Jeff Innis ebays Extravaganza!!
This image is from a fan’s 3” x 5” spring training photo (from 1990?), which was then developed and signed by Mr. Innis. That ebays seller had several different autographed 3” x 5” photos of Jeff Innis. I didn’t buy any of them, but I liked this one in particular, for the slightly annoyed look on Jeff’s face.
And his ridiculously large New York Mets cap.
Jeff Innis died of cancer on January 30, 2022. I learned this during a routine check of the MLB Trade Rumors web site, when I was greeted with this headline for the latest entry: “Former NY Mets relief pitcher, Jeff Innis, passes away.” He was given a nice eulogy on MLB Network, later that night.
Rory Costello, of the Society for American Baseball Research, interviewed Jeff Innis about his career in 2012. An excellent summary of his life and career can be found here.
Officially named as “Wasted Quarter’s Favorite Baseball Player”, after the zine I self-published from 1993-2016. Jeff Innis’ career was covered in its pages, whenever I found any news to update. Which wasn’t all that often, since his last major league game took place before I wrote the first issue of Wasted Quarter (in October 1993).
The whole WQ’s favorite player angle was covered on this site, back in 2017. That served as the telling of my fandom, with scans of the Jeff Innis cards I had collected during the Junk Wax Era. With his last cards appearing in 1994 sets, I figured I already owned copies of every mainstream card he had.
1993 Fleer - Jeff Innis
In April 2024, I picked up a Junk Wax Era Innis card that had escaped me for some unknown reason. I bought very little 1993 Fleer back in the day, but I’d never seen it before a Googles search. Probably the first new addition to the Jeff Innis collection in close to 20 years.
A few months later, I decided to finally pull the trigger on the rarest mainstream Jeff Innis card on the market...
1991 Topps Desert Shield - Jeff Innis
It was $5.
Passed on this many times over the years, because it was essentially just another 1991 Topps. I’m sure I have at least 10 of them still today. Paying the premium for that gold stamp just seemed a little ridiculous to me. Until it didn’t.
Along a similar line of thought, I decided it was time to start picking up all of the minor league cards of Jeff Innis, that had gone ignored until now. In a way, I guess this would be sort of a Junk Wax Prospector story, about Wasted Quarter’s Favorite Baseball Player. Perhaps a sequel that doesn’t suck.
1984 TCMA Jackson Mets - Jeff Innis
The first card of his professional career being the proper starting point. I don’t even care that its off-centeredness would make even Topps jealous. Jeff Innis was drafted in 1983, and assigned to Low A Little Falls, New York. For the 1984 season, the Mets aggressively promoted him all the way to AA Jackson, Mississippi.
Card back tells the story of just how low-budget minor league cards were in the 1980’s.
TCMA worked directly with minor league teams, taking their own pictures and printing team sets. These would then be sold at their ballparks and in TCMA’s own Collectors Quarterly catalog. Retail prices for each team’s set would be in the $3.50 range. Typically, TCMA’s cost would be offset further by including a regional sponsors advertising on the card backs. In this case, Cowboy Maloney Appliance Centers. Who are still operating stores around Jackson, Mississippi, today. So the investment in the 1984 TCMA Jackson Mets team set was a wise one.
While on my mission to find new old Jeff Innis cards, I ran into an ebays listing for the July 1991 edition of the New York Mets Magazine. Front cover and feature story being not only about Jeff Innis, but also fellow Mets pitcher, Wally Whitehurst. This immediately became a must own. I placed a decent bid on the auction, hoping to win because I needed this magazine for the Innis collection! The next day while I was at work, I received an email informing me that I won the auction with my minimum bid of $2.50. (My max bid was more than 5 times that amount.)
If anyone has another magazine heavily featuring Jeff Innis, I will gladly trade you my minimum up to my max bid for it…
The front cover of the July 1991, New York Mets Magazine, has an excellent posed photo of Wally Whitehurst and Jeff Innis, lounging in the Shea Stadium bullpen. The combination had extra appeal because the very first time I saw Jeff Innis pitch, he came into game in relief of Wally Whitehurst. This was the July 29, 1989, NBC game of the week, at Wrigley Field in Chicago, against the Cubs. Future Hall of Famer, Greg Maddux was starting in opposition.
