Tuesday, February 2, 2010
1990 Fleer #3 Jose Canseco
#3 Jose Canseco
Random Thoughts: In the grand old days before super gloss, sticker autos, patches, serial numbered parallels, inserts and yes, steroids, Jose Canseco was about as hot a card as you could pull out of a 1990 wax pack as a kid. The Oakland A's were in the midst of three straight AL pennants. As one half of the Bash Brothers, Canseco was coming off of the first 40 homer/40 stolen base season in history. Despite being limited to less than half a season in '89 due to a broken wrist, Canseco still managed to put up better numbers than most guys did in a full year.
A native of Havana, Cuba, Canseco and his family moved to Miami while he was still an infant. By the time he was in high school, Canseco was already showing amazing strength and power in sports and was eyed by many scouts. Forgoing college, he signed his first pro contract with Oakland in 1982 and quickly moved up the Athletics' farm system showing immense power at each stop. By the time he made it to AA Huntsville in '85, Canseco was already being dubbed "Parkway Jose" for his prodigious blasts that often ended up near a highway that ran past the stadium. Later that year he got called up to the bigs for a brief audition and hit .302 in 29 games. As a full time starter in '86, he ran away with the AL Rookie of the Year award, hitting 33 homers and 117 RBI while batting only .240 with 175 strikeouts. This would establish a career trend of monster home run and RBI stats with high strikeouts totals and a low batting average. After a similar '87 season, Canseco broke out with his MVP 40/40 year and it would be the last time he would hit over .300 during a season. Canseco would bounce back from a injury marred '89 to post back to back big years in '90 and '91, leading the AL in homers with 44 during the latter. Unfortunately a recurring back problem which began to manifest itself in 1990 would haunt him the rest of his career and rob him of what could have been historic numbers. One of my more vivid memories of Canseco was in 1992. Every day when I would get ready to catch the bus for school, I would have NBC News at Sunrise on the TV as background noise. I'll never forget the day they said Canseco had been traded to Texas. I thought it was a joke. How could a team that had so much success trade their best player? I thought to myself "well, that's it for the A's" and it was.
The only two memories I have of Canseco in Texas were when a fly ball bounced off his head for a home run in old Cleveland Stadium and three days later when he convinced his manager to let him pitch in a blowout and hurt himself so badly he required Tommy John surgery. To add insult to injury, Canseco was headed to a second AL MVP award when the '94 strike hit. He would have a few more decent years bouncing around the AL as a DH with Boston, a brief return to Oakland, Toronto and as a member of the Hit Parade with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays (back when they were still called that.)
With his numbers and health petering out, Canseco would latch on briefly with the Yankees and the White Sox, but refusing to retire, he made several comeback attempts. In 2002 Canseco was cut by Montreal in spring training. In 2004 he was declined a roster spot with the Dodgers after a brief spring tryout. In 2006 Canseco would be found playing in the Golden Baseball League.
But it was during this time that Canseco made the headlines for which he is now best known for with his tell-all book about steroids, "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big," which, despite initial ridicule has proven prophetic implicating among others Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi, who after early denials have since admitted taking performance enhancing drugs during their playing days.
Canseco has also recently participated in a number of celebrity boxing matches of varying credibility including a loss to former Eagles return man Vai Sikahema (a man five inches shorter to Canseco in stature) and a draw to former Partridge Family star and current radio personality Danny Bonaduce. Canseco has also participated in professional mixed martial arts.
Canseco has often found himself getting into trouble off the diamond as well. In 1989, his first wife, Esther Haddad, whom he married in October 1988, accused him of domestic violence after he allegedly ran his car into hers. They divorced in 1991.
