When I think back, I believe that 1999 had to be the craziest year of my life. I was 22 years old, absolutely burning up the road, and trying to be an adult, even though I refused to grow up. That’s still a problem in 2018 but it’s easier to accept being a big kid at 41 than it was at 22. It’s weird but at 22, everyone was asking, “Will you ever grow up??” and now, everyone just nonchalantly says, “Oh, he never grew up….” So either it is more acceptable at my older age or people have just given up on me being anything more than what I’ve become. Either way, it’s a win/win for me.
I look at how hectic life can be now with a wife and two kids and wonder what I did with all my free time before 2007; but in all honesty, it was pretty hectic back then too. I just didn’t have 3 other people on the payroll. I started working at my current job in August of 1998 so I am coming up on 20 years with the same company, which I consider a huge personal accomplishment when I take into account what my job life was like before that time. I’ve been with my employer a long time and I’ve seen people come and go, just throw their hands up and walk out, be escorted out by security, retire and in some sad cases, pass away much too soon. This job has turned into a very rewarding career.
But back in 1999, I was in my first year there and I still had no clue what I really wanted to do. In fact, not only did I have my current full time job; I was also a server at Outback a few nights a week, I coached Jr. Varsity Baseball at my alma mater and I was trying to go to school on the weekends. I had a pretty full plate when you throw in girlfriends and sports buds. To top it all off, along with the rest of the world, I was trying to prepare for Y2K!! That may have been part of the growing up issue because I didn’t know if I was even going to need a job after 1/1/2000 or if life was going to turn into a “Mad Max” apocalyptic scene. Unfortunately, we weren’t partying like Prince thought we would be.
Even though it was a crazy year, a few things still stick out in my mind from that time. I have very vivid memories of coaching the baseball team that year. Our JV team was strong but the high school team wasn’t very good. We had a stud pitcher/SS and some decent players throughout the lineup but we had a total of 10 players on the team that year. We were in the “AA” classification and baseball was not the sport we were known for. But I still had a blast coaching them and I’ve made a lot of friends that I still keep in touch with; some of whom play on my current softball team today.
The first memory that comes to mind is the game in Seminole County where Coach Bullard (the head coach that gave me the opportunity) was ejected for arguing balls and strikes and had to go sit on the bus for the remainder of the double header. I was elevated to head coach on the big high school stage and this was only our second game of the season. I was a nervous wreck but it was certainly learning on the job. I wonder sometimes if Coach Bullard didn’t do it on purpose to see if I would sink or swim. He didn’t get tossed any other games that year and was generally very even keel.
Then there was the game where I cracked my forearm thanks to a line drive into our dugout. We were playing Cook County and their first baseman was a monster, 6’4/240 type guy, and he was the best power hitter in our region. I remember our pitcher that night was very accurate and a good pitcher but didn’t have a ton of velocity. I was crouched in the doorway of the 3rd Base dugout, signaling pitches to our catcher, as I did every game. The Cook Co. Beast got way out in front of one and whipped it around to the dugout and it smashed into my foreman, which luckily was covering my chest. That was some serious pain my friends.
I also remember when our star player and his best friend “stole” my pickup truck during a JV game to go get drinks from the store. I got to my truck and the inside floor by the door was all scratched up with steel cleats and they owned up to it. I knew exactly what the steel cleat marks looked like because they had spent the season up to that point climbing in and out of the back of my truck with those on and scratching up the bed of it. Just like when we complained during the game when they made mistakes; they just didn’t think sometimes.
I don’t have very many fun memories from Outback because I absolutely hated working nights when I thought I had settled down into a nice 9 to 5. I had to work though because that was the year I moved out of the house and went out on my own. I had rent to pay and Hamburger Helper to buy. We did have a pool at the apartment though and that made for a fun summer time. I just always had to work and my girlfriend got more enjoyment from the pool than I did. That first time living on my own was quite an experience and I learned a lot from it.
The main Y2K memory I have from that year happened at the New Year’s Eve party I attended. We had been gearing up for months and had been forced into fear by the media and the Y2K paranoia. We really didn’t know what was going to happen. Were the electrical grids going down? Would all of our technology be obsolete? Would computers come to life like in the movie “Maximum Overdrive”? Nobody really knew and I am not convinced that it wasn’t just a big push for everybody to have to buy new stuff.
But at the New Year’s Eve Party, we were ready to move out of ’99 and into the 2000’s and were excited and anxious as the same time. We were counting down the seconds as the ball was dropping when the host of the party slipped off to the basement. When we got to 1 second, he flipped the breaker and the whole house went dark. There was a gasp and a kid started crying. I may have jumped a little as well. The party came to a complete stop and all of the warnings we had received over the last year came rushing to my mind. For a brief moment, we all stood in shock, wondering if the end was now beginning. Of course, he flipped the breaker back on and we all started laughing. Then laughter turned to anger from some people because they didn’t actually get to see the ball drop because he cut the electricity. Good times.
The only good memory I have from that year in college was my English class and the teacher I had. This was when I wrote my infamous “A Time for Forgiveness” about Lonnie Smith and the pain I had lived with for the previous 8 years. This was really when I think I started to focus on writing because I was getting praise for it. My teacher thought I had something special and I enjoyed doing it. Now, almost 20 years later, here I am writing my own little blog posts every couple weeks and having people actually read them. I may not have gotten that push if I hadn’t been in that particular class with that particular teacher.
Along with writing, I started doing something (again) in 1999 that I still do today. This was around the end of my “Dark Period” and I was getting back into collecting full time. I didn’t buy a ton of 1999 product but I did spend a lot of time organizing and sorting my old stuff. I don’t actually remember buying any 1999 Topps Baseball that year but I bought a lot of football. So when I visited my LCS a couple of weeks ago and this box of 1999 Topps Baseball was sitting on the shelf, I thought, “why not?”
1999 Topps only has 462 cards in the set and has some special cards that celebrate the home run chase Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa had the year before. The box configuration was 36 packs with 11 cards per pack. This was series 2, which covered card #243-462. There were also some other surprises that could be found in a hobby box, and for 1999, they were highly sought after. The set commemorated Nolan Ryan’s stellar career and had reprints and autographs of some of his Topps cards over the years. An SP of these cards even came in a refractor, which was very young technology for the time. The set also included some Mystery Finest inserts that were chase cards. So there is a lot more here to see than just base cards and standard inserts.
The packs were really odd to me. They were lime green looking and they were see through, which feels out of place for late 90’s cards.
I’ve never been a big gold border guy so that was a bit of a turnoff right off the bat. This design was very similar to ’98 Topps Football if you remember the Peyton Manning and Ryan Leaf RC’s from that year. Here are some of the stud catchers playing in ’99.
The infield was loaded with talent in 1999. There were veterans like Cal Ripken and Wade Boggs, who was winding down in Tampa. Then there were hot young players like Nomar in Boston and the A-Rod that everybody still loved in Seattle. There are some huge names here.
Just like the infield, there were some veterans in the outfield that were wrapping up stellar careers, like Rickey Henderson. But there were also some guys that were tearing the cover off the ball, like Barry Bonds, Tim Salmon and Larry Walker, who had plenty left in the tank. Check out this sweet Brian Hunter card!
This was a great time for pitchers but a couple of these guys were not far from destroying their legacies and wiping out any value they had in the hobby. Of course, those pitchers are Roger Clemens and Curt Schilling. Dwight Gooden has already been through his most trying career years. Tom Glavine and John Smoltz were in the middle of the greatest National League run in history. And there were some awesome young arms that were just getting fired up; Mike Hampton, Roy Halladay and Chris Carpenter.
While not technically “Rookie Cards” by the formal definition, these were 3 very early cards of players that went on to have great careers. I don’t even remember this Big Papi Card!
