Baseball Card Perfection

I don't really have the time or energy to properly post and do justice to this card, but I'll give it a shot anyhow. Over the last couple of weeks I've gone from just organizing my cards into teams, to actually getting a chance to go through them more closely. One of my favorite players to collect as a kid was Bo Jackson.

It was impossible to escape the superstar known simply as Bo. At a time when there was no internet available for following sports, Bo was everywhere. NFL, MLB, commercials, magazine ad and of course sports cards. I can't even imagine how big a star a guy like Bo Jackson would be in today's world of over-saturated media coverage. Honestly, we're probably lucky that Bo was a part of the 80s/90s and not today. After about a month of Bo in today's world, we all would have turned on him and hated ESPN for the constant coverage of all things Bo.

I was all about Bo as a kid. I had pictures from Sports Illustrated on my binder at school, posters on my walls at home and every baseball and football card I could find. Everyone wanted the Score card featuring Bo with bat and shoulder pads and I was a fan of most of his football cards, but for me it was always more about the baseball cards.

I was fascinated by the 87 Topps Future Star card, I was always in search of cards from the 1986 traded sets, and it seemed to me like every Bo Jackson card was a beauty. Even so, it wasn't until 1990 that I found what has become my favorite of all Bo Jackson cards.

1990 Upper Deck

Bo was the ultimate athlete and this card shows that mix of grace and power with ease. As far as baseball, Bo will most likely always be remembered for his home run in the 1989 All-Star game in Anaheim, breaking bats over his knee and running up the outfield wall. This card features Bo in the field, maximum effort and as always (at least in the eyes of a 12 year old) coming through with the big play.

As time has passed I've begun to appreciate this card for other reasons. While the 1990 Upper Deck design was a bit of a letdown after the pleasing shock of 1989, the design is minimal and pleasing in this instance. In no way does it distract from the photo, which is clearly the star here. I also love the old school baseball feel of this photo. OK, I realize my definition of old school in this instance is only a look back about 20 years ago, but still. Bo's wearing real stirrups. And even better, he's rocking the flip up shades, which have managed to keep Bo's hat from flying off his dome while at full sprint. Just a piece of baseball card art.

Even the back of this card is pleasing to me.

1. You have to love the all blue Royals road unis.
2. The picture is taken at the Big A, always a plus for a Halo fan.
3. The biceps of doom are on full display.
4. Short career=full stats up through 1989.

OK, I'll stop belaboring my point. I love this card. Truly an example of baseball card perfection.

Go Halos!

Fave 4: Kansas City Royals

Again, all credit goes to Night Owl and his list inspiration which has led me to the start of this. I'd also like to hurl all of my aggravation at him as well. Coming up with these lists is already driving me nuts. I figured I would start with a team like Kansas City, one I have never really followed too closely and don't spend too much time concerning myself. I figured that finding 4 worthy of my list might be a struggle, but then I found myself having to make a couple of difficult decisions.

So here they are in order from 1st Fave to the 4th.

1. Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson

Bart Knows Bo


How could I go with anyone other than Bo for my favorite Royal of all-time? Sure, George Brett is the Kansas City Royals, but for me Bo is the ultimate athlete. I grew up idolizing Bo Jackson and one of my first actual authentic New Era baseball hats was a Royals hat, solely because I loved Bo. He was an iconic athlete and pop culture phenom. Bo easily comes in first place in this Fave 4 installment, and because of that he gets 3 cards displayed here. Lucky guy.


2. George Brett

This guy was the franchise for so many years. To this day when I think Royals, I think George Brett. Although I like Brett while he was playing, it's since he's retired that I've really grown to appreciate him. He is an all-time great and deserving of a top 2 spot on the Fave 4.

3. Tom "Flash" Gordon

Gordon's sensational rookie season in 1989 made this card an absolute must-have. And although the Griffey rookie from this set is one of my favorite cards of all-time, this card represents that set to me almost as much. The color combos mixed with the grin that is lacking from Griffey make this a great card. He never recaptured the magic of his rookie season as a starter, but he's gone on to be a top of the line reliever for a long while and I have rooted for him at every stop, even with the Yankees.


