Why this card is awesome: Because I'm surprised that Topps used a photo with such a blatently obvious Budweiser ad in the background.
The cool thing about this card and the previous one (Dave Parker) is that these two players got traded for each other in December 1987, a bit too late for Topps to incorporate the change into this set. (Tim Birtsas was also in the trade.)
Cool stat: From 1988 to 1993 (6 seasons), Rijo leads the way in seasons with at least 111 IP and an ERA no higher than 2.84. In fact, he did that all 6 of those years and nobody else did it more than 3 times. Whew!
2 comments:
I liked Jose Rijo. He dominated in the '90s WS against his old team. It was nice to see him comeback in '01 after the elbow troubles.
If I remember correctly, these cards were in the stores by Christmas 1987 because I remember giving them to cousins for Christmas. So there was no way Topps could have pulled out the famous airbrush ('77 Rick Jones, '74 Willie McCovey, '78 Jim Dwyer...) to have helped Rijo and Parker out.
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