Mayonaise

It's time I added something to the 1993 Playlist, and well past time I mentioned the Smashing Pumpkins on this blog. Their enormously successful album Siamese Dream was released in 1993 and immediately became the soundtrack of my junior high school experience. 

I had this poster on my wall on and off for 25 years. It finally bit the dust this summer.

I can make the case for just about any track off this album - and I might tap this well again sometime in the near future. For today I'm going with "Mayonaise" which was declared the defining Smashing Pumpkins song by The Ringer's rock writer Rob Harvilla. 

If you're wondering why Billy Corgan would call a song "Mayonaise" I present to you his song-naming process. This is from one of the 'behind the scenes' videos produced at the time (Vieuphoria I think?) and I'm going from memory here, but it's something like this:

Say you have a song about a chandelier

and the chandelier gives off light

and the light is the color red

and red reminds you of the color you're not supposed to wear in front of a bull

so you name the song "Cow"

And here's a reaction video I found while searching YouTube for this track. Do you watch any reaction videos? 

This will probably be my last post of 2020 here at The 1993 but I've got big plans for this blog in the new year. Til then, I hope you have a safe and happy holiday season. Thanks for reading!



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QBs of 1993

NFL Week continues here at The 1993 with a look at the year's starting quarterbacks.

There are a few in particular that had special significance to my interest in the NFL and football card collecting.
Let's start in the AFC:

Jim Kelly - Buffalo Bills 

Started all 16 games in 1993

Led the Bills to their third consecutive Super Bowl appearance

Hall of Famer

this 1993 Upper Deck card is in my collection

 

David Klingler - Cincinnati Bengals

Started 13 of 16 games in 1993

6th overall pick in the 1992 NFL Draft

Career record of 4-20 as an NFL starter

this 1993 Upper Deck card is in my collection 

 

 

Vinny Testaverde - Cleveland Browns

Earned starting job mid-season after Bernie Kosar was released

Last starting quarterback of the original Browns and first starting quarterback of the Baltimore Ravens

this 1993 Topps card is in my collection 

 

John Elway - Denver Broncos

Started all 16 games in 1993

Led NFL with 4,030 passing yards

Hall of Famer and current Broncos VP/GM

this 1993 Fleer Team Leader card is in my collection

 

 

Warren Moon - Houston Oilers

Started 14 games for the Oilers in 1993

1993 was Moon's last season in Houston; he was traded to the Vikings in April 1994

Hall of Famer

this 1993 SP card is in my collection

 

 

Jeff George - Indianapolis Colts

#11 started 11 games for Indy in 1993

Talented but enigmatic passer was traded to the Falcons in March 1994

this 1993 Select card is in my collection

 

 

Joe Montana - Kansas City Chiefs

Legendary leader of four-time champion 49ers was traded to Kansas City in April 1993 after missing nearly two seasons with an elbow injury

Led the Chiefs to their first ever appearance in the AFC Championship game

Hall of Famer

this 1993 SP card is in my collection 

The Montana trade was huge news at the time, even though he was 37 and coming off a major injury. His presence alone made the Chiefs instant contenders, though he didn't quite have enough left in the tank to win a fifth Super Bowl.

 
Jeff Hostetler - Los Angeles Raiders

Started 15 of 16 games in 1993

Signed with Los Angeles after serving seven seasons as Phil Simms' backup with the Giants

Led the Raiders to their final playoff appearance in Los Angeles

this 1993 Topps card is in my collection 

 

Scott Mitchell - Miami Dolphins

Started seven games in 1993 after Dan Marino was sidelined with an achilles injury

Parlayed his brief tenure as Dolphins' starter into a fat free agent contract from the Detroit Lions

this 1993 Bowman card is not in my collection

 

 

Drew Bledsoe - New England Patriots

1st overall pick in the 1993 NFL Draft

Started 12 games as a rookie

Led the NFL in passing attempts three straight seasons from 1994-96

this 1993 Stadium Club card is in my collection

 

I was in sixth grade when the Patriots drafted Drew, and I remember talking about the new-look Pats with a friend at school. They were a laughingstock at the time, but with Bledsoe and Bill Parcells on board (plus a slick new uniform) it really felt like they were turning things around in Foxboro.

Boomer Esiason - New York Jets

Started all 16 games for the Jets in 1993

Long Island native was traded to New York in '93 after nine seasons as Cincy's signal-caller

He's still the last quarterback to win a playoff game for the Bengals

this 1993 Score card is not in my collection

My brother is a lifelong Jets fan and I bought him a Boomer Esiason jersey for Christmas in either 1993 or 1994. He bought me a Dan Marino jersey for Christmas around that time.

