1994 Topps Stadium Club

Hey, look at this! Full color pictures, very little text on the front of the card, and NO BORDERS! This is the stuff baseball cards should be. Period. Throw borders away, throw all the logos, text, etc away from the front of the card. Just give us what we (collectors) want: Players on cards.


The first four cards out of the pack are Jeff Bagwell (Astros), John Doherty (Tigers), Mariano Duncan (Phillies), and Jeff Blauser (Braves). I was pretty happy pulling the Bagwell as the first card out of the chute. Doherty and Duncan didn't ring any bells in my head, but I was okay with the Blauser. Bagwell is definitely the star so far. I was disappointed that his was not an action shot. Doherty's got a nice "just-before-the-pitch" photo. Mariano appears to be catching some rays. Blauser's photo is a nice action shot, but why show the guy NOT getting the runner out??


Next up, we have Tom Pagnozzi (Cardinals), Dave West (Phillies), Tim Naehring (Red Sox), and Charlie Hayes (Rockies). Okay, Pagnozzi is about to be safe on base, judging by the ball location in the photo. West is in mid wind-up. Naehring is another one who suffers from having his card feature the fact that he is NOT going to get out the runner (who happens to be LOFTON, HELLO!?). Hayes looks poised for action. I have to give the nod to Naehring in this grouping based on the fact there is a Triber on his card.


The last quartet features Lenny Dykstra (Phillies), Lance Painter (Rockies), Luis Gonzalez (Astros - Gold or something), and Chris Turner (Angels). I have always been a fan of Dykstra, even though on this card he dropped the "Lenny" in favor of "Len." I have no idea who Painter is, but that's most likely my own tunnel vision in action. Gonzalez looks up after stealing a base. Great card! And it is a gold card, or some other kind of insert. I'm sure I could look it up pretty quickly, but I'll just leave it to one of the readers to fill in the blanks with a comment.. :-) And, finally, Turner is sliding home in a great action photo. You can see that he has just slid passed the outside (left) corner of the plate. The position of the catcher indicates that the play was never made on him. Not a bad way to round out the pack.

Bagwell, Dykstra, Gonzalez definitely make the pack worth the price paid. How much was the pack? 34 cents.