2003 Defeat. Oops, I meant Victory. 2003 Victory.

In my collection: 3 regular (walk), 1 green parallel (home run), 1 each Solid Hits, Difference Makers, Laying it on the Line

Griffey looks: like he's chewing on a big ol' slice of lemon

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  The nail in the coffin of Victory Baseball and another game to corrupt by adding drinking.

The Set: 2003 Victory is a 200-card set comprised of 100 base cards and 100 short-printed subset cards.  The 100 base cards have 5 tiers of parallels that range in rarity from 1-per-pack green to serial numbered out of 25 red. 

The good thing about the set is that with so few players in the set you were likely to get stars in every single pack.  The bad thing is that 2003 Victory totally sucks.

Victory never really did it for me even before this set.  I look at the Victory Griffeys I have acquired in my time collecting and I don't get excited.  It seems Upper Deck sensed this antipathy because in 2003 they changed philosophies by making the entire Victory brand into a game.

Nothing against card games - I love them, particularly Drinking Poker, Drinking Rummy, and Drinking Phase 10 (Drinking Battleship is also extremely fun, but there are no cards involved - if you want the rules, shoot me an e-mail).  But there is an upper limit to that love. 

I used to poke fun at my buddies who played Magic: the Gathering while justifying baseball cards because they are based in reality.  The joke's on me: I still collect baseball cards and now being nerdy is cool.  Who saw that coming?

Anyway, Victory baseball failed because generally speaking card gamers aren't into sports and sports card collectors don't have time to play games.  It seems Upper Deck was aiming for that "nobody" demographic that is so popular in Hollywood these days.

Here's Mr. Griffey:

Let's get one thing straight: this is an awesome card because it's a Griffey card, and that is awesome.  But, it seems that in an effort to further alienate fans of standard baseball cards, Upper Deck chose photos of everybody's favorite ballplayers in compromised positions.  The Ichiro card has him slipping on a wet floor in a Seattle Walmart while the Chipper Jones card features him choking on a gigantic burrito.  

Sure, I made both of those up, and yet here is Griffey mugging like he's chewing on a big ol' slice of lemon.  Remember Looney Tunes when Sylvester the Cat would refer to others as "sourpuss?"  This is what he was describing.

Why, Victory?  Why?

 

Solid Hits was 1:4 packs, Laying it on the Line 1:5, and Difference Makers is the rarest at 1:20.  Other subsets included Clutch Players, True Gamers, Run Producers, and Winning Formula.  Griffey appears in none of those, so as far as this blog is concerned they don't exist.

These are kind of inserts, but they can be more accurately described as short-printed subsets.  They all contain some form of foil in the field behind the player photo on the numbered side. 

I don't see on these cards where they could possibly influence gameplay.  Maybe I don't understand the game.  If someone has a rules card for this set please e-mail me a scanned image.  The mind boggles....

I have some version of every Griffey in this set.  Here are the parallels of the base card I am missing:

#30 Orange Parallel

#30 Blue Parallel #/650

#30 Purple Parallel #/50

#30 Red Parallel #/25

I have to admit here that I have never played this game.  I'm allowing for the possibility that it may be really fun.  If it is, send me enough cards to make two decks (I assume that's how it's done), I'll bug my wife until she plays it with me, we decide it's boring and add a drinking element.  Bam.  Successful game.

In the interest of providing you with high-quality scans of every Griffey in my collection, here's a nice one of each individual card. 

Until next time!

 

Oh, you're one of those "stay through the credits people," eh?

Well, imagine Nick Fury inviting you to join the Avenger Initiative.  Congratulations, bro!

When Griffey Ran for President

In my collection: 1



Griffey looks: electable
 

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  Griffey's only Nike card, and my favorite ad campaign for a shoe company since Dan vs. Dave.

 

This card was created by Nike to advertise Griffey's supposed candidacy for president in '96. 



The campaign button

 You may remember the 1996 race was principally dominated by Bill Cinton and Bob Dole.  In the end Clinton took it for the blue states.  At the time Griffey was 25 years old, making him 10 years too young to be election-eligible.

Although he did have a "knack for whack."  Ahem.

This campaign happened at the peak of Griffeymania and optimism.  Junior was healthy again and the Mariners had finally tasted success.  Griffey was looking more and more electable for the Hall of Fame.  The iron was hot, and Nike struck.

I don't know if this card can be considered an oddball since we know its pedigree pretty well (the Nike swoosh gives it away).  I guess it should be classified as a branded oddball, that being a card made by a company who's primary business is not sports cards and that features their name or logo prominently.

This is also one of the greatest branded oddball cards I own.



You know this would be his nickname.

