1995 Pinnacle Zenith

I laugh at the goldbricks pictured on the cards. Score/Pinnacle could not have left any more of a subtle hint. Unfortunately that's all I can laugh about with these. 

The 1995 Pinnacle Zenith Detroit Tigers:

15 Cecil Fielder

66 Kirk Gibson

105 Travis Fryman

131 Bobby Higginson

Obama is a Steelers fan? Now the NL has tied it up! I hate Score/Pinnacle! I'm done here!

1995 Score Select Certified Edition

Pujols error leads to the AL's first run in the top of the first. Lincecum fails to cover first and now it's 2-0 AL. Tim McCarver can't quit using the word buoy. NL goes 1-2-3 in the bottom of the first. So far this is fun!

Ok, I'll give credit where credit is due here. These have an interesting look with the bronze shadow silhouetting the player and the black and white background. But with only 135 cards in the whole set, why bother? Oh well, at least Gibby is actually on his own card with this Score issue. Maybe that's why these are certified?

The 1995 Score Select Certified Edition Detroit Tigers:

40 Travis Fryman

45 Kirk Gibson

47 Cecil Fielder

102 Bobby Higginson

1995 Pinnacle

Sheryl Crow singing while the Batplane flys over. Yawn. At least the introduction of all the Cardinals Hall Of Famers was cool. Always neat to see Stan The Man. Cool to see President Obama too, but did he have to wear that god awful jacket? LOL, I never knew he was a lefty. Who woulda thunk it?

This is not a great looking set, but not so horrible that it's worth complaining about, and there are still more Score/Pinnacle set to go, so I'll save it. Again, these remind me of Stadium Club cards, and I never thought they were so hot either. It's a full set, at least by 1995 standards, so there, I said something good.

The 1995 Pinnacle Detroit Tigers:

15 Danny Bautista

42 Junior Felix

69 Chris Gomez

117 Lou Whitaker

124 Travis Fryman

130 Milt Cuyler

148 Jose Lima

184 Cecil Fielder

209 Tony Phillips

338 Eric Davis

349 Kirk Gibson

379 David Wells

392 Alan Trammell

I can't find any info that there were any inserts or parallels with this one, which seems odd, but with something this mediocre, that's a good thing.

1995 Score Summit

As I sit down to write tonight I'm listening to the player introductions of the All Star Game. It's fantastic to see the Tigers' future core representing the team tonight. Congrats to Curtis Granderson, Brandon Inge, Edwin Jackson, and Justin Verlander. (who pitched his no-hitter on my 38th birthday!) Much like baseball cards, the All Star Game ain't as much fun as it was when I was a kid, but I still enjoy it. So while I'm in good spirits, I'm going to knock out the rest of the 1995 Score/Pinnacle issues. I'll do my best to stay positive in my review of these cards.

These cards suck. Yet another unneeded and uninspiring issue by the folks at Score. Or Pinnacle. Or whatever the hell they called themselves back then. Either way, this is another crappy short set that's rookie heavy. (although I think Bowman beat them to every one of these Tigers rookies years earlier.....) Nothing about the design or player selection really stand out here. 

The 1995 Score Summit Detroit Tigers:

57 Cecil Fielder

91 Travis Fryman

109 Kirk Gibson

134 Bobby Higginson

153 Rudy Pemberton

160 Shannon Penn

166 Todd Steverson

About the only interesting thing with this set is a handful of uncorrected errors involving Tigers. Pemberton's card has the Dodgers' logo foil stamped on it while Penn's card has a Cubs' logo. Meanwhile there are Tiger logos stamped on the cards of Antonio Osuna and Ozzie Timmons. If I could've picked the pair that I wished had been Tigers, it'd be Osuna and Timmons, but that's like saying I would prefer a Stroh's over an Old Style. Either way, you lose.

There only inserts were a parallel set called the Nth Degree that were a sort of speckled foil thing. These don't look as cool as the scan makes them look. I find that to be a case with a lot of foil cards. Maybe I should just scan them all. 

