Random Cards From My Collection #44

Card #19484
2010 Topps #387 Josh Fields

Comments on the card: I kind of liked the big swoosh on these cards when I first saw them but find the set less to my liking these days
When acquired: 2010
How acquired: Paid $0.19 for 6 packs of Series 2 bought at Target
Player's season: Fields was a White Sox 1st round draft pick who made his major league debut with a home run in 2006. By 2010 he was with the Royals but only appeared in 13 games. He's been in the minors ever since. In fact, today he's with the Phillies farm club in Lehigh Valley.

Card #19028
1989 Donruss #485 Kevin Mitchell

Comments on the card: One of a series of crazy 1980's designs by Donruss.
When acquired: 2009
How acquired: Acquired in a box of 1989 Donruss along with a pile of other sports stuff at a church bazaar.
Player's season:1989 was Mitchell's biggest year. He hit .292 with 47 home runs and 125 RBIs. He was an All Star and the National League MVP. Oh, and the Giants won the World Series.

Card #3787
1994 Pinnacle #344 Bryan Harvey

Comments on the card: This was a real nice set. Glossy full bleed cards with good photography front and back.
When acquired: Don't know.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: As a member of the first Marlins team in 1993, Harvey had an ERA of 1.70, appeared in 59 games, and saved 45 games. In 1994, he had an ERA of 5.23, appeared in only 10 games with 6 saves. He hardly pitched at all in 1995 and by 1996 he was injured and never returned.

Card #17967
2010 Topps #378 George Sherrill

Comments on the card: Go ahead and compare this to the 1994 Pinnacle. Seriously lacking.
When acquired: 2010
How acquired: Paid $0.26 for a blaster box of Series 2.
Player's season: Sherrill was a closer with the Orioles before the Dodgers got him in 2009. They appeared to be using him as a middle reliever, appearing in 65 games in 2010 but in only 36.1 innings.

Card #6994
2005 Skybox Autographics #13 Sammy Sosa

Comments on the card: Non-glossy cards featuring close-ups of the players on team colors and facsimile autographs in silver foil.
When acquired: Don't know but probably got it new.
How acquired: Don't know.
Player's season: A declining Sosa hit .221 with 14 home runs in 102 games for the Orioles.

Card #2660
2001 Greats of the Game Autographs Jim Bunning

Comments on the card: Non-glossy with an on-card auto. Great card.
When acquired: 2005
How acquired: Paid $8.50 in eBay.
Player's season: In 2005, Bunning was a US Senator from Kentucky.

Card #25623
1991 Donruss #760 Checklist

Comments on the card: Donruss continued the crazy through 1991.
When acquired: Don't know.
How acquired: Don't know.

Card #28657
2011 Topps Lineage #110 Thurman Munson

Comments on the card: I pretty much hated this set. The fronts and backs are very dull. It didn't help that about a third of the cards I got were badly miss cut.
When acquired: 2011
How acquired: Paid $0.35 for a blaster box from Target.
Player's season: Munson is the only Yankee ever to win both the Rookie of the Year and Most Valuable Player awards. Munson's career ended tragically in 1979 when he crashed his private plane and died from a broken neck.

Card #33061
2012 Bowman Chrome Prospects #85 Levi Michael

Comments on the card: 2012 was the first Bowman set in many years that I actually liked when they finally broke out of the long boring red and black theme.
When acquired: 2012
How acquired: Paid $0.31 for a 3-pack blister pack.
Player's season: The Twins #1 Draft Pick in 2011, Michael spent 2012 with the Twins single A team in Fort Myers, FL. For what it's worth, he hit .246 in 117 games.

Card #25971
1997 Upper Deck #201 Roberto Alomar

Comments on the card: A subset of 1997 Upper Deck featuring top players and references to their "international" backgrounds. Alomar was from the not-so-foreign country of Puerto Rico.
When acquired: Don't know
How acquired: Don't know
Player's season: 1997 was a pretty good year for Alomar. He hit .333 with 14 home runs and was an All Star. His playing time was limited by spending most of August on the DL.

Random Cards From My Collection #10

Card #9183
1992 Stadium Club #290 John Kruk

The first two years of Stadium Club, 1991 and 1992, are among my favorite sets ever. Here John Kruk daintily runs the bases. I like how the fielder in the background is running the other way, indicating John hit a gapper.

Card #6180
2004 MLB Showdown Pennant Run #107 Tom Glavine

From one of my favorite sets to one of my least favorite. MLB Showdown was one of many attempts to make a baseball card based game (think Topps Attack). This set was particularly infuriating to me as a collector since Since there were three variations on this set: MLB Showdown, MLB Showdown Pennant Run and MLB Showdown Trading Deadline. They are impossible to tell apart.

Card #30845
1997 Upper Deck #125 Wade Boggs

I always like this year of Upper Deck. The wood grained foil at the bottom is attractive and the gold foil shields, like this one for the 1996 All-Star game were distinctive. Or maybe I just like the shields because the All-Star game was in Philadelphia, my home town.