1996 also happened to be the year the Sinbad vehicle First Kid came out.  Disney spared no expense in the casting of this opus which featured not only Sinbad himself but the guy who played the titular character in Benson and the insufferable older brother from Home Improvement. 

The kid character was played by Brock Pierce who was also young Gordon Bombay in the first two Mighty Ducks films.  He was also in Little Big League with a little-known actor named Ken Griffey freakin' Jr. 

Forgive me, but I don't think you can have a serious discussion about anything that happened in 1996 without bringing up Sinbad.

I want one of these stickers.....bad.

 



Griffey debates Bob Dole.




For a fun, satirical report on the Griffey campaign and if you are interested in hearing Lou Piniella describe Jay Buhner's snot rockets in extreme detail, this is a good read.  Plus it contained this map:



Hee hee.  Plesac.... 


If anyone has stickers or a button from this campaign, hit me up for a trade!

My First COMC Purchase

I tried COMC for the first time last week.  Here's what I got:

This card is the reason I went on COMC at all.  I've never seen it available at a card show, and I knew I should be able to procure it somewhere without spending folding money.  On eBay I would have had to win it then pay shipping.  On COMC, it was a quarter and shipping was super cheap since I was buying a bunch of other cards at the same time.

I saw this one on Nick's blog a few weeks ago and made a note of it.  What an awesome baseball card.  I'm not a Pat Corrales nor a Padres collector which brings me to a quandary of late: how should I catalog cards of players I don't collect?  Right now I have binders of players I like in alphabetical order, but this is probably my last Corrales.  I'm starting to think it may be time to start a new binder of just generally awesome baseball cards for players I don't know or keep.  Just a thought.

Have I mentioned I'm a sucker for reprints of cards that were overproduced to begin with?  Well, it's true.  Here are reprints of the '89 Fleer and Donruss plus a '95 Leaf card I couldn't identify.

Did I mention the Donruss reprint is numbered out of 1,989?  How is this card not worth like fiddy bucks?  It's beautiful!

Here is a refractor reprint of the Bowman rookie.  I already have this in Chrome - adding refractoriness is an obvious next move, am I right?  Looks fantastic.

That's it for my COMC purchases.  Altogether I spent like 12 bucks.  I must admit I was very pleased with the whole process.  It was fast, relatively inexpensive, and well-packaged.  I will be doing business there again. 

Room for one more....?



2 Often....



I happened upon this numbered beauty on the bay for peanuts.  I'll be covering this one a lot more when I do my Studio '96 post.  Until then, it's just a cool die-cut card serial numbered in holofoil.  Plus I collect vinyl, so my collector-brain (who has no money of his own) insisted it must be ours.  And less than four bucks shipped - solid.

All Griffeys Great and Small: Quality Meats and a Mystery Solved

I always seem to get trade packages on Mondays, which is cool because it makes them suck less. 

First, old business.  Remember that trade post wherein I had no idea who sent me that stuff, and I decided it was probably Bill Murray? 

Turns out I was wrong.

The generous Griffey-mailing culprit is none other than renowned blogger Wes from Jaybarkerfan's Junk!  He's a Braves collector, which means he is about to get mail-pounded with red and blue cardboard.

Here's another look at what he sent my way:



Look at the picture on that 1999 Ultra checklist.  What a goofball.



I've never heard of Topps HD, but this card looks and feels expensive.  Penny sleeved....



One with a coin, one without.  I have neither, so a welcome addition.  I'ma  bit of a coin collector, too, so this makes perfect sense.



Thanks, Wes!  You're in my address book now, so here's to many successful trades to come....

Kerry from Cards on Cards sent me some beautiful Upper Deck Griffeys and a few other surprises.  Check 'em out!

I already had one of these, but it was in horrible condition.  These are minty fresh.

Kerry posted that Buhner a few weeks ago and I drooled in the comments (Buhner and I have a platonic love thing going on).  Being the stand-up dude he is, Kerry sent me two of them: one for the binder and the other for the bathroom mirror.  Or perhaps the ceiling above the bed, whichever my wife lets me get away with.  Now that I think about it, they'll probably both go in the binder.

I am proud to be part of Kerry's excuse to continue buying basketball packs.

Being a New Orleans boy, it's hard not to root for the Hornets who are about to undergo a name change to the Pelicans next season.  Hopefully that will energize the team a little.  First pick will help, too (we're very much on pace to get that).

This thing is HUGE:

It's a big ol' 5 x 7 baseball card.  It is thick like double-stacked mat board.  The picture is high-gloss, multi-level and the border is a nice textured matte silver.  I may have to run by Michael's and pick up a frame for it.  And check out all the data on the back:

Oh, man.  Remember Posse?  And how about toughest pitcher to face: Scott Radinsky?  We'll have to spend more time on this 5" x 7" beast in my eventual GOUS post wherein I'll cover all my Griffeys of Unusual Size.

