At first look, you may suppose that the 1993 Fleer Extremely baseball card set design is strictly the identical because the earlier yr.
Each comprise marble-toned, triangular backgrounds alongside the underside with trapezoidal banners that comprise participant names and workforce/place data.
And on these title banners, you will see that every participant’s first title is smaller than his final title.
Each comprise a Fleer Extremely emblem stamped within the higher nook.
However though they’re practically an identical in design, look intently and you may spot some key variations…
The ’93 Fleer Extremely emblem comprises a baseball with a comet-like path behind it.
And the ’93 Fleer Extremely title and workforce/place banners are positioned barely in a different way alongside the underside.
It might be attention-grabbing to return in time and perceive why Fleer’s design workforce went with such an analogous design because the yr earlier than.
Regardless, this set comprises many great-looking playing cards.
And on this information, we’ll check out the 15 most dear.
Let’s leap proper in!
1993 Fleer Extremely #636 Nolan Ryan
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $125
The Ryan Categorical gave Houston Astros followers one hell of a last trip.
Hammered by a myriad of accidents starting from nagging to extreme, Nolan Ryan gutted his method again onto the mound for 13 eventful begins in 1993.
The 27-year veteran didn’t have the identical pop on his fireball fastball, however he nonetheless placed on a present every time attainable.
A type of reveals was primarily a boxing match.
On August 4th, Ryan plunked Chicago White Sox star Robin Ventura and was instantly bull-rushed on the mound.
The 47-year-old Ryan caught Ventura mid-charge, placing him in a headlock and punching him repeatedly within the prime of the pinnacle.
“All you are able to do is react,” Ryan stated. “You don’t have time to determine your choices.”
The ageless hurler lastly ran out of choices on September twenty third.
On the finish of a dismal yr (4.88 ERA in 13 begins, 46 Ks in 66.1 innings), Ryan tore the UCL in his pitching elbow within the first inning of his begin towards Seattle.
And that, as they are saying, was that.
“I heard the ligament pop like a rubber band,” Ryan stated. There’s no method I’ll ever be capable to throw once more. My physique is telling me it’s time to maneuver on and do one thing else.”
1993 Fleer Extremely #534 Bo Jackson
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $115
Bo Jackson did not should return to baseball.
In spite of everything, he made a fortune in promoting income on the peak of his two-sport success.
For the Chicago White Sox DH/outfielder, although, his comeback try from a devastating hip damage was about way more than peace of thoughts.
Earlier than his mom’s passing, Jackson promised her that his first hit again can be a tribute to her.
So when Jackson deposited the second regular-season pitch he noticed into the right-field seats on April ninth, 1993, the emotional affect on the slugger was palpable.
“Fortunate for me and sadly for the pitcher, I hit a house run,” Jackson recalled. “However that hit meant extra to me than something, as a result of I saved my phrase, my promise, to my mother. I might have retired that night time.”
Jackson could not play on daily basis for the Sox, however he gave them an influence enhance when he did.
The 30-year-old megastar slashed .232/.289/.433 in 85 video games for the AL West champs with 16 house runs in simply 284 at-bats.
He didn’t register successful (0-for-10, six Ks) in Chicago’six-game ALCS loss to the Toronto Blue Jays.
1993 Fleer Extremely #244 Don Mattingly
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $75
The resurgence of Don Mattingly coincided with that of a earlier moribund New York Yankees franchise.
It wasn’t a coincidence.
The 14th captain in Yankees historical past earned that designation within the clubhouse and by instance on the sphere.
He introduced a younger, proficient New York squad collectively whereas giving Yankees followers a thrill unmatched since their final playoff (and World Collection) look in 1981.
“I believe that is the closest membership I’ve performed on so far as guys getting alongside,” Mattingly stated. “That is the most effective membership (by way of) getting alongside and chemistry that I’ve ever performed on.”
New York completed 88-74 in ’93 for the franchise’s first successful season in a half-decade.
