1998 Fleer Tradition Series 1

I found this unopened pack in the basement while emptying a box of junk. I'm not sure why I never opened it up before, but why not open it up now? This was a pretty decent base set for the late '90s, clean design on the front, colorful on the back and a hefty 600 card checklist over two series. Since it's Fleer there are inserts a plenty and a couple of short printed shiny subsets. Every pack also has a retro design '63 Fleer card, a Million Dollar Moment game card and a useless points card that no one outside dealers busting a truckload of cases had any use for. Time to open 'er up and free the contents from their 10 year imprisonment.

25 Mark McGwire
19 Juan Gonzalez
136 Paul Molitor
28 Kirk Rueter
6 of 20 PG Jose Cruz Jr. Power Game
Vintage '63 7 Rafael Palmeiro
217 Jim Edmonds
178 Orlando Cabrera
134 Quilvio Veras
291 Wally Joyner
Diamond Ink - 1 point Jose Cruz Jr.
25 of 50 Maury Wills Million Dollar Moments


Jeez, imagine opening this sucker in 1998! Big Mac, Juan Gone and Mollie 1-2-3 in the pack. Thankfully Kirk Rueter brings us back down to reality before hitting the inserts. Four straight good cards before landing into the inserts might have caused me to faint. The insert is an embossed teal card with purple foil of Jose Cruz Jr. Jose had two homers against Kansas City his rookie season which qualified him for the high honor of an insert card featuring Charlotte Hornets team colors. The '63 card is the fifth card in the pack so far that was awesome in '98 and not so much now. I'm starting to think Raffy got jobbed now that all the wonderful details about Miggy's pharmacological history have come out. Who shares Vitamin B12 shots though? Eh, I'm probably too trusting. BURN 'EM ALL. THROW THEIR SHRIVELED CHESTNUTS RIGHT ON THE YULE LOG. MERRY CHRISTMAS JUICERS!!!


Ok, that's out of my system. I haven't bought all my presents yet so I'm a bit hIGH StRUnG today. Sorry 'bout that. Anyway, the rest of the pack is pretty decent too. Jim Edmonds, Orlando Cabrera MLB Debut (not rookie) card and Wally Joyner were all pretty good cards in '98. Veras and Rueter are the only stinkers in the whole pack in 1998 terms. The Diamond Ink cards are stupid though, you had to collect 500 points to get an autographed baseball of the player on the card. They were one per pack and there were eleven different players you could pull in 1, 5 or 10 point cards. Mostly one point cards were all you found though. For perspective, at one point a pack, 500 packs equals about twenty one hobby boxes. So, yeah. These were junk. The last card in the pack was another giveaway contest, you had to collect a 50 card set of "Million Dollar Moments" to win (what else) One Meelion Dollars! Of course the last 5 cards in the set were horrifically short printed so it was damn near impossible. According to my price guide, the 1-45 set could be exchanged for a full 50 card set, something I didn't know back in 1998 or I would have done it. The set is actually pretty nifty, the one I pulled features Maury Wills with the stolen base that broke Ty Cobb's single season record.

This was a pretty dang good pack as long as you're in a late '90s mindset. Senator Mitchell kinda screwed up the pack though. Ah well. Still, it was a nice random unopened pack out of nowhere to open.

The Dirty Dozen: 1999 Fleer Tradition

Two straight packs without an Olerud. Should I press my luck and make it three-in-a-row?

Today's pack is 1999 Fleer Tradition Hobby. Ten cards, all UV-coated and dripping in gold foil, for only a buck. '99 FleerTrad has a 600-card base set and each ten-card pack has a Vintage '61 insert. Like the Vintage '63 inserts in '98FleerTrad, these are a pseudo-parallel of the first fifty base set cards, but done in the style of the 1961 Fleer Baseball Greats set.

In addition there are some other cool inserts including a ten-card, 1:96, "Diamond Magic." These cards had a kaleidoscopic wheel embedded into the card. You know that optical illusion disc you bought at the gift shop on your eighth grade field trip to the Smithsonian? It's like that.



I give you a sec for your rods-n-cones to recover.

Ok?

