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.