BOBOC - Pack 8

I tried calling my doctor to schedule a colonoscopy in order to have something to do that was more fun than this post, but he didn't think the procedure was medically necessary. I was like "Dude! Have you ever seen 1988 Donruss?" He wasn't convinced, so I guess I am going to have to write this.

I present to you yet another pack of:





Can you feel the excitement? Me neither.

111 - Bob Forsch - St. Louis


112 - Mike Scott - Houston


113 - Kevin Gross - Philadelphia
447 - Jerry Mumphrey - Chicago Cubs


626 - Pat Perry - Cincinnati
628 - Matt Williams - San Francisco


629 - Dave Hengel - Seattle
630 - Jeff Musselman - Toronto
631 - Tim Laudner - Minnesota
632 - Bob Ojeda - NY Mets


633 - Rafael Santana - NY Mets
BC-8 - Andy Van Slyke - Pittsburg
BC-10 - Andre Dawson - Chicago Cubs


BC-11 - Alan Trammell - Detroit


Diamond King #20 - Mark Langston - Seattle


So, I got one Hall of Famer in this pack. Woo-freaking-hoo.

Up Next: 1990 Panini Stickers.

BOBOC - Pack 7 - 1997 Score

This is a set that I really like. If I had any interest in collecting cards from the 1990s, this would definitely be on the list of sets I'd put together. It has a clean, simple look that appeals to me. The only thing I would change is the whole e.e. cummings lower case text thingy. It bugs me. Why? I don't know. It just does.

No Hall of Famers in this pack. Though, I would make the case that Alan Trammell should be in Cooperstown. Belle didn't receive enough votes his first time on the ballot and was dropped. He was certainly a dynamic player, but his behaviors didn't win him many friends. Bob Costas once said of Belle "Outside of Cleveland, he may be regarded as the man Will Rogers never met." This is, of course, a reference to Will Roger's (1) famous quote "I never met a man I didn't like."

11 - Chili Davis - California


12 - Albert Belle - Cleveland


This card is the Foil front Showcase Series parallel.

48 - Mark Lewis - Detroit
74 - Ellis Burks - Colorado


106 - Alan Trammell - Detroit


152 - Wally Joyner - San Diego



219 - Todd Hundley - NY Mets
229 - Robert Perez - Toronto
267 - Justin Thompson - Detroit
322 - Wendell Magee - Philadelphia



Here is an interesting factoid. Whomever wrote Magee's Baseball Reference Bullpen page, copied from this 1997 Score card. Look at the text on the card, then compare it to the BR Bullpen write-up. The text is almost identical. Certainly, it does not match and I suppose, if we are being generous, we could believe it a concidence. Except for one thing. There is an error on the card back that is repeated on the BR page.

I refer specifically to the sentence "Wendell topped the Florida State League in '95 with a lofty .353 batting average and 177 hits, the second highest total in the minor leagues." The BR page reads "He led the Florida State League in 1995 with a .353 batting average and 177 hits." Those two sentences aren't all that similar, to be sure. So, how do I know the one was copied from the other? Simple. Take a look at Magee's B-R Minor League Statistics page. What you see there is that Wendell did hit .353 in the FSL, but only had 137 hits during his time with Clearwater. He had an additional 40 hits at Reading in the Eastern League that year. So, 177 hits was not his total in the Florida State League, but was his total for the 1995 season across two different leagues. So, there you have it. How did I spend my Christmas vacation (I wrote this on December 23)? Overanalysing the backs of baseball cards.

(1) I believe every place probably has a "You know your from....when..." jokes written about it. This one about Oklahoma pretty much hits the nail right on the head. My favorite is "It doesn't bother you to use an airport named for a man who died in an airplane crash." The main commercial airport in OKC is Will Rogers World Airport. There is a smaller airport in OKC named after Wiley Post. Rogers and Post died in the same plane crash in 1935.

BOBOC - Pack 6

Instead of overdosing on 1988 Donruss, I decided on breaking up the pain a bit. So, the next pack from the Big Ole Box of Crap will be................1989 Donruss.


I don't have the same visceral dislike for 1989 Donruss that I do for 1988. It isn't a real pleaser, but it does get closer to what I like. The horizontal black stripes on the dark gray side border seems a bit superfluous and the shifting color bars on the top and bottom are similarly distracting. Either eliminate those stripes or go with a sold color at the top and bottom and this would be a card design I could grow to like.



The back is fairly well designed, I think. I prefer to see all career statistics, while this set shows only the details of the last 5 years, it does have some positive aspects. I like the inclusion of Contract Status and How Acquired information. And while the color is more reminiscent of a Dreamsicle rather than a baseball card, I do appreciate that it significantly improves the readability for this forty-mumble-mumble year old. I love my 1974 Topps but, dang, the backs are hard for me to read.

