By the page: Jose Cruz Jr.

I actually got something accomplished on the weekend.  With my sister-in-law visiting, my wife was otherwise occupied.   That left me free to work on the multitude of piles sitting on my desk.   I actually made some progress on the two Blue Jay piles on the desk, separating the cards needed from the cards I already have.  I still have a stack of about 150 still to enter into the spreadsheet, but it is nice to know that the light at the end of the tunnel is getting brighter.

I still have a lot of cards on the desk for these "by the page" posts, so let's get another one out of the way, and look at Jose Cruz Jr.

Top row:  The dark blues

I'm really not sure what Topps was thinking on the Topps Reserve card in the middle.  Player uniform number on a dot in the middle of the picture, and then a second dot on the bottom of the card with the position.  Definitely not one of Topps finest releases (no pun intended).  Even the Leaf checklist card on the right hand side is a nicer design.

Middle row:  2001/02 base cards

The 2002 Heritage card was an easy choice for the middle of the page when I saw it.  In retrospect the '02 Heritage set is something that I should have put together, because it is one of my favorite designs from the '50s.  I surrounded the Heritage card with a couple of road uniform photos.  The '01 UD design would have been better in my opinion of the team logo wasn't done in foil.  The '02 Topps Opening Day foil is a little too big for my tastes, and stands out from the rest of the photo.  I'm sure that a better way could have been used to distinguish between OD and the flagship.

Bottom row:  Shiny

OK, I have to say this.  Doesn't it look as if Cruz had an accident on the Donruss Preferred Power card?  I really didn't think too much of it until I saw the scan in front of me on the screen.  Does anyone think that Topps should go back to the larger Chrome sets similar to what they released in the late 90's?  Yea I know that the cards are expensive, but I like the larger team sets that were available on the Chrome releases back then.  The cookie cutter 200 card sets now just don't appeal to me.

Not a bad page, all but one of the cards feature Cruz batting or running.  I'm sure I'll be able to put together one more page of Cruz Jr., it'll be interesting to see if I have any cards of him in a fielding or throwing pose.

thanks for reading, Robert