Cardboard on the Big Screen: Cop Out & Ruby Cairo

It's been a while since I posted about The List of Baseball Cards in Movies and TV, though I tweet about it sometimes. Since initially publishing it, I've been updating it about once a month with a few new and/or improved entries.

Recent updates include:

3/17: South Park (football cards pic added), Edward Scissorhands (new entry), Shrill (new entry), Airplane! (new entry), Partridge Family (updated with pics), Welcome Back Kotter (new entry), Love American Style (new entry)

4/21: Angie Tribeca (new entry), Garden State (new entry), Blast From The Past (more pics), The Sopranos (new entry), Pepper Ann (new entry), Little Monsters (updated with pics), Conan O'Brien Show (new entry), Comedy Bang! Bang! (new entry), Stuart Little (updated with pic), Royal Pains (pic added)

5/29: Houseguest (updated with pic), Ruby Cairo (updated with pic), Blue Bloods (updated with pic), A League of Their Own (updated with pic), Cop Out (updated with pics), Superstore (new entry), Good Will Hunting (updated), Check It Out! with Dr. Steve Brule (new entry)

I try to keep the entries in the list brief, as the thing is kinda huge as is, but if I want to get a little more in depth, I can make a post like this one. In this post, I'm gonna go a little more "long form" with a couple flicks that feature cards in a starring role.

First up is Cop Out, a 2010 buddy cop action-comedy directed by Kevin Smith and starring Bruce Willis and Tracy Morgan. It's not great, but could be worse. As a card collector, the coolest thing about it is that baseball cards are central to the plot.

There's a quick flashback scene with some kids flipping through stacks of 1952 Topps cards-- only those don't seem to be real '52s, or even reprints of real '52s. I'm assuming they were whipped up by the props department, but if you recognize these specific cards, let me know in the comments.

Near the start of the film, NYPD detective Jimmy Monroe (Bruce Willis) decides to sell a treasured keepsake to raise money for his daughter's extravagant wedding: "It's a gem mint 10 Andy Pafko. 1952, the Topps Gum Company came out with the first modern baseball cards. Andy Pafko was #1, the first card in that set. Kids would collect the cards, right? And they'd stack 'em up, wrap rubber bands around them. My pop never wrapped any rubber bands around his card. Loved Andy Pafko. Always took good care of him. About 4 or 5 years ago, they sold one of these gem mint 10s at auction for about $83,000."

The Pafko shown looks to be a reprint, and isn't graded.

So he goes to a hobby shop to sell it, though unfortunately for him, Stifler from American Pie robs the shop, tazes the off-duty detective, and makes off with the Pafko. Among other stuff in the shop (cards, bobbleheads, Starting Lineups), looks like several '89 Topps cello packs available. Eagle-eyed Twitter follower Zinn Beck offered, "In the rack packs I see Argenis (Angel) Salazar, Floyd Youmans, Terry Puhl, Tony Armas, Mark Langston, Les Lancaster, Pete Incaviglia, Doc Edwards and Dwayne Henry." Jason T. Carter pointed out what seems to be a boyhood photo of Pete Rose on the plaque under the Reds sundae helmet.‏

I love this sign in the shop, and half-joked that I'd like to get one of these for my wife, with the hopes that someone would then dump some cards on her for me.

The search for the card leads them to a latino drug kingpin who happens to be a big baseball fan. He's got quite the impressive memorabilia room. Is that a Montreal Royals cap? Minneapolis Miners, maybe? There appear to be some custom prop cards here that are similar to 1988 Topps.

I thought displaying a signed 1986 Donruss Charlie Moore card was kinda funny. I mean, sure, he had a few good seasons, but he was never an all-star or anything. Next to it seems to be another faux '88 Topps card. The glove is printed with "RFO Reach - Babe Ruth - Home Run Special". I'm not sure about the signed ball, but looks to me like the first name is Adam and the last name ends with Z.

More cards which seem to be made-up props. More '88 Topps style cards, some '87 Topps, and '52 Topps. Again, if you can identify any of these as specific real cards, please speak up.

The vintage gloves are strangely dated 1979 and 1988, respectively. Seems odd they'd be that modern. I looked up the names, and it turns out they are both guys in the motion picture industry (though neither is listed in the credits for Cop Out):

Mike Tadross (glove #1) has been a production manager on films such as I Am Legend, Die Hard: With a Vengeance, Forrest Gump, Beverly Hills Cop III, Naked Gun 33 1/3, and Wayne's World 2.

