The 1989-90 OPC Hockey Sticker Album Project: Packs 19–24

We're going back to the 1989-90 NHL season, where young Gregory Ninepockets has been bitten by the hockey bug and is attempting to complete the current year's hockey sticker album. Previous entries in this series available here.

 

 

Summer is over, and the schoolyear is about to start for young Gregory. About a month after that, the NHL season will be here. While he waits, he's got more sticker packs to open. He's mostly excited about that.

You see, after the pack-opening debacle from last time (6 new stickers, 30 duplicates), Gregory is a little gun-shy about opening more. But that feeling only lasts for a minute. He's still learning a lot about the game, after all, and he's excited for more stickers—even if lots of them turn out to be duplicates again. 

 

Gregory takes 6 packs from the bottom right this time, and gets to work. 

Pack 19

It's a pretty good start! Mario Lemieux is one of the biggest stars of the game, and last year he came up one point short of 200. Ron Francis is pretty good, too. So are those Whalers jerseys. And on the right, it's a "Future Star" sticker back that Gregory needs for the set. Best of all? No duplicates!

Pack 20

Thanks to his hockey-loving friend at school, young Gregory not only knows the name Joe Nieuwendyk, he also knows how to pronounce it (NOO-wen-dyke.) That Trevor Linden Future Star sticker back is another welcome addition. In his rookie season of 1988-89, Linden totaled 30 goals and 29 assists for 59 points. He was named to the all-rookie team, and finished second in the rookie of the year race to Brian Leetch.

And hey—another pack without duplicates.

Pack 21

Speaking of Brain Leetch, there's his rookie base sticker! Young Gregory has also noticed that Patrick Roy seems to have a lot of different stickers in the set. This one celebrates his Vezina Trophy win (most valuable goaltender). On the right is Ray Bourque's all-star sticker back. He'd been named an all-star every season of his career to this point.

And guess what? No duplicates for a third straight pack! Could the streak keep going for a fourth?

Pack 22

Yes indeed! And better still, Gregory found the Trevor Linden base rookie sticker inside. Then he flipped the stickers over to check the backs, and wow! There's fellow New Yorker Joe Mullen on one, and The Great One on another. Sweet pack.

Pack 23

Yet another all-star sticker back, plus a Steve Yzerman base sticker. (Young Gregory figured out how to pronounce that name as well.) "Stevie Y" finished the previous season of 1988-89 third overall in league in scoring, with 65 goals, 90 assists, and 155 points. Only Gretzky and Lemieux had more points. And if the pack wasn't good enough, there was also a Brian Leetch rookie subset sticker inside! 

Pack 24

The Tony Granato rookie base sticker was a nice one to find. And finally, in the last pack of the round, Gregory pulled a duplicate with that Masterton trophy sticker. (The Masterton is awarded to the player who best exemplifies perseverance, sportsmanship, and dedication to ice hockey. For the previous season of 1988-89, it went to Tim Kerr of the Philadelphia Flyers.)

There was also another duplicate in this pack, but those were the only two of the entire round. Can't be upset about that.

 

Favorite Page

 

Young Gregory finished his first page! It's the Philadelphia Flyers.

 

 

So, how do we stand on set completion now that we're halfway through the box?

 

Main Set (182 total panels)

 

New panels: 34

New duplicates: 2

 

Total panels: 109

Total duplicates: 35

 

Panels needed: 73

Set completion: 60%

 

 

Future Star/All-Star Backs (34 total)

 

New backs: 8

New duplicates: 2

 

Total backs: 21

Total duplicates: 6

 

Backs needed: 13

Set completion: 62%

Best Stickers

The Mario Lemieux base sticker and the Brian Leetch rookie base sticker. Let's also add the Ray Bourque, Joe Mullen, and Wayne Gretzky all-star sticker backs.

Overall, this round was great, and young Gregory is psyched that he pulled almost zero duplicates after the experience with the previous 6 packs. At the same time, he wonders about the next 6 packs. I mean, he's had a round with almost zero duplicates, and he's had a round with almost all duplicates.

 

Which were your favorite stickers this time? 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for following along.

One Blogspot Issue Solved!

If you're a fellow collector who uses the Blogspot/Blogger platform, you might have been affected by one or more issues that have plagued users over the past few months. Whether it's been perfectly legitimate blogs that are erroneously flagged and locked for "harmful content", delays in new blog content showing up on a user's blogroll, or something else, it's frustrating.

