1991 Stadium Club Series 2

It's still snowing, so I'm opening this pack that's been sitting around for a few years.

Let’s tear in.

Top to Bottom:
518 Terry Steinbach

341 Kent Mercker
399 Mark McGwire
539 Rob Deer
524 Alfredo Griffin
541 Mike Sharperson

438 Randy Velarde
342 Ken Griffey (Love getting a look at Griffey's rookie here. Amazing, too, that his son's rookie cards came only 15 years later. And here's another mind-blower: 1991 Stadium Club is only slightly closer in age to 1974 Topps than it is to cards from the present.)

421 Jeff Russell
531 Steve Bedrosian (Sweat-hat visible.)

491 Gary Wayne
443 Vicente Palacios

While my gut says Series 1 had a somewhat stronger player lineup, a quick look at BCP tells me that the two checklists were pretty equal. McGwire would have been a nice pull back in the day, and Rob Deer was a personal favorite of mine. Decent pack.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Series 2

I have two of these packs to open, so on Twitter I asked for someone to pick which one it should be. The cellophane on the back allowed me to see that one pack's last card was Vicente Palacios and the other's was Dale Murphy. They went with the Murphy.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
555 Mike Devereaux (Here's an interesting concept for a blog: All cards numbered 555, call it the Generic Sitcom Phone Number Card Blog. Too wordy, yes, but someone could make it work.)
314 Pedo Guerrero (Ha, he has a dirty cartoon from a Penthouse mag taped to the inside of his cap.)

563 Dave Gallagher
506 Roger McDowell (Holy shit, that Mets fan kid with the world's skinniest arms is about to give Roger the old one-two for switching to the Phills.)

405 Tom Candiotti
458 Wally Whitehurst (Gosh, all the real stars were in series 1, weren't they?)

449 Bob Ojeda
479 Mike LaCoss
434 Casey Candaele (Love that '87 Traded double-flap rookie, never seen it before.)

574 Jerry Don Gleaton (One of the worst names in sports history.)
486 Gary Redus
511 Rick Fucking Cerone (Yes, I've been had. Dayf called it.)

2008 Topps Stadium Club

Yet another Target cheapie.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
20 Jorge Posada

8 Mark Teixeira

19 Jason Bay

2 Tim Lincecum

144 Justin Ruggiano First Day Issue

It still hurts with regard to the way this set was constructed. The design and photography is just about the best Topps has done in a long time. However, even after reading several explanations surrounding the hypothetical building of this set, I still cannot fully comprehend its madness. Oh well.

2008 Topps Stadium Club Retail

So... Target hit the secret number in my head that would get me to buy any more of this garbage. It's still overpriced by about a buck-and-a-half.

The fronts of the wrappers make a clear promise: "ONE ROOKIE CARD INSIDE!" I got four. Well, which one is it guys? With all these youngsters, let's check and see how many on the same team's roster for 2010.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
127 Blake DeWitt
Status: Starting second baseman for the Los Angeles Dodgers

46 Fausto Carmona
Status: Starting pitcher for the Cleveland Indians, currently 4-1

148 Chris Perez
Status: Relief pitcher for the Cleveland Indians

103 Nick Adenhart
Status: Sadly, deceased

117 Hernan Iribarren
Status: Playing for AAA Oklahoma City RedHawks (Texas)

Well, two out of five ain't bad.

Now, off to file these away in my impossible-to-complete drawer. Sigh.

1995 Topps Stadium Club High Series

Hello, A Pack A Day. It's been a little while. The boss is back, so I figured I'd better look busy. I received a box of 1995 Stadium Club High Series as a gift awhile back and I thought I'd show off the first pack. At least, I think it was the first pack. I'm just going to go with that.

526 - Alex Gonzalez (Of all the Alex Gonzalezes that played professional baseball over the years, this is the one that played for the Blue Jays in 1995.)

569 - Jim Abbott (Enough said.)

540 - Mickey Tettleton

593 - Mark McLemore (Nice shot of McLemore making the turn. This is what we all come to Stadium Club for.

546 - Pat Borders

625 - Gregg Jefferies Trans-Action (As noted on the wrapper, each pack promises four "Extreme Corps" or "Trans-Action" theme cards per pack with rainbow and silver foil stamping. If you replace the word "rainbow" with "red" then it makes sense.)

625 - Gregg Jefferies Trans-Action (Again? Arrrgh. This is a nice photo, at least. Unfortunately, it commemorates when the underrated Jefferies made his exit from St. Louis.)

501 - Jeff Bagwell Extreme Corps (First off, what does "Extreme Corps" actually mean? Secondly... did they really need to go with the ransom note font?)

510 - Cal Ripken Extreme Corps

581 - Mark Kiefer (Just a few cards left... can I get a fist pump?)

536 - Joey Cora (Hell yeah!)

529 - Jason Bates

558 - Mike Perez

1992 Stadium Club Series 2

Woooo! Stadium Club! Back before Topps rooned it with short prints and autographs an nonsense. Got this pack from Motherscratcher in a box-o-stuff. May as well open it!


