"My first baseball card was in "Rookie" ball with the Elizabethton Twins. I remember the photographer taking several poses of all of us swinging, running, and catching, but he made me take my cap off on one particular pose. My hair was all matted down on my head, and I told him not to use that photo, and what did he do, he used that as my first baseball card. It was awful!
My favorite card would have to be when I made the 1994 Midwest League All-Star game, in which they created a card deck for that year's team. There were a lot of special players in that deck. Guys like, A-Rod, Billy Wagner, Mike Sweeney, Sal Fasano, Antonio Alfonseca, Kevin Millar and Ryan Radmanovich just to name a few. I still have great memories of a lot of those guys."
Thanks! I couldn't find a picture of either of his 1992 cards (Classic Best or ProCards), but here are Baker and A-Rod in the 1994 ProCards set.
1994 is the year my dad and I went to a bunch of Cedar Rapids Kernels games. We must have seen Baker on the Wizards visit. I know I got the manager, Jim Dwyer's autograph. I've still got the roster sheets, I'll have to look next time I'm going through them.
ReplyDeleteBut we did see A-Rod, in Burlington, Iowa. I knew he'd never stay around until Appleton hit Cedar Rapids later in the season. We could only stay a few innings, (school night), but we still saw A-Rod hit two home runs. He also came back to the dugout too late to get his autograph.
Other highlights: upon Appleton's visit in late June, (without A-Rod) we saw a no-hitter. We also saw Cedar Rapids win the title that year. It was cool.