A Hit And A Miss

Recently I bought one of those Fairfield repacks. The repacks provide a chance at an autographed card, and up to now I've never gotten a hit. This time I did:

2011 Bowman - Prospect Autographs #BPA-JS Josh Sale

Obviously not a high demand autograph, but it's always cool to get one. I was completely unfamiliar with the player, although I was certain he never became a Major League regular. I decided to do some research on him, and what I found was a sad and disappointing tale.

This guy was talented. You'd have to be in order to go 17th overall in the 2010 draft. Tampa Bay gave him multiple opportunities to succeed. Instead, he threw it away by making bad choices.  In 2012, he got caught using PEDs and suspended 50 games. Not even a year later, the Tampa organization suspended him again, basically for boasting on Facebook about how lousy he treated a girl at a strip club. Another year, another suspension - this time for recreational drug use. In 2015, the Rays released him. In five years with the team, he was suspended 3 times and never advanced past A-ball.

Seeing stuff like this just makes me want to shake my head. A lot of people would love to have the natural ability he had, and he took it for granted. Obviously, no one but him knows why he made the decisions he made, what or who influenced those decisions, and  where he's going to go from here. He's young enough to still turn it around, if not on a ball-field then with life in general. I hope he does...

Repack Haiku #14 (Luis Polonia)

Speedy like Rickey
Later played for Yankees
Also like Rickey

1989 Topps #424 Luis Polonia

Oakland sure did like their speedy lead-off hitters, didn't they? For that matter, the Yankees sure liked Oakland's speedy lead-off hitters too...

SEC - Bracket Match Up #15

Extra! Rookie Class Takes Little Professor To School!

One vote decided the last match! If you disagreed with the choice you have no one to blame but yourself! This week, we're feature two great players. If they faced each other in their respective primes, it would have been must watch TV!

2016 Topps Archives #50 Max Scherzer	VS	1989 Donruss #33 Ken Griffey Jr. (RC, RR)

The Case For Max Scherzer: Despite the 20 strikeout game, two no-hitters, and 2 (potentially a 3rd this year) Cy Young awards, he's remains underappreciated. He'll be a first ballot Hall of Famer when the time comes.

The Case For Ken Griffey Jr: Another rookie card of a upper level Hall of Famer. Do I really need to make an argument here?

Payday Pack - Bubble-licious!

For this week's Payday Pack, I grabbed just a simple basic pack of Series 2. Truth be told, I'll probably buy more of Series 1 while I can, at least until I get the Benintendi and Moncada rookie cards. But it's nice to see some new stuff too. As always, I'll pick my 3 favorites from the pack.

3rd Place

2017 Topps #440 Eduardo Rodriguez

It's always good to add another Red Sox card to my collection. Team loyalty aside, this card got selected because of the folds in his jersey. It looks like a a hurricane pattern, doesn't it? I keep fixating on it, it's so weird.

2nd Place

2017 Topps #667 Alex Cobb

Given the lengths pitchers often go to hide what they are throwing, this photo shows a good look at what Cobb has lined up. Four-seam fastball, coming up!

1st Place

2017 Topps #473 Eugenio Suarez

One of the blogs I read recently had the topic of cards showing players chewing bubblegum. I wish I could remember where I read it, but I believe one of the points was that this fun side of the game is making a comeback on cardboard. Eugenio has quite a sizable bubble going here, and makes this a fun card to have!

The Others:

#580 Matt Holliday
#572 Atlanta Braves
#426 New York Mets
#567 Devon Travis (Gold Parallel)
#ATAS-46 Miguel Cabrera
#588 Kirk Nieuwenhuis
#351 German Marquez
#550 Mike Mahtook
#507 Matt Garza

Repack Haiku #13 (Jose Lind)

Great action on front
Though I think the back photo
would have been better

1995 Upper Deck #183 Jose Lind

Don't get me wrong, this is a fantastic photo. Jose laying the tag down on the underappreciated speedster Kenny Lofton. Is is safe? Is he out? It's great. However, for some unjustifiable reason, I think the back photo has more personality:

1995 Upper Deck #183 Jose Lind (back)

Photos of attempted steals are commonplace. Pictures where a guy is so cold he has to cover himself up like a rejected Cobra soldier - now that you don't see on card fronts much. Either way, two good photos on one card.