 

However, I think I've solved one of the issues, and I wanted to share. Here are the details:

If you're like me, you have a Blog List on a sidebar that looks something like this:

 

 

It's likely that you've chosen the option to "sort by most recently updated", so that the newest content from your fellow bloggers appears at the top of the list. You can also choose to show the blogger's icon, a thumbnail from their most recent post, and the date of their most recent post. All of this helps us stay on top of our reading and promote our favorite bloggers at the same time.

 

However, have a look at the very bottom of my list:

 

 

  

Do you see the last three titles? All three of those bloggers are active, and posting new content at fairly regular intervals. But there's no date underneath the blog name. And their blogs appear hidden all the way at the bottom of my Blog List. So when they post new content, it simply does not show up.

 

Thankfully, after some research, I figured out the issue. If you're experiencing a similar glitch in your Blog List, here's how to fix it.

 

Go into your Blogger layout tool, and click "edit" on the Blog List gadget. It will take you to a screen that looks like this:

 

 

 

If you look closely at those web addresses in gray, you'll see that some of them contain extra text after the "blogspot.com" (i.e., /feeds/posts/default), while others don't.

 

That's the key, because apparently you need that extra text.

 

So please go to your blog when you have a moment, and check your Blog List sidebar. If any of the active blogs have been sitting way at the bottom, week in and week out, get right in there and add that extra text. Your problem should be solved, and the blogs should start updating again. 

 

I'm sure those particular bloggers will appreciate it.

 

Okay, that's the end of the Public Service Announcement. 

 

 

Because this is a trading card blog, I've got to add something card related. So here's an image of a recent facebook marketplace pick-up I made, plus the rundown of what's pictured.

 

 

 

800-count box: Complete 1987 Topps baseball set.

 

1992 Topps Micro: It's factory sealed, complete with gold cards, but I'm thinking about opening it up and piecing it out in team sets to various team collectors. (If any of you are interested, let me know. The Cubs and Tigers team sets might already be off the table.)

 

Vending box: It's 1985 Topps baseball, but I knew going into it that the box didn't contain any McGwires, Pucketts, or Clemenses. That's fine, because there are some Hall-of-Famers included.

 

1982 Topps Traded set: Before you get too excited, it's missing three cards. Can you guess which ones? 

 

Clamshell case: It contains 34 Roberto Alomar rated rookies. Yes, that's right. Thirty-four. A few of them are the "no period after Leaf Inc" variation. There's definitely a guy out there who needs both versions, so I'll try to find him. And then I'll ask him if he wants 5 or 10 of them.

 

In any case, I went for it because the seller was nearby. And the price was certainly right—less than the cost of a blaster box. It's my first marketplace purchase since the huge junk wax lot I picked up at the beginning of the year. Maybe some of these cards will go to a collector and make a great story, like last time.

Thanks for reading, everyone. I hope the Blog List solution works for those of you who need it!

 

400th Post

I've reached another milestone here at Nine Pockets:  

400 blog posts!  

Because I add content here each Sunday, 400 posts means this blog has been rolling along for almost eight years now. And that's a lot of content. 

 

I guess if you break it down, some of it has been nostalgia, some of it has been custom cards, some of it has been completed sets, and so on. Ultimately, it shows that trading cards have been a bigger part of my life than I thought. Back when I started this blog in 2018, I couldn't have imagined that I'd find so much to write about. 

In any case, and as usual with these milestone posts, I wanted to tie in some cards using a sports-related milestone of some kind. 

The first thing I thought about was baseball players who batted .400. However, there haven't been many of those—none from our modern time, in fact. So I next thought about a few players who nearly batted .400: Tony Gwynn (.394 in 1994), George Brett (.390 in 1980), and Rod Carew (.388 in 1977). 

 

However, we're celebrating 400 blog posts here, and 394, 390, and 388 just don't do enough of a job to mark the milestone. Thankfully, I found something soon after:

 

Players who've batted .400 across an 80-game stretch.

