Up tonight, a pack of cards from one of those sets that wasn't sold at any stores 10-year-old me frequented, so I don't have a ton of it. 1989 Fleer is still somewhat uncharted territory to me. Will I stumble across a Randy rookie, or the infamous Dick Tracy villain, FuckFace?

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
Giants Sticker
354 Danny Darwin

481 Wally Joyner
240 Fred McGriff (Yessssss!)

3 Todd Burns
577 David Palmer (This card was collected between 10:00 p.m. and 11:00 p.m. on the day of the California presidential primary.)
247 David Wells
206 Doug Drabek
112 Dan Gladden
10 Darryl Strawberry '89 Fleer All Star Team

595 Rick Mahler
209 Brian Fisher
543 Mike Campbell (I have no recollection of this person playing baseball.)

459 Jose Oquendo
99 Lee Smith
491 Harold Baines (#HaroldToTheHall)

167 Jeff Reed
392 Luis Rivera

Pretty good pack, lots of guys that have small but dedicated followings conspiring to get their guy into the Hall of Fame. The insert was nice, too.

I recently bought some Yount cards on eBay from a huge Yount collector who's slowly paring down his collection. As a little add-on, I picked up this cello pack that the Yount guy was selling with Robin featured on the front. To me, this doesn't represent something different, but I understand the completist mentality. I bought it with the intent to open it, as '86 Fleer is a set I don't have too much of.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
506 Robin Yount

214 Reid Nichols
181 Andy McGaffigan
41 Tito Landrum
234 Lance Parrish
192 Mario Soto
64 Dennis Lamp (Man, that is one area of growth! That dude shaves after lunch, then has to do it again before washing his hands for dinner. Thickness.)

509 Bruce Benedict
448 John Russell
8 Mark Gubicza
93 Rafael Santana
45 Darrell Porter
565 Mike Mason
261 Randy St. Claire (That's a sweet-ass Starter jacket. One might even say it's worth being killed over.)

Los Angeles Penant Sticker
Oakland Sticker
104 Brian Fisher
484 Cecil Cooper (Cooooooooooooooooop!)

197 Juan Agosto
196 Max Venable
29 Cesar Cedeno
242 Lou Whitaker
178 John Franco
62 Cliff Johnson (Speaking of jackets, Canada was representin' on the outerwear, eh?)

530 Milt Thompson
441 Greg Gross
13 Charlie Leibrandt
83 Danny Heep
36 Brian Harper
573 Wayne Tolleson

That was fun.

I just got this when someone traded me anything.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
405 Ron Hassey
182 Rich Dauer
347 Rich Wortham
575 Tony Armas
384 Eddie Solomon
186 John Lowenstein
351 Rickey Henderson "Most Stolen Bases AL"
579 Brian Kingman
87 Graig Nettles
553 Ken Landreaux
359 Greg Pryor
523 Reggie Cleveland
92 Eric Soderholm
558 Butch Wynegar
30 Paul Splittorff
311 Mike Vail
97 Tom Underwood
I really hoped to come away with more than one Hall of Famer, but the Rickey is a nice card I didn't own before this, so I'm calling it a victory.

2007 Fleer... its last year as a baseball brand. You tend to find a lot of '07 Ultra in repack boxes and as discounted loosies, but regular Fleer not so much. How will this pack turn out?

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
307 Marcus Giles

223 Carlos Guillen
181 Juan Rivera
141 Justin Morneau
218 Joel Zumaya Mini Die-Cut

358 Fred Lewis (RC)
336 Alexi Casilla (RC)
RS-FL Francisco Liriano Rookie Sensations

7 Ryan Zimmerman
YR-AP Albert Pujols Year in Review

This pack gets an A-. The only thing holding it back was no Brewers. Plus, you have to leave a little wiggle room at the top of the grading scale for possible relic cards or autographs. I'd say that two inserts and a parallel make this a very nice pack, with Pujols to boot. And the Liriano insert makes this even better than it would have been a couple of weeks ago. Both of these inserts highlight Fleer's dominance over Topps when it came to inserts in 2007:
Rookie Sensations> Generation Next
Year in Review> Any one of the endless Mantle mirrors

Today, we're going to take a look at this pack of cards in a rather grim way. Since most of these players will likely be dead, I will fill you in on the circumstances of each man's death. This ought to be a doozy.

