I’m not going to lie; I’ve been floundering lately. I haven’t written about sports cards in almost a year; June 18, 2021 to be exact. Seeing that date really puts it into perspective for me. It’s been a while. A lot has happened since that time; and very little of that has had anything to do with cards. Though I am still surrounded by them every day.
I haven’t even been opening much. I pick up the stray blaster from time to time at Target but I haven’t picked up a hobby box in ages. I have really been buying singles on eBay and satisfying my card itch that way. I’ve been sorting old common boxes and opening old wax packs that I have stashed in a shoebox. But I can count on one finger the amount of times I’ve been to the card shop in 2022.
I do have cards to open here at the house. I have a hobby box of 2021 Topps Chrome that has been sitting unopened since some time last year. There is a Mosaic Basketball Mega Box, and a couple of 2021 Update Hangers staring me in the face. I have 2 plastic totes full of football, baseball, and basketball boxes from 1987-1997. I tell myself every day that “tomorrow is the day that I get back”. I have been telling myself that since Christmas.
I go to bed with the best of intentions; and awaken in the same fog I was in the day before. That seems to be the only way to explain my existence since last October. I still love the things I loved before; I am just distant. I’m watching the Braves, I am just not living and dying with them right now. I was excited about signing day and the draft for the Bulldogs, I am just not losing any sleep over what is going on. I’m collecting and sorting cards regularly, I’m just not sharing it with the world right now.
Where is the passion? I don’t know. Will it come back? I hope so. Do I miss it? Of course. Am I in literature class right now and asking myself questions in this post to meet a word minimum? No; I just have a lot of questions and I talk to myself a lot. That is where the blog came from to begin with, so I guess it is a part of the process.
Passion is a foreign word to me at the moment. I need it but it eludes me. I feel nothing for the better part of being awake. Just empty. I am going through the motions but the excitement is just so hard to find. So I thought I would sit down in front of this laptop and just start typing. Maybe it will spark something; even if for the short time I’m writing this. And maybe I will do it again, and again, and light some sort of motivational fire along the way.
I find solace in nostalgia. No matter how I feel right this minute, I can get lost in old retro commercials or an old movie and momentarily go back to a time when I knew nothing but happiness. I have been playing old seasons on Tecmo Super Bowl and Tecmo Basketball lately; just focusing on the old 16 bit graphics and letting the old NES game sounds wash my brain.
I’ve been watching a lot of Hardwood Classics on NBA TV. I’ve spent far too much time watching movies that weren’t even good but were movies that were on the shelf at the video store I worked at and always thought I wanted to see. And listening to music that would have been blaring at the skating rink when I was 14. I am on this weird Samantha Fox kick right now. I’m telling you, I am searching.
Nostalgia is great for the soul. It is soothing, calming, and helps take weight off of my shoulders when I feel like I just can’t carry any more. But all of those things that are a part of nostalgia are also remembered more fondly in our minds. The “living it out” part is not always sustainable. I love playing RBI Baseball but after a game or two, the nostalgia wears off for the time being. I used to be able to play full Tecmo Seasons in one long night. It only takes a 3 game stretch now.
Maybe I have matured beyond being satisfied by those games. Maybe my brain can’t carry on the fantasy of an 80’s horror movie like it used to. Or maybe I just realize that the nostalgia is a temporary emotion that is going to fade. I know that I am not going to be cracking a Mountain Dew and joking with my friends at 3 am while trying to conquer Contra on 3 lives. Pizza Hut really doesn’t have those frosty glasses anymore. There is no video store uptown. There is no 1989 Sports Card Release that I am going to experience for the first time again.
I love nostalgia but it can also be a painful reminder sometimes. One such baseball card set that fits this description quite well, is 1989 Bowman. Wow, the memories that come with this set. I remember thinking that 1989 Bowman was going to be such an asset in the years to come because it was Bowman coming back to the hobby. I was only 12 but I knew that the old cards my dad and uncle had were Bowman cards. I knew what that name meant. And in 1989, I was all in.