While the early cards of Beltre and Papi were very nice, there wasn’t a lot going on in the Draft Pick section of the checklist. The best name in the group was Matt Holliday. Pat Burrell and Brad Lidge had ok careers as well but nothing that makes these cards highly sought after.
The prospects were pretty much misses as well. Carlos Lee and AJ Burnett had good careers and John Rocker had a chance but the rest of these guys were situational players for the most part.
These cards we’re VERY busy with the gold, threads and multiple players. There are some very good players here in the “All Topps” inserts. There aren’t a ton of Big Cat cards in an Atlanta uniform so that was nice.
Strikeout Kings is self explanatory and seeing Kerry Wood here reminds me of how big of a chase this guys rookie cards were at one point. I found collation to be pretty bad in ’99 Topps as every 10th pack or so would have 5 of these cards in them. Same for Prospects, All Topps and Draft Picks.
Record Numbers gave us a non-gold border to collect in the set. The players here were all studs, as most record breakers are. This was the season after Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa brought baseball back to prominence with their unforgettable home run battle. He had a couple of Record Numbers inserts.
Another set that commemorated the home run chase was “HR Parade” which outlined some of the big Homers along the way.
Here are 2 of the Nolan Ryan reprints with the gold stamp. The cards were glossy and carried the backs that would have been found in 1981 and 1983 for these cards. Great throwbacks!
This one was pretty special. Not only was it the RC reprint, it was the SP Refractor. I know this isn’t a big money card but there were a total of ZERO found currently for sale on eBay. That has to be good right?
All Matrix was more technology that was just making a splash in the hobby. This card looks much better in person than the photo appears.
This one was even better. This is truly a beautiful card for 1999. This is even beautiful for 2018!
Finally, no autographs, but I did pull this Mystery Finest Refractor of the All Topps Designated Hitters. It has a black plastic film over the front of the card and I’m not taking it off because I have no idea if I can get it done without messing it up. One day, I suppose.
This set was really one of the tougher ones I’ve had to score so far. I was really leaning on a 4 because of the All Matrix, Ryan reprints, chance at autos and Mystery Finest. Those are all great cards to find in the box. The price was a little on the high end for the checklist, at $40. The gold border ultimately pulled it down to a 3. If the gold border was the only problem, it may have stayed at a 4 but the rookie class was very slim and Series 2 didn’t have Jeter or Griffey. If I ever was going to create a 3.5 Score, this would be it. But I’ll keep it at a 3. With that said, All Matrix and the Ryan Refractor made this box a lot of fun and I actually sleeved those up. What say you about ’99 Topps Baseball?
J-Dub
Scoring Scale
1.Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards. Just read the post and thank me later.
2.There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.
3.Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you into buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of them.
4.You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did! It has some downside but worth the ride.
5.Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking! What are you waiting on?
I have been through several phases of my life to try and fit in with the rest of the world, or sometimes even in the hopes of setting a new trend; and those phases were pretty feeble. Take this photo above. This obviously wasn’t a trend I started or even had much of a choice in but this was me with my 1979 Afro that people thought was soooo cute. I don’t get it. I’m not sure what was going on with my hair but as I saw more photos of hairstyles from back in the day, I realized that the Afro wasn’t the worst I had.
Here is another photo of a trend that I tried hard to push. First, this was a chubby phase, which wasn’t by design. I went through multiple chubby/skinny phases before I just settled on fat as an adult. But this was my airbrush/wristband/tight roll phase. I can’t really explain the hat because I’ve never really been a hat guy but this amazing photo was during a fierce battle of nerf basketball in my bedroom and my brother was the cameraman. I wore wrist bands everywhere and way before John Cena made them popular. I also was the king of the Airbrush T. You can still go to the beach and find airbrush designs with the two palm prints and “U Can’t Touch This.” I got it when it was hot off the presses.
I spun through a lot of looks back in the day. I went with the bicycle shorts, JAMZ, tank tops, tye-dye, Chuck Taylors, acid wash jeans, neon socks. Should I keep going? There were hairstyles too like the afro, the buzz cut, the blonde dye job that lasted one day, the spikes and even the old school 80’s feather do (see above.) Yeah, I morphed from 70’s child to 80’s kid to 90’s punk like a real pro. I was trying to keep up with the times but I was also trying to bring in some flair of my own that would make me unique. That didn’t stop when I became an adult either.
There was my Don Johnson phase. And Nick even turned it into a 92 Bowman!
Then, after I miraculously found someone to marry me, I still made subtle attempts to be aesthetically relevant that look quite humorous today.
Bunched white knee socks anyone?
Here is my awesome flip phone belt loop holder….yeeck….
I don’t really know what this was but I’ve never regretted a celebrity/athlete photo more than this one.
There was a stretch of time where you could not find me wearing any other pant than those of the wind variety.
Well, this trend never really took off.
We have all likely gone through some time in our lives where we just did things because other people were doing them or we wanted to look like the cool kids on TV. But I have found throughout my life that when I have been most comfortable and really probably presented myself in the best way was when I was just myself. It’s ok to occasionally pattern your look after Rick Grimes but don’t change your entire wardrobe for it. We all have our own unique style and we bring something to the table that only we can bring as long as we are true to ourselves. That may not mean that we are ready for a fashion show or a trendy night club hot spot but it is who we are and we should embrace that.
In 1990, a baseball card company decided to try and step out of their comfort zone and “get with the times” and it was as weak of an effort as my backwards hat and white sunglasses that regretful day at Turner Field. The design of 1990 Donruss had great promise in some aspects, as we found out when they experimented with different colors over the years. But that particular year, and that particular red, that white cursive font, those hideous orange wax packs, those busy MVP inserts; they just left so much to be desired for someone who grew up on Donruss Baseball Cards.
Taken in reasonable doses, the red could be somewhat striking. It’s sort of like ’91 Fleer in that I like the design in a small sample size. It’s when you are ripping a full box or multiple packs when you start seeing the cards stack up on top of each other and you realize that the colors are just too cumbersome.
For example, compare the picture above with the stack of cards from the whole box. This is not bad. It almost feels like they would have been perfect as an insert set. What we did get from 1990 Donruss that has become somewhat of a signature for the brand is the speckles on the right and left border. They have used this design some in recent products but the red hasn’t made a return.
The Puzzle was a Donruss staple I the 80’s and early 90’s. Carl Yastrzemski was saddled with being paired with this set.
Another staple of Donruss has always been the Diamond King, except for their inaugural release. While they have always been a little abstract, they really started to get funky in ’90.
Donruss continued use of the MVP subset although this was one of my least favorites. I never liked the grayish backdrop and orange MVP type. It especially clashed with the red border in my opinion. There are some solid names here though.
Perhaps the greatest Donruss MVP ever is this beauty. The John Smoltz/Tom Glavine mix up had us Braves fans scouring packs for both the correct and error version.
Another drawback for me was the relatively thin Rated Rookie class in this set. The most famous was the Juan Gonzalez reverse negative though I didn’t pull that or the correct version.
While the Rated Rookies were slim, there were some real solid Rookies in the set. I pulled 5 of these Justice RC’s in the box I opened for this post. I would have died in 1990!
Here is your National League All-Stars found in this box. Some of these guys were staples while others weren’t highly collectible, ie. Rick Reuschel.
There were some pretty big names in the American League stack as well with Bo Jackson always being a welcome pull. I think a lot of collectors, especially modern day collectors with no junk wax experience, underestimate the skills of Harold Baines. You never hear collectors mention him but he was as steady as they come.
There wasn’t a whole lot happening in the pitcher category in this box but I did pull Nolan Ryan. It didn’t get any better than that in 1990.
Remember when Craig Biggio was a catcher? He made the unusual move from Catcher to Second Baseman early in his career. Catchers almost always move to First Base or DH but he made the jump to middle infield, showing his athleticism early.
