1993 Donruss

 It'd been quite sometime since I'd made a collection out of Donruss cards. This was the year I'd finally return to them to collect what I thought was their most beautiful set ever printed!

I remember thinking (MAN! Why didn't Topps look as good as this??) Beautiful borders, great photos, it literally had the whole package going for it. I didn't blink an eye the moment I saw it. I knew this was the set I was collecting. 

Thinking back, I guess it really wasn't a good year for Topps at all for me. Since the only set from the decade so far I'd collected was their 91 set. Every other year fell to another company. (mainly Fleer) But this was the year of Donruss for me. 

I will say that earlier, there was another spin off set from Donruss called "Studio" I'd collected. But that's for another post. 

Ok folks, what was the last set I collected as a kid and why did I stop collecting after that? Find out tomorrow!!

1992 Fleer

 This is a "Top Tier" set for me. I LOVED the look of these cards. I don't know why, because usually when a company goes with a generic background for all of their cards I'm not into it as much. But for whatever reason, the moment I saw these, I loved them and had to collect them that year. 

The one featured was a special series that came with the set. They were painted cards of some of the games best players at the time and I thought they were SO cool! This set really blew me away at the time. 

I even have 2 of the highly coveted "Update" sets that came out that year. They go for a couple of hundred these days but mainly because Mike Piazza's rookie card is in it. I remember buying too because I loved Piazza (still one of my favorite players of all time) 

But no one knew how rare the Update sets for this collection were going to be. Due to poor sales of the base cards, Fleer short printed the Update set without knowing what kind of player Piazza would turn out to be. Kicking off a frantic chase to get his rookie card. At the time, you could only obtain an Update set if your card shop ordered one for you or had extras. (which were rare)

I asked for 2 because I wanted to bust one open for my book and the other to keep in mint condition. When they arrived the sets were already going for a staggering $200 on the market. (very inflated, but the short printing drove the price up at the time of the frenzy)

I remember the owner telling me he was selling them to me for cover price ($30 each) but he wanted to ask me if I would sell one to him for $80 (with the other $30 Update set being free) or $120 in trade. I said No thank you and took them both home. I felt I'd won the lottery. 

Since then, they've gone down in value (like all cards from this era did) but I still have them today. And yes, I did bust open one. I just had to see that Piazza Rookie card for myself. : ) 

1991 Topps

 Topps was celebrating 40 Years in the business and to much marketing and fanfare displayed what my brother believes to be one of the best looking Topps sets ever made. 

A bold statement I wouldn't make. Overall, I think there are several other years I would say that carried better designs than this. But I remember this was the year they sold a "mini" set of cards too. Same look but tiny. I loved them. 

They even came with "special" gold background chrome cards in each set that we went nuts over. 

Yeah, I know, just another marketing ploy to get people to keep buying their cards but it worked. And in a field where looking mediocre was the bar (it seemed) this set stood out as a giant among the industry. 

1990 Fleer

 The start of the 90s had to one of the worst for baseball cards because in my mind, they all sucked. I decided to collect Fleer for the first time ever because there's didn't suck that bad. It was just very plain looking. But plain looking beats out what the others were putting out at the time. My goodness, if you look at some of the other slop that came out in 1990 it'll make you car sick after a while. 

UG-LY!

So collecting Fleer is what I did. Hint: Fleer would be my "card of the 90s" because I collected more of this companies cards than the other two, so it's safe to say they weren't that bad during the decade. 

It's wild but my brother told me they went out of business in 2005 and were bought up by Upper Deck. Wild. In my mind they had always been part of the "Big 3" when it came to baseball cards. Hard to imagine a world without them. But that's how things go I suppose. 

1989 Topps

 This was the year Topps won by default. EVERY other publisher looked like they'd given up on designing nice looking cards and Topps was the only one with an ok look. I'll be honest, these looked fine and I might have picked them anyway (still better than anything 1988 had to offer) yet I also know it wasn't there best year either. 

My brother told me that he ranks Topps cards for every decade. Starting with the 70s (the decade he was born in) to the current decade. I have to admit...that's pretty cool. For the most part, I guessed which designs were his favorite for each decade (but the last) and I'm thinking that may be something I'll pursue here on the blog at a later time. 

The more I talk about this topic, the more I miss collecting them. With the loss of my gaming group (down to just me and one other person) my board game hobby has slowed considerably. I'm not sure if this is the hobby I'd like to get back into, but it does make me miss those days tremendously. 

Anyway, have a good weekend folks! I'll come back next week to round out the 90s!

1988 Topps

1988 was a year I returned back to collecting Topps cards. I felt this set looked much better than the year before, however, looking back on the cards of that year I think I would've selected Fleer if I had thought about it more. But Dad was always a Topps guy so that's where my brothers and I mainly kept our focus.

