The Retail Card Aisles of Northern Michigan - Part 2

On the previous post, I shared a few of the cards that I picked up while visiting my in-laws in northern Michigan. The card aisles of the two large box stores in town, Meijer and Wal-Mart, both had more packs of cards than I have seen living outside of Raleigh during the past year and a half to two years.  

A quick refresher. 

 

The Meijer card aisle is on the left, Wally World on the right.  

For this post, I am just breaking the cards into brand rather than by location purchased.

First up is another pack of the Panini Chronicles cards. Again, I am still confused as to whether or not these cards all come from a single set or they are different sets packaged together. I don't care enough about Panini to research the answer and I fear it's a rip off of the 1998 Donruss Collections product.  

If you don't know that one, the card manufacturer Pinnacle re-released all of their Donruss and Leaf products at the end of that year, but they put some foil finish on the cards. In my opinion......

I have three highlights from this pack of cards. 

On the left is Akil Baddoo. I saw him with the Tigers this summer and enjoyed his style of play. I am looking forward to picking up some more of his cards this year. More Akil later in the post. 

In the middle is Clayton Kershaw. This is the same style card as AJ Puk and Gregory Polanco cards from the previous post. Again, the card has a nice finish on the surface and the thick card stock is always a plus. The Pete Alonso is another acetate card, but it's different from the three in the previous post. Are the acetate cards supposed to have variations like the Topps Tek cards?  I love acetate baseball cards, but the line pattern on this one is boring.  

Next up is a few cards from Topps Archives. I have really become torn on this product in recent years. Topps has gone completely overboard with reusing former designs in current products. At some point they are going to completely ruin the Topps Heritage product. However, for the moment I still really enjoy the autographs and a few of the inserts in this product. Topps does come up with some nice cards here.  

Topps did a really good job of picking out photos for the 1970s players. Not a Nolan Ryan fan, but good job putting him in an Angels uniform. Dick Allen and Mike Schmidt have great 1970s hair. The uniforms in the picture are an added bonus. The red version of the White Sox uniforms is underrated. I felt like the 1970s players had the best looking cards in this year's set.  

Next up is a pair of Movie Poster inserts. These are really neat.  

Most of the cards are team themed, like the A's card on the left. However, I do really like the Black Aces poster card.  The black and white photo with the red background really pops. The term "Black Aces" was coined by long-time Indians and Twins pitcher, Mudcat Grant. There are players who fit Grant's description left off of the card. One of those players was Grant himself.  Give credit where credit is due.  This would be a better card if Grant had been included.

Just my two cents.  

I did not land many Cardinals cards in my packs of Archives. My only two options were Lou Brock and Paul DeJong. I am sorry, but Paul DeJong is a no at the moment.  

Lou is an easy choice.  

My favorite Durham Bulls card....

I am going with this Evan Longoria insert, but let's talk about this card for a minute. This is card is the direction that Topps should take the Archives set.  This is a modernized version of a 1989 Topps Big card. They were a kid-friendly oddball set released that ran for several years. 

This is the original design.  

Topps always uses past oddball designs for insert sets in Archives. They should just make them the base set design for the entire product. Small change, but it would help to preserve the former flagship brand designs for future Topps Heritage sets. Again, just my opinion.  

Onto the last group of cards. These are out of the Update Series. I got two of these box toppers.  

I like the Satchel Paige card.  Big Papi.  Meh.  

I also ended up with two more Akil Baddoo rookie cards. Did I mention I hate when Topps overuses former designs?  I am going to ignore that for the 1986 Topps card on the left. That is a good looking baseball card.  

I also picked up a pair of Luis Patino rookie cards. He has been my go-to Durham Bulls player of sorts during the past year. However, the card on the right is a little ridiculous.  

Topps made Rookie Debut cards for a handful of players in the 2021 Update set. Read the small print there and you can see that Luis Patino actually made his Major League Debut in August of 2020. He was traded to the Rays in December of 2020, started the year in the Minors, and was called up by the Rays. I get the card on the left since Patino was both traded and called up to the Majors in the past year. I do not understand why he is getting a Debut card from a previous season.  

