Classic card of the week

Wade Boggs, 1999 Fleer

I’m uncertain how many more “classic” baseball cards I’ll be able to squeeze in here before the season is over. And if this is going to be one of the last ones of 2008 -- or, possibly the last -- I wanted to go out with a bang. So with that it mind, I decided to post this amazingly exciting card featuring Wade Boggs putting his batting helmet away. Can you even stand it?!



There are so many exciting things going on here. For example, look at all those bats! All different colors, and lengths, and possibly weights. Which one would YOU choose? It’s so hard to decide. Also, look who is standing next to Wade Boggs -- none other than the Crime Dog himself, Fred McGriff! And he’s just standing there like nothing is going on -- like he’s NOT standing right next to Wade Boggs! And there’s ol’ Boggsie, acting like HE’S not right next to Fred McGriff! I’ll tell ya' -- baseball players are so freakin’ cool. Also, if you look really hard, to the right of Boggs in the background is an unidentified man wearing a button-down shirt and pants…who could it be? Is it “Cheaters” host Joey Greco? Or is it Malcolm Jamaal-Warner? There are a million possibilities. But it’s probably Joey Greco.



The formula for Fleer on this one was a no brainer: 50-year-old Wade Boggs + dark dugout + Crime Dog + miscellaneous possible celebrity + lots of bats = best baseball card ever. This card was worth $8,000 before the stock market crashed last month. Now it is worth $7,500.



The other reason I chose to post this card is because it seems to represent how far Tampa Bay has come. In 1999 they were the Devil Rays, and they featured a balding Wade Boggs and an aging Fred McGriff wasting away finishing off their careers whilst making millions of dollars whilst being like, the worst baseball team ever. Now they are the Rays and they’re in the ALCS and feature a group of young studs that will probably have this franchise on top for the foreseeable future.



But then you look at this card, and you say to yourself, “Boy, those WERE exciting times back then, weren’t they?” Yes, they were. Ol’ Boggsie. Crime Diggy-dog. Greco. Helmet racks. Posing no threat whatsoever to the Yankees…

Sigh…

Did you know?
Fred McGriff was dubbed "the Crime Dog" because he was often confused with a cartoon dog that encouraged children to solve crimes.