So here's the final 12 Morris cards I grabbed from JustCommons, encompassing 1997-1999:
Hal Morris 1997 Bowman Chrome
A year after Topps Chrome made its debut, Bowman followed suit with this offering, which I think looks great. Even better, of course, are the Refractors, and I actually have Hal's from that very set.
Hal Morris 1997 Metal Universe
Fleer's Metal sets were the source of many interesting designs, from crazy to awesome and everything in-between. In this one, for some reason Morris is being entangled by vines. That's so...metal?
Hal Morris 1997 SP
SP usually means shiny and higher-end, and both of those are going on here as foil gets combined with holographic borders, one of which is angled for some reason.
Hal Morris 1997 Stadium Club
I've had mixed feelings about the curvy, embossed name area on this design, but the photography is a typically strong effort that lives up to the brand's rep.
Hal Morris 1997 Topps Chrome
1997 Topps is one of my favorite flagship sets because I had so much fun putting it together at a time when I was really getting back into the hobby. Maybe it's just good memories, but the design always appealed to me, so the chrome-ified version looks even better yet in my book. This one also happens to have a fantastic horizontal photo of Morris fully extended and connecting with a pitch.
Hal Morris 1997 Upper Deck
I wonder if UD ever planned to make a card to update where Hal landed after he stretched that exercise device to the limit and was shot out of the stadium. Kudos to Upper Deck for the captions explaining the photos and noting when they were taken.
Hal Morris 1998 Topps Chrome
As with '97 Bowman Chrome, I had previously picked up the Refractor version of this card, which still looks good even without that bonus shininess. While '97's set ranks higher in my opinion, the '98 set turned out pretty nice as well.
Hal Morris 1998 Ultra
Along with 1997 and some other iterations of the set, I definitely enjoy '98 Ultra. The only way this card would be improved is if the player name was in blue instead of green. Even red would be ok, as many of the other cards in the set are designed. Otherwise, the nice photography and full-bleed design work well for me.
Hal Morris 1999 Fleer Tradition
As I said in Jim Abbott's second post yesterday, my only knock on the set is that I don't care for the team name being in cursive for some reason. Otherwise this is a nice set, and I love the intensity of Hal's swing in the photo.
Hal Morris 1999 Topps Chrome
Yup, I already had this Refractor as well--what can I say, I had good luck picking them up! I like how the pose is quite similar to the '99 Fleer above despite the photos obviously coming from different games.
Hal Morris 1999 Ultra
This card and the '97 SP give me two cards of Morris in the on-deck circle, which is kind of an interesting anomaly. Also, you can see that Ultra kept the sort-of script-like writing for the player name, a trend that started with the neon light '97 set.
Hal Morris 1999 Upper Deck (#113)
Hal played the entire 1998 season as a member of the Royals, his only year in Kansas City, before returning to Cincy in '99/2000. This Series I card therefore depicts him as a member of the Royals, but his Series II card updates him to being back with the team for whom he's best known: the Reds. 2000 was his final MLB season, and after starting it with Cincinnati, he completed his career near his alma mater with the Tigers, though he never appeared on a card for them.
Today's 12 new cards combine with the other posts' to having added an incredible 39 to my Hal Morris PC, bringing it to an exciting new total of 90. As you can see on my Player Collections page, that puts him in good company with Jim Abbott and Clayton Richard when it comes to being within spitting distance of 100 non-1/1s!
Stay tuned for the last post in this series, possibly tomorrow, which will cover the final four players that were part of the purchase.
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