4. Brian McRae

This was my first really tough call of the series. A lot of names that were floating in my head were deserving of this spot, but for some reason I kept coming back to McRae. A look back at his stats reveals nothing to get excited about, but my fond memories of Brian go back to a simpler time. A time when I spent hours playing Strat-o-matic baseball. For some reason, Brian McRae was a beast for me. Every time I rolled the dice, my numbers would come up perfectly for McRae. So despite his not so great work on the field, he still stands out as one of my Fave 4 Royals of all-time.

Those who just missed the list:
Bret Saberhagen

Danny Tartabull


Both of these players are more deserving statistically and a true Royals fan would most likely have them much higher than Brian McRae, but that's not what this is about.

Recap:
I noticed very quickly when making my Royals list that it's been a long time since I gave a crap about a Royals player. Gordon's last season with the Royals was 1995 and since then I guess my interest has waned. A good young nucleus of Alex Gordon and my daughter Hailey's favorite Billy Butler may make them relevant again at some point, but it may be another 15 years before this list sees any changes from me.

So the first edition of Fave 4 is in the books. The Kansas City Royals are accounted for with only one major upset.

The Battle For 1987 Cardboard Supremacy: Fleer!

It's a close race going into the last pack. Topps came out strong with 49 points and Donruss followed that up with a very impressive 56, but my anger at not getting a Rated Rookie forced me to deduct 8 points and put them 1 behind Topps. Hopefully Fleer can outdo them both and put an end to the madness. So where do we start? With the stickers of course.




I love the fact that the rack pack provides you with 3 stickers. Topps offers no bonus materials and while the Donruss puzzle pieces are decent when you have them all, on their own they offer no excitement. While the A's and Cardinals stickers are nice and I much prefer the solo stickers over the dual sticker, the Pads/Yanks sticker set is at least quite prophetic. Who would have guessed that 11 years down the line these two teams would face off in one of the worst Fall Classics I can remember? Fleer, that's who.
Points scored: +3 for cool addition to the cards, +2 for predicting the 1998 WS, -1 for that WS sucking. Total = 4 points.

Let's start off with the insert.

Card No. 4 of 6 of the Fleer Headliners Subset. Not sure what the point of this card was and why they only produced 6 headliners, but an additional Rickey card is always a good thing. The design is horrible and I don't get what any of this has to do with headlines or headliners, but that's the '80s for you.
Points scored: +5 for newly inducted Hall of Famer, +2 for insert, -2 for making no sense. Total = 5 points.

Major League Prospects: Dave Clark and Greg Swindell.

These three rack packs would have been an Indian fans dream and perhaps the death of my favorite Reds fan, BRNW. I had the Andy Allanson rookie cup, the Brook Jacoby Diamond King and now the Clark/Swindell Prospects card. Swindell had the one big 18 win season and then did everything in his power to become a .500 pitcher, ending his career at 123 wins and 122 losses.
Points scored: +2 for the excitement of prospects, -1 for the failure of prospects. Total = 1 point.

Onto the "stars"

Vincent Van Go. While Vince will be remembered by most for his speed on the basepaths, I'll always remember him for 2 other reasons. 1. The guy lit firecrackers and threw them into a group of fans looking for autographs, injuring a 2 year old. 2. He didn't freaking know who Jackie Robinson was!!
Fleer may have been dealt a death blow, this will be tough to recover from.
Points scored: +3 for being a star at the time, -5 for injuring 2 year olds, -5 for not knowing who one of the most important athletes of all-time was. Total = -7 points.

The man K-Rod destroyed for the saves title: Bobby Thigpen

Can you tell that the stars weren't terribly plentiful in this pack? This card made it for a few reasons. 1. The nerdy pose combined with the old school Sox garb. 2. It's a rookie card of a notable player in baseball history. 3. I'm hoping K-Rod's career mirrors his after the setting of the saves record.
So that last one is kinda mean-spirited, but oh well. It's amazing to think that he set the saves record in 1990 and by 1993 he was essentially out of the game, with one save that season and none in 1994.
Points scored: +3 for being historically significant at his position, -1 for reminding me that my team has no proven closer now. Total = 2 points.

