1993 Triple Play

For the second year in a row Donruss came up with a nice looking card for their Triple Play release. Is this day and age of hard to read player names that have been foil stamped on the cards, I like it that the name is plastered across the top in 30 point type.

For whatever reason, this set is not listed in my team set checklist book, so my attempt at putting one together may be inaccurate. (I've only got four of these cards, so I'll give it a shot....)

The 1993 Donruss Triple Play Detroit Tigers:

5 Cecil Fielder

44 Milt Cuyler

59 Travis Fryman

92 Mickey Tettleton

137 Rob Deer

176 Tony Phillips

191 Alan Trammell

224 Lou Whitaker

There were some sort of scratch off insert game cards. I kinda remember these, but not really all that much.

15 Cecil Fielder

Also a League Leaders insert card that I don't recall at all.

L5 Cecil Fielder

1993 Studio

It's not often I praise a Donruss release, but I will do so here. This is one of the nicest looking sets ever made. This was such a simple concept that it begs the question of why it was never done before. The only thing I don't like about this set is that I didn't collect the entire thing. Even the foil stamping looks elegant when used in this format. 

Of course it's a shame that they found the doofious (yeah, I made it up, so what?) picture of Kirk Gibson they could possibly dig up, but I still love them. I may have to hunt down a complete set on ebay after the holidays. These are that nice. (I just looked and you can find one for about $15-20. Not a bad deal at all for a set this awesome.)

The 1993 Studio Detroit Tigers:

26 Rob Deer

37 Cecil Fielder

76 Lou Whitaker

108 Travis Fryman

138 Mickey Tettleton

165 Kirk Gibson

213 Tony Phillips

Okay, I only have two beefs with this set. How the hell could they leave out Alan Trammell, yet include Jerald Clark and Orestes Destrade? How?

There is an insert card that I was never aware of at any time in life until fifteen seconds ago. 

Silhouettes #5 Travis Fryman

1993 Leaf

Another Donruss issue that looks like it borrowed heavily from '92 Fleer Ultra. Same old marble background corner and goil foil circle thingy. Pretty lackluster and unimaginative. Much like this paragraph. 

This is also another one of those sets where the backs of the cards look better than the fronts. At least in concept maybe. I mean, instead of just putting two different shots of the Ren Cen in the background, why not mix it up a little bit some other iconic Detroit landmarks like Motown Studios, the Windsor Tunnel, or even the downtown Borders on Woodward Ave.?

The 1993 Leaf Detroit Tigers:

16 Travis Fryman

38 Milt Cuyler

60 Dan Gladden

81 Mike Henneman

103 Bill Gullickson

110 Tettleton/Fryman

126 Tony Phillips

148 Lou Whitaker

191 Mike Munoz

213 Mickey Tettleton

246 Rob Deer

283 Cecil Fielder

314 Kirk Gibson

348 Bill Krueger

375 Scott Livingstone

401 Mike Moore

421 Alan Trammell

463 Chad Kreuter

484 David Wells

534 John Doherty

I have no way of verifying that this checklist card #110 is of Mickey Tettleton doing a flip over the railing while Travis Fryman watches from the dugout, but my theory is the only one I've ever heard, so I'm running with it. 

There were a few ho-hum insert cards. And by ho-hum I mean, "Oh really? Who gives a shit about a Greg Gohr insert card?"

Fasttrack #19 Travis Fryman

Gold All Stars #3 Cecil Fielder

Gold Rookies #6 Greg Gohr

1993 Donruss

I like this set although it kinda reminds me of '92 Fleer Ultra. I think it's the embossed look of the little diamond and bar on the front, I dunno. I do know however that this was Donruss best effort since '84. 

I love the pic of Shawn Hare with the bat back on his shoulder as the ball is about to whiz by him. I like what they did with the checklists too. A Fryman-Livingstone high five should be preserved for all of eternity. 

The 1993 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

13 Mickey Tettleton

41 Rico Brogna

71 Mark Carreon

77 Rich Rowland

99 Kevin Ritz

127 Travis Fryman

145 Kurt Knudsen

173 Milt Cuyler

203 John Kiely

231 Rob Deer

259 Mike Henneman

277 John Doherty

305 Shawn Hare

335 Dave Haas

391 Phil Clark

409 Scott Livingstone

437 Skeeter Barnes

467 Dan Gladden

495 Mark Leiter

523 Bill Gullickson

541 Cecil Fielder

569 Buddy Groom

599 Frank Tanana

605 Greg Gohr

627 Mike Munoz

655 Alan Trammell

673 Chad Kreuter

686 Lou Whitaker

701 Tony Phillips

772 Walt Terrell

There is also a card of Scott Aldred pictured as a Tiger but listed as a Rockie, #733.

They ran out the same looking Diamond Kings in '93 as they did in '92.

DK-15 Cecil Fielder

There were a few inserts, all of which featured Cecil Fielder.

Elite 34 Cecil Fielder

MVP 17 Cecil Fielder

Spirit of the Game 10 Cecil Fielder, Rob Deer, and Mickey Tettleton

I don't have a lot here. I really don't, and I've had two weeks to think about it. Beer is not even getting the juices flowing.

1993 Fleer Flair

These are great looking cards (despite the goil foil, but I won't go into it again...) but I never look at these without thinking of those cheesy high school senior yearbook pictures that debuted in the 80's with the ghosted head shot looking in a different direction than the other picture. I guess it could be worse, Fleer could have issued a set with everybody wearing painters caps, skinny wool ties, or having big oversized combs sticking out of their back pockets. 

The 1993 Fleer Flair Detroit Tigers:

200 John Doherty

201 Cecil Fielder

202 Travis Fryman

203 Kirk Gibson

204 Mike Henneman

205 Chad Kreuter

206 Scott Livingstone

207 Tony Phillips

208 Mickey Tettleton

209 Alan Trammell

210 David Wells

211 Lou Whitaker

1993 Fleer Ultra

My guess is that someone at Fleer figured out that if you make a set so beautiful it ranks as one of the all time best, why mess with it? So they made a few tweaks and released another great looking Ultra set in '93. Not quite as good as '92, but it's so damn close there's not really much to say that I haven't already said about the '92's. 

I absolutely love that card of David Haas looking like he's about to try and field the flaming baseball logo that is headed for his feet. His eyes are staring right at it. Magnificent.

The 1993 Fleer Ultra Detroit Tigers:

194 Milt Cuyler

195 Rob Deer

196 John Doherty

197 Travis Fryman

198 Dan Gladden

199 Mike Henneman

200 John Kiely

201 Chad Kreuter

202 Scott Livingstone

203 Tony Phillips

204 Alan Trammell

548 Cecil Fielder

549 Kirk Gibson

550 Greg Gohr

551 David Haas

552 Bill Krueger

553 Mike Moore

554 Mickey Tettleton

555 Lou Whitaker

I only know about one insert card, and I don't have it.

Home Run Kings

3  Cecil Fielder

1993 Fleer

Wow, I didn't realize that it's been over two weeks since my last entry. Between Facebook, other writing projects, and just plain writer's block when thinking about the upcoming lackluster 90's sets, I just haven't been able to muster up the gumption to get on here and keep plugging away. But with a little help from my friends at Anheuser-Busch, maybe I can get something going tonight.

There were a couple of great looking issues from Fleer in '93. This wasn't one of them. This is quite possibly one of the most boring sets ever. But compared to a lot of the crap that came out in the 90's, boring is ok. 

At the time I actually thought these were pretty cool and collected the whole 9 billion card base set, which I gave away shortly after completing. But I kept the Tigers cards, so here they are, pink trim be damned. 

