Post 601: F(ar)k Face

When I was about 10, I collected baseball cards. I didn't like baseball per se; I mean, I acted like I did and even memorized random statistics, but in all honesty, I really liked having another hobby outside of comics and my subscription to "Fangoria" (what 10 year old had a subscription to that? Me!). During this age, I found that there were two Holy Grail cards of contemporary baseball -- the 1989 Upper Deck Ken Griffey, Jr. rookie card and the infamous 1989 Fleer Billy Ripkin "Fuck Face" card. At some point, I acquired the Griffey rookie card for nothing more than trading my X-Men 1991 Annual and a bag of chips (really), but the Ripkin card was always difficult to find and just remained one of those legends -- a friend of a friend of a friend's cousin had it and would part with it for a mere sum of $500.

As a teen, I eventually befriended this kid named Brandon who, like me, collected all kinds of crazy shit (like comics, action figures, vintage video games and sports cards). We always joked about finding the "Fuck Face" card. Brandon had everything (at one point he even had the Japanese Megatron -- the black model that looked like an actual gun), so the idea that he couldn't find the Ripkin card was nothing short of astonishing. It's like Indiana Jones NOT getting the idol in the beginning of "Raiders of the Lost Ark."

The reason why I'm writing about all this is because MSNBC is running a feature about the legend that is "Fuck Face" and it's actually a pretty good read. Also, it allowed me to type "Fuck Face" into my blog. I guess in some ways, I'm still 10.