Still showing off the spoils of the monthly card show

The past couple of weekends have been very good in my pursuit of the '75 Topps set.  I've picked up 76 cards, leaving me with just 53 to go to complete the set.  Of the 53, some of them will hit the wallet a little.  The Hank Aaron's that bookend the set, the Rice and Carter RCs, Nolan Ryan, Pete Rose and Carl Yastrzemski cards all book for more than $10, so I'll probably end up picking up those one at a time.

It was fun last weekend at the card show to pick up a nice chunk of cards towards the set, so I figured I'd show a few of them off to you, 5-4-3-2-1 style.

Let's start with 5 of the team checklist cards:

I wonder if the White Sox didn't have a team photo available.  Kind of an interesting contrast to the other 4 cards, none of which feature the floating heads.  By my count, a couple of Sox were shortchanged, because there's only 23 floating heads n the photo.

Next, we have 4 of the 4-square Rookie Cards:

A couple of names that I remember in a lot of uniforms that I don't remember them in.  I never knew that Scott McGregor was a Yankee or Vern Ruhle was a Tiger.  I do remember Dennis Leonard having a run of success with the Royals during the late 70's and early 80's, only to have his career cut short because of recurring knee problems.


I love the year by year MVP cards, and these three are no exception:

Six pretty solid players on these 3 cards.  It's not often that pitchers earn the MVP award, but Vida Blue's 1971 season was well worth the award.  24-8, 8 shutouts, 1.82 ERA, 0.952 WHIP.  Take a look at the 1971 MVP voting, and look at the hitters who earned votes, and you'll see why Blue won the award.

Speaking of Vida Blue....

I'm sure anyone playing fantasy baseball in the mid 70's would have been happy with these two guys on their team.

Finally, one league leaders card:

Interesting to note, the AL had introduced the DH rule in 1973 to increase scoring.  Burroughs was only one of 2 AL hitters to drive in 100 + runs, while Bench was one of 9 National League batters to drive in 100 (Ron Cey just needed 3 more and he would have made it an even 10).  Maybe the DH took a little time to kick in?

Less than 10% of the set to go, can't wait to get them all in pages and enjoy the set even more.

thanks for reading, Robert

Common card of the day: Wilton Guerrero

Hard for me to tell who the Padres player is.  There's a few Pads bloggers out there, maybe they can help. 

I sure wouldn't want to be on the tail end of that landing.

Thanks for looking, Robert

My 1st 3 packs of Heritage...I can hardly believe my eyes

 A little bit of language in this post....please be forewarned...

Heritage.  The one set I planned on collecting this year.  I've said it all along, Heritage was the one set I wanted to build of all the 2013 releases.

If I keep getting packs like the 3 I'm about to show you, I just may change my mind.  I stopped at Wal Mart this morning, and grabbed one blaster and three loose packs.  The loose packs were from the same box, back to back to back.  By the way, you're only going to see scans of 6 cards.   You'll see why in a moment.

Pack #1 was opened in the Wal Mart parking lot.  Yes, I am an overgrown kid who just couldn't wait to rip into a pack of baseball cards.


191 Anthony Rizzo (first Heritage card of the year for me)
373 Ted Lilly
96   Jeff Samardzija
216 Jason Kipnis
95   B.J. Upton
NF-FM Flashback Ford Mustang
253 Sergio Romo
115 Dan Uggla  X2

Really?  Then I sit back and think, I've seen others have duplicate cards come out of packs.  So I shrug it off, and drive to work.  I'm 15 minutes early, so I sit in the parking lot and open....

Pack #2:

253 Sergio Romo
280 Ryan Vogelsong
292 Trevor Cahill
30   Chad Billingsley
258 Michael Young
491 Wei-yin Chen (only 74 more SPs to go)
20   James McDonald
348 Miguel Gonzalez  X2

So now I notice this, and I look through the windshield of my truck and say "what the f---".  I still have time before I have to go inside, so let's rip...

Pack 3!

