New Release Review – Memory Preservation

Time certainly does fly by. We can call that a cliché or whatever, but the older I get, the more I realize it to be the absolute truth. I still can’t believe it when I realize I am only 2 months away from being 42 years old. It isn’t because I think that I am somehow supposed to defy time and stay the same age forever. It is just hard to wrap my head around being on this earth for 15,330 days. I’ve reached the age where instead of wondering what I will be when I grow up, the question becomes whether I will live another “X” number of years to match those that I have already lived. If I were to double my life from today, I would be almost 84 years old!

That doesn’t mean I have actually figured out what I want to be when I grow up, because I don’t know that I will ever either figure that out or actually grow up. Growing up and growing old are two different things I want to do those exclusive of each other, if at all possible. That is why this blog is so important to me at this stage of my life. It forces me to stay in touch with a younger version of myself. It forces me to remember why I am where I am today and some of the ways I’ve gotten here. It also forces me to take stock in where I am going and whether or not I want to keep going in that direction.

Is it surprising to you that these seemingly random sports card reviews actually help me take a mental inventory of who I am, where I have been, and where I am going? I say with 100% confidence that I would be writing these whether you were reading them right now or not. I am super thankful that you are; but some of my most important pieces were read by 10 people while some of the most random were read by 1,000. Writing is as much to me about self-motivation, nostalgia, and future growth as it is about what I actually think about 1989 Donruss and Nolan Ryan. I learn from myself when I write; it’s just not learning about cards for me as much as it is learning about how my brain works.

When I sit down to write, it is sort of like turning on the TV in my brain and watching old home movies from growing up. I visualize what I was doing when I focus on the subject I’m writing about. I try to recreate the full experience, even though my mind has slowly started to blur what may have actually happened. I still have the strong concrete pillars and foundation of my childhood; but the paint on the shutters are peeling and the carpet is starting to fray in the high traffic areas. And this blog is the only way I can occasionally spruce things up a bit. The blog is the toolbox that I have laying around the house that I have to pull out when screws need to be tightened and pictures need to be re-hung.

So really, that is why I write these sometimes pointless pieces. It is therapeutic, invigorating, and often just the right cure for what’s ailing me. And the older I get, the more ailments I have. You may sometimes think that my giveaways and constant sharing is all about traffic counts or exposure; and sometimes that is part of it. But the traffic and exposure part is what has put me in touch with likeminded people who share the same stories and many of the same memories along our walk through life. And while there are moments in my life that I will never actually get back, I am not eager to let go of the memories either. I need those memories; regardless of how important or trivial they can sometimes be. So it is important to write about them in an effort to create a dialog with a stranger that may have experienced the same moment as me 25 years ago, some 500 miles away.

I have to try and treat these moments all with the same amount of respect. A memory I have from high school graduation might just have the same amount of importance as a toy that I got from a cereal box when I was 10. Just this past Halloween, I found a box of Boo Berry at the grocery store and right there in the store aisle, I pictured myself sitting on the old shag carpet in front of our console TV, watching Saturday morning cartoons. It was one tiny memory that, for one fleeting second, made me forget about the bills I had to pay or the cholesterol pill I had to take or the calls from work I had to return. And that is what life has become at the age of 42; balancing a day to day life of responsibilities with occasional fleeting seconds of happy-go-lucky nonchalance. Well, it’s obviously more than that, but that is life to me at its most basic; living in the now but never forgetting my past.

That is also what cards do for me at this age. They help me remember when my biggest worry was whether or not I was going to get my neighbor to trade me one of those 1990 Kevin Maas Upper Deck Rookies, and how much it was going to cost me. Sports Cards are an immediate window into the past for me; whether a junk wax set or something newly released. And for the latter, no set has done that for me in baseball this year, quite like 2018 Topps Gallery. I do love Archives and Heritage but Gallery really made an impression on me, pun possibly intended. I picked up some last weekend when I went down to visit my parents and I didn’t realize how much of an impact the set was going to have on me.

First, I have always enjoyed Topps Gallery, but I guess the mood I was in was perfect for the rip this time around. The set itself is a beautiful, artist rendered collection of cards that has a checklist infused with current and former players. Just like 2017, its first year back on the market in a decade, it is a Wal-Mart Exclusive, which carries its own set of pro’s and con’s that I’ll save for a deeper dive into the industry as a whole one day. The border design is mostly a whitish-gray with printed brush strokes around the edges. All of the images are painted by various artists and have a super professional look to them. These are really like classy miniature works of art.

Hobby boxes have 5 cards per pack and 20 packs per box. Blasters have 4 cards per pack, 7 packs per box, plus 1 additional pack with 4 Artist Proof Parallels. Finally, Fat Packs have 12 cards per pack. 

Cards 1-150 are considered the base set with the usual influx of variations to be found. They include:

 Artist Proof (4 per blaster)
 Canvas (2 per fat pack)
 Private Issue /250 (1:13 hobby box)
 Green /99 (1:86 hobby, 1:108 blaster, 1:36 fat packs)
 Blue /50 (1:171 hobby, 1:213 blaster, 1:71 fat packs)
 Orange /25 (1:340 hobby, 1 :426 blaster, 1:142 fat packs)
 Printing Plates 1/1 (1:2,133 hobby, 1:2,661 blaster, 1:882 fat packs; each with Black, Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow versions)
 Red 1/1 (1:8,826 hobby, 1:10,733 blaster, 1:3,616 fat packs)
 These numbers provided by Ryan Cracknell at www.beckettnews.com/news/2018-topps-gallery-baseball-cards/

Short prints are found in the checklist from 151-200 and they include a mix of current and legendary players. There are also autographs and inserts to cover, which we will later.

There aren’t many “horizontal” cards but this Mattingly makes me wish there were more!

This Victor Robles is a cool photo with the glasses on the hat to give it a blue tint.

This Big Mac is an Artist Proof. I know I’ve seen this picture before!

The other half of the Bash Brothers is here as well. My Uncle Speedy pulled an autographed version of this card last week!

There are current players in the set, trust me. But I can easily get lost in these veteran player cards! Such a great image here!

There was no chance I would leave Bo out! If he gets pulled, he gets featured on this blog!

I’m not sure why some of the cards feature a colorful background other than artist choice I suppose. But this Ortiz is pretty sweet!

It’s always nice to add a new Chipper to the collection as well. I’d love to have the autographed version of this one!

Here is the first of your MLB Rookies of the Year. Ohtani was the American League representative.

And here is the National League ROY, Ronald Acuña. What a season this guy had!

This Hammerin’ Hank is one of the SP’s in the set. Classic photo!

Another SP is Jackie Robinson. One day, I’ll add some originals of Jackie but for now, this will have to do.

These are the Fat Pack Exclusives.

I’m not completely sold on the Heritage Inserts but I do love this Albies.

Another insert is the Hall of Fame cards. Nice to have a Jackson in the Halos uniform.

Masterpiece is an insert set that includes Black and White Images. These are ok but not my favorite cards.

Here is a Green Parallel numbered to 99. These are nice with a little added color.

The Blue Parallels are also numbered to 99. Eddie Murray is such an underrated player by today’s collectors.

Orange is the lowest numbered parallel I pulled. This Correa is numbered to 25.

Gallery includes box toppers, which can be found in the form of “Original” pieces. No such luck with this one but still a cool piece.

This is the base autograph. It looks just like the base card but with the added autograph sticker, and is not numbered.

This Green Parallel is numbered to 99!

And finally, The Big Hit! I mean, The Big Hurt! This bad boy is numbered 4/5 and is one of the sweetest baseball pulls of the year for me. This is an unbelievable addition to my collection!

So there you have 2018 Topps Gallery. I love the set but I’m afraid future boxes are going to be hard to find. My local Wal-Marts are already out and they don’t usually restock exclusives. I’ll keep my fingers crossed and certainly keep an eye out at other Wal-Marts. These can be found online but they are marked up on the secondary market, as usual. I like the various options you have and the exclusives that are found in each offering. The designs are the best of any set for me in 2018, excluding designs they have recycled from previous years. I found good value in the boxes I opened and this is certainly a base set I can get behind. I give it a “5” on the Dub-O-Meter and will definitely be on the lookout for more!

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?

 

Retro Review – Trick or Treat

As a part of the Halloween theme for the month of October, we’ve covered Urban Legends and Movie Monsters so far. I’m going to break up the scary for this post and focus on the sweet part of Halloween; the candy! As a kid, I wasn’t nearly as excited about dressing up as I was about loading up my plastic pumpkin with candy that I could munch on for days. Today, when I take my girls on their Trick or Treat excursion, I usually wind up swiping some of the good stuff as we are walking around the neighborhood. I’m a sucker for Laffy Taffy, Air Heads, and SweeTarts! My oldest daughter knows that now and she usually keeps her bag close to her through the trip. I’ve still got G’s bag though!

When I was a kid, we still had some of the same candy that they have now. They still get Reese Cups, Snickers, Baby Ruth, and Now and Laters. But we also had some unique candy from the 80’s that isn’t really around anymore. We also had to watch out for the “razor in the candy” routine that wound up being part Urban Legend part Truth. There are news stories that float around each Halloween about some candy scare but I can’t think of anyone in my old neighborhood that scared me when it came to candy consumption. I lived in a small town and everybody knew everybody, but the stories were still used as stern warnings to be careful what you ate. I think it’s still sound advice to check the candy closely, don’t get me wrong, but I think the better advice is to Trick or Treat somewhere you trust.

One of the most famous Halloween candies of all time is also one that I have never liked. Candy Corn is just not a good candy. The orange and yellow colors are festive enough but the flavor leaves a bit to be desired. It started as a candy called “Chicken Feed” in the late 1800’s and that feels like a more appropriate name today. This candy is made up of corn syrup, sugar, wax, marshmallows, and fondant and I’ve never been able to properly identify the taste. I understand that I’ve probably already lost half of my readership with this hot take because some people will swear by Candy Corn. If you are one of those people, it’s nothing personal, I just think your taste buds might be out of whack.

Another classic that can still be found is the Chick-O-Stick. This candy is much better than Candy Corn to me and it has the added benefit of peanut butter and coconut as ingredients. I appreciate this candy more as an adult than I did as a kid. The major downside to this candy is that it gets stuck in your teeth EVERY TIME you eat it. The upside is that you get to eat that peanut butter the next day, even when the original Chick-O-Stick is long gone. I know, that’s gross….

Another Halloween staple is the peanut butter taffy found in the seasonal orange and brown wrappers. This is another candy I appreciate more as an adult. I gave this candy to my dad when I found it in my bucket as a kid and as a dad myself, I understand why he liked it. These are also referred to as “Mary Jane Peanut Butter Kisses” and I wasn’t a big fan of the “Mary Jane” Taffy as a kid either. This candy has an evil twin that was a white candy with a little peanut butter center. That was a terrible variation!

Sixlets were a multi holiday candy. I found these in the Easter Basket and the Christmas Stocking each year as well. This candy is a nice chocolate coated cocoa ball that came in colors similar to M&M’s. For you card collectors, this candy was originally made by Leaf as well. I think these were better in the 80’s than they are now but I’m sure that can be said about most candies. As time has passed, they have sapped everything of the really good ingredients because people are lactose intolerant, allergic to gluten, or they have some strange aversion to good tasting food. A lot of times, it feels like the chocolate we are eating has been heavily sedated.

Bottle Caps was the classic “hit or miss” candy from the 80’s. The Cherry Coke and Grape flavors were off the charts good and the Orange was ok if it was all that was left. But the Coke and Root Beer flavors were about as bad of a candy flavor as you could create. Ugh, I have the flavor in my mouth just thinking about it and I need to go brush my teeth. There are just some flavors I don’t need in my candy and “cola” is one of them. I probably just offended another batch of readers.

