1982 Topps Seattle Mariners (Before They Were) Future Stars

      It would probably be no surprise to learn that players on the same team on a Future Stars card would be on the same team in the minor leagues.  What was slightly more surprising, however, was to find that I actually had all three players on their own cards from that very minor league team.  So here you have them...Before They Were (Future) Stars all playing for the Spokane Indians, then the AAA affiliate of the Seattle Mariners, featured here on their 1980 TCMA cards:

      Interesting how the region's teams clung to the Seattle Pilots team colors for so long....

A Young Hendu

     I can only think that the photographer had just asked young David a question, else he likely would have had a huge grin on his face for his very first baseball card. Over the course of his career, Mr. Henderson was one of the most consistently smiling players in baseball. The backs of his later cards read like a travelogue of the West Coast.

Born in either Dos Palos or Merced, California
Drafted by the Seattle Mariners
He played in Bellingham, Washington,
Stockton, California,
San Jose, California,
Spokane, Washington,
Seattle, Washington,
(brief, but memorable, stint in Boston)
San Francisco, California,
Oakland, California,
Modesto, California,
and Tacoma, Washington,
before ultimately rounding out his career in Kansas City.

     From the back of his card, he'd just spent the year knocking the cover off the ball at Single-A San Jose Missions in 1979 and would be promoted all the way to AAA Spokane for the 1980 season.

     Thanks to the vision and business acumen of the partnership of Tom Collier and Mike Aronstein, who would produce an assorted set of baseball picture cards as TCMA Ltd., we have this fine cardboard keepsake of the man who would known to the baseball world as "Hendu".