1988 Fleer Cello

I used to love cello packs as a kid. For just slightly more money than a regular wax pack, you could get a nice thick stack of cards and you could even get a sneak peak at what lurked inside by looking at the front (and back) of the pack to see if you could spot a pack with your favorite player in it. This was a surprise lurking inside a repack cube that I picked up a few weeks back. It beats the heck out of '88 Donruss or Topps any day. I can't say Sid Bream was ever one of my favorite players, though, and his awkward photo is definitely a sign of things to come in this pack.

324 - Sid Bream

19 - Kirby Puckett (Hardly the best photo of Puckett. I fondly remember this set as one of the last great Fleer sets - it all fell apart in 1990 - but I'm starting to wonder with all the photography here.)
212 - Roberto Kelly (I used to have a 3-ring binder that I kept full of "stars" which eventually ballooned to several binders. Roberto Kelly was part of it for some reason.)
112 - Tom Henke
265 - Melido Perez

36 - Ricky Horton (The lone Cardinal in the pack. Ricky is a Cardinals announcer/blowhard these days.)
348 - Ellis Burks (My "stars" binders had an Ellis Burks section at one point.)

646 - Randy Velarde / Adam Peterson (I recall Velarde being on a World Series team for the Yankees and also being mentioned in the various steroids scandal-type things. I don't remember Adam Peterson at all.)

84 - Dave Henderson (Hendu was a Mariners broadcaster for a long time. I'm not sure what he's up to these days. It's amazing how many players in a 20 year old pack went on to have careers as announcers.)
338 - Al Pedrique
408 - Gary Redus
529 - Bob Welch

640 - Bill Ripken / Cal Ripken SuperStar Specials (There will always be a special place in my heart for '80s Fleer SuperStar Specials cards. A SuperStar Special place in my heart, if you will.)
541 - Al Hall
- Braves/Tigers stickers

- Red Sox sticker (This is back when the Red Sox/Yankees rivalry was quirky and amusing. Actually, that applies to the Red Sox themselves as well.)
325 - John Cangelosi
1 - Keith Atherton (Fleer card sets were numbered according to the player's team's finish the previous season, and then alphabetically within that team's group of cards. The Twins won the World Series in '87, and Atherton is alphabetically the first player in the team grouping. The team with the worst record ends up near the end of the set, right before the SuperStar Specials and Checklist cards. Just so you know...)

308 - Steve Jeltz (Jeltz was a former Portland Beaver, who I remember watching as a small child. He's an interesting looking dude.)
617 - Greg Swindell
233 - Nick Esasky
116 - Manny Lee

451 - Bob Knepper (This is the one decent action shot in the entire pack. I like how he's throwing the ball through the Astros logo. Hold on, though, because he's making a weird face...)
405 - Steve Lyons (is creepy is the end of that sentence. He's also an announcer.)
435 - Rick Sutcliffe (ESPN announcer.)
173 - Bill Schroeder
535 - Marty Clary

384 - Ken Phelps
97 - Harry Spilman
75 - Lou Whitaker (Right-to-left, these are the final three cards in the pack. I don't know if you could find three weirder facial expressions. This is like the 20 year old baseball cards version of the opening title sequence to 30 Rock.)