Random Card Of The Day:1998 Topps Lords Of The Diamond Sammy Sosa

It Was Ruined For Me

The 1998 MLB season was one that was memorable and amazing to watch...but those memories went down the drain just a few years later, at least for me.

The home run chase between Sammy Sosa and Mark McGwire to beat Roger Maris' record of 61 home runs in a single season had me hooked and lured in that summer. I was really rooting on Ken Griffey Jr to surpass them and take that crown just because I am a collector/fan of him but it didn't take away from the thought of all of this going down.

Despite Griffey's best efforts, there was no way he could catch up to the power that Sosa and McGwire provided as it felt they blasted a home run every other game. I remember watching the news and having the sports anchor break down how many home runs would need to be hit over a certain amount of games left for all three players to break the record.

That season, both players crushed Maris' record of 61 as Sosa hit 66 and McGwire smashed his way to 70 that year. I couldn't believe what I was seeing and it was exciting. It made me fall more madly in love with the sport and baseball cards.

Then came the steroid controversy.

Finding out that both players cheated the game to break that record, which was later on beat again by another steroid accused user in Bonds, made me really start to question my love of the sport. Then came more and more accusations of other players including Roger Clemens who was my favorite pitcher at the time. It completely turned my world upside down for baseball. I started to push myself away from the sport and it's cards. 

By 2005, I was no longer a die hard watching/Yankee rooting baseball fan and instead NFL football was the only sport I continued to watch. Baseball cards became less interesting especially after seeing the values fall on McGwire and Sosa after I had finally acquired their rookie cards and a few other short printed cards.

I was done. Baseball was done for me. Baseball Cards were as well.

Fast forward 15 years later, I can say I didn't watch one single MLB game this year which is a surprise as I at least used to use it for background noise the last few years sorting cards when the Yankees were on ESPN. What am I saying...when aren't the Yankees on it?!

Though my passion of baseball cards isn't what it once was, I still continue to add to my collection when I can with Griffeys, Judges, Gleybers and key rookie cards. But, what I really like to collect of the sport is cards from the late 90's and early 2000's which to me is the best time frame of collecting in the history of collecting.

When @pdawson224 had two shiny cards from that time frame up for grabs, coincidentally Sosa and McGwire, I quickly snagged them and Patty mailed them out not much longer after. This claim was apart of the no longer running #PWEFriday. All it takes is a few bad apples to ruin a good thing.

 

These 2000 Topps Perennial All-Stars came as a 10 card insert set randomly inserted in packs.

The design is spectacular and makes me wonder why Topps cannot produce great looking inserts like these anymore. Add some flash and excitement!! Most inserts now are produced to look like base and they don't excite me like this.

Despite what happened in 1998 and all through the 90's with the Steroid Era, I am just glad my most favorite player during that era had no ties with the roids. Thank you Ken Griffey Jr. True class Hall Of Famer and who I consider now the leader of the 1998 Home Run chase.

I know there are at least a lot of McGwire fans, not sure about Slammin' Sammy, out there who will shake their heads at me and probably leave comments about it but it's simply how I feel. I have tried to take in account that the Roids just gave them the power to hit which doesn't help swinging at a 95MPH fastball but it still bothers me. I am sure other sports have their cheaters as well, looking at you Tom Brady, but this baseball incident hurt the worst.

So what do you guys think about the 1998 Home Run chase? Are you okay with them using roids for it? Does it bother you at all? Let me know in comments!

Opening Up The Next One

Time to reveal what was in the next cube in that huge box of goodness the great Wes passed onto me. Every cube brought a new surprise and every surprise was a nice surprise.

Like a Bo Jackson rookie and a Sammy Sosa Leaf rookie I didn't have.

A twosome of Joey Votto rookie cards

Buster the man Posey Topps rookie

I really enjoyed finding these oddball minor league cards of stars. Jose Canseco was just one of many I found. You will see the others as this series goes on.

Always nice to add some vintage pieces to my collection since I don't have much in that area.

90's insert love! A Silver Press Proof from Donruss. They don't make em like this anymore!