I was the rebel the year before, breaking away to collect Donruss. Now I was safely back into the fold and we all collected the same set. This turned out to be one of the rare times we'd ever collect the same set together. 

As the years went on and competition in the market became fierce, we started having different like and dislikes to each set that came out. By the time the 90s rolled around I don't think hardly any of us were chasing the same sets by then, which made it harder to complete a set when you couldn't turn to your siblings for help, looking for the extras they had. 

 

1987 Donruss

 When the new Topps cards came out the next year, I couldn't wait. What I saw horrified me. Ugly wooden borders that just looked terrible. I was upset. I didn't want to collect a set of them. That's when Dad showed me two other companies that also printed baseball cards. So I picked one of them instead. My first Donruss set to collect!

Yeah, looking at it now it wasn't that good looking either but it beats what the other two companies were putting out in my opinion. 

These cards came with puzzle pieces you collected to put together a puzzle of an old time baseball player. I decent idea, but it wasn't gum. Dad said years ago they used to have a cherry cookie in each pack that tasted awful. As a kid though, I was willing to give it a try over the poor puzzle pieces in each pack. 

I remember one of the last cards I needed to complete this set was of Rookie Raphael Palmero whom I met at a local card show in Jackson, MS. I asked him what number his card was. He told me. I looked at my list and said "Yeah, that's one of the cards I need to complete my set, so I'll buy it" I paid a nickel, bought his card and he signed it right then and there. 

How rude was I??? Geez, I'm shocked he didn't slap me across the face and tell me to scram. It's wild, but I wouldn't collect another Donruss set for a very long time after this. 

1986 Topps

 This was the was beginning of my collection. My dad bought us each a box of cards for Christmas, which to this day is THE BEST gift I ever received. Why? Because it came with 36 individual packs to open, which made it all the more interesting. 

Plus, did I mention highly manufactured and brittle gum with each pack? The guy that made your jaw hurt after chewing it for a while? Oh yes...heaven!  

I remember my brothers and I putting together sets afterwards. Trading cards to each other so we each could complete a set. Dad was also collecting at the time and got his extra cards out to help us complete ours. It was magical. I remember we even went to the local Wal-Mart (before is was "Super") and bought pages with sheets to put them in. 

I separated mine to go in the book by team rather than number order. (something I would always do going forward) 

To this day, I think so fondly of this set. It's still #1 in my heart, even though in the industry it's considered one of the weakest designs for Topps that decade. In my mind though, nothing ever looked so good!

Baseball Cards

 Beginning in 1986 and continuing through 1994 (the Baseball strike) I collected baseball cards. It was my first real hobby as a kid and I loved it!

There was nothing like breaking open a pack to see what inside! So many good memories, trading with friends and card shops (for credit to buy more cards of course!) And visiting them each week to see what new things had come in. 

There aren't many sports card shops around anymore. I hate it, but it's the just the way the hobby has declined over the past few years. 

I tried getting back into the hobby shortly after Megan and I were wed, but got burned out by what the hobby had become. Just a bunch of people chasing after that one rare insert with complete disregard for building a set. 

There was a fine art to completing a set of cards on your own. I used to love hunting down those last few singles needed to complete my set. And this was before the age of ebay and the internet, so at times it could take months before it was accomplished. 

But my goodness....how I would go back to those days in an instant if I could, just to recapture the good times I had looking over my collection, one card at a time in a book or my hobby boxes. 

Since baseball season has officially kicked off (Let's Go Mets!) I wanted to take the next few weeks to share with you each set I completed for every year I was in the hobby. 

Tomorrow, I'll start with 1986. C-ya then!

Frank's Red Hot

 Extremely underrated hot sauce. Not very hot but very tasty. It's replaced tobasco for me at this point. I always looked at this as a "cheap" hot sauce. But after trying it last year at my parents house, I really got a taste for it and now I choose it over most sauces when I'm looking for something with more taste that heat. 

If it's been a while since you've tried it (or you've never tried it at all) give it a shot. I think you may be surprised!

Have a good weekend folks!

Fog on the windshield

 I am SPOILED having a garage. The other day I had to park outside and forgot to put the car back in the garage. I woke up to fog on the windshield and a 5 minute delay getting out that day. 

Ever since I moved out of my apartment both houses I've gotten came with enclosed garages. And I realize I take it for granted a lot. 

I don't even know where my handheld wiper is I used to use when I living in apartments back in the day to avoid running the defrosters forever. 

Anyway, that's my thought for the day. 

World Beyond Season 2 (Review)

It was after finishing this show that I’d realized I never gave my review on the final season of the show. And now that I’ve seen this, I miss Fear the Walking Dead.

Why they made a show about bratty kids in the Walking Dead universe I’ll never know. This season can be summed up like this: Kids get separated within the Central Republic, kids come back together, escape and ruin the Republic’s plans of wiping out the Portland colony.

