Reverse Negatives and Awards

CMC version. Note cap, uniform, building.

The 1990 CMC/ProCards Pre-Rookie set had its share of errors. There's the Tino/Edgar Martinez card. There's the Jesus/Johnny Paredes card. And there were even a couple cards in the ProCards section of the set that just wholesale switched pictures.

Some of them were more subtle, like reversed negatives, which might not be that noticeable at first.

In one such case, a reader pointed out the photo on Willie Ansley's Columbus Mudcats card was reversed.

I bring this up because, while recently researching the 1990 London Tigers team, I took a second look at the six London Tigers who made the main CMC set. Not noticed by me before (but maybe by a reader who didn't post?) is three of those cards also have reversed negatives.

The Olde English "L" on both the caps and the uniforms are backward.

The ProCards version.

Previously, the only obvious error in the London CMC cards was the John Toale card, identified as playing with the Augusta Pirates, when he was pictured with London. Toale is one of the players I have been fortunate enough to interview and I remember asking him about that in passing. He was baffled by that, too.

Now, it turns out three other London Tigers, credited with the correct team, had their negatives reversed. They were: Mike Lumley, John Kiely and Michael Wilkins.

None of the errors, of course, was corrected for the main CMC set. In the ProCards team set, though, all are fixed. Toale is even credited with the right team. The corrected negative versions: Mike Lumley; John Kiely and Mike Wilkins.

Baseball Bloggers Alliance Awards

In addition to blogging here on my own, I am also fortunate enough to be a member of a group called the Baseball Bloggers' Alliance. The group of bloggers votes on awards every year, including top manager, rookie, reliever, pitcher and player.

The category that interests me the most is manager. That's because there are a few major league managers that were in the CMC set. Had this been a couple years ago, I could have picked one, Ron Washington. He's actually the only set member to get closest to the post-season this year, but even a homer like me couldn't pick Washington.

With that, I'm more of a National League guy, so I will focus my picks there.

Connie Mack award for Manager of the Year: Clint Hurdle, Pittsburgh Pirates. Getting the Pirates to the postseason has got to be worth something.

Willie Mays award for top rookie: Jose Fernandez, Miami Marlins. A 12-6 record on the Marlins, with a 2.19 ERA.

Goose Gossage award for top reliever: Craig Kimbrel, Atlanta Braves, 50 saves, 93 percent save conversion.

Walter Johnson award for top pitcher: Clayton Kershaw, Los Angeles Dodgers, 1.83 ERA, 232 strikeouts.

Stan Musial award for top player: Andrew McCutcheon, .317 average, 21 home runs, 27 stolen bases.