SEC - Bracket Match Up #14

Read all about it!  Bell eclipses Alomar!

Not that I'm taking sides here, but I'm happy Bell won. Now both Kahn's oddballs are set to face off next round. Hot dog!

On to this week's match up - It's a 4-vs-1 rumble!

1978 Topps #707 Rookie Shortstops	VS	1941 Play Ball #63 Dom DiMaggio

The Case for Mickey Klutts Paul Molitor: Hall of Famer's rookie card! Rookie card of a guy who should be a Hall of Famer! Unfortunately named Yankee shortstop! Give me a U! Give me an L!

The Case for Dom DiMaggio: 1941 Play Ball is just a beautiful set. Dom has the cool nickname "The Little Professor".  You just have to love those glasses!

Comment to vote! Two cards enter, one card leaves!

Repack Haiku #12 (Joe Grahe)

It looks like Joe Grahe
is about to deliver
jumping Kung-Fu kick

1991 Score #367 Joe Grahe (RC, RP)

I actually had to look up how his name was pronounced to be sure I had my syllables correct...

SEC - Bracket Match Up #13

Extra! Team beats up manager!

The Red Sox win the vote, and will advance! I'll admit, I thought Billy would have won this one!

This week's match up features two oddball cards of Hall of Famers. Maybe it's me, but these cards couldn't look more different!

1992 Score Proctor and Gamble #3 Roberto Alomar	VS	1989 Kahn's Cooperstown Collection "Cool Papa" Bell

The Case for Roberto Alomar: Do you like your oddball sets bold and exciting? Are you Canadian? Do you prefer your Gold Glove winner to be depicted in an action fielding pose? If you answered yes to any of these questions, Alomar is your man!

The Case for "Cool Papa" Bell: Do you prefer a more stylish, elegant oddball card? Do you have a deep respect for baseball history? Is "Cool Papa" hands down one of the all time great baseball nicknames? If you answered yes, then ring that Bell!

Comment to vote! Who's your oddball?

Beyond Yaz and Teddy

2017 Stadium Club #260 Ted Williams

Since I've restarted my interest in baseball cards, two sets stick out as favorites: Topps Archives and Stadium Club. I love how Archives take me back to my youth with the older designs, and Stadium Club has photographs that belong in art galleries. They also share the trait of mixing in retired stars from baseball's past.

When Stadium Club came out recently, I checked to see what Red Sox were in the set. The retired stars this year: Jason Varitek, Johnny Damon, Carl Yastremski, and Ted Williams. (Oh, and David Ortiz technically, only he just retired this past season.)

I was happy see former captain Varitek and fan favorite Damon in the set, but Yaz and Williams - well, they seem to always be in these sets don't they? Maybe it's just me, but I decided to dig a little deeper and find out.

Here's the Red Sox retired stars for each set:

2017 Stadium Club (5): Johnny Damon, David Ortiz, Jason Varitek, Ted Williams, Carl Yastremski
2017 Archives (7): Damon, Bobby Doerr, Nomar Garciaparra, Perdro Martinez, Ortiz, Williams, Yaz

2016 Stadium Club (5): Wade Boggs, Nomar, Curt Schilling, Williams, Yaz
2016 Archives (6): Doerr, Nomar, Jim Rice, Babe Ruth, Willams, Yaz

2017 Topps Archives #34 Carl Yastrzemski

See what I mean? 4 sets, and Williams and Yaz have been in all of them! In fairness, my familiarity with these sets end here. I decided to continue back even further:

2015 Stadium Club (2): Roger Clemens, Rice
2015 Archives (8): Boggs, Doerr, Dennis Eckersley, Rick Farrell, Carlton Fisk, Nomar, Rice, Williams

