Big Bag O'Cards- Closing Ceremonies

Today is the final installment of the Big Bag O'Cards, and while its been a fun couple weeks of posting, I'm ready to move on.  The title tonight is in reference to the Summer Olympics opening ceremonies which is about to begin (actually it already DID begin and NBC is running it on a tape delay).  At any rate, it doesn't tie into my theme really but needed a clever name.  Let's dig in one last time.

Let's get Topps heavy to begin.  Yesterday I got a Ted Williams, and today I got a Trout.  Who cares they aren't the ones your thinking of, its just nice to pull them.  Look at some of the top stars if the late 80s in Wade Boggs, Jose Canseco, and Will Clark.  All three have a card or two in my PC.  I won't commit on collecting Clark and Jose full time, but I do have a page full of Boggs, so I'm not sure I'll keep this one to be honest, that is if I don't already have it.

That's a nice photo of Bobby Bonilla smacking the ball on that 92 Topps.  The All-Star cards didn't impress me as much as the rest of the base set, but I still liked them.  I also got a Greg Gagne, who would later on play for the Royals.  He has the same name as Verne Gagne's son, Verne ran the AWA Wrestling federation up in Minneapolis.  I wonder if people confused the two a lot.  I believe they pronounce their names different though (at least I always did), as this Greg's last name was like "GAG-knee" and the Wrestling Greg's name was "Gone-YAY".  It wasn't too long after the AWA closed their doors up north that the baseball player left the Twin Cities as well, and that's when he landed in Cow Town.

Grey borders remind me of cloudy days.  There's plenty of stuff to look at, but you just don't feel like it.   That said, I like looking at all these grey border cards, especially the Leaf's on the top row.  Storm Davis would soon be a Royal and Curt Schilling just became a Phillie I think.  Larry Walker would spend a little longer in Canada before heading to the Rockies, and Jim Abbott was one of my favorite pitchers of that era.  I like all four cards, but I'm happiest for the Schilling because he is more or less a PC player by now and I like getting some of his earlier cards.

The bottom row stacks up almost as well as the top, with a Big Cat sighting on the left hand side.  I believe Andres also made a stop in Colorado but I can't remember if he was teammates with Larry Walker.  Next to him is a 92 Fleer of Andy Van Slyke.  Something about Andy I liked, so it was nice to pull this one.  I think I preferred these Fleer cards to the Leaf ones but I don't exactly know why.  I think a lot of it had to do with them using more color.

Speaking of more color, Donruss really connected with the Will Clark card.  The red really stands out, so much so that I might slide it into my PC.  On the other hand, the dark blue used for the Brewers didn't translate as well, but it is still a nice effort. I wasn't a fan of the Brewers dark blue jerseys, but I did like their logo at the time.

A friend asked me last night if I could only have one brand to make baseball cards, which would it be?  I replied Topps because they are the only current one with a license and have been around so long, but I mentioned if I could bring one back, it would be Score.  Score never really went for middle of the road with their designs, you either loved them or hated them.  They rarely stayed the same, as evidenced by these cards above.  Look at the difference between 91 and 92.  Most brands made slight adjustments for a few years then go with something different, Score changed up every year.  The other cards are I think 1995 and 1996.  Again, they completely changed their look in a span of a year.  In 1995 they even changed their logo.  I'm not saying the logo change was their downfall, but their old one was just fine to me.

As for the players, the names aren't too bad, glad I pulled yet another Whiten, and also the Thome.  Also while I was never a fan of his, I do like the David Wells card.  It got me thinking about maybe making a frankenset of pitchers who threw no hitters or perfect games.  I could make for an interesting set.  Though I'd imagine it would be tough getting a Koufax or Drysdale card for cheap (from their era that is), so I might hold off.

More randomness here mostly from Topps, well I guess all from Topps one way or another.  The Strawberry stands out, and I've come to appreciate the Gold Future cards more than I did at the time they were released.

Another set I really liked was 94 Collector's Choice.  These players are some of the reasons.  Don Mattingly and Chan Ho Park are my favorites in here.  The others ones are good too.

Some more Collector's Choice, with more solid names like Mike Schmidt and Roberto Alomar.  An international card of Hideo Nomo stood out as it was the first time I saw it.  The Road To The Show cards are nice as I started liking them after getting a few of the Johnny Damon card.  The pinstripes of the Cubbies really stand out on the Luis Gonzalez card too.

At this point you can tell I'm rushing a bit.  I'm just trying to finish up have a few other things I have to do tonight.

Here is some 90's goodness from all kinds of brands.  The Todd Zeile card reminded me that he played on the Phillies.  I totally forgot about that.  The Greg Vaughn Leaf card is slightly miscut, but I kind of like it because of that.  The Reggie Sanders card is nice because I don't remember it and it appears it was an insert of the Revolution set.  Though they might have seemed inferior to the other brands, I liked the Pacific sets.

So its time for one last scan.  This is only four cards, but they are some good ones.

I didn't realize Todd Zeile also played for the Cubs.  I think it was interesting to pull cards of him on teams other than the Cardinals.  Either the previous owner was a fan of his even after he left St. Louis, or it was pure luck.  Most collectors I don't think would specifically seek out guys once they moved on unless they had a PC of them.

A couple more solid names to finish out the set in Juan Guzman and Fred McGriff.  The Crime Dog is really underrated when it comes to Hall of Fame voting.  I'm not saying he should be a sure thing inductee, but he should be getting more votes than he got.  McGriff had a few stops in the MLB, but I remember him mostly as a Padre.

So with that, we are done with the big bag of cards my sister got me from a Saver's store in St. Louis.  It really tempts me to go find a Saver's and look for some, but I don't plan on seeking one out just for that.  I have toyed with the idea of hitting a few flea markets in the next month or so, but not sure I will.  Right now I'm focusing on a few things, but one of them is maybe going on a short day trip or two.  A couple of the dates coincide with some card shows, and I'd love to go to them and check that off my goal list.  One would be close enough to hit a LCS which would knock another goal off.  If I don't go, I hope to at least find some cards at a flea market or two.

I might hit a few garage sales tomorrow and I hope to find some good cards there, but we'll see.  As for now, I hope to go to sleep soon, but if I can't (as I bet I won't) I'll be working on my site redesign.  I spent a good amount of time on it last night before making a mistake and had to start over again.  I think a lot of the stuff is done but I want to make sure I have everything worked out before I present it.  My plan is to have it up towards the end of the month and no later than Labor Day.  I could switch it over now, but I think I'll be a bit busy the next couple weeks so I want to be around in case something goes wrong.

Anyways, thanks for reading these posts the last couple weeks on these cards, and I hope I've entertained you.  I still have plenty of other things to post, but I might take the weekend off.  So if you don't see me around don't fret, I just might have plans.  I hope everyone has a great weekend no matter if you have big plans or plan to be like Homer Simpson watching nonstop coverage of the Olympics and eating Krusty Burgers.  If I'm at home I plan to watch the special on CMT of Smokey and the Bandit, even though I think I'll know most of it.  I have almost perfected the Burt Reynolds laugh, something I'm proud of.  At any rate, whatever you end up doing, have a good one.