Neil O'Donnell - Pittsburgh Steelers

Started 15 games in 1993

Lowest interception rate of any starting QB in 1993 (1.4%)

Led Pittsburgh to the Super Bowl in 1995, their first since the 1970s

this 1993 Classic Pro Line card is not in my collection

 

Stan Humphries - San Diego Chargers

Started 10 games in 1993 (John Friesz started the other six)

Led the Chargers to their first - and only - Super Bowl appearance in 1994

 

 
this 1993 Fleer card is in my collection

 

 

Rick Mirer - Seattle Seahawks

2nd overall pick in the 1993 NFL draft

Started all 16 games as a rookie

Was sacked a league-leading 47 times in 1993

this 1993 Stadium Club rookie card has been in my collection since 1993 

I was excited about Mirer when he was drafted. I invested in his rookie cards and even bought a replica #3 Seahawks jersey early in his career.

Now let's look at the starting quarterbacks for each NFC team:

Bobby Hebert - Atlanta Falcons

Started 12 games for the Falcons after signing with the team in the off-season

Earned his only Pro Bowl appearance in 1993

Was mentioned in an episode of Seinfeld

this 1993 Pro Set card is not in my collection

Jim Harbaugh - Chicago Bears

Started 15 of 16 games in 1993

Has the third-most career passing yards in Bears history

Currently the head football coach at the University of Michigan
 

this 1993 Pacific Prizm card is not in my collection

 

Troy Aikman - Dallas Cowboys

Started 14 games for Dallas in 1993

Led the Cowboys to their second consecutive Super Bowl win

Hall of Famer

 
this 1993 Collector's Edge card is in my collection 

Rodney Peete - Detroit Lions

Started 10 games for the NFC Central champions

Lions' second-leading rusher in 1990 and 1991

Married to actress Holly Robinson Peete

 
this 1993 Fleer card is in my collection

 

Brett Favre - Green Bay Packers

Started all 16 games in 1993 (and 1994, and 1995, and 1996, and 1997...)

Led Green Bay to their first playoff appearance and win since 1982

Hall of Famer

this 1993 SP card is in my collection 

 

 

Los Angeles Rams - Jim Everett 

Started nine games in 1993 (someone named T.J. Rubley started the other seven)

Led the NFL in touchdown passes in 1988 and 1989

Traded to the Saints in March 1994

this 1993 Upper Deck card is in my collection

 

My wife was a big Jim Everett fan in the late '80s-early '90s. She was psyched when the Rams beat the Giants in the 1989 playoffs.

 

Jim McMahon - Minnesota Vikings

Started 12 games for Minnesota in 1993

Threw as many touchdown passes (9) in his starts as backup Sean Sailsbury did in his four starts

Until researching this post I had no recollection of his Vikings tenure

this 1993 Stadium Club card is in not my collection

 

 

Wade Wilson - New Orleans Saints

Started 14 games for the Saints in 1993

Atlanta's backup in 1992, he switched places with Bobby Hebert in the off-season

Earned a Super Bowl ring as Troy Aikman's backup with the 1995 Cowboys

this 1993 Pro Set Power card is in not my collection

 

 

Phil Simms - New York Giants  

Started all 16 games in 1993

MVP of Super Bowl XXI is the second-leading passer in Giants history

Retired after the 1993 season

this 1993 Collector's Edge card is in my collection 

 

 

Bubby Brister - Philadelphia Eagles 

Started 8 games for the Eagles (Randall Cunningham started four)

Was Pittsburgh's starting QB from 1988-1990

Earned two Super Bowl rings as John Elway's backup in Denver

this 1993 Topps card is not in my collection 

 

 

 
Steve Beuerlein - Phoenix Cardinals

Started 14 games for Phoenix in 1993

Won a Super Bowl as Troy Aikman's backup with the 1992 Cowboys

First starting QB in Jacksonville Jaguars history

this 1993 Fleer Ultra card is not in my collection  

 

 

Steve Young - San Francisco 49ers

Started all 16 games

Led the NFL in passer rating and touchdown passes in '93

Hall of Famer and two-time NFL MVP

this 1993 Playoff card is not in my collection 

Craig Erickson - Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Started 15 of 16 games for Tampa (Steve DeBerg started one)

Set career highs for passing yards and touchdowns in 1993

Also started 15 games for the Bucs in 1994

this 1993 Upper Deck card is in my collection

Mark Rypien - Washington Redskins

Started 10 games in 1993 (Rich Gannon started four)

MVP of Super Bowl XXVI signed with Cleveland in 1994

His nephew Brett Rypien started for the Denver Broncos earlier this season

this 1993 Collector's Edge card is in my collection 

Do you have any memories or favorite players from the 1993 season? Are any of these names unfamiliar to you?

