Cheap Wax Wednesday Box Breaks: 1990 Sportflics Baseball
Remember Sportflics? Or maybe the later Pinnacle-produced version, Sportflix? They didn’t always get a great response from collectors and were a Beckett Cold List mainstay with Pete Rose and Jose Canseco for a long time. But, I’ll tell you what, I dig them!
1990 Sportflics Baseball features a 225-card base set. Aside from some additional trivia cards, that is it. It was 1990, so there were no inserts or parallels to chase. Just the sweet lenticular base cards. Cards featured two different images of each player, with each visible from a different angle. When flipped back and forth the card appeared to be animated. Is that not cool?
There are three Rookie Cards in the set: Todd Zeile, Tommy Greene and Dean Palmer.
1990 Sportflics Baseball Box Break
Cards per pack: 3
Packs per box: 36
Price paid: $23
Shop for 1990 Sportflics Baseball boxes on eBay.
Pack 1:
Doug Jones, Dave Stieb & Scott Fletcher
Each pack also has a couple of Magic Motion Trivia cards.
Pack 2:
Chili Davis, Tom Browning & Gregg Olson
Pack 3:
Ozzie Smith, Tommy Greene RC & Robby Thompson
Pack 4:
Devon White, Jeff Treadway & Mike Scott
Pack 5:
George Brett, Bob Geren & Mike Greenwell
Mike “Gator” Greenwell was coming off a 1991 season that saw him hit .300 and drive in 83 runs.
Pack 6:
Bo Jackson
Pack 7:
Ken Caminiti & Ryne Sandberg
Pack 8:
Carlton Fisk & Wally Joyner
Pack 9:
Robin Ventura
Ventura made his first of just two All-Star appearances in 1992. He finished the year with 16 home runs and 93 RBI.
Pack 10:
Dwight Evans, Rickey Henderson & Dennis Martinez
Pack 11:
Matt Williams & Jose Uribe
Pack 12:
John Smoltz
Pack 13:
Curt Schilling, Mark Langston & Dave Stewart
These three combined to win 563 regular season games.
Pack 14:
Harold Reynolds, Mookie Wilson & Dale Murphy
Pack 15:
Mike Devereaux
Pack 16:
Howard Johnson & Bert Blyleven
Pack 17:
Ruben Sierra
Sierra played for nine different teams over the course of his 20-year MLB career.
Pack 18:
Frank Viola & Paul Molitor
Pack 19:
Andre Dawson
Pack 20:
Tom Candiotti
Pack 21:
Alvin Davis & Tim Wallach
Davis won the 1984 AL Rookie of the Year award after knocking in 116 runs and hitting 27 home runs. 116 would end up being Alvin’s largest single-season RBI total.
Pack 22:
Andy Benes
Pack 23:
Bip Roberts
Pack 24:
Ellis Burks & Rick Sutcliffe
Pack 25:
Steve Bedrosian
Steve’s son Cam also pitched in the big leagues. In 2016 he posted a 1.12 ERA over 45 major league games.
Pack 26:
Jim Abbott
Pack 27:
Terry Steinbach & Bret Saberhagen
Pack 28:
Tom Henke & Lou Whitaker
Pack 29:
Marquis Grissom & Bobby Bonilla
Grissom led the league in steals in both 1991 (76) and 1992 (78).
Pack 30:
Cal Ripken, Jr. & Tom Gordon
Pack 31:
Tom Glavine
Pack 32:
Rob Deer
Pack 33:
Darryl Strawberry
Strawberry will have his number retired by the Mets on June 1.
Pack 34:
Mark McGwire
Pack 35:
Pedro Guerrero & Brett Butler
Pack 36:
John Smoltz
Lastly, the Smoltz card back. Crazy to think Smoltz was putting up an impressive 2.79 ERA in Triple-A, and then almost matched that his first full season in the majors.
These are just so fun. Sure, there are no chase cards like you see in modern products. But, then there is no pressure for good hits. You just get to enjoy the cards of some of the game’s best players. At less than $1 per pack, it is well worth a rip.
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Want more installments of Shane Salmonson’s Cheap Wax Wednesday? Check out his other breaks in the archives.
