Dan and Dave

Do you remember those "Dan and Dave" Reebok commercials about U.S. Olympic decathletes Dan O'Brien and Dave Johnson? Those TV ads were everywhere. You couldn't avoid them. I think they might've even killed the Olympics.

I mean, the Olympic Games don't seem to be as well-liked here in the U.S. as they once were. In 1984, I couldn't get enough of the Games. I watched every single day, every last hour. But now, if you ask someone under 30 about the Olympics, chances are you're going to get this for an answer: "I hate the Olympics."

I suppose there are lots of reasons for the downturn. I know the reason for me is baseball getting the boot from the Games. I am not pleased about that.

Anyway, the reason I bring up "Dan and Dave" is I received two card packages in the mail this afternoon from Dan in Baltimore and David in Brooklyn. They provided lots of goodies to go through, and as usual, I must offer up the highlights.

I'll start with reader David first, because he is a Dodger fan in Brooklyn. As it should be. He sent me mostly Dodgers, making sure to find out what I needed first before sending them along. What a nice trader!

David sent five 1992 Fleer Ultra Dodgers. The only '92 Fleer Ultra cards I owned before this were Mets. I don't mind having cards from a set that aren't Dodgers. But I do mind having those cards when I don't have any Dodgers from the set. All I could do was stare at those Mets and say, "why can't you be Dodgers?" But now everyone is happy.

David did the same by sending a bunch of 1993 Team Stadium Club Dodgers. The only Team Stadium club cards I had from '93 prior to this were Rangers. (Some junk repack box, I'm sure). I received 12 total from this set.

You know when you see something for the very first time, and in the instant your brain is processing what it sees, you think of something bizarre? This is what I first thought of at the sight of this card: "Wow, Score was numbering cards back in 1992! Why did they stick the number on the front across Samuel's crotch?"

Don't worry, in the next split-second I thought, "penny sleeve!" I'm not an idiot. Just a little delayed.

Dodgers that are chromy and shiny! I actually pulled the Loney card a couple of weeks ago and forgot to take it off my want list. But two is great, and so is the DeWitt. Still need a few Dodgers from the set though.

This card of Greg Luzinski's son completes my 1993 Topps Dodgers set! And that's not all ...

David sent the gold card of Luzinski, too! Unfortunately, Ryan didn't hit like his father in the pros.

I love receiving cards of players who played only briefly for the Dodgers, like Terry Mulholland, who was always in demand, mostly because he was a lefty. This 2002 Topps card, I believe, is a night card.

Finally, David sent this 2007 Bowman gold card of Clayton Kershaw, who is going to have an arm-injury free, Hall of Fame career! I can just feel it! Bowman's sets confuse me, probably because I don't really buy many of their cards. I'm guessing this is from its draft set.

The next group of cards are from Dan and they're all 1991 Topps, a set I'm trying to complete. Dan runs the blog Grand Cards, which is everything Curtis Granderson (card-wise anyway), as well as Tigers. Some rather informative posts on there.

Dan sent 59 cards to help me complete the set, which is filled with some great photos. The cards I've seen of 2009 Topps kind of remind me of 1991 Topps. Minimal border and a big photo, with the team name/logo in the bottom right corner.

Francisco Cabrera's claim to fame is the pinch-hit single in '92 that drove in the winning runs in the ninth inning against the Pirates in the NLCS, sending the Braves to the Series. Who knows what would've happened to the Pirates if they had won the game? Who knows what would have happened to the Arizona Cardinals if Kurt Warner hadn't thrown that pass into James Harrison's mid-section? See Pittsburgh, good things do happen.

Maybe the Rooney family needs to take over the Pirates.

Before my time, Horace Clarke was a symbol for the Yankees' problems in the late '60s and early '70s. I guess Hensley Meulens was the Horace Clarke of the early '90s for N.Y. Meulens didn't play nearly as much as Clarke, but the early '90s weren't good times for the Yankees, and Meulens is the first guy I think of when I remember the Yankees back then, even before Mattingly.

A lot of the backs of the 1991 cards featured a darker Topps emblem when compared to the other cards. Back then it was dismissed as a printing issue. I don't know if you could get away with that today, with all the purposeful "no numbers," etc. Today, these probably would be collectible "variations."

One of the many great cards from '91 Topps. Doug Dascenzo looks like he's in trouble.

Both Dodger baserunners on these two cards look like they're in trouble, too. It appears both Juan Samuel and Mike Sharperson are out.

What makes 1991 Topps great: a shot of Mark McGwire sliding. There aren't a lot of those cards. This is not the error card from that year, although it wasn't much of an error anyway (Topps left the decimal point off of McGwire's slugging percentage in the 1987 stats. Aghast! A-GHAST!).

Finally, "Benny" Santiago, and one iconic card. If you had to pick one card to represent the 1991 Topps set, it would have to be this one or the Roger Clemens card. Great photo. Makes you wonder what the heck happened to Topps' photographers since then.

Go check out Grand Cards! Thanks to both Dan and Dave. Great cards.