The 1993 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

224 Milt Cuyler

225 Rob Deer

226 John Doherty

227 Cecil Fielder

228 Trvis Fryman

229 Mike Henneman

230 John Kiely

231 Kurt Knudsen

232 Scott Livingstone

233 Tony Phillips

234 Mickey Tettleton

345  League Leaders Cecil Fielder

603 Skeeter Barnes

604 Mark Carreon

605 Dan Gladden

606 Bill Gullickson

607 Chad Kreuter

608 Mark Leiter

609 Mike Munoz

610 Rich Rowland

611 Frank Tanana

612 Walt Terrell

613 Alan Trammell

614 Lou Whitaker

711 Round Trippers Cecil Fielder

714 Super Star Special Cecil Fielder

There were a few different inserts, but I only have one. At least it was the one of one of the greatest players in MLB history, and I'm not talking about Cecil. (sorry, that's a Detroit Tigers Forum inside joke.....check out the link in the sidebar to find many more)

1993 AL All-Stars

5 Cecil Fielder

Major League Prospects

15 Rico Brogna

Pro-Visions II

3 Cecil Fielder

Rookie Sensations

6 Scott Livingstone

Fleer introduced the mother of all update sets in '93, with this one checking in at 300 cards. So essentially it was a full third series. No inserts that I know of, but a nice list of Tigers.

1993 Fleer Final Edition:

209F Kirk Gibson

210F Greg Gohr

211F Bill Krueger

212F Bob MacDonald

213F Mike Moore

214F David Wells

I've mentioned before my rule of collecting Tigers team sets, but it was a long time ago, so I'll mention it again, because one of the rules applies here. My general rule of thumb is that if the team listed on the front says "Detroit Tigers" and the player is pictured in another uniform, or like the '88 Topps Dickie Noles card it says in small print something about playing for the Tigers, or the player featured is in a Tigers uniform even though he is listed on another team, he goes in my team set collection. 

It's sort of hard for me to keep track of these because I don't have the full sets to look through to verify that I have these exceptions. The folks who published the team set book I am using (which is getting very near it's end) don't see it the way I see it. So I'm more or less at the mercy of either having it or not to be able to list it here. 

Three paragraphs about this lousy Kevin Ritz card. It may not be quality, but I's say the writers block has lifted for the time being. 

1993 Bowman

On the flip side, I have come to love blogging about Bowman cards, simply to look back at the Tigers I have absolutely no recollection of......

1993 Bowman Detroit Tigers:

11 Lou Whitaker

39 Chris Gomez

67 Travis Fryman

95 Danny Bautista

151 Kenny Carlisle

179 Mike Moore

207 Ben Blomdahl

235 Scott Livingstone

263 Rick Greene

291 Brian Edmondson

319 Ivan Cruz

332 Rob Deer

391 Alan Trammell

419 Tony Phillips

447 Justin Mashore

475 Cecil Fielder

503 Jason Pfaff

531 Sean Bergman

559 Mike Henneman

587 Justin Thompson

615 Mickey Tettleton

643 Felipe Lira

671 Greg Gohr

Add Carlisle, Blomdahl, Edmondson, Mashore, and Pfaff to the list. I swear I think Bowman made some of these guys up. Hell, I don't remember Greene or Cruz except for seeing them on other cards. Boy did we suck back then.....

1993 Stadium Club

I don't think I have ever liked a Stadium Club set, but hands down that is the best Tony Phillips card ever. 

1993 Stadium Club:

5 Tony Phillips

31 Mickey Tettleton

65 Kurt Knudsen

116 Mark Leiter

135 Lou Whitaker

156 Milt Cuyler

191 Danny Gladden

212 John Kiely

223 Walt Terrell

248 Mike Munoz

267 Frank Tanana

328 Scott Livingstone

357 Rob Deer

389 Skeeter Barnes

416 Alan Trammell

448 Travis Fryman

480 Mike Henneman

503 Cecil Fielder

519 Rich Rowland

530 Rico Brogna

574 Bill Gullickson

673 Kirk Gibson

685 Greg Gohr

693 Mike Moore

I want one of those caps. Better yet I'd like to see an Indians card from 1993 with one of those throwbacks just to see what they look like. 

1993 Topps

Well between facebook and the election I have been severely slacking around here getting some stuff up. Hopefully I can get on a roll and get this finished by the end of the year so I can move on to newer stuff as well as the unveiling of my own personally designed set of baseball cards. With that being said, let's get going.

If I've said it once, I've said it at least more than once, but never on cyberspace though, and here it is: 1993 Topps was the last great base set they ever made. As far as I'm concerned, they've never even come close, and I don't even have any sentimental attachment to this set. (Other than that bitching card of Buddy Groom in the cool throwback. Check out the rotting Cleveland Municpal Stadium in the background.....) 

It's just a nice looking set. It's uncluttered, easy to read (gold foil will change all that in the years to come) and has some really nice subsets too. In fact, I wish Topps did more things like having multiple managers/all-stars/prospects on a single card. 

The Coming Attractions, Manager, and All-Star cards are nice in an innovative yet not too flashy sort of way. Since I mostly only collect Tigers, it's also a cool way to get some other guys that I normally wouldn't pay attention to, like Art Howe and Barry Larkin. The only thing bad about the Phil Clark Coming Attractions card is that Phil Clark is on it. Otherwise it's a nifty looking card. I know I've bashed the silly Score subsets in the past, and deservedly so, but these never gave off that chintzy vibe to me that Score did. 

The 1993 Topps Detroit Tigers:

26 Skeeter Barnes

53 Frank Tanana

80 Cecil Fielder

107 John Kiely

135 Mickey Tettleton

160 Lou Whitaker

189 Tony Phillips

216 Mark Leiter

233 Rick Greene

243 Rob Deer

272 Kurt Knudsen

298 Scott Livingstone

325 Bill Gullickson

353 Buddy Groom

379 Mike Munoz

392 Travis Fryman

423 Ivan Cruz

429 Milt Cuyler

491 Shawn Hare

506 Sparky Anderson

536 Dave Haas

567 Mark Carreon

598 Rico Brogna

626 Danny Gladden

660 Alan Trammell

692 Chad Kreuter

713 John Doherty

756 Mike Henneman

802 Phil Clark

The Traded set was short but sweet.

8T Kirk Gibson

50T David Wells

Topps continued with those crappy goil foil parallels that are just about impossible to read. Had I known they would eventually ALWAYS use the gold foil, I might not have disliked these so much.

In an obvious attempt to capitalize on the popularity of Soul Asylum, Topps debuted the Black Gold insert set. These could have left without a trace and nobody would have cared. They were definitely not the runaway train that Topps had hoped for......

30 Cecil Fielder

41 Mickey Tettleton

The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

My apologies to the three regular readers of this blog for the delay of my much anticipated review of 1993 Topps, but I have spent the past week making the jump to Facebook in hopes of possibly doubling, or dare I say, tripling, readership here at DTCAS.

I think a slow down was to be expected with regards to my trying to blog about fourteen something different sets a night. I'm about to begin chronicling a ten year period in card collecting history which saw upwards of twenty to thirty different releases a year, and quite frankly my liver just can't keep up with those kinds of numbers anymore.

However, now that I am Facebooking, I would like to add a little more literary, musical, and movie related content to the site as well. Given that a large percentage of my Facebook "friends" are "creative types" I hope to drive up readership to such lofty heights as ten or more people. Also, I just plain enjoy discussing that type of stuff.

For the three readers who have stuck around from the beginning, don't worry. It'll still be primarily about the Documentation of the Cardboard Preservation of the Legends of the OED. But a little musing here and there about the collective works of John Hughes; unreleased and rear bootlegs of The Outfield; wondering why Richard Russo keeps writing the same novel; or the age old question of who was faster, Superman or The Flash; will hopefully provide a much needed increase in participation here at DTCAS.

Oh yeah, you can find me here:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1615624708&ref=profile

1992 O-Pee-Chee Premier

Je n'ai rien l'original pour dire de cette série. Donc je serai péniblement unclever et le dis français.

L'O-Pee-Chee Premier Tigres de Détroit:

11 Danny Gladden

31 Alan Trammell

48 Mark Leiter

56 Scott Livingstone

70 Cecil Fielder

80 Eric King

88 Mark Carreon

126 Pete Incaviglia

174 Paul Gibson

Paul Gibson? Oui.

Lou Whitaker? Non.

 

Ma bonté! Remercier des cieux que je suis fini avec 1992!

1992 Upper Deck

I swore I was not going to do another Upper Deck set while under the influence.

