1994 Milwaukee Wave Promo Pack

This pack was likely received as an arena giveaway. It's one of those things that my parents find in a shoebox when they're doing some cleaning, and they give it to me when they stop over. There's not too much mystery about what I'll be getting, as with the cello wrapper two of the three cards are visible. Let's tear in anyway.

Top to Bottom:
#27 Victor Noguiera

Noguiera is arguably the best indoor goalkeeper of all time. He led the Wave to a string of championships and finals appearances in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

#9 Eloy Salgado


Coupon for 40 Cents Off One Palermo's Pizza (exp. 7/31/1994)

I'm pleased to report that Palermo's Pizza is still around and doing well in Milwaukee. In fact, they made good by sending me a coupon for a free pizza when I sent them this photo of unacceptable pepperoni distribution/volume last year.


All in all, not too surprised about the contents of the pack. Multiple copies of the two player cards floated around my house, as my siblings and I all probably got the same pack upon entry. Maybe Mom and Dad, too. Yeah, the only reason I remember Salgado is because of this card. I don't think I've ever seen any of the other cards in this set.

1988 Topps Cello

Last year I opened a wax pack of this stuff, hoping to find cards for my then-unfinished 1988 Topps set. Time has passed, and there's still a huge empty space in my box. No, I didn't make a want list for the set quite yet, as it would be too embarrassingly large.


We're going to do another got it/need it for this cello pack. For a 28-card pack, I'd consider getting at least ten cards I don't have a victory. Anything above that, a major success.

Let's tear in.
Top to Botom:
76 Denny Martinez
253 Checklist
63 Jimmy Jones YES!

631 Jack Howell YES!

553 Tracy Jones
357 Floyd Bannister
711 Bill Gullickson YES!

610 Keith Hernandez
788 Ray Searage YES!

139 Jerry Browne YES!

27 R.J. Reynolds
161 Bryn Smith
511 Joel Davis
129 Greg Minton
744 Whitey Herzog YES!

153 John Habyan YES!

310 Tom Herr YES!

280 Pete Incaviglia YES!

566 Charlie O’Brien
411 Wayne Tolleson
43 Dick Schofield
612 Curt Ford YES!

113 Kelly Gruber YES!

644 Terry McGriff YES!

140 Jesse Barfield
657 Gary Redus YES!

487 Jim Pankovits
374 Doc Edwards YES!


Wow, 14 cards needed out of 28! A 50% success rate for a set that's about 2/3 finished is pretty good. We hit the sweet spot with three in a row toward the end there with Ford, Gruber, and McGriff. That deserves the Daniel Bryan seal of approval.


Thanks for reading. Maybe I'll get a want list going soon.

1986 Fleer Cello

I recently bought some Yount cards on eBay from a huge Yount collector who's slowly paring down his collection. As a little add-on, I picked up this cello pack that the Yount guy was selling with Robin featured on the front. To me, this doesn't represent something different, but I understand the completist mentality. I bought it with the intent to open it, as '86 Fleer is a set I don't have too much of.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
506 Robin Yount

214 Reid Nichols
181 Andy McGaffigan
41 Tito Landrum
234 Lance Parrish
192 Mario Soto
64 Dennis Lamp (Man, that is one area of growth! That dude shaves after lunch, then has to do it again before washing his hands for dinner. Thickness.)

509 Bruce Benedict
448 John Russell
8 Mark Gubicza
93 Rafael Santana
45 Darrell Porter
565 Mike Mason
261 Randy St. Claire (That's a sweet-ass Starter jacket. One might even say it's worth being killed over.)

Los Angeles Penant Sticker
Oakland Sticker
104 Brian Fisher
484 Cecil Cooper (Cooooooooooooooooop!)

197 Juan Agosto
196 Max Venable
29 Cesar Cedeno
242 Lou Whitaker
178 John Franco
62 Cliff Johnson (Speaking of jackets, Canada was representin' on the outerwear, eh?)

530 Milt Thompson
441 Greg Gross
13 Charlie Leibrandt
83 Danny Heep
36 Brian Harper
573 Wayne Tolleson

That was fun.

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.)

1989 Fleer cello

I found some Fleer cellos for a dollar each and bought three packs, hoping they maybe early-run cellos - meaning I may have a chance of pulling the infamous Billy Ripken FF error card or a Randy Johnson Marlboro variation card.

Everyone knows about the Ripken card and even if it is more crass than classic - it has become an 'iconic' baseball card for anyone collecting during the past 20 years.

