1991 Upper Deck: the Baseball Diamond Comes Home

In my collection: 20+ regular, 2 Ken Griffey, Sr

Griffey looks: zeroed in

Is this a good Griffey Card? Yes.  The last in a series of inter-related Upper Deck designs with some great shots of the Kid and his Dad.

The set: Upper Deck was still riding the crest of the wave they made in '89.  While a lot of other brands were playing catch up, Upper Deck was moving on with their great photography, quality card stock, and dual-sided full-color printing.

Nothing signifies Upper Deck's momentum more than the baseball diamond theme of their first three sets. In '89 you had the first base line, then the run to second in 1990.  Here the go-ahead run rounds third and goes home.

In other words: we're moving on - expect big things from us.

Here's a terrible visualization of the "Upper Deck baseball diamond" I put together:

Some elements carry over to the next year.  The position is always printed on the bags, the dirt tracks at the 1st and 3rd base lines, and we always start at the Upper Deck logo assuming the logo is the on-deck circle on the '89 card (is that pushing it?).

Check these out:

 

That's a Jordan card three years early (pre-rookie?), and an unbelievably young Chipper. 

Now let's take another look at that Griffey:

Junior is zeroed in on that pitcher something fierce.  The blurb on the back tells us that Griffey had had two pinch-hit opportunities in his career up to that point, and both were game-winning home runs.  That's a pretty amazing stat; but with the level of focus demonstrated on this card, it seems as plausible as ever.

And did I mention the tongue/flipped-up shades combo on the back?

Griffey also has a surprise card in '91 Upper Deck:





I suppose it's less surprising to see Junior make a cameo on his Dad's card than that of anyone else in the set, but the definition still applies. 

Looks like Junior may have done something gold glove-worthy on the field, and his dad is giving him a "good hustle" tap.  We also see Senior in what would eventually become Junior's number when he moves to his hometown Reds a decade later.  And not to sound weird, but Ken, Sr. has some nice eyelashes in this picture.  Overall, this is a great photo of the father-son pair in the short time they wore the same uniform.

There is a disparity among holograms in the 1991 Upper Deck base set.  I don't appear to have any of the variations to show you, but you can read about them here.  As a completist I would list them as collection needs, but that is a level of anal I just don't want to touch.

There were few really great sets in 1991, but Upper Deck made it happen.  The cherry on top was their 100-card Final Edition set.  Tune in tomorrow for that bit of tightness.

1999 Pacific Invincible: Not for Vinces



In my collection: 1 regular base, 1 Sandlot Heroes #18A and 1 #18B, 1 Seismic Force #17A and 1 #17B, 1 Flashpoint #18,

Griffey looks: yikes

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  Flipped-up shades and a tongue both on one card = must have.

The set: Pacific is weird, man.  By that I mean trying to assemble this post gave me blogger's block.  I really had no idea where to even start when it comes to covering Pacific cards, and yet here we are.  This post is the blogging equivalent of spinning a globe and stopping it with your finger - we landed on '99 Invincible, folks, so that's where we're going. 

One thing I do know: whatever you do, do not give these cards to Vince.

They're In-vincible.  Besides, guy's a douchecanoe.

Pacific always seemed like an oddball brand that had somehow become wildly successful, and Invincible is no different.  Just look at the cards: they don't look like they came from the same set at all.  Some of those inserts came in two different versions for no apparent reason.  The designs lack cohesion in just about every element.  It's like pulling teeth just trying to figure out what the card you are holding is called.  Every insert looks like a base card from a set entirely independent of the other cards.  Busting packs of this set must have been like opening a $4.99 Target repack - you could end up with just about anything from any set, but probably nothing very good.  

Case in point: here are the Griffeys:

Flipped-up shades plus visible tongue = yikes.  It also means I totally love this card.  For some reason it is more expensive than most of the inserts, I guess because it seems more like an insert than the inserts do.

There's a circle of translucent plastic with a Griffey image in it.  I don't know why - it's just there, ya know?  So weird.  Some bigwig at Pacific must have been like, "We have mastered the translucent plastic circle technology.  Let us unleash it unto the world in....oh, I don't know...1999......In.....vincible?  Sure, that works, whatevs.  Just make sure it is aesthetically unrelated to every other card in the set."



Flash Point #18



No cool theme or visual effects here - just some Times New Roman font thrown together with a little foil.  This is not the base card.  This is an insert called Flash Point.  Would you have guessed that was the name in a million years?  Heck, no.  It does have flipped-up shades, though.  I'd have called it Flipshadepoint.  That would have made more sense.



