Good News, Bad News

Bay Area sports radio tends to focus on the San Francisco 49ers and the Golden State Warriors most of the year... but this past week... baseball got a chance to shine.

2020 Topps Opening Day Ballpark Profile Autographs #BPA-RBM

The week started off with news that Renel Brooks-Moon and the San Francisco Giants were parting ways after failing to agree on a contract.  I grew up listening to Renel on KMEL back in the 80's.  In 2000, she became the Giants public address announcer.  Although the split appears to be amicable, there are many Giants fans (and non-Giants fans... like me) who were very disappointed to hear this news.

2022 Topps Tier One Prime Performers Autograph #PPA-BS

At least Giants fans received some good news that same morning when it was announced that last year's NL Cy Young Award winner signed with them.  Personally... I was hoping the Padres would bring him back... so this along with the Brooks-Moon announcement was a double dose of bad news.

Then on Wednesday... fans of Sports Illustrated received some good news as the company will continue operations after finding a new publisher.  Back in January, Night Owl shared a link in one of his blog posts about massive layoffs over at Sports Illustrated.

After reading his post, I pulled out some of my favorite issues... scanned them... and then never got around to showing them off in a post.

Well here they are...

October 21st 1974

This issue was published right after the Oakland A's took down the Los Angeles Dodgers to win their third straight World Series title.  This was sent to me in one of Too Many Verlander's care packages last year.

One of these days, I'll get around to tracking down the other two celebration issues.

Next up is Michael Jordan's first cover appearance:

November 28th 1983

I had this issue when I was a kid, but recycled it at some point.  Picked up this copy in 2022 for $2 at the De Anza Flea Market.

December 1st 1986

Not sure how I acquired this issue, but it's Iron Mike's second appearance on a SI cover after becoming the youngest heavyweight champion in boxing history.

February 18th 1991

I remember when this issue hit the stands.  At the time I was still working at my LCS and the owner picked up a bunch of copies for the shop.  Pretty sure that's where I got this one.

December 23rd 1991

That's probably where I acquired this issue too.  This was the era where everything was collectible... especially when it involved Michael Jordan and holograms.

Even though neither of these Sports Illustrated issues from 1991 are considered rare... I loved them enough to hold onto them the past thirty-three years.  And they'll continue to be valued keepsakes until the day I stop collecting sports memorabilia.

The same thing can be said about these SI for Kids cards that Rod over at Padrographs sent my way:

1990 SI for Kids #168

Although I have a small collection of Sports Illustrated magazines, I have to admit that I'm not a big fan of the magazine itself.  I had subscriptions to it off and on throughout the 80's, but I was much more into periodicals with graphs, charts, and statistics like The Sporting News and Baseball Digest.

1991 SI for Kids #271

Sports Illustrated for Kids is a little closer to my speed... plus they offer cards with every issue.

1991 SI for kids #278

I've probably had six or seven subscriptions since the late 90's, but I missed out on almost all of the earlier cards like the stuff Rod sent me.

He has actually helped fill in plenty of gaps in my SI for Kids card collection over the years.  His donations involve individual cards like the ones he sent last week... to complete magazines with cards.

In addition to the SI for Kids cards, he also sent me some stuff for my Japanese baseball players, San Diego Padres, and Steve Largent collections.  But I'm going to hold off on sharing that stuff for a future post.

I'll wrap up today's post with some Oakland A's cards he included in his care package:

If you follow his blog, then you know that Rod received a bunch of baseball boxes for Christmas.  He generously passed along the A's he pulled which includes some really nice inserts and parallels.

He also opened up a blaster of 2024 Topps and sent me these:

Although I've seen plenty of blog posts featuring this year's flagship product, today was the first time I held the product in my hands.  They look awesome!

Thank you Rod for another generous care package.  Thank you Dennis for that World Series Sports Illustrated issue.  And thank you Minute Media and Authentic Brands Group for coming to an agreement which allows Sports Illustrated to stick around a little longer.  Let's just hope they will be able to hold onto as many SI employees as possible.

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Six Pack of SLUs

Yesterday I received an email from Hasbro announcing Starting Lineup figures are returning on September 22, 2022.  I don't picture myself collecting them.  Storage space is the biggest obstacle.  Plus my hobby budget is much better spent on dime boxes, flea market finds, and the occasional blaster box.

That being said, I was very excited about the news.  Hopefully a new generation of SLU collectors will emerge and bring more attention to the figures of yesteryear.

There's a huge part of my hobby timeline that was dedicated to collecting Kenner Starting Lineups from the 80's and 90's.  Like my old card collection, a large percentage of those figures were sold off in the early 2000's.  But when I returned to the hobby later in the decade, I loved picking up dollar SLU's at the flea market and card shows.

A few years ago, I opened up most of them to conserve space which inspired me to start collecting the trading cards that accompanied the figures.  These days I have two binders dedicated to Kenner SLU cards and several banker's boxes filled with unopened figures.  I also have several Ziploc bags filled with opened figures and a few on display in my office.

Today, I figured I'd show off six of these figures (and their cards) in celebration of the big news.