I'm no math expert, but N = 0 here.....

1995 Score Select

Two of the things I dislike most about card sets are horizontal designs and small sets, and this set has both of those covered.  These don't look awful though. The selection of players is interesting. No Trammell, Whitaker, or Tettleton, but there are cards of Danny Bautista and Chad Curtis.

I have never noticed this until this moment right now. The action photo on Gibby's card is of Tettleton. Well I'll be.....

The 1995 Score Select Detroit Tigers:

25 Kirk Gibson

31 Danny Bautista

96 Cecil Fielder

132 Travis Fryman

184 Chad Curtis

205 Jose Lima

What? 

Stop!

Lima Time!

Whoa-oh-oh-oh-whoa-oh-oh!!!

1995 Score

It's about 95 degrees in my apartment as I type this around 6 pm. I left Memphis because of heat like this. But I'm sipping a cold beer and settling in the for the first game of the Tigers - Cubs series, so it's not all bad. 

I guess I had pretty much given up on Score by 1995. I only have a handful of these. I remember thinking these were atrocious back then, but they really don't look so bad now. Of course I was on a steady diet of paxil, xanax, and Bud Light in 1995, so that might explain it a little bit, but that's a story for another day. The earth tones of the borders have a nice mellow look. 

The 1995 Score Detroit Tigers:

18 Junior Felix

49 Tony Phillips

78 Mickey Tettleton

94 Kirk Gibson

116 Chris Gomez

148 Mike Henneman

174 Mike Moore

203 Joe Boever

231 John Doherty

259 Milt Cuyler

292 Jose Lima

322 Series 1 Checklist

341 Travis Fryman

373 Lou Whitaker

383 Alan Trammell

398 Cecil Fielder

406 Eric Davis

484 Tim Belcher

496 Danny Bautista

504 Chad Kreuter

526 David Wells

527 Juan Samuel

594 Phil Stidham

It looks there there were a couple of parallel sets (Gold Rush and Platinum) that have just been given more mention than they deserve. 

I only have one insert card, from a set called Hall Of Gold.

HG49 Mickey Tettleton

HG50 Tony Phillips

HG79 Travis Fryman

HG82 Cecil Fielder

1994 Church's Chicken

This one is deserving of it's own blog entry. I don't know anything about it other than it has a 1994 Pinnacle copyright on the back. It really doesn't do for me much as an advertisement to eat more fried food though....

9 Cecil Fielder

1994 Pinnacle

These look like Stadium Club cards. That's not meant to be complimentary and should not be taken as such. 

The 1994 Pinnacle Detroit Tigers:

10 Cecil Fielder

67 Mickey Tettleton

96 John Doherty

125 Chad Kreuter

154 Mike Henneman

183 Travis Fryman

212 Mike Moore

234 Danny Bautista

281 Lou Whitaker

330 Tony Phillips

359 Milt Cuyler

388 Eric Davis

414 Chris Gomez

429 Alan Trammell

433 Matt Brunson

453 Kirk Gibson

464 David Wells

491 Tim Belcher

I'm not usually a big fan of parallels, but Pinnacle knocked it out of the park with these. Very cool. They should have just made these the base cards and called it a day.

I've got a couple of inserts, but nothing to blog home about.

Power Surge

14 Travis Fryman

The Run Creators

11 Tony Phillips

There was also a Cecil Fielder card that looks just like his base card, but with big block letter printed across the front and back that reads "SAMPLE" 

All righty then....

1994 Score Select

Damn I was hoping these were the ones where I got to play songs.....

The 1994 Score Select Detroit Tigers:

186 Danny Bautista

194 Chris Gomez

215 Tony Phillips

224 Mike Moore

233 Cecil Fielder

248 Tim Belcher

266 Kirk Gibson

273 Eric Davis

285 Alan Trammell

295 Travis Fryman

323 Lou Whitaker

327 Chad Kreuter

331 Mickey Tettleton

335 John Doherty

357 David Wells

368 Mike Henneman

Score Select Skills

10 Travis Fryman

1994 Score

I needed something to do this afternoon since I'm not getting to see my alma mater (Memphis) play their second round game against Maryland. Fortunately, judging by the scoreboard I'm not missing much.