2014 Stadium Club (4): Boggs, Clemens, Pedro, Williams
2014 Archives (4): Nomar, Pedro, Manny Ramierez, Williams

2013 Archives (6): Boggs, Ellis Burks, Dwight Evans, Mike Greenwell, Fred Lynne, Williams

2012 Archives (3): Boggs, Rice, Luis Tiant

Breaking it down by player, with total appearances in parenthesis:
Ted Williams (8)
Wade Boggs (5)
Nomar Garciaparra (5)
Jim Rice (4)
Carl Yastremski (4)
Bobby Doerr (3)
Pedro Martinez (3)
Roger Clemens (2)
Johnny Damon (2)
David Ortiz (2)
Ellis Burks (1)
Dennis Eckersley (1)
Dwight Evans (1)
Rick Farrell (1)
Carlton Fisk (1)
Mike Greenwell (1)
Fred Lynne (1)
Manny Ramierez (1)
Babe Ruth (1)
Curt Schilling (1)
Luis Tiant (1)
Jason Varitek (1)

2016 Topps Archives #101 Babe Ruth

So out of 10 sets, Teddy Ballgame has appeared in all but 2 of them.  Yaz surprisingly was never included before last year, and it looks like Topps is making up for lost time here. Nomar and Boggs are the only other players featured in at least half the sets.

Aside from being a little top-heavy, Topps seems to be doing a decent job of getting in other players from the team's history. I loved the inclusion of a Babe Ruth card last year, and I'm happy to see other old time Hall of Famers like Doerr and Farrell too. My one complaint really is the high number of cards from players during the "junk wax" years like Boggs and Rice. I have over a hundred of their cards already, and their not expensive. I really don't need more. I'd like to see more players from before I was born, or at least a few more modern fan favorites.

I'll end things with a list of 5 players I'd like to see make an appearance in future sets. (Are you listening, Topps? )

1952 Topps  #15 Johnny Pesky

Johnny Pesky - The only non-Hall of Famer (besides the recently retired David Ortiz) to have his number retired by the Red Sox. From his playing days up until his death in 2012, he was a beloved favorite at Fenway Park.

1997 Upper Deck #25 Mo Vaughn

Mo Vaughn - OK, so he also falls into that "junk wax" era, but Big Mo won the MVP award in 1995 and was a fan favorite as well.

1978 Topps #295 Bill Lee

Bill Lee - You just have to include the Spaceman at some point! I'd love to see a card capturing his sense of humor.

1934 Goudey #19 Lefty Grove

Lefty Grove - One of the greatest pitchers of All-Time.

1937 O-Pee-Chee Batter Ups (V300) #106 Jimmy Foxx

Jimmie Foxx - Jimmie is actually in this year's Archives set, but depicted with his original team, the Athletics. I would love to see him in a Red Sox uniform too.

Come on Topps, lets add some new faces next year, OK?

Repack Haiku #11 (Rafael Soriano)

Third best Santana
behind Johan and singer?
Oye Como Va!

1989 Donruss #309 Rafael Santana

SEC - Bracket Match Up #12

Read all about it! Johnson defeats Parker!

Only one voter this past week - makes tallying easy! This week's competitors have a 32 year gap between them. By my count, that's the 3rd pairing of at least 30 years. Sometimes random pairing doesn't seem so random. Still a far cry off from the 47 year gap between the 1968 Luis Tiant and the 2015 Mo Rivera .

2004 Topps World Champions Boston Red Sox #54 Team Celebration WS	VS	1972 Topps #33 Billy Martin (MGR)

The Case For The Boston Red Sox: The Billy Martin may be old, but it has nothing on the 86 year drought the 2004 team broke. Is there anything better than a celebration photo?

The Case For Billy Martin: This is one of the iconic cards from this set. There is no design that captures a decade quite like this. Billy Martin doesn't care if you vote for him or not, he'll flip you off just because he can.

As always, you can vote just by leaving a comment with your pick! 

Random Thoughts

Just a few random thoughts and observations today:

*Apparently, it's Blue Tape and Pull Tap Awareness Week! I'll refer you to the excellent post from Baseball Card Breakdown for the particulars. I had no idea this was a thing. When I received my prize pack from Collecting Cutch, I noticed the blue tape and pull tab, and now I know the reason behind this. As a new blogger, I haven't mailed out many cards (yet). In fact, I've only sent out one envelope so far. In retrospect, while I feel the cards arrived in good shape, I now know I could do better. Thanks for making this collector aware!