These are still around in certain places like Cracker Barrel and other old Country Stores. Bailey has made me buy these in the past and she thinks the liquid inside them is really good. It helps that they are sour. But she won’t ever believe me when I tell her that we used to eat the wax bottles when we were done drinking the juice. I even showed her one time and I instantly regretted it. I chewed it for a little while as if it were a piece of gum. But the flavor was similar to the 34 year old piece of gum I recently tried from my 1984 Topps rip. if good candy has gotten worse, imagine what they have done to the stuff that already tasted bad!

Here is a candy I loved for a while. The outside of the candy was like a piece of taffy and the inside was a tart gooey type filling that “bonked you out” when you ate it. At least that is what commercials like this would have you believe. I soured on Bonkers eventually, pun intended, but for a while, it was one of my favorites! They ultimately disappeared altogether and were nothing more than an 80’s fad. They could still be lurking somewhere in some corner of the world but I haven’t seen any in a long time.

One of my all-time favorite Halloween candies was the Mr. Bones candy from the 80’s. They still make some variations of it but you could put the old ones together and form a full skeleton. They were made out of a SweeTart style candy and they came in a coffin so they were perfect for Halloween. This is another candy that the card collectors may recognize as it was made by Fleer. There are two versions of this candy. There is the dollar store version and then there is the real deal. The difference is easy to tell!

I’ll close with this “Skull Crusher” candy. I remember this candy because it made me sick one year. I remember throwing up the red goo and never wanting to see this again. But there it was when I was looking at old retro candies and I immediately went back to that fateful night. I’m sure it wasn’t the actual “Skull Crusher” and was more of a result of mass sugar ingestion that made me sick but it was the one that sent me over the edge. I’m kinda queasy looking at the picture to be honest.

Besides candy, I always got some sports cards from close family members that knew I collected. I specifically remember the night my GaGa gave me the pack of ’90 Fleer and I pulled the Mark McGwire that went straight into my binder. I’ll never really understand why I still remember that card so vividly but it’s one that is burned into my memory. Of course, cards have changed a bit since that pack of 1990 Fleer and no one in our neighborhood gives them out anymore. Personally, I stopped giving out candy and goodies when my oldest daughter was born because we started going door to door instead of staying at the house. But if I were still giving out candy, I’d find a way to incorporate cards again.

I recently went to my LCS with my treat basket and scored the new release, 2018 Panini Phoenix. This was one of my favorite releases last year so I hope this year it’s more like the “Mr. Bones” candy and not the “Skull Crusher”. Phoenix has a really nice card stock (similar to Prizm and Optic), a chromium base, and multiple colors throughout the set. It’s kind of like Prizm with color in the base design. You can read Ryan Cracknell’s breakdown HERE for all of the particulars but I’ll cover a box break and give my thoughts on the 2018 product. Each box has 12 packs with 5 cards per. There is one hot pack of “Color Burst” parallels that we will save for last. Also, each box produces 2 autographs and 1 memorabilia card, on average.

The base set is 200 cards with veterans making up the first half and rookies on the back end. The rookies are only found about 1 per pack so building the set through box breaks would be a costly and timely endeavor. Let’s crack into this box like we would our plastic pumpkin at the end of the night. We know there are some sweets and some sours to be found but the only way to find out is to dump it out on the table and sort. Wish me luck and hope that no one gave me candy cigarettes in this haul!

This Patrick Mahomes II is a base version. There is still a lot of flash here!

This is a base version and Pink Parallel numbered to 199.

The Red Parallel numbered to 299 is probably my least favorite of the parallels. It’s not very vibrant. But hey, it’s Tom Brady!

The Purple Parallel is a good looking card. These are numbered to 149.

Jerick McKinnon didn’t get his season off the ground thanks to an injury in the preseason. The 49ers have had a rough year. This is the Yellow Parallel numbered to 75.

This Bradley Chubb is the base rookie version. Again, you can still see how the Prizm provides a lot of colors, even for the base.

The Red is numbered to 299 in the rookie checklist as well.

Roquan is rocking the Pink Parallel numbered to 199.

This Terrell Edmunds is the Purple numbered to 149.

Here is an Orange Parallel, which I didn’t pull in the veteran checklist. I’m expecting good things out of Sutton in the 2nd half of the season. Orange is numbered to 99.

Here is another Yellow, Ronnie Harrison. The rookie from Alabama got into a little trouble over the weekend in London but is expected to be a key piece to the Jags defense over the next few years. Yellow is numbered to 75.

These are the best looking cards in the set. Each box includes a pack of “Color Burst” cards. The veterans and rookies both have unique looks. This is a striking card!

Here is the rookie version of the “Color Burst”. These look good as well but I prefer the veteran design.

The first insert of the set is this “Adrenaline Rush” Odell Beckham Jr.

Another insert is the “Agility” card. This Zeke is pretty sweet!

I have only pulled one “MVP” in two boxes so far. Nick Foles defied all the odds last year to win MVP of the Super Bowl versus Tom Brady and the Pats.

This is one of my favorite cards from my rip. It’s the “Unmatched” insert and it’s a numbered Eric Dickerson. This is such a sweet looking card. The Purple is numbered to 75.

“QB Vision” is a nice looking insert. Of course, the checklist is all QB’s and there are a lot of stars to be had. I pulled Brady and Mahomes as well.

The memorabilia card is a player I have pulled a ton of this year. I don’t know if Mike White will eventually pan out but if he does, I’ll have a head start on the Super PC! This is numbered to 100.

The first autograph in the box was this Jaylen Samuels, rookie running back for the Pittsburgh Steelers. This is the Orange version numbered to 199, though it differs from the Orange color found in the base Parallels.

The big hit in the box was this awesome Sony Michel, numbered to 199. Not only is he a rookie off to a great start, aside from an injury, but he is also one of the most beloved Georgia Dawgs in modern history. He ranks #3 on the All-Time rushing list in Athens, behind only Herschel Walker and Nick Chubb.

Phoenix is one of my favorite sets over the last two years. It’s not quite Classics in my rankings but it’s close. The card stock, Prizm base, checklist, and box configuration are all positives. I wish it was about $15 cheaper but it’s definitely not one of the high end boxes you’ll find. And the cards don’t have a low tier feel either so it’s an ok value. If you see a blaster or can pick up a box at the shop, I’d recommend it with a Dub Score of “4”. It’s not a “5” because of the price and the fact that in 2 boxes, I’ve pulled 2 Mike White memorabilia cards, along with a points card. I know that’s a personal reason that isn’t very objective but it plays into my recommendations. What say you about 2018 Panini Phoenix?

J-Dub

Retro Review – Rookie Year

The first real memories I have of playing organized baseball was in 1983. During that year, I played for the Twins and we were sponsored by Dairy Queen. The DQ was one of the biggest supporters of youth teams in my hometown and they were easily the best hamburger joint in the area. One of our coaches was Peggy Phelps, who was part of the family that owned (and still owns) our local DQ. The very best part of the whole gig was going to the DQ after the games and getting the ice cream sundae in the mini batting helmets. I think some places still try to do that today but nothing beats the original.

My rookie team is pictured here and most of these kids were in classes with me from the time this photo was taken until we graduated. We grew up in a small town where everyone knew everyone and our childhood friends have become lifelong friends. I graduated with Jason Lee, BJ Harris, Dwan Williams, Beau Clark, and Corey Shiver (my cuz). Johnny Saxon, Bubba McDonald, Jason Johnson, and Chuck Turner were a year behind me. The only one that moved that I know of was Michael Sangster and his dad was one of our coaches. Unfortunately, Michael passed away a few years ago at a young age and now has a scholarship named after him.

The crew of BJ, Jason, Corey, and yours truly ran together for about 15 years and we played every sport available in the yard, at school, and with the city leagues. I still call them friends to this day and this photo is probably one of about 100 we have together from our youth. I would love to go back through those someday and relive some of the forgotten glory days. But as for the photos that I own, this is the earliest one I have with all of us in it. We were all rookies so to speak and we were just getting our feet wet in the sport. It would turn out that there was quite a list of great rookies from 1983 in the professional sport but we’ll talk about those a little later.

When I write one of these pieces about a time period from my youth, I always go back and research the year a little to refresh myself on what was going on in the world. 1983 was quite a noteworthy year. There was good and bad and there were some things that came along that year that we didn’t know would be quite so iconic until they had a chance to play out in society. I was in the first grade so I really didn’t remember some of these things being around yet but it is a reminder to me that I have lived through some of the best of times when it comes to pop culture.

How about this for starters? 1983 was the year the Super Mario Brothers were introduced to the world. While Mario and Luigi would go on to be iconic throughout the world over the next 35 years, the video game industry was at the beginning of a crash that would last from 1983-1985. Atari was the first console I owned and its popularity, along with games like Pac Man and Space Invaders, caused a lot of copycats to jump in the market. I remember having the Tandy as well, with Downland and Bedlam. Coleco and Sears also had consoles they were releasing. The sale of home computers that would play games as well just overwhelmed the economy and the video game industry died in its early 1980’s incarnation. Thankfully, Nintendo saved all of us and brought about the worldwide fame of Mario and Luigi a couple of years after they were first introduced.

The first mobile phones were also introduced in 1983. As you can imagine, these were ridiculous looking telephones by today’s standards but they were the very beginning of what has taken over our lives in 2018. What would we do without our cell phones? We rarely even make calls on them anymore but we use them for internet reasons, email, text messages, weather reports, game scores, watching TV and movies, listening to music, and dozens of other things. They can even control the climate in our homes from 400 miles away or give us a live video feed of our living room when we are out of town. We have all of that innovation from 1983 while at the same time shrinking the size of the phone from a volume of the World Book Encyclopedia down to as small as a large keychain. I remember when Zack Morris was the only teen to have a cell phone in 1989 and now my 11 year old has one because we think it is necessary.

Here is one for you old school readers. Swatch released its first watch in 1983. Do you remember just how popular those watches were? I remember all of the different designs with the jelly wraps you could put on the face of them. I am no watch connoisseur but I will admit that I didn’t know these watches were still around until my wife and I took a cruise a couple of years ago and there was a Swatch Kiosk in Cozumel. These watches looked super nice too! They have come a long way from the crazy 80’s face designs that I remember. Side note – I can’t get that Ivan Lendl Swatch ad out of my head.

There were some Major League Baseball players released into the card world that year that are pretty memorable too. Three particular guys by the name of Tony Gwynn, Ryne Sandberg and Wade Boggs were finding their place in collector binders at the same time me, BJ, and Jason were finding our place on the baseball diamond. There are a lot of great rookie classes from the 80’s but this one belongs near the top. The rookie class that included the Camilla Twins turned out ok but I am happy to share my rookie years with those guys!

To review this great rookie class, I picked up a box of 1983 Fleer. I think Topps is the best set from that year but the Fleer box can be found for about half the price of Topps. I’ll rip Topps one day but it will have to be in the offseason when sets like Spectra and Optic aren’t littered throughout my LCS, taking up all my attention and dollars. This was Fleer’s third release since obtaining rights to produce cards in 1981 and it shows how much they had improved since that maiden voyage. They would break through the glass ceiling in 1984 with that fresh new design but I think ’83 was a pretty good upgrade from ’82.

For 1983, they used a border that varies anywhere from a brownish to grayish color, depending on the light and the condition of the card. The fronts of the cards used mostly posed shots, with some exceptions like this classic Kent Tekulve, and the player name was on the bottom right while the team logo was on the bottom left. The backs of the cards were the standard offsetting shades of color with full stats. The new addition to 1983 was the second photo on the back that Fleer proudly advertised on the outside of the box. They also placed the player background information at the bottom of the card in the early 80’s with a “Did You Know” section if the career wasn’t too long.

I may be in the minority but 80’s Fleer is more nostalgic to me than any other set. It isn’t because I owned a ton of Fleer because we were heavy Donruss in my region. I only had a few Fleer cards but they always seemed to be big names. I enjoy ripping Fleer and this really tiny part of my collecting soul wishes they were still around. I know that they would be just like all the rest with their own attempt at Inception/Origins but I’m a collector that likes variety. Let’s see what this 35 year old box can produce!