I don't really have much here. These are ok. I guess for Score that's high praise. My favorite card is easily the Team Checklist. There is next to nobody in the stadium, yet the upper deck center field bleachers are packed. I'll admit that's the first time I've ever seen that many people out there without a huge cloud of smoke hovering right above......

The 1994 Score Detroit Tigers:

11 Travis Fryman

51 Mickey Tettleton

79 Lou Whitaker

103 Tony Phillips

117 Mike Henneman

143 Mike Moore

171 Scott Livingstone

198 Bill Gullickson

215 Dan Gladden

228 Rich Rowland

232 Skeeter Barnes

268 Gary Thurman

286 Bob MacDonald

309 Chris Gomez

322 Team Checklist

337 Alan Trammell

369 David Wells

393 Cecil Fielder

421 Kirk Gibson

503 Chad Kreuter

504 Eric Davis

531 John Doherty

532 Matt Brunson

559 Danny Bautista

There were some inserts too, including a parallel set that looked just like the regular set, but had gold foil borders. Hmmmm, I wonder where Topps stole that stupid idea from?

Boys Of Summer

51 Danny Bautista

Cycle

5 Tony Phillips

Gold Stars

40 Cecil Fielder

48 Travis Fryman

There was an update set of sorts that looks nothing like the base set.  These may rank among the worst cards I have ever seen. 

Rookie & Traded

44RT Junior Felix

84RT Danny Bautista

95RT Chris Gomez

158RT Jose Lima

Memphis wins by 19. Yay!

1993 Score Select

This is another one of those stupid Score sets that was absolute crap and everybody knew it when it came out. For starters, just what in the hell was "Select" about it? There were 405 base cards, 162 insert cards, and 150 Traded cards. By my rough count that's over 700 cards. Not very "Select" in my book. That ratio of base cards to insert cards is something Topps would be very proud of. 

The 1993 Score Select Detroit Tigers:

20 Cecil Fielder

44 Travis Fryman

60 Mickey Tettleton

85 Bill Gullickson

112 Lou Whitaker

138 Mike Henneman

166 Milt Cuyler

186 Rob Deer

218 Tony Phillips

230 Alan Trammell

244 Dan Gladden

298 John Doherty

306 Kurt Knudsen

320 Scott Livingstone

335 Phil Clark

398 Frank Tanana

There was an update set, and it's a shame I don't have any of these because these were three of my favorite Tigers from that era of crappiness.

1993 Score Select Rookie & Traded: 

80T Chris Gomez

92T Eric Davis

113T David Wells

Now for the insert cards. I think the card pictured above speaks volumes about the overabundance of insert cards. Tony Phillips. This may be the card where the ship sailed on insert cards being "special." 

1993 Select Chase Stars

13 Cecil Fielder

1993 Select Stat Leaders

27 Cecil Fielder

31 Cecil Fielder

37 Tony Phillips

I guess it could have been worse. They could have put Cecil Fielder on another insert card instead of TP.

You know the worst part about this set. They don't really look all that bad. This could have been one of Score's nicer sets. 

1993 Pinnacle

Everything I said about 1992 Pinnacle applies here. All of it. 

Except.....

Just this week there was a discussion about the quality of Jack Morris' bad 'stache in the Detroit Tigers Forum at Worldcrossing.com (see sidebar). I think this pretty much ends all discussion. At least now I can see what exactly he was trying to cover....

The 1993 Pinnacle Detroit Tigers:

26 Cecil Fielder

52 Mickey Tettleton

79 Travis Fryman

106 Scott Livingstone

114 David Wells

193 Milt Cuyler

202 Mike Moore

240 Rico Brogna

264 Rich Rowland

287 Phil Clark

333 Dan Gladden

352 BIll Gullickson

353 Alan Trammell

385 Mike Henneman

406 Tony Phillips

407 John Doherty

429 Eric Davis

472 Jack Morris Now & Then

509 Lou Whitaker

547 Bill Krueger

615 Greg Gohr

There were a slew of insert sets. The only one I have is not even listed in the checklist book I am using, so I don't know much about it.