Favorite Cardinals cards.  

Ignore the previous comments about Topps reusing old designs here too.  The Molina has a Chrome finish, Arenado and Carlson are the regular card stock. I love the 1992 Topps cards. 

Favorite former Durham Bulls players in this set....

I am going with Blake Snell and Jake Cronenworth.  Easy choice.  

That's it for the card aisle. 

This Set Has Dragged On Long Enough.....

The last of the 1986 Topps Glossy Mail-In set.  There have been two other posts for this set, which is my favorite out of all the Mail-In sets from the 1980s.  It's Cardinals heavy and I have already gushed over the team's left fielder enough in other posts this month.  Last few groups of cards.

Picking out one player from each group to share something, or some thoughts about....... 

Ernie Riles - He was a prospect in this set, ended up spending roughly a decade in the Majors as a utility infielder.  I best remember him on the late 1980s Giants teams with Will Clark and Kevin Mitchell.  Obviously not that level of player, but he contributed to the team.  I like the old Brewers powder blue uniform and MB glove logo hat.  Very nice card. 

Dave Stieb- Since Jack Morris is in the Hall of Fame, we should also go ahead and put Dave Stieb in there too.  He never pitched in the deciding game of a World Series, but he was one of the better pitchers of the 1980s and some of his career numbers are better than what is on Jack Morris's resume.

In the three season prior to 1986, Dave Stieb had a WAR of 21.6 and Nolan Ryan, same three years, had a WAR of 6.5.  I mean Nolan Ryan struck out a bunch of people though, so that's what is important. 

George Bell (Jorge) Begin rant....

There are bad trades in baseball.  It has been a long held belief that the White Sox trading Sammy Sosa was somehow a terrible idea.  Do people not remember how good Jorge Bell was during his career?  He won the American League MVP Award in 1987, but you'd swear the guy was the biggest bum in the world based on the way people talk about the fact that he was traded for Sammy Sosa.  He hit 47 home runs in a season during the 1980s.  The year before the Cubs traded Bell, he hit 25 home runs, 27 doubles, and drove in 86 runs.  Sure, he fell off after he joined the White Sox, but let's stop talking badly about George. 

End rant. 

Browning.  Should I post the video of him on the Wrigley rooftop again? 

I will do a picture instead.  He also once pitched a perfect game.  

This is a really tough group to decide between.  We have a former football player, a Cardinals player wearing the wrong numbered jersey, and a former Durham Bull.  

Since there has been a lot of talk about college football players, and whether they should choose to play baseball or football, lets go with.....

Phil Bradley- He played both baseball and football at the University of Missouri.  As a baseball player he helped the team win the Big 8 (I miss that conference) Conference Championship in 1980 and they made the NCAA Tournament in both 1980 and 1981.  However, Bradley was much better known as a football player, he did not win the Heisman, but he was the Big 8 Offensive Player of the Year three years in a row.  While football has changed a lot in the last 40 years, and the Big 12 has a reputation for not playing defense, many of Bradley's numbers have held up over time.  He is still in the top 10 all-time in passing yards and top 5 in total yards in conference history.  Bradley mainly played with the Mariners, but bounced around at the end of his career.  He made almost 6 million dollars in 1980s money (that's a lot).  

Tony Gwynn- I guess Jeff Reardon is the least known player in this group, but it's hard to pass up a chance to talk about Tony Gwynn.  The Padres were not the best team in the mid 1980s, but I always think about those years as being some of the best of Tony Gwynn's career.  He could always hit and won several batting titles in the 1980s, a few more towards the end of his career, ending with eight overall.  The thing I liked best about the mid to late 1980s Tony Gwynn was the fact that he stole bases.  He stole 33 in 1984 while winning his first batting title, but went over 50 in 1987 and 40 in 1989.  Gwynn was not exactly the picture of fitness, but he has more than 300 career stolen bases.  I liked fast Tony Gwynn. 

Let's go Darrell Evans.  I used to not like getting his cards as a kid.  He was old.  I saw him play a game towards the end of his career with the Braves.  He was the worst player on the field.  Seriously, the elementary school/middle school version of me was wrong about Darrell.  Not a Hall of Famer, but a good player.  Darrell Evans hit 400 home runs, also walked more than he struck out.  

