Common Cards, Uncommon Photography II

It's back!! A while ago I did a post highlighting the great photography on the run of the mill cards that often get overlooked in our search for big hits.  I intended to make it a regular feature of the blog, and I have been setting aside a nice stack of cards that fit the bill.  Today I finally got around to scanning some of them.  I figure I'll do these in groups of nine - that way I can fill up a page and put them in a binder, so I'll know not to use those cards again in a future post.  Now on to the cards!

1989 Upper Deck Kent Tekulve #207:

When I saw the this card all I could I think of was Professor Farnsworth from Futurama.  The awkward body contortion, the look on his face, the glasses - it's too perfect.  "Good news, everyone!!"




1992 Donruss Triple Play Marquis Grissom #47:

A shot straight out of the movie Major League.  You can just see Marquis thinking "Shit, that's 20 pushups...."

1998 Topps Stadium Club Jay Buhner #20:

Buhner shows some decent hops on this attempt at saving a home run.  As a fan and collector it would be so cool to get immortalized on a baseball card the way that fan trying to catch the ball is on this card.  I'll take anything I can get when it comes to getting my face on cardboard!

1999 Fleer Tradition Mike Cameron #409:

 Mike Cameron clearly outdoes Buhner in the wall climbing department.  Awesome timing by the photographer to capture him at full extension.

1999 Fleer Ultra Andruw Jones #25:

The last two were good, but Jones takes the cake with this effort.  Is he man or Spider-man?!?!?

1997 Topps Troy O'Leary #54:

Looks like the pitcher gave ol' Troy a little chin music!

1998 UD Collector's Choice Eduardo Perez #72:

Eduardo showed up in my first "Uncommon Photography" post too.  I love cards like this that show multiple images in one shot.  Looks like he made a great catch!

1999 Fleer Tradition Jason Kendall #169:

A beautiful photo here.  The dirt kicking up and Kendall's helmet flying off look great.

1989 Upper Deck Jerry Reed #529:

We started the day with 1989 Upper Deck and now we come full circle.  "This next pitch is going to be delicious!!"

Previous Trivia Question:

What is the record for most triples in a single season?

 

Answer:  John "Chief" Wilson led the league with 36 triples as a member of the Pittsburgh Pirates in 1912.  That same season he set another record by tripling in 5 consecutive games from June 17-20!

 

Today's Trivia Question:

 

In 2010 the Colorado Rockies set a record for hits by consecutive batters while playing against the Chicago Cubs.  How many batters in a row notched a hit?

 

The Great Big Cat Safari Begins~!

I recently posted about how I stumbled across the Animal Kingdom patches from this year's UD Goodwin set and immediately fell in love with the cards.  What got me most excited as I went down the list was how many cats there were, as the big cats have always been my absolute favorite animals at the Zoo because they're just so badass.  I immediately decided that collecting all of the cats from the Animal Kingdom set would have to be the newest quest here on the blog.

A quick perusal of the list revealed that 10 of the 100 cards in the set were cats.  Unless of course one of those more obscure animals turned out to be of the feline persuasion, but what are the chances of that?....

Oh....so THAT'S what a Margay is.....

OK, make that ELEVEN cats on the list.

For those of you unfamiliar with the set, the rarity of the cards is determined by the endangeredness of the animal.  Here are the cats:

"Least Concern" Category:
AK-6 - Cougar
AK-11 - Ocelot
AK-24 - Jaguarundi

"Not Threatened" Category:
AK-62 - Sand Cat
AK-63 - Margay

"Vulnerable" Category:
AK-68 - Cheetah
AK-75 - African Lion

"Endangered" Category:
AK-81 - Snow Leopard
AK-82 - Bengal Tiger

"Extinct" Category:
AK-98 - Sabre-Toothed Cat

What's that you say?  That's only 10?  Well that's because today I am also revealing the first capture of the Big Cat Safari.  From the "Least Concern" Category, #AK-54 - the Eurasian Lynx~!









These tough mothas are native to the forests of Europe and Siberia, and also parts of South and East Asia.  They typically weigh 40-65 pounds, but the Siberian variety can get up to nearly 100 pounds.  They have a reddish-brown coat in the summer that grows thicker and turns silver-gray or silver-brown in the winter months.  They have webbed and furred paws that act like snowshoes, so you're totally screwed if you're trying to run through snow to get away from one.

So mark one off the list!  I'm not sure I'll ever be able to get all 11, as I don't know how many Sabre-Toothed Cats they even printed but I'm sure it is very few, but I hope to add as many as I can slowly over time as they show up on eBay at good prices.  Of course any of you reading this who might have one of the cats (or any of the Animal Kingdom cards, for that matter) can always hit me up for a trade!