Baseball Card Blogs » 1988 score

the postman rang thrice

gcrl — Tue, 29 Mar 2011 15:15:00 +0000

i got some mail yesterday. three baseball card related items. the first was a 1968 topps ron hunt card that i had sent off in hopes of an autograph. mr. hunt returned it with a request for $15 donated to his baseball school. fair enough, but i don't think i will follow through.

the second package was from cliff at capewood's collections. cliff sent me a nice stack of cards after i inquired about a trade. we had done good business a while back, and the cards he sent this time were absolutely fantastic. like this 2011 topps heritage rafael furcal

which just happens to be a short print. i bought a couple of packs and got exactly two short prints, neither of which were dodgers. russ mitchell is the other dodger sp.

1988 score tim crews

he's pitching in dodger stadium in what may be the twilight. i always think of crews this time of year when teams are winding down in spring training. as you may recall, tim and fellow indians pitcher steve olin died during spring training 1993 when tim's boat hit a dock. bobby ojeda was injured in the accident. crews pitched well for the dodgers in 1988 but was left off of the postseason roster.

2003 upper deck victory kaz ishii

i don't recall ishii as clutch, unless you really needed the opposing team to get a walk. then he seemed to come through quite often. ha.

2007 topps hit parade luis gonzalez

luis, in one of the few cards te feature him as a dodger, ranked 7th on the active career hits leaders back when this card was issued. he fell behind biggio, bonds, julio franco (!), steve finley, omar vizquel (still ticking), griffey jr, and sheff. number 9 on the list was ivan rodriguez who i am sure has passed gonzo by now.

here's reed johnson's only dodger card - a 2010 topps update number

i think johnson is back with the cubs after his lone year in la. he may even start over alfonso soriano before the season is over, that's how far soriano has fallen.

here's vicente padilla on a 2011 topps walmart black card

he and jon garland are starting the year off on the wrong foot. maybe ned can swing a deal for kevin slowey.

cliff also sent me my first non-dodger russell martin card

isn't opening day in march this year? why did topps put april on the cards? this photoshop job has russell in his yankee roadies playing against the padres. someone years down the road may be very confused by this card.

there were also a couple of cards featuring a dodger teammate of martin who joined him in yankees camp this year, ronnie belliard and his 2010 topps update card

which brings us to the third piece of mail i received, which was that same belliard card back from the man himself

and he kindly scribbled on it. i think i saw yesterday that he was released by the yankees. that stinks, even though he underperformed last year. we'll always have his 2009 late season performance in dodger blue to remember.

thanks cliff and ronnie, and ron hunt too for filling my mailbox yesterday!

1988 Score Desk Drawer Box

The Angels In Order — Fri, 18 Mar 2011 03:25:00 +0000

Who needs '88 Score!?

Picked up a wax box of 1988 Score cheap, and I mean $6 cheap. I know that I can get a complete set for $5 but that's not as fun. So I threw it in my desk drawer at work and ripped a pack here and there over a couple weeks.

It's not a set I'm collecting so anyone needing fillers for their complete or team sets, let me know, I can always use Angels cards. The only cards I pulled out for myself were of Angels, about 12 total. Those brought me to within 3 cards of the team set, so if anyone wants to trade I need #44 Brian Downing, #274 Dick Schofield, and #463 Darrell Miller.

I love the cropping on those batter cards, and the bright colored borders.

The box was pretty beat up but I cut the bottom panel off anyhow. It goes on the trade stack as well for those panel collectors or Jays/Phillies/Astros/Red Sox collectors.

I also salvaged this side panel for any Royals/George Brett collectors.

Oh, and don't forget about the Magic Motion Trivia cards!

collecting scrap iron through the mail

gcrl — Mon, 28 Feb 2011 21:15:00 +0000

with the fantastic 1977 phil garner o-pee-chee variation on display today at oh my o-pee-chee!, i figured it was a good time to showcase my scrap iron through the mail successes! funny enough, the first two feature garner without his wirebrush mustache.

