A few weeks ago my son and I opened a pair of 1992 Upper Deck baseball boxes in search of one of the legendary Ted Williams certified autographs. While we did not pull any of the signed cards, we did complete a full Baseball Heroes insert set (sans the short printed Header card) of the Splended Splinter.
Over the last two weeks, the boxes of base cards had been sitting around and earlier today I decided to take another look at them before putting them into another box I’ll likely donate. While checking the contents, I started to noticed that 1992 Upper Deck captured something other brands from the era seemed to routinely gloss over. Upper Deck captured various fun moments at the ball park, specifically the interaction with fans and players signing autographs.
This is not to say that other sets didn’t even capture this. But Upper Deck’s design allowed for two photos to be used per player, the dominant image on the front, and the one on the back. And while looking at the fronts and backs, enjoying various images I came across 18 different cards from the boxes that showed this pre-game interaction between fan and players, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this type of thing would ever be common place again given the way COVID-19 has changed the world.
What’s sort of fun in these images is to see which players were captured signing, what items were being offered and in one case it looked like someone was trying to give a $1 bill for a signature.
We start with a pair of Hall of Famers in Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn.
Ripken was still about three of so years away from breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak, but he was an established star and on the front of his card he is shown signing a large poster that’s been rolled up and brought to the ball park.
The front of Tony Gwynn’s card is a action game image, but the back is where we see Gwynn signing for fans, several of whom appear to be offering an Upper Deck promotional piece.
One could argue that Dale Murphy deserves to be in the Hall of Fame however he still remains on the outside looking in. But if there was an autograph HOF, Murphy would be a first-ballot member as his flowing, loopy signature is a favorite among fans. Here we see Murphy signing autos with his left and — which is opposite of his throwing hand — and there is no shortage of demand. My favorite person here? The person in the center in the Hard Rock Cafe shirt, totally geeking out as he looks to be placing his signed card back inside his binder page.
At the start of 1992, Darryl Strawberry was still a major star in the game, coming off a 28-homer performance in his first season as a Dodger. On the rear of his card, he’s shown signing a few autographs down the right field line. It’s worth noting that Darryl appears to be signing baseballs with a black marker, which is not really the preferred method. But would you complain? Not I.
The following 14 cards showcase MLBers who weren’t exactly of the same caliber of those mentioned above, but it’s worth noting that fans are fans, they’ll seek a signature from whomever is in uniform offering to ink their collectibles. The first seven will be cards with signing occurring on the front, while the second set will show the interaction on the backs.
Here’s Brewers pitcher Chris Bosio signing what appears to be a baseball.
Former prospect Ben McDonald is shown on his card conducting an interview while signing a baseball in blue marker. What’s comical here is the fan shouting in the background and the Diet Pepsi logo in the foreground as it was on the side of what looks to be a promotion Orioles baseball cap.
Phillies pitcher Mike Hartley is shown here signing the underside of a Phillies cap with some sort of marker.
Mets pitcher Anthony Young appears to be signing some sort of flat — probably a card — as it rests on the wall along the first base side of the field.
Angels reliever Mark Eichhorn appears to be enjoying himself as he signs for several members of the US Military. I wonder if those guys ever learned they were featured on a baseball card.
Braves reliever Marvin Freeman took his signing session to the next level and sat on the dugout pregame signing for fans using the ever popular blue ballpoint pen to make memories.
White Sox pitcher Melido Perez is shown signing autographs, specifically what looks to be a game-day lineup sheet from a Program. What caught my eye here is the fan in the background holding a $1 bill. It’s not clear if the fan is offering to pay him for a signature or if they wanted him to sign the money.
Blue Jays star pitcher Dave Stieb looks to me making friends as he sits on the tarp at what I believe is Angels Stadium.
Brewers closer Doug Henry is shown on his card preparing to sign a glove with a collectible team ballpoint pen.
