How do you make sense of something that doesn’t make sense? One of the things we learn as young children is the principle of causation. You know; touch a hot stove and you get burned. I learned that I couldn’t swallow ball bearings, or jump down a flight of stairs, or climb up a chest of drawers. The results were never good.
But sometimes, causation gets thrown out of the window. Sometimes bad things happen and there is no real explanation. There is no answer to the question, “why?” There is no level of understanding to be found. And that is hard to accept. We all want to know why this thing has happened.
The thing about those really difficult “why’s” is that you can never really prepare for them. Sometimes you can see them playing out and still not be ready. We always think there is a tomorrow that we’ll have to face. But eventually, that tomorrow becomes today.
My family has had to face two of those “today’s” in the last 10 weeks. I lost my dad on October 1, 2021. He had been sick for over a year. He had his ups and downs but he had been sick. Yet, I still thought I had time. The morning he died, I was headed to my parents’ house to stay the weekend. I knew about the possibility. But I didn’t accept it. I kept thinking, “we still have tomorrow.”
A few months after my dad got sick, my uncle was diagnosed with the same brutal disease as him, albeit in a different form. A disease that we had very little experience with as a family took hold of two of the most important/influential men in my life. There were three men in my wedding party; my dad, my brother, and my Uncle Greg. And within months of each other, dad and Greg were both facing the same difficult battle.
In June of 2021, for my dad’s birthday, we gathered together for what would be the last time as a family. Dad was in good spirits. Greg was there; tired but laughing and talking about fun memories. We took this last photo that I’ll hold dear for the rest of my life. I look at it often. I remember it vividly.
In 3 short months, we lost my dad. Ten weeks later, we have lost Greg. Selfishly; I ask why? Why did we lose two great men in the same season? Why did they have to go through what they went through? Why did this have to happen? I’ll never have an answer to any of these questions.
I can only try to honor their memory in the way I walk through this life moving forward. I wrote about how important dad was to me HERE. If you haven’t read it, I ask you to do that – just to understand what kind of a man I was blessed with as a father.
As for Greg, though he was my uncle, he was sometimes like a big brother to me. He was closer to my age than he was to his own brothers. He was about 15 years younger than my dad and only 9 years older than me. He was still in high school when I was about to head to middle school. When most kids were looking up to high schoolers they didn’t know, I had Greg.
He was a star in baseball and football. He was a great basketball player. He was funny. He was tough. He would let you think you were going to beat him at something and then turn it on at the last minute. He taught me how to race bikes around my granny’s house. He taught me wrestling moves on the trampoline. And he even tried to convince me that Auburn was better than Georgia.
Greg was the unintentional reason that I met Alicia for the first time. He was the head of the city recreational fields and had me making some extra cash as an umpire while I was in high school. And my wife, as I’ve written about before, was almost tossed from a game for arguing with me about being out at first base. I didn’t know her before then. We would start dating a year or so later.
I remember going to my first men’s softball game when I was about 15. He played for the “Dodge Boys” with several of the guys from his high school team and I don’t remember them losing very often. Like my dad and Uncle Speedy, Greg knew how to handle himself on a baseball field. I worked scoreboards, umpired, and played bat boy for some of those men’s teams and I know it’s where my passion for weekend softball came from.
Greg loved his high school alma mater like me too. He played football at Mitchell-Baker where he won “Best Hands” one year as a wide receiver. When he graduated, he wore the mascot gear (a big eagle) for a couple of years. In the late 90’s, we started doing the stats for the team and traveled together all over the state of Georgia for a few years.
We watched the coaches lose their minds in Fitzgerald. We experienced elation at Greene-Talieferro. We experienced heartbreak at Cedartown after watching a 12-0 season. We watched one of the craziest plays ever in Early County that we laughed about the last time we talked. We really did experience it all on those Friday Nights. I wouldn’t trade those memories for anything in the world. And I’ll never see a Mitchell County game the same way again.
We saw our share of Eagles Basketball too. We went to Macon every year the Eagles made the Final Four during the 90’s, which was a lot. We saw them win a State Title and we saw them not make the playoffs. Alicia was with us the night he got a chicken sandwich from Wendy’s in Perry. We got about 10 miles up I-75 when he thought he bit into a cold tomato. Turns out it was an uncooked chicken breast. Salmonella was no laughing matter; but we laughed.
