Since I started collecting in the late 1980s, I’ve always been intrigued whenever baseball cards are discussed or shown on television. One of my fondest memories was watching Kevin and Paul on “The Wonder Years” try to hash out a trade for a Willie McCovey rookie card, something that eventually turns ugly and ultimately causes a temporary rift in their friendship — what’s new, right? This episode is great for many reasons — I wish I could find this on You Tube but the entire episode is not there — but the baseball cards makes it a classic for any collector. And for the record, neither character is actually seen handling a 1960 Topps McCovey rookie card, both are seen with common cards from 1989 Topps.

But that episode also reminded me of an episode of MacGyver I watched about a decade and a half ago. I remember distinctly there was tie-in with counterfeit baseball cards and Pete Rose. Well, after some simple searching this morning, I found the MacGyver episode on YouTube.

Because CBS owns the property rights to the show, they’ve disabled embedding, but I invite you to watch the entire episode HERE (click the link.)

All bad acting aside — listen, I love MacGyver, but the actual acting was ridiculous, man — it’s a fun episode to watch whenever you’ve got time. I love how negatively the episode portrays card collectors and shady dealers. I’m also amused by the fact that the counterfeit printing company is called “Home Run Printing Inc.” and they are seen making hundreds of copies of the 1933 Goudey Lou Gehrig rookie (just after the 11 minute mark), like the REAL ONE I own and is pictured in this blog’s header.

Also pay attention to the language used and the particular cards that are referenced, as well as the computerized bulletin board used for trading. Pretty neat seeing that in an episode from the early 1990s.

Anyway, if you remember any other television shows where baseball cards were featured, leave them in the comments section below.

This entry was posted on February 15, 2009 at 11:46 am and is filed under Newspaperman with tags 1933 Goudey, baseball, baseball cards, Cardboard Icons, counterfeit baseball cards, Lou Gehrig, MacGyver, Pete Rose, Reggie Jackson, rookie card, The Wonder Years, Willie McCovey. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.