#130 Jeff Montgomery

About the Front: Magenta lettering on the Royals' cards? Whose bright idea was that?

About the Back: I wonder if Jeff Montgomery took any ribbing over his comp-sci degree in the clubhouse. Baseball has not traditionally been peopled with enlightened minds.

Triple Play:

1. The Reds traded Montgomery to the Royals for outfielder Van Snider, who batted .200/.194/.314 in 19 career games. Cue the "game over" horn from The Price Is Right.

2. On April 29, 1990, he dispatched the Texas Rangers on nine straight strikes in the eighth inning after also turning in a perfect seventh. He became the ninth American Leaguer and 23rd pitcher overall in MLB history to strike out the side on nine pitches, and earned a win to boot.

3. Had a 3.20 ERA as a Kansas City Royal, third-lowest in franchise history behind Dan Quisenberry (2.55) and Steve Farr (3.05 in 338.1 fewer innings than Montgomery). Had the best hits-per-nine-innings-pitched ratio for any K.C. player at 8.05, and his 304 saves are also a club record.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: At the time I first laid eyes on this card, I couldn't have told you where Marshall University was located. Thanks to a passing familiarity with college sports, I now know that it's in West Virginia, and is more renowned for the football players it's produced (Chad Pennington, Randy Moss, etc.).

Bill James Said: "For five straight years has pitched 63 to 73 games, 83 to 94 innings, with four of his five ERAs below 2.40."

On This Date in 1993: December 23. French actress Sylvia Bataille, who was active in film from 1930 to 1950 and had been married to writer and Western philosopher Georges Bataille, died in Paris at age 85.

A brief note: For the rest of the month, my posting schedule will be even more sporadic than usual, as I get caught up in the traditional hustle and bustle of the holidays. Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, and any other December holiday blessings that may apply to you!

A Brief Hiatus.

As the title of this post suggests, I won't be updating this blog for the next week-plus. Tomorrow I'm getting married, and then my lovely bride and I are skedaddling away to my family's lakeside cottage in Northeastern Pennsylvania for a week without Internet access, cable television, or other people. I'll be back roundabouts September 23 with more silly 20-year-old cards. Bye for now!

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!