Friday, August 13, 2021

Beavis & Butterfly Effects

So yesterday as I was watching the Field of Dreams game I got quick flashes of nostalgia.  I remembered about my friend who was a White Sox fan and remembering when we used to trade baseball cards.  I remembered the 2005 World Series between the White Sox and Astros.  

It brought back memories of the two team's franchise icons in Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas.  

My brain was going through years of memories all because of one memory.  

Those classic White Sox uniforms.  

I remember collecting cards that featured those amazing Sox uniforms just so I could trade them to my friend Jimmy.  

He was a big Frank Thomas fan, but liked all the White Sox, especially if the card featured the throwback uniforms.  This was before the internet and things couldn't be confirmed with just a Google search.  

I remember I traded a 1991 Robin Ventura Stadium Club for a Jeff Bagwell Stadium Club.  I got the better end of that trade for sure, but I convinced him that the Ventura was an error because of the uniform.  When you're 10 years old it's ok to lie to get what you want.
And I wanted that Jeff Bagwell Stadium Club card.

During the summer we went to our local mall card show and I saw another of the Jeff Bagwell Stadium Club cards.  I picked it up for about $15.  I remember thinking that was such a great deal and that I wanted to own as many Jeff Bagwell 1991 Stadium Club cards as I could.  My uncle was friends with Ken Caminiti and I was a mild Astros fan because of it.

Whenever I think of 1991 Stadium Club, the first thing I think of is the Jeff Bagwell rookie card.
It was such an odd looking card with him leaning on a piece of equipment.  As a kid I thought it was a diving board...which makes zero sense to me now, but hey I was only 10.  My imagination was wild.

I loved the backs of the 1991 Stadium Club cards.  It featured more in depth statistics AND showed the player's 1st Topps card.

Remember when Topps actually put effort into their card backs?
I guess today Topps would only choose to use their flagship set as defining rookie cards.  If that was the case we probably would have gotten the 1991 Topps Traded on the back.
Remember how I said I had a wild imagination as a ten year old?

It holds true to this day.
Everytime I see this card it kind of reminds me of Beavis from Beavis & Butthead, the Mike Judge MTV show that made MTV animation famous in the 1990s.
Do you see the resemblance?

Anyway, I have gotten way off track with my thoughts.

Here is a 2021 1991 Stadium Club retro card of Cutch.
These 1991 designs fall 1:179 packs so they are pretty rare.

And here is the back
which unfortunately doesn't show his rookie card or any 1991 design contributions.

Do you have any memories from 1991 Stadium Club?

Have you ever gone down a rabbit hole of nostalgia because of watching a baseball game?  

2 comments:

  1. I assume that they used the SC Bagwell on its own back because the Traded card wasn't ready in time.

    I'd really like to see them use one of those early Stadium Club designs for Archives. They could have a lot of fun with the rookie cards on the back--thrown in a couple of really early legends' first cards (think Ruth, Walter Johnson, Cobb, Speaker) as well as the Topps classics and a few current Topps cards for the rookies.

    ReplyDelete
  2. I remember the hype around 1991 Stadium Club and the Bagwell and Plantier rookie cards. I'm pretty sure I pulled both cards while opening packs at the LCS I worked at.

    ReplyDelete