I watched the 1993 Suns/Bulls finals at his house. We pulled for the Suns because Barkley was from Auburn. I watched the A’s in the World Series at his house because he loved “The Bash Brothers”. I stayed all night to watch the George Bush/Al Gore election and one of the last things I said to him was, “we have a developing situation in Broward County.”
I played softball on the same field in Baker County with Greg the last time he played. I was at first and he was at second. He demolished his achilles and hung em up after that night. I kneeled over him to check on him. The guy I watched from the dugout when I was 14 had played his last grounder with me on the field beside him 25 years later.
We gathered on Sundays at my parents house to watch NASCAR. We all had our drivers and we were relentless with each other. Dad was an Earnhardt guy. Greg liked Gordon. My guy was Tony Stewart. My mom liked the Labonte brothers, and Alicia was a Sterling Marlin fan. We all put our $5 on the TV Stand at the beginning of the race with the driver who finished highest winning the pot. We really bashed each other during those races.
But if I had to pick one memory that stands out more than any others, it would be the 1997 Auburn/Tennessee SEC Championship. Greg asked me to go with him and I was excited for a few reasons; although neither of those teams are on my favorite list. First, I had never been to an SEC Championship Game. I was only 20 at the time and wasn’t traveling around to major sporting events. Second, I had the chance to watch Peyton Manning play. And finally, it was a trip with Greg so it was a no-brainer.
We got a hotel in downtown Atlanta and took a fairly short cab ride to the dome. Our first issue arose pretty quickly. We found out the tickets we had at the top row of the lower section didn’t have physical seats. We had a spot that was actually for wheelchairs. We would wind up sitting in metal folding chairs at the top of the section.
The game was exciting, with Tennessee winning 30-29. Auburn had several chances during the game but couldn’t quite close the deal. That’s when Greg coined the nickname for Karsten Bailey; “No Hands”. He had some critical drops in the game and anytime he said “No Hands” over the years, I knew exactly what he was talking about.
After the game, we decided to take the Marta back to the downtown area where our hotel was. It was my first experience and was quite a ride with hundreds of drunk college football fans. When we got off of the Marta, we walked and we walked and we walked. Remember, there were no cell phones with GPS back then. I had zero experience in Atlanta and just knew we were staying in a Holiday Inn.
After we walked in circles for what felt like an hour, we finally gave up and picked up a cab at a red light. We told the driver that we were going to the Holiday Inn. He took an immediate right at the light and stopped, about 20 yards from where he picked us up. He turned around to Greg and said, “that’ll be 8 bucks Holmes.” A 30 second cab ride that took us 20 yards was $8 (in 1997). When I tell you we laughed about that 20 years later; believe me, we got a lot of miles out of that story.
I am blessed to have these memories of Greg. We spent a lot of time together over the years. We experienced a lot of laughs and a lot of sadness over sports together. He was there on stage with me at my wedding. He was there at my graduation for me. He was there with me on the softball field when we were old men.
And he’ll be with me forever in my heart. I’ll never understand why he’s gone at 53. I’ll never understand why my dad left just 2 months before him. I don’t know how somebody is supposed to feel after experiencing this kind of loss in such a short period of time. I’m sad, I’m anxious, I’m reflective, and sometimes I’m just lucky to feel any emotion at all.
I know I’m not the only one. Everybody in my family is dealing with this in their own way. My mom is facing it. My granny is facing it. Brothers, Sisters, Aunts, Uncles, Nieces, and Nephews are facing it. Greg has a daughter and son that are going through the same thing I have been going through. We are all facing this moment with each other but it’s hard not to feel alone in it at times too.
I am just thankful I had the life I had with them. I am thankful God gave me the family he gave me. I couldn’t have had a better father than Dewey Shiver. And there could never be another Greg Shiver either. I’ll see his smile forever. He had the biggest smile. Somehow, we will go on. We will never forget; but we will go on.
J-Dub
My rookie team is pictured here and most of these kids were in classes with me from the time this photo was taken until we graduated. We grew up in a small town where everyone knew everyone and our childhood friends have become lifelong friends. I graduated with Jason Lee, BJ Harris, Dwan Williams, Beau Clark, and Corey Shiver (my cuz). Johnny Saxon, Bubba McDonald, Jason Johnson, and Chuck Turner were a year behind me. The only one that moved that I know of was Michael Sangster and his dad was one of our coaches. Unfortunately, Michael passed away a few years ago at a young age and now has a scholarship named after him.