 

That's essentially half a season. After a little bit of research, here's what I found:

 

 

Name	At-Bats	Hits	Average	Date Range
George Brett	315	137	.435	5/30/1980–10/1/1980
Ichiro Suzuki	349	149	.427	6/30/2004–9/27/2004
Wade Boggs	332	138	.416	6/26/1985–9/22/1985
Tony Gwynn	327	133	.407	4/9/1997–7/15/1997
Larry Walker	302	123	.407	4/9/1997–7/14/1997
Rod Carew	310	126	.406	4/16/1977–7/17/1977

Man, that 1997 season was something else. Larry Walker and Tony Gwynn both took their .400 batting averages well into July. Walker finished the season at .366, while Gwynn ended up at .372.

 

It goes to show you how much harder it is to keep up that .400 pace for another 80 games.

 

Regardless, it's an impressive feat. And because this is a trading card blog, here are examples of what collectors would have been pulling from packs while the guys listed above were swinging such hot bats:

 

 

1980 Topps #450 George Brett, 2004 Bazooka Stand-Ups #18 Ichiro Suzuki, 1985 Topps #350 Wade Boggs

 

1997 Topps #410 Tony Gwynn, 1997 Topps Stars #1 Larry Walker, 1977 Topps #120 Rod Carew

I should note that the table shown above only represents a partial list. Nomar Garciaparra, Todd Helton, and John Olerud also accomplished the feat, as well as other legends like Jackie Robinson and Roberto Clemente. (The most recent player to do it appears to be Joey Votto, from June to October of 2016.)

 

And I'll leave it there. Milestone achieved.

 

Whether you've been visiting this blog from the start, reading it today for the first time, or anything in between, I'm sending my thanks. I hope you've enjoyed doing the reading as much as I've enjoyed doing the writing.

 

Here's to more great trading card and blogging milestones all around!

Completed Set: 1982 Topps Baseball

 

If you loved watching Major League Baseball and collecting cards of your favorite players, you probably felt some relief as the calendar changed from 1981 to 1982. And that's because 1981 was a bit helter-skelter for a fan like you.

 

There was the MLB player strike, which wiped out almost two months of the season—right in the middle of summer, no less. That might have left you feeling disgruntled and disenchanted about baseball.

 

On the other hand, two new trading card companies, Donruss and Fleer, entered the arena. If you were a baseball card fiend, this would have flipped your emotions to the opposite end of the spectrum. 

 

On the other, other hand, it turned out that the debuts from Donruss and Fleer left a little bit to be desired. The card stock for Donruss in particular felt quite thin and cheap, and both companies seemed to have trouble generating consistent, high-quality photographs. So now if you were that baseball card fiend, you might have been frustrated again. Feels like quite the roller-coaster ride.

 

So yes, when 1982 rolled around, maybe you were ready to put 1981 behind you. The strike was over, baseball was back in full swing, and Donruss and Fleer were ready for their second efforts.

 

I wonder if Topps was worried about that. Did they feel like they needed to step up their game with the new competition getting a second crack at it? 

 

Let's look at some cards from my newly completed set and find out.  

 

 

As always, Topps made sure to include some classic poses. Nothing but good vibes here. Baseball is all about green grass, sunny skies, and happy players.

 

   

 

You'll also find a lot of headshots in the 1982 set. Some of them are quite pleasant, like Palmer, Lynn, and Garner. . .

 

 

  

 

. . .while others are of the "invading my 16 inches of personal space" variety. How close was the photographer actually standing to these players when he clicked the shutter? Bonus points to Mike Ivie for almost showing a smile there, despite the encroachment. 

 

 

 

Good-mannered ballplayers like Mr. Ivie seemed abundant back then. Just check out these three guys, always happy to sign an autograph.

 

  

 

Sometimes pros would even just chat it up with the fans. You've got to love that level of accessibility.  

 

 

  

 

Speaking of which, they were always ready for an interview with the local or national broadcast team. (How great are those microphones, by the way?)

 

And you know what? All that pro-player coolness rubbed off on us Little League kids.

 

  

 

We couldn't wait to put a donut on our bat and swing it around. When we were all warmed up, we'd hold the top of the bat and bang the knob on the ground to shake the donut off. Total boss move.

 

 

 

 

Then we'd take a knee in the on-deck circle and study the opposing pitcher. Also a total boss move. 

