Sunday, October 26, 2008

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!

Friday, October 24, 2008

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

Monday, October 20, 2008

1992 Bowman


Topps did with the '92 Bowman set what they did with the '91 Stadium Club set, except continuing to load it with prospect cards. If you blinked you missed this set though and once Mike Piazza burst on the scene that was all she wrote for finding these on the cheap. Outside of Justin Thompson's RC however, there was nothing special about the Tigers in the set. 

Unless you count the foil card of Team USA player Rick Greene, the card of a supposedly 26 year old Riccardo Ingram, (I think that's Rico Carty trying to sneak in a comeback...) and the fantastic card of Kevin Ritz giving the signal to the catcher of what pitch he just threw, while the ball was one its way towards home. Of course with Ritz, you know that ball didn't stick around home plate for long....


The 1992 Bowman Detroit Tigers:
3 Scott Livingstone
37 Travis Fryman
90 Cecil Fielder
111 Mark Carreon
117 Mickey Tettleton
164 Riccardo Ingram
170 Ivan Cruz
196 Milt Cuyler
229 John DeSilva
246 Joe Perona
256 Rico Brogna
272 Tony Phillips
317 Eric King
345 Tarrik Brock
363 Rob Deer
419 Kevin Ritz
441 Mike Henneman
453 Greg Gohr
476 Mark Leiter
515 Chad Kreuter
518 John Doherty
543 Justin Thompson
558 Bill Gullickson
639 Lou Whitaker
690 Alan Trammell

Add Ingram, Perona, and Brock to the list of Tigers I have no recollection of. What a collection of no recollections that group is becoming too.

1992 Stadium Club


I have zero fond memories of this set. Topps suckered everybody baaaaaaad with these cards. After the frenzy of '91 Stadium Club being impossible to find, Topps produced somewhere in the trillions of these, yet kept the $3 a pack sticker price. I distinctly remember buying a Series 1 box of these for $90. I kept those cards up until just a few years ago, when I gave them to a friend of mine. I think you can pick up a set of all three series for around $20 if you look around hard enough. Not only did they produce a NINE HUNDRED CARD premium set, but they look very similar to the year before too. (Almost identical on the back). This was Topps greed at its finest.

The 1992 Stadium Club Detroit Tigers:
5 Milt Cuyler
34 Mike Henneman
59 Travis Fryman
71 John Cerutti
92 Rob Deer
119 Bill Gullickson
139 Walt Terrell
171 Dave Bergman
195 Mickey Tettleton
223 Paul Gibson
238 Andy Allanson
250 Cecil Fielder
276 Dan Gakeler
317 Scott Livingstone
337 Kevin Ritz
362 Dave Haas
384 John Kiely
416 Frank Tanana
441 Mike Munoz
465 Shawn Hare
488 Tony Phillips
508 Rich Rowland
526 Jeff Kaiser
550 Lou Whitaker
585 Skeeter Barnes
638 Eric King
678 Mark Carreon
762 Scott Aldred
801 Danny Gladden
850 Alan Trammell
889 Mark Leiter

1992 Topps


For the second year in a row, Topps produced an outstanding set. I personally prefer the '91's over these, but there were several improvements that put these right up there with them. First and foremost was changing to the all white card stock. For the first year ever, Topps cards flat out popped when you pulled them out of the packs. 

Another thing they did that I loved was bringing back the multi-player prospects cards. I don't know whether it's the fact that Trammell, Whitaker, Parrish, and Morris' rookie cards where all this way, or just the fact that it's cool to get four rookies on one card, (although with Bowman in full swing you didn't necessarily get four...) but whatever it is I like them. I'd like to see them used more today. But with the goofy rules involved now with rookie cards, I imagine they are a thing of the past.


The 1992 Topps Detroit Tigers:
29 Mickey Tettleton
120 Alan Trammell
126 Rico Brogna
143 Paul Gibson
167 Andy Allanson
198 Scott Aldred
221 Skeeter Barnes
272 Jerry Don Gleaton
293 Mike Henneman
319 Tony Phillips
354 Dave Bergman
381 Spark Anderson
397 Cecil Fielder All-Star
425 Cecil Fielder
441 Rob Deer
458 Frank Tanana
472 Rich Rowland
487 John Cerutti
508 Bill Gullickson
522 Milt Cuyler
537 Mark Leiter
570 Lou Whitaker
621 Dan Gakeler
656 Rudy Pemberton
665 Dave Haas
679 Pete Incaviglia
684 Trever Miller
685 Scott Livingstone
722 Walt Terrell
750 Travis Fryman


Topps also introduced the full-blown parallel set in '92 (I'm not counting the Desert Storm cards of '91, because...well....if you have to go to Iraq to get them then they aren't real parallels....) with not one but two variations of their base card. One version had gold foil over the player and team name and were randomly inserted in packs. The second version looked the same as the first, but had the word "Winner" in foil as well. You got these by playing some sort of scratch off game. A co-worker of mine at the time had these by the bushel as he would throw the game cards on a light table to see where the winning scratches were.

They issued their most popular traded set in years. Unfortunately I never got one. These babies were pricey before the Nomar Garciaparra card exploded into the stratosphere. But at least I have a Trever Miller Draft Pick card I can show.


21T Mark Carreon
24T Phil Clark
41T Danny Gladden
44T Rick Greene


I thought Topps and O-Pee-Chee had split ways in '91, and I was wrong. I only have this one card, but it is numbered the same as his Topps base card. Since it is a higher number than most OPC sets usually contain, I am going to assume that the entire set contains the same checklist as its Topps counterpart. 

Friday, October 17, 2008

1991 Upper Deck



I can see already that Upper Deck is getting a bad shake in this deal. As I like to blog about a year per night, usually with beer, I find myself getting increasingly sloppy by the time I get to their cards each year. I'll address this in my final post this evening.

Upper Deck was stuck in a rut nonetheless. I have a hard time telling their first few years cards apart, which is a shame, since they were always at the top end of the spectrum. These really are great looking cards, but again, they didn't seem to have much going on with regards to originality. They just seem to keep moving home plate around. 

But, they do have that error card of Frank Tanana with Larry Wilcox's picture......


The 1991 Upper Deck Detroit Tigers:
7 Scott Aldred
45 Team Checklist - Jack Morris
73 Rico Brogna
131 Tony Phillips
201 John Shelby
203 Lance McCullers
205 Mark Salas
223 Alan Trammell
225 Travis Fryman
241 Scott Lusader
244 Cecil Fielder
316 Dan Petry
318 Mike Heath
320 Walt Terrell
336 Jack Morris
338 Steve Searcy
340 Larry Sheets
367 Lou Whitaker
369 Frank Tanana
386 Mike Henneman
389 Chet Lemon
412 Gary Ward
556 Milt Cuyler
559 Lloyd Moseby
579 Paul Gibson
599 Dave Bergman
676 Jeff Robinson

High Number Series:
726 Rob Deer
729 Mickey Tettleton
747 Pete Incaviglia


There was one insert card. Much like Donruss, it wasn't much of an insert card, it was just numbered differently. Oh, and it had a pretty bat. A silver bat. With white stars.

SS12 Cecil Fielder Sliver Slugger


Upper Deck also released an extra end of the year boxed set, the Final Edition. This was in addition to the high number series they already released. So I guess this is like the the second Update edition. Either way, that's a cool card of Livingstone.

44F Rusty Meacham
53F Scott Livingstone
82F Cecil Fielder


1991 Score


I am completely speechless. For anybody who knows me, that is no small feat. Judge for yourself. I'm just going to throw them anywhere at this point.

The 1991 Score Detroit Tigers:
38 Tony Phillips
40 Alan Trammell
112 Mike Heath
114 Jack Morris
129 Jeff Robinson


133 Lloyd Moseby
142 Mike Henneman
152 Paul Gibson
168 Cecil Fielder


176 Larry Sheets
297 Lou Whitaker
313 Lance McCullers
316 Jerry Don Gleaton
328 Frank Tanana


395 Cecil Fielder All-Star
434 Dan Petry
557 Chet Lemon
562 Dave Bergman
570 Travis Fryman


609 John Shelby
629 Darnell Coles
637 Gary Ward
649 Steve Searcy
693 Cecil Fielder Master Blaster


740 Scott Aldred
741 Rico Brogna
756 Phil Clark
770 Cecil Fielder Highlight
801 Walt Terrell
852 Alan Trammell


There was an Update set too and I don't have a single card. So I'll post this Walt Terrell card.

3T Pete Incaviglia
25T Mickey Tettleton
40T John Cerutti
47T Rob Deer
56T Bill Gullickson

1003 total cards in this amazingly bad set. 

Speechless I say. 

Speechless.

1991 Studio


Wow. Where to begin. Somebody at Donruss was dating someone at Olan Mills and voila! Studio!! I graduated HS in 1986, and I swear that 99% of the guy's senior pics in my yearbook look exactly like Lloyd Moseby's. Sadly, the other 2 pictures look just like Rob Deer's. (and Wyatt Earp's...) I will not be posting my own picture at this time.

The 1991 Studio Detroit Tigers:
51 Milt Cuyler
52 Rob Deer
53 Cecil Fielder
54 Travis Fryman
55 Bill Gullickson
56 Lloyd Moseby
57 Frank Tanana
58 Mickey Tettleton
59 Alan Trammell
60 Lou Whitaker


1991 Leaf


Year 2 of Leaf gave us these uninspired cards. It sort of looks like the cards are supposed to look like they are pictures in a photo album. A photo album full of lead paint maybe.

A great shot of things to come from Milt Cuyler though.

I can't imagine how pissed off if I would be if I were not a Tigers fan and I bought a pack of these high end cards and pulled a Jerry Don Gleaton......until I look at the Brewers checklist and see Kurt Knudsen. Suddenly I'm not so pissed anymore.....

The 1991 Leaf Detroit Tigers:
4 Tony Phillips
18 Mike Henneman
55 Paul Gibson
92 Dave Bergman
106 Cecil Fielder
120 Lou Whitaker
135 Jerry Don Gleaton
149 Travis Fryman
187 Steve Searcy
223 Lloyd Moseby
237 Rob Deer
251 Milt Cuyler
270 John Cerutti
322 Mickey Tettleton
351 Alan Trammell
366 Pete Incaviglia
402 Bill Gullickson
455 Andy Allanson
497 Frank Tanana


Leaf also added a boring insert set called Leaf Gold Rookies, which included Nolan Ryan and Rickey Henderson. No, I do not make this stuff up.

BC11 Rico Brogna

As we will see in the many years to come of Topps products, gold foil does not scan worth a damn. It pretty much shows up as black.

EDIT: Thanks again to Jon for this one.

1991 Leaf Previews:
18 Cecil Fielder