Bill July 9, 2020 2 Comments

Have you ever seen a big rock band play a stadium? I mean like a full on stadium? I never have, but I always wanted to. I’ve seen some big bands play but never in a big outdoor summer stadium tour.

So how does this have anything to do with cards you might ask?

Well, a lot of the time when I open I like to try to think about what was going on when the cards were produced. This is 1991 Topps Stadium Club Series 2 and to me 1991 means Guns n’ Roses. The Use Your Illusion albums were coming out around then and it made me think of having to get the CDs.

Then I thought of the tour they went on with Metallica. Admittedly that was a few years later. I can remember all the rig-a-ma-roll you had to go through to get tickets. There were lines and wrist bands and lines and all that was just to try to get a ticket. Well, that feels kind of like a club to me, which brings me back to Stadium Club.

I never went to a stadium rock show. I actually never bought Stadium Club when it was first out… I apparently was double uncool.

Time to rectify 50% of that and open some packs.

1991 Topps Stadium Club Series 2

1991 Topps Stadium Club was pretty revolutionary for it’s time. Upper Deck had upped the card game starting in 1989 and Topps had to come up with a more premium quality product to compete. Not only was this a high-end product that could be considered the beginning of what we are seeing today, but I would say that a second line of cards from the same manufacturer is something else we see today.

As for the cards above, my favorite of the bunch is Tony Gwynn. That picture just feels like the epitome of him. A big smile and I can hear his laugh. And I’m a Mets fan so I feel like not picking the Cone card says something.

The Funky Cards

As you know, I like to find the funny (or in this case funky) cards in the set. These are the types of things that make me love opening a pack. For instance, Tony Pena… I know he liked to have odd squats and stances behind the plate, but that’s a really different one. I doubt he was actually catching like that, but if he was you really need to trust your abilities. Yikes!

Steve Bedrosian is really what makes this funky. Well, more accurately, his hat is making this funky. I want nothing to do with that. I hate when guys wear gross gear like that. If he was truly funky though he could always jump in the pool. Like what Jeff is doing… wait, that isn’t a diving board on Jeff Bagwell’s cards. Oops!

I think if you read the blog enough, especially for these types of posts I do, you probably know why I like the Carl Rhodes card. I always wonder why certain subjects make it onto cards. I would bet that a shortage of good pictures for guys is the main reason. But do we really need to use a card where it looks like Carl is making a huge gaffe.

As for the Roger McDowell card, I don’t like seeing him in a Phils uniform. But I do like seeing cards with players interacting with the fans. And as for Oscar Azocar, well check this out.

So again, why are we putting Glenallen on a card that makes him look like he is making an out.  But I will say, it’s good to see that Keith Comstock made out OK after getting hit in the nuts on one of his minor league cards (look it up if you don’t know it).

A Little Left for TTM

One of the main reasons for getting a box is what I could get out of it from a TTM perspective. This was a pretty good box but definitely not like some of the other recent boxes I opened for other products. But I also got to fill out my unopened packs for this as well. So that pack you see is headed to a box of unopened stuff.

This was pretty fun to open. While they aren’t necessarily the Stadium Club pictures we see today, you can see how the images and quality was really great for the time. The cards definitely have a bright and cheery aspect to them because of that.

For more about 1991 Topp Stadium Club Series 2, check out BaseballCardPedia.com.