1991(?) Houston Astros Team Issue Photo Cards

    Yet another case of not knowing something existed until it turned up on eBay, these photos were given out by the Houston Astros in response to fan mail, usually fan mail asking for autographs, but not having actually provided anything to be signed.  I recently picked this up along with the original team envelope containing "Thank you for your interest in our team" letter, a pocket schedule and these two photos.  As far as I know, Houston still gives out these types of photo cards for fan pack requests.

    The black & white photos are blank backed and measure 3 5/16" x 4 7/8".  Based on this particular arrangement of player name and fielding position, along with the assortment of players I've seen in this design on eBay, the Astros issued these from about 1987 to 1993.  Below are the other players I have seen recently in this same design:

Larry Andersen
Eric Anthony
Jeff Bagwell
Kevin Bass
Andujar Cedeno
Benny Disteafano
Doug Drabek
Steve Finley (different photo, with normal undershirt instead of turtleneck)
Luis Gonzalez
Pete Harnisch
Billy Hatcher
Chuck Jackson
Darryl Kile
Mark Portugal
Dave Smith
Harry Spilman
Gene Tenace (Coach)
Eric Yelding

    All of the above I lump together because all the players are wearing the same style jersey.  I've also seen a Julio Linares (coach) card in the same card style, but wearing the newer uniform the Astros introduced in 1994.

WANTED: Tuff(y) Stuff or My Tuffy Rhodes Want List

タフィ・ローズ

     I've begun updating this list to include images of as many cards as I can find in hopes that it might help out anyone with access to the Japanese cards, but perhaps not an encyclopedic knowledge of what they all look like.  Many thanks to those that have helped make this list smaller (or longer as the case may be).

1994 Chicago Cubs Old Style team issue photo card - Karl Rhodes

 
      Arriving from Seattle today is this blank-backed, 3.5"x5.5" black & white photo card, featuring the Cubs greatest opening day lead-off hitter of all time, Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes.  This was in a lot of four, including Shawon Dunston, Jose Bautista and Willie Banks, so I'm dating this "set" to 1994, the only year those four were Cubs at the same time.

      Often called just "photo cards", these types of cards have been issued for over 70 years, usually by the teams themselves, frequently displaying a sponsor's logo.   These cards were long a staple of fan packs (those goody bags sent to fans who wrote to the team begging for handouts), and in the last 30-40 years have been issued in tandem with autograph signings at the ball park or other fan events.

    The Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards does a pretty good job of documenting these types of sets before 1980, mostly thanks to the persistence of Bob Lemke, but they don't seem to have much interest in tracking the more modern issues.  In some cases, the designs can be identical from year to year.  As a result, it can be very difficult to pin down to exactly when they were issued unless one is able to find several that are easily identifiable as being from the same year.  Then the players in question have to be compared to team rosters to see which years they shared a roster.

     These are difficult to track down, especially without already having been signed.  I passed up a chance at a signed copy for $20 last year.  While I was fortunate enough to find this lot of four cards on eBay, I was even more fortunate that it didn't include Mark Grace, Ryne Sandberg or Sammy Sosa, otherwise it probably would have ended well out of my price range.  Here are the other three cards:

*** Checklist Update ***

     Having seen more of these pop up on eBay, I thought I should go ahead and start compiling a checklist for this particular issue.  The year of issue is now completely in question as the recent discoveries don't all tie into the 1994 team.  I'm just going to call these 1994(?) Chicago Cubs Old Style Photo Cards (in alphabetical order):

Willie Banks
Jim Bullinger
Frank Castillo
Shawon Dunston
Jim Frey
Danny Jackson
Wayne Messmer
Mike Morgan
Karl Rhodes
Tom Trebelhorn
Turk Wendell
Curtis Wilkerson
Billy Williams
Mitch Williams
Don Zimmer


1992?
Shawon Dunston

Mike Harkey
Les Lancaster
Vance Law
Greg Maddux
DeWayne Staats

Billy Williams

----------  UPDATE  -----------

After seeing a few more of these, I now think these are two different sets.  The Old Style logo is different on the Dunston, which matches several others I've seen.  I've broken the known cards in to the two separate types.  There is also a third version with a 1990 Chicago All-Star Game logo. I'll list those below.

1990(91?) All-Star Game logo
Joe Girardi
Mark Grace

----------  UPDATE  29 June 2020 -----------

Thanks to a tip from a fellow collector, I can now confirm cards of Shawon Dunston and Mike Morgan in the 1994 set.  When searching eBay's completed items I also found an autographed Billy Williams in that set, as well.