Card #11: 1991 Score #793

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Score
SET: Score
NUMBER: 793
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Similar to the 1991 Topps card, this one also features Alomar going after a pop fly, but the action is not quite as prevalent.  This is apparently an uncorrected error card because "Indian's" should say "Indians'"  Yeah, big deal.  Anyway, Score always had a lot of great photography and this card is certainly no different.  It was the fourth 1991 Score card out of five that I have gotten.

Card #10: 1990 Score #577

YEAR: 1990
BRAND: Score
SET: Score
NUMBER: 577
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: San Diego Padres

My tenth Alomar card was my first Padres card.  I got the complete 1990 Score set for my birthday in 1992, which was a set I wanted because I still needed a lot of Red Sox from the set, as well as the Alomar.  Besides, it was pretty cheap.  I like the catcher's equipment on this card, it will be a little unusual in Padres cards of Alomar.  The shade is a little obnoxious though, you can barely see his face.  I do like the nice blue border, it fits the team color scheme reasonably well.

Card #9: 1991 Topps #165

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 165
SUBSET: All Star Rookie
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I remember getting this in a repack box I got for my birthday.  The Red Sox only had one card in the box I needed, a 1990 Topps Carlos Quintana, but this card came out.  I am sure that this card was the one that lead to me starting the single player collection of Alomar.  1991 Topps had a lot of terrific photography in the set, and this is no different.  Alomar is chasing a pop foul in a type of shot you just do not see too often.  Add to that the All Star Rookie trophy and this is an impressive card.

The Last Huge Mailday...For Awhile

Yes you read that title correctly.  I have been on a massive binge lately, buying several large lots, getting one much-appreciated trade with Baseball Dad, and buying up a bunch of commons from some online stores.  Now all of that must slow down.  To begin with, I now have most (not quite all) of Alomar's base cards, so all that would be left would be inserts, parallels, and minor league cards.  Alomar only has about 1200 or so cards out there and I now have nearly 500.  Yes there are still plenty out there and I will continue adding to my collection, but things need to slow a little bit or there won't be much left to chase.

So then, here is the latest huge batch of cards:

Some minor league sightings here, all three with the Las Vegas Stars, the AAA affiliate of the Padres at the time.  Alomar won the Minor League Player of the Year twice in a row.  I really like the Pinnacle parallels, so I had to have the 1994 card.

Here we have the first new card from my Top 10 wantlist, fourth card in the scan.  You can kind of tell that it is die-cut.  I would love to add one of the 1997 Flair Showcase Masterpiece 1/1s.

And the Bowman Heritage Chrome is another card from the Top 10.  The Prism base leaves me needing two parallels to complete that run.

The first two cards of this scan are also from my Top 10.  So a lot of stuff coming off that list with this stuff.  I love the Family Tree card showing Sandy in an Indians uniform but a White Sox logo and Roberto in a Mets uniform.  I have a lot of cards with both Alomars with the Padres and some with Indians/Blue Jays, but this is the first White Sox/Mets, probably the only one.

The Fleer Tradition is yet another that features a closeup of Alomar in his catcher's mask, that is a common shot for him for some reason.

I got the Atomic Refractor in a sale on a forum along with a nice Xander Bogaerts.  The autograph is the fifth card from my Top 10.

So maildays will be slower from now on.  This was a great package to go out on.

Card #8: 1991 Score #694

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Score
SET: Score
NUMBER: 694
SUBSET: Rifleman
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Here is one of my first favorite cards of Alomar.  It is a very 1990's-looking card with the neon green explosion behind Alomar.  There were other similar subsets in this set, with the Rifleman set highlighting position players with strong throwing arms.  Alomar at this time was able to throw out base runners from his knees.  Rifleman indeed.

The Largest Alomar Mailday Ever...

It was an epic mailday.  59 new cards today in four packages.  That is huge.  Well, one package was huge.  The others three were much smaller, but still important.

The first two cards were from a 1999 Starting Lineup Classic Doubles package which featured a card and figure of Alomar with the Indians and a card and figure with the Wichita Pilots, a minor league team formerly in the San Diego Padres system that Alomar played for in 1987.  The card is pretty clearly actually showing Alomar with the Indians, as can be told by the receding hairline and aged features, he actually looks younger on the Indians card, which is apparently a photo negative (note the backwards Indians logo on the hat).  Weird stuff.  I only need two more Alomar Starting Lineups, a One-on-One with Ken Griffey, Jr. and a 1990 Award Winners piece with Barry Bonds, Doug Drabek, Rickey Henderson, David Justice, and Bob Welch.