When I write one of these pieces about a time period from my youth, I always go back and research the year a little to refresh myself on what was going on in the world. 1983 was quite a noteworthy year. There was good and bad and there were some things that came along that year that we didn’t know would be quite so iconic until they had a chance to play out in society. I was in the first grade so I really didn’t remember some of these things being around yet but it is a reminder to me that I have lived through some of the best of times when it comes to pop culture.
How about this for starters? 1983 was the year the Super Mario Brothers were introduced to the world. While Mario and Luigi would go on to be iconic throughout the world over the next 35 years, the video game industry was at the beginning of a crash that would last from 1983-1985. Atari was the first console I owned and its popularity, along with games like Pac Man and Space Invaders, caused a lot of copycats to jump in the market. I remember having the Tandy as well, with Downland and Bedlam. Coleco and Sears also had consoles they were releasing. The sale of home computers that would play games as well just overwhelmed the economy and the video game industry died in its early 1980’s incarnation. Thankfully, Nintendo saved all of us and brought about the worldwide fame of Mario and Luigi a couple of years after they were first introduced.
The first mobile phones were also introduced in 1983. As you can imagine, these were ridiculous looking telephones by today’s standards but they were the very beginning of what has taken over our lives in 2018. What would we do without our cell phones? We rarely even make calls on them anymore but we use them for internet reasons, email, text messages, weather reports, game scores, watching TV and movies, listening to music, and dozens of other things. They can even control the climate in our homes from 400 miles away or give us a live video feed of our living room when we are out of town. We have all of that innovation from 1983 while at the same time shrinking the size of the phone from a volume of the World Book Encyclopedia down to as small as a large keychain. I remember when Zack Morris was the only teen to have a cell phone in 1989 and now my 11 year old has one because we think it is necessary.
Here is one for you old school readers. Swatch released its first watch in 1983. Do you remember just how popular those watches were? I remember all of the different designs with the jelly wraps you could put on the face of them. I am no watch connoisseur but I will admit that I didn’t know these watches were still around until my wife and I took a cruise a couple of years ago and there was a Swatch Kiosk in Cozumel. These watches looked super nice too! They have come a long way from the crazy 80’s face designs that I remember. Side note – I can’t get that Ivan Lendl Swatch ad out of my head.
To review this great rookie class, I picked up a box of 1983 Fleer. I think Topps is the best set from that year but the Fleer box can be found for about half the price of Topps. I’ll rip Topps one day but it will have to be in the offseason when sets like Spectra and Optic aren’t littered throughout my LCS, taking up all my attention and dollars. This was Fleer’s third release since obtaining rights to produce cards in 1981 and it shows how much they had improved since that maiden voyage. They would break through the glass ceiling in 1984 with that fresh new design but I think ’83 was a pretty good upgrade from ’82.
For 1983, they used a border that varies anywhere from a brownish to grayish color, depending on the light and the condition of the card. The fronts of the cards used mostly posed shots, with some exceptions like this classic Kent Tekulve, and the player name was on the bottom right while the team logo was on the bottom left. The backs of the cards were the standard offsetting shades of color with full stats. The new addition to 1983 was the second photo on the back that Fleer proudly advertised on the outside of the box. They also placed the player background information at the bottom of the card in the early 80’s with a “Did You Know” section if the career wasn’t too long.
I may be in the minority but 80’s Fleer is more nostalgic to me than any other set. It isn’t because I owned a ton of Fleer because we were heavy Donruss in my region. I only had a few Fleer cards but they always seemed to be big names. I enjoy ripping Fleer and this really tiny part of my collecting soul wishes they were still around. I know that they would be just like all the rest with their own attempt at Inception/Origins but I’m a collector that likes variety. Let’s see what this 35 year old box can produce!
Fleer was very clear on the box about their improvements for 1983. They also made sure the retailers knew that the two extra packs meant an extra .60 cents profit. In 1983, I’m sure that was decent retail profit.
This is really one of my favorite things about ’83 Fleer! These stickers are absolutely beautiful and scream 1980’s! This sort of retro look is why I like some of the new inserts that incorporate these color schemes. That Rangers logo is killer!!
