my favorite cards of the year - 1995 edition

i recently introduced my mini collection focusing on my favorite cards from each year that i've been a collector. the basic gist is that i wanted to create a space for the cards that i most appreciated having in my collection in the year that they were released. these were cards that i acquired in the year that they were issued, and that i considered to be my favorites at the time. i have disallowed (most) cards that are already in other mini collections in order to avoid having a mini collection consisting of more steve garvey, double plays, and dodger stadium cards.

favorite non-dodger card: upper deck collector's choice kirby puckett

for the second year in a row, my favorite set of the year came from upper deck, but in 1995 it was collector's choice (it was their flagship set in 1994). i bought a ton of packs of the stuff and put together the set fairly quickly. upper deck also issued a special edition of the collector's choice set (appropriately called "se") in late 1994 prior to the regular version, and i bought a ton of that, too. the borders on those cards were blue, and puckett's card in that issue showed him batting with a border around the photo. 

so, i was suprised to see puckett's card arrive in the regular set with a full bleed photo, complete with the twins' throwback uniform and hat. i had always like the twins "tc" logo ever since i saw it on some 1978 topps cards (even though i wasn't sure at first what "tc" stood for), and i wasn't nearly as taken with the "m" logo that they had been using since 1987. the image of a smiling puckett and the "tc" hat along with what looks like the crispest baseball jersey ever worn still puts a smile on my face.

favorite dodger card: upper deck collector's choice ismael valdes

like i mentioned above, i bought a lot, and i mean a lot, of collector's choice in 1995. both this and the blue bordered "se" release. i also bought a lot of topps and upper deck flagship. hideo nomo was the big rookie to chase as far as i was concerned, but none of his cards that i was able to find that year lived up to the hype. instead, i was most enamored with raul mondesi's flagship topps card (which sits in my favorite dodger of the year mini collection) and this collector's choice ismael valdes card.

mondesi is on the valdes card among the horde of dodgers - he's the guy with the red wristbands and batting gloves. others making an appearance are cory snyder, tommy lasorda, and tim wallach. valdes is so happy, and there is just the right amount of dodger red, white, and blue on the card that it rose to the top of the class as far as dodger cards i obtained in 1995.

when i first saw the card, i was trying to recall a moment from the 1994 season that might be reflected by the photo used, but wasn't sure. sometime a few years ago, i revisited this card and am now fairly certain that the photo comes from july 5, 1994. the dodgers played the expos in a day game at dodger stadium that day, and the game was won on a raul mondesi home run in the bottom of the 10th. snyder would have been in the hole with mondesi batting, and valdes would have been in the dugout as he was the pitcher of record at the time. lasorda would only be out of the dugout like this in the instance of a win, and since mondesi is wearing both batting gloves, i think we can assume a walk-off win.

my actual favorite cards from 1995 are from upper deck's sp championship series - both steve garvey and kirk gibson were featured - but i didn't know about those cards until a year or so later.

next up, 2018. stay tuned!