Base:
Aaron Ledsma
Tim Salmon
Adrian Brown
Bob Wickman
Jason Kendall
Mark Brownson
Andruw Jones
A-Rod (Checklist)

Inserts:
Vintage '61 (1:1) Andres Galarraga
Stan Musial Monumental Moments (1:36) "The 1948 Season"

The Dirty Dozen: 1998 Fleer Tradition Series One

In 1998, Fleer renamed their flagship brand "Fleer Tradition." But despite the name change, '98 FleerTrad is your standard issue late-90s base level product.

The first series was 350 cards with the last 50 (all of the subsets) short-printed -- the first time Fleer SPed the base set. Fleer also went back to a standard UV-coating after two years of giving their cards a matte finish.

Each pack came with three different one-per-pack inserts. The first (and most valuable) was Vintage '63; a Hobby only pesudo-partial parallel done in the style of the 1963 Fleer set. The second one-per-pack insert was a "Million Dollar Moment." These were part of a contest where, if you collected a full set of 50 MDM's, congratulations, you won $1,000,000! The catch being, the last five cards in the set were all extremely short-printed, and Fleer only made one copy of Joel Youngblood's card. MDM's were randomly inserted into packs of various Fleer baseball products in 1997 and '98.

The last insert is a Diamond Ink Point card. Diamond Ink was a redemption program where collectors who accumulated 500 point cards of a particular player could then redeem them and receive a genuine autographed baseball of that player. Point cards were seeded at the rate of one-per-pack in just about every 1998 Fleer product and ten different players signed for the program. It was a pretty neat idea, and I'm a but surprised that somebody else hasn't tried to replicate it.

The only thing that sucks about 1998 FleerTrad -- other than the unnecessary short-prints -- is the lack of any copy on the backs of the base cards. Just stats and a photo.

Base:
Shigetoshi Hasegawa (1997 MLB Debut)
Andres Galarraga (Free Agent Signed)
Wally Joyner
David Justice
John C-3POlerud
Kevin Orie ('97 Debut)
Deivi Cruz ('97 Debut)
Joey Cora

Inserts:
Vintage '63 (1:1) Larry Walker
The front notates his 1997 NL MVP.

Rookie Sensations (1:18) Todd Helton
In the early 90s, the Rookie Sensations were the shit. By '98, they had become just another insert. (And a rather unremarkable one if that.)

Million Dollar Moments (1:1) Frank Robinson
Diamond Ink (1:1) Tony Womack 1 Diamond Point

2006 Fleer Tradition

This is another of the $1.59 packs I picked up target last weekend. It's marked "Retail" and features Ken Griffey Jr on the pack. I have taken a lot of flack over a comment I made earlier about Junior being a "possible" future HOFer (most of it off-site flack). My main argument was that I do not believe he will be a 1st round pick for the Hall. Will he get in eventually? Now that he's 600+ home runs, that is more likely than ever. I do not count that as a bad thing. But, when I think of Griffey Jr, I think more of injury-plagued seasons than I think of ball-playing. That's just my 2 cents. Being a Tribe fan, I have my own share of disappointments for sure. Now, let's move on.

---

The first three cards in the pack are Ichiro Suzuki, Carlos Lee, and Rich Harden. Not a bad lineup for the first three cards out of the chute.

---

Next up, batting clean-up in this pack is Alex Rodriguez, followed by Griffey Junior, And Josh Wilson. Regardless of how you feel about either of the first two players, they are both nice pulls in a pack that seems heavy on the bigger-named, popular players. And, as always, I enjoy pulling the card of the featured player on the pack!

---

The last three in tonight's line-up include Johnny Damon, Bronson Arroyo, and Ramon Hernandez. Seriously, is this a normal pack for this set? By and large, I'm pretty happy with what I got. Well, mostly. I haven't pulled a Triber out or anything....

---

Well, lookie here! Not only a Triber, but a Diamond Tribute Sizemore to boot! Excellent! (though I may already have the card, I'll check later) Sizemore is a back-to-back AL All-Star and has a chance to go again this year, too.

---

Of course, pulling a Triber made the pack for me, but there are a nice number of stars (league and team) for 2006 in here. The cards will go into my trade team packs, so future traders, you may end up with one(s) for your team(s).

