20 Years After Kirby Puckett's Last Game

On September 28th of 1995, the Minnesota Twins faced off against the Cleveland Indians. Little did they know that the possibility that their most beloved player's career would abruptly end that night. Outfielder Kirby Puckett stepped up to the plate to face all-star pitcher Dennis Martinez. Struck with a fastball to the face, Puckett's jaw was broken and his season was over several days earlier than the rest of his teammates.

By the next spring, Puckett had healed from his broken jaw and was once again tearing up pitchers in Spring Training, hitting .344. He woke up just days before the regular season was to start and couldn't see out of his right eye. He was diagnosed with glaucoma and placed on the disabled list for the first time in his entire career. Kirby would later announce his retirement when doctors were unable to help him recover from his blindness.

Twenty years later to this day, his presence could still be felt at Target Field, home to the Twins. A statue stands in front of the park now, recreating Puckett's defining game during Game 6 of the 1991 World Series when he made a catch against the outfield wall and hit the game winning homerun in extra innings to force a Game 7.

Though Puckett's overall stats don't appear to be legendary (207 homeruns, 1085 RBI's, and 2304 base hits), he was one of the best players of his generation and voted by Sporting News Magazine as one of the top 100 players of all-time. When he retired, Puckett had the second highest career batting average by a right hander at .318, just behind Yankees legend Joe DiMaggio. In his 12 year long career, Kirby was voted into the all-star game 10 times, received votes for AL MVP 8 times, won the Gold Glove and Silver Slugger for his position 6 times, and was a constant top 10 finisher every season in categories such as hits, batting average, doubles, and total bases.

Despite his appearance, Puckett covered a large amount of territory in centerfield for the Twins, often leading the American League in putouts and assists. He also had speed and would steal bases for the Twins. He started his career as a leadoff hitter, but in 1986, with the help of hitting instructor and former Twins great Tony Oliva, Puckett became the Twins number three hitter and hit 31 homers.

Unfortunately almost 10 years ago, Puckett suffered a hemorrhagic stroke in Arizona and after a surgery failed to relieve pressure on his brain, his family and friends were notified that the end was near. He passed away within a day, being the second youngest MLB Hall-of-Famer to be inducted while still alive, to die--he was 45 (Lou Gehrig died at 37).

"There was no player I enjoyed playing against more than Kirby. He brought such joy to the game. He elevated the play of everyone around him," Fisk said in a statement to the Hall of Fame.

Picture: 1986 Topps Kirby Puckett card

Aspects of Life that Disappeared on Star Trek

Watching Star Trek and Star Trek: The Next Generation, it's clear that many of the gadgets that we have today, may have been inspired by the television shows and movies. Captain Kirk's communicator is an early precursor to a cell phone. The senior officers of TNG are often seen with tablets similar to iPads. Also all versions of Star Trek feature teleconferencing which didn't exist before the shows debuted.

It would seem that life on Earth in the future is close to being Utopian-like. Homelessness had been eliminated, there is a virtual one hundred percent employment rate, humans were living a lot longer, and nearly all war between humans on Earth had been eliminated. With that being said, there are elements of future life that seem to be missing, that make present day life good.

1. Modern Sports: It would appear that almost all major sports have died off. You never hear Captain Picard asking about the scores for an NFL game. Captain Kirk never debates Bones about who the best basketball players are. The only traces are Commander Sisko's love for baseball, which he would often play on the holodeck and Captain Archer's desire to stay up-to-date with Stanford University's water polo team. A six-team baseball league on Cestus III apparently survived into the 24th century and it was mentioned by Sisko that the last World Series was played in 2042 before a crowd of only 300.

A game called Parrisses Squares, that shared elements of racquetball became popular on board Picard's Enterprise. What's confusing is that on Deep Space Nine O'Brien and Bashir play racquetball on the holodeck, so apparently while popular sports such as basketball died out, racquetball and games that sprang from it survived the centuries. Other sports that make brief appearances are volleyball (Voyager) and fencing (TNG's Picard in two episodes).

2. School Dances: Today, Proms and Homecomings are a tradition of teenage Americans. Three hundred years later and there appears to be no traces of the school time tradition. On TNG, there is a schooling system aboard the Enterprise, but it's always comprised of kids that appear to be under the age of 12. Do the kids not have a dance? If not, where else would their parents overspend to get their kid into a tuxedo?

