Out of Sight, Out of Mind

I remember when the Triple Cheeseburger debuted at McDonalds in 1992. This beast was a thing of beauty. I was always a fan of the two cheeseburgers but when this sweet concoction was created, I fell in love with burgers all over again. Part of why the memory sticks with me so much is that they were coming out in conjunction with the ’92 Dream Team cards and cups. You got the cards with the Triple and a few other items. The cards and the burger were “limited time” items so I jumped all over it. It didn’t last too long and I stepped up to the counter one day and it was just gone. No warning, just no more Triple. I thought about it periodically over the next several times I went but eventually, I moved on.

I didn’t think about that burger again until McDonald’s reintroduced it in 2015. Life is funny like that. Even when you really enjoy something, if you go long enough without it, you start to find other things to take its place and it eventually fades from your memory. You could never forget about the Big Mac because it’s always there. Even if you aren’t ordering it, you see it out of your peripheral and you think, yep, the Ole Big Mac. That’s sort of what happened with Saved By the Bell. Yeah, I know; I loved that show a little too much. But it’s still on in syndication at weird hours of the day so I can get my DVR to record some episodes and quench my Kapowski thirst anytime. The same can’t be said for “Hey Dude”. I loved that show too but it doesn’t show up in any current DVR searches. So SBTB will always rule because it’s nostalgia we can still enjoy.

Music is a little different because we can download just about anything from iTunes, Google Play, and Spotify. But there are still groups that get lost in the shuffle because “Metallica”, “Journey”, and “Pearl Jam” are still touring somewhere. What about “Oasis”? Remember how great they were? Or the original “Everclear” group? “Counting Crows” is still touring but they aren’t releasing new music per se. Their last release was 2014 and if you go to their show, you are still going to hear “Mr. Jones“. You aren’t going to hear much “Better Than Ezra” or “Fuel” on playlists today but that doesn’t mean they didn’t kill it in the 90’s. You have to truly be from the 90’s to appreciate non mainstream 90’s music.

But here is the point. Not being relevant today doesn’t mean that you weren’t big time back then. There are plenty of things that were awesome in the 80’s and 90’s and would still be awesome today if given their proper amount of respect. McDonalds thought enough of the Triple Cheese to bring it back. Whether you know or remember the “Counting Crows” or not, you can still go see them in Hartford CT on 8/15! “USA High” is not “Saved By the Bell” and Elena Lyons is not Tiffani Amber-Theissen but it doesn’t mean she isn’t worthy of our time and admiration! Sometimes we get too hung up on the mainstream and we forget that there can be greatness hiding just behind the headlines. We just aren’t used to looking beyond the spotlight.

The same can be said for Baseball Players from my youth. We all remember Ken Griffey Jr., Bo Jackson, Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Nolan Ryan. And we absolutely should because they were dominant players. Some are in the Hall of Fame, ESPN makes a “30 for 30” about some of them every year and some of are still visible around the league. But what about the rest of the 80’s/90’s baseball? We had more than 20 stars at any given time throughout the 80’s but we tend to only celebrate the elite of the elite. Some of the other players just don’t get remembered by collectors today because they aren’t in the Hall or they don’t have a statue outside of their stadium or they didn’t do anything crazy enough to warrant a tell-all book. But between the white lines, they were absolutely star players.

I have somewhat of a side project that I work on from time to time where I add some autographs of the players that have been forgotten over time. These guys may not have been forgotten in their hometowns or in the stadium they played most of their career. But by and large, these players have faded into the stat books and the modern day collector will only see them if they journey back to an 80’s set to try and collect it. Let’s take a look at a few of the players I put in this category and the autographs I have of them in my collection. I’m sure I can do more of these in the future if this is the sort of thing you enjoy. I know I enjoy it!

Gerald Perry

We’ll start with an Atlanta Brave, Gerald Perry. I will say that the other players are going to have had better careers than Perry but as a Braves fan in the 80’s, there was Dale Murphy and then there was Gerald Perry. He played on some horrible teams in Atlanta from 1983-1989 but he put together a solid stretch of seasons with his best overall coming in 1988. He hit .300 that season with 8 homers, 74 RBI and 29 stolen bases. He never had much pop but did steal some bags over the years. He had 42 in ’87. His ’88 season was good enough to have him designated the Team MVP in ’89 Donruss. He also earned his lone All-Star appearance in ’88. I still don’t have an auto on a Braves card but I have this sweet yellow ’90 Classic!

George Bell

Here is a guy with a better resume over his career and a player that is typical of the star I am referencing in this piece. George “Taco” Bell hit for a cool .278 career average, topping .300 twice in ’86 and ’87. That is a pretty solid feat for a player with his pop in the 80’s. He hit 31 and 47 home runs during those seasons and hit double digit bombs in every season from ’84 to ’93, with at least 20 in 8 of those 10 seasons. He won the AL MVP in 1987 with a .308 avg, 47 home runs and 134 RBI. He also only struck out 75 times in 660 AB’s. That is a MONSTER season! He also scored 111 runs that year. George, or Jorge, was a legit badass! I have this sweet ’87 Fleer signed by Bell.

Jesse Barfield

Bell’s teammate, Jesse Barfield, made the two the Canadian version of “The Bash Brothers during the 80’s. While Barfield didn’t quite have the average that Bell had, he clubbed his share of home runs and made the middle of that lineup deadly. While his ’87 season wasn’t bad at all, his best year came in ’86. He hit for a .289 average, 40 home runs, 108 RBI and scored 107 runs. The biggest difference at the plate between he and Bell was he struck out 146 times in the ’86 season. But he more than made up for that with his fielding and laser arm. He won 2 Gold Gloves and is widely accepted as the best arm in the majors during the 80’s. He led the league in assists from 1985-1987. Look at this laser!! My autograph for Barfield is this ’85 Topps.

Glenn Davis

Davis didn’t have as long of a career as Bell and Barfield but he played lights out in Houston from 1984-1990. Like Perry, he also earned a Donruss MVP card. From ’85 to ’90, he mashed 164 home runs! He struggled hitting for average with his best season coming in at .271 but he only had one season with more than 84 K’s, which is pretty solid for a power hitter. He finished his career with a .991 fielding percentage and was a 2x All-Star. He also finished second in the NL MVP voting in 1985 behind Mike Schmidt. With great offensive statistics, he is most likely remembered as part of one of the worst trades in MLB history when he was sent to Baltimore for Steve Finley, Pete Harnisch and Curt Schilling. That is a tough one. How about an ’86 Leaf autograph?

Tom Henke

Tom Henke is strangely a forgotten man when collectors think of dominant closers. We remember Lee Smith, Dennis Eckersley and a few others but many forget about “The Terminator”. Perhaps it is because he did most of his damage in Toronto and Blue Jays players from the 80’s tend to be overshadowed by Yankees, Red Sox and Athletics during that time. Henke was an absolute beast, finishing his career with 311 saves and an ERA of 2.67. Henke was a hulking 6’5 and could mow down hitters at an unbelievable clip but his glasses always made him a little less scary to me. Of course, I never stepped into the batters box against him either. He sits 24th on the all time saves list and is ahead of names like Goose Gossage, Bruce Sutter, and Rod Beck. This ’85 Donruss is the autograph of Henke in my collection.

Ramon Martinez

Ok, so Ramon wasn’t even the best pitcher in his family. But this is a guy that the hobby was all over in the late 80’s. He had all the tools to be a long term superstar in the league. Ramon was bigger than Pedro, at 6’4, but Pedro’s career was bigger than life so it’s really unfair to compare the two. Ramon had a great win/loss percentage with a 135-88 career mark. He won 20 games in 1990, finishing 20-6 with a 2.92 ERA, only to finish 2nd in the Cy Young voting to Doug Drabek and his 22-6 Record with a 2.76 ERA. You’ll likely see Drabek at some point if I make this a series. Martinez also had 100+ K’s in 8 consecutive seasons from 1990-1997. He threw a no-hitter in 1995 and he Struck out 18 Braves in 1990 to tie the Dodger record set by Sandy Koufax. I have this sweet 1990 Fleer signed by Martinez.

Bret Saberhagen

Saberhagen is another fire baller that crushed it during the 80’s. He topped the 20 win mark twice in his career going 20-6 with a 2.87 ERA in 1985 and 23-6 with a 2.16 ERA in 1989. He won the Cy Young award both of those seasons. He finished his career with a 167-117 Record and 3.34 ERA. His ERA got crushed from ’95 on. He was a 3x All-Star, World Series Champ and WS MVP (1985), won a Gold Glove in ’89 and pitched a no hitter in 1991. His career hit a little bump when he was traded to the Mets in 1992 but it’s the Mets so that’s not all that surprising. Overall, Saberhagen should be remembered as a dominant pitcher during a stretch where power hitters were really starting to rise. I have this nice oddball “’86 Baseballs Best” signed by Mr. Saberhagen.

Ruben Sierra

This was probably my favorite non-Braves player to collect in the late 80’s. He had some really cool cards and he too got the MVP treatment from Donruss in 1990. Sierra played 20 years in the big leagues and while he had some heroics in the Bronx later in his career, his time in Texas is what I will always remember. He played there from ’86 to ’92 and smashed 170 home runs and knocked in 756 runs. He also hit over .300 in 1989 and 1991. His best complete season was most likely 1989 when he hit .306, mashed 29 home runs, collected 119 RBI and scored 101 runs. He also had 14 triples that year. He finished 2nd in the MVP voting that season. Sierra is one player that doesn’t get the respect in the hobby that he should. I respect him enough that I added this ’91 Fleer autograph to my collection!

Tim Wallach

Nothing I say here will give him the same amount of respect that’s given to him by @29Collector, the super collector of Tim Wallach, but I’ll do my best! Wallach played 17 seasons and was a 5x All-Star, 3x Gold Glove and 2x Silver Slugger winner. From 1980-1992, he played for the Montreal Expos and was one of the biggest stars on the team. His best season came in 1987 when he hit .298 with 26 home runs and had 123 RBI. He had 10 consecutive double digit home run seasons from 1982-1991 and finished as high as 4th in MVP voting during that stretch. Wallach finished his career with 2,085 hits, 260 home runs and 1,125 RBI. He had a very nice career and was fun to collect. I have this 1984 Topps Autograph in my collection.

Lou Whitaker

Lou was the middle infield teammate of Alan Trammell for many years, playing his entire 19 year career in Detroit. Trammell was recently elected into the Hall of Fame so maybe “Sweet Lou” will get more consideration now. Whitaker played 2B and finished his career with a .276 average, 244 home runs, 2,369 hits, 1,084 RBI and 143 stolen bases. He played at least 109 games (1981 shortened season) from 1978 to 1993. He won ROY in 1978, went to 5 straight All-Star games from 1983-1987 and won 3 consecutive Gold Gloves from 1983-1985. He won Silver Slugger in ’83, ’84, ’85 and ’87 as well. He is in the Top 10 of 17 career categories for the Tigers. Sweet Lou is well known by collectors my age but is overshadowed by Ryne Sandberg, Cal Ripken, Ozzie Smith, Barry Larkin, Rod Carew, Joe Morgan and Trammell in collecting circles. Sweet Lou deserves more love and I love this Autographed ’86 Fleer.

What are your thoughts on this list of players? I’m convinced that these will be some of the guys we look to 50 years from now when we are naming top players from the 80’s. Young collectors may not know these names all that well but when we start looking at the 80’s as somewhat of a vintage era, these players will deserve to be in the discussion. I think these guys deserve to be in any collections that include top players from their generations. Sometimes you have to look a little past the glitz and glam of the “Hall of Fame label” to find some great collectible players. Sometimes we overlook greatness because of the elite around them. You have to admit, while we all loved Phoebe Cates in “Fast Times”, Jennifer Jason Leigh was pretty hot too!

J-Dub

Retro Review – Where’s The Time Machine?