The Cracker Jack was the second package.  The next five Broder cards were the third package.  Finally the fourth package was a Just Commons order in which I picked up pretty much everything they had that I needed. 

The fifth card is the glossy parallel available only in complete sets.  I like the Ultra card with Roberto sitting with his older brother.  It is pretty clear just how much bigger Sandy was than Roberto.  He was several inches taller and significantly heavier.  The 2002 Fleer is the Gold Back version.  I love just about any card focusing on Sandy's amazing 1997 All Star Game.  The last card in the scan is one such card.

The third card is from 1991 O-Pee-Chee.   We have a nice action shot of Alomar sliding into third.  There are not a lot of cards that feature Alomar on the bases.  He was not exactly a burner.

The scan is bad but the one in the middle is the gold refractor version of 2002 Topps Traded. 

The Pinnacle Museum Collection is a post-play-at-the-plate featuring Ken Griffey Jr. 

Nice play-at-the-plate shots of Alomar with Paul Molitor on 1994 Score.  We also have Alomar diving for an errant thrown on 1994 Ultra.  Kind of an awkward picture, but interesting.  With the addition of the Tiffany card of Alomar's 1996 Fleer, I now have all of the variations of that card, except the regular base card.  Alomar looks annoyed in the 1996 Ultra card.

Finally, another picture of Alomar playing with a camera.  He is playing with a different camera on his 1997 New Pinnacle card.

Card #7: 1991 Stadium Club #61

YEAR: 1991
BRAND: Topps
SET: Stadium Club
NUMBER: 61
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Stadium Club seemed to me to be an incredibly high-end product in 1992.  I was just ten, going on eleven at the time and it was an ultra-premium brand.  So it was pretty rare for me to get any Stadium Club cards.  Packs seemed exorbitantly expensive, and even commons were fairly pricey.  Like with many of my early cards, I don't recall how I got this one, but I think I probably got it in a trade with my older brother, who mowed yards for people and had a little bit of spending money.  Enough likely to be able to buy packs of Stadium Club.  I do think I was definitely collecting Alomar at this time, though probably not as a single player collection yet.  I always liked the picture of the Topps rookie card on the back of the cards.  I knew which card I needed to find to have Alomar's rookie card this way.  It is a nice action shot, but definitely not one of the better pictures that the inaugural set became known for.

Shiny Happy Prism

Just one card today, and boy did it scan badly.  I had one of these for Carlos Quintana a long time ago, and still do obviously.  This is a nice addition to the Alomar collection.

Card #6: 1992 Fleer #103

YEAR: 1992
BRAND: Fleer
SET: Fleer
NUMBER: 103
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I am almost positive that I was collecting Alomar by this point, and it is even likely that I traded for this card.  I always kind of liked the color of this set.  It was certainly a surprise after the bright yellow of the 1991 set.  Alomar had a couple of cards in this set, the second one will come up later.  This was the base version and it was fairly typical, showing Alomar stepping into his swing.

A White Sox Triple Bat Card, Some Oddballs, and Some 90's Parallels

Some major stuff to show off that came in today.  I love it when my post office box is full of padded envelopes.

That first card is without a doubt one of my favorite cards in my player collection.  A triple bat card showing Alomar with the White Sox is just something that you don't see too often.  Frank Thomas and Magglio Ordonez are also on the card, but you know Alomar is my favorite here.

The Dodgers card came in a big trade that got me a lot of Red Sox.  This was the only new Alomar in the package, though it did have a couple of duplicates.  The 2006 Upper Deck is the only card showing him with the Dodgers, of course it has a large number of parallels as well.  This is my third variation of this card.

The rest of the cards from this scan are a variety of oddballs, including Broder cards.  I like the 1990 Donruss Learning Series.

The first eight cards came from one Beckett store where my intention was to add a bunch of 90's parallels.  I like the Prism cards in particular.  Unfortunately 1999 Prism did not have nearly as many parallels as 2000 Prism.  There are still three variations of this card I need.

The little card is a Humpty Dumpty oddball.  I did take it out of the packaging.