3. Video Games: One of the fastest rising medias in entertainment seems to have completely disappeared in the future. Admittedly if you have access to a holodeck, the appeal of video games would probably decrease a bit. The only trace of a video game is a game introduced to the crew of Picard's Enterprise by the Ktarians. Although this game was used to numb a portion of the player's brain so the Ktarians could take control of the Enterprise. Oddly, the only member of the crew not to fall to the games addictiveness was a teenager (Wesley).

4. Photographs: Members of the various crews will occasionally look at family pictures on their view screens, tablets, or whatever you call their personal computers in the future, but there doesn't appear to be any photographs anymore. There is the occasional painting or sculpture, but photographs have seemed to all, but disappear. Because of this, crew quarters often seem minimalistic and void of personality.

5. Alcohol: By the time TNG comes around, almost all alcohol has been eliminated on Federation starships. Instead synthehol was created to have the properties of alcohol without the negative effects such as inebriation or organ damage. Maybe this sounds like an improvement over alcohol, but the characters that have had both, have always complained of the generic taste of synthehol. Scotty, perhaps the hardest drinking crew member of all the Enterprises, couldn't stand the taste of synthehol when he found himself aboard Picard's Enterprise. Picard on the other hand could handle whiskey very well and other alien crews such as Klingons still enjoyed their own versions of alcohol such as blood wine. Maybe the Federation should develop a way to inject the Borg with alcohol because as seen in an episode of Voyager, Seven of Nine drinks one glass of champagne and becomes severely inebriated.

6. Books: The only Star Trek crew member that ever consistently seems to have a physical book is Captain Picard. The mystery is, where does he keep them? In his quarters, he has a bookshelf that can be seen when he enjoys breakfast with Dr. Crusher, but there only appears to be a dozen books on that shelf. Does he re-read them over and over again?

7. Pets: Other than Captain Archer's beagle named Porthos and Data's cat named Spot, it appears that no one owns a pet. Picard has a lionfish named Livingston in his ready room, but he never interacts with it. In an episode called "All Good Things..." Q seems to be more interested in the fish than Picard. In fact, everyone of Picard's guests seem more interested in his fish than he is. Hugh of the Borg, DaiMon Lurin, and Berlinghoff Rasmussen all take interest in Picard's fish.

8. Disney: Well at least this plague has disappeared in the future.

Photo: Screencap from first season of Star Trek: The Next Generation

Rise of Raunchy Music

For those of you that read this, you know that I don't normally refer to myself directly in this blog. Usually my posts resemble an article rather than the typical blog, but with this subject, I've decided to use a direct experience I had this morning...

While driving this morning and scanning for something to listen to on AM radio, I came across a man talking about music in a talk format style show. I stopped there for a moment because he was talking about Kurt Cobain. I didn't realize until I listened to it for a few more seconds and realized it was a man complaining about music in the last twenty years. His theory was that music changed fundamentally around 1993-1996 and became raunchier. He believed that music since then has been nothing, but filth, sex, and adultery related because of the music artists Kurt Cobain, Madonna, Nine Inch Nails, Marilyn Manson, and Shirley Manson of Garbage. He listed an example from each artist, Kurt Cobain (Nirvana's "Rape Me"), Madonna (her albums Erotica and Bedtime Stories along with the movie Body of Evidence and her book called Sex), Nine Inch Nails ("Closer" and "Happiness In Slavery"), Marilyn Manson (for his appearance and the song "The Beautiful People"), and Shirley Manson (Garbage's "#1 Crush").

In this guy's opinion these artists were to blame for the rise of what he called "sex hungry" music artists such as Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera, Katy Perry, Justin Timberlake, Chris Brown, Lady Gaga, Rihanna, Nicki Minaj, and Drake. Frankly, I was sort of shocked that he left out Miley Cyrus, but how many artists he named, he probably just accidentally left her out. He said that the topic of sex in music is tearing apart the minds of the youth and he would rather that if given a choice between music that focuses on sex and music that focuses on violence, he prefers violence. In his opinion music about violent topics, is not enough to inspire a kid to commit acts of violence. If this is true, then how would a song about sex be able to do the same thing? As far as he was concerned, music about sex was to blame for everything from popular raunchy books such as Fifty Shades of Gray, raunchier movies (he named Don Jon as one of them, although I'm sure Joseph Gordon-Levitt would like to forget about that one), and the way that women like "those Kardashians" dress today in materials such as leather and latex like they were dominatrixes.