1988 score

one of my favorite cards from the '88 score set. i think it's the green border and the light blue dodger stadium fence. notice the black patch garner is sporting for coach don macmahon who died after throwing bp one day. i hope frank mccourt has enough cash to pay for some duke snider patches this year. garner was acquired by the dodgers during the 1987 season to try to bring some short term stability to the hot corner. he failed, unfortunately, hitting just .190 in 70 games.

1988 topps

garner wore number 20 during his half season as a dodger. steve sax was wearing the number 3 that garner had worn in oakland, houston and pittsburgh.
1976 topps

aside from that 1977 o-pee-chee card, this might be the best card for displaying the mustache. i also appreciate the carefully strewn batting helmet and doughnut in the photo.

did you know that garner played more games as an astro than a pirate? that surprised me, since i think of him mainly as a part of 'the family'. here's his 1978 topps card

it's one of the few in-game action shots in the 1978 set, and it's a nice one.

here's to you scrap iron! thanks for signing my cards!

Score another one for the set collector

night owl — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 01:23:00 +0000

Last week, I completed another one of my favorite sets, thanks to a handful of cards sent to me by Johnny Hiflew of Cards From the Quarry.

1988 Score might not be the only Score set that matters, but it's awfully close. I kind of like 1994 Score, and I hold a little bit of fondness for '89 and '91 for different reasons. But, really, the only Score set that I would miss if it disappeared tomorrow is '88.

I didn't even see '88 Score when it first came out, since I hardly collected that year. But that hasn't stopped me from loving all the bright-colored borders, the cool (for its time) action shots, a complete rundown of just about everyone who was playing at that time, and the super informative backs.

Sure, '88 Score is "junk wax" and completing it isn't all that impressive. I'm sure there is at least one blogger who has 15 completed sets of '88 Score in his closet. But I really do have a lot of fun looking through it in a binder, paging through the purple cards first, then the blue, red, green, yellow and gold.

Here are the last cards that I received (Guzman included) to finish it off:

Not surprised this was one of the last ones. People hoard their Bo Jackson cards.

One of the best parts of '88 Score is the cardboard version of harmonic convergence when border color and team color correspond. Some of the best-looking cards you will ever see.

Heartbreaking Cards recently mentioned that Matt Williams, whom I despise, once was married to Michelle Johnson, whom I lusted after as a teenager. He didn't link to a photo of the lovely Michelle. I guess he figured every last male has seen Blame It on Rio. I'm going to assume the same. Horrible movie. But very ... um ... visually appealing.

Somehow, I didn't notice that one of the cards on my want list was Matt Young. I'm sure I have 46 of this card in the team dupes box, only because Young likes to turn up in a mistaken assumption that I am my father, who ripped on Young for his inefficiency every second he wore a Red Sox uniform.

The Rookie Prospects subset looks cheap to me, with the random divergent arrows and the clip art geometric designs.

This card reminds me that Topps appears to have done away with Classic Combos cards for the 2011 set. ... hmmm, I may reconsider collecting that set, yet. But I apologize for comparing this card to the recent Classic Combos. This card is so much better.

With the completion of the '88 Score set, I have now finished off 13 sets since the start of this blog. Here they are:

1976 Topps
1978 Topps
1981 Topps
1983 Topps
1986 Topps
1988 Score
1991 Topps
1993 Upper Deck
2008 Allen & Ginter
2009 Topps
2009 Allen & Ginter
2010 Topps
2010 Allen & Ginter

Plus, I am very close to completing 5 or 6 other sets.

Considering that I completed just 8 sets prior to starting this blog, I think that's a pretty good indication of how important the blog has been to my hobby of choice. I would have completed less than half of the above without the great collectors out there.

Meanwhile, collecting continues in other areas. I received several Dodger items from hiflew, too. Here they are:

The Kuroda Heritage Chrome card is what touched off the trade. The 1993 Fleer cards are much appreciated as it's been one of the more frustrating junk wax team sets to complete. The Kevin Kennedy card is too comical for words. The 2008 Topps U&H cards are the gold letter variation cards, which are too stupid for words.

