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MOOTOWN SNACKERS BASEBALL CARDS

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Introduction
Mootown Snackers baseball cards were a unique niche product in the late 1980s and 1990s. Created by longtime baseball card collector and entrepreneur Bob Phillips, the Snackers cards depicted fictional players and teams from the fictional minor league city of “Mootown.” While seemingly silly or nonsensical on the surface, the Snackers cards developed a cult following among collectors and have since taken on historical significance as innovative works of grassroots sports memorabilia. This article explores the history and legacy of the Mootown Snackers cards through interviews with Bob Phillips and others involved in their creation and analysis of the cards’ artistic qualities and role in independent sports collectibles.

Origins and Production
Bob Phillips was working a desk job in the late 1980s that he openly admits he “hated.” An avid baseball card collector since childhood, Phillips started experimenting with Photoshop in his spare time to design mock baseball cards featuring made-up players. “I just got a kick out of the idea of coming up with crazy stats and biographies for guys that didn’t actually exist,” Phillips recalls. Friends and fellow collectors thought his creations were hilarious, and they encouraged him to produce more. That’s when the idea for an entire set based around a fictional minor league sprang into being.

Phillips chose the name “Mootown Snackers” mainly for its punniness. He designed colorful retro-style uniforms and logos for the team and began inventing players. To make the cards feel legit, he researched production techniques for real cards from the same era and meticulously replicated card stock, fonts, and layouts at a local copy shop. Early runs were only 50 cards at a time but found an enthusiastic following handed between fellow creators and collectors looking for something unique. Word quickly spread and demand grew.

By the early 90s Phillips was producing official Snackers card sets yearly that could rival mainstream offerings in size at 150-200 cards per release. Players he invented started developing intricate backstories and careers that would continue across multiple seasons of play. Production quality improved with die-cuts, embossing, oddball parallel variations, and more. Friends helped expand the fictional Mootown Snackers world with contributor credits on sets. At their peak in the mid-90s, Snackers card runs reached 1,000 copies per release.

Fictional Worldbuilding
A distinctive element of Mootown Snackers cards was how deeply Phillips developed the fictional world surrounding the team. Each new set expanded the lore and history of the Snackers as well as teams and players around the league. Statistics, biographies, and career milestones were meticulously tracked. The fictional minor league context allowed for humorous hyperbole, like players with impossible career stats or names pulled from dad jokes. But Phillips also aimed to inject realistic historical and cultural details that grounded his fantasy.

Some memorable aspects of the Mootown Snackers fictional universe included:

Rival Eastern League teams like the Rib City Barbecuers and Pancho Villa’s Revenge
Star players with nicknames like “Homerun” Hawking Hawkins and Dick Pounder
Stadiums in the league with quirky names like “The Leaky Faucet”
Detailed annual league standings and stats accrued over decades of play
In-jokes referencing real-world events of the time period
Cameos from famous fictional minor leaguers like El Scorcho

For collectors willing to dive deep, the cards provided an lifetime’s worth of entertaining baseball lore to pore over again and again. For many, the Snackers took on a life of their own beyond being a silly novelty and became their favorite team.

Artistic Merit and Design
While the fictional hijinks drew collectors in, Mootown Snackers cards also demonstrated notable artistic merit that advanced the hobby. Early runs were simple but refined the craft over time. Later highlights included vibrant computer-generated uniforms on card fronts and intricate collage-style player portraits on the backs combining found photos with custom illustrations. Some parallel subsets took unique artistic approaches, like foil embossed front-and-back portraits or double exposure photo variations.

Beyond visuals, Phillips carefully designed each card to feel like a authentic baseball relic through realistic wear-and-tear effects. Edges were beveled and distressed to mimic well-loved cards from decades past. Ink colors were intentionally faded or colors were shifted to simulate everything from water damage to years stuck inside a baseball card album. The verisimilitude brought the fictional players from the cards straight into the hands of collectors.

Collecting Culture and Legacy
Through word-of-mouth promotion within collector circles in the 90s, Mootown Snackers grew into a minor cult phenomenon. While never a mainstream phenomenon, their following became deeply passionate. Hardcore “Snackeroid” collectors traded and discussed the nuances of their imaginary rosters endlessly. Official sets became highly sought after by completionists. Stubbornly scarce parallel insert parallel patches sometimes changed hands for hundreds on the collector market.

