1990 Upper Deck Baseball

Early on in its run, maybe not right from the beginning, but early nonetheless, I was a subscriber to Sports Illustrated for Kids. Aside from the sheet of nine cards that I always had enough self-discipline not to rip out, one other thing I remember from these now-thrown-away issues was an article on card collecting. Jealousy had never seethed through my 11-year-old veins like the day I laid eyes upon the pictures illustrating this article. Right before my eyes, with a backwards hat and proto-mullet, was a kid just about my age, with an entire fucking box of 1990 Upper Deck. Bastard! The photo shoot even looked like he was in his school cafeteria just ripping away, cool boys with Ocean Pacific shirts and chicks with side ponytails and slap bracelets hovering around, just trying to get a sniff of Ken Griffey, Jr.'s second-year jock. Even at my early age I had a keen awareness of class stratification, and this was it. There was no way this kid could have afforded this box, so I knew deep down in my heart of hearts that his dad was loaded, and was probably trying to buy his affection. The last laugh's on him, though, as this set books at $25.00. The prick has lost at least $11.00, and that's assuming that he kept everything in pristine condition, where in reality all of his cards were lost in the several moves and upheavals he most likely suffered as the victim of his parents' messy divorce. God, I hated that kid.

But now I got my own pack.
Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
48 Kirby Puckett - Twins Checklist

62 Dwight Gooden - Mets Checklist (Two for two, but it all goes downhill from here.)
520 Charles Hudson
523 Cris Carpenter
306 Mike Heath (Squeezing a wet one out, from the looks of things.)

397 Terry Kennedy
270 Joe Orsulak (Fooling everyone for a split second that he's Cal Ripken.)

252 Bill Buckner
Brewers Hologram Sticker (Fuck yes!)
133 Marty Barrett
160 Louie Meadows
152 Don Slaught
489 Tom Foley
683 Mickey Weston
614 Jack Daugherty
194 Phil Bradley

Grade: B-
I forgot how good it felt to open packs like these, where the wrapper is just over 50% foil, but probably not foil enough to recycle. More cards for the pile. I need to get out this weekend and purchase another 5,000-count box to hold all of these busted packs of stuff I don't want. A small price to pay for the thrill of opening.

If anyone has a copy of that article I wrote about, let me know. I'd love to see a scan of that picture again. Heck, I'd even trade you something for a hard copy of it. Also, check out my Card-vent Calendar.