Card #27025
1991 Score 100 Rising Stars #19 Willie Blair

Score 100 Rising Stars was a stand-alone 100-card set available as a complete set. I don't remember ever seeing them for sale back in 1991 but I've gotten a few in repacks. The design is very much like the 1991 Score base set.

Card #28432
2011 Topps #511 Philadelphia Phillies

J-Roll gets mobbed.

Card #949
1996 Ultra #257 Mickey Morandini

Another Phillies card comes up at random. What can I say but that I own a lot of Phillies cards. The card exhibits a poor use of foil on the front. Even in person, the player's name is hard to read on the card.

Card #13592
1988 Score #575 Nolan Ryan

When I started collecting in 1985 I was kind of a Topps snob (don't ask me why, I don't know). I'm pretty sure I didn't buy any packs of this inaugural issue of Score. To this day I don't really care for it. The choice of border colors may be way. In 2009 I bought a large box of assorted sports cards and other sports memorabilia at our church bazaar. As punishment for my sins I found a unopened box of 1988 Score. And that's how I acquired this card.

Card #23390
1995 Upper Deck #26 Doug Drabek

1995 was my first summer in Houston and the year I started collecting Astros cards as well as Phillies cards. Drabek was a player I'd already been collecting. This is another Upper Deck set that I like.

Card #15945
1992 Ultra #34 Craig Grebeck

For it's second year of Ultra, Fleer introduced a glossy finish and gold foil. Another one of my favorite sets,

Card # 26644
1980 Topps #306 Denny Walling

The only thing I really remember about the 1980 Astros team (besides the uniforms) is that the Phillies beat them to advance to the World Series.

2009 baseball card wrapup

It's January 2010. We have only a few weeks (maybe) until the 2010 cards start to appear. So it's time to wrap up the 2009 collecting year. I'm going to show some of my favorite cards of the year with some random observations and stats.


2009 Tristar Obek Tom Seaver (#39)2009 my be the year that we overdosed on retro cards. At least I did. I bought 4 backs of Obek in Walmart not knowing what it was. When I went back for more, there was no more. The set featured a retro design of former major league players with their minor league teams. Good concept and good execution.

A high point of the year for me was finding a baseball card store near my new job. I've not had easy access to a card store for many years. It may not be the best shop but the people there are knowledgeable and it's nice to talk about baseball cards with someone who knows what you're talking about.

2009 Topps Heritage Mayo Ichiro (#15)
OK, another retro card. This was an insert to Topps Heritage. I pulled two of these from a hobby box. Topps also produced a whole set of Mayo football cards. I don't do football cards.

I bought a number of hobby boxes this year which I don't normally do. In addition to Topps Heritage, I bought hobby boxes of Allen & Ginter, Topps 206, Upper Deck Goodwin Champions and Topps Update.

2009 Topps American Heritage Barak Obama (#126)
Although I generally dislike the trend to more non-baseball cards in baseball card sets, this set was a non-baseball card set which used baseball card designs. Topps used their base set designs from many years to make an enjoyable set. See Night Owl's post on the worst card in 2009 here. I voted for the Upper Deck Retrospective.

I acquired 3,272 2009 baseball cards. This is a bit down from 2008. In 2008, I acquired the most cards I had in years. I attribute this to getting involved in the baseball card blogosphere. Most of the 2009 cards I acquired by purchasing hobby boxes, blaster boxes and some loose packs. I also got a bunch of cards through trades with other bloggers and purchases of individual cards on eBay.

2009 Topps 2006 Cliff Lee (#46)
It was an exciting year to be a Phillies fan with them going to the World Series for the second year in a row. And Cliff Lee was a big part of that excitement. This is the only Cliff Lee card as a Phillie that I have. I don't think there are many Phillie Lee cards and there probably won't be many more since he's already not a Phillie. Although I was happy to pull this from the hobby box I bought, in general, Topps 206 is my biggest disappointment of the year. I really liked past Topps 206 sets and was looking forward to this. I don't think it is a very good set.

Another disappointment to me this year was the availability of cards in the local Target and WalMarts. New product was slow to appear and when it did appear it didn't last long.

2009 Topps WalMart Black Ken Griffey, Jr. (#30)
Speaking of WalMart, Topps sold alternative designs to their base set in Target and WalMart. WalMart cards had the background of the photos almost completely blacked out. The Target cards were on gray stock with an old-school logo. I thought it was a pretty clever ploy by Topps but I hope they don't do it again in 2010. I bought a lot more product from Topps then I planned to because of this, which, come to think of it is why they did this. So I'm sure they will do it again.

Overall, I acquired 8,436 baseball cards in 2009. The non-2009 cards were from various years picked up at the card shop, in repacks or on eBay. I also had all those late 1980s cards I got at the church bazaar.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter Mini Framed Silk Albert Pujols (1 of 10)
This may be the best pull I've ever had. I know I featured it before but I love this card so much I had to show it again.

My overall card collecting goal is to acquire one of each kind of card produced (which is another reason I was so thrilled with the Pujols card above, having to buy one of these on eBay would be expensive). For awhile in 2009, I concentrated in 1996 cards. There were 307 different kinds of cards (base sets, inserts and parallels) produced in 1996 and I had 167. I set a goal of getting up to 200 of them. I had 11 posts in 2009 featuring 1996 cards but I didn't finish the whole year. But I did get up to 202 1996 cards.

2009 Topps Mike Schmidt (#475b)
This seemed to be the year for alternate short-print cards. The regular Topps #475 features some other third baseman named Chipper Jones. I didn't pull this myself but got it in a trade with Dinged Corners.

2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Championship Ryan Howard (#106b)
Another short print alternate design. Howard is featured on 106 and 106b. All of the 'b' cards have the moonlit background. As I mentioned, I bought a hobby box of this product and didn't get a single one of these short prints. Topps 206 had a similar thing going only the short prints, while featuring the same player had a completely different picture and different back.

2009 Topps Allen & Ginter N43 Ryan Howard (#RH)
These N43 cards are larger than regular cards and come one per hobby box. This is the first year I bought a hobby box of Allen & Ginter so this is my first N43. And, what luck, it was Ryan Howard, right out of the box.

If you've stuck it through this far, I've one more comment about 2009. In order for me to acquire one of each kind of card made, I need to know what's produced each year. I mainly rely on Beckett.com (mostly) and the card manufacturer's web sites. I also track how many cards are in each set. A few years ago, MLB put a limit on the number of sets each manufacturer could produce. They also declined to renew the license with Donruss and Fleer went out of business. This cut back on the amount of new product but through use of parallels and insert sets, the manufactures started increasing production. In 2008, by my count, there were about 141,000 different cards produced (counting every card by every player in every set). This was the most cards produced in several years. In 2009, production dropped significantly, to about 53,000 cards. My guess is that production will be even less next year with only Topps holding a license with MLB.

1989 Donruss

I'm still working my way through the box of baseball related stuff I bought at the church bazaar a few weeks ago. One of the things in there was a box of 1989 Donruss cards. This box had 24 39-card packs. That's 936 cards. I already had about 325 cards of the 658-card set. So I thought I had a good shot at completing the set. Think again. I'm still about 150 cards short. Many, many duplicates. I'm not really interested in completing the set but more interested in getting the cards of the players I collect from the set. There I did pretty well. I already had all the Phillies from the set. Now I have nearly all of the players I collect. The key card in this set is the Griffey rookie card which I already had. Now I have 3 more. In each pack were two of the Warren Spahn puzzle cards. I was able to complete the puzzle. When and if I can get my act together it will be the focus of a later post. Here are the cards of the players that I picked up that I collect, in alphabetical order.Robert Alomar in his second season, bunting. You don't see a lot of cards with players bunting.
I may now have every 1980's George Bell card and I don't even know why.
One of my favorite players.
Joe Carter in his pre-Phillie killer days.
Coleman stole 65 bases in 1989. There is a regular card of him in the set which is one of the few cards I'm missing.

I picked up Cone's regular card and Diamond King card. In those days, the Diamond Kings were a subset of the regular set, the first 25 cards or so.
The Hawk.
In 1989, I wasn't much interested in Lenny Dykstra until he was traded to the Phillies in June. I think I have most of his cards as a Met now.
Evans was in his 18th season in 1989. He hit 20 home runs and knocked in 100 rbis.
Glavine was in his 3rd season. He was 14-8.
This was Doc's least productive season so far in his career. He was only 9-4 in 19 games. But he's rebound in 1990 with a 19-7 record.
Goose was in his 18th season and fading fast, his glory days long behind him.
Tony lead the league in hits and batting average in 1989.
Rickey was hitting .247 with only 25 steals when the Yankees traded him to the A's in June. He responded by hitting .294 with 55 steals for Oakland.

Orel finished the season with 59 consecutive scoreless innings, a new record. baseball-reference.com doesn't keep this stat so I don't know if he extended it in 1990 or if he still holds the record.
I wasn't a Pete Incaviglia fan in 1989 but he will eventually play for both the Phillies and the Astros so I started collecting his earlier cards.
Randy Johnson's rookie card.
Another player I wasn't too interested in back in 1989 until he was traded to the Phillies in June. In June of 1989, the Phillies made two key trades which got them to the World Series in 1993, Kruk and Dykstra.
I think I got interested in McGee in the 1987 World Series when he hit .370 in a losing cause against the Twins.
Mark McGwire when he still more or less looked like a normal human being.
I hardly ever saw him play because he was in the American career but I always like Molitor. And I guess with good reason. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2004.
Tony was in his 3rd year with the Cardinals and thinks he looks really cool in red.
The Rock.
Another key pickup from this set.
Potential future HOFer. He retired in 2006 so too soon to know.
In his second season, Smoltz was 12-11.
In his 7th season, Strawberry was still a formidable force but 1989 was not his best year. His next two years will be good and then 1992 happens.
Another player I collect whose regular card from this set I do not have. And another future HOFer.