Let's tear in, and tear this pack from the Death's cold, firm grasp.

Top to Bottom:
84 Preacher Roe
11/9/08: Beheaded after bringing up the taboo subject of his boss's Chinese and American heritage.

141 Bob Lemon
1/11/00: Abdominally skewered by a length of pipe which entered the industrial boiler behind him. Told to "let off some steam" by adversary, Matrix.

98 Cecil Travis
12/16/06: Exited Bolivian lean-to with partner with guns blazing, ending in a freeze frame. Presumed shot.

136 Rod Carew
10/15/30: Not yet deceased. Will most likely be hung through back on meathook in remote Texas farmhouse.

103 Willie Stargell
4/9/01: Flayed alive by a wealthy cult looking to find the secrets of the afterlife.


On a serious note, some of those old-timers lived to a very old age. Travis was 93, Roe 92, Lemon 79. Well-lived lives.

A lot can happen in the span of seven years. Coincidentally, that's how long ago this pack of cards came out. In case you didn't know, I freed it from a cheap-o box of cards I got at K-Mart.

Since this pack was produced somewhere before the dawn of television, and thus, before mixed martial arts pay-per-view, I'll give you an update as to what each player is now doing. Fun stuff!

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
23 Jacque Jones
Update: Changed last name to Mauer, currently lapping up all of the accoutrements therein and therein contained.

93 Darin Erstad
Update: In the running for Disneyland's Goofy, summer 2011. Will settle for Thumper.

109 Victor Martinez
Update: Splitting time between Boston Red Sox and his home-operated "Bring Back Surge Soda" website.

18 Jose Vidro
Update: Spearheading the now-thriving Puerto Rican bullfighting movement.

98 Bartolo Colon
Update: Free agent starting pitcher.

By the way, the backs of the cards all show the exact same stadium seating diagram. How hard would it have been to show the diagram specific to that player's team?

Last month I picked up a repack product at Target, four packs for 4ドル.99. Unless some 1991 Donruss got slipped in there behind the front packs, I thought this was a good enough deal. The first pack, 2005 Fleer Showcase, is the one that turned this purchase from a maybe into a yes. Never opened one before, so this will be fun.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
12 Barry Zito (His A's cards always look cooler than the Giants ones. One of the good guys in baseball.)

34 Bret Boone (Bad head and shoulders picture. Looks like he is a character in a juvenile poop-and-fart comedy film, has to poop, is in a social setting where pooping is not possible, and is straining to keep it on the inside.)

1 Albert Pujols (Great player, I'm hoping Prince can hold him off for the RBI lead to offer some solace for a disappointing, though not unexpected, Brewers season.)

45 Austin Kearns

64 Matt Holliday (Thrust the dagger into my boys last night. I watched the based loaded with one out eighth inning, thought we were home free, and turned to last night's recording of "Big Brother." Did I make a good choice? And for anyone who watches, who's going to win this year? Kevin? Natalie? Jordan? Is this sad, or what?)

Grade: B
Nice design, good assortment of players.

This is the third and final pack of 1992 Fleer from Motherscratcher back in April. We see plenty of familiar faces...


Tracy Jones (Mariners), Bill Sampen (Expos), Paul Assenmacher (Cubs), Tom Browning (Reds), Tim Leary (Yankees), Tom Lampkin (Padres), Wayne Rosenthal (Rangers), Greg Hibbard (White Sox), and Mark Langston (Angels). I'd have to go back and look, but I think every one of those was in the first pack of these I opened...


Mike Jeffcoat (Rangers), Kevin Tapani (Twins), Tom Pagnozzi (Cardinals), Sean Perry (Royals Prospects), Manny Lee (Blue Jays), Curt Young (A's), Dennis Cook (Dodgers), and Bill Spiers (Brewers) bring up the back of the pack.

Here is what I like about the set: nice photos, easy to read team names, and lots of stats on the backs.

More 1992 Fleer from Motherscratcher!


