Two Random Rynos

In this weekly series, I show off two random Ryne Sandberg cards from my 600+ card PC. One will be from his playing days (pre-1998) and one since his retirement (1998-present).

Playing Days:

This was actually one of my favorite cards as a young collector. I was obviously a huge Ryne Sandberg fan but I also lived in Michigan, outside Detroit for a few years in the early-mid 90's. Cecil Fielder was all the rage. Well, kind of. The Detroit Pistons were coming off back-to-back championships and there's a reason that Detroit is called Hockeytown. For me those sports didn't matter so pairing up two guys who were just mashing home runs was fun. The bright yellow cards were so bad, they were good.

Plus, this was years before interleague play so you didn't get too many of these kinds of matchups that weren't just two separate photos on one card. Because of this, I'm assuming this photo was taken at the All-Star game, and it just so happens that the 1990 game was played at Wrigley Field. Too bad they didn't turn around 180 degrees and get some Ivy in the backdrop, though there were plenty of Ivy cards in this set.

Two random things I noticed. I always thought of Cecil Fielder as a much heavier guy as a kid but he looks fairly normal here. I've noticed that about Tony Gwynn and Kirby Puckett as well. I wouldn't say they look svelte on cards but definitely leaner than I remember. The other thing is the cameo by Darryl Strawberry.

Post Retirement:

I loved the idea behind this Wrigley Field Celebrates 100 Years insert set out of 2016 Topps and actually still need to figure out which ones I need. However, the photo selection on it was a bit lacking. The name kind of gives it away but the whole point of the set is to celebrate Wrigley. So why is Sandberg is a road uniform?

The back goes on to talk about his MVP season in 1984 and according to the caption on the source photo from Getty Images, the picture was taken during Game 4 of the 1984 NLCS. So at least Topps managed to get the year to match the accomplishment. It is a nice photo, but could and should have been used elsewhere. A home jersey from a different year would have been much less noticeable.