Joseph Garzero (glove #2) seems to be an accomplished "scenic artist", working on films like Zoolander, Private Parts, Sleepless in Seattle, and Home Alone 2.

Cop Out came out nearly a decade ago, so if you were interested in watching it, you probably have by now. But if you haven't, and were planning on watching it one of these days...

Spoiler alert!:

Near the end, there's a shootout and the gem mint '52 Pafko ends up being ruined by a bullet through the face. That's gotta hurt!

If you wanna watch Cop Out, it's currently streaming on HBO.

-    -   -  --o

Next up is Ruby Cairo. It's a 1992 flick directed by Graeme Clifford, who according to its star, was stoned the whole time.

The film opens with a black & white scene of a kid catching Bill Mazeroski's famous home run in the 1960 World Series. It then morphs into the opening credits, with a few baseball cards displayed. Here we can spot 1981 Manny Sanguillén, 1961 Rocky Nelson, and a 1959 I haven't gotten around to identifying, but let me know in the comments if you can place it.

At about 11 and half minutes in, there's a brief yard sale scene that features a table of cards, heavy on 1990 Topps. Kyle Abbott #1 Draft Pick is the only card here I can identify without help (full disclosure, I thought it was "Kurt" Abbott at first.. but hey, pretty close), and there's also what I believe is a '54 White Sock and a '71 Angel among the other '90 Topps. Again, bragging rights to whomever is first to identify these cards in the comments below.

The year this movie came out, Kyle Abbott went a painful 1-14 with an ERA over 5.. the Ruby Cairo curse? LOL. He then spent a couple years in the minors before coming back for a strong 1995 season, though his career was done after just 3 rough games in 1996.

An old guy haggles the lady down for a handful of cards. This stack seems to consist of a few '86 Topps and what I'd wager is a '59 Al Dark on the bottom. Imagine passing up a '54 and '71 in favor of some '86! Assuming the cost per card was equal, that's nuts. Come on, Hollywood-- unrealistic!

An '85 Topps Onix Concepción is the first card to get a lot of quality screen time. That's gotta be a high point in the career of a guy with a career WAR of an even 0.0. Well ok, he also got a ring as the starting shortstop of the '85 Royals.. but it's not like his .204 batting average that year got them there.

As for the film's plot: A widow (Andie MacDowell) finds a stack of old baseball cards that her late husband (Viggo Mortensen) used in a money laundering scheme. She discovers that player names and markings on certain numbers on the back of the cards are clues to bank accounts, a discovery that leads her on a suspenseful trail around the world as she attempts to collect the money and solve the questions surrounding her husband's death. They all seem to be authentic Topps cards. Among the other cards getting screen time are 1981 Manny Sanguillén, 1973 Milt Pappas, 1967 Orlando Cepeda, 1959 Don Mueller, 1961 Rocky Nelson, 1962 Harvey Haddix, 1960 Bobby Thomson, and 1965 Bill Mazeroski.

If all that defacing wasn't enough to bother a card collector, after she closes out the bank account of each corresponding baseball card, she rips the card in half. Ouch!

The movie was a box office dud and was later retitled Deception when it was recut and released on video. I wasn't able to find it streaming anywhere except for a Spanish-dubbed version on YouTube. I took several years of Spanish in school, but sadly have retained very little of it. Thankfully the wikipedia plot synopsis helped me figure out what was going on. ¡Gracias!

So anyways, there are a couple motion pictures where baseball cards played a central role. Remember to keep an eye on my big list every month or so if this is the kind of thing that interests you.

Thanks for reading!

A Retired Refractor Post

I was saddened to hear of Bill Buckner's passing this morning at age 69. Reminded me that I don't think I've previously gotten around to showing off this 2004 Topps Retired refractor I picked up a little while back. Beautiful card! Was happy to have this one checked off my #1 collecting goal. As my previous post makes clear, 2004 Topps black refractors just enchant me and I gotta collect 'em all.

Tiny Stats Alert!! Bill played in 4 different decades, always an impressive feat (--even if he just barely accomplished this, bookending his career with 1 game in 1969 and 22 games in 1990).

Three months ago, I posted my 2003 Topps retired auto (base) Bill Buckner and scolded Topps for not properly red italicising his league leading numbers. Here, Topps has his batting title indicated, though they neglect to call attention to his seasons leading the NL in doubles (35 in '81 and 38 in '83), plus his 657 at-bats in 1982.