Bobby Bo.

A pretty good rookie card, despite Bonilla having cards in 1986 update sets with the White Sox. Bobby Bo was one of those guys who made the mistake of jumping to New York for the money and just not handling it well. It's a fate I in no way wish upon K-Rod and Mark Teixeira...yeah right. Bonilla bounced around a ton in his later career, but I still remember his fondly as a productive hitter, an eventual World Champion and part of one of the weirdest trades ever for Mike Piazza.
Points scored: +3 for being a legitimate star, +2 for the yellow Pirates helmet. Total = 5 points.

The Halos.

A Superstar Specials card with 300 game winners Don Sutton and Phil Neikro...yup another Indian. Although Sutton wasn't an Angel for very long, it's always kinda cool to have players reach milestones while wearing your team's uni.
Points scored: +5 for Halo sweetness, +2 for being a horizontal Fleer card. Total = 7 points.


Rupert might be the poster child for the "Guys Who Made the All-Star Team Because They Were on Bad Teams With No Real All-Stars". Rupert pulled this feat off twice, once with Seattle in '77 and once with San Diego in '82.
Points scored: +5 for Halo sweetness, -1 for All-Star legitimacy questions. Total = 4 points.


The Halos just keep on comin'. The cool part about the 1987 cards featuring Angels is that you realize they were part of a pennant winner in 1986. The bad part is that you start thinking about Donnie Moore and it all comes crashing down. I don't know many Angel fans who really liked Jack Howell, he always seemed to have more potential than production.
Points scored: +5 for Halo sweetness, -1 for lack of kick assness. Total = 4 points.


Much like the Jack Howell card, this photo is an uninspired shot taken during batting practice, the difference in that Hendrick is sorta the anti-Howell. Whereas Howell looks meek and confused on his card, Hendrick looks like he would kick your ass for making fun of him on your stupid blog.
Points scored: +5 for Halo sweetness, +2 because George Hendrick at 59 would still probably lay a whooping on me. Total = 7 points.

Yup, one last Angel.

Downing is one of the most beloved Halos in franchise history. He was the Incredible Hulk in wire rim glasses. I always remember wondering how this nerdy guy got to be so huge.
Points scored: +5 for Halo sweetness, +3 for being an all-time Angel great. Total = 8 points.

From the sublime, to the ridiculous.

While Brian Downing made the wire rim glasses cool, well at least as cool as the wire rim glasses can be, Vance did nothing to further their reputation.
Points scored: +2 for retro nerd factor. Total = 2 points.

Pirate hat oddity.

Another example of everything that was wrong with these hats. Bielecki attempts to wear the hat high on his head, which only extends it higher into the sky and makes it more prominent and just not right.
Points scored: +4 for Pirate hat oddity, -2 for trying to improve on the look by perching it atop your dome. Total = 2 points.

Tekulve.

Soak it in. The glasses have been well discussed by Night Owl in one of the coolest posts I've read. An added bonus for this card is the look of confusion on the face of Tekulve. Probably trying to figure out just how cool he actually is.
Points scored: +5 for Tekulve, +2 for the contemplative Tekulve. Total = 7 points.

And the jewel of it all.

Easily my favorite 1987 Fleer card. I was stoked to pull this card from the rack pack. For the most part, I really like the blue borders on these cards, but it doesn't look better on any card than it does on this one. The combination of the two blues on the uniform and hat, the smile from Bo, it all just comes together. Of the 1987 Bo's this just edges out the Topps card as my favorite. Worth the price of all 3 rack packs, easily. Of course all 3 cost a combined 2 dollars, so that's not saying much.
Points scored: +5 for iconic card status, +5 for Vincent Edward "Bo" Jackson amazingness. Total = 10 points.

An iconic card and a plethora of Halos has pushed Fleer over the top with 61 points. The official results will come in soon, but it does appear that Fleer has come out on top in this hotly contested matchup.

Go Halos!