Mattingly had his finest yr for the reason that flip of the last decade, slashing .291/.364/.445 with 17 house runs, 27 doubles, 2 triples, 61 walks, 78 runs scored, and 86 RBIs in 596 plate appearances (530 at-bats).
The second-place Yankees could not catch the division-champion Blue Jays, however a minimum of they gained again their followers.
After averaging round 1.7 million followers per yr the earlier two seasons, New York drew over 2.4 million spectators in ’93 for his or her greatest complete gate since 1987.
1993 Fleer Extremely #378 Trevor Hoffman Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $50
Trevor Hoffman’s path to a Corridor of Fame induction in 2018 wasn’t precisely conventional.
On the College of Arizona, Hoffman starred as a shortstop.
And his trip to Cooperstown started when the Cincinnati Reds drafted him within the eleventh spherical of the 1989 MLB Draft.
However Hoffman struggled on the plate early within the Minors.
A lot in order that, by 1991, the Single-A affiliate Charleston Soiled Birds transformed him to a pitcher.
That is when the magic began.
Sadly for the Reds, they did not reap any advantages from their very own experiment.
Left unprotected, the Florida Marlins chosen Hoffman with the eighth decide of the 1992 MLB Growth Draft.
Quick ahead to a 6-5 highway win towards Atlanta on April 29, 1993, and Hoffman efficiently closed out the Braves for his first of 601 profession saves.
And, sadly for the Marlins, solely 2 of these saves occurred on their watch.
The workforce traded Hoffman to San Diego in the midst of the season as a part of a multi-player deal that introduced famous person slugger Gary Sheffield to South Florida.
Hoffman held the nearer’s function for sixteen seasons in San Diego earlier than ending his last two years in Milwaukee.
1993 Fleer Extremely #472 Tony Gwynn
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $50
Tony Gwynn fell off after successful his second, third and fourth batting titles back-to-back-to-back from 1987 to 1989.
That is “fell off” within the loosest sense of the phrase.
The venerable San Diego Padres proper fielder hit over .300 each season from 1990-92, ending no worse than eighth within the NL batting race and twice within the prime 5.
In 1993, Gwynn was even higher.
Regardless of lacking 40 video games to damage and enjoying for a bottom-feeding 61-101 squad, the 34-year-old raked at his finest clip since pacing all hitters in 1987 with a .370 common.
Gwynn struck early and infrequently in ’93, upping his hole sport with a brand new career-high 41 doubles.
He would have cruised to a fifth batting crown if not for Andres Galarraga’s jaw-dropping yr in Colorado.
The Rockies third baseman rode a scorching June to the All-Star Sport and was hitting .400 as late as July fifth.
Gwynn could not make up all that floor and ended up second within the NL with a .358 common.
No worries for Padres followers, although.
Gwynn would go on to win 4 consecutive batting titles, together with one for the strike-shortened 1994 marketing campaign.
1993 Fleer Extremely #60 Mike Piazza Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $45
There aren’t many Rookie-of-the-Yr campaigns that may maintain a candle to Mike Piazza’s 1993 breakthrough.
A 62nd-round afterthought within the 1988 MLB Draft, Piazza crushed 52 minor-league house runs in 1991 and 1992, ending his ’92 season with a 1.000 OPS at Double-A and Triple-A.
The younger backstop’s large yr was rewarded with a late-season call-up.
Nevertheless, that was only a blip on the radar display screen in comparison with his mammoth ’93 displaying.
Named the Dodgers’ beginning catcher out of Spring Coaching, Piazza instantly introduced himself as one of the vital fearsome hitters in all of Main League Baseball.
These ready for a rookie drop-off had been left with their jaws hanging down because the 24-year-old bludgeoned his technique to a unanimous NL Rookie-of-the-Yr award.
Piazza hit 35 house runs in ’93, an MLB rookie file for a catcher and a Dodgers rookie file.
He turned the sixth participant in 110 years of Dodgers baseball to hit .300 (.318) with a minimum of 30 house runs and 100 RBIs (112).