Fleer was very clear on the box about their improvements for 1983. They also made sure the retailers knew that the two extra packs meant an extra .60 cents profit. In 1983, I’m sure that was decent retail profit.

This is really one of my favorite things about ’83 Fleer! These stickers are absolutely beautiful and scream 1980’s! This sort of retro look is why I like some of the new inserts that incorporate these color schemes. That Rangers logo is killer!!

There was a huge crop of “record book” pitchers on the mound in 1983. These are the names that we all remember as kids. The group is headlined by Nolan Ryan but guys like Rollie Fingers, Steve Carlton, Tom Seaver, Goose Gossage, Gaylord Perry, and Vida Blue are true LEGENDS!

Here are 3 stud relievers. Eckersley was converting to the pen around this time but Lee Smith and Bruce Sutter were established closers.

There was a better selection of catchers than usual in this set. Benedict was the Bravos backstop but Ozzie Virgil would soon be there too. Gary Carter was arguably the best catcher of the 80’s. And if you’ve read many of my Retro Reviews, you know I love Pena in the Pirates uniform.

Here is another huge group of guys that some collectors have only “heard of”. Most collectors have some of those top two rows in their collection, including a nice second year shortstop named Cal Ripken Jr. How many young collectors knew Johnny Bench played 3B? And if only we had been able to see the future, we could have warned Bill Buckner about the ’86 Series and then warned Ron Gant about ’91!

I can’t help it but I was constantly in awe of some of the names I was pulling. I’ve opened ’83 product before but it’s easy to remember Ripken, Murphy, and Rickey. However, pulling a young Kirk Gibson, a younger Mookie Wilson, a studly Jim Rice, and the DH Don Baylor made me remember that the checklist was truly loaded!

A staple in Fleer during the 80’s was the “Superstar Special”. These commemorated certain events and league leaders from the previous season.

One of the features Fleer advertised on the box in ’83 was the “Exclusive Double Header” cards. These were two regular sized cards that made a jumbo card. I’d call this innovative for 1983.

Here is a group of players that wound up coaching or in the television booth.

Some of the rookies from 1983 are memorable players. I loved Willie McGee as a kid and Ron Kittle was a HUGE prospect. I watched all of these guys during the 80’s. Howard Johnson was probably the most valuable by the latter 80’s.

And here is what we came for. This Wade Boggs is one of the big rookies from the early 80’s. Chicken Man went on to have a Hall of Fame career and his rookies remain relatively valuable considering prices of the era. I will always remember him more with the Red Sox than his days with the Yankees and Rays. I know he went on to win Championships with NY but he will always be a Red Sock to me.

Ryne Sandberg broke into the league as a Third Baseman but would make his mark as a Second Baseman over his 16 year career. He hit a solid .285 with 282 home runs and 1,061 RBI. He also added 344 SB to his resume. His best numbers in a season included a .314 AVG in 1984, 40 HR in 1990, 100 RBI in 1990-1991, and 54 SB in 1985. He was the ROY in 1982, MVP in 1984, and a 10x All-Star! Full disclosure – I pulled Boggs and Gwynn but missed on Sandberg. I did have this in my collection though.Arguably the greatest hitter of the modern era, Tony Gwynn finished his career with a .338 average, leading the league 8 times over his 20 year career. He hit .289 in 1982 over a 54 game cup of coffee but would never again hit below .309 over the next 19 seasons. He was an All-Star 15 times!! It’s also worth mentioning that the Padres logo in the bottom left corner was awesome!

Baseball cards in 1983 we’re a work in progress. With Fleer and Donruss joining the fray in 1981, they were still very young in the hobby. 1983 Fleer was a tremendous improvement from 1981 but they hadn’t quite hit their peak either. The design is solid but the light Brown is not my favorite border color. The backs are a little bland too compared to other releases. But it really isn’t too bad in the grand scheme of things. The checklist makes up for any design flaws as 1983 was a tremendous year for rookies. Based on the combination of reasonable price, so-so design, and awesome checklist, I’ll give the set a “4” on the Dub-O-Meter. Design keeps it from being a 5 and Boggs, Gwynn, and Sandberg keep it from being a 3.

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?

Originality of Junk Wax

People are unique. We all have opinions and outlooks that have been formed by different experiences, individual memories, and factors of our own environments. If you get too bogged down in the world of social media in 2018, which is a daily struggle, that can be something that is easy to forget. We all have the ability to think for ourselves and the freedom to enjoy the things that we like. We just don’t always have the willpower to live that unique life. We have an innate desire to be accepted and, in some cases, even admired. In doing so, we sometimes sacrifice the things that made us unique to begin with.

I think that we are all losing a bit of our originality at this point. By and large, most things in pop culture today are things we have already experienced, right? I’m really looking forward to the Halloween movie release in October; but why? It isn’t because it is going to be a “new take” on horror. It isn’t because I haven’t seen Michael Myers walk the streets of Haddonfield and hide in the shadows on Halloween night 50 times before. I do expect it to have its differences but they even brought back Jamie Lee Curtis again. I am looking forward to it and will watch it because I love Halloween; the holiday and the franchise. But it isn’t a groundbreaking film in 2018.

Halloween isn’t alone. There is a lot of buzz surrounding “Suspiria”, the reboot of the cult classic by Dario Argento (1977) that still sits at a stellar 92% on Rotten Tomatoes. There have been numerous recent re-imaginings of Predator, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and now, even Candyman. I saw Magnum P.I. commercials over the weekend while I was watching college football and I’m pretty sure I saw Murphy Brown come up on Sunday. Roseanne came back last year, Full House has been on Netflix for the past couple of years, and Double Dare has been on my TV at home more in the last month than it was when I was 15. Call them what you want; reboots, revivals, re-imaginings, whatever. The fact is, we are almost solely relying on the entertainment that was popular yesterday for our pleasure today.

Some of you might be saying right now, “wait a minute, aren’t you the RETRO GUY?” Why yes, I am! I love all things 80’s and 90’s and I have no problem with holding on to the good old days. I just prefer the originals over the reboots. I am sure I will love Halloween but I probably won’t be searching for the 20 year anniversary DVD when I am 61. Sidebar – Do you think we will still have DVD’s in 2038? Or will we have gone full circle and be searching Amazon for BetaMax again? Because let’s be honest, if you are really going to enjoy the classics, you have to have some integrity issues with the picture quality. I remember barely being able to see most of the original Halloween film when I first saw it in the 80’s because the lighting was so dark. I was adjusting brightness and tracking and anything else I could think off but it was just made dark.

Here is my point, my thesis statement, five paragraphs too late. If you like retro, find the original and enjoy it. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a VHS tape, but if you plan on getting excited about the potential for a Candyman reboot, go watch the one that was released in 1992 and appreciate it for what it was in the early 90’s. Part of being original is appreciating things that are originals. Do you remember how New Coke flamed out and they had to go back to the “Classic” recipe? That was the original and that is what is still popular today. Companies mess around with packaging all the time but they always label it, “New Look, Same Great Taste”, because that is what needs to stay the same. The taste, figuratively and literally speaking, is what we always remember.

That brings me to originality in wax. And let me be clear on one major part of this discussion. “Wax” encompasses cards that were presented to us in wax wrappers. We are not buying “wax” at the LCS that is labeled 2018. We are not picking up “wax” at Target unless we are buying one of those repacks with some actual wax in it. I have been guilty of this before as well so I am not singling anyone out but I think we should start making the clear distinction between “wax” and the current product. Wax is, by its very name, specific to the era where we bought cardboard packaged in wax wrappers. Score threw us off a little when they introduced the little plastic bags and Upper Deck floored us with the foil but they are at least in the same era. That has actually been on my mind a lot lately and I wanted to go ahead and walk up the hill I am willing to die on.

Some of my favorite sets today are Heritage, Archives, and Classics. And some of my favorite inserts are the retro designs like the 1988 Donruss in football and the 1983 Topps in baseball this year. But you can actually go out and buy the real thing much cheaper than you are buying the current re-imagining. Sure, there is no Todd Gurley in 1988 Donruss and we won’t find Mike Trout in 1983 Topps, but we will find their 80’s counterparts, or originals, if you will. There are players like Bo Jackson, Marcus Allen, and Thurman Thomas that are found in many of the 80’s-90’s sets while players like Tony Gwynn, Cal Ripken Jr., and Jose Canseco are the cream of the crop for those 80’s wax packs.

I have found myself drowning in 2018 product because something gets released every week and I can’t seem to keep up. I love the rips on Periscope but we are seeing the same things over and over, just slightly repackaged. There is just too much to sort through and it can really drive you mad if you are still trying to collect with an old school mindset like I do. I have about 30 partially filled 500 count boxes in my closet with anything from Unparalleled, Chronicles, Origins, Certified, Chrome, Platinum, Bowman, Optic, Elements, and the list goes on. It has become maddening. I can feel myself losing some of my own originality because I am constantly bombarded with a new design concept but the checklist never changes.

When that happens, I have to go back to the originals. I have to go back to a set that I know I can complete, if I haven’t already, and work on the checklist that I have for it. It is a reboot of my own mind in some ways. So while I have already done an official review, I do think that a revisit of 1989 Fleer can be fun and informative for those that weren’t around for it when it was on the shelves at Wal-Mart. This set is the perfect example of something that pulls me in every time I see it online or at a vintage store. I can’t leave it sitting there because there is too much goodness inside. How many of you feel like that when you see an old blaster of 2016 Topps sitting on the clearance rack? Instead of covering this set, let’s cover some things that you no longer find in baseball cards.

This is Wax! There is a special feel and even a special smell that is only found in wax packs. There is no substitute.

One of the aspects of baseball cards that no longer exists in the current product; learning about baseball history.

For the most part, unique batting stances have faded. There are definitely some left but think about the batting stances from the 80’s and 90’s that are so unforgettable.

Major League Baseball has upped their game on jersey quality. Even Spring Training threads are top notch today.

I can’t remember the last time I saw a baseball helmet with no flaps! Was Olerud the last player? These were even better in the mini version with Dairy Queen Ice Cream in them.

Steve Jeltz could have made this list as well. Maybe it’s a product of global warming but we certainly don’t have enough warm up windbreakers in the game in 2018.

And without the windbreaker, we are also deprived of the windbreaker under the jersey look!

Back to the batting helmets, when was the last time you saw a player wear their cap under the helmet? I remember doing this in Little League and not even knowing it was possible to wear without the cap.

“Back in my day”, nickname cards were special inserts. These were actual player nicknames and they were showcased on their base cards.

These guys were good enough at their craft that they didn’t need contacts to play the game. No player represents the glasses era any better than Kent Tekulve. And I’m pretty sure that Kelly Paris and Ken Phelps are the same person.

I won’t say that this is completely gone from the game but you really don’t see eyeblack like you used to!

We had a Mike Trout in the 80’s too! He may have been medically enhanced but he was so fun to watch. Imagine what sort of stardom this guy would’ve experienced long term if things would’ve work out differently.

You want superstars? Dollars to doughnuts, there are not as many bona fide star players in the league as their used to be. This isn’t even all of the players that make the ’89 superstar list!

Card companies tinker around with box bottoms from time to time but these were common place in the 80’s. These made even the boxes collectible.

Error cards in the 80’s weren’t intentional either. Card companies made legitimate mistakes and then they reprinted cards trying to cover them up, indirectly creating a secondary market for the cards that were printed in error. These are the two famous errors from 89 Fleer, with Billy Ripken being arguably the most famous error ever.

Finally, though these are more readily available, I’ll bet a box of ’89 Bowman that Ken Griffey Jr. finished his career with better stats than any rookie from 2017-2018 will amass in their career. That includes Judge, Ohtani, Acuña, and others. That’s not a knock on those guys, but why wouldn’t you want a Hall of Fame rookie in your collection when it could be had for such a reasonable price?