So, the '88 Score set is safely in a binder. And that means I really should add another set want list to my want list page. I think I'll finally throw the '72 Topps set needs on there. It will dwarf all the other set needs, but I've got to start somewhere.

Who knows? Maybe I'll complete '72 before I get that '08 Heritage thing finished.

Card back countdown: #16 – 1988 Score

night owl — Sun, 23 Jan 2011 20:23:00 +0000

I collected next to no cards in 1988. Hopelessly in love with both a girl and bar-hopping, cards were decidedly uncool in '88. No time and no desire.

Rack packs of 1988 Score could have been hanging in an aisle in the drugstore I frequented almost every week down the street. But I'll never know because I never paid attention.

Chances are they were. As I've come to find out, there is an endless supply of 1988 Score.

Still, I find it to be one of my favorite sets of the entire junk wax era, and I should finally be completing it very soon. I like it because it's colorful and the photos, for the most part, are interesting. It's got that cool Reggie Jackson subset, too.

But I admire 1988 Score for the card BACKS. Color mug shot, team logo, yearly stats, vertical orientation. Sure, it has all that. But far and away the most admirable part of the entire set is the write-up on each card back.

Look at that thing. That's like 250 words there. (the word "homers" is misspelled as "homes").

You have to remember the era in which '88 Score appeared. Through the 1970s and 1980s, write-ups on the backs of cards were almost an afterthought. This is often what they consisted of:

Went 3-for-5, 2 RBIs vs. Tribe, 8-14.

I don't know about you, but I don't find that very informative.

Score from '88 definitely informed.

How many people remember Tommy Hinzo? I certainly don't. I wasn't even aware of him when he played. But judging from the write-up, there was a lot to remember about Tommy. I mean that's a mini essay.

I often wonder who the people were at Score who toiled over these write-ups. How much more research did they do then the folks at Topps? Did Score have more people working on research and writing or did they really overwork and underpay their copyrighters?

This one amuses me. The writer asserts that Horn was known as "Big Sam." He then refers to Horn exclusively as "Big Sam" throughout the write-up. Five times.

Because many of the players in a base set like '88 Score hadn't achieved anything worth 200 words, the writers were forced to break out the extra adjectives. I noticed that "dandy" was used on more than one card.

Score doesn't get into players' off-the-field histories much in this set, although you do find out in this write-up that Casey Candaele's mother played for the All-American Girls Pro Baseball League. You also find out that Candaele's "hustle and enthusiasm is contagious."

The first sentence of this write-up mentions that Robbie Wine "is being groomed as the Astros' catching successor to Alan Ashby." Shhhh! Don't tell him about Craig Biggio!

The majority of the write-ups in the set are 150 words or more. I don't know if the writers were relieved or disappointed when they came across a card for a veteran like Schmidt and couldn't squeeze in gobs of words. Schmidt's card does mention a "champagne season." I don't know what that is.

Meanwhile, this card is both impressive and sad.

It's a good thing that I didn't know what Score was in 1988. I wouldn't have any time to read the backs of the cards anyway. And that's the best part of '88 Score.

Best of the set:

It would literally take me a week to read through all of the card backs. So I'll just pick this one and say it's the best:

Any card back that features the phrases "blithe spirit" AND "calcium deposits" in the same write-up, is completely awesome.

(previous card back countdown selections):

50. 1978 SSPC Yankee Yearbook
49. 1993 Score
48. 1999 Skybox Thunder
47. 2000 Upper Deck
46. 1999 Skybox Premium
45. 1953 Johnston Cookies Braves
44. 1995 Topps
43. 1997 Fleer
42. 1992 Pinnacle
41. 1989 Bowman
40. 1977 Kellogg's
39. 2004 Topps
38. 2004 Topps Total
37. 1992 Topps
36. 1992 Donruss
35. 2008 Upper Deck Documentary
34. 1963 Fleer
33. 1955 Bowman
32. 2006 Topps
31. 1961 Topps
30. 1955 Topps
29. 1967 Topps
28. 1970 Topps
27. 1969 Topps
26. 1966 Topps
25. 1963 Topps
24. 1911 T205
23. 1962 Topps
22. 1981 Topps
21. 1981 Donruss
20. 1958 Topps
19. 1977 Topps
18. 1974 Topps
17. 1957 Topps

Nobody’s getting any extra cards

night owl — Sun, 02 Jan 2011 08:42:00 +0000

You folks with excellent long-term memory function may recall that I was looking for names for the early Score sets -- 1988, 1989 and 1990.

