Card Show Last Night!

Last night I went to the Sun-Times Card Show in Rosemont. I've been to enough of these things in the last 2+ years that I've gotten to know a handful of dealers who are some good guys, so it's always fun to visit and say hello, and then dive into searching for Tigers cards! Last night was a rousing success!!!


I picked up 21 '60 Topps Tigers cards, bringing me 5 short of finishing the team set. I'm not really familiar with the gray back vs. white back story, but I did notice that some players had both. Does anybody know if there's a checklist out there detailing which ones are which?



I found the last two cards I needed to finish the '69 team set, Dick McAuliffe and and Bill Freehan. At 42 cards, this has to be one of the largest Tiger team sets ever (I'm including the All-Star cards, World Series cards, League Leaders cards, etc.) I'm going to guess that maybe the 2007 Topps set is larger. (Which should not qualify since they made two cards of Gary Sheffield and Mike Rabelo.....)



I found 12 of the '70 cards, including nice ones of Willie Horton, Norm Cash, and Mickey Stanley. I'm only 6 short of that set now, but one of them is a Kaline high number. I'll be poking around ebay for that one.


I found a few more cards from the 70's that I needed, with the highlight of the night being the '78 Lou Whitaker RC to finish out that set. This was the first year I collected cards so it's pretty cool to finally finish this set with one of my all-time favorite Tigers.



Rounding out the vintage edition of the night were a handful of early 80's cards including '81 Topps and '82 Topps of Jack Morris and a bunch of '83 Fleer including a Howard Johnson RC. I collected a ton of '83 Fleer when I was a kid and I'm amazed that I'm missing so many of these. Even after last night I'm still 6 cards short.

That was it for the older cards. By my count I'm only about 50 cards away from finishing all my 70's Tigers sets, with the bulk being '71 and '72. Oh well, that'll give me something to shoot for next time!

1996 Fleer Ultra

Past readers know my take on Fleer Ultra, so I won't go into it again. But in honor of that John Flaherty card....

My top 5 favorite Lyle Lovett songs:
Fiona
North Dakota
Church
If I Had A Boat
I've Been To Memphis

The 1996 Fleer Detroit Tigers:
57 Chad Curtis
58 Cecil Fielder
59 John Flaherty
60 Travis Fryman
61 Chris Gomez
62 Bob Higginson
63 Felipe Lira
64 Brian Maxcy
65 Alan Trammell
66 Lou Whitaker
345 Kimera Bartee
346 Greg Keagle
347 Mark Lewis
348 Jose Lima
349 Melvin Nieves
350 Mark Parent
351 Eddie Williams


There was a parallel set. It was gold. If I had a pony, I'd ride it on my boat. (That's not a very flattering pic of Sweet Lou. It's not hard to see that this was the end of the ride for him.)

I only have one other insert. It's a checklist card from Series 2.

2 Cecil Fielder

1996 Fleer

I'm tired of looking at that picture of the homecoming queen at the top of my blog. Time to do something else, even if it's half-assed.

I really dug the '96 Fleer, even if they don't look all that great. The matte finish was a great idea. But the design couldn't have been any worse than it was. I mean, I'm a minimalist and all when it comes to cards, but good grief. This may have been the plainest set in baseball card history. These make '61 Topps look like '90 Topps. (Ok, they don't, but you get the picture.....)

I never realized how much Clint Sodowsky looks like Michael Biehn. From The Abyss. Yeah, that's right....right about the time his starts wigging out.

The 1996 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

105 Danny Bautista

106 Joe Boever

107 Chad Curtis

108 John Doherty

109 Cecil Fielder

110 John Flaherty

111 Travis Fryman

112 Chris Gomez

113 Bob Higginson

114 Mark Lewis

115 Jose Lima

116 Felipe Lira

117 Brian Maxcy

118 C.J. Nitkowski

119 Phil Plantier

120 Clint Sodowsky

121 Alan Trammell

122 Lou Whitaker

There was a parallel set printed on glossy stock that was the same as the regular set.

