[zeprock]

For today's oddball post I am revisiting the beverage aisle. Here are nine more cards from my collection all associated with some type of drink.

       
1979 Hawaii Islanders Cramer #19 Al Fitzmorris (This set was produced by Cramer Sports Promotions, the same company that first received a MLB license during the 1990s as Pacific. This particular set was sponsored by 7up Cola.)
1981 Squirt #15 Eddie Murray SP (These were produced by Topps and issued in two-card panels by Squirt, a caffeine-free, citrus-flavored, carbonated soft drink originally created in 1938 in Phoenix, Arizona. This Murray card is a short print.)
1987 Our Own Tea Discs #16 Tony Gwynn (This looks very similar to the 1988 disc of Roger Clemens that I posted earlier in this thread. This one was also produced by MSA and was included in packages of tea.)

       
1989 White Sox Coke #8 Carlton Fisk (This card, sponsored by Coca-Cola, was originally given away as a promotion at a 1989 game to the first 15,000 fans. The complete set was also available with membership in the Chi-Sox Fan Club.)
1990 Brewers Miller Brewing #15 Paul Molitor (This is from a 32-card set sponsored by Miller Brewing Company and given away to the first 25,000 adults attending a Brewers' home game against the White Sox in August of 1990.)
1993 Yoo-Hoo #17 Pete Rose (This 20-card set was issued by Yoo-Hoo Chocolate Beverage Corporation and celebrates some of baseball's legends.)

        
1995 Cubs Gatorade #21 Sammy Sosa (Given away as a promotion at Wrigley Field in 1995, this set was sponsored by Gatorade.)
1995 Sonic/Pepsi Greats #6 Harmon Killebrew (This 12-card set was released at Sonic restaurants which served Pepsi products and were issued in three-card cello packs.)
2010 Rangers Stadium Dr. Pepper #NNO Chris Davis (This oversized stadium giveaway card was produced and sponsored by the Dr. Pepper Bottling Company of Texas. It was only given away at the Ballpark in Arlington.)

[scottzoe]

Love reading this thread on a regular basis, thank you for keeping it going!

Scott

[DrMitchJ]

Fun stuff, Mark!
Those regional/national food cards sure bring back memories. I remember getting some cool Yankees / Mets promotional items when I was much younger and before I was collecting. I don’t know if this was a regional or national promotion, but either a Pepsi, Coke or 7up had bottle caps with pics of ball players inside. Vague memories that they might have been only Yankees ... but maybe that’s the only ones I cared about at the time?
When I was collecting in the late 80s the only promotions I remember collecting were Burger King discs, Quaker Oats Granola cards, Bazooka bubble gum cards, and Drakes cake box bottoms.

[zeprock]

Thanks for the comments and encouragement. I still haven't found any new cards to purchase since my pack of Opening Day back in the spring so this thread has given me another avenue to enjoy my collection. It's been fun going through my boxes and binders picking out cards to scan and display in this thread and the cards invoke memories, as they should, which I enjoy sharing. Are some of you still unable to see the images or has that rectified itself?

Just as I can't understand why Fred McGriff isn't in the Hall, I felt the same way about Bert Blyleven. It took forever for him to be elected. He was 13 wins short of 300 for his career spent mostly with bad to mediocre teams. He had 3701 strikeouts, good for third place all-time when he retired plus 60 shutouts. I doubt if any current pitcher will ever amass those numbers. He did win two World Championship rings over his 22 year MLB career. He was born in the Netherlands and was known as the "Frying Dutchman" due to his affinity for setting fire to his teammate's shoelaces. I currently have 201 different Beckett recognized cards of Bert. Here are nine from my collection including a couple of rookie cards, an autograph, a game used, a short print, an insert and some parallels.