I think I am really fortunate to have grown up during the 80’s. A lot of people think the 80’s were cheesy and others just think it is this retro/pop culture moment in time that is fun to visit when they dress up. I lived in the 80’s and I’m here to tell you that it was a wonderful time! Half of the stuff you watch on TV or listen to on the radio today started in the 80’s and we are just recycling it now because we’ve run out of new ideas. I don’t have to “re-imagine” Ghostbusters because I saw it when it came out in the 80’s. And when I wear my AC/DC shirt to dinner, I am not being ironic; I really love AC/DC!

In 1985, I was 8 years old and in the 3rd grade. We played outside from dusk til dawn, our parents never worried about it and we weren’t really getting exposed to all of the garbage I have to worry about with my kids today. I did stay up late one night and sneak in the last 15 minutes of Friday the 13th as a kid and saw a little more than what I was allowed to see but that was about it. I remember getting scared when I saw David Banner transform into the Hulk and I thought it was one of the scariest things I’d ever seen. My kids laugh at those 80’s special effects today.

Bailey (11) and I watched “Silver Bullet” a few weeks ago (released in ’85) and at the end, she said, “I thought this was going to be scary.” I remember seeing that movie for the first time and being terrified! I guess I’ll show her “Maximum Overdrive” and “Night of the Living Dead” next and see what she thinks about those. In fairness, when I take into account that “The Walking Dead” is one of the most popular television shows in history and it is uber gory, it makes sense. She doesn’t watch that show because I don’t think she is quite old enough but it is far more disturbing than anything mainstream that came out during the 80’s.

That’s part of why I remember my time as a kid fondly. Who knows, maybe my kids will look back on there childhood the same way. But when I look back at being a kid, I realize that I didn’t have a whole lot to worry about. I’m not saying it was a utopian society by any means but there really isn’t much of a comparison to what the kids of today have to face. I grew up watching Transformers and He-Man fight for mankind. My kids have YouTube and all the craziness that lives there! You can upload almost anything there these days. There is a Peppa Pig video floating around where the pig goes on a murderous rampage. Yeah, I love horror movies but I don’t want to mix them with my kid’s cartoons.

In the 80’s, about the worst thing we could see on TV as kids was going to be a “Saved by the Bell” episode about taking pills to stay awake and study. Do you remember when Jesse was “So excited! So excited! So excited!”? I will admit though that I watched “Tom and Jerry” a couple of weeks ago and it was pretty brutal by today’s standards. Jerry chased Tom around with a meat cleaver and hammer, which felt out of place in our modern society. I don’t know if Disney would get away with that one today but I’m sure Nickelodeon would slip it in to their rotation. Who knows; maybe all of it is relative to what you are used to?

Whatever the case, pop culture was at a peak in 1985 if you ask my opinion, and if you click on the blog link, you did. Television was rocking shows like; “Mr. Belvadere”, “Growing Pains”, “Cheers”, “The Cosby Show”, “Night Court”, “Family Ties”, “Different Strokes” and “The Facts of Life.” How many catch phrases, character ideas and plot stories do we still get from these masterpieces? The sitcoms of today seem tired and boring compared to these. Maybe that is why we see such a difference in what is on TV vs. today as I mentioned with “The Walking Dead” above. Once it has already been done, you have to go a little further and create something new. Maybe that is why society as a whole has pushed so far beyond the boundaries we once had. I don’t know, it’s just a thought.

Movies were pretty classic in 1985 as well; and it only cost $2.75 to go see them in the theater! I wrote about my favorite Horror Movies from 1985 here!We had a run of great actors and actresses during the 80’s that included Arnold, Sly Stallone, Chevy Chase, Bill Murray, Mel Gibson, Eddie Murphy, Michael J. Fox, Beverly D’Angelo, Phoebe Cates, Tiffani Amber Theissen and so many others! The old saying is true, “They don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Check out this awesome list of flicks just from 1985.

  • Back to the Future
  • Goonies
  • Breakfast Club
  • Commando
  • Weird Science
  • Teen Wolf
  • Fletch
  • Summer Rental
  • Mad Max – Beyond the Thunderdome

I will never “move on” from opining about the 80’s and 90’s. The cold hard truth is that I miss everything that made those years fun; VHS tapes, cassettes, posters on the wall, Corey Haim films, drooling over Kelly Kapowski, watching MTV to see the latest video from my favorite band, tuning in to ESPN to see gosh darn sports highlights and not poker tournaments, playing Nintendo when there were only 2 buttons you had to master in order to win a football game. I miss eating whatever I wanted to without having to worry about cholesterol or calorie counts. I remember when bread was a part of the food pyramid and it always contained gluten!

Yes, things were simpler back then but what is wrong with that? What is wrong with sitting down and watching a movie about vehicles coming to life and terrorizing people and it not feeling hokey? What is wrong with believing that blood coming from Ric Flair’s head is real because Dusty Rhodes hit him with a tire iron? When our headphone batteries went dead, we had no choice but to go outside. We couldn’t text or FaceTime every minute of the day so we had to form personalities and then learn how to cope with people who did or didn’t like us because of that personality. WHY HASN’T ANYONE INVENTED THAT TIME MACHINE YET DR. BROWN???

Of course, there is something else I miss about the 80’s; simple but awesome sports cards. By 1989, we had about 6 options to choose from if you included Sportsflics and the companies put everything they had into that annual set they released. You could even buy a collectors kit from the Sears Catalog and 80’s cards were considered “hard-to-find”. While the current year cards weren’t hard to find because they were in every convenience store in America, I do remember the previous year’s sets being difficult. That is why ’87 Topps was so hot in 1989! We spent the whole year trying to collect the entire set through packs and now, you have about a week before the next product releases.

I know there is a good and bad side to those days but the bad only came later when we realized how much we were missing. If I ever find a way to go back to the 80’s, I am staying there so the Junk Wax Era will never really be the Junk Wax Era anyway. That Mark McGwire RC will always be valuable and Donruss will always have logos. As you can see, I really don’t ask for much. Just take me back to a time when video games were 16 bits, TV shows had to be recorded with VCR’s and baseball cards were made to be collected. Is that really too much?

I feel like I’ve gotten heated for some reason. Let me pull back the reigns and focus on something from that will relax me. Here is a prime example of an excellent baseball card set from the 80’s. The 1985 Topps set is a beauty and is loaded with superstars and some heavy hitting rookies. The packs still had gum, the cards still had borders and information on the back, and the big hits were simply the best players. This set was right before they started getting a little crazier with the designs as ’86 and ’87 would attest. This was a true baseball card, all the way around.

They certainly don’t make packs like they used to!

What better card to show off the design than this sweet Gary Pettis? The backs of the 85 Topps has a real holiday feel with the green and red.

The catchers are always a little slim in these rips but here are 3 good ones. Always love Tony Pena in his Pirates uni!

The infielders are a little more stacked with Chicken Man, Ryno, The Wizard and Donnie Baseball. I was a fan of Sweet Lou during the 80’s as well thanks to RBI Baseball.

The outfield was loaded with studs. The first thing I notice about this selection is the uniforms. Rock has the sweet Expos, Hendu has the old school Mariners and Willie McGee had the baby blue St. Louis jersey. Teams should still be wearing these jerseys! I’d also like to know how Jorge Bell became George Bell.

This was before Dennis was Oil Can and before Tommy John was a surgery. The Brewers had 2 Hall of Famers in their rotation and Eck and Dave Stewart were about to embark on a World Series run together in Oakland. Good times!

There were some sweet manager cards in 85 Topps. Bobby Cox would soon be an Atlanta Brave but not before Chuck Tanner took his shot. Pete Rose was one of the last player/managers and we all know how that worked out. LaRussa was about to join Eck and Stewart in Oakland.

The Record Breakers included Juan Samuel with the most steals by a rookie. He wound up winning ROY in 1984. While he had a serviceable career with 3 All-Star appearances, he never caught fire in the hobby.

Here are some of the All-Stars from 1984. Again, some of the uniforms jump right off the page. That Padres uniform is one from the 80’s I could probably do without but please bring back the Expos, Cards and Astros uniforms.

There were a lot of Father/Son inserts in 1985. Another couple of Boone’s were on their way into the league too. There were also a couple of future Fathers of major leaguers in this set; Ken Griffey Sr. and Jose Cruz.

This is the only Darryl Strawberry I pulled but it’s pretty sweet. I also love the Dunston but it has pretty severe gum damage. Look at that beautiful jersey on Floyd Bannister!

The rookie class was pitcher heavy with Rocket, Doc, Saberhagen, Key and Gubicza. All of these guys had nice careers and a few of them had great careers. The Eric Davis is one of my favorite RC’s from this year. Alvin Davis is one of the more underrated superstars from the 80’s.

Here are some of the players from the U.S. National Team. I missed out on Will Clark.

But I didn’t miss out on the stud of the set! This card was three bills when I was in high school and one of the most sought after 80’s cards in the entire hobby. I only pulled 1 but it is the first one I’ve ever pulled from a pack. This made the box well worth it!

This Score is a product of nostalgia and pulling a Mark McGwire Team USA card. If I hadn’t pulled it, I’m afraid I would’ve landed on a 3. This is not the best design Topps had in the 80’s but it was not the worst either. The box is a little pricey if you don’t wind up pulling some of the studs. Even with McGwire, I missed out on Puckett and Strawberry. But this set has a strong rookie class and there are several stars who were still very early in their careers here. I kinda like the green and red backs and definitely enjoyed the #1 Pick inserts. You can run the risk of pulling some gum damaged stars because they didn’t discriminate on the cards they put in the back of the pack. But overall, this is a classic set from the 80’s and has good value for retro collectors.

As an added bonus, check out this video of yours truly giving a piece of 35 year old gum a try! DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!

J-Dub

Scoring Scale

1.Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards.  Just read the post and thank me later.

2.There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.

3.Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you into buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of them.

4.You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did!  It has some downside but worth the ride.

5.Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking!  What are you waiting on?

Retro Review: Up All Night with Leaf

It’s weird that we remember little things from our youth that aren’t really profound moments. At the age of 41, if I want to remember something from when I was 15, I have to go back 25+ years! And every day that passes takes me one day farther away from that time. Yet there are numerous things that just randomly pop in my head from those days of my life that don’t really stand out as memorable at face value. I think that is what is fun about random memories though; they take me to places that I thought I had forgotten.

The things that can trigger these weird moments in time can vary but inevitably, they are always just as random as the memories themselves. Take the hexagon shaped pizza pictured above. Most people my age will remember this as the school lunch pizza. At least that’s what it was at Mitchell-Baker High School. It was damn good too! This was one of the meals where I would splurge and drop an extra .50 for a second pizza. I have not had a pizza like this in 22 years but it’s the first thing I think of anytime I walk into a school cafeteria, which is more often than I ever imagined before I had kids.

While we are on the subject of school, let’s talk about the smell of the athletic field house. Turn away for a moment if you are the squeamish type. I can’t even pinpoint the smell I’m thinking of but it was a solid mixture of sweat, feet, icy hot, wet grass, old cleats and school pizza farts. It’s not a good smell at all but it’s one that was somewhat addictive as a teenager. That smell is representative of baseball and some of my earliest friendships. The smell was certainly one of a kind but every now and again, I’ll open my bat bag today and get this faint memory of the spring of 1992; Coach Davis, our manager “Chicken Box”, my buddy David and his lanky 6’7 delivery or something else totally off the wall. It is a smell that can cross my nose at a moments notice if baseball is on the brain.

Another memory from my school days involves a Sheriff Deputy; Frank “Deputy Dawg” Sumner. Deputy Dawg was over the youth division of law enforcement of the big metro area 30 miles north of my hometown. I now live in that metro area and it’s not as daunting as it seemed back then. But when I was 15, Albany was the kind of place I wasn’t ready for. It was more dangerous than Camilla and I didn’t really know my way around outside of the movie theater and Putt-Putt. Deputy Dawg would go around to the local high schools and scare the hell out of us kids with his presentation on drugs, gangs and violence. I think of him often; when I’m watching a crime show on TV, when my kids have speakers at school or at other random times. He saved a lot of lives in the late 80’s-early 90’s!