#1:  1988 Tony Gwynn

This is Gwynn's rookie piece which was released in the inaugural year of Kenner SLU's.  Although the face sculpt isn't perfect, it did feature him with that late 80's 'stache.

The 1988 Kenner baseball card design was used for football and basketball too.  The only difference is that the red border was replaced with white in football and blue for basketball.  After all of these years, it's still my favorite Kenner SLU card design.

#2: 1989 Curt Warner

This is one of the few figures I actually kept from my original collection.  I'm pretty sure this is the first SLU I ever purchased and it's been sitting on a shelf (albeit different locations) for over 30 years.  

As you may have noticed, the 1989 design is similar to the 1988 design.

#3:  1991 Rickey Henderson

Rickey Henderson has a ton of Kenner SLU's.  Not sure how many he has in all, but he had at least one figure each year from 1988 to 1992.

The first two featured him with the New York Yankees, while the next three were with the Oakland A's.  I really like this particular figure as he's doing what he did best: running.  As for the card, I know some people aren't a fan of bright yellow borders, but I like it.  And the action photo paired with the portrait is reminiscent of 1983 Topps... which happens to be one of my all-time favorite designs.

#4:  1998 Muhammad Ali

I'm not a huge boxing fan, but I do love this figure.  By the time 1998 rolled around, Kenner was starting to produce higher quality sculpts where you could actually recognize the athlete.

However the Timeless Legends card design that year was a little boring.  Plus I'm not a fan of the zoomed in crop job.

#5:  1998 Kobe Bryant

Yikes.  I spoke too soon.  No idea whose head sculpt this is, but this isn't Kobe.  The face is wrong... and at the very least they could have given him his afro.

On the other hand, the card is pretty cool.  It utilizes a variation of Kobe's 1997-98 Upper Deck card with the players in the background blurred out.

Here's what his pack pulled base card looks like:

COMC Image

Sorry about the COMC image, but I was surprised to see that I don't have this card in my Kobe binder.


#6:  1999 Brett Favre

Like Rickey, Favre has a ton of Kenner SLU's to collect.  I'm 99% positive he has at least one regular issue figure from 1994 to 2000, plus a bunch of special releases like Classic Doubles and Gridiron Greats.

The 1999 design features a simple yet attractive borderless design, but the highlight for me is the well-cropped action shot of Favre rolling out and getting ready to sling the ball to someone.  Although the figure didn't capture the white towel, it did feature his white wristbands which is pretty cool.

So there you have it... a decade's worth of plastic figurines and the cards that accompanied them.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the 2022 collaboration between Hasbro and Fanatics is a success.  At the very least, they better make sure the figures include trading cards.

Okay... it's time for today's question of the day.  I'm sure I've asked this question before, but...

Did you ever collect Kenner SLU's?

And...

Are you excited they're coming back?

Looking forward to reading and responding to your comments... especially since they'll be SLU related.

Happy Tuesday and sayonara! 

A Court of Kings

In honor of Dr Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday, I thought it'd be nice to write a Saturday Night Five post showing of five of my favorite cardboard Kings.  The plan wasn't to show off my five favorite MLK cards, but a variety of Kings printed on trading cards.  After scouring COMC and numerous boxes, I discovered I had found thirteen cards and didn't want to waste the effort I put into scanning and searching.  So instead of five Kings... you get a full court of them...

Billie Jean King

1990 SI for Kids #210

Los Angeles Kings

1989-90 O-Pee-Chee #156

Bernard King

1979-80 Topps #14

The Strikeout King

2018 Topps Archives #317

Larry King

1991-92 Pro Set Platinum #292

The Lion King

1994 Skybox The Lion King Sample #S1

Sacramento Kings

1998-99 Topps #153

Burger King

1978 Topps Burger King Detroit Tigers #NNO

Jerry "The King" Lawler

2016 Topps #24

The King

2017 Panini Select #138

Don King

1991 Face to Face #717

Diamond Kings

    1985 Donruss #5

And the man of the hour...

Martin Luther King Jr.

2018 The Bar Pieces of the Past Mementos Relic #PR-MLK JR

This "relic" came from an autographed copy of King's book: Stride for Freedom.  

This card was part of a huge collection of non-sports cards that I purchased at the card show I set up at over the summer.  There was a huge stack of these "relics"... if you're willing to even call them that.  It's not my favorite MLK card... but it's the newest addition to my collection.

Happy birthday Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.!

Well that's it for today.

Who's your favorite King?

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Thank you to all of the people who left their favorite Kings.  Here are the ones I found sitting in my collection along with a few extras:

The Hit King

1986 Donruss #644

The Stolen Base King

1991 Leaf Gold Leaf Rookies Bonus #BC26

King Harley Race

1987 Topps WWF #10

King Kong Bundy

1987 Topps WWF #15

The Lizard King

1991-92 ProSet Super Stars #6

B.B. King

1991-92 ProSet Super Stars #14

The King of Rock and Roll

2007 Press Pass Elvis Rock 'N Roll Relics #RR-PP

Another King from LA

1988-89 O-Pee-Chee #124