I lied.

I like these. I really do. But I must draw this blogging session to a close.

The 1992 Upper Deck Detroit Tigers:

74 Rico Brogna

96 Team Checklist Cecil Fielder

184 Tony Phillips

251 Mickey Tettleton

255 Cecil Fielder

271 Pete Incaviglia

273 Alan Trammell

294 Rob Deer

317 Bill Gullickson

319 Mark Leiter

339 Mike Henneman

453 Rusty Meacham

466 Travis Fryman

468  Lloyd Moseby

470 Skeeter Barnes

487 John Cerutti

489 Paul Gibson

516 Lou Whitaker

520 Walt Terrell

536 Milt Cuyler

538 Scott Livingstone

601 Jerry Don Gleaton

605 Frank Tanana

643 Travis Fryman Best Infield Arm

647 Cecil Fielder Best Power

737 Dan Gladden

739 Mark Carreon

There were some inserts.

The Inserts:

Scouting Report

SR14 Scott Livingstone

Home Run Heroes

HR2 Cecil Fielder

Ted Williams Best

T5 Cecil Fielder

The first person to post a comment about the Mark Carreon photo that makes me laugh will win something to be determined sometime later. Probably a beer sometime next summer in Pittsburgh.....

Thank in advance for playing.

1992 Pinnacle

Score decided they were going to join the big boy club with their own high end set in 1992, and they didn't do a bad job with these. But from a printing standpoint, all they did was throw a gloss coating on a regular card, so these aren't really all that high end, unless you consider the sticker price on these packs.

I like these better than their base set, what with the black and orange motif, but there's not much else to like about these. No interesting design, no interesting player selection, no interesting nothing. Even the Team 2000 insert set is uninteresting. There's not even a goofy photograph to make fun of. 

Yawn.

The 1992 Pinnacle Detroit Tigers:

4 Cecil Fielder

29 Lou Whitaker

87 Bill Gullickson

110 Travis Fryman

113 Alan Trammell

164 Mike Henneman

174 Milt Cuyler

190 Walt Terrell

198 Frank Tanana

218 Skeeter Barnes

226 Mickey Tettleton

243 Tony Phillips

318 Dan Gladden

348 Rob Deer

354 Scott Aldred

441 Mark Carreon

490 Scott Livingstone

503 Eric King

513 John Doherty

579 Trever Miller

598 Shawn Hare

Egads! I picked up the one insert card I have from this set out of a commons bin. I had no idea there were that many more! 

Rookie Idols:

17 Chad Curtis and Alan Trammell

Slugfest:

1 Cecil Fielder

Team 2000:

4 Travis Fryman

44 Milt Cuyler

Rookies:

4 John Doherty

1992 Score

I'll never understand the logic behind the odd border combinations of Score's sets. At my age I spend far too much time looking for my car keys in the morning to devote too much time to thinking about things like this. So it will probably always remain a mystery. But in '92, Score came back to give us a decent looking set, weird border colors not withstanding. 

The Ty Cobb tribute card is the best Tigers card Score ever made, period. Hell, I'd collect a whole set of HOF cards that looked like that.

The 1992 Score Detroit Tigers:

26 Milt Cuyler

50 Cecil Fielder

56 Rob Deer

65 Travis Fryman

134 Mickey Tettleton

179 John Cerutti

217 Mike Henneman

242 Bill Gullickson

255 Lou Whitaker

261 Paul Gibson

271 Frank Tanana

306 Pete Incaviglia

355 Walt Terrell

375 Jerry Don Gleaton

394 Mark Salas

395 Rusty Meacham

414 Scott Livingstone

453 Tony Phillips

468 Lloyd Moseby

515 Alan Trammell

537 Andy Allanson

543 Dave Bergman

569 Skeeter Barnes

626 Mark Leiter

729 Scott Aldred

825 David Haas

828 Shawn Hare

831 Dan Gakeler

878 Ty Cobb Tribute

There was a bloated 90 card insert set of "Impact Players." Hard to fathom that there could be 90 cards of "Impact Players", but it's true. Just in case you think I am lying, Milt Cuyler, Anthony Young, and Eddie Zosky are in this set. As I like to say on occasion, there you go.

