2011 Topps Attax - Does anyone care?

I bought one 30-card rack pack of Topps Attax. For my sins, Topps also included a ToppsTown card.

What I like about 2011 Topps Attax:

The cards are not inserted into other Topps products so you have to go out of your way to buy them.
The cards are actually numbered this year.

What I don't like about 2011 Topps Attax:

The cards are ugly.
They have rounded corners.
The raging forest fire background (did I mention they're ugly).
The side with the picture looks like the back of a card.
The other side is boring.
The card number (say on the Victorino card below) looks like 185/258. This would lead me to believe that there are 258 cards in the set. The checklist which came in the pack only lists 245 cards.

I'm only going to show a few of these. Once you've seen one, you've pretty much seen them all.

If you look closely at the smoke above the flames, you'll see that there are actually people. These are probably the tortured souls of those dammed to buy any cardboard rectangles with baseball players printed on them.

Some of the cards have little tidbits of information about the player. On this card it says "With 88 in 2009, was only catcher since World War II to lead Athletics in RBI". Mr. Suzuki was born in Hawaii and probably has a birth certificate to prove it. I don't really know but it is probably safe to guess that he is of Japanese ancestry. Maybe I'm crazy but do you see a problem with that little tidbit of info?

This is something new in the Topps Attax set, mascots. It looks like if you draw a mascot card good things happen to you. According to the card, this is the White Sox Mascot. Does this poor creature have an actual name?

Another new card, the stadium card. Naturally as a Phillies and Astros fan I get the White Sox mascot and stadium. Read what it says on the card. Does that make sense? I assume it does if I knew the rules. But I don't want to know the rules.

This is one of two foil cards I got and the only pitcher. These cards are not listed at Beckett.com or on baseballcardpedia.com so I have no idea if there is a whole foil parallel set or if just some of the cards have foil.

Birthdays May 1 - May 7

May 1
1992 Upper Deck #205 Jose LindChico was born in 1964 in Toabaja, PR. He's my best choice for players born on May 1st. Known more for his defense he had a career .981 fielding percentage as a second baseman. He won a Gold Glove in 1992, breaking Ryne Sandberg's string of 9 consecutive Gold Gloves at 2nd base.

May 2
2008 Topps Opening Day #173 Jarrod SaltalamacchiaSalty was born in 1985 in West Palm Beach FL. He was was the Braves 1st round draft pick in 2003. Some players hit home runs, some are great defensive players and others can throw 95 mph fastballs. Then there is the guy who has the longest name in baseball history.

May 3
1987 Topps #4 Davey LopesDavey was born in 1945 in East Providence, RI. He was the Dodgers #2 draft pick in 1968. Along with Steve Garvey, Bill Russel, and Ron Cey he formed the longest running infield in baseball history, which stayed together for 8 and a half years. Too bad I don't own any cards with Lopes as a Dodger. This card commemorates Davey's record breaking stolen bases for a 40-year-old in 1986. He had 25 that year of 557 in his career. The gcrl blog celebrates Lope's birthday here.

May 4
2010 Topps 206 Bronze #54 Kevin SloweyKevin was born in 1984 in Conroe TX. He's about 3 weeks younger than my oldest son. How is that possible? He was the Twins #2 draft pick in 2005. He has compiled a 39-21 record with the Twins with an ERA of 4.40. He was having a pretty good season in 2009 with a 10-3 record when it was discovered he had a bone fragment in the wrist of his pitching hand. He had surgery which ended his season but he came back in 2010 with a 13-6 season.

May 5
1992 Bowman #566 Charles NagyCharles was born in 1967 in Bridgeport CT. He was the Indians #1 draft pick in 1988. He pitched 13 years for the Indians, but finished his 14-year career with the Padres. A 2-time All-Star he has a career record of 129 wins and 105 losses with an ERA of 4.51. Maybe not a Hall of Fame career but I respect any one who can pitch for 14 years and wind up with a winning record. He is currently the pitching coach for the Diamondbacks.

May 6
2003 Stadium Club Born in the USA Relics Willie MaysThe Say Hey Kid was born in 1931 in Westfield AL. He played for a remarkable 22 years with a career batting average of .302 with 660 home runs and 1,903 rbis. I consider this card to be one of the top relic cards that I own.

