Home alone with '89 Fleer

I watched Home Alone last night in a fit of boredom.

I wasn't bored because I've seen it a dozen times. In fact, I have never sat down for more than five minutes of the original movie or any of its spawns. I know it's "a classic" that everyone is supposed to watch, but the concept of a kid being annoying for 103 minutes is, to me, irritating, and then incredibly boring.

But there I was yesterday taking in more of the movie than I ever have before. Good gracious, what a horrible family.

Fortunately, I was viewing this while sorting some baseball cards, which helped things along a little.

I was in a particularly baseball card frame of mind when I was watching the scene in which annoying Kevin climbs the shelves in annoying Buzz's room to rob Buzz of some cash from a 1989 Fleer tin on the top shelf.

As everyone in the world knows, the shelves come crashing down upon Kevin, and in a tragic turn, he emerges from the wreckage unscathed.

He then spots the cash on the floor and grabs it. But as he does, he bypasses a key item of interest:

There's Kevin's hand completely ignoring what appears to be a 1989 Fleer Toronto Blue Jays baseball card. The card is directly to the southwest of his hand.

I shot to attention when I saw cardboard on the TV screen. It happens so seldom. I knew right away that it was from '89 Fleer. I wasn't certain of the player on the card, but something in my brain yelled "Fred McGriff!"

I quickly scrambled for an image of the Fred McGriff 1989 Fleer card:

I'm still not 100 percent sure if the card in the movie is McGriff's. Although I guess if you needed a card to guard your cash, you could do worse than Fred McGriff.

If I had all of the 1989 Fleer Blue Jays then I could check for definite confirmation. But I have a strained relationship with '89 Fleer.

I know a lot of you have the complete set a few times over, so if you could check your cards and get back to me, I'd sure like to know which Blue Jay is on that card. If you need to look at footage of the movie, here's the segment where the shelves implode, about 10 minutes in.

Don't make me watch that annoying kid again to try to confirm it myself.

By the way, if it IS McGriff's '89 Fleer card, there was no need for Buzz to store it way up there.

Here's what it's worth now:

That's six cents a card.

I guess that's why Kevin grabbed the cash and not the card.

Smart kid. Annoying as hell. But smart.