I pulled this straight from a Facebook page dedicated to an annual golf tournament in his name:

“He taught kids about drugs and violence and encouraged teenagers not to get involved in gangs or crimes. He taught about anger, murder, and suicide. His tactics were somewhat scary, but very effective.”

I am often reminded of the cold water at our American Legion pool in my hometown of Camilla. We do a lot of summertime water sports with the family now and many times I find myself about to dive into water much colder than I’m prepared for. When I’m standing on the edge of that water, pumping myself up for what’s about to happen, my mind often goes back to the summer of ’93 when I spent almost every day at the Legion. The pool was spring fed and made you shiver on 110 degree July afternoons. I used to think that the kids that hung out at the top of the “Super Slide” were just being cool but now I think it was because they were scared to get back in the water after they had dried off. Every bit of fear of cold water in my adult life can be traced back to those days.

Speaking of fear, I’ve always been a fan of horror movies. To be more specific, I’m a fan of 80’s horror movies. I’d rather watch Friday the 13th than any of the new stuff that comes out that is not so much scary as just filled with “gotcha” moments. I also enjoyed the cheesy horror movies that weren’t scary but had a lot of blood and gratuitous, almost always unnecessary, nudity. I loved “Night of the Comet”, “Cheerleader Camp” and “Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-a-Rama” for those very reasons. At 15, you couldn’t beat horror and scantily clad chicks! I got my fill of both from Rhonda Shear and her late night weekend show, “Up All Night”. Cable TV was a godsend when I realized I could stay up late on a Friday night and watch some corny ghoulish looking creature chase babes in bikinis without leaving my house! I still think of Rhonda from time to time and wish she would make a comeback for old times sake.

Those type of memories work with my baseball card love too. When most people hear the name “Leaf”, they think of the awesome ’90 set that was the first real competitor of premier giant, Upper Deck. The 1990 Leaf set is the most famous, most revisited and most valuable set from Leaf in the junk wax era. But that’s not the first set I think of when I hear Leaf. That mental image belongs to the 1992 set. I didn’t have a lot of the ’90 set because it wasn’t available in the local Wal-Mart and I didn’t make it to the card shops in Albany much, thanks to the healthy fear of the big city instilled by Deputy Dawg.

By 1992, the Leaf craze had settled down a little bit because Stadium Club, Pinnacle, Upper Deck and Ultra were all competing in the premium realm, making them more accessible. Also, scarcity wasn’t as big of an issue as was perceived when Leaf was introduced to collectors a couple years prior. By ’92, while Leaf was more accessible, it was still a top of the line card to own. The much sought after Leaf Gold Rookies were a hot chase too! This is the first Leaf set that I really bought a lot of so the design has stuck with me over the years.

First up; the First Basemen! Here you can get a good luck at the clean silver border with a nice black nameplate to accent. This is the design I see when I close my eyes and imagine Junk Wax Leaf Baseball!

Here are some strong Second Basemen as well. Knoblauch and Alomar were 90’s superstars. DeShields was supposed to be but never really panned out. Julio Franco was as steady a ball player as you would ever want but we really didn’t recognize his true place in the game until he played 100 seasons.

I missed out on Ozzie Smith but these 3 were all good replacements. I always liked this Cal Ripken card because it showed that he was a player that didn’t shy away from contact or getting dirty. That makes his consecutive game streak all the more impressive.

In the early 90’s, Ken Caminiti was the scariest Third Baseman in the game in my opinion. The dude could smash with the bat and had an absolute cannon for an arm. He was really fun to watch!

1992 Leaf has a very nice mixture of aging veterans and young superstars. Kirby Puckett was in his prime, Juan Gonzalez was the hot youngster and Robin Yount was on his way out. That Mariners outfield was a horror to face too with Mitchell, Buhner and Ken Griffey Jr.!

The arms in 1992 were hot! These guys didn’t have pitch counts or innings limits and a couple them destroyed the radar gun. One of the most underrated players of my lifetime is Lee Smith. All this guy did was shut down games. He barely missed 500 saves and that has kept him out of the Hall but he was a dominant pitcher coming out of the bullpen!

My favorite part about 1992 Leaf was the Black Gold cards found one per pack. These came as a variation for all players so they weren’t always great. But when you got a good player, they looked SO good in that binder! I even pulled a Black Gold Checklist in this box!

I snagged up 5 Leaf Gold Rookies but none of these guys were true MLB Superstars during their career. I remember the hype around David Nied in Atlanta. We had a great rotation and the thought of Nied becoming that 5th arm was tantalizing! And Turk Wendell never let collectors down with his cards.

The big rookies in this set are somewhat debatable. Mo Vaughn and Jeff Bagwell were both included in the ’91 Gold Rookie Checklist but ’92 represented all of their first base set inclusions. 1990 through 1993 are hot right now because the entries into the Hall of Fame have been and are coming from these rookie classes for the most part. While there are David Nied’s and Matt Stairs’ to contend with, the chance of pulling the rookie card of a hall of famer always ramps up the excitement a bit.

While this set will always be memorable for me, I just can’t get overly excited about this rip. The Gold Rookies only include 2 key names with Pedro Martinez and Kenny Lofton among the 24 on the checklist. The actual rookie class of Bagwell and Pudge may or may not be considered rookies depending on your standards. There are some big names like Nolan Ryan, Ryne Sandberg, Ken Griffey Jr. and Frank Thomas but those names are found in every set of 92. The design saves it from being a complete bust and the Black Gold brings it even to a 3. I bought the entire box for $8 so you can’t really complain about the price of the nostalgic trip. So while this set is clearly not as gross as a Slimeball Bowl-A-Rama, it’s probably not as good as lunch pizza either.

J-Dub

Scoring Scale

1.Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards.  Just read the post and thank me later.

2.There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.

3.Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you out of buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you into it either.

4.You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did!  It has some downside but worth the ride.

5.Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking!  What are you waiting on?

Retro Review – Coming of Age

Around the time you hit 15 years old, you really start to learn a lot about life and how the world works around you. For some people it’s earlier and for some it can be later in life, depending on your exposure level and the surroundings in which you grow up. But generally speaking, 15 is a big age for development and growth. At this stage of life, you are getting ready to start driving, you are likely hitting the dating scene pretty hard, working your first job and your parents probably trust you to do more things on your own. You are really becoming your own person to a large degree.

I turned 15 in 1992 and while we always harken back to the good ole days when times were different, believe it or not, we still had some of the same social issues we have today. I was just too young to really put a lot of thought into it. I still try to keep social issues out of my blog because you aren’t reading this to find out which political party I’m in or what I think about the war on terror. But interestingly enough, I found some similarities from a social standpoint in 1992 that make me think times may not be as silly as they seem in 2017. They are pretty crazy now, don’t get me wrong; but “how crazy” can be debatable. Look at some of the events from 1992 and see how they correlate to what is going on today. Disclaimer: I am not about to start debating these items and they are simply for time comparison purposes. Save the political banter for the CNN and FoxNews message board. I WILL say that we all need to try to be better at this human being thing.

• In the UK, there was a public outcry over royal spending and the Queen of England started paying income tax and the number of royals receiving tax payer money started to decrease. The rich getting richer is not a new problem, even if this was in another country.
• Rioting broke out in Los Angeles following the acquittal of four police officers accused of beating Rodney King. Racial discord has been around for ages and I don’t know why we can’t seem to get it right. This topic is much too deep for this light hearted blog but it feels like we haven’t advanced much since 1992. If anything, we might be regressing and that is very unfortunate.
• Abortion rights activists march and hold demonstrations in Washington, DC. I know what you are thinking; Is this 1992 or 2018?
• Mike Tyson was convicted in the rape of Miss Rhode Island, Desiree Washington. The #MeToo movement has been the headline of 2018 so far and has uncovered many men in power (sports, entertainment, politics) who have potentially engaged in the same type of activity.
• Violence erupted in Germany against Immigrants. Germany was blaming the Immigrants for economic problems. Again, different country but it sounds familiar.
• Finally, on a non-social note, the Georgia Superdome in Atlanta was completed. The Mercedes Benz Stadium just said, “Hold My Beer.”

It wasn’t all bad in 1992. In fact, it was a pretty good year in my memory. Except for that part where I failed my learners test the first time around, I was loving life. The age of 15 is really the last bastion of childhood. When you turn 16, you start to see the responsibilities that life will throw at you. You would typically start thinking about what you want to do as an adult, you are allowed to operate some type of motor vehicle and you are old enough to hold down a job. In my family, if you wanted the car, you better be working for it and the gas.

I made my money mowing lawns of a local insurance company and church in Camilla. I ALWAYS had my headphones on! The music in 1992 was about as good as I remember. That was the year that Pearl Jam’s “Ten” was at the height of popularity and I was blown away by “Black”, “Jeremy”, “Even Flow” and “Alive”. While Pearl Jam was #1 on the tuner, there were some others that were pretty hot back in the day. I enjoyed Toad the Wet Sprocket, Nirvana, Cypress Hill, Boyz II Men, The Cure and House of Pain. I wore out the House of Pain CD with “Jump Around” and it finally became useless due to scratches and damage.

Aside from music, I was also watching every movie that released in preparation of my future as a video store clerk. And there were some classic movies released that year. At 15, you learn a lot from movies and I was taken to school in 1992.

  • Reservoir Dogs – I learned that it is actually possible to form the perfect cast for a movie. I have been a Steve Buscemi fan since that movie. But I also have always enjoyed Michael Madsen, Tarantino and Harvey Keitel. This was such a great film!
  • Basic Instinct – I learned that rewinding and pausing a movie on the same scene over and over will eventually do enough damage that tracking can’t even fix the picture. Oh, Sharon Stone, you minx!
  • Unforgiven – This remains my favorite western of all time. I learned that you just don’t mess with Clint Eastwood, even if your name is Gene Hackman. Hackman may have been the boss in “Hoosier’s” but Eastwood was the shooter in this film! Is that play on words lousy or what?
  • A Few Good Men – This is where we learned that despite Tom Cruise’s ability to fly a plane inverted and take out Jester below the hard deck, he wasn’t quite prepared to handle the truth from Jack Nicholson.
  • League of Their Own – Perhaps the greatest lesson for a young sports fan; “There’s no crying in baseball!”
  • Wayne’s World – I learned that if a woman became President, someone would undoubtedly call her Baberham Lincoln. Also, Led Zeppelin didn’t write tunes that people liked; they left that to the BeeGees.
  • My Cousin Vinny – This one taught me quite a bit about “good ole boy” politics but I can’t seem to ever get past Marisa Tomei.
  • Mighty Ducks – I’m telling you, the Flying V would never work in real life! I learned about true fiction in this film.
  • Dead Alive – What is there to say about this one other than I learned that there was a movie out there that could even make ME sick to my stomach.
  • White Men Can’t Jump – Finally, I already knew this one so didn’t really learn anything new. I had been playing basketball for several years and you would have had trouble sliding a piece of notebook paper between my foot and floor when I jumped.

Do you know what else I learned that awesome year? I learned that even though Fleer had created quite possibly the worst baseball card design ever in 1991, they could actually redeem themselves! We have certainly discussed the mustard yellow Fleer of 1991 here and the plain border of 1990 is one you either love or hate. You have to go back to 1988 to find a really good Fleer design so I had really lost faith in the company giving me something I really wanted to collect. Of course, that is with the exception of Pro-Vision. That is the ONLY reason I ever bought 1991 Fleer and the ONLY reason a box today is even worth the $4.95 I spend on it at the LCS occasionally.

