Baseball Miscellany

 If some Blue Jays cards are fine for Canada Day, then I guess the rest of the league can be used for a 4th of July post.

There's a lot to like about this opener. It is a pitcher-at-the-plate card to open, and it is meant to commemorate his pitching skills. In fact, the text at the back in no way references his batting skill. You'd have to look at his individual numbers for the month to see he did have a decent month at the plate, lifting his average from .105 to .289. So he earned it at both parts of the game.

Colour match too!

This might have been one of the most perfect photos used for a Panini card. The original uncropped photo would also have been the perfect choice for a double HOFer card.  But I'll take what I can get with a name that doesn't show up on cards very often. And even without Williams as part of the photo, it is still a really fun image, with Duffy really coming off as a teacher.

While not all Orlando Hernandez cards feature this portion of his wind-up, there really aren't enough that do feature it. That seems wrong. Fortunately, there is at least some cardboard that does highlight it. I'd say the same thing about Tony Batista's batting stance, of which there seem to be comparatively fewer.

Both Jose Iglesias and Jim Thome look like they're about to go collect on a bad debt for the mob. Considering both of their bats are personalized, they better take them with them afterwards. 

There you have it!