Fin.  

Friday Five: Best 5 Sets From 1990

The last couple of Friday Five posts were focused on 1980s cards, but it starts to get a little bit more complicated after that decade.  The 90s brought in a boom of new products, some good and some not so good, which makes it harder to break down sets by brand.  I could have continued that same line of posts and just used the base sets for Fleer, Donruss, Upper Deck, and Topps, but there are all sorts of complications even within that.  

So, instead I am going to spend my Friday's during this baseball season counting down the best five sets from each year.  And by best five I am not speaking of value, although it's a consideration, same with design, player selection, and all sorts of other factors.  Basically, I am looking through boxes of cards for the year and pulling out cards from five sets I really like....Deal with it.  

The card sets are ranked in order from least liked to best liked.  1990 there were still a reasonable number of cards sets.  Besides the five sets listed below I also considered: Fleer Update, Topps Traded, Score, Score Rookie/Traded, and Donruss The Rookies.  Your consolation trophy is in the mail....

 5.  Donruss- This card design is a mixture of Eddie Van Halen's guitar and one of those Jasper Johns drizzle paintings.  You won't see Donruss on this list for a while after this one, because in my opinion, the products went drastically down hill after this one.  The 1990 Donruss set still had a similar feel to the 1988 plaids and the 1989 black borders.  It was the largest Donruss set up to that point, over 700 cards, but still kept a lot of the trademark Donruss features like the Diamond Kings and Rated Rookies subsets.  There were also a ton of minor errors in this set, which people swore were going to be worth something in 1990, but are actually not worth much of anything today.

Can we also talk about the smell of the cards?  There are people that swear by certain smells in certain sets.  I am not really too sensitive to the smells that come out of packs of cards, but for some reason this set hits my sense of smell.  It always has.   Don't think that I ran around huffing Scotch Guard or something as a middle schooler, but if you blindfolded me and asked me to identify a 1990 Donruss card I would know the smell anywhere.  Not a bad smell, not good, it's just there....

4. Fleer- Not as interesting design wise as the Donruss set, but there are a bunch of different things I like about the Fleer set.  First, there are a bunch of good rookies in the set.  All of these sets actually have them: Sosa, Thomas, Larry Walker, and Juan Gonzalez.  Others are unique to Fleer, like the Moises Alou rookie.....

The set also had some of the staples of 1980s Fleer sets like the SuperStar cards.  The Players of the Decade inset set is also a really nice touch in this set.  Throw in the fact that Fleer did a little better job of editing their set and I put it just ahead of the Donruss set.  

3. Topps- I like the design.  Seriously, this seems like a take or leave kind of year.  This set has a bunch of the usual 1990 rookie cards, Frank Thomas and Sammy Sosa, but also has a few other really cool things going for it too.  The set has the normal 792 cards you would expect to see out of this era of Topps set, but the best part of this set is the Nolan Ryan subset....

There is one Ryan card for each of the teams that he played for over his career.  This set is really inexpensive and probably worth it for the Nolan Ryan cards alone.  I am pretty sure this is the cheapest Topps set you can possibly find....

2.  Upper Deck- I am a huge fan of the Upper Deck set.  It was still pretty much alone in being a high end set in 1990 and it's not all that different from the 1989 set.  Same card stock, similar elements in the design, but it just missed out on the rookie cards.  I am not sure I can really fault Upper Deck for the fact that Ray Lankford and Sammy Sosa did not pan out quite the same way as Ken Griffey Jr.  Believe me, I would love it if Ray Lankford had that sort of card value.  The backs of the cards are really awesome too.....

The design was honestly pretty simple and photography was really nice.  Not a lot of frills and extras here, but you do get a lot of really nice baseball cards.  Again, like the Topps set, the Upper Deck set is extremely cheap and inexpensive to pick up.  I have thought about picking up a couple of cheap boxes off of Ebay and opening them up just for fun.  Perhaps......