Cooperstown Card

28 Cecil Fielder

Slugfest

3 Cecil Fielder

30 Travis Fryman

Team 2001

10 Travis Fryman

1993 Score

Now that the holiday season is over and most of the resolutions have been broken (I'm not buying any packs or boxes of 2009 cards, but that's for another entry...) it's time to get back to blogging about Detroit Tigers baseball cards!!!

Which makes it such a shame that 1993 Score is where I left off. They went from the one end of the spectrum to the other with this design. I prefer the cleaner more visually appealing look of this more than any other Score set, but then they went and screwed it up by squishing the letters on the players' names to where they are almost illegible. I have to hold one of these right in front of my face to read the player name. Maybe they were just getting us ready for Topps use of goil foil.

The 1993 Score Detroit Tigers:

11 Travis Fryman

31 Cecil Fielder

60 Mickey Tettleton

82 Milt Cuyler

114 Rico Brogna

166 Mike Henneman

196 Scott Livingstone

207 Dan Gladden

215 David Haas

228 Mike Munoz

264 Kurt Knudsen

283 Rich Rowland

313 Alan Trammell

353 John Doherty

366 Mark Carreon

442 Gary Pettis

596 Lou Whitaker

614 Tony Phillips

636 Rob Deer

643 Bill Gullickson

652 Frank Tanana

Score really scaled down the operation in 1993, only releasing a few insert sets.

Boys Of Summer

17 Rico Brogna

30 Rich Rowland

Franchise

6 Cecil Fielder

They didn't even bother with an update set, so neither will I!

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

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.

1990 Score

Not to be outdone by Donruss, Score kept up their fierce competition for the most childish looking cards. 

In 1990, it was a draw. These are hideous. 

The list of 1990 Tigers rookies/prospects is just flat out pathetic. I apologize for reminding everyone of just how bad they were.

They only saving grace of this set is the inclusion of even more Tigers prospects who would never amount to squat. Except for Greg Gohr, who Randy Smith would one day trade for Damion Easley. Unfortunately for Tigers fans, Smith would go on to give Easley a ridiculous contract, and ultimately release while the Tigers were still on the hook for a nice chunk of change. It is cool though that Easley is still in the big leagues today. Even cooler that Randy Smith is no longer with the Tigers.....

The 1990 Score Detroit Tigers:

9 Alan Trammell

55 Matt Nokes

57 Frank Tanana

75 Lou Whitaker

106 Chet Lemon

131 Fred Lynn

136 Gary Pettis

172 Mike Heath

184 Mike Henneman

203 Jack Morris

237 Doyle Alexander

254 Dave Bergman

261 Paul Gibson

267 Guillermo Hernandez

291 Tracy Jones

333 Jeff Robinson

341 Frank Williams

513 Gary Ward

572 Kevin Ritz

575 Scott Lusader

583 Milt Cuyler

607 Randy Nosek

620 Shawn Holman

626 Pat Austin

657 Brian DuBois

679 Greg Gohr

The 1990 Score Rookie and Traded Detroit Tigers:

9T Cecil Fielder

14T Tony Phillips

25T Lloyd Moseby

39T Dan Petry

65T Larry Sheets

That's a killer photo of Cecil Fielder though, who hit 51 HR back when 51 HR meant something.....

1989 Score

By 1989 it was painfully obvious that Score was not about to let Donruss run away with cards designed for five year olds. The wild cyan/green, purple/orange, and teal/pink color combos were Score's way of telling us that they would not be outdone in the poor design department. It was bad enough that they fooled Tigers collectors into thinking that Ray Knight was wearing a cool road jersey that said "Tigers" across the chest instead of "Detroit." Even worse was that they corrected it.

