Cooperstown Calling

1996 Ultra Baseball Call to the Hall
10 of 10. Frank Thomas
It’s funny looking back at the cards that claim to have future Hall of Fame inductees. During the mid-1990s there were your sure-fire candidates like Griffey, Maddux, Ripken and Gwynn. There were also the then sure-fire names that have since been defamed by alleged steroid [...]

Christie Brinkley Collection Redux

1996 Pinnacle Baseball Christie Brinkley Collection
3 of 16. Dave Justice
From the looks of this card, I suspect he would have made an excellent heel pro wrestler or manager. Just look at his smug look as the little kiddies boo him and cuss him out. Either he’s got a canary hiding in his mouth or he [...]

Taking a Bite Out of the Crime Dog

1996 Pinnacle Baseball Christie Brinkley Collection
6 of 16. Fred McGriff
Some of the coolest photos on cards are the ones that are posed, not action shots. A couple of cards I’ll never forget are the overhead shot of Benito Santiago unmasking in 1991 Topps and Doug Jones holding the flaming baseball in 1991 Score. There’s a [...]

Ninja Throwing Star

1996 Pinnacle Essence of the Game
4 of 18. Matt Williams
The Crazy 1990s Insert spotlight continues with today’s card. Pinnacle’s Essence of the Game inserts mixed cool rainbow foil (or Dufex as they called it) with a clear plastic design. What’s the purpose of this set? I don’t know, but it sure looks cool.
With the clear [...]

Remember the Hologram?

1996 SPx Baseball
23. Larry Walker
I can lament “the good-ole’ days” of collecting all I want where gum was in every Topps (or O-Pee-Chee, here in the North) pack, even the ones not marked Heritage and it was easy to trade in person, but then I couldn’t talk about one of my favourite sets of all-time. [...]