May 7
1983 Donruss #625 Dick WilliamsDick was born in 1929. He was signed by the Brooklyn Dodgers in 1947 and made is major league debut with the Dodgers in 1951. He had a 13 year career as a player, finishing up with the Red Sox in 1964. He returned to major league baseball in 1967 as the manager of the Red Sox. He would go on to have a 21-year career as manager. In addition to the Red Sox (1967-1969) he also managed the A's (1971-1973), The Angels (1974-1976), the Expos (1977-1981), the Padres (1982-1985) and the Mariners (1986-1988). His career totals are 1571 wins vs 1451 losses. He managed the A's to two World Series champions. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2008.

Phorgotten Phillie Phile - Jeff Manto

1994 Pacific #481 Jeff MantoJeff was born in Bristol PA, just up the Delaware River from Philadelphia. He played college ball at Temple University in Philadelphia. But he ended up drafted by the Angels. The Phillies signed him as a free agent in December 1992. He was with the Phillies World Series team in 1993 but did not appear in the playoffs. He appeared in all of 8 games in 1993, getting 1 hit in 18 at bats. Jeff played in 289 games in his 9 year career but probably spent more time traveling between teams than actually playing. Here is his career summary from baseball-reference.com.

June 7, 1982: Drafted by the New York Yankees in the 35th round of the 1982 amateur draft, but did not sign.
June 3, 1985: Drafted by the California Angels in the 14th round of the 1985 amateur draft. Player signed June 10, 1985.
January 9, 1990: Traded by the California Angels with Colin Charland (minors) to the Cleveland Indians for Scott Bailes.
November 27, 1991: Released by the Cleveland Indians.
January 23, 1992: Signed as a Free Agent with the Atlanta Braves.
October 15, 1992: Granted Free Agency.
December 16, 1992: Signed as a Free Agent with the Philadelphia Phillies.
October 15, 1993: Granted Free Agency.
December 16, 1993: Signed as a Free Agent with the New York Mets.
May 19, 1994: Sent to the Baltimore Orioles by the New York Mets as part of a conditional deal.
January 26, 1996: Purchased by Yomiura Giants (Japan Central) from the Baltimore Orioles.
May 7, 1996: Signed as a Free Agent with the Boston Red Sox.
July 23, 1996: Traded by the Boston Red Sox to the Seattle Mariners for Arquimedez Pozo.
August 29, 1996: Selected off waivers by the Boston Red Sox from the Seattle Mariners.
October 8, 1996: Granted Free Agency.
February 17, 1997: Signed as a Free Agent with the Toronto Blue Jays.
June 5, 1997: Traded by the Toronto Blue Jays to the Cleveland Indians for Ryan Thompson.
April 24, 1998: Selected off waivers by the Detroit Tigers from the Cleveland Indians.
June 12, 1998: Released by the Detroit Tigers.
June 16, 1998: Signed as a Free Agent with the Cleveland Indians.
October 15, 1998: Released by the Cleveland Indians.
January 5, 1999: Signed as a Free Agent with the Cleveland Indians.
July 2, 1999: Selected off waivers by the New York Yankees from the Cleveland Indians.
August 10, 1999: Released by the New York Yankees.
August 13, 1999: Signed as a Free Agent with the Cleveland Indians.
October 15, 1999: Granted Free Agency.
November 3, 1999: Signed as a Free Agent with the Colorado Rockies.
April 28, 2000: Released by the Colorado Rockies.
April 30, 2000: Signed as a Free Agent with the Cleveland Indians.
October 18, 2000: Granted Free Agency.

2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Part 1

I haven't seen too many blog posts about this set but I don't mind getting my comments in early. First, I like the set although I'm not in love with it. It is much better than the new 'retro' sets Topps put out last year such as National Chicle and Topps 206. Much better. It's still not as good as Allen & Ginter but if Topps was going to go forward with 2 retro sets, I'd like to see Gypsy Queen and A&G. A&G is mainly posed players with no backgrounds. The Gypsy Queen cards are mainly action shots with backgrounds. I think they complement to each other.

