The first card is the Charlotte, NC, Knights expansion. There's a red-orange photo of the city skyline. Honestly, it reminds me of the same orange cast that Michael Enslin sees in room 1408 in Stephen King's short story (not the movie version). The first player we see is Pete Schourek (Tidewater Tides). Pete played in the majors for 11 years with the Mets, Reds, Astros, Red Sox, Pirates, and then back to the Red Sox for his final season in 2001. Armando Reynoso (Richmond Braves) played for the Braves, Rockies, Mets and Diamondbacks. His last game came in 2002.
Mike Ignasiak (Denver Zephyrs) played four seasons with the Brewers, bowing out in 1995. Steve Scarsone (Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons) bounced from Phillies, Orioles, Giants, Cardinals, and eventually to the Royals. His last season was 1999. Turk Wendell (Iowa Cubs) spent 11 years in the Bigs with the Cubs, Mets, Phillies and Rockies. I'm seeing a bit of a pattern here, I think...
Brian Barnes (Indianapolis Indians) played for the Expos, Indians (1994) and Dodgers (also 1994). Rosario Rodriguez (Buffalo Bisons) played for the Reds and Pirates and by the time this card came out, he was done in the Bigs (last season was 1991). Lonnie Maclin (Louisville Redbirds) played in 12 games for the Cardinals during his only season in the majors.
Harvey Pulliam (Omaha Royals) played for the Royals and Rockies between 1991 and 1997. Greg Johnson (Portland Beavers - sorry, I must have had Braves on the brain earlier... I've now corrected this.) represents the first player for which I could not find any major league stats. Joey Vierra (Nashville Sounds) evidently never made it to the Show, either. That's a shame, because he certainly has a baseball name.
Will Taylor (Las Vegas Stars) shows the back of his card on here. The backs are very plain, but have the player name, the MLB affiliate, the minor league team name and affiliation, player bio info and minor league stats. There is also a little semi-paragraph about the player on the bottom of the card. I do like that the card numbers are in a home-plate motif... Jerry Schunk (Syracuse Chiefs) and Larry Shikles (Pawtucket Red Sox) apparently made no MLB appearances either...
I should note that my research comes from www.baseball-almanac.com (other such sites may have different info)
That's the Portland BEAVERS to you!
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