There was a huge crop of “record book” pitchers on the mound in 1983. These are the names that we all remember as kids. The group is headlined by Nolan Ryan but guys like Rollie Fingers, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, Goose Gossage, Gaylord Perry, and Vida Blue are true LEGENDS!
Here are 3 stud relievers. Eckersley was converting to the pen around this time but Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter were established closers.
There was a better selection of catchers than usual in this set. Benedict was the Bravos backstop but Ozzie Virgil would soon be there too. Gary Carter was arguably the best catcher of the 80’s. And if you’ve read many of my Retro Reviews, you know I love Pena in the Pirates uniform.
Here is another huge group of guys that some collectors have only “heard of”. Most collectors have some of those top two rows in their collection, including a nice second year shortstop named Cal Ripken Jr. How many young collectors knew Johnny Bench played 3B? And if only we had been able to see the future, we could have warned Bill Buckner about the ’86 Series and then warned Ron Gant about ’91!
I can’t help it but I was constantly in awe of some of the names I was pulling. I’ve opened ’83 product before but it’s easy to remember Ripken, Murphy, and Rickey. However, pulling a young Kirk Gibson, a younger Mookie Wilson, a studly Jim Rice, and the DH Don Baylor made me remember that the checklist was truly loaded!
A staple in Fleer during the 80’s was the “Superstar Special”. These commemorated certain events and league leaders from the previous season.
One of the features Fleer advertised on the box in ’83 was the “Exclusive Double Header” cards. These were two regular sized cards that made a jumbo card. I’d call this innovative for 1983.
Here is a group of players that wound up coaching or in the television booth.
Some of the rookies from 1983 are memorable players. I loved Willie McGee as a kid and Ron Kittle was a HUGE prospect. I watched all of these guys during the 80’s. Howard Johnson was probably the most valuable by the latter 80’s.
And here is what we came for. This Wade Boggs is one of the big rookies from the early 80’s. Chicken Man went on to have a Hall of Fame career and his rookies remain relatively valuable considering prices of the era. I will always remember him more with the Red Sox than his days with the Yankees and Rays. I know he went on to win Championships with NY but he will always be a Red Sock to me.
Ryne Sandberg broke into the league as a Third Baseman but would make his mark as a Second Baseman over his 16 year career. He hit a solid .285 with 282 home runs and 1,061 RBI. He also added 344 SB to his resume. His best numbers in a season included a .314 AVG in 1984, 40 HR in 1990, 100 RBI in 1990-1991, and 54 SB in 1985. He was the ROY in 1982, MVP in 1984, and a 10x All-Star! Full disclosure – I pulled Boggs and Gwynn but missed on Sandberg. I did have this in my collection though.
Arguably the greatest hitter of the modern era, Tony Gwynn finished his career with a .338 average, leading the league 8 times over his 20 year career. He hit .289 in 1982 over a 54 game cup of coffee but would never again hit below .309 over the next 19 seasons. He was an All-Star 15 times!! It’s also worth mentioning that the Padres logo in the bottom left corner was awesome!
Baseball cards in 1983 we’re a work in progress. With Fleer and Donruss joining the fray in 1981, they were still very young in the hobby. 1983 Fleer was a tremendous improvement from 1981 but they hadn’t quite hit their peak either. The design is solid but the light Brown is not my favorite border color. The backs are a little bland too compared to other releases. But it really isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things. The checklist makes up for any design flaws as 1983 was a tremendous year for rookies. Based on the combination of reasonable price, so-so design, and awesome checklist, I’ll give the set a “4” on the Dub-O-Meter. Design keeps it from being a 5 and Boggs, Gwynn, and Sandberg keep it from being a 3.
I wrote about trying to keep my basketball career alive for another season just a few weeks ago. Our team is the oldest team in the league, collectively. We have 5 players at 40 or older. Technically, CJ is only 39 but he will be 40 in another month or so. Robby and I are in the early stages of our 40’s, Darrel has moved into the latter stages of the 40’s (sorry Darrel) and the Uncle Drew (Gary) of our team is 50. We have a couple of guys in their 20’s and one that is 16 but the rest are at least mid 30’s and older. When I wrote that piece a few weeks ago, we were just enjoying a little bit of success in the league and taking advantage of the chance to run up and down the court like we were kids again.