In August 1996, he married Jessica Sekely, whom he met while she was working as a Hooters waitress. He was arrested in November 1997 for allegedly hitting her. In January 1998, he was sentenced to probation and required to have counseling. The couple divorced in 1999. They have a daughter, Josiphene Marie, nicknamed "Josie". In October 2001, he and his brother got into a fight with two California tourists at a Miami Beach nightclub that left one man with a broken nose and another needing 20 stitches in his lip. Canseco was charged with two counts of aggravated battery. In May 2008, Canseco revealed that he had lost his house in Encino, California to foreclosure, saying his two divorces had cost him $7 to $8 million each. On October 10, 2008, Canseco was detained by immigration officials at a San Diego border crossing as he tried to bring a fertility drug from Mexico. He stated the drug was to help with his hormone replacement therapy, needed due to his use of steroids. On November 4, 2008, Canseco pled guilty in federal court to the misdemeanor offense of trying to bring a fertility drug into the USA from Mexico. He was sentenced to 12 months’ unsupervised probation by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruben B. Brooks. Canseco told the judge he had gone to Tijuana looking for a substance to restore his testosterone levels in an attempt to reverse damage done by his admitted steroids use. He was detained at San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing in October 2008 after agents searched his vehicle and said they found human chorionic gonadotropin, which is illegal without a prescription.
It's sad that Canseco's lasting legacy will that of a poster child for the Steroid Era rather than the prolific home run hitter he once was.
The Card Itself: Kind of a disappointing photo for a big star of the day. Hard to say what Canseco's laughing about. Did someone say something funny. Did he see something funny? We may never know.
Did You Know?: His identical twin brother Ozzie played briefly with the A's and Cardinals.
Where Are They Now?:Just days after posting this, Jose out-Cansecoed me. He has challenged Herschel Walker to an MMA fight, tweeting, "I guess I may have to show Walker who the real bad boy of the sports industry is," to which Walker responded, "He thinks it's going to be a circus, I will hurt him." Love it.
'90 Fleer Counters:
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: 1
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: 1
ALL-STAR: 1
SILVER SLUGGER: 1
Random Thoughts: In the grand old days before super gloss, sticker autos, patches, serial numbered parallels, inserts and yes, steroids, Jose Canseco was about as hot a card as you could pull out of a 1990 wax pack as a kid. The Oakland A's were in the midst of three straight AL pennants. As one half of the Bash Brothers, Canseco was coming off of the first 40 homer/40 stolen base season in history. Despite being limited to less than half a season in '89 due to a broken wrist, Canseco still managed to put up better numbers than most guys did in a full year.
A native of Havana, Cuba, Canseco and his family moved to Miami while he was still an infant. By the time he was in high school, Canseco was already showing amazing strength and power in sports and was eyed by many scouts. Forgoing college, he signed his first pro contract with Oakland in 1982 and quickly moved up the Athletics' farm system showing immense power at each stop. By the time he made it to AA Huntsville in '85, Canseco was already being dubbed "Parkway Jose" for his prodigious blasts that often ended up near a highway that ran past the stadium. Later that year he got called up to the bigs for a brief audition and hit .302 in 29 games. As a full time starter in '86, he ran away with the AL Rookie of the Year award, hitting 33 homers and 117 RBI while batting only .240 with 175 strikeouts. This would establish a career trend of monster home run and RBI stats with high strikeouts totals and a low batting average. After a similar '87 season, Canseco broke out with his MVP 40/40 year and it would be the last time he would hit over .300 during a season. Canseco would bounce back from a injury marred '89 to post back to back big years in '90 and '91, leading the AL in homers with 44 during the latter. Unfortunately a recurring back problem which began to manifest itself in 1990 would haunt him the rest of his career and rob him of what could have been historic numbers. One of my more vivid memories of Canseco was in 1992. Every day when I would get ready to catch the bus for school, I would have NBC News at Sunrise on the TV as background noise. I'll never forget the day they said Canseco had been traded to Texas. I thought it was a joke. How could a team that had so much success trade their best player? I thought to myself "well, that's it for the A's" and it was.
The only two memories I have of Canseco in Texas were when a fly ball bounced off his head for a home run in old Cleveland Stadium and three days later when he convinced his manager to let him pitch in a blowout and hurt himself so badly he required Tommy John surgery. To add insult to injury, Canseco was headed to a second AL MVP award when the '94 strike hit. He would have a few more decent years bouncing around the AL as a DH with Boston, a brief return to Oakland, Toronto and as a member of the Hit Parade with the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays (back when they were still called that.)
With his numbers and health petering out, Canseco would latch on briefly with the Yankees and the White Sox, but refusing to retire, he made several comeback attempts. In 2002 Canseco was cut by Montreal in spring training. In 2004 he was declined a roster spot with the Dodgers after a brief spring tryout. In 2006 Canseco would be found playing in the Golden Baseball League.