I didn't get a ton of input, which is understandable as they aren't the easiest sets to name. Even my offer of a few cards for your naming trouble drew only four responses.

That's OK. I've got my names, and I didn't even need much help.

I'm calling the 1988 Score set the "rainbow set." I was liking the suggestion to call it the "candy" or "LifeSaver" set because of the various colors. But there are purple cards in the set and there is no purple LifeSavers in the original 5-flavor roll. I know that's being picky, but you don't understand my brain. It would scream "THERE IS NO PURPLE LIFESAVER, FOOL" over and over until I'd have to rip up every '88 Score card I own, which actually might not be a bad idea.

But the colors that are featured in Score: purple, blue, green, red, yellow and a goldish-orangey thing are all contained in the rainbow. I know the gold-orange thing is a stretch, but everyone is always screwing up the orange color, so I'll let it slide. My brain says it's OK, too.

"Rainbow set" it is.

This causes a bit of a problem because I've already named the '89 Donruss set the "rainbow set," because of the rainbow pattern that travels across the top of each card. But I'll rectify that by calling '89 Donruss the "rainbow border" set. My brain can handle that, as well.

The 1989 set is easy. Despite suggestions to the contrary, it is definitely the "baseball diamond set." That's what I thought at the start. No swaying me.

The 1990 set was giving me problems. None of the suggestions were working. But then in a fortuitous moment, I happened to be sorting some 1990 Score cards (don't ask). I was sorting them by team. And the easiest way to sort them quickly was to stare vigilantly at the logo in bottom corner as I shuffled through the cards.

Dayf's suggestion of the "logo coin" set rang in my ear. It seemed quite appropriate. So that's what I'm calling it, the "logo coin set."

So, I did receive some help on the 1990 set, but I'm still not sending anybody any cards for it.

Before you say I'm unfair and go running to mommy, here's the deal:

First, I just sent dayf some cards. There's one or two he might particularly like, so I don't feel the need to send even more just now. He'll just have to be happy with purple Hanson from the stinkin' Dodger fan. Besides I need to accumulate some Braves for the Captain. Those naked girls aren't going to post themselves you know.

As for the other folks so nice to make suggestions:

I've sent smedcards some cards recently, and I also have a monster box for him sitting here waiting. I'm just trying to work up the courage to have it weighed at the post office.

Meanwhile, GCA and I are in the process of swapping some cards, too. So that's all set.

As for Mr. Vintagey, Chris Stufflestreet, I've already been thinking about sending some cards off to him. I don't know what it can be since I have very few of anything issued before 1970, but I'll figure out. Anyone who grew up in the north country should be rewarded once in awhile. I mean we don't even have an Olive Garden here.

I'll be adding the new Define the Design names to the list. Thanks to those four for playing.

Oh, there's one more thing:

IT'S BO-CHRO, BOYS & GIRLS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Someone's giving away a WHOLE BOX OF IT.

Don't be a dufus. Check it out.

For all the youngsters who don’t remember the junk wax era

Play at the Plate — Fri, 24 Dec 2010 13:30:00 +0000

Maybe you've only heard about it, but weren't around to experience it.

Check this out.

Trust me on this one...you do not want to go there. As my dearly departed father would say, "Go back, it's a TRAP".

I remember those days somewhat fondly now. It's not so much the era as it is that I sometimes feel a little nostalgic as I get older. I don't want to go back to that time, but the bad memories have sort of been glossed over with time. It's sort of like when I went through Boot Camp. I don't seem to remember all the bad parts anymore.