Much like the pitchers, I didn’t pull a long list of stud outfielders. Rickey Henderson and Tony Gwynn were the foundation of many collections during these days but Eric Davis may be one of the most underrated players of my youth. Right behind him in the underrated category is Kevin Mitchell.
I’m really not going to just unload on ’90 Donruss like it is an abomination that ruined the hobby. It’s not that. But the design is one that is synonymous with the negative of the junk wax era for me. You can find these boxes for $5 and the set really doesn’t offer anything special outside of a couple of error cards. This was the year before Elite and Upper Deck was the only company experimenting with autographs at the time. So during those days, it was all about design. For me, this one didn’t get it done. But I do think the set is memorable and represented card companies making the effort to be different. Because of the sheer volume of product still out there, the design, and the poor checklist for Rated Rookies and Diamond Kings, I can’t give the set more than a “2” on the Dub-O-Meter. I want to give it a “3” because of the nostalgia and the prevalence it has in collections from my day. I just can’t and I really do feel bad about that. I liked sorting the cards again but it got old pretty quick too. What say you about ’90 Donruss?
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.
The other two cards that everyone will recognize from the set are the Tom Paciorek and Steve Kemp. No? Just me? Yeah, I’m a White Sox fan. OK, so maybe you will recognize the Ozzie Smith and Reggie Jackson cards, showing them in their new digs. Both deals actually happened prior to the 1982 season, but after Topps had already issued its single-series base set. The Topps Traded set was collectors’ first chance to see cards depicting these two future HOFers with their new teams, and they have been favorites for over 35 years.
But what if this set checklist were a tad bit different? What if the industry at the time had dictated a more prospect-driven product? What if this set had included subsets, like those following it eventually included? Ready to have some fun? Let’s have some fun…
When the 1983 sets came out, only one major brand picked up this next guy. He only played in 20 games in 1982, with 32 plate appearances. He batted .241 with one, yes ONE home run. Nobody knew that in 1983 he would play 145 games and hit 35 home runs, on his way to earning the AL Rookie of the Year Award, all while being a very important piece of the lineup during the White Sox run to a Divisional Championship. He’s a great guy, and those of you who have written to him also know him as a TTM legend. What if Topps had included Ron Kittle in their 1982 Traded set?
So, this next dude played 123 games in 1982 with 422 at bats, 125 hits, 24 stolen bases, and batted almost .300. He helped the new addition, Ozzie Smith, lead the Cardinals to a World Series victory with an absolutely sensational catch in Game 3 that robbed a home run. Why didn’t he get a card in the actual Traded set in 1982? No idea. Now he has one. Ladies and gentlemen, Mr. Willie McGee.
There was a particular “Big 3” of rookie cards when the 1983 sets came out. But things could have been very different had they all appeared in the 1982 Topps Traded set. This first guy actually played 13 games in 1981, so he could have easily appeared in the base 1982 set. Only problem? He wasn’t that good. By the beginning of 1982 he had already been traded to a new team, so there is actually a better chance that this first custom would have appeared in the base set rather than the Traded set. It would have been the only non-insert that pictured this future HOFer on his original team, and we missed out on it. Lucky for us, in 1982 he had almost 700 plate appearances and nearly 200 hits. And since he technically changed teams, I’m going to go ahead and put them both in here, because who knows how it really could have been handled? Maybe one in the base set and one in the Traded set? The Cubs kinda made up for the Lou Brock trade with this one, bringing Ryne Sandberg in as a utility infielder and a throw in on the Larry Bowa trade. Not a bad throw in.
Here’s another guy who should have definitely been included in the 1982 Topps Traded set. He played 104 games for his team that year with 381 plate appearances, batting a measly .349. He would finish his career 18 seasons later, with a lifetime .328 average, 3010 hits, and eventually a bust in the Hall of Fame. Unlike Sandberg, who started out as a utility infielder throw in to a trade, Wade Boggs started strong and finished strong, would have been nice to see him in this set. Now we get to!
This next player wasn’t too far away from having a custom NBA card instead of an MLB card. Lucky for us, he chose baseball. He played in 54 games in 1982 batting .289, the only season in his 20 year Hall of Fame career that would see him bat under .300. With over 3100 career hits and a lifetime average of .338 – all while playing for the same team – Tony Gwynn was a shoe-in HOFer that could have easily been included in this set.
I had no idea that this last player came up at the end of 1982. With only 7 games and 13 plate appearances, he definitely would not have been a candidate for the set. But it’s a good thing that I don’t have a lot of rules. Its also a good thing I really wanted to see an ’82 of this guy! He played 14 years and ended up with a lifetime average of .307. With just over 2100 hits, unfortunately he did not have the length to his career that the others did, or he would have undoubtedly ended up in Cooperstown along with them. And this card of Don Mattingly, would have turned the collecting universe upside down back in the day!
So, there you have it, my updated “What If” version of the 1982 Topps Traded set. Thank you for taking the trip with me and imagining what it would have been like to pull this group from that bright blue box!
The things that can trigger these weird moments in time can vary but inevitably, they are always just as random as the memories themselves. Take the hexagon shaped pizza pictured above. Most people my age will remember this as the school lunch pizza. At least that’s what it was at Mitchell-Baker High School. It was damn good too! This was one of the meals where I would splurge and drop an extra .50 for a second pizza. I have not had a pizza like this in 22 years but it’s the first thing I think of anytime I walk into a school cafeteria, which is more often than I ever imagined before I had kids.
While we are on the subject of school, let’s talk about the smell of the athletic field house. Turn away for a moment if you are the squeamish type. I can’t even pinpoint the smell I’m thinking of but it was a solid mixture of sweat, feet, icy hot, wet grass, old cleats and school pizza farts. It’s not a good smell at all but it’s one that was somewhat addictive as a teenager. That smell is representative of baseball and some of my earliest friendships. The smell was certainly one of a kind but every now and again, I’ll open my bat bag today and get this faint memory of the spring of 1992; Coach Davis, our manager “Chicken Box”, my buddy David and his lanky 6’7 delivery or something else totally off the wall. It is a smell that can cross my nose at a moments notice if baseball is on the brain.
Another memory from my school days involves a Sheriff Deputy; Frank “Deputy Dawg” Sumner. Deputy Dawg was over the youth division of law enforcement of the big metro area 30 miles north of my hometown. I now live in that metro area and it’s not as daunting as it seemed back then. But when I was 15, Albany was the kind of place I wasn’t ready for. It was more dangerous than Camilla and I didn’t really know my way around outside of the movie theater and Putt-Putt. Deputy Dawg would go around to the local high schools and scare the hell out of us kids with his presentation on drugs, gangs and violence. I think of him often; when I’m watching a crime show on TV, when my kids have speakers at school or at other random times. He saved a lot of lives in the late 80’s-early 90’s!
I am often reminded of the cold water at our American Legion pool in my hometown of Camilla. We do a lot of summertime water sports with the family now and many times I find myself about to dive into water much colder than I’m prepared for. When I’m standing on the edge of that water, pumping myself up for what’s about to happen, my mind often goes back to the summer of ’93 when I spent almost every day at the Legion. The pool was spring fed and made you shiver on 110 degree July afternoons. I used to think that the kids that hung out at the top of the “Super Slide” were just being cool but now I think it was because they were scared to get back in the water after they had dried off. Every bit of fear of cold water in my adult life can be traced back to those days.