1.  Leaf- Notice on the Upper Deck write up I said that it was almost the only premier baseball card product released in 1990.  Donruss created this product to directly compete with Upper Deck that summer.  Foil packaging, better card stock, and color photos on the front and back.  Leaf was supposed to be the rival of Upper Deck and it actually did one better than that.  If I was going to tell you to buy one set from the 1990 set this would be the one.  While the rookies in the set are essentially the same names as the other 1990s products, Walker, Thomas, and Sammy Sosa, the cards out of this set have been far more popular and desired by collectors.  Easily the best set from 1990.

Mr. 5000

One of the coolest baseball accomplishments that has happened during my lifetime was Nolan Ryan's 5000th strikeout.  Ryan reached that plateau during the summer of 1989 and almost 25 years later is still the only player with that many strikeouts.  Randy Johnson and Roger Clemens climbed over 4,000 along with Steve Carlton, but all of them are still over 1,000 behind Nolan Ryan.  All summer long baseball fans kept an eye on Ryan as he inched closer to the magically number of 5000. 

I actually had a chance to attend a Rangers game that summer when my parents attended a conference for work in Fort Worth.  We made the trek over to Arlington and watched a Rangers game.  The old Arlington Stadium was not a very nice place to watch a game.  Metal bleachers in Texas in the summer.  Not so much.  We missed Nolan Ryan's turn in the rotation, but he was still over a month away from passing the 5000 mark.  I still got to see some cool players including Sammy Sosa hitting lead-off...

Nolan Ryan would reach the mark on August 22, 1989 when he struck out Oakland A's Hall of Fame outfielder Rickey Henderson.  Pretty specatular moment and achievement in baseball history.  Here's what it looked like:

Card companies captured the moment on cardboard in 1990.  There were several different cards that were put out to commemorate the achievement.  I featured the 1990 Upper Deck card a few weeks back during my Top 50 On Cardboard countdown, giving that card a slight edge over some of the other cards put out that summer.  That doesn't mean that the others weren't cool.  Here's a quick look at another set of Ryan tribute cards from the summer of 1990. 

1990 Topps Nolan Ryan

Topps had actually made a set of Pete Rose tribute cards in 1986, but thankfully they varied the Nolan Ryan cards.  The Rose cards featured pictures of all the Pete Rose cards in between 1963 and 1986 with a blurb about each year on the back of the card.  The Ryan tribute set in 1990 still spanned his entire career and gave collectors a recap of his career, but the cards were really cool.  

The design of the tribute cards followed the basic design of the 1990 set, but Topps made a Ryan card for every team he had played for during his career.  Ryan also had a basic Rangers card in the set, which was a nice looking card, but the four tribute cards were the best four cards in the 1990 Topps set.  

The backs of the cards did not have a year by year breakdown, but rather just featured Nolan Ryan's highlights with that team.  The Mets card is a little short on highlights, but the other three have a great list of accomplishments that are worth reading through for any baseball fan.  Yes, I am advocating for reading the back of a baseball card.  

One of the best things about this set of Nolan Ryan cards, outside of their cool looks, is the fact that they are easy to find and rather inexpensive.  The whole set of four cards can easily be found on Ebay and will often cost collectors less than $5 to pick up all four cards.  Better yet, check around and see if you can find a box of 1990 Topps.  There is gum in the packs and you can just pull your own copies of the Ryan cards.  Tons of card shops have old Topps boxes from the early 90s and late 80s cheap and they are fun to open.  

My Top 50 On Cardboard- #4 Nolan Ryan

My Top 50 On Cardboard 

#4

Nolan Ryan 

1971 Topps Nolan Ryan

Hobby Impact-

I own the rookie card of every player on the Top 50 On Cardboard countdown except Nolan Ryan.  I have waited and waited to find one at the right price, but have not really ever come close to finding one.  I credit Ryan's terrific popularity and outstanding value.  Ryan's career intersected the first decade of my collecting career, his baseball career was already seventeen years old.  Ryan played a total of twenty-seven years and had a pretty big impact on the game on the field and also on cardboard.   By the time I started collecting cards Ryan was already chasing the strikeout record and spent the 1983 season flip-flopping the all-time record with Phillies left-hander Steve Carlton.  He would later pass the magical 5,000 marker which no one else has crossed.  Along the way, Ryan's popularity grew and grew.  He's pretty much a hobby legend and his popularity has remained sky-high since his retirement. 