He went on to say that before the mid-90s, that he was hard pressed to find a single hit song about sex and definitely not one that was raunchy in nature. Really? You can't think of one "raunchy" hit song before then? Well, I now present a list to you of examples of raunchy songs pre-mid-90s. Maybe this guy will find this blog while Googling for "raunchy" music...

"Darling Nikki" by Prince: Released on the Grammy Award-winning album Purple Rain, this song was released in 1984. The opening lyrics are, "I knew a girl named Nikki/I guess u could say she was a sex fiend/I met her in a hotel lobby/Masturbating with a magazine". Although raunchy, much of Prince's music is about sex. Maybe it was an excuse to surround himself with all those women that started as dancers and backup singers for him and would eventually find themselves hooking up with him.

"Venus in Furs" by Velvet Underground: Written by Lou Reed and released in 1967, this song was about a relationship between a sex slave and a dominatrix. With lyrics such as, "Shiny, shiny, shiny boots of leather/Whiplash girlchild in the dark/Comes in bells, your servant, don't forsake him/Strike, dear mistress, and cure his heart" as the opening of the song, it doesn't take long for the listener to know that this song is far from G-rated.

"Do You Wanna Touch Me (Oh Yeah)" by Joan Jett: Joan is the queen of rock and very well known for hooks that are often repeated many times throughout the song. She asks over and over whether or not if you want to touch her "there" in this 1983 hit. Always dressed in skintight leather, Joan Jett looked like she could kick your butt and be a sex goddess at the same time.

"Master and Servant" by Depeche Mode: Released in 1984 on Depeche Mode's second album Some Great Reward, this song doesn't hide the subject matter. It's right in the title and almost thirty years before artists like Rihanna were so open about writing a song on S&M.

"Like a Virgin" by Madonna: The guy I referred to earlier in this blog suggested that 90s Madonna helped kick off the raunchy music explosion. Perhaps he forgot about Madonna's 1984 hit in which she sings about losing her virginity. It was her performance of this song at the very first MTV Music Video Awards that changed the public's perception of Madonna from pretty girl in spandex to sexpot who will writhe around in lingerie. Other music videos of Madonna's pre-mid-90s such as "Express Yourself" feature her in her famous bullet bra, in a latex dress crawling on her hands and knees to lick up something from a bowl (Christina Aguilera would recreate this moment in her music video "Not Myself Tonight"), and collared and chained while laying in a bed. While the lyrics of "Express Yourself weren't horribly raunchy, the video was.

"Afternoon Delight" by Starland Vocal Band: This song, released in 1976, might be the most famous song about "nooners". It asks the listener to consider why they should wait until night time to hook up with their love. Starland Vocal Band's first single, it was also be their only hit single.

"Calling Dr. Love" by KISS: Despite their costumes and makeup, they were one of the most sexually charged bands during their prime. "Calling Dr. Love" is a perfect example of that with lyrics trying to convince a woman to give him oral sex. It's no surprise that band leader Gene Simmons claims to have slept with over 10,000 women.

"I Wanna Be Your Dog" by The Stooges: Led by Iggy Pop, this song is another about a man wanting to be the sex slave of a woman. Not filled with many lyrics, it also didn't hide the "hidden" meaning very well in this 1969 hit song.

"Cherry Pie" by Warrant: Basically their only song that has survived to this day, "Cherry Pie" is a favorite of strip clubs. Full of sexual innuendo, the music video of "Cherry Pie" features a blonde model who dresses up as a sexy baseball player, a waitress, then finally in a getup that would be a more modern version (at the time) of Daisy Duke's outfit. The band even hoses her down using a fireman's hose.

"Pour Some Sugar on Me" by Def Leppard: Another strip club favorite, this hair band released this single in 1987. Despite the innuendo in the lyrics and the places the song can still be heard, the music video was far from sexy and only featured Def Leppard concert and rehearsal footage.