Speaking of fear, I’ve always been a fan of horror movies. To be more specific, I’m a fan of 80’s horror movies. I’d rather watch Friday the 13th than any of the new stuff that comes out that is not so much scary as just filled with “gotcha” moments. I also enjoyed the cheesy horror movies that weren’t scary but had a lot of blood and gratuitous, almost always unnecessary, nudity. I loved “Night of the Comet”, “Cheerleader Camp” and “Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama” for those very reasons. At 15, you couldn’t beat horror and scantily clad chicks! I got my fill of both from Rhonda Shear and her late night weekend show, “Up All Night”. Cable TV was a godsend when I realized I could stay up late on a Friday night and watch some corny ghoulish looking creature chase babes in bikinis without leaving my house! I still think of Rhonda from time to time and wish she would make a comeback for old times sake.
Those type of memories work with my baseball card love too. When most people hear the name “Leaf”, they think of the awesome ’90 set that was the first real competitor of premier giant, Upper Deck. The 1990 Leaf set is the most famous, most revisited and most valuable set from Leaf in the junk wax era. But that’s not the first set I think of when I hear Leaf. That mental image belongs to the 1992 set. I didn’t have a lot of the ’90 set because it wasn’t available in the local Wal-Mart and I didn’t make it to the card shops in Albany much, thanks to the healthy fear of the big city instilled by Deputy Dawg.
By 1992, the Leaf craze had settled down a little bit because Stadium Club, Pinnacle, Upper Deck and Ultra were all competing in the premium realm, making them more accessible. Also, scarcity wasn’t as big of an issue as was perceived when Leaf was introduced to collectors a couple years prior. By ’92, while Leaf was more accessible, it was still a top of the line card to own. The much sought after Leaf Gold Rookies were a hot chase too! This is the first Leaf set that I really bought a lot of so the design has stuck with me over the years.
First up; the First Basemen! Here you can get a good luck at the clean silver border with a nice black nameplate to accent. This is the design I see when I close my eyes and imagine Junk Wax Leaf Baseball!
Here are some strong Second Basemen as well. Knoblauch and Alomar were 90’s superstars. DeShields was supposed to be but never really panned out. Julio Franco was as steady a ball player as you would ever want but we really didn’t recognize his true place in the game until he played 100 seasons.
I missed out on Ozzie Smith but these 3 were all good replacements. I always liked this Cal Ripken card because it showed that he was a player that didn’t shy away from contact or getting dirty. That makes his consecutive game streak all the more impressive.
In the early 90’s, Ken Caminiti was the scariest Third Baseman in the game in my opinion. The dude could smash with the bat and had an absolute cannon for an arm. He was really fun to watch!
1992 Leaf has a very nice mixture of aging veterans and young superstars. Kirby Puckett was in his prime, Juan Gonzalez was the hot youngster and Robin Yount was on his way out. That Mariners outfield was a horror to face too with Mitchell, Buhner and Ken Griffey Jr.!
The arms in 1992 were hot! These guys didn’t have pitch counts or innings limits and a couple them destroyed the radar gun. One of the most underrated players of my lifetime is Lee Smith. All this guy did was shut down games. He barely missed 500 saves and that has kept him out of the Hall but he was a dominant pitcher coming out of the bullpen!
My favorite part about 1992 Leaf was the Black Gold cards found one per pack. These came as a variation for all players so they weren’t always great. But when you got a good player, they looked SO good in that binder! I even pulled a Black Gold Checklist in this box!
I snagged up 5 Leaf Gold Rookies but none of these guys were true MLB Superstars during their career. I remember the hype around David Nied in Atlanta. We had a great rotation and the thought of Nied becoming that 5th arm was tantalizing! And Turk Wendell never let collectors down with his cards.
The big rookies in this set are somewhat debatable. Mo Vaughn and Jeff Bagwell were both included in the ’91 Gold Rookie Checklist but ’92 represented all of their first base set inclusions. 1990 through 1993 are hot right now because the entries into the Hall of Fame have been and are coming from these rookie classes for the most part. While there are David Nied’s and Matt Stairs’ to contend with, the chance of pulling the rookie card of a hall of famer always ramps up the excitement a bit.
While this set will always be memorable for me, I just can’t get overly excited about this rip. The Gold Rookies only include 2 key names with Pedro Martinez and Kenny Lofton among the 24 on the checklist. The actual rookie class of Bagwell and Pudge may or may not be considered rookies depending on your standards. There are some big names like Nolan Ryan, Ryne Sandberg, Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas but those names are found in every set of 92. The design saves it from being a complete bust and the Black Gold brings it even to a 3. I bought the entire box for $8 so you can’t really complain about the price of the nostalgic trip. So while this set is clearly not as gross as a Slimeball Bowl-A-Rama, it’s probably not as good as lunch pizza either.
The day started early. I was up at 7 and getting ready for an 8 o’clock basketball game with my 1st grade basketball team, the Typhoon. For the last 7 Saturday’s, I’ve gotten up at 7 to coach these awesome kids and it has been an amazing experience. I’ve coached sports for a variety of age levels over the last 20 years; baseball, basketball, football and even soccer. It truly is one of my passions aside from writing and collecting. I love seeing the confidence that can be built in a kid by a simple game. And I especially love being a part of a game that can bring us all together, regardless of social status, race or who our parents are. Look at this picture; this is true happiness on the faces of boys playing a game with their friends on a Saturday morning. We moved to 7-0 with our win today and we have one week left.
After basketball, it was time for another Saturday ritual; breakfast at Pearly’s. If you follow me on Twitter, Facebook or even Instagram, you’ve seen my Saturday breakfast posts from this local landmark. This is my usual – steak biscuit, cheese grits, hash brown casserole and diet Dr. Pepper. This meal can sustain me until supper time on Saturday and I usually have to have a pretty serious excuse for not making it to Pearly’s. It’s blurring between ritual and superstition at this point. I’m pretty sure that all of the Georgia losses over the last few years has been because I didn’t make it in on game day. This place is hopping on Saturday mornings with a packed inside and cars wrapped all the way around the building in the drive-thru. Several of the waitresses know me by name and some even know what I order. I call that a good thing!
The next part of this Saturday was my trip to the LCS in Warner Robins. Because I had the day to myself, I had all the time in the world to make my trek up I-75 to the land of wax. The trip is 90 miles one way so I use that time to catch up on podcasts I may have missed during the week. I have a pretty heavy rotation so I actually enjoy that ride time! The usual suspects are the Fatpacks, That Sportscard Show, DawgNation Daily, Lemme Get That Podagraph and Nightmare on Film Street. I have a few that I’ve rotated in like Up and Vanished and Atlanta Monster as well. I don’t even listen to the radio anymore because podcasts have taken over my listening time!
Upon arrival, my first stop is always the junk wax turnstile. This is where I pick up all the sweet boxes for my retro reviews. We’ll cover one of those in a minute. The turnstile is drying up a little and Charlie commented that he has to work on restocking it. It doesn’t help that I buy up multiple boxes each month. I’m keeping my eyes peeled for some good deals on a couple of mid 80’s boxes if any of you have an inside track. I am also hoping to cover a 70’s box soon, which would be around the time I was born but still worth the visit.
It’s not all junk wax for me when I go to the shop because 1) I’m addicted to the YouTube hangouts when I break boxes with the Dub Gang and 2) I usually do a new product review for Bags Unlimited each week. This week I picked up an old faithful and a new release. The old faithful is my running favorite, 2017 Optic and the new release is Panini Patches and Plates. You can check out the 
But before I review something new, I will do my favorite rip and review something old. This week’s review is 1989 Topps Traded Baseball! I picked this up for $9.95 and the cards were in really good condition in the box. I have mentioned here before that I am a sucker for the 89 Topps bubble letter font and design. This was also the year I started collecting so I ripped a ton of wax then. There was one notable omission from the base set and the only place to find him was in this update. More on him at the end. But first, here are some others that were in the update set, with a few I forgot about.
