Venerable Old Card Part 21

About a month ago I posted a Carl Yastrzemski card from the 1994 Carolina League 50th Anniversary Set.  I had originally been gifted this set, but was missing many of the star players from the set.  There are a few copies of the whole set floating around on the internet, but it's kind of a waste to be eight cards away from completing a set and just go out and buy the whole thing.  So, I am tracking down singles, even it is a slow process.  Here is the checklist......

I crossed off another card late last week when I found a copy of the Barry Bonds cards in the set which features him on the Prince Williams Pirates.  Here is a look at the card.....

Barry Bonds actually spent his first season in professional baseball playing in the Carolina League.  The Pirates selected him in the first round of the 1985 draft and immediately sent him to their Prince William team where he played 71 games.  His line of .299/.383/.547 with 13 home runs, 4 triples, 16 doubles, and 15 steals.  The Pirates promoted Bonds all the way up to Triple A in 1986, but he only spent half a year there before he joined the Major League team.  

Interestingly, Bonds actually lead the Carolina League that summer in OPS and Slugging, but lost out on the League MVP award to Mets prospect Shawn Abner.  

A Venerable Old Card Part 17

I know I said a bunch of stuff about finishing sets when I came back the other month, so I am going to work on catching everyone up on that stuff later in the week.  Meanwhile, I found a card that I have been on the lookout for the past two or three years.

At some point I ended up with a big chunk of the Carolina League 50th Anniversary set which was put out in 1994.  There are a lot of great names in the set.  Being a few cards away from completion I am giving serious thought to making this a project for later in the summer.  Here is a look at the checklist.  I am missing seven of the cards and the guy who gave me this set was not really into giving me the name players from the set...

I think we can pull this one off.  Last week I was missing eight of the cards, but picked up a card of the best Raleigh Capitals player in the set.  The Caps are long since defunct and their stadium has been torn and replaced by a parking lot for service vehicles for the City of Raleigh.  I hopped a fence or two, and ventured down an alley last year to check out the teams former stadium Devereux Meadows.  There is still a wall there with some plumbing and electrical fixtures sticking out of the concrete.....

and the team's most famous player?  None other than Carl Yastrzemski.  This is his card in the Carolina League's 50th Anniversary set....

The back of the card has his statistics with the Red Sox and also with the Caps during his time in the Carolina League.  Looks like Yaz had a pretty good year playing in Raleigh.

This was actually his first season playing in the minors and was promoted all the way to Triple A in 1960 before joining the Red Sox in 1961.  The minor league systems were roughly the same size that they are today by the time Yastrzemski rolled through the minors, so jumping to the Majors after two years of play was just as big of accomplishment then as it is today.  More on the Raleigh Capitals on Friday....