Friday, August 1, 2008

Card Spotlight: 8-1-08

2008 A Piece Of History - Franchise Members 3 - Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Jim Thome

As, I turn my 2008 White Sox calendar to reveal Mr. August (Rob Mackowiak, for some reason), the trading deadline has officially passed. Two White Sox players have new homes in the Cincinnati organization and one new White Sox player will grace his presence tonight in Kansas City.

This card, which I do not have yet, features 3 members of the 500 home run club. After tonight, there will be another common link. They will have all played for the White Sox. Plus, they are all still playing. Frank Thomas' playing time this year was in serious jeopardy when he was released by the Blue Jays. Luckily, his second team picked him back up and he is enjoying a lengthening of his career there.

I'm not sure where any of these players will ultimately end up next year, but it's nice to think they will still be contributing to a team in some way. I doubt they will ever all be on the same team at the same time, so the White Sox connection may be the closest anyone gets to that pipe dream.

It's nice to see, that in the course of history, the White Sox have had four players with over 500 home runs in their career. Obviously none of those players hit all of their home runs with the White Sox. As of this moment, all but one have hit home runs on the White Sox. That's not entirely fair though. One of them hasn't even picked up a bat for the Sox yet. That will change tonight.

Among the four White Sox players that have hit over 500 home runs, there are two who hit over 600. That's some pretty elite company and quite an accomplishment.

If you haven't guessed, the missing fourth player is Sammy Sosa. He is not active and was not known as a home run hitter during his tenure with the White Sox. I'm glad he is not included on this card. It would ruin the nature of the card.

Who knew that this would end up being a card of all White Sox alumni? I sure didn't. Upper Deck had no clue. I love discovering happy little accidents like this one, don't you?

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