It's a Major Reward!

This past Friday night, the girlfriend and I went on a double date; it was a needed bit of socialization after an especially trying work week.  So, where's the best place for four 20-somethings in children's body to go and blow off some steam?

Well, since we're too big to fit in the tubes at Chuck E. Cheese's, the answer is obviously Dave & Busters.

This was actually my first time going to such an establishment and I have to say, amusement park games + beer + good company = a rip-roaring good time!

For those of you who have never been, D&B really is just the adult version of Cheese's; you play games, you win tickets and you cash said tickets in for prizes.  After countless rounds of surprisingly rousing games of air-hockey, throwing balls at clowns, touchdown passes, skee ball, etc. etc, we had quite a nice stash of tickets.

Also, like Cheese's, the prizes at the end are pretty lackluster - you end up spending $50 on games to win pencil toppers and cheap stuffed animals.  But, that's not the point of it all, I guess. After seeing nothing that caught our eyes, we decided to bankroll pretty much all of our tickets for a future visit.  However, neither one of us was about to leave completely empty handed.

In the cheapy bins, the girlfriend found a couple cute rubber ducks for her collection and I found this pack of baseball cards for mine:

The bin it was in was labeled TriStar baseball cards, so I got really excited at the prospect of winning some old packs of Obak or Projections.  That said, I guess some junk wax is a much more reasonable expectation

Let's see what I won, shall we?

First up, the insert:

I've always disliked these magic motion trivia card things.  They're too small, hold no visual appeal and, seeing as they're World Series trivia, not a lot of them feature the Cubs.  Urgh.

What year do we have?

Ah, Billy Martin and his heroics.  Damn Yankees.

These are the only true inserts that can be found in Score, as that phenomenon had not truly began to spread yet in 1991.  What we do have are subsets, which are essentially inserts that are just numbered as part of the regular checklist.  Did I get any cool subset pieces?

I've always loved these No-Hit Club cards and I've always had a thing for the White Sox jersey that Melido is sporting in that photo.  It's just too bad that the last Cub to throw a no-hitter at that point had been Milt Pappas in 1972, a little too long ago to make the cut for this gathering.  Drat!

I also really like that multi-exposure effect going on in their pitching motions.  Nice touch Score.

Too pretty big names here, as they should be in a subset that honors franchise players.  I must admit, I completely forgot that Brett was still kicking around in 1991.  Not only that, he won the friggin' batting title the year before with a .329 average at the age of 37.  He's truly one of baseball's immortals.

But, with a player as good as "Mullet," you'd think he'd know that he only needs one bat, right?

That does it for the "special" cards; let's move on to the plain, ol' base cards.  Since the folks at Score couldn't decide which color to use for their borders in 1991, they just figured why not use all of them?

White is for rookies:

Just think, some kid back in 1991 was carefully placing these cards in penny sleeves in hopes that they would someday down the road pay for their college education... They're probably still sitting in said sleeves, now crumbling, in a forgotten, water-stained box somewhere in that 30-something's parent's basement to this very day.

That said, neither of these players really amounted to much.  Barnes had a few mediocre-to-good seasons out of the bullpen and Decker bounced around the league for 9 seasons as a career backup.  Nothing special here; although, nice Cubs logo cameo on that Barnes card.

Now let's move to the opposite end of the color spectrum:

I must admit, the black borders work really well with White Sox cards and, hey, I've actually heard of Ron Karkovice; so, that's pretty cool.  I'll also hold onto the Campusano with the improbable hope that maybe someday my girlfriend will start to hoard cards of her favorite baseball team someday.

Hey, a guy can dream, ok?

There were also a few greens...

...and a few blues...

...but no Cubs - be it current, former or future.  In fact, not even really any names that move the needle for me or any particularly interesting photo choices.  Overall, this entire pack was pretty blah.

If anybody is desperately trying to build the 1991 Score set, let me know.  First, I want to know why because I forgot just how bland this release was.  But, then, I'll get these to ya ASAP.   Or, perhaps the subset cards or the magic motion little bugger are more your speed?  Regardless, none of these cards really fit my collection.

Still, a "free" pack of baseball cards is always a good thing and it was fun ripping a pack of these for the first time since I was in grade school.  However, I wish Dave & Buster's would change that bin label so crazy baseball card collectors like me don't continue getting their hopes up.

Lastly, if you've never been, I highly recommend a trip to D&B.  It's a perfect way to let out your inner child while simultaneously being able to enjoy a few beers.

Just don't imbibe too much and end up with your arm stuck in a skee ball hole or something like that.