Well, we made it to the playoffs; where the season culminates in a win or go home scenario. We won in the 1st round of the playoffs last week and we advance to the Final 4 for the first time in our 4 seasons. We aren’t what you would call overnight sensations. We have slowly built a contender out of a rag tag group of friends who spend most of their time playing softball together. We started in the league 3 years ago and we didn’t win a single game. Two years ago, we won a couple. We didn’t do much better last year but we played better as a team. We were sitting at 6-3, our best season yet, heading into the final night of the playoffs.
I have played some form of organized basketball off and on for about 30 years. I started in R.A.’s (Royal Ambassadors) at the church and have skipped around from city leagues to competitive leagues to the recreational league we are in now. I never ran AAU games or anything sporty like that but I have always been around the game. In all my years of being around basketball, nothing beats the win or go home playoff game. That can be said about most sports but basketball has always been my favorite. That is why the NCAA Tournament is so exciting! That and copious amounts of money on teams like Rhode Island pulling upsets over Duke.
Playoff games in any sport will test the mettle of a man (or woman). You can be the best athlete on the court but if you can’t handle pressure, you are going to destroy your team when it matters. When you’re under pressure, you feel it all over your body. Free throws can feel like half court shots; driving to the basket feels like trying to slice through a forest of pine trees; and a defensive press can feel like a pressure cooker. I really don’t get that same feeling in a softball tournament. Basketball has a way of ratcheting up my emotions and putting my senses into overload. And the scary part is that it is a feeling that I crave. I personally love that pressure. I love feeling my heart beat in my own chest when I take the court for the opening tip.
That is what I most admire about Michael Jordan in my adult life. As a teenager, I loved to see him fly above everyone else. I loved to see him hit a shot in someone’s face as the buzzer was sounding. But now when I go back and watch him, I appreciate the type of competitor he was. He had no fear. He had no butterflies. He didn’t have an insecure inner voice in those moments. He was just there to do one thing; beat you. Say what you will about the MJ/Lebron debate but I have seen a look in MJ’s eyes that I have never seen in any other basketball player. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson came close but nobody could make you feel beaten just by looking at you like MJ could.
So regardless of whether I score 38 with the flu or score my season average of well below that, I want to take the court like I can’t be beaten. I want the person guarding me to be frustrated because I am outthinking him. I want to gracefully walk a fine line of confidence and cockiness. If you strip everything away and are just left with the game itself, basketball is still a beautiful sport. And that is where we are. Our gym doesn’t have a corporate name, we don’t have fancy uniforms and the news isn’t going to be there to report the score and interview the players. We are lucky if we have 25 people there to watch. But when you are on the court, you have to block it all out anyway.
In honor of our big night, I felt it was only appropriate to break a great box of Junk Wax Basketball. This was one of my favorite sets back in the day, partly because of Shaquille O’Neal, but also because of the great design and high quality of the card. My LCS picked up a few boxes of 1992-93 Fleer Ultra for the nostalgic section and I scooped this up for $14.95. That is a price you can’t beat for some top quality NBA cards from the early 90’s. The very best NBA players played in the league when I was a kid, I am convinced of that! The Bulls were unstoppable, Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson were leading the Phoenix Suns to the Finals and the league was home to other players named Magic, Bird, Olajuwan, Dominique, Grand-Ma-Ma, Shaq, Isiah, Tim Hardaway, Reggie Miller, and so many more.
When you are ripping anything in Series 2 for basketball, you can’t be real picky with the non-rookies. I did find some quality players though. The guards had names like Mark Jackson, Steve Kerr, Danny Ainge and Avery Johnson, who all became coaches in the league. Kids today will never know how fun Rex Chapman and Rod Strickland were to watch. And Dale Ellis could shoot the lights out!
The forwards were headlined by Charles Barkley. He had spent his career in Philadelphia up until this point but was about to find himself in the NBA Finals against MJ. I was always a fan of Xavier McDaniel too. He was a very good player at the forward position. Chuck Person has found himself in a little bit of trouble as an Auburn assistant but The Rifleman could fill up a stat sheet back in the day.
There wasn’t a lot happening with the Center position in Series 2. I did include Stanley Roberts because he was Shaw’s teammate at LSU and he had pretty high expectations attached to him at one point as well.
Here is a very awesome 20 card subset called, “NBA Jam Session”. This broke down the 20 best dunks in the NBA. There are some huge names here with MJ, The Admiral, Hakeem, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley. This is a great subset.
The inserts were slim. It I did pull some big names!
