The basics: Gary Sheffield was coming off one of the best seasons of his career when this card was issued. It was his first year with the Padres. He'd spend only one more year with them before moving on.
Card thoughts: Here is the first multi-exposure card in the set (it won't be the last). Upper Deck liked to do this early on and I enjoyed the novelty of it at the time. It's interesting that Sheffield's hat doesn't obscure the "R" in "Upper Deck" as has been the habit in previous cards where the image encounters the Upper Deck banner.
Also an action shot of Sheffield fielding has to be somewhat rare for his baseball cards. (I haven't looked).
Backs are important in '93 UD: A very sunny and young Sheffield. I admit I'm more used to the older, crankier version of the player.
Also look at those strikeout totals. Thirty-three home runs, 100 RBIs and just 40 strikeouts.
More from '93: Current Rangers outfielder Brandon Nimmo was born on this date in 1993.
Young Sheffield is so young and like you I normally think of the older version with the fierce bat movement in the batter's box. I think he's likely one of the most intimidating batters in the history of the sport.
ReplyDeleteGood stuff.
ReplyDeleteI enjoy UD's multi-exposure cards. Thanks for pointing out that strikeout stat. That's impressive. He hit over 500 home runs but never struck out more than 83 times in a season.
ReplyDeleteI believe Sheffield's cranky days were earlier in his career, not later. Seeing this right after your Stadium Club post on NOC is a reminder of all of the kind of things card companies used to do and don't anymore. When's the last time a card had a multi-exposure image?
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