Joe Sakic card #29 1992-93 Score Young Superstar #20

• Really love the border on this Sakic card.  One of the flashiest looking cards I've seen for a subset from the 90's.
• It's amazing what you notice when you start looking at your cards closer.   It's surprising how many shots I've seen so far of Sakic stick handling with the puck.  
• Wish I could see the number on the sleeve of the Buffalo Sabres player more clearly.  Would be cool to identify who he is.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #26 1994 Collectors Choice #624

• I imagine that this photo was taken during an early season game, with the long sleeves underneath the jersey.
• The red sleeves and red socks/shoes really stand out in this photo.  I'm beginning to wonder if it's actually the cards, or my scanner, but this card also came out grainy when scanned.  
• Jim's 26th game in the 1991 season saw him go 2 for 6 with a double and an RBI in a 6-5 12 inning win over the Yankees.  
• No eye black!

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #28 1991-92 Upper Deck #616

• Don't know if I care for the stripes on the All Star uniforms from the '92 game.  Notice that the number on Sakic's uniform is 16, instead of 19 which was worn by Bryan Trottier.   This wasn't the first, or the last time that he gave up his standard jersey number.  Sakic had 2 assists in a 10-6 loss in the ASG.
• The 91-92 Upper Deck high number set was 200 cards, 50 more than the previous season.
• On 2/27/92, Joe had 1 assist and was a minus 2 in a 4-2 loss to the Kings.   Tony Granato had a hat trick for the silver and black.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #25 1994 Score #167

• Go back to Thome's card #23--same thing, no eyes!!  If no eyes, why the eye black?
• Border is black, but scans almost a navy blue.  Not sure why Score included the series of dots to the left of the name/team box.
• Joe started out the 1994 season in style, a pinch hit double in the home opener against Seattle.  Cleveland won 4-3

-Robert

Brett Lawrie card #8 2012 Topps Finest #65

• Home Run #7 of Brett's career would be the last homer that Minnesota pitcher Willie Eyre would give up in the big league.  It was a 2 run shot that broke a 6-6 tie and gave the Jays a 8-6 victory.
• I like this card, the shot of Brett just releasing his bat is something you don't see very often.
• Someone in the Jays clubhouse needs to use a little more bleach, those home whites are looking a little grey....

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #27 1991-92 Upper Deck #333

• Similar to the 90-91 Upper Deck card of Joe, the captain C appears to be added late as you can clearly see the alternate captain A outline beneath it.
• I do believe that is Tony McKegney in the background.  IT looks like a 4 on the sleeve, and McKegney wore the #14 on his 2nd go around in Quebec.
• From time to time I'll look up a price of a particular card--this one in the current Beckett Hockey lists for 60 cents.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #24 1994 Fleer Ultra #49

• A rare "live" post as I've fallen a bit behind.  I barely had time to put together a trio of posts for this blog on the weekend (and these don't take very long to complete)
• I had to check and see if there was a Gold Medallion version of this card, and no it turns out that this is the base card for Ultra '94.   It was extremely difficult to make out the card number on the back.
• I see this on a lot of Jim Thome cards, but it looks like he never got cheated on his swings at the plate.  Front foot he's on his heel, back foot he's on his toes.  Awesome

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #26 1991-92 OPC #16

• The tediousness of this page is finally over.  There's only one card on the next page that has any "duplication"
• Upon further review, I'm surprised that Topps/OPC kept the orange and blue lines running through the black stick at the bottom of the card.  Would have looked better if the stick was actually "over top" of the border.
• The only difference between the Topps/OPC variations is the French writing on the back of the OPC card.  The French actually has more lines of text than the English!

Jim Thome card #23 1993 Topps #603

• Love how this shot catches Thome in mid swing.  With all the hubbub lately about blurry background people, this card proves that this isn't the first time there's been someone out of focus in the background of a Topps card.
• I never noticed until I scanned this card, but you can't see Thome's eyes.  But the eye black is there.   Maybe in this case, it's cheek black?
• Jim's 23rd career game would be the last hitless one for him in the 1991 season.  He would finish the next 4 games going 8 for 16 to raise his average from .207 to a season end .255.