But in 1992, they did a complete 180! They released high quality card stock with glossy photos and a border design that was much easier on the eyes. They brought back Pro-Vision and also introduced a new All-Star insert set that was reminiscent of other premium brands of the early 90’s. Finally, the checklist was really, really good and is very reflective of a wonderful time in baseball. They moved away from the wax packs and went to more of a cello type wrapper but it was pretty thick and easy to tell if tampered with. I found this box at my LCS for $8.95. The box has 36 packs with 16 cards each.

This year had a pretty good mix of young and old catchers. One of these guys wouldn’t be a catcher for long and one of these guys was a catcher for 100 years.

One of the deepest power positions in the set, First Base featured some true sluggers. Three of these hitters topped 500 home runs and one fell just three short.

The middle infielders didn’t have as much pop but they certainly got on base a ton! And I don’t know that you’ll find a slicker fielding trio than Larkin, Vizquel and Ozzie.

The hot corner was pretty hot in ’92 as well. You had a little bit of everything here with Caminiti’s arm, Williams’ bat and Sheffield’s all around skill.

I could barely fit all the outfielders in one picture. These are 20 legitimate stars from the early 90’s! Sosa, Belle and Justice represented the young guys while Murphy, Strawberry, Henderson and Hawk provided veteran leadership.

There were quite a few Hall of Fame pitchers in 1992. The following year, Maddux would join Glavine and Smoltz to form one of the deadliest rotations in MLB history.

You can bet your bottom dollar that these guys are going to make an appearance in the “Dated Rookie” Project!

Historically, Fleer has been known to swing and miss on the prospects in their sets. They do hit on one or two each year and I suppose Kenny Lofton would be that ONE in 1992.

How about some “Super Stars”? Who are Boggs and Baines looking at?

Another insert set was the “Record Setters”. Joe Carter got a three-photo card for his 100 RBI seasons.

“League Leaders” was a staple in Fleer over the years. Most of the time the insert set featured both AL and NL players on the same card but this year was a bit different.

Here is the nice glossy All-Star insert along with the Roger Clemens Career Highlights Card. These were very nice looking Cards and had a ’92 Fleer Ultra feel.

Here is what I came for! I pulled the 5 best Pro-Vision Cards as far as I’m concerned. The one thing about ’91 that is superior to ’92 is the black border but damn I love these Pro-Vision cards!

Bernie Williams was one of the three big rookies I pulled from this box. Bernie is a fan favorite in the Bronx and a welcome addition to my collection.

The next big rookie I pulled was one of the newest members of the Baseball Hall of Fame, Jim Thome. He was a very classy ball player and one of the best power hitters of the 90’s that didn’t get linked to steroids. Thome was a beast!

The last big rookie I pulled was Pudge Rodriguez, another recent inductee into the Hall. Pudge was one of the best catchers I’ve ever seen play and was a stud on the field and in the Hobby.

This particular set break is the exact reason I do what I do with junk wax sets. I really had forgotten just how good 1992 Fleer was. The cards are in better condition than most boxes I open from the era, the checklist is loaded, the inserts are very retro and you simply can’t beat Pro-Vision Cards. It’s easy for some to label ’92 Fleer as one of those sets that was smack dab in the middle of the Junk era but the set really stands out when you take the time to look at the design and players found in the packs. In a complete rebound from 1991, I’m giving ’92 Fleer a “5” on the Dub-O-Meter. I can’t find a real problem with this set. It truly holds up 25 years later and deserves to be remembered in a much better light than we currently hold it. Give ’92 Fleer a shot and I know you’ll feel the same!

J-Dub

Scoring Scale

1.Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards.  Just read the post and thank me later.

2.There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.

3.Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you into buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of them.

4.You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did!  It has some downside but worth the ride.

5.Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking!  What are you waiting on?

Retro Review – A Super Rookie Wishlist

I think I have sufficiently established here at DubMentality that 1989 was likely the greatest year ever. The movies were stellar, the music was rockin’, video games were 8-bit dream weavers and Sports Cards were catching fire! I’ve said it before but it bears repeating; if I could go back to any one year and live it over and over, it would be 1989. I’ve covered that great year from a ton of different angles but now it’s the Christmas season so there’s really only one way to approach this post; the 1989 Sears Wishbook!

Everyone who is over the age of 30 likely remembers the Sears Wishbook. This 600 page publication had just about everything your heart could desire. Kids loved this book but now that I have a couple kids of my own, I can imagine that parents didn’t get the same enjoyment from it. I found the 1989 book online and was able to sift through the entire 683 pages. It brought back some great memories but one thing that stuck out to me was how expensive some of the items were some 28 years ago. If they seem expensive now, imagine how that felt in 1989 currency!

For example, can you believe that VCR’s in 1989 were as much as $300? You can buy 8-10 BlueRay players for $300 today. You had to rewind tapes and constantly adjust tracking on your VCR too! I do remember these old sports videos though and they were certainly worth the $15 price tag.

You had to have a TV to watch those videos on as well. I’m pretty sure we actually had the middle TV when I was a kid. This is a 27 inch TV for $750! Computer monitors are bigger than 27 inches now. But these were top of the line in 1989.

And what about communications? A normal corded phone would run you anywhere from $50-$100. If you wanted a cordless, it would cost upwards of $125! For the fun loving teen, there was also the Garfield phone for $50. I’m going to guess that this phone outsold all other designs throughout the course of history.

If you wanted personal music, that was going to cost you as well. Some of these Walkman’s were over $100! We are talking about cassette playing, wired headphones, AM/FM devices that cost a Benjamin. I totally feel for my parents and what I probably put them through.

Video games were certainly more important to me back then than VCR’s. And for half the price of a VCR, you could own the sweet Nintendo Entertainment System. No piece of technology has ever been more important to me throughout the course of my life. And just look at these games; Friday the 13th, Marble Madness, Double Dribble, Excitebike and Tecmo Bowl! I really think time could have stood still in 1989 and I would have been just fine.

There were other choices in 1989 for video game consoles but I was a couple years away from the 16-bit Sega and had outgrown the Atari.

If you wanted your gaming on the go, you could opt for the GameBoy. I played it a ton but I actually never owned a GameBoy of my own. I never really wanted one all that bad but I did enjoy the occasional playing of my friends games.

Some people were lucky enough to even have a computer. This Commodore wasn’t much more costly than the Nintendo but that didn’t include the monitor and the mouse. If you wanted those necessities, you were approaching $500. And you certainly had to have the disk drive, which was another $200. By the time you threw in the printer, you were looking at a $1,000 setup. The games were pretty awesome though!

For the gamer on a budget, you could always go with these gems. I had several different baseball and football handhelds during my youth.

When I had to put down the video games and actually go outside and play, I would throw baseballs at my pitch return. I threw at that net for hours on end and learned just as much about fielding as I did pitching.

I always wanted one of these pool tables as well but the closest I ever got was the small pool table in the picture. This wasn’t the easiest table to navigate but I remember playing quite a few games on it.

Then there was the clothing. Pajamas and Sweatsuits were my go to choices back in the day. The Nintendo sweatsuit was pretty sweet. And the team pajamas were pretty awesome too.

I’m pretty sure I had one of these get ups as well but it was UGA. I think there is a picture floating around somewhere with me wearing it. Maybe I’ll find that one day.

And of course, I had a couple of pairs of the sweatpants with the team names down the leg. I had some bicycle shorts too but they weren’t Lakers design.

I had to include this because who didn’t love a great sleeping bag. I remember taking mine to spend the night parties and zipping myself up in it to get all cozy. My daughter sleeps in her sleeping bag now in her bed so kids must still like them.

Finally, for the collectors out there, Sears offered some pretty sweet sports card deals. They had the exclusive Sears Ingots, which I bought at a recent card show(’85 version). They also had “Talking Baseball”, Baseball Star Pop Ups, the Baseball Card Collector’s Case, Price Guides, Binders and more! But item #8 could be had for $14.90 and it’s one of my favorite football sets from my youth; 1989 Topps.

I recently picked up a wax box of 1989 Topps to relive some of the magic of the greatest year ever. Even though some of the key rookie cards from this set are found in the Traded Set, the base set is still loaded with stars and some of the classic rookies from 1989. I love the box and wrappers from 1989 and who will argue over a .45 cent pack?

There were also box bottom cards as was customary for Topps in the 80’s. This year was Players of the Week and I picked up Week’s 13, 14, 15 and 16.

Also a customary inclusion in late 80’s football were the 1,000 Yard Club cards. These were glossy inserts at 1 per pack and covered a plethora of players that hit 1,000 yards. There are familiar names here!

The late 80’s were loaded with Hall of Fame and Star QB’s in the NFL. I pulled Boomer, Jim Kelly, Moon, Cunningham, Elway, Marino and many others.

It’s hard to beat the stud running backs in 1989. Bo Jackson and Christian Okoye were on the way in while Herschel and Craig were mid stride and Tony Dorsett and Eric Dickerson were wrapping up their illustrious careers.

Wide Receiver was not devoid of stars either.  Jerry Rice and John Taylor were both 1,000 yard receivers on the same team. Sterling Sharpe, Cris Carter and Andre Reed were some of my favorites.

In 1989, Tight Ends were more blockers than pass catchers. While that isn’t too much the case today, these were some good pass catchers back in the day. And we have the rare Jay Novachek in a Cardinals uniform.

The Defensive Line in 1989 was nasty! Bruce Smith, Richard Dent, Chris Doleman, Reggie White and Howie Long?? These dudes were absolute beasts!

Things didn’t get easier for the offense if they got to the second level of the defense either. LT and Mike Singletary were legendary at the linebacker position but all of these guys were studly.

Finally, the big hitters were in the secondary. Ronnie Lott was a man among men and Joey Browner and Rod Woodson could cover as well as they could hit. Now I am pretty sure Chuck Cecil wouldn’t have had a long career with today’s NFL safety rules. This guy was not scared of anything and he would absolutely take out receivers any time they came across the middle.

The Record Breakers were pretty dang good players too! Tim Brown, Eric Dickerson, Steve Largent and Dan Marino are all 80’s Icons!

I pulled 5 of the League Leader cards and I’ve always loved the Herschel/Dickerson card.

I pulled a ton of these team leader cards as well but I’ll only picture a few to show the design.

The “Super Rookies” were solid in ’89 with the inclusion of Brian Blades, Mark Rypien and Chris Spielman. Though there were two others I pulled that deserve their own photo spots.

Michael Irvin was the man and was one of the key players that helped turn the Cowboys around in the 90’s. This RC is always a welcome addition.

Then there is the gem of the base set, Thurman Thomas! I used Thurman so many times on Tecmo because the Bills were loaded. I wish they had won at least one of those Super Bowls because those guys deserved one.

Because I wanted to make this post complete, I also swiped the Traded Set for $7.95 from my LCS. Not including the big guys, there are still some solid names in this Traded Set that make it well worth the price. Steve Young, Don Beebe and Herschel headline the non-big guys. And I didn’t forget about you Scotty; Mr. Steve Grogan is included!

Here are the studs (except one) in the traded set. The rookies of Aikman, Deion, DT and Rison make this Traded Set worth so much more than the cost!

The best card in the entire 1989 Base and Traded Set is this awesome Barry Sanders. I love this card and it might be my favorite 80’s football card!

I don’t think anyone would argue that the 1989 Topps set is loaded and a great addition to any collection. I give it an easy “5” on the Dub-O-Meter because the design is classic 80’s and the checklist is star studded! This was such a great rookie year and still included many big stars that were either in the middle of their careers or winding down. There is really nothing I don’t like about this set, except for the 28 year old gum!

J-Dub

Scoring Scale

1.Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards.  Just read the post and thank me later.

2.There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.

3.Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you into buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of them.

4.You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did!  It has some downside but worth the ride.

5.Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking!  What are you waiting on?

Cheese Puffs with Phoebe Cates

As I put more years behind me, I know I have experienced a metamorphosis both physically and mentally. The physical part hasn’t been so great, as I am about 50 lbs. heavier than I was as a senior in high school. There has been a steady increase in that category since age 30 at a rate of about 5 lbs. per year. I have gone from being able to eat a full box of oatmeal crème pies to only being able to eat one a week if I want to keep from feeling terrible about my choices. I also know that my hair has thinned on my head and the hair in my beard has gotten progressively grayer over the last few years. My face is starting to show more lines (I like to call it character) and my back just can’t handle the rigors of basketball and softball like the days of yore.

