Ultimate Super: Championship and CMC Members

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First off, congratulations are in order for Jim Pankovits and his NY-Penn League Tri-City Valley Cats. The CMC set member Pankovits helmed his team to a 2 games to none sweep of the Brooklyn Cyclones to take the 2010 league championship, the franchise's first since moving to Troy, NY in 2002.

Last night's Game 2 had been delayed two days by rain. My wife and I attended Game 1's 5-2 victory Saturday. The Valley Cats won Game 2 by score of 5-1. Check out the game story: Pitching leads ValleyCats to first title.

On to this afternoon's post, wrapping up my third Ultimate Super Jumbo Pack. A Pankovits card wasn't included in the pack but were seven other set members in the pack, including one from the 1985 Topps set, five years before the CMC set came out.

That 1985 card was Neil Allen, shown with the Cardinals. Allen was already in his seventh major league season in 1985. Allen was also a high school quarterback, according to the back of his 1985 Topps card. He had been in 11 seasons by the time he appeared in the CMC set. His eleventh was his last. He played 12 games with Nashville in 1990, but didn't get another call-up.

Tommy Greene was deemed a 1990 Rookie by Score on his 1990 Score card. Greene appeared in the CMC set as a Richmond Brave that year. Score declared on the back that "of all the bright young pitching prospects in the Braves' system, Tommy is the one the team has been waiting for the most."

They apparently waited for him long enough to deal him to the Phillies in August 1990. Greene went on to a career with appearances in eight seasons, going 16-4 in 1993.

Alex Cole appeared in the pack on his 1993 Donruss Expansion Draft card Cole had been taken by the Rockies from the Pirates. Cole played one season with the Rockies and seven overall.


Skeeter Barnes' PinnAcle entry was in the pack. I wrote about Barnes back in February. PinnAcle wrote on the back of his card that Barnes was "living baseball's version of the American Dream" after spending years with Cincinnati and finally getting playing time with Detroit.

There were two Tim Naehring cards in the pack, his 1992 PinnAcle and his 1995 Collector's Choice. Naehring, PinnAcle declared, was "one of baseball's most heralded prospects in 1990." But a back injury ended his season, requiring surgery to transplant a muscle from his buttocks to his back, PinnAcle wrote. Despite that, Naehring went on to play in eight seasons.

Then there was Reggie Jefferson's 1994 Collector's Choice and Mark Whiten's 1995 Score entry. Whiten's card notes his four-home run performance in 1993 and a right field arm that rivaled the best in the league. The other contenders for best arm, Score wrote, were Larry Walker and Raul Mondesi.

138 - Skeeter Barnes, Detail Oriented, 2/22/10
147 - Reggie Jefferson, Inopportune Times, 7/9/10
350 - Mark Whiten, Hard Hitting, 5/13/10

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