Tommy Greene No-Hitter Card #2: Stadium Club Members Only

For the middle edition of our Tommy Greene No-Hitter Trilogy we take a look at a special card from the 1991 Topps Stadium Club set.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Members Only Tommy Greene

Little hard to make out in the card photo but at the bottom of the card it states "Members Only". The Phrase refers to the set only issued to TSC Members.

Good Action shot of Tommy Greene here and the Full Bleed is nice, especially for 1991. However Topps stumbled on a pet peeve for me - on Specialty card dedicated to No-Hitters and other milestones it always irks me when the card messes up the Home/Away illusion.

As we know from the no-hitter box featured in our earlier posting, Tommy Greene tossed his gem in Montreal. In the above photo Greene is obviously in the Phillies Home Whites.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Members Only Tommy Greene (b-side)

Topps makes up for that oversight on the back of the card. Yeah my irrational dislike for Fouling up the Uni- Colors is matched by Irrational love of Newsprint themed cards.

Pretty sure I would read the Stadium Club Herald cover to cover if it were published today.

I am a little disappointed with the portion of the Text that specifies "Seven bases on balls were all Tommy permitted...".

In what world are 7 walks considered trivial! 
 
Sources and Links
Tommy Greene No-Hitter Master Posting
No-Hitter Index
Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards - Bob Lemke  

1991 Topps Stadium Club #195 Omar Vizquel - Future HoF?

For the first time in my life everybody single player on an Opening Day roster was younger then me.  The last man to take the field that was older than myself was gold glove shortstop Omar Vizquel. 

1991 Topps Stadium Club #195 Omar Vizquel

Vizquel and Phungo favorite Jamie Moyer were the last two guys to play that were older my present 45. Omar Vizquel turns 46 today. It is an odd milestone, and really only meaningful to myself.  Regardless I did note its passing with a pang of sadness.

Hall of Fame Resume
Omar Vizquel came up with the Mariners in the late 80s and was traded to Cleveland following the 1993 season to make room for some big prospect that would turn out to be a steroid gobbling oddball.

In Cleveland Vizquel made 3 all-star teams and was the starting Shortstop for five consecutive playoff teams, The Best of which were the 97 Indians who took the Marlins to extra innings in game 7 of a very memorable World Series.  For his career Vizquel appeared in 57 Postseason games. His postseason numbers include 23 Stolen Bases in 26 attempts.

Vizquel is a borderline Hall of Famer - He would get my vote. The four decade mans big stats are largely accumulaters but he did it as a good glove man at a premium position.  His career BA of .272 may not be impressive but he did rack up 2877 Hits.  There are only 3 HoF eligible players above Vizquel in Hits that are not in the Hall (Bonds, Rafael Palmiero, and Biggio).  The only Shortstops ahead of Vizquel are Jeter and Honus Wagner.

His defensive accolades include 11 Gold Gloves (2nd only to HoF Ozzie Smith),  Most career Games and Double Plays had Short, and 2nd in career fielding pct (Troy Tulowitzki)

1991 Topps Stadium Club #195 Omar Vizquel (b-side)

This is an early Omar Vizquel card. I like how Topps posted the players RC on the flip of Stadium Club Cards.  It was one way that Topps could take advantage of their history in the Hobby.  If Vizquel does get into the Hall, I think his Rookie card will still be found at reasonable prices as 1989 Topps are pretty ubiquitous. Not sure that this is also true for the traded set, but it looks like you can pick up the complete 132 card set for under $15 and it includes the Topps RC of both Ken Griffey Jr and Randy Johnson.