Card of the Day: 1993 Topps Gold Rookie Catchers

 

 

In 1993, this was an awesome card. Topps gold parallels were hot, and three of the players on this card looked like future stars.

• Mike Piazza was in the middle of his Rookie of the Year season with the L.A. Dodgers.
• Brook Fordyce, the Mets “catcher of the future” was coming off a solid year in AA.
• Carlos Delgado tore up the Florida State League in 1992, and he was continuing to clobber Southern League pitching. He’d actually earn a call-up to Toronto straight from AA later in the year.
• Donnie Leshnock was a fifth round draft pick of the New York Yankees in 1992. Unfortunately for Mr. Leshnock, by 1993 he had all but abandoned catching and was trying to make it as a pitcher. He never played above A-ball.

In 2008, this is not an awesome card… at least according to the price guides. All the card companies were still cranking out so much product that it’s all nearly worthless today.  

I still love this card for a variety of reasons.

• It completes my 1993 Topps Mets team set. I had every one of the regular cards, all the gold winners, all the Rockies and Marlins innauguaral cards, all the micro cards and all the regular gold cards except this one.
• Three of the four players pictured on this card eventually played for the Mets. Fordyce played four games for the Mets in 1995, beginning a 10-year journeyman career that would take him to four other teams. Piazza, a future Hall-of-Famer, came to the Mets in 1998. He’d play there for seven more years and become the best catcher in franchise history. Carlos Delgado arrived in 2006 and is still a key part of the Mets lineup.
• Therre could be two Hall-of-Famers on this card one day. Piazza is a first ballot lock, but Delgado is only 31 home runs away from reaching 500. If he does, he’d have to be considered for the Hall.