Card #109: 1998 Stadium Club #22

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Topps
SET: Stadium Club
NUMBER: 22
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Stadium Club always had terrific photography and this is no exception.  I really like pictures of Sandy with the hockey-style mask which is featured here.  I also really like photos of the full catchers' gear.  There is not a lot of action here, it is likely that this was a high pop-up that Alomar is indicating.  It would also appear to be pretty cold this day.

Crusade Pt. 2

This is part two of a two part post that you can find on my other blog.  A seller on Ebay recently sold a bunch of random 1998 Donruss Crusade insert cards and I picked up a couple.

Here is the one for this blog:

The Alomar is the card that I focused on from the Ebay seller.  I was willing to pay quite a bit more than I eventually won this card for and decided to put some money towards the Rose.  This makes two out of the three Crusade parallels in my collection.  Oddly, I got the purple version which is numbered out of 100 before this green version that is numbered out of 250.

Just for the hell of it, here is the purple:

The red is numbered out of 25 and will be quite difficult to find I suspect.

Card #108: 1998 Finest #119

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Topps
SET: Finest
NUMBER: 119
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I still do not really understand the clear plastic protectors on these cards.  I get that they are supposed to protect the surface of the cards but it seems like a waste of materials.  I don't think I have ever actually peeled any of them off the cards.  I have no idea why that is.

Promo Lot

I only needed one of these but the price was decent so now I have a bunch of promo cards to add to my Alomar doubles box.  There are possibly a few more of these Star promos still out there so I need to keep my eyes open for more.  I particularly enjoy adding cards of Alomar with the lesser-known teams he played for so adding new Padres cards of him is always fun.  The Padres are the team I have the second-most cards of in my Alomar collection, though it is fairly close with the White Sox.

Card #107: 1997 Donruss Signature #63

YEAR: 1997
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Signature
NUMBER: 63
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This is the base set version from the set in which Alomar had his first autograph cards.  Obviously the autograph cards were the biggest draw but the base set was decent as well.  It was a pretty simple design and Donruss had to know that all people really cared about were the autos.  Alomar's is definitely a nice one, and definitely overshadows this base card.

A Team Checklist

Pacific was always one of my favorite brands as a team collector.  Pacific was focused on Latin players and included a lot of players who did not receive many cards.  Sandy Alomar, as a Latin player, received a number of cards through the years, particularly in 1998 after his terrific 1997 campaign.  This is one of the team checklist cards with a number of players from the team.  Manny Ramirez and David Justice appeared on the front with Omar Vizquel and Jim Thome on the back.

Card #106: 1998 Donruss Elite #54

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Elite
NUMBER: 54
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

After a few years of being an insert set, Donruss started releasing Elite as an actual full set in the mid 1990's.  This was the first year that Sandy Alomar appeared in the set.  The card is very shiny and glossy and definitely the product of the 1990's.  The photography is nice and the colors vivid, but this is ultimately a pretty disposable set.

Card #105: 1998 Topps #278

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 278
SUBSET: World Series
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Sandy Alomar had a terrific performance in the 1997 World Series.  He might have won the MVP had the Indians won the World Series.  This card details his sixth inning home run in Game 2 which helped knot the Series at one game apiece.  He hit .367/.406/.600 in the World Series with two home runs and ten RBIs.

Card #104: 1998 Upper Deck #76

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Upper Deck
NUMBER: 76
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I picked this one up along with several other Alomar cards in one trip to a card shop in another rare instance where I focused on the Alomar collection.  Very rare I should say.  This was at a time when my Nomar Garciaparra collection was surging, so my Alomar collection was kind of shoved to the side.  I love the little factoid along the side, this one commemorating Alomar's incredible 30 game hitting streak in 1997.

Showdown

I got this card along with a bunch of Red Sox from someone on the forums.  I always liked the MLB Showdown stuff.  In particular I liked that the sets included a lot of lesser-known players such as middle relievers and utility players.  Sandy Alomar Jr. qualified at this time in his career.  He was basically a platoon catcher and appeared in very few sets in 2002.  Even better, he is wearing a hockey style facemask.

Card #103: 1998 Collector's Choice #182

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Collector's Choice
NUMBER: 182
SUBSET: Masked Marauders
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Another card that I received in a pack, this one also features the hockey style mask.  I loved these masks.  Unfortunately very few Red Sox ever wore them and even fewer appeared on cardboard.  I really liked the Masked Marauders subset which featured some of the more well-known catchers of the time, and Raul Casanova for some reason.  I was disappointed that no Red Sox made it into the subset, but there were a couple of cameos on this card.  No idea who that is in the background here.