The .500 Dodgers could have underachieved, but Piazza was removed from mediocre.
He completed ninth within the league’s MVP race and notched his first All-Star look and Silver Slugger.
1993 Fleer Extremely #353 Dale Murphy
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $45
There is a development on social media the place individuals share photos of well-known athletes who do not look fairly proper in a given uniform.
Although he could not look as bizarre as Ken Griffey Jr. in a Chicago White Sox uniform, Patrick Ewing in a Seattle SuperSonics jersey, or Jerry Rice in Seattle Seahawks gear, Dale Murphy did not look proper in Colorado.
However the circumstances underneath which he arrived in Denver weren’t fairly proper both.
After headlining the Atlanta Braves as one of many greatest stars of the Nineteen Eighties, Murphy started a brand new chapter in 1990 with the Philadelphia Phillies.
However his three seasons in Philly weren’t all that memorable.
His 1991 marketing campaign was strong, however the different two years noticed him hampered by damage, particularly in 1992.
So, forward of the 1993 season, Philadelphia launched him.
Searching for a chance to snag a giant title for his or her 1993 inaugural season, the Colorado Rockies shortly signed him.
He appeared in solely 26 video games earlier than he retired on Might 27, 1993 at age 37.
Like Don Mattingly, Dale Murphy turned a famous person within the Nineteen Eighties, solely to see his profession derailed by accidents within the early Nineteen Nineties.
1993 Fleer Extremely #519 Jim Edmonds Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $45
Jim Edmonds’ climb up the California Angels’ organizational ladder was as regular because it was spectacular.
A Seventh-round decide within the 1988 MLB Draft, Edmonds improved his OPS yearly from 1988 to 1993 whereas showcasing Gold Glove potential in any respect three outfield positions (and even first base).
He wasn’t the flashiest prospect, however he slowly however absolutely discovered his method onto a number of High-100 charts by the 1993 season.
Edmonds set new private minor-league bests in batting common (.315) and slugging proportion (.492) at Triple-A Vancouver, clubbing 41 extra-base hits over 95 video games.
It was a transparent signal that he’d outgrown the minor-league sport, and Edmonds was rewarded with a late-season call-up to the fifth-place Angels.
His 18-game MLB debut was uneventful.
The longer term four-time All-Star and eight-time Gold Glover hit .246 in 61 at-bats and didn’t register his first big-league house run.
It was a light-hitting introduction to one of the vital underrated sluggers of the Nineteen Nineties and 2000s.
1993 Fleer Extremely #545 Manny Ramirez Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $45
There was a time when Manny Ramirez seemed like a surefire lock for a future spot in Cooperstown.
From 1995 to 2008, the man was seemingly good for a minimum of 30 house runs and 100 RBI, to not point out a .300+ batting common, yr after yr.
Positive, he did not have the best glove.
Nor was he the quickest on the bottom paths.
However the man might flat-out rake.
He was a pitcher’s worst nightmare: a man who might hit for each accuracy and energy.
By the point he retired, he had amassed 12 All-Star appearances, a batting title, and 9 Silver Sluggers.
However most significantly to Boston Pink Sox followers, he helped Boston steamroll the St. Louis Cardinals in a four-game sweep within the 2004 World Collection.
Not solely did he take house World Collection MVP, he helped break one of many longest World Collection droughts in MLB historical past.
After which he helped them to a different title in 2007.
The thrills quickly got here crashing down.
Sadly, PED allegations finally caught as much as him when he examined constructive in 2009 and served a 50-game suspension as a member of the LA Dodgers.
Although no person questions his uncooked hitting expertise, the ties to PED utilization will at all times hang-out his legacy.
1993 Fleer Extremely #619 Ken Griffey Jr.
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $45
Ken Griffey Jr. broke the collective brains of the baseball world with maybe the best dinger in Residence Run Derby historical past.
