4.03.2009

1995 Topps Stadium Club Series 2

Continuing on with the 50¢ packs I found at the last card show I went to, Series 2 of the popular 1995 Topps Stadium Club. For the same reason I love the 2001 Stadium Club, I also like the '95 edition, as well. Great photography. Unobtrusive design elements. Prominent team logo, and a small elegant TSC logo in the upper corner. None of these fully intrudes on the picture. We'll start with a Cleveland favorite, Dennis Martinez.


However, the backs are a mess. Garish colors, the arcane Skills Rating System, and a strange way of showing their stats as a percentage related to Team Value. It may have been attempt to give more higher-end information to the consumer, justifying it's premium price, but it doesn't do much for me.

Just like Series 1, Series 2 has the Virtual Reality inserts, and another insert checklist:


This time, I pulled out of the pack two Rusty Greer cards, one a base, and one a VR. You can see the differences below.


There is basically no difference on the front, but the back has different information that, at first glance, does not seem to jive with each other. The statistics are not identical, but if you read the fine print, it says, "Statistics above include computer-simulated data for games of August 12, 1994 through the scheduled conclusion of the 1994 season." So it really is virtual reality. Computer simulating statistics for the season was probably a big idea then, but now, you can get it for free on many websites like Baseball Boss.

The rest of the cards are nothing special, save for the Omar Vizquel card, which will be proudly displayed in my list of Omar cards.


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