Pack Five

Pack 5 +15
385 Jim Presley
645 Major League Prospects (Jim Eppard, Joey Meyer)
60 Eric King
501 Gus Polidor
476 Larry Parrish
87 Craig Lefferts
285 Carney Lansford
582 Tim Flannery
367 Bob Stanley
138 Howard Johnson
207 Ron Guidry
342 Bob Walk
8 Mark Davidson
299 Jeff Calhoun
603 Brett Butler

For some reason that I don't know or remember, I always liked Carney Lansford. Back in the late 80s, aside from being a Braves fan, I was both a Dodgers and A's fan. I always like Carney Lansford better than Jose Canseco or Mark McGwire. I can't explain it... I was a strange child.


Regardless of my childhood idiosyncrasies, you have to admit, this is a pretty nice looking card. I'm kinda surprised the card lists his position as first and third base. Yes, he played a few games at first, but only a very few. Of 1850 games played, 1720 of those were at third. He played 124 games at first, as well as a few at the DH position and a handful at second and short.

Moving on to a card that could really stand to have some flavor text on the back.


Thanks to the power of the internet, I learned that Tim Flannery does (or did at least in 1988) surf. Even without the internet, my powers of reasoning and deduction would probably have come to the same conclusion, but isn't it just a bit... strange to have a surfboard on a baseball card with absolutely no explination?

What if, in 100,000,000 years the human race is long dead and all traces of our existence are gone, except a single remaining factory set of 1988 Fleer? What if an alien race finds that factory set and builds a rudimentary understanding of this game? From flipping through the cards they could easily conclude that it was a game that involved hitting a spheroid object with a club. But then what happens to their fragile understanding of baseball when they come to card number 582 and here's a guy with what looks like an oval shaped shield?

The only possible conclusion they could draw from that card would be that that thing he's holding is a defensive tool. And now instead of hitting that spheroid object with a club, they think the object is to hit the other players with the ball AND the club.

Do we not owe it to future inhabitants of earth to explain that that's a surfboard and that Tim Flannery likes to surf? That that shield like object is not part of the game of baseball?

I think we do. Or at least if a time capsule is ever buried containing a factory set of '88 Fleer, we should at least include a note and explanation of surfing.

One good thing that I will say about this card is that they picked a good location on the field to take the picture. You can see the Padres logo on the wall behind Tim. It seems like a lot of times in the late 80s they'd take a picture wherever the guy was standing and you'd have a Cubs player with a Pirates logo in the background.

Now that we have a plan in place to keep from confusing the aliens, let's look at two guys that I've never heard of...


Jim Eppard played in 82 games over four seasons. He was used primarily off the bench and started only 20 games.

In two seasons, Joey Meyer played in 156 games, hit 18 homers and drove in 74 runs. Strike outs were his main problem at every level of play, though he hit for good power in the minor leagues (.289/.354/.527, 135 HR, 487 RBI in six seasons).

He does have a place in history though. On August 9, 1988 against the Red Sox, with the game tied at two, he hit the first pitch of the bottom of the ninth out of the park. It was the only walk off home run Roger Clemens ever gave up.

You learn something new everyday.