If you have been following along in my team trivia, you will have noticed that no team has more different players between 1993-2013 than the San Diego Padres with 522. The Mets are a close second with 516, but that gap was significantly cut this year. I still have a few teams to finish, but the Padres also have the most different players appearing on cardboard in that time span. 389 different players appeared both in a Padres game and on a Padres card between 1993-2013. I'm not real sure whether that is a good thing or a bad thing for a franchise. I was leaning toward it being a negative, but the Twins have the fewest for both categories and they were hardly a dominant team in that time frame. Maybe it isn't even a significant statistic when it comes to winning at all. Either way, it is kind of interesting trivia and that's what I am all about here at the Quarry. Let's take a look at the second half of the 2013 San Diego Padres.
My Top 5 Padres Cards
1. Jesus Guzman
2. Edinson Volquez
3. Nick Hundley
4. John Baker
5. Mark Kotsay
The Jesus Guzman is a nice close up play at the plate card. It helps this photo in my eyes that the catcher is a Rockie, Yorvit Torrealba I think. I can't explain why I like that Edinson Volquez card, but I just do. It's either the extreme close up, the expression on his face, or the gigantic gold chain or maybe a combination of all three. The Nick Hundley is a more familiar play at the plate card. It's still pretty good though. It's a shame that these are going to be practically non-existent in the near future. I can't remember seeing as much of the color brown on a bordered card ever as there is on the John Baker card. It oddly works. Finally we have the final card of the long career of Mark Kotsay. The brown ivy is kind of poignant, don't you think?
Coming tomorrow - #23 Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim
Thanx for reading.
1 comment:
Speaking as someone who has endured many of those seasons from 1993-2013, I can say that it is NOT a good thing to have that many players. It's a mixture of "trying to find the right guy" and "someone's injured, who's the cheapest replacement we can find?" It hasn't been pretty the last couple of decades, though the late 90's weren't too bad.
Anyways, great cards, though my top 5 were much different than yours.
5. Chris Denorfia
4. Alexi Amarista
3. Jedd Gyorko
2. Jesus Guzman
1. Chris Robinson
These are all viewed through my biased Padres goggles, however, since Volquez and Hundley are two of the most frustrating Friars in the last few years, and while Kotsay is a great guy, he was flat out horrible in 2013.
Chris Robinson is a great story if you haven't read about him. I've been meaning to do a post on him, but haven't got around to it yet. You're right on the mark w/Guzman, though, that's a great shot.
Stellar job as always!
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