The 20 for $40 re-wrap: 2002 Fleer Tradition Update Hobby

At 400 cards, 2002 Fleer Tradition Update was the largest Fleer/Fleer Tradition Update ever. It was also the first Update set issued in pack form since 1996.




Base
Barry Wesson (Prospects, one-per-pack)
Barry had a cup-of-coffee with the Astros in '02, and a second cup with the Angels in '03. Your classic AAAA player, Wesson's been kicking around the PCL the last few years. Surprisingly, I actually need this card for my set.

Juan Diaz
Juan had his cup-of-coffee with the Red Sox in 2002. He finished his career with seven at-bats in four games.

Tony Clark
Tony "The Tiger," was the second player selected overall in the 1990 draft -- one pick after Chipper Jones -- but did not start his professional career until 1992. (He delayed his baseball career to play basketball for San Diego State.)

Odalis Perez
Odalis won a career-high 15 games for the Dodgers in 2002. He now pitches for the Nationals.

Bobby Kielty
Kielty finished fourth in the 2002 AL ROY balloting.

Chipper Jones (Curtain Call)
"Curtain Call" is you typical double-up-on-the-superstars-with-a-meaningless-subset subset. This one commemorates Jones' 8th-inning three-run home run off Billy Wagner on October 9, 2001.

Mike Williams
Mike had a career-high 46 saves for the '02 Pirates, and made his first All-Star team. He made the All-Star team again in '03, was traded to the Phillies at the deadline, then retired after the season.

Williams came up with the Phillies in '92 and pitched 17 games (including four starts) for the pennant-winning '93 Phillies. On July 7, 1993, he pitched six innings of relief -- getting the win in the process -- in a 20-inning marathon against the Dodgers.

Robb Nen (All-Star)
There aren't a whole lot of guys who can say that their final pitch in the Majors was in game six of the World Series. There aren't a whole lot of guys who can say that their final pitch in the Majors was in game six of the World Series, with a torn rotator cuff AND a torn labrum.

Jim Edmonds (Diamond Standouts)
Another blah subset card; this one celebrating Jim's hot start to the '02 season. Next....

Shea Hillenbrand (All-Star)
Shea Hillenbrand was not only an All-Star, but was the starting third baseman for the American League. Who knew?

Sox Or No Sox: 2-2-08

Let's play America’s favorite game, Sox Or No Sox.

The rules are simple. We take one unopened pack of baseball cards that was randomly selected by yours truly. We then go through the pack card by card looking for those pesky to find White Sox cards.

Our player in tonight's game is another 2004 Fleer Tradition pack. The pack contains 10 cards and features a very busy looking wrapper. Very cool. Let's begin.

#1: Wes Helms – 261 - Brewers
I don’t remember Wes being on the Brewers. I guess that has something to do with the Brewers switching to the National League.

#2: Brooks Kieschnick – 234 - Brewers
This would be a Milwaukee favorite pack. Never heard of him. He has a cool sounding name though.

#3: Matt LeCroy – 135 - Twins
There’s something wrong when you’re a designated hitter before age 30 and not a household name.

#4: Kelvim Escobar – 174 - Angels
A year later, he would be involved in the controversial dropped third strike in the playoffs.

#5: Jose Valentin – 119 – White Sox
The White Sox player who set the team record for single season home runs by a shortstop and dropped everything else.

Halfway through the pack. One White Sox card. No trap cards and a few of the Brew Crew. 5 cards left to go. Let’s see if we can another White Sox card!

#6: Larry Bigbie – 425 - Orioles
An SP card of an Oriole. Kevin will be proud!

#7: Julio Lugo – 314 – Devil Rays
Julio looks like a pitcher on the card.

#8: Jeff Bagwell – 368 - Astros
A Bagwell is always a welcome sight.

#9: Ivan Rodriguez – 3 – Marlins
A Lil’ Pudge World Series card! Very interesting.

#10: John Lackey – 56 – Angels
John had a 19-20 career total at this point.

OK, our pack opening is complete. Not that bad. A Jose Valentin White Sox card. No trap cards. These cards look meh. They remind me too much of 1990 Fleer. Meh.

So, that’s ½ point for each card in the pack. +2 for the White Sox card.

Final score: 7 points

One White Sox card in this game, we’ll look out for more next time on Sox Or No Sox.