593 Roger Clemens Member's Choice
361 Craig Wilson
390 Dave Stewart
498 Johnny Guzman
1992 Club Membership Card
452 Gino Minutelli
340 Tim Wallach
584 Rob Dibble
331 Bob Milacki
395 Tom Glavine
539 Danny Darwin
535 Joey Cora
575 Eric Anthony
356 Roberto Hernandez
492 Chris Beasley
412 Jim Poole
What the hell is Tim Wallach doing there? Seriously. What is he doing.

Not too bad for a series 2 pack! Dave Stewart, the unceremoniously dumped Tom Glavine and a Member's card of Needles Rocket. The Rob Dibble card is pretty interesting too just for the contortions. The best part about these cards are the backs with the rookie cards on them. Unfortunately about half the pack had those stupid "Topps Debut" rookie cards from 1990 and '91. The oldest rookie card in the pack is right here:

Pretty cool Bull logo on the Darwin and Sample caps. Why didn't Topps put rookie cards on the back in last years's Stadium Club set? It might have actually made up for all those damn shortprints.

1995 Topps Stadium Club Series 2

14 Super Premium Baseball Cards. 50 cents. Series 2. Let's go back 14 years and see what living was like.

430 - Kevin Mitchell (Mitchell was pretty huge in the late '80s, but then he floated around a few ballclubs in the '90s. He's probably best known for that 1-handed catch.)
389 - Juan Castillo

274 - Todd Zeile (I wish this photo didn't have most of the baseball cropped out of it.)

288 - Paul Shuey (This is both Shuey's "MLB Debut" card and his "League Leader" card. The card fails to mention exactly what he led the league in, however.)
432 - Brian Anderson
293 - David Hulse
335 - Devon White (Devo was a pretty solid player.)

413 - Josias Manzanillo (Not only am I not convinced that Josias was a real player, I'm fairly sure that's not even a real Mets uniform.)

318 - Frank Thomas Best Seat in the House (Wow.)

309 - Cecil Fielder (Cecil is feeling contemplative, wondering what his relationship with his son will be like in the future perhaps.)
365 - Bill Swift
- Club Membership form

188 - Pedro Astacio Virtual Reality (Last time I posted a pack from this era someone explained to me that "virtual reality" meant that a player's stats were extrapolated for a full season as if the strike of 1994 never happened. Maybe that was "cyberstats", though. I'm confused. In any case, I don't understand these parallels.)
379 - Jesus Tavarez

403 - Carlos Baerga Cover Story (The cover is better than the story, I think. I wonder if Baerga has ever been to wherever he's supposed to be perched in front of.)

1992 Topps Stadium Club Series 2

The 1992 Topps Stadium Club pack is glossy black with a red design in the center and an orange and blue circular design at the top. It makes it look like the letter "i" has been placed onto a black background. There are 15 cards per pack, and they are "Super Premium." Like gas. But unlike gas, these are printed with Kodak Imagine Technology. Really? It only took Topps 40 years to say, "Hey! Maybe we should use the world's best-known photo developer for our cards!"


First up, we have the 1992 Club Membership enrollment/registration card. Membership was $29.95, but your could save five bucks if you sent five proofs of purchase. Membership got you fre cards, special edition 'members only' event cards, Topps Magazine, and a specialized card and ID number. The back says that "Topps has the right to limit the number of memberships." Wonder if they had to play that hand.

Well, on to the reason we're here today. First card up is Rob Maurer (Rangers). I have always been a fan of Stadium Club - the photos take up the whole card, the logo is small and out of the way, and the photos do look good on Kodak Technology.


Wow! A "Member's Choice" Jose Canseco (A's)! The "Members Choice" cards had special foil on them with those words on the card. Next, Steve Chitren (A's). Hmm, maybe I should play "A's or No A's." No, that reminds me too much of my report card in school. I usualy came out on the short end of that stick. Third is Bryn Smith (Cardinals). I think the people in the back saw the cameraman and stood to be in the shot. Wonder if they ever got a copy of the card to show their friends. I know at least blogger that is in a baseball card, which I think is pretty cool.


Keith Mitchell (Braves), Darryl Strawberry (Dodgers), and Robin Yount (Brewers) round out this third. Wow, that's actually not a bad group there. Strawberry and Yount back-to-back in the pack. Cool!


Danny Cox (Phillies), Pedro Munoz (Twins), Paul McClellan (Giants). For some reason, I thought Cox played for the Indians at one time. I was wrong.


Cal Eldred (Brewers), Tim Teufel (Padres), and Howard Johnson (Mets). Do you find it ironic that Johnson played for a team whose colors are the same (close enough) as the hotel chain of the same name as the player? Maybe that's just my weird mind at work.


The last three cards in the pack are Frank Thomas (White Sox), Doc Gooden (Mets), and Carlos Martinez (Indians - Wahoo!). The photo of Gooden running aound the bases has got to be a rare shot for his cards. I always saw him on the mound in the cards I have. He is one of my "other players I collect" group, as is Thomas.

Not the worst pack I've opened, plus some real stand-outs to keep things going! Yount, Gooden, Strawberry - great cards, but sounds like a bad "Redneck Words" joke to me....