Box o' Bazooka

Welcome back! Today, I have for you the latest installment of "Remember the Mid-'90s" because I surely can't remember those days myself. The other box of cards that I received for my birthday awhile back was even more intriguing to me and that's because I had no idea that this set existed. When I was growing up, cheap little chunks of Bazooka gum were as American as frozen pizzas and glitter, and I do recall at least one early '90s baseball cards set put out by Topps using the Bazooka name. I am also aware of the mid-'00s Bazooka sets, which have seemed very fun to me for the most part.

If you'd like to look at an example of one the packs in the box, check out my post here at APTBNL. I'll present the rest of the box in "recap" fashion as I did before with the 1995 Stadium Club box.

The breakdown: This box contained 36 packs of 5 cards each, along with a piece of gum (each piece has a 1993 copyright on it, so I'm sure it's good) and some sort of game piece. There are no advertised inserts, parallels or extra riff-raff on either the box or the pack wrappers themselves, but as you'll see in a minute, this is misleading. 180 cards from a set that only contains 132 would ordinarily make one think that they could at least come close to completing the set, but no one made this sort of thing easy back in the day.

The Cardinals: I only managed to get 2 Cardinals in this box (no doubles.) I did not go down the list to see how many actual Cardinals are in this set, but I'm going to say that I got screwed here and just go with it.

However, this card is a much needed addition to my Ozzie Smith collection and makes the whole box for me. Anytime I get a new Ozzie card is considered a major win in my book.

The "hits": Well, well, well. Would you look at that? I pulled a total of 6 cards containing gold foil player names and a reddish background. Beckett is not very helpful about this insert set, only mentioning that you get 5 of these as a bonus when purchasing a factory set. I'll just assume that my box was normal and that these show up at a 1:6 pack ratio.

The cards use the same player photos as the base cards. Once again, according to Beckett there are 22 cards in the insert set. I guess you can't call it a parallel set if they don't make cards for everyone in the base set - and the numbering sequence is different.

Greg Maddux sort of turned into a right-handed Jamie Moyer in the waning moments of his career, but during this day and age he was very dominant.

David Cone was never consistent enough to become a superstar, but he had some impressive highlights in his career.

Canseco is starting to remind of some super annoying guy you'd unfortunately meet at a bar or a bus stop or somewhere public where awkwardness could ensue. I don't recall him ever playing for the Red Sox, but he became a bit of a traveling circus after leaving Oakland.

I have so many Barry Larkin cards that I don't really know what to do with them all. I've been doing my best to pass them along to Nachos Grande, but I'm afraid if I turn my back that they'll start multiplying.

The base cards: Here's a smattering of players that all would have fit into my "star" binders back in my collecting youth.

I liked Tony Gwynn as a ballplayer. I could really do without him as an announcer.

Attention, all you outraged anti-steroids people: Send me your McGwire cards. I'll take them off your hands. Don't send me the Oakland ones, though. I don't care that much. But if you want to sell low on McGwire... or just toss his stuff away... don't forget this Cardinals fan here. I'm not making this as statement that McGwire is awesome. I just want your unwanted stuff... for free, preferably.

No one in my time has worn the pinstripes better than Don Mattingly.

Here's a rare look at gold glove outfielder Larry Walker playing 1st base.

This was part of Rickey Henderson's 3rd (?) tour with Oakland... I think.

Cal Ripken.

Griffey is running on fumes these days, but he had such a nice swing...

Finally, here's some fun. If you clicked over at the pack I posted on A Pack To Be Named Later, you saw a comic pulled out from the gum wrapper. Here are a few more comics. I suppose I should dispose of the rest of the 15+ year old gum safely somehow.

Oh man... jokes!

Bazooka Joe... fantasies? This seems kind of creepy. The Johnny Depp reference definitely dates this a bit. I wonder who would be considered for Depp's position these days... perhaps one of those annoying vampire kids?