Background Noise - 1988 Topps Billy Hatcher

This is the first in a new series dedicated to the everything people do not focus on when looking at a baseball card.  Therefore, this new series is aptly named Background Noise.

Well, it has been a long time since I last posted.  Many of you may have thought me a quitter, when in actuality I have been trying to not lose my job.  Government and budget woes have kept me quiet as I didn't think it prudent to blog during work hours, nor do I have the time to blog at home because I'm too busy playing husband and daddy.

Alas, I have a few spare moments and thought I would unveil a new series.  Three weeks ago I was finally able to get to my collection stashed in the closet.  My wife said goodbye to her side business/hobby of stamping and crafting, so I was able to claim the shelves and the accessible portion of our shared hobby closet.  Being able to access my collection, I have been furiously reorganizing my cards and consolidating three or four collections into one. 

During my consolidation process, I have been paying attention to the background of each card.  My first foray was working on 89 Topps.  Yeah, woo hoo.  I never realized how bad that set is until I focused on each card.  Not much background noise in there, but I will get to those later.

Today's subject is Billy Hatcher.  I knew that this one had to be my first post  in this series after reading Night Owl's Boogie Monster post.  Take a close look at the background of Hatcher's card. 

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! Three faceless Expos.  What's even more disturbing is that Topps found it necessary to blur out the leftmost Expo's hand.  The first thing that crossed my mind was of course Thing.

 

Also, EVERY Hatcher card I have from 1988 has the disembodied blur above Thing. Even all  the cards I've seen online (yes, I'm the only one searching for this card online) have this weird ghost blur.  

And why would Topps want to blur out Expos?  Plenty of players are shown in the backgrounds of other cards.  The only reason I could think of is that since this is obviously a spring training game, perhaps those were visually recognizable players that did not make the Show, or did not have a contract with Topps.  Just like Tootsie Pops, the world may never know.

So, I hope this doesn't give any particular blogger another nightmare about brain-eating Canadian zombie monsters.  At least these "Canadian" brethren are probably nicer than those Phillie-fan zombies.  Don't-cha know, eh? 

PS - Does anyone need any 88 Topps?  I may post a want list for 88 Topps (ugh, why you ask?) because apparently I only need about 50 cards to complete four more sets.

Name the Game #4 - 1990 Upper Deck Doubleheader

A friend of mine gave me two 1990 UD cards to track down. First one up is Billy Hatcher featuring Benito Santiago with a play at the plate!

Looking through Baseball Reference, I found that Hatcher played 7 games versus the Pads at good old Jack Murphy. In only two of those games he scored a run, and he was not called out at the plate. One of those runs scored was from one of his homers, so that game is out, leaving us with the August 10, 1989 game. So, in this shot, Hatcher is scoring from second on a single to RF by Craig Reynolds. That means that Tony Gwynn couldn't throw him out in time. DANG!

Hatcher's line form the game

Astros	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OPS	Pit	Str	PO	A
B Hatcher LF	2	1	1	0	0	0	.227	.583	11	8	0	0

Next up is a Fred Manrique card featuring a play at second with the Crime Dog sliding. There were only two candiates for this card. One being a double play and the other being a force out at 2nd. Since Manrique is still holding the ball, the double play is out!

So, this card is from the August 7, 1989 game at SkyDome. This play took place in the Bottom of the 2nd after McGriff walked. Pat Borders grounded to 1st causing a force out at 2nd (3-6).

Manrique's line from the game.

Rangers	AB	R	H	RBI	BB	SO	BA	OPS	Pit	Str	PO	A	Details
Manrique SS	4	0	1	0	0	1	.308	.770	15	11	1	1	SB

Weird side note is my friend stopped by on Saturday for a few hours and I gave him two unopened 1989 Topps Wax packs. He opened them with the help of my 2 year old son, and low and behold he pulled a Fred Manrique (and a Pat Borders).

Other interesting side note is my son took each card and threw them on the ground, each of the 15 cards landed face down. We gave them back to him and he threw two more face down, making 17 cards in a row face down. The odds: 1 in 131072. Should have bought a lottery ticket with that luck!

My daughter on the other hand (11 months) decided that Tom Brunansky looked better bent in half.