Screaming Yellow Theater

There is a tradition in Chicago with low budget, tacky (yet funny) things. For those of you who saw the title of the post and thought it was something different, you must have grown up in or around Chicago and are probably at least forty years old.

While that Screaming Yellow Theater exists in some form today, the same cannot be said for Fleer baseball cards. Fleer has had many ups and downs since its inception. Is it our fault that it has been mostly downs? No!

When I think of Fleer, I think of poorly executed design, with a few gems scattered throughout the years. I thought that 1988's confetti motif was bad, then they topped it in 1989 with the bland pinstriped gangster suit look. 1990 got a little better, then they unleashed the unholy monster that is Screaming Yellow Theater upon the world.

It's not interesting. It's not unique. (1990 Donruss did the design much better. Thanks, Mario!) It's just yellow! I would refer to this set as Screaming Yellow Theater for many years. I still do on occasion. It's yellow. It's blinding. It features ACTION and cheesy posed portraits which cause painful memories of chain reaction vomiting during elementary school Christmas plays.

Sadly, 1991 Fleer is not one low budget thing that this Chicago born guy is ready to embrace. 1991 Fleer is like the drunk relative at a wedding. You have to put up with it because it's technically family, but given the choice, you'd rather it just went away.

I put up with 1991 Fleer because of the White Sox cards. I almost wish that the White Sox were skipped in this set. Almost. I'm glad of this sets existence. It shows the entire world what not to do with a card set.

After enduring the torture that is 1991 Fleer, I'll leave you with a picture of the host of Screaming Yellow Theater. The original Svengoolie!
Is it wrong to think that Jerry G. Bishop looks like he'd be right at home playing a fictional Rob Zombie in one of the director's movies?

1968 Fleer Cloth Emblem Patches

I've been watching the progress over at The Fleer Sticker Project thanks to Kevin's mention of it. It's not a site that I would normally frequent, since it has nothing to do with baseball cards to the naked eye. But as we all know, Fleer baseball logo stickers are a part of baseball card collecting, so I was intrigued enough to take a look.

I was expecting logo sticker cards of the 1990 set, that I seemed to have a million of. Or the 1985 stickers, that seem to accumulate around my collection. I check this site out and I'm treated to images of Fleer baseball products that I've never seen before.

Fleerfan has certainly done the homework on these forgotten gems. I'm certainly enjoying everything I'm seeing over there. If you're looking for something a bit different, but still in the realm of collecting, check out The Fleer Sticker Project.

Warning: side effects include wanting to find these Fleer products without regard to time, money or sanity. Proceed with caution.

I didn't heed the warning and now I want all the White Sox cards that I see on Fleerfan's site.

1986 Fleer Future Hall Of Famers

I love finding out about oddball inserts. I had no clue about this one until today. This was a six card insert set from Fleer. I'm not exactly sure how this one was randomly distributed (wax pack, cello, etc.), but I never got one.

The checklist is easy and considering 1986 standards, a no brainer. Tom Seaver is the only White Sox card in the set, but since it's an interesting six card set, I'll list all the cards.

1 - Pete Rose
2 - Steve Carlton
3 - Tom Seaver
4 - Rod Carew
5 - Nolan Ryan
6 - Reggie Jackson

Talk about your easy predictions! The only fly in the ointment was Pete Rose getting banned from baseball. If that didn't happen, Fleer would've been six for six. A bold statement at the time would've been including rising stars like Cal Ripken Jr., Ryne Sandberg, Wade Boggs and Kirby Puckett. At this point each of them would've had four years or less of major league experience. The only one on the actual list that I would've debated about in 1986 was Steve Carlton. Not because he didn't deserve it, but because at that point in my life, I wasn't too familiar with him. That would change later in 1986, when he landed on the White Sox.

This is a typical lazy design by Fleer for their inserts around this time. A bold shade of a primary color offset by lighter lines of said primary color. This was followed by a player slapped on top, who was cut out by a Fleer employee's six year old daughter. Then throw a couple of basic geometric shapes on there haphazardly and write something in each of the large shapes. Frank Viola! You have a crappy insert card!

1990 Fleer Soaring Stars

Some of the first insert cards that grabbed my attention were the 1990 Fleer Soaring Stars. I never got the Robin Ventura card, but I did get stars like Scott Coolbaugh and Todd Zeile. Sure they don't sound great now, but back in 1990, they were hot stuff.

Todd Zeile was white hot back then. Now he's more known for being on a bunch of teams and switching positions a lot. Scott Coolbaugh is now known for more for his brother Mike's tragic death. Back in 1990, Scott was the next coming of Ron Cey. That sounded a lot better 17 years ago too.

The initial attraction was the green. Green has been my favorite color since I saw Luke Skywalker's light saber in Return Of The Jedi. That left quite an impression on a young kid sitting in a movie theater in 1983. The card doesn't just have a green border, it's bathed in it. The Soaring Stars lettering and the star backed in a shooting rainbow color reminds me of those CBS Special intros that I'd see at the beginning of Garfield's Halloween Adventure or A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving. So sue me. I liked the animation on the ghosts on the island and loved the idea of the dinner of popcorn, jelly beans and toast.

These cards look like some lost relic from the late 70's or early 80's. The design is so kitsch. You can see this card from a mile away. Sometimes that's a good thing. The only White Sox card is #4 Robin Ventura.

This set always stood out when I was a kid. My goals were even loftier when I was younger. I wanted to collect one of every card. So I tried to complete sets. A 12 card set is easy to complete at first glance. But when something seems too easy, it's usually hard. I only got the Zeile and Coolbaugh cards. I've seen the Ventura card on eBay occasionally, but never could bring myself to pay over $2.00 before shipping. One day I'll get that card, then on to the next project.