Card Cameos: Cecil At Home Again

What do you do when you are really, really busy and want to write a blog post but just can't pull something together? You thank the good lord for making other bloggers.

On Tuesday, Night Owl posted a fabulous write up on horizontal cards from the modern era. Apparently, he and I share the same general thoughts on these sorts of things. Essentially: horizontal cards are awesome.

In the course of his post he includes not one, but two wonderful Tigers examples, including the 2008 Stadium Club Card of Gary Sheffield that would likely have been my favorite card of All Time if it included The Whale Building instead of the stupid Verizon ad that covered it up.

But that wasn't it. Also included in the post is a beauty of a Card Cameo featuring the Big Daddy himself:

1993 Upper Deck #117 Lance Parrish f/ Cecil Fielder

How have I never seen this before? It is outstanding. I think I like it even more given Cecil's illustrious history as Cameo Card Play-At-The-Plate subject. It's as though this shot finishes the action generated in the Fisk card, two years later.

Still, even without the context of the other card, this one is a beauty for two reasons. The first is best left to the Night Owl himself:

Cecil Fielder peaking through the wickets makes the entire card.

He's right. It does.

Second is the actual subject of the card--none other than former Tiger great Lance Parrish in his first of what would be four stops in three years post-California Angels. He was actually traded to Seattle mid-season in 1992, which is when this shot was taken, only to end up on Cleveland for the 1993 season. In other words, this card was outdated before it even went to print. Still, could you turn down the opportunity to use that photo just because of some inconvenient reality of the player no longer playing on that team? Me either.

I always loved Lance Parrish when he played for the Tigers or, more specifically, I loved Lance Parrish's history as a Tiger, much of which occurred before I was old enough to follow baseball closely. This led me to be a big Parrish fan in my early collecting years when he continued his All-Star career with the Angels. To see the world of former Tiger great and current Tiger great collide--literally--is just too much fun.

Lastly, I love the ambiguity of the umpire who, with arms outstretched appears as though he is could be making a "safe" call...but who has the body position and tension that almost certainly indicates that he is winding up for a theatrical "OUT!" Umpires need their day in the sun too, you know.