1988-89 Pacific MISL

Here we have a pack of 1988-89 Pacific MISL soccer cards. The wrapper is traditional wax of the time and the most obvious feature is the sticker they pit on the wrapper to cover up the fact someone forgot to change the date from the previous season. Gotta love the 80s.

Normally, I would start with the fronts, but uploading from my phone will not pit the photos in the correct order regardless of how I select them, so here we are:

This back features former Pittsburgh Spirit star Joe Papaleo playing for the Dallas Sidekicks because Pittsburgh dissolved the Spirit for the second time. As a kid, I saw every Spirit home game and even hung out with the team during various events like the annual Christmas party. I digress. The backs feature an almost 90s-esque teal blue accent. The card number is shown in the upper left corner. The player’s name, team, and position are centered at the top, and the Pacific logo sits in the upper right corner. Below that, we have player stats including their nationality, which I think is a cool bio addition for soccer players. Below the stats is the copyright info.

The first three cards are displayed below. The fronts feature a gray border around the whole face. Inset, the featured player or coach is surrounded by a thin colored border that matches the team primary color. In the ipper right, an offset caption shows the card’s season. At the bottom, the team logo, player name, and position are displayed in a larger offset box. Here we have Andy Chapman, Chris Vaccaro, and Slobo Ilijevski:

The full set contains 110 cards. There were no inserts, parallels, special editions, etc. This was a “take em as we give em” kinda deal.

The next three cards are  Neil Megson, Mike Dowler, and Dale Mitchell:

Fun fact: the very first baseball card I ever bought as a kid was a Dale Mitchell Bowman. I paid 25 cents and I was probably 7 or 8 years old.

The next three cards in the pack are Joe Papaleo, Kevin Smith, and Gary Etherington:

And the remaining cards feature Terry Rowe, Kevin Kewley, and Coach Keith Tozer:

Growing up with MISL in the 80s, seeing these players brought back many memories. This was a fun, even if somewhat plain, trip down nostalgia lane.