Sports Illustrated for Kids was a magical publication. Before I was deemed mature enough to handle Rick Reilly, I was given Buzz Beamer. Before I could be trusted with the swimsuit issue, I had perforarted sports cards, often with athletes like synchronized swimmers that would never have received a sports card otherwise. It’s a publication that holds a special place in my heart.

But I had never once considered the covers. Then Mighty Flynn sent me the link to one and my eyes were opened to the world as if for the first time. If you have any appreciation for visual puns, cheesefests, and pure 90s fun, they are a real treat.

Please enjoy the below covers and check out the SI Kids Cover Viewer for even more ridiculous covers that were either from other sports or just not wacky enough to make the cut.

August 1989. Photo by Jade Albert.

Now we can watch Little Leaguers cry in 3D. That’s progress.

April 1990, photo by George B. Fry III

This is not photoshopped. I can tell by the pixels.

April 1991. Photo by Chuck Carlton/Axiom.

Cecil Fielder is so fat he has his own gravitational pull.

September 1991. Photo by George B. Fry III

Fun fact: Nolan Ryan’s seventh no-hitter was against a team of school children.

April 1992. Photo by Jeffrey Lowe

Two minutes later, Roberto Alomar spat in that child umpire’s face.

June 1992. Photo by George B. Fry III

Inside: Cal Ripken tells you how to improve your baseball skills. Sadly not inside: Cal Ripken tells you how to improve your juggling skills.

April 1994. Photo by George B. Fry III.

Why was this not included in Juan Gonzalez’s Hall of Fame packet?

July 1994. Photos by Phillip Salsontall, Kevin Horan, Jeffrey Lowe

This is what created the Internet.

May 1995. Photo by George B. Fry III, illustration by Jo W. Karapelou

When I said I wanted to “be inside Ken Griffey Jr,” this isn’t what I meant.

June 1995. Photo by George B. Fry III

For anyone that didn’t live through the 90s, this is what it was like all day, every day.

June 1996. Photo by Wayne McSpadden

I just want to own this and look at every morning.

April 1997. Photo by Andrew Eccles

Jeffrey Maier’s got nothing on this guy.

July 1997. Photo by Andrew Eccles

This is the most likable Alex Rodriguez has ever been.

April 1998. Photo by V.J. Lovero

The most embarrassing part of this photo is the uniforms.

June 1998. Photo by VJ Love and Scott Clarke.

Not only did this make the cover of Sports Illustrated for Kids, but it doubled as the cover story on Bass Fisherman Monthly and Dads and Kids Magazine.

July 1998. Photo by Ronald C. Modra

Look at those steely, leadership-y, I’m-gonna-murder-your-family eyes.

May 2000. Photo by Tom DiPace.

Did you know that parts of Nomar’s body were repaired using vacuum cleaner parts following various injuries?

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Sadly, after 2000 and probably because of the Y2K bug, SI for Kids started trying to fit in with the big boy magazines and dropped the hilariously Photoshopped covers. Most historians recognize that as the day print officially died. So if the editors of Sports Illustrated for Kids happen to be reading this, I ask only one thing: please have more athletes Photoshopped on rockets.

Last, if this is your kind of thing, you may also enjoy the best of the Costacos Brothers 90s posters I wrote about a few weeks ago which can be found here. Because nothing eases you into the weekend quite like the 90s.