Sandlot Heroes #18A




Sandlot Heroes #18B



That's Sandlot Heroes, cards A and B.  It's not a bad-looking set, but why A and B?  The only difference between them is the pictures used - A has no tongue, B has lots of tongue.  The blurb is the same, the layout, even the numbering.  It's strictly a matter of tongue or no tongue. 

I'd also like to say that my Sandlot hero is James Earl Jones.  He was great in that movie.



Seismic Force #17A



Seismic Force #17A



Seismic Force #17B



Seismic Force #17B


It's pretty cool having baseball cards appear in both Spanish and English.  Apart from that this insert is ugly and stupid.  It's got almost nothing going for it.  Lucky for us, there are two versions.

Here is where things get confusing: I see tongue on the front of both those cards.  It protrudes a bit more in card A and is definitely funnier there.  The tongue in B is more incidental, so that would lead me to believe that is card A; but no, it's B.  So, when deciding which insert is which, just follow this simple rule:

When dealing with Ken Griffey, Jr. cards from 1999 Pacific Invincible inserts "Sandlot Heroes" and "Seismic Force," the card with visible tongue is always card B unless both cards have visible tongue in which case the card with the less prolific tongue is card B.  The card that is not card B will always be A.  Give neither card A nor B to Vince.  He is a douchecanoe.

There.  Memorize that and you'll be good to go.  Aren't you glad I researched this for you?  This is my life now.

Here's all the Griffeys I don't yet have from Invincible '99:

#133 Red
#133 Platinum Blue #/67
#133 Opening Day #/69
#133 Players' Choice
Sandlot Heroes SportsFest #18
Sandlot Heroes SportsFest #18B
Seismic Force SportsFest #17
Seismic Force SportsFest #17B
Diamond Magic #9
Giants of the Game #9
Thunder Alley #17

Again, this set as a whole is really weird.  It's like Pacific took all the throwaway designs from their other sets and mashed them all together into a single set.  It feels very ramshackle.

Taking aim....at your Pacific Invincible cards.

But don't think that will dissuade Vince from trying to get at them - not even for a moment.



1999 Topps Tek: Set Builders Despair

In my collection: 2 5B, Patterns 6 and 21

Griffey looks: well-planted

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  Shiny, refracting plastic cards in myriad patterns - a frustrating yet forward-thinking set.

The set: I'm sure you've heard of this one before - 45 players, 2 different poses per player, 30 different patterns per card.  That makes for 60 different base cards per player - the whole enchilada is a whopping 2700 cards.  That is not including two inserts and a gold variant for every pattern.  Set builders hate this one.

The cards are hard, sturdy plastic.  You could use them to chop tomatoes, dig a splinter out of your finger, and scale a fish.  After all that you'd still get a grade of BGS 9 or better.

There are also two inserts: one for rookies called FantasTEK Phenoms and one for stars called TEKnicians, both seeded at 1:18.

There are 30 different patterns per pose, each with a different number but no name.  If you are a regular sports card blog reader, you've probably scome across Community Gum who recently attempted to assign names to a lot of the patterns found in this set, a daunting task.  They included such names as Lumber River, Sketchy Diamond, and Grandma's Couch. 

Unfortunately I only have two patterns, but one of them was not listed on Community Gum's post, so I will be naming it today.

Let's look at some Griffeys:

This is pattern P-21, which Community Gum calls "Sketchy Diamond." 

It looks like Griffey may have grounded to first or maybe fouled across the first base line.  Either way, that right foot looks well-planted, and I don't think he's running anywhere soon.  But check out the back - flippy shades!

There are three trademarked names listed in the legalese on the back: Serillusion, Premier Illusion, and Select Metalization.  They sound like a trance DJ, a strip club, and the process by which Wolverine was surgically altered, respectively.

Scans can make refractor cards each look different; hence, this one looks a lot less gold than the other Tek card in this post even though they were both in the same scan.  I assure you they are the same amount of shiny and gold.

This is the one that did not already get a name.  Well, pattern P-06, I hereby dub thee "City Triangles."  We're not ones to go nuts on the creative names here at the Junior Junkie.  We aim for bland and easy to guess.