And because sometimes the internet is awesome, the entire NBC broadcast of the game (commercials included!) is on the YouTubes! I did play this in the background while writing this story. Jeff Innis enters the game at 1:07:18, if you want to skip ahead to the important stuff. While I do still have a VHS tape of this game somewhere in the archives, I don’t have a VCR to play it on. While the quality of this video isn’t all that great, it’s perfect to me because I never though I’d see this game again.
1990 Upper Deck - Wally Whitehurst
Less than a year later, I was very pleased to see that Upper Deck used a photo from this game for Whitehurst’s 1990 card. It was a short start for Whitehurst that day, as he didn’t make it out of the 3rd inning, before Jeff Innis entered the game. And he didn’t do all that well either…
1989 Upper Deck - David West (autograph)
After Innis pitched 2 2/3 innings, he was taken out in favor of Mets top pitching prospect, David West. This was West’s last game with the New York Mets, as he would be traded to the Minnesota Twins, two days later. West was the key part of a package that included pitchers Rick Aguilera and Kevin Tapani, returned for former Cy Young Award winner and 1987 World Series MVP, Frank Viola. This was one of the biggest trades in Twins history. While it was widely panned at the time, Aguilera and Tapani were key pitchers on the Twins 1991 World Series winning team. Frank Viola never made it back to the World Series, after leaving the Twins.
As far as David West’s tenure in Minnesota, he immediately drew the ire of Twins manager, Cranky Tom Kelly, for the audacity of wearing a Simpsons t-shirt. Things didn’t get much better from there, as West battled ineffectiveness and injuries for several seasons, before he was shipped to the Phillies for another ineffective relief pitcher (Mike Hartley). While he wasn’t the ace advertised at the time of the trade, West was good with the fans and signed autographs before and after the game, for all who asked.
David West died from brain cancer in May, 2022. Just four months after cancer took Jeff Innis.
The feature story of the July 1991 Mets magazine focused on that Wally Whitehurst and Jeff Innis were more throwbacks to the players of the past, instead of the money hungry and status seeking typical players of today’s age. Could that have been a subtle dig at the controversial personalities on the 1991 New York Mets?
Whitehurst and Innis had contrasting personalities, and both paid a lot of dues in making it to the major leagues. Linked as friends and roommates at AAA Tidewater, during the 1988 season. Which has transferred to their time in the majors.
After years of bouncing between AAA and the majors, both were now taking on bigger roles with the Mets.
Whitehurst was the better prospect of the two, as a 3rd round pick of the Oakland Athletics, in June 1983. He was traded to the Mets in December 1987. Jeff Innis wasn’t much of a prospect coming out of high school, who got a baseball scholarship to the University of Illinois because his older brother talked the coach into it. However, he learned how to pitch more effectively in 1986, and found himself in the majors in 1987.
Jeff Innis was never overpowering, which didn’t work with how Mets manager Davey Johnson wanted to construct his bullpen. When Bud Harrelson replaced Johnson, he gave Innis more of a chance in the Mets bullpen.
Wally Whitehurst pitched with the New York Mets through the 1992 season, before a trade to the San Diego Padres.
Jeff Innis stayed with the Mets through 1993.
A few pages later in the New York Mets Magazine, is an advertisement for Molson Beer. While the duck (assuming that’s a duck) is wearing a sold blue batting hemet, the red and blue stripes on his baseball uniform bears a very distinct resemblance to the Montreal Expos home unis, circa 1991.
After all, Molson is Canadian Beer.
Take that Mets fans!
At least you still have a team…
I have to thank Netflix for giving me one of the most depressing things to come out of my TV in a long time…
Overall impressions, in no particular order…
It was exciting just for all the historical Expos footage that I’d never seen before, and there was a lot of it.
Many of the interview were conducted in French, then dubbed over in English. So lips don’t always match what’s coming out of them. A little off-putting until you get used to it.
The producers had the cooperation of Major League Baseball in producing this documentary, but I feel they gave MLB and specifically, Bed Selig, too much of a free pass for everything that took place. That bothered me quite a bit.
Pedro Martinez absolutely loved Montreal.
Jeff Loria deserves all of the criticism that is served up. Hearing the slimy justification and absolute bullshit that MLB allowed him to get away with, in regards to acquiring all of the minority shares of the team, should have been criminal. (It was fought in court, but Loria and MLB got away with it.) Also deserving of blame is the local Montreal government, who (justifiably) wouldn’t commit public money for a stadium that was and is necessary for baseball in Montreal. Which makes it all the more confusing why the city of Montreal recently greenlit over $1 billion in repairs to the 50 year old Olympic Stadium. Which has no major tenant. The documentary does an excellent job in painting the picture of how bad Olympic Stadium actually was/is.
David Samson is an absolute douche with a punchable face and abhorrant personality.
All that being said, after watching this and seeing the timeline presented the way it was, I came away with a better understanding of that timeline of events. Reliable information about the ongoing Montreal Expos drama in the late 1990’s wasn’t that easy to find then. Yes, some stuff could be found on the internet, but the internet of 1998 doesn’t look a whole lot like the internet of 2025. After digesting all this documentary had to offer, I don’t know if there was any way the Montreal Expos could have been saved.
Good documentary. Very well put together, and presented the case in an informative and clear manner. I would have liked to seen more of MLB’s contraction plan (with the Minnesota Twins) and how exactly that whole Expos/Marlins/Red Sox/MLB franchise transaction worked out, because it always reeked to me. Both of these were mentioned, but it was more in passing than a fully explored subject.
I’d give it an A-.
That film made me so depressed that I had to go directly to the ebays for a some bright and shiny Expos Refractors.
They always cheer me up!
2001 Bowman Chrome - Valentino Pascucci - Refractor
A short print in the confusing mess that Topps made out of 2001 Bowman Chrome. Pascucci made it into 32 games with the 2004 Montreal Expos, then disappeared to Japan and various minor league teams, before reappearing in 10 games with the 2011 New York Mets. So I guess he fits right in with this story.
2004 Bowman Chrome - Tony Batista - Refractor
Pascucci was briefly a teammate of Tony Batista, who hit 32 home runs and drove in 110, for the Expos last lame duck season in Montreal. The Expos forgot to bring him to Washington for 2005, so he went to Japan instead. He made it to Minnesota for 50 games with the Twins in 2006. He didn’t stick there, then finally found his own way to Washington, for a half season in 2007.
2004 Bowman Chrome Draft - Bill Bray - Refractor Autograph
Bray was the last First Round Draft Pick by the Montreal Expos, 13th overall, in 2004. Exclusively a relief pitcher, Bray never started a single game as a professional. He made his major league debut with the Washington Nationals in June 2006, but was soon traded to Cincinnati. He pitched for the Reds through 2012, but injuries cut his career short.
I also wanted to add some bulk to the gaps in my Expos albums. Best way to do that is buying team sets. I was ecstatic to add the 2003 Upper Deck Montreal Expos team set, for just a few bucks. I only had three cards from this set before. Here’s some of the more interesting new ones…
2003 Upper Deck - Bartolo Colon
Big Sexy has been acquired in a shocking trade with the Cleveland Indians, in July 2002. Knowing there was no way they could keep him for the 2003 season, they flipped him to the Chicago White Sox for a couple of spare parts and…
2003 Upper Deck - Orlando Hernandez
Hernandez would -in theory- unite with his younger brother Livan, and provide the Expos with a decent rotation. Compensating for the loss of Colon. As soon as he arrived in Montreal, he had a rotator cuff injury that cost him the season. He never appeared in one game for the Expos. After assuming control in 2002, MLB used the Expos as a dumping ground. The Bartolo Colon trade was one of the worst examples of that.
2003 Upper Deck - Endy Chavez
Chavez was one of my favorite Expos, a great center fielder during their last few seasons. His hitting, not so much.
2003 Upper Deck - Tomokazu Ohka
Photo taken split seconds after Ohka’s crotch exploded.
2003 Upper Deck - Troy O’Leary
This my first O’Leary Expos card. After a series of down years, after a series of good years with the Red Sox, the Expos signed him for the 2002 season. It didn’t go well. He was hurt a bunch and all of his power disappeared. O’Leary went to the Cubs for 2003, but that went even worse.
Let’s get back to some more minor league Jeff Innis cards.
They’re a lot less depressing than the early-aughts Expos…
1985 TCMA Lynchburg Mets - Jeff Innis
TCMA stood for “The Card Memorabilia Associates.” They started off printing several small sets of New York Yankees cards and reprints of early century vintage issues. In 1972, TCMA printed their first minor league team set, for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Reds of the Class-A Midwest League. TCMA kept expanding their coverage of minor league team sets over the years, before stopping production in the late-80’s. Competition from upstart minor league team set producers such and Star and ProCards (and later Classic) were cutting their way into the market, as the Junk Wax Era evolved.
There is still a Timbrook Automotive operating in Lynchburg, Virginia. Maybe the car wash grew into something bigger, after the increased sales brought on by advertising with TCMA? You’d have to ask Tim.
1986 TCMA Jackson Mets - Jeff Innis
Back in Jackson for the 1986 season. The season that Jeff said changed his status in the Mets organization.
Mallett’s Vintage Collectibles does not appear to be in business any longer.
1987 TCMA /CMC Tidewater Tides - Jeff Innis
Cut your hair, hippie!
For some reason, these cards are slightly oversized. Meaning it will present a problem when it comes to placement in the Innis album. Perhaps the collection will move to storage in Top Loaders? I don't know. This is probably the biggest decision I've ever faced in my life.
Even for 1987, the International League logo looks really outdated.
1987 ProCards Tidewater Tides - Jeff Innis
The 1987 Tidewater Tides home cap is awful! Horizontal stripes do not belong on a baseball cap.
Ever.
ProCards entered the scene in 1985, and soon was competing with TCMA in the minor league team set market. Like TCMA, ProCards was distributing their complete minor league team sets in factory-sealed poly-bags. ProCards production and card stock was a notch above what TCMA used. ProCards continued producing minor league team sets after TCMA ceased printing cards, and were purchased by Fleer in 1992. Under Fleer’s name, they still made minor league teams sets for a few years, but eventually shifted to a traditional distribution of a much smaller, prospect only, set sold in packs, like MLB cards.
I wrote about the 1993 Fleer/ProCards AAA All Star Team Set, a few years back.
Backs of ProCards are even more primitive than TCMA, but the inclusion of seasonal stat lines is a welcome addition.
Any questions?
“Who was the guy this stadium was named after?”
There was another interesting history lesson in the New York Mets Magazine. A feature on the role Bill Shea played in bringing the New York Mets franchise to life. I’m not going to summarize it. Go buy your own copy.
1991 New York Mets Roster
Completely forgot that Tom Herr was with the Mets in 1991…
And how often do you think Gregg Jefferies was hanging out at Mickey Mantle’s?
The four page centerspread of the magazine was painted on an uncoated stock, so the program could be updated for each home stand. This magazine was sold during a Phillies visit to Shea Stadium, between June 28-30, 1991. After this series, the Mets will cross the border to play the Expos in Montreal.
Hi, Frank Viola!
The left side of the page is a four color Budweiser ad, which fades into a very dark background on the right side. A strategically placed white knockout, allows for the Phillies vs Mets scorecard to be custom printed inside. That way, the same advertisement can be used all season. Print a ton of them before the season, and add current information for each homestand.
Last page of the scorecard houses the active rosters for all of the National League teams. American League teams are represented below, however, only the pitching staffs get mention.
Oh look, David West is on the disabled list!
Shea Stadium ticket and seating information page of the Mets Magazine. I was genuinely surprised at how the ticket prices for Mets games compared to Twins games at the Metrodome, for the 1991 season. Shea Stadium tickets ranged from $6.50 to $14…
While the Metrodome ticket price range was between $3 and $13.
Being 1991, those Club Level Reserved sections may have been legitimately sold out. They’re pretty much the only seats worth sitting in for baseball, in the entire dome. Man that place was terrible for baseball… Like Olympic Stadium in Montreal, only different.
Seating and ticket info courtesy of the May 1991 issue of Twins Magazine. Which is very comparable to the New York Mets Magazine is format and content. This copy was autographed after the game, by 3/5ths of our 1991 starting rotation. Hall of Famer Jack Morris, Kevin Tapani and Scott Erickson. Aalong with Terry Leach, who a key member of the 91 Twins bullpen. Jeff Innis credited Terry Leach as a mentor, during his time with Mets, as both pitchers threw from a sidearm angle.
Since we’ve brought up the Twins, another team set I picked up off the ebays was from 1994 Stadium Club. I had a few of these, but it was nice and cheap, and I still needed a bunch.
1994 Stadium Club - Scott Erickson
Scott Erickson was still pitching for the Twins (so was Kevin Tapani), but by 1994, it was obvious the magic of the 1991 season wasn’t coming back. Not with Carl Pohlad unwilling to pay competitive salaries, to supplement the fading core. The strike provided the brick wall the team needed to slam into, to realize this roster wasn’t going to work. By 1995, the 1991 team was a distant memory. Everyone left was traded away, then Kirby Puckett suffered a surprise career ending injury, and the franchise entered some very dark seasons.
1994 Stadium Club - Lenny Webster
In 1994, Lenny Webster moved onto Montreal and served as the Expos backup catcher for a few seasons.
But the most notable Twins transaction of 1994, came on February 2nd. The day the Minnesota Twins made me the happiest little boy in all of the Hinterland.
The Minnesota Twins signed free agent pitcher, Jeff Innis, to a contract for the 1994 season. Had I the money, I would have bought season tickets that day. But it’s a good thing I didn’t, because Jeff Innis never threw a pitch for the Twins in an official major league game. His lone highlight with Minnesota, comes as a punchline… Who gave up NBA legend Michael Jordan’s first hit as a professional ballplayer?
I saw video of it that night on the local news. I wish I could find video of it today. The best I can do is this clip of Jeff Innis talking about that game. The footage was exactly as he describes it.
The Minnesota Twins cut Jeff Innis from their roster at the end of Spring Training, in March 1994. After debating the idea, he accepted the assignment to AAA Salt Lake City, and was a Buzz for a few weeks, before getting his release. He signed with the San Diego Padres shortly after, but didn’t see much success in AAA Las Vegas. I’ve never seen any images of Innis with the Las Vegas Stars. Innis signed with the Philadelphia Phillies for the 1995 season, but retired in May.
I’d never seen any photos of him with the Phillies either, until I found this on the Googles…
Innis working with Phillies pitching coach, Johnny Podres, on February 21, 1995.
(Originally published by The Morning Call.)
Meanwhile, back in 1988, still with the Tidewater Tides.
1988 CMC Tidewater Tides - Jeff Innis
CMC stood for Creative Marketing Company. I suspect that CMC was an offshoot of TCMA, when they stopped producing minor league cards. I do not know this for fact, because I couldn’t find any information beyond the name, in online searches. They have a similar look and feel to what TCMA had been putting out in the late 1980’s.
The card back has a nice layout to it, and features Jeff’s first major league numbers.
1989 CMC Tidewater Tides - Jeff Innis
Similar design to the year before, but the solid black border was dropped in favor of white. Would have liked this design better with a black border. Maybe reverse the black rule with white. Either way, it’s a nice looking minor league card.
The 1989 card has TCMA’s name at the top, while using a CMC copyright. With as big as cards had become during the Junk Wax Era, I’m still amazed at how tough it is to find decent information on the more fringe products of that time. All of these minor league cards have very little general information available. I’m continually amazed at how little information can be found about (future minor league card manufacturer) Classic. Which sucks, because I have a few stories planned that directly involve Classic, from these years.
1988 ProCards Tidewater Tides - Jeff Innis
In 1990, CMC and ProCards teamed up to package AAA cards produced by CMC, with AA & A ball cards from ProCards, into an 880 card set, called 1990 Pre-Rookie Baseball Cards. Which were widely distributed in wax pack form. I remember buying bunches of these, really cheap at local SuperAmerica gas stations.
Including several Jeff Innis cards from the set.
But in 1988, ProCards card backs really needed a lot of help!
Possibly under a court order?
Former New York Mets centerfielder, Darryl Boston was known as the judge in the Mets clubhouse kangaroo court.
1993 Stadium Club Rockies Team Sets - Darryl Boston
Boston signed with the Colorado Rockies for their inaugural 1993 season, after 3 years with the Mets. I don’t know if he set up a courtroom at Mile High Stadium during his lone season in Colorado. He played for the Yankees in 1994, but didn’t come back to baseball after the strike.
This would have been my only Colorado Rockies content for this story, had it not been for a pleasant surprise during another recent visit to Rochester. Last month, Laura had surgery at St. Marys, across the street under construction from Aspen Suites. I stayed at the hotel as she recovered. Giving me a night with an hour soaking in a hot tub, then eating a delicious Pepperoni and Italian Sausage from Toppers Pizza, while watching South Park in bed. Feel kind of bad for using her medical issues as an excuse for a much needed vacation.
She was released from the hospital the next day. Needing to kill time before driving back to Minneapolis (to avoid evening rush hour traffic), we chose to drop by the Apache Mall. I wanted to hit the Barnes & Noble for a Baseball Beckett. It had been a couple years since I last bought one, and I needed it for reference during my big sorting project. I fully know the argument against Becketts price guide accuracy… But for low level stuff, I’m looking for ballpark. Not accurate closed auction listings of the hottest players. I still believe printed Becketts can be a valuable resource.
Todd Helton is on the cover?!?
I’d assumed at least 10 of the 12 monthly covers featured either Shohei Ohtani or Aaron Judge…
Colorado Rockies of any vintage was especially shocking.
Kind of like how I didn’t expect to see a feature on Curtis Pride, in the July 1991 New York Mets Magazine. Pride was born deaf, due to his mother being exposed to the German measles while she was pregnant. He has five percent hearing, according to the story. “Just enough to know about noise.” Pride chose to not be politically correct in his quote about being born deaf: “Heck, I could have been retarded or something. I was lucky.”
That’s one way of looking at it…
1994 Fleer MLB Prospects - Curtis Pride
I’d forgotten Pride was originally drafted by the Mets (10th round, in 1986), because I associate his early career with the Expos. After floundering in AA Binghamton, the Mets cut him loose after the 1992 season. He signed with Montreal and had a big season split between AA Harrisburg and AAA Ottawa, culminating in a 10 game cameo with the 1993 Expos. Pride didn’t stick with Montreal, instead having a nomadic career that lasted until 2007. Including major league time with the Expos, Angels, Tigers, Red Sox, Braves and Yankees, as well as minor leagues tours with the Dodgers and Pirates. After his playing career ended, Pride had been head baseball coach for the Gallaudet University (Washington DC) Bison, until the school cancelled its baseball program in 2024.
While Curtis Pride had a multitude of 1994 Expos cards, he didn’t see any Atlanta Braves cards in 1998, when he had one of his better major league showings. Had he stayed in Montreal, he may have appeared in the 1998 Upper Deck Collectors Choice Montreal Expos team set.
That’s a clunky segue…
1998 Upper Deck Collectors Choice - Lee Smith
Smith signed with the Expos for the 1997, but had his worst season. The final game of his career came on July 2, 1997, when he pitched 2 innings of an extra innings game against the Toronto Blue Jays. Smith announced his retirement on July 15, 1997, and was formally released by Montreal, on September 25, 1997. Even though he announced his retirement, he attempted two comebacks in 1998 with the Kansas City Royals and Houston Astros, but they didn’t work out. Lee Smith was elected to the National Baseball Hall of Fame in December 2018, via veterans committee nomination.
1998 Upper Deck Collectors Choice - Derrick May
Son of former Brewers and Orioles outfielder, Dave May. I remember Derrick May’s name as an up and coming Cubs prospect in the late 1980’s. After failing to lock down a starting job with the Cubs, May bounced around the league before signing with the Expos for the 1998 season. Which was his only year in Montreal.
Wait, he played for what team in 1995?!?
1998 Upper Deck Collectors Choice - Ryan McGuire
One of my favorite late 1990’s Expos cards, given the lighting and that sweet 30th anniversary sleeve patch. Although McGuire holding an invisible bat is kind of strange. Guess it’s probably a metaphor for how bad a hitter he ended up being. Once a top prospect for the Red Sox, he was sent to the Expos as part of their never ending fire sale in 1996. Between 1997 and 1999, McGuire played in 302 games for the Expos, batting only .220/.316/.324.
Maybe he just needed a refreshing beverage?
I think it was pretty novel that in a league that was either Coke or Pepsi, the New York Mets served RC Cola.
New York Mets 1991 Yearbook ad
There may come a time where I shop the ebays for the run of Mets yearbooks that Jeff Innis would have appeared in. Once I gather the last few missing cards of his, this might be a logical next step. Besides, I've enjoyed the hell out of this program!
Interesting prices at the New York Sports Exchange...
1988 Donruss New York Mets Team Book
Not sure how Donruss distributed these Team Books. Only five team Books were released (Athletics, Cubs, Mets, Red Sox, and Yankees), so I'm thinking this was more of a regional test issue. I saw them on sale at Shinders, back in the day, but at a high price for a novelty. Of teams I don't collect.
Each book has three pages with nine cards on each page. There's a full-page puzzle of Stan Musial as well. The cards are reprints of each player's 1988 Donruss base card, but are not perforated. Some extra players were added to the pages of cards, that didn't make the base set. Traded players, free agents and rookies… About what you’d expect.
Eventually I learned that Jeff Innis appeared in the Mets book. I picked one up in 1993 for less than $5. I'd do that again. When I've used that card for a story in the past, it was a slightly blurry digital photo, as I left my book intact.
1988 Donruss New York Mets Team Book - Jeff Innis
Well, the ebays had one that somebody had done a very good job in trimming out. And it was only a dollar! Come on...
Now I don't have to do a horrible job trying to cut this card out of my book!
The card backs of the extra players all have the number NEW, inside the baseball. Beyond that, they blend in well with any 1988 Donruss. It's the same 1980's Donruss formula card back. Simple, with a good amount of information, in a clean layout.
1990 Topps TV - New York Mets Team Set - Jeff Innis
In 1990, Topps ran a limited television promotion in certain markets, selling several unique 66 card boxed team sets. A set of AL and NL All Stars was produced, along with team sets of the Cardinals, Cubs, Mets, Red Sox and Yankees. Each teams boxed set includes their Opening Day roster, manager, coaches and top prospects.
For a 1990 Topps card, these aren't very easy to find, and fairly expensive in comparison.
Not a fan of the ghosted photo under the stats, on the card backs. At least they're four color, which was rare for Topps in 1990. Card fronts are glossy, so they are comparable to the Topps Tiffany sets of that day.
1993 Pacific - Jeff Innis
1993 Pacific was their first MLB licensed flagship set. However, this license specified that Pacific could only print cards in Spanish (this was amended in 1996). I don't recall seeing much for 1993 Pacific in Minnesota, so I never bought any. It only recently occurred to me that Jeff Innis probably has a card in the set...
1993 Pacific Spanish card back.
When Pacific's 1994 set came out, I picked up a few packs at the Blaine Shinders. The design was pretty cool, even though I couldn't read the Spanish text. I pulled the 1994 Pacific Jeff Innis from the first pack I opened, which really made me like the product.
In 2018, I found some packs of 1994 Pacific for a quarter a piece. I bought 10 of them. Each pack was so solidly bricked that not a single card wasn't destroyed while trying to separate them. I tried, just because I wanted to see who was in the packs. A few needed PC cards were kept, even though they were chipped badly, if not outright missing surface.
Awesome You Tube Break!
Jeff Innis, talking about his own baseball cards...
“It was when I was a player, myself, in the major leagues... That I realized that... I'm the player that I hated opening the baseball pack of ten cards... And seeing... It's like, you're hoping for... Boog Powell (odd first choice)... Or Jim Palmer... And you get like seven of me... I thought that was funny... Oh my god... I'm the guy I hated opening up as a little kid... I’d be looking for the great player and I’d get a bunch of Jeff Innises…”
I was never disappointed to pull a Jeff Innis card from a pack.
Or Doug Mientkiewicz, for that matter...
2002 Bowman Heritage Chrome - Doug Mientkiewicz - Refractor
I've been picking up these Bowman Refractors for the PC, every time I find one. They are really nice looking cards.
How about a 2005 Topps Total Minnesota Twins team set?
Topps Total was a great concept that ran from 2002-2005. Larger than Topps flagship in those years, it included a lot of what Bowman was, mixed in with base Topps. Lotsa role players, AAAA pitchers and bench riders! Kept cheap with few chase cards and no short prints, it was perfect for set or team collectors. Too bad there wasn't enough of them to keep it viable.
Still, a big buncha Twins I needed.
2005 Topps Total - Brad Radke
Need more Brad Radke cards...
