1994 Flair Series 1

Let’s cut to the chase here. 1994 Flair is a set that’s stylin’ and profilin’. It’s a set worthy of the Flair moniker, although there can only be one true Flair. Ric Flair, that is. Today, we’re going to open a pack and see how each card measures up to the Nature Boy.

Let’s tear in.

Top to Bottom:
177 Pedro Astacio
Score: Woo! Woo!
The Dodgers’ proximity to Tinseltown is this card’s saving grace.


168 Andujar Cedeno
Score: Woo!
No literal connection between Andujar and Flair, but he looks good taking a cut, which Ric would approve of.


196 John Franco
Score: Woo! Woo! Woo!
I was listening to a podcast the other day where some video game guys were talking Mets baseball, and one of them could only name Gooden and Franco. This shows Franco had enough Flair in him to make a non-fan remember him.


82 Jimmy Key
Score: Woo!
Flair was from Tennessee, Key from Alabama. That’s all we have to hang our hats on. Plus, New York is the antithesis of Flair’s wrestling roots.


295 Checklist
Score: Woo! Woo!
Checklists usually suck, but this one features Greg Maddux, baseball embodiment of “To be the man, you’ve got to beat the man.”


216 Mark Dewey
Score: Woo!
This Dewey guy is the baseball equivalent of a jobber.


234 Trevor Hoffman
Score: Woo! Woo! Woo!
Flair: WWE Hall of Fame
Hoffman: Could get in Baseball Hall of Fame, if voters ever got their act together about relievers.


242 Bryan Hickerson
Score: 0


213 Milt Thompson
Score: Woo!
They both have a nice set of teeth?


133 Mark Wohlers
Score: Woo! Woo! Woo! Woo!
With a bunch of extra o’s in his name, Mark could be Wooooooooooooohlers. And sometimes that’s all you need.

1994 Comic Images Blueprints of the Future

"Prophetic Visions From the Art of Vincent Di Fate"
I wasn't sure what to expect when I picked this pack out of a cheapie bin at a local card shop. The guy running the place threw it in for free with the other stuff I bought, so at least my curiosity didn't cost me anything. As it turns out, these cards are in the style of 1970s sci-fi paperbacks, the type of which you might find in dozens in a shoebox at a rummage sale. That style of art isn't exactly my favorite. In fact, to me it's the stuff nightmares are made of. I'll try to explain how each card gets under my skin.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
26. Ringed Giant
The boredom of reading a story like this frightens me.
There's not really enough going on in our solar system to excite anyone, so a trip to Saturn (stated so on the back) would likely put me to sleep.

60. The Mission to Heaven
The ideas behind this winged goddess frighten me.
The back of the card asks, "Can we one day visit the home of God?" If this maternal being packing a ray gun guards the entrance, I sure hope not. Babes like this in the sci-fi universe are more likely to rip your spine out than fulfill any carnal desires. And are we supposed to believe that that rocket can blast off without any surrounding space equipment?

43. Hyperspace
Space combat frightens me.

49. The Iron Claw
The sterlie, mechanical lovemaking of the future frightens me.
The exterminating machines are no match for human ingenuity, which will eventually expose their tripod design flaw. After the dust has settled, though, all Spaceman Spiff gets is an insertion into the G-valve and a few seconds of rigorous, pulsating pumping. No thank you.

50. Artifact
This card is in landscape format and didn't make the scanner cut. Sure, I could scan it again, but why?

77. The Shape of Things Future
Unsustainable architecture frightens me.
The large, funnel-shaped mass can only be used to store waste. This means the 500-member colony lives in one of the upper rings in 75-square foot chambers. Claustrophobia is the rule, not the exception, of future housing.

69. The Veil
The specificity of basic cable expansion packages frightens me.
This satellite beams 30,000 channels into people's entertainment quarters, 95% of programming being infomercials or on-the-job reality programming about the drudgery of being a southern janitor.

51. Mechanical men.
Jesus, this mechanical man frightens me.

12 Batwing
Technological anachronisms frighten me.
If we are going to be so advanced, why all the antennas? Is over-the-air media going to make a storming comeback?

34. The Red Giant
"Also Sprach Zarathustra" frightens me.
Most of the cards in this pack, and thus the set, are derivative of Kubrick's 2001. New sensations have overtaken me while perusing this pack, chiefly among them the sound of Strauss's symphony and the smell of musty paperbacks.