Joe Sakic card #25 1991-92 Score Canadian Bilingual card #25

• Back of the card mentions, in both languages, that Joe was involved in 109 of the Nords 256 goals in the 90-91 season (42.5%). 
• Joe wasn't even the first Nordiques draft pick in the '87 draft.  That honor belonged to Bryan Fogarty.  Out of the 14 players drafted ahead of Joe, only one scored more goals (Brendan Shanahan).  5 of those 14 did play in over 1000 NHL games, which is quite an achievement.
• 3 of the fans in the photo can be clearly identified, 2 others suffered the photo guillotine.

 -Robert

Joe Sakic card #24 1991-92 Score American #25

• Wonder why purple as used for the American border. Also interesting that Score used a home jersey for this photo, which had the captain "C" on it, while the Canadian version you'll see again had the away jersey with the "A" featured. 
• Heads up! Joe is less likely to get pounded by a defender on this card. 
• And yes, similar to Topps 2016 baseball, the fan in the background is rather blurry in this photo. Not a new phenomenon for sure...

Joe Sakic card #23 1991-92 Score Canadian #25

• I'm going to get all 3 versions I have of this card out of the way today.  At least one of the cards is a bit different from the other 2
• Love the concentration on Joe's face on this photo.  Not too often you see the puck on an angle on a card.
• On 2/20/91, Joe was pointless and a minus 4 in a 6-1 loss to the Kings.  The Nords were out shot 48-22, and the only Quebec goal was scored by Guy Lafleur.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #22 1993 Topps Stadium Club #8

• Interesting that Stadium Club and Ultra both used a baseball on their card front design.  Both cards are real sharp looking.
• What's that below his eyes?   
• There are a total of 18 Jim Thome cards in 1993, I have 9 of them.   Need 2 Fleer/Pro Cards, 2 Stadium Club parallels, 4 Topps variations, and 1 Upper Deck that has a Gold hologram.   Sheesh...

-Robert

Brett Lawrie card #7 2012 Bowman Gold #191

• Much like the Sakic posts of late, the last 3 posts for Brett have been variations of the 2012 Bowman release.
• I was a bit disappointed that the gold parallels weren't numbered.   Sad, isn't it??
• Including printing plates and all the other limited parallels, there are 270 cards from 2012 for Brett Lawrie.  I currently have just 14 of them.   Help!!!

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #22 1991-92 Topps #16

• A milestone post---#50!!  As I've said before, I am motivated to keep this blog going.  Not only am I making these posts easy on myself, but the player checklists are starting to grow, which over time will help out with trades or with purchasing at shows.
• Photo is a tad grainy once scanned.  This is one of the few remaining cards that have this feature.
• The backs of the Topps/OPC set for this year are really cool.  Full color blue border with red, pink and yellow stripes.  It's a lot easier to read the Topps bio for Sakic; letters are bigger because it's written in English only.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #21 1993 Fleer Ultra #192

• In my opinion, Fleer did a nice job improving the design of Ultra from 1991 (ugly) to 1992 (good, but the grid on the back wasn't needed) to 1993 (great photography front and back)
• Yes, again, I have to mention the eye black.
• Wondering if "Ben" on the back of his glove was there to honor someone.  I'd love to know if that was the case.
• I never noticed on any of the other cards, but Jim has one pair of hairy forearms....

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #21 1991-92 Pro Set #315 (English)

• Before you ask, yes this is a separate scan.  I'm trying to show each individual card, but without showing off the back of the card, I guess there's no real way to differentiate the English and French variations.  You'll just have to take my word for it.
• 1991-92 featured 37 different Sakic cards (variations included).  I don't think I have 2/3 of them yet, which is disappointing.  
• It's amazing what you notice after scanning a card; it appears that there's a bit of a rough edge on the bottom of this card.  No matter, it's good enough for my collection...

