2 guys whose cards are better than you remember

 A day or so ago, San Jose Fuji did a post about sunglasses on baseball cards. It got me thinking about a post I've been meaning to make for a while. 

There are 2 guys who have some excellent photos on baseball cards. One of them is a well-known guy around the blogosphere. The other has been fairly ignored. Both played the majority of their careers in the '90's. One won a World Series title and was World Series MVP. The other won a few Gold Gloves and appeared in one World Series. 

Let's start with the more well known guy. Kurt Manwaring. I first remember him for being one of the guys I pulled from my first packs of 1992 Topps when I first started getting packs with my own money. I thought his name was 'Man Warning' at first. I never really gave thought to most of his cards until some 20 years later when I joined the blogging community. People have shown some of his cards off, but I don't think anyone really 'collects' him, per se. I'll have to be honest, I probably won't collect either of these 2 guys I'm writing about after I post this, but I've never been hot or cold on either of their teams, and they just don't interest me as someone to collect. That's ok. Perhaps someone reading this who enjoys collecting cards with unique photos will decide to. 

I don't think anyone has really listed out all of the cards that Kurt Manwaring has made appearances on, or has taken the time out to show off all of his cool cards, so I thought I would do so. Keep in mind, these are taken from my collection, and I do not have all of his cards by any stretch, so there are probably a good number of cards I am missing. Here we go.....

First up is Kurt's 1991 Topps card. Just a cool shot of him on his stomach in the dirt trying to corral a wild pitch. His 1992 Donruss card features him in an old-school New York Giants uniform. There is the '92 Topps card I pulled from a pack back in the day. It's a decent photo of him taking off his mask going after a popup, and I think that might be Charlie O'Brien at the plate (can't tell for sure. Many people had mullets in the '90's). '93 Stadium Club gives us a nice posed shot. 1993 Topps has him springing into action. '93 Ultra was taken just before a play at the plate. Another play at the plate is featured in his '94 Collector's Choice card. '94 Topps is a play at the plate without the helmet. Aparently when Kurt is about to get collided into by a runner he opens his mouth wide. His 1995 Pinnacle issue is a beauty, with Expo (and now Reds coach) Freddie Benavides about to get tagged out. The last card is from 1998 Upper Deck, and features snow in the background. This card was written about in a late '90's Beckett magazine, and aparently the photo was taken during one of the first Rockies home series of 1997, and it was snowing during the game. 

But that's not all...Kurt also makes appearances on other players' cards. He is shown on Astro Rafael Ramirez's 1991 Ultra card in a baserunning shot, on the Reds Glenn Braggs's 1992 Upper Deck card applying the tag, and finally, on the back of Astros James Mouton's 1996 Upper Deck card catching a pitch that Mouton aparently didn't like the umpire's call of. 

That's just some of probably more cards of Kurt Manwaring that feature some fun photos on which make me surprised that he isn't in anyones player collection. 

The second person I want to write about is probably more well-known by baseball fans in general, Reds pitcher Jose Rijo. His first major appearance was on a 1984 Topps Traded card, but he didn't really have any unique cards that I noticed until 1994. We'll actually start with a card from 1992 which I didn't have until around 2012 when my brother-in-law gave me some of his old cards. 

His 1992 Stadium Club card is a card of him wearing some funky shades. The 1994 Collector's Choice (Silver Signature) card is the card I thought of when I read Fuji's post. His 1994 Score and Topps cards feature him with a super soaker. I think on many of these cards he is holding the same squirt gun. His 1995 Collector's Choice SE card shows him listening to a teammates heartbeat with a stethoscope (perhaps Hector Carrasco?).  He is shaking hands with a teammate on his 1995 Donruss card. 1995 Pinnacle and 1995 Score show us he hasn't given up the squirtguns a year later, and finally, on the back of his 1992 Upper Deck card, it's just a different photo with the fan kind of peeking out from underneath his leg. Again, I don't own nearly all of Jose's cards, there could be more, and I'm just really surprised with so many cards like these with the unique photos that somebody doesn't have them in their player collection. 

Maybe this will inspire you to collect those 2 guys, or at least seek out some of their cards. If not, hopefully it was a fun read none the less.

I have been kind of busy with projects in the last month or so. Good kinds, though. If you guys remember, maybe a year or two ago, I was asked by a guy named CJ from Brainiac Baseball Breaks to make him some custom baseball cards for his baseball simulation seasons. That was for the 1981 MLB season he was playing, and now he is on the 1983 season. I checked in with him randomly to see if he needed cards for this season, and he did, so I've been busy at work making ones he needed, and he has graciously been supplying me with Rays cards. He also had the idea to make a few different variation cards and he is having me make them into a few 1/3 and 1/1 cards. Some of them will be given away, so if you are into watching guys simulate baseball seasons, check out his YouTube page and subscribe. He also does baseball card breaks on it, so if not for the sims, subscribe for the cards. 

The onther project I am working on is going to be hush-hush for now, but it is a big one. When I say big, I mean probably at least 2,000 cards big. It is very cool for me to be a part of, and I will bring everyone up to speed if and when it comes about. Good things, though, and something I never dreamed I would have the chance to do when I started this blog 8 or so years ago.

Last thing, I have done this other blog off and on for probably 5 years now called Completing the 1992 Topps Set, where I basically take all of the cards that I have made to finish the '92 Topps set with, and just go through them one by one and talk about the player, their career, and note all of the cards they need to have a career Topps run. I haven't posted in about a year, but I started working on it again. Many obscure players and older guys who were about to retire, but they were MLBers none the less, and they were good enough to deserve a card. If that sounds like something you are into check it out.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy