40% and unlucky 13...

I decided to try a new layout. Lastnight's fairly lengthy post was a bit awkward to read confined in such large margins. I think I like this better. We'll see though.

Pack 13
(duplicates are indicated by bold text)
52 Bill Doran
68 Vince Coleman
193 Joaquin Andujar
207 Craig Reynolds
213 Mickey Brantley
251 Scot Fletcher
269 Mickey Tettleton
271 Marc Sullivan
418 John Cangelosi
422 Kelly Gruber
438 Keith Comstock
527 Al Nipper
533 Scott Garrelts
547 Steve Henderson
559 Rob Murphy
556 Mike Aldrete
553 Craig Leffets

Unlucky Pack Thirteen. This was the key pack in deciding if I was going to be able to complete the set out of this box. The answer? Let's look at the math and assume just for a second that the world is perfect and I don't pull another double in the remaining 23 packs.

1988 Score = 660 cards.
40% of 660 = 268 cards.
23 packs remaining X 17 cards per pack = 391
391 + 268 = 659.

660 - 659 = 1

There's your answer.

Since this pack didn't really provide anything of interest and just left me rather depressed, I'll move on to a somewhat lighter subject. Lance Blankenship.

In a few hours of insomnia last night I was flipping through some old Fleer cards when I came across Mr. Blankenship. The name sounded kinda familiar. I was really getting into baseball in the late 80s and the first World Series I remember watching was 1988. At the time I liked both Los Angeles and Oakland, and being seven years old I didn't know who to pull for anyway.

But 1989 came along. One of the defining television moments of my childhood was the 1989 Loma Prieta earthquake before the beginning of Game 3. What does all this mean?

Lance Blankenship was a member of that '89 Series winning Oakland team. Hence the familiarity with the name.

His career isn't really worth mentioning. Six seasons, .222 average, nine home runs and a handful of RBIs.

What makes him worth mentioning here is his somewhat embarassing 1989 Fleer rookie card. The photo on the front is pretty good, but the stats on the back... aren't. Granted he only played in ten games, but do these numbers really warrant a baseball card? Couldn't they have waited until the 1990 set where he had some actual numbers? 125 ABs in '89, good for a .232 avg.



I'm interested to see how many rookie cards today have stats like these on the back. Probably not many. If you know of one, let me know.