There was also an update set:

U33 Kimera Bartee

U34 Mark Lewis

U35 Melvin Nieves

U36 Mark Parent

U37 Eddie Williams

U219 Cecil Fielder ENCORE

I have a couple of inserts, I don't know for sure if that's all there were.

Prospect

3 Tony Clark

Team Leader

6 Travis Fryman

The number of former and future Padres on that roster is staggering, and it would only get worse.....

1995 Fleer Emotion

One of the unsung joys I have received from blogging about Tigers cards is getting to see cards and sets that I completely forgot existed. For me, collecting from the mid-90's to the mid-00's usually meant going to a card store or two (when they were still around...) and sorting through common bins for an hour or two. I'd get home; crack open a beer; sort them all into the appropriate year, make, and model; file them away in plastic pages; and promptly forget about them.

This is one of those sets. I don't remember anything about these. Being a mid-90's set of course the front is all cluttered up with unreadable foil stamping, but the ghosted orange background really adds a nice original look to the set. I admit that the big lettered "emotion" printed makes checking them all out pretty good for a laugh. I've listed each "emotion" with the corresponding card. Enjoy. 

The 1995 Fleer Emotion Detroit Tigers:

41 Chad Curtis - MOVING

42 Cecil Fielder - MIGHTY

43 Travis Fryman - COMPOSED

44 Kirk Gibson - DELIGHTED

45 Bob Higginson - LEARNING

46 Alan Trammell - STEADY

47 Lou Whitaker - SAFE

See? Though ARE funny! And funny is an emotion! Get it?

1995 Fleer Flair

Not much going on here that's different from the other Flair issues, except they turned them on their sides. Here goes.

The Beatles - Here Comes The Sun

Van Halen - I'll Wait

Prefab Sprout - Cruel

The 1995 Fleer Flair Detroit Tigers:

37 John Doherty

38 Cecil Fielder

39 Travis Fryman

40 Chris Gomez

41 Tony Phillips

42 Lou Whitaker

255 Chad Curtis

256 Kirk Gibson

257 Mike Henneman

258 Bob Higginson

259 Felipe Lira

260 Rudy Pemberton

261 Alan Trammell

1995 Fleer Ultra

Quite possibly the least amount of effort ever put into a card design. 

You know what that means around here. Unfortunately I didn't listen to five songs today. Not much effort on my part either.

The 1995 Fleer Ultra Detroit Tigers:

44 Danny Bautista

45 Junior Felix

46 Cecil Fielder

47 Chris Gomez

48 Chad Kreuter

49 Mike Moore

50 Tony Phillips

51 Alan Trammell

52 David Wells

284 John Doherty

285 Travis Fryman

286 Kirk Gibson

287 Lou Whitaker

I only have one insert and it's a doozy. Nothing says cutting edge like a close up of a cleat or a batting glove. The background of this card reminds me of those little puzzles you could get at Stuckey's when I was a kid. You know, the one with 15 squares and one empty hole and you had to slide them around to end up making a picture of a map of the U.S. or some sort of wild animal? Yeah, those....

All-Rookie

2 Chris Gomez

1995 Fleer

One year after issuing one of the best looking sets of all time, Fleer gave the world this mess. This was the year they gave all the teams in each division a similar design. The funniest part about this is that the design of the A.L. East teams was probably the best of the bunch. (Yeah, we were once in that division...)

The 1995 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

44 Danny Bautista

45 Joe Boever

46 Milt Cuyler

47 Storm Davis

48 John Doherty

49 Junior Felix

50 Cecil Fielder

51 Travis Fryman

52 Mike Gardiner

53 Kirk Gibson

54 Chris Gomez

55 Buddy Groom

56 Mike Henneman

57 Chad Kreuter

58 Mike Moore

59 Tony Phillips

60 Juan Samuel

61 Mickey Tettleton

62 Alan Trammell

63 David Wells

64 Lou Whitaker

I've only got one insert card, and it's not bad looking. I like cards that incorporate newspaper themes. But would it have been that much trouble to maybe throw a Tigers headline or box score back there, instead of a Braves-Giants box?

Headliner

9 Cecil Fielder

The Tigers were well represented in the Update set. Unfortunately they were well represented by mediocre to poor players. (Bob Higginson notwithstanding)

17 Sean Bergman

18 Chad Curtis

19 John Flaherty

20 Bob Higginson

21 Felipe Lira

22 Shannon Penn

23 Todd Steverson

24 Sean Whiteside

1994 Fleer Flair

The readers have spoken and they liked the Ultra format so much that they have asked me to come up for a similar concept so that they don't have to hear me bag on Flair also. So I put the iTunes on random, and from now on you'll get the three songs that it takes me to do a Flair entry.

The Replacements - Shooting Dirty Pool

The Men - Church Of Logic Sin and Love

Heart - All Eyes

The 1994 Fleer Flair Detroit Tigers:

46 Eric Davis

47 John Doherty

48 Junior Felix

49 Cecil Fielder

50 Kirk Gibson

51 Mike Moore

52 Tony Phillips

53 Alan Trammell

291 Danny Bautista

292 Travis Fryman

293 Greg Gohr

294 Chris Gomez

295 Mickey Tettleton

296 Lou Whitaker

There were no inserts of Tigers. But that won't stop me from the bonus song.

Prefab Sprout - Jesse James Symphony

Thanks readers, I really love this format......but I'm going to need a lot more suggestions for formats once I get to Score cards......perhaps a review of the last movie I've seen, or maybe what I had for lunch that day. I'm wide open, and I've still got a few Donruss sets to go until I get there......

1994 Fleer Ultra

It's such a shame that Fleer followed up an all-time great set with this crap. In fact, Ultra would never again come close to the great looking sets they issued in '92 & '93. So in the Stadium Club tradition, and so I don't have to bag on these for the next 10+ years, I will start a new Fleer Ultra format and instead list the 5 best songs I heard today, in no particular order....

World Party - Take It Up

10,000 Maniacs - Cherry Tree

Bob Dylan - Buckets of Rain

Camera Obscura - Dory Previn

The Rolling Stones - Far Away Eyes

The 1994 Fleer Ultra Detroit Tigers:

51 John Doherty

52 Cecil Fielder

53 Travis Fryman

54 Chris Gomez

55 Mike Henneman

56 Chad Kreuter

57 Bob MacDonald

58 Mike Moore

59 Tony Phillips

60 Lou Whitaker

352 Danny Bautista

353 Tim Belcher

354 Eric Davis

355 Rick Greene

356 Mickey Tettleton

357 Alan Trammell

358 David Wells

A bonus song since there are insert cards.

The Church - Reptile

Rising Stars

5 Travis Fryman

RBI Kings

5 Cecil Fielder

I love the new format myself......

1994 Fleer

Drum roll please......

This is undoubtedly my favorite card set of the 90's. With the exception of the foil lettering, these are almost perfect. White borders, full frame pictures, nice unobtrusive team logo, and even the lettering style looks great wrapped around the logo. The beauty really is in the simplicity. 

I remember collecting this set like a mad man in 1994. Back when inserts were still in vogue, this was the first major set that gave you a real insert in each pack. (By my rough count, there were 217 total. Far too many, but nowhere near as bloated as a current Topps base issue...) 

I was something like 5 cards short of a base set when a couple of years later I found a card store selling unopened wax boxes of these for $6. I bought all three of them, finished my set, and probably have close to three quarters of the inserts.

And in all honesty this was probably the last set I collected that I enjoyed doing so. Hard to believe it's been 15 years now.  

The 1994 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

124 Skeeter Barnes

125 Milt Cuyler

126 Eric Davis

127 John Doherty

128 Cecil Fielder

129 Travis Fryman

130 Kirk Gibson

131 Dan Gladden

132 Greg Gohr

133 Chris Gomez

134 Bill Gullickson

135 Mike Henneman

136 Kurt Knudsen

137 Chad Kreuter

138 Bill Krueger

139 Scott Livingstone

140 Bob MacDonald

141 Mike Moore

142 Tony Phillips

143 Mickey Tettleton

144 Alan Trammell

145 David Wells

146 Lou Whitaker

709 Alan Trammell and Lou Whitaker Super Star Special

For a set that had 217 insert cards, they sure didn't bother much with the Tigers. I only count 4, but they are great looking as well. Fleer really knocked it out of the park with the inserts too.

All Stars

7 Cecil Fielder

8 Travis Fryman

Major League Prospects

5 Danny Bautista

Team Leaders

6 Cecil Fielder

There is even something special about the Update set, which used the new logo that is still in use today. (I know a lot of Tigers fans who don't care for it, but I don't mind it so much.) I never noticed before now though that Danny Bautista had an insert card in the base set, but no base card, and then a card in the Update set. Interesting.

39U Danny Bautista

40U Tim Belcher

41U Joe Boever

42U Storm Davis

43U Junior Felix

44U Mike Gardiner

45U Buddy Groom

46U Juan Samuel

Whew, is that one tough list to look at. Not hard at all to see how the Tigers would have a losing record for the first of the next twelve seasons to come.....

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

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. 

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

1991 Fleer

I have no idea how Fleer managed to take such a nice design and absolutely screw it up. Ok, I lied. I know how, but for god's sake, why? Those bright yelo borders are an affront to the eyes. This could have such a nicer set without them. If you don't believe me, then scroll to the bottom when you see what the wonders of Photoshop can accomplish.

There are two Tigers cards that stand out though. One is the card of Cecil Fielder during Home Run Derby at the 1990 All-Star Game at Wrigley Field. (Especially the guy sitting in the plastic garbage can in the background...) The other is the card of Darnell Coles standing in front of a pristine Green Monster at Fenway Park. Without all the ads and the Monster seats it almost looks like a spring training photo.

The 1991 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

331 Dave Bergman

332 Phil Clark

333 Darnell Coles

334 Milt Cuyler

335 Cecil Fielder

336 Travis Fryman

337 Paul Gibson

338 Jerry Don Gleaton

339 Mike Heath

340 Mike Henneman

341 Chet Lemon

342 Lance McCullers

343 Jack Morris

344 Lloyd Moseby

345 Edwin Nunez

346 Clay Parker

347 Dan Petry

348 Tony Phillips

349 Jeff Robinson

350 Mark Salas

351 Mike Schwabe

352 Larry Sheets

353 John Shelby

354 Frank Tanana

355 Alan Trammell

356 Gary Ward

357 Lou Whitaker

709 Super Star Special Cecil Fielder

717 Team Checklist

The Update set was short but sweet. I wonder if that photo was taken from this game? (I think I just figured out how to make a working link. Whoo-hoo!!!)

http://www.retrosheet.org/boxesetc/1991/B04180CHA1991.htm

22U John Cerutti

23U Rob Deer

24U Mickey Tettleton

Now for the bonus "get that nasty ass yelo the hell out of here" special edition RobbyT Photoshop card....

See? Doesn't that look a million times better?

1990 Fleer

True story. Just now, while trying to come up with something to say about '90 Fleer, my scanner locked up, and subsequently, so did my computer. So I shut it down, went and changed over a load of clothes, went to the pisser, and then restarted my computer. Compelling stuff, right? More compelling than '90 Fleer, priceless.........