*Also coming up next week is National Baseball Card Day! If you're near one of the participating stores, you can score some free cards! Sadly, there are only 6 stores listed in Virginia, and none of them are close by. Oh well, you can't miss what you don't have.

*Finally, Topps also released a preview of next year's design:

If baseball logos made a sound, this one would go "Wheeeee!"

I hereby dub this the "Slip-N-Slide" set! While I like the look better than the past two years, it still overall pretty bland. Please bring back a border design soon, Topps. Also, thanks for not featuring an overexposed Yankee rookie...oh, wait, never mind...

Payday Pack: Welcome To The Club

This is probably the only pack of Stadium Club I'll buy this year, unless I find some on clearance later on. I love the photography, but the cost is a bit much. Still, I wanted to get my hands on some of this year's product, and it didn't disappoint.

3rd Place

2017 Stadium Club #45 Kyle Seager

I love celebration photos. All I can think of here is "White Man Can't Jump!"

2nd Place

2017 Stadium Club #39 Bryce Harper

Not the best picture of Bryce, but you have to love this moment when he was asked to hold all of  Olympic Champion Katie Ledecky's medals!

1st Place

2017 Stadium Club #213 Jonathan Lucroy

Wow, what a gorgeous sky! It makes you genuinely pity the ballplayers that have to play in domed stadiums.

The Others:
#175 Mark McGwire
#177 Robinson Cano
#227 Jose Canseco
#SS-MF Michael Fulmer Scoreless Streak
#240 Andrelton Simmons (Gold Parallel)
#100 Brian Dozier (Black Parallel)
#210 Garrett Richards
#250 Dee Gordon
#92 Alex Gordon

Repack Haiku #10 (Tommy Hinzo)

I can't help but feel
only important players
should wear number one

1988 Topps #576 Tommy Hinzo

The thing that stood out to me on this card was that Tommy got to wear uniform #1. Doesn't it seem like one of the unwritten rules of baseball should be that #1 is reserved for a captain of universally recognized All-Star caliber player? No, just me? Alright then, good on you Tommy!

SEC - Bracket Match-Up #11

Read All About It! Clemens K.O.'s Berrios!

I just want to thank Kin for helping to steer some extra voters to the site. I think it's more fun when more people vote and offer their opinion on cards. If you been reading these posts and haven't voted yet, consider this your invitation!

It's time for the next battle! In one corner, a player who started out slow and ended up with a Hall of Fame career. Opposing him is a player who started out with a Hall of Fame career, but got derailed along the way. It's the Big Unit vs. the Cobra! (Keep your own childish phallic euphemisms to yourself!)

1992 Leaf - Black Gold #302 Randy Johnson	VS	1982 Topps Stickers #127 Dave Parker AS

The Case for Randy Johnson: Look at that glare. He's staring into your soul. Yeah, it's only a card, but you might honestly get plunked if you don't vote for him. Do you really want to take that chance?

The Case for Dave Parker: Two words: shiny sticker. Also, any Pirate should get bonus points for rocking a pillbox hat.

Who will go the distance, and who will flop out? leave a comment and vote now!

Top 5 Ivan Rodriguez

My Top 5 Hall of Fame Series concludes with Ivan Rodriguez. "Pudge" is arguably the greatest defensive catcher ever, winning 13 Gold Gloves. He was no slouch with the bat, also winning 7 Silver Slugger awards. His MVP in 1999 is a bit of a sore spot with us Red Sox fans, but that's not Ivan's fault. (Stupid biased New York city writers...) Still, you can't argue he wasn't one of the Top 3 catchers of all time!

My collection of Pudge stands at 20, with his Rangers days being in my realm of collecting youth. Here are my Top 5:

1997 Upper Deck #138 (DG)

In hand, I don't like theses cards. The reflective coating damages way too easily. Going just by the scans however, the Defensive Gems in this set really stand out. The picture of Pudge looks like it's coming off the card in this scan. I love the contrast.

1992 Pinnacle #156

This set from Pinnacle does a good job of framing the pictures. I like how only part of the background is used, and the black border to make it really stand out.

1991 Bowman #272 (RC)

I prefer my cards of catchers to show them in gear. I couldn't pass up including his rookie card though. Have you seen him lately? The dude does not age!