Here are the average rookies from the class. These guys had pretty serviceable careers. Weatherspoon was a stud for a few years while Oliver Miller and Richard Dumas helped Barkley get to the Finals.
Here is where the big rookies come in. Latrell Sprewell had his issues during his career but he was Uber talented and was an amazing player to watch.
Big Game Robert Horry would become known for the ice water in his veins when a big shot was needed. He went on to win multiple championships and played major roles on those teams.
Christian Laettner didn’t have the career that some expected when he was an All-American at Duke. He went on to play 13 seasons and averaged 13+ points in 8 of those. He topped 18 per game 3 times.
Here is an awesome Hall of Famer, Alonzo Mouring. “Zo” has an unbelievable list of accomplishments that include NBA Champion, 7x All-Star, 2x Defensive Player of the Year, 2X Blocks Leader and the recipient of the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Zo is a true legend!
A player who didn’t really pan out in the pros but was my absolute favorite when he came out of USC was Harold Miner. It is fitting they “Baby Jordan” was featured on this card with the real Jordan. I could write an entire post about the former Dunk Champion but I’ll save that for another day.
Here is the Card I came for. This is Shaq’s best rookie card and I pulled 2 of them! We all know the career that Shaq would have and the only thing I ever complain about is that he didn’t get a championship ring with Penny, Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott. That Magic team was something else. They just never put it together. This made the $14.95 price tag well worth it.
As for our playoff appearance, it turned out just like Shaq’s with Orlando. We won our semi-final matchup by 6 points and advanced to the Finals. We ran into a very tough team that had 2 good inside players and a shooter that could fill it up like Chuck Person did. We played tough and left it all on the court but it just wasn’t enough. It may have been that we had to switch from our blue jerseys to the white but I’m not superstitious or anything…..cough, cough. Regardless of that final score, it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time on the basketball court and I’m really proud of the guys. I can’t wait til next year!
With the possible exception of Fleer Metal Universe, this may be the best basketball set of the 90’s. It earns an easy “5” on the Dub-O-Meter. The photos are great, the card design and quality is top notch and the checklist is pretty unbelievable. The only knock at all is that the cards can stick together in certain parts of the box, which is the normal issue with early 90’s cards with UV Coating. But these cards are really beautiful cards, just as Ultra was known for. The price is just right on a box like this and seeing these players take me right back to the days I played in the backyard and hit buzzer beaters just like MJ!
I remember playing on Thursday Nights at the middle school gym with the toughest competition in the city and I remember playing one on one at Coop’s House. It didn’t matter if it was a dusty court with a wooden backboard or a nice wood gym floor with breakaway rims. I would play basketball with anybody, anywhere and at anytime. I even skipped lunch in school to play basketball with classmates. I used to practice my jump shot over and over and over in my backyard. I would try to shoot from all over the court but would force myself to make 5 consecutive shots before moving to a new spot.
Basketball is one of the things that I’m holding on to for dear life. I’m 41, 5’11, 225 lbs and am still trying to make moves I made as a 16 year old in the city league I’m playing in. It’s frustrating to know what you want your body to do but not be able to make it do it. I can still see the court like I did as a kid; I’m just not able to shoot lanes and thread passes like I did back then. It doesn’t stop me from trying. I’m really a different person on the court than I am in the rest of my life. Even in softball, I’m usually the quiet guy that just gets down to business when the game starts, trying to avoid the competitive machismo that has taken over the sport.
But when I step on the basketball court, I have a different attitude. My goal is to find your weak spot and exploit it. Many times that involves trash talk and the general pushing of buttons. I like to get under your skin on the basketball court. It has always been a cerebral game for me but now more so than ever, with my first step not being what it used to be. I will still go right at you and attack. Now I just use my size more than speed. But I still absolutely love the game and feel completely at home in a gym. When I step on the court, it almost feels like an out of body experience. It’s zen like in many ways.
It helps that I love the team I play on. It’s the same general squad as my softball team but we also have a player or two from outside of that sport. This year, we have Nate, a player who I coached many years ago as a 2nd Grader, and CJ, 
Most of all, we function well as a team. We learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and try to put each other in the best position to succeed. We generally love and respect each other like brothers and we always have each other’s back. It’s the classic case of, “I can pick on my brother but you better not say something bad about him.”
