Justin Thompson played in the Major Leagues from 1996 to 1999, and once more in the 2005 season. He was selected in the first round of the 1991 MLB Draft by the Detroit Tigers, and got called up by Detroit in 1996. He stayed with them through the end of the 1999 season, and was traded to the Texas Rangers with Gabe Kapler and Frank Catalanotto for Juan Gonzalez. He suffered a torn rotator cuff, and missed the '00 and '01 seasons, but returned to the Majors in 2005 with the Rangers.
Justin Thompson's card resume is kind of funny. He didn't get into the 1992 Topps set (although he should have as a #1 Draft Pick), and he has a few cards made in seasons which he didn't play at all. Let's take a look.
Justin got his first Topps card in the 1994 set, in the Future Stars subset. His next Topps card was in the 1997 set. He got into the 1998 set, the 1999 set, and the 2000 set, which featured him pictured as a Ranger. Interestingly, like the 1994 set, when he got a card and didn't play in a game for the season before or during the year of the set, Justin got a 2001 Topps card. This would be Justin's final Topps card.
Thompson is missing cards from the 1992, 1996 Traded, 2000 (picturing him as a Tiger), 2005 Update, and 2006 Topps sets. My '92 Topps card gets his rookie card finished, and leave Justin with only 4 cards needed to finish his career Topps run.
I am currently working on finishing the 1992 Topps Traded set (fronts and backs), and I will add those to the complete set page, and if I ever get this blog finished and run through the main set, I will start with the Traded set.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy
