1990 Upper Deck Baseball stickers

May it first be noted that this, being the fifth post of 2012 on TDTC, marks the passage of lasts year's post mark of four! Progress! Here, now is Upper Deck's 22 year old foray into team stickers. Shiinneee...These actually scanned surprisingly well, considering how hard it is to see them. Best I can tell, these were inserted one per pack of 1990 Upper Deck.

A Pirates sticker here-Each sticker is a little bit like "A history of MLB logos". Pirates fans, did that particular scalawag have any sort of nickname/existence as a team mascot? Jess wonderin'...

St. Louis Cardinals sticker. The back of the sticker is a blank white back. Yawn...I actually have a nice stack of these hologram stickers-maybe I could use them as trade package throw-ins. Unfortunately I do not have the Braves version of this sticker-anyone care to help me out there?

This card is sorta creepy. Apparently Chief Wahoo has gone...3-D! Considering this was 1990, this is like, bangin', cutting-edge technology! Amazing! (Looking back, Mr. Cardinal seems to have this 3-D form too. Cool, I guess. (Picture 1990 kid pulling Mr. Wahoo here: "Buzz Hype, yo! Man, that is clean!!!")

Last, I post a Cubs card. I posted this mostly because I have like 5 of them I don't really care for. (Picture afore-mentioned 1990 kid: "I have like, five of these Cubs hologrammies. Buzz kill, man!)Any diehard Cubs fans want these? (I know you're out there.)

So there you have it. 1990 Upper Deck hologram stickers! I frankly have no idea what a kid in 1990 would have done with these. They're not by any means something you stick on your car bumper (though that would look awesome to have the entire back of your car a giant hologram, ...right?) They're just...shiny. Huh. Well, anyway, 1990 UD holograms, everybody! (Let's bounce on outta heah, ya'll!)

Look! I'm Ozzie Smith! 1990 MLB Punch-out masks

In 1990, a company called "Gallery Books" published a 16-mask set of baseball players. The set was broken up into four books, each with four punchout masks. The masks (Ozzie seen above) are made up of the player's face with team hat, a brim for the ballcap, and two earpieces. I do not own these, but wonder how on earth I managed to miss these wonderful oddball items. I noticed several pages (maybe all the pages for all I know) have instructions for assembling the masks. Really? I am pretty sure that if I had been 8 or 9 in 1990, I could have figured out how these things work. Then again, as a child I had the entire collection of Whitman 'Tiny Town' books, so maybe I'm just special that way....

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The books include the Rookies: Chicago Cubs' Jerome Walton; NY Mets' Gregg Jefferies; Angels' Jim Abbott; Seattle Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr:

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The Power Pitchers book includes: Texas Rangers' Nolan Ryan; LA Dodgers' Orel Hershiser; NY Mets' Doc Gooden; Boston Red Sox's Roger Clemens:

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The Power Hitters book features: NY Yankees' Mattingly; NY Mets' Darryl Strawberry; SF Giants' Will Clark; Oakland A's Jose Canseco:

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And, finally, the Golden Gloves book: Cardinals' Ozzie Smith, Cubs' Mark Grace, Cubs' Ryne Sandberg, Braves' Wally Joyner:

1990 Donruss Bonus MVPs

Bonus MVPs was an insert in late 1980s and early 1990 Donruss. The 1990 version featured
26 cards. They had the same basic design as the regular cards. Bright red with confetti scattered up and down the borders. The photos are all posed and the background is MVP repeated over and over.

There is nothing really special about these except for the existence of an error card involving John Smoltz. As you can see there are two versions of this card, one with a picture of Smoltz, the other with a picture of his teammate, Tom Glavine.

You have to wonder how such a thing happens. My guess is that in 1990, neither of these guys was real well known. Both were coming off their first full year of pitching. It's hard to imagine someone in the baseball card manufacturing business not being to recognize both of these guys on sight, but they weren't always as famous as they are today.

I'd had the correct version of this card for some time. I just
recently acquired the Glavine version in a pack of Donruss from a Fairfield repack box. Who says there isn't still some fun to be had from an 18 year-old-pack of cards?

When I logged the card into my database I didn't really look at it closely and didn't notice the error. It was when I was going to put it in my Smoltz binder that I thought, hey, wait a minute, that's not John Smoltz!

1990 U.S. Playing Cards

It was bound to happen sooner or later. Major League players on actual playing cards. These were really popular in the early nineties. Then, after a few years, they seemed to disappear altogether.

I'd certainly be interested in seeing current Major League players on playing cards. For that matter, I'd also be interested in old school players in the same format. I suppose this is one of those ideas that was keen in the nineties, but ultimately has no place in today's society.

I can chalk it up as an oddity of the time, but I have a feeling that somewhere, somehow these cards will be resurrected in the near future. There doesn't seem to be as many oddball releases currently. Everything seems to be based on an insert today. No originality. Even the cards that Topps bestowed on Pepsi in 2007 looked just like the flagship release.

As you can see in the example, Griffey Jr. was popular enough to warrant the jack of spades. A face card for a rookie seems unbelievable. Yet, there he is. This release had all the names of the day. It even had Greg Olson and Gregg Olson! Then you get into Jeff Brantley, Neal Heaton and Brook Jacoby. They don't exactly spark any memories for me, but I'm sure they do if they played on your team.

What early nineties set would be complete without Bob Welch? Well, it wouldn't be complete without the 27 game winner. A feat he never came remotely close to again. In fact, he never got past 17 wins before that. After that magical season, he only managed to hit 12 wins... once.

I keep getting beat up playing cards in trades. I think they are a unique product of the early nineties. I know that it's not an original idea, but it seemed to culminate around this period. There always seemed to be a steady stream of MLB playing cards around 1991. As time moves on, this may be the only card that really retains some value from 1990. Everything else was too mass produced to be worth anything but sentimental value. These cards were meant to be played. Maybe that will be the saving grace in the future.

1990 Bazooka #13 - Carlos Martinez

I'd love to hear the story about this card! It has definitely seen better days. I received this card today, in a package from Jeff of On Base Autos and Whose Card Is It? fame.

There was a good mix of commons, doubles and a few stars thrown in for good measure. Then, the third to the last card, I run across this beauty of Carlos Martinez. Creased, bubbled corners, unidentifiable gunk, partialy torn, and possibly slight water damage. I love it!

This card represents Carlos' career. There's a lot of promise, but it just gets blocked and tossed away before anything can really be appreciated. What was Carlos' block on the White Sox? Frank Thomas.

Who would you rather put out at first base, Carlos Martinez or Frank Thomas? Yeah, I thought so. Sure, Carlos was Topps 1989 Rookie First Baseman, but when you're blocking Frank Thomas, you have to get out of the way. If you don't you're going to get knocked the @*#! out!

Carlos put up decent numbers in 1989. He hit .391 in Vancouver and .300 with the White Sox. The hits were there, but the long ball was lacking most of the time and the RBI's just didn't materialize. When you have someone who could potentially be a Triple Crown winner (and almost did on a few occasions), you're going to get sent down or traded.

I liked Carlos when he was with the Sox, but you won't hear me complaining. I prefer Frank Thomas as the Sox first baseman in the early nineties. Who wouldn't?

Carlos Martinez probably got tossed aside when the newer, more powerful model came along. His card ended up in a shoebox, tossed carelessly on a shelf in a dank basement corner. Or he ended up in a stack of commons that got knocked over and was never missed when he didn't return to the pile. Whatever Carlos' story, he has found a home.

1990 Classic Update - Nolan Knows Bo

Garish
Images
Meant to
Mock the
Industry by
Creating
Kitsch crap.

And boy do these gimmicks work! I remember when this was the hot card that everyone had to have. Gimmicks always work the same way. They start high.

Everyone has to have this new thing. Everyone will pay outrageous prices for these things, so they can have them first. Or they will pay for the privilege of having one of an assumed low quantity. Then, the bottom drops out.

This card has a high price of $2.00 on Beckett right now. People were paying big bucks for this card when it first came out. Now, it's almost commonplace. This is the problem with gimmicks. There's only a small window of opportunity, in which to make your money back. After that, you're stuck.

My card came in a set, so I paid under 10 dollars for this card and 49 others in the set. If I sold every card for Beckett high value, I might make my original investment back. Might. Who am I kidding about investment? I was a kid and this was the most talked about set. I wanted my superstars in pictures that would never make it onto a major card companies cards at the time. Yes, I was suckered in by gimmicks too.

Now gimmicks are everywhere. There's no stopping them. There are computer manipulated cards, "pulled" cards, "leaked" cards, one of one cards, red cards, blue cards. It's maddening! Everything is a gimmick now. There can't be a release without a gimmick. It's pathetic.

