The 2nd year expansion Dbacks were one amazing story. No team has even gotten that good that fast. To put it in proper perspective the Amazin' Mets lost 110 games in their 2nd season. This team, which was built around some willy veterans and a HOF left hander gave manager Buck Showalter his first post season appearance. Randy Johnson, who was the key off season free agent signing did not disappoint. He went 17-9 with a 2.48 ERA, 12 complete games and 364 strikeouts. His reward ??? The first of his 4 consecutive Cy Young Awards while wearing a Dback uniform. The big unit hadn't won the Cy Young since 1995, when he went an incredible 18-2. Can you say "sure fire 1st ballot HOF'er" ? The rest of the staff was good enough to give the Dbacks the 2nd best ERA in the league. Omar Daal was 16-9 (3.65). Both he and Johonson logged over 200 innings, with the former logging 271. After Gregg Olson faultered as the closer 25 year old Matt Mantei picked up the gauntlet and saved 22 games in just 29 innings of work. Arizona wasn't just built on pitching. They scored the most runs in the NL and had the 2nd most homers to go along with finishing 3rd in BA. This team was built for the present. Jay Bell (38), Matt Williams (35) and Steve Finly (34) made up the tri-fector that had more than 30 homers and 100 RBI's. Luis Gonzalez "only" had 26 homers, but he did have 111 RBI's and over 200 hits. The bench was downright scary. Backup catcher Kelly Stinnett hit 14 homers. Erubiel Durazo had 11 homers in only 155 AB's. If you need a clutch pinch hit you have Greg Colbrunn (.326), David Dellucci (.394) and late season acquisition Lanny Harris (.379). Manager Howie Fortel is returning to the bench after an extended absence. Like Davey Johnson and Jack McKeon before him Manager Fortel couldn't stay away from the game. In his 8 KOD seasons he has 2 Pennants to his record.
It took 24 cards to finish off this set for the 1999 Dbacks. This is the final set that I will be creating using Snag-It as I am moving into the 21st century with some better editing tools :) ! This was a fun set to make once I figured out a shortcut to creating the inside gold leaf border with the curve on the left hand side. I wasn't a huge fan of Topps' 1990's releases, but this '99 set is growing on me.
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