Play # 125 Mitch Williams

Comments on the card: One of many failed attempts by baseball card companies (this time Donruss) in the 1990s to get kid to buy cards.
When acquired: Don't know but probably in 1993.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: Being the nerd I am, I actually use a random number generator in Excel to pick cards and I swear that this is the next card it picked. The Wild Thing had 43 saves for the Phillies in 1993, but just couldn't lock down Game 6. The Phillies traded him to the Astros in December and he was never really an effective reliever again.

Card #35973
1988 Fleer #642 Damon Berryhill/Jeff Montgomery

Comments on the card: I never much cared for this set and didn't buy much of it. It is well represented in repacks these days.
When acquired: 2012
How acquired: Speaking of repacks, that's where I got this. Paid $0.07/card for a Fairfield Extreme Value Pack which had 12 assorted packs, with 160 cards.
Player's season: Berryhill got in 95 games in his rookie year with the Cubs, batting .259, good enough to place 6th in ROY voting. Montgomery spent 1988 with the Royals where he was 7-2 with 1 save. He will go on to get another 303 saves in his career.

Card #20739
1993 Ultra #93 Ben Rivera

Comments on the card: One of the so-called 'super premium' sets of the early 1990s before pretty much all cards featured glossy finishes and gold foil. 
When acquired: Don't know
How acquired: Don't know
Player's season: Randomness pulls up another 1993 Phillies card. Ben had the best season of his career (as did many Phillies that year), going 13-9.

Card #37152
2013 Topps #168 Kyle Farnsworth

Comments on the card: In my opinion, one of the best Topps designs in years.
When acquired: 2013
How acquired: Paid $0.15/card for a 72-card rack-box at Target.
Player's season: Farnsworth only pitched 27 innings for the Rays in 2012, which works out to about $120,000 per inning. He's signed again with the Rays but at less than half in 2012 salary.

Card #3517
1997 Ultra Fame Game #18 Eddie Murray

Comments on the card: This 18-card insert set was seed 1:8 in 1997 Series 2 Ultra. The holographic foil on FAME is pretty cool
When acquired: Don't know
How acquired: Don't know, but it's the only one from the set I have
Player's season: Eddie appeared in 46 games for the Angels before being released in April 1997. He played 9 more games for the Dodgers and retired after the season. Not a great finish to a Hall Of Fame career.

Card #16275
2007 Upper Deck #696 Logan Kensing

Comments on the card: The side borders on this set really make the cards look awkward. The backs are dull. I think if you're going to put a photo on the back it should be different than the front.
When acquired: Don't know but probably in 2007.
How acquired: Don't know
Player's season: Logan was 3-0 for the Marlins in 2007 in relief. Can't say I remember him.

Random Cards From My Collection #37

Card #7825
1997 Bowman's Best Cuts Atomic Refractor #7 Jeff Bagwell

Bowman's Best was a Topps brand in the lat 1990's. They recently reintroduced the name as an insert in Bowman and Atomic Refractors are back! These were a hard pull and I had never seen one until I bought this one on eBay in 2007.

Card #5181
1999 Fleer Tradition Update #150 Robin Ventura

Imagine, hitting grand slam home runs in consecutive games. Now imagine those games are part of the same double header. That's what Robin Ventura did on May 20, 1999. As of 1999, the only time such a thing was ever done. I'll bet that the feat hasn't been repeated. A Player I Collect.

Card #6851
2003 Topps Shoebox #78 Dale Murphy

A nice set of reprints from the Topps. Only available as a box set, the set came packaged in a facsimile shoe box.

Card #15396
2007 Topps #659 Angel Berroa/Andres Blanco

From the Classic Combos subset from the dreadful Topps 2007 flagship set.

Card #17258
2002 Fleer Tradition Update #313 Manny Ramirez

Fleer Tradition was printed on heavy brown card stock with a minimum of gloss finish on the front.

Card #34054
1991 Fleer #516 Mike Simms

1991 Fleer - the proximate cause of the great shortage of yellow printing ink in 1991.

Card #5377
2003 Fleer Showcase #103 Nolan Ryan

A nice set from Fleer featuring current and past players. Nolan Ryan is a Player I Collect no matter who's uniform he's wearing.

Card #19753
2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Prospects #91 Scott Campbell

Campbell was born and raised in New Zealand but somehow managed to be the Blue Jays #10 pick in 2006. In 2009 he advanced from single A, to double A and then to triple AAA but then disappeared.

Card #4224
1997 Fleer Million Dollar Moments #23 Don Larsen

 These were contest cards in Fleer products in 1997 and 1998. I consider this a legit insert card because the cards feature baseball players and are clearly part of a set of 50 cards. That $1,000,000 sure would have come in handy!

Card #20744
1993 Team Stadium Club #14 Curt Schilling

For a couple of years in the mid-1990s, Topps produced these Team Stadium Cards. They have a completely different design than the regular issue cards. They were available in team sets in blister packs in retail stores. I probably got this at Toys R Us.