And tonight, we find something that connects two of my happy activities; the sorting table and basketball. My love for basketball was white hot in 1991 when this Hoops set hit the scene. The NBA will never be as good as it was then and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. This set was not the first I had in my collection but was very early in my basketball days. Hoops was abundant in my hometown, along with Skybox, and was the set I went looking for on my trips to Wal-Mart. Despite how much I loved it then, this box didn’t age well through 2018. Notice the hats and shirts say “NBA” instead of a team name. What a cheesy photo. Luckily, the contents inside the box got much better!
Hoops was known for its “baggy” style pack, much like Score of the junk wax era.
It doesn’t take long to realize why the NBA was at its best during this time. Starting with the guards, you have legends like Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, John Stockton, Clyde Drexler and Reggie Miller. Richmond and Hardaway were the 91 version of Harden and Paul today. I also believe that today’s collector or NBA fan will never truly understand how good of a player Drazen Petrovic was! What a start to the box review with these guards!
There isn’t a drop off to the forwards either! Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Dominique Wilkins and Shawn Kemp keep the nostalgia train rolling. I was a huge fan of Sean Elliott too and coveted his rookie cards from the year before. I was at a summer camp when Reggie Lewis died and I still remember sitting on the bed seeing that news on ESPN.
Of course there aren’t as many centers to be found because there was only one starter per team. But there are still some headliners like David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing. Manute Bol was always a fan favorite and I remember the game when he drilled six 3 pointers in a single half in 1993! Draymond Green fans would’ve loved Bill Laimbeer.
How about some coaches? Look how young this quartet looks!
I came up pretty empty overall on the East All-Star team. I like Wilkins, Ewing and Barkley of course but I don’t remember clamoring for Ricky Pierce and Alvin Robertson cards.
The West was a little stronger with Drexler, Hardaway, Magic, Mullin, Admiral and Stockton.
Here are the award winners from the previous season. Anybody think MVP wasn’t going to be MJ? Rodman as defensive POY seems like a lock too. The Skiles award surprised me a little.
This subset commemorated rookie seasons of the past. Gotta love the Chief Warriors jersey.
I was happy to add another Bird and Jordan to the stack. These were “milestones” and Jordan was points and Larry was points, rebounds and assists.
Remember the weekly NBA show “Inside Stuff” with Amhad Rashad? Here’s the inserts dedicated to the show.
I remember the big push from the NBA for kids to stay in school. Each set had some cards dedicated to that cause. This is a neat Will Smith card.
The league leaders were cool dual cards with nice designs. I obviously remember Jordan and the Mailman lighting up the scoreboard but I would’ve never guessed that Trent Tucker and Jim Les led the league in 3 Pt Percentage.
The team cards were mostly standard on court photos but there were a couple nice photos like the Lakers and Pacers. The best one was the Hornets card!
Lastly, I truly don’t remember ever pulling this card as a kid. This Centennial Card has a nice silver foil that seems a little ahead of its time.
The NBA was unbelievable in the early 90’s and fans today that didn’t get to experience it will never understand. This set was a prime example of the greatness of 91 basketball. The design is clean, there are a ton of superstars and there are plenty of insert type cards to provide a nice variety. The box was only $6.95 at my LCS so price is almost non-existent. I love early 90’s Hoops and this year is my personal favorite. I also enjoyed Skybox from this year and I’ll probably review it soon as well. I can’t think of any negatives to this set other than the fact that it’s smack dab in the middle of the junk wax era and you can still find them everywhere. Still, this set is a “5” on the Dub-O-Meter and I thoroughly enjoyed this nostalgic rip!
Baseball cards in 1988 were at an all time high for production and an all time low for value. Each of the flagship sets from 1988 are some of the cheapest products you can find on the market today. The Topps design was one of their most bland of the 80’s, Score was marking their first release and Donruss was just plain bad that year. But Fleer sort of gets lost in the shuffle in my opinion. I think in terms of Fleer only, the design for ’88 could be called iconic. The classic white border was accented with red and blue stripes that weren’t overbearing but added an appropriate amount of flair. Even the wrappers are some of the better looking wax packs for Fleer. Remember those terrible ’89 wrappers?