I didn't know about the Johnson Marlboro variation card [where Marlboro signage was visible in the background] - until about five years ago.

Random cello pack one - there were 36 cards per cello pack along with three stickers.

#282 Jerry Gleaton
#38 Gregg Jefferies
#400 Joe Carter
#153 Tom Browning
#494 Mike Diaz
#335 Bob Melvin
#89 Rich Gedman

One thing of note is the backs feature statlines from the players' entire professional career - not just the Major Leagues or the most recent minor league stats. Some of the backs featured an info box [Did You Know?] with some tidbits about the player's career.

#432 Jamie Moyer - it would be real funny if this guy was still pitching today. He began his professional career 25 years ago and made his Major League debut all the way back in 1986. His pro career pretty much spans nearly my entire life so far.
#186 Jim Gantner
#484 Mark McLemore
#126 Fred Toliver
#433 Al Nipper
#128 Doyle Alexander
#313 Keith Moreland
#643 Mike Capel/Drew Hall - Major League Prospects subset

#60 Jeff Hamilton - he looks sickly in this picture, not a guy you'd think would be listed at 6'3'' and 215 pounds.
#526 Chad Kreuter
#390 Pascual Perez
#281 Steve Farr
Baseball stickers - Dodgers, Expos, Mets, Phillies.
Baseball stickers - Pirates, Cardinals, Padres, Giants.
Baseball stickers - Twins, Yankees, Athletics, Mariners.
#293 Kurt Stillwell
#653 Scott Service/Shane Turner - Major League Prospects subset

#263 Hipolito Pena - looks like Fleer decided to play some more games and included a bat boy in their card set.
#354 Danny Darwin
#481 Wally Joyner

#240 Fred McGriff
#3 Todd Burns
#577 David Palmer
#247 David Wells
#206 Doug Drabek
#112 Dan Gladden
#621 Doug Sisk

#5 of 12 Julio Franco - 1989 Fleer All-Star Team insert; miscut and the green ink splotched
#656 Checklist
#216 Vicente Palacios

#552 Edgar Martinez - the greatest designated hitter, ever?
#460 Tony Pena
#83 Ellis Burks

1989 Donruss cello

I found some 1989 Donruss cellos [$1.00 each x1] - I picked one up out of the scrap heap [pre-priced at $1.29] so I could see if I can pull and Ken Griffey Jr. rookie card. I already picked up a graded version of the card, but it is nice to see if you pull a similar card like the one you pulled out of a rack pack 20 years ago.

The back of the bottom card of the cello is visible and for full disclosure I could see Junior was right there before I bought the particular cello pack - the cello features six puzzle pieces and 39 cards.

#409 Bob Kipper

#BC-11 Dave Winfield - MVP insert or bonus card

#5 Robin Yount Diamond King subset
#158 Rich Gossage
#624 Ricky Jordan
#503 Shawn Hillegas
#379 Jim Presley

#649 Rod Nichols - I have to remind myself that no matter how many of these guys looked on their baseball cards, they appeared in at least one Major League game as players.
#251 Shane Rawley
#180 Alan Trammell
#58 Melido Perez
#526 Rick Aguilera
#16, #17, #18 Warren Spahn puzzle pieces
#7, #8, #9 Warren Spahn puzzle pieces

No. 12 Ellis Burks - Grand Slammers insert
#554 Steve Lombardozzi
#559 Dennis Rasmussen
#210 Storm Davis - a Tony LaRussa/Dave Duncan reclamation project in the late 1980s.
#161 Willie McGee

#636 Scott May - goes under my 'I would have never guessed this guy appeared in a Major League game' pile.
#BC-18 Kal Daniels - MVP insert
#351 Jeff Treadway
#591 Ernie Whitt
#242 Bo Diaz
#129 Lance McCullers
#551 Luis Aguayo
#438 Doug Jones
#560 Pat Borders
#565 Felix Fermin
#216 Bryn Smith
#100 Checklist
#46 Gregg Olson - relief star early in his career, became a journeyman for a while after injuries derailed him.
#470 Jeff Robinson
#357 Paul Assenmacher
#643 Jose Canseco - 40/40 card
#21 Harold Reynolds Diamond Kings subset - the star of the early MLB Network programming
#134 R.J. Reynolds
#557 Alejandro Pena
#444 Jerry Don Gleaton
#566 Darnell Coles
#571 Don Robinson
#33 Ken Griffey Jr. - there are fuzziness and imperfections along the top, where his name is.

So much for a nice pull -I think I got what I paid for.