Jim Abbott was a highly touted rookie in 1989. Part of that was his pitching ability but another part of his fanfare came from his amazing ability to make it to the major league level as a pitcher with only one hand. Most people know the story of Jim Abbott but if you don’t, check 
I can’t really figure this card out. This is a pitcher, wearing glasses, with eyeblack. What am I missing?
Jesse Barfield was a member of the Canadian version of the Bash Brothers with George Bell until he landed in the Bronx in 1989.
Julio Franco spent the first part of his career with the Phillies and Indians before spending most of the 90’s with Texas. I think he was 53 in this photo.
Flash was a guy that I really collected hard in ’89. I played softball many years later with a guy who played minor league ball with Gordon. I’ve always been a big fan!
Ricky was originally Ricky in Oakland, then became Ricky in New York but by 1989, Ricky was Ricky in Oakland again. See what I did there?
The Big Unit didn’t make the base set but was one of a few Mariners rookies who made the update set. This is my favorite Randy Johnson RC.
Eddie Murray played 21 seasons but only 3 in LA. He hit .330 with 26 home runs in 1990 so still had plenty left in the tank.
You can rest assured that this guy is going to show up in my next 
Here is an inclusion I forgot about in ’89. Now that I see this card, I can easily visualize his ’89 base card in the Astros uniform. He switched teams but didn’t even have to leave the state.
Another rookie that wasn’t included in any of the base sets of 1989 was Deion. He was in the Fleer Update and Donruss “The Rookies”, in addition to this card.
If I had only known in 1989 that Lonnie Smith was 2 years away from making me cry in front of a TV, I may have torn this card up. But then again, thanks to that baserunning flub, I have a 
Another Mariner RC in ’89 was the slick fielding Omar Vizquel. He’s vastly underrated in the hobby but was as solid a Major League Baseball player as you’ll find.
If you’ll go back and read that “Dated Rookie” link above, you’ll find the ’89 Rookie of the Year, Jerome Walton. I’ll always have a special place in my heart for Jerome!
Ken Griffey was traded to the Reds in 1988 so I’m not entirely sure how he landed in the ’89 Update set but I am intrigued.
Though Ken Griffey was included , the Griff that drove this set was Jr. He was included in the Fleer, Donruss and Upper Deck base sets but somehow Topps missed him that year. He is probably one of the biggest oversights in set history. The Mariners were stacked in the early 90’s with Unit, Vizquel, Jay Buhner, Edgar Martinez and Jr. They were really fun to watch!
I’m sure you sometimes wonder if there is anything I don’t like from the 80’s and 90’s. Trust me, there are and I have a few of those on the horizon. This set is not one of those. What’s not to love about this set? The awesome ’89 Topps Design is top notch. There are great rookies included with Randy Johnson, Deion, Vizquel and Jr. There is even a veteran SUPER star with Nolan Ryan. And all of this can be had for less than $10! It gets an easy “5” from Dub!
I remember writing scary stories as a kid (5th, 6th, 7th grade maybe) and I based them loosely on characters like Freddy Krueger and Jason Voorhees. I wasn’t very original but my mind was pretty active and I could come up with some stories that could fill three or four pages of notebook paper. My horror career obviously never took off and I really never even let a lot of people read it. It was then that I tried to do some illustration with my story-telling and realized that I wouldn’t be wowing anybody with those skills. I am 40 now and just to give you an idea, I tried to draw Jason just tonight and this is what it looked like. I stared at a photo and drew this and you might think my kids drew it if I hadn’t told you. The only thing I was ever able to accomplish was the 80’s “S” and it was the first initial of my last name so I thought I was pretty cool.
My brother, Chase, could draw a lot better than me. He drew the storefront of an auto parts place one time and I still have it hanging on the inside of my armoire. Yes, I am still using a piece of furniture that I had when I was 15. It is now where I store a lot of my baseball card paraphernalia. I have some old boxes of junk wax in there, along with autographs, patches and 8X10’s that I don’t have in the storage boxes in the closet. But every time I open that armoire, I see that drawing fastened to the back of the door with electrical tape. I don’t know why I still have it but I do. He’s gone on to be a lot more artistic than me in adulthood and his job is essentially based on precision and design, so his skills carried over.
Now my cousin, Michael, is in a real band. He plays the guitar and does things that I can only dream of being able to do. They are called Chasing Victory and they formed in 2001. He and his group of high school friends formed the band and just started playing locally. After 3 years of hard work, they would eventually release three albums that are available on iTunes today. Those albums are “A Not So Tragic Cover Up” (2004), “I Call This Abandonment” (2005) and their most accomplished album (according to me), “Fiends” (2007). They also toured during those years and played almost 300 shows per year throughout the US and Canada. They appeared with Underoath, Acceptance, August Burns Red, Emery, May Day Parade and many others. They were featured on several collaboration albums over the years as well.
Around 2007, the bandmates started getting married and planning families and decided to break up. They were pretty well established at that point on the “Screamo” scene and it was a sad thought that they were done. Of course, they were just growing up and the next stage of life was calling but they had legitimate talent and were very popular with their peers and fans. Fortunately, they would remain friends over the years and they never let the talent die because they have continued to do various musical projects over the years. While not quite like the worldwide albums and nationwide tours from the mid 2000’s, they never really lost their fan base. To prove that, they were named by AP Magazine as one of the “Top 10 Bands We Wish Never Broke Up” and “Most Influential Band” last year by the lead singer of Bring Me The Horizon, Oli Sykes.
Now, in 2018, they are about to step out into the public spotlight again. They have been working on an album for the last year and I have had the privilege of hearing some occasional sampling and raw recordings ahead of the album being released on February 9, 2018. The album is called “Friends, Vol 1” and is an alliteration of the last album title in 2007, “Fiends”. The album title is powerful because, according to Michael, “No matter what, we have always remained the best of friends; even through the lowest of the lows that you experience while touring, and also the highs. We named it Friends because of the profound impact we have had on each other’s lives.” Even after a 10 year layoff, they sound like they haven’t missed a beat. They recently released the album’s second single, “Kenosis”, and you can check it out 
So I’ve tried art, music and now writing but I’m still not an “artist” per se. I do love the arts though and have always wanted to be good at all of those things. My wife has been taking some art classes lately and she is really good. At least someone in my house can do something artistic! As usual, at this point you may be asking how this is going to tie in to sports cards but you should know by now that I always bring it back full circle. While I was trying to learn to draw as a kid, there was somebody else out there that was doing it a lot better than me. I have expressed my love for sketch cards many times here and 1991 Pro-Vision is probably my favorite single insert of all time. But as for a set, I don’t think 1991 Score will ever be topped as it relates to inserts and sketch cards; at least for me. While I loved ’91 Pro-Vision, I really didn’t like the base set so finding those inserts came with a price. I definitely enjoyed the base design of ’91 Score more than Fleer so the sketch cards were a bonus.
A box of 1991 Score weighs about a ton. There are 36 packs with 16 player cards and 1 magic motion card per box. The packs are the sweet old school baggies that Score made famous in the late 80’s. The box was split into 2 series’ much like some other sets in 1991. I have a box of Series 1 thanks to my good friend Steve (@
The fronts of the cards came in 4 colorful designs; Blue, Aqua, White and Black. We’ll cover the fronts in a minute. As for the backs, they were a bit busy. The cards covered every year of a player’s career so players like Nolan Ryan and Joe Carter had tiny stat lines. Where they could, they would fit some written information about the player.
Here are the notable catchers from Series 1. One of the catchers had the unusual designation of C-CF. He would later become a Hall of Fame Second Baseman as well! How many catchers would you guess had the capability to play CF? I always liked the Carlton Fisk card as well because he was in the throwback White Sox uniform and the card had the black design.
The infielders include some of the best players in Junk Wax history! Every one of these players were studs in their own way. The odd man in this section is Dave Justice. While he did play 1B as a minor leaguer and some as a rookie, he played over 100 games in RF this particular season but still didn’t earn that designation on his card.
