You have probably seen cards like this. Lopes was traded late in the season and Topps didn't have a card of him as a Cub. So they just used the A's card that was already put together and then slap "Now With Cubs" on it.
Or these, from Upper Deck. Their philosophy, lets just show him in his old uniform and we can update the card in series two.
But this card of Greg Hibbard from Fleer 1993 has something I have never seen.
Three teams on one card! He is listed in the red band on the left as a member of the Chicago Cubs. He is wearing a White Sox unifom. And in the bottom left corner it says "Traded from Marlins." I only have Cubs cards from the '93 set. Are there others that show three teams?
The Hibbard story: This was the expansion year for the Marlins and Hibbard was selected by the Marlins from the White Sox in the expansion draft. On that same day, he was traded by the Marlins to the Cubs for two players. So for one day, November 17, 1992, Greg Hibbard was a member of three organizations.
He had a decent year for the Cubs in 1993, making 31 appearances as a starter and posting a 15-11 record with a 3.96 ERA. He came on strong at the end of the year, earning six consecutive wins. Numbers like that don't come along very ofter for a Cubs lefty.
Yet the Cubs let him go as a free agent and he was signed by the Mariners for 1994. He slumped to a 1-6 record with an ERA of 6.69 and just like that, his career was over. I guess the Cubs crystal ball was working for once.
nice to see lopes up top! at least opc put the cubs card style on their 85 lopes. topps comes across as lazy.
ReplyDeleteI once met Greg Hibbard. He signed an autograph for me and I had quite a long chat with him on what it was like to be a ballplayer. He was a very nice guy.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words. Glad you enjoy the blog!
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