But it was during this time that Canseco made the headlines for which he is now best known for with his tell-all book about steroids, "Juiced: Wild Times, Rampant 'Roids, Smash Hits & How Baseball Got Big," which, despite initial ridicule has proven prophetic implicating among others Mark McGwire, Rafael Palmeiro, Jason Giambi, who after early denials have since admitted taking performance enhancing drugs during their playing days.
Canseco has also recently participated in a number of celebrity boxing matches of varying credibility including a loss to former Eagles return man Vai Sikahema (a man five inches shorter to Canseco in stature) and a draw to former Partridge Family star and current radio personality Danny Bonaduce. Canseco has also participated in professional mixed martial arts.
Canseco has often found himself getting into trouble off the diamond as well. In 1989, his first wife, Esther Haddad, whom he married in October 1988, accused him of domestic violence after he allegedly ran his car into hers. They divorced in 1991.
In August 1996, he married Jessica Sekely, whom he met while she was working as a Hooters waitress. He was arrested in November 1997 for allegedly hitting her. In January 1998, he was sentenced to probation and required to have counseling. The couple divorced in 1999. They have a daughter, Josiphene Marie, nicknamed "Josie". In October 2001, he and his brother got into a fight with two California tourists at a Miami Beach nightclub that left one man with a broken nose and another needing 20 stitches in his lip. Canseco was charged with two counts of aggravated battery. In May 2008, Canseco revealed that he had lost his house in Encino, California to foreclosure, saying his two divorces had cost him $7 to $8 million each. On October 10, 2008, Canseco was detained by immigration officials at a San Diego border crossing as he tried to bring a fertility drug from Mexico. He stated the drug was to help with his hormone replacement therapy, needed due to his use of steroids. On November 4, 2008, Canseco pled guilty in federal court to the misdemeanor offense of trying to bring a fertility drug into the USA from Mexico. He was sentenced to 12 months’ unsupervised probation by U.S. Magistrate Judge Ruben B. Brooks. Canseco told the judge he had gone to Tijuana looking for a substance to restore his testosterone levels in an attempt to reverse damage done by his admitted steroids use. He was detained at San Diego’s San Ysidro border crossing in October 2008 after agents searched his vehicle and said they found human chorionic gonadotropin, which is illegal without a prescription.
It's sad that Canseco's lasting legacy will that of a poster child for the Steroid Era rather than the prolific home run hitter he once was.
The Card Itself: Kind of a disappointing photo for a big star of the day. Hard to say what Canseco's laughing about. Did someone say something funny. Did he see something funny? We may never know.
Did You Know?: His identical twin brother Ozzie played briefly with the A's and Cardinals.
Where Are They Now?:Just days after posting this, Jose out-Cansecoed me. He has challenged Herschel Walker to an MMA fight, tweeting, "I guess I may have to show Walker who the real bad boy of the sports industry is," to which Walker responded, "He thinks it's going to be a circus, I will hurt him." Love it.
'90 Fleer Counters:
MOST VALUABLE PLAYER: 1
ROOKIE OF THE YEAR: 1
ALL-STAR: 1
SILVER SLUGGER: 1
Sunday, January 31, 2010
2010 Topps Baseball
Here's the long awaited 2010 Topps blaster. Feast your eyes on a ton of inserts, Target throwbacks and a patch card.
Friday, January 29, 2010
2010 Topps Blaster
My Target got 2010 Topps, and not just retail packs, blasters! 
With goofy throwback packs and manufactered patches (yay). 
I should have a vid up by Saturday afternoon.
With goofy throwback packs and manufactered patches (yay). 
I should have a vid up by Saturday afternoon.
Thursday, January 21, 2010
1990 Fleer #2 Todd Burns
#2 Todd Burns
Random Thoughts: Burns had a brief but interesting career. He was one of those "catching lightning in a bottle" type call ups from triple A in the summer of '88 for Oakland. Out of nowhere he started 14 games at the back end of the AL champs rotation going 8-2 and showing much promise. He was one of those average prospects who benefited from being on a good team that was on a roll. Inexplicably, (but most likely because they found better candidates) Burns was pushed back to the bullpen in '89 and his numbers fizzled out before being signed by Texas in '91. After bouncing around for a few more years, Burns was cut by Seattle in spring training of '94 and his major league career was abruptly over.
