Johnny Damon

I’ll be honest: I wasn’t sure Johnny Damon was going to stick. Sure, he was a speedy outfielder with a good glove (how things change), but I wasn’t sure he had enough of a bat to hang around. I thought the Damon cards I got were kind of cool back in the day, especially this one, but I didn’t think he was going to hang around long enough to really make a mark. Obviously I was wrong, but the odd thing is that this is not a recent acquisiton; this is the original card I got in 1994. I think I may have even traded for this. So I guess in some corner of my mind I had some questions. I’m still not a big Damon fan, but I have to admit this card is pretty cool. I think of this parallel as a predecessor to the later sets like refractors and x-fractors. I may try to track down more of these as I have an opportunity to.

Scott Erickson

Scott Erickson was the coolest pitcher I’d ever seen. The guy dressed all in black on his pitching days, and went so far as to paint his spikes black. It seems really dorky now, but when you’re 14, it seems like the height of coolness for a major league pitcher.  Rock star kind of stuff. It helped that he was a pretty good pitcher, too, even if I didn’t give a damn about the Twins past the 1991 World Series. I never noticed until now, either, but he bore a resemblance to Jim Palmer, who remains my favorite pitcher of all time (okay, maybe secondary to Satchel Paige). I’m sure there was some influence there.

 

Unfortunately, after a promising start, his career fell apart. Oh, he stuck around for a long time, but after 91 and 92 he was mediocre at best. Too bad. I don’t know if an injury was to blame or if the league just figured out that sinker.