Exactly 38 Years Ago, a Crucial Keith Hernandez Error Ruined Their Day

If you’re a Seinfeld fan and you’ve been around this blog long enough, the title of this post probably gave you a good idea as to what you’ll find when you scroll down. But let's provide a brief background first.

 

Way back in 2019, this whole custom card thing started off with a vintage-inspired design featuring George Costanza knocking out Bette Midler in a collision at home plate.

 

 

A few years later, along came Elaine, wearing a Baltimore Orioles uniform and celebrating a home run with some of her trademark little kicks.

 

 

Then, most recently, Jerry appeared on the Pittsburgh Pirates—even though he clearly didn’t wanna be a pirate.

 

 

 

There was only one more member of the fab four to capture on cardboard. And now it’s ready.

 

 

It’s Cosmo Kramer, of course! 

If you zoom in for a better shot of the action, you'll see that it recreates the scene from June 14, 1987 at Shea Stadium (exactly 38 years ago!), when Kramer was hit by some spit that he and Newman wrongly assumed came from Keith Hernandez. Kramer is yelling out, “I’m hit!”, while Roger McDowell, the "second spitter" and true culprit of the infamous crime, is visible in the bushes behind the fence. 

 

For a refresher, here’s the scene from the Seinfeld episode:

 

When I was thinking about how to depict Kramer on his card, it didn’t take long for that post-game incident to come to mind. After all, the other three customs in this set have baseball-related themes in one way or another. I wanted Kramer’s card to have one, too.

 

The challenge was coming up with the perspective and angles to make it work. In the video evidence, Roger McDowell was off to the side, in the bushes, while Kramer was more in the foreground. I wondered if I’d be able to get it right.

 

Thankfully, I found a card from the original 1956 set with a built-in fence along the side. It gave me a nice anchor point for McDowell, and also allowed a good amount of room to show Kramer as he’s being hit by the “magic loogie”.

 

And if you look closely at Kramer’s clothing, you’ll see that I tried to match it up with what he was actually wearing in the Seinfeld episode. Adapting so much of the scene into the card was fun, for sure.

 

And with that, the fab four set is complete.

 

 

 

 

These cards definitely challenged my creativity and overall design skills, and I'm pretty happy with the outcome. There's probably room to add a couple more cards to the set, featuring characters like Newman, or David Puddy (who'd be on the New Jersey Devils, of course). However, I think for now I like it as is.

 

How do you think the set turned out? If you've got a favorite, let me know in the comment section.

 

Thanks for reading, as always!

Let's Have More Willie Wilsons in Modern Baseball, Please

Have a look at this 1985 Topps Woolworth All-Time Record Holder card.

 

 

It features Willie Wilson in a fairly ordinary pose, with bat in hand. Mr. Wilson gained entry into this 44-card set largely as a result of his 1980 season, which was anything but ordinary. He actually set three records that year. All three are listed on the back of the card.

 

And although the second one might not exactly fascinate some fans of the modern game, it sure does impress me. 

 

Want to know what it is?

Set A.L. record with 184 singles in 1980.

 

One hundred and eighty four singles. Would you like to know how many Major League players totaled at least 184 hits during the 2024 season? 

Six. 

 

That's right. Six players reached 184 total hits last year. 

 

Not 184 singles. 

 

184 hits. 

 

That's a remarkable difference.

 

And hey, listen. The game changes. New strategies emerge. Rules are added or removed. Player types come in and out of fashion. This kind of stuff needs to happen to the game over time. If not, it becomes stagnant, and eventually viewership declines. And let's be fair: There are some exciting aspects of the modern game, not to mention exciting players.

 

But man, I miss that Willie Wilson type. Hit singles, steal bases, score runs. Come on, name a few more with me.

 

Willie McGee. Vince Coleman. Tim Raines. Lenny Dykstra. Paul Molitor.

 

You'd still get some of those guys in decades to follow, of course. Kenny Lofton. Juan Pierre. Dee Gordon. Ichiro Suzuki. Even Jose Altuve fits the bill to a certain extent.

 

But over the past decade or two, the speedy slap-hitter has become almost extinct. And I think that's a real shame.

