So Hot Set Gallery: 1994 Flair Hot Gloves

Die-cuts are back! The question is did they ever really go out of style. Well, they most likely did at some point. Everything in this world is cyclical, and that mostly includes bicycles, tricycles, and octocycles.

One of my favorite sets of the '90s was 1994 Flair.  It had a certain je nai sai quas, nom de plume, no je parle francais style to it.  The ultimate wrappings, the breathtaking thickness of the cards, and then to top it off as a one per box insert, ze HOT GLOVES.

What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of hot gloves? ....oven mitts? laser hands? matchstick fingers?

Well, in 1994, it was none of the above.  It were players with gloves so hot they were beyond golden; the ball was smokin' when it became entrapped within their leather.

Below is all 10 cards of the insert set shown in no particular order (though I'm sure an order can be created). Behold!

Barry Bonds: Glove so hot he made the ball a mini-sun.

Ken Griffey:  Glove so hot it burned down an outfield wall

Will Clark: Glove so hot the desert was an oasis.

Matt Williams: Glove so hot there was a fireball thrown to the dugout.

Don Mattingly: Glove so hot melted the spine off the nearest runner.

Kenny Lofton:  Glove so hot left a scorching streak in the centerfield grass.

Cal Ripken Jr: Glove so hot the harbor turned to steam.

Kirby Puckett:  Glove so hot they had to enclose it in a dome for protection.

Greg Maddux: Glove so hot it blinded the umpire with its glow.

Tim Salmon: Glove so hot that it became a special attraction at Disneyland.

Thanks for reading as the summer burns us all......

Set Gallery: 1996 Denny's Grand Slam Insert Set

I think about breakfast a lot.  What I'm going to eat for breakfast, when I'm ultimately going to have breakfast in the morning, how much I'm going to eat so that I can maximize the time between breakfast and lunch and get the most out of the morning.

Ironically, I don't really like most breakfast foods.  I don't eat eggs and their omelette cousins or bacon or sausage or cheese or yogurt or anything too buttery.  That doesn't really leave me with a lot of options; I have established a routine of two bowls of cereal and milk at home.  While on the road, it could be french toast, home fries, or the always ubiquitous chocolate sandwiches.  Once can't be too picky in some places, you know?

I am thinking about breakfast right now....as in how many hours do I have to last until I can have one. I'm still up at this hour (1 am in the morning) for a few reasons. First, sleeping doesn't come naturally lately.  Second, I decided to write a blog post for the first time in awhile. Third, the A's and Angels are currently in the 18th inning and I'm not going to sleep until the 20th at least.  How many games have you seen enter the 20th inning live? If I knew about this earlier, I would have gone to the stadium for a 6 hour game....it would have been much better than the rest of my night involving painful turf burns.

Denny's is still around and it still does breakfast, but there's no more cards with the breakfast.  This discourages me from going to Denny's.  I do have a strange tradition, though.  Whenever I drive to southern CA, I stop for a meal at the Denny's in Bakersfield.   It's close to halfway between the Bay Area and greater Los Angeles area, so it works.

Shown is not the run of the mill, pay 79 cents with a grand slam meal Denny's cards that were inserted into any typical pack in 1996.  These are the GRAND SLAM (you have to write it that way, it's an unwritten rule with many exceptions) inserts....rarer beyond your imagination....inserted 1:56 packs....ok, not that rare.  There's also the Artist Proof versions...inserted 1:360 packs....the only difference having an artist proof symbol in the lower left corner.  Sometime you just have to embrace the foil stamped, holographic parallel that screams for attention with its own special logo.

Behold the gallery! They all have GRAND SLAM in big holographic letters on the left, a player image on the right....and fireworks. Lovely, lovely fireworks....but only the boring, non-colorful kind. Couldn't they have found an image of fireworks with copper chloride or something?  It matters not....here's to the GRAND SLAM insert set....'96 style (sans the reigning NL MVP)

UPDATE: 19th inning!

Checklist:

1 Cal Ripken, Jr.

2 Frank Thomas

3 Mike Piazza

4 Tony Gwynn

5 Sammy Sosa

6 Barry Bonds

7 Jeff Bagwell

8 Albert Belle

9 Mo Vaughn

10 Kirby Puckett

A Master Set Completed (Almost): 1995 Fleer Team Leaders Card Gallery

Since I'm in the mood for sharing cards lately instead of general pontification about random cards and lamenting the fate of the erstwhile team of my fandom, here's a neat little gallery of an insert set I've recently completed after years of searching.  This set is the 1995 Fleer Team Leaders set.

They, of course, look nothing like the infamous 6 design wackiness of the 1995 Fleer base set.  They are shiny; they are black; they are foily; they are sublime.   Each card represents one team (back in the days of 28 teams) with a hitting leader on one side and a pitching leader on the other side.  I randomly chose which ones to show for each card.

As for the master set  part of this, I somehow now have the whole base set plus all the insert sets except for one trailer. That would be the 1995 Rookie Sensations set.  These were only inserted in jumbo packs or magazine packs or whatever they were called in 1995.  Anyone have any of these?  Anyone care to get rid of them?    In all seriousness, this brings me so much closer to my first master set (at least I think there are, unless there's some stealth parallel I haven't heard about).  The plans are to use it to wallpaper the pathway to the whirling vortex of animated perspectives.  Then, 1995 Fleer can finally fulfill its ultimate destiny.

Allen and Ginter Gallery: 2007 N43 Boxtopper Set

My 2009 box is not here yet, so let's go retro with the retro set.

Presented here is the N43 boxtopper set from 2007 Topps Allen and Ginter. I really liked the background and overall look of the cards, they're almost playful in a way. Some of the non-sport subjects are definitely varied. Anyone remember the pawprint card for the dog show champion? And how is Ryan Zimmerman grouped here? He's a good player, but doesn't have the same type of star power (or potential star power like Matsuzaka at the time) as the rest of the checklist. Enjoy the images.