To answer your first question: I know this is not his rookie card. And to answer the second: That was the fashion of 1992.

On the heels of my last post, the one about Bowman Chrome, I started thinking more and more about that 1992 Bowman set. It really was a benchmark set, one chalk full of first- and second-year issues of some of the game’s greatest players over the last decade and a half. One of the major rookies in the set is Manny. Take a look at this card, it’ll tell you everything you need to know about 1992 Bowman. The set incorporated ground breaking technology (foil was not a common process), youth (look at the rookies in this set, some of them do not even have stubble) and style (check out those clothes.)

But I’d be lying if I said I chose to write about this card solely because of my post yesterday. Part of my reasoning here is the fact that I miss Manny. I’m a Sox fan, and while watching the Angels-Sox game Wednesday night I felt like something was missing. The Sox are still a dangerous team, but it does not have the same umph it did a year ago when pitchers were forced to pitch to either Manny Ramirez or David Ortiz.

And of course no sooner than I started writing this, Jason Bay, Manny’s replacement, slugged a go-ahead two-run homer to make everything better — for now. Bay is a fine player, and I liked him a lot when he was with Pittsburgh. But he is no Manny. He does not scare pitchers the way Manny does. And the lack of Manny’s presence will be felt by the Red Sox during these playoffs.

This entry was posted on October 2, 2008 at 12:04 am and is filed under Card of the Day with tags 1992 Bowman, Anaheim Angels, baseball cards, Boston Red Sox, fashon, Guess Jeans, Jason Bay, jeri curl, Major League Baseball, Manny being Manny, Manny Ramirez, Playoffs, rookie. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.