The 1989 Score Detroit Tigers:

23 Matt Nokes

26 Gary Pettis

44 Chet Lemon

110 Alan Trammell

112 Frank Tanana

129 Doyle Alexander

131 Mike Heath

135 Ray Knight

168 Don Heinkel

171 Darrell Evans

204 Pat Sheridan

230 Lou Whitaker

250 Jack Morris

269 Tom Brookens

275 Guillermo Hernandez

279 Larry Herndon

284 Jeff Robinson

293 Mike Henneman

311 Jim Walewander

314 Walt Terrell

316 Luis Salazar

469 Dave Bergman

471 Eric King

545 Dwayne Murphy

595 Paul Gibson

627 Steve Searcy

Despite other companies giving us loads of traded and rookie players in their traded, update, and rookie sets, Score gave us one.

43T Tracy Jones

It looks like they tried to make up for it by releasing some insert sets, but I don't have any of them, so there's not much else I can add.

1989 Score Hottest Stars:

7 Alan Trammell

34 Jeff Robinson

59 Mike Henneman

1989 Score Young Superstars II: (I have no clue about Young Superstars I....)

7 Eric King

8 Jeff Robinson

27 Steve Searcy

They did however release a nifty little 42 card box set of "painted" looking cards, but this would be the only time they did so. Too bad, because these are pretty nice. They were obviously the precursor to the 2006 Bowman Heritage issue.

1989 Score Masters:

8 Jack Morris

1988 Score

I still remember the day I walked into Grand City and saw these cards. (Ok, maybe not the day, or even the month for that matter, but the year most defintely....) There was a new player in town and his name was Score! There was an end cap full of these rack packs. (Did Score ever release anything else?) I quickly shuffled through the packs to find as many as I could that had a Tiger on the top or bottom. (Yet somehow I am missing three cards, despite buying a factory set for $3 once upon a time.)

Anyway, Score was a welcome addition at first to the baseball card scene in 1988. All of the cards had action shots. The design was as elegant as it gets. But this set was not without its problems. (You didn't really think I wouldn't bring them up, did you?)

Problem #1. The Borders. There was no rhyme or reason to this madness. Purple, Green , Red, whatever. I could have lived with the multitude of colors, if they fit with a certain team's colors. But some of these are just an awful marriage (see Thurmond, Mark...)

Problem #2. The Cropping. Someone up there at Score decided that it was far more important to get the entire bat in the photo rather than the player. (No biggie, my Granny loved to take pictures of people's feet....)

Problem #3. The recycled card. Now I don't blame Score too much for this. But the same super star shortstops card, in the same year, was a little much. (But hey, who can bitch about too many Alan Trammell cards?)

The 1988 Score Detroit Tigers:

15 Matt Nokes

37 Alan Trammell

56 Lou Whitaker

75 Darrell Evans

119 Chet Lemon

138 Larry Herndon

156 Mike Heath

171 Pat Sheridan

199 John Grubb

217 Dave Bergman

233 Tom Brookens

272 Jim Morrison

382 Mark Thurmond

445 Bill Madlock

461 Dan Petry

471 Eric King

490 Frank Tanana

507 Willie Hernandez

520 Mike Henneman

525 Kirk Gibson

538 Walt Terrell

545 Jack Morris

549 Jeff Robinson

571 Jim Walewander

610 Doyle Alexander

648 Rookie Sluggers Matt Nokes

651 Super Shortstops Alan Trammell

There was nothing new in the 1988 Score Rookie and Traded set that you couldn't get elsewhere.

13T Luis Salazar

17T Ray Knight

38T Gary Pettis

79T Don Heinkel

All in all, this was a nice refreshing set in 1988. But before I go.....I just have one big issue with this set. If you think there were too many 1988 Donruss cards produced, I'm here to say that for every 1988 Donruss Mike Henneman, there are approximately 200,000,000 Score Hennemans. Should our sun ever start to go out, it would take nothing more than to box up all the 1988 Score cards in existence and rocket them into space to ignite that bad boy for another 6 billion years. Or 6,000 years, whatever you like....