Four Topps, #189

I'm not even going to pretend.  It's been several months since I did one of these.  The government in Malta has changed party affiliation 17 times in the interim.  I'm really a bad blogger, what can I say?

Rather than wallow in my deficiencies, let's just get on with the show, shall we?

I'll remind you that Four Topps is an exercise in appreciating the four cornerstone sets of my youth: 1987-1990 Topps.  We take a random card number (thank you, Random.org) and examine the corresponding card from each set.  It's such a simple premise that even a sports card blogger could come up with it.

Today's number is 189.  It doesn't sound too sexy, but you never know...

1987

We begin with one of Western New York's favorite sons: Joe Hesketh.  The Lackawanna native crafted a nice 11-year MLB journey for himself following a dominant career at U of Buffalo.  As for this card, it hardly sets off any fireworks.  It's a spring training photo which is essentially par for the course from this era of Topps.  Hey, Stat Man: Fanned a season-high 11 batters over 8 1/3 innings in a 4-2 victory vs. NYM, 6/17/86.

1988

A former Mets draft selection is the No. 189 representative from the '88 set.  Boy does that sky look like it was colored by Crayola or what?  This is Gardner's rookie card, by the way.  He'd be featured in each of the subsequent three flagship Topps sets before he was out of the league.  Hey, Stat Man: Appeared in a career-high 49 games for the defending AL Champion Red Sox in 1987.

1989

Ah, one of the favorite cards of my youth!  When Mitch won the 1990 NL MVP award, I revered this one and his '89 Score like they were gold bullion.  This card features a great in-game action photo of the former Met and member of the '86 Champions.  Gonna be tough for any of the other three cards to beat out this one!  Hey, Stat Man: Ranked second only to Will Clark in HR and RBIs for the '89 Giants.

1990

This is the third straight former-Met included in this edition of Four Topps, as Schofield played 142 games for New York in '92.  A pretty straightforward photo choice, but one that I appreciate, as it appears Son of Schofield is involved in some pregame catch.  It's what you'd file under K.I.S.S.  Hey, Stat Man: Produced back-to-back 3-hit games, 7/9 and 7/13/89.

And the Winner Is:  Not a very tough decision here, as the '89 Mitchell runs roughshod over the competition. A nod for the silver medal goes to the '90 Schofield.

MK