Of course he's most remembered for his floppy glove missing Mookie Wilson's ground ball in the '86 World Series. But he always carried himself very well and was a great guy by all accounts. Seems like the bad vibes directed towards him dissipated once Boston "broke the curse" and started winning a bunch of championships after their long drought. Buckner also got some redemption by poking fun of himself in a classic episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm.

Rest in Peace, Bill Buckner.


And since I've got some time, here's another nice Retired refractor auto I haven't gotten a chance to post yet...

Pretty sweet Jim Palmer! A nice 2003 Topps Retired refractor pickup for me.

Palmer was one of the best pitchers of the day. Won 3 Cy Young awards, 3 World Series rings, and became a first-ballot Hall of Famer.

At the risk of hijacking what began as a Bill Buckner tribute post, I've got another cool Jim Palmer item I've been meaning to show on the blog for a long time now, so might as well work this in here too...

It's an original photo negative from the Topps Vault.
And now here's the processed image (with a watermark) from the eBay listing:

Jim made a comeback attempt in 1991, which is where this photo dates from, though he didn't get too far into spring training before hanging them up for good. But I always root for the old dudes to hang around (now hoping for Bartolo Colon and Fernando Rodney to extend their careers with new teams), and plus I like autograph-signing shots, so I thought this would be a cool photo negative to snag when Topps Vault had it discounted to $5.97. Cool shot of a sweaty post-practice Jim signing for a group of fans under threatening Florida skies.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading.

eBay wins instead of a card show

I mentioned a few posts back how I was all set to go to the May card show, but then the evening before I ended up winning a bunch of auctions for more than I was expecting to pay thanks to one sonofabitch guy out there who also had interest in the cards and pushed my set snipe bids nearly to their max. And so I couldn't in good conscious turn around and spend even more on cards so soon, so I had to cool it for a little while. I'm conflicted and still not sure if I'm glad I came out on top, or if I could do it again, I'd have put a lower bid and let the other guy walk away with 'em. On one hand, it turned out to be way more than I wanted to pay for some no-name autos, but on the other hand, my psycho quest for a black refractor parallel set of 2004 Topps Chrome made major strides with this haul.

The cards in question were a dozen autographs from the aforementioned set. 2004 Topps Chrome black refractor parallels are weird in that the autographs (all "first year" rookie/prospect guys) are numbered in with the set yet they are serial-numbered to only 25. (The other [non-auto] black refractors are not numbered, but are thought to have a print run probably somewhere between 100 and 300.)

All things aside, I sure do love these 2004 black refractors! While my first true loves are the 2004 Topps Retired refractor autos, that love also spills over to the 2004 Topps Chrome black refractors, too, though the players in the Chrome autograph subset are obviously less impressive than the HOFers and fan favorites in Retired.

Blake Hawksworth made the majors with the Cardinals in 2009, and was terrific in his debut year, with an steller 203 ERA+ over 30 games, helping St. Louis win the NL Central that year. Stuck around for a couple more seasons and got traded to the Dodgers, but a shoulder injury ended his career not long after. These days he's an assistant high school basketball coach.

Craig Ansman put up some monster numbers in the low minors but fizzled in AAA and never made The Show, getting released in 2005.

Jon Knott led the Pacific Coast League in homers and RBI in 2006, but couldn't put it together up top, though at least he got into 19 games with the Padres (2004, 2006) and Orioles (2007).

Matt Creighton never made the majors despite hitting .394 in limited action in AAA in 2004.

Mike Gosling got into 58 MLB games from 2004 thru 2009 with Arizona, Cincinnati, and Cleveland. On May 17, 2010, Gosling officially announced his retirement before a Columbus Clippers game for Cleveland's AAA affiliate, finishing his career that night by pitching 6.1 scoreless innings in a spot start against the Durham Bulls. In 2012, he returned to his alma mater, Stanford, enrolling at Stanford Law School.

Despite being a 1st round draft pick (25th overall in 2003), Bradley Sullivan never made it out of A-ball.

Conor Jackson had a respectable 7-year MLB career. Hit .300 in 2008, his career-best year for games played (144).

Wait a minute-- check that lower right corner!

Seems the person or machine responsible for putting on the authentication hologram stickers got a little sloppy with this one!

Jeffery Allison is another 1st rounder (16th overall in 2003) who never cracked the majors, topping out at AA. Them's pitching prospects for ya!

But hey, it might be my favorite card here thanks to being the only Christmas Card in the bunch! I wasn't intending to do it, but I've now featured a 12/25 card in 3 consecutive posts.