All of this may seem tongue in cheek, and some of it is for entertainment, but each of these examples are based in truth and are what makes collecting these sets so much fun. Everyone uses the term “junk wax”. I use it too but it’s an endearing term to me more than it is a definition of the product. I know there was a ton of cards printed during the 80’s. I know that the card companies have been innovative over the years. This is not as much about today’s cards as it is about yesterday’s. We owe a lot to these sets. We owe the junk wax era a great deal of respect and we should honor what was the beginning of the hobby for so many of us. Collect your modern day sets and chase your Ohtani’s but all I ask is that every now and again, pick up a box of ’87 Donruss and experience the enjoyment of ripping wax that is the original version and not something that was “Rediscovered”. The price is low, the pressure is nonexistent and the rewards are pure and fun.

J-Dub

Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I remember when the Triple Cheeseburger debuted at McDonalds in 1992. This beast was a thing of beauty. I was always a fan of the two cheeseburgers but when this sweet concoction was created, I fell in love with burgers all over again. Part of why the memory sticks with me so much is that they were coming out in conjunction with the ’92 Dream Team cards and cups. You got the cards with the Triple and a few other items. The cards and the burger were “limited time” items so I jumped all over it. It didn’t last too long and I stepped up to the counter one day and it was just gone. No warning, just no more Triple. I thought about it periodically over the next several times I went but eventually, I moved on.

I didn’t think about that burger again until McDonald’s reintroduced it in 2015. Life is funny like that. Even when you really enjoy something, if you go long enough without it, you start to find other things to take its place and it eventually fades from your memory. You could never forget about the Big Mac because it’s always there. Even if you aren’t ordering it, you see it out of your peripheral and you think, yep, the Ole Big Mac. That’s sort of what happened with Saved By the Bell. Yeah, I know; I loved that show a little too much. But it’s still on in syndication at weird hours of the day so I can get my DVR to record some episodes and quench my Kapowski thirst anytime. The same can’t be said for “Hey Dude”. I loved that show too but it doesn’t show up in any current DVR searches. So SBTB will always rule because it’s nostalgia we can still enjoy.

Music is a little different because we can download just about anything from iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. But there are still groups that get lost in the shuffle because “Metallica”, “Journey”, and “Pearl Jam” are still touring somewhere. What about “Oasis”? Remember how great they were? Or the original “Everclear” group? “Counting Crows” is still touring but they aren’t releasing new music per se. Their last release was 2014 and if you go to their show, you are still going to hear “Mr. Jones“. You aren’t going to hear much “Better Than Ezra” or “Fuel” on playlists today but that doesn’t mean they didn’t kill it in the 90’s. You have to truly be from the 90’s to appreciate non mainstream 90’s music.

But here is the point. Not being relevant today doesn’t mean that you weren’t big time back then. There are plenty of things that were awesome in the 80’s and 90’s and would still be awesome today if given their proper amount of respect. McDonalds thought enough of the Triple Cheese to bring it back. Whether you know or remember the “Counting Crows” or not, you can still go see them in Hartford CT on 8/15! “USA High” is not “Saved By the Bell” and Elena Lyons is not Tiffani Amber-Theissen but it doesn’t mean she isn’t worthy of our time and admiration! Sometimes we get too hung up on the mainstream and we forget that there can be greatness hiding just behind the headlines. We just aren’t used to looking beyond the spotlight.

The same can be said for Baseball Players from my youth. We all remember Ken Griffey Jr., Bo Jackson, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Nolan Ryan. And we absolutely should because they were dominant players. Some are in the Hall of Fame, ESPN makes a “30 for 30” about some of them every year and some of are still visible around the league. But what about the rest of the 80’s/90’s baseball? We had more than 20 stars at any given time throughout the 80’s but we tend to only celebrate the elite of the elite. Some of the other players just don’t get remembered by collectors today because they aren’t in the Hall or they don’t have a statue outside of their stadium or they didn’t do anything crazy enough to warrant a tell-all book. But between the white lines, they were absolutely star players.

I have somewhat of a side project that I work on from time to time where I add some autographs of the players that have been forgotten over time. These guys may not have been forgotten in their hometowns or in the stadium they played most of their career. But by and large, these players have faded into the stat books and the modern day collector will only see them if they journey back to an 80’s set to try and collect it. Let’s take a look at a few of the players I put in this category and the autographs I have of them in my collection. I’m sure I can do more of these in the future if this is the sort of thing you enjoy. I know I enjoy it!

Gerald Perry

We’ll start with an Atlanta Brave, Gerald Perry. I will say that the other players are going to have had better careers than Perry but as a Braves fan in the 80’s, there was Dale Murphy and then there was Gerald Perry. He played on some horrible teams in Atlanta from 1983-1989 but he put together a solid stretch of seasons with his best overall coming in 1988. He hit .300 that season with 8 homers, 74 RBI and 29 stolen bases. He never had much pop but did steal some bags over the years. He had 42 in ’87. His ’88 season was good enough to have him designated the Team MVP in ’89 Donruss. He also earned his lone All-Star appearance in ’88. I still don’t have an auto on a Braves card but I have this sweet yellow ’90 Classic!

George Bell

Here is a guy with a better resume over his career and a player that is typical of the star I am referencing in this piece. George “Taco” Bell hit for a cool .278 career average, topping .300 twice in ’86 and ’87. That is a pretty solid feat for a player with his pop in the 80’s. He hit 31 and 47 home runs during those seasons and hit double digit bombs in every season from ’84 to ’93, with at least 20 in 8 of those 10 seasons. He won the AL MVP in 1987 with a .308 avg, 47 home runs and 134 RBI. He also only struck out 75 times in 660 AB’s. That is a MONSTER season! He also scored 111 runs that year. George, or Jorge, was a legit badass! I have this sweet ’87 Fleer signed by Bell.

Jesse Barfield

Bell’s teammate, Jesse Barfield, made the two the Canadian version of “The Bash Brothers during the 80’s. While Barfield didn’t quite have the average that Bell had, he clubbed his share of home runs and made the middle of that lineup deadly. While his ’87 season wasn’t bad at all, his best year came in ’86. He hit for a .289 average, 40 home runs, 108 RBI and scored 107 runs. The biggest difference at the plate between he and Bell was he struck out 146 times in the ’86 season. But he more than made up for that with his fielding and laser arm. He won 2 Gold Gloves and is widely accepted as the best arm in the majors during the 80’s. He led the league in assists from 1985-1987. Look at this laser!! My autograph for Barfield is this ’85 Topps.

Glenn Davis

Davis didn’t have as long of a career as Bell and Barfield but he played lights out in Houston from 1984-1990. Like Perry, he also earned a Donruss MVP card. From ’85 to ’90, he mashed 164 home runs! He struggled hitting for average with his best season coming in at .271 but he only had one season with more than 84 K’s, which is pretty solid for a power hitter. He finished his career with a .991 fielding percentage and was a 2x All-Star. He also finished second in the NL MVP voting in 1985 behind Mike Schmidt. With great offensive statistics, he is most likely remembered as part of one of the worst trades in MLB history when he was sent to Baltimore for Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling. That is a tough one. How about an ’86 Leaf autograph?

Tom Henke

Tom Henke is strangely a forgotten man when collectors think of dominant closers. We remember Lee Smith, Dennis Eckersley and a few others but many forget about “The Terminator”. Perhaps it is because he did most of his damage in Toronto and Blue Jays players from the 80’s tend to be overshadowed by Yankees, Red Sox and Athletics during that time. Henke was an absolute beast, finishing his career with 311 saves and an ERA of 2.67. Henke was a hulking 6’5 and could mow down hitters at an unbelievable clip but his glasses always made him a little less scary to me. Of course, I never stepped into the batters box against him either. He sits 24th on the all time saves list and is ahead of names like Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, and Rod Beck. This ’85 Donruss is the autograph of Henke in my collection.

Ramon Martinez

Ok, so Ramon wasn’t even the best pitcher in his family. But this is a guy that the hobby was all over in the late 80’s. He had all the tools to be a long term superstar in the league. Ramon was bigger than Pedro, at 6’4, but Pedro’s career was bigger than life so it’s really unfair to compare the two. Ramon had a great win/loss percentage with a 135-88 career mark. He won 20 games in 1990, finishing 20-6 with a 2.92 ERA, only to finish 2nd in the Cy Young voting to Doug Drabek and his 22-6 Record with a 2.76 ERA. You’ll likely see Drabek at some point if I make this a series. Martinez also had 100+ K’s in 8 consecutive seasons from 1990-1997. He threw a no-hitter in 1995 and he Struck out 18 Braves in 1990 to tie the Dodger record set by Sandy Koufax. I have this sweet 1990 Fleer signed by Martinez.

Bret Saberhagen

Saberhagen is another fire baller that crushed it during the 80’s. He topped the 20 win mark twice in his career going 20-6 with a 2.87 ERA in 1985 and 23-6 with a 2.16 ERA in 1989. He won the Cy Young award both of those seasons. He finished his career with a 167-117 Record and 3.34 ERA. His ERA got crushed from ’95 on. He was a 3x All-Star, World Series Champ and WS MVP (1985), won a Gold Glove in ’89 and pitched a no hitter in 1991. His career hit a little bump when he was traded to the Mets in 1992 but it’s the Mets so that’s not all that surprising. Overall, Saberhagen should be remembered as a dominant pitcher during a stretch where power hitters were really starting to rise. I have this nice oddball “’86 Baseballs Best” signed by Mr. Saberhagen.

Ruben Sierra

This was probably my favorite non-Braves player to collect in the late 80’s. He had some really cool cards and he too got the MVP treatment from Donruss in 1990. Sierra played 20 years in the big leagues and while he had some heroics in the Bronx later in his career, his time in Texas is what I will always remember. He played there from ’86 to ’92 and smashed 170 home runs and knocked in 756 runs. He also hit over .300 in 1989 and 1991. His best complete season was most likely 1989 when he hit .306, mashed 29 home runs, collected 119 RBI and scored 101 runs. He also had 14 triples that year. He finished 2nd in the MVP voting that season. Sierra is one player that doesn’t get the respect in the hobby that he should. I respect him enough that I added this ’91 Fleer autograph to my collection!

Tim Wallach

Nothing I say here will give him the same amount of respect that’s given to him by @29Collector, the super collector of Tim Wallach, but I’ll do my best! Wallach played 17 seasons and was a 5x All-Star, 3x Gold Glove and 2x Silver Slugger winner. From 1980-1992, he played for the Montreal Expos and was one of the biggest stars on the team. His best season came in 1987 when he hit .298 with 26 home runs and had 123 RBI. He had 10 consecutive double digit home run seasons from 1982-1991 and finished as high as 4th in MVP voting during that stretch. Wallach finished his career with 2,085 hits, 260 home runs and 1,125 RBI. He had a very nice career and was fun to collect. I have this 1984 Topps Autograph in my collection.

Lou Whitaker

Lou was the middle infield teammate of Alan Trammell for many years, playing his entire 19 year career in Detroit. Trammell was recently elected into the Hall of Fame so maybe “Sweet Lou” will get more consideration now. Whitaker played 2B and finished his career with a .276 average, 244 home runs, 2,369 hits, 1,084 RBI and 143 stolen bases. He played at least 109 games (1981 shortened season) from 1978 to 1993. He won ROY in 1978, went to 5 straight All-Star games from 1983-1987 and won 3 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1983-1985. He won Silver Slugger in ’83, ’84, ’85 and ’87 as well. He is in the Top 10 of 17 career categories for the Tigers. Sweet Lou is well known by collectors my age but is overshadowed by Ryne Sandberg, Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith, Barry Larkin, Rod Carew, Joe Morgan and Trammell in collecting circles. Sweet Lou deserves more love and I love this Autographed ’86 Fleer.

What are your thoughts on this list of players? I’m convinced that these will be some of the guys we look to 50 years from now when we are naming top players from the 80’s. Young collectors may not know these names all that well but when we start looking at the 80’s as somewhat of a vintage era, these players will deserve to be in the discussion. I think these guys deserve to be in any collections that include top players from their generations. Sometimes you have to look a little past the glitz and glam of the “Hall of Fame label” to find some great collectible players. Sometimes we overlook greatness because of the elite around them. You have to admit, while we all loved Phoebe Cates in “Fast Times”, Jennifer Jason Leigh was pretty hot too!