I bought 4 rack packs for $8.99 each. I bit pricey at $0.44/card considering there were no hits in the packs. The rack packs had 3 6-card regular packs and a "bonus" pack inside. I'll give a run down on the distribution between base cards and inserts at the end. Here's what the base cards look like. The pictures are clearly photographs made to look like paintings. Unlike A&G, the pictures are more realistic and kind of gritty. I like that. They are finished on the front but no gloss. No foil. The backs are plain white with no finish, much like the Topps 206.
There are 350 cards in the set, with the last 50 being short-printed. I pulled one short print, the Lou Gehrig card.
There are a number of old time players from a number of eras included. There do not seem to be any non-baseball player cards. Thanks for that.
I only pulled two Astro cards, but at least I got my current favorite Astro.
I only pulled one Phillies card. I think this is a good picture of Lee.
Other than Astros and Phillies, I only pulled 4 cards of players I collect, Ichiro, Jones, Pujols and BJ Upton.

The "Bonus" pack had these cards.
The green border is actually a frame with silver foil. These are not listed on Beckett.com, at baseballcardpedia.com, or on Topps sell sheet. They appear to be parallels of the regular cards. They were in a clear cellophane wrapper with 3 to a wrapper.
10 0f the 12 were old timers. I like this Ozzie card.
This card is called a "Framed Paper Parallel". The gold border is a frame with gold foil. They are serial numbered to 999. One of the cellophane packs had this in addition to the 3 green framed cards.

Of the 72 cards (not counting the framed cards) only 41 were base cards. There were 12 mini parallel cards (including 2 Red Gypsy backs). There were 4 "Future Stars", 5 "The Great Ones" (1 dup), 1 "Home Run Heroes", 3 "Wall Climbers", and 4 "Sticky Fingers" (one dup). At basically 10 base cards per rack pack it would be pretty difficult (and expensive) to build a set (even excluding the short prints) by buying rack packs. Oh, and by the way, I also got two checklist cards which, even though they are not part of the base set, were counted as one of the 6 cards in each pack.

I like the set but I won't be buying much more of it. I'll pick up a blaster if I see one and try to get the Phillies and Astros on eBay or through trades. I'll make another post with the inserts and minis when I get them scanned.

Recent eBay purchases

Another orgy of eBaying.

2011 Topps Tribute Relics Dual Green Mike SchmidtThis is my favorite 2011 acquisition. It's numbered 62/75. Topps Tribute is a product I never buy except for a few Phillies cards every year. I saw this and knew I had to have it. And it didn't cost me an arm and a leg. This card comes in multiple flavors besides green. There's also regular, black, gold and red. I'll probably pass on the others.

2011 Topps Tribute #75 Mike Schmidt
2011 Topps Tribute Blue #75 Mike Schmidt
Also available in black, black and white, gold green and red.

2001 Topps #50 Mike Schmidt
This is one of the short-print variation cards, of which I pulled none. This is the only one I wanted. It took several tries before I won an auction and I probably paid too much.

2011 Topps Silk Collection Wandy Rodriguez
These silk cards are going for big bucks on eBay. I was happy to find someone like Rodriguez for a reasonable price. I'd have bought anybody at a reasonable price so it's a bonus that I got an Astro. The card is designed with an opening in the front so you can get your grubby finger on the silk. If you wanted you could pull the silk card out through that opening. You'd have a devil of a time getting it back in.

2011 Topps 60 Relics Robin Roberts
With cards like this, I'm happy to get one, no matter who. But to get a Robin Roberts is very nice. Not too much money compared to the others being offered. Nice old fashion uniform fabric and if you look closely there is the hint of a stripe on the right. Topps Heritage had several Roberts insert cards this year but he's an Oriole in those cards.

2011 Topps Heritage '62 Mint Jamie Moyer
I saw these cards on several blogs, and Dinged Corners featured the Moyer card. If you're not happy with the orientation of the coin you can shake the card around for awhile until you've got it facing the right way. Probably only took me 2-3 minutes. Moyer had Tommy John surgery last December and is currently a free agent. Hopefully he'll be back with somebody this season.