2005 Topps Total - Jason Kubel / Trevor Plouffe
Both Kubel and Plouffe were top Twins prospects, and both went on to have decent careers in Minnesota (and elsewhere).
In 2006, MLB overhauled the rules for card manufacturers in regards to rookies and prospects. Sets could no longer include players who hadn't yet played in the major leagues. Rookies could only appear in sets after a certain amount of games, but if it was later in the season, they had to wait a year. Bowman could produce prospect sets, but those had to be a separate set from the set of major leaguers. I thought it was a bunch of nonsense, but that's what Bud Selig’s reign was all about...
It basically doomed a set like Topps Total, since it depended on a mixture of both. The writing was already on the wall. For the 1995 set, most of the rookies and prospects were stuck on combination cards. Ten of them, for 20 players in the 2005 set. Kind of disappointing.
2005 Topps Total - Mike Redmond
Redmond was an excellent defensive catcher, who played with the Marlins from 1998-2004, then with the Twins from 2005-2009. He played in a handful of games with the Indians in 2010, but was released in July. From there, he managed the Marlins from 2012-2015, and was most recently the bench coach in Colorado.
When he was a player, he liked to take batting practice naked. Here's Vin Scully telling a story (as only he could) of Mike Redmond's naked BP, motivating the Marlins to a wild card berth in 2003.
After moving onto Minnesota, naked batting practice was held in the Metrodome cages. While he wore socks and cleats, besides batting gloves, there was no other protective equipment. Pretty risky move, as any errant foul could strike you in a very uncomfortable place.
Speaking of wieners...
Still the official hot dog of the Cincinnati Reds today, Kahn's had a Shea Stadium presence until the mid-aughts. Kahn's Meats is based in Cincinnati, OH, so keeping the Reds make more sense than the Mets.
1990 Kahn’s Wieners - New York Mets - Jeff Innis
Kahn's produced many baseball card sets over the years, distributed in packages of their hot dogs and as ballpark giveaways. That was until MLB's exclusive agreement with Topps, prevented anyone else from producing team sets. Greedy bastards...
Simple card back.
1991 Kahn’s Wieners - New York Mets - Jeff Innis
Jeff Innis has a run of cards in Kahn's Wieners Mets team sets, from 1989-1993. I still need 1989 (was too expensive) and 1992 (didn't see one). And I will always refer to these cards as Kahn’s Wieners (instead of just Kahn's), because that's how I first learned of these sets, back in my first 1988 Big Book of Beckett.
Almost the same exact card back, with an additional 2 lines of stats.
1993 Kahn’s Wieners - New York Mets - Jeff Innis
Yeah... Totally don't care about it being off center. For a stadium promotion printed by a food company, these sets are pretty cool. The designs are interesting, without being too much.
The card back has been mixed up a bit... Makes me wonder what I’ve missed in 1992.
Although, not about Kahn's Wieners specifically, this edition of the New York Mets Magazine ran a story about the history of hot dogs at baseball games. With photos of Shea Stadium concessions to make me want to eat ballpark food. No matter how overpriced it may be.
Upcoming Special Events at Shea! Whomever originally owned that Jeff Innis card a few back, picked it up on June 17, 1991. When the Mets played the Cincinnati Reds (how appropriate). But what I'm more interested in are not the 1991 Donruss cards, instead, I want to attend one of the "Nobody Beats the Wiz Commemorative Card Days."
1991 The Wiz - New York Mets - Jeff Innis
The Wiz 1991 New York Mets team set was a lofty 450 cards. Sponsored by WIZ Home Entertainment Centers and AT&T, it would include every Mets player from 1962-1990. The set would be released on 30 (?), 10" x 9" perforated sheets (15 cards each). Once separated, individual cards were approximately 2" x 3". The full set was issued in three series, given away at three home games during the 1991 season.
The set was sponsored by three different companies. AT&T, Fisher, and Maxwell. Each sponsored one of the three series of 150 cards. Fisher was the official sponsor of Innis.
Of all the new Innis arrivals, I think The Wiz card is my favorite.
Doesn’t beat the July 1991 New York Mets Magazine though.
And that about wraps it up, until I find more Jeff Innis merch to buy!
Any questions?
Would it take less than 2 minutes to put on a 15 pound condom?
No questions related to Laura’s Apache Mall dinner…
Comments
Post a Comment