Like Father, Like Son

Eric Young Jr. has yet to make a real impact in the majors and might not make the Rockies team in 2012.  However, he has made a HUGE impact on the card community with several fantastic cards in his short history, including the 2012 Topps pictured at the top of the post.

The 2011 Topps Eric Young Jr. is the card that I consider the best card in the whole set.  Sure it may be a bit of a homer pick, but you can't say that not at least in your top 5 for the set.  The 2009 Bowman card is a great pic of EYJr. chugging along the basepaths probably about to round third.  A nice photo for the usual humdrummery that is Bowman photos.

Young also had not one, but two great cards in the awful 2010 Topps design.  The flagship version is maybe not the best card in the set, but it is probably the best Rockies card in the set.  The Chrome card may be even better because you usually don't see an extreme close up of a dive like that.  It really makes for a fascinating photo.

His photogenic nature definitely seems to be an inherited trait, because dear old dad also had some great cards over his career. 

I really like the 1994 Ultra card that shows him tiptoeing on second around a Reds player.  Very graceful,  The 1997 Topps card is very iconic and is one the best and most memorable cards from that rather lackluster set.  The 1994 Pinnacle card I have shown several times, but I still love it with its close up of the speedster in motion as the helmet falls off.


Anyway that brings us back to the point of this post.  When I first got that card at the top of this post, there was something that seemed familiar about it to me, so i didn't really appreciate how great of a photo it is.  I was putting some cards away in the Eric Young Sr. and Jr. portion of my Rockies album and I spotted something.  Take a look at the 2012 Topps Eric Young next to this 1996 Stadium Club Eric Young Senior.

They are not completely identical, but they are close enough to explain my remembering the new Young.  I wonder if any of the blurry people in the background are the same.  I have known people that have kept the same seats at a stadium for well over 16 years.  I'm sure we have all imagined how cool it would be to be captured on a baseball card.  Now picture being on a father/son duo card 16 years apart, particularly such a great duo as the Youngs.