An Introduction

Hi! I'm actor Troy McClure, speaking on behalf of Kevin! You may remember him from such blogs as Orioles Card "O" the Day, The Great 1965 Topps Project, and Bad Touch Baseball. Today I'm here to tell you about Kevin's exciting new venture in card blogification, the creatively-titled "1993 Topps". You see, this was the first baseball card set that Kevin ever collected, way back when Whitney Houston and Kurt Cobain were still alive and making music! As a precocious middle-schooler, he spent most of his money on those cellophane-wrapped rectangular curios, spending as much as 79 cents for a pack of 15 cards. Thank goodness those prices and quantities are a thing of the past! Anyhow, Kevin has decided to pay tribute to his personal gateway to collecting (as well as his own rapidly-fading youth) by blogging about each and every card in the 825-card 1993 Topps base set. Expect the blog to be updated at least four times per week, as long as his sanity endures. If you behave yourselves, he might even include posts on the six "checklist replacement" players who appeared on Gold cards, but were not featured in the base set. If Kevin's especially pleased with the progress of the blog, he may stretch it out for another few months to talk about the 132-card Traded set. Now if you'll excuse me, I hear that Baltimore has a fantastic aquarium...

Hey, guys, it's Kevin. Sorry about that. In keeping with the 1993 theme, I figured that I may as well make use of one of the great recurring characters of The Simpsons' heyday. But Troy left without giving you the nuts and bolts of this blog. I'm looking to adhere to a simple template for my posts here, and it's one that is ripped off from inspired by Night Owl's peerless set blogs:

About the Front: Any stray observations about the front of the card. Player photo, design elements, what have you.

About the Back: Any eye-popping stats, noteworthy biographical tidbits, career highlights, etc.

Triple Play: I'll share three pieces of trivia about each player featured.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: When I first laid eyes on this card, how did I react? Did I think the guy had a funny name? Did I assume he was a bigger star than he actually was? Will I actually remember anything about my adolescence after a couple decades of school, work, and heavy drinking? (Just kidding, mom.)

Bill James Said: One of the most consistently entertaining baseball books I own is The Bill James Player Ratings Book 1994. It provides James' trademark combination of groundbreaking statistical analysis and wry humor, with blurbs, review, and future projections for every major leaguer that was active in the 1993 season as well as several top prospects. I'll quote a sentence from each player profile when applicable. My only regret is that Shawn Hillegas ("To be honest, I really have no idea what in the hell he is doing in the major leagues", James declares) did not have a card in the 1993 Topps set.

On This Date in 1993: Self-explanatory. Game results, world news, pop culture, whatever I dig up that tickles my fancy.

So anyway, here's a project that has been 20 years in the making, in a manner of speaking. Enjoy, and tell your friends!