Now imagine that but with 10 drawn out boring episodes and you got it.

There was however a silver lining to the series. Jadis from the original series comes back and we find out what happened after she left the show with Rick Grimes. Thereby building up the next story I can along assume is in his mini-series.

Overall, this series was horrible. It ends with the kids going their separate ways and Jadis taking over the military. (begging fans to demand a 3^rd season) Thankfully, it didn’t work and they pulled the plug on the whole series.

But not without teasing fans with a marvel-like stinger after the credits of the last episode. One that harkens back to season 1 of the original Walking Dead series. Bringing back a character (post mortem) via video that helps tie an overarching story together and point to what felt like an evadable end.  Though this show ended and 2021 and 4 years later Walking Dead spinoffs are still going strong.

And yes…I am a bit curious as to watching them now. Not anytime soon mind you, but as bad as World Beyond was, it did point to an end of the zombies (as well as a new breed of fast moving walkers) that piques my interest.

For now, I’m happy watching something else but in the future, who knows?

 

World Beyond Season 1 (Review)

 

Yep. I did it.

After a month or so, I got bored and decided to look and see what “World Beyond” was all about.

It only went 2 seasons at 10 episodes each so how bad could it be?

The answer? Very bad.

Wow. I mean “wow”. At least Fear the Walking Dead had interesting characters. This? This I complete garbage.

Sure it had a cute little twist at the end of season 1 I didn’t see coming but that doesn’t make this show worth watching. In fact, the only reason I decided to finish it was because it only went 2 short seasons.

But this failed spinoff looks to expand upon a story line that was lightly mentioned in the main show (once) build upon in Fear the Walking Dead (by one character) so in this one they wanted to talk more about the “evil empire” that exist just outside the region where the other 2 shows take place.

From Omaha to Portland, the territory is owned by the Central Republic, who are trying to rebuild society underneath them. They have all the modern day luxuries (to have sets take place in stores/houses/etc) and are looking for a cure for zombies.

Sounds interesting right? It’s not. Season one is about 4 kids who escape the safety of their city in search on these two girls father, who they think is in trouble.

Why 4 kids with no experience of the outside world think they could survive is beyond me, but they’re shortly assisted by 2 military soldiers intent on bringing them home safe.

But that’s not what they do. Instead, they go along with the kids and we even find out in the end it was all a ploy to get the girl to live in the same bunker with her dad helping him look for a cure to the disease.

Why not ask her you say? Because the girl is a “rebel” and won’t play ball. Though she loves her father and wants to see him….so wouldn’t that be enough motivation for her agree to join him in his studies?

NO! The Central Republic lets her leave the compound to see how tough it is on the outside world so she’ll agree to help them,

OR, they could’ve just threatened to kill her father. Total garbage premise.

What’s season 2 like? Find out tomorrow.

Littlekenny (review)

 Wow. How did I not know this existed???

I was out wearing my Shoresy Jersey one night when someone asked what I thought of the cartoon. I had no idea about it. 

6 short episodes came out in 2019. Basically a prequel of sorts that harp on the jokes set up in Letterkenny, 

It's fun and made me laugh here and there and because you can watch the whole series in about 16 minutes, I'd say it was worth it. 

If you're a fan of Letterkenny, you should check it out. 

Fear the Walking Dead Season 8 (review)

 Just realized I never gave my review on the final season of this show. 

I finished it a while ago. I hated it so much, I guess I wanted to forget it, instead of make this final post. 

It was terrible. If it wasn't the final (shortened) season, I probably wouldn't quite at the beginning. 

The try to tease you that Alicia died, but to NO ONE's surprise, she shows up for 2 scenes in the last 20 minutes of the finale. 

Yes. A main character from the very beginning of the series, only showed up for a day of filming where they probably films her two scenes. 

Morgan's story is wrapped halfway through and then he exits. He talks about meeting up with Rick Grimes. I have low interest in seeing if they ever brought them back together at this point, but his story was laughable at best. 

They flash forward 7 years because the writers truly have no idea how to write for these characters so they decided "F it. No one's watching this show anymore, so let's do whatever we want"

Remember a few seasons ago when we found out Alicia was going to die of radiation poisoning? Just kidding! She's cured! How? Who cares! No one's watching!

Remember last season when everyone said goodbye to Charlie as she was bedridden and the doctor said there was nothing more they could do for her but make her comfortable as she died? Nope! We decided to heal her. How? Umm....they found a better facility and she got better instantly. (I'm not kidding, that was what they went with) 

This season was HORRIBLE. What a crap shoot. PADRE is the main villain and they are defeated halfway in, so they have to bring back another character from season 3 (who you all thought was dead) to make it sound like everything ties together in the end. But really, you're bored the whole way through. 

