My interest in G.I. Joe and action figures in general began to slowly fade away in the late 80’s or so and baseball and outdoor sports quickly filled that void.Although I was a NY Met fan at heart,my favorite American League team was the Oakland Athletics.In the 80’s this team was super popular and I guess the reason I loved them so much was because every one of there players looked like they came right off of the pages of a Marvel comic!I’m serious..no joke!These guys were chiseled and hit the ball 450-500 ft. out of the ball park on a regular basis.They had sluggers like Dave Parker,Dave Henderson,Mark McGwire and my personal favorite Jose Canseco.I was a huge Canseco fan growing up and had to know what he did,where and how he did it in every single one of his at bats. Very seldom did I get a chance to see the A’s play during the regular season unless they played the Yankees.I remember calling an MLB hotline to get the scoop on what the A’s did when the games weren’t televised in my area. Now around that same time Kenner released MLB Starting Lineup’s and I collected the heck out of em’.These cool little baseball figurines were just what the doctor ordered for a kid who was just getting over action figures and falling in love with Major League Baseball.I immediately picked up a Keith Hernandez,Dwight Gooden,Kirby Puckett and a few other favorites of mine but the Jose Canseco figure eluded me.In 1988 Canseco set an MLB record by becoming the first player to ever hit 40 homeruns and steal 40 bases in one season and that year Kenner released a figure commemorating the historic feat.Eventually I had mowed enough lawns to save up and ultimately buy that very same Jose Canseco Starting Lineup figure!Unfortunately I have zero of the Starting Lineup figures I owned as a kid so a while back I stumbled upon this version of Canseco and picked him up for old time’s sake.I thought It would somehow rekindle my love for Starting Lineup’s and lead me to start collecting them again but the figure had no effect on me.McFarlane was out at the time and began releasing some ridiculously realistic sports figures that made Kenner’s Starting Lineup’s look like Happy Meal toys.Now I find myself back in Starting Lineup mode and currently have a couple in my sights.I would love to collect all of the Canseco releases as well as some of the ones I owned as a kid.Wish me luck 😉
AF&T 