Speaking of outfielders, look at this collection! The Sosa was another favorite of mine (again in the throwback). Damn I miss the late 80’s and early 90’s!
Every collector likely remembers Pedro Martinez. My buddy Shane (@
There were a ton of prospect cards in Series 1. There were some recognizable names like Karl Rhodes, Mickey Morandini and Brian McRae. But the stud in 1991 was Phil Plantier! He was hovering near Judge-Mania territory!
The best rookie in the entire set is in Series 2; Chipper Jones. But there are some names that were highly collectible in ’91. Carl Everett, Rondell White and Alex Fernandez were hot names but the player who had the best career was Mike “Moose” Mussina.
Now we find ourselves in the best part of the checklist; the inserts!! The first cards found were the “Highlight” cards. I REALLY loved the blue dazzle lights in the background. This Bo Jackson was a centerpiece in my binder for a while.
Next up is the “Master Blaster”. These are very 90’s! The Master Blaster series covered big time hitters and used red strobes in the background.
The “Rifleman” was the next group. These were players with cannon’s for arms. Obviously, these used green strobes in the background and another Bo is always a welcome addition.
“K-Man” covered the pitchers who were dominant on the mound in 1990. Here we have that Ramon Martinez guy again. I pulled Bobby Witt but would have liked to have had the other Rangers K-Man.
Finally, the cards we have all been waiting for; All-Star’s! These were sweet artist sketch cards with “big head” designs. While not the same type of feel as the Pro-Vision cards, these were very high on my list of wants in 1991. My favorite was always the Ken Griffey Jr.
Last but not least, we have the “Dream Team” insert. This was another favorite of mine in the early 90’s. I only pulled one from this box but it was a great one; Jose Canseco. These were really classy and each card had a unique shot of the super star.
This set remains one of my favorite overall sets for a few reasons. First, the colorful designs in the base set looked really good and were more appealing than those tried in 1988. Next, every insert card in the set was unique and collectible to me. I liked some better than others but I liked them all. Finally, the All-Star cards are second only to Pro-Vision during that time on my rankings of sketch cards. I liked these better than ’90 and ’91 Diamond Kings to be honest. The box was $10 and the only drawback is that the rookie class was not as stellar as some of the other years. But that small blemish will not deter me from giving this set a “5” on the Dub-O-Meter. I really like ’91 Score and would love for the current Score sets to include some of these cool inserts. I was saddened when Chasing Victory called it quits but they are making a comeback 10 years later. What say you Score??
I made my money mowing lawns of a local insurance company and church in Camilla. I ALWAYS had my headphones on! The music in 1992 was about as good as I remember. That was the year that Pearl Jam’s “Ten” was at the height of popularity and I was blown away by “Black”, “Jeremy”, “Even Flow” and “Alive”. While Pearl Jam was #1 on the tuner, there were some others that were pretty hot back in the day. I enjoyed Toad the Wet Sprocket, Nirvana, Cypress Hill, Boyz II Men, The Cure and House of Pain. I wore out the House of Pain CD with “Jump Around” and it finally became useless due to scratches and damage.
Reservoir Dogs – I learned that it is actually possible to form the perfect cast for a movie. I have been a Steve Buscemi fan since that movie. But I also have always enjoyed Michael Madsen, Tarantino and Harvey Keitel. This was such a great film!
Basic Instinct – I learned that rewinding and pausing a movie on the same scene over and over will eventually do enough damage that tracking can’t even fix the picture. Oh, Sharon Stone, you minx!
Unforgiven – This remains my favorite western of all time. I learned that you just don’t mess with Clint Eastwood, even if your name is Gene Hackman. Hackman may have been the boss in “Hoosier’s” but Eastwood was the shooter in this film! Is that play on words lousy or what?
A Few Good Men – This is where we learned that despite Tom Cruise’s ability to fly a plane inverted and take out Jester below the hard deck, he wasn’t quite prepared to handle the truth from Jack Nicholson.
League of Their Own – Perhaps the greatest lesson for a young sports fan; “There’s no crying in baseball!”
Wayne’s World – I learned that if a woman became President, someone would undoubtedly call her Baberham Lincoln. Also, Led Zeppelin didn’t write tunes that people liked; they left that to the BeeGees.
My Cousin Vinny – This one taught me quite a bit about “good ole boy” politics but I can’t seem to ever get past Marisa Tomei.
Mighty Ducks – I’m telling you, the Flying V would never work in real life! I learned about true fiction in this film.
Dead Alive – What is there to say about this one other than I learned that there was a movie out there that could even make ME sick to my stomach.
White Men Can’t Jump – Finally, I already knew this one so didn’t really learn anything new. I had been playing basketball for several years and you would have had trouble sliding a piece of notebook paper between my foot and floor when I jumped.
But in 1992, they did a complete 180! They released high quality card stock with glossy photos and a border design that was much easier on the eyes. They brought back Pro-Vision and also introduced a new All-Star insert set that was reminiscent of other premium brands of the early 90’s. Finally, the checklist was really, really good and is very reflective of a wonderful time in baseball. They moved away from the wax packs and went to more of a cello type wrapper but it was pretty thick and easy to tell if tampered with. I found this box at my LCS for $8.95. The box has 36 packs with 16 cards each.
This year had a pretty good mix of young and old catchers. One of these guys wouldn’t be a catcher for long and one of these guys was a catcher for 100 years.
One of the deepest power positions in the set, First Base featured some true sluggers. Three of these hitters topped 500 home runs and one fell just three short.
The middle infielders didn’t have as much pop but they certainly got on base a ton! And I don’t know that you’ll find a slicker fielding trio than Larkin, Vizquel and Ozzie.
The hot corner was pretty hot in ’92 as well. You had a little bit of everything here with Caminiti’s arm, Williams’ bat and Sheffield’s all around skill.
I could barely fit all the outfielders in one picture. These are 20 legitimate stars from the early 90’s! Sosa, Belle and Justice represented the young guys while Murphy, Strawberry, Henderson and Hawk provided veteran leadership.
There were quite a few Hall of Fame pitchers in 1992. The following year, Maddux would join Glavine and Smoltz to form one of the deadliest rotations in MLB history.
You can bet your bottom dollar that these guys are going to make an appearance in the “Dated Rookie” Project!
Historically, Fleer has been known to swing and miss on the prospects in their sets. They do hit on one or two each year and I suppose Kenny Lofton would be that ONE in 1992.
How about some “Super Stars”? Who are Boggs and Baines looking at?
Another insert set was the “Record Setters”. Joe Carter got a three-photo card for his 100 RBI seasons.
“League Leaders” was a staple in Fleer over the years. Most of the time the insert set featured both AL and NL players on the same card but this year was a bit different.
Here is the nice glossy All-Star insert along with the Roger Clemens Career Highlights Card. These were very nice looking Cards and had a ’92 Fleer Ultra feel.
Here is what I came for! I pulled the 5 best Pro-Vision Cards as far as I’m concerned. The one thing about ’91 that is superior to ’92 is the black border but damn I love these Pro-Vision cards!
Bernie Williams was one of the three big rookies I pulled from this box. Bernie is a fan favorite in the Bronx and a welcome addition to my collection.
The next big rookie I pulled was one of the newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Jim Thome. He was a very classy ball player and one of the best power hitters of the 90’s that didn’t get linked to steroids. Thome was a beast!
The last big rookie I pulled was Pudge Rodriguez, another recent inductee into the Hall. Pudge was one of the best catchers I’ve ever seen play and was a stud on the field and in the Hobby.
