1993 Fleer Fruit Of The Loom #61
This was one of my first 'white whales' - a difficult card that continually eludes you despite constant searching. Of course this was many years ago and just at the birth of the world wide web. In fact, this was issued 3 years before anyone conceived of an "eBay". Back then it was mail-order or nothing. Even though considered a minor insert today - it still brings me a lot of joy.

Collector's Note: I've spent more than a decade and a half trying to identify the wristband Frank's wearing. Any ideas?

UPDATE! 11.7.07: I want to thank Drew W. (see link at bottom of page - Other Player Collections) for helping finally solve what was, for me at least, a difficult mystery. What's seen is a product line from The Neumann Co. A company that specializes in gloves that have a high 'tackification' factor, giving athletes extra gripping ability. And since this is baseball, I presume allowing ball players to add surface tension without fear of sweat loosening their ability to manage their glove.

And Drew: No, I don't follow football enough to have noticed what the DBs were wearing "for years". <friendly nudge> Although the irony isn't lost on me given that's the position I played in high school. (third string/bench) <laughing> ;-D

2003 Topps Kanebo #53
Topps' entry into the Land Of The Rising Sun. Pretty neat stuff! I'm not sure if this was an intentional insider's "joke" - but the card number assigned to Big Frank was his jersey number in reverse. (Traditional Japanese is written/read opposite than us folks in the West)

Collector's Note: There were two parallels to this issue - Gold border (Uncommon) and Black border (Rare), the common has a Green border.