Why EVERYONE in the "7 years" between seasons thought leaving their kids with PADRE was the best idea makes ZERO sense, because they only talk about how bad they are the whole time....yet you let them raise your kids because it was "safer"

Um...wait. Didn't Morgan steal his kids out of Strand's "safe" building in the previous season????

Who cares! No one's watching! We're making this up as we go!

The whole show is mind numbingly bad. BUT, I finished it. So I can move on to watch better things.

Well....maybe. I'll talk more about another show I just finished soon. 

Have a good weekend folks!

The RIP (review)

 This one surprised me. 

It started off with an interesting premise based (very loosely) off of a true story where the police uncover $21 million dollars in drug money. (that's where the true story ends)

Paranoia starts to creep in, as they all become suspicious of each other for wanting to steal the money. 

I'll be honest, the twist at the end even fooled me. 

This money starts strong, stalls in the middle but delivers in the end. Solid film. Much better than I thought it'd be. Good cast of characters. This came out back in January on Netflix, so probably a lot of people have already been talking about this before me, but still....good flick.  

Zootopia 2 (review)

 Wow. A remember liking the first movie 9 years ago when it came out. This movie takes place right after that and assumes you remember everything from the first. Though those kids are all in college now. 

This movie had a few good laughs. Other than that, I wasn't impressed. I watched it with my son who was interested at first but even after an hour in he decided to go up to his room to play. 

I don't know why sequels released so late after the first movie convince studios they have an audience. But oh well. I guess when the 3rd movie comes out in 2034 I'll be saying the same thing. 

28 Years Later: The Bone Temple (review)

 Got to see this in theaters earlier this year when it came out and realized I never gave it a review. 

Shockingly....it wasn't that bad. The original movie along with the remake of Dawn of the Dead in 2002, brought back zombies to hollywood. Of course later the Walking Dead series would push it to new heights. But now the zombie phase has mainly passed and this movie has decided to take a turn in a different direction to how zombies work. 

I actually enjoyed the direction the movie went. It had some solid acting, fun scenes (and a few violent scenes too of course) But overall, it wasn't that bad for being the first movie I saw in theaters in 2026. 

Will it be in my Top 5 at the end of the year? Maybe. Who knows? As disappointing as movies are for me these days, the chance is certainly there.  

Monroe Moccasins

My kids and my wife are big fans. 

I first took my son back in December but the whole family in January and ever since, that's all the want to do on the weekends. 

I enjoy it too. I'm happy they're doing better with crowds than the first time they were in town. Of course it could also be they're winning a lot more than they did the first time around and everyone loves a winner. 

Either way, I'm glad they're back. I'm glad the sport is catching on and I too look forward to seeing more of their games in future as well. 

 

Ghost Grape Cran

 At long last I got to try the newest flavor of Ghost! 

Grape Cran is exactly what you think it is. And the taste is solid. 

I love this better than the grape. 

Is it a top 5? Maybe. I know it's still new for me so I'll have to give it a few more taste. But for now, yes. I love it. 

Ok folks, another week down. Have a great weekend!

What ever happened to Walkie Talkies

 Do people still use these anymore? Haven't cell phones replaced them by now? 

I remember when I was a kid there wasn't a cooler present you could get that was better than walkie talkies. We had the handheld and headset types and we LOVED them so much! 

When you were a kid, you felt so cool talking to someone on one of these suckers. And I even remember being on a trip with my parents we could sometimes pick up radio stations and once we spoke to another kid in a car along side us who also had one. 

So cool. 

I know they sell them on Amazon. Maybe I should get my kids some for their upcoming birthdays later this month. I think they'd like them.

Shoot, what am I talking about! I WANT one too!!

The Best April Fools Joke of all time

 One of the best jokes I ever played was on a very good friend of mine who was very protective over me and who I dated. She was afraid I'd find the wrong girl. She had married my roommate and wanted me to find someone as good as she had. 

So after she moved away I started a story that I'd met a girl at the mall and we hit it off and were dating. Everyone was in on the joke, even her mother. When she came back into town for a visit I told her to stop by and visit us at my apartment. 

At the time, I had a friend in college who played the part of my girlfriend to a tee. Ditzy, dumb and slightly annoying. She was perfect. We kept the joke going on for months leading up to April Fools when I called her and told her I was getting married. 

I then told her what day it was. But instead of saying "I'm not getting married" I told her there was no girl in the first place. 

Fun fact. Ran into that girl last year. For the life I me I couldn't remember her name until the next day. I wish I'd have said something to her when I saw her. I was just embarrassed I didn't know her name at the time. She has a kid a little older than my girls and I'm not sure she recognized me. To be fair, that joke was decades ago so I don't blame her. 

I don't play any good ones like that anymore. Playing for the long game just isn't in me anymore. 

April Fool's Day ya'll!