Wild Card -Matchups, in one tidy card

The late season has already begun – the Tigers and Guardians are on my TV while I write this. I miss the baseball of the day after the season. Although I am a fan of night games and night maps, there is too much artificial light in the play -offs and I remember a lot of pleasure from coming home from school to a game that is already going on.

So there is a good reason to make 12 teams in the play -offs. There are not enough hours at night!

I wanted to find cards that summarize every Playoff matchup of the Play-Off of De Wilde Card. Were there cards that include both teams? The answer to that: there is of course Night Owl!

So let’s look at a few for each series. I first start with the American League:

Red SOX-YANKEES

There is no shortage of cards with both Red Sox and Yankees, as you can imagine. In fact, there are way too much. The SP Authentic Ment -Matchups of 2008 SP set alone has eight. That is annoying. That is more than I have found for all cards combined for the others Al Playoff -Matchup.

1993 Ted Williams Company “The Babe” SubSet

A classic with an old Babe Ruth meets a young Ted Williams. This photo comes from a War Charity event of 12 July 1943 in Fenway Park when Williams first met Ruth and the two participated in a Home Run-Hitting competition.

1993 Pinnacle, Insert set now and then

I love this insert set, I should have all these cards now. The best versions of these Play-Off-COMP cards I have found are those in which a single person represents both teams on the same piece of cardboard. This costs two images, but we come to those where there is only one image (hint: you’ve already seen one).

2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Rivalry Insert

Here there is one with one player who represents both teams. It is clear that the lack of logos harms the presentation, but the concept was good. I swear that Hometown Heroes was the only time that Panini showed a real thought in a baseball product.

Guardians-Tigers

The combination with the least cards. I couldn’t find any real Guardians-Tigers-Combos, only Indians-Tigers-Combos. But this is the only combination for which every card I show is from one player.

2006 Upper cover, series 1

Strong start with Jason Johnson who represents both teams, wears a Tigers uniform, but is mentioned with his new team, the Indians. Upper deck loved to do things like this. In series 2 there is another Jason Johnson card that is all Cleveland.

1960 Topps

Interesting. Norm Cash never played a real game for the Indians. He was taken over from the White Sox by the Indians in the low season and then exchanged to the Tigers at the start of the 1960 season. This is a high-quality card (#488), so that topps can be beautifully a tigers’ “d” on the black-and-white image. But in the color shot, money wears an Indian hat, from spring training, I think.

1978 O-Pee-Chee

O-PEE-Chee versions are the best versions! I loved this card even before it fitted so perfectly into this post theme.

CUBS

I wonder if Cubs fans are already suffering from flashback from the NLCs of 1984? It is the first thing I thought of when I realized that these two teams would meet. I rooted for the Cubs in ’84. I made them whining. I hope I won’t hind them anymore.

1993 Fleer Superstar Special SubSet

Fleer’s Superstar specials are natural go-tos for a post like this.

1974 Topps

The other half of the combination of 1974, together with Glenn Beckert at the top of the post. This is the more colorful of the two cards and it was so nice from Jerry Morales to predict this 2025 series all the way alone more than 50 years ago.

1985 O-PEE-CHEE

Investing this message costs me a little money. I have added a few cards to my online carts, including this card. Tim Stoddard signed almost immediately at the Padres after playing against them in the NLCs of 1984. I remember that I was confusing – how could you go to a team that you simply defeated in the most painful way? Stoddard was not doing so well for San Diego.

Ok, another:

1978 Topps Manager SubSet

Alvin Dark as a cub as a player and as a padre as a manager. That’s nice.

Dodgers-Reds

I could not find a card in which a player represented both the Dodgers and Reds on a single card in an obvious way. This O-Pee-Chee card from 1992 is quite close, but OPC had stopped updating the graphics to display the new team of the player-which is very disappointing that you do not get that usual OPC sensation.

1992 Pinnacle Rookie Idols Insert Set

Here Eric Davis is in his Dodgers -Uniform with reggie Sanders of the Reds. It took me a long time to realize that these idols were actually inserts.

1987 Fleer Superstar Special SubSet

Another classic SSS, the first card I thought of for this specific play -off combo.

2001 Upper deck UD decade game-used bat card

I could have used many different relic maps for these play -off combinations, but almost all avoids. However, could not avoid this. The Reds were the greatest enemy of Dodgers (except perhaps the Yankees) when I learned baseball for the first time and all players bigger than life. Upper deck could have used someone who could have used more impressive than Bill Russell – say Garvey of Dusty Baker or Reggie Smith, but if these are actually bat pieces of each individual player, I will allow it.

Because some of these Wildcard Playoff games are during the day, I can actually view a few. Otherwise it will wait until the weekend unless I want to record something – that’s how I will view the World Series.