Card #102: 1997 Donruss #314

YEAR: 1997
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Donruss
NUMBER: 314
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This was finally a card that I got in a pack.  It may have been my first Alomar from a pack.  I honestly do not remember how I got my first few but I remember thinking that this was the first time I got an Alomar in a pack when I pulled it.  I love the hockey-style mask and this was my first Alomar card to feature it.  Again, it is a nice shot of Alomar in full catchers' gear.

Glossiness

My first non-Indians Alomar in quite awhile is this glossy version of a nice White Sox base card.  I love the full catchers' gear on the card.  It is serial-numbered out of 200.  As much as I like getting just about any Alomar cards, I really enjoy finding non-Indians.  Unfortunately there seem to be fewer and fewer of them still out there.

Card #101: 1997 Score #173

YEAR: 1997
BRAND: Score
SET: Score
NUMBER: 173
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

As you can see, it is another jump of a couple years.  Yes, my Alomar collection was resurrected for all of one day and one trip to the local card show.  I continued to have struggles getting Alomar cards in packs.  This one was actually pulled by my little brother who was a serious collector of Blue Jays for a few years.  I had a standing agreement to trade him Roberto Alomar cards if he got a Sandy Alomar at one point, though this was probably not still going on in 1997.

Extra Edition

I always liked the Extra Edition parallels from the Sports Illustrated sets.  This one is serial-numbered out of 500 and is my newest card, just received today.  As is typical of the sets, this one features some nice, crisp photography.

Card #100: 1995 Stadium Club #217

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Topps
SET: Stadium Club
NUMBER: 217
SUBSET: Best Seat in the House
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I am not really sure what the Best Seat in the House subset was for.  It does not help that this is one of only two cards from this subset that I have seen, the other being a Mike Greenwell card.  I think it is possible that the subset is supposed to be shots from highly-desired spots in the stadium.  The write-up on the back would seem to support that when it talks about a bird's-eye view of a home run by Alomar off of the Athletics.

Card #99: 1995 Pinnacle #39

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Pinnacle
SET: Pinnacle
NUMBER: 39
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Yet another resurrection card.  This one features the aftermath of a pretty incredible play at the plate that left both players on their back.  Alomar is holding up the ball to indicate he tagged the runner behind him.  That runner is clearly Ken Griffey, Jr.  I am less sure of who the other Mariners player is standing behind them.  Nice photography here.

Card #98: 1994 Select #366

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Score
SET: Select
NUMBER: 366
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Select was intended to be more of a premium brand in 1994 with a glossier finish, no borders, and vibrant colors.  Similar to the 1993 set, Alomar's picture is an extreme closeup of his face with the catchers' mask on, though the mask is not in place over his face and it is not quite as extreme.  This is yet another card from my revival at a card shop which resulted in several new Alomar cards.

Alomar Legacy

This is one of the Legacy parallels from 1997 Flair, numbered to 100.  This is a terrific-looking card.  It makes me wonder what the Masterpiece parallels look like.  One day, hopefully, I will find one, preferably for Alomar, although I would settle for an obscure Red Sox player.  Tim Naehring or Steve Avery would be acceptable.

Card #97: 1994 Upper Deck #415

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Upper Deck
NUMBER: 415
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

1994 saw Upper Deck drastically change their design.  Gone were the white borders that characterized all of their sets from 1989 through 1993.  In addition, a much larger percentage of the cards featured horizontal photography, including the Alomar above.  This is a nice action shot of Alomar after making contact.

Card #96: 1994 Pacific #164

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Pacific
NUMBER: 164
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

My first Pacific card of Alomar is from the 1994 set.  I got this at the same time as a bunch of other Alomar cards, including the previous three cards when my Alomar collection was resurrected.  The Pacific brand has always been a favorite of mine because of their focus on Latin players.  Alomar received a lot of cards in the Pacific sets, though this one was just a standard base card.

Card #95: 1995 Upper Deck #92

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Upper Deck
NUMBER: 92
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I talked quite a bit about this photo when I showed off the Electric Diamond Gold earlier on.  The Red Sox player sliding in is utility man Carlos Rodriguez who had a decent season in 1994 then disappeared.  This is a terrific action shot.  Plays at the plate are frequent in Sandy Alomar Jr.'s catalog and this is definitely one of the better ones.