1983 Donruss Magnum PI

Magnum PI was a classic detective dramedy. It had everything 80s... Ferrari's, short-shorts, baywatch babes, and moustaches.

Here are some cards from 1983.

Here is Magnum looking confused, and Magnum spying on something. I could go throw in the DVD's and figure out what exact scenarios these cards are highlighting but... that's not really in the spirit.

 Higgins looking disappointed, and Magnum checking out some disgusting rusty crime scene.

 Magnum in a classic Hawaiian shirt, and squeezing into a sub-compact car.

 And a few beach shots to finish things up. Pretty sure Magnum's clothes came from the children's rack.

2015 Topps Stadium Club Retail Jumbo Pack

Jumbo is a relative term when it comes to Stadium Club..

We'll get back to the ladies in a bit, but first I have this pack I grabbed at Target the other night.  It... It's not that interesting.  But it is a pack of something that isn't here yet, so I might as well post it.  Someone can post a better one later.  Anyway, here goes...

248 Alex Gordon, 159 Torii Hunter, 18 Zack Wheeler, 51 Miguel Cabrera, 5 Anthony Ranaudo RC, 202 Stephen Strasburg

The first thing you notice immediately about these cards is just how incredibly crisp the photography is.  Even with a so-so (for this set) loadout of photos in this pack, they all still look amazing.

72 Madison Bumgarner, 144 Prince Fielder Gold Foil Parallel, 232 Corey Dickerson, 31 Albert Belle, 221 Nick Castellanos, 17 Jacoby Ellsbury

Other things of note about that these cards: I remember Sooz saying the flimsiness was one of the complaints they addressed from the 2014 set.  And indeed, these are slightly thicker, & noticeably sturdier feeling, than your average loose pack of retail cards.  So mission accomplished there.

The other thing (aside from how much I despise the cropping job on what was almost an amazing Jacoby Ellsbury card) is that the foil works way, way better in the scans than it does in real life.  Never thought I'd be able to say real life doesn't do the scans justice, but I guess there's a first time for everything.

And here the backs of the two I'm keeping to make sketch cards out of.  Nice & colorful.  I dig it.  Everything else is available (especially Ellsbury).

BONUS!

I actually did draw the above cards (I guess the base will be available for trade as soon as I color everything then), plus one more.  So here are those three works-in-progress are now.

Prince Fielder

Madison Bumgarner

Albert Belle

Until our next...

1993-94 Upper Deck Basketball Series 2 Retail

The NBA season may be over, but the cards will never cease. Here's a pack from a couple of decades ago. This pack is from Series 2, while you can go relieve the Series 1 magic in my post from several years ago.

462 - Chris Morris Game Images - Hustle, or does he just like jumping on innocent bystanders for a living?

453 - Sedale Threatt Breakaway Threats - There was an awkward period in Lakers history where Threatt had to help bridge the gap between the Magic era and the Kobe era.

471 - Patrick Ewing Skylights - Ah, this is a good one. I bet you all had some posters in your bedrooms like this.

485 - Shawn Bradley Top Prospects - They could have named this Tall Prospects, I guess. The TP logo is raised, which is a nice touch.

324 - Steve Kerr - Kerr just coached the Golden State Warriors to the title in his first season with the team, which you probably already knew if you like basketball enough to have read this far.

322 - Sam Cassell - Cassell was a rookie at the time. Here's a look at his college stats.

359 - Scott Haskin - Here's the former Oregon State Beaver throwing it down on an invisible team.

414 - Chuck Nevitt - I don't remember this guy at all.

419 - Brian Williams - Not the unreliable NBC guy.

295 - Gary Payton - The Glove! This gives the pack some much needed HOF cred.

300 - Shaquille O'Neal - Shaq dunked it so hard my scanner couldn't even handle it.

303 - Bimbo Coles - Bimbo.

1989 Score Baseball

1989 was an important year for baseball cards. Despite being stuck dead in the middle of the overproduced card era, 1989 was famous for the first Upper Deck baseball product, and RC's of Ken Griffey Jr., Randy Johnson, John Smoltz, and Curt Schilling. Topps famously passed on issuing a card of Griffey in their set until Traded.

Score is probably the lowest on the totem pole of the 1989 product issues. But let's see if we find anything interesting. Johnson, Smoltz, Biggio, and Sheffield are the main rookies in this set.

 Carlos Quintana once had 6 RBI in one inning, but otherwise was unremarkable.

 Eric King's most memorable "accomplishment" was giving up Ken Griffey Jr's first home run.

 Bergman, who passed away in February, was on the World Series winning 84 Tigers.

 Drew played a total of 7 major league games.

 Otis Nixon stole 620 bases in his career.

Despite what this card says, 1988 is actually considered Edgar Martinez rookie season. Martinez is, of course, famous for being possibly the best DH of all time.

 Check out the awesome numbers on the pants of Greg Walker.

 The late Bob Welch was a 2x All Star.

 Doug Jones was a great reliever, with 5 All Star appearances.

 Willie Fraser had an unremarkable career with a losing record and a 4.47 ERA.

 This Sportflics-style card highlights the 79 Pirates.

1995 Fleer Ultra Series 1

Here's a nice steroid-era pack, 95 Fleer Ultra. Instead of showing the whole wrapper, I'm going to show the best part:

Good advice!

 Darryl Strawberry, a great model for the whole "Do Cards, Not Drugs" motto.

 Mark Whiten and Eddie Taubensee. The latter was once traded for Kenny Lofton.

 Darryl Hamilton, who tragically passed away this week, and Dan Wilson.

 Kevin "don't call me cracker" Ritz, and Pat Rapp, journeyman pitcher.

 Mike Bordick and Matt Walbeck. Bordick was a one-time all-star.

 My insert is Paul O'Neill.

And finally, Bob Wickman. Judging by the picture alone I wouldn't have guessed this was Bob Wickman.

1993 Donruss Triple Play

Here is a pack of 1993 Donruss Triple Play. These cards were insanely hard to scan due to being bent, and some were stuck together and got mangled.

 Starting things off is Ol' 55, Orel Hershiser.

 The legend, Dandy Randy himself, and Joe Grahe.

 Damion Easley sporting the double-flap helmet.

 Tim Wallach and Jody Reed, New Dodgers!!

John Wetteland, one of the great 90's closers. Notice how these scans are low quality? That's because these cards were so curved, I could not get them straight on the scanner glass. 

 Mark Lewis using the force on a bad hop.

 Ramon Martinez, who even on Wikipedia's search for his name, is simply known as "Brother of Pedro Martinez."

 Eric Anthony, the bench player who got traded for Mike Hampton, and the outspoken Ozzie Guillen.

This "Action Baseball" card has a scratch off portion. I'm not entirely sure what the point was.

And finally, Robbie Alomar making a play.

This would have been a half decent pack if the card stock wasn't so bent.