Excuse me while I head out to the grocery store for a slick, glossy, brightly colored celeb trash magazine to cleanse my suffering palate.

1994 Score Select Series 2

I've had a fairly fond appreciation for 1993 Score Select over the years. To me, it was a much better attempt at a "premium" type set for Score than the Pinnacle brand and it played off of the fairly recent trend of throwing in horizontal card designs along with the traditional vertical cards. 1993 was the cutoff period in my card collecting days, however, and after purchasing this pack I'm wishing it was from the previous year. The design gives me a headache.

311 - Alex Fernandez

373 - Sean Berry (I'm not sure who Sean Berry is, but he played for the Expos and that's all that matters.)
334 - Eddie Taubensee (Eddie is wearing a white Reds hat. When is the last time the Reds had those?)

389 - Steve Trachsel 1994 Rookie Prospect (Whenever I hear the phrase "worst pitcher in baseball" for some reason Steve Trachsel's name always comes up. Maybe it was the McGwire home run, or maybe it's the fact that he hung around so long without ever doing anything well. Er, yeah, let's go with the latter.)

321 - Omar Vizquel
412 - Rob Butler 1994 Rookie Prospect

401 - Rikkert Faneyte (This is photographic evidence that someone actually named Rikkert Faneyte played a baseball game at some point. The. Next. Barry. Bonds.)

299 - Jim Thome
219 - Dave Hansen

261 - Kent Hrbek (It's sad to say that I actually think I like the backs of these a lot better than the fronts.)
247 - Greg McMichael (McMichael was the Braves closer for at least a portion of the 1993 season.)

234 - Jeff Bagwell (Bagwell must have a pack of Bubble Tape in his rear pocket.)

1994 Action Packed Monday Night Football

Hope you football fans enjoyed this weekend's games! Well, Titans, Panthers, Giants and Chargers fans didn't but I hope all three Cardinals fans are going nuts right now! Let's open a football pack to celebrate and since the post probably won't be done until after midnight anyway, let's do some Monday Night Football from Action Packed. I saw this monstrous package of 6 cards for a buck and figured why the hell not. At bare minimum I have a neet looking Emmitt card on the front of the package. Here's the back:

10 of those suckers and a time machine gets you a FREE Mammoth "Super Sized" card of a QB club member. I probably would have gone with Chris Miller unless he has gone on to the Rams by then. My backup probably would have been Favre or Rice. I didn't buy a single pack of this in '94 so I got NOTHING. I got one now! Let's open!

68 HOW-AAD CO-SELL

This pack is automatically worth 18 billion dollars in coolness money to me. Just for his play-by-play in Woody Allen's Bananas

21 Rodney Hampton

Another awesome card this time of a Georgia Alum. This card has a weird oil slicky sheen on the left side of the foil which is odd. I wish they all had it because it scanned pretty good. The foil actually looks silver! The back has some of Rodney's highlights and promotes the matchup of the Giants and Vikings on 10/10/94, which happened to be my grandfather's birthday. Giants lost 27-10. Too bad.

52 Dan Marino

Holy CRAP this is a good pack! The Monday Night Fact on the back is that Dan has the most 300-yard passing games on Monday night at 5. I'm sure that's been broken already, at the very least by Dan. His matchup is the Dolphins and the Chiefs on 12/12/94. Dolphins on top, 45-28.

33 Mike Sherrard

The streak of awesome had to break at some point. Giants at Dallas, 11/7/94. Dallas spanked 'em 38-10

7 HUSHEL WALKAH

Jumpin Jesus on a pogo stick!!1 This is damn near the best football pack ever! Chicago at Philly 9/12/94: 27-13 Bears. I'm almost afraid to look at the last card... After all the awesome it almost has to be a Jeff George to even everything out.

14 Andre Reed


My God, this pack was epic. Lookit Reed doing somersaults. He had the most catches in a Monday Night game with 13 against Denver on 9/18/89. His matchup: Broncos 20, Bills 27 on 9/26/94.

Dang, I wish I had bought the other two packs now. It's sad that we'll never have another Action Packed ever again.

1994 Fleer

So check this, one of my YouTube fans sent me (unsolicited) two packs of the greatest baseball card set of the 1990s: 1994 Fleer. (I love my fans!)

