For the 1993 MLB season, Milk Bone (!) decided to create a limited 20-card set of collectible baseball cards known as Milk Bone Super Stars. These cards featured the biggest baseball stars of the day hanging out with their pet dog(s). Now there must have only been 20 dog owners in a league year that saw 1,104 players suit up (602 position players, 507 pitchers, number via my bud whygavs, some overlap, as at least 5 position players hit the mound once that year, Jose Canseco included), because somehow Tom Foley made it as a representative of the Pirates.
Foley had played with Montreal from 1986-92. I mean Milk Bone couldn't even get a picture of Foley in a Pirates jersey for the front of the card. Those cards were the worst. Mostly "Take Milk Bone's word that this dude is now on your team." It was the wild west before regular Internet and up-to-the-second Twitter updates about free agents.
And Milk Bone had to Photoshop out team names and logos. Check out the generic MLB hats. You could've picked this card up at a Giant Eagle and not know you had a local player until the season started.
That 1993 Pirates team was the first without a certain Barry Bonds since 1985. Bonds was a Pirate as long as Foley was an Expo. So yeah, star-power was lacking for a team that had nearly (heart-breakingly) made the World Series months prior. But they still had guys like Andy Van Slyke and Jay Bell on the roster. Foley ended up playing 86 games as a Pirate in 93. Here's a picture of Tim Wakefield in a Pirates uniform in 1992. Force him to adopt a dog and you have a way better card than Tom Foley, Milk Bone.
Annie is the true star of the card. Each card featured a picture of a family dog, and Foley's Collie/German Shepherd mix knows how to look cool eternally in pictures. The juxtaposition of Foley's shirt just adds to Annie's smooth coolness. The only bummer is they didn't have full-on stats for the dogs. Like "cars chased." Or "value over replacement pooch." Kninemetrics.
Go Buccos.
