Four Topps, #448

For some reason, blogging has not come easily for me recently.  I guess you'd call it a rut.  I'm not really sure of the cause.  Perhaps the start of another school year at my place of employment or maybe I'm consumed by preparations for my upcoming annual football road trip.

Anyhow, irrespective of the cause(s), I'm going to do my best to shake it off.  A surefire way to get the juices flowing again is to fire up a new edition of Four Topps.

In case you're new, the drill is this: A random number is generated from Random.org and we use that number to discover the corresponding card from each of the four sets that act as the cornerstone of my childhood collecting days -- 1987, '88, '89 and '90 Topps.

Today, let's explore card No. 448...

1987

To kick things off, a Chris Bosio rookie card.  You probably have this card securely stored in a screw-down case somewhere.  Bosio either has tobacco shoved in his cheek or he had dental surgery earlier in the day and he's stuffed full of gauze.  Hey, Stat Man:  Allowed 27 ER in just 34.2 IP for the Brewers in 1986.

1988

This is Davis' eighth and final Topps card as a member of the Oakland A's.  He would pop up later in the year in the '88 Traded set pictured in his new Dodgers duds.  This is a nicely framed photo of Davis at the plate, including the catcher and even the umpire's mask.  Hey, Stat Man:  Davis smashed 22 homers and collected 72 RBIs for the '87 Athletics.

1989

Not a whole lot to say here.  Well...I could say a lot, but Mom always said if you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.  Let's just say Plunk won't be on the Bachelor anytime soon.  This is Plunk's third Topps card and his last as a member of the A's; he was in Yankee colors in the '90 flagship set.  Hey, Stat Man:  An important part of the A's bullpen in '88, Plunk logged seven wins, five saves and a 3.00 ERA in 78 innings of work.

1990

We conclude the quartet with a nice batting stance photo of longtime Twins shortstop Greg Gagne.  I always felt the Twins cards from the '90 set were among the most attractive due to the shades of blue in the border.  Overall, a pretty solid card from an aesthetics standpoint.  Hey, Stat Man:  Greg set career highs with 125 base hits and 29 doubles for Minnesota in 1989.

And the Winner Is:  For my money, it came down to two cards (and neither of those cards featured photos of Chris Bosio or Eric Plunk).  But, I'll go with the '88 Davis because of the unique photo angle coupled with the catcher/umpire cameos.

MK