Tuesday, January 6, 2015

From the (HOFer!) Pedro Binder



2000 Upper Deck

First, a big congrats to Pedro Martinez for being elected to the Hall of Fame today!

Second, I absolutely love this card!

It really has everything I’ve always said I love about cards. Look at the size of that picture! It takes up the whole card, if you count the translucent portion at the bottom. It has Pedro’s name facing the right way. His last name is in foil, but I’ll let that slide this once. It has the Boston Red Sox name, in foil, facing the right way. The Upper Deck logo is nicely hidden in the upper corner. And, it’s in foil to make it even more hidden.

The picture is simple, but great. Pedro in the home whites, getting ready to embarrass yet another hitter.

But, that’s not my favorite part of the card. My favorite part appears in two places. Once, prominently displayed on Pedro’s sleeve. Then again larger than life in gold foil on the left.

The 1999 All-Star Game logo. I can never be reminded enough of that game. Easily the best game I’ve ever been to that didn’t count for anything. Even counting playoff games and other real contests, it’s definitely top-five. Pedro’s performance in that game is easily 50% of the meaning of that game. If not more. So, while I never did quite collect the entire set of players with the ASG logo, having Pedro is probably enough. I don’t need to remind you of how he completely dominated the best the National League could offer. Home run kings? MVP? Future Hall-of-Famers? He struck out five of six. It was Pedro at his best.


Which makes for a fantastic card.

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