When it first came out, I loved 1997 Fleer Circa Baseball. Each card had a cool quote from another baseball personality on it, each box had a Rave parallel that was numbered to just 150 (!!!). They looked so busy they were cool in a 1995 Fleer Baseball kind of way. Except 1995 Fleer Baseball isn’t nearly as cool as 1997 Circa. The formula didn’t change much for 1998 except Circa became Circa Thunder and another Rave level was added with the Super Rave numbered to 25 copies.
Fleer/SkyBox must have gotten bored and dropped the “Circa” because in 1999 it became SkyBox Thunder. Here’s a quick look at Rondell White:
I like the action shot but that mustard canvas backdrop, minimal text and cheesy graphics at the top make for one overall ugly baseball card. Let’s see if the backs are any better (okay, I know the answer already but the payoff is definitely worth it):
Why in the ghost of Harry Caray is Rondell’s name so big? And what’s with the Wall Street-esque ticker of info? Dang, these cards are ugly. But wait. What’s with the biography?
1999 Skybox Thunder Baseball throws down the straight up dope, ‘yo.
And to prove it isn’t a fluke, here are a few more Expos gems:
Peace out, yo! Here’s some Average Homeboy to take you home.