It’s always neat to get a card you need from your wantlists be a guy from your favorite team. I had no idea that Tom Browning was one of the few cards left holding me back from 1988 Score completion unit reader Duane sent him to me in a package last week. I won’t go into this card too much since there’s a whole blog dedicated to this stuff. But I did want to mention Tom Browning.
In an odd coincidence, Night Owl posted a Tom Browning card and wrote, “Tom Browning is a guy I shouldn’t really like because he no-hit the Dodgers.” Let the record show that Tom did more than no hit the Dodgers . Tom threw El Perfecto against them. Sept 16, 1988. In the name of Tom Browning fans everywhere, I take offense.
Tom remains the only Red to throw a perfect game (and throw the only perfect game I’ve listened to on the radio) and came within three outs of being the only pitcher to throw two perfect games one year later against the Phillies.
As a kid, I looked forward to listening to and watching the games that Tom Browning pitched. He was the closest thing the Reds had to an ace when I was young short of a half season of Jack Armstrong in 1989. The man could pitch, and any time he started, I knew the Reds had a chance.
The injury bug bit Tom in 1991, and sadly he was never really the same. Then in 1994, Browning broke his arm while delivering a pitch. He tried to return in 1995 with Kansas City, but it was no use. After 10 innings that year, Tom retired.
He’s since written a book that I had no idea existed until now. Clearly Night Owl knew about my lack of knowledge, and wrote what he did only to stir my interest once more. Right?
Hand Collated 
That’s a nice looking card. It was frustrating that in my box of 300+ 88 Score doubles, the two (one now) that you needed were two that I didn’t have.
I always thought the blue away uniforms looked silly with the red caps, but it looks really good with the blue border.
Browning played high school ball for Franklin Academy, which is in Malone, N.Y., a small city in extreme northern New York just across from the Canadian border.
He wasn’t from the area. How he ended up there, I may never know. But then he played college ball for Le Moyne College and got someone in MLB’s attention.