From a mental standpoint, the changes can sometimes seem less dramatic but I know that they are just as prevalent. For one, I do seem to worry less about things that are out of my control. I have more perspective now than I did when I was a spry young adult. I also don’t get so wrapped up in some of the nuances that life can challenge you with and try to focus more on the important stuff. That is a work in progress but I know that I am on more solid ground at 40. I have a better idea of what is important to me and my family at this age and don’t have as much time for the less important stuff. I have also seen and heard a lot over my life so I’m not as naïve or surprised by things anymore. That doesn’t mean that wild moments don’t exist; it just means that I am less surprised or shocked by them now. I think all of that is a part of maturing mentally.

But one of the key downsides to aging for your mental state is that your memories start to slip. Part of that is age but part of that is today’s society as well. We live in an age where we need to be entertained 24/7 or we get bored and want to pull our hair out. Because we have sensory (and information) overload from Twitter, FaceBook, or any of the other “have it now” tools, we move from one highlight to the next and don’t really take in the full experience anymore. This has a way of affecting the way we remember things, as moments are less of what we create and more of what is created for us. I know, I’m not a fancy psychologist or anything but I promise I am going somewhere with this.

Take for instance, movies. When I was a kid, the only way to see a movie was to go to the theater, get your parents to take you to the video store or catch it when it was on TV. Every time I bring up “video store”, I shed a lone tear in memoriam. So when you watched a movie, you have this experience of going to the video store, scouring the shelves, reading the back of cases and checking it out. You then had one or two days to watch the movie and get it back to the store before you were charged more money. So that meant you would grab a snack, turn the lights down and actually watch a movie from start to finish. It was a movie watching experience and it created memories; even if they are now just anecdotal callbacks to your youth.

Now, we pop on Netflix or our phones and watch a movie over a several day span when the mood strikes us. Or we’ll watch a 15 episode season in one night, which has a way of diluting the event as well. It isn’t about the movie or show anymore as much as it is about filling time or being someone who also saw the hot thing that every one is talking about on Twitter. There are spoilers now. And if you don’t want the spoiler, stay off social media or you will be berated for not seeing it yet. And by being subjected to the spoiler, you would have somehow gotten what you deserved. It’s about being first to see it and having the most sensible fan theory or whatever the kids are calling it now.

This is just an example of a bigger issue. This could be expanded to music, politics, sports and yes, even hobbies. We have forgotten what life was like when we had to appreciate the little things. We have forgotten the little things altogether. Maybe those things didn’t mean as much as we thought. Or maybe we have overrated things today. Either way, we have forgotten the small things and only remembered the major songs, movies, foods and toys from our youth. But there was more! Believe me when I say that “Saved by the Bell” wasn’t the only Saturday morning teen show on the tube. And “Tecmo Super Bowl”, “Super Mario” and “Contra” weren’t the only video games we played. And “Friday the 13th” and “Nightmare on Elm Street” aren’t the only horror movies the 80’s had to offer!

With that outline in place, and by keeping the context of this blog post light and fluffy, let’s look at some of the things that have been lapped by other pop culture icons but were still great when they were around. Then, strangely enough, this will tie into baseball cards. Because in the end, isn’t that what this is all about anyway? Consider this a list of forgotten/underrated/overlooked favorites according to Dub. I’m here to bring awareness to the masses.

Minute Maid Juice Bars
Everybody my age remembers the bomb pop and the push up and pop-ice that we had as kids. But why have we forgotten about the Minute Maid Juice Bars? These were magical small frozen treats that were fruity delicious and they were available at all of my school snack bars. The tops were oddly shaped triangles that morphed into a different facing triangle at the bottom. Does that make sense? You show me someone who didn’t like those and I’ll show you someone who is living life wrong. They are still around but I showed them to my daughter the last time we were at Publix and she thought I was nuts. We have to make the Minute Maid Juice Bar great again but I think the hashtag #MMMJBGA would be too cumbersome!

Cheese Puffs
While we are at it, let’s bring back another classic snack that is grossly underrated today; the Cheese Puff! I personally am a fan of any cheese puff but my friend CJ swears by the local grocery store brand puff. He doesn’t like frills in his cheese puffs. He just wants air and cheese! You can have your Doritos and Ruffles and I’ll take the Cheese Puffs all day. Again, they still make them and they are popular in pockets but they are definitely more of a kid snack. That doesn’t have to be the case anymore!

Silver Bullet
I have spoken about “Silver Bullet” before in one of my articles about 1985 Fleer. What’s not to love about this 80’s horror movie? It was a Stephen King adaptation that starred Gary Busey and Corey Haim and was about a preacher that turned into a werewolf. I mean, that sounds like pure gold to me. There is even a part in the film where they are playing poker and using baseball cards as cash; “You can’t bet managers.” This one does not get mentioned with some of the greats from the 80’s because we had to make room for all the new crap we are watching, like “Annabelle”. Chucky would run circles around “Annabelle” by the way.

Halloween III
This one is more about being underrated than forgotten. I have even been a critic of the film but only in the context that it was in the middle of the Halloween franchise. Had this been a standalone film that was never associated with the Michael Myers line of films, this would have gotten much more praise. The film is really quite good for a mid 80’s horror flick but when it didn’t have Myers, fans wrote it off. It is only remembered now as a movie that was drastically out of place.

Maximum Overdrive/Who Made Who
Here is where we cross over from movies to music and the segue couldn’t be more perfect. “Maximum Overdrive” was another Stephen King adaptation that starred Emilio Estevez. Electronics came to life, cars drove themselves and lawn mowers attacked their owners. All of this was to the soundtrack of AC/DC! One of the theme songs in the movie was “Who Made Who” and is one of their best in my mind. They will always be remembered for “Hells Bells”, “Shook Me All Night Long” and “Thunderstruck” but damnit, “Who Made Who” is a great song and should get more recognition when AC/DC comes up in conversation today. I’m betting 9 out of 10 hipsters that wear AC/DC Retro Shirts today don’t know that song.

Everclear
I’m talking about the band, not the liquor. People know about Green Day or Gin Blossoms or Bush but how many of those people name Everclear as an influential band from the 90’s? I know you have heard the song “Santa Monica” but you have probably heard a laundry list of their other songs and didn’t even know it was them. They pumped out gems like “Father of Mine”, “Wonderful”, “Everything to Everyone” and “Learning How to Smile” and we aren’t even scratching the surface here. Kids today think they know what music is but if you don’t have Everclear in your catalogue (on iTunes) then you really are missing a major contributor to the 90’s garage band scene.

California Dreams
How many of you remember this gem? Not enough, because “Saved By The Bell” has taken over your memories and that is the only high school teen show you have room for anymore. This was also about a group of teenagers but this group formed a band that would have slaughtered Zack Morris’ “Friends Forever” routine. Granted, it was not as good as SBTB and Kelly Packard was no Kelly Kapowski but it deserves to have its place in our memories!

You Can’t Do That On Television
Before Nickelodeon went full on bore-fest with Dora, iCarly and Victorious, they were pumping out quality programming that included Ren & Stimpy, Double Dare and Mr. Wizard. One of the best shows in my memory though is “You Can’t Do That On Television”. This was a teenage sketch comedy that originally aired in Canada before moving to a more international audience. This is where slime was created. This was also where we were first introduced to Alanis Morisette and Christine “Moose” McGlade. It was funny, irreverent and corny at times but I really miss that show.

StarTropics
StarTropics was one of the most underrated and thus forgotten NES games of my youth. It was a strategy game very much like Legend of Zelda but was based on archaeology, science, space and oceanography. We’re talking extraterrestrials, speaking parrots and singing dolphins here. The game even came with a physical letter that you had to dip in water to reveal a code to continue gameplay when prompted. The only downside of the game is that it was before the internet so when I lost that letter, I couldn’t play it a second time through because none of my friends had the game and there was nowhere to go to find that code again. You could also throw RC Pro Am and ExciteBike as forgotten gems from my youth as well.

Barbara Crampton
As a teen, I liked horror movies and I liked chicks! And one of the hottest horror movie chicks ever was Barbara Crampton. She was famous for “Re-Animator” but was in others like “Puppet Master”, “The Beyond” and “Chopping Mall.” She’s been in more recent films like “We Are Still Here” and “Beyond The Gates” and still has that mojo. Sure, people remember Jamie Lee Curtis and Danielle Harris but Barbara Crampton is a true Scream Queen that should be more recognized today.

Phoebe Cates
Here is another actress that was pretty well known in the 80’s with movies like “Gremlins”, “Bright Lights, Big City” and “Drop Dead Fred”. But she was most well known for her amazing performance in “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” She was drop dead gorgeous but has been relatively absent from our minds since the mid 90’s. We must not forget Phoebe Cates! I cannot and will not allow that to happen to our society. A society without Phoebe Cates is not a society I want to be a part of. Too much?

So that brings us to baseball cards. I’ve used all of these examples to set up my list of players from when I was a kid that are grossly underrated or forgotten in the hobby today. Maybe this was a flimsy setup but I enjoyed putting this list together. Collectors today will occasionally jump on an old cheap box and ask me what they should be looking for. The short answer is always the same; Bo Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr., Jose Canseco, Mark McGwire and Nolan Ryan. But yes, just like the list above, there is more to the 80’s baseball card scene than those hot names that everybody remembers. There are some high quality players to be found in 80’s wax that may not break the bank on eBay but certainly should have a more prominent spot in our collection when we pull their cards.

The list is by no means comprehensive but these are some of the bigger names I look for when ripping old wax. These are non-hall of fame players that probably aren’t as obvious to today’s collectors as they are to the old guard like @oriolesrise, @JunkWaxTwins, @OffHiatusBBC and @ShaneKatz73. These are players that we loved to put in our binders and were usually trade centerpieces when we wanted to pick up those Jr’s and Canseco’s.

Ruben Sierra
Sierra spent some great years with the Texas Rangers and I remember seeking him out in the late 80’s. He had 4 seasons with 100+ RBI and 17 seasons with double digit home runs. Seven of those seasons produced 20+ bombs. His best season was in 1989 when he hit .306 with 29 HR, 119 RBI and 13 triples. He was a 4x All-Star and Silver Slugger Award Winner and is in the Rangers Hall of Fame.

Vince Coleman
Coleman didn’t have the all around numbers like Sierra but he was a beast on the base path. He played 13 seasons and finished with 752 career stolen bases. He had 3 seasons with 100+, 7 seasons with 50+ and was a 6x SB leader. He hit for a mediocre average over his career at .264 and only mustered up 28 career bombs. But damn, he was fast!

Shawon Dunston
This was more of a personal favorite of mine than anything. He had so-so numbers over his career in which he hit for a .269 average with 150 HR and 212 SB. He did have 5 seasons with 20+ steals and was a 3x All-Star. I really enjoyed watching him play.

Kevin Mitchell
Mitchell was a real beast! He played 13 seasons and racked up 234 career home runs, which averaged out to 31 per 162 games. He also averaged 101 RBI per 162 games and had a career .284 average. In 1989, he won the NL MVP with a .291 batting average, 47 HR and 125 RBI. He was also a 2x All-Star and Silver Slugger Award Winner.

Jay Buhner
Buhner played 15 seasons and tallied 310 home runs and 965 RBI. Those aren’t HOF numbers but they are dang good as it averaged out to 34 HR/106 RBI per 162 games. He did strike out a lot and only hit .254 over his career but he made up for it with an All-Star appearance, a Gold Glove in ’96 and he’s in the Mariners HOF.