Thanks for reading!



 

 

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Hound Dogs and Stallions

The NFL began discussing expansion to a 30-team league in 1990. The two new teams would have debuted in 1993, but the decision was postponed until the 1993 season. Five cities were in the running to land an expansion franchise.

As you probably know, Charlotte and Jacksonville were the winners. The Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars debuted in 1995. Baltimore became an NFL city again a short time later, when Art Modell brought the (former) Browns into the Beltway. But what of the two franchises that never were?

 
The Memphis group included representatives from the Elvis Presley estate, which explains why the team would have been called the Hound Dogs.

St. Louis lost the Cardinals in 1987 and attempted to lure the New England Patriots with a new domed stadium in 1994 but Robert Kraft wouldn't let them leave Foxboro Stadium. The Los Angeles Rams took the bait instead, after the St. Louis group had been passed over for an expansion team in 1993.

The expansion St. Louis franchise - and the relocated Patriots - would have been called the Stallions. 

The name and logo are too similar to the Denver Broncos but the color scheme is interesting.It looks sharper on a hat:

Wait a second... this team never existed. How are there hats?

By 1997 every one of these cities had an NFL team, though Memphis was just a temporary stop for the Houston Oilers on their way to Nashville. The Rams spent 21 seasons in St. Louis before moving back to Los Angeles in 2015. Makes you wonder if they'd have stayed in L.A. the whole time had the NFL owners voted to give St. Louis an expansion franchise. 

Instead Jacksonville was awarded an NFL team, which was surprising due to their modest market size and lack of pro football history relative to the other cities.

 

There are no plans to add any more teams in the foreseeable future, though there is a slight chance that a struggling small-market franchise could relocate if their city does not approve a new stadium.

And which franchise is that, you ask? 

 

Why, it's those Jacksonville Jaguars.

If you were an NFL owner in 1993 and you could grant an expansion franchise to Jacksonville or St. Louis which city would you choose?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Thanks for reading!


 

 

 

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Sweeping up the Leaves

Last weekend the Mrs. and I mowed, blowed, and raked the leaves from our lawn. While I was in the front yard I witnessed a high-speed chase. Some genius had apparently stolen a car and drove it the wrong way down our one-way street. A cop car followed closely behind. "High speed" might be misleading, since the suspect was dragging a bag of (not my) leaves on the front of (not his) car. The two cars were probably traveling about 30 mph when the pursuit led them off our street and toward the park. I heard two more sirens and then no sirens so their pursuit didn't last much longer.

What does this have to do with 1993? Nothing really, except that I was picking up leaves at the time. And, coincidentally, I had just made a trade for most of the 1993 Leaf cards remaining on my want list.

World Series hero Joe Carter was one of the 29 set fillers I acquired in a trade with TCDB user rencherg. Most of them went to my second set, though a few were brand new to my collection.

Dave Hollins was one of the new-to-me singles. Jose Lind was another. I only need these two and Ken Griffey, Jr. to complete a second 'main' set - though I plan to upgrade the Jay Buhner and Pat Listach cards:

This was a fairly big trade, much more than my usual PWE swap. That's because Rencher needed 55 of my Topps flagship dupes from 2016-2018. I also sent him 1993 Leaf extras of Mark McGwire, Rickey Henderson, and Robin Ventura. In addition to the set fillers I picked out some 1993 Upper Deck cards.

Jack Morris is the only Hall of Famer among these five, which would probably sound strange to someone in 1993. (Dwight Gooden and Lou Whitaker didn't make it?) Gary Sheffield could join Jack one day - if we all decide to overlook things like PED use and quitting on your team.

The rest of the baseball cards I acquired are not from 1993, but I might have to use this blog for trade posts since The Collector is planning some kind of Football Week event. I was thrilled to pick up some 2018 Topps Chrome cards, including some guys for my All-Time Teams project (in case I give up on the set build.) I don't plan on building the 1994 Leaf set (perhaps one day?) but these guys are ATT reps, too. And then there's the Chief Wahoo logo. I have a bunch of 1999 Victory football helmet cards and thought I'd start adding the baseball logos to my collection. 1999 Victory is a really nice low-end set that I didn't appreciate at the time because I was too focused on Finest.