There are 121 different Griffeys to be had, 60 of which are #/10.  Here are the 119 Griffeys I still need from 1999 Topps Tek:

5A P01-P30
5A P01-P30 Gold (1:15)
5B P01-P30 (except P-06 and P-21)
5B P01-P30 Gold (1:15)
T1 TEKnicians (1:18)

Sadly folks are very proud of their Topps Tek Griffeys, charging between 7 and 8 bucks for commons in any pattern.  I don't see me completing this set anytime soon.  And this is only the 2nd of three years they made Topps Tek.  That means there's a whole lot of different patterns floating around out there.....
But that's what collecting is all about: perseverence, patience, and paying too much for things.

Hold the Inserts: 1999 Skybox Molten Metal

 

Skybox Supernatural #133

 


 
In my collection: 1 regular

Griffey looks: about to hit something very hard

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  While there are no inserts, the parallels are cool.  Plus it's the first year Skybox made baseball cards.

The set: Everyone was really excited when Topps decided to identify their short prints for 2013, but it seems Skybox beat them to it....by 14 years.

The 1999 Skybox Molten Metal base set was divided up into three subsets of various scarcity.  The first 100 cards called "Metal Smiths" are the most prevalent at four per pack, followed by the next 30 "Heavy Metal" cards at one per pack.  Griffey appeared in the rarest subset, "Supernatural," which is the last 20 players of the set at 1:2 packs.

So we ended up with a base set of 150 cards, 50 of which were short-printed for planned scarcity.  Not only that, but it was the 50 biggest names in baseball - the most desireable cards. 

I was no longer collecting at this point, and having just picked it up again short prints are still a new concept to me.  Serial numbered insert cards are one thing, but base cards?  That aren't variants?  In my research for this set I was surprised to see they'd been a device for card companies for so long.

Let's see that Griffey again:

 



I detect a shift of weight to the left foot here, right arm outstretched slightly to accomodate the cocked left elbow, and the focused stare of someone who's about to hit something very hard.....

 



Complete stats + flipped-up shades = successful back.

There are no inserts - only parallels.  Here are the Griffeys I am missing from Skybox Molten Metal '99:

Xplosion - 1:2
Fusion - 1:24
Fusion Sterling - #/500
Fusion Titanium - #/50

Those parallels are really made of metal which, while gimmicky, is also pretty darn cool.  As soon as I can get one, I'll post it here for looking at.

Too Many Medallions: 1998 Ultra

In my collection: 2 regular, 2 checklist #473, 1 checklist #473G Gold Medallion, 1 checklist #246, 2 Pizzazz, 3 Artistic Talents, 3 Big Shots, 1 Fall Classics, 1 Top 30

Griffey looks: like a boss

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  One of many card #1 cards assigned to Griffey by card companies, particularly in this set, and an exciting pack rip due to the large number of parallels and inserts.

The set: '98 Ultra was hitting the shelves right about the time I stopped collecting.  The officially-sanctioned Baseball Card Club at my school had disbanded, and I had nothing else keeping me engrossed in the hobby.  Plus I discovered girls. 

You know, now that I think about it, it was primarily the girls that distracted me from collecting.  Anyway, I wasn't buying packs.  That's what I'm saying here.

The design is nice and simple: full-bleed, nice raised foil script, and the updated Ultra logo.  The photography is also really good.  The back features a full-bleed, full-card photo with tons of stats and career highlights.

I know you card collectors can relate to this: you know when you're organizing a bunch of cards and you can't really tell what year the card is?  You may try to glean it from adding a year to the last line of stats or squinting to read the tiny copyright date.  Well Fleer noticed, so they started putting the set year in bold underneath their logo on the back.  Upper Deck started doing this as well.  Such a small change but great for collectors.

This set has an El Guapo-worthy plethora of inserts plus three different parallel sets, one of which is 1/1 (this one).  The subsets and checklists are all short-printed.  Those combined with the Gold, Platinum, and Masterpiece parallels add a big chunk to the "need it" column of '98 Ultra making this set a real asshole. 

Did I mention there's four of those 1/1 cards out there?  And one is a checklist?  Yeah.  Ouch.

If you add up all the base cards, subsets, parallels, inserts, and the four 1/1's you get 32.  I need 32 different Griffeys to complete this set. 

I have 9.

I think that if I had continued collecting through this time in the industry I would have developed an ulcer, something I did not get from girls.  This means that card collecting is, in fact, more frustrating than women. 

It may also be more expensive.  Think about that.

