The Rated Rabbi Sports Card Podcast

What makes for a memorable series finale? For me, it's closure, surprise, and embodies the Irish wisdom, "Leave the table a little hungry; leave the bed a little sleepy, and leave the bar a little thirsty." In this final episode of the Rated Rabbi Sports Card Podcast, we take one last, loving look at the year 1984 and the original inspiration for this show: my 1984, 80-card, PSA-graded Master Set tribute to the 1984 All-Star Game. Has this been a show about Eighties nostalgia? Sports? Pop Culture? Cards? Collecting? Spirituality and seeking meaning? It's been a little bit of everything. On this final episode, we celebrate one more Debra Winger Mail Day and Goose Gossage strikes out Rickey Henderson to seal a 3-1 National League win. We conclude with my answer to the question: What would you today tell the you from 1984? I have deep gratitude for my guests: Dr. Shark, @1956ToppsGuy , The RaSal,  @Iowa_Dave_Sportscards , and Adam K. Many thanks to John Newman and @SportsCardNationPodcast, Danny Black and @hobbynewsdaily , and Jeremy Lee and @SportsCardsLive  for graciously welcoming me as a guest on their shows. And most of all, I feel deep appreciation for all of you who have come along for a ride as viewers and listeners of the show.

Music is not in the notes but in the silence in between, and a similar thing can be said about our collections: They are not in the cards, but in the silence in between. I'm back from vacation, and from the silence I've got thoughts on how our collections transcend time as well as how our collections include both the presence of our cards and the absence of those we desire. I also share my own 10-point criteria for establishing a card as being PC-worthy. Plus, we enter the top of the 9th inning of the All-Star Game at Candlestick with Goose Gossage on to close it out and I share a few thoughts (and one incredible card I picked up) from the recent National in Cleveland. I promise you, this isn't a National recap and you won't hear any grievances from me. Come along for the ride - this one goes a few places.

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Celebrating the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game at Candlestick Park with 40 highlights from The Rated Rabbi Sports Cards Podcast. #sportscards #baseballcards #vintagebaseballcards #nostalgia #80s

Willie Mays, may his memory be for a blessing. But I have no reservations about selling his cards now. We celebrate Al Michaels, the greatest living sportscaster and the only announcer to call the Stanley Cup, the NBA Finals, the World Series, and the Super Bowl. One Super Bowl Michaels didn't do was Super Bowl XLI, when Prince gave the all-time best halftime performance. This leads us to Purple Rain, the top album of 1984, and the movie Purple Rain, featuring Apollonia, who caught the imagination of this 13-year-old adolescent. If Prince didn't win 1984 Willie Hernandez did, and Hernandez takes the hill in the bottom of the 8th to face the National League. Plus, the incredible story of trusting and acting on my intuition to win an incredible card for my PC. We end with a special announcement in celebration of the 40th anniversary of the 1984 All-Star Game.

A big finish to an incredible 80s joyride with Adam. We talk about our plans for the upcoming National in Cleveland, including our plans for opening 80s wax. We each share a mail day. We pull off a trade. And we end by opening some packs from 1982!

On Part 2, 1982 Brewers yield to Billy Ball, the early 80s Oakland A's, and how Rickey Henderson redefined the meaning of a hero to Adam. We raise the stakes on our trade proposals, pushing bigger ticket items into the middle. Adam and I then move to 1987, remembering Adam's exile to Barstow, California, and the oasis of being able to listen to KNBR's Hank Greenberg calling Giants games way far away at Candlestick. For the Giants, their big trade in 1987 was their acquisition of Kevin Mitchell and Dave Dravecky. Dravecky's dramatic comeback from shoulder cancer, his subsequent reinjury, and his ultimate amputation give us a lot to talk about and two amputees in one show. Finally, Adam steers us toward the King of Late Night, David Letterman. He goes with a special episode where Dave featured Harmon Killebrew and I went with one featuring Joe Niekro.