The Card Itself: Not much to say about the photo again, just a run of the mill mug shot. But come to think of it, I miss average photography on cards lacking gloss and full color backs and foil stamping obscuring the design and player names and serial numbers and patches and autos. Maybe some day just plain old baseball cards will make a comeback.
Did You Know?: To give you some idea of how Burns' career numbers stack up, according to Baseball Reference, his stats compare with those of such luminaries as Manny Sarmiento, Joe Beckwith, Todd Frohwirth, Brian Holton and Scott Terry. Talk about a who's who of bummy 80's and 90's pitchers whose duplicates and triplicates haunted wax pack collectors of the era.
Where Are They Now?:He currently runs the Todd Burns School of Baseball in Huntsville, Alabama.
Random Thoughts: Burns had a brief but interesting career. He was one of those "catching lightning in a bottle" type call ups from triple A in the summer of '88 for Oakland. Out of nowhere he started 14 games at the back end of the AL champs rotation going 8-2 and showing much promise. He was one of those average prospects who benefited from being on a good team that was on a roll. Inexplicably, (but most likely because they found better candidates) Burns was pushed back to the bullpen in '89 and his numbers fizzled out before being signed by Texas in '91. After bouncing around for a few more years, Burns was cut by Seattle in spring training of '94 and his major league career was abruptly over.
The Card Itself: Not much to say about the photo again, just a run of the mill mug shot. But come to think of it, I miss average photography on cards lacking gloss and full color backs and foil stamping obscuring the design and player names and serial numbers and patches and autos. Maybe some day just plain old baseball cards will make a comeback.
Did You Know?: To give you some idea of how Burns' career numbers stack up, according to Baseball Reference, his stats compare with those of such luminaries as Manny Sarmiento, Joe Beckwith, Todd Frohwirth, Brian Holton and Scott Terry. Talk about a who's who of bummy 80's and 90's pitchers whose duplicates and triplicates haunted wax pack collectors of the era.
Where Are They Now?:He currently runs the Todd Burns School of Baseball in Huntsville, Alabama.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
1990 Fleer #1 Lance Blankenship
Okay, first a little background. Ever since I started collecting cards again and started this blog back in September of '08 I promised myself that if I ever completed a set, I would do a card by card blog in loving detail much like the granddaddy of them all, the 88 Topps blog and also the excellent 75 Topps blog by Night Owl or the 72 Topps blog or the 80 Topps blog. So here goes. I'm just going to present the cards on my regular Card Junkie blog sporadically so I don't feel any pressure to keep this 90 Fleer thing going everyday which could doom me to quit like so many other card by card endeavors.
Now for a little background on my experiences with 90 Fleer. I remember when this set came out as a kid that it was the first Fleer baseball product that was readily available where I lived. You could always find Topps. By 1988 I could find Donruss at most places. But Fleer, Score and Upper Deck remained elusive until 1990, by which time you could find every brand of baseball card at every store you went thanks to the big baseball card boom. This was exciting even though I had a couple handfuls of old Fleer cards I got in trades, this was the first time I could get packs and packs of the stuff. I remember getting near a full set just from wax and cellos. I also remember several years later buying a sealed hobby set for a ten spot at a Toys 'R Us which would later get thrown in the trash. I actually liked the design and photography when this set came out (I was 14) of course I had no idea at the time but Fleer printed enough of this set to fill Yucca Mountain. That means today you can buy a wax box for roughly 5-6 bucks on eBay. Which is how I easily and cheaply completed the set once again. For my full remarks on 90 Fleer click here. For bonus points click here for my little soliloquy on why 90 Fleer looks strikingly like those old 80's M&M cards.
So let's begin...
#1 Lance Blankenship
Random Thoughts: One of the cool things I liked about the old Fleer sets is that each player appeared in the set alphabetically and grouped by team. An absolute orgasm for set collectors. And each team appeared in the set based on their record the previous year. Therefore, the World Series winner would appear first. In this case, the '89 Champion Oakland A's lead off with, wait for it, Lance Blankenship. Yup, if you were a bench player for the Champs with a last name that started with an "A" or perhaps a "B", you were granted card numero uno honors by Fleer.
