What's up with the Rangers?!?!?!?!?

1986 Topps. That brings back some great memories...the first "real" set I ever completed.

I spent about 10 dollars one Friday afternoon buying wax pack after wax pack looking for this:



I'm not sure words could have described the happiness I felt upon finally finding that damn card. I'd bought so many cards that day that I filled up an empty 36-count box. I got home and said, well hell, why don't I build a second set?

Pretty easy to see why my grades fell apart in 8th grade.

(Oh and you fuck, I never knew the Beckett site had images of even the most obscure cards. My productivity just slipped to sub-sub zero levels, you bastard!)

 

First (and only) "real" set I had, as I've mentioned many times before, was 1987 Topps. Also had an epiphany when I found the final card to complete my set (bought it separately at some card convention, in like 1990):















;D


No, seriously, the real Bonds was my final card. Never found it in a wax pack, for some reason. One of the oddities of card collecting, I guess.

 

That is fluky. Usually it's the Joe Common card you can't find anywhere.

Though my 1985 Fleer set is only missing the Roger Clemens rookie. Sumbitch. He's been haunting me for 23 years!

 

Well, Bonds didn't really hit it big until '90 or so. Hell, he was still wearing No. 7 in that card, for chrissakes.

I remember the McGwire card being all the rage that year, though. That card was everywhere.

 

For me it was this one that drove me to nuts trying to find as a 10 year old kid...
<img src="http://www.homeruncards.com/imagesrc/griffeytt.jpg">
And well, it still does.
I had no clue what Topps Traded was...I was peeved when I finally found out there was no way of getting my hands on one of those after opening up months of packs with the bubble gum in it.

 

The greatest Ranger moment I've ever experienced was August 25, 2001. I attended the six-hour, 35-minute, 18-inning marathon against Boston. Texas won 8-7 thanks to Chad Curtis scoring from third on an infield single legged out by none other than ... BILL HASELMAN. I think I remember that right.

My cousin and I, however, thought the game's greatest moment was when A-Rod exploded for a 400-something-foot skyturd, and the incomparable Rich Garces, a.k.a. "El Guapo," menacingly emerged from the visitor's bullpen in left-center field.

To this day, Garces is one of our favorite players ever.

 

Here's my biggest Ranger memory. I was in the house at the Ballpark when Bill Mueller hit his two grand slams — from each side of the plate. He also had a solo shot early in the game and finished with nine RBIs:

http://baseball-almanac.com/box-scores/boxscore.php?boxid=200307290TEX

 

So does Hank Blalock become a double-analler or a penis-fencer?

I'm confused.

http://mlb.mlb.com/news/article.jsp?ymd=20080518&content_id=2724705&vkey=news_mlb&fext=.jsp&c_id=mlb

 

For a mediocre team, the 2008 Rangers are definitely interesting.