Song of the Week - Nature Boy by David Bowie and Massive Attack

This performance is from the soundtrack of the movie Moulin Rouge with Nichole Kidman and Ewan McGregor. I was hoping to find an actual performance. The song was originally from a 1948 movie called The Boy With Green Hair starring a very young Dean Stockwell. I saw this on TV many years ago. You had to use your imagination since the movie was shot in black and white. Here's Wikipedia's write up about the movie. The link to Battle Star Galactica is interesting.

Birthdays April 24-30

I started this feature at the beginning of the year and was keeping it going pretty well. Then I got sick and everything went to hell. Well, the feature is back. I'm going to go a little easier on myself and just feature any player I want for the day, not try to stick to themes like best home run hitter. Also, I'm only going to feature players for whom I actually own cards. One of the reasons I do this blog is to show off the wide variety of cards I own. Nobody in my house really cares about that, but I know you, my faithful reader, does.

April 24
1992 Bowman #28 Chipper JonesChipper was born in 1972 in Deland FL. If there is anyone playing today who is sure to be a first year of eligibility Hall of Famer, it's Chipper. I first heard of Chipper Jones in 1991 when one of the players in my rotisserie league drafted him as a minor league reserve player. He had a tough season in 2010 when he tore the ACL in his left knee in a game against the Astros (I think, I know I was watching the game). I also saw him get his 2,500 hit off the Phillies this year. I own 150 Chipper cards and this is my favorite.

April 25
2003 Upper Deck Victory Tier 1 Green #47 Jacques JonesNo big names born this date so I'll go with the biggest home run hitter and another Jones. Jacque was born in 1975 in San Diego, CA. He was the Twins 2nd round draft pick in 1996. He was an outfielder who hit 165 home runs in his 10-year career. He was a member of the 1996 US Olympic Baseball Team.

April 26
2008 Bowman Chrome #155 Kosuke FukudomeFukudome was born in Kagoshima, Japan in 1977. He'd played 9 years in Japan before the Cubs signed him for $7,000,000 in 2008. He was a sensation in the game and in the hobby in 2008 but he doesn't seem to have really lived up to the hype.

April 27
2009 Topps Turkey Red #133 Rogers HornsbyAnother Hall of Famer, Enos Slaughter, was also born on this date but I decided to go with Hornsby. Rajah was born in 1896 in Winters Texas. He had a career batting average of .358 and hit 301 home runs in his 23 year career. Through much of his career he also managed the team he played for. Can you imagine that happening today? The last player/manager I can think of was Pete Rose.

April 28
1997 Studio Hard Hats #1 Barry LarkinBarry was born in 1964 in Cincinnati. He was the Reds #1 draft pick in 1985 and played his entire 19-year career for the Reds. He was a 12-time All-Star with 3 Golden Gloves to his name. He was a great offensive player with a .298 career batting average, 960 RBIs and 379 stolen bases. He was also a great defensive player. He was eligible for the HOF in 2010 but didn't get enough votes in 2010 or 2011. He'll be back on the ballot in 2012 and seems to me that he should get into the Hall. This card is die-cut clear plastic. You can't tell from the scan but the top corners are cut back to the helmet border. The card is numbered 2569/5000.

April 29
2003 Finest Topps Team Topps Legends Autographs Luis AparicioLittle Louie was born in Venezuela in 1934. He was elected into the Hall of Fame in 1984. In addition to playing for the White Sox, he also played for the Orioles and the Red Sox. This card is somewhat of a mystery to me. I got it in a box of 2010 Topps 205. What it was doing there I have no idea since it is actually a 2003 issued card. It is a reprint, not an actual 1956 Topps card.

April 30
2005 Topps Cracker Jack #133 Phil GarnerScrap Iron was born in 1949 in Jefferson City TN. He had a 16-year career mainly with the A's, Pirates and Astros. As you might expect with a nickname of Scrap Iron, he was considered a hard-nosed player. His best season as a player was 1979 when he helped lead the Pirates to the World Series. I best know him as the manager of the Astros in 2005, leading them to their first ever World Series, which they promptly lost to the White Sox in 4 games.