Another Old Pack of Cards

Here's another old pack of cards that has been sitting on my desk for years. This was the final proper O-Pee-Chee release that was based on the current Topps offering. 1992 was the first year that Topps went with the full color card backs, which are represented here as expected.

408 - Bob Milacki - From what I recall, Topps tried to ride the success of the 1991 set, which was largely based on improved photography (and likely a lot of classic photos that were purchased from outside sources.) The horizontal cards continued, with mixed results.

709 - Chris James - The bat covers the frame. That's edgy!

644 - Terry Leach - Leach was a sidearmer that pitched for the Twins championship team.

702 - Lee Stevens - Stevens was a promising young power hitter at the time, but he didn't find regular success (or playing time) until he was with the Rangers in the late '90s.

245 - John Smoltz - The first (and only?) Hall of Famer in the pack.

155 - Scott Bankhead - Pitching for the Mariners in the '80s wasn't the most glamorous job in the league.

182 - Jeff Reardon - Reardon was one of the top closers of his day. He also had a pitcher beard that would just look like, well, a beard today.

353 - Braulio Castillo - I'm not sure I've ever heard of Castillo. I know my card buying took a deep drop in 1992.

192 - Dave Fleming - Here's a look at the full color card back, complete with bilingual text.

25 - Ron Gant - Gant won't join his teammate Smoltz in the Hall, but he had an excellent career.

Clearing the Deck

Recapping a few weeks' worth of #CrackinWaxMailDay breaks from @CrackinWax 

 

I took a vacation week at the beginning of the month and have another one coming up next week, so the cards have been piling up. (Literally, in fact, because I have a lot of piles of cards to mail out still.) I'll run quickly through some stuff I got from Crackin' Wax recently, which covers a few weeks of box breaks.

Panini Select is back for another year, and it pretty much looks the same as ever. I'm not sure how many years of life this has in it, but the cards do like nice for an unlicensed set. Don't let the scans fool you.

This is my first proper card of Johan Oviedo, who been in the rotation more often than not since about midway through last (abbreviated) season. Unfortunately, he has yet to really put together a single notable start, but the staff must see something in him because he keeps getting opportunities. Let's hope for the best tonight!

The big highlight of this one was a low numbered (to 35) "Carolina Blue" parallel of Paul Goldschmidt. Goldy has been a slow starter since arriving in St. Louis, but now that we're in the second half of the season his bat has been heating up.

I don't have a lot to say about this year's Stadium Club set and its minimalistic design. It's fine. I am glad to finally own a non-Photoshopped Nolan Arenado Cardinals card, however. (Yes, I checked. It's from a February 28th spring game against the Nationals.)

Ditto 2021 Topps Heritage, which managed to survive the COVID-and-capitalism fueled price gouging relatively unscathed. Although I had to resort to mostly online purchases, I was able to buy up all I really cared for without breaking the bank. Here's a couple of new short print additions to my set, with the Cards/Cubs rivalry coincidentally in progress right now.

Contenders is one of the least exciting products Panini has to offer, with its base set pretty much being a throwaway. I did manage to get the Blazers base team set out of the deal, but that was it.

Every year, the set design uses the same ticket motif, with just a few minor variances from year to year. I like tickets and I like sporting events, but it just does not make an attractive looking card.

CW also included a nice bonus pack of 1991 Leaf Series 1 baseball in one of the mailers, which I'll be saving for a rainy day (or may end up paying forward to someone else.)

An Old Pack of Cards

Cleaning up my desktop. 

 

To distract myself a bit from the mountain of work I created for myself ("Spring" Cleaning?), I decided to clear up a few things that have been sitting on my desk for years. I have a few more packs like this to go through if I get some time. I have no idea if I actually paid 75 cents for this or not. Let's check out these 7 cards, gum removed.

It's an '80s staple and part of The Simpsons all-star team. I guess I was trying to dig up some more Dodgers cards for people, but this isn't exactly what I meant.

The best thing about O-Pee-Chee cards are the variations, especially when it comes to changing teams. These are all excellently documented in this OPC blog.

You don't really see those kind of glasses anymore, do you?

You could certainly do worse than getting a Frank Viola card out of an '80s pack. He hadn't quite reached his peak at this point in his career, though.

Pettis was one of the biggest threats to Rickey Henderson and his various stolen base crowns in the '80s, which is to say he wasn't much of one.

This card is a bit off-center, but not as much as this poorly cropped image shows. The Yankees were not very good in the '80s, but I felt like Rasmussen was decent for a bit.

In any pack containing gum, someone is going to take the brunt of the abuse. That falls to Dick Schofield here. Poor Dick. He's going to get thrown out.