Uniform Back Cards (Part 1 in a series)
Posted by Jonathan @ RGB Cards | Posted in 2009 topps , uniform back cards
For a long time, I've had this idea in my head about a regularly-occuring feature for the blog. Many fine bloggers to this - such as Night Owl's Awesome Night Cards, White Sox Cards' WSC Birth Years and Cards That Never Were features, and Play at the Plate's, well, Plays at the Plate.
The feature that I want to do, and have been thinking about for a while, is cards that show uniform backs, and not the fronts or faces of the players. I've always, always, always been fascinated by uniform numbers. When I started as a six-year-old playing soccer, I thought long and hard before choosing the number 3. That, along with 15, became "my numbers" and, no matter the sport, I had a uniform that either had a three in the number or was a multiple of 3. That is, until I made my high school baseball team my sophomore year, and got assigned number 8.
Eight's not a multiple of three.
Eight has no connection to three.
8 kinda looks like a 3 with an extra side.
However, it was at about the same time that Bo Jackson made his comeback, with the White Sox. And with the Sox, Bo wore number...8
Then Joey Belle changed his name back to Albert and started tearing the cover off the ball. Well, not literally, but with Albert, you never knew what was going to happen. And Albert wore number...8
At least until he got to Baltimore, where he had to wear number 88 because this guy wore 8 and wasn't planning on giving it up. Apparently Rene Gonzales had no objections.
So yeah, 8 immediately became my number. So long, 3. Don't let the door hit your number-3-shaped ass on the way out.
What's the point of all this? It's to explain how I have always had a fascination with numbers. Who wears what number, why they wear it, what they change to when they go to another team. I even have this book in my personal library. So cards that show the back of a player's uniform are pretty awesome. They deserve to be celebrated. And that is what I'm going to do.
The card at the top is the one that kicked the ball rolling for me. 2009 Topps is full of cards with uniform backs instead of fronts, and by the time I pulled this Ryan Langerhans card, I had come across so many that I thought "I should do a series on this." I busted the 2009 Topps box back in June, so that gives you an idea of how long this series has been perculating.
Yeah, I was thinking of a series called "Men In (EYE) Black" starting with a cool Will Clark card. But...I never got it done, and some of the eye black doubles were involved in a trade and I didn't scan them, and...and...
Check out a post I did recently on Emerald City Diamond Gems for the Finest Fleer 96-00 with two consecutive cards of Carlos Guillen with two backs shots. Feel free to use those cards for a post if you would like.