#224 Sid Bream

About the Front: Witness the intense gaze of Sid Bream in profile. Winter is coming.

About the Back: Carlisle, PA may ring a bell for its connection to great Native American athlete Jim Thorpe, who played halfback for the now-defunct Carlisle Indian School in the early 1900s.

Triple Play:

1. If you're familiar with Sid's big league performance, you might find his stat line for the 1983 Albuquerque Dukes hard to believe: .307/.415/.569, 32 HR, 118 RBI. You have to love the Pacific Coast League.

2. He is of course best known for lumbering home ahead of Barry Bonds' throw with the winning run in Game 7 of the 1992 NLCS.

3. Sid Bream has never been very fond of his first name.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I mostly knew Sid Bream as the guy that got pushed aside when the Braves traded for Fred McGriff. If I had grown up in Pittsburgh, his name would probably be a curse word to me.

Bill James Said: "A consistent, well-rounded player and a good glove, he never did put up the big numbers that you would like from a first baseman, and, at age 33, isn't a candidate to become a full-time player."

On This Date in 1993: May 29. The first Life Ball takes place in Vienna, Austria. By 2011, it has become Europe's largest public HIV and AIDS charitable event.

#223 Roger Pavlik

About the Front: I'm betting that's a tin of chewing tobacco in Roger Pavlik's back pocket. Yuck.

About the Back: I'm really enjoying finding familiar names on these card backs. Wayne Krivsky was the Reds' GM from 2006 to 2008, and later worked for the Orioles. He's currently a big league scout and special assistant to the GM for the Twins.

Triple Play:

1. Roger was known for his unorthodox delivery; his left (plant) foot landed facing third base instead of home plate.

2. On May 4, 1996, he gave up only one hit in a complete-game, 3-1 victory over the Tigers - a fifth-inning home run by Mark Lewis. This feat came one day after teammate Ken Hill threw a one-hitter of his own.

3. Pavlik was chosen for the All-Star Game in 1996 despite a lofty 4.82 ERA at the break; American League skipper Mike Hargrove was clearly swayed by his 11-2 record. The righty finished the season 15-8 with a 5.19 ERA. He won only four games over the next two seasons before a bum shoulder finished his career.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I don't think I've ever met anyone named Roger.

Bill James Said: "He pitched 88 innings after August 1 with a 6-1 record and a 2.45 ERA." That was part of Pavlik's surprising 12-6, 3.41 stat line in 1993.

On This Date in 1993: May 28. Eritrea and Monaco gain entry into the United Nations. Congratulations, guys!

#222 Bernie Williams

About the Front: That's quite the expression on Bernie Williams' face. He looks like somebody just dropped a frozen turkey on his foot.

About the Back: That's the first time I've ever seen the word "Wallop" capitalized.

Triple Play:

1. He was trained on classical guitar, and later developed an interest in blues and jazz. He released an album, The Journey Within, in 2003.

2. Bernie spent his entire 16-year career with the Yankees, finishing with an overall batting line of .297/.381/.477 (125 OPS+), 449 doubles, 287 home runs, and 1,257 RBI.

3. By dint of his membership on the dynastic New York teams at the turn of the century, he collected 128 postseason hits, second-most behind longtime teammate Derek Jeter.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: Buster Olney has claimed that the Yankees were prepared to part ways with Bernie after the 1998 season. But a potential deal with Albert Belle fell through when the Orioles threw big money at the mercurial slugger, and Williams turned down bigger offers from Boston and Arizona to remain in the Bronx. Of course my O's helped extend the Yanks' run of greatness. Ugh.

Bill James Said: "Like Pat Kelly, nobody is talking Cooperstown, but he's a good player now, and he's probably going to get better." In hindsight, it's pretty funny to see Bernie and Pat Kelly mentioned in the same breath.

On This Date in 1993: May 27. Scott Sanderson of the Angels holds Mariners hitters to five singles in a 5-0 Halos victory. With the shutout, the veteran righthander improves to 7-2 with a 2.82 ERA and ties Jack McDowell for the league lead in victories. Unfortunately for Sanderson, he goes 0-9 with a 6.23 ERA in his next 11 starts before being claimed on waivers by the Giants. He does right the ship in San Francisco down the stretch, however.