More than a passing fad, the impact of Mootown Snackers endures today. Since their heyday in the 90s, appreciation for the cards’ innovative spirit and quality of execution has only increased. Modern collectors seeking clever, niche memorabilia regularly rediscover and champion the Snackers. Their fictional baseball world also influenced later homemade sports cards projects. Most significantly, the Snackers helped pave the way for today’s huge independent card scene beyond the sports card giants. By following his passion and sharing fun creations with others, Bob Phillips demonstrated the power of grassroots outlets for collectors before the internet age. Though the Mootown Snackers themselves were fictional, their story became an inspiring part of the history of sports card culture.

1991 MOOTOWN SNACKERS BASEBALL CARDS

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The 1991 Mootown Snackers baseball card set was one of the more unique minor league issues to come out during the late 80s and early 90s boom in baseball card production. At the time, the Mootown Snackers were a Class A affiliate of the Midwest City Monarchs and played their home games at the charming old Snackers Park located in downtown Mootown. While the team and stadium may seem small and forgettable by today’s standards, the 1991 Snackers card set provided a fascinating snapshot into a bygone era of minor league baseball culture and fandom.

The set was produced by Mootown Sportscards, a small local company founded in 1989 that specialized in Snackers memorabilia. It featured 75 total cards showing photos of each player on the Snackers’ 1991 roster as well as manager Louie Snax and several coaches. What made the set stand out compared to typical minor league issues of the time was the creative use of neon colors, goofy photoshopped backgrounds, and wacky player nicknames printed under each photo. For example, slugging first baseman Jim “Grand Slammin'” Gumpton’s card pictured him towering over the Snackers’ dugout with the glowing scoreboard in the background enhanced to read “Gumpton 4 HR’s!” Shortstop Bobby “Dirt Dog” Diggler’s photo was placed on a photoshopped infield with comically large smoking divots kicked up everywhere.

The fantastical visual elements created a uniquely fun and playful vibe that strongly appealed to younger collectors at the time. They also attracted criticism for being unprofessional and taking too many liberties compared to the standard realistic photography seen in Topps, Donruss and other major brand cards. Despite the debate over the photoshopping, these creative touches undeniably added to the notoriety and demand for the set within Mootown and the surrounding areas.

Each player’s stats from the 1990 season were listed on the back of their card along with fun facts and a short amusing biography written in the third person. Pitcher Randy “Sideways” Slider’s back, for example, stated “Born with a natural arm angle that would make other hurlers dizzy, Sideways lives up to his name by slinging the pill from the side. When he’s not beaning batters, he enjoys long moonlight strolls on the pitcher’s mound and scribbling in his secret mad scientist notebook.”

Adding to the whimsical small town baseball atmosphere were inserts featuring cartoonized versions of landmarks from around Mootown like Snackers Park, the historic water tower, and Scoopsville Drive-In. Manager Louie Snax’s card included a mini team roster on the back with each player’s nickname and made up stats like “Dinger Potential” and “Funness Factor.” These inserts injected extra local color and provided hours of imaginative play value for young collectors.

While production values were low budget compared to national brands, the cards had nice thick cardstock and sharp colorful graphics. Each pack contained 5 random commons and featured exciting chase cards like star third baseman Ernie “Red Hot” Pepper’s autographed version, which carried a reported print run of only 25 copies. The set was a massive hit in Mootown, completely selling out of its initial run of packs and boxes at hobby shops, card shows and Snackers games throughout the 1991 season.

This local popularity eventually gained the attention of opportunistic collectors nationwide seeking to complete their minor league collections. By the early 1990s, unopened 1991 Snackers packs and boxes could be found listed at high premiums on the growing sports card exchange market. Individual key cards like Pepper’s auto or “Grand Slammin'” Gumpton also saw their values rise substantially in the years following. Today, graded mint examples of these chase cards can fetch hundreds or even thousands of dollars from dedicated collectors looking to add this unique piece of baseball ephemera to their collections.

While the Mootown Snackers themselves faded into obscurity after relocating in the late 90s, their whimsical 1991 card set lives on as a cherished reminder of grassroots baseball fandom and simpler times. For both local and distant collectors, the photoshopped players, goofy nicknames and vibrant neon style continue to transport fans back to buzzing summer nights at Snackers Park. In an era when homogenized Topps and Leaf products dominate the modern market, the 1991 Mootown Snackers cards stand as a colorful time capsule celebrating the exaggerated passions and regional quirks that helped build America’s pastime.