Cyber Stats...or You've Got to Know When to Hold 'Em

I'm not talking about Cyber Space.

I'm talking about 1995 Topps and the treatment of the 1994 Baseball Strike.

I received these two cards in a package recently. I believe they came from BA Benny along with my winnings from a contest.

That is the base 1995 Topps Kenny Rogers. You may recall, Kenny pitched a perfect game in 1994 at the new Ballpark in Arlington. I was supposed to be at that game, but opted to go to Arkansas with my parents on a little vacation. Really, I chose Arkansas over a perfect game. Go ahead and hate...I deserve it.

Here is the Cyber Stats version of the 1995 Topps Kenny Rogers. I don't know if you can see it, but they cut off the end of Kenny's nose just a bit.

The backs of these cards is where it gets interesting.

The back of the base card mentions Kenny's perfect game on July 28, 1994.

The back of the Cyber Stats card includes "computer simulated data for games of August 12, 1994 througth the scheduled conclusion of the 1994 season." I wonder what computer they used to get these simulated stats. For those too young to remember, the baseball strike started on August 12, 1994 so Topps took the liberty to "simulate" the remainder of the season and give us the results on the Cyber Stats parallel cards.

If you can read the back of the base card, Kenny pitched in 24 games, going 11-8. That means he had 5 no decisions. According to Topps simulated stats, Kenny would get 10 more starts, going 7-3 to give him an 18-11 record for 1994. I think that's pretty optimistic of Topps.

I don't have any other Cyber Stats cards from 1995 so I wonder how Topps' simulated stats look for other pitchers and some of the big hitters of the day.