#221 Carlos Baerga

About the Front: I wonder who the blurry on-deck batter is. Carlos Baerga batted third in all 161 of his starts in 1992. Albert Belle was the cleanup hitter behind him in 151 games, with Paul Sorrento (seven), Mark Whiten (two), and Carlos Martinez (one) chipping in otherwise. Judging by the lightness of our mystery man's skin, it's almost certainly Sorrento. There were four Cleveland home games featuring the 3-4 combo of Baerga and Sorrento, but that's as close as I can come to identifying the specific game.

About the Back: "Rogers Hornsby was my manager, and he called me a talking pile of pigshit!"

Triple Play:

1. On April 8, 1993, Carlos became the first player in MLB history to hit home runs from both sides of the plate in one inning. In the bottom of the seventh, he clouted a two-run homer off of Yankee southpaw Steve Howe, and later in the inning switched to the left side and belted a solo shot against righty Steve Farr.

2. After many years in the wilderness, he had a one-year resurgence with the Diamondbacks in 2003, batting .343/.396/.464 as a part-timer.

3. As of 2014, he is coaching on the staff of the University of Northwestern Ohio's baseball team.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I can't believe how abruptly Carlos' career decline arrived. He batted .305/.345/.454 with a 115 OPS+ through 1995, his age 26 season. From 1996 through 2005, his final year in the majors, his line was .272/.313/.378 with an 80 OPS+.

Bill James Said: "If the Indians get any pitching they'll win that new division this year, which will give Baerga a chance to strut his stuff." Dennis Martinez, Charles Nagy, and Mark Clark all had good years for the Tribe in 1994, and the club was only one game behind the White Sox in the new American League Central Division when the strike halted play in August.

On This Date in 1993: May 23. Beginnings and ends, as the Angels sign 18-year-old Puerto Rican catcher Bengie Molina and the White Sox release 35-year-old former Blue Jays ace Dave Stieb. Stieb will make a surprising comeback in 1998, but we'll get to that in a future blog post.

#220 Benito Santiago

About the Front: Ugh. It always drove me nuts when Topps called him "Benny". As far as I know, he was always known as "Benito".

About the Back: I was impressed by Santiago's 21 steals as a rookie catcher...until I looked him up and saw that he was thrown out 12 times. Whoops.

Triple Play:

1. In 1987, Benito set a rookie record with a 34-game hitting streak.

2. Santiago was famous for throwing out baserunners from his knees, and three times led the National League in assists by a catcher.

3. On May 3, 1996, he hit the first grand slam ever allowed by Greg Maddux, a ninth inning tiebreaker that spurred a Phillies win over Atlanta.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I thought it was odd that Benito wore the jersey number "09" from 1991-1994. Supposedly he switched from "9" because the strap on his chest protector rubbed against the number and bothered him. Adding the zero created space in between the two digits for the strap to rest.

Bill James Said: "Swung at the first pitch 49.4% of the time, the highest percentage of any major league regular."

On This Date in 1993: May 22. Toronto mascot B.J. Birdy is ejected by second base umpire Jim McKean for trying to incite the crowd against McKean. Get the bizarre details here.

#219 Bip Roberts

About the Front: Oh no! We've been Bipped!

About the Back: Yes, Topps namedropped 19th century star Big Ed Delahanty, who died after falling off a bridge and being swept into Niagara Falls. He had been travelling on a train and was ejected for being drunken and disorderly. You could look it up.

Triple Play:

1. In 1994, Roberts had a league-best 24-game hitting streak.

2. He spoiled Pedro Martinez's perfect game bid on June 3, 1995 with a leadoff double in the tenth inning.

3. Bip is now a TV analyst for Comcast Sports Network covering the Oakland Athletics, and coaches at Academy of Art University in San Francisco.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: I loved the commercial featuring Tony Gwynn mocking the worthlessness of Bip's rookie card.

Bill James Said: "Went on the disabled list with a sprained thumb on July 2, came back for a couple of weeks, and then broke his ring finger."

On This Date in 1993: May 21. Down 8-1 after five innings and 10-4 through seven, Oakland scores five runs in the eighth and three more in the ninth to rally past the White Sox, 12-11. Rickey Henderson homers, triples, and drives in five for the A's. Robin Ventura goes deep twice in a losing cause.

#218 Ben McDonald

About the Front: This photo cuts Ben McDonald off at the knees, so you don't get a proper sense of his height. The former #1 overall pick is 6'7", with long, lanky legs.

