Sunday, March 7, 2010

Went Looking for Background Action; Found Background Lurkers

I was looking through my cards earlier to try to find cards where the background is more interesting that the foreground, but I ended up with two background lurkers instead. Thought you all might enjoy.

First we have this 1995 Pinnacle. Dan Wilson is looking for the pop up, and is in the center of the card where he belongs.
But sneaking his way in on the right side is the batter.
I have no idea who he is, but I'm curious. Anyone have any idea? His helmet is blue and it's pre-interleague, so I'm going with Jays as a guess for his team. But I have no idea who he is.

Side note: I love that my top picture of the card has a weird glare on the Jays guy. Sort of makes him ghostly, or like Christopher Lloyd in Angels in the Outfield.


Here's the second card, a 1991 Upper Deck Scott Fletcher. At first glance it's just a double play turn, but then you realize who the runner is: Omar Vizquel! Granted, this is long before Omar was an Indians regular/superstar, but it's still cool to see him lurking on a card.
Ah, but that's not all. Flip the card over, and we see Fletcher looking over to first to see how the play ends. And who's that lurking in the background, seemingly grabbing Fletcher's junk? None other than Mr. Robin Yount!
If you were Scott Fletcher, would you be happy with this card? On the one hand you apparently made two great defensive plays, and looked good doing it (especially in the retro uniform on the back). Yet on the other hand, you're clearly the third best player on your own card, which is kind of awkward. And a Hall of Famer's hand is strangely positioned, making it even more awkward.

I think I'd be happy with the card if I was Scott, but I'm curious what you all think. Opinions?

7 comments:

  1. On the Dan Wilson card maybe it's Joe Carter. Looks sorta like him although the angle makes it tough to tell. The uniform looks potentially correct.

    As for the Fletcher card, I doubt if Vizquel will make the Hall of Fame, but if he did, Fletcher would have two HOFers on his base card. I doubt that's happened often.

    Creative post!

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  2. Carter is a good guess - I was thinking in that direction as well. And good point on the HOFers - now I'll have to check my other cards looking for more examples!

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  3. I'm pretty sure the dude in the Dan Wilson card is Marquis Grissom.

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  4. I like the idea, but he was an NLer at the time. So it's not him.

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  5. Your right, it has to be either a Texas Ranger/Kansas City Royal/Toronto Blue Jay.

    However looking at the picture, I don't think it's Joe Carter.

    It could be Devon White.

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  6. Hmmm..maybe. I'm still not convinced though. This is a tricky one for sure hahaha.

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