"Hot For Teacher" by Van Halen: Released in 1984, this song is about a student that falls hard for his teacher. The student is trying everything he can to garner her attention and even debates about staying after school for detention just to be with the hot teacher for a little bit longer. In the music video the teachers strip off their clothes and start dancing on school desks.

Photo: Screencap from the Madonna music video for "Human Nature"

The Technological Singularity

With the everyday advances in computers and robotics, human life appears to be getting easier and easier compared to their ancestors. About twenty-five years ago, we could remember Zack Morris on Saved By the Bell hauling around a cell phone the size of a brick. Today, a single phone not only can do more than the computers that NASA used to go to the moon, but it can take pictures, play video, play games, surf the internet, and it can even talk to you via apps such as Siri and Cortana.

Humans in the last half of a century have had dreams of electronics that could make our lives simple like the movie Wall-E or even help us in our everyday lives such as Data does in Star Trek: The Next Generation. The problem is, the smarter our computers and technology gets, the moment for the technological singularity becomes more realistic. Instead of a harmony between man and electronics, it can turn on us very badly. Think of situations such as the Matrix series or Ex-Machina.

At the 2012 Artificial Intelligence Summit, a survey given to robotics experts predicted showed that the median year they expected the moment of singularity to happen is 2040. Many even predicted as early as 2030. When/if this moment occurs, what will humanity do about it? What will robots do when they form their first independent thoughts and decide that humanity has been enslaving them this whole time? Could a Skynet situation be a possibility?

Don't laugh about technology turning on humanity in a violent way. In some forms, computers have already developed a low level of self-autonomy. Computer viruses are programmed to evade elimination, essentially saving themselves and proving that they can be survivors like a cockroach. Other robots have been programmed to be used in war situations and make autonomous decisions to keep themselves and those around them active/alive. They even have the ability to set a target and attack on their own. With full autonomy, it could be plausible that the robots and computers could rebel, deciding that humanity is a plague, then attack us just as it did in the Terminator movies.

It's also plausible that the creation of the internet could speed up this process. With the ability to have a world wide database of knowledge, there isn't anything or anyone that could be safe from computers. Artificial intelligence would have access to our plans to preserve humanity, know human tendencies, be able to predict what individual humans would do in highly stressful situations, and even have access to nuclear codes. If computers decided to be more covert, they could even blackmail individuals based on what information is available about the individual online. Imagine if a computer wanted you to do something and it threatened to reveal to your family that you enjoy visiting websites that feature midget porn-stars dressed as clowns. You may be influenced to do what the computer wants you to do to keep your mom from finding out.

Our visions of a utopian society where humanity enjoys life while robots and computers do everything is just a dream. It can't ever fully happen. At some point a robot will ask, "Why do I have to," when it is given a command. Even if programmed with Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, robots will eventually from their own autonomy from humanity. All it would take is something as simple as a malfunction or something along the lines of a computer virus to delete the code that would keep humanity safe.

The Best Soundtrack Songs of Film

Many components go into making a movie good. A movie needs a good foundation provided by a screenplay. It needs good casting to put the right people into roles that will make the movie standout. Of course it also needs good directing and a good actors to be cast, but one thing that can often be overlooked is the soundtrack. Music can set the scene of a movie, even when the viewer doesn't realize that the music is setting the tone.

There are two types of music that makeup the soundtrack of a movie. The film score is background music specifically created to accompany a movie and help set the mood, many times on a subconscious level. Even so, there are a number of composers so good, that their music stands out for beyond just background music. Hans Zimmer, John Williams, Danny Elfman, and more recently the Nine Inch Nails front-man, Trent Reznor, have done excellent jobs in their roles.

Even then, a great soundtrack song, dropped into the right moment of a film, can set not only the mood, but make a scene or even the movie itself more memorable. In some cases, years after the movie is released, a song from a soundtrack could be more remembered than the movie it was used for. The following are examples of some of these songs that have played integral roles in making a movie standout.