There are some friends who know us from all the way back. Friends with whom we can only and forever be ourselves. Joining me on this special three-part episode is my all-time best buddy and original card collecting friend, Adam Klusky. In Part 1, we dive into Adam's card collecting “why?” and “how?” and what he's looking to collect now. Adam also shares about his childhood and how cards and sports were sanctuaries during turbulent times. We then dive into the 1982 Milwaukee Brewers. We talk key trades that put them over the top and Adam and I try to pull off a trade of our own while recording. I raise a toast to Harvey's Wallbangers, Robin Yount's HOF credentials are challenged, and we discuss the whereabouts of Harvey Kuenn's prosthetic leg.

This one doesn't quite lift me up where we belong, but I'm super-stoked to finally add this key card of a Bay Area Mt. Rushmore player to my personal collection.

Reflecting on biblical theology, my recent Israel travels, and a rationale behind what defeats us. In this episode, we also remember the career of Hall of Fame slugger Jim Rice and his Red Sox and All-Star teammate Tony Armas. We take a dive into Howard Cosell, scratching only the surface of this complicated, iconic broadcasting figure. Dwayne Murphy, Randall "Tex" Cobb, the Jane Fonda Workout, and a Stroh's Beer commercial with some racial stereotypes that didn't age well also get our attention in this one.

We start with the question "Which Rice is the right Rice?" Then, it's on Remington Steele. It's aged well. Was well ahead of its time. A commercial for American Airlines turns us to the 1984 Presidential Election and look back at the Democratic National Convention, which began less than a week after the All-Star Game in San Francisco. While Mondale was chosen as the sacrificial lamb vs. President Ronald Reagan, out in front of the Moscone Center protestors were calling on the government to recognize the AIDS epidemic. Unfortunately, it really took until Magic Johnson announced he was HIV positive on November 7, 1991. I've got a 1992 card that commemorates his announcement. We then turn to the Golden Age of Serial Killers, 1970-1999. And no state had more prolific serial killers during these years than my beloved home state of California. With nods first to predecessors the Zodiac Killer, Ted Bundy, and others, I then give you my top-5 serial killers from the 1980s. Even if you live on the second floor, it might be a good idea to lock your windows tonight.

I don't worship the player. I don't worship the card. But, I'll admit that my ardor and enthusiasm for card collecting has the potential to distract me from what matters most. Still, I'm a long way from idolatry. I want no part of an aniconistic world view where visual representations of figures are a punishable offense, but if this episode should be my last, you'll know why. We also look at a few lesser lights from the 1984 US Olympic Baseball team: Oddibe McDowell, Cory Snyder, and Billy Swift. Buddy Bell was the greatest American League third baseman of his generation not named George Brett, and Bell provides the portal for a gratuitous highlight of the "life swap" between Yankees' pitchers Fritz Peterson and Mike Kekich (full story here: https://www.pablo.show/p/the-yankee-wife-swap-scandal). A's reliever Bill Caudill strikes out the side, and we end with the time when Tommy Lasorda and Giants manager Charlie Fox got into a fistfight while exchanging lineup cards at home plate.

You think you know the origin story of the Donruss Rated Rookie. I thought I did, too. In this episode, we uncover the Rated Rookies before the Rated Rookies, talk 80s fashion, popped collars, and Lisa Birnbach's "Official Preppy Handbook." We also dive into the 1984 Cubs, who rode exciting comebacks, Gary Mathews' leadership, and NL Cy Young Award winner Rick Sutcliffe's 16-1 record after coming over from Cleveland in June to their first postseason appearance was since 1945. Although Joe Carter was Cleveland's prize for trading away Sutcliffe, we focus on another player acquired from the Cubs in the same trade: former outfielder and current inmate at the H.H. Coffield Penitentary in Texas, sex offender Mel Hall. Hall's story is so disturbing, that it's too much even for me. To read it for yourself: https://www.sbnation.com/2014/7/15/5883593/the-many-crimes-of-mel-hall.