Cardboard and Random Facts From 1996 Part 1

It's been awhile since we have done a Durham Bulls team set.  Getting close to baseball with the start of Spring Training.  Feeling like looking at some 1990s baseball cards this week, so let's go through an old team set.  I am going to go with the 1996 Bulls, which was a good team in terms of talent and wins and loses in the standings.  However, the Bulls 73 wins was somehow only good enough for third place in the Carolina League's South Division.

Here is the team card along with the back scan of the card.  

First part of the set today.  Let's start out with the star of the Durham Bulls in 1996....

If you are doing the math in your head thinking about Andruw Jones being on the Durham Bulls in 1996, he started out there at the beginning of the season, but ended the season playing with the Braves in the World Series against the Yankees.  

The Braves did not win the World Series, but that was not Andruw's fault...

and the back of the card.

I think it's not only amazing that Andruw Jones made it from A Ball to the Majors in a single season, but even more impressive that he made the majority of those jumps after the All-Star break.  

The first one-third of the Bulls cards are below with one interesting fact about each player.  Almost half the facts are that half the team ended up playing with the Bulls and the Carolina Mudcats.  That's the team that plays in the far reaches of the eastern suburbs of Raleigh. 

Anthony Briggs- Played for both the Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats 

Ken Giard- Played for both the Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats. 

Ray King- Played for the Durham Bulls, but not the Carolina Mudcats.  Ray did play for the Charlotte Knights though.  

and their stats on the back of the cards, which are borderline unreadable.  

Gator McBride- He's in the Frontier League Hall of Fame for his play with the Chillicothe Paints.  

Derrin Ebert- gave up Barry Bonds' 442 home run 

Eric Olszewski- Went to the same high school as Ke'Bryan Hayes and Shane Baz 

Del Mathews- His real name is Delmar and he pitched for the Durham Bulls and Carolina Mudcats.

Terry Wright - Uses this card as his profile picture on Twitter.

John LeRoy- Appeared in one Major League game against the Mets at the end of the 1997 season, and earned the win for the Braves in extra innings.  The game was tied on the final home run of Rafael Belliard's career.  He hit only 2 home runs in more than 17 seasons with the Pirates and Braves.  Sadly, he died at the age of 26 after suffering a heart attack.

Damian Moss- Played for the Durham Bulls (Braves affiliate) and for the Durham Bulls (Devil Rays affiliate) 

Kevin Millwood- Threw a no-hitter for the Phillies in 2003.  

Mickey Correa- His card says his name is "Mickey", but every other card of his lists his name as Miguel.  His name is actually Miguel Correa, not sure where the card company got the name Mickey.