Craptacular Pack Break: The Fleer Packs

In my boredom and desire to pick up packs from my childhood, I bought a 9 pack lot of late 80's/early '90s junk. And when I say junk, I say it with no anger. This is the stuff I grew up on, like so many others and it holds a special place for me. Plus, I like opening really cheap packs filled with about 15 cards and flipping through them with the daughter. We had a ball, here are the results of the 2 Fleer packs. 1990 and 1992.

1990 Fleer may be one of my least favorite sets from this time period. There are essentially no memorable cards from the set, the design is bland, and the photography is not exactly top notch. The saving grace...Stickers!

This was by far Hailey's favorite part of the packs. She has quickly absconded with them and they are slowly showing up around the home. The first one I ran across was the Twins sticker on the laundry hamper in the bathroom. I'd really like to see a company bring back stickers to the base product. The Upper Deck holograms were always a highlight to me.

The next card is appropriate mainly because today is a special day. Lemkepalooza 2009 has begun over at Cardboard Junkie.

I've never been much a Braves fan and I always kinda wanted to punch Lemmer in the face, but hey he was born in Utica, NY and I was born in Syracuse so we were basically neighbors until I moved to Texas 9 months later.

Next, a former Expos superstar.

A little baseball history for Hailey. I miss the Expos. Their stadium was hideous, I found watching their home games to be difficult, but I just can't get into the Nationals. As for Grissom, this guy was an absolute stud for a while. For a speedster, he hit a surprising 227 homeruns.

1985 NL MVP Willie McGee

Gotta love the contortion on this card. No disrespect for Willie, but he's not exactly the guy I picture when I think of MVPs of the past 25 years.

The Dual Prospect card of Matt Kinzer and Wayne Edwards

Kinzer - 9 games, 0-2 record.
Edwards - 62 games, 5-5 record
A prospector's dream.

The rest of the pack:
472 Bill Landrum
366 Allan Anderson
477 Rick Reed
510 Keith Comstock
267 Mike Boddicker
547 Steve Rosenberg
425 Rick Mahler
509 Darnell Coles
75 Matt Williams
406 Willie Randolph
192 Jay Tibbs

Now onto the pack of 1992 Fleer, it was slightly less lame than the pack of 1990.

Super Star Specials Barry Larkin and Kirby Puckett

It's weird, when I get a card like this in base Topps, I cringe and think why would you pair up this "Classic Combo", but for some reason I love this card. Maybe it's just the nostalgia and looking back at two '90s stars that I really liked, but it just works. The modern Duo cards just never seem to do it for me. This card was a definite highlight to the pack.

Ellis Burks

Although Burks had a really solid career, he always seemed like a disappointment to me. He was one of those guys whose cards I would horde away in my star boxes, expecting greatness and it just never happened. He had a couple of great years like 1996 in Colorado, but I thought he was destined to be a stud alongside Greenwell in Boston for years. Not so much.

Bo Jackson

Maybe my favorite athlete from my youth. This guy was just fascinating. His 1989 All Star homerun in Anaheim is still one of the coolest sports moments I've ever been a part of. Obviously the hip injury with the Raiders killed the momentum of his career, but I still remember being excited whenever he stepped to the plate.

Jim Abbott

How is this guy not a bigger legend? He pitched at a high level in the major leagues with one frickin' hand. I didn't even try to explain this one to my daughter. I just pointed out that he was an Angel and she was thrilled. He ended up 20 games under .500 in his career and certainly didn't live up to the expectations of the 8th pick of a draft, but the man was simply amazing.

The rest of the pack:
563 Joe Redfield
232 Scott Kamieniecki
405 Bill Doran
659 Pat Rice (Prospects)
207 Gene Larkin
342 Todd Stottlemyre
437 Xavier Hernandez
440 Rob Mallicoat
618 Bip Roberts
191 Dale Sveum
560 Llloyd McClendon
459 Orel Hershiser
620 Benito Santiago

Overall, the 1992 Fleer cards destroyed their 1990 brethren. The nostalgia factor was high for 1992 with cards of Bo, Kirby, Larkin, Orel, Abbott and Burks. Plus my boy Bip Roberts showed up, always a treat.

Still left to come, 1989, 1990 Donruss. 1992 Leaf. 1988, 1989, 1990, 1992 Score. 1986 Topps League Leaders.

Go Halos!