$1200, on sale for $720

Moving on, The toughest cards not counting the Masterpiece parallels are the Diamond Producers and Diamond Immortals inserts seeded 1:288 packs.  Both are valued in Beckett at $40.  Naturally, one is available on eBay for $720.00 (at the time of this post).  Yeah, it's a PSA 10, but come on.  You can get a 1993 Finest refractor for hundreds less.

Almost every insert from this set has Griffey as card #1.  That makes me want them even more.

I don't know what half the inserts even look like.  Remember when Beckett used to put pictures of all the different base and insert cards right there in the listings?  I miss that.  It would whet my card-buying appetite and give me the means to come up with a good want list.  Then again, it would probably be a lot thicker and more expensive (the Beckett, too).

Enough of that.  Let's look at some Griffeys!!!

How great is that front picture?  I don't even know what this guy just did to that ball, but I bet it was awesome.  Now he's watching his hit soar like a boss in no rush to run, taking in the awe of the crowd.  And I swear he's about to Dougie to first.

The lighting in the photo on the back is pretty much perfect like that of a late-afternoon game.  And look at that stat box - they did a great job fitting all that on one card.  And are those fielding stats?  Nice.

Checklists have come a long way.  If this didn't say "checklist," it could very well be the guy's base card.

Here's the Gold Medallion parallel:

This is much better than in previous years when it was just a little foil stamp.  Here's a side-by-side comparison fo the Gold Medallion parallel and the regular:

See how the swirly line is replaced by a description of the parallel?  That's a thing, too.

Here's the other checklist:

 

The green writing pops a lot better in this scan.  This is one of three cards from '98 Ultra that feature the flipped-up glasses look, but let's not spend all day on checklists, shall we?

The Pizzazz subset holds the record for most Z's on a Griffey.  That might not be true, but I sincerely doubt there's one with more.  Four on the front, four on the back: this is a ton of freakin' Z's.  If I find more, you'll be the first to know, gentle reader.

The background on the front has a rough texture, almost like sandpaper but less abrasive.  There is also a slight sparkle to it when you hold it in the light.  This is a subset that could easily have been an insert.  I bet it looks great in Platinum.

So I don't have any Platinum parallels, but they are silver and black with the name in sparkly holofoil.  If I ever land one, I'll slap it into this post for you viewiness.

The Artistic Talents insert is printed on a thick, canvas-like stock with his name in a cool font.  The photo on the back is unlike any Griffey pose I've ever seen.  It's kind of a sitcom-ish "puh-lease" look, like someone just said "Hey, Junior, are the Red Sox are on the verge of becoming a World Series-winning powerhouse?"

Hee hee, yeah.  You probly right.

 

This insert is shiny and colorful.  It depicts Griffey as a giant (as in huge, not San Francisco), towering over the ballpark.  He's a "big" shot.  Get it?  He's really big?  It's a crowd pleaser.

Anyhoo, bright colors, shiny title.  Just a fun card.

 

Griffey is framed on this card by a big, foggy egg.  What is hatching from this egg?  Success.

The blurb gives a rundown of how awesome Griffey was in the 1995 AL Divisional Playoff.  Not the most timely tidbit but a nice write-up. 

 

This is one of the better-designed inserts from this set, although the purpose of the insert as a whole remains a little vague.  I'm thinking it's just the top 30 players in baseball according to the folks at Ultra.  It's got a subtle metallic shine to it with an attractive logo; but overall I feel like I just watched a really good commercial (if there is such a thing) for a company I've never heard of, and I still don't know what they do.

Here's a list of all the 1998 Ultra Griffeys I don't have.

From the base set:
#1G Gold Medallion
#1P Platinum Medallion /100
#1M Masterpiece 1/1
#215 Season Crowns
#215G Season Crowns Gold Medallion
#215P Season Crowns Platinum Medallion /100
#215M Season Crowns Masterpiece 1/1
#246G Checklist Gold Medallion
#246P Checklist Platinum Medallion /100
#246M Checklist Masterpiece 1/1
#473M Checklist Masterpiece 1/1 (this one did not come in platinum)
#476G Pizazz Gold Medallion
#476P Pizzazz Platinum Medallion /98
#476M Pizzazz Masterpiece 1/1

Inserts:

Diamond Immortals #1
Diamond Producers #1
Double Trouble #1
Millenium Men #2
Notables #2
Power Plus #1
Prime Leather #1
Ticket Studs #7
Win Now #13

<sigh>

I also want #53 Mike Piazza playing the drums!  Neat card.