Some 1991 football cards - all Hall of Famers except Randall Cunningham. I had a near-set of 1990-91 Skybox but I broke it up. It was only the main set, so I missed out on HOFer Alex English and these logo cards:

Series II would have been pretty pointless without these beauties. The coach cards were neat, too, but less of a novelty at the time. 

I'll have more TCDB trade posts in the next week or two, and if they feature at least one card from 1993 I'll post 'em here. Hopefully I'll get back to posting some music/entertainment/news things here, too.

Thanks for reading, and Happy Thanksgiving!



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1992-93 Topps Archives Basketball (and a trip to the HOF)

 Here's a neat little set I've been building through TCDB trades.

In 1992-93 Topps returned to the basketball card market, producing NBA sets for the first time in over a decade. In addition to a 396-card flagship set and a 400-card Stadium Club set, Topps filled in the gaps of their "lost decade" with this 150-card Archives offering. The title is a bit misleading; nowadays the Topps Archives brand recycles past designs they used for earlier sets of the same sport. Since there were no Topps basketball cards from 1982-1991 the familiar baseball designs were used for this Archives set.

The first eleven cards depict each year's #1 overall pick using an original design slightly reminiscent of Stadium Club. A recap of that year's first round is on the back, using the front photo in the background.

The set starts with 1981 #1 pick Mark Aguirre, and the timeline starts with his draft year. Topps did produce a 1981-82 basketball card set - but 1981 draft picks were not included. Therefore, eleven of the top players from that draft are featured in a modified 1981 Topps baseball design:

Not only did Topps assign each subject a design from their draft year, they appear to have selected photos from each player's rookie season. In that case the "Archives" name is certainly appropriate.

I have 65 of the 150 cards in this set - and not one of them are from the 1982 portion. So let's skip ahead to 1983:

Aside from the 1981 design, every other subset looks exactly like its baseball counterpart. Of course the colors pop a little more on these, and the cardstock is smoother.

I have just three cards from the 1984 section, including one that arrived in a trade with TCDB user RefsInTheBack. Randy collects cards with referees in the background, as shown on Stockton's card. I did not acquire this card from him; the Bowie was part of our trade.

Obviously Michael Jordan's card is in the 1984 section. I have to assume that it's responsible for sealed boxes of this set selling for $100 or more since there are no rookie cards or autographs to be had and the only insert you can pull is a gold parallel (I have just one, a Kenny Smith from the 1987 section.)

There are an inconsistent number of cards within each "missing" year, based on how many players from that draft class were active in 1992-93.

For example, there are 17 subjects using the 1985 Topps baseball design, and 12 in the 1986 portion.

This was the draft year of Len Bias and many other players who struggled with drug addition.

The 1987 Topps baseball design looks even better with basketball players. Must be that hardwood finish. It's a damn shame we never got to see Bias teamed up with Reggie Lewis, who also died far too young.

Here's Harvey Grant, a year later than his brother Horace. Whoever said White Men Can't Jump never met Thunder Dan.

1989 might be my least favorite flagship baseball design but it looks a little better in Archives.

1990 was the first year I paid any attention to the NBA draft. I managed to trade for the Dennis Scott twice in the same week because the first trader took so long to respond. 

Archives concludes with nine players from the 1991 Draft and two checklists.

This is a low priority set for me, in that I trade for these when I can't find anything else I need on someone's trade list. I think I'd enjoy it a lot more if the cards weren't so condition sensitive. I've got a lot of worn corners, some scratched copies, and a few with some paper loss or "snow", likely from bricking. 

If you have any cards from this set (in any condition) let me know. My wantlist is posted on TCDB.

***Bonus Ball***

Among the boxes of papers I brought home when my mom moved in September were two pamphlets from my visit to the Basketball Hall of Fame in Springfield, Mass. You can tell by her handwriting on the front when we visited the museum:

I asked her to find pictures of our trip but she didn't come across any and I didn't want to make her go crazy. So I'll just open these up and give you a little look at what the Basketball Hall was like 27 years ago:

Here's a map of all the exhibits. I'm sure 90% of this has changed since that summer.

I scanned the back mostly for the suggestion side: what will the Hall look like in the year 2000?

The other pamphlet is just a membership offer. I have no idea why we saved it, but it's got Michael Jordan on it, so it must be worth something lol.

Have you been to any sports Halls of Fame? If so, how long ago?

Thanks for reading!




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