Cubs catcher Rick Wilkins is pictured using a purple Sharpie to sign a program. It’s worth noting that the autograph probably turned out upside down.
Phillies shortstop Kim Batiste was captured signing autographs at Spring Training.
Cubs starter Frank Castillo is shown signing before a game at Dodger Stadium. A couple fun things of note: Castillo is going to sign a baseball with what looks like a scented (blueberry?!) blue marker and someone is holding a poster featuring Roger Clemens and Nolan Ryan, possibly offering for that to be signed by Castillo.
Orioles relief pitcher Todd Frowirth was captured pausing between signatures at the old Memorial Stadium … and there are those pesky Diet Pepsi logos again.
And lastly t here is veteran outfielder Mike Deveraux returning a hat after signing it. And given by the looks of things, it is probably one of those promotional Diet Pepsi/Orioles hats. Fitting.
I don’t own every card of this set, but that seems to be a lot of fan interaction for the 72 packs that my son and I opened. It’s an 800-card set so there’s probably more that I’ve missed.
Have one from this set that I missed? Leave it in the comments, or share it over on Twitter.
It’s been three decades since I opened my first pack of baseball cards. And less than five years into my hobby career, cards went from being just cards to being chase-worthy investments — at least that’s what we the collectors were being sold.
At the front of this movement was the almighty Elite Series insert set, which started in 1991 as one of the hobby’s most iconic chase sets to date.
Imagine if you will opening dozens, hundreds or even thousands of packs and see nothing but blue and green borders and then … bam, a bronze foil border card with a marble-like design embedded within and a serial number on back.
By today’s standards, Elite cards wouldn’t be much to gloat about, but in 1991, it was something most would only dream of.
My dream of pulling an Elite Series card actually came true in 1993 when I fished an Eddie Murray out of a pack at Target. As I’ve told people before, the story goes that I was opening a pack while my mom was paying for it and other stuff. When I saw the shiny foil, I dropped an f-bomb that made everyone from my mother to the people in line to the cashier stop what they were doing and look my way. Hey, I was 13.
Anyhow, i eventually made it a goal to complete the first three Elite Series (1991, 1992 and 1993) sets including the autographs — a feat that was accomplished a few years ago and documented in one of my Beckett Baseball columns.
I’ve since moved on to the next three years. And while the passion to finish it came and went over time, I got the itch recently to put those next three sets to rest and with a little help from Tanner at CansecoCollector.com I was able to get the elusive 1995 Elite Series Jose Canseco that I couldn’t find.
And so, here is a visual look at the first six years of Elite Series Insert cards. You’ll notice that the dynamic of the set has changed over time. It started as an 8-card set with one legend and one autograph. Then next two years the base Elite set grew and continued to include a legend and autograph. By 1994, the Elite Series set was scaled back to just 12 basic Elite cards — no more autographs or legends. Nonetheless, they were still special.
1991 Elite Series (base Elite’s /10,000; Legends Series /7,500; Signature Series /5,000)
1992 Elite Series (Base Elites /10,000; Legends /7,500; Signature Series /5,000)
1993 Elite Series (Base Elites /10,000; Legends Series /10,000; Signature Series /5,000)
1994 Elite Series (all /10,000)
1995 Elite Series (all /10,000)
1996 Elite Series (all /10,000)
Now that those sets are done, I’ll get to working eventually on 1997 and 1998, but I’m also turning my eyes to a few other insert sets from my youth that always intrigued me:
The randomness that are thrift stores are what I enjoy so much. And among the random sometimes I find some odd items, such as this, a 800-card count box filled with standard 1980s cardboard and a small stack of late 1990s SPX cards.
One look at the box and you might find yourself closing it and moving on quickly. But with the stack of SPX cards was really appealing given the $2.99 price tag on the box.
We’ll get to the hologram hotness in a bit. But I’ll show the other stuff. There was a sizeable brick of 1983 Topps and among the highlights were two decent looking second-year Cal Ripken Jr. cards.