Nolan Ryan has been retired from baseball for 20 years now and is still a dominating figure in the hobby.  I do not seek out Nolan Ryan cards, but I will trade or buy cards that are under listed in terms of value and flip them around for cards that fit my collection.  Nolan Ryan cards hold great value and always have a market and collectors actively seeking out his cards.  I don't flip all of my good Nolan's though.  He's a player worth having a few good of in your collection.  

I have several nice Nolan Ryan pieces in my collection, but focus on two different types of items.  I started my collection and love for baseball during the second half of Ryan's career, so one simple rule I have created is to sell or trade all the Angels and Mets autographs or relics I pull or land.  I never say Ryan with either of those teams and that's not how I remember him.  Astros and Rangers stuff I am fond of and always consider for addition to my collection.  Specifically, I try to find Astros relics with multiple colors.  Here's one:

2005 Prime Patches Nolan Ryan Jersey

Autographs can be from either the Astros or Rangers, but I prefer them to be one card.  If you are looking for an inexpensive Nolan Ryan autograph I would look at some of the late 90s cards.  I have found several copies of his Donruss Signature autograph for less than $50.  There are some other nice products with Nolan Ryan items that can also go a little lower than expected.  One of my favorite Nolan Ryan autographs is this Bowman's Best:

2001 Bowman's Best Nolan Ryan Autograph 

On The Field-
Nolan Ryan is best known as the strikeout king of Major League Baseball and had some pretty amazing totals some of the years he played.  He had six seasons with more than 300 strikeouts, eight with more than 250, and fifteen with more than 200.  His career total stands at 5,714 which amazing considering that there is nobody with more than 5,000.  The strikeout record is kind of like wins and stolen bases.  Records with big numbers that are going to be really hard to beat.  Ryan played a total of 27 seasons and lead the league in Ks four times after he turned 40 including a 300.

Ryan was a Hall of Fame pitcher, but I think the strikeout totals and benchmark 300 wins gets him a lot higher place at times then what he actually deserves.  Can a Hall of Famer be overrated?  In Ryan's case I vote yes, at times.  Again, the strikeout totals were incredible and I understand the some of the people who argue Ryan would have won more games if he hadn't spent his career playing for the Angels, Astros, and Rangers.  Still there are other ways to measure players beyond just wins and strikeouts.

For example, JAWS rates Nolan Ryan as the 31st best starting pitchers in Major League Baseball history.  That's right behind Tom Glavine in their rankings which would seem to be a good neighborhood and certainly worthy of a plaque in Cooperstown.  Again, I am not arguing that Ryan should not be in the Hall, but here's his standing in comparison with players whose career also intersected some portion of his playing career.

Let's look at the JAWS ratings first:

 I count: Clemens, Seaver, Johnson, Maddux, Gibson, Niekro, Blyleven, Carlton, Perry, Pedro, Fergie, Schilling, and Moose.  I did not count Robin Roberts because their careers intersected by one month.  That places Ryan thirteenth amongst modern pitchers which is probably a lot lower than most people would have in on their lists.  When ranking modern pitchers by WAR, Ryan actually fairs slightly better passing by Curt Schilling on the list, but still ranking behind the other eleven players.

Ryan also has a lot of trouble stacking up against his peers in terms of ERA+.  Remember that an ERA+ of 100 represents an average pitcher.  Ryan's career mark of 112 represents the fact that he was an above average pitcher.  However, it ranks as the lowest amongst his modern peers by a pretty healthy margin.  Glavine is the next lowest on the list with a career mark of 118.  Breaking that number a part a little differently: Ryan had three years where he posted an ERA+ over 130.  Roger Clemens had 16, Randy Johnson 12, Maddux 11, Pedro 11, Schilling 11, Mussina 10, Seaver 10, Bob Gibson 8, Blyleven 8, Carlton 5, and with Niekro 4.