J-Dub

Retro Review – Ultra Competitive

I am under no delusion that I am in my athletic prime. In fact, I haven’t been for about 20 years. But I like to think that I can still compete within my demographic. And just what is my demographic, you ask? I think I fit into the 40+, overweight, desk jockey, father of two category quite nicely. I’m hanging on as long as I can in Softball, Basketball and even Kickball. I gave up on Football, because it is certainly not an old man’s game, and I never picked up Soccer so I don’t have to worry about that. In South Georgia, we can’t keep ice in our sweet tea from melting in the time it takes to finish a full glass, so Hockey was never an option for me.

I wrote about trying to keep my basketball career alive for another season just a few weeks ago. Our team is the oldest team in the league, collectively. We have 5 players at 40 or older. Technically, CJ is only 39 but he will be 40 in another month or so. Robby and I are in the early stages of our 40’s, Darrel has moved into the latter stages of the 40’s (sorry Darrel) and the Uncle Drew (Gary) of our team is 50. We have a couple of guys in their 20’s and one that is 16 but the rest are at least mid 30’s and older. When I wrote that piece a few weeks ago, we were just enjoying a little bit of success in the league and taking advantage of the chance to run up and down the court like we were kids again.

Well, we made it to the playoffs; where the season culminates in a win or go home scenario. We won in the 1st round of the playoffs last week and we advance to the Final 4 for the first time in our 4 seasons. We aren’t what you would call overnight sensations. We have slowly built a contender out of a rag tag group of friends who spend most of their time playing softball together. We started in the league 3 years ago and we didn’t win a single game. Two years ago, we won a couple. We didn’t do much better last year but we played better as a team. We were sitting at 6-3, our best season yet, heading into the final night of the playoffs.

I have played some form of organized basketball off and on for about 30 years. I started in R.A.’s (Royal Ambassadors) at the church and have skipped around from city leagues to competitive leagues to the recreational league we are in now. I never ran AAU games or anything sporty like that but I have always been around the game. In all my years of being around basketball, nothing beats the win or go home playoff game. That can be said about most sports but basketball has always been my favorite. That is why the NCAA Tournament is so exciting! That and copious amounts of money on teams like Rhode Island pulling upsets over Duke.

Playoff games in any sport will test the mettle of a man (or woman). You can be the best athlete on the court but if you can’t handle pressure, you are going to destroy your team when it matters. When you’re under pressure, you feel it all over your body. Free throws can feel like half court shots; driving to the basket feels like trying to slice through a forest of pine trees; and a defensive press can feel like a pressure cooker. I really don’t get that same feeling in a softball tournament. Basketball has a way of ratcheting up my emotions and putting my senses into overload. And the scary part is that it is a feeling that I crave. I personally love that pressure. I love feeling my heart beat in my own chest when I take the court for the opening tip.

That is what I most admire about Michael Jordan in my adult life. As a teenager, I loved to see him fly above everyone else. I loved to see him hit a shot in someone’s face as the buzzer was sounding. But now when I go back and watch him, I appreciate the type of competitor he was. He had no fear. He had no butterflies. He didn’t have an insecure inner voice in those moments. He was just there to do one thing; beat you. Say what you will about the MJ/Lebron debate but I have seen a look in MJ’s eyes that I have never seen in any other basketball player. Larry Bird and Magic Johnson came close but nobody could make you feel beaten just by looking at you like MJ could.

So regardless of whether I score 38 with the flu or score my season average of well below that, I want to take the court like I can’t be beaten. I want the person guarding me to be frustrated because I am outthinking him. I want to gracefully walk a fine line of confidence and cockiness. If you strip everything away and are just left with the game itself, basketball is still a beautiful sport. And that is where we are. Our gym doesn’t have a corporate name, we don’t have fancy uniforms and the news isn’t going to be there to report the score and interview the players. We are lucky if we have 25 people there to watch. But when you are on the court, you have to block it all out anyway.

In honor of our big night, I felt it was only appropriate to break a great box of Junk Wax Basketball. This was one of my favorite sets back in the day, partly because of Shaquille O’Neal, but also because of the great design and high quality of the card. My LCS picked up a few boxes of 1992-93 Fleer Ultra for the nostalgic section and I scooped this up for $14.95. That is a price you can’t beat for some top quality NBA cards from the early 90’s. The very best NBA players played in the league when I was a kid, I am convinced of that! The Bulls were unstoppable, Charles Barkley and Kevin Johnson were leading the Phoenix Suns to the Finals and the league was home to other players named Magic, Bird, Olajuwan, Dominique, Grand-Ma-Ma, Shaq, Isiah, Tim Hardaway, Reggie Miller, and so many more.

1992-93 was the inaugural release for Fleer Ultra in basketball. They were enjoying success in other sports and their introduction into the NBA was a welcome addition for me. One of the most famous Shaq RC’s remains the 92-93 Ultra version. That was the main motivation in buying the box but I found out that along with Shaq, this was easily the best draft class of my childhood.

When you are ripping anything in Series 2 for basketball, you can’t be real picky with the non-rookies. I did find some quality players though. The guards had names like Mark Jackson, Steve Kerr, Danny Ainge and Avery Johnson, who all became coaches in the league. Kids today will never know how fun Rex Chapman and Rod Strickland were to watch. And Dale Ellis could shoot the lights out!

The forwards were headlined by Charles Barkley. He had spent his career in Philadelphia up until this point but was about to find himself in the NBA Finals against MJ. I was always a fan of Xavier McDaniel too. He was a very good player at the forward position. Chuck Person has found himself in a little bit of trouble as an Auburn assistant but The Rifleman could fill up a stat sheet back in the day.

There wasn’t a lot happening with the Center position in Series 2. I did include Stanley Roberts because he was Shaw’s teammate at LSU and he had pretty high expectations attached to him at one point as well.

Here is a very awesome 20 card subset called, “NBA Jam Session”. This broke down the 20 best dunks in the NBA. There are some huge names here with MJ, The Admiral, Hakeem, Shawn Kemp, Karl Malone, and Charles Barkley. This is a great subset.

The inserts were slim. It I did pull some big names!

Here are the average rookies from the class. These guys had pretty serviceable careers. Weatherspoon was a stud for a few years while Oliver Miller and Richard Dumas helped Barkley get to the Finals.

Here is where the big rookies come in. Latrell Sprewell had his issues during his career but he was Uber talented and was an amazing player to watch.

Big Game Robert Horry would become known for the ice water in his veins when a big shot was needed. He went on to win multiple championships and played major roles on those teams.

Christian Laettner didn’t have the career that some expected when he was an All-American at Duke. He went on to play 13 seasons and averaged 13+ points in 8 of those. He topped 18 per game 3 times.

Here is an awesome Hall of Famer, Alonzo Mouring. “Zo” has an unbelievable list of accomplishments that include NBA Champion, 7x All-Star, 2x Defensive Player of the Year, 2X Blocks Leader and the recipient of the J. Walter Kennedy Citizenship Award. Zo is a true legend!

A player who didn’t really pan out in the pros but was my absolute favorite when he came out of USC was Harold Miner. It is fitting they “Baby Jordan” was featured on this card with the real Jordan. I could write an entire post about the former Dunk Champion but I’ll save that for another day.

Here is the Card I came for. This is Shaq’s best rookie card and I pulled 2 of them! We all know the career that Shaq would have and the only thing I ever complain about is that he didn’t get a championship ring with Penny, Nick Anderson and Dennis Scott. That Magic team was something else. They just never put it together. This made the $14.95 price tag well worth it.

As for our playoff appearance, it turned out just like Shaq’s with Orlando. We won our semi-final matchup by 6 points and advanced to the Finals. We ran into a very tough team that had 2 good inside players and a shooter that could fill it up like Chuck Person did. We played tough and left it all on the court but it just wasn’t enough. It may have been that we had to switch from our blue jerseys to the white but I’m not superstitious or anything…..cough, cough. Regardless of that final score, it was the most fun I’ve had in a long time on the basketball court and I’m really proud of the guys. I can’t wait til next year!

With the possible exception of Fleer Metal Universe, this may be the best basketball set of the 90’s. It earns an easy “5” on the Dub-O-Meter. The photos are great, the card design and quality is top notch and the checklist is pretty unbelievable. The only knock at all is that the cards can stick together in certain parts of the box, which is the normal issue with early 90’s cards with UV Coating. But these cards are really beautiful cards, just as Ultra was known for. The price is just right on a box like this and seeing these players take me right back to the days I played in the backyard and hit buzzer beaters just like MJ!

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?

Retro Review – Where’s The Time Machine?

I think I am really fortunate to have grown up during the 80’s. A lot of people think the 80’s were cheesy and others just think it is this retro/pop culture moment in time that is fun to visit when they dress up. I lived in the 80’s and I’m here to tell you that it was a wonderful time! Half of the stuff you watch on TV or listen to on the radio today started in the 80’s and we are just recycling it now because we’ve run out of new ideas. I don’t have to “re-imagine” Ghostbusters because I saw it when it came out in the 80’s. And when I wear my AC/DC shirt to dinner, I am not being ironic; I really love AC/DC!

In 1985, I was 8 years old and in the 3rd grade. We played outside from dusk til dawn, our parents never worried about it and we weren’t really getting exposed to all of the garbage I have to worry about with my kids today. I did stay up late one night and sneak in the last 15 minutes of Friday the 13th as a kid and saw a little more than what I was allowed to see but that was about it. I remember getting scared when I saw David Banner transform into the Hulk and I thought it was one of the scariest things I’d ever seen. My kids laugh at those 80’s special effects today.

Bailey (11) and I watched “Silver Bullet” a few weeks ago (released in ’85) and at the end, she said, “I thought this was going to be scary.” I remember seeing that movie for the first time and being terrified! I guess I’ll show her “Maximum Overdrive” and “Night of the Living Dead” next and see what she thinks about those. In fairness, when I take into account that “The Walking Dead” is one of the most popular television shows in history and it is uber gory, it makes sense. She doesn’t watch that show because I don’t think she is quite old enough but it is far more disturbing than anything mainstream that came out during the 80’s.

That’s part of why I remember my time as a kid fondly. Who knows, maybe my kids will look back on there childhood the same way. But when I look back at being a kid, I realize that I didn’t have a whole lot to worry about. I’m not saying it was a utopian society by any means but there really isn’t much of a comparison to what the kids of today have to face. I grew up watching Transformers and He-Man fight for mankind. My kids have YouTube and all the craziness that lives there! You can upload almost anything there these days. There is a Peppa Pig video floating around where the pig goes on a murderous rampage. Yeah, I love horror movies but I don’t want to mix them with my kid’s cartoons.

In the 80’s, about the worst thing we could see on TV as kids was going to be a “Saved by the Bell” episode about taking pills to stay awake and study. Do you remember when Jesse was “So excited! So excited! So excited!”? I will admit though that I watched “Tom and Jerry” a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty brutal by today’s standards. Jerry chased Tom around with a meat cleaver and hammer, which felt out of place in our modern society. I don’t know if Disney would get away with that one today but I’m sure Nickelodeon would slip it in to their rotation. Who knows; maybe all of it is relative to what you are used to?

Whatever the case, pop culture was at a peak in 1985 if you ask my opinion, and if you click on the blog link, you did. Television was rocking shows like; “Mr. Belvadere”, “Growing Pains”, “Cheers”, “The Cosby Show”, “Night Court”, “Family Ties”, “Different Strokes” and “The Facts of Life.” How many catch phrases, character ideas and plot stories do we still get from these masterpieces? The sitcoms of today seem tired and boring compared to these. Maybe that is why we see such a difference in what is on TV vs. today as I mentioned with “The Walking Dead” above. Once it has already been done, you have to go a little further and create something new. Maybe that is why society as a whole has pushed so far beyond the boundaries we once had. I don’t know, it’s just a thought.