I always respected Ichiro no matter what uniform he wore. I feel awful he had to spend some time with the Marlins though. That's not an easy place to play if you want to win.

Matt Stairs super cool looking parallel /150. This is one of the coolest cards I have seen in person. This is also one of the few Matt Stairs that I found in these cubes. Come to find out he was on Wes' list to super collect at one point.

Bat relic of Rusty Staub.

Only name I know from this first group is Danny Graves but I will say that all four of these guys have solid signatures.

Just like David Cone. My first autograph of this guy. Of course I don't remember him as a Royal, he will always be a Yankee to me.

And another that will always be a Yankee to me is Paul O'Neill. I always felt he was underappreciated in the league.

That does it for cube two. There were many surprises within and this one provided plenty of PC additions and lots of other fun stuff.

I wonder what Cube 3 will provide for us on here...maybe next week will let us know.

The Origins Of A Cardboard Addict: Its A Mystery!

Earlier on this year, my best friend Brian texted me and asked if I wanted to be in his wedding as his Best Man in August. Without much hesitation, I took the invitation and accepted.

Even though our friendship has changed over the years as we have gotten older and live further apart, we still always check in on each other through texting. Especially when we play our favorite video game, Madden. We keep each other updated on our wins, defeats and stats. Sounds dorky, but we enjoy it.

The wedding was being held at his house where I knew nostalgia would be crazy. I spent so much time there when I was a kid. We spent countless hours outside playing baseball, basketball and football and other imaginary fun games. We also spent the time helping his father doing chores- I will touch base on a unique payment for one of our jobs later on-and we also played the occasional Nintendo games. I didn't have any gaming units at my house so this was an extra treat for me.

It had been 20 years since I have visited this house and property that extends many acres. He lives four hours away so when we do meet up, it's usually at my house and it's sadly only been averaging once a year. So I had no reason really to drive to our old stomping grounds.

When I pulled into the long driveway, instant nostalgia hit. That was the driveway we played football on. I could remember getting many touchdowns on that field while also avoiding tackling our friend Aaron when he came out to play. He was quite the built dude and at that time I was quite the stick.

I parked into a spot where we once used to play baseball and got out of the car and looked around. The property had changed so much over the years and not just because of the added tents for the wedding. Trees had grown in where we once used to play baseball on my "home field", the barn we used to play in was torn down, the shed we used as our clubhouse to store our Mountain Dew and Beef Jerky was collapsing. The basketball hoop we once played on wasn't there anymore and there were some fences and landscaping that had been done since.

There was a pile of brush in the other football field we occasionally used that later on turned into this cool fire they used to roast corn on. As that fire grew bigger, all I could picture was "the other Brian", who came over to play with Brian and I, and we had done a small campfire until he decided it wasn't big enough and threw half a container of gasoline into the fire while standing next to it. Let's just say he probably wouldn't do that again as every hair on his body was burned off and you could smell it. Luckily for him, he wasn't badly hurt. His choice of decision to do such a moronic thing was probably led on from the containers of vanilla frosting we had been eating and chugging Mountain Dew down to wash it down with. That's quite the sugar high by the way.

The wedding itself was done next to his parent's house and oversaw the pond we once played in. Sorry for the sideways photo for some reason it wouldn't turn the right way. Some of my buddies from graded school also showed up and we chit-chatted about the good ole days. Which also turned the nostalgia way up. All of us are in our mid 30's sounding like we are in our mid 60's with the bumps and bruises we have experienced over the years..

The one thing that hit me hard after the wedding was over was the fact that all of us are so different now. Old friends and his family weren't the same. Not even Brian was. At times I felt out of place there and wanted to leave, but I stayed for the duration. The place I once spent as my second home wasn't the same either.

Things were not the same and never will be.

I also know this is hobby wise as well.

Gone are the days of creativity and being excited to find a card like this,

Yes, a black plastic coated card from 1998 Topps known as 1998 Topps Mystery Finest Interleague Match-Up that fell 1:36 packs or one per box back then. These cards use the Finest technology  but when you pulled the cards, the fronts have a black coating covering up the front of the card and the Finest part of the card. Not to mention the player under it.