I still won't collect it since it came from the overproduction era. That isn't because the set won't ever be worth anything. I don't do any collecting with an eye on future value. However, the set's general worthlessness means that I can go and get a complete set on EBay for less than the price of a fast food value meal. There is no challenge to collecting it. The chase is where the fun is.

44 - Peter Harnisch - Baltimore
529 - Jerry Browne - Texas


I saw that Jerry's nickname was The Governor. Looking at the back of the cards for clues, I saw that he was born and lived in the US Virgin Islands. I immediately wondered if he came from a political family. Alas, the etymology of the nickname is more mundane. He was given the nick because he shared a name (if not a spelling) with a former governor of California. I should have known that.

534 - Luis Aquino - Kansas City
540 - Gene Nelson - Oakland
551 - Luis Aguayo - NY Yankees
557 - Alejandro Pena - LA Dodgers
562 - Luis De los Santos - Kansas City
563 - Fred Lynn - Detroit



Lynn was the best player in this pack of cards.

568 - Glenn Hubbard - Oakland
569 - Craig Worthington - Baltimore
574 - Tracy Jones - Montreal
575 - Juan Nieves - Milwaukee


579 - Chad Kreuter - Texas


580-Tony Armas - California


Diamond Kings 4 - Chris Sabo - Cincinnati


The back of this card describes Sabo as "a throwback to the gritty old-time ballplayer of two and three generations ago." That may very well be true, but I have to suspect those glasses would have set him up for some serious razzing from his fellow players. Although, given that he was nicknamed "Spuds" because of a resemblance to the commercial icon, Spuds Mackenzie, I don't suppose playing in the modern era prevented him from receiving a fair piece of abuse.

BOBOC - Pack 5

On to 1988 Topps Big, a set that was a modern take on the iconic 1956 set. The design is essentially identical with the front consisting of a head shot superimposed over an action shot. The back was similar as well, with vitals, a three panel cartoon, and two lines of statistics (previous year and career). Additionally, these cards are the same size as the 1956 set (2 5/8" by 3 3/4"). The obvious differences are the players name section, which replaces the yellow and red block from 1956 with a rainbow paint brush stroke. Additionally, the back of the 1988 Big employees more colors than the 56s.

So, let's take a quick look:







No Hall of Famers in this group, but I did get two of the top players of the era in Donnie Baseball and Carney Lansford.

Here is a look at the back of the card, where you can see what I was referring to above about using more colors.


When looking up Reynold's career statistics, I had a hard time categorizing him as any kind of offensive threat. He had a respectable .256 career batting average, but a positively mediocre .291 on base percentage. He hit a fair amount of triples, leading the NL with 12 in 1981, implying that he may have had some speed. But, over the course of his career, he has more triples (65) than stolen bases (58). Not sure what to think of him.


Did anyone actually ever send in for one of these sweaters? Just curious.

On a couple of separate notes:

Most of the cards I have promised have gone out over the last two days. At this point, I only owe Potch (Have to get a shipping box) and Napkin Doon (haven't got my Diamond Giveaway shipment yet.) So, the rest of you, keep an eye on your mail.

My posting may be slowing down here for a while. On Tuesday, I was given the fabulous opportunity to explore new job opportunities! Working for a Eurozone company does have it's disadvantages. But, I am not complaining. Between my savings and severance, I figure I have a two year cushion. But, buying baseball cards will need to go on hiatus for a while. I will probably spend more time exploring the cards I have and may blog about them. I don't really feel like I have found my voice as a blogger yet. Maybe this break will help me.

Anyways, it looks to be a beautiful day and my dogs are clamoring for their morning walkies. So, I best heed the call.

BOBOC - Pack 4

Here is pack 4, and the first of four packs of 1988 Donruss. For those of you that may be new here, BOBOC is the acronym I made up for a blaster of repackaged cards I bought recently. BOBOC literally means Big Ole Box of Crap.

So, let's look at the contents. This one wasn't as good as previous BOBOC packs in that there was no current Hall of Fame members in the pack, and only one legitimate HOF possibility. But, it did include a fair number of the premier players of the era.