4 Milt Cuyler

47 Travis Fryman

60 Cecil Fielder

One of these days, I'm going to go on ebay and buy a Score Rookie and Traded set for each year, because it seems that I never did, and then bundle up all the non-Tigers by team to trade to other folks like me.

The 1992 Score Update and Traded:

28 Dan Gladden

37 Mark Carreon

42 Eric King

81 John Doherty

1992 Triple Play

Just to make sure the kids didn't go a wanting in '92, Donruss released a set specifically marketed for them, and it says here that they did a great job. The fiery borders somehow work here. The player selection is ok for a 264 card set. I vaguely remember that you could put this whole set together for under $10. (That would explain why I am missing a few of these....) So despite my ragging on Donruss for their previous childish designs, it's ok to do so in my book as long as the cards are cheap and made for kids to begin with.

The 1992 Donruss Triple Play Detroit Tigers:

29 Cecil Fielder

44 Mickey Tettleton

86 Travis Fryman

99 Awesome Action Tony Phillips

100 Milt Cuyler

117 Lou Whitaker

161 Bill Gullickson

176 Alan Trammell

218 Tony Phillips

249 Frank Tanana

Now to perhaps one of the best baseball cards ever. Check out the "Awesome Action" card of Luis Polonia stealing second base on the Tigers. Now look at the second picture of the ump calling Polonia out while the ball is clearly above Phillips's head. Now look at what it says on the back of the card.

Awesome. Simply awesome. They even let the kids write up the backs too. How could anybody not like these?

1992 Studio

Donruss did a much better job with their second year of Studio cards than they did with their first. The metallic gold borders and grainy sepia tone photo were both innovative in '92. Unfortunately, there isn't much else going on here. Unless you count the photo of the dad from Seventh Heaven on Frank Tanana's card. You don't think that's him? Look at the t-shirt. Enough said.

The 1992 Studio Detroit Tigers:

171 Milt Cuyler

172 Rob Deer

173 Cecil Fielder

174 Travis Fryman

175 Mike Henneman

176 Tony Phillips

177 Frank Tanana

178 Mickey Tettleton

179 Alan Trammell

180 Lou Whitaker

1992 Leaf

Some sets don't really give you much to work with, and this is one of those sets. They used the metallic silver again to excess and didn't do much with the design. The parallel cards look much much better, but again, gold foil over black doesn't scan worth a shit, so you won't see much here.

The 1992 Leaf Detroit Tigers:

21 Frank Tanana

40 Tony Phillips

61 Bill Gullickson

75 Milt Cuyler

127 Scott Livingstone

153 Cecil Fielder

172 Alan Trammell

193 Rob Deer

207 Mark Leiter

239 Dan Gladden

259 Mark Carreon

285 Mickey Tettleton

304 Travis Fryman

325 Mike Henneman

386 Kevin Ritz

391 Lou Whitaker

402 Les Lancaster

496 Chad Kreuter

There was another Gold Rookies insert set that was pretty ho-hum. The cards themselves don't look that great, but the picture of John Doherty makes him look like a bad ass flame thrower, which he never was. If I had the card I would post it, but I don't, and I can't find a decent scan on ebay.

BC24 John Doherty

1992 Donruss

I like to refer to these as Donruss' comeback set. Ok, I have never actually referred to these as Donruss' comeback set, but I would like to. Donruss leapt ahead of most of their competition in base sets in 1992. You can tell that desktop publishing was really starting to take off around this time. The gradiated blue borders (green on The Rookies of course...) really are a nice, simple touch to these. 

Donruss also figured out that the gold foil worked much better as an accentuation on their Diamond King inserts, which were the best looking DK's every produced. The cards are printed on a nice thick white card stock with a glossy finish. While this is not one of my favorite Donruss issues, it at least showed that they were done appealing to kids with their base set. Consider this a springboard to some of the fantastic cards they produced in the mid-90's.

