The last time I wrote a post, I led off with a Nolan Ryan card. The last time I wrote an Awesome Night Card post, the topic was no-hitters.
And I'm showing a card I received from Johnny's Trading Spot for the second post in a row.
I can repeat myself with the best of them.
I'm showing this card basically because I've never seen it before and I am fascinated with it, mostly because it's taken me so long to find this particular night card.
It contains a lot of things that I love in a card. It captures a moment in time -- Nolan Ryan's sixth no-hitter on June 11, 1990 against the A's. It shows a salute to the fans, a tip of the cap. It comes from that time when satin jackets were the height of cool. You can also see a scoreboard in the distance and that's awesome. And, of course, it all happened at night.
The only dorky part is the lettering on the photo that says "No Hit KING". I don't know why "king" is all in caps and without the hyphen between "no" and "hit," it appears that Leaf is touting Ryan's inability to get hits, "he's no hit king!"
Ryan's sixth no-hitter merely broke his own established record. Nobody had thrown more than four no-hitters before Ryan came along. But the feat, established almost nine years after his fifth no-hitter and pitched at age 43, was so mind-blowing at the time that somebody HAD to make a card.
In fact, 1990 Leaf was ahead of the game with its Ryan no-hit recognition, thanks to being issued later in the year. Most 1990 card issues were recognizing Ryan's 5,000th strikeout, which happened in 1989. By the time those card companies got around to noting Ryan's sixth no-hitter in 1991, Ryan had thrown another no-hitter, against the Blue Jays in May of 1991.
That's what makes this 1990 Leaf card special.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Awesome Night Card binder candidate: Nolan Ryan, 1990 Leaf, #265
Does it make the binder?: He is the no-hit KING. It fills an open slot.
Comments