-Robert

Jim Thome card #20 1993 Score Select #304

• More eye black, a common theme for the past few Thome cards.
• The front of Thome's jersey almost looks as if he got run down by a car (Tire tracks below the "D")
• I like this design, the green border was something different in '93.  I don't remember if this was advertised as a premium brand by Score; if so, I would say that they certainly could have raised their game a bit...

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #20 1991-92 Pro Set #199 (English)

• This stretch of Joe Sakic cards over the next week or two is going to be tedious because what's coming up is parallels/alternate versions of the same card.   But my goal is to show each card that I have, so bear with me.
• The big thing that I've noticed between the Sakic and Thome PCs is the amount of cards released for each player after they've retired.  Upper Deck is still pumping out cards of Sakic 6 years later, while Thome has been very quiet (9 cards in 2013, just 2 in 2014 and 0 in 2015). So far in 2015-16 Sakic has 21 cards. 
• On this date in 1989, Sakic played his 49th career game, a 3-2 win over rival Montreal.  One of the Quebec goal scorers was Randy Moller, who is now VP of broadcasting for the Florida Panthers.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #19 1993 Pinnacle #348

• If there was one set from the 90's that could be brought back and make me happy, it would be Pinnacle.   The black borders are great, and there was nothing overly flashy about it.  Simple design, solid photos.  
• Bright sunny day, no eye black.  Maybe they ran out?
• 600 career HRs for a hitter may not be seen much over the next decade or so.  Only Albert Pujols (560) is within a good season of this plateau.  David Ortiz (503) is about 3 years away and at age 39 is probably not going to make it.  The only other active player that may have a shot is Miguel Cabrera (32 yrs. old, 408 HR)

-Robert

Brett Lawrie card #6 2012 Bowman International #196

• I probably pulled a dozen or so international parallels over a 2-3 year span before realizing that "hey, maybe this is some kind of insert or parallel!"  Robert=Naive
• This just might be my favorite Brett Lawrie card.   Great to see the home flag behind him because it just gives the card a little more pop in my eyes.
• There once was a day where 17 errors at 3B would be middle of the pack.  In 2012, Brett's 17 errors at 3rd base led the league.   Shows just how much more commitment to defense there is now.

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #19 1991-92 Pro Set #315 (French)

• Joe just doesn't look all that interested in this photo.  I do like the full bleed photos that Pro Set used for their base set.
• The 1991 All Star Game was Campbell vs. Wales, and the starting lineups featured 11 Canadians out of 12 players.  Chris Chelios was the only non Canadian to start the game.
• Sakic had just 1 assist in an 11-5 loss.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #18 1993 Upper Deck #45

• Belle, Alomar Jr., Thome, Baerga and Lofton.  A great start to one of the most dominant offensive forces assembled in the 90's.  The next year add Eddie Murray, Manny Ramirez and Paul Sorrento would make 8 guys that hit 10 HR or more in the strike shortened '94 season.
• Again, Thome sports the eye black.  The black gloves almost look like they're painted on his hands.
• Anyone see Lofton with the shoes on his shoulder and think "Willie Mays Hayes" from Major League?

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #18 1991-92 Pro Set # 199 (French)

• This whole page coming up is full of the same card with minor variations (Topps/OPC--English/French--American/Canadian)
• This is a rare shot of Joe without a letter on his jersey, it may have been taken during the 89/90 season.
• Joe's 19th career game would be his 3rd multi goal game, a 2 goal 1 assist effort in a 5-5 tie against the Blackhawks.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #17 1993 Donruss #171

• I like the design of the card, simple, nothing fancy.   The team logo inside the diamond and the name stripe on the bottom don't take anything from the photo.
• Jim hit 7 HRs in 1993, one of which would be off of his 2nd favorite "target" Roger Clemens.  Jim hit 8 homers versus Clemens during his career.
• There are 17 cards for Thome that were released in 1993.  I have just 9 of them so far.  I need 2 Stadium Club parallels, 4 Topps parallels/variations and 2 Fleer Pro Cards.  

