Thursday, April 18, 2024

Equipment: 1989 Topps (base set)

When you think of baseball's Wizard of Oz, you probably think of Ozzie Smith. But it looks like Ozzie Virgil was also known as "WIZ".

We get a nice helmet rack shot for Sparky Anderson's card. #9 was Fred Lynn. #19 was pitcher Doyle Alexander, so it is a little strange that he had a helmet. Maybe it was a spring training game in an NL park? If the photo was from 1986 it might be Darnell Coles's helmet (in which case #9 was Doug Baker).
Juan Castillo, #3 on the Brewers, appears to have the bat of Hall of Famer Robin Yount, #19.
Luis Medina is holding bat #65 in this spring training shot. When he finally made his big league debut in September, he wore #69. If baseball-reference is correct, he was the first player to wear #69 in a major league game. (You can see him wearing the number in this video, about 33 minutes in.) (Baseball reference list Alan Mills as wearing #69 for the Yankees but it was only a spring training number for him.)
Finally, I had to include the card with Oddibe McDowell's personalized Rangers jacket. This is a great, underrated junk wax card.

 

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