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!

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....