As I mentioned yesterday, my sister wanted to look at the cards first and hey, she bought them, so I'm more than okay with her going through them. I think she actually enjoyed it, and while I don't think it will get her to become a collector, who knows, maybe her daughters might get an itch to start collecting and she'll know the thrill of opening the packs can be. Also it would mean their uncle will be able to find some cards for them.
Anyways, lets look at some cards.
Doug Men... oops, I mean Maink... oops, let me try one more time, Mient... I give up. He once played for the Royals, I believe he was teammates with Mark Grudzielank (hey, I think I spelled that one right) while they were both in KC. Anywho, I can add Doug M. (that's easier) to my Once Royal collection. I'll have to check to see if I have the Bill Pecota, but I'm pretty sure I do. It's still an interesting card, but could have summed up many seasons for the Royals between 1986 and 2013. Next is Batman's brother, Gary Wayne. At least that's what my sources tell me, but they aren't reliable sources. Following Mr. Wayne is Charlie Hough. He looked like he was 90 about 8 years before he retired, but I always liked him though I don't remember him ever playing, I just remember him from my baseball cards.
Second row starts with Paul Konerko. I didn't care for the font of the players name on the Ultra card, but overall I did like the card. It was one I wouldn't mind getting more of. Next is a Classic card of Cecil Espy. I think this is from their game series of cards, but Classic seemed to have 600 sets so its anyone's guess. At least Classic didn't have subsets and all that, so I didn't oppose it much, but I never had any aside from the minor league cards.
"Hey ladies, you ever hook up with a baseball player before?" That's the vibe I got from the Matt Young card. I liked the 1987 Fleer set though, in fact I placed it a lot higher than a lot of their other sets. Lastly in this batch is a Fleer Tradition of Mark Loretta. I liked the Fleer Tradition cards a lot as they felt more cardboard than most other cards produced at the time. Some may not be fans of the blank background, but at least its not a floating head, so there's that.
A trio of Cardinals starts the rest of the pack. Pedro Guerrero was really the only one that I remember seeing play on the Cardinals. I remember Milt Thompson being on the team, but don't really remember him playing. Same with Curt Ford. The 1991 Donruss set I liked better, but for a team like the Cardinals the red border of the 1990 cards work better.
On the bottom is a card I don't remember. The Fleer Tradition Team Photo card of the Indians was really glossy, I don't know if I ever had a glossy Tradition card. It was really weird, but I do like it. I will have to find more of them. It could be a nice little set of team photos to gather. Next to it is a Bowman card of the Carlos Quentin. The card is very unimpressive to me, but it isn't a terrible set. Something I realized the other day though is this. I notice not many people call the team the Diamondbacks anymore, most just call them D-Backs. Not even online, but in general. It's not like Tampa, who grew tired of being Devil Rays, and shortened it to Rays (which is a dumb name, but they should have realized Devil Rays probably wouldn't have stuck in the first place), they just say the D-Backs as its their official name. It bugs me not because I like the name Diamondbacks, though I think its pretty cool. I don't like the shortened name because it almost sounds like D-Bags, and that isn't a name I would like to associate to a professional sports team unless they truly deserved it. I understand that its shorter to say, but they (like Tampa) should have realized when coming up with a name, that just like naming a child, it sticks around for the life of the team. If they wanted something shorter, they should have thought of that in the naming process. Also if the Rays wanted to shorten their name, why not drop the BAY from Tampa and be the Tampa Devil Rays? That sounds a lot cooler than the Tampa Bay Rays. Maybe instead of worrying about their team name they could find a way to fix their horrible looking field.
Okay, enough ranting, but anytime I get to take a jab at the field in Tampa, I'll take it. As for this pack, it had some good cards, but lacked a bit on Star Power. Still, it was 20 cards, so it was a good deal. On to pack two.
I'm not sure where to begin on this pack. I through the Wade Taylor card in to balance 4 cards to a row. Jim Leyland looks odd without a tobacco product in his hand (I mean it was the 80's it was still allowed), but I do like the manager cards. My favorite card of the pack is the Todd Worrell card. It seems Fleer hit a home run in 1987 with their designs. I'm not sure where the wheels fell off, but it was before 1991 I know that much. The top row concludes with a Once Royal of Pat Sheridan. I'm not a big fan of the wood grain set from Topps, so if I find another card of Sheridan I might swap it out, but for now it stays.
Bottom row isn't much better, but I do like Jose Oquendo, so that was a nice get. I always thought he was underrated. I don't know Tim Hummel, but getting a Chrome Prospect card of him was kinda cool. Finally I was going to make a Robin Leach joke, but after I scanned it noticed it was Lerch, not Leach. So much for champagne wishes and caviar dreams. That last line will cement my blog legacy as if I'm just a pop culture nerd, or just old. Anyone younger than me may not get it, but hopefully some will. I guess I could have done an Addams Family connection in there with Lerch, but nothing rang in my head. Oh well.
Pack one lacked Star Power. Pack two delivers with a lethal combination of Reggie Jackson and Mike Schmidt. That is really a pack saving card right there. I was pleasantly pleased with pulling this one. Next to it is a Mark Langston card my sister liked. She liked those types of cards. I liked it too as I always liked Mark Langston. That's a nice shot of his jersey representing the Identity Crisis Angels From The State Of California Situated In The Metropolitan Area Of Los Angeles.... or whatever they want to be called anymore. It was much simpler when they were the California Angels and didn't need two city names in their title. Plus we got a baseball movie out of it with Tony Danza, Danny Glover, and Christopher Lloyd. Those were fun times.