281  Yankee Rookies
318  Kendrys Morales
86    Ivan Nova
183  Fernando Rodney
374  Luis Cruz
TN-MG  then and now Marichal/Gonzalez
280  Ryan Vogelsong

399  Dale Sveum......you can bloody well guess how many of these I got in the pack....

Then sends me into another level of pissed off....I cannot believe what I'm seeing.

3 packs, in a row, all containing multiple cards.

I couldn't make this shit up if I tried.

I didn't even touch the blaster this evening.  Topps took the one set I was really looking forward to, and turned it into a bit of a joke so far, at least from where I sit.

The one thing I've learned over the past decade that I've been with my wife is that I need to sit back and have a little patience when things piss me off.  I really like this set.  I like the design, I even like the inserts so far.  

But seeing stuff like this?  How can you not help but be pissed....

OK, maybe it's just me, but it's 13 hours after I opened these packs, and I'm still dumbfounded.

Or maybe this was Topps plan, and I fell for it because I am dumb.

I'll sleep on the Heritage dilemma, and let you know....

thanks for reading, Robert

Common card of the day: Glen Featherstone

For a guy with such a "light" name, he was one of the heavyweights during his day.  204 PIMs in 90-91 as a member of the Blues, in the fight a night Norris division is proof of that.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Some long overdue additions to the Jim Thome PC

I remember months ago, shouting out on the blog that Jim Thome was someone that I really respected and admired. I also mentioned that I wanted to start a collection of his cards. 

Well, that got put by the wayside, for quite a while it seems.  When I was at the card store a couple of weeks ago, I finally managed to snag a few cards.  There was quite a few of them there, but I only grabbed a handful, largely because I had also picked up quite a few '75s, along with a couple of the 2008 Masterpiece SPs (I only need 2 more of those, help!).  I didn't know how much the others were going to cost, but I knew how much I wanted to spend!

It's only 5 cards, but I managed to pickup cards featuring 3 different teams.   First up is Cleveland:

Budweiser anyone?

The White Sox are up next:

The purple from the '09 UD Spectrum really scanned well.  The X Die Cut I already have for the set, so landing a 2nd copy was cool.

Finally, the lone card from his brief stay with the Dodgers:

This brings the Thome collection up to a grand total of 25 cards + 1 jersey card.  Not a whopping total for a guy who has spent 22 years in the bigs, but it's a start. 

thanks for reading, Robert

Common card of the day: John Mabry

Mabry, Mabry not

Thanks for reading, Robert

Common Card of the day: Roy Oswalt

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Thanks for reading, Robert

It's cool when you recognize a couple of the names

The '64 Topps set is easily one of my favorites, despite the fact that the set was released 3 years before I was born.  Because of this, there are quite a few players in the set that I've never even heard of.

Good in some ways, not so good in others.  For example, no offense to Messrs. Lamabe and Cardwell, but I've never heard of either of you fellows before.

Mr. Lamabe played for 7 teams in a brief 7 year big league career.  Mr. Cardwell pitched in just over 400 games during a 14 yr career, and won 102 of them with 5 different teams. 

Now, moving on to some guys I'm sure that a lot of you have heard of before.  Let's start with Bobby Richardson:

I've always been a fan of guys who don't strike out a lot, and Richardson is an excellent example.  In 1448, regular season and post season games, Richardson only struck out 3 times in a game once.  Some fellow named Koufax struck him out 3 times in Game 1 of the '63 series.  In Richardson's final 6 seasons, he had  4215 plate appearances, and only struck out 172 times, or once every 24.5 at bats.

You may know this next guy also, Roger Craig.

I'd known of Craig as a manager and pitching coach for many years in the bigs, including the world champion '84 Tigers.  What I wasn't aware of is that Roger was one of the original Mets, and suffered through two tough seasons in '62 and '63, losing 24 & 22 games during those 2 years. 

Finally, I picked up a Boog Powell card for a measly 50 cents.