There also was some 1993 Bowman, which yielded some rookies for my
collection and a second-year Mariano Rivera.
Talk about random. Here’s a pair of Bill Belichick cards.
And now the holograms. I LOVED the hologram-based SPX designs of the lates 1990s. They were distributed one card per pack and they were pricey upon release, somewhere in yhe $4-$6 per pack range if memory serves me right. well, this stack of SPX was just commons. It was star cards and parallels of the same. Fantastic!
Still playing catchup on some TT posts, we’ll go with this one real quick. A month or so ago I was digging through the book section at one of the local thrift stores and found a paperback book documenting Cal Ripken Jr.’s career. The book was authored by Ripken and a writer.
I’ve documented here before that I do look through the book section at stores because every now and then you’ll find a signed book. A a general rule of thumb though, I typically don’t bother with paperbacks.
Well, something made me pick this up and thumb through a few pages. And sure enough, some four pages, there’s some ink — a live Cal Ripken Jr. Autograph for less than a buck.
Earlier this week, my wife and I made a trip to a local town to hit the antique and thrift stores. We spent six hours bouncing in and out of stores. She did a lot of spending; I did a lot of looking and lamenting at what could have been if I looked around just one more corner, or on one more shelf.
In the end, I wound up with just three cards on the day. I had more lucrative trips than this one, but what I found was pretty cool.
We’ll get these two afterthoughts out of the way real quick. In the second store I found a box of cards where everything was priced for a quarter each. Lots of commons. LOTS of commons. But I found a 1987 Fleer Mitch Williams rookie and n ball 2000 Pacific Backyard Baseball Cal Ripken Jr. Price for these treasures: 50 cents.
And just two stores down the street I came across this 1889 Allen & Ginter Types of All Nations Syria card priced at $5.
It’s not really a baseball card, but it is a trading card from a cigarette card set that has seen some increased interest in the last five years due to Topps’ stroll down memory lane with its version of Allen & Ginters World Champions. Kinda bummed it’s Syria and not Portugal, which is the country from which my wife’s family hails. Of course I see that Mr. Brony showcased a Portugal card just like this six years ago.
It’s been three decades since I opened my first pack of baseball cards. And less than five years into my hobby career, cards went from being just cards to being chase-worthy investments — at least that’s what we the collectors were being sold.
cardboardicons.com 
Upper Deck captured the fun of the ballpark in 1992
Posted in Commentary, Misc. with tags autographs, baseball, baseball cards, Cal Ripken Jr., Dale Murphy, Dave Stieb, Marvin Freeman, Tony Gwynn, Upper Deck on January 3, 2021 by Cardboard IconsA few weeks ago my son and I opened a pair of 1992 Upper Deck baseball boxes in search of one of the legendary Ted Williams certified autographs. While we did not pull any of the signed cards, we did complete a full Baseball Heroes insert set (sans the short printed Header card) of the Splended Splinter.
Over the last two weeks, the boxes of base cards had been sitting around and earlier today I decided to take another look at them before putting them into another box I’ll likely donate. While checking the contents, I started to noticed that 1992 Upper Deck captured something other brands from the era seemed to routinely gloss over. Upper Deck captured various fun moments at the ball park, specifically the interaction with fans and players signing autographs.
This is not to say that other sets didn’t even capture this. But Upper Deck’s design allowed for two photos to be used per player, the dominant image on the front, and the one on the back. And while looking at the fronts and backs, enjoying various images I came across 18 different cards from the boxes that showed this pre-game interaction between fan and players, and I couldn’t help but wonder if this type of thing would ever be common place again given the way COVID-19 has changed the world.
What’s sort of fun in these images is to see which players were captured signing, what items were being offered and in one case it looked like someone was trying to give a $1 bill for a signature.
We start with a pair of Hall of Famers in Cal Ripken Jr. and Tony Gwynn.