This particular set break is the exact reason I do what I do with junk wax sets. I really had forgotten just how good 1992 Fleer was. The cards are in better condition than most boxes I open from the era, the checklist is loaded, the inserts are very retro and you simply can’t beat Pro-Vision Cards. It’s easy for some to label ’92 Fleer as one of those sets that was smack dab in the middle of the Junk era but the set really stands out when you take the time to look at the design and players found in the packs. In a complete rebound from 1991, I’m giving ’92 Fleer a “5” on the Dub-O-Meter. I can’t find a real problem with this set. It truly holds up 25 years later and deserves to be remembered in a much better light than we currently hold it. Give ’92 Fleer a shot and I know you’ll feel the same!
Collecting to me as a kid was sitting in my floor and making an all-star team out of the good players in the packs I ripped. Sometimes, the team wasn’t made up completely of real life all-stars. As a kid, I was lucky to squeeze 2-3 packs out of a trip to Wal-Mart with my parents. While that may have been all I got, I sincerely mean that I was lucky because those trips were priceless. My 3 packs of Donruss may have resulted in me having Jerry Browne or Albert Hall on those all-star teams I formed. I would read the stats on the back to help me finalize the team and home runs or average usually won the tie breakers. I laid the cards out in the baseball field layout and that would be my team. I decided to rip a couple packs of ’89 Donruss just for this piece so I could put together an all-star team to picture. What do you think of this team? The bad part is my infield is weak but I had to pick between Glenn Davis and Mark Grace at 1st!
As touched on above, collecting was reading card backs. That is how I learned about players who didn’t play for the Braves or Cubs. I was able to watch those two teams every day because of the national television stations they were on. When they played the Pirates or the Astros, I could usually look out for Glenn Davis or Andy Van Slyke because I had read up on their stats on card backs. I studied the cards front and back and I liked players because of what I learned about them. A great follow on Twitter is @
All-Star and MVP Cards used to mean something. In a world where relics and autographs were unheard of, we spent our time trying to chase down insert cards. While all sets varied with the exact insert sets they had to offer, almost all of them had some form of a “best of the best” subset. Donruss had MVP’s, Score had the All-Star sketches, Topps had the Bold All-Star Cards and so on. Collecting big names was how you filled your binder pages and loaded up on trade bait. Those cards are in dime boxes at card shows now. Back then, they were the cards in the glass cases!
I learned how to collect because of RBI Baseball and the time I spent playing against my uncle’s on that game. RBI 3 even allowed you to play with teams that won pennants during the 80’s. I could play with the 1985 Royals and it made me want to collect George Brett. Sometimes, I would be the ’84 Tigers and I would go searching for “Sweet” Lou Whitaker or “Never Fret” Chet Lemon. I learned about baseball players from two key sources; cards and RBI Baseball. And I took every opportunity to intertwine those two hobbies of mine. My love for Jose Canseco was actually born on RBI 3 and the fact that he was a hobby superstar only made it stronger.
Collecting was reading up on cards in the Beckett magazine. I had a unique way of opening packs in 1989 and 1990 that was totally dependent on me having a Beckett magazine handy. I bought the mag each month so that never was a big problem. I would open my packs with the backs of the cards facing up and would slide each card just enough to reveal only the card number for the next one. I would go to my Beckett and find the number in the price guide and my excitement would be dependent on whether it was listed or not. If it was listed, I knew it was going to be worth .15 or more and if it wasn’t, I knew it was a common. Excitement was really high when those cards turned out to be Jr. or Gary Sheffield or Ricky Jordan. Those were $1.00 plus cards and worth more than what the actual pack cost. If Beckett had published a History or Spanish book that I enjoyed as much as their price guide, I probably would have been valedictorian of my class!
Collecting was sitting in the lunch room of my high school before homeroom and comparing hits with my buddies. I hit a 1990 Donruss Diamond King Ken Griffey Jr and was the talk of the class one morning. You were somehow better than everyone else on the days you had the big hit. I remember the ’89 Bo Jackson baseball/football card, ’90 Score Frank Thomas, ’90 Upper Deck John Olerud and ’91 Stadium Club Phil Plantier as some of the bigger cards I showed off in that lunchroom. I never beat David and his Andre Dawson Elite but I had some pretty good pulls back in the day.
I enjoy going through a box of old cards, even if it’s loaded with Tommy Herr or Franklin Stubbs, because it takes me back to my youth. Even though it’s called “Junk Wax”, I have never considered those cards junk. I have a few boxes that I’ll go through every year and I already know what cards are there but I will sort them in a different way just to have an excuse to go through them again. I’ll do it with ’91 Fleer, ’85 Topps or ’89 Upper Deck; I don’t have any bias against cardboard. I may not like some of the designs, like ’90 Donruss, but that doesn’t mean I’m trashing those cards. I don’t trash cards at all to be honest. I pass them down or send them to other collectors if they aren’t going to stay in my collection. One reason is that you just never know when a particular card value may rebound. But more importantly, the cards just mean too much to me.
I enjoy autographs, patches, printing plates, serial numbers, graded cards, and just about any other modern day frill you can think of. But I’ll never forget my roots and I’ll never get too far from home. I’ll never choose a pack of 2017 Contenders over a pack of 1987 Fleer. I’m being 100% honest when I type that. For my enjoyment, I would rather have a Bo Jackson rookie than a DeShaun Watson rookie. I know that values are different and I could make more money on eBay and there is more demand for Watson; I get all of that. But that’s not why I’m in this game. Would I sell a Watson to make money? There’s no question about that. But do you know what I would do with at least a portion of that money? I’d go buy a box of 1987 Fleer! The cards I sell don’t make me rich and they won’t pay my bills, but they will help me buy more cards to support my Hobby. That’s my stance on buying and selling. I’m probably in the minority but I’d usually rather give the card to someone who would like it in their collection.
Now, if we’re talking about money cards, I have no problem flipping those to buy more cards. Again, everybody collects different and I don’t think any less of anyone who does it different from what I do. I’ve periodically sold on eBay and Twitter and have no problem with others that do so more often. That’s definitely an important sector of the community because I do buy from time to time. I just don’t see dollar signs when I open product anymore. I did when I was a kid but they were literally $1.00 signs. The tireless hunt for the 1:1’s or the star autographs can both drive you mad and break the bank. That’s part of why I still delve so much in the junk wax era. I pay a reasonable price for what I consider to be good cards and I’m not driven by money at any point during the transaction. It’s not a business to me. It can be, and is, to some; and there is zero wrong with that, but it isn’t me.
There are a lot of things we see and think could be amazing but simply turn out to be entries into our “crash and burn” memoirs. Anybody remember the NES Power Glove? Yeah, Kelly Kapowski couldn’t even save this abysmal product. This was supposed to change gaming forever but all it did was make me long for the days of the Power Pad. It was virtually impossible to play a video game with the controller on one of your arms. But it had so much promise! I wanted it to work out so badly that I gave it more chances to fail than I normally would have any other toy or game at the time. It was just brutal.
Let’s talk about Caddyshack II for a minute. Was there a better opportunity for a great sequel in the comedy genre in the 80’s? I can do a whole separate post about terrible sequels but the original Caddyshack remains one of the funniest movies in the history of cinema and deserved a better follow up. I just KNEW it was going to be awesome and marked it down as a sure thing. But when you replace Rodney Dangerfield with Jackie Mason and remove Bill Murray from a movie cast, you just can’t expect it to be as good as the first. My heart hurts a little when I happen to catch CS II on the tube nowadays. How could something that was destined to be so right turn out so wrong?
Then you have some things that start out blazing and even have a reasonable enough run that you get sucked in more than usual. Notwithstanding the 2017 UGA Bulldogs (which I still love) in that particular scenario, think about Guns N Roses. They put out pure gold when they released Appetite for Destruction in 1987. They gave us such gems as “Paradise City”, “Welcome to the Jungle” and “Sweet Child Of Mine” but by 1990, they were kicking guys out of the band, showing up late for gigs or just not showing up altogether. What could have been a magical run as one of the best rock bands ever was derailed by narcissism, greed and hard drugs; or more simply put, the 80’s!
