Zero-Year Cards, Part 29

1993 Stadium Club Rockies Team Issue #30 Brad Ausmus (Rockies)

One of my favorite themes in my collection are these "zero-year" cards.

Unfortunately, they're a fairly rare thing in the hobby, especially in recent years. I only have record of one "zero-year" card issued last year, although I might've missed a couple others.

Out of the four running themes on this blog, I'd say these are the most personal to me. For most posts, I try to write about something that I enjoy, but at the same time trying to make it so others can relate to it. Plus, I always love reading comments from my fellow bloggers. 

These "zero-year" cards represent one of my favorite things about blogging in general. You get to write about what you want to. You write for yourself, first and foremost.

After all, I'm not sure how many other bloggers take much of an interest to this theme. But that's fine. It's therapeutic to write a post solely for your own purposes every so often. Any comments I get on these are purely a bonus.

As I mentioned earlier, my "zero-year" ideas have been running thin lately. I've got a few others left, but then that might be it. However, this particular card was one I've been thinking about posting for a while. (I've already got an idea for another "personal" theme I may debut, but that probably won't be for a while.)

Brad Ausmus joins Jose Canseco as the only players in my collection that have multiple "zero-year" cards. (Here's his other one.)

I like Ausmus a hundred times more than Canseco, so we'll dub Ausmus as the unofficial "King of the Zero-Year Cards".

Ausmus jumped around quite a bit before enjoying a long and successful career. He was drafted by the Yankees in the 48th round of the '87 draft. After kicking around in New York's minor league system for a while, the Rockies made him one of their expansion picks in November of '92.

He'd never play for either team. Ausmus was dealt to the Padres after spending a couple months with the Rockies' AAA affiliate. He'd make his big-league debut with San Diego in July of '93.

For the longest time, I couldn't figure out what exactly these Stadium Club cards were. They're nowhere to be found in my gigantic Beckett book. It turns out that they're part of team sets that have a completely different design than the regular Stadium Club cards that year.

I actually like this design better.

It looks like I'm going to have to do some digging and come up with some more cards that fit with this theme. Former expansion teams such as the Rockies or Marlins are a good place to start, I've found.

In the meantime, let's hail Brad Ausmus, a.k.a. "King of the Zero-Year Cards".