Thursday, February 28, 2008

It Came From the 25 Cent Rack: 1992 Score Series 1


The other day I stopped into my local hobby store for my weekly fix of Trading Card History. I still have a hard time walking out of there with just a single card or two, so I grabbed a couple packs of 1992 Score Series 1 from the dollar rack. At least I thought it was a dollar rack; the packs rang up as 25 cents each! That's what I'm talking about. Unfortunately the rest of the selection wasn't as desirable...1989 and 1993 Topps (which I've nearly completed), and the horrors of 1991 Fleer. But maybe I'll get more of these later. You can never go wrong with Score...

Pack 1
120 Danny Jackson - I remember him fondly from the 1993 Phillies.
125 Hal Morris
140 Chris Nabholz
145 Danny Tartabull - While researching for my website, I found an awesome Johnny Oates quote about how the Orioles would deal with Tartabull in an upcoming series back in 1991:

"I'm going to find out what his room number is and call the hotel and say, 'Cancel my wakeup call'. Then I'm going to call the cab companies and tell them not to have any taxis in front of the hotel; we'll make him walk to the ball park. Then I'll tell security not to let him in without and ID. Then I'll tell Freddy (Tyler, the clubhouse man) to burn his uniform, and if he still makes it, I'll walk him."

As you may have guessed, Tartabull hit .523 (23 for 44!) with five home runs in 1991. On with the back...

365 Brady Anderson - Hey, nice! Pictured bunting, because he was a terrible hitter in those days.

380 Jose DeJesus
385 Tom Henke
400 Chito Martinez Rookie Prospect - Oh, the Orioles' road to ruin was littered with "rookie prospects". I can't believe he hit 33 home runs between Rochester and Baltimore in 1991.
275 Steve Howe - Score takes the high road, referring to a "personal problem" as the reason for Steve's absence from the majors.
280 Don Slaught
272 Gene Larkin
277 Mark Lee - A former O's reliever and an astoundingly ugly man.

110 Kal Daniels
2 Nolan Ryan - A 25-year stat line and they still squeezed in one line about his seventh no-hitter in the previous season. Now that's dedication by the copy writers.
18 Terry Pendleton
22 Chuck Crim

Pack 2
195 Eddie Murray - What a way to kick off the pack!

210 Luis Gonzalez - He's the only player in either pack who's still active.
215 Brian Harper
120 Danny Jackson - A double? Boo.
372 Lee Stevens - At least it's not a run of doubles.
388 Rafael Ramirez
392 Dean Palmer
408 Gino Minutelli Rookie Prospect - Winner of the "Who the heck?" award for this pack.
239 Dave Gallagher - I didn't even remember him playing for the Angels.
236 Kurt Stillwell
233 Atlee Hammaker
238 Tim Crews - Second deceased player in two packs. For a set that's less than twenty years old, that's pretty sobering.
22 Chuck Crim - Another dupe, bah.
38 Mike LaValliere - Alright, it's Spanky!

42 Rick Aguilera
58 Jeff Reardon - And we close things out with back-to-back bearded closers. They both pitched for the Mets, Twins, and Red Sox in their careers.

1 comment:

Jason T. Carter said...

Why does everyone hate '91 Fleer so much? Sure it would have been better to have different border colors for the different teams, but they're really not THAT bad.