There are 4 players on the back from 2 teams who played in interleague play in 1997, I liked interleague play more back then as it was unique to see the lineups for a stretch of the year instead of now when it's all year long.  One of those 4 guys featured on the back is one of the guys you will find on the front of the card once you reveal the mystery!

Back in 1997, I only ever personally pulled one of these cards, I peeled it and it was Greg Maddux. Since then then however, I bought a 6 card lot with the cards still unpeeled which I thought was super cool. And since then I have kept them that way for the mystery.

I have two of each of all of these. Could it be Sammy Sosa? Frank Thomas? Mark Grace? Albert Belle? Ooooo the possibilities!

Some days I am temped to unpeel the mystery but other days I want to keep things the way they are. I wished that could have been the case for this hobby with some of the unique cool creations I got to enjoy in the 90's. I also wished that could have been same at that wedding being around everyone. But, it wasn't and won't ever be and same goes for collecting.

I guess as we all get older and grow apart and the times change, so doesn't life and everything around it. It's how we all adapt to all of the change is the most important part. And I know when it comes to the hobby, I have adapted the best I can but it doesn't mean I don't like to take a step back in time and enjoy what once was. That's the great thing about card collecting and the nostalgia it brings.

Reminiscing 90's:1999 Salvino Slammers

In what I think will be the finale of this segment, we will finish things off with some collectibles I picked up at a dollar store.

During the rave of the 1998 Home Run Chase between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa and the rave of Beanie Babies that had reached new heights, Salvino released a line of sports related beanie bears including the ones we will discuss today.

The line I am showing here captures that chase of the 1998 home run record.

First up, McGwire bear with the "70" on the front. Now-a-days we would list that as, *70.

 

Then comes Slammin Sammy with his 68 dingers.

And finally, Mr. Maris with his REAL 61 home runs he slugged.

 

I collected quite a few of these as they came in singles and in team double packs at the dollar store. Doesn't get any cheaper than that for a sports collectible.

Over the years however, I have only held onto these three and a big Derek Jeter bear as I was more focused on cards than I was collectibles.
 

While we are at it, let's take a look back to 1999 near Septmber 22nd and see what else was hot.

Day Of The Week:Wednesday

President:Bill Clinton

Popular Song:Unpretty By TLC

Popular Movie: Fight Club

Popular Book:When The Wind Blows By James Patterson

Popular TV Show: Freaks And Geeks

Popular Video Game:The Dukes Of Hazzard:Racing For Home

Thoughts on today's item or any of the memorable things listed above are welcomed in comments!

$1 Yard Sale Boxes Breakdown Part 2

I showed off a garbage bag containing some cards a couple weeks ago and said I would break down what was in there, well, here we go.

3 more days to go in this 5 part series for you will see what I found.

Today, we continue on with a box of 1993 Leaf baseball

Inside the box, there were 4 big stacks of 1993 Leaf and as I expected, some of the good players were pulled leaving behind a few stragglers that I will use for my PC.

The best of the vets come here. Sosa and Bagwell. Sadly again, no Griffey Jr. Not that I needed this one.

I used to just toss this kinda card to one side, but now I pause a second as it makes me think of a blogger...(which if you need this one, let me know)

And finally, Mr. Hall Of Fame Mike Piazza.

 

Overall, a better box than the first just because of the bigger names found. But, still not as good as I was hoping.

Thoughts on Part 2 are welcomed below!

1997 Upper Deck UD3 Baseball Pack #16

Finally, a pack that provides me some more set help. All three of these cards will go towards my set.

Slammin Sammy. I liked him until....well....you know. I think I have repeated that enough during this series.

Jim Thome to me was the ageless wonder. Seems like he continued to hit no matter the team and age.

Jason Kendall was one of the leagues better catchers during his playing time.

Another pack on it's way tomorrow. We are closing in on the end.

That 90's Card: 1999 UD Choice StarQuest Blue Sammy Sosa

That 90's Card: 1992 Upper Deck Sammy Sosa