Opening a Pack of the 1994 Ted Williams Set

In addition to the dime cards, another holiday baseball card gift was a hobby box of the 1994 Ted Williams baseball card set. This is a personal favorite set of mine because of the lesser-known players that were included in the set. This includes players like Ralph Garr, Dock Ellis, and Randy Jones. These were all players that were good, but not great. The Ted Williams set is a place for these players along with Hall of Famers like Juan Marichal, Harmon Killebrew, and Ty Cobb.

This rare product was available at the same card shop that I got the dime cards at. The box has 36 packs and had 12 cards per pack. I paid $15, a steal considering that these boxes are going for around $70 on eBay, I'll go more in-depth about the set tomorrow, but for now, I'll be opening a pack of the 1994 product.

#55 Mel Ott

Here is the base set design from 1994. It shows a picture and a background for old-time players and a picture with a silhouette for players who played closer to 1994. It also has the Ted Williams set logo in the top left along with a stone slab (there's an insert set called Etched in Stone) that includes the players' name in a faint gold writing. Other than not being able to see the players' name, I really like the set design. It's also nice to have a card of Mel Ott, who is quite possibly the most underrated Hall of Famer to ever play the game.

#157 Cliff Floyd Dawning of a Legacy

The Dawning of a Legacy subset was focused on 2 rising stars that debuted in the early 1990's. The first player is shown here, Expos outfielder Cliff Floyd. The other player included is Tim Salmon. Each player gets 4 cards in this subset that highlight what the player has done in order to make it to the Majors. I especially like how Cliff Floyd was included in this since he's near Gary Carter, Andre Dawson, and Tim Raines in terms of my favorite Expos. And if I were to ever make a team of players who were near-greats, I'd have to consider Cliff Floyd. 

#70 Al Simmons

I don't really have much to say about Al Simmons, but I like this card a lot. I'm not sure which ballpark this photo was taken at, but I really like what it does for this card. It really helps the card look a lot better in comparison to if it was just a boring background. I don't really know why Simmons' foot is stretched out onto the stone slab instead of it just being cut-off, but other than that I like this card a lot. 

#161 Tim Salmon Dawning of a Legacy

Like I said, the other player included in the Dawning of a Legacy set is Tim Salmon. Salmon arguably went on to have a better career than Floyd considering that the 1993 AL Rookie of the Year hit .282 in his career with 1 homer short of 300 and over 1000 RBI. The shocking thing about these 2 is that combined, they only have 1 All-Star appearance which is Floyd's 2001 appearance with the Marlins. Considering that both of these players had some very good seasons, you'd think they'd have more than 1 All-Star appearance put together.

#77 Roy Face

It may say Elroy on the card, but he was mostly known as Roy Face, and most recognized for being one of the star pitchers on the 1960 Pirates World Series team. The Pirates are one of my favorite teams besides the Red Sox and Cubs, because of the unique players like Willie Stargell, Rennie Stennett, and Dave Parker. Their historic 1960 team was one of the most talented teams in baseball history, at least in my opinion. Their talent included Roberto Clemente and yes, Roy Face himself.

#5C8 Ted Williams

I really enjoy how Ted Williams put his own cards in this set because it would be kind of weird if he left himself out. This insert set included all the players that had reached 500 home runs up until the 1994 season, which was unbelievably only 8 which is nothing considering that 23 years later there are now 27 players that have reached that milestone. 

#18 Bruce Sutter

These Cubs jerseys from the early 80's have been regularly called the pajama uniforms, but I have to say I like them a lot. The powdered blue jersey is symbolic in terms of the Cubs, not to mention that Bruce Sutter is a player I collect. This is definitely a nice card to add to my Sutter player collection. It may even be my first card of Sutter in these jerseys.

#48 Jim Kaat

Another fabulous card with a very good uniform choice. Seriously, whoever chose these images and players for this set did an excellent job. It's really nice to see all these lesser-known players get represented in these sets considering that I hardly see any Jim Kaat cards that aren't from the 60's and 70's. 

#125 Charles Johnson The Campaign

I haven't finished opening the box yet, but I sure hope my best card from The Campaign subset isn't Charles Johnson. There are players like Billy Wagner and even Derek Jeter on the checklist, so I hope I get lucky. I still like the set that's focused on players' journeys to the MLB, it's just a shame most of the players on the checklist never made it big.

#45 Gorman Thomas

Now I'll take the time to show off the card backs, which are another strong point of the set. They include key information about the player along with a quick blurb, and the players' 5 best major league seasons, which is something unique and that I haven't seen too much of out of this set. I do like the detail, as normal card backs can get a bit repetitive, so including the 5 best seasons is a good touch.

#97 Women of Baseball Sophie Kurys

Another subset that makes the Ted Williams set so great is the Women of Baseball, a set of 6 women who played in the All-American Girls Baseball League. This set remains the only one to my knowledge that includes cards from that baseball league, so kudos to Ted Williams for including that in the set.

#83 Red Schoendienst

Here's the final card from what I would call a very successful pack. I'm so excited to open more packs from this fantastic set that I can truly say is really like no other. It's such an out of the box set that it actually works, which I both enjoy and appreciate.