Song of the Week - Natural Beauty (Live) by Neil Young

Sorry, but this is a long one. It's from Neil's 20th album "Harvest Moon". It's the only live track on the album. After making several noisy albums, in 1992, Neil returned to the studio for some quieter stuff.

1993 Stadium Club Randy Johnson

I'm in the process of reorganizing the albums where I keep players that I collect. Every once in awhile I'll be posting an interesting card I come across. This was the source of the Bo Jackson card of a few days ago.

Take a look at this card.

There's noting interesting about the back, except for the 1989 Topps card showing Johnson as an Expo.

But the front is great. Johnson is holding a broken bat with a baseball wedged into the break.

2015 Topps Stickers

It's time for Topps Stickers again. I wasn't too kind to this product last year and I was determined to be a bit more positive this year. But...

First off, some good points.  I like the design this year. In fact my biggest complaint from last year, that the banner at the bottom of the card was too too large, was addressed.

I like this year's design, very simple but modern looking.

There are fewer cards in the set this year, only 301 vs. 350 last year. They look to have done away with the puzzle cards which, in my opinion, is a good thing.

There are 10 cards per team, including a logo card. The extra card is #1, a Topps logo card.  There is a retired player featured for most teams. Some retired players are good. It helps keep an old guy like me interested.

I say most teams because I checked the Phillies and Astros and neither has a retired player in the team set.

Each team's mascot is featured.

 Is this the scariest looking mascot in major league baseball?

I presume there are rookie logo cards but I didn't get one in the 5 packs I bought.  As usual the team logo cards come 2 to a card.

 The packaging is different this year.

The wrapper is sealed along the short edges and crimped along the long edges. They are difficult to open without damaging the stickers.

This is the typical result if you're not careful. Note the damage on the right edge.  Also, the paper stock is noticeably thinner this year, so even if they are the same price, $1 for an 8-sticker pack, they seem to have been more cheaply produced. They also seem to be harder to peel this year. I think kids might get frustrated.

My local Target had the sticker albums this year, which I don't remember seeing in past years. The album cost $2 but Target was selling them for $1. The album is nice and I can see how kids might enjoy putting the stickers in the album.

I think the set might be hard to complete. At 8 stickers per pack and $1/pack you'd need almost 40 packs to complete the set. Since you won't get unique cards in each pack (although in 5 packs I didn't get any dups) it'd probably cost more like $80 to complete. The logo cards might be hard to complete as I only got one in 5 packs.

Random Cards from My Collection #71

Card #33338
1992 Stadium Club #267 Edgar Martinez

Comments on the card/player: Martinez lead the American League in 1992 with a .343 batting average and 46 doubles.
How/When acquired: In June of 2012, I bought a 36-card, unopened box of 1992 Stadium Club for $5.00. What a deal!

Card #30456
2011 Topps Cognac Diamond Anniversary #67 Vladimir Guerrero

Comments on the card/player: I'm not sure that I really liked this foil background but I do like the silver foil shields.
How/When acquired: On October 2011 I bought a hobby box of Topps Update and the seller sent me two boxes. Oops, my mistake, the seller said, just keep the second box. I'm not normally a set collector but I have this whole set.

Card #39014
2009 Topps American Heritage American Presidents #6 John Quincy Adams

Comments on the card/player: Our 6th President. From sets like this I've got a lot of different presidential cards. I may do a post or two. Maybe for the 4th of July.
How/When acquired: I bought just a few packs of this product in 2009. I wish I had bought more.

Card 2207
2003 Fleer Tradition Update #279 Albert Pujols

Comments on the card/player: This was a subset card in the 2003 Fleer Update set. 2003 was one of those monster years Pujols used to have. He led the league in runs scored (137), hits (212), doubles (51), batting average (.351) and total bases (394). And he hit 43 home runs.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.25/card for 5 packs of Fleer Tradition Update in November 2003.

Card 900
1996 Pinnacle #390 Bob Abreu

Comments on the card/player: Abreu was just "Bob" with the Astros in 1996 and 1997 without much playing time. He got drafted by the Devil Rays in the 1997 expansion draft and then traded to the Phillies for Kevin Stocker. Bobby had a breakout year with Philly in 1998 and a fine career.
How/When acquired: Acquired in my 2012 Summer Clearance Trade.

Card 4292
1989 Fleer All-Stars #12 Julio Franco

Comments on the card/player: This was a 12-card insert in 1989 Fleer.
How/When acquired: I bought entire set for $1.83 on eBay in July 2003.

Card #20466
1992 Studio #77 Mickey Morandini

Comments on the card/player: The second year of Studio. If Panini wants to bring back old Donruss ideas, how about a new Studio set?
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #25633
2011 Topps Heritage #273 Chris Perez

Comments on the card/player: Based on 1962 Topps. But you knew that.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.32/card for 216-card box of Topps Heritage on eBay in March 2011.

Card #20814
1994 Triple Play #173 Lenny Dykstra

Comments on the card/player: In an interview last year in the New York Times, about a year after he got our of prison for grand theft auto, Dykstra is quoted as saying “My life for the past year has been my sons, community service, and don’t forget, peeing in the cup.”
How/When acquired: Don't know.

Card #43454
2013 Hometown Heroes #85 Yadier Molina

Comments on the card/player: I picked up a handful of packs at a card show in November 2013. I really liked this set but Panini did not repeat for 2014.
How/When acquired: Paid $0.40/card for 3 packs of of Hometown Heroes in November 2013.

Bo Knows Funny

It's been a long time since I feature a card from this set.

The 1992 set "The Baseball Enquirer" was the best parody baseball card set ever. Cards from this set started showing up in repacks in 2007 but I haven't seen one in years.

This card, of course, depicts Bo Jackson, and is, again, of course, a parody of this card from 1990 Score.

Song of the Week - If I Fell by Evan Rachel Wood

From the "Across the Universe" soundtrack. The must beautiful cover of any Beatles song.

2015 Topps Heritage Base Card Breakdown

I can't say I'm real thrilled with 2015 Topps Heritage. For one thing, the 1966 set design was pretty dull. I bought 2 blasters, a rack box and 2 rack packs which yielded 147 different cards. Of those 147 cards I have doubles (or even triples) for 28 of them, which I think is high. I also didn't see any of the variation cards, no blue backs, no black backs, not even a lousy gum stain. For 30 cents/card, I'd expected a bit more. The rack packs yielded some of the foil cards which I'm suspending judgement on. I get 1 chrome and 1 chrome refractor. We'll let's break down this bunch of cards.

Smiling faces - 67

Howard is coming off a few rough years and injuries. Let's hope he has something to smile about this year.

 I think we'll give the best smile to Torii.

Non-smiling faces - 64

The smiling guys just edged out the frowning guys. Moustakas is the most annoyed non-smiling guy in the bunch.

Guys without hats - 20
I few years ago, Topps Heritage was over run with guys with out hats. Not so many this year.

Men with beards

Beards out numbered clean shaven by 89-66. Only a few beards were truly extravagant.

Men outstanding in their field

 8 guys just standing around with their arms crossed.

Guys with Bats/Gloves

Guys with bats just outnumbered guys with gloves 40-38.

Suspected Photoshop cards

There were 3 cards which I suspect are Photoshopped, including this one. Heyward played the entire 2014 season for the Braves. He was traded to the Cardinals last November.