In 1988 I bought a case of this stuff.

I was 17 and Score was the new kid on the block. I thought I would be rich someday by having an unopened case of the very first Score cards ever!!! Is there any doubt about how that worked out for me. It didn't take long to figure out that 1988 Score was not a goldmine. The whole case ended up going in the big garage sale back in 2006. Along with a couple hundred thousand other cards. *Sigh*

Anyway, that big miss, caused me to avoid Upper Deck in 1989. At the height of the Griffey Jr. Rookie hype I didn't open one pack of UD. However, in my infinite wisdom and glorious timing, I probably bought 20,000 cards in 1989-1990. I had a ton of 1989 Pro-Set football and 1990 Fleer, Donruss and Topps baseball. Oh, the good old days. Most of that went the way of the garage sale too.

*Editor's note* As I read back over this post, I realized it was the ramblings of an exhausted person. Too much time awake and too many hours at work will do that to a guy. Oh well, if it saves one person from 1990 Topps, it was all worth it.

Define the design: 58T, 96T, 96U, 88, 89 and 90S

night owl — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 08:58:00 +0000

Over the course of the last week or two, I have informally "named" a few more sets. After much reflection (i.e. none), I decided to go ahead and formally name those sets in the "Define the Design" page of the blog. You can see the new names along with all the other set names selected so far, on the aforementioned page.

But I better go through the details here, just in case anyone accuses me of trying to sneak in undeserving names on this very, very serious subject.

The 1958 Topps set is being called "the scrapbook set." As mentioned before, it really looks like the old scrapbooks in which people pasted images and letters onto colored construction paper. I can practically see the dried glue stains.

The 1996 Topps set is now called "the cyborg set," thanks to the squished head image that is on almost every player's card in the set. It reminds me of John Connor shape-shifting his way through the Terminator movies. A very strange choice by Topps, by the way.

Topps' main counterpart in 1996, Upper Deck also is getting its 96 set named. It is now the "upside-down Duracell set." This is a play on Duracell's slogan as "the copper-top battery." Upper Deck used copper-colored bottoms on its cards in '96. Thus, it was the "copper-bottom set" or a Duracell battery upside-down. Yes, I know it's convoluted. If you don't like it, come up with something better.

Or better yet, name some Score sets for me.

While adding the above design names to the Define the Design page, I realize I haven't tackled anything from Score yet. So how about Score's first three sets?

1988 Score was the first for the company. It featured six different colored borders and some fair photography for its time. I think any name related to the borders would work for this, since that is what stands out the most.

1989 Score should be called "the baseball diamond set," for obvious reasons. But I'm open to other, better suggestions.

This is where it gets tough. 1990 Score basically copied its 1988 design, using different colored borders again (and throwing in white borders for the first-rounders). So perhaps a spin-off of the '88 name would work. Something along the lines of "1988 Score's no-good, illegitimate brother."

Any suggestions are welcome.

Perhaps I'll send a few cards the way of the person or persons who comes up with the winning name for some or all of the Score sets.

Cardboard appreciation: 1988 Score Game Breakers

night owl — Tue, 21 Sep 2010 08:01:00 +0000

(Last night was an off-day for the Dodgers. That means it was a day the Dodgers didn't lose. This season I have learned to appreciate off-days. Time for Cardboard Appreciation. This is the 82nd in a series):

What you see before you are two failed Dodgers hitting coaches.

But I'm only going to write about the one on the left.

It's taken me a few days to figure out how I feel about Don Mattingly being the Dodgers' next manager. And even after several days of thinking, I'm still not sure how I feel.

The few times that Mattingly played manager for the Dodgers, he didn't do so well. I won't go into specifics, but thanks to Mattingly, I hate Bruce Bochy for life. So, I'm not filled with confidence over this decision. And I still would have been more comfortable with Tim Wallach getting the job.