       
1971 O-Pee-Chee #26 Bert Blyleven RC (The front looks the same as the Topps rookie so I'm showing you the very different back of this Canadian issue.)
1971 Topps #26 Bert Blyleven RC
1972 Topps #515 Bert Blyleven


1975 Topps Mini #30 Bert Blyleven
2000 Greats of the Game Autographs #7 Bert Blyleven
2004 Leaf Certified Materials Fabric of the Game #153 Bert Blyleven Jsy/100

        
2011 Topps #570B Bert Blyleven SP
2011 Topps Update Diamond Anniversary #US58B Bert Blyleven SP
2013 Panini Cooperstown International Play #2 Bert Blyleven

[jack pfiester]

Fun stuff, Mark!
Those regional/national food cards sure bring back memories. I remember getting some cool Yankees / Mets promotional items when I was much younger and before I was collecting. I don’t know if this was a regional or national promotion, but either a Pepsi, Coke or 7up had bottle caps with pics of ball players inside. Vague memories that they might have been only Yankees ... but maybe that’s the only ones I cared about at the time?
When I was collecting in the late 80s the only promotions I remember collecting were Burger King discs, Quaker Oats Granola cards, Bazooka bubble gum cards, and Drakes cake box bottoms.

Absolutely DrMitch!  I'm going back and buying some of those sets now, starting with Mother's Cookies!

[zeprock]

Moving up to 1991 today. My wife and I officially divorced that summer ending our eight years of marriage but my cards kept me sane. Donruss brought back their Leaf product again that year plus added their inaugural Studio set, Topps gave us the first Stadium Club issue and Fleer countered with their Ultra line. That gave me ten main sets to collect, Topps, Donruss, Fleer, Score, Upper Deck, Bowman, Leaf, Studio, Stadium Club and Ultra in addition to their update sets, an influx of unlicensed cards and regional issues. By now it was really becoming overwhelming to collect everything, but I tried. Here are nine cards from 1991 that I have in my collection.

       
1991 Conlon TSN Prototypes #145 Babe Ruth Color DP (Another set issued in 1991 was the Conlon TSN set. In conjunction with The Sporting News, Megacards issued various prototype cards to preview their soon to be released regular issue sets featuring the photography of Charles Conlon. I've spent hours reading the backs of my Conlon cards. This particular card featuring a beautiful colorized shot of a young Babe Ruth in his Red Sox uniform is a prototype produced and distributed to collectors and dealers at the 12th National Sports Collectors Convention in Anaheim in July, 1991.)
1991 MSA Holsum Discs #12 Rickey Henderson (This disc came in a package of Holsum Sliced Bread and was produced by MSA. Holsum Bakeries originated in Chicago.)
1991 Mets WIZ #338 Nolan Ryan (This is from a 450-card commemorative New York Mets set sponsored by WIZ Home Entertainment Centers and AT&T. The cards were distributed on 15-card perforated sheets at three different Mets home games in 1991 and supposedly featured every player to ever appear for the New York Mets.)

         
1991 Pacific Ryan 7th No-Hitter #2 Nolan Ryan/No-Hitter Number 7 (Pacific Trading Cards released their first tribute to Nolan Ryan set in 1991 and this is one of a seven-card insert set that was randomly inserted in the foil packs.)
1991 Stadium Club #388 Jeff Bagwell RC Autographed (This Bagwell rookie from Topps inaugural Stadium Club release was signed by Jeff in gold ink.)
1991 Studio Previews #2 Roger Clemens (Donruss released these special Studio Preview cards in their retail factory sets. Each Donruss set contained four preview cards. I traded for a number of these in 1991 from the friend of a friend. I traded several of my vintage football cards including an O.J. Simpson card and in hindsight, I probably didn't make a very good deal but I didn't collect football cards and didn't mind getting rid of them.)