The 1992 Donruss Detroit Tigers:

42 Andy Allanson

85 Mickey Tettleton

111 Frank Tanana

131 BIll Gullickson

164 Alan Trammell

206 Cecil Fielder

232 Milt Cuyler

253 Mike Henneman

285 Milt Cuyler

328 Tony Phillips

349 Travis Fryman

375 Paul Gibson

443 Lloyd Moseby

486 Scott Aldred

512 Mark Salas

532 Rob Deer

565 Walt Terrell

607 Jerry Don Gleaton

633 Mark Leiter

675 Scott Livingstone

709 John Cerutti

749 Skeeter Barnes

DK-25 Tony Phillips Diamond King

This was the last year of The Rookies as we would know them. If that didn't make you shed a tear, perhaps the list of Tigers will do so:

17 Rico Brogna

33 John Doherty

44 Buddy Groom

48 Shawn Hare

62 Kurt Knudsen

1992 Fleer Ultra

Hands down my favorite set of 1992. Everything about these look great. The marble background. The embossed look of the bars with the player and team name, in team colors. Even the gold foil, which I absolutely despise, looks great. (used to accentuate and not the focal point of the design, as it should be......) Even the backs look better than most card designs of the last 20 years. (I LOVE the 3D look to the Tigers' logo.) Fleer knocked one out of the proverbial park with this issue.

The 1992 Fleer Ultra Detroit Tigers:

56 Dave Bergman

57 Milt Cuyler

58 Rob Deer

59 Cecil Fielder

60 Travis Fryman

61 Scott Livingstone

62 Tony Phillips

63 Mickey Tettleton

64 Alan Trammell

65 Lou Whitaker

358 Skeeter Barnes

359 Mark Carreon

360 John Doherty

361 Dan Gladden

362 BIll Gullickson

363 Shawn Hare

364 Mike Henneman

365 Chad Kreuter

366 Mark Leiter

367 Mike Munoz

Never before this moment right now did I know that there were any Tiger insert cards in this set, which is a shame. The All-Stars set was every bit as elegant as the base set. maybe even more. I am going to have to hunt this puppy down on ebay. Maybe even tonight.

5 Mickey Tettleton

Note: I just checked ebay, and there are none. As gorgeous as those All-Star cards are, I can certainly imagine why....

1992 Fleer

1992 was just another year in a long line of lackluster releases by Fleer. Boring cards with those hideous metallic spearmint green borders. I think this was the same color as the Buick Skylark in My Cousin Vinny. When the best you can do is reference Lane Smith's best performance, it's time to move on.

The 1992 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

127 Scott Aldred

128 Andy Allanson

129 John Cerutti

130 Milt Cuyler

131 Mike Dalton

132 Rob Deer

133 Cecil Fielder

134 Travis Fryman

135 Dan Gakeler

136 Paul Gibson

137 Bill Gullickson

138 Mike Henneman

139 Pete Incaviglia

140 Mark Leiter

141 Scott Livingstone

142 Lloyd Phillips

143 Tony Phillips

144 Mark Salas

145 Frank Tanana

146 Walt Terrell

147 Mickey Tettleton

148 Alan Trammell

149 Lou Whitaker

692 League Leaders Cecil Fielder

705 Super Star Special Cecil Fielder

715 Team Checklist

There wasn't too much special going on with the inserts either. You can see that gold foil doesn't scan all that great. Have I mentioned that before?

Rookie Sensations:

7 Milt Cuyler

Fleer All-Stars:

9 Mickey Tettleton

Lumber Company:

1 Cecil Fielder

2 Mickey Tettleton

Team Leaders:

6 Cecil Fielder

Nice, big, but still boring, Update set:

19U Rico Brogna

20U John Doherty

21U Dan Gladden

22U Buddy Groom

23U Shawn Hare

24U John Kiely

25U Kurt Knudsen

If you read this far to tell me that Mike Dalton's card is not in the Update set, then leave me a message telling me so. As luck would have it , I don't have any of the Update cards, except for the one insert card that was included in the factory set. Which begs the question, how can you really have an "insert" card if you put one in every set? But I'm not in a begging mood tonight, so screw it.....

'92 Headliners:

4 Cecil Fielder