Bottom row also shows a fun time with a team I wish was still around, the Montreal Expos. I will say though, I like the Nationals in Washington, so maybe if Montreal gets a team again, it can be the Rays. They seem to like changing their name, and wherever they decide to play in Canada surely will look better than the field they have in Tampa. TWO REFERENCES TO THE CRAPPY FIELD IN TAMPA! I JUST SET A NEW PERSONAL BEST! NOW I HAVE SOMETHING TO SHOOT FOR! Sorry, I like to humor myself a bit while I type this. I have no pre-planned thoughts before writing these, so I usually just write what comes to mind.
Lastly is the backside of the Oquendo I showed in the previous scan. If this was a 2016 card, this would be a rare short print 1/1 or something equally stupid. That looks like a gum stain to me, and some genius at Topps thought they should replicate it on current cards. For some foolish reason, some collector's ate it up and I have to really question their collecting goals if they desire such cards. Sorry if I offended any of you, but that has to be one of the worst gimmicks in recent memory, aside from pulling tabs on cards to see if you win something. So ruining perfectly fine cards to risk getting another card. Man, this hobby sure has changed.
As for this pack. On the Langston and the Reggie/Schmidt cards alone this pack was worth it, not to mention the Worrell and Oquendo cards. This one was a great pack.
The next pack was an all sports pack, it also had 30 cards instead of 20. I usually strike out on them, but lately don't see them much so I never get them. Let's see how these pan out.
Okay, this was a good pack. Just for the Brett Favre card that I can add to my PC, it was worth it. However, the Bob Johnson and Charlie Grimm cards also make this a better than great pack. If it was only these 4 cards, it was worth the buck. I'm not big on NBA but I do know of Cuttino Mobley and I like this design, so it holds its own against these other cards in this scan.
Aw man, here's where I could have used a Robin Leach reference, but I wasted it earlier. Dangit! Two hockey cards ins't bad for one of these packs, sometimes I don't even get one. I'm fine with that since I don't really collect much hockey, but they were nice to see. I like the Jerome Williams card, I think I saw a similar one on Trading Card Database not long ago as the card of the day. It's not a bad design, but a bit too much white border on the left side. I like the Hoops card of Hubert Davis though I don't remember much about him. Marcus Kennedy I don't think I ever heard of before, so I'm not sure if its a great card to get or not.
Two cards I like are the Team MVP cards of James Worthy and Isiah Thomas. I'll never come around to being a fan of Isiah, but the card is cool. Isiah was a good player, I'll never deny that, but he couldn't talk, couldn't coach, couldn't be a GM, and couldn't announce. Somehow, he managed to be able to do all those things at some point. I think the one that upset me most was the genius who thought he should announce. What was worse was he sounded like a dumber version of Madden. Madden at least explained things, even though they were obvious or could be figured out. Isiah left viewers questioning their sanity.
"Isiah, what did you think of that game winning three pointer at the buzzer for the Bulls?"
"Well, I think they shot the ball from behind the three point line and it allowed them to win the game."
I pulled out my hair just imaging that probably really happened at some point.
As for James Worthy, I always liked him, so I have no complaints with him, and it is a nice card. My favorite of the non baseball cards though is the Alonzo Mourning Stadium Club card. It was because of him and Larry Johnson that I became a Charlotte Hornets fan back in the day. Generally I didn't have a favorite team, but I did like them and Muggsy Bogues so it was as close to liking a team as I got. When they split them up, I stopped cheering for the Hornets, but always rooted for them. I was a Miami Heat fan for a bit when Zo played down there, so pulling this card was nice. I don't think I ever had a non-baseball Stadium Club card, and this one is a lot nicer then the early 90's ones. So that is nice.
As for baseball stars, I think this one delivered. I consider Matt Williams and Joe Carter stars though some may not. I definitely consider Frank Thomas a star, and I'm not sure I have this card of his. I'm just happy Fleer rebounded so much between 1991 and 1992. The difference in design is night and day. I was surprised to get an SSPC card, and one of an Expo to boot, and next to him is a Once Royal of John Habyan.
Bottom row aside from Joe Carter, has more stars like Darren Daulton and Doug Drabek. I don't collect cards of Daulton, but I do have some, this one might be my earliest of him. I did like him back in the day. Speaking of liking, I really liked the Score Select design as shown here. Add to it the very nice uniforms of the Pittsburgh Pirates and its a can't miss card. It even gets bonus points for the sweet 'stashe that Doug is sporting.
Wrapping up the pack is a Mark Gubicza which I need to see if I have. I'm actually leaning towards no, so it might be worth the buck for the pack just to get a Royal card I needed. If not, its still a nice card to have, and possible one I could set aside for a TTM autograph if I ever decided to do some of those.
So without a doubt, that pack was worth a buck. In total all the cards combined were worth three bucks, with the standouts being the Favre, Worrell, and possibly the Gubicza (if I need it) or the Mourning.
That will wrap it up for tonight, but in case you missed it yesterday (or this morning depending on the time I actually posted it and you read it) I got a big package of cards from my sister who bought them at a Saver's in St. Louis recently, and tomorrow I'll start posting them.
Thanks for reading, and I hope everyone has a great week.
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