Unboxing Some Early 90's Baseball Cards

A few posts back I referenced my father's baseball themed office that contains tons of baseball memorabilia including around 100,000 trading cards which honestly looking back might be a low estimate. He's been painting this office and had to move a lot of things in the living room to give himself some space to work - again, this room is basically the size of a walk in closet. While visiting my parents on Easter Sunday, I happened to peak over at some of these things and noticed an unopened box of baseball cards that at first glance, appeared to be from the late 80's or early 90's. Deprived of sports for the last month, I walked over to see what else was in this pile of relocated boxes and I was pretty surprised to find an additional 13 boxes of unopened wax packs. These boxes contained anywhere from 36-48 packs with 10-12 cards in a pack. Around 6000, 30-year old baseball cards just sitting there unopened.

Remember that scene in Happy Gilmore where Happy takes a hockey puck out of his pocket and challenges Virginia to shoot it into the net from center ice in exchange for a kiss, and Virginia's only concern is "Do you always carry a puck around" and Happy is like "Yeah...?" My dad had a similar reaction when I asked him if he's really hung on to over a dozen unopened boxes of baseball cards for the last 30 years.

One of the boxes my dad had laying around was Leaf Studio from 1992 - a 260 card base set with 14 card subset of inserts. For those unfamiliar to the hobby, a base set includes a simple picture of a player with his name, position and team, and an insert subset is a collection of rarer cards that fit some kind of theme. The 1992 Leaf Studio inserts featured active (at the time) players wearing vintage jerseys. The entire box included 48 packs of 12 cards each. I decided to take a box back home with me, and open it on Google Hangouts with a few friends.

We opened 12 of the 48 packs before calling it a night, but had a ton of laughs while looking back at some of the players that played when we first started watching baseball 25+ years ago. What made this set unique was the back of each card player's card. Typically, the back side of a baseball card includes the player's career stats and maybe a fun fact about their playing career. This set didn't show you their stats, but instead gave you a quick little biography about their hobbies, favorite books or movies, people they'd like to meet, etc. In other words, we got a glimpse of what an MLB player's dating profile would have looked in 1992.

Not counting duplicates, we've pulled the cards of 118 different players in the base set in addition to 2 cards in the "Heritage Series" subset. Without further ado, here are my favorite things from the those 120 cards:

-My Three Favorite Photos:

I have to imagine if Tinder was around in 1992, this would have been Jose Rijo's default picture. The guy is a professional MLB player and according to the back of his card was the 1990 World Series MVP, but he still needed to grab a dumbbell and flex for his picture. That dumbbell can't weigh more than 10 pounds either. I have to imagine Rijo has a poster-size version of this card framed somewhere in his current house. To top it all off, the back of his card says the person he would like to meet is Paula Abdul. I'm going to pretend this card was his way of trying to serenade her in some weird way. Can't hate on the guy for shooting his shot.

What a beast. Between Rijo and Rob Dibble, the early 1990's Cincinnati Reds had more swag than can be contained. I imagine Leaf asked Dibble to come to the photo shoot with his baseball gear and he said nah, fuck that. I'm just gonna rock some shades and look like a badass. The back of his card makes it even better. Hobbies include playing the drums. His favorite singer is Ronnie James Dio. Favorite actor is Bruce Willis. Favorite book is the bible. Would like to meet... of all people to pick in 1992... Donald Trump.

This is without question the best card in the set. Most players pose with a glove or a bat. No. Jose Lind showed up to this photo shoot with a fucking samurai sword. Eager to learn more about this guy, we Googled him and found out he was arrested in 1996 for drunkenly leaving the scene of an accident and doing so with possession of cocaine and being naked from the waist down. The quote from the arresting state trooper is one of the greatest sentences ever spoken: "He actually mentioned that he was a baseball player but I didn't believe him. The reason we didn't do a field sobriety test on the side of the road was because he had no pants."

-The Hall of Famers:
Twelve of the cards pulled so far have since gone on to be elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame: John Smoltz, Ryne Sandberg, Barry Larkin, Jeff Bagwell, Craig Biggio, Eddie Murray, Tony Gwynn, George Brett, Robin Yount, Harold Baines, Randy Johnson, and Nolan Ryan. A thirteenth player, Deion Sanders, was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2011.

Favorite Hobbies: long walks on the beach and beating the shit out of Robin Ventura

-The Managers:
Two of the players pulled included current MLB managers: Joe Girardi and Don Mattingly. Former Nationals manager Matt Williams was also pulled.

A rare look at Joe Girardi not over-managing a baseball game

-The Broadcasters:
At least 5 of the players found in my 12 packs have gone on to be pretty famous for their broadcasting abilities: John Kruk, Orel Hershiser, Paul O'Neill, Eric Karros, and Rick Sutcliffe.

I remember being dumbfounded as a kid when I found out that fat slob John Kruk used to play baseball

-Actual MLB Players That Sound Like They'd Be Porn Stars:
-Dickie Thon, Ricky Bones, and Randy Ready

Favorite Actor: Myself
Favorite Movie: Backdoor Sluts 9

-Other Notable Players:
-Delino DeShields was in this set. His son Delino DeShields Jr. has been on the Texas Rangers the last 5 seasons.

-Joe Carter and Mitch Williams were pulled from the same exact pack. Cruel.

-Three guys who can be considered Mets legends for different reasons were pulled: Doc Gooden, Bobby Bonilla, and Lenny Dykstra.

If the Mets won the World Series in 2015, would Bonilla have received a ring?

-Most Popular Answers on the Backs
-Person I'd Like to Meet: Jesus Christ
-Favorite Book: The Bible
(I'd estimate 1/3 of the cards pulled mentioned one or the other)
-Favorite Movie: 1991 Best Picture winner, The Silence of the Lambs
-Favorite Talk Show Host: Arsenio Hall
-Favorite Actor: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Al Pacino, and Kevin Costner.

-Heritage Series Inserts:
These cards are pretty cool. They feature players wearing vintage uniforms and the photos have a sepia colored filter to make them look old school. We pulled two so far: Jose Canseco wearing a 1929 Philadelphia A's jersey and Don Mattingly wearing a 1939 New York Yankees jersey and holding a Lou Gehrig bat.

Additional Notes:

-Card collecting was so much more fun when the cards were simple and mass produced. The hobby took a nose-dive when companies found out people will pay a ton for cards that include jersey fragments and things like that.

-In addition to Mattingly and Girardi, there are 7 more current MLB managers that I distinctly remember watching throughout middle and high school: Craig Counsell, David Bell, Rocco Baldelli, Mike Matheny, Aaron Boone, Gabe Kapler, and Dave Roberts.

-I wish I had the connections to interview some of these players and ask them if they could fathom a guess as to what they said their favorite things were back in 1992.

-My dad sold me this box for $5. I still haven't paid him.