Dime Box Heroes: Surfin' U.S.A.

1996 Pinnacle #253 Ryan Klesko

Note before I start: I'd like to give hiflew over at "Cards from the Quarry" credit for coming up with the title to this post. He mentioned it in the comments from this post. It's been stuck in my head for over a month now, and I'm finally getting to use it. Thank you, hiflew!

The gremlins got it.

I know I've got the famous 1988 Fleer Tim Flannery card around here somewhere. I like to think my cards are pretty well organized, but I just cannot find it.

I hate it when that happens.

I'd always assumed it was the only card with a surfboard on it. After all, what other company would possibly have a player pose with one?

Enter Pinnacle.

On Saturday, I came a cross a dime box that contained a ton of 1990's cards. A majority of them were mid-'90s Pinnacle issues. 

I'd never really thought much of Pinnacle-brand cards before. They were just kind of...there. I didn't have a whole lot of them, but I figured that was because they weren't that great.

As I started flipping through the cards in that dime box, my appreciation for the brand kept rising. What caught my eye were the odd, yet great, poses on some of the base cards. (A few of which you can see here.)

The one that intrigued me the most was this Ryan Klesko, which I'd never seen before. It made me forget all about Mr. Flannery.

This, in my opinion, is the better of the two "surfboard" cards. While Flannery is awkwardly standing in an empty stadium with a mysterious surfboard, Klesko is actually posing in front of, you know...water. I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure that's the number one thing you need if you're going to go surfing.

Klesko's surfboard screams "Surf's Up!". Most of all, it works because Klesko was born and raised in California. 

Unfortunately, it looks like the days of these "pose" cards are over. I can't even remember the last one that came out. When done right, they are fantastic.

Before Saturday, I was kicking myself for not being able to find a card that left a notable gap in my collection. Thanks to a dime box, I've secured a replacement for it. Not only that, but an even greater replacement.

It's funny how things work out sometimes.