Break out the blue and orange and book your stay, leading off is Howard Johnson (Mets). Glenn Sutko (Reds), John Ramos (Yankees), and Kevin Appier (Royals) are up next. I always did like Appier, but have no real reason for it. Weird. Jeff Russell (Rangers), Jim Thome (WAHOO! Indians), Ivan Calderon (Expos), Mark Davidson (Astros), and Pat Clements (Padres) finish up this first group. Thome sure looked young then...


Edwin Nunez (Brewers), Don Slaught (Pirates), and Carlton Fisk (White Sox) lead off. I have to say, the black text on these cards is sharp. Too bad Fleer didn't just use black text for all the cards. How cool to pull a Fisk!! Gary Carter (Dodgers), Cal Ripken/Joe Carter (Orioles/Blue Jays - The Indispensibles II), Willie Banks (Twins Prospects), Jack Morris (Twins), and Gerald Perry (Cardinals) finish things up.

Dang, Fisk followed by Carter and Ripken plus Joe Carter... This is 90's collecting heaven here... Well, close anyway, right?

These 1992 Fleer are part of the variety packs of cards that Motherscratcher sent to me at the beginning of April. I post them for your enjoyment:


Dave Anderson (Giants), Mike Devereaux (Orioles), Chuck McElroy (Cubs), Tracy Jones (Mariners), Bill Sampen (Expos), Paul Assenmacher (Cubs), Tom Browning (Reds), Tim Leary (Yankees), and Tom Lampkin (Padres) are shown above. You will see in a later post of another pack of 1992 Fleer that they had serious collation problems, as many of these same players are in another pack in the same order no less! Awful!


Wayne Rosenthal (Rangers), Greg Hibbard (White Sox), Mark Langston (Angels), Mike Jeffcoat (Rangers), Kevin Tapani (Twins), Tom Pagnozzi (Cardinals), Sean Perry (Royas Prospects), and Manny Lee (Blue Jays) round out the pack. I never notice before, but the backs of these cards look a lot like the fronts of 1992 Donruss... Hmmm...

Well, as I said, many of these same faces will appear in another post, and likely in the same order. Had I been collecting this set, I'd be pretty ticked off at the number of duplicates I'd have. As it is, these go for giveaways. :-)

Taking a step up from the last few baseball packs I've posted on this blog, here's a pack of 2002 Fleer Tradition that I forked over a whole dollar for. I'm a sucker for anything "heritage", "traditional" or "retro", so I was pretty excited about this one.

455 - Jason Romano Prospects

454 - Ryan Drese Prospects (Hmm, I'm not so sure what's "traditional" about these first two cards. Nothing says tradition like a guy with 191 career ABs and another guy who has a 5.31 career ERA. At least Drese is still kicking around AAA in the Pirates organization, or at least was as of last season.)

278 - Brian Jordan (Ahh, this is starting to look familiar now. I have a couple of these in my collection already. I'm not sure what the USA flag is for. This being released sometime in 2002 does explain it a little, I suppose.)
372 - Jeff D'Amico

336 - Gary Sheffield (For some reason I thought he had retired, but he's still a part of a questionable Tigers team.)
358 - Billy Wagner (Wagner will make 10.5 million dollars this season and not pitch at all.)
406 - Ruben Quevedo

166 - Derek Lowe (I have this guy on a couple of fantasy teams this season. I hope that he's solid.)

4DH - Tony Gwynn This Day in History (Nice! I wish the picture was a bit bigger, but this is a pretty nice card to pull. This card commorates his 3,000th hit in 1999, which was barely history at the point this set came out. These apparently show up at a ratio of 1:18 packs.)
255 - Edgar Martinez (Edgar should absolutely be in the Hall of Fame. He's one of the greatest, if not the greatest DH of all-time. I think the DH rule is terrible, but since it exists, the Hall should honor the best DHs. And honestly I can't think of anyone else who has hit as well as Edgar Martinez has hit from the DH spot. Most players go into decline at that phase of their careers, either because they're no longer actively on the field the entire game or... more likely... because they were already heading into decline in the first place.)

As always, all of these cards are up for grabs. 10 days until real baseball!