Ripken was still about three of so years away from breaking Lou Gehrig’s consecutive games played streak, but he was an established star and on the front of his card he is shown signing a large poster that’s been rolled up and brought to the ball park.
The front of Tony Gwynn’s card is a action game image, but the back is where we see Gwynn signing for fans, several of whom appear to be offering an Upper Deck promotional piece.
One could argue that Dale Murphy deserves to be in the Hall of Fame however he still remains on the outside looking in. But if there was an autograph HOF, Murphy would be a first-ballot member as his flowing, loopy signature is a favorite among fans. Here we see Murphy signing autos with his left and — which is opposite of his throwing hand — and there is no shortage of demand. My favorite person here? The person in the center in the Hard Rock Cafe shirt, totally geeking out as he looks to be placing his signed card back inside his binder page.
At the start of 1992, Darryl Strawberry was still a major star in the game, coming off a 28-homer performance in his first season as a Dodger. On the rear of his card, he’s shown signing a few autographs down the right field line. It’s worth noting that Darryl appears to be signing baseballs with a black marker, which is not really the preferred method. But would you complain? Not I.
The following 14 cards showcase MLBers who weren’t exactly of the same caliber of those mentioned above, but it’s worth noting that fans are fans, they’ll seek a signature from whomever is in uniform offering to ink their collectibles. The first seven will be cards with signing occurring on the front, while the second set will show the interaction on the backs.
Here’s Brewers pitcher Chris Bosio signing what appears to be a baseball.
Former prospect Ben McDonald is shown on his card conducting an interview while signing a baseball in blue marker. What’s comical here is the fan shouting in the background and the Diet Pepsi logo in the foreground as it was on the side of what looks to be a promotion Orioles baseball cap.
Phillies pitcher Mike Hartley is shown here signing the underside of a Phillies cap with some sort of marker.
Mets pitcher Anthony Young appears to be signing some sort of flat — probably a card — as it rests on the wall along the first base side of the field.
Angels reliever Mark Eichhorn appears to be enjoying himself as he signs for several members of the US Military. I wonder if those guys ever learned they were featured on a baseball card.
Braves reliever Marvin Freeman took his signing session to the next level and sat on the dugout pregame signing for fans using the ever popular blue ballpoint pen to make memories.
White Sox pitcher Melido Perez is shown signing autographs, specifically what looks to be a game-day lineup sheet from a Program. What caught my eye here is the fan in the background holding a $1 bill. It’s not clear if the fan is offering to pay him for a signature or if they wanted him to sign the money.
Blue Jays star pitcher Dave Stieb looks to me making friends as he sits on the tarp at what I believe is Angels Stadium.
Brewers closer Doug Henry is shown on his card preparing to sign a glove with a collectible team ballpoint pen.
Cubs catcher Rick Wilkins is pictured using a purple Sharpie to sign a program. It’s worth noting that the autograph probably turned out upside down.
Phillies shortstop Kim Batiste was captured signing autographs at Spring Training.
Cubs starter Frank Castillo is shown signing before a game at Dodger Stadium. A couple fun things of note: Castillo is going to sign a baseball with what looks like a scented (blueberry?!) blue marker and someone is holding a poster featuring Roger Clemens and Nolan Ryan, possibly offering for that to be signed by Castillo.
Orioles relief pitcher Todd Frowirth was captured pausing between signatures at the old Memorial Stadium … and there are those pesky Diet Pepsi logos again.
And lastly t here is veteran outfielder Mike Deveraux returning a hat after signing it. And given by the looks of things, it is probably one of those promotional Diet Pepsi/Orioles hats. Fitting.
I don’t own every card of this set, but that seems to be a lot of fan interaction for the 72 packs that my son and I opened. It’s an 800-card set so there’s probably more that I’ve missed.
Have one from this set that I missed? Leave it in the comments, or share it over on Twitter.
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