1994 Fleer is everything a base-level baseball card product should be, but sadly, is no more. 720 cards, all in one series. That's, 720 cards all without a short-print, gimmick card, or unnecessary subset to be found.

But 1994 Fleer isn't just about a classy-looking, and comprehensive, base set. Each pack contained one of over 200 different inserts; all of which are collectible, none of which will break the bank.

Take a look at the video and you'll see what I mean.

1994 Topps Stadium Club

Hey, look at this! Full color pictures, very little text on the front of the card, and NO BORDERS! This is the stuff baseball cards should be. Period. Throw borders away, throw all the logos, text, etc away from the front of the card. Just give us what we (collectors) want: Players on cards.


The first four cards out of the pack are Jeff Bagwell (Astros), John Doherty (Tigers), Mariano Duncan (Phillies), and Jeff Blauser (Braves). I was pretty happy pulling the Bagwell as the first card out of the chute. Doherty and Duncan didn't ring any bells in my head, but I was okay with the Blauser. Bagwell is definitely the star so far. I was disappointed that his was not an action shot. Doherty's got a nice "just-before-the-pitch" photo. Mariano appears to be catching some rays. Blauser's photo is a nice action shot, but why show the guy NOT getting the runner out??


Next up, we have Tom Pagnozzi (Cardinals), Dave West (Phillies), Tim Naehring (Red Sox), and Charlie Hayes (Rockies). Okay, Pagnozzi is about to be safe on base, judging by the ball location in the photo. West is in mid wind-up. Naehring is another one who suffers from having his card feature the fact that he is NOT going to get out the runner (who happens to be LOFTON, HELLO!?). Hayes looks poised for action. I have to give the nod to Naehring in this grouping based on the fact there is a Triber on his card.


The last quartet features Lenny Dykstra (Phillies), Lance Painter (Rockies), Luis Gonzalez (Astros - Gold or something), and Chris Turner (Angels). I have always been a fan of Dykstra, even though on this card he dropped the "Lenny" in favor of "Len." I have no idea who Painter is, but that's most likely my own tunnel vision in action. Gonzalez looks up after stealing a base. Great card! And it is a gold card, or some other kind of insert. I'm sure I could look it up pretty quickly, but I'll just leave it to one of the readers to fill in the blanks with a comment.. :-) And, finally, Turner is sliding home in a great action photo. You can see that he has just slid passed the outside (left) corner of the plate. The position of the catcher indicates that the play was never made on him. Not a bad way to round out the pack.

Bagwell, Dykstra, Gonzalez definitely make the pack worth the price paid. How much was the pack? 34 cents.

1994 Topps (Black Gold, Texas Tea... Y'all come back now...)

Ah, the days when a pack had more than 5 cards in it and you could actually see players on the cards. The days when the borders were thin and our wallets were not-quite-as thin. It was the "International Year of the Family" and NAFTA had just been turned up to full effect (Well, we're still feeling the effects, really). Lorena Bobbitt was found not guilty of performing an erectile shortening procedure and the World Series had been cancelled because players wanted MORE HOURS, FEWER WAGES!! Oh, wait, no, that's not right..... Welcome back to 1994.

The specimen you see before you represents one pack of 1994 Topps Series I baseball cards. There is a Topps Gold card in every pack, and a Topps BLACK Gold inserted randomly in other packs. I say 'other' because as you can see, I did not strike it rich. In fact, the whole pack is something of a ghost town in my book. I'll let you be the judge:

Pat Mahomes (Twins) - I'm curious, is this pronounced like it looks: Pat Mah Homies? I'm thinking there's a bad SNL routine in there somewhere... Oh wait, this is from 1994, they were ALL bad SNL routines....

Craig Shipley (Padres, Gold) - I don't know if you can see it or not, but it looks like Shipley is sliding, however, his KNEES are what is sliding into the base and the angle of his body suggests this was a last-minute decision. Is he any relation to the Shipley's of Shipley's Donuts?

Darren Daulton (Phillies) - In my opinion, the best base in the pack. You decide what that tells you about the pack...

Dean Palmer (Rangers) - This guy is laughing his head off. I'm setting this aside for a "Dinged Corners" shipment! I think he's laughing at the fact I even bought this pack...

Ken Ryan (Red Sox) - Any relation to Nolan? It's a nice action shot, displaying the split-fingers clearly.

