Brad Fullmer, 1998 Upper Deck
Many people were skeptical when the brain trust over at Upper Deck said, “Hey, ya’ know what? We should combine our ‘Retro’ series with our ‘Futurama’ series! It’ll be fantastic, and make perfect sense!” On the surface, it seemed as though the combination of these two time periods would cause chaos, and possibly death. But when the public was treated to this breathtaking photo of a black-and-white Brad Fullmer taking a hack inside of some kind of linear time capsule, well, score one for Upper Deck! I mean, they nailed it. By combining the allure of the past with the potential of the future, Upper Deck created a card that looked exactly like one from the 1940’s, and also forewarned the national public of the impending dominance of both Brad Fullmer and the Montreal Expos in general. In essence, this card screams, “Hey, remember the old days? Weren’t they awesome?! And how about Brad Fullmer and those Montreal Expos? I say both are World Series champions by 2005, the latest!” Even more amazing than all of this, is the fact that Fullmer himself once tried to travel back in time to 1993, so he could avoid getting drafted by the Montreal Expos. His time machine however, was flawed – faulty crystals – and Fullmer never made it back to see his father for the last time (oh yeah, he wanted to do that too). But luckily for Fullmer, in 2000 (i.e., the future!) his new and improved linear time capsule landed on planet Toronto, with the Blue Jays, where he immediately discovered a futuristic substance called steroids, and boosted his home run total to 32 (up from nine in 1999) and RBI total to 104 (from 47). And thus ended the happiest of time travel-related stories, as both Brad Fullmer and the Montreal Expos –- separately, yet gloriously –- went on to achieve massive success in the futurama. But in a retro kind of way, ya’ know?
Did you know?
In March of 2007, Upper Deck unveiled their latest creation: throwback jerseys for robots.