Benito Santiago
Santiago was one of the first catchers I really paid attention to. Alomar Jr. was a hot rookie but I really liked Santiago. He played 20 years and mashed 217 HR and amassed 920 RBI. He also collected 91 SB over his career, which is nothing to sneeze at for a catcher. He was a 5x All-Star, NLCS MVP (2002), 3x Gold Glove Winner, 4x Silver Slugger Winner and the 1987 NL ROY. He was and still is highly collectible for me. He is also a member of the San Diego Padres HOF.

Eric Davis
This may have been the easiest one for me when compiling this list. Davis was beloved by fans in Cincinnati and around the country. He was a likeable player and I enjoyed watching him play. He played 17 seasons and hit 282 HR and 934 RBI which averaged out to 28/93 per 162 games over his career. He also had 349 SB for an average of 35 per 162 games. He had a massive 80 steals in 1986 and 50 in 1985. He was also a 2x All-Star, World Series Champ (’90), 3x Gold Glove Winner, 2x Silver Slugger Award Winner, Roberto Clemente Award Winner and is a member of the Reds HOF. Former teammate Paul O’Neill said that Davis was the “Best Everything” he had ever seen play.

Mike Greenwell
Greenwell played 12 seasons and averaged 17 home runs, 10 SB and a .303 batting average per 162 games. He was a 2x All-Star, Silver Slugger Award Winner and is a member of the Red Sox HOF.

Ellis Burks
Greenwell’s teammate, Ellis Burks, is another stud I search for in the Junk Wax sets I rip. Burks played 18 seasons and hit 352 HR and knocked in 1,206 runs. This came out to an average of 29/98 per 162 games over his career. He also had 84 SB, hit for a career .291 avg and hit over .300 a total of 6 times in his career. He was a lock for the Red Sox HOF with these stats and his 2x All-Star, Gold Glove and 2x Silver Slugger Award.

Mark Grace
Grace has had his share of off-field troubles since he retired but he was a very good player during his career. He played 16 seasons and hit 173 HR and 1,146 RBI. He also won 4 Gold Gloves and went to the All-Star game 2 times. He had 9 seasons with a batting average over .300 and finished his career with a .303 average.

Chris Sabo
I’m not going to lie; some of this was about the goggles. Chris Sabo is such a nostalgic player for me because of how unique his cards were. His stats weren’t bad either though as he hit 116 HR and knocked in 426 runs over a 9 year career. He was a 3x All-Star and the NL ROY in 1988 on his way to being inducted into the Reds HOF. The goggles made him fast too as he swiped 120 career SB’s, averaging 21 per 162 games.

Andres Gallaraga
One of the reasons I like collecting Gallaraga is the Expos uniform he is found in on his 80’s cards. He was a Brave for a while too but I believe that the best looking uniform ever belonged to the Montreal Expos. He played 19 seasons and hit 399 HR, collected 1,452 RBI and swiped 128 bases while keeping a career batting average of .288. He was a 5x All-Star, 2x Gold Glover, 2x Silver Slugger, NL Batting Champ in ’93 and NL Home Run Leader in ’96. He was known for his power but he really was a 5-Tool Player for many years.

Will Clark
Clark has a few PC guys out there so this one is not a middle of the road player. Clark played 15 years and had a career batting average of .303 while hitting 284 HR and 1,205 RBI. He also was a 6x All-Star, NLCS MVP (’89), 2x Silver Slugger and Gold Glove winner. He hit over .300 for 10 out of 15 total seasons. Will “The Thrill” was amazing at the plate.

Fred McGriff
The “Crime Dog” is the one player on this list that should definitely be in the Hall of Fame. He played 19 years and hit 493 home runs, falling just 7 shy of the magical “500” number. He also hit for average with a career number of .284. He was a 5x All-Star, 3x Silver Slugger, 2x Home Run Leader and hit over .300 during 6 of his seasons. Please tell me why a player with 493 home runs, 1,550 RBI, a World Series Ring (’95) and these other accolades is not in the Hall of Fame. It’s a travesty!

Dave Stewart
The first pitcher on the list is a 3x World Series Champ with a career 168-129 win-loss record. The key for me with Stewart was what he did during my collecting heyday. From 1987-1990, he won 20+ games every season and finished his career with 1,741 K’s and a 3.95 ERA. He was the 1989 WS MVP and a 2x ALCS MVP. He also threw a no-hitter in 1990. He doesn’t have the numbers for the HOF but he was a very good pitcher when I started collecting.

Jose Rijo
This is not just because I pulled his auto in a recent box of Archives Postseason Signature Series. Like Dave Stewart, Rijo was a stud in the league when I started collecting. He had a career 116-91 record over 14 years but won 14+ from 90-93 and was the WS MVP in 1990. He finished with 1,600 K’s and is a member of the Reds HOF.

Bret Saberhagen
The final pitcher on my list is Saberhagen. He played 16 seasons and finished his career with a 167-117 win-loss record. He had a stellar 3.34 career ERA and struck out 1,715 batters, averaging 151 per 162 games. His best season was 1989 when he went 23-6 with 12 complete games and finished with a 2.16 ERA. He tallied 193 K’s that season. He finished his career as a 3x All-Star, World Series Champ (’85), World Series MVP (’85), 2x AL Cy Young Award, Gold Glove Winner (’89), MLB Wins Leader (’89), AL ERA Leader (’89) and pitched a no-hitter in 1991. It’s no surprise that he is a member of the Kansas City Royals HOF.

For the collectors that ask me who I look for when I rip open those classic junk wax boxes, this is your answer. There are others that are personal favorites of mine that may not have had numbers this good but these are all studs you can find in late 80’s products that make the relatively low cost very much worth it. These are also players that are highly collectible with their team collectors as well. So while Kelly Kapowski was #1 in the late 80’s, I don’t think I would have been complaining if Phoebe Cates gave me a call back then. In that same regard, while Ken Griffey Jr. and Jose Canseco were the big catches in the card world, I would complain about pulling any of these guys either. It’s easy to forget about players, songs or movies that we aren’t constantly reminded of today but that doesn’t mean they aren’t classics and worthy of our attention. Get out there and find some of these 80’s legends

J-Dub

Retro Review – Not Quite Kelly Bundy

I remember watching “Growing Pains” quite a bit when I was young. I remember Mike Seaver being Mr. Cool and I probably reminded my parents of him when it came to school work, getting in trouble and pulling dumb stunts with my friends. I also thought Carol was quite the looker for an 80’s sitcom star. But she liked school a little too much for my taste. I never really paid much attention to Ben because he was the obnoxious little brother and I had one of those already. I do remember Dr. Seaver being this sort of all knowing guy that had a sense of humor and an answer for all of the kids problems. He was a psychiatrist after all. He was a good 80’s dad on TV but could be a bit of a cornball at times.I fancy myself as having a little bit of Al Bundy in my personality though. I can be crass, to the point and say things I probably shouldn’t at times. I love sports, love to watch TV and appreciate his ability to completely tune out those around him when they are grinding his last nerve. I also don’t mind the occasional swimsuit calendar on the wall. I never wanted to be a shoe salesman but I did want to one day have a secret club in my garage that consisted of me and my friends sitting around drinking beer and talking about our wives. I still haven’t formed that club but I do have some friends that enjoy sitting around drinking a beer. We only talk about how great our wives are though. We would never disparage our significant others, right?Even though Jason Seaver could be a cornball sometimes, he couldn’t hold a candle to Danny Tanner on “Full House”. Even as a kid, I thought he was a total square. I enjoyed Jessie and Joey much more than I did Danny but I guess that was how it was meant to be written. I definitely didn’t want to be in a house with a bunch of girls when I was 10 either. Yuck! I didn’t have any sisters and actually didn’t have a female cousin until I was about 14 or so. I just never latched on to “Full House” like I did these other sitcoms because I just couldn’t really relate to it like the others. They did all have something in common though; they all debuted in 1987. As I went back and looked through some of the coolness of 1987, I realized that it was a major year for television and the big screen. Maybe that’s because I was 10 and really started getting into TV but there was a lot of excellent options that year.As for TV, that was the year that we were introduced to Spuds McKenzie. You tell me one kid from 1987 that didn’t want a Spuds of his own. I didn’t even pay attention to the beer part of the ad. I wanted that dog! We also met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles that year and my cousin is still a pizza fanatic because of Michelangelo. It helps that his name is Michael as well. Then there were those awesome Micro Machines commercials. That guy had a pretty amazing talent with the fast talking! My brother played with those a lot more than I did but I always marveled at the commercials. That probably wouldn’t be a very safe toy for kids by today’s standards.The news on TV that year was also very riveting. That was the year that Baby Jessica fell into a well in her aunt’s backyard in Texas. And when I say well, what I really mean is this tiny pipe that only an 18 month old child could fit in. It took 58 hours to free her from that well and it was a televised event. It was quite scary for parents but it made me leery of small spaces for a while as well. She was eventually rescued from the pipe some 22 feet below ground and is doing well today as per media reports. Someone who didn’t do quite so well with their media circus fame in 1987 was Jim Bakker. Bakker was a TV Evangelist who was accused of rape by a secretary that actually led to the uncovering of financial fraud that led to a 45 year prison conviction. He only served 5 years before being paroled but went through a pretty public divorce from Tammy Faye as well. He has somehow found himself back in the ministry and on TV. I’m just going to leave that alone.The movies were awesome in 1987 were totally tubular! My personal favorites from that year were “Predator” and “Running Man”. I was a big Arnold fan and loved all of his movies. “Predator” was one of the first sci-fi horror movies I watched, along with “Aliens”. That movie kind of freaked me out but I thought it was really cool too. Carl Weathers was the man! As for “Running Man”, this was another sci-fi thriller about a TV game show where the only winners were the contestants who actually finished the game alive. As crazy as that movie premise seemed in 1987, to be brutally honest, we don’t seem too far from some kind of reality show that is very similar to “Running Man” in 2017. It’s a little scary how close that movie portrayed the way our society is heading.There were a lot of other classic movies released that year as well. Some of the more well known include “Lethal Weapon”, “The Untouchables”, “Dirty Dancing” and “Robocop”. Obviously, these are big name movies so I don’t have to explain how good they were. In the horror genre, there were a few that are still on my favorites list. I still love “The Lost Boys” and watched it at a friend’s house when I was totally not supposed to. I had to hide the fact that I was scared to death at my house at night because that would have eventually led to the fact that I watched it. My favorite Freddy movie was “Dream Warriors” and it was released that year as well. Throw in “Creepshow 2” and you’ve got quite a starter list of movies you should go back and re-watch.What about some family movies from ’87? Well, there was “Harry and the Hendersons”, which gave Bigfoot a soft and warm side that made you want to have him as a pet. Then there was “Ernest Goes to Camp”, which does not hold up well in 2017. Trust me, it is not good today. “Summer School” was a fun movie that had a couple of “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” super fans in it. “Raising Arizona” was the first great Nicholas Cage film that also starred Holly Hunter. And “Planes, Trains and Automobiles” was a hilarious comedy with Steve Martin and John Candy. One of the best lines in a comedy film in the 80’s came from that movie. After waking up in a hotel room together, they had this unforgettable exchange:

Neal Page: Del? Why did you kiss my ear?
Del Griffith: Why are you holding my hand?
Neal Page: Where’s your OTHER hand?
Del Griffith: Between two pillows….
Neal Page: Those aren’t pillows!!!“Full Metal Jacket” is a cult classic from 1987 and I have watched the first half of that movie over and over and over. That drill sergeant is one of the greatest movie characters ever! I remember Private Pile, Private Joker and all of the characters and one liner’s from that film. It’s one that I still have on VHS in my collection. Finally, I developed a pretty strong crush that year on Elisabeth Shue thanks to “Adventures in Babysitting”. She was already a cutie in “The Karate Kid” but this one put me over the top. I still stop the channel surfing when I see her on my TV screen!There were other cool things from 1987 like “Mike Tyson’s Punch Out”, Guns N Roses’ “Appetite for Destruction” and Bon Jovi’s “Livin on a Prayer.” 1987 was really a great year for pop culture. That year produced some pretty cool trading cards as well. I remember Garbage Pail Kids that year and trying to gross out the girls in my class with those hideous cards. One of the most iconic sets ever was the 1987 Wood Grain Topps design with the beautiful Bo Jackson Future Star. I also did a review of 1987 Fleer here a few weeks ago. This was almost the perfect year for collecting because most weren’t aware it was overproduced yet but they also only had a few sets to choose from.The remaining set from that year was 1987 Donruss. I never had a ton of ’87 Donruss because I didn’t really start collecting until 1989. But even as a non-collecting kid that played with the classic toys of those days, I had some ’87 Topps lying around. I think most kids had some ’87 Topps, even if half of us didn’t know what we had. But Donruss was a relative unknown to me for many years. I have since added some pieces to my collection but I’ve never busted a full box, or even multiple packs to be honest. My recent trip to the LCS has provided that opportunity now. I picked up a full box for a mere $25, which I think is a pretty good deal.