       
1991 Topps Archives '53 #82 Mickey Mantle (About eight years after Topps released their 1983 Topps Archives 1952 Reprint set, they got around to releasing this 1953 reprint set.)
1991 Topps Desert Shield #170 Carlton Fisk (I recently showed you a Jose Canseco card from this Desert Shield set. Here is another card from that set featuring a great action shot of Cecil Fielder rumbling into home plate as hard-nosed catcher, Carlton Fisk concentrates on the incoming ball.)
1991 Upper Deck #SP1 Michael Jordan SP/Shown batting in/White Sox uniform (Upper Deck inserted this special short print card of "His Airness" in random packs of their product.)

[zeprock]

A decade and a half before Ken Griffey Jr. grabbed our attention, Gary Carter was known as "The Kid" due to his exuberance. Carter was an 11-time All-star and three-time Gold Glove recipient and a member of that iconic 1986 World Championship New York Mets team. He was also the first player inducted into the Hall of Fame representing the Montreal Expos. I currently have 458 different Beckett recognized cards of Gary Carter including these nine from my collection.


1975 Topps Mini #620 Rookie Catchers and Outfielders/Gary Carter RC/Marc Hill RC/Danny Meyer RC/Leon Roberts RC (A miniature parallel of his rookie card.)
1976 Topps #441 Gary Carter
2001 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Heroes of Baseball Game Bat #BGC Gary Carter


2004 Playoff Honors Credits Bronze #123 Gary Carter
2004 Topps Series Stitches Relics #GC Gary Carter Jkt C
2005 SP Legendary Cuts Classic Careers Material #GC Gary Carter Jsy


2005 Sweet Spot Classic Materials #CMGC Gary Carter Expos Jsy
2008 Topps Allen and Ginter World's Greatest Victories #WGV8 Gary Carter'86 Mets
2013 Topps Tribute Orange #80 Gary Carter

[bamyanks]

A decade and a half before Ken Griffey Jr. grabbed our attention, Gary Carter was known as "The Kid" due to his exuberance. Carter was an 11-time All-star and three-time Gold Glove recipient and a member of that iconic 1986 World Championship New York Mets team. He was also the first player inducted into the Hall of Fame representing the Montreal Expos. I currently have 458 different Beckett recognized cards of Gary Carter including these nine from my collection.

       
1975 Topps Mini #620 Rookie Catchers and Outfielders/Gary Carter RC/Marc Hill RC/Danny Meyer RC/Leon Roberts RC (A miniature parallel of his rookie card.)
1976 Topps #441 Gary Carter
2001 Upper Deck Prospect Premieres Heroes of Baseball Game Bat #BGC Gary Carter


2004 Playoff Honors Credits Bronze #123 Gary Carter
2004 Topps Series Stitches Relics #GC Gary Carter Jkt C
2005 SP Legendary Cuts Classic Careers Material #GC Gary Carter Jsy

       
2005 Sweet Spot Classic Materials #CMGC Gary Carter Expos Jsy
2008 Topps Allen and Ginter World's Greatest Victories #WGV8 Gary Carter'86 Mets
2013 Topps Tribute Orange #80 Gary Carter


Reading your latest post and noticed how really nice your scans look. I especially like the Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic Jersey card as the red and blue really stand out. Just out of curiousity I am wondering what kind of scanner you have, or do you get the awesome colors through your editing program? I have an Epson Perfection 600 I really like.

[zeprock]

I actually scanned that card (and a lot of the other cards pictured on this thread) years ago for my website with a scanner that I no longer have. I think it was an Epson. I normally scan at high resolution like 600 dpi. I do run every scan through Adobe PhotoShop and remove scanner dust spots and increase the saturation on the colors to make them "pop" and then compress it back to 72 dpi. I think it makes them look more attractive.

[zeprock]

There are a lot of elements that go into a good baseball card. I love reading the stories on the backs of the Conlon cards. When I was young in the pre-internet days, I used to pore over the stats. Nowadays cards can be found with swatches of uniforms, bats, benches, balls, bases, shoes, caps, even dirt on them. Design is always cool and for me the more innovative, the more appealing, but one of the most important things is the photo. Sure we have many cards now with creative artwork that is amazing but there is still something about a great photo and so for today's post, I am posting nine cards from my collection featuring some of my favorite photos.

       
1971 Topps #355 Bud Harrelson/Nolan Ryan in photo (One of the first cards to really grab my attention was this one of Mets shortstop Buddy Harrelson when I pulled it out of a ten cent pack back in the day. 1971 was the first year Topps regularly sprinkled action photos throughout their base set and this one of an unidentified Astros player sliding into Bud's tag at second base as the umpire keeps a keen eye on the play and the second baseman casually jogs by is a winner in my book. As a bonus we have a very young Nolan Ryan in the foreground giving the "out" call.)
1972 Topps #434 Johnny Bench IA (Love this shot of Johnny Bench going after a foul pop up. The photographer caught him just after he's pulled off his mask. Topps even put "In Action" on the front of the card. This card features two future Hall of Famers as Giants slugger Willie McCovey is in the background no doubt hoping the ball will be out of play.)
1992 Tuff Stuff World Series # Dan Gladden (I cut this card from a page in Tuff Stuff Magazine. It depicts the Twins Dan Gladden just after he crossed home plate literally upending the Braves catcher, Greg Olson sending him head over heals during Game 1 of the 1991 World Series. Gladden was called out on the play that stirred controversy due to him sliding in spikes high.)


1994 Burger King Ripken #7 Cal Ripken/The Ironman (Love this shot of the King surveying his kingdom. This card, produced by Score, actually came from Burger King and shows Cal Ripken Jr. in the on deck circle with a panoramic view of Camden Yards prominently featuring the scoreboard and warehouse.)
1994 Conlon TSN Burgundy #1000 Ty Cobb (The stories of Ty Cobb on the basepaths are legendary. He was as rough and tumble as they came and would file his spikes into lethal weapons and slide in spikes high. This old black and white photo shows the grit and determination on his face, the ferocity of his slide, folding the base in half as the dirt scatters and the third baseman leaps to live to play another day.)
1996 Pinnacle Christie Brinkley Collection #1 Greg Maddux (As you can see, I have an affinity for the action photos but this one is of Hall of Famer Greg Maddux posed. The photo was taken by supermodel Christie Brinkley, who incidentally is pictured on the back, for Pinnacle's insert set featuring players from the 1995 World Series. I would have posed him with the ballpark in the background instead of a chain link fence but that is just me. It's still an innovative shot suitable for framing.)

       
2008 Upper Deck #229 Manny Ramirez (I like this card. Not my favorite player but one of my favorite moments. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. This one speaks volumes. Manny sealing the deal. His teammates pouring over the railing. The fans all in instant jubilation and the catcher starting his walk back to the dugout all before the bat comes to rest on the dirt. Beautiful.)
2016 Topps #96 Jose Bautista (Bautista was mostly a no-name player for the first five or six years of his MLB career knocking around for teams like the Orioles, Devil Rays, Royals and Pirates until he settled into Toronto's lineup. I am not a fan of his because of his apparent attitude. It seems like he can only hit when he's pissed and it seems like he was pissed a lot. Like the Ramirez card, this one captures a moment, one we all remember, perhaps the most famous bat flip of all-time. It eventually made it's way from jack-o-lanterns and Christmas sweaters to tattoos and even a corn maze. Study the photo though and you'll see that no one present other than the photographers saw the bat flip. They're all looking at the ball landing in the seats of the Rogers Centre in Toronto. This came during the 7th inning of Game 5 of the ALDS against the Texas Rangers who would somewhat exact their revenge the next season courtesy of Rougned Odor's right fist.)
2018 Stadium Club #180 Ted Williams (Here's a cool black and white shot of the Splendid Splinter bending his bat. Talk about a powerful swing. This all-time great could have been so much greater had he not lost four seasons during his prime to military service.)