1992 Score Pinnacle

1992 Pinnacle: I don't remember where I picked up this pack from January, but I think it was part of an eBay purchase?  Kirby and the Twins were coming off their second World Series Championship which they won against Atlanta in one of best World Series we've ever seen.

The basic design isn't overly great.  The borders take up too much room though the players do bleed into that space.  There's also the lack of a team logo.

Terry Pendleton was key to the Braves' turnaround and World Series appearance in 1991.  He was selected as the 1991 NL MVP.  The backs aren't bad.  Not enough stats but otherwise it does a pretty good job.  Probably not Terry's best photo he's ever taken.

I do like the Shades subset.  Strawberry was coming off his first season as a Dodger in what unfortunately would be his last season playing full-time.  He'd play eight more seasons but only played more than 63 games once.  Sidelines shows off player pursuits off the field.  Dwight Smith sang on opening day, 1991.  Cal Eldred went on to win 86 games in his career.

Kirby new how to take a photo.  I like that write-up.  "Barrel-chested" was appropriate.

Schooler had 30+ saves twice in his short six-year career.  Darryl Hamilton batted .291 for his career.  I would never have guessed that.  I didn't think that he was bad.  Just didn't know he was that good.

Smoltzy!  He was 2-11 before the All-Star break in 1991.  The Braves really did stick with him.

This was a fun pack of cards.  Plenty of memories and a good pull.  Enjoy your Memorial Day weekend!

BREAKDOWN: 16 – Total Cards
2 – Rookie Prospects
1 – Shades
1 – Sidelines

1997 Pinnacle NASCAR Random Group Break (Dale Earnhardt, Jeff Gordon, Bill Elliottt, Jeff Green)

1997 Pinnacle:  I was part of a random group break of '97 Pinnacle last year and somehow ended up with some of NASCAR's greatest drivers.  Dale Sr. is the highlight though of course Jeff Gordon is no slouch.  And Bill Elliott is a great driver as well.  Not sure how I got this lucky but I'll take it.  Classic look from Dale in this photo.

Great look at the colors and look we associate with Dale Sr's car.

Plenty of cool cards.  

A legend, Dale Sr. was a seven-time champion.

Pinnacle tinkered with different designs.  Some work.  Some make you wonder.  Not saying these are bad.  Just different.  But Intimidator is right.  Dale was just that.

The NASCAR Dayton Duels are tonight on Fox Sports 1.  These will set the lineup for Sunday's first race of the season in Daytona.

In turn 4 on the way to victory maybe?  This legend had 76 wins in his career. 

Jeff Gordon seemed the antithesis of Dale Sr. but was no less a competitor.  Jeff Gordon won 93 races and four championships.

UNRIVALED: EARNHARDT vs. GORDON is a great documentary any NASCAR fan should watch.

A Jeff Green pull.  I'm a Scooby fan so I'm happy.

Bill Elliott, a one-time champion, had 44 wins in his illustrious career and won a crazy 16 Most Popular Driver awards.  His son Chase is a favorite of mine in the sport today and also had a championship on his resume as well as five Most Popular Driver awards.

Elliott also had off track pursuits.  Or maybe this was his attempt at making a track.  That Gordon below is a Spellbound insert.  And what does that "R" help spell out when other Spellbound cards are combined with it?  NASCAR.

February 2019 Affordable Break @ Cardboard Collections

Colbey over at Cardboard Collections did another of his great affordable breaks on Saturday night.  This month's boxes included 1995 Sportflix, 1995 Summit, and 1995 Zenith baseball. He broke the three boxes live via Twitter but has also done them live on Facebook in the past.  I purchased two teams - Boston and Oakland.  Everyone who bought in received a random second team and mine were Milwaukee and Texas though I traded Texas for the Angels. In this post I'll show off the highlights of the cards I received from each team. I'll start with this great looking Summit Nth Degree card of Ruben Sierra.  This card is great in hand.  Seeing it pulled on video I didn't quite get it but I do now.  Great card stock and a sweet look.  This is one of two A's Nth Degree cards I received. 

    These Summit card are on a nice card stock and are my favorite of the three sets.  That's a nice Eckersley that'll go into the personal collection (PC).  So will Rickey but the closed eyes isn't a good look.

