Sports Illustrated made baseball cards in the late 1990s.
Actually, Fleer made the cards, but they were branded as Sports Illustrated cards. Yes, there were several Sports Illustrated card products. I don't know the difference between the "Then and Now" set and the regular base Sports Illustrated cards. Honestly, I am not sure exactly sure what Fleer and Sports Illustrated were trying to do here. I think the cards were supposed to be a Stadium Club type of set. After all, Sports Illustrated was always all about the photography, so was Stadium Club.
Anyway, Sports Illustrated flopped as a baseball card brand.
I am not really sure I would say that the photography in this set was great. I think I would describe them as more unique than anything else. Is this a great photograph of Ray Lankford? He is wearing Ron Gant's batting helmet backwards and he's bunting the ball. There is grass behind him, so it's not like he's in a batting cage or anything. I am guessing he was just messing around during Spring Training.
I am not going to post all of Ray's Stadium Club cards to prove a point on a post about a Sports Illustrated card, but let's just say those pictures are a lot better.
Ray Lankford was never much of a personality while he was playing for the Cardinals. He just showed up and played baseball. As for the bunting, young Ray Lankford might have dropped one down from time to time, but he was hitting behind Mark McGwire by this point in his career.
Just an odd picture on the card.
The back is weird.
The stats are tiny and the majority of the back some sort of Sports Illustrated rating system where Harmon Killebrew, Lou Brock, and Brooks Robinson evaluate the players based on speed, power, and defense. The ratings for Ray seem pretty fair. Only in the steroid era could you hit 30 home runs and 35 doubles and get an "average" power rating. There are other cards in this set that are a little bit off. I applaud the effort by Fleer to come up with an original card back, but this does not really do anything for me.
In conclusion, the Sports Illustrated brand did not last long in the baseball card world and that's not a bad thing.
I always wonder if the sets that had quotes from past players about the current crop, or in this case, older players rating a current player, were actually done by the past players -- or did someone at the card company just pull it out of their butt?
ReplyDeleteI have wondered the same thing at times. It wouldn't shock me that the card company gives them a check for their name and likeness, but some intern is making the ratings on the back of the card. I could see where retired Lou Brock would have interest in watching a Cardinals game, but did Harmon Killebrew really tune in so he could rate their players on the back of some Sports Illustrated cards? I have my doubts.
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