In fact, if you stack up Ryan's career ERA+ up against all starting pitchers all-time Ryan ranks just inside the top 200 right beside Ben Sheets and Orel Hershiser.  Nothing wrong with those two pitchers.  I like both of them.

In review strikeouts are fun and exciting to watch, but.....

and I cannot possibly have a Nolan Ryan post without this gem...

I didn't remember this being that big of a fight, but Gene Lamont restarts the fight after it calms down.  I believe this is the highlight of Gene Lamont's coaching career.

Favorite Card-
I could have put the Nolan Ryan Upper Deck football card here too, but I went with his 1990 Upper Deck 5000th Strikeout card.  I also thought about his 1990 Topps cards which commemorated his strikeout record.  They're all great cards.  I loved this card when I was in seventh grade.  Classic in my collection.  It's also cheap and easy to find.

Complete Set Project: 2001 Topps Archives Set

A few days ago I made a post about reorganizing my cards.  After several days of hard work my 2001 sets are sorted out and I am starting to go through the sets to find cards that I am missing and sets that are already completed.  I have decided to undertake a little bit of challenge to start off my project by selecting the 2001 Topps Archives set as my first set to complete.

2001 Topps Archives Ernie Banks 

The 450 card set was released in two different series with the main attraction of the set being the autographs.  The base cards are still really nice and offer a nice look into some of the better Topps cards issued between 1951 and 2001.  Basically, the reprints consist of the first year card of players and the last year issue of a player.  Every player has two cards in the set and a few also appear as highlights, league leaders, record breakers, or autographs.  I own many of the original cards in the set, but still like the looks of some of the reprints and enjoy looking at the reprints of the cards that I do not own.  The only drawback to the set in my opinion are the reprints of some of the prospect cards.

2001 Topps Archives Nolan Ryan 

For example, the Nolan Ryan rookie card in the set only appears as half of the original card and the orientation is changed.  Little bit weird to look at this card like this.  So, I have compiled a checklist for the cards that I need from the set below.  I am currently 80 cards short (17%) of completing the set.  I am also going to set the goal to add a George Hendrick autograph too.  It's the only certified autograph of the former Major League All-Star and it's the only Cardinals related autograph that I am missing out of the set.   I am not going to put a timetable on completing this set, but I will keep everyone up to date within my posts.  

Series One

52 Luis Tiant 6575 Dennis Eckersley 7686 Joe Adcock 52103 Dom DiMaggio 53117 Jim Wynn 77119 Gus Bell 64122 Bobby Richardson 66132 Eddie Mathews 68133 Joe Pepitone 73137 Bob Gibson 75139 Frank Robinson 75147 Dick Allen 76155 Willie Horton 80156 Mickey Lolich 80162 Reggie Smith 83171 Vida Blue 87173 Reggie Jackson 87174 Hal McRae 87175 Carl Yastrzemski 83187 Jim Kaat 83189 Gary Carter 93192 Dave Winfield 95197 Don Mattingly 96198 Joe Carter 98201 Walter Alston MGR 56203 Sparky Anderson MGR 71209 AL Batting Leaders LL 65220 "Pride of the NL" 63221 Whitey Ford WS 63 Series Two236 Johnny Sain 52247 Tug McGraw 65248 Don Newcombe 56249 Herb Score 56250 Clete Boyer 57254 Larry Bowa 70262 Dean Chance 62264 Whitey Ford 53267 Rico Carty 64268 Tommy John 64269 Phil Niekro 64275 Fergie Jenkins 66286 Bert Blyleven 71287 George Foster 71288 Al Hrabosky 71289 Cecil Cooper 72290 Carlton Fisk 72301 Jack Clark 77302 Mark Fidrych 77306 Kirk Gibson 81318 Satchel Paige 53320 Carl Furillo 56326 Ralph Branca 52330 Pee Wee Reese 58335 Richie Ashburn 63338 Early Wynn 62344 Jim Bouton 68346 Don Drysdale 69362 Al Kaline 74363 Lindy McDaniel 75365 Jim Perry 75370 Ralph Kiner 53372 Larry Bowa 85381 Willie Stargell 82382 Johnny Bench 83387 Whitey Ford 67388 Tony Perez 86395 Maury Wills 72399 Phil Niekro 81400 Red Schoendienst 62404 Gil Hodges 63405 Bucky Dent 84407 Dan Quisenberry 90409 Rick Reuschel 91413 Jack Clark 93428 Chuck Tanner MGR 72429 Earl Weaver MGR 71431 AL HR Leaders LL 66432 NL HR Leaders LL 60441 Baltimore Orioles TC 70446 Whitey Ford WS 62

