I really can’t explain why I’ve bee so interested in the “photo day” idea behind baseball cards lately (ahem.. Card Thoughts: Stadium Love Photo Session). Obviously its always been the case, especially in the very first years of photos on cards, that there’s posed pictures for baseball cards. But baseball cards poses usually have a very different feel than something like picture day at school. The introduction of Stadium Club and these early-to-mid 90’s Upper Deck sets really started to bring that feeling out a bit more.
It’s not just elementary school pictures you’ll fine here either. There are a couple of those with some interesting backgrounds, but there’s also a couple high school senior pictures here. I wonder if like some of those pictures we take when we are younger, be it in school or with your family, do players get the same way about their cards? I don’t think I’ve heard many talk about their own cards (maybe Pat Neshek or Brad Ziegler). But some of the poses they get caught in, or even worse put in, would embarrass me.
Other ’93 Upper Deck Posts: ’93 Til Infinity, Lurking Oddities, Finding Themes.
Angles and Poses
Bang! We might be starting off with the best one. Henry Cotto is looking pretty fierce holding on to that chain link fence. I don’t know if he’s doing it on purpose but I think he might be giving the Instagram pursed lips you see in some selfies these days. Or is this his Blue Steel look (a la Zoolander)? I think those sweet shades give me a little pause too. I’m not sure I’ll be asking Henry for an autograph today.
I love the background that Tom Browning picked for his card. I wonder which number that was in the selections (dugout, locker room, fence, stadium,… don’t worry we can photo shop you in any place you want). Tom is definitely working on some good stuff in his mouth there. However, he seems to not just have it in one spot. I feel like he might have just taken a bet to prove that he could put a certain amount of chew in different places.
Not that I go looking for Franklin Stubbs cards, but this one might be my favorite. That angle is pretty sweet and it makes him look like a little leaguer. I have to figure out if I have that one signed via TTM because it would be a good one to get him to sign.
Oh, Hey There!
Candid pictures are always the best. They are so hard to get though. I know these aren’t truly candid because they are looking at the camera and acknowledging it, but I feel like they are pretty close. These two definitely have great smiles, one for a young player and one for an old player. Brian is obviously stretching it out, or maybe bullshitting with other guys while stretching out. While Willie on the other had probably doesn’t bother with stretching and is just bullshitting.
All Smiles
Now these are a bit more of your classic picture day photos. While Brett and Cal have some either monotone or… well I don’t know what I will call Cal’s yet. Let’s put it this way, Devon has a backdrop a lot of guys probably want. He was lucky enough to get his picture taken in Yankee Stadium. Or, maybe like we did when we were kids, was this just the backdrop they used for their pictures that day?
I wonder what guys would choose if you let them choose their own backdrop? Uniform choice goes into that because you can’t be wearing a home uniform if Yankee Stadium was going to be your back drop.
Let’s get back to Cal. That looks like a really terrible day. I guess it could be twilight but it’s really hard to tell. This is one of those pictures where you wonder why they chose it. But at some point you probably don’t have two many choices with some guys.
Your Photographers for Today
I do realize that these are video cameras and not still cameras. Oh sorry kids, a camera is something that takes pictures and that’s it. Oh and a video camera is something that you can shoot videos with. What’s that…? No you couldn’t do that with your phones back then because they had cords rather than storage. OK so a cord is…
Anyway, these are part of a glut of pictures of guys with cameras. Take for instance Rick Wrona or Randy Johnson. It all just keeps feeding the photo day vibe.
I have a feeling that I’ll be finding more of these as I keep opening old hobby boxes of this era. There will be some Series 2 posts as well because I have a box of that too and I guarantee there will be some similar cards to these.
For more about 1993 Upper Deck, check out BaseballCardPedia.com.