I can trace the intentional gimmick card back to this card. There have been others before it and plenty since. This is the first instance in which a gimmick card was featured on a gimmick card. My brain hurts just thinking about that.

I am reminded of the Billy Ripken profanity laced bat knob card. I would classify that as a mistake, not a gimmick. I am also reminded of the Bo Jackson 1987 Classic card, which is the card featured in this Nolan Knows Bo card. I call that more of an opportunity, than a gimmick.

This is the card that started the innocent trend of kitschy cards down the wrong path. It led to a path of mayor's involved in a World Series celebration and deceased star players watching from the dugout. It is not a pretty path. It is dark and treacherous. I will respect the card company with the least amount of gimmicks in any given year.

1990 Publications International Stickers (Large) - Sam Sosa

When I first received this in a trade recently, it looked familiar but I had no clue as to what it was. Was it a photo? Was it a sticker? I couldn't tell. The only thing that I knew was that it had been hand cut.

My dad always reminds me that I was a fan of Sammy Sosa when he was on the White Sox. This is mostly true. I am a fan of everyone that comes through the organization. Good or bad. When Sammy was with the White Sox, he was bad.

Sammy struck out a lot, which is something he never really solved. He couldn't hit a home run to save his life. Not that they were flying out of the park at that time, they weren't hit by anyone on a regular basis until Frank Thomas came along. Sosa made mistakes and didn't really do anything spectacular to make up for them.

I remember being at new Comiskey Park in 1991 when Sammy was in right field. It was a game against the Royals. How do I know this? We always saw the Royals for some reason. Whenever my family would find the time to go to the park, the Royals were always in town. It still baffles me to this day.

The entire section behind Sammy would yell at him while he was in the field. S-A-M-M-Y-S-O-S-A, WAKE UP!! This went on every half inning. I thought he was a bad fielder, but I didn't think he deserved that. Could that moment be the deciding factor in his "ahem" future home run performance? I don't know. I often wonder about that.

The weird thing about this sticker besides the size of it, is the name. Sam Sosa. I've never seen that on a card or a sticker before. It makes me smile a little. Maybe he didn't want to be called Sammy. Maybe it was forced on him by the media or his agent. Maybe he always longed to be called Sam. It's a more respectable variation of Samuel.

Sammy reminds me of a child. That's exactly what he turned into later on in life. There was still hope left for Sam when this photograph was taken. There were subtle differences to tell Sam from Sammy.

Sam could speak English. Sammy forgot how. Sam would give his best and try but ultimately fail. Sammy would take every advantage to get ahead, which made for some interesting news stories involving such things as cork and drugs. Sam was a team player. Sammy was a selfish SOB.

This sticker reminds me of a ballplayer, not a media darling who acted like a sideshow freak. I guess that's the difference between Sam and Sammy. I could like Sam, but Sammy wouldn't let me.

1990 Fleer Sticker - Cleveland Indians Logo

I used to plaster these stickers all around my bedroom when I was a kid. I never got the ones that I wanted, so I would stick them to various things and watch them degrade over time. I loved every one of those stickers. It showed my love of baseball to every friend who came over. It was almost a status symbol to have the most logo stickers plastered around my room.

Sometimes I would pick up a pack of Fleer just for the stickers. The cards never really did much for me during the 80's. They mostly looked bland compared to Topps. There's only so much warm-up jackets a kid can see before he wants to puke.

I considered these stickers add-ons to the main set. They were something you had to collect along with the regular cards for the set to be complete. The one White Sox sticker I have, I acquired earlier this month is a trade. A 1984 Fleer sticker. That was one of the coolest parts of the trade.

I thought these stickers were largely forgotten until I ran across The Fleer Sticker Project. Now, I'm starting to see them again and I'm hearing about them more often. Upper Deck produced a few sticker inserts in the 1991 release, but they weren't the same. They were fancy holograms, not old school logos.

These Fleer stickers remind me of a simpler time, when stars did not command more money than I will ever handle in my lifetime. I remember being shocked at the amount of money that Darryl Strawberry was being paid when he signed with the Dodgers. Now, that's almost the average salary for major leaguers.

Upper Deck definitely needs to put logo stickers in their Fleer product. Most of us would buy it out of nostalgia.