George Hendrick Autograph 

30 Year Top 50: 1998 Upper Deck Retro

#29- Today, the countdown continues with a trendsetting set of the late 90s.  Several card companies had dabbled with bringing Hall of Famers from the 50s, 60s, and 70s to modern cardboard, but this set kicked off something special that would allow modern collectors access to cards of the previous generations stars.  Before I start breaking down the set I just wanted to mention the packaging.  The boxes for these cards were old school metal lunch boxes.  In my several moves since 1998, I do not have mine anymore, but I encourage you to look around and find one.  Really cool.

1998 Upper Deck Retro Al Kaline

Upper Deck always had some good photography and decent designs with their cards.  The Upper Deck Retro set isn't the flashiest or shiniest designed card set they've assembled, but I like the basic design given the premise of this set being a "retro" set.  The photographs are not all up to the usual Upper Deck standards.  For example, I have always hated the Lou Brock card in this set.  Upper Deck has made hundreds of Lou Brock cards with a decent photo.  Why is he in a celebrity softball game or something with a goofy white hat?  

1998 Upper Deck Retro Lou Brock

The set also has some cool inserts and great autographs.  The autographs are all on card, but are condition sensitive.  Similar to the Upper Deck Sweet Spot autographs, the Retro autographs have a slight tendency to fade.  I own two autographs from this set and unfortunately both are on there way downhill.  The first, Nolan Ryan, isn't bad since I can find other autographed cards.

1998 Upper Deck Retro Nolan Ryan Autograph

More unfortunate is the condition of my second autograph from the set which belongs to Kirby Puckett.  Puckett was not a huge signer and has few autographs out on the secondary market.  He also passed away in 2006 after being elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame.  

1998 Upper Deck Retro Kirby Puckett Autograph

Most Puckett autographs from this set have some degree of fading which is quite sad.  Beyond the Ryan and Puckett there are actually a lot of great autographs in this card set.  Many of the autographs can be found in other products, but the condition sensitivity makes them a great collecting challenge.  

Like the 1998 Upper Deck Retro Set?  Not in my Top 50 is the 2001 Upper Deck 70s set.  This set is filled with big hair and polyester.  The base cards have a similar simple design like the Upper Deck Retro set, but photography might be a little bit better.  There are also fewer autographs, but these are still great cards worth looking into for your collection.  

2001 Upper Deck 70s Andre Dawson

I was thinking of putting a Bellbottoms insert card in this space, but I am going to go with this Disco Dandies set.  The inserts are one of the coolest parts of the Upper Deck 70s set and can all be found generally for under five dollars.  

2001 Upper Deck 70s Disco Era Dandies Tom Seaver

There are autographs in this set, but the list is short and the relics checklist is much longer.  There are some cool relics out there though.  

2001 Upper Deck 70s Eddie Murray Bat 

30 Year Top 50: 1991 Bowman

#44- It's funny what turns people away from and then back towards certain card sets.  I think I busted a few packs of 1991 Bowman cards and stopped quickly.  This was the third Bowman release which had quickly abandoned the borrowed 1953 Bowman Color design it used in the 1989 release for two consecutive years of rainbow bordered junk.  Here's one of my favorites:

1991 Bowman Donovan Osborne

I considering going with Geronimo Pena, but he might deserve his own blog post one of these days.  So, style wise this set is kind of a dud, but my opinions about it changed greatly over the past twenty years.  The tide started to turn during the 1998 home run race.  I spent some time that summer following the some of the other home run hitters around the National League and really enjoyed getting a chance to see Jeromy Burnitz.  I cannot find a Jeromy Burnitz video that shows his swing, but I feel like this 1998 Upper Deck Ovation card catches the best part of it.  He had a really long swing and a really long follow thru.  I don't think he ever got cheated on a swing.  Ever.

