Orioles Card "O" the Day

An intersection of two of my passions: baseball cards and the Baltimore Orioles. Updated daily?

Saturday, November 15, 2008

B. J. Surhoff, 2000 Pacific Revolution #23

*Sharp intake of breath*

GGGGAAAAAAHHHHH!!! WHY, PACIFIC, WHY WOULD YOU ASSAULT MY SENSES WITH THIS MONSTROSITY???

Seriously, I didn't think this card could get any uglier, but it managed to scan even worse than it appears to the naked eye. If you held this thing in your hand, you'd see silver foil in the background with some random, barely discernible squiggles interwoven. The garish foreground squiggles are actually gold foil. You just can't have enough foil, right?

What was the purpose of Pacific as a card brand? I never collected it. Did anyone collect it? Why did they seemingly have dozens of sets each year, all with cheap-looking, gaudy designs? Paramount, Revolution, Omega, Aurora...it sounds like a bunch of off-brand autos.

I sort of miss Fleer, Donruss, and Score as baseball card brands. But Pacific? Get real.

6 comments:

night owl said...

I'm with you. 1995-2000 for cards was like the 1970s for clothing. A car wreck. Just. can't. look. away.

Anonymous said...

I think there was one Pacific card of one player once that didn't seem too awful, but I can't remember what it was.

William said...

Pacific 1999 was decent, I collected tons of those. Full-bleed foils, little foil, lots of info on the back. Omega was alright and Pacific Online [featured during the .com boom] gave you a chance to get a card of just about anyone in the Majors -- and I mean anyone. Check out this Denny Hocking red variation [ooh, you can feel the value] someone is selling on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/1998-Pacific-Online-Denny-Hocking-Red-422-75centShip_W0QQitemZ330259613280QQcmdZViewItemQQptZUS_SM_Sports_Cards?hash=item330259613280&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14&_trkparms=66%3A2%7C65%3A15%7C39%3A1%7C240%3A1318

William said...

I meant to say "full-bleed photos," not foil, in my previous comment. The ugly tinsel on the Surhoff distracted me.

Kevin said...

Patricia - I think you summed up my argument quite well.

William - "Tinsel" is a good word for it! To be fair, I have come across one Pacific design that wasn't too hideous. I think it was 2000 Paramount. The ones with the red foil were especially snazzy.

Goose Joak said...

I remember opening one pack of Pacific that was heavily endorsed (or something) by the MLBPA. Each player card featured a URL to that player's landing page on the MLBPA. Funniest thing is, the URL was smack dab on the front of every card, right at the top! And the URL wasn't something clean like MLBPA.COM/MELVINMORA it was more like: http://atlanta.braves.mlb.com/team/player.jsp?player_id=283166

What an absurd and horrible idea for baseball cards!