Five from Pedro

 Next up in the ongoing 'not very popular' blog series Five From, we have Pedro Martinez!  And I just have one thing to say about Pedro the baseball player.  

Underrated!

Chew on that if you like, but the guy was an amazing, amazing pitcher.  Sure, he was only world-beating-top-notch for a 7 year stretch from 1997-2003, but that stretch was as good as we have ever seen from a pitcher.  2000 especially.

In those 7 years he went 118-36 and won three Cy Youngs.  Finished 2nd twice too.  And another 3rd place finish.  The only year he didn't place top 3 was 2001 and he was injured for half the year.

But that level of 'great' hasn't translated into big money baseball cards for Pedro.  Which is good for me, I guess, being a dime box aficionado.  His RCs are firmly in the junk wax era.  And not many pitchers see values in the Trout/Tatis stratosphere anyway.

So after all that buildup, I decided, while trying to pick my top 5 Pedros, to add a few extra cards to this post.  So you are going to get the 5 cards that missed the cut first as 'Honorable Mentions'.  Here we go!

Honorable Mention 1 - 2001 Topps Stadium Club - Diamond Pearls

This one has a nice iridescent shimmer to it, and that is probably the main attraction for me.  The scan doesn't really capture it well.

Honorable Mention 2 - 1995 Fleer Ultra - Strikeout King

That this one made it was a surprise to me, but I like the old Ultra cheesy inserts.  And seeing all of the grips for various pitches was cool too.

Honorable Mention 3 - 1992 SkyBox Pre-Rookie - AAA

Baby Pedro!  Minor league cards aren't always good, but I like this one.

Honorable Mention 4 - 2005 Donruss - Craftsmen - Master Craftsmen

The 2005 Donruss cards are the gaudiest and shiniest bunch of cards in a single year from a single manufacturer.  They threw it all out there and consumed 85% of the worlds glitter production for the year.  Or something like that.  Made for some kind of strange cards, but they definitely popped!

Honorable Mention - 5 - 1992 Bowman RC

This is one of the most desired of the Pedro RCs.  I kind of like the Donruss "The Rookies" one better, but this one made the countdown.

Enough of the runners up!  On to the countdown of my 5 favorite Pedro Martinez cards in my collection:

#5 - 2000 Topps Gold Label - The Treasury

Looks good in the scan, but even better in hand!  "The Treasury" is a good insert name for Topps Gold Label.

#4 - 1998 Flair Showcase - Row 1

I always liked Flair Showcase, even if they have fallen a little out of favor over the years.  The Row 1 cards were pretty tough pulls!

#3 - 2004 Topps Chrome - Black Refractor

Looking back, I am thinking this should have been #1 on the list.  I just love the Black Refractors from this era.  They look soooo good.

#2 - 1994 Topps Finest - Refractor

I want all the refractors from these early Finest sets.  They are pretty great, and hard to find.  The green of this card kind of clashes with the Expos colors for me though.

#1 - 1999 Topps Stadium Club - Triumvirate - Luminous

Another insert set I have always loved, these Triumvirates are weird and awesome.  I would dearly love to complete a 3 card Triumvirate set, but have never gotten close.

And that's it!  I have a couple more suggestions still in line for future Five From posts, but if you have others, leave them in the comments.