Throwpack Thursday:1995 Fleer Ultra Baseball Series 2

It's time I finally get this new segment underway. It's one I have been planning on doing for a while and hope to do as often as I can.

Throwpack Thursday is where I will take an older pack of cards from a variety of sports and some non-sports and open it up on here, talk about the "hits" and a few of the players.

Take note how I called it an "older" pack of cards instead of vintage. I refuse to call anything from the 80's and 90's vintage. It drives me nuts for those who do! I am not vintage either!

Today's pack comes from one of my favorite brands from the 90's, Fleer Ultra. But, it wasn't until 1995 where I really started to appreciate what the brand brought to the table.

I don't think I opened more than a couple of packs of the 1995 baseball as opposed to the many, many football packs I ripped. Today's pack will be a nice reminder to me on what it looked like.

First some details on today's pack.

1995 Fleer Ultra Series 2 had 12 cards per pack. Each pack comes with one Gold Medallion and one Insert.

Now onto the rip.

One thing that jumps out to me as I see the first card is a clean design. Very basic, full photography. Not bad.

The first card in the packs reveals us the Gold Medallion parallel. It isn't quite as exciting as the football version that is completely covered in gold. At least it was a player I knew. Harold had multiple stints with the White Sox, won a World Series and was a 6x All-Star.

"Rookie" of Ismael Valdes. It's hard to tell baseball's true rookies. Ismael played for eight teams including two stints with the Dodgers. Was one game under .500 for his pitching career.

All-Rookie insert fall 1:5 packs overall. One of the easier inserts to pull. John played six seasons and was an All-Star in 1994.

Second "rookie card" in the pack. Jeff Cirillo played for more than 10 years and was a two-time all-star. Very underrated player and hobby guy.

And we finish the pack with Cliff Floyd sporting the Expos colors. I remember him most when he played for the Marlins.

There wasn't anything too exciting in this pack. I will probably use most of the cards except the All-Rookie insert for trade bait. That All-Rookie goes into my 90's insert PC.

I hope you enjoyed today's introduction into this new segment. There is more to come.

Hope everyone has a great Thursday!

Unsolved Mysteries Episode 4

This blog post series is about unraveling unsolved mysteries from a card lot my mother-in-law bought me from an estate sale. What you are about to see isn't a breaking news broadcast or some new releases. There is a lot to go through here so whenever possible, I will try to condense down some of the graphics and whenever possible, real cards from the actual lot (well all of them are from the actual lot but let's have some fun with it) will be used for pictures.

Someone, somewhere can help me uncover the mysteries within this lot. Let's take a look and maybe one of you, will help me solve some mysteries.

*insert creepy music and theme song*

The location is still completely unknown where my Mother In Law went to grab this lot of sports cards other than it was a Estate Sale. Belief is, it was somewhere isolated as nobody grabbed them before she did. It may be the only explanation on why someone wouldn't have grabbed this lot before she showed up three hours after it started. Or maybe it was because the cards were more than they were expecting? Or was it a government conspiracy? I guess we will have to tune in to today's round and maybe you can help solve this mystery.

Today's mysterious unraveling is all based on this one Monteal Expost magazine from 1994 that was found in a plastic pocket for protection in the back of the binder in the lot. Like it was being hidden. But from whom?

It was the only magazine found in the lot and it was mysteriously signed on the front by two individuals. One name could be read as Ken Hill who had his best career year in 1994 making the All Star game and being the NL Wins Leader.  That alone was mysterious that the magazine matches the same year he had his best career. Hmmmm.

The other autograph at the top was a bit harder to make out especially with the blue ink.

That's when we dig deeper into the evidence inside of the magazine where some cards were found.

Hmmm....here it is. Cliff Floyd was the other one. It's sometimes is a mystery to remember the players that played for the Expos. Makes you wonder what could have been if they had kept them all? A pitching staff led by Pedro Martinez and Randy Johnson? Hitters like Floyd and Larry Walker? It will never make sense why the players weren't kept...

Ken Hill again. He looks guilty.

Randy Milligan was not only a name I didn't recognize, but his face in a lineup you may. A subtle smile...

 

Kirk isn't having any of it. He was up all night at a party most likely. But, what happened at that party? His face tells nothing.

There wasn't much to explore today but plenty of mysteries that need YOUR help to be figured out.

This does it for Episode Four of Unsolved Mysteries. There is a lot of unexplained findings here with even more mysteries to unravel. Tune in next time for the FINALE and Perhaps YOU, can help solve the biggest mystery.