1998 Upper Deck Ovation Jeromy Burnitz

So, I was enjoying the Jeromy Burnitz swing and on my next trip into my local card shop I started looking around for some Burnitz cards.  The shop owner quickly prompted me to a cheapy table of late 1980's wax and a few odds and ends.  In the middle of the table: 1991 Bowman Sets.  I actually considered not buying the set.  They were on clearance for $10.  He also had some Score wax for $5.  I bought the set, took it home, and threw it in the closet sealed.  I eventually stumbled upon a loose single copy of the Burnitz rookie and was happy to add a second to my collection.

1991 Bowman Jeromy Burnitz

Sometime in between 2000-2005 I forgot I had the set.  It was in my closet of baseball cards, but it was largely ignored.  I the fall of 2005 I moved to Durham, North Carolina for a new job.  In finding a new job I also found out that sports card stores in North Carolina are mainly about basketball cards.  Instead of walking in the door hearing about a cool Cardinals card, or great autographed ball someone just got, I had to hear about either the Heels, Deacs, Devils, or Wolfpack.  Disappointed, I spent one Saturday morning driving out to a Flea Market somewhere out in the middle of nowhere.  

The selection at the sports cards tables was sparse.  There was the ever present cool ACC basketball stuff.  One guy tried to convince me that I needed a Ralph Sampson signed basketball to complete my collection.  I settled for an old friend.  A $7.00 box of 1991 Bowman with sticks of gum.  I took the box home and started busting open packs.  I was amazed at the quality of rookie cards in the set.  Amazed.  Here they are:

1991 Bowman Chipper Jones  

1991 Bowman Jeff Bagwell

1991 Bowman Jim Thome

1991 Bowman Ivan Rodriguez

1991 Bowman Mike Mussina

I returned to the Flea Market a few weeks later, bought a second box, and finished off the set.  I am proud to own two copies of this set, I still have the factory set too, and I frequently flip through the cards.  Tell me this:  What other set can you buy as inexpensively as you can buy this one and guarantee yourself the rookie cards of four Hall of Famers and one really good pitcher?  I cannot think of one.  I have ever come to appreciate the awesome borders on this set.  They are a good feature of any early 90s Topps release.  This set is a great add to any collection.   

Like the 1991 Bowman Set?  Not in my Top 50 is the 1989 Bowman Set.  Topps issued this product to relaunch the Bowman product which has put out a set ever since this release.  Theses cards borrowed their style and size from the 1953 Bowman Color release.  If you own any old Bowman cards you know they are a quarter inch larger than the standard trading cards issued today.  

1989 Bowman Ozzie Smith

The reissue of Bowman not only served as a relaunch, but also acted as a traded set/prospect set for the company.  Many people complain about the 1989 set not resembling the current product at all in style or in substance, but the substance argument is actual dead wrong.  A quick flip through the set and you will see many players that were draft picks or prospects.  In fact, every team has at least one prospect or draft pick card in it's team set in addition to the veteran players.  For example, the Giants draft pick is none other than Miguel Tejada from Moneyball: Royce Clayton.  

1989 Bowman Royce Clayton

The most important rookie/prospect card in this set belongs to Ken Griffey Jr.  The Bowman Griffey rookie is actually my second favorite behind the classic 1989 Upper Deck rookie.  The card has a really clean look and he is not wearing a minor league uniform like the Upper Deck card.

1989 Bowman Ken Griffey Jr. 

  

Topps also used the 1989 Bowman set as a traded/update set that year in addition to the regular release of the Topps Traded set.  The most significant update card that year was the Texas Rangers issue Nolan Ryan card.  

1989 Bowman Nolan Ryan

Overall, the 1989 Bowman set is another great set from the late eighties that is worth adding to your card collection.  It has great pictures and design elements combined with a great checklist of players.  You can find these sets for around $10.  Worth your time and money to find.