1991 Score Dream Team: Doug Jones

This card today comes from my original childhood collection, and was issued by Score during the height of over production. By 1991, I was really into collecting baseball cards, after acquiring my first cards in 1987. Topps was my favorite, but I also bought packs of the other brands as well. My original collection is really a hodge podge, mostly consisting of junk wax. I didn't really have any direction or goal. Since I relied on my parents or my allowance, I didn't have the money to build sets. I just bought pack of cards when ever I had the chance. Although, Score is a brand I probably have the least amount of cards from, compared to the other brands like 1991 Fleer, where I bought too much.

Score's Dream Team is definitely my favorite subset from the junk wax era. These cards were found in Score's sets from 1990 to 1993 and usually featured black and white photos. This card is one of the more unique ones created by Score. Doug is featured staring into a fiery baseball that he is holding. I'm not really sure what the point of the picture is since the back of the card states, Doug has a average fastball. A quick Wikipedia search also confirms this revealing, he had a two seam fastball that peaked in the low to mid 80's. Doug found success in the closer role as a change up specialist and was known for keeping hitters off balance with extremely slow pitches. So I'm really not sure what the photographer was going for, but it is still a cool looking card. What I find more impressive then the ball is Doug's mustache. That is one very thick mustache, He looks like he could be a character from the Major League movies. The execution of some of these cards is hit and miss, not every Dream Team card could create a stir in the hobby like the Bo Jackson in shoulder pads.

Seeing how popular Brian Wilson's beard is today, I think another closer should revive the Doug Jones mustache.

I am Iron Man

This card, number 884, comes from the 1992 Score set. Score included a bunch of interesting subsets in its issues in the early ninties. One was the Dream Team subset, which most notably included the Bo Jackson and Jose Canseco cards, which featured both sluggers shirtless.

This later Dream Team incarnation featuring Cal portrays him in uniform standing in front of a early 20th century train locomotive. Im assuming the corelation between this steel locomotive (one that you would be likely to see in the Smithsonian) and Cal, is the fact that steel is an alloy mostly made up of iron and Cal's nickname, as everyone knows is the Iron Man. (Though the train metaphor might have worked better for Walter Johnson, whose nickname was the Big Train).

At the time this card was issued, Cal was coming off his MVP season in 1991 where he batted .323 with 34 home runs and 114 RBI. Despite Cal's production the Orioles finsished under .500 in 91' and would not make a playoff appearence until 1996. Cal's career coincided with the era of overproduction in the ninties, where thousands of cards were created of the top players in the game. I like this card because its unique and the subject matter is original, even if its a stretch picturing Cal with a locomotive, it is still a cool card. Amid all the excess, alot of nice cards were produced in the ninties and these cards can be added to your collection for very little cost today.