Donruss had a pretty cool design that year with the black border and gold baseball logo stripe running horizontally across the middle of the card. Of course, there are also Diamond Kings and Rated Rookies to sort through as well. The puzzle is of Roberto Clemente, which is especially cool to me, considering how much I love his cards in the hobby. The set was numbered to 660 and a box had 36 packs with 15 cards per pack. So there are a total of 540 cards per box but if collation is similar to other sets from those years, I’m probably looking at just over half the set when I’m done. I’m really looking forward to this rip though because the set will be a fairly new experience for me.

Let’s jump right in!

First, the wrappers were not my favorite from Donruss. I didn’t like the copper color but they are still wax packs so they aren’t all bad either.

I was able to pull the full Clemente Puzzle together so that was a success!

The Diamond Kings were just as I remembered them. The artwork of Dick Perez is unmistakable. Surprisingly, my least favorite is the Jose Canseco because his head looks so odd on the card. I love the Murphy, Straw, Smith, Puckett and Davis!

The Rated Rookies pictured here were names that you may remember but not Hall of Fame type talent. I particularly liked Benito Santiago in the late 80’s. Rafael Palmeiro could have landed in the Hall had he not had his issues during the steroid era.

These three players epitomized the term “Speed”. Vince Coleman may have been the fastest but Rickey Henderson was the most prolific base stealer. Rock Raines was the closest to a 5 tool player of the group.

The infielders here are absolute studs. This was Will Clark’s rookie Donruss card and Fred McGriff’s second year card. There is a lot of talent here!

The outfielders are just as awesome and star studded as the infielders above. Jose’s rookie was the famous 1986 Donruss but this was Bobby Bonilla’s base rookie as he was included in 1986’s “The Rookies” set. Just look at that smile on Puckett! These guys make me want to pull out RBI Baseball and start swinging!

The pitchers here are Ace material. Lee Smith was a closer but he was as dominant as the starters. The Dodgers rotation was pretty scary with Fernando and Orel. It looks like Doc was startled by someone that got his attention as the photo was about to be taken.

The Veterans are all here too in 1987. I dare you to tell me you wouldn’t have wanted these guys on your team in the 80’s! Pete Rose had the elusive 1B/Mgr card. I really liked Joe Carter too and I think he is vastly underrated in the hobby today. The same could be said about Jim Rice.

The two hits in the box were these great Rated Rookies. While I missed out on the Barry Bonds RC, I am pleased that I pulled Bo and McGwire. I have now pulled all three major Bo Jackson rookies this year ripping old wax. I really wish the careers for these two had ended up better than they did. I wish Bo had stayed healthy and I wish McGwire could have just been this good without the whole steroid thing.

Finally, ’87 Donruss had a nice box bottom like many other mid 80’s wax boxes. The bottom here had Murphy and a sweet Canseco photo taken with him perfectly centered in a star on the outfield wall. There is a Reardon and Clemente puzzle card as well but the Canseco is the real gem here.As with other 1987 rips, this one was loads of fun. A rookie class of Bo, McGwire and Bonds make the ripping exciting but the inclusion of every major star from the 80’s makes the box well worth the $25 price tag. The design was not as good as 1986 but was better than 1988 in my opinion. This was probably one of the top Donruss designs for me but came right one year after my favorite so I tend to judge it too harshly. I have to give this a “4” on the Dub-O-Meter for a few reasons. The checklist is great, the design is good, the price is reasonable and the Clemente Puzzle is a classic. On the negative, the cards weren’t cut very well and collation was as odd as I’ve seen with consecutively numbered cards. The positives far outweigh the negatives here so the 4 is closer to a 4.5 than a 3.5. I would say that ultimately, the set lands somewhere between Carol Seaver and Kelly Bundy, if you know what I mean. I’d recommend this set as a fun build and the box as a nostalgic rip worth your time. What say you about 1987 Donruss?

J-Dub

Scoring Scale

1. Let me be the sacrificial lamb so you don’t have to buy these cards.  Just read the post and thank me later.

2. There is worse but there is much better – not worth the effort though.

3. Middle of the road – I wouldn’t talk you into buying these but I certainly wouldn’t talk you out of them.

4. You should probably go out and buy a box and enjoy the rip – I did!  It has some downside but worth the ride.

5. Stop reading and find a box to buy and get to Breaking!  What are you waiting on?

Cardboard Time Machine

Have you ever stopped to think about how memories work?  Of course, as I get older, the memories get fuzzier and harder to recount.  But there are some that remain vivid and when I stop and focus on them, I can almost place myself in the exact moment in time.  I think about this a lot because I have a 10 year old daughter that is starting to really enjoy a lot of new things.  She reminds me so much of me as a kid.  She loves watching those teen Nickelodeon shows, making slime, playing video games on her iPad and even collecting sports cards.  I was wondering just the other day how much from this age she would actually remember and it immediately took me back to my youth and what I remember.  She may not be able to retain it all but I certainly hope she remembers the role I played in trying to create them with her.

When we went to Disney in April, she rode Space Mountain for the first time and as we stood in the line, I could totally remember the feeling of wonderment I had going through that futuristic environment to ride an indoor roller coaster at 10.  When these moments arise, I always make sure she understands what’s going on around her. I point things out, I ask her what she thinks and I get her to recount the event to her mom or sister so she’ll take it all in and let it soak in.  In today’s fast paced world, it is hard to stop and focus on something that is really meaningful; we have phones in our face, Twitter spilling news everywhere and fidget spinners taking the world by storm.   We are constantly chasing the next exciting thing.  That’s sort of how modern day collecting has become.

Collecting sports cards doesn’t have to be that way.  I can sit down with a stack of cards and show my daughter various memorable players and share memories of my youth with her.  The cards are more to me than a value in Beckett or a dollar sign on eBay.  Do they have those meanings as well sometimes?  Sure, but it’s not why I do it now.   It’s why I did it in 1989 but I’ve evolved over the years into more of a collector than a cardboard entrepreneur.   Cards don’t just take me back to a specific player or baseball moment.  These old collectibles take me back to the year they are from and I remember the world around me at the time and what I had going on in my life.  Let me see if I can explain a little better with a few cards.

1987This time period was just before I started collecting but I have since gone back and bought tons and tons of ’87 cards for my collection.  Topps that year remains one of the most iconic designs in sports cards and I had more woodgrain in my collection than Ford did in the station wagon.  But when I look through these cards, it doesn’t take me back to actual sports cards memories.  At age 10, I was totally engulfed in baseball.  I was cutting my teeth in little league baseball at Centennial Stadium and watching it as much as possible.   I remember Jason Lee having the hardest fastball and always being thankful that my Uncle Speedy drafted him to be on our team.  I remember always wanting to hit a homerun into the O’San parking lot but never being able to.  I remember playing wiffle ball with the neighbors and watching my uncle Greg play with the big boys.

I also watched a lot of baseball on TV.  In 1987, I was blessed with two TV stations that played baseball every day.  We didn’t have MLB Season Pass “back in my day”; we had 2 channels.  One station was TBS, the home of the Atlanta Braves, America’s Team and my local guys.  We would watch Dale Murphy, Ken Oberkfell, Bob Horner and Gerald Perry every night even though they weren’t very good.  Skip Carey, Pete Van Wieren and Ernie Johnson were soothing to the ears and made me long for the baseball field.  The other station was WGN out of Chicago.  The great thing about Cubs baseball in 1987 was that most every game was played in the afternoon because Wrigley field didn’t have lights until late summer 1988.  I would get home from school around 3:30 and a Cubs game would be on and I would get to here Harry Carey and Steve Stone call the game.   The Cubs weren’t very good in ’87 either.  The Braves finished 20.5 games out of first and the Cubbies were 18.5 games out.  But at the age of 10, watching baseball was more important than watching the standings.   And the Cubs had Ryno, Andre Dawson and Shawon Dunston who were all fun to watch!

1988Believe it or not, the first thing I think of when I see 1988 baseball cards is pro wrestling.  That aforementioned TV station, TBS, had a show on Saturday nights called WCW Saturday Night!   I can’t get into today’s wrestling because it is so overproduced and the storylines are all so outlandish.  The storylines were probably the same in 1988 but I was 11 so I thought they were legit.  Also, WCW “rasslin” was way different than today’s WWE wrestling.   These guys got nasty in the ring and they would bleed and poke eyeballs and kick below the belt.  It was more about what happened inside the ring as opposed to the lead up and fall out after what happened in the ring.  And there is also no better ringside announcer for me than Tony Schiavone!

The wrestlers were so much better back then as well.  We had names like Dusty Rhodes, Ric Flair, Lex Luger, Arn and Ollie Anderson, Barry Windham, The Road Warriors and The Midnight Express.  There were hateable managers like Jim Cornett and Paul E. Dangerously.  There were vixens like Miss Elizabeth, Madusa, Missy Hyatt and Georgous George.  A new face had joined WCW with Sting and he is an all-time favorite, along with The Nature Boy.   So yeah, it may be odd but 1988 Score takes me back to Jim Cornette and his tennis racket and wanting Hawk and Animal to demolish the Midnight Express.  I didn’t realize until a recent Beckett podcast that Cornette is doing his own podcast now.  He was such a heel but is such a legend at the same time!

1989I have a lot of baseball card memories from 1989 but I also have other memories that are tied to when I started collecting.  One person I always think of when I am looking through my original ’89 Donruss and Bowman is my late friend, Josh Haire.  Josh and I became friends in Middle School and were best friends until late in high school when we had a falling out that I regrettably was never able to reconcile before he passed away far too soon.  But back in 1989, we were two peas in a pod.  We would spend the night at each other’s house on the weekend and watch movies, trade baseball cards and fish at his pond.  He had a ton of Bowman and I had a ton of Donruss so we would trade with each other to try and help build the sets.

There are some very vivid memories I have of my time with Josh and I will always hold on to them.  It was at his house on a scary Friday night that we played “Bloody Mary” for the first time.  His step dad was the “Voice of the Eagles”; our high school football team that won state in ’89 so we were at all the games and got to sit in the radio booth for many of them.   I learned how to play records at the radio station he DJ’d at on Saturdays.  I watched “The Lost Boys” behind my parents back at Josh’s in the attic bedroom he had.   I wasn’t supposed to watch horror movies at 12 but we watched that one!  He had a couple of Doberman’s that were as gentle as could be but still made me very nervous when I was alone with them.  Josh was a great friend during childhood and I will always remember the good times we spent together.  I also look back on the days we were immature and not so good friends to each other with regret and remorse.  But when I look at cards from ’89, it’s only good memories.