Al Martin (Pirates) - It took me a minute to realize the catcher was a Giant because it almost looks like the Pirates are playing with themselves... I mean AGAINST themselves... I mean... Well, you know what I mean...

Orlando Merced (Pirates) - Hey, Two Bucs! Man, that's probably what this pack costs nowadays... :-)

Rickey Jordan (Phillies) - Wow, the state of Pennsylvania is well-represented here today. He looks ready for fielding. I should save this card for my son's little league team... "See, kids, THIS is how you are supposed to look when you're in the field... Notice how he is not kicking the dirt around?"

Gary DiSarcina (Angels) - He's pointing toward the sky. I wonder if he sees the angels in the outfield. Or maybe he's done eating and is trying to get his check...

Carlos Quintana (Red Sox) - A couple of Beantowners in the pack! He is also looking up with his gloved poised to catch... pigeon-poop? a falling star? a pay raise?

Darrell Whitmore (Marlins) - He's just taken a swing in this photo. Perhaps he is hitting a ball to his other brother Darrell... (old TV reference, I'm afraid some readers may not get that one...)

1993 Topps All Stars - Mike Piazza (Dodgers) and Mike Stanley (Yankees) - I'm not quite sure what the background on this one is supposed to be... It almost looks like sparks, but appears to be more like a side-view shot of a mug of beer with the golden bubbles floating to the top...

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Thanks for taking the trip back in time with me folks. And to think, in 1994, most of us thought interns were people who worked in hospitals for free... Little did we know...

1993 and 1994 Fleer Atlantic

I'm going to apologize right off the bat for the very awkward post. I have two small packs here that I got for no reason other than that I'd never heard of these cards before. My purchase broke a fundamental rule of mine since I resumed collecting cards in the past couple of years in that neither of these two sets contain any Cardinals cards whatsoever. Sure, there are plenty of players on the checklists that have spent time in the Birds on the Bat at one time or another (Bonilla, Clark, Eckersley, McGwire, Pendleton, Van Slyke... even Juan Gonzalez in spring training this year...) but that still doesn't really count. The other awkward part is that each pack only contains five cards and neither really deserves their own entry, so I'm combining the two. I'm also not sure what these sets are supposed to be called, so I have an awkward Title to put up with as well. Atlantic (and/or Sunoco) are apparently gas station chains that exist in parts of the United States that aren't where I live, and at some point they may or may not have sold or given away baseball cards wrapped in some sort of plastic or mylar wrapper. Here are cards that you may have seen within those wrappers:

"Atlantic [Collector's Edition]: 1993 Baseball Card Series (presented by Fleer '93)"

15 - Fred McGriff (as you can see, the design of the set is modeled after the 1993 Fleer base set, but the borders are gold instead of silver. I am too lazy to check to see if they used the same photos... I really hope not. I hope this card will be featured as part of the Tao of Fred McGriff someday.)

25 - Checklist (yes, you apparently have a 1-in-5 chance of not getting a player at all)

14 - Don Mattingly (Yankee haters should stay away from Mattingly, who unfortunately never made the playoffs until his final season.)

9 - Tom Glavine (the card backs are also very similar to the Fleer base set design)

18 - Kirby Puckett (Puckett represented the pro-Twins side of my internal conflict about his team, who I hate for beating the Cardinals in the '87 Series but also followed closely as they were the parent club of my hometown Portland Beavers in the early 90's)

"Collector's Edition: Baseball Card Series '94 (presented by Sunoco, Fleer, Atlantic)"

Contains 5 "Limited Edition" trading cards - making sure to put "limited edition" in quotes to assure potential investors that there are no refunds should the marked for gas station-issued cards suddenly collapse.

10 - Cecil Fielder (this may have been based on the 1994 Fleer design, but I am fairly certain that I've never seen an honest to goodness '94 Fleer card. I guess that means that every Cardinal card is in my theoretical "want list" for that set.)

12 - Juan Gonzalez (I am a fan of minor league stats on the back)

25 - Checklist (well... bleh.)

24 - Andy Van Slyke (I'm not sure if the blurry Pirates guy behind Andy is warming up, making fun of him or is just really bored)

23 - Frank Thomas (one of the best cards you could get at the time. he played for so many non-contending White Sox teams that you have to wonder what kind of accolades he'd have now if his teams had more success.)