Friday, December 27, 2019

Some old-school Garret Anderson finds

At a card show in the middle of this past year, I saw a mid 1990s 'GA' insert - I didn’t pick the card up because it might have had a ding, but it was a card I’d never seen before.

All I was sure of was the card was likely from a mid 1990s Pinnacle brand - thinking about that insert [after the fact, maybe a 1996 Score Diamond Aces #27], it surprises me between all this time, I'm just not familiar with many of the UV coated, shiny, Dufexed, foil stamped inserts or parallels that were found in a flood of late 1990s baseball products.

'GA' probably wasn't a fan favorite compared to his peers like Tim Salmon, Jim Edmonds or Darin Erstad - expectations were sky high after his hot rookie season, but GA seemed content doing his own quiet thing for a bit.

Maybe he was still a bit too 'sleepy' for Angels fans or made too many outs because he didn't walk a lot - but GA figured out some 'launch angle' skills with his naturally sweet swing and had a solid 4-5 year run in the early 2000s.

I liked GA as a player but probably doesn’t get as much love in my regional collection - why not pick up some nice, forgotten cards of an Angels Hall of Famer who has long since settled into anonymity.

1995 Select Certified Edition Garret Anderson Potential Unlimited #9

1995 Select Can’t Miss Garret Anderson #CM9

1995 Score Rookie Dream Team Garret Anderson #RDT8

1 comment:

Fuji said...

When I think of Angels from the 90's... Salmon is by far the first player that comes to mind. But I'd say Anderson is right in the mix with Edmonds and Erstad for me.