Matthew Moses was the 21st overall draft pick in 2003, but he couldn't part the minor league sea to rise above AAA. (Moses ref.)

Hey, here's a name I know! Tim Stauffer pitched in over 200 games from 2005 thru 2015, mostly with the Padres, and a handful with the Twins and Mets. Drafted 4th overall by San Diego in 2003.

Unfortunately this card features a shitty autograph, thanks to the tiny signature on the dark glove, making it hard to see. You'd think he could have signed a little higher up, above the glove. Oh well.

Brad Snyder paid his dues in the minors but eventually played in 30 MLB games with the Cubs (2010-11) and Rangers (2014).

Last one in the lot, Jason Hirsh was 2005 Texas League Pitcher of the Year and 2006 Pacific Coast League Pitcher of the Year. Those accolades didn't lead to success in the majors, but he pitched in a few games with the Astros (2006) and Rockies (2007-08).


So there you have it. This lot has gotten me passed the 1/3 complete mark for my set quest of 2004 Topps Chrome black refractors. (169/487, 34.7% complete.) And as far as the autos, I've now got 17 of the 26 (65.4% complete). Not bad. (Link to my needs spreadsheet.)

Although I'm over a third of the way there, this set won't be an easy one to complete. I've even considered giving up, but I'm just a sucker for these black rainbow beauties, and I think I'll have to keep at it. But at some point I'll finish picking off commons and will have to go after the stars. Griffey? Jeter? Yadier Molina RC? These will be expensive. But yeah.. maybe someday, years from now, I'll wrap this one up. Here's hoping.

Thanks for popping by.

A Clutch from Cutch

I've been slacking on sending out return trade packages lately, but I'm hoping to set aside some time this long weekend to knock a few names off my "People I Owe Cards To" list. And a new name to add to that list is Brian over at Collecting Cutch after he surprised me with a team bag of cards the other day.

Dig the customized top-loaders! One definition of the word clutch is "a hatch of eggs"-- hence this post title.. but instead of some eggs, it's some cards. Maybe it's a stretch, but hey, the "save the turtles" reference brings it all together. Kinda. Turtles lay eggs, after all. And I like turtles.

I'm always down to accept any McCutchen dupes I might be able to fit into my PC, but the real star of the package was this pair. The doodling probably gives away their secrets, but if you need help driving the point home...

The serial numbers are circled on the back. Both 12/25! Sweet!

Here are the cards unobscured. The Dan Uggla is a red refractor, and not only is it a Christmas Card, but also a need for my 2011 Topps parallel frankenset!

And the other card is none other than Brian Giles, a guy who went to my high school.

So these cards are both "double bullseye" hits for my collection-- not just any random 12/25 cards (which I would have still been very much into), but ALSO respectively a setbuild need and a top guy I collect. Awesome!

A closer look at the holly jolly serial-numbering.
Christmas is already just 7 months away, can you believe it?

Thanks so much, Brian! I'll do my best to round up some cards for you soon to return the favor.

Have a pleasant holiday weekend, everyone.

finally a better Greg Maddux autograph (though the signature still isn't great)

Greg Maddux is a fun guy to collect. He's high up on the list of best pitchers of his era, if not all-time. And he gets bonus points in my eyes for being a Pad in the Hall (former Padre in the HOF). I've got a solid PC of his cards, but a sore spot for me was that the lone autograph I have is an ugly, unlicensed stickergraph.

A couple years back, I bought a nicer Maddux auto specifically to turn around and trade it for a shiny Rafael Devers auto-- I generally don't do buy-to-trade deals, but Devers was hot at the time and I really wanted to score the card, so I made an exception-- a swap that I may have second guessed a few times since as Devers struggled a bit last year, but he seems to have bounced back, so it might still work out for me yet. But anyways, since then I've been keeping an eye out for a nice Maddux auto for myself. Had to be licensed, on-card signed, and since I wasn't in a rush, I wanted to hold out until I found a card that fit this criteria and was numbered 12/25.

Eventually a viable candidate popped up at $100 Or Best Offer. I watched it for a while hoping the price would drop into a more reasonable range after the seller realized he was asking too much. Months went by with no change, so I went ahead and made a fair offer of $70.. about what a similar Maddux auto sells for these days. The guy flat out rejected the offer. No meeting-in-the-middle counter-offer (say around $85, which I likely would have accepted). Oh well, screw that guy, I guess, I thought to myself. If eBay allowed you to block sellers, I probably would have blocked him right then.