But Mattingly is going to be the guy so I have to move past that and put my support behind him. That will take a little doing, because even though I like the guy, he's got icky Yankee stuff all over him. He played his whole career for the Yankees and Yankees fans love him and -- ick, yech, bleech, gross, gross, get it off me -- some Yankee fans are actually going to root for the Dodgers just because Mattingly is the manager. (*shudder*). I don't want some loudmouth Yankee fan rooting for my team. The whole thing is WAY uncomfortable.

But to illustrate my current conflicted state, I find myself keeping Mattingly baseball cards.

Normally, I dispose of Yankee cards as fast as I can. I can't help it. It's instinct from the time I was a child. Some Yankee fan hassles me for a Yankee card and I say, "Here. Get it out of my sight. And for god's sake, close your mouth when you chew."

But these days when I'm looking for Yankees to get the hell out of my house, I skip over the Mattingly cards. And I've been doing this pretty much since I knew he had a good chance of being the Dodgers' manager.

Unfortunately it wasn't soon enough to keep this card:

That was dealt away when I pulled it from a box of 1993 Upper Deck long ago. Miss it so.

But I do have some Mattingly card that are favorites. Nothing special. But considering how quickly Yankees have disappeared from my collection all my life, and Mattingly's relatively short career, I'm happy to have them. Here are my 10 favorites:

10. 1993 Select. This is a fairly typical Mattingly shot. But I like '93 Select a lot, so there will be no arguing!

9. 1987 Fleer Limited Edition. I like this card for both the goofy borders and the crowd in the stands. They look like they're cold.

8. 1990 Fleer 10th anniversary set. These cards look so much better than anything else in 1990 Fleer. They look like they don't even belong in the set.

7. 1988 Score. The Donnie Baseball swing. Mattingly is the first card in Score's first set. That's got to count for something.

6. 1989 Topps. I'm just noticing that I love dugout shots on cards. No, I'm not going to collect them. But there needs to be more of them.

5. 1994 Post. Unlicensed madness! I love it.

4. 1993 Post. But not as much as this one. Mattingly looks like he just escaped from the minimum security prison, stole a cap from a sanitation worker, and joined a ballgame. I heart this card.

3. 1993 Upper Deck. Great shot. I don't know why Mark Teixeira looks like a douche when he blows out his cheeks and Mattingly doesn't. But it's as true a statement as I'll ever make.

2. 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces black border. Normally, this is a card I'd trade away immediately. It's a Yankee. It's a much-loved set. It's a parallel. But I can't trade it. I can't do it.

1. 1984 Topps. I don't have the '84 Donruss Mattingly yet, so this will have to do for rookie card mojo. You have to love the "mustache-no mustache" on this card. And I enjoy Topps giving Mattingly the card No. 8, as if he's an absolute nobody.

Mattingly is on the short list of Yankees that don't bother me. He's there with Roy White, Bernie Williams and Ron Guidry. (There might be a couple of others, but it's not a topic I enjoy exploring).

My hope is that Mattingly will continue to not bother me and turn out to be an even better manager than the Girardi guy. That would be sweet.

Eventually, I want to look at him and see all Dodger and no Yankee. I can't do that now. It will mean I need to stop seeing him making special trips to Yankee Stadium to roll around in stinky Yankeeness, like he did last night.

But I have no doubt he has an allegiance to the Dodgers, and I hope he will end up leading the Dodgers into a World Series against the Yankees.

I think that will make a few Yankees fans' heads explode.

team collector dilemma – the rick honeycutt chronicles, volume 2

gcrl — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 13:15:00 +0000

volume 1 of the rick honeycutt team collector dilemma was a slam dunk. i'm not too sure about this one. it's his 1988 score card:

he's a dodger, right? well, look at the back:

honeycutt was traded to the a's late in the 1987 season for a player that turned out to be tim belcher. not a bad deal for the dodgers. while score was able to get a head shot of him in an a's cap, they chose to use a action shot of honeycutt still in a dodgers' uniform. couple that with the lack of a team affiliation on the front of the score card, and you see the dilemma. my take is that it's a dodger card.

these days, honeycutt is the dodgers' pitching coach

so that makes things easy.

here's to you, rick honeycutt, as long as i can tell which team you're on!