-Robert

Joe Sakic card #17 1991-92 Gillette #22

• The first "oddball" I've shown off of Sakic.  This was part of a 40 card set that included players such as Hull, Robitaille and Messier.  As with any black bordered set, there is some chipping on the back of this card.   Still looks great though...
• On this date in 1990, Joe was a -4 in a 12-2 loss to the Capitals.  Dino Ciccarelli had a 4 goal game, while Mike Ridley had a goal and 4 assists.  
• How offensive minded was the era that Sakic played in?  Joe averaged better than a point per game in 5 of his first 6 seasons, but only made an all star team once, and that was the 3rd team.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #16 1993 Fleer #222

• It appears that score and Fleer got together in '93 and said "let's use a stripe down the left hand side of the card".  
• Is that blood on the left knee?  Also would love to know when the Indians wore their caps with that type of "C" on them.
• '93 was also the year that Fleer had the player's last name in gigantic letters on the back of the card.  Made the box for the players stats smaller.   Not exactly my cup of tea...

-Robert

Brett Lawrie card #5 2012 Bowman #191

• No name on back means spring training photo.  Good on Brett for being nice and dirty for this picture.
• Game #5 for Brett saw him hit his first career grand slam off of Oakland's Craig Breslow in a 8-4 Jays win.
• Love the woman in the 2nd row shading her eyes from the sun.  Sometimes the background in the photo helps enhance the card.

- Robert

Joe Sakic card #16 1991-92 Parkhurst #148 (English)

• I'm not sure how I feel about having to distinguish between English and French in the post title.  I should have done it for the 1990-01 Upper Deck cards, but I didn't
• I loved that Pro Set revived the Parkhurst brand.   A lot of good cards came later on from the Parkhurst brand when Upper Deck bought the name.
• On this date in 1990, Joe notched an assist in a 5-1 loss to the Whalers.  That loss was the 7th during an 11 game losing streak during the 89/90 season.   Yea, the Nords were bad.

-Robert

Jim Thome card #15 1993 Score #364

• Love the eye black, wish more cards featured this feature.  Several of Thome's upcoming cards on the blog feature Jim wearing eye black.
• '93 Score really was a no frills set, wasn't it?  At a buck a pack, it makes sense.  
• Jim started his '93 season off with a bang on August 13th, hitting a HR off of Texas' Craig Lefferts.  
• 1993 would also be the last year that Thome spent any time in the minors.   He hit .332/25/102 in 115 games in Charlotte, prompting the call up in mid-August.

-Robert

So far so good--January review

I've tried hard to make sure that I'm ahead of the game when it comes to this blog.  While the main blog is seeing more posts, my main goal here is to make sure that there is a post every day.  This shouldn't be difficult because it doesn't take long to scan a card and write 3-4 lines about the card/player.

As of this writing, I had gained one follower (thank you Chris) and 150 page views.   No worries though, because my main goal here is to keep the blog going and develop a player checklist online for my Player PCs.

33 posts so far, featuring 15 Sakic, 14 Thome and 4 Lawrie cards.  I'm going to try and do a marathon or two in the next couple of months to get some more cards (and hopefully exposure) out there.  I have also dedicated Thursdays to Brett Lawrie, largely because I don't have a great deal of his cards as of yet, and putting him in a 3 day rotation with the other two players would exhaust what I have of his a lot quicker.

Also a quick shout out to Dime Box Nick for adding this blog to his blog roll.   Thank you Nick!

Finally, once I complete one or two vintage sets in the near future, I'm hoping to add another player PC or two to my collection.   I have gravitated towards my player collections over the past few months as they seem to be easier to chase than vintage sets.

The only time you'll see more than one card on a post on this blog will be the monthly reviews.   Maybe someone will see something they like, or they don't like, and provide a suggestion or comment my way.

Thanks for reading!   Robert