 

 

 

  

  

And if we ever did get to the big leagues, we'd have to know how to sign our names. Interestingly, 1982 Topps showed us that we had some options. On the left, Tito Landrum signed with his actual full name, Terry Lee Landrum. In the middle, future Boston Celtics star Danny Ainge was a bit more formal, going with Daniel M. Ainge. And on the right, Shooty Babitt highlighted his nickname by signing as Mack "Shooty" Babitt. (It's notable that this was the last time Topps would add facsimile autographs to cards until their 1989 Bowman release.)

 

 

 

So, we had the weighted donuts. We had the pose in the on-deck circle. We knew how we were going to sign our names. If only we had some stylish satin jackets like these three guys, we'd be all set! 

 

On the subject of style, let's talk about the card design a little bit. I think Topps did pretty well here, and stayed a step ahead of Donruss and Fleer in the originality and creativity departments. Those racing stripes bring some good action down the left side of the card and across the bottom. And even though the colors don't often match the team colors, I'm totally fine with it. You have browns and oranges that hearken back to the '70s, plus some neon-type magentas and cyans that would soon take hold in the '80s. (Just think about MTV, Miami Vice, windbreakers, and Swatch watches, and the colors used in this set will start to make good sense.)

  

Something else that makes good sense is the "In Action" subset. It's where the racing stripes really put in the work. Just check out George Brett's version on the right side below, and follow his name down from the top left of the card.

 

 

 

George Brett (zoooooooom) in action!

 

I added the base card there because this is how you'd see both cards in a binder. In other words, Topps decided to number each player's In Action card right after his base card. There are a whopping 40 In Action cards in all, and they're sprinkled throughout the set. You'll find many big stars, such as Mike Schmidt, Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench, Steve Carlton, and Rich Gossage.

 

And the subset isn't the only place you'll find action. 

 

 

  

 

Some of the base cards captured it pretty well, too. I really like all three cards above, but my favorites are the next two when they're arranged side by side.

 

 

 

Do you remember this little dance between pitcher and runner? 

 

It happened all the time back then, especially with young, fleet-footed phenoms like Rickey and Raines in the league. When runners like those guys reached first base, pitchers would look over there again and again, and throw the ball over there again and again too, until the crowd started booing. To heighten the suspense of the almost inevitable stolen base attempt, TV broadcasts would even put up a split screen, with the pitcher on the left side, and the runner on the right. We couldn't wait to see that runner finally make a break for second base. It was glorious.

 

You know what else was glorious back in 1982?

The uniforms. 

 

 

 

 

The script "Giants" font in San Francisco. The wacky polo shirts with huge lapels in Chicago. Pittsburgh's mustard yellows and pillbox hats. The tequila sunrise stripes in Houston. The Rangers' powder blues, and that classic logo of the baseball wearing a cowboy hat. The Swinging Friar. All glorious. I didn't even include the Mariners' trident "M" logo, which is just as fantastic.

  

There are also some nice rookies in the 1982 set.

 

 

Righetti, Smith, and Stewart had excellent careers. Smith is a Hall of Famer.

 

But this guy takes the cake.

 

 

  

If I were to create a list of the most iconic rookie cards of the 1980s, I think Mr. Ripken's card would be in my top 5.

 

  

Now here's a card back.

 

 

Topps gets a pretty good score for legibility here, with the dark blue text on top of light green. Add some bonus points for the cartoon and the baseball facts that run across the top. They do push the card number down to a somewhat inconspicuous area, but I think it's fine.

 

Let's get to the subsets now.   

 

 

Besides the In Action cards, you'd get the standard Batting & Pitching Leaders, which featured a team checklist on the back. (This was often a nice way to find your favorite stars on a card other than their base card.)

 

 

 

Topps also gave us the League Leader cards, which featured the National League and American League leader in various categories.

 

 

And finally, you had a few Highlight cards to start off the first page of the binder, the standard checklist cards, and the All-Star subset. I like how all the subset cards tie in some variation of the racing stripe theme. 

 

Oh, and there's one other notable thing.

 

 

Inside every 1982 Topps wax pack you'd find one sticker for that year's sticker album! The company selected one or two players from each team—48 players in all—and printed a special "albums coming soon" message on the back. This was excellent cross-marketing. (They did a similar thing with their football set that year, as well.)

 

And that's 1982 Topps baseball. I think the company put forth a pretty solid effort with this set. Good colors, good content, and very reliable. Just what baseball fans and card collectors needed at the time. I'm happy to have completed it!

 

How about you readers and fellow collectors? What are your thoughts on this set?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!