Random Cards From My Collection #80

Card #1951
2000 Stadium Club Chrome #1 Nomar Garciaparra

Comments on the card/player: Over the years Topps has applied their Chrome technology (or technologies, as the treatment has changed over the years) on many of their brands. I always thought that 2000 Stadium Club Chrome was one of their better attempts.
How/When acquired: I liked this product enough that I bought a hobby box of it at $0.46/card back in 2000. I don't buy hobby boxes often.

Card #20848
1994 Pinnacle #468 Pete Incaviglia

Comments on the card/player: Incaviglia joined the Phillies in 1993, the year they took an improbable trip to the World Series. Phillies fans like to think of the 1993 Phillies as a likable group of misfits and oddballs, and they were, but to give them credit, nearly everyone on the team had career years in 1993, including Pete. It was fun to watch.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #49220
2015 Topps Heritage #154 Chris Johnson

Comments on the card/player: This 31-year-old former Astro infielder, was traded by the Braves in mid-season to the Indians for another former Astro, Michael Bourn, and Nick Swisher. He didn't see much playing time with either team. The Indians released him at the end of the season and he is now signed with the Marlins.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.35/card for a blaster of Topps Heritage in March 2015.

Card #31576
1996 Pinnacle Foil #240 Terry Pendleton

Comments on the card/player: The last few years of Pinnacle really went overboard with the gold foil. This 1996 Pinnacle parallel card which marries all the gold foil with a foil board background makes for an oddly unattractive card.
How/When acquired: On the other hand I only paid 5 cents for it in a 100-card Fairfield repack and I could add it to my reference album since I didn't have one.

Card #40723
2006 Ultra Feel The Game #FG-BA Bob Abreu

Comments on the card/player: This is a nice colorful relic card, and the uniform bit even has a stripe. I always enjoy reading the relic descriptions on the back of cards like this. According to Fleer (or maybe Upper Deck) this bit of cloth was certified to them as having been used at an actual Phillies game. What it was used for, and perhaps more importantly, who used it, is not explained.
How/When acquired: I paid $5.00 for this at a card show in June 2013.

Card #37819
2013 Topps Heritage #18 Adam Lind

Comments on the card/player: Perhaps my least favorite of recent Topps Heritage releases. The front is OK but I don't care much for that orange Popsicle colored back.
How/When acquired: I paid $0.32/card for loose packs at Walmart in March 2013.

Card #13614
1987 Donruss #630 Charles Hudson

Comments on the card/player: In 1987, Hudson was pitching for the Yankees, where he preferred to be called Charles Hudson. He was a respectable 11-7 with a 3.61 ERA for the Yankees in 1987, the only winning season of his 7 years in the majors.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #35131
2009 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relics #CC-CU Chase Utley

Comments on the card/player: I always like the Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection Relics. This uniform fragment was presumably worn by Utley during a game in 2008, which is the year the Phillies won the World Series. And a stripe!
How/When acquired: I got this during my 2012 Summer Clearance Trade. I promise only junk wax of your favorite team in these trades and sometimes I get back cards like this. Thanks. It's probably about time I do another one.

Card #29791
1994 Topps Gold #480 Albert Belle

Comments on the card/player: In 1994, gold foil and parallel sets were not so common. Topps was a trendsetter then. Nowadays, both are common. I don't mind a little gold foil on a baseball card, but I don't care for multiple parallel sets.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Random Cards from My Collection #68

I expect to get back to a more normal blogging schedule after Thanksgiving. Here's hoping that all my readers have a great Thanksgiving Holiday - eat too much turkey, watch too much football (Go Eagles!) and don't get trampled shopping.

Card #18041
2010 Topps Vintage Legends Collection #2 Johnny Mize

Comments on the card/player: The idea behind this 25-card insert set was to take some past great, pick some year in his career and put him on a card from a year in that player's future. Then make some half-hearted attempt to compare the stat's from the past player's year to the stats of the year the card was from. Clear? They also took some more recent players, like Eddie Murray, and put them on a card from before their career.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.26/card for 2 Series-2 blaster boxes of Topps in July 2010.

Card #17756
2008 Topps #264 Byung-Hyun Kim

Comments on the card/player: Is this the best photograph they could find for Kim? There is so much going on in the background that he's literally lost in the crowd. Horizontal cards are a good fit for a pitcher in full windup but only if the photo is cropped closer than this. I'm only two cards into this post but I expect this will be the worst looking card in the post.
How/When acquired: Don't know

Card #21529
1998 Skybox Dugout Axcess Double Header #16 Scott Rolen

Comments on the card/player: Yet another attempt to make a baseball card insert that can be used to play a baseball related game. Unlike most of these games, it looks like you only need one card to actually play the game. Go ahead and read the rules. It would be easier, and probably more fun, to just use the dice to play craps.
How/When acquired: I got this with 40 other cards for $0.28/card from a fellow blogger's group break.

Card #34255
1992 Pinnacle #189 Mark Portugal

 Comments on the card/player: What Pinnacle looked like in the very early days before it flamed out in a blaze of full-bleed printing, gold-stamping and optical effects in the later 1990s.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #14963
2010 Topps #48 Joey Votto

Comments on the card/player: This set is generally known as The Wave set, for obvious reasons. When the Topps designers were putting this design together did they stop and think, "Yeah, this looks OK, Joey Votto about to be engulfed in a tidal wave of blood"?
How/When acquired: Paid $0.24/card in a 'cereal box' (remember them?) in March 2010.

