1991 Topps #496 Marty Barrett

In this series, I look at my first team set: 1991 Topps. This was the set I started my baseball card collection with.

There were a lot of great photos in the 1991 Topps set.  We have already seen the Dwight Evans (my personal favorite), Roger Clemens, and Wade Boggs.  Well this is another one.  Marty Barrett has a lot of great-looking cards and was an early favorite player of mine to pick up just because of the terrific-looking cards he had.  This 1991 Topps issue is probably my favorite of the bunch.

Barrett's career was coming to a premature end when this card was released.  He injured his knee in 1989 and the injury was misdiagnosed.  Barrett played in just 62 games in 1990 and lost his job as the second-baseman to Jody Reed.  In 1991 he appeared in 12 games for the Padres and that was it.  He successfully sued his doctor which was probably very little consolation to losing his career.