  These Sportflix actually scanned better than I expected.  You can almost see the different poses.  All three of these beauties will go into the PC. 

The Zenith are a bit different and you can see what they were going for even if it wasn't the norm for the day.

I always liked Mo Vaughn and I think he is a well liked Red Sox among fans.  Jose Canseco of course was always entertaining if not a head case.  And The Rocket...could have been so much more.  <sad face>

Mike Greenwell was such a good hitter (.303 for his career) and played his entire career in Boston which lasted 12 seasons.

I think all three of these are great photos of the guys in action.

I was so glad I traded for the Angels.  They are usually scooped up by another blogger so I didn't even think about them as an option.  Chili and Tim are PC guys as is Bo though I didn't pull his Summit card.

1994 was Bo's final season in the majors and his only season with the Halos.  He batted .279 with 13 homers and 43 RBIs in 75 games.

J.T. Snow was another good hitter from the era and that is a great photo.  The Garret Anderson rookie is very nice and he had a good career.  Mark Langson and Chuck Finley are also PC guys from this Angels team though I only grabbed a couple Finleys.  

A couple of highlights from the Brewers cards I received.  Colbey threw in some extra packs for the fun of it hence the '87 Topps.  This break was a lot of fun and I'm very happy with the cards I pulled.  I highly encourage everyone to check out Cardboard Collections and his fun breaks.

BREAKDOWN:

71 – Total Cards
22 – 1995 Pinnacle Sport Flix (7 Angels, 6 Bosox, 6 A’s, 3 Brewers)
  -- 2 – Rookie

23 – 1995 Pinacle Summit (8 BoSox, 7 A’s, 5 Angels, 3 Brewers)
  -- 2 – Rookie
  -- 2 – Nth Degree Parallel
  -- 1 – Bat Speed
  -- 1 – Special Delivery

19 – 1995 Pinnacle Zenith (6 BoSox, 5 A’s, 5 Angels, 1 Brewers)
  -- 2 – Rookie
  -- 2 - Checklist

6 – 1987 Topps (3 Brewers, 1 A’s, 1 Angels, 1 BoSox)

1 – 1988 Donruss
  -- 1 Diamond King (Mark McGwire)

Cardboard Collections Affordable Break '94 Select Series 1 & 2, and '95 Score Series 2

Cardboard Collections did one of his affordable breaks this month which was a perfect opportunity for me to do my first group break and I really enjoyed it.  I picked Boston as Atlanta was already taken and my random second team was the White Sox.  AND Colbey threw in some Braves cards for me as a huge bonus.  I'll go out of order here because I really like these 1995 Score cards.  

 I had never seen them before and I'm liking the design.  The Tom Glavine and John Smoltz cards are great.  Really nice shots of them pitching.  

I didn't pull a complete Red Sox team set but I'm very happy with my cards.  They look sharp and and I pulled some Red Sox players I really like.  

The White Sox cards included a few nice Frank Thomas cards including a Gold Rush Hitters Inc.  Some other nice players on that team as well but Thomas stands out among the group.  Non-standard base cards included Hitters Inc. and Rookie cards.

I'd seen the 1994 Select before but this is my first time seeing them in hand.  Above are a couple of the Rookie Prospect cards. None of those I pulled really panned out but that is why they are prospects right?  You never know.  These have a landscape design and a unique two picture format on the front.  There are some nice photos here and I also ended up with some duplicates of favorite players.  I pulled a Red Sox team set which was great and will be added to the personal collection.   

This was great fun.  I was able to watch the break live on Facebook and able to interact via the chat with others watching.  Again it was my first experience doing any type of group break and I loved it.  Thanks to Colbey for putting this on.  It was definitely affordable and made for a fun time.   

BREAKDOWN:

TOTAL CARDS = 96

1994 Score Select (Hobby) Series 1 and 2

 20 - Red Sox/20 – White Sox/5 – Braves

  6 – Rookie Prospect

1995 Score Series 2 Jumbo

  19– Red Sox/22 – White Sox/10-Braves

  7 – Rookie

  7 – Hitters Inc. (1 – Gold Rush)

  2 – Base Gold Rush

Team Totals:

White Sox – 42

Red Sox – 39

Braves – 15