1992 Score #700

His eyes facing forward, I'm thinking this shot was taken just after a throw to second to catch a thief. Chances are good he got the out.

2008 Upper Deck #740 (SH)

So far every card I've shown has each Hall of Famer with just one team. Bagwell only played with the Atros, and Raines was an iconic figure in Montreal. Rodriguez was known mainly during his days in Texas, but he played for a lot of teams, and most of the time he played very well. We'll close out the list with him as a Tiger.

Ivan Rodriguez was an easy choice for a first ballot Hall of Famer. Congrats, Ivan!

Top 5 Tim Raines

Continuing with my Hall of Fame Top 5, it's time to show off my favorites of new Hall of Famer Tim Raines.

Back when I was collecting as a kid, you knew who the good players were because your cards told you so. Guys with a lot of All Star cards, guys near the top of statistical leader boards - these were good players, and the one who seemed to be on more of these cards were the great ones. Tim Raines is one of those players. I never saw him play on TV during his prime, but every time I saw the league leader in steals, it was always him and Rickey. He was one of the greats in my eyes, and it astounded me that it took so long for him to get his due.

Since he played mostly during my colecting hey-day, I have 47 different cards of Tim Raines, mostly from his days as an Expo. That puts him at #32 on my player collections, without even trying. Picking my 5 favorites was a lot more difficult than it was with Bagwell. Still, here's what I came up with:

1991 Upper Deck #143

When you think of Raines, you think of speed. The man could run with the best of them, and this picture shows him doing what he does best!

1988 Fleer #193 

Every now and the, A company chooses a border that meshes well with a particular teams set of colors. I can't think of a better example than Fleer's red, white and blue stripes with the Montreal Expos.

1988 Topps #403 (AS)

I've always liked the All Star cards from this set. They remind me of the kind of cards you'd see in the 50's and 60's. The yellow may be a bit much, but the head coming out of a diamond is quality design.

1981 Topps #479 (RC)

Do you think Roberto Ramos or Bobby Pate ever brag about how valuable their rookie card is worth?

1985 Topps #630

As far as posed shots go, this one is pretty good. Well cropped, and the look in his eyes mean business!

Tim Raines, your entry to the Hall of Fame was worth the wait! Congratulations!

Top 5 Jeff Bagwell

It's Hall of Fame Induction Weekend! On July 30th, the Hall will welcome 5 new inductees, 3 players and 2 executives. As my personal way of marking the occasion, I'm going to do a Top 5 list of each player, choosing my 5 favorites among my collection. First up is Jeff Bagwell.

Jeff Bagwell remains the great "What If" of Red Sox baseball. He was a 3rd base prospect who did not hit for much power in Boston's system. Blocked by two-time All-Star Scott Cooper, he was traded to the Houston Astros for reliever Larry Andersen. Andersen pitched well and helped the Red Sox to a division title, but did little after that. Houston moved Jeff to first, adjusted his swing, and got 15 years of Hall of Fame production. It's regarded as one of the most lopsided trades in baseball history.

Despite the sting of what could have been, I was happy for his success and enjoyed the few occasions on TV when I got to watch him.

As of today, I have 18 different cards of Jeff Bagwell, mostly from his younger years. A large chunk of his career happened when I wasn't collecting. Still, it wasn't difficult to choose my five favorites. My choices for Top 5 are listed in card numerical order:

1992 Donruss Diamond King #DK-11

I've always liked Diamond Kings, and the set from 1992 is one of the better ones. The artwork here is excellent!

1997 Upper Deck #83

A good shot of Bagwell's follow-through. You can tell he generated a lot of power from his legs. This set would have been much better if they toned down the foil. The wood-grain foil was too much.

1991 Bowman #183 (RC)

I didn't realize I had a rookie card of his until I looked up my collection on TCDB. It's a pleasant surprise. I'll have to pull it from the set and add it to the other Hall of Fame rookie cards in my collection.

1994 Collector's Choice #329

This is a great piece of photography! You can just tell the ball went far on this one!

1992 Topps #520 (ASR)

We'll end things off with a Topps All-Star Rookie Cup! I'm curious to see how many players with the cup went on to have Hall of Fame careers.

Congratulations Jeff Bagwell. You are truly one of the all time greats!