The Photography Of 1993 Upper Deck

Nicole over at Olagato House and fleerfan of The Fleer Sticker Project both commented favorably on my first piece on the photography of baseball cards. My first piece focused on 1991 and 1992 Topps and showed off cards other than White Sox cards. They are out there, you know.

I had been thinking about doing followup articles about other companies and other sets. Nicole reminded me of the beautiful photography in the 1993 Upper Deck set. This was around the period where I started to get out of baseball cards, so I'm not as familiar with this set as I should be. I do have a good chunk from when this set first came out, but not rows of it like I do the 1991 set, for example.

So, armed with this support, I soldier on with another installment of looking at the photography side of cards. Some of these photos are simply breathtaking. Some capture moments of action, moments of candidness or just beautifully posed shots. This is not your typical Sears photo.

These photos scream to be seen by more than just a kid plunking down his allowance. This show the beauty and attraction of baseball. You can see the crispness of the photos. Only when you actually look at the card of Juan Samuel, do you notice the specks of dirt that is erupting violently as he slides into the base.
You can almost sense the excitement that the crowd must have been feeling when Orlando Merced leaped into their lives to try to rob a souvenir away from a fan. These are works of art waiting to be discovered. They are timed perfectly and posed just right. This is why I stayed collecting for so long and it's part of the reason that it draws me back every time that I stray.

For those of you who think I may stray off the topic of the White Sox, I've led off every photography article with a nice card of a White Sox player. Fear not, I haven't forgotten that this is a White Sox site. It's just nice to appreciate the other teams in baseball. Without them, where would the White Sox be?

Thanks Nicole, for reminding me of the Karkovice card. It slipped my mind.

1993 Rice Council

You know I love the truly bizarre cards. This is one of the more bizarre I've run across. A ten card set from the USA Rice Council. I couldn't decide whether to post the picture of Steve Sax cooking rice or working out, so I put both of them up. There are only 10 cards and Steve Sax has two!! Truly bizarre!

I have no idea what to say about these cards. Frankly, I'm surprised they exist. I still can't get over the fact that Steve Sax has two cards in this set. Simply amazing! He looks like a talk show host in the blue card and looks like a pissed off Steve Guttenberg in the red one.

Steve Sax was a baseball stud who almost wasn't. For most of the 80's, he suffered from Steve Blass disease. By 1989, he was cured. Maybe it was all the rice. He was on the White Sox in 1992 and 1993, long after he was cured. My favorite memory of Steve Sax didn't come from a baseball game, it cam from one of my favorite shows. He did a guest voice on The Simpsons in the Homer At The Bat episode. He was arrested by Springfield police for all the unsolved murders in New York. Still, the best part of that episode was the mocking chants of "Darryl"!

The list of other cards is beyond bizarre. It definitely mixes up the lineup. Since it's a ten card set, I'll post the entire checklist.

• 1 - Steve Sax (baseball)
• 2 - Troy Aikman (football)
• 3 - Roger Clemens (baseball)
• 4 - Zina Garrison (tennis - yes I had to look that up)
• 5 - Warren Moon (football)
• 6 - Summer Sanders (Olympic swimmer)
• 7 - Steve Sax (baseball - again!!)
• 8 - Brian Shimer (Olympic bobsledder)
• 9 - Food Guide Pyramid (replaced by MyPyramid in 2005)
• 10 - Ten Tips To Healthy... (does anyone really need a trading card of this?)

Wow, I'm almost speechless. How did a card set like this escape me for so long? I suppose it's a good idea. The back of each card is supposed to have a different recipe for rice dishes. Who couldn't use more recipes or more oddball card releases?