When Donruss lost their lawsuit in the early 80's, they had to stop inserting bubble gum into their packs of cards like Topps did. So, to be clever, they came up with puzzle pieces. In each pack, you'd get three pieces of a puzzle. What did the completed puzzle look like? Enter cards like #588 in the 1990 set. That year's puzzle featured Red Sox legend Carl Yastrzemski. This card showed what the puzzle would look like when you were finished. I think of this card a lot when I open packs of cards these days.
Lately, you can't open a pack of cards without getting a card of somone who hasn't played in decades. And, those cards are pretty popular. In 1990? This card was of an "old guy" and was practically used as packing material. I wonder where the switch came in.
When you get down to it, this isn't all that different from the Allen & Ginter cards that are so popular. It's a very nice painted image of Yaz. But, I don't recall any excitement in 1990.
Or did I just miss it?
You're right, I remember pulling cards of retired players in the early 90s and the general feeling amongst my brothers/friends and I was that these cards somehow didn't count...that they were basically fake.
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