Surprise, I learned something else today.  I wasn't aware that the first three full seasons of Powell's career were spent in left field.  It wasn't until '65 that Powell starting playing first base, splitting his games between first and left, before moving full time to 1st base in '66.  I also don't ever recall seeing Orioles uniforms with that type of bird logo on the sleeve.  I had to do a little research on that bird as well, and I found out that the Orioles used that type of logo as an alternate between 1955-1963.

I was able to pickup 15 more cards towards the '64 set at last weekend's show, leaving me 23 cards short of the halfway point. 

Hopefully there will be a few more names that I recognize along the way as well.

thanks for reading, Robert

Common card of the day: Jamie McLennan

His nickname is "Noodles"

1999-00 Pacific Omega #204.

I actually liked the Omega and Paramount sets back in the day.  Don't ask me why

Thanks for reading, Robert

Just a passing fancy

Many of you have seen my many posts on the 70's sets that I'm working on.  '77T, almost done.  '75T, less than 60 to go now.  '73T & '76T, a little over halfway done, but still actively being pursued.

When I hit the monthly card show, I don't focus on picking up cards from other sets, just because I'd like to keep most of my money for the show earmarked on the sets that I'm closer to completing.

My problem is, I really can't help myself.  When I see great looking cards of older sets, in bargain bins no less, the impulse shopper in me takes over.   Gotta have that one.  Wow, two more for that set so cheap!!

It's a disease I tell you.  Well, I guess it could be worse, I could have the plague.

I've joked several times about the "monthly '62".  At this show, it doubled up.

As opposed to the other vintage sets I've been working, this set is just moving along at a slow and steady pace.  I have 45 cards so far, and for some reason I'm not doing an imitation of Speed Racer to try and complete this set. 

Another set that I'll enjoy completing is '68 Topps.  Not unlike the '62 set, this set is one that I like the look of, but for some reason I'm working very slowly on it.  Not sure why, but I've only managed to grab 17 cards so far.

I've always been partial to the sleeveless uniforms with the T-Shirt underneath look.  The '68 design is one that I like, but I just can't put my finger on why...

I also managed to pickup another color TV while at the show.   A bit beat up, but for 65 cents, it found a home...

The '55 Bowman set is definitely one that I could say is "just a passing fancy".  Most of the '50s sets are likely going to be out of my price range.  If I can pick up a common here or there on the cheap I will, but putting together the set is likely going to be out of the question.

Same thing with the '57 and '59 sets, I picked up a trio of cards on the cheap, but the thought of cards like Mantle, Aaron and Clemente from these years just scares the hell out of me...

I'll probably live the '59 set vicariously through the 59 Topps Blog that CommishBob writes.

All that for just 8 cards, still have a lot more to show from other sets....stay tuned.

Thanks for reading, Robert

Common card of the day: Kevin Foster

Wow, did the Cubs really wear these uniforms??

 

1998 Collectors Choice #54.  The back actually shows Foster in a hitting pose.

Have fun, Robert

Common card of the day: Bip Roberts

I'm sure you all are aware of the great blog Sports Card Info, which has a card of the day feature.  I really enjoy it, and the feature is one of the first emails I read in the morning.  I decided to try it myself, only with a different spin.  While Sports Card Info shows many great cards, including autos, jerseys, great RCs of Hall of Famers, etc., I've decided to show some of the cards that don't garner as much attention.

The commons. I consider myself just a common man, so I figured why not show off a bunch of common cards.  No rhyme, no reason.  Any year is in play.  The majority of my collection is baseball and hockey, so those will be the two sports that will dominate these posts. 

Who knows, you may see a football card slip in once in a while, if the time is right. 

I'll also throw in a quick comment about the card,  Nothing exciting, maybe a blurb or two that I feel is appropriate.

Ever been Bipped?

Please feel free to say anything that comes to mind in the comments.  It can be about the player, the photo, the team, the set...don't be shy.

I hope you have fun with these.  I'll continue to do as many as I can, as long as I have commons to scan and show off.

That should keep me going for quite a while.

Thanks for reading, Robert