30 August 2022

2016-17 & 2018, 2019 San Francisco Giants Fan Fest photo cards

(Updates at the bottom)

     eBay saved search comes through again!  It appears that the Giants updated their Fan Fest photo card design a tad for the 2018 event, and I just picked up a lot of cards on eBay that included a previously unknown Hensley Meulens card.

     In this new design, the team logo is now in a square that fits within the edges of the name and team bars, the player name is slightly wider, and the team name and position are now italicized.

2018 design

For comparison, below is the design that was used from 2013-2015.

2013-2015 design
 
The other cards I have found with this new, square 2018 design are as follows:

Jose Alguacil
Tyler Beede
Travis Bergen
Ty Blach
Steven Duggar
Aramis Garcia
Matt Herges
Nick Hundley
Ryder Jones
Evan Longoria
Andrew McCutchen
Mark Melancon
Conner Menez
Hensley Meulens CO
Alyssa Nakken CO
Buster Posey
Pablo Sandoval
Rick Schu CO
Chris Shaw
Andrew Suarez
Breyvic Valera
Pat Venditte
Tony Watson
Mac Williamson
Curt Young CO

I'll update the list as I find more.

--UPDATE-- 

     Slight update here, as I just dicovered that there was another design change that I missed.  Between the 2013 design and the 2018 design, there was subtle change that I am now calling 2016-2017.  Swiped from an eBay listing, the Ehire Adrianza features the newly discovered design, and the Jeremy Affeldt the earlier design.  The two differences being on the 2016-17 design the team/position banner features the larger, italicized text, and the banner does not extend beyond the end of the logo circle.



For this 2016-17 design, I have identified the following players, so far:

Ehire Adrianza
Ray Black
Matt Cain
Brandon Crawford
Matt Duffy
Gorkys Hernandez
Chris Heston
Nick Hundley
Steven Okert
Josh Osich
Jarrett Parker
Hunter Pence
Buster Posey (crouching)
Buster Posey (throwing)
Jeff Samardzija
Chris Stratton
Albert Suarez
Kelby Tomlinson
Mac Williamson
Ron Wotus


--UPDATE-- 

Another design has surfaces for the 2019 Fan Fest cards.  So far, this Dereck Rodriguez is the only card I have seen on eBay:


--UPDATE 3/10/2024--

A recent eBay listing has added several more cards to all of these sets, including more from 2019, so that now stands at:

Craig Albernaz
Andrew Bailey CO
Brian Bannster CO
Tyler Beede
Kai Correa CO
Jaylin Davis
Alex Dickerson
Mauricio Dubon
Mark Hallberg CO
Dustin Lind
Andoan Richardson CO
Dereck Rodriguez
Drew Smyly

23 August 2022

Now batting, #33, pinch hitter, Bernardo Brito

    On September 15, 1992, after twelve seasons in the minors, Bernardo Brito finally made his first trip to the plate in a Major League game, as the Minnesota Twins attempted to eek out a win against a very solid A's team.  Pinch hitting for Greg Gagne in the 8th inning, Bernie strode to the plate there at Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, stared down A's starter Ron Darling, worked a 1-2 count, and struck out swinging.

   It ended up being a tight 2-1 victory for 1st place Oakland, against the 2nd place Twins, with Eckersley locking down the 9th.  

Sept 15, 1992, box score

To quote the September 16, 1992, Oakland Tribune:

...Bernardo Brito, who spent 12 years in the minors, made his major-league debut for Minnesota with a pinch-hitting performance in the eights inning.  He whiffed on four pitches...

     Brito would see action in 8 games over the remainder of the season, going 2 for 14 in mostly a late-inning, pinch hitting role.