Movies were pretty classic in 1985 as well; and it only cost $2.75 to go see them in the theater! I wrote about my favorite Horror Movies from 1985 here!We had a run of great actors and actresses during the 80’s that included Arnold, Sly Stallone, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Mel Gibson, Eddie Murphy, Michael J. Fox, Beverly D’Angelo, Phoebe Cates, Tiffani Amber Theissen and so many others! The old saying is true, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Check out this awesome list of flicks just from 1985.

  • Back to the Future
  • Goonies
  • Breakfast Club
  • Commando
  • Weird Science
  • Teen Wolf
  • Fletch
  • Summer Rental
  • Mad Max – Beyond the Thunderdome

I will never “move on” from opining about the 80’s and 90’s. The cold hard truth is that I miss everything that made those years fun; VHS tapes, cassettes, posters on the wall, Corey Haim films, drooling over Kelly Kapowski, watching MTV to see the latest video from my favorite band, tuning in to ESPN to see gosh darn sports highlights and not poker tournaments, playing Nintendo when there were only 2 buttons you had to master in order to win a football game. I miss eating whatever I wanted to without having to worry about cholesterol or calorie counts. I remember when bread was a part of the food pyramid and it always contained gluten!

Yes, things were simpler back then but what is wrong with that? What is wrong with sitting down and watching a movie about vehicles coming to life and terrorizing people and it not feeling hokey? What is wrong with believing that blood coming from Ric Flair’s head is real because Dusty Rhodes hit him with a tire iron? When our headphone batteries went dead, we had no choice but to go outside. We couldn’t text or FaceTime every minute of the day so we had to form personalities and then learn how to cope with people who did or didn’t like us because of that personality. WHY HASN’T ANYONE INVENTED THAT TIME MACHINE YET DR. BROWN???

Of course, there is something else I miss about the 80’s; simple but awesome sports cards. By 1989, we had about 6 options to choose from if you included Sportsflics and the companies put everything they had into that annual set they released. You could even buy a collectors kit from the Sears Catalog and 80’s cards were considered “hard-to-find”. While the current year cards weren’t hard to find because they were in every convenience store in America, I do remember the previous year’s sets being difficult. That is why ’87 Topps was so hot in 1989! We spent the whole year trying to collect the entire set through packs and now, you have about a week before the next product releases.

I know there is a good and bad side to those days but the bad only came later when we realized how much we were missing. If I ever find a way to go back to the 80’s, I am staying there so the Junk Wax Era will never really be the Junk Wax Era anyway. That Mark McGwire RC will always be valuable and Donruss will always have logos. As you can see, I really don’t ask for much. Just take me back to a time when video games were 16 bits, TV shows had to be recorded with VCR’s and baseball cards were made to be collected. Is that really too much?

I feel like I’ve gotten heated for some reason. Let me pull back the reigns and focus on something from that will relax me. Here is a prime example of an excellent baseball card set from the 80’s. The 1985 Topps set is a beauty and is loaded with superstars and some heavy hitting rookies. The packs still had gum, the cards still had borders and information on the back, and the big hits were simply the best players. This set was right before they started getting a little crazier with the designs as ’86 and ’87 would attest. This was a true baseball card, all the way around.

They certainly don’t make packs like they used to!

What better card to show off the design than this sweet Gary Pettis? The backs of the 85 Topps has a real holiday feel with the green and red.

The catchers are always a little slim in these rips but here are 3 good ones. Always love Tony Pena in his Pirates uni!

The infielders are a little more stacked with Chicken Man, Ryno, The Wizard and Donnie Baseball. I was a fan of Sweet Lou during the 80’s as well thanks to RBI Baseball.

The outfield was loaded with studs. The first thing I notice about this selection is the uniforms. Rock has the sweet Expos, Hendu has the old school Mariners and Willie McGee had the baby blue St. Louis jersey. Teams should still be wearing these jerseys! I’d also like to know how Jorge Bell became George Bell.

This was before Dennis was Oil Can and before Tommy John was a surgery. The Brewers had 2 Hall of Famers in their rotation and Eck and Dave Stewart were about to embark on a World Series run together in Oakland. Good times!

There were some sweet manager cards in 85 Topps. Bobby Cox would soon be an Atlanta Brave but not before Chuck Tanner took his shot. Pete Rose was one of the last player/managers and we all know how that worked out. LaRussa was about to join Eck and Stewart in Oakland.

The Record Breakers included Juan Samuel with the most steals by a rookie. He wound up winning ROY in 1984. While he had a serviceable career with 3 All-Star appearances, he never caught fire in the hobby.

Here are some of the All-Stars from 1984. Again, some of the uniforms jump right off the page. That Padres uniform is one from the 80’s I could probably do without but please bring back the Expos, Cards and Astros uniforms.

There were a lot of Father/Son inserts in 1985. Another couple of Boone’s were on their way into the league too. There were also a couple of future Fathers of major leaguers in this set; Ken Griffey Sr. and Jose Cruz.

This is the only Darryl Strawberry I pulled but it’s pretty sweet. I also love the Dunston but it has pretty severe gum damage. Look at that beautiful jersey on Floyd Bannister!

The rookie class was pitcher heavy with Rocket, Doc, Saberhagen, Key and Gubicza. All of these guys had nice careers and a few of them had great careers. The Eric Davis is one of my favorite RC’s from this year. Alvin Davis is one of the more underrated superstars from the 80’s.

Here are some of the players from the U.S. National Team. I missed out on Will Clark.

But I didn’t miss out on the stud of the set! This card was three bills when I was in high school and one of the most sought after 80’s cards in the entire hobby. I only pulled 1 but it is the first one I’ve ever pulled from a pack. This made the box well worth it!

This Score is a product of nostalgia and pulling a Mark McGwire Team USA card. If I hadn’t pulled it, I’m afraid I would’ve landed on a 3. This is not the best design Topps had in the 80’s but it was not the worst either. The box is a little pricey if you don’t wind up pulling some of the studs. Even with McGwire, I missed out on Puckett and Strawberry. But this set has a strong rookie class and there are several stars who were still very early in their careers here. I kinda like the green and red backs and definitely enjoyed the #1 Pick inserts. You can run the risk of pulling some gum damaged stars because they didn’t discriminate on the cards they put in the back of the pack. But overall, this is a classic set from the 80’s and has good value for retro collectors.

As an added bonus, check out this video of yours truly giving a piece of 35 year old gum a try! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

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?

Welcome to the Big Leagues, Kid!

It’s not too often that I review a new product here on the blog. But sometimes the set year isn’t the only thing that can take me back to the good ole days. This is one of those times. We are living in a time when it’s easy to get wrapped up in serial numbers, autographs, jersey swatches and printing plates. And those are great things to chase when the price is right and the checklist is good. I was very excited to pull the Bellinger/Seager Dual Auto redemption from my Museum Break a couple of weeks ago. And one of my favorite products every year is Leaf Army All American, which is completely made up of those 4 features listed above.

But I, like most collectors my age, can trace my love for cardboard back to a much simpler time. I’m talking about a time when Diamond Kings, Dream Teams and basic Rated Rookies were the hits we were all chasing. My zest for the hobby was born when I was just a kid, around 11 years old. And sure, there are some collectors who started as adults, but most of us picked up our first cards when we only cared about the picture on the card and not whether the serial number matched the jersey number making it a @watchthebreaks eBay fail 1/1.

The hobby has changed A LOT since the days I spent making trades on the playground at Mitchell Middle. The industry has exploded with new innovations and it is about much more than just cards in 2018. In fact, most collectors consider it a bust if they open a pack and they get “just cards”. But every now and then, you just have to slow down and strip away all the cracked ice and purple prizm and just enjoy the cards for what they are. You have to always reserve a place in your soul for the reason you’re a part of this crazy circus to begin with. You have to remember your collecting roots or you will get completely swept away by the latest and greatest Target exclusive that can only be found at triple markup online.

There are a few things that I always think about when I am sorting through junk wax sets. There are things that are just burned into my memory from the beginning of my journey through the land of wax that can always help me center myself when I feel like I’m losing my grip on self control. I don’t know why they’ve stuck with me for 30 years but I know they are always there. They can be triggered by the sight of a border design or the mention of a name that has faded from my daily memory but still means so much. I owe my entire hobby life to those memories because I still chase the high that I got from opening packs as a kid. As minor as they seem today, they certainly serve a purpose in my life today.

I think about the 1990 Fleer Mark McGwire that I opened on Halloween night. My “GaGa” bought me a pack of cards instead of giving me some terrible candy corn and I always remember sitting in the living room floor, with my costume still on, ripping that pack to reveal Big Mac in his throwing motion. I can’t explain why it is such a vivid memory; I can just feel that moment when I’m looking through ’90 Fleer. And it feels so good, like all of my worries and cares are gone for a moment. I know this probably sounds a bit dramatic for some of you but it’s 100% legitimate.

I think about the time I traded a short stack of hot prospects like Kevin Maas, John Olerud and Phil Plantier for a Ken Griffey Jr. autograph that I knew couldn’t be real but also couldn’t pass up on the 1% chance that it was. Of course, it wasn’t real but I still have it in the exact same protector that it came in through the trade. I remember sitting in my friends room, looking at the card, thinking that there was no way he’d actually trade it. But also thinking that there was no way it was actually real. What 14 year old could really pass up a Ken Griffey Jr. “autograph”, real or not??

I remember looking up 1989 Score in my first Beckett. I had a unique way of opening those packs back then. The number on the back of Score was at the top of the card so I would slide the front card up just enough to see the number and find it in the price guide. I wanted to see the $2-$3 in the magazine before actually seeing the Gary Sheffield RC. It was much like the way I try to reveal hits today, with seeing small parts of the card before the big reveal. I don’t know why it’s always Score in my memory other than the fact that it was a vertical back and easy to keep the player info hidden.

I especially remember when errors were mistakes made by the companies. They tried to catch these mistakes and get them corrected before the market was flooded with goof ups. There was the Dale Murphy ’89 Upper Deck Reverse Negative, ’90 Donruss Juan Gonzalez reverse negative, the infamous ’89 Fleer Billy Ripken and the entire 1990 Pro Set Football debacle. Mistakes were made in printing due to the sheer volume of cards they were pumping out in some cases but it was so fun to pull one of those and think that you had something rather rare and unique for the time. Of course, now companies make intentional errors to harken back to the good ole days but it’s really not the same.

Which brings me to the modern set that I want to review here in this post. 2018 Topps Big League just released last week and is supposed to be a basic, stripped down collection of baseball cards. They are aimed at kids in the hobby but should also pick up a following from the old school collectors who are looking for something devoid of the hubbub that can come with shiny parallels, retail exclusives and refractor autographs. This is a modern day set with a throwback feel to the vintage or junk wax era. There are hits to be found, as well as some of those intentional errors, but the backbone of the set is the 3 x 5 piece of cardboard with a player image on the front.

The set size (400) is a little larger than usual for the modern day hobby and could give set collectors a little challenge if they want to piece it together. The boxes are relatively cheap ($40) and have 24 packs with 10 cards in each pack. There are no hobby box guarantees other than a gold parallel in each pack. But there is a chase element with Rainbow Foil (1:30 packs), Black and White Images (1:60 packs), Red Foil (1:3,020 packs), Errors (unknown) and Autographs (1:114 packs) sprinkled throughout the landscape. The relative long odds of these pulls make them much more special to pull and could also help with value in the long term.

With this configuration, Topps has made a solid effort to bring the hobby to the kids while inserting some value in the set as well. Other sets have tried to do this but have fell short because of a total lack of excitement in the checklist and a zero percent chance of pulling something that has value. I was a kid once and I still wanted to find cards that were worth something. I didn’t want a card with eye black that I could peel off and wear like one of the many gimmicks Triple Play has introduced over the years. If I were a kid today, I’d want a card of Ozzie Albies that didn’t include some pennant that you pull off and stick over his head. I’m hoping that Topps Big League has hit on something with this new entry but it’s hard not to be skeptical after all the recent attempts to bridge the gap between kid collectors and product value.

