Retro Review – What Was I Thinking?

This may be hard to believe but I haven’t always been as cool as I am now. I know…I will give you a moment to take that in and try and process such a statement. I really wrote that first part for the one person that may have read this that actually thinks I’m cool. The rest of you were probably thinking, “No Crap”, the minute you read it. Either way, I had to get that out of the way. I am the kind of person that has to grow on people for the most part. I have been called a “Goober” and also learned over the last couple of years what the term, “not my cup of tea” meant. But if you give me a chance, I think I’ll probably wind up sticking to you; I guess that could be good or bad too.

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.

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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.

I’m already aware that I have some Twitter friends who actually like the ’90 Donruss set and I must say that from a nostalgic perspective, I think all collectors should have some in their PC. Also, to be fair, you can’t really look at 1990 as a whole and feel real good about the products that were available. Topps and Fleer are not highly regarded today and Score was bright and a fun set but it had improved greatly by 1991. The only great looking sets were Leaf and Upper Deck, both premium sets. But what always got me about the base set of ’90 Donruss was how much I liked “The Rookies” set and the “Best of Baseball” set that came in blue and green. It was the red that really chapped my hide and burned my retinas.

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?

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?