My Ten Favorite Mark Messier Cards In My Collection

If my memory can be trusted, this card had a gigantic impact on me becoming a hockey, Rangers, and Mark Messier fan. I was already 12 years old when this card came out, but hockey had been almost totally off my radar up until that point. Hockey was not on many people’s radars in my hometown of Kansas City, but that started to change a bit with the arrival of the IHL Kansas City Blades for the 1990-91 season, NHL games broadcasting on ESPN, and the explosion in popularity of roller blades and roller hockey.

A couple of my cousins had gotten on the Blades bandwagon big time and started collecting hockey cards as well. At some family gathering (Christmas 1992?) they brought some of their cards to show off, and I was fascinated by all their hockey cards. Hockey seemed so mysterious but so cool. I have a vivid memory of my cousin pointing out this card and mentioning that Messier was a great player. Maybe he mentioned he was the reigning MVP. For whatever reason, that card and that name stuck with me and I wanted to see him in action.

Fortunately for me, ESPN had just started showing two or three hockey games per week for the 1992-93 season. And, in my memory at least, it seemed like one or two of those games always featured a Rangers contest. The games started as fascinating mysteries but I quickly picked up on the game’s basics and then it’s nuances, all the while being amazed by those high-flying Rangers with Messier, Brian Leetch, and Sergei Zubov putting on regular displays of offensive wizardry, Adam Graves grinding it out with a zeal that you couldn’t help but admire, and Mike Richter and John Vanbiesbrouck taking turns putting on acrobatic shows in the net.

Before long, I had a pair of roller blades and a stick, and what money I could scrounge up for cards started going more and more to packs of hockey. I was hooked.