1989 Bowman even teased us kid collectors with reprints of the old Mantle, Mays, and Robinson. Holding that old lo0king design on what felt like old card stock (compared to Fleer, Donruss, and Upper Deck from that same year) just made it even more exciting. So in 1989, Bowman was playing on nostalgia with older collectors who had their kids joining the hobby during the 80’s boom.
1989 Bowman has a lot of redeemable qualities. I liked the card stock. I knew what the other companies were doing by innovating but I felt like Bowman, for what it was supposed to be, was a great feel for old school collecting. I still miss the rough, cardboard feel of baseball cards today. Everything that comes out of packs today is shiny and almost plastic feeling. “Wax” packs are foil packs now. “Cello” packs are fat packs. And gum has been replaced by “Kid Reporter” cards or awful reprints that don’t really feel like throwbacks at all.
I liked the old nod to the facsimile autograph on 1989 Bowman. At 12 years old, living 2 1/2 hours from my closest major league ballpark, autographs were not a big part of my collection at all. Pulling them out of card packs was unheard of. So, seeing how players signed their name on the cards was interesting stuff for me. I don’t think they aged well for a world of in person and through the mail autographs, but for that particular moment in time, they got my attention.
While I was not a huge fan of the backs of the cards from a statistical perspective; one thing I did enjoy was the “Player is making his Professional Baseball debut in 1989” for the rookies. The cards didn’t have standard Rookie, Future Star, Rated Rookies, or Prospects identifiers; but one look at the back could immediately put you on notice for the chase card of my generation, the Rookie.
There were some solid photographs in the set as well. Bowman did not specialize in action shots. For the most part, they went with the old school pose approach. These are the cards I remember seeing as a little kid when I would see some of my uncle’s collection. Players were posing with the bat over their shoulder or crouched down taking a ground ball. The quality of the photos have not held up as well, but again, for what they were going for, I appreciated it.
The one major flaw that collectors can’t get past is the size of the card. While all major sports card releases had moved to the 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inch measurements, 1989 Bowman took it back to the old days there as well. The release put cards in our hands that were 2 1/2 by 3 3/4 inches. That 1/2 inch in length really doesn’t sound like much. But it was impossible to find card sheets or protection for a card that was larger than the standard in 1989. Thus, just like my uncle’s old collection, it was hard to find mint cards from the set after owning them for a couple of weeks. The tops of the cards eventually folded over like a bookmark in an old Baptist Hymnal.
For all of the good parts of 1989 Bowman, the overall concept, the rookie class, the wax wrappers; it was all undone by the oversized cards. To this day, it’s easy to brush past 1989 Bowman because of the odd length. They are still tough to find in mint condition and even tougher to keep that way if you do find them. You just can’t store them with the rest of your cards. And that is a shame.
Bowman figured that out and released a very similar product in 1990, but with the standard sizing of a baseball card. But I feel like the damage had been done a year prior. The rookie class wasn’t as strong as 1989 and new players like Leaf were furthering the push for modernizing the card printing game. They would eventually have to rebrand as the “Home of the Rookie Card” and they are still flourishing today in that role.
But in 1989, I think the timing was perfect for that product to have been a truly memorable release for all the right reasons. It had nostalgia, good rookies, an “against the grain” design, and the chance to captivate young collectors. Instead, one major flaw has made it memorable for the wrong reasons.
I still look back on the set fondly. I have memories of ripping packs in the backseat of the car after grocery shopping with my parents. I opened a lot of it over at Fort Gaines thanks to the Wal-Mart in Eufaula AL. Those memories always make me smile, because they come with so much more attached; fishing, skiing, tubing.
I guess the moral of the story is that not all comebacks are perfect. Some have potential, some fall flat, and some miss because of an error in execution. I guess time will tell if this comeback post is met with excitement or reservation. I enjoyed writing it, and I suppose that is what really matters. That is why I started the blog in the first place. This is where I document my memories and thoughts on the sports card hobby. While I’d rather be the 1990 Leaf of blogging, I suppose there are some positives to be had if I wind up being the 1989 Bowman as well.
J-Dub