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. 

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