So where am I going with this? You know it always ties into my sports card addiction and this is no exception. I’ve started a new personal project that is related to this premise of Optimism Bias. I started collecting in the late 80’s and there were players that we all had to have and pulling them from folded up wax wrappers was the first step of retirement planning at 10. During that time, the illustrious Junk Wax Era as it’s so lovingly referred to, we firmly believed that these 3×5 pieces of cardboard were going to make us rich. We coveted certain cards like some would bitcoins today. All we needed were toploaders and time and we would be set for life.
Well, like many of the above examples, that didn’t really work out as planned either. A big reason is because the card market was more saturated than any early teen could understand or even be aware of. We didn’t know that there were 10 billion Ken Griffey Jr ’89 Donruss Rated Rookies floating around. What we did know was that Beckett Monthly was our version of Jim Cramer’s “Mad Money” and if it was on the hot list, we were investing! Another reason the financial planning hit a Cecil Fielder sized bump in the road was that most of the players didn’t pan out. That’s the reason I’m more focused on with this project.
With the help of my Twitter buddy Nick (@
Jim Abbott was a pitcher for 10 years in the majors despite the fact that was missing his right hand. He actually pitched a no hitter in 1993 and had a reasonable career but his rookie Cards never took off like I thought they would. He finished his career with an 87-108 career record, a 4.25 ERA and less than 1,000 K’s so he wasn’t a statistical monster by any stretch. But I always admired Abbott and stocked up on all of his rookies.
Sandy Alomar Jr was not exactly a bust but he wasn’t even the best Alomar in baseball at the time. He played a robust 20 year career and hit for a .273 average but with only 112 home runs. He won both AL ROY and a Gold Glove in 1990 so his cards were hot but his card values always fell a little short. I still have Alomar as a top 3 catcher from my collecting youth but he’s not making many lists in 2018 with collectors.
Eric Anthony is one of the players that I went after hard! I had a ton of these Score rookies as well as the 90 Donruss Rated Rookies. Even though Anthony played 9 seasons, he did not have a career that will ever equate to Hobby Love. He hit for a career .231 average, never hit 20 home runs, never had double digit steals and never topped 80 RBI in a season. All of my wishful thinking was for naught. He was a home run crusher in the minors with 31 in 1989 and his first MLB Hit was a 414 foot bomb in the Astrodome. But he never put it all together.
Every collector worth his salt knows the name Gregg Jefferies. As this project grows, I will make it a point to find a 1989 Topps Future Star Autograph. That was the first card that was going to make me rich. Ken Griffey Jr wasn’t quite there yet and Jefferies was as sure a bet as ever. After being drafted in 1985, he won Minor League POY in both ’86 and ’87 before being called up in late August 1988. He hit .328 for the remainder of 1988, which led to the Mets trading their starting 2B, Wally Backman, to the Twins to make room for the young star. He responded by hitting .258 in 1989 and the rest is history. He had a career that was probably better than most on this list with a career .289 avg, 196 steals and 2 All-Star appearances. But his career was supposed to be better than all the guys on this list. It was just supposed to be a lot better than it actually was.
This is the guy that makes me unable to trust Aaron Judge. While Judge put up mammoth numbers that make Maas look like Rafael Belliard, Kevin had his own amazing rookie season in 1990. He set a record for reaching 10 home runs in the fewest at bats (72) and ultimately hit 21 home runs in only 79 games as a rookie. For you mathematicians out there, that is a home run every 3+ games which, when extrapolated over a full season, would be about 45. He played 148 games the next year and hit 23 home runs but his 5 year career would close with a .230 average and only 65 home runs. It sure was fun collecting him in 1990 though!
Big Ben McDonald was one of the hot young arms in Baltimore with Curt Schilling and Gregg Olson. He won a Gold Medal as a member of the 1988 Olympic Team in Seoul, Korea and is an inductee in the College Baseball Hall of Fame. But his major league career did not meet the expectations of a young Dub who was hoarding his 1990 Fleer rookie cards. I expected more than his 78-70 record but he just didn’t get it done.
Another Yankee makes the early list with Hensley “Bam Bam” Meulens. You may be too young to even remember Bam Bam from the Flintstones but he carried a wooden club around and smashed things with it. Thus, Meulens was nicknamed Bam Bam because of his propensity to smash things. In 1990, Kevin Maas was at 1B and Bam Bam was at 3rd and I had yet to fully develop my hatred for the Evil Empire. In 1987, he hit .300 with 28 home runs and 103 RBI at Single A so he was a hot commodity when his cards started getting produced a couple years later. Not only did he never hit .300 or 28 home runs or 103 RBI in a major league season, his career totals never reached those numbers either. He mustered a .220 avg, 15 home runs and 53 RBI over 4 years with the Yankees.
I’m going to add Planier in a Red Sox jersey at some point but this one is a start. I do like Plantier’s autograph as it puts many players today to shame. Plantier finished 8th in ROY voting in 1991 despite only playing 53 games. But in 148 at bats, he hit 11 bombs while maintaining a .331 average. After a disappointing follow up in 1992, he was sent to the Padres. He had a very nice season in 1993 hitting 34 bombs and collecting 100 RBI but that was as good as it ever got by a long shot. He would only have one other double digit home run season and wouldn’t hit more than 41 RBI again either. After a promising start, he finished his career with an average of .243 and 91 home runs.
Here is the pitcher that helped provide Braves fans the wonderful career of Chipper Jones. He was drafted 14th overall in 1990 and the Braves were so bad, Van Poppel said he would not sign with them if they chose him. They didn’t choose him and instead drafted Chipper Jones. They would then go on and win 14 straight division titles. What did Van Poppel do? He put together a career shorter than the Braves run (11 seasons) and finished with a career 40-52 record along with a 5.58 ERA. I was in on him as a rookie and his 90 Upper Deck is a classic but I’m grateful he didn’t like my Braves that year.
Greg Vaughn was a home run blaster for the Brewers and a mainstay in my binder in the early 90’s. He really had a serviceable career but he was the #4 overall pick in 1986 and had high expectations placed in him. He was a 4x All-Star, hit 355 home runs and even won a Silver Slugger award in 1998. He also hit 50 home runs in 1998 but was overshadowed by a couple guys named McGwire and Sosa. He never hit for an average, finishing with a career number of .242 but he also clubbed over 1,000 RBI. He was a very solid home run hitter in the 90’s but is mostly a forgotten man in the Hobby today.
Ole Jerome Walton was quite the tease. The Cubs were on my TV every day thanks to WGN and Walton was somebody I got to see often. He won the ROY in 1989 by hitting .293 and stealing 24 bases in only 116 games. He even had a 30 game hitting streak that season. Together with Dwight Smith, a future addition to Dated Rookies, the youth movement in Chicago, along with veterans André Dawson, Ryne Sandberg, Shawon Dunston and Mark Grace was supposed to translate into big things and they did win the NL East in 1989. But like Walton’s career, they dropped off in 1990. Walton would settle into a career backup role and only muster 25 home runs and 58 stolen bases while hitting .269.
The last player on the list for this first installment is Todd Zeile. Zeile’s career finished better than most on this list but didn’t match the hype that came with his rookie cards. He played 16 seasons and hit for a .265 average to go along with 253 home runs and 1,110 RBI. He topped 30 home runs and 100 RBI just once in that 16 year career and never touched .300. He had a good but not great career but I had a ton of his rookie cards and was hoping that they would one day give me a shot at early retirement. It was not to be and his career highlight for me will always be his appearance on Seinfeld.