Well, cut to a couple weeks later, the seller decided to list the card at auction with a starting bid of $75. I ended up winning it as the only bidder. Joke's on him, as his unwillingness to compromise cost himself a few bucks. I figure I still overpaid a little, but you know me, I put a premium on Christmas Cards because I'm silly like that.

That's a nice looking card! It makes for a fine crowning jewel atop my Maddux PC.

No hard feelings with the seller. I will give him credit for being super fast (though perhaps USPS deserves much of the credit). I won the card on Friday and received it the next Monday (yesterday). I might expect that if the guy was local, but he's way out in South Carolina, so it was a surprise for that quick of a turnaround. And it was not sent via Priority Mail either, just regular First-Class.

That's all for today.

The "Cardboard Bump" recap

Whammy or no whammy?!

In my last few posts, I've been conducting an experiment to see if-- as Night Owl suggested to me years ago-- including the word "cardboard" in your blog post title results in increased viewing numbers. Fuji countered with a comment saying he saw no effect from adding "cardboard" in a title of one of his recent posts. Well, which is it?! Hits or no? Let's take a look at where my view totals stand for my last dozen posts as of this writing:


Javier Baez PC - 124 views, 4/25/19

Vintage Influx - 124 views, 4/26/19

Giving us a baseline are these two consecutive posts both clocking in at a smooth 124 views. Solid showing, but nothing to write home about.

Kerry on my Cardboard Blog - 888 views, 4/27/19

Now here's where things get interesting. 888 views is a very popular post by my standards. The content wasn't anything too mind blowing-- just a trade recap. Could it be the "cardboard" bump?

Cody Bellinger PC - 125 views, 4/30/19

How I spent my eBay bucks: Reggie and Ozzie - 133 views, 5/3/19

A pair of big Bobs - 137 views, 5/5/19

Beach Weekend 2019 recap - 119 views, 5/9/19

And now we're back into the expected viewing numbers, a bit over 100 each.

Cardboard Potpourri - 584 views, 5/10/19

The experiment officially begins! Another strong showing from a "cardboard" post.

cardboard from mr haverkamp and beyond - 251 views, 5/12/19

Boldly going right back to the "cardboard" well. Not quite as big a jump, but still more hits than the norm.

Hometown Cardboard Additions - 181 views, 5/14/19

I really presented a tough challenge to the hypothesis with this one. As I mentioned in the post, when I write about Guys From Granite, the views typically take a dip. The cardboard bump seems to have helped this post perform above-average, even if down from the other "cardboard" posts.

Cookie Cardboard - 341 views, 5/16/19

Back to eye-popping numbers by my standards. Full disclosure, I also tweeted out a link to this one, so that may have affected the numbers a little. I don't always tweet-plug my posts, but when I do, it's usually good for a few more hits.. but unless a popular account retweets it, nothing too big.

Cards from Canada - 79 views, 5/17/19

Up to this point it's tempting to think, "Hey, maybe views are up because I'm growing a following of loyal readers who appreciate my fresh, creative take on baseball cards!" The conscious decision to use the word "Cards" instead of "Cardboard" was to see if we'd find a return to norm, and as you can see, yep, the numbers were definitely down.. about what I'd expect for a trade post. Should probably hit 100 in another day or two.

And that brings us up to current.

Wow! So I think we've confirmed that putting the word "Cardboard" in a blog post title does seem to increase views-- at least for Baseball Card Breakdown. Your results may vary.

So why is it? Does the word "cardboard" connect with casual readers in some special, perhaps sentimental way? Is there a sexy mystery to it? Like with that "Cookie Cardboard" post-- had I just dryly titled it "1989 SF Giants Mother's Cookies team set", it wouldn't have seemed as interesting.

Of course the more likely reason is that somehow the word "cardboard" is a siren song for web-crawling bots that creep over the internet compiling data and whatnot for their overlords to use. But why "cardboard"? What would make that an interesting word to anyone not in the hobby or in the paper products industry? Who knows.

Most bloggers will tell you they appreciate comments more than views, and I'm no exception. The "cardboard bump" doesn't seem to translate to more comments, another indication that the additional viewers are non-human. It's almost kinda insulting to get a ton of views but not many comments, lol.

By the way.. my worst performing post? Well, at this moment I believe it's "Never Dunn Ghostbustin'" from this past March, an update to my Ghostbusters card collection. Seems not everyone is as into Ghostbusters as I am, since this post is sitting on just 99 views as of press time. Perhaps I should have titled it something like "more Ghostbusters cardboard" and maybe then it would have dunn better.

