- Official Card Set Name and Card Number: 1990 Topps Traded #8T.
- Player Name, position, team: Willie Blair, pitcher, Toronto Blue Jays.
- Major League Debut: April 11, 1990.
- Last Line of Statistics: 1989 stats (AAA-Syracuse): 19 G, 106.2 IP, 5-6, 55 R, 47 ER, 76 SO, 38 BB, 17 GS, 3 CG, 1 SHO, 0 SV, 3.97 ERA.
- Any special information about player: Drafted by the Blue Jays #11th, June 1986. Bats: right, Throws: right.
- Any special information about this specific card: Blair's first regular Topps card (his rookie card). Back in 1990, Topps actually selected the players that would get in the traded sets properly. Because there was no second series, and because Topps didn't try and airbrush the logos of a player's new team going into the 1990 season on any of the cards in the base set, many of the players who switched teams in the off-season were saved for the Traded sets. Willie Blair played in the minors in 1989, and didn't make his debut until 1990. Topps did the right thing by holding him off until the end-of-the-year Traded set. If you notice, the borders on the 1990 Topps set change from red to yellow (with orange in the middle there). Which, in hindsight, actually makes sense. Can you imagine if the entire card had yellow borders (or yellow to white borders?) You'd need sunglasses to look at the cards they'd be so bright. The blurb on the back acknowledges the scout who signed Blair (Don Welke). Blair ended up with a very decent career as a spot starter/middle reliever for a number of teams. His best year would have been in 1997 as a Detroit Tiger (16-8, 90 K's). He played for the first edition of the Arizona Diamondbacks, if only for half the season. And after his two-team season in 1998, returned to the Tigers, finishing his career with them after the 2001 season.
- Lo-Hi Beckett value: $0.02-$0.10.
- How many cards of this player do I own?: 7 cards.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
I remember Willie when he was with the DBacks.
ReplyDeletemoe.