The postseason has already begun -- the Tigers and Guardians are on my TV as I write this. I do miss day time postseason baseball. Even though I'm a fan of night games and night cards, there's too much artificial light in the playoffs and I remember fondly the days of coming home from school to a game already in progress.
So there's one good reason for wedging 12 teams in the playoffs. There's not enough hours in the night!
I will get to my traditional playoff post once we're past the wild-card series, but for now I'm feeling pretty relaxed about this postseason (probably my team winning last year has something to do with that). So how about a breezy little post?
I wanted to find cards that summed up each wild-card playoff matchup. Were there cards that included both teams? The answer to that: Of course there is night owl!
So let's take a look at just a few for each series. I'll start with the American League first:
RED SOX-YANKEES
There is no shortage of cards featuring both Red Sox and Yankees, as you can imagine. In fact there are way too many. The 2008 SP Authentic Marquee Matchups insert set alone has EIGHT of them. That's obnoxious. That's more than I found for all cards combined for the other AL playoff matchup.
1993 Ted Williams Company "The Babe" subset
A classic with an old Babe Ruth meeting a young Ted Williams. This photo is from a July 12, 1943 war charity event at Fenway Park when Williams met Ruth for the first time and the two participated in a home run-hitting contest.
1993 Pinnacle, Now & Then insert set
I love this insert set, I should have all of these cards by now. The best versions of these playoff-combo cards I've found are the ones in which a single person is representing both teams on the same piece of cardboard. This takes two images, but we'll get to ones where there is only one image (hint: you already saw one).
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2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Rivalry insert
Here's another one with one player representing both teams. Obviously, the lack of logos hurts the presentation but the concept was good. I swear Hometown Heroes was the only time that Panini showed some genuine thought in a baseball product.
GUARDIANS-TIGERS
The combination with the fewest cards. I couldn't find any actual Guardians-Tigers combos, only Indians-Tigers combos. But this is the only combination for which each card I'm showing is of one player.
2006 Upper Deck, Series 1
Starting strong with Jason Johnson representing both teams, wearing a Tigers uniform but being listed with his new team, the Indians. Upper Deck loved doing stuff like this. In Series 2 there's another Jason Johnson card that's all Cleveland.
1960 Topps
Interesting one. Norm Cash never played a real game for the Indians. He was acquired from the White Sox by the Indians in the offseason and then traded to the Tigers at the start of the 1960 season. This is a high-number card (#488), allowing Topps to wonderfully doodle a Tigers' "D" on the black-and-white image. But in the color shot Cash is wearing an Indians hat, from spring training, I guess.
1978 O-Pee-Chee
O-Pee-Chee versions are the best versions! I loved this card even before it fit so perfectly into this post theme.
CUBS-PADRES
I wonder if Cubs fans are already suffering flashback from the 1984 NLCS? It's the first thing I thought of when realizing that these two teams would meet. I rooted for the Cubs in '84. I jinxed them. Hope I'm not jinxing them again.
1993 Fleer SuperStar Special subset
Fleer's SuperStar Specials are natural go-to's for a post like this.
1974 Topps
The other half of the 1974 pairing, along with Glenn Beckert at the top of the post. This is the more colorful of the two cards and it was so nice of Jerry Morales to predict this 2025 series all by himself more than 50 years ago.
1985 O-Pee-Chee
Researching this post is costing me a little bit of money. I've adding a few cards to my online carts, including this card. Tim Stoddard signed with the Padres almost immediately after playing against them in the 1984 NLCS. I remember being perplexed -- how could you go to a team that just beat you in the most painful way possible? Stoddard did not do very well for San Diego.
OK, one more:
1978 Topps manager subset
Alvin Dark as a Cub as a player and as a Padre as a manager. That's fun.
DODGERS-REDS
I couldn't find a card in which one player was representing both the Dodgers and Reds on a single card in an obvious fashion. This 1992 O-Pee-Chee card is pretty close, but OPC had stopped updating the graphics to reflect the player's new team -- which is very disappointing -- so you don't get that usual OPC sensation.
1992 Pinnacle Rookie Idols insert set
Here is Eric Davis in his Dodgers uniform with the Reds' Reggie Sanders. It took me a long time to realize that these Idols cards were actually inserts.
1987 Fleer SuperStar Special subset
Another classic SSS, the first card I thought of for this particular playoff combo.
2001 Upper Deck UD Decade Game-Used Bat Card
I could've used a lot of different relic cards for these playoff combinations but avoided almost all of them. Couldn't avoid this one though. The Reds were the Dodgers biggest enemy (except maybe the Yankees) when I was first learning baseball, and all the players bigger than life. Upper Deck could've used someone more imposing than Bill Russell -- say Garvey or Dusty Baker or Reggie Smith, but if these are actually bat pieces of every individual player, I'll allow it.
Because some of these wild-card playoff games are during the day, I'll actually get to view a few of them. Otherwise, it's wait 'til the weekend unless I want to record something -- which is how I'll be watching the World Series.
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