 

Just look at Willie Wilson go.

 

 

 

For his career, Wilson totaled 2207 hits, 1169 runs, 281 doubles, 147 triples, and 668 stolen bases (12th all-time as of this writing), finishing with an 83% stolen base percentage (19th all-time as of this writing). He led the A.L. in triples five times, and four of those times he led the majors, too. Add to that his 13 career inside-the-park home runs, which is the most of any player in the modern era.

 

It's also noteworthy that Wilson was a switch-hitter, and is one of only two players in MLB history to have collected 100 hits from both sides of the plate in a season. (Garry Templeton is the other.)

 

But let's go back to his 1980 season.

 

That year, Wilson led the majors in plate appearances (745), at-bats (705), runs (133), hits (230), and triples (15). He also took home a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award, and finished 4th in A.L. MVP voting behind George Brett, Reggie Jackson, and Goose Gossage.

 

He'd put up great numbers over the next few seasons as well, and was an integral part of the 1985 World Champion Kansas City Royals.

 

The man had a great career, and brought a certain kind of excitement to the game of baseball. Let's make sure we give a little more credit where credit is due.

 

As for today's game? I'd love to see a resurgence in the speedy slap-hitter. How about you readers? Feel the same way? Do any current MLB players fit the bill?

 

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

 

PS: Next week's post will come on Saturday instead of Sunday, in order to mark a baseball-related anniversary. Be sure to tune in!

Completed Set: 1991-92 Score Canadian Bilingual, Series 1

Well, that was fast.

 

Back in March, I posted a story here on the blog about a box of hockey cards I received as a "throw-in" with a facebook marketplace purchase.

 

 

 

Yep, 1991-92 Score Canadian Bilingual Hockey, Series 1.

 

It was a mouthful, released right around the peak of junk wax–era hockey cards. And as a result, it wasn't exactly high on my list of sets to complete. (Actually, it wasn't even on the list.) However, the box was free, and although all the packs had already been opened, there were enough cards inside to get me fairly close to the full set: 287 out of 330, to be exact. So, I decided to put a want list up on TCDB and get the word out to the card-collecting community.

And thanks to the ever-present generosity of that community, I've already reached the finish line! 

That's right. About two months after I put the word out, 1991-92 Score Canadian Bilingual Series 1 is now complete and in my possession. A win is a win, right?

 

So let's take a look at this set, and what gems we can find within.

 

First things first: The folks at Score didn't mess around with common cards to start off the set. Check out the first six names on the checklist:

 

Brett Hull

Al MacInnis

Luc Robitaille

Pierre Turgeon

Brian Leetch

Cam Neely

 

All six are now Hall of Famers, and better still, they're shown in action on their cards. Many of the cards after those six—be it HOFer, common player, or anything in between—didn't disappoint, either. 

 

 

 

Throughout the set you'll find examples of solid hockey action and quality image cropping. As you can see above, there are plenty of guys spraying snow, rushing the puck up ice, or otherwise zooming around.

 

 

 

The action didn't stop with the skaters. Goalies received some good cardboard in the set, too. I can hear the muffled boom of the puck rebounding off Peter Ing's leg pad there on the right.

 

 

And if you want good hockey technique, Score's got you covered. Look at the three players above. Head up, puck on stick, looking to make a play. That's absolutely textbook. Images like these are much harder to find on hockey sets of the previous decades. Overall, I was really impressed with the Score photographers at this point.

 

However, as I continued to look through the cards in the set, I noticed a pattern. Murphy, Huddy, and Trottier are not the only three players displaying good puck-handling skills. Not even close. In fact, there were so many images of players carrying the puck on their stick, I decided to count them up. 

 

Would you like to know the total?

 

118.

 

That's right. There are 118 cards in Series 1 that show a player with the puck on his stick, ready to pass, or skating with the puck under control. That's one third of the set!

 

As you flip through the cards, this becomes a bit repetitive. But don't worry—the Score photographers did go off the script at times. For example, look at these two:

 

 

 

Although they only did it twice for all of the base cards in Series 1, Score did add a horizontal version of their base card design. I always find it interesting when a card company goes through the trouble of creating a separate card layout, and then only uses it for one or two cards.

