So, with all this free time on my hands, I find myself “cleaning out the garage.” The other day I pulled out (2) Macs that I was saving for some special project.
“I’m going to make this one into an iTunes Server!”
Riiight. So, in between selling computers on Craigslist; I’ve also been rifling through boxes and boxes of old basbell cards. I must have been one hell of a smart kid, because I discovered that I was buying entire boxes of wax packs, rather than just buying a few $0.25 packs at a time. So, I just unearthed about half a dozen unopened boxes of 1986 through 1990 boxes. Each box is filled with (36) wax packs. Apparently I never made time to open these or I was a boy genius and thought, “I’ll open these in 20 years and see what the $ cards are!”
Unfortunately for the hobby (and my bank account), there’s not a whole lot of value in these boxes. Yes, Yes, there’s Barry Bonds (Regular) Rookie Card, but we’ll get to that in a moment…
Speaking of moments, here’s my Moment of Zen:
Remember baseball between 1984 and 1987? Those were the best years in *my* baseball life; I was a Yankees fan. We had a monster lineup in ‘86 - I can recite it verbatim!
- Rickey Henderson (greatest base stealer of all time)
- Willie Randolph (great hit n run guy)
- Don Mattingly (my favorite hitter of all time)
- Dave Winfield (still a slugger in ‘86)
- Mike Pagliarulo (fan favorite at 3B)
- Mike Easler (steady veteran slugger at DH)
- Dan Pasqua (the next great slugger?)
- Butch Wynegar (Catching)
- Wayne Tolleson (Shortstop)
This team could hit, no doubt - but it’s a wonder they won 90 games (5.5 behind the Eastern Division Champion Red Sox). They had only one Ace in Dennis Rasmussen (Rasmussen-Mussen, that Funky Mussen) who put up 18 wins that year. No one else on the pitching staff even had double-digit wins!
Huh? How’s that even possible?
Dave “Rags” Righetti must have been the secret weapon, saving a record-breaking 46 games that season.
I had been constantly disappointed by the Yanks from about ‘84 on, and so I started turning my attention to the Blue & Orange team across the way. The Mets were young and exciting to watch and my Dad was living in Queens which made games easy. Darryl Strawberry had the most beautiful swing in the world, Doc Gooden looked like the second coming of Nolan Ryan and Lenny Dykstra was the sparkplug. They put it all together in ‘86 with veterans Ray Knight, Gary Carter and perhaps the best fielding first baseman of all time: Keith Hernandez. That magical season only added to my enjoyment of Baseball and Baseball Cards. We all know what the fabled Amazin’ Mets of ‘86 did. I won’t bore you with the details in this post.
There were Rookie Sluggers a-plenty: Mark McGwire came up in late ‘86 and would truly “arrive” in ‘87 with an astounding 49 homers. Jose Canseco, Wally Joyner, Will Clark, Pete Incaviglia, Rafael Palmiero, Bobby Bonilla, Barry Bonds, and Bo Jackson were exciting the crowds and collectors as well. My friends and I all raced to collect the most cards for each of these “can’t miss” HOFers.
And now, 20 years later, as I open these packs, (’86 and ‘87) I’m not even excited to find a Barry Bonds. Sure, his 1987 Topps is an $8 card in mint condition, but who cares? It’s hard not to feel these years were tainted. Some of these guys ushered in a new era in the sport of baseball. It doesn’t matter where you fall on the “Steroid-era” or “performace enhancing generation” argument. The enjoyment of these cards just isn’t the same. And that empty feeling is reflected in the Price Guides as well.
Oh, who am I kidding? I will enjoy ripping these packs open, and I’ll even separate the Cansecos, Palmieros and McGwires, just like I did when I was 14… just in case.
I’ve been having so much fun (and success!) opening up packs and boxes lately, that it was inevitable that I hit a dud. I bought into the hype on the Donruss “Threads” series and purchased a box off eBay for $14 (including shipping). The moment I got it in the mail, I was pissed - it’s a damn Blaster Box! You know, the dinky little box you can get over at Target for $9.99 - it was NOT the Hobby Box I thought I was getting.
