As baseball fans, we always talk about guys who are "in their prime", or "past their prime".
I'm not sure how much further away you can get from your prime by playing in the Senior League. But it just shows the pure love of the game that these guys have.
These are among the most interesting cards I own. I had no idea that they even made Seinor League cards, but apparently a company called TM Sports produced some in the late '80s.
The team names in the Senior League are just awful. Bobby Bonds plays for the "St. Lucie Legends". Fergie Jenkins is proud to be a member of the "Winter Haven Super Sox". Super Sox. Really?
I also find it funny that Bobby Bonds is listed as a DH on the front of his card. How old do you have to be to get to be a DH in the Senior League?
Who better to be Senior League Commissioner that Curt Flood?
Apparently the famous pose of a guy flipping a baseball in mid-air extends to the front office as well.
Pacific, the most underrated card company of all-time, also produced a Senior League set in 1990.
Apparently, Graig Nettles managed the St. Lucie Legends. Hopefully he never had Bill Lee on his roster, as that probably wouldn't play out very well.
And the "Orlando Juice"? I hope the team wasn't on steroids or something.
Dave Kingman is one of the last guys I thought would play in a senior league. That's former big-leaguer Toby Harrah and current Rangers manager Ron Washington extending congratulations to Kingman on that card.
Bert Campaneris was 48 when this card was released.
Still not as old as Jamie Moyer.
This is by far my favorite of the bunch.
Al Hrabosky was 41 when this card came out. But not a lot has changed.
He's still got the awesome beard (although it's starting to gray a little), and it looks like he's still got quite a bit of force behind his pitches.
I love these cards. It just goes to show you that these guys are just trying to stay in the game of baseball for as long as they possibly can.
Can you blame them?
I remember way back in 1990 or so the Senior League being a slightly big deal when it was announced, then it was all but forgotten about. It was never covered on Sportscenter (back when Sportscenter was good) or newspapers (newpapers were these tablets of paper in which we old folks read current events).
ReplyDeleteI am in total agreement about Pacific. I would Pacific in 3rd for my favorite card company of all time well behind Topps and barely behind Fleer. The inserts were some of the most creative cards of the 1990s.
I'd heard of senior leagues before, but I never knew guys like Kingman or Hrabosky played in them until I got these cards.
ReplyDeleteOn the Pacifc note, I actually just received a big lot of about 300+ cards from late-90s Pacific base sets in the mail today.
Do you happen to need any Rockies from any of those sets? There were quite a few in there.
Yes I do need quite a bit from that time period, email me with what you have and what you would like in return for them. Do you have a favorite team/player(s) or are you primarily a set collector?
ReplyDeleteThere are a bunch of players I collect, but too many to list. I'll send you an email with more info.
ReplyDeleteThanks!
I love these Senior League cards - I think I have all of Fergie's Senior League stuff.
ReplyDeleteI've got about 40 of the 1990 set I can include in the trade if you want. Or if you have a wantlist let me know.
ReplyDelete