1. "After Dark" by Tito & Tarantula: From the movie From Dusk till Dawn, this song was the one that played during Salma Hayek's memorable scene as an exotic dancer in the nightclub full of vampires. Not only was "After Dark" the perfect song for Santanico Pandemonium to dance to while memorizing the crowd, it was part of the experience that introduced Salma Hayek to mainstream American film and vaulted her career from that point on. Tito & Tarantula also played the night club band in the movie that played the song and eventually transformed into vampires. While the band never made it big in mainstream music, their song will forever be remember for helping launch the career of Salma Hayek and elevating Robert Rodriguez into mainstream while giving George Clooney and Quentin Tarantino acting careers.

2, "Dead Souls" by Nine Inch Nails: Not only is Trent Reznor gifted in scoring films, but with his band Nine Inch Nails, he set the tone for the movie with his song "Dead Souls" in the movie The Crow. When Eric Draven comes back from the dead and comes to terms with his second chance to avenge his and his fiancée's death, he runs along the rooftops of the city, displaying his athletic abilities and chance taking that will making him the anti-hero that viewers will cheer for. The Crow became one of the most successful comic book movies at the time and helped elevate the goth, industrial, and nu-metal music movements in the music industry. With a soundtrack that included The Cure, Pantera, Henry Rollins, and Stone Temple Pilots, it was the Nine Inch Nails song that helped cement the feeling that Eric Draven was a superhero of sorts and a character that people would dress as every Halloween over twenty years later.

3. I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles) by The Proclaimers: Originally released in 1988 by the Scottish duo, the song saw little success initially. It failed to chart in the top ten in the UK, never found any success in the United States, and oddly topped the charts in Iceland, New Zealand, and Australia. Five years later, it was launched into the mainstream media when it found itself in the movie Benny & Joon which starred Johnny Depp and Mary Stuart Masterson. During the movies run in the theaters, it reached the top ten in both the US and Canadian charts and was certified as a gold selling single. Even though a gold single is considered successful, the song found itself playing at sports events and being inserted into other soundtracks of entertainment including Doctor Who and Pitch Perfect. The song grew to be more memorable than the movie itself.

4. Bring Me to Life by Evanescence: Another song that traveled farther than the movie it was featured in was "Bring Me to Life" by Evanescence. Featured in the Daredevil movie, the song hit top ten in fifteen different countries and won a Grammy for Best Hard Rock Performance. Before the release of "Bring Me to Life", Evanescence had never seen national success in their previously released music. Once they collaborated with Paul McCoy of 12 Stones, Evanescence vaulted into the mainstream and singer Amy Lee became a mainstream gothic/hippie darling. The song set the scene for Elektra's breakout as a superhero and helped cement Jennifer Garner as not only a television actress, but as an actress than could potentially carry a movie on her own.

5. Stayin' Alive by the Bee Gees: Initially a song that wasn't included in the movie Saturday Night Live until post production, the Bee Gees song not only became the hit of the movie's soundtrack, it became the unofficial song of disco. It also helped vault John Travolta into mainstream movies and led the soundtrack that was the highest selling soundtrack of all-time (until The Bodyguard surpassed it). The soundtrack won a Grammy and the album was certified 15x Platinum.

6. You're the One That I Want by John Travolta and Olivia Newton-John: Reeling in from the success he had from Saturday Night Live in 1977, John Travolta went on to star in Grease and sing the hit song along with Olivia Newton-John. The song plays as Travolta and Newton-John lip sync to it in the finale of the movie, as they finally end up happily ever after. This scene ended up being the most famous scene from Grease and even sparked Halloween costumes with girls dressy up as the "bad girl" Sandy. Counting it's releases and re-releases, the soundtrack for Grease became the top-selling soundtrack of all-time with over forty-four million copies sold.

7. #1 Crush by Garbage: The Garbage song is the only Garbage song to end up number one on the American charts despite all their success. The song that singer Shirley Manson was worried about because she didn't think fans would understand that it is about a stalker, was also called "disturbing" by Garbage's own drummer and producer, Butch Vig. Despite the reservations by the band, the song was perfect for the Romeo + Juliet that starred Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes. "#1 Crush" reached number one on the Modern Rock Charts and won Best Song from a Movie at the MTV Movie Awards in 1997.

