Today marks the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Loma Prieta Earthquake, an event that much of the world remembers as being the reason for the delay of Game 3 of the 1989 World Series between the Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. For me, it hits home because not only did this stop one of the most anticipated World Series of my lifetime, but it was an event that I lived through. I was 9 at the time and home with my younger sister and a friend when the 7.1 quake struck. When these things happen to you, you tend to remember every detail. I’ve re-written my account of the incident a few times over the years, and if you care to read the latest one, you can see it HERE, and a more detailed one HERE. (Yes, that is a picture of me, 8 years younger and 50 pounds heavier.)
I wrote about this very card last year on Oct. 17, but given that Saturday marks the 20th anniversary, I figured I’d drag out one of the favorite cards I own: the 1990 Score “Lights Out: Candlestick” card. If you lived in the Bay Area and collected baseball cards in the late 1980s and early 1990s, you know all about this card. For good while, this black and white card rivaled the iconic Bo Jackson football/baseball Nike pose card that also appears in this 1990 Score set.
By looking at the stats for this blog, I can tell that I am not the only one who remembers this card. Every couple of days I get a few hits from people who appear to be looking for this very card. Well, here it is again, and this time I’ve included a scan of the back so that you can read all about what happened that day. The text on this card does not do the event justice, but I figure if you really wanted to know more about that day, you’ll be looking elsewhere, not at CardboardIcons.com for a history lesson.
cardboardicons.com 
1989 earthquake commemorated on card, encapsulated and now in my collection
Posted in Commentary with tags 1989 Earthquake, baseball, baseball cards, BGS, earthquake, Loma Prieta, Score on February 8, 2022 by Cardboard IconsA funny thing happened last week. I was sitting at my kitchen table sipping my decaf coffee and out of nowhere I decided to check eBay for graded copies of some junk wax era cards. I wasn;t looking for stuff I normally collect like rookie cards. Instead I was looking for a handful of special cards that were released around the time I was 10 and 11 years old.
The very first card I looked up was the 1990 Score card 701, better known as the “Lights Out: Candlestick” card commemorating the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake here in the San Francisco Bay Area that disrupted the World Series between the local teams Oakland Athletics and San Francisco Giants. I’ve told my earthquake story here before. I wasn’t at the game, but I sure as hell remember every detail of that evening. And when this card was released the following year I found myself in awe. And truth be told, when I see copies of this card I tend to buy just for the hell of it since I’m not sure a lot of folks appreciate it. On a side note, I’m not 100% sure of this, but I’m betting Score made this card 701 because … the earthquake was a 7.1 on the Richter Scale.
Anyhow, as I looked, I located a copy of the card graded Mint 9 by BGS. I gasped, checked the pop report — I knew there couldn’t have been many slabbed — and then bought the card. This copy was graded in 2013 and is one of only five total cards submitted to BGS, and the only one that received the Mint grade. There is a single Gem Mint copy in existence, but I don’t need that one, this one does me just fine. And to make things even better, my purchase cost was less than what the grading service actually charges these days, which always feels like a win.
I own multiple raw copies of this card, including one my son pulled from a box we opened last year, but as I get older I tend to find myself looking for slabbed copies of certain cards that evoke memories. The kicker for me with slabbed copies is they just present so differently than those sitting in binder pages, all of which are beautiful in their own way. Owning slabs is not a necessary part of collecting these days, but it is something that brings me joy.
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