The 1990 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

599 Doyle Alexander

600 Dave Bergman

601 Brian DuBois

602 Paul Gibson

603 Mike Heath

604 Mike Henneman

605 Guillermo Hernandez

606 Shawn Holman

607 Tracy Jones

608 Chet Lemon

609 Fred Lynn

610 Jack Morris

611 Matt Nokes

612 Gary Pettis

613 Kevin Ritz

614 Jeff Robinson

615 Steve Searcy

616 Frank Tanana

617 Alan Trammell

618 Gary Ward

619 Lou Whitaker

620 Frank Williams

660 Team Checklist

The 1990 Fleer Update Detroit Tigers:

95U Cecil Fielder

96U Travis Fryman

97U Lloyd Moseby

98U Edwin Nunez

99U Tony Phillips

100U Larry Sheets

1989 Fleer

Again Fleer busted out one of those old 44 card box sets designs, while managing to make it even worse with one of the most drab issues ever. The reverse prison bars look pretty much says it all.

The 1989 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

128 Doyle Alexander

129 Dave Bergman

130 Tom Brookens

131 Paul Gibson

132 Mike Heath

133 Don Heinkel

134 Mike Henneman

135 Guillermo Hernandez

136 Eric King

137 Chet Lemon

138 Fred Lynn

139 Jack Morris

140 Matt Nokes

141 Gary Pettis

142 Ted Power

143 Jeff Robinson

144 Luis Salazar

145 Steve Searcy

146 Pat Sheridan

147 Frank Tanana

148 Alan Trammell

149 Walt Terrell

150 Jim Walewander

151 Lou Whitaker

648 Torey Lovullo

655 Team Checklist

There were two lackluster insert cards.

1989 Fleer All-Star Team

11 Alan Trammell

Box Bottom Card:

C-26 Alan Trammell

More of the same from the Update set.

30U Mike Brumley

31U Tracy Jones

32U Mike Schwabe

33U Gary Ward

34U Frank Williams

Mike Schwabe? Where in the hell were we getting these guys from? I was on a break from college that year, so I can't blame not remembering these guys on that? Of course, having moved to rural Tennessee the year before, I was not able to keep up much with the Tigers, but Mike Schwabe? I'm not even bother the folks at retrosheet over this one. That card is bogus. I'm convinced that's a Todd Benzinger error card....

1988 Fleer

In 1988 Fleer began their journey into spectacularly mediocre cards. For the first of many years to come their cards bore a strong resemblance to those over produced 44 card box sets that would flood the hobby. There's nothing much special about these.

Save for Nate Snell. Chalk that up as another "he played for the Tigers?" entry. I don't see that he was ever featured again on a Tigers card. A quick check of retrosheet shows that this was the end of the line for ol' Nater. Thanks for the memories.

The 1988 Fleer Detroit Tigers:

51 Doyle Alexander

52 Dave Bergman

53 Tom Brookens

54 Darrell Evans

55 Kirk Gibson

56 Mike Heath

57 Mike Henneman

58 Willie Hernandez

59 Larry Herndon

60 Eric King

61 Chet Lemon

62 Scott Lusader

63 Bill Madlock

64 Jack Morris

65 Jim Morrison

66 Matt Nokes

67 Dan Petry

68 Jeff Robinson

69 Pat Sheridan

70 Nate Snell

71 Frank Tanana

72 Walt Terrell

73 Mark Thurmond

74 Alan Trammell

75 Lou Whitaker

626 Super Star Special Jack Morris

635 Super Star Special Alan Trammell

638 Super Star Special Matt Nokes

654 Team Checklist

There were a couple of goofy pastel spearmint candy cane looking All-Star insert cards:

1 Matt Nokes

9 Alan Trammell

The Update set gave us a couple more cards than the Topps Traded set did, but they weren't much to sneeze at. The 1986 World Series MVP was easily the best of the bunch.

26U Paul Gibson

27U Don Heinkel

28U Ray Knight

29U Gary Pettis

30U Luis Salazar