1993 Topps #833 Brian Downing

Brian Downing played for 20 years in the Majors. More impressively, he only played for 3 teams during that time. He came up in 1973 with the Chicago White Sox, and stayed with them until the end of the 1977 season when he was traded to the Angels. He remained with the Angels for the majority of his career, only spending the last 2 seasons of his career with the Rangers in 1991 and 1992.

Brian got Topps cards in every set from 1974 to 1992, missing only his sunset card from the 1993 set. He also got into the 1991 Traded set. This 1993 Topps Custom completes Brian's career Topps run.

Some interesting things I learned when researching for this post are that Brian played himself in an episode of 'The Jeffersons' in 1985, and that Brian has some cool cards with him wearing huge glasses in the 1977-1979 Topps sets. I might have to get them on my next COMC order.

I'm hoping to make a page for the 1989 Topps set at some point on Saturday. I'll post the complete checklist as well as templates. Next up is probably the 1990 set. I think I figured that there are at least 80 possible border combinations, with 5 colors (blue, green, orange, purple, and red) for the outside border, and 4 different varieties with each color (dark square on top left, top right, bottom left, and bottom right). When you get past that, then there are 5 colors for the team name and the box with the player name (blue, green, orange, white, and yellow). Each team only has 1 color, but it is still confusing. I think I may just stick with 2-3 different versions for each team. It's amazing the things you learn when making templates. Thanks for checking out my latest card.
-Jeremy