If This is His Topps Card, Then What Card is This?: Ryne Sandberg

If I ever decided to become a player collector, the subject of this week's What Card is This? would be the man I'd be following. He was THE star attraction for the Chicago Cubs in the mid 80's and early 90's, although he was humble enough not to show it. He hit for power long before it became cool for middle infielders to hit the long ball, but he never swung for the fences at will. He was the quiet leader on the field and in the clubhouse. He won enough gold gloves to field his own team, and hit well enough to win the silver slugger award seven times. He appeared in 10 ASG's, and was even the MVP of the National League one year. Heck, while Big Daddy Fielder was leading the AL in homers with 51 in 1990, this man quietly led the NL in the same category...with 40. He is a Hall of Famer, and one that the Phillies may have wished they never traded away. He is affectionately known as "Ryno," but the rest of the world knows him as Ryne Sandberg. (insert quiet applause here...leading to a rousing chorus of cheers and a standing ovation!!!)

Words just can't describe how much I loved Ryne Sandberg play. He played the game the way it was supposed to have been played. Even said so himself in his induction speech. With the word Aretha Franklin spelled out in big bold letters, R-E-S-P-E-C-T!!! He never said much off the field, never bragged about that great play he made, or the home run that won the ball game. He let his play do the talking. And his play spoke volumes. Please remember that before his premature "retirement" in 1994, he was the greatest second baseman of his era. And who knows how much more he could have done had he not taken time off.

Anyway, on with the show. Here is his 1990 Topps card:


Awesome picture, and I'm glad that the people putting the cards together decided to include his card with those with the light blue borders. It just looks right. It never looked right to see a Cubs player with the 1990 red, orange, or purple borders. Blue made sense, and this card is perfect. Now on to card number two:


Now this card has him in his home uniform, and I think that maybe the green borders makes the picture look a bit brighter. But Sandberg only had one base card in the 1990 Topps set (he also had an All-Star card, but that's not what this card is). So the question posed for the people who might want to answer this one (anonymously or not)...

What Card is This???

Now 1990 Topps was an extremely over-produced product. Up to this day, there are still boxes upon boxes of unopened product. There may be tons of the first card available everywhere, but you might be hard pressed to find a decent looking copy of card number two...if you knew where to look. I'll leave this open for answers. Good luck.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

UPDATE: Friday, November 28, 2008.

Paul of Paul's Random Stuff chimed in first with the correct answer (followed by friend of the blog the drizz). Yes, this is a box bottom card found underneath boxes of 1990 Topps. This card is found in the third panel (out of four, card L), and many of these cards are prone to wear and tear. For the record, I do have the card in a full panel, I used a bit of MSPaint trickery to make it look like the card was cut and placed in a holder before scanning. That people, is as far as I go in terms of "photoshopping." jba