Front Design: As with all CMC minor league issues that year, the design surrounds a color photo.The team's name appears in the left border, with the team logo in the bottom left inside a home plate. The player's name and position appear in a bottom border. The borders with text are green, while the remaining borders are thinner and yellow. The team set card number is in the middle, above the player's name. The overall CMC card number for that year appears at the bottom.
Back Design: The top of the card contains a sponsor's logo, followed by the team name and affiliation. A cropped headshot, vital statistics, and minor league statistics complete the back. Team sets have green backs, while the larger release has multi-colored backs (see below, thank you Jason).
Parallels and Similars: None known. There is a ProCards team set issued that year for many minor league teams, but that design is different.
Distribution: Most cards were initially released as team sets at home minor league stadiums.
Thoughts: Overall, the cards aren't terribly exciting in design, but there are several qualities which make these aggreable. I appreciate the use of the full team name with location, and the team logo on the cards. Minor league logos are interesting in their own right. I also enjoy the inclusion of the name of the minor league, team affiliation, and complete stats on the back. Pro Debut includes the full team name and team logo, but doesn't include the minor league or affiliation or statistics.
Additional Images: Card back (major release):
Card back example (team set release, thank you again Jason):
It should be pointed out that the reverse scan is not from the CMC team set, but from the larger 880-card Pre-Rookie set. The team set cards had a green back, usually with a local sponsor logo somewhere like this one:
ReplyDeletehttps://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/lBD0RW_9QAlnYI1A7VEYmA
Jason: thank you yet again. Minor league info is so hard to come by! I'll update descriptions for my CMC sets (there are a few listings, I think).
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, the last major effort in the hobby to cover minor league cards was the 2000 release of the Standard Catalog of Minor League Baseball Cards. It listed every set cataloged to that point, including complete checklists of all of the team sets, and scans of most sets, along with any distribution details Bob Lemke could scrape together.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, in the years since, what with downsizing at Krause Publications and the relatively small audience for minor league sets, no publications have really been covering modern minor league and oddball sets in the last few years. I've swapped a few emails with Mr. Lemke, and he said is now primarily the vintage consultant for the Standard Catalog and there isn't anyone tasked with keeping track of modern issues other than the mainstream sets. For that reason, blogs like this are becoming a more and more important avenue for covering this obscure corner of the hobby.
It's a good thing we exist, then! I noticed your blog covers some of the most obscure cards I've seen. There's such a massive amount of product released these days that it's virtually impossible to keep up with it. Someone mentioned on a blog that the Phillies have issued team sets for years now that don't appear in the Beckett database, and I have a few Giants sets that aren't there either.
ReplyDelete