Let’s give this set a look and see if it’s a hit or a swing and a miss!

In what may seem like a minor issue, I really like the packaging. It reminds me of Gypsy Queen and Heritage but it’s still foil.

The base design is clean. I prefer a border to the full bleed of the flagship product. I like full bleed for Stadium Club because the photos are so great. But I think traditional cards should have a border.

I like how the bat extends beyond the border in some of the photos. This Cody Bellinger is a good example.

There is a solid mixture of horizontal photos in the set like this Dansby Swanson.

There are three player stat leader cards at the beginning of the 300’s in the checklist.

There are some sweet veterans to be found in the latter part of the checklist. These players include Nolan Ryan, Hank Aaron, Jeff Bagwell, Ted Williams, John Smoltz and others.

There is a section of cards that is dedicated to “Ballpark Landmarks”. These are pretty unique and cool.

The base checklist closes out with the RC’s and they are all here. I pulled Acuna, Ohtani, Gleyber, Andujar and others.

The gold parallels are found 1 per pack. There is a gold parallel for every card in the base checklist.

Players Weekend Image Variations are found 1:3 packs so they are not scarce but they are sharp looking.

Ministers of Mash is a 10 card insert featuring the games best hitters.

One of my favorite inserts, the sketch card, makes its way into Big League as well with this set called Star Caricatures. If I am not mistaken, Mike James is responsible for some of these beauties!

This Pedro Martinez is the Rainbow Foil numbered to 100. These are found 1:30 packs.

I pulled one Black and White Parallel numbered to 50. These are found 1:60 packs so this is definitely considered a hit!

If you like baseball cards, you’ll like this set. But you’re really going to have to like baseball cards. You can’t be in search of funky color parallels or autographs if you want to enjoy this box. I think the design is simple but effective, the cost is excellent for a hobby box, there are some true chase cards that aren’t guaranteed in each box and the checklist has all the names you’ll want to find. The set will be great for kids but isn’t childish either. The sketch cards are real art and not cheap and cartoony. The Ballpark Landmarks are cool and give you a look at stadiums you may not otherwise see. And if you pull an autograph here, which is possible, it is truly an above average hit. I expect the set to evolve and progress in the future but this is a very solid first effort. What say you?

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?

Retro Review: Does This Mean I Have To Grow Up?

There is a saying that really rings true for those of us who are super nostalgic; “Nothing lasts forever on this earth. But whatever is good, comes back every once in a while if you let it.” The key to that statement is “if you let it.” That is what my blog is all about. It’s about remembering those small moments or toys or places or people that were a part of your life at one point or another but are now just footnotes that help make up the early chapters of the grand book we are writing. Sometimes, to write the next chapter, we have to revisit earlier moments to gain perspective and motivation or sometimes to just ground ourselves.

Our past is important and we should certainly embrace the positives that are a part of what has helped build our character. If not for the past, we would just look back to nothingness. We would have no lines on our faces, no scars on our bodies and no laughter in our soul. To be clear, there is a difference between dwelling on the past and honoring the past. I’ve tried to move on from bad memories, upsetting breakups and traumatic experiences but I’ll always hold on to the good times. There are many memories that I would love to go back and relive all over again. I really never wanted to grow up and am trying my best to keep from doing it today.

The closure of Toys R Us has sort of affected me in a way I can’t explain. I’m not depressed or anything but riding by that empty store is just a very weird feeling. Their slogan was, “I don’t want to grow up, I’m a Toys R Us kid!” What are we supposed to do now that they are closed? Does that mean we have to grow up? I still went in the store quite a bit because I have kids of my own and there was a feeling that you just couldn’t get at other stores, at least locally. Other stores have toy sections but let’s be real; nothing compared to Toys R US, or even Kay-Bee for that matter, which is also gone now.

While I understand that the closure of this store was part of natural selection as we all continue our move to an online world, it is hard to lose something that was a big part of your past and not feel some sort of way. Another quote that hits a nostalgic person right in the feels is attributed to Buddha, who said, “You can only lose what you cling to.” That’s what “we” do. We cling to the tiny fabrics that make up the tapestry of our lives and each one means something to us. If you start pulling threads out of the overall work, things have a tendency to start to fray.

This isn’t just about Toys R Us. There are other stores, companies, or even entire industries that have vanished before our very eyes over the last 20 years. When it comes to true nostalgia, it’s not always about the mainstream like Transformers, Saved by the Bell, and Starter jackets. No, some of it is more personal and can affect special memories we hold in our individual minds far more than it may affect a larger group as a whole. There are a lot of people who are going to miss Toys R Us but the “why” is what is important. This made me start to think about a few other stores that have vanished over time that held unique memories for me. Some of these may still be in existence but are no longer a part of my region so I don’t have the personal link anymore. Some are just dust in the wind.

Sam Goody
I know that these are mostly FYE’s now but I remember a particular Sam Goody in the Albany Mall that was an absolute must visit for me every time I went there. For one, nobody buys CD’s anymore now that we all have digital music but I spent more money on CD’s and “Singles” during the mid 90’s than I have on just about anything else over my entire life except my kids and baseball cards. It is where I bought my first Deftones album and I even picked up some Deftones shirts there. They had it all; music, shirts, posters, games, you name it. They also had a pretty good looking clerk once that I tried to get a phone number from but it never really panned out. The FYE that is in the mall now has OUTRAGEOUS prices and just doesn’t have the same vibe as the old Sam Goody. That is one store that I miss more than any other in the mall, except possibly Babbage’s.

Big “B” Drugs
Going more local, Big “B” was the first chain drug store in Camilla that I remember. This was also the home of the oddball sports card boxes. You could get the mini 30 card box sets of Fleer’s Sluggers vs Pitchers and Topps’ Greatest Players. I spent a lot of time there when I worked at Movie Gallery (spoiler alert) and I never ventured too far into the store as the candy and sports card rack was near the front. That strip center in general used to see heavy traffic with the stores that filled it. The House of Music was the only local music store and of course, Movie Gallery was a nice anchor. The strip center has become a shell of its former self at this point and I don’t know that I have even entered the parking lot in the last 15+ years, though I ride past it all the time.

Piggy Wiggly
I am going local again but there are stories here too. This is a chain that is still surviving but I couldn’t tell you where a store is today. This was the local grocery store in Camilla before Wal-Mart, Winn-Dixie and Harvey’s and was the closest to our house. Wal-Mart is the only store that remains now and it is even in a different location than the original that isn’t as nostalgic for me. Piggly Wiggly is where I turned my brother over in the grocery cart and got one of the worst whoopins of my entire life. He was sitting in the kid’s part of the cart, I took a turn too sharp and we toppled over. It wasn’t good. I also remember playing the “President’s Game” here and actually learning a little about US History in the process. Finally, this was where I picked up my first pack of cards way back in 1988. This was the store where it all started for me and it’s now a furniture store….Such a shame.

Arcades
So this really isn’t a store but they have certainly almost become extinct in 2018. Even the ones that are still around are makeshift arcades added on to amusement sites. When I think of an arcade, I think of a dark room with glow lights and carpet that has glowing squiggly lines on it. The arcade has Pac-Man, Donkey Kong, Frogger, Space Invaders and others like them. The whole setup is a visual smorgasbord. There are beeps and clanks in the machines, there is the sound of quarters dropping into slots and in the distance, there is the sound of an air hockey table banging around. This is where we went to congregate, show off and find chicks. The old-school arcade is one of the greatest creations known to man. You can still find them from time to time and one of the best is Twin Galaxies in Iowa, where they still hold tournaments and crown world records. Kids can have the video games of today; just leave me Mrs. Pac-Man and Paperboy!

Video Stores
There are several stores that could be listed here but Blockbuster and Movie Gallery are the two biggest that come to mind for me. I worked at locally owned “Video Superstore” and it may be the greatest video store in the history of ever! There was also a store called Videos Unlimited that was in the town I live in now but it is gone as well. While Blockbuster and Movie Gallery were the king and queen of selection, the small town video stores had all the character that I miss and if I ever hit the lottery, I will open one just for nostalgia sake. I don’t care if I have 1 customer per week, I just want to smell those VHS and DVD plastic cases again and look across the store at the rows upon rows of mediocre films that we loved to watch as teenagers. Sure, Redbox is convenient and Netflix is right in your home, but you haven’t lived until you spend a Friday night walking the aisles of a video store with your fingers crossed that your movie is in stock.

Upper Deck
Of course, there is a baseball card that is no longer around that was a big part of my youth as well. Upper Deck now has a hockey license and only produces those items, along with a multi sport set called Goodwin Champions. But back in the late 80’s-early 90’s, they were killing it in all sports. The baseball set from 1989 changed the hobby forever and I wrote about it here. But in 1991, the set was almost as strong but had forced the other companies to up their game with products like Stadium Club and Leaf, so they had competition.

The packs were pretty sweet – tamper proof foil like the years before but blue this season with pinstripes.

A staple of Upper Deck was the hologram stickers. These were full size team logos.

Here is the design of 1991 Upper Deck. As you will recall, 1989 had the base line on the right side of the card. 1990 had the base line across the top. This year had the base line running down the left side of the card. Upper Deck always had some unique photos too, like this Bert Blyleven.

There was only one notable catcher but it was one of my favorite ’91 Upper Deck cards when I was a kid. This Sandy Alomar Jr. was so colorful and I loved the photo.

The infield was stacked with young players and grizzled veterans. There were 2 future Bravos here with Fred McGriff and Andres Galarraga. Big Cat is rocking the Expos uni, which is always great. Paul Molitor was such an underrated player. By this point in his career (13 seasons), he had a career .299 average, was averaging double digit home runs and had multiple 40+ stolen base seasons. You can throw Alvin Davis in that underrated category as well.

The outfield is pretty loaded up too. Deion Sanders and Dave Justice were key cogs in the Braves outfield and lineup during the great run of the 90’s. And because this was the high series box, I landed a Bo Jackson in both Kansas City and Chicago. While I didn’t pull a Ken Griffey Jr., he did appear on this card of Ken Sr. And I will always see Kirby in that Twins uni but will never get used to seeing Strawberry in Dodger Blue.

The pitchers were pretty legendary in this set. Randy Johnson was getting started on a Hall of Fame career while Nolan Ryan was wrapping his up. This card of Nolan features a pretty iconic image of the Express. Maddux would soon discover that chicks dig the long ball so this bunt might have been one of his last. And the Braves got their fill of Scott Erickson, Jack Morris and Doug Drabek in the playoffs that year.

These cards are very memorable from the early 90’s junk wax era. Everyone remembers the Rickey Henderson and Lou Brock card, along with the 1917 White Sox throwback.

I only pulled two of the artist checklist. One was a sweet Chris Sabo while the other was a ho-hum Roberto Kelly.

These are some of the rookies and prospects that stood out in 1991. I didn’t pull a Chipper but I did snag a Mo Vaughn and Eric Karros. Steve Decker was a huge prospect for the Giants in ’91 but he didn’t pan out.

I didn’t pull an Aaron autograph but I did load up on the Baseball Heroes cards. Those 70’s Milwaukee uniforms were hot!

These cards deserve their own segment and comment. The first was the Hank Aaron hologram. I searched for this card like a 1/1 Trout back in 1991. This is a sweet insert!

I was a huge fan of Jose Canseco in 1991 so I was blown away by this card of his twin brother, Ozzie. At the time, I had no idea that Ozzie was playing so I thought it was an amazing card.

Though I didn’t pull the Chipper RC, I did pull what was considered THE ROOKIE CARD of the set in 1991. This Todd Van Poppel was on the cover of Beckett and highly sought after in the hobby. I actually think this card is better than any I have pulled so far in 2018 Topps Inception.

This was one of those “retirement cards” from the junk wax era. This was as hot as Gregg Jefferies’ 1989 Future Stars for a while. This would have been a huge box in 1991.

The first of two Hall of Fame RC’s is this Jeff Bagwell. Bags was a hot rookie and he turned out to have a stellar career. I pulled 5 of these in the box!