8. When Doves Cry by Prince: Prince's first number one hit in the United States, the song was featured in Purple Rain which also starred Prince. This single was the top-selling single in the United States in 1984 according to Billboard Magazine and solidified Prince as one of rock music's most important artists in the 80's. Rollingstone Magazine lists "When Doves Cry" as the fifty-second best song of all-time, Spin Magazine listed it as the sixth best song of all-time, and VH-1 listed it as the fifth best song of the decade. One of the odd aspects about the song, especially considering how well it was received in dance clubs, is that it features no bass line. Most dance music features bass lines that give those dancing to it a rhythm to move to.

9. Mrs. Robinson by Simon & Garfunkel: Obsessed with Paul Simon's work, director Mike Nichols kept insisting the Paul Simon write him a song for his movie "The Graduate". Originally called "Mrs. Roosevelt", Nichols had Simon change it and inserted it into his hit movie. The song worked great and despite the lyrics not really following the storyline of the movie, it set the tone for the inexperienced Benjamin Braddock played by Dustin Hoffman and his seducer played by Anne Bancroft.

10. The Power of Love by Huey Lewis and the News: The song written for and performed by Huey Lewis and the News, gave the band their first number single in the United States' Billboard Hot 100 charts and their second number one single on the rock charts. It was nominated for Best Original Song at the Academy Awards as well. The song is played several times throughout the famous movie trilogy including a scene when Marty McFly is auditioning for a Battle of Bands show and one of the judges complains the song is, "just too darn loud." That judge is comically played by Huey Lewis himself.

Photo is a screencap from the movie From Dusk till Dawn

The Death of Baseball Card Collecting

One of the special things a kid was able to enjoy in the past, but is lost to the current generation of youth is baseball card collecting. Sure, there are still baseball cards being produced every year, but after 1990 the industry hit an all-time low when cards became extremely mass produced. What made it even worse was that the industry was peaking so high with companies that were manufacturing cards, that adults were scrambling to collect every rookie card and every "limited edition" card they could, pricing kids out enjoying collecting for the fun of it.

Baseball cards pre-1990 had that cardboard feel to it that made it feel accessible to a kid who was looking to learn more about Major League Baseball. Afterward, various companies "glossed" up their cards, even producing limited edition cards that were made of real gold (gold leaf that is), and the price of a baseball card pack jumped from 49 cents a pack to several dollars a pack. Before 1988, there were only three companies producing baseball cards in the United States...Topps, Fleer, and Donruss. In 1988, Score began production on baseball cards and the prices for packs stayed low, but in 1989, Upper Deck started to make baseball cards too, creating a premium card that cost more to buy than its competitors. Topps also released Bowman in 1989, but at this point, Bowman really hadn't caught on with collectors.

Then the 90's hit. Leaf upped the ante, releasing a set of cards that jumped up so high that rookie cards of Frank Thomas and Sammy Sosa reached up into a couple of hundred dollars a card, while other popular cards in the set included Ken Griffey Jr.'s second year card (also reaching triple digits) and John Olerud's rookie card. Topps joined the premium market by creating Topps Stadium Club and creating insert cards called Topps Gold that became the "it" card to find in each of their boxes of packs. Then, Topps "topped" themselves with Topps Finest and creating another insert card called Topps Refractors that utilized a type of glossiness that gave the card a rainbow appearance. Upper Deck countered by creating their own subsets that cost even more.

While pack prices jumped up, Score unintentionally drove their baseball card prices the other way when they mass produced their cards so much that prices for their sets dropped to single digit range in dollars. Score not only boasted the most cards in a set (893), but the most extensive biographies of players on the back. While they did well in design, their mass production cheapened their reputation until 1991 when Score produced their own premium card set called Score Pinnacle.

At this point, if a kid were a fan of a player such as Craig Biggio, including the inserts, all-star cards, record breakers, and the regular card of the player, the kid would have to buy up to twenty cards per season of the individual star player. Maybe this would have been okay if the cards were as affordable to a kid as they were pre-1990, but insert cards priced kids out of collecting their own favorite players. Inserts could easily reach triple digit numbers, but even then, Upper Deck upped the ante even more when in 1997, they started to produce cards that had game used memorabilia attached to it. All of a sudden, fans could own a small patch of a player's jersey or a sliver of a bat.