1990I was introduced to the second best video game ever in 1990, RBI Baseball 3.  It is close to Tecmo Super Bowl but nothing can ever top that sports classic.  I got my start in 1986 with RBI 1 at my Uncle Speedy’s house.  Unc was a great ball player and was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals but his quest to make it to the majors was derailed by Vietnam.  He even knew a couple of the players on RBI 1.  Our area baseball all-star teams were loaded in the mid 60’s from my understanding as my dad and Uncle Speedy both played on teams with Ray Knight and Harry Spielman.   And to hear the legend, my Uncle Speedy was the best player out of all of them.  He was a SS and I do remember seeing him play softball in his 30’s and he was as smooth as Ozzie Smith.   Who knows, the Cards may have never traded for Ozzie if Unc had stayed on the baseball path.  History as we know it could have been altered!

By 1990, we had moved on from kid games and RBI 3 was what you would routinely find us playing.  It had all of the major league teams at the time and even included the division champs from ’83-’89.  I liked playing with the ’87 Tigers and taking out the Twins but that was more for personal reasons.   My favorite two teams on the game were the ’89 A’s and the ’90 Reds.  I loved Eric Davis and Barry Larkin.  But I also loved Chris Sabo or “Beebo” as we called him for some strange reason.  We would even keep season long stats in a notebook and I drove one of my friends crazy because I would steal bases with Beebo.  He would famously remark one day, “I’ll outrun Beebo backwards!”   I remember that because we would record ourselves on cassette tape while playing the games and then go back and listen to the radio gold.  To this day, I strongly feel that Chris Sabo is one of the most underrated baseball players in major league history.

1991I was on my way to being a trading ace by 1991 and was moving all of my non-favorites for Frank Thomas and Robin Ventura and Ken Griffey Jr.  I was only 2 years away from pulling off the awesome (at the time) move of those Igor ’92 Bowman rookies for the Griffey Jr. forgery discussed Here.  But any reminder from 1991 takes me back to the Buffalo Bills.  I know what you’re thinking – Why does a South Ga 14 year old care about the Buffalo Bills?  Three words – Tecmo Super Bowl.  When this game came out, I latched on to the Bills and have really been a closet fan ever since.   I suffered through 4 Super Bowl loses as much as anybody could outside of the state of New York.   I loved Thurman Thomas, Jim Kelley, Andre Reed, Nate Odomes, Cornelius Bennett, Bruce Smith, Don Beebe, Daryl Talley and Steve Tasker.

I went to a post-church youth Super Bowl party every year being the guy that was pulling hard for the Bills.  Every one of those parties ended in disappointment.  The one I especially remember was the loss to the Cowboys because there were a ton of Cowboys fans at this shindig.  Buff was never able to get over the hump but I was consumed with Bills football in 1991.   Remember, the Falcons were not very good at the time.  I pulled for them as my home team but aside from Deion, Tuggle and Rison, there wasn’t much happening by means of stardom.  My heart was broken earlier this year when the Falcons lost in the SB but it really took me back to how I felt each time the Bills lost in the early 90’s.   I know that’s probably crazy to some of you but I can tell you that I will be cheering for Buffalo when they make it back to a Super Bowl, unless they are playing my Falcons.

You see, there are other reasons for me to continue to collect that outweigh trying to get rich.   Besides, I tried that with Gregg Jefferies, Eric Anthony and Kevin Maas and it didn’t pan out.  So when you see me post a review of 1988 Score, don’t think that I’ve lost my mind or that I’m trapped in the junk wax era.  Sometimes, I just want to take a trip down memory lane.  For me, the best (and most fun) way to do that is to go through old sports cards.  The images conjure up the old days for me.  They take me out of the here and now and sit me down in my old bedroom with the Jordan poster and the nerf hoop and the Nintendo.   My stress melts away, if only for a short time.  They are a time machine and I will cherish the junk wax as much as National Treasures for the rest of my days for these very reasons.  I hope that Bailey has something that she can use as a memory inducer when she’s 40 and I’m long gone.  Maybe it will be the cards.  She asks me regularly who is going to get my cards when I’m old and the answer is always, “You, Bailey.”

J-Dub

A Blog About Nothing

  I’ve been struggling today with whether to write a serious piece to get some things off my chest or whether to try and lighten my mood with something fun.  I’ve opted for fun thanks to the Facebook marathon that Ashley and I have been having over the Seinfeld quotes.  I’ve talked music, movies, hobbies but I haven’t touched on the single greatest television series in history.  It’s a series that people either love or hate.  There isn’t much in between.  That’s probably because those of us that love it spend our time quoting it and snickering at inside jokes that seem juvenile to those who aren’t familiar.  If you are one of those that hate it, this is probably not for you.  If you love it or aren’t very familiar, pull up a chair and let’s talk about it.

For those of you who aren’t overly familiar with the show and premise (and there are some out there), let’s get some housekeeping out of the way.  Seinfeld was a sitcom that began airing in 1989 and starred comedian Jerry Seinfeld as himself.  In simple form, it followed his daily life in New York with his three close friends; Elaine Benes, George Costanza and Cosmo Kramer.  The show ran for 9 seasons and covered every inane thing you can imagine.  When you really break down some of the episodes, you could question why everyone can’t make a sitcom about their lives.  But Seinfeld nailed it in a way that could never be matched.  The character development in the show remains second to none.

  First, there was Jerry.  As one of the main characters and namesake of the show, the story centered around his job as a comedian, his apartment in New York and his relationships.  He was usually the voice of reason among his group of friends, which was not saying much.  He had some very unique characteristics such as his germophobia, which was highlighted by his inability to continue dating a woman, even though that woman was Kristin Davis, who unknowingly brushed her teeth with a toothbrush he knocked into the toilet.  To pay him back, she locked him out of his apartment and when he got in, told him that she had placed one of his things in the toilet.  Jerry lost his mind throwing things out left and right only to find out it was the toilet brush.  He also ended a relationship when he found an anti fungal cream in a girlfriends medicine cabinet, later to find out it was for her cat.   

 A running theme on the show was how small meaningless things could end his relationships.  He could not remember Deloris’ name and instead called her Mulva when the hint was “it rhymes with a female body part.”  He dated a beautiful woman that had man hands.  He lost out on Teri Hatcher when he sent Elaine into the sauna to find out if her breasts were real.  “They’re real, and they’re spectacular.”  He dated a virgin and lost her when she found out he was competing with his friends to see who truly was “master of their domain.”  He lost respect for one of his girlfriends when he found out that Newman had dated and dumped her in the past.  He dated a model at one point but she dumped him when she caught him in a nose pick at a red light.  “Are we not human?  If we pick, do we not bleed?”  He dated a masseuse who refused to give him a massage.  He dated Donna Chang, who was an American woman who spoke in Chinese proverbs and lingo.  He dated a woman who walked around the apartment naked and it eventually turned him off.  The one woman that he really hit it off with turned out to be just like him.  They got engaged but later broke it off when they realized they were identical. 

 One of his prior girlfriends was Elaine Benes, another one of the main characters on the show.  They remained friends, even though they tried to be friends with benefits in one episode, with disastrous results.  Elaine had several steady boyfriends but none more serious that David Puddy.  Puddy was my favorite non-main character.  One of my favorite episodes was where Puddy was a car salesman and Jerry used the relationship to try and lock down the insiders deal.  However, Puddy developed a bad habit of asking for high fives during the episode, which led to a breakup between him and Elaine in the middle of Jerry’s deal.  George was supposed to be on hand to help combat the sales tactics of adding undercoating and rust proofing but his day was derailed by a mechanic who stole a twix from him.  This led to arguments over which candy had nougat, which had caramel and which had a cookie crunch culminating in a candy bar lineup to try and trick the mechanic.  I did mention inane in the intro right? 

 Much like Jerry, Elaine had several interesting relationships.She dated Crazy Joe Davola, who took photos of her with telescopic lenses and developed them in his apartment.  She also dated Keith Hernandez, Tim Whatley (the label maker), Joel Rifkin (the serial killer), Lloyd Braun (George’s sworn enemy) and Brett (Desperado).  She also had several interesting jobs.  She’s spent some time at Pendant Publishing where her boss eventually fell for her due to kavorka.  She assisted in the ultimate bankruptcy of the company thanks to Jujy Fruits.  She also becomes an assistant for Mr. Pitt.  She eventually is fired from that job because she is accused of trying to kill Mr. Pitt after she is added to his will.  Her most memorable job was with J. Peterman as a catalog writer.  This job led to several memorable moments such as when she ate a 2,000 year old piece of cake, she was unable to travel due to poppy seed muffins causing a failed drug test, she took over the company when Peterman had a nervous breakdown but was later fired when he came back and she proclaimed her hatred for the movie, The English Patient. 

 Then there was Kramer, the aloof neighbor who was known for busting in to Jerry’s apartment on a regular basis.  Kramer had very few publicized relationships, although he carried himself as a ladies man.  He also did not have many jobs, with the exception of H&H Bagels, which was only discovered after a 12 year strike came to an end.  His employment lasted only a few days after the strik ended before he had enough.  He was well known for his business ideas that never panned out.  He wanted to open a restaurant where you could make your own pie.  He and Morty (Jerry’s dad) tried to push the beltless trenchcoat.  He and Newman tried selling old records and also tried to create a way to successfully transport empty bottles to Michigan where they could collect .05 cents each.  He invented the Bro/Mansier, a bra for men.  He successfully wrote a coffee table book about coffee tables.  My favorite was his creation of Kramerica Industries in which he obtained an intern from NYU to help him develop a bladder system for oil tankers to end oil spills.  This didn’t pan out as their testing of the prototype (simply a rubber ball from George’s company, Play Now) ended another of Jerry’s relationships (Helllllooooo.). Kramer was constantly inventing and scheming. 

 My favorite character was George Costanza.  George was a short, stocky, bald guy who lived with his parents for most of the series.  He was a very unlucky individual who was afraid of most everything.  He had a wide range of jobs including the job at Play Now where he fooled his bosses into thinking he was handicap, scoring his own bathroom and rascal scooter.  He also worked for Pendant with Elaine for a brief time until he was caught having relations with the cleaning lady.  Then for a while, including during one of the most memorable episodes, Festivus, he works for Kruger Industrial Smoothing.  His most successful job was as the assistant to the traveling secretary with the New York Yankees.  The portrayal of George Steinbrenner and their interaction was a treasure trove of comedic value.  At every job, he either attempted to get out of work or provided terrible ideas.  He once had a shelf under his desk built at Yankee Stadium so he could nap during the day.  Also, with the Yankees, he proposed the team switch to cotton jerseys for comfort, which ended up shrinking after the first wash.  Of course, he may be most famously remembered as a wanna be architect by the name of Art Vandelay.

George was a part of many memorable moments on the show.  Here are a few of the funniest:

  • Festivus – his father created a holiday that was anti-commercial and consisted of only a metal pole, airing of grievances and feats of strength.  A classic episode.
  • The high score – he held the high score on a frogger machine in a pizza joint from high school.  His attempts to transport the machcine while leaving it hooked up was priceless.
  • Shrinkage – one of Jerry’s girlfriends walked in on him right after he had gotten out of the pool.  Enough said.
  • 12 Steps – he refused to let an old acquaintance advance in the 12 step program until he apologized for a joke about George’s big head.  This ultimately led to George entering anger management.
  • He double dipped a chip at a funeral.
  • He ran over Bette Midler at home plate in a coed softball game.
  • He fought over the proper way to pull into a parking space.
  • He killed his fiancée because he bought cheap wedding invitations get had poisonous glue.
  • He tried to cheat on his fiancé  with Marisa Tomei.

I could go on and on about great George moments.  I could go on and on about the whole series but these are some of the most memorable episodes and stories for me.  There are so many more characters like Babu Bhatt, Third Person Jimmy, the low talker, the close talker, the sidler, Frank and Estelle Costanza, The Mandlebaum’s and Uncle Leo.  There are countless classic episodes like The Chinese Restaurant, The Merv Griffin Show, The Bizzaro Jerry, The Opposite.  I watched it in the 90’s, I watch it in syndication today and own all of the seasons on DVD.  I can quote the episodes pretty much on command.  It’s a sad commentary to be honest.  But Seinfeld will go down as quite possibly the greatest TV show ever.  It will for me at least.

Joey