Taste the Blood of Monster Serial (Again)

Card #616 of Fleer's 1989 baseball series is notorious among collectors. It's actually a marvel of incompetency, one that involved all levels of professional baseball to make happen: While posing for photos for the card series, Baltimore Orioles second baseman Billy Ripken was handed a bat with the words "FUCK FACE" written on the knob. Allegedly, he was clueless about the message on the bat's grip. The photographer didn't notice it, nor did Fleer's graphic designers or editorial staff. Once it went to press, though, the card was subject to the scrutiny of fans ... who quickly spotted the problem.

Subsequent printings airbrushed out the offending words (although I'm not sure what was so offensive about the word "face.") Today, the original version of the card remains a valuable collector's item.

If you're among the people who have already purchased TASTE THE BLOOD OF MONSTER SERIAL — the third book from The Collinsport Historical Society —  you've got a similar collector's item on your hands. In this case, though, I'm the "fuck face." A number of errors slipped through the proofing process, a few of which were insidious. For example, Desmond Reddick's piece on GOKE: BODY SNATHCER FROM HELL was particularly a problem, with bits of his text sometimes migrating into other people's work. It's a good piece and I'll be sharing it here sometime during the next few months ... but don't be surprised if it manages to possess random Word files on your computer.

Anyhoo, I've made several corrections to the text, which should fix the problem in future editions. If you happen to spot me at a convention, I'll gladly do an embarrassing, clothing-optional dance in penitence for my mistake when presented with a copy of the first edition of this book.