I always loved the backs of the Studio sets. I've always found the personal information the most interesting parts of baseball card backs, going back to the 1987 Topps set, the first I collected, which had a lot of interesting random facts about the players. Studio really took that information to another level, at least in the first few years of the set. Now that I've finally completed a set (1993), I am going to take a deeper dive into what each player has submitted for their personal information.
Since its been 24 years since the set came out, I thought it would be fun to google the player with each subject they mention to see what connections they had (or still have). I'll also do a where-are-they-now because I always find those interesting.
I don't have the patience to photograph every card in the set so I am using scans from the fantastic Trading Card Database. I will only be showing the card backs because that is what is relevant here - the fronts, with simple headshots of the player, are not terribly interesting anyway. Here is card #1 in the set, Dennis Eckersley.
Eckersley and Bob Uecker appeared in Richard Marx's 1992 video Take This Heart.
Favorite sports announcer is Bob Costas: Eckersley got to appear on Costas's Studio 42 show on the MLB Network in 2009.
Favorite player as a kid was Willie Mays: As a Giants fan growing up in California Eckersley idolized not only Mays but also Juan Marichal, whose famous high leg kick Eckersley adopted.
Most prized possession is his World Series ring: Eckersley won the ring as a key part of the 1989 A's team.
Might have been a baseball coach if he hadn't been a player: Eckersley never did go into coaching after his career.
Where he is now: An announcer for the Boston Red Sox.
Very cool.. looking forward to the rest of this series.
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