The 23-year-old Seattle Mariners middle fielder was the centerpiece of the ’93 Derby in Baltimore, a charismatic famous person capturing the hearts of followers in all places one after the other.
His recognition was sky-high going into the occasion.
It reached the standing of legends throughout it.
Griffey obliterated a 445-foot shot off Camden Yards’ B&O Warehouse, sending the gang into joyous matches.
It was the primary time anybody had ever hit the right-field staple in truthful territory.
“It simply means it is going to be written about for some time,” Griffey stated. “When someone does it in a sport, my stuff might be blown out of the water.”
“Some time” has gone on over three many years.
Nobody has touched the warehouse ever since.
Do not go pondering that Griffey’s Derby dynamite was a fluke.
It was a press release shot from a press release yr wherein the Mariners legend set a brand new profession finest with 45 house runs.
The Mariners went nowhere at 82-80, however Griffey’s .309 common and 1.025 OPS had been lots for a top-five MVP end, a fourth All-Star nod, and a second Silver Slugger.
1993 Fleer Extremely #57 Pedro Martinez Rookie Card
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $40
As soon as Pedro Martinez locked down his spot on the Los Angeles Dodgers’ big-league roster, it was on.
After a quick two-appearance debut with the Dodgers in 1992, the 21-year-old righty had a puncher’s likelihood to seize a 1993 roster spot out of Spring Coaching.
Nevertheless, the Dodgers’ brass wished him to get extra seasoning and despatched him again to Triple-A Albuquerque to open the yr.
He wasn’t there lengthy.
Martinez pitched three extra minor-league innings earlier than being promoted to the Dodgers to remain on April ninth as a roster alternative for Todd Worrell.
And his first look of the ’93 marketing campaign is the reply to a trivia query.
Pedro got here on in aid of his brother Ramon, giving up two runs to the Atlanta Braves in 1.2 innings of a 3-0 loss.
The duo turned the primary siblings to pitch for a similar workforce in the identical sport since Mickey and Rick Mahler in 1979.
Martinez struggled a bit longer earlier than nailing issues down as a do-all reliever.
Ending ninth within the NL Rookie-of-the-Yr race, the Dominican Republic native posted a sterling 2.61 ERA for the 81-81 Dodgers in 65 appearances (two begins).
He struck out 119 in 107.0 innings, an appetizer for the Corridor-of-Fame exploits to return.
1993 Fleer Extremely #258 Rickey Henderson
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $40
Rickey Henderson went from worst to first in type.
Henderson performed his final 90 video games of his second Oakland stint in 1993, highlighted by a July fifth doubleheader wherein he hit lead-off house runs in each video games, a feat not matched since 1913.
The A’s weren’t going wherever, although.
After a half-decade at or close to the highest of the American League, Oakland was embarking on a full-scale rebuild.
So as to add to their cache of younger gamers and provides Henderson a shot at one other championship, the Athletics shipped their iconic left fielder to the Blue Jays for pitcher Steve Karsay and a participant to be named later.
Henderson’s arrival in Toronto could not have come at a greater time.
The 34-year-old stole 22 bases over the ultimate month and a half because the defending World Collection champs pulled away from the sphere for a 3rd consecutive AL East title.
The trip did not cease there.
Henderson struggled to hit in 12 postseason video games, however his 8-for-47 October (.170) did not matter.
Toronto printed their second straight World Collection championship banner with Joe Carter’s immortal Sport 6 walk-off of the Philadelphia Phillies, the epic end of a rally began by a Rickey Henderson stroll.
1993 Fleer Extremely #236 Kirby Puckett
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $35
It took eight All-Star Video games for Kirby Puckett, one of many technology’s most efficient hitters, to provide something greater than a single.
As soon as he lastly did it, he did it twice for good measure.
The charismatic Minnesota Twins middle fielder put the American League on the board with a second-inning house run and tacked on a double later within the Junior Circuit’s 9-3 win.
“I had no thought I did not have any extra-base hits,” Puckett stated. “It took me eight years to do it. I assume it is a aid.”