So in closing, yes, I would say that (for reasons I'm unsure of) putting the word "cardboard" in a blog post title will likely result in an uptick of views. Pretty crazy, right?! But the excess views are probably from bots, not humans, so it's nothing to get too excited over. But still, it's nice to get a lot of views on your posts, so don't be afraid to throw around the word "cardboard" in your post titles here and there if you'd like to boost your ego.

Oh, and I had been hankerin' for a Whammy! card.. fun inserts which are seeded 1-per-case in modern Donruss products. Ended up with Javy here. Pretty neat.

Thanks for reading!

Cards from Canada

This post is a control in my experiment with post titles including the word "cardboard" which allegedly causes an increase in views. Will only putting "cards" in the title instead of "cardboard" make this post end up with weaker numbers than my last few posts (that had "cardboard" in the title)? We'll see! Recap post coming soon.

But yeah, Douglas from the dollar store surprised me just the other day with a few nice cards imported from up north.

Tony Gwynn relic! Nice! Looks like a brown pinstripe, which would probably indicate a late 80s uniform, despite the photo used looking like a few years later.

I think I've only got a couple other In The Game cards in my collection. I don't know much about the company, but looks like they're based in Canada and put out hockey cards as far back as the 90s. Then in the 00s, after exclusive sports card licenses became a thing, they started putting out unlicensed hockey cards, and also began putting out unlicensed baseball cards.

A couple modern Padres. Dig that green Franmil Reyes. He's been a bright spot for San Diego this year. His 13 homers lead the club.
Mike Thompson didn't fare great in the majors and has been out of the game for years, but still, always kinda neat to get a certified auto in a blind trade.

And lastly some old school oddballs. I don't recall seeing those General Mills stickers before, but the bilingual text indicates they're a Canadian release. Cool addition to my Garvey PC.
And I love vintage Winfield cards I need, and hell, I love 70s Hostess cards in general and will likely try collecting them all at some point down the line after I finish the majority of the other many sets I'm currently working on. So yeah, this one's a hit for me!

Big thanks, Doug! I'll round up a return for you shortly.

Have a great weekend, everybody!

Cookie Cardboard

Seems 1989 Mother's Cookies Rich Gossage had been on my sidebar wantlist for about a year. I've got a solid Goose PC-- he's a main dude I collect thanks to him being a former Padre in the HOF-- and so I really wanted to add the only true card he ever got from his 31-game stint with the Giants. He had signed as a free agent on April 14, 1989 and was with San Francisco until the Yankees picked him up on waivers four months later. Technically, he also appears as a Giant on a 1990 Publications International Trivia sticker (which seems to be a good source for short-term stops, since that set also includes Kent Tekulve on the Reds, which I showed off the other day). And if you really want to split hairs, 2012 Playoff Prime Cuts includes some Gossage hits that list "San Francisco" as the team, but they are logoless cards and the striped pillbox hat in the photo is obviously a Pirates cap, so unless perhaps the jersey swatches are from a game-used SF uniform, doesn't make much sense considering them Giants cards.

So anyways, I really wanted to pick up this oddity but it eluded me for months, and apart from a Nick-to-Nick trade, no one on the cardsphere seemed to have one available. At the last card show I attended, there was a dealer who had a bunch of Mother's team sets displayed on his table and I was excited thinking I might have finally located it-- but no, it was one of the few sets he didn't have. But then recently a complete 1989 Mother's Cookies Giants team set popped up on eBay. It was a little more than I wanted to pay for just the Gossage, but not too bad and at least it included a few more cards for my consideration.

I kinda/sorta collect Kevin Mitchell and Brett Butler, so this pair are also keepers for me, but the below cards are up for trade.

This Will Clark was probably a hot card back in the day. Matt Williams was still shuffling between SF and AAA at the time, not breaking out until the following season. Coaches cards are a fun quirk of Mother's sets, with this one being highlighted by Dusty Baker.

And the rest of the squad that would go on to win the NL pennant that year before falling to the A's in the earthquake-rattled bay area World Series.

I was lucky enough to have Mother's Cookies around when I was a kid. The cookies themselves weren't amazing, but just-ok cookies are better than no cookies. And it was cool when they occasionally put out cards, usually of West Coast teams, with those glossy fronts, rounded corners, and complete lack of design apart from a little text. I believe most of their team sets were stadium giveaways, but sometimes cards were included in cookie packages, like when they made Griffey and Nolan Ryan cards.

That's all for today. Thanks for reading.