46

Frankenset card #46

As of right now, my frankenset is very 80's-centric.  I collected in the 80's then stopped for almost 20 years.  That's the way it goes.  But I've gotten a few newer cards, and whenever a newer card (or vintage for that matter) has a double it goes in the set.

And so it is with card #46.  2008 Upper Deck Timeline Torii Hunter.  Its actually a pretty sharp looking card.  Good team colors.  Decent (in)action shot.

I've always been ambivalent about the one line of stats cards.  I'd rather have the full set, but one year doesn't usually bother me.  But just career stats?  Nah.  Home jersey on the front, road jersey on the back.  Nice touch.

One thing that gets me about collecting cards from the period after I stopped is that there are always parallels to look for.  I had to check The Trading Card database to see if the cards I have could be different in some way.  There's a gold version, but the two I have are the same.  Are there other resources out there for figuring out what you have?

Torii Hunter is a player who I seem to appreciate more now that he's gone.  While he was an Angel I always new he was a good clubhouse guy.  I knew he was a great defender, and a decent bat.  But the Angels basically let him go so that they could pay Josh Hamilton $97 million more.  Seriously.  $123 million versus $26 million.  Sad thing is, they have about the same value.  But Torii is far less streaky.  And doesn't need a life coach following him around. (low blow?)  Its easy to overstate "intangibles" in baseball.  It happens every day.  It happens every time a .500 pitcher who "eats innings" is signed.  But when a popular, good influence player leaves a team, the clubhouse can suffer.  Especially when the player is a solid contributor on the field.

Thanks for the 5 years Torii.