1992 Topps #977 Nelson Liriano

 Today's missing 1992 Topps card is #977 Nelson Liriano. 

Nelson made his MLB debut in 1987 with the Toronto Blue Jays. He played with them until the 1990 MLB trading deadline when he was dealt to the Minnesota Twins for John Candelaria. He finished the 1990 season with the Twins, and signed with the Kansas City Royals as a free agent. He played with them in 1991. He spent 1992 in the minors, and signed with the Colorado Rockies as a free agent before the 1993 season, and played well enough to stick with them through the end of the 1994 season.  He was then claimed off waivers by the Pittsburgh Pirates, playing the 1995 and 1996 seasons with them. Selected off waivers again, this time by the Los Angeles Dodgers, he played with them in 1997. He signed with the Rockies again as a free agent, and spent the 1998 season with them, his final one in the Majors. 

This is one of the cards I wish I would redo. Not being able to find an image of Nelson with the Royals, I used this image of him as a coach. As you will see a few sentences down with the 1991 Topps Traded card, I should’ve just airbrushed a Blue Jays photo and added a KC logo to it. I’ll always remember Nelson for his 1988 Topps Big card. My friend Nathan owned it, and sometime between 1993 and 1995 (around 4th and 6th grade), I traded something and got the Liriano card. On the back of it, it has a comic that mentioned that his brother Charlie played in the minors for the Indians. I don’t think Charlie made it to the Majors, and I am pretty well versed in ‘90’s MLB players, and I’ve never heard of him making it. Seriously, I would guess there are probably 25 or fewer guys who played a game from 1990-1999 who I couldn’t tell you what team they played for or what year. Maybe I could get a bunch of readers to do a baseball trivia via a Zoom call and see if they can sneak a ‘90’s name past me. I don’t think it can be done. I really should’ve tried out for Sports Jeopardy back when it was still on. 

Back to Nelson, he got his first card in the 1988 Topps set. He got into the 1989, 1990, and 1991 regular Topps sets, and in a kind of surprising move, got into the 1993 Topps Traded set as his final Topps issue. Nelson is missing cards from the 1987 Topps Traded set, the 1991 Topps Traded set, the 1994 Topps set, the 1995 Topps set, the 1995 Topps Traded set, the 1996 Topps set, 2 cards in the 1997 Topps set (Pirates and Dodgers), 2 cards in the 1998 Topps set (Dodgers and Rockies), and the 1999 Topps set. 

Besides the 1992 Topps card above, I have made the 1991 Topps Traded card, the 1994 Topps card, the 1995 Topps card, and both 1998 Topps cards. Now Nelson is missing just the 1987 Topps Traded card, the 1995 Topps Traded card, the 1996 Topps card, 2 1997 Topps cards (Dodgers and Rockies), and the 1999 Topps card to finish his career Topps run. 

In other news, I have almost finished the 1995 Topps main set, and I will start on the ‘95 Topps Traded issue, so I should soon have a 1995 Topps Traded card of Nelson to add to his card collection. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy