1992 Score: the Miami Vice of Base Sets

In my collection: 9 regular, 9 All-Star, 5 90's Impact Player, 2 Superstar

Griffey looks: like he's swinging a champagne flute

Is this a good Griffey card? Yes.  One of my favorite action shots from Score.

The set: I'm convinced that this base set was designed by the same person who did the interior decorating for the beach house in Weekend at Bernie's.  While the layout isn't particularly awful, it does come across as cluttery and institutional with that big, honking color bar running vertical along the side and dominating the card. 

On top of that are each card's chosen colors which tend to have nothing to do with the team of the player depicted - quite the opposite: they are a gaudy mess.  Teal was really big back in the early 90's, so it's everywhere; but also this weird peach color coupled with a cacophony of pinks and pastels that irritate the eyes.  Case in point:

Here we have Cubs, White Sox, and Cubs.  Let's try and follow the logic:

Card 1 - Cubs - Team colors: Blue and Red.  Card colors: Blue and Magenta. (OK, at least this is close)
Card 2 - White Sox - Team colors: Black & White.  Card colors: Peach and Aqua. (Bwah?)
Card 3 - Cubs - Team colors: Blue and Red.  Card colors: Blue and Magenta Peach and Aqua.  (Fnuh?)

This color palette, which can only be described as "Zack Morris Bedspread" is bonkers.  I get that everyone was just coming off the massive coke binge that was the 80's and taste was a little questionable (looking at you, '92 Bowman rookies), but I find it hard to believe that no one stepped forward and said, "No!  Everybody stop!  We have families to go home to, guys.  We can't unleash this on the world."  There had to be someone at Score in 1992 that didn't hate eyes.



Really, Score.  Pastels?

I would like to point out that I usually have Score's back.  I think they put out a heck of a product in the late 80's/early 90's and innovated in several areas years before the premium brands came along and got credit for it.  However, those three cards you see above are perfect examples of what you can expect from the entire set, and I cannot defend those cards to you.

The lack of horizontal cards along with all this run-of-the-mill action photography also contribute to the base set being a little boring.  A mixture of action photos and portaits maybe with some fun or unique poses every now and then would round out the set a lot better.  Instead it's this guy's pitching, this guy's batting, pitching, pitching, batting, fielding, batting, ooooh bunting!  Pitching, batting. 

Here are a couple of relatively baddass exceptions:

This is the year Score would introduce into their sets a whole bunch of serial numbered cards as well as autographed cards from Chuck Knoblauch, Carl Yastrzemski, Joe DiMaggio, Stan Musial and Mickey Mantle.  While they were already very much on the insert/subset trolley, in '92 they went ballistic with the inserts and subsets and limited-edition cards and tributes.  Without going into too much detail, here's a smattering of all the non-base and subset cards from '92 Score:



Not pictured because I don't have it: Nolan Ryan.  Oops.







Griffey didn't make Score's Dream Team in '92.  Still, the other Dream Team cards are pretty damn awesome.



Honus Wagner and Babe Ruth - Per Baseballcardpedia: "The Memorabilia subset cards all feature items from the famed Barry Halper collection. Halper was a part-owner of Score at the time."



Limited to 150,000, unnumbered

 

Limited to 30,000 per card, unnumbered.



Cooperstown Cards are back!  More painting-y than '91 but still great-looking cards.

 Now, on to the Griffeys:

The first in the set, Griffey's is another one of the better put-together cards in '92 Score.  Thankfully yellow and blue make green; hence, the coloration here is not the travesty that it is on some specimens.  Plus the motion of the bat here makes it look like Griffey is swinging a champagne flute. 

And just in case you read the back of this card, elan is defined as "dash or vivacity; verve."  It's one of those words that rarely gets used because it sounds stupid.

The Score All-Star subset cards are notorious for their caricatures.  Sadly this is probably the best one of Griffey that Score ever did (Wait 'til you see the worst - I don't want to give it away, but they make him look like Darryl Strawberry after a fight).

This 90-card insert (!) has Junior at mid-trot, suspended in air as he rounds third.  The picture on the front is unique as you don't see too much of Griffey the baserunner.  

Sadly the unremarkable design of this insert prevented it from standing out among the droves of Griffey cards that were being produced in the early 90's.  It looks lik they used the first version of Print Master to make this.  And is that Times New Roman font in super heavy italics?  Ugh.

Still, both the front and back pictures are good and so is the blurb with the Al Kaline quote. 

Now this is what I wanted when I was a kid: bright colors, a cool split-fade, and a big ass yellow star that proclaims, "This - this here is the guy."  The card itself looks like a big ol' peice of candy.  Plus you've got Junior having just line-driven (?) one over the second baseman's head on the front and a giant, borderless superimposed Griffey head on the back.  No complaints, Score.  This is a solid card.

Some of the base cards (the ones with somewhat appropriate colors) weren't so bad, but the ones that missed the mark did so so thoroughly that they throw off the entire set.  I really do like the Franchise inserts of classic players, though, as well as the return of Cooperstown Cards.  Both of those inserts were ahead of their time. 

Score would make a set of cards for Proctor & Gamble in 1992, but I'm saving that one for another post....

Today marks the nine-year anniversary of Griffey's 500th home run.  Congrats, Junior!  We here at The Junior Junkie will be celebrating with a pizza party and a small offering of Pepsi and marshmallows at the Graltar (Griffey altar - I'm working on the name).

Hey, Look What I Bought: a Trip to the LCS

When I was a kid and I went to the card shop, I was pretty excited to have ten bucks to spend.  I would pick up a couple of packs and maybe a Griffey base card for three bucks, and that would be it.  Now in the days of adult pay checks and credit cards and such, I am able to score hauls that 13-year-old me would have done that awkward adolescent overreaction for.

Case in point: my LCS had a big ol' box of dollar cards, and I went through every one.  Here's what I landed:

 

NINE '89 Donruss rookies.  Didn't think twice about snagging these.

 

A trio of sweaty '89 Fleer rookies.



Leo Durocher got kicked out of 95 games in his career as a manager.  I've never been able to find an affordable Bob Uecker card (in case you live under a rock he's the foul-mouthed, whiskey-swilling commentator for the Indians in the movie Major League).  It cracked me up that there's a white Frank Thomas who also played pro ball, and that is a Willie Mays card for a dollar.  Couldn't pass that up.  Plus that one dude's name is Pie.  That's funny.



 

Here we have two great Frank Thomas rookies, two Piazza rookies, and a Michael Jordan pre-rookie.  New Orleans may be the only place that Will Clark could sell for a dollar.  Also a signed Kent Hrbek rookie, a nickname-signed "Shotgun" Shuba, and a vintage Ruth/Aaron/Mays card from before Hank's breaking fo the HR record.  That last one blew my mind.  I don't actually know the value, but it's got to be more than a dollar, right?

That's it for the dollar cards.  The following are from a ten dollar 800-count mystery long box.  These have produced some great stuff int he past, and overall this one was no different:



These were in cases taped to the front of the box.  They were not a mystery.



There was a ton of 1995 stuff in that box, particularly Stadium Club and Upper Deck (some of my favorite sets).  Plus a Tino rookie I didn't have and a Will Clark cameo on a Joey Cora card.



This is a small selection of the '95 UD cards.  Not bad.....



There was a stack of 50 or so '95 Pinnacle Zenith as well, all of them pretty good cards.



Plus these....



.....and a couple of these playing cards.



This box has been pretty good, but were there Griffeys..........?

You bet your sweet bippy there were Griffeys.

He also had a box of dollar packs that uncluded a bunch of Bowman from the 2000's.  I picked up two packs of Bowman and two of Topps Stars which I had never opened before.


Crazy textures, and all the cards are serial numbered.  These were fun to open.



Yadier Molina rookie from a pack of Bowman.



That was it from my LCS.  I did also find myself on the Westbank this past weekend and ended up stopping at a card shop we spotted in a strip mall.  There wasn't much to be had, but I found these that I needed:



My first successful trip to the WBCS (Westbank Card Shop).



Card shops down here are not at all baseball-oriented, so hauls like this tend to be few and far-between.  I feel like I hit the lottery right now.

Happy Tuesday, everybody......!

Cards on Cards sends Yards and Yards of Cards, with Regards

Kerry aka madding of Cards on Cards and his special lady have a list of player collections I'm constantly pulling cards for.  I don't quite have it memorized, but being that I'm so keen on looking for excuses to shed cards, Kerry always seems to have some cardboard in the ol' trade stack. 

Kerry sent me a bunch of Griffeys in a used pack wrapper so it felt like opening a Griffey hot pack.  It was super fun, especially since I'd never seen some of the Griffeys he sent:

That is a 2003 Leaf Passing Through Time.  This subet has a reprint of the Leaf card from ten years prior on the back.  I would show you, but that would ruin the 2003 Leaf post that is sure to come later.  That Fleer throwback design is also a great card with a great picture.

The Lumber Company cards are one of the greatest inserts Fleer ever put out, but that Select Certified card was a real surprise.  It has a film on it that's just begging to be removed, and the back is printed upside down necessitating a vertical flip from the front.  I've only ever seen that on error cards.

It looks like the maddings have also been squirrelling away Chuck Finleys for me.  There are a couple here that I didn't even know existed:

I love preview cards.  They feel so naughty and forbidden.  That Sports Illustrated card is also completely new to me. 

Madding has a wealth of knowledge about the card industry and always has something constructive to add to my own posts.  His blog is a staple in the community and his strength of character is a beacon of hope in the otherwise bleak and unforgiving landscape of the Internet.  He also likes airbrushed cards.

Thanks, Kerry!

Card Show Booty! June 8th, 2013

You already read the title.  Let's jump right in:



Say it with me: YIKES.



Brian Hansen and Morten Anderson, both kickers for the Saints, got together and founded Kicks Records.  This 45, their label's premier release, is a rare and beautiful treasure.  I spun it the minute I got home. 

Have you ever seen Boogie Nights?  You know the scene where they're doing a bunch of coke and recording that song "You've got the touch....." and neither guy can really sing and the harmonies are off and the backing track is just as electro-cheesepop as can be?  Yeah, that.

We love Morten in New Orleans, but damn.

All these cards have one thing in common, and it is the subject of a huge upcoming blog post.  Stay tuned for that....

I bought these because they were dirt cheap and hilarious.....

This box of '89 Donruss was in amazing condition and only cost five bucks.  I was quick to snap it up in the hope of pulling a pristine Griffey rookie.  Sadly it didn't happen.  This is the second box of '89 Donruss I'm broken with no #33's to be had.  The cards I did pull were absolutely flawless with pristine edges and corners and perfect surfaces.  Still, it was fun tearing into all that wax.  Great smell.

This box from 1990 was another $5 find I couldn't pass up.  Plus it was something else to aid me in my pack-ripping addiction.

I was able to assemble the entire set of 200 cards with this one box with plenty of cards left over.  Here's a few to give you an idea of what they looked like:

The school mascot is Mike VI now.  One of our close friends was his vet for two years, so I've gotten to spend some close-up time with Mike in the indoor part of his enclosure.  We fed him horse meat.  It was neat.

This was a very exciting find for me as I am a big Albert Brooks fan.  If you haven't see Defending Your Life with him, Rip Torn and Meryl Streep, I highly recommend it.  The guy is hilarious.

So that's it.  I came home with zero Griffeys.  Not a one.  I tried with that '89 Donruss box, but to no avail.  Maybe next month....