Minor-league mallrats make for a weird baseball card set

Silent Bob would be proud of this pack of Mallrats.

Sometimes when you think you've seen it all in card collecting, it just takes a glimpse into the bargain bin to discover something that's been there waiting for you for years. This time? Well, it's an oddity that Buzz found in a recent buy of some MiLB team sets.

It's a Sport Pro set for the 1989 Spokane Indians ... a simple 26-card release for the San Diego Padres' A-ball affiliate at the time -- a championship squad no less -- where the players, coaches and manager you will know all went to the University City Mall to take their baseball card photos.

No, really. They went to the mall.

The mall is no more -- it was demolished back in 2015 after a 50-year run (for those who don't know what a mall is, go ask your parents) -- but the cardboard lives forever because of some memorably stupid scenes that make for cardboard treasure if you ask me.

Outfielder Brian Span's card from his second and final season as a pro -- he hit just .213 for Spokane that summer -- is a textbook example of the oddities in this set. He's posed with a cardboard cutout of Whitney Houston holding a big bag of tapes (Too early for CDs, right?) from DJ’s Sound City, a chain described as "a fixture in Spokane's Music Market for almost 20 years." Its mall shops died in 1996 citing "stiff competition with discount stores and decreased traffic at music stores in malls."  (Just wait for iTunes and iPods, guys.)

There are other cameos and other cards that will make you want to go shopping right now and grab an Orange Julius before you hit the arcade. Keep reading among the cardboard oddities that can offer a trip back in time.

Sheer Madness seems like a good title for this card set's concept but that's merely where Terry Rupp went on the glorious day for his baseball card photo. While you might think this place was a hair salon -- and it might have been -- one clearly outdated online shopping directory (again, the mall was demolished five years ago) lists it as a lingerie shop. The rose goes in the front, big guy. At least his first baseball card isn't his only one -- he has a few and he was even a coach with cardboard for the USA Baseball squad in 2002.

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Manager Bruce Bochy was in his first year as a MiLB skipper here after a nine-year MLB career, leading his team to a 41-34 record that was good enough to win it all. (He topped that later, winning three World Series rings with the Giants before retiring with more than 2,000 MLB wins last year.) He apparently didn't have to worry about his cardio in 1989 since his trip to the mall was to hit University Pipe Square. His next stop is likely Cooperstown.

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Need something for the kids? Hit K-B Toys with pitcher John Phelan ... he went 2-5 with a 6.24 ERA that summer before his playing days were over. His only season and likely only baseball card ... proving he went to a toy store.

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Need some summer sausage, cheese or dips? Hit Hickory Farms with Kevin Higgins, an eventual big-leaguer for 71 games with the Padres in 1993.

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You might think pitcher Dan Deville was a big-timer for the Indians as he got to go to one of the biggest stores at the mall. He's a JCPenney guy here but never made it past advanced A-ball in three seasons.

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Where pitcher Bobby Sheridan went is a bit of a mystery to me ... perhaps to the B. Dalton Bookseller store? I only offer that up since an old mall directory I found shows that as the only bookstore option and it sure looks like ALF is plugging a kids book here. ALF's TV run ended the following year while Sheridan was done after an 0-3 season in just five starts ... 18 walks, 16 hits, 17 runs in 17 innings.

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Saad's Shoe Repair seems like a mean place to send a pitcher, but Joe Buckley wasn't a guy who gave up a bunch of walks in his only pro season. He had 41 strikeouts and 20 walks in 41-plus innings out of the bullpen.

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Steve Martin might have the name to give you some wild and crazy ideas, but his cardboard apparently has a sense of style as his mall stop was to Hamer's for some clothes. Click here to learn about the owner of the big menswear chain in the area. Martin hit .249 in five MiLB seasons never higher than double-A ball.

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Need your hair done? We'll never know if Steve Bethea did -- that cap hides things -- but Regis Hair Stylists were the stop for his cardboard pic. This former Texas Longhorns player made it as high as triple-A ball before hanging them up after the 1994 season.

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Need some bling? Well, that might have needed a coach's salary and Mandell's jewelers apparently was the stop for Tom Brassel. Not sure how much bling he might have racked up over the years -- I can't find much about him other than Bochy mentioning that because of him he had to throw a lot of batting practice. "Brassel had 'the thing,' he couldn’t throw strikes," Bochy told the San Francisco Chronicle about that season.

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What got Buzz to even notice this set? Well, it seemed weird that one of the only MLB players here was standing in front of a bunch of supplements -- something that just looks peculiar when you consider what was building in baseball in 1989 and exploded into a huge problem a decade or so later. At least that's what it looked like on Dave Staton's card ... which actually was a trip to a "health and natural foods" store called Mother's Cupboard. There's nothing in her cupboard that can be bad for you, except maybe some potato chips or cookies. (It's still in business with multiple stores in the area, too.)

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Speaking of MLB's Steroid Era, there's a cameo here on Eddie Zinter's card -- as he was the lucky one who apparently got to hit a baseball card shop at the mall. It's a shop with a name that will remain an enigma as there's nothing on the card or on the past mall directory I found to solve some of these mysteries. We do get a cameo of Jose Canseco's crotch on the wall -- he was a kind of a big deal in 1989 -- and some card storage boxes to truly know it's a card shop. Zinter lasted four seasons but never made it past advanced-A ball.

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Last but not least, a visit to Washington One-Hour Photo (kids, ask your parents if you don't know what that might be) was the stop for Kevin Towers who played his final MiLB game of his eight-year career with this team -- two strikeouts, three hits, one earned run and a beanball in 1.2 innings -- before becoming the team's pitching coach. After time as a scout, in 1995 he became the GM of the San Diego Padres, who won four division championships and appeared in a World Series under his watch ... with Bochy his manager. He was inducted into the Padres Hall of Fame before he died in 2018.

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This isn't even all of the weird stuff in this set -- visits to Dog's Ear T-Shirt Co., U-City Optical, the Candy 'n Carmelcorn Shop and Accessories And ... can be seen in the gallery below, too. (Click for a closer look.)

There's always some cheap and interesting cardboard to be found out there if you look for it ... even if you can't go to the mall anymore.

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Follow Buzz on Twitter @BlowoutBuzz or send email to BlowoutBuzz@blowoutcards.com. 

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