30 Day Baseball Card Challenge

Monday, August 12, 2019

Cards From The Blogfather

Writing is one of my passions in life.  It's something I enjoy doing in my spare time... and it all started back in the tenth grade.  After months of dealing with my "just do enough" attitude, I vividly remember my English teacher shaking his head and telling me I was wasting a gift.

Things were different back then.  Mr. G kept it real with us and we appreciated it.  As a result, he inspired me to put more effort into my writing.  Three decades later, I have a blog with almost two thousand published posts

That's not saying much, since I'm not exactly a great writer.  However that doesn't prevent me from writing.  On the other hand, the cards featured in this post came from a professional writer and one of the most popular card bloggers around:  Mr. Night Owl.

Earlier in the summer, he busted a box of 1991 Pro Set Super Stars MusiCards Series 2 and wrote a detailed post on the set and the variations within it.  I was crossing my fingers that he'd end up pulling two copies of card #292:


He did... and offered to send the extra my way.


The Beastie Boys have been my favorite group since the 90's... just about a year after these cards were originally releasedPro Set actually produced three different Beastie Boys cards.  The other two were part of the 1991 Yo! MTV Raps Series 2 set.

Night Owl also sent me this Rafael Bournigal autograph:

1996 Leaf Signature Series Update #NNO

He also sent me a few newer Athletics for my collection:


Through the process of building my care package, he discovered that we collect very different things, which made it difficult for him to find cards for me.


His solution?  Send cards for my students:


Early 90's Pro Set football cards are awesome!  Collectors often turn their noses up to these sets due to mass overproduction.  However if you take the time to flip through these cards they're actually well-designed with some fantastic action shots.

He also included some recent San Francisco Giants:


Five years ago, the San Francisco Giants were about to win their third World Series title in five years... and my students couldn't get enough of their cards.  It'll be interesting to see how many of my incoming 7th graders are die-hard Giants fans.  I know that at least one of them will be happy to receive these.

Thanks Greg for care package!  We may not collect the same stuff, nor are we in the same league of writing ability.  But that's okay.  We both enjoy collecting trading cards and writing about them on our blogs.  I'm gonna call that a win and leave it at that.

Happy Monday and sayonara!

14 comments:

Chris said...

I doubt I'll ever find a decent trade package for N.O. (good thing I was able to make him a CD) The Beastie Boys card is awesome. There are a few artists in those sets that I like but if they had come out just a couple years later I would have bought a box or two for sure.

Jeremya1um said...

Glad you got the Beastie Boys dupe and stuff that you could use or pass along to your students.
Btw, Bournigal is a great guy. I spotted him at the YMCA as a teenager, and he drove me home so I could get a card for him to sign. Wished he could’ve had a better shot in Oakland, but I guess with Miguel Tejada and Tony Batista, they were pretty set in the middle infield.

Matt said...

I also had a well-liked high school teacher that everyone called Mr. G - he was a science teacher though! You're a better writer than you probably give yourself credit for. I can probably say that for all of us bloggers, including myself.

Jon said...

It doesn't get too much better than the Pro Set photography, and they're just cool cards in general, still wicked fun to open boxes of too :)

night owl said...

I should've thrown some Rod Carew cards in with that Beastie Boys card. I always think of the best ideas when it's too late.

bbcardz said...

You and Night Owl are two of my favorite hobby bloggers. You guys have serious writing skills, otherwise you guys wouldn't be as popular as you are.

Love those Pro Set football cards, too. Back in the day when I worked at one of LA's most iconic stadiums, I lucked into oodles of leftover Pro Set football cards that were from a Raiders stadium giveaway. (I've still got them too!)

Adam said...

You and Night Owl do have some serious writing skills. I may not always leave a comment but I definitely read everything you post.

That's the first I've ever seen of that Beastie Boys card. I may have to track that down to add to my "miscellaneous" collection.

Johnnys Trading Spot said...

You do just fine with your writing. And creative too! "Blogfather", love it!

SumoMenkoMan said...

I’m a huge fan of both of your blogs and glad you got the hookup! You are a much better writer than you admit!

Nick said...

I can say with 100 percent honesty that you are one of my favorite bloggers -- and simply overall WRITERS -- in the blogosphere. I've never been way, way into the Beastie Boys but that's a sweet card!

Jeremy said...

Oh man, I remember those Pro Set music cards. My friends and I would all drool over the Paula Abdul card, even though we were only like six years old. That definitely takes me back to random card collecting as a kid.

Fuji said...

chris - it's a shame that pro set isn't still around, because an update to that set would be awesome.

jeremya1um - wow. that's pretty cool of him... and a super cool experience for you.

matt - thanks for the kind words. as for my mr. g... he wasn't one of the most popular teachers. a lot of kids tried to get out of his class. however he was one of my favorite teachers, because he didn't hold back and was brutally honest.

jon - if space wasn't an issue, i'd definitely put together complete runs of 1990 pro set football and hockey. maybe even 1991 too.

night owl - thanks for the care package! i'll get some dodgers out to you sooner or later.

bbcardz - have you ever blogged about those pro set cards? i'd love to read about them.

adam - thanks for supporting the blog! there are actually 3 different pro set cards of the beastie boys. this one and the two from the yo! mtv raps set.

johnnys trading spot - thanks john! figured the title fits him.

sumomenkoman - thanks ryan! love your blog too. keep up the great work!

nick - wow. thank you nick! you run an awesome blog yourself! the goal is to one day hit up some dime boxes with you at a card show.

jeremy - paula was definitely attractive. heck... she has to be in her mid 50's and she's still gorgeous

Collecting Cutch said...

I remember those MTV Yo! Raps cards. My best friend traded me a complete set for one of my starting lineups.

Fuji said...

If it includes the 2nd series set (cards #101 to 150)... then I'm super jealous. I'm still hoping to stumble across one of these boxes at my local flea markets.