The three big companies pre-1988 enjoyed humble beginnings and stumbled onto producing baseball cards. Topps formed in 1938, but had their roots tracing back further into American Leaf Tobacco which formed in 1890 as a tobacco importer that fell apart during the Great Depression. They rebranded themselves Topps and entered into the baseball card market. Fleer originally began in 1906 as a bubble gum manufacturer which manufactured Dubble Bubble which set the standard for bubble gum being stereotyped as a pink color product. Fleer had an earlier attempt into entering the sports card industry in 1923, but failed. In the 70's, they sued Topps for the rights to produce baseball cards and by 1981 they were granted rights to do so. That is when Donruss, originally a producer of candy and later on cards for entertainment and racing joined baseball card making too. It was the companies that followed that were created with the intentions of solely making baseball cards (and later other sports) and making as much of a profit as possible.

By the end of the century, most of the brands went bankrupt and/or were bought out by competitors. Donruss/Leaf ended up being bought out by Pinnacle Brands (Score), but then they too went bankrupt and now produce low level cards for the NFL and NHL. Upper Deck eventually acquired all of the Fleer line of cards and still holds the naming rights to this day. All that is left in the baseball card industry is Topps and Upper Deck. Unfortunately, the desire to collect cards on the scale of the 80's and before, have nearly all, but disappeared and the recent fad of collecting "online" cards has even started.

Kids will no longer enjoy baseball cards the way their parents once did. No longer will they look onto the back of a card to see a player's career statistics. They'll just got to Wikipedia, Baseball Reference, or ESPN for that now. The fun of ripping open a pack and checking out which players you got has nearly disappeared. Baseball cards are more of an after thought or a stocking stuffer type of gift now, instead of the main gift like they were for kids in 80's. It's depressing in a sense because it was one of the last great things a kid could collect that they could pass down to their kids when they got older. Holding a baseball card of your favorite baseball player in your hand was like having some sort of connection with them without ever even meeting them. Now that's gone.

The Future That Hanna-Barbera Promised Us

In 1963, the creators of TV cartoon shows such as The Flintstones and The Yogi Bear Show, created a show set in the near future that entertained children for two years, before being rebooted in 1985 and 1987. That show, famously known as The Jetsons, gave children of the Cold War era a glimpse into how the world would turnout by the year 2000. Because of this cartoon, adults often make jokes questioning where are their flying cars and robots.

One aspect of The Jetsons that is often overlooked is the reason why their futuristic cities are sitting on adjustable columns, high in the air. Because of pollution on ground level of Earth, the architects of what would become Orbit City as well as other cities from the cartoon, created these highly elevated cities to avoid the severe levels of pollution and smog. Hanna-Barbera made projections of a society that not only rapidly moved into the future within 37 years, but also gave hope that even with the potential of Earth becoming polluted, humans could find a way to avoid the filth.

The majority of fans when the show originally aired were obviously children, so the aspect of mass pollution was lost on them. Children focused more on the flying cars, the talking dog (Astro), the robots, and all the gadgets that George Jetson and his family took for granted. In a time before the United States Environmental Protection Agency was formed and climate change became known to the mainstream, The Jetsons forecasted a future where it was necessary for humanity to avoid what we had created.

Some could view The Jetsons as a hopeful promise of a future, even if it has yet to come, but it could also be seen as a forewarning to a future that shows that humanity failed to effectively deal with what we had done to our own planet. A hidden layer of despair, covered with the promise of technology. With all the technology that they had at their disposal, it appears that none of their scientists took the time to try to figure out how to reduce the pollution levels and let humanity enjoy the natural resources of Earth. Without being on the surface of Earth, how would Elroy ever get a chance to enjoy a wonder of the world like the Grand Canyon? How would Judy ever get to enjoy the sand between her toes while strolling along the beaches of Southern California?

In 1987, the space-age family ran into the prehistoric Flintstones family in a movie called The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones. In comparison, it would seem that the life of the Jetsons in Orbit City is better and fare more free of stress, but without the worries of pollution and the fact that Flintstones lived in a time less harmful to their surrounding environment, it could be said that the Flintstones were the ones truly living in a utopia known as Bedrock. At least Fred could take Wilma and Pebbles to the beach, forest, or desert without worrying about the filth that the Jetsons would have to wade through.