Puckett was named the sport’s MVP, turning into the primary Twins participant to take house the honour.
It was one hell of a second, and it helped to shine some gentle on a dismal yr within the Twin Cities.
After two 90-win seasons and a World Collection title in ’91, Minnesota backslid to fifth within the AL West at 71-91.
Puckett did his half to maintain the Twins (barely) afloat, posting a .296/.349/.474 slash line in 156 video games performed.
His 22 house runs had been his most since 1988, and his 64 extra-base hits had been his most since Minnesota’s first World Collection run in 1987.
1993 Fleer Extremely #501 Cal Ripken Jr.
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $35
Simply over two years from the day he’d break Lou Gehrig’s consecutive video games file, Baltimore Orioles icon Cal Ripken Jr. nearly had his march to historical past stopped chilly.
On June sixth, 1993, Ripken ran to the mound throughout a benches-clearing brawl with the Seattle Mariners.
When he bought to the bump, he heard a pop like a gunshot.
Ripken had sprained his knee for the primary time.
“There was a worry issue as a result of I had by no means injured both of my knees earlier than,” Ripken stated. “I awoke, and it was very stiff. It was troublesome to do something on it. Early within the morning, it did not look like I used to be going to have the ability to play.”
By some means, Ripken pushed by way of.
He underwent rigorous bodily coaching within the morning and hobbled his technique to quick to maintain the streak intact.
It was one other day on the workplace for one of many league’s most beloved gamers.
The 32-year-old shortstop was as soon as once more voted as an All-Star Sport starter, this time on the Orioles’ personal Camden Yards.
He completed the yr as a down-ballot MVP candidate, slashing .257/.329/.420 for the third-place O’s with 24 house runs, 26 doubles, 3 triples, 87 runs scored, and 90 RBIs in an MLB-high 641 at-bats.
1993 Fleer Extremely #181 Frank Thomas
Estimated PSA 10 Gem Mint Worth: $30
Some gamers downplay the importance of particular person awards, a minimum of in public.
Chicago White Sox slugger Frank Thomas wasn’t one in all them.
“This was the longest day of my life,” Thomas stated after successful the 1993 AL MVP award unanimously. “There was a number of anticipation happening, and when the decision lastly got here, I bought it on the primary ring.”
The “Huge Harm” had MVP-caliber years in 1991 and 1992, but was denied with third and eighth-place finishes respectively.
Voters couldn’t deny him a 3rd time.
The 25-year-old sat close to the highest of the AL leaderboards in practically each vital offensive class.
He hit .317 on the yr with a 1.033 OPS, a club-record 41 house runs, 112 walks, 106 runs scored, and 128 RBIs.
Unsurprisingly to everybody however him, Thomas captured all 28 first-place votes to develop into the eighth unanimous American League MVP in historical past.
“I used to be actually shocked I bought all 28 votes,” Thomas stated. “I used to be like, `Wow!’ There was no higher technique to win it.”
Thomas ended his storybook yr with a bittersweet ALCS, posting a wholesome .353 batting common and a 1.122 OPS because the Sox fell to the Jays in six.
1993 Fleer Extremely Baseball Playing cards In Evaluation
Total, the 1993 Fleer Extremely set is well-balanced and delivers a strong collector expertise.
Once more, they could not earn a number of factors for creativity, given that they are so much like the earlier yr’s launch, however there’s nonetheless lots to take pleasure in.
There are over 40 Corridor of Famers throughout the 650-card guidelines.
Three of these (Mike Piazza, Pedro Martinez, and Trevor Hoffman) are rookie playing cards.
And due to the picture high quality, the set supplied among the finest appears on the new Colorado Rockies and Florida Marlins enlargement groups.
From a design standpoint, I believe this set has actually held up properly over time.
The complete-color images pops off the cardboard and the shiny end sealed the deal on giving them a premium feel and appear.
It isn’t my favourite set of the early 90s, however it positively brings again loads of fond reminiscences.
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