Thanks, Kerry!  I'm assembling a package for you, too!

I also got some great new Griffeys from Jason over at The Writer's Journey. 

More lovely Upper Deck Griffeys plus a Bowman with a great shot of the crowd.  I still hope to find someone picking their nose in the background.  Someday....

I get so excited about oddballs, especially if they are for brands I've never heard of.  This one has a reasonably nice design and no logo.  Let's flip this baby over:

WOW!  This card was made for Kahn's Quality Meats out of Cincinnati.  And what did they do?  An amazing job - that's what.  Look at that stat box!  They even included Griffey's three AAA at-bats when he was in recovery following his wrist injury back in '95.  I am blown away by this beast.  I may even put it into a screw case.

So, I am now on the lookout for Kahn's Quality Meats cards.  No joke.  I want them all.

Thanks for the amazing cards, Jason and this, the king of branded oddballs!

1996 Metal Universe: Baseball Cards Go to Comic Con

In my collection: 1 regular, 1 Heavy Metal

Griffey looks: like an astronaut

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  The first year of Metal Universe, and a great mixture of baseball and science-fiction.

The set: Metal Universe is arguably the high-water mark for creativity in baseball card design.  Fleer was owned by famed comic book maker Marvel when this set was created.  This means that while most card companies were developing new printing methods, creating fancier borders and fonts, and slapping on multi-faceted gold foil shapes and holograms, Fleer was putting Ken Griffey Jr in outer space.  They were dropping Frank Thomas on the edge of an erupting volcano and pitting Hathcliff Slocumb against an army of alien robot spiders. 

Now, ask a kid which design philosophy sounds more appealing.

I scanned dozens of cards from this set for your perusal, but I took photos of a select few because they look so much better that way.  Let's see a few of these gems:



Heathcliff battles robot spiders on an alien planet.



Carlos races through a trippy fantasy world.



Al phases in and out of existence.



Raphael evades a tornado.



Mike battles a huge robotic claw.

 

Eddie plays in a lightning storm.



Kirby cannot be contained!

 

My personal favorite - Alex hangs ten.

 

Vinny dodges the sting of a deadly mega-wasp.  Look at the shadows on Vinny's body.  Wow.



Javy is in a nuclear explosion.  Hm - this one's kinda sad.  I like Javy.



Frank smashes his way out of an active volcano.



Jack battles a big eye-tentacled monster thingy....with pitching!



Marquis smashes little rockets with his bat and mighty scowl.



Al cannot be restrained!



Gary disintegrates a steel enemy with baseball moves!



Here are the scans of nearly all of my Metal Universe cards:



Scans of this set cause the color and names to all but disappear, but you can really make out the intricate texturing.  Still, I prefer the photos as this is a really colorful set.

 

Metal Universe also includes Platinum Parallels which keep the wild texturing but silver out all the background color.  The effect is neat, but for the most part the regular looks better.

The Heavy Metal insert might as well have come in any other set.  Nothing special.  Rivets.  It's got rivets.

Platinum Portraits are just as boring as Heavy Metal.  Really, you wanted the base cards.  Even the Platinums were a disappointment compared to the awesome, awesome base cards.

Here's the Griffey:

Check out the Kid trotting around alien worlds like an astronaut.  The sky is loaded with planets, moons and stars like in that one Doctor Who episode where the Daleks steal the Earth.  Those Oakleys protect his eyes from cosmic rays, and he uses that specialized glove to catch errant meteoroids that happen through the atmosphere.  His stylish Nike "Griffey" moon boots are looking fly.

Here's a camera shot of the same card - this does the colors better justice than the scan:

Lots of different etched foil textures and patterns make up the surrounding planets.  I'd love to see the Platinum version to get a better look at them.



Here's that Heavy Metal insert again.  Riveting, isn't it? (sorry)

These are the Griffeys of 1996 Metal Universe I don't yet own:

#107 Platinum Parallel

#3 Mother Lode

#3 Titanium

None are particularly valuable.  Mother Lode is a pretty sweet-looking insert I look forward to landing someday.

The coolness of Metal universe cannot be overstated.  And yet as cool as 1996 Metal Universe was, Fleer would do an even better job in 1997 with more card themes, even wilder designs and more intricate environments.  The printing process also got better as they ditched the simple stippling and hatching and went to a cleaner texturing method.  Plus I have twice as many 1997 cards to show you.  Admit it - you can't wait.

See you then!