Whitmore played in three seasons with the Marlins, but he will always be a football player to me. As a freshman in 1998, he was a vital part of the Mountaineers secondary. He broke his leg in the last game of the regular season (which I was in the stands for) and missed the Fiesta Bowl against Notre Dame (the first disappointment of many as a WVU fan/alum).
LINK: Whitmore a WVU standout
He was drafted by the Cleveland Indians, but taken by the Marlins in the expansion draft. His first major league cards arrived after the 1993 season started and I tried for years to pick up one of each of his cards. Many of those cards I picked up 25 years ago are still a part of the collection.
He lives outside of Indianapolis (the final place he played in his professional career) and while I lived there, I hoped he would make it to one of our alumni group's events, but never did. I would have been a nine-year old all over again.
I added the three Whitmores and the Scott Seabol from Sportlots for less than a buck each. It doesn't sound like a deal at the top level for someone that maybe one blogger that will read this has heard of, but there were a couple of parallels included.
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| 1994 Collector's Choice - Gold Signature #295 Darrell Whitmore |
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| 1994 Collector's Choice - Gold Signature #295 Darrell Whitmore (back) |
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| 1995 Donruss - Press Proofs #22 Darrell Whitmore |
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| 1995 Donruss - Press Proofs #22 Darrell Whitmore (back) |
Also in my envelope was a parallel that pre-interwebz wasn't easy to come into if you were looking for a particular player. I was more than happy to find this for a buck, less than any of the four listed on COMC currently.
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| 1995 Pacific #179 Darrell Whitmore |
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| 1995 Pacific #179 Darrell Whitmore (back) |
Some loved Pacific, some hated Pacific. Count me among the former. There were some popcorn farts like the "Pacific Online" set and some sets with parallels that are tough to decipher, but all-in-all, I loved Pacific.
Adding these three Whitmores to my set leaves me 25 cards short of having all his cards (per TCDB).
The final card I picked up was a Scott Seabol card that I want to send away for a TTM autograph. He's another of the few former Mountaineers to play in the majors. At the time he made his major league debut (April 8, 2001), he was the lowest drafted player to play in the bigs. He was drafted in the 88th round (1716th overall) of the 1996 draft.
He played just that one game for the Yankees, but that was enough to get him 20 major league cards (including the one below). He did make it back to the majors and played in 59 games in 2005 for the Cardinals. I find it fascinating that one game in 2001 got him 20 cards, but 59 games in 2005 got him no cards. It speaks to the prospecting that happens in the hobby.
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| 2001 Bowman Heritage #288 Scott Seabol |
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| 2001 Bowman Heritage #288 Scott Seabol (back) |
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Some great additions to your collection there. I think it's kind of cool that your love of a particular college leads you to track down cards of some pretty obscure players like this.
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