About the Back: Yep, just your average alligator-wrestling, sardine-eating righthanded pitcher. Nothing to see here.

Triple Play:

1. His superlatives in 1989, when he won the Golden Spikes Award (best collegiate baseball player): 14-4, 3.49 ERA, 202 strikeouts in 152 innings pitched, and a season-opening 44 and 2/3 inning scoreless streak.

2. Ben made his first big league start on July 21, 1990, shutting out the White Sox on four hits and a walk and outdueling Jack McDowell.

3. McDonald now works as a TV analyst for ESPN's college baseball broadcasts, and also occasionally fills in on Orioles' TV and radio broadcasts.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: When Ben started the 1994 season by winning each of his first seven starts, I was sure he'd made a breakthrough. Of course he went 7-7 with a 4.56 ERA for the duration of the season. Oh well.

Bill James Said: "His strikeout rates, since his brief trial in '89: 3.7 per nine innings, 4.9, 6.1, 6.3, 7.0."

On This Date in 1993: May 20. The fourth-season finale of Seinfeld airs on NBC, wrapping up the season-long story arc of Jerry and George's television pilot for "a show about nothing". The pilot makes it to air, but the (fictional) NBC executives reject the show.

#217 Kevin Mitchell

About the Front: I wish I knew what was happening here. Is Kevin Mitchell clowning around in batting practice? Has he just been brushed back by a pitch and is preparing to toss it back to the pitcher himself in an act of defiance? Or is this part of Seattle's "Shakespeare in the Kingdome" performance?

About the Back: The Mariners acquired Mitchell in exchange for three pitchers: Dave Burba, Mike Jackson, and Bill Swift. As you can see, the outfielder missed over 60 games with injuries and failed to even crack double digits in home runs. Seattle traded him to the Reds for reliever Norm Charlton after that lone disappointing season.

Triple Play:

1. He was the National League MVP in 1989, and continued his torrid hitting in the postseason. He batted .353/.429/.706 with a pair of homers and seven RBI in the NLCS, then batted .294 and slugged .471 in the World Series.

2. In addition to more run-of-the-mill injuries, Mitchell also infamously strained a muscle while vomiting and broke a tooth attempting to bite into a chocolate donut that he had microwaved for too long.

3. His last great season came in 1994, when he batted .326/.429/.681 with 30 home runs and 77 RBI in 95 games before the players' strike.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: This photo reminds me of the way I used to play baseball in my back yard. I'd take a plastic bat and a tennis ball or something similar, toss the ball straight up in the air, and hit it. I'd imagine entire games between two major league teams, with full batting orders and all...at least until the ball disappeared into the brush at the edge of our property.

Bill James Said: "He's the Danny Tartabull of the National League-a formidable righthanded power hitter who comes with enough baggage to require his own baggage handler."

On This Date in 1993: May 19. The Roots release Organix, their debut album.

#216 Mark Leiter

About the Front: Now that's an interesting windup. Both of Mark Leiter's arms as well as his left leg are parallel to each other, at a 45 degree angle to the field.

About the Back: Wow. How often does a pitcher miss three entire seasons of minor league ball and come back to have a long major league career? Two shoulder surgeries in the mid-1980s were the culprit for Leiter.

Triple Play:

1. His younger brother Al pitched for the Yankees, Blue Jays, Marlins, and Mets from 1987 through 2005. Mark Leiter, Jr. was a 22nd-round draft pick of the Phillies last June and is currently pitching for the Lakewood BlueClaws in the single-A South Atlantic League.

2. His best season in the majors was 1998, when he appeared in 69 games as a reliever for the Phillies, who had been his favorite team as a child. Leiter went 7-5 with a 3.55 ERA and a team-high 23 saves, just one year after leading the National League with 17 losses.

3. Mark currently offers private coaching to young pitchers.

11-Year-Old Kevin Says: In April 1994, Mark's nine-month-old son Ryan died of Werdnig-Hoffmann disease, a childhood form of ALS. It's an incredibly sad thing that's always stuck with me when Leiter's name is mentioned.

Bill James Said: "Righthander, throws fastball with good movement, slider, and changeup."

On This Date in 1993: May 16. The Grand National Assembly of Turkey chooses Prime Minister Suleyman Demirel as the country's new president.