Opening a Pack of the 1993 Ted Williams Card Company Set

With this post, I am officially returning to my regular blog posts and not doing any more National recaps. Granted, they were pretty fun to post and seemed to be well-liked by all of you, but they couldn't last forever. Now, I have to start going back to having ideas in mind for blog posts, beginning today by opening a pack of the 1993 Ted Williams Card Company set.

Okay, I happened to buy a hobby box of this set for $20 at The National, just as I bought a box of the '94 set at my LCS a few months back for $15. However, I didn't open any packs until I got home, and I felt this would be a good way to ease back into my normal posting schedule. 

I had already opened a box of the 1993 Ted Williams Card Company set a couple years ago when I got it for around the same price at my local sports card show. The reason I went back for more is that the set is relatively rare, especially sealed hobby boxes. Not only that but my Dad and I are also big fans of the set, particularly the design and players included in the product. That's why we promised to buy another box of either the 1993 or 1994 set if we saw it again for the right price.

Just as I did months ago with the 1994 set, I'll be opening a pack of the 1993 Ted Williams Card Company set now. Each pack contains 13 cards including the final card which is some kind of dual logo card that's pretty hard to explain, so I'll just let you see it yourself once we get to the last card of the pack.

#90 Bob Gibson

If you're unfamiliar with the Ted Williams Card Company, here is what the 1993 base set looks like. As you can see, there is a lot of focus on not 1, but 2 images of the player. One image in the front and one in the back. In this case, the color image is in the front while the black and white picture is in the background. However, there are some cases in which that is reversed or there are 2 color images or 2 B&W.

#19 Bobby Grich

Probably my favorite part of the Ted Williams Card Company set is that it includes some lesser-known players in both the 1993 and 1994 set. Similar to the Fan Favorites of the Topps Archives set, players like Bobby Grich and Cesar Cedeno are included in the set and given fantastic cards as well.

#46 Lew Burdette

Here's what the card backs look like. In addition to some basic information and a quick few sentences about the player, the backs include stats from the 5 best seasons of the players' career, typically 5 continuous seasons though sometimes they're spread out. In Lew Burdette's case, these seasons were from 1956-1960. The card backs also include each players' career stats at the very bottom.

#33 Rocky Colavito

I've seen almost every single base card from the 1993 Ted Williams Card Company set, but this Rocky Colavito card may be one of the best of the entire set. Both images are extremely well-chosen and I really like the creativity behind putting the black and white photo in front while making the color photo the background.

#141 Goin' North Roy Campanella

I have to admit, I'm not exactly what "Goin' North" means as it pertains to this set, but I do like the filter used on each of these cards. I remember seeing these cards for years and even recall picking up one of Ted Williams at my very first card show nearly a decade ago. Now, I might as well try to complete the '93 set if I haven't already having purchased 2 boxes.

#57 Dave Kingman

Though Kingman played for 7 different teams over the course of his 16-year career, including 4 alone in the 1977 season, he is most recognized as a member of the New York Mets, having spent 6 seasons there. On the back of the card, 2 of his 5 best career seasons are from his time in New York (1975 and 1976).

#M16 Memories '75 Johnny Bench

If this insert set is a tribute commemorating highlights from the 1975 season like I think it is, then this card is likely the final one in the set. The heading on the back of the card states "Cincinnati Reds win '75 World Series" and includes a newspaper-style article brifely describing the greatest Fall Classic of all-time.

#80 Manny Sanguillen

Manny Sanguillen is another example of a "fan-favorite" type of player for which this set is built for. Although I haven't looked at the set checklist before, I'd say a good 20% or more of the set are players like Sanguillen and Bobby Grich. Specifically, there seem to be a ton of players from the 70's and 80's included in the set.

#53 Dave Dravecky

#129 Ted's Greatest Hitters Johnny Mize

In addition to Goin' North, another subset within the 1993 Ted Williams Card Company set is Ted's Greatest Hitters. The subset includes roughly 10 players, all chosen by Ted Williams, who he believes are some of the greatest hitters to ever play the game. The players include Ralph Kiner and, in the case of this card, Johnny Mize who hit .312 in his career, making this choice pretty hard to disagree with.

#26 Luke Appling

#108 The Negro Leagues Buck Leonard

Possibly my favorite part of the Ted Williams set are the Negro League insert cards, paying homage to some unsung and talented heroes from the Negro Leagues that helped shape the game of baseball as we know it. Buck Leonard is one who is a bit more well-known than a lot of other Negro League players as he was inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1972.

I'm still not exactly sure what these cards are. All I know is they have no number, they are 1-per-pack, and feature either retro team logos, Negro League logos, or, in this case, actual players. The guys chosen for this card are Tommy Davis and George Foster. However, I'm not far enough into the box to know if any other players were chosen for these cards.