my favorite cards of the year - 1993 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.

1993 was a big year for me as a collector. i was out of college with a full-time job, and the convenience store near my office sold packs of cards at the register! i recall buying a pack of fleer flair, and being dismayed at spending $3.99 on it, even though i thought the jim edmonds wave of the future card i pulled was pretty cool. that's not my favorite non-dodger card that i found that year, however.

favorite non-dodger card: upper deck fernando valenzuela

even though i was still buying primarily only topps cards, i did pick up a few packs here and there of other releases. in addition to the flair pack mentioned above, i bought a few packs of leaf and fleer ultra (the 1993 leaf lance blankenship card was in the running for this post), and i also bought a fair amount of upper deck. as strange as it was to see fernando not wearing dodger blue on cardboard, i was excited to get new cards of his in packs. he had pitched for the angels in 1991 but didn't make the traded set that year, so this was his first non-dodger card i saw. 

thanks to the orioles bringing him back to the major leagues after sitting out the 1992 season, fernando was able to experience a second wave to his career. unfortunately, he never did return to the dodgers for a final season like don sutton did and as i had hoped. kudos to upper deck for featuring a fernando at the plate photo on the back of the card, too.

fernandomania was such a big deal - i wasn't ready to let it go even 12 years later.

favorite dodger card: topps traded mike piazza

i waited all season for this card to be issued. i couldn't wait to see the strongest man in socal on his own topps flagship design card, and while it's not the best photo, it does capture piazza watching the flight of what i assume is a deep drive to left field at shea stadium. piazza had been featured on a multi-player rookie card in the actual flagship set, but was given a card of his own in some other releases, including upper deck

which i think might be the only other one i obtained in '93. i thought that it was an ok card, but was put off by piazza wearing tommy john's number rather than the 31 that was more familiar to me by the time i really starting paying attention to him. besides, i was still a "topps is the one" collector back then. things changed in that regard in 1994, however. speaking of 1994, topps was super lazy with piazza, using an almost identical photo for his base card as they had used for his '93 traded card. my disappointment when i first pulled the '94 card from a pack was palpable. 

up next, 2019. stay tuned!