 

 

Regardless, you'll also find some exciting cards like these, which show players blasting shots. Look at Steve Thomas there. He's comin' right at ya!

 

The bold, red design of each card also comes right at ya.

 

It works better for some teams than others, of course. The Red Wings, Blackhawks, and Kings do well. Teams with orange in their uniforms, like the Flyers, Oilers, and Islanders, can cause a bit of a clash with the red. But hey, listen. We were smack-dab in the middle of bold '90s card designs, so Score's color choice here fits the era quite well.

 

As for the overall design, we get a somewhat simple card front. The angular top and bottom lines of the frame are reminiscent of 1989 Fleer baseball, and help deliver the message that hockey is an action sport. Score placed each team's wordmark at the bottom right, and then placed their big "SCORE" branding at top right. I like the little hockey puck underneath the player's first name.

Let's look at a card back now.

 

 

Typical Score excellence. You've got plenty of good information to read, and because this is the Canadian bilingual version, it's available in English and French.

The big color photo on the right is a crowd pleaser, and the yellow-orange banner for the player name at the top of the card stands out. The team logo and player position underneath provide nice touches, for sure.

But let's get back to the card fronts. Score had some fun subsets here, as they always did.

Remarkably, five players reached the career 1,000-point mark during the 1990-91 season. Score did well to make a subset out of it. Crunch Crew was another 5-card subset, featuring some of the big hitters of the NHL. And as a relatively new hockey fan back then, it was so fun to discover that a few sets of brothers were playing in the NHL at the same time. (The Courtnall brothers released an instructional video around this time called The Shooter's Edge, which I certainly benefited from during my high school hockey days.)

 

 

 

Of course, you had to have a rookie subset too. The "Top Prospects" in the league, including the three big names above, all received this unique card treatment. (Although it's important to note that not all of these cards were true rookie cards.)

 

 

 

Score continued the trend of "player in tuxedo" subset cards that existed at the time, showing NHLers accepting their end-of-season awards. The Season Leader cards were nicely done, with the blue and white sections helping the player action stand out. As for young Mr. Lindros, he was a big deal back then, and Score gave him a special "First Round Draft Choice" card at the end of the set.

 

 

 

A few unique ones now. The Brett Hull "hockey stick on fire" card was a neat one when we first saw it. Mario Lemieux and the Pittsburgh Penguins received a nice-looking card to help commemorate their Stanley Cup victory the season before. And on the right, you'll see one of the special Bobby Orr insert cards. These were pretty tough to pull, and an absolute treat when one did come out of a pack.

 

 

Remarkably, the 1990-91 NHL season produced more than just 1,000-point milestones. Wayne Gretzky would score his 700th career goal, and Brett Hull put up 50 goals in his first 50 games. (If you couldn't tell from the cards shown so far, Brett Hull was the big man on campus at this time. After those first 50 goals, he netted 36 more, for a season total of 86!)

 

 

 

The design of the Franchise cards is loosely based on the 1956 Topps baseball set. Only five teams received a Franchise card in Series 1. The rest would appear in Series 2. Guy Lafleur, who finally retired after the 1990-91 season, received a three-card tribute set, which was artfully done.

And that wraps up 1991-92 Score Bilingual Hockey, Series 1. Overall, Score did a better than decent job with its second-ever hockey offering. There are good subsets and action shots to be found. And although the repetitive nature of the images can wear on you as you flip through the cards (the bright red borders don't help), when I look back, it was a fun set—especially for a young collector or hockey fan.

 

Now a question for your readers and collectors:

 

Do I go for Series 2? 

 

It's only another 330 cards, which is doable. (The borders will be blue this time, not red!) And there are some very nice rookie cards in Series 2, like John LeClair, Dominik Hasek, and Nicklas Lidstrom. 

 

Maybe I'll buy a wax box and try to build the entire set the old-fashioned way: Opening packs and sorting the cards. Boxes are currently available on ebay for about $20, plus shipping.

 

Let me know what you think, and thanks for reading!