I picked up this box several months ago and somehow held onto it. It’s funny how there are times when I pick up cards and there’s not much time wasted and I just go ahead and open them. Then there are other times where it’s months before I do anything with them. I guess some of that depends on the latest releases and things like that. Some of it might also depend on me knowing I’ll need to write about it.
I picked up this box (and another “newer” box you’ll see soon) to try to get some more cards to TTM that fall within the “dark period” of my collecting. I’m trying to bump up the numbers of Marlins, Rockies, Rays, and Diamondbacks I have with a TTM autograph. Given I kind of stopped collecting around 1993, that certainly puts a damper on the cards I might have for those teams.
Something this box made me realize… I never knew how far back the “Never Compromise” stuff went back.
AL B-Easts (Sort of)
It was funny to see all these cards. I had actually been thinking about Bernie Williams recently because I saw another card of his. But Big Papi and Nomar were guys I kind of forgot about in a way. Of course Ortiz is in a ton of commercials, but I hadn’t see Big Papi in a Twins uniform in forever. I probably haven’t seen or thought about him actually sliding in forever either (and not just because he’s retired). The Nomar card is a great picture especially with the Stadium Club quality card.
I’m not sure when Stadium Club changed their cards backs from those early days, but these are a lot closer to what they do today. Those original card backs were just crazy. These are crazy in a different way. They sort up those stats in ways that makes me nuts. Probably just because it’s not the way I think about a guy’s stats except for the bottom line. At least I don’t think of them that way for a card back.
Stadium Club Pictures
Of course Stadium Club always has nice pictures right. Well, most of these weren’t actually too special. I pulled a few that I thought were interesting.
The Pettitte card is just odd to see him swinging a bat. But I do love that this appears to be a Subway Series game… and at Shea too. The other two cards are a little more what I expect from Stadium Club. The Everett is an interesting picture and the Manwaring is an interesting angle at least.
I Baseball Card Backs (@sportcardbacks) mentioned recently on Twitter that Kurt seems to have a high quality of card pictures considering his career. I think compared to the other pictures in this set, this one falls within that theory.
Rookies and Stars
There wasn’t too much in this box (or maybe even in this product or year) as it related to rookies and future stars. These were about the best I could recognize in the box. Michael Barrett looks straight outta high school no?
Die Job
Nomar is back and he’s on a die cut card! An interesting one at that too. This is a fun one and I don’t think I had ever seen much of this type of card. I actually did notice this insert in @CardsFromAttic’s #CardboardChaos2020.
The same thing for Kerry Wood. But we do see the Never Compromise inserts these days. The pictures on the side of the Wood card are a bit of an odd thing to me. I’m not sure why all of those things are important to point out (other than maybe his floating head).
These replay cards are interesting. I’m not going to be one of those “good old days” guys and say that Sportflix were better. But I also won’t say these were great. I like the concept, but in reality these aren’t pulled off in the best way. I don’t think any of that has to do with their age, but you never know.
Rainbow-y
These types of rainbow cards are always coming in the latest release as a parallel. I don’t think these are actually parallels though. It seems as though all of the transaction cards are in that sort of foil effect. Chipper though is a chrome which I don’t mind, but I’m not always up on the new card types with the throwback uniforms pictured.
The TTM Pile
As always there was a TTM pile and I don’t think I did too bad. When I make these types of piles I never really care about doubles so I just set aside cards as I go. This was a pretty good sized pile in general.
It wasn’t a tremendous box but it was good to see some players that I hadn’t thought of in a while in product that I wasn’t super familiar with. It certainly made me more curious as I opened up packs.
For more about 1999 Stadium Club, check out BaseballCardPedia.com.