Lance Blankenship strikes me as one of those "marginal guys on a great team." For example, Blankenship probably could have started on a number of bad teams and got his 150 games, 600 at bats and hit .270 with 12 homers and 60 RBI. But on the A's he was a great "role player" and much more valuable in this sort of role. Look through the annals of baseball and you can find a million Blankenships who won rings on the bench, then signed big money contracts to start for poor teams and not quite have the same success.
The Card Itself: Not much to say about this photo. Obvi a spring training shot. Gotta love the yellow practice tops. Could be Canseco in the background but could be one of 60 guys in spring training. No one will ever know.
Since the backs of Fleer cards of this era have little "Did You Know?" blurbs who am I to change the title?
Did You Know?: Blankenship spent his entire six year major league career with Oakland and actually played on two World Series teams, one winner in '89 and one loser the next year. In five post season series Blankenship contributed four runs scored and two stolen bases.
Chris Berman dubbed him Lance "you sunk my" Blankenship.
On This Date: On January 20, 1990 Soviet troops occupy Baku, Azerbaijan, under the state of emergency decree issued by Gorbachev and kill over 130 and wound over 700 protesters for national independence.
Now for a little background on my experiences with 90 Fleer. I remember when this set came out as a kid that it was the first Fleer baseball product that was readily available where I lived. You could always find Topps. By 1988 I could find Donruss at most places. But Fleer, Score and Upper Deck remained elusive until 1990, by which time you could find every brand of baseball card at every store you went thanks to the big baseball card boom. This was exciting even though I had a couple handfuls of old Fleer cards I got in trades, this was the first time I could get packs and packs of the stuff. I remember getting near a full set just from wax and cellos. I also remember several years later buying a sealed hobby set for a ten spot at a Toys 'R Us which would later get thrown in the trash. I actually liked the design and photography when this set came out (I was 14) of course I had no idea at the time but Fleer printed enough of this set to fill Yucca Mountain. That means today you can buy a wax box for roughly 5-6 bucks on eBay. Which is how I easily and cheaply completed the set once again. For my full remarks on 90 Fleer click here. For bonus points click here for my little soliloquy on why 90 Fleer looks strikingly like those old 80's M&M cards.
So let's begin...
#1 Lance Blankenship
Random Thoughts: One of the cool things I liked about the old Fleer sets is that each player appeared in the set alphabetically and grouped by team. An absolute orgasm for set collectors. And each team appeared in the set based on their record the previous year. Therefore, the World Series winner would appear first. In this case, the '89 Champion Oakland A's lead off with, wait for it, Lance Blankenship. Yup, if you were a bench player for the Champs with a last name that started with an "A" or perhaps a "B", you were granted card numero uno honors by Fleer.
Lance Blankenship strikes me as one of those "marginal guys on a great team." For example, Blankenship probably could have started on a number of bad teams and got his 150 games, 600 at bats and hit .270 with 12 homers and 60 RBI. But on the A's he was a great "role player" and much more valuable in this sort of role. Look through the annals of baseball and you can find a million Blankenships who won rings on the bench, then signed big money contracts to start for poor teams and not quite have the same success.
The Card Itself: Not much to say about this photo. Obvi a spring training shot. Gotta love the yellow practice tops. Could be Canseco in the background but could be one of 60 guys in spring training. No one will ever know.
Since the backs of Fleer cards of this era have little "Did You Know?" blurbs who am I to change the title?
Did You Know?: Blankenship spent his entire six year major league career with Oakland and actually played on two World Series teams, one winner in '89 and one loser the next year. In five post season series Blankenship contributed four runs scored and two stolen bases.
Chris Berman dubbed him Lance "you sunk my" Blankenship.
On This Date: On January 20, 1990 Soviet troops occupy Baku, Azerbaijan, under the state of emergency decree issued by Gorbachev and kill over 130 and wound over 700 protesters for national independence.
2010 Topps Is Live
Congrats to A Cardboard Problem for scooping everyone on this. Also Dropped Third Strike has some nice scans up. I will be heading to Le Tarjay soon...
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
