1988 MSA Fantastic Sams Baseball Disc-Don Mattingly

I love oddball cards. Be it food premiums, vintage Post cereal cards or Duracell cards from the 80's, these cards can make a collection look pretty unique. My major problem is that I don't really have all that many of them. So anytime I get on either by trade or purchase I'm happier than a pig in...well, you know.

One of the guys in my team collectors group sent me this beauty. First off, I have to apologize as I didn't log in who sent this to me, so if you are reading this, let me know in the monthly thread and I will give you the credit you so rightfully deserve. But I was thrilled to see this 1988 MSA Fantastic Sam's Don Mattingly card, which is in disc form.

Now, I will admit, I knew absolutely nothing about this card. So, off to Google I went to find out what the heck Fantastic Sam's was. After doing some research, I found out that Fantastic Sam's are a chain of hair salons in the US and Canada that opened up in the mid 70's and are still in business to this day.

So, I am guessing that Fantastic Sam was running some sort of contest where you could win prizes like autographed baseballs, a day with a baseball player and the grand prize of 4 tickets to a championship game that season. Not sure if it was the AL/NLCS or the World Series they were referring to.

On the bottom of the right side of the card, there is a scratch off portion, which I'm guessing you scratched off and matched with a code at a participating Fantastic Sam location. Not sure if a purchase was necessary to get a card or not.

The back of the card had the player stats right behind the picture and what looks to be a second chance entry form if you didn't win at the store. from the pictures I have found, most, if not all did not have the entry form attached. I'm sure that means diddly squat in terms of the value of the card.

I found out that there were 20 cards in this set. There were future Hall Of Famers such as George Brett, Andre Dawson, Kirby Puckett, Mike Schmidt, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs, Ozzy Smith and Paul Molitor. Other players in this set included Wally Joyner, Eric Davis, Dale Murphy, Darryl Strawberry, George Bell, Julio Franco and Alan Trammell. Mattingly was the only Yankee in the set. I guess MSA did not have a MLB licence as there is no interlocking NY on the cap, although I see the MLB Players Association logo plain as day on the bottom of both sides of the card.

It matters not that there is no mention of the Yankees or any use of the logo. For me, it has a permanent home in my Yankees PC. I'm sure a Don Mattingly collector would be thrilled to be able to add this to his/her collection. Oddball cards are cool and kooky cards to make a collection more intresting and this card certainly fits the bill. I just wonder with his fascination with short hair, do you think George Steinbrenner had something to do with this partnership?

Nahhhhhh.