Card #2706
1979 Topps Burger King Phillies #4 Steve Carlton

Comments on the card/player: This was a 23-card set available in Philadelphia area Burger Kings. Having never been fond of Burger King, I never saw these cards when they were distributed. The cards look exactly like the player's card in the regular set with one exception, the card number.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.36/card for 22-card set on eBay in November 2009.

Card #6267
1993 Upper Deck #814 Dennis Eckersley

Comments on the card/player: Although I've always liked these team checklist cards from 1993 Upper Deck, I never really looked that closely at the signature on these cards. The artist is Vernon Wells who, according to his web site, is "The most commissioned sports artist EVER". He's also the father of baseball player Vernon Wells. I'm sure everyone already knew that.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #40094
1993 Donruss #446 Will Clark

Comments on the card/player: Let me tell you my Will Clark story, which coincidentally happened in 1993, the year of this card. I was in San Francisco for a business conference in September 1993. I saw the Giants play twice and the A's once. The second Giants game was on 9/24 against the Padres. The Giants record was 95-57 going into the game. They were in 2nd place, a game and a half behind the Braves. Considering the closeness of the pennant race I was surprised that I could get a ticket to the game, in fact the stadium seemed half empty. Maybe it was because Candlestick Park was cold that night. I mean bone-chilling cold. Or maybe it was that the Padres were 39 games out of 1st place.  The game went 10 innings. Will Clark won the game with a walk-off home run. Amid the cheers I hear a guy in front of me say "It's about time that guy did something for this team". Clark was playing for the Rangers in 1994.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #5737
2000 Topps #460 Jesse Orosco

Comments on the card/player: This is a card from the Highlights subset in 2000 Topps. The highlight was that on 8/17/99, Orosco broke Dennis Eckersley's (see card above) record for mound appearances at 1,072. Orosco played for several more years eventually ending with 1,252 games. This seems like a record that will stand for a long time. The only pitcher in the list of top 50 appearances is Francisco Rodriguez, with 799.
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #14112
2007 Topps Generation Now Chase Utley

Comments on the card/player: I don't know how anyone else felt about this insert set, but I hated it. It was simply a pack filler. Here's how this worked. Topps picked some random stat, like Utley's 2006 35-game hitting streak. They then produced 35 virtually identical cards, one for each day of the streak. The Utley set had only 2 poses for the 35 cards. As near as I can tell there were 1,210 cards in this insert set.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.20 in a repack in December 2009.

Cards with guest stars

One of my favorite baseball card photos are those which feature a guest star player who can be identified. The best ones are plays, generally at 2nd or home base. Here's a few of my favorites from 2013 and 2014.

2013 Topps # 302 Aaron Hill

Hill exclusively played 2nd base for the D-Backs in 2012. Here he is making an acrobatic play against guest star Yadier Molina of the Cardinals. Molina is clearly out but was Hill able to make the throw to 1st to complete the double play?

2013 Topps #570 Devin Mesoraco

This card could have easily been a Soriano card rather than a Mesoraco card. The catcher clearly has the ball in his glove. He also appears to be blocking the plate. If I understand the new rules this year, this is now illegal.

2013 Topps #179 Robert Andino

Assuming that Andino got a foot on the bag, guest star Victoriano is out. This is one of those cards which with some luck and some detection work it's possible to date the play. The Phillies only played the Orioles in Baltimore once in 2012. In the 3-game series, Victorino was on base a lot. He was forced at second and out in a double play in the game of June 9th and forced out in the game of June 10. Based on a close reading of the play-by play on baseball-reference.com, I believe this play was on the 9th.

2013 Topps #4 Yadier Molina

Molina was a guest star on card #302 and has a guest star on his own card, his battery mate Adam Wainwright.

2013 Topps Update #65 Ryan Roberts

I also like photos where the baseball is in flight, like leaving the pitcher's hand or coming off the bat, or like this card, coming out of a fielder's hand. The card combines two of my favorite elements, a flying ball and a recognizable guest star, Tyler Greene of the White Sox.

2014 Topps #210 Jose Altuve

Another two-fer card, featuring an Astro (I'm still collecting them even though they're terrible) and a player I collect, Mike Trout, as a guest star. Too bad the baseball is out of frame.

2014 Topps #360 Russell Martin

Guest star Chase Utley tied up weirdly with catcher Martin. I always wonder if I should include cards like this (cards with a recognizable Phillie on them, like this or the Victorino card above) in with my Phillies cards. I don't.

2014 Topps Blue Walmart #411 Topps Blue Walmart

B. J. or Justin? They both play for the Braves. Easy enough question to answer; B. J. wears #2. Justin wears #8.

2014 Topps #46 Kolten Wong

Guest star Daniel Murphy of the Mets. Wong only played in 23 games in 2013 so this is another card, if you were sufficiently motivated, which I am not, you could probably date the play.

2014 All-Star Game in Baseball Cards

Since I'm a National League kind of guy, I put the National League player first at each position. I was hoping to use a different brand card for each player but it didn't work out that way.

First Base

Second Base

Third Base

Shortstop

Catcher

Designated Hitter

 Left Field

Center Field

Right Field

 Starting Pitcher