I picked up a box at the LCS recently and I realized that these aren’t as readily available as some of the other junk wax staples in my area. This by no means is to indicate that ’88 Fleer is rare but my LCS has a CASE of ’88 Topps and this is the first ’88 Fleer Box I’ve seen since they opened in 2015. Two things were noticeable about the box. (1) The Box was not in the best shape. It looked like it might have been found at the bottom of Crystal Lake when it dried up. (2) And yes, that sticker on the box does read $68! That’s not what I paid for it but at one time, this was the sticker price for a box of ’88 Fleer. I find that pretty amazing!
As I mentioned, the design is really nice for 1988. The white border was always my preference for Fleer, though I did like some of the gray borders and I LOVED the black bordered Pro Vision cards. But the design in ’88 was not psychedelic, overbearing or too busy to enjoy the actual photo. It’s really pretty clean. The team logo is in the top right and isn’t too large and the player name and position blends well at the top.
This Dan Plesac Card was always a fun one for me. This is a pitcher, in the American League, who has eye black and is in a batting pose, with wrist bands and batting gloves. The 80’s version of Shohei Ohtani? Also, I loved the old Brewers logo!
As with other Retro Reviews, the featured catchers are pretty slim. But Tony Pena almost always makes the cut and this Benito Santiago was an easy pick.
I decided to plug in some less featured infielders than I usually post because these guys were quite good in the late 80’s, but often overlooked. Some of the usual suspects are included but that bottom row pictures some new guys for my review. Alvin Davis was the best player on the Mariners roster for many years. And Kevin Seitzer was a fan favorite in KC. Ken Caminiti was a tough out and had a rocket for an arm. Finally, Kelly Gruber wasn’t my favorite player because of what he did to the Braves in ’91 but he was certainly good.
There are a couple of new faces here as well. Ellis Burks is one of the more underrated outfielders from the late 80’s. Vince Coleman was the junk wax version of Billy Hamilton but he got on base a lot more. Mookie Wilson was a speedster too. I wish Andy Van Slyke played for another team because I liked him but I hated the Pirates thanks to those early 90’s playoff rivalries.
Frank Viola was quite a stud with the Twins and he had thankfully moved on before that fateful World Series battle with Atlanta. Chuck Finley was a great pitcher on horrible teams and Jack McDowell made music on the mound in the early 90’s but actually started making music soon thereafter.
A usual subset for Fleer in the 80’s were the multi player star cards. They usually featured multiple players from different teams that specialized in certain areas. The exceptions were the McGwire Rookie Home Run Card, The Ripken’s and the Red Sox Outfielders, which featured another classic underrated star in Mike Greenwell. Donruss is trying to produce these now but the lack of team logos really hurts.
As usual, ’88 Fleer was mostly swinging and missing with their identification of prospects. They hit on Mark Grace though. And I suppose John Burkett was pretty solid for a few years.
The least desirable card in the set from a design perspective was the All-Star card. These were just plain ugly if you ask me. I pulled all American League stars in this box.
Perhaps the biggest knock on 1988 Baseball Cards, beside production numbers, is the rookie class. Aside from a few bonafide stars like Greg Maddux here and Craig Biggio in Score, it was a pretty weak class overall. Edgar Martinez and Matt Williams were very good major leaguers but collectors aren’t clamoring for their rookie cards. Kevin Mitchell was one of my favorites and before we all started setting up retirement plans with the ’89 Gregg Jefferies Future Star, there was this ’88 Fleer. I included Sam Horn because he was a big stick at times but couldn’t quite piece it all together. There is a Ron Gant in the set as well but I didn’t pull one.
Fleer has a lot to like in 1988. The design is truly one of my favorites, the wax pack is a nice keepsake and it is relatively cheap when you are looking for it. I like the multi player cards and like the action shots in most of the photos. There are a couple of things to dislike as well though. The All-Star set is pretty bad and the rookie class is rather thin. But Greg Maddux, Ron Gant and Kevin Mitchell are enough of an offset for me to still chase some of the rookie class. I really like this set and I think it’s about as underrated as Ellis Burks was. I wish the card stock was a little better but if Fleer hadn’t stopped producing cards in 2007, I can see this as being one of their go to “throwbacks” that are so often found in modern products. But much like my summer days at Crystal Lake, Fleer is simply a memory from my youth that is no longer around to enjoy in 2018. I suppose it’s for the best with all the license shenanigans today but I do think that retro Fleer sets get a bit of a bad rap with modern collectors. If you have the opportunity, pick up some ’88 Fleer and I think you’ll enjoy it as much as I do.