The other Hall of Fame RC I pulled was this awesome Frank Thomas. Though he and Bagwell both had cards in 1990, this was their first Upper Deck cards. This is a very special card for me and one that I will slide right into my current PC.

1991 Upper Deck is a classic set from the junk wax era and had some great individual cards that are memorable. The Ozzie Canseco, Todd Van Poppel and Kevin Maas cards were so hot when this set came out. Some other players turned out to be the long term guys like Chipper, Bagwell and Big Frank but this set really covered the spectrum of hot rookies and solid veterans. The design was typical Upper Deck and the only change from year to year was the base line on the card. Boxes can be found relatively cheap now with this one costing me $12.95 and regardless of the odds, there is a chance to pull a Hank Aaron autograph if you are extremely lucky. I really like this set better than 1990 but not as good as 1989. I’d give it an overall “4” on the Dub-O-Meter and would lean closer to a “5” than a “3” on the scale. What do you think about 1991 Upper Deck?

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?

Retro Review – Finding My Happy Place

How do we know if we are living our best life? I’m not talking about just being generally happy; I wonder sometimes if I’m really doing what I was meant to do in life. No matter how happy we are, we always think there is something out there that might make us a little happier. I often wrestle with whether that is human nature or if that is the soul’s way of telling us that there is a better path available to us. Trust me, you really start to think about these sorts of things when you hit your 40’s! By then, we have made a bunch of mistakes, learned from them, typically found our niche in life and we are just living day by day.

I think the mind has evolved quite a bit by then as well; because we have so many experiences under our belt. Some of us are raising kids, some have been at a job for 15+ years, and almost all of us have spread our wings at some point and learned what our limitations are. So by now, for those of us in that age range or older, there is a more pronounced sense of urgency in finding our little corner of the world to thrive in. We can sometimes start to press at this stage. What have I done with my life? Have I become the person I thought I would be by now? How much time have I wasted? Those type questions really have you measuring the happiness and fullness of your life.

I don’t know yet if I’m where I’m supposed to be in life. I’m trying everyday to reach the pinnacle of something. But everything brings varying degrees of happiness. There are only a few things I’ve discovered in life that truly, without fail, bring me happiness. There are “givens” like my wife and kids, and family and friends. But there are a few other things that can cure whatever is ailing me. Some of them I should be able to do for the rest of my life but some of them are fading with age and I’m holding on as long as I can.

Horror Movies

I discovered early on that Horror was my genre. I got a glimpse at “The Shining” way before I should have and I was fascinated. I saw the end of Friday the 13th while flipping channels too late at night when I was about 10 years old. One of the best movies I’ve ever seen was a movie I just stumbled on during another late night as I was drifting off to sleep. I’ve written about “Night of the Living Dead” before and the feeling I got when I saw it for the first time is a feeling I constantly chase when watching new movies. That feeling is elusive but I enjoy chasing it. Even today, I will drift off to sleep watching “Ash vs Evil Dead” on Netflix on my phone in bed. Horror movies keep me connected to my youth, as weird as that may sound.

Fishing

My dad taught me to fish at a very early age. I’ve spent most of my life in or around some sort of waterway. While I’ve spent my fair share of summer days skiing or kayaking, my first love when it comes to the water has always been fishing. As the old saying goes, “a bad day fishing is better than a good day at work”. It’s actually better than most days I can think of. I spent so much of my youth fishing in tournaments with my dad, catching bream with my granddaddy or just sitting on the dock fishing next to my favorite stump. I’d rather fish a back country creek than a big body of water any day but I have never been overly picky about a fishing destination. One of my favorite anniversary’s was the one from two years ago when my buddy Barry took Mrs. Dub and I to the Ichawaynochaway Creek in Baker County to wade the water and load up on bluegill.

Basketball

I enjoy almost all sports. I’ve played baseball/softball on an annual basis since I was 5. I played football until I stopped growing and the other guys didn’t. I still love watching it and playing it when the opportunity arises. I hammered Tecmo Bowl, Double Dribble, RBI Baseball, NBA Jam, Madden and Bases Loaded as a kid (and an adult). And I’ve even dipped my toes into the world of hockey (roller) and golf but those are more fun than competitive for me.

But the one sport that I played more than any other growing up was basketball. It didn’t matter if it was winter or summer, me and my friends would find a basketball goal somewhere and strike up a game. I had a sweet setup in my backyard, Todd had a dunk goal at his house, Munt had a lighted court at his house and Christopher’s dad was a high school coach at the local private school so we had an all access pass to the gym there.

I remember playing on Thursday Nights at the middle school gym with the toughest competition in the city and I remember playing one on one at Coop’s House. It didn’t matter if it was a dusty court with a wooden backboard or a nice wood gym floor with breakaway rims. I would play basketball with anybody, anywhere and at anytime. I even skipped lunch in school to play basketball with classmates. I used to practice my jump shot over and over and over in my backyard. I would try to shoot from all over the court but would force myself to make 5 consecutive shots before moving to a new spot.

Basketball is one of the things that I’m holding on to for dear life. I’m 41, 5’11, 225 lbs and am still trying to make moves I made as a 16 year old in the city league I’m playing in. It’s frustrating to know what you want your body to do but not be able to make it do it. I can still see the court like I did as a kid; I’m just not able to shoot lanes and thread passes like I did back then. It doesn’t stop me from trying. I’m really a different person on the court than I am in the rest of my life. Even in softball, I’m usually the quiet guy that just gets down to business when the game starts, trying to avoid the competitive machismo that has taken over the sport.

But when I step on the basketball court, I have a different attitude. My goal is to find your weak spot and exploit it. Many times that involves trash talk and the general pushing of buttons. I like to get under your skin on the basketball court. It has always been a cerebral game for me but now more so than ever, with my first step not being what it used to be. I will still go right at you and attack. Now I just use my size more than speed. But I still absolutely love the game and feel completely at home in a gym. When I step on the court, it almost feels like an out of body experience. It’s zen like in many ways.

It helps that I love the team I play on. It’s the same general squad as my softball team but we also have a player or two from outside of that sport. This year, we have Nate, a player who I coached many years ago as a 2nd Grader, and CJ, Mi Hermano De Otro Madre. Nate provides us with much needed youth and CJ is a never ending ball of energy. Eric and Plug give us the inside presence that every team needs and they both can hit the jumper when we need it. Chase is a beast on the boards and at the rim. Jeff and Bret are the quick guards that keep the defense on their toes. Ryan makes players think twice about taking the ball to the hoop. Darrell can give us minutes at guard and forward while Gary does his weekly Uncle Drew impersonation.

Then there is me. The guy that keeps the pot stirring with the “and 1’s” and the “give me the damn ball” bravado of my youth. I try to be a point guard and a power forward at the same time. I don’t do anything perfectly but I think I’m ok in most areas. The speed isn’t the same, my range has gotten closer to the basket and I’m better in a zone than man to man but I still have the game set up in my head as good as I ever have.

Most of all, we function well as a team. We learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses and try to put each other in the best position to succeed. We generally love and respect each other like brothers and we always have each other’s back. It’s the classic case of, “I can pick on my brother but you better not say something bad about him.”

The Sorting Table

This is my refuge. This is where I can go at any time and just let the problems of the world melt away. I don’t have to have anybody with me, I don’t have to have good weather, I don’t have to find something on Netflix and I don’t have to even leave the house. This is where my peace of mind is found on even my toughest days. I can sit down with something costly like Topps Heritage or I can sit down with a $4.99 repack box from Walgreens and I’ll have just as much fun. In some cases, I have more fun with the repacks. I can sort alphabetically, numerically, by team, by player, by year or by product. It doesn’t matter when I sit down at the sorting table because there are no rules. There are no expectations. The sorting table is for relaxation and peace of mind.

The sorting table can take me back to my youth or it can give me a glimpse into the future with some new wave product. I can collect baseball, football or basketball; whatever I’m in the mood for. I can work on my Braves, UGA, Falcons or Hawks PC. I can work on my Dated Rookies project, my 1990 Topps quest or my goal of completing the 1977 Topps Baseball Set from my birth year. There is no agenda and anything goes. Every day is different but the goal is the same. This is where I enjoy the best hobby in the world and I can go to any time period from 1977 til now. I can remember trades with my friends, games I played with the cards, the first set I owned, the first product I opened, the first Rated Rookie I pulled. I can find it all at the sorting table.

And tonight, we find something that connects two of my happy activities; the sorting table and basketball. My love for basketball was white hot in 1991 when this Hoops set hit the scene. The NBA will never be as good as it was then and nobody will ever convince me otherwise. This set was not the first I had in my collection but was very early in my basketball days. Hoops was abundant in my hometown, along with Skybox, and was the set I went looking for on my trips to Wal-Mart. Despite how much I loved it then, this box didn’t age well through 2018. Notice the hats and shirts say “NBA” instead of a team name. What a cheesy photo. Luckily, the contents inside the box got much better!

Hoops was known for its “baggy” style pack, much like Score of the junk wax era.

It doesn’t take long to realize why the NBA was at its best during this time. Starting with the guards, you have legends like Isiah Thomas, Magic Johnson, John Stockton, Clyde Drexler and Reggie Miller. Richmond and Hardaway were the 91 version of Harden and Paul today. I also believe that today’s collector or NBA fan will never truly understand how good of a player Drazen Petrovic was! What a start to the box review with these guards!

There isn’t a drop off to the forwards either! Larry Bird, Charles Barkley, Karl Malone, Dominique Wilkins and Shawn Kemp keep the nostalgia train rolling. I was a huge fan of Sean Elliott too and coveted his rookie cards from the year before. I was at a summer camp when Reggie Lewis died and I still remember sitting on the bed seeing that news on ESPN.

Of course there aren’t as many centers to be found because there was only one starter per team. But there are still some headliners like David Robinson, Hakeem Olajuwon and Patrick Ewing. Manute Bol was always a fan favorite and I remember the game when he drilled six 3 pointers in a single half in 1993! Draymond Green fans would’ve loved Bill Laimbeer.

How about some coaches? Look how young this quartet looks!

I came up pretty empty overall on the East All-Star team. I like Wilkins, Ewing and Barkley of course but I don’t remember clamoring for Ricky Pierce and Alvin Robertson cards.

The West was a little stronger with Drexler, Hardaway, Magic, Mullin, Admiral and Stockton.

Here are the award winners from the previous season. Anybody think MVP wasn’t going to be MJ? Rodman as defensive POY seems like a lock too. The Skiles award surprised me a little.

This subset commemorated rookie seasons of the past. Gotta love the Chief Warriors jersey.

I was happy to add another Bird and Jordan to the stack. These were “milestones” and Jordan was points and Larry was points, rebounds and assists.

Remember the weekly NBA show “Inside Stuff” with Amhad Rashad? Here’s the inserts dedicated to the show.

I remember the big push from the NBA for kids to stay in school. Each set had some cards dedicated to that cause. This is a neat Will Smith card.

The league leaders were cool dual cards with nice designs. I obviously remember Jordan and the Mailman lighting up the scoreboard but I would’ve never guessed that Trent Tucker and Jim Les led the league in 3 Pt Percentage.

The team cards were mostly standard on court photos but there were a couple nice photos like the Lakers and Pacers. The best one was the Hornets card!

Lastly, I truly don’t remember ever pulling this card as a kid. This Centennial Card has a nice silver foil that seems a little ahead of its time.

The NBA was unbelievable in the early 90’s and fans today that didn’t get to experience it will never understand. This set was a prime example of the greatness of 91 basketball. The design is clean, there are a ton of superstars and there are plenty of insert type cards to provide a nice variety. The box was only $6.95 at my LCS so price is almost non-existent. I love early 90’s Hoops and this year is my personal favorite. I also enjoyed Skybox from this year and I’ll probably review it soon as well. I can’t think of any negatives to this set other than the fact that it’s smack dab in the middle of the junk wax era and you can still find them everywhere. Still, this set is a “5” on the Dub-O-Meter and I thoroughly enjoyed this nostalgic rip!

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?