147 - Scott Bradley (Seattle)
191 - Leon Durham (Chicago Cubs)
258 - Brian Downing (Angels)
324 - Rafael Palmiero (Chicago Cubs)


359 - Lance Parrish (Philadelphia)


437 - Gerald Perry (Atlanta)
460 - Jay Alrich (Milwaukee)
461 - Frank Tanana (Detroit)


471 - Dan Quiesenberry (Kansas City)


539 - Greg Maddux (Chicago Cubs)


549 - Dennis Martinez (Montreal)


571 - Peter Smith (Atlanta)
572 - Darnell Coles
639 - Damon Berryhill (Chicago Cubs)
Diamond Kings No. 6 -Ron Darling (NY Mets)

Overall, not too bad. But, in the end, I am no fan of 1988 Donruss. I think it is an ugly design. I generally don't like multi-colored borders, unless they are a simple, color blocked design, like 1975 Topps. The light blue and white backs aren't what I would consider aesthetically pleasing, but that is mitigated by the fact that they are far more readable than the backs of the 1970s Topps cards I prefer. Unfortunately, I have two more wax packs and a cello pack of this crap to go.

I cannot imagine myself ever wanting to put this set together. It is a little too early for alcohol to ease the posting process here. With the other packs of this stuff I'll try to post in the evenings so I can have a liberal pour of Woodford Reserve to help numb my senses to the horror and...umm...lubricate my...uh...literary endeavors

Such as they are.

Up Next: 1988 Topps Big

BOBOC - Pack 3

1991 Leaf Series 1

This pack was characterized by managers. Not manager cards, but players that went on to manage, though not all at the Major League level.

137 - Felix Fermin, Cleveland


Felix was your quintessential light hitting shortstop during his MLB career, but went on to manage the Sultanes de Monterrey from 2007 through 2010. Monterrey is a city that I have been to numerous times on business. My impression is that it isn't much of a baseball town. Like much of Mexico, it is a soccer mad city. I can recall once that I scheduled a conference call with folks in Monterrey at time that overlapped with a World Cup game involving the Mexican team. It was made clear to me that my call was going to finish early that day, whetehr I liked it or not. But, I digress....

142 - Erik Hanson, Seattle
147 - Danny Tartabull, KC
152- Joe Orsulak, Baltimore
156 - Damon Berryhill, Chicago Cubs


Damon has spent the last three years managing the Rookie League Ogden Raptors, part of the Dodgers chain.

157 - Gene Larkin, Minnesota
162 - Jim Abbott, California
233 - Luis Quinones, Cincinnati
238 - Will Clark, SF


239 - Albert Belle, Cleveland


243 - Orel Hershiser, LA


244 - Pete O'Brien - Seattle
248 - Dave Johnson, Baltimore
253 - David Cone, NY Mets
258 - Joe Girardi, Chicago Cubs



What can I say? Of the three managers in the pack, Joe here is the only who has managed / is managing at the major league level. He is, of course, the skipper of the Yankees since 2008.

Next up: 1988 Donruss

BOBOC - Pack 2

For those who may not be quite sure what BOBOC is, let me tell you. BOBOC is a big ole box of crap. I bought one of those discount blasters of old packs at Target a couple weeks back and decided to blog about the contents. This isn't exactly an original idea, but it isn't like there are any original ideas out there in baseball card blogging waiting for me to discover them. So, here we go.

Today, we have the second pack of 1989 Topps.


Another good pack, this one. Two more Hall of Famers, and another oughta-be Hall of Famer. What I found interesting about this pack is that it included a local OKC minor celebrity and a player who is ostensibly still playing today.

43 - Guillermo Hernandez, Detroit Tigers


109 - Hipolito Pena, NY Yankees
124 - Jim Traber, Baltimore Orioles


Jim Traber is the local B-Lister. He is a sports talk radio host here in OKC. What is funny, though, is thathis doppelganger, Cardboard Jim Traber, is probably as big a celebrity locally. A local commentary/comedy website has a cardboard advertising standup of Traber that they take around to different local events.

144 - Jay Bell, Cleveland Indians


304 - Joel Youngblood, San Francisco Giants
391 - Andre Dawson All-Star, Chicago Cubs


440 - Bobby Bonilla, Pittsburgh Pirates


539 - Barry Jones, Chicago White Sox
555 - Bert Blyleven, Minnesota Twins


563 - Bill Schroeder, Milwaukee Brewers
593 - Drew Hall, Chicago Cubs
657 - Joe Magrane, St. Louis Cardinals
717 - Jamie Moyer, Chicago Cubs


It is hard to fathom that when Jamie Moyer made his professional debut in 1984, I was a freshman in college. Today I have over 23 years of service with the same company. I'm middle aged, and he is looking to come back and pitch again next year.

723 - Rafael Belliard, Pittsburgh Pirates
760 - Lee Smith, Boston Red Sox


Lee Smith really needs to be in the Hall.

So, that is pack 2 from the BOBOC.

Up next: 1991 Leaf Series 1