1990 Score and I have felt differently about each other over the years. Back in the day, I LOVED this set. It’s bright and colorful, it has great pictures, the design itself is a good one, and it has a great design for the back. When I was a kind this was something I had a lot of because it just looked different from everything else. It was such a step up from their 1989 design too.
These days it isn’t the same. I like sets with either neutral or team colors on theme for the most part. I don’t like a colorful set like this where the color is a major part of the design itself. I would hate a set like this today.
But opening these packs (and I had forgotten even how different the packs were to open) was very refreshing. I think it’s the bright colors. I probably needed it these days with being stuck around the house so much. It definitely brought me back to the pages upon pages in binders that I had for this set.
Let’s get a-looking, put on some sunglasses!
1990 Score
Damn, look at how bright those cards are! The Dave Winfield and Barry Bonds cards are great. The pictures and the cards/design are so crisp.
The Ryne Sandberg card is a little different. First, this isn’t the error version which lists him as a second baseman, but it’s also dull. The picture is dull that is. I have noticed that a bit about part of the set. While most of the pictures are super bright, this one is not. Too bad because it doesn’t go with the fact that it’s a “1990 Highlight.”
Other Stories
Joey Belle, who we all know as Albert, is the first card I chose to highlight. And really that’s it…, that’s the story. I know his middle name is Jojuan so we can see where Joey comes from, but somewhere early on Joey became Albert. I will say that it seemed to fit him better than Joey would have for the rest of his career. Did you know he made Eagle Scout, was VP of the local Future Business Leaders of America, was offered appointment to the US Air Force Academy as a kid?
John Cangelosi is my only true story of the bunch and it’s a personal one. In 1994 he spent the season in New York with the Mets. I attended a game at Shea that Spring/Summer with my Granddad, Dad and brother. On the way to the game my brother and I must have been playing a game predicting what would happen in the game. Well, my brother got it in his head that he wanted to see a fight. That was his call… we were going to see a brawl. My Granddad must have been mortified.
Sure enough, John Cangelosi got beaned and charged the mound. I honestly don’t remember the actual brawl, but my brother was so excited that he had called it. As usual, my Dad had us leave in the 6th inning or so to “beat the traffic.” I love my Dad, but I have yet to leave any sports game early that I have interest in for that reason.
As for El Sid, I just liked remembering him. He was such an underrated pitcher. He was a big dude to, but he sure could pitch.
Back It Up
None of this is really monumental or new for a card back. But darn if this thing doesn’t have some good things going on. First I’ll call out that card number. I love how big they are. Definitely helps my old eyes when sorting. Second, it’s got all of the informative elements of cards including actual text. The only thing I don’t like about some of the text is it being in different colors. I’m not a big fan of reading red type.
And while this isn’t the first time a picture was put on the back of a card, Score sure gave it a lot of real estate. And they still fit all that other great stuff on there
The Rookie Crop
Was 1990 a great year for rookies or what? I’m not trying to say it was the greatest by any means but it was a doozy none-the-less. There’s a ton of World Series Champions, Hall of Famers, and award winners in this lot. And think of the stories of a few of these guys were involved in over the years:
- The Bloody Sock
- The Ryan/Ventura Brawl
- The Bartman Game
- … and then a two sport player
The Specials
Every pack of score comes with the Sportflics style “The MVPs” mini card. I hated these things back then and I still hate them today. They just always felt awkward in the packs. As for the “art” cards – LOVE!
Bo Knows.
Yes! For me this is one of the most iconic characters and cards of the set. Like probably a lot of kids back in this era, I love Bo. I loved the story and then he backed it up all the time on the field. No matter what field it was. It wasn’t that he was the greatest ballplayer necessarily. But he did exciting stuff all the time like throwing dudes out at the plate and breaking bats over his knee after a strikeout.
Postseason Happenings
I love a postseason recap subset and these are some of the best. The fact that they are just pictures and the logos is just perfect to me. But while I love these it did bring back memories of an odd and scary postseason. I’m not a Bay Area person at all, but the earthquake during that World Series made it memorable for all the wrong reasons. I have a feeling we are in for something of that nature this year with the pandemic potentially ending the season.
Draft Picks
This is definitely a “which one of these is not like the others” situation. But while Frank Thomas is obviously in a different stratosphere, you can’t deny the other two had their place in the game. Sure Knoblauch’s career was ended by the yips, but he was a good player. And Vaughn was a talented big dude.
Fat Stacks
… And the TTM stacks keep growing. I’m telling you the further I go back with these boxes the bigger the stacks get. I’ll admit that’s probably predictable. But the fact that 1990 is so big tells works with my monthly stats that I’ve been keeping.
So while it’s not my favorite these days, this might have been one of the most fun boxes to open for a junk was era product. I had a lot of it back then, that I don’t necessarily have now. So it fills a lot of holes in my collection, and it filled a hole with what I needed to see.. bright and cheery colors!
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