Random Cards From My Collection #28

Card #18439
2010 Topps Allen & Ginter This Day in History #11 Jason Bay

Card #16449
2010 Topps National Chicle #195 Alex Rios

This was a set I like quite a lot.

Card #5791
2000 Skybox Dominion #298 Rick Heiserman/Chad Hutchinson

 Does anyone remember this set or these two players?

Card #17585
2000 Impact #62 Alex Rodriguez

Another forgettable set from Fleer/Skybox. For reasons which escape me now, I bought a hobby box of this.

Card #31007
1994 Topps #390 Albert Belle/Barry Bonds

Between them they hit 73 home runs in 1993.

Card #26442
2007 Topps #356 Curtis Granderson

In my opinion, easily the worst Topps design in the last 10 years.

Card #26329
1994 Topps #484 Luis Gonzalez

 By contrast to 2007, this is one of my favorite Topps designs in the past 20 years.

Card #609
1989 Topps #306 Ryne Sandberg

Card #28942
2011 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions #24 Miller Huggins

Hall of Fame player (1904-1916) and manager (13 years)

Card #5120
2002 Upper Deck Victory Ken Griffey Jr.

2012 Bowman - First Look

I saw these three-pack blister packs of 2012 Bowman in Target over the weekend. They had 3 of them and not any other Bowman (like individual packs or blasters). So I bought out the supply.

First off - I was astonished by the design. Astonished by Bowman? The card which hasn't changed it's basic black-bordered design in over 10 years? Yes I was. Here's what the base card looks like.

The basic black, with red photo borders for veterans and green photo borders for rookies is gone. The photo border is now color coordinated to the player's team colors. The back border is gray. Here's a rookie card.

Exact same design as the veteran cards.  In the past few years, Bowman has had a different design, with white borders, and numbering for the Prospects cards. This year...

The design is slightly different than the base cards with more rounded photo borders. Notice another big change from previous years. There is no huge facsimile autograph taking up half the card.  The backs are slightly different as well.

The Prospects maintain the BP numbering.

Parallel cards come in the normal Blue, Gold, Green, Orange, and Red. I got some Golds and one Orange.

As usual, the Gold cards have not only a gold border, but gold foil as well.

The Orange are serial numbered to 250. This one is #118. The Prospect cards seem to be lacking the Gold parallels but have a Purple parallel.

There were 3 Purple Parallels in each blister pack. The may be exclusive to that packaging.

The Bowman International Parallel is back but without the foil-board backgrounds. These look more like traditional Bowman with a black border.

I only pulled one base card and one Prospect International parallel. The Prospect version has a white border. Both were of American born players. Presumably the cards feature the national flags of the players home countries.

There is a new parallel, Bowman Silver Ice.

The scan does not do this card justice. It appears to be covered with a grid of tiny lights which float above and below the surface of the card. There is a Red Ice card as well, which I think is a 1 of 1.

I also pulled an autograph.

Every pack also had 2 Chrome Prospects cards which has been the pattern for Bowman for a number of years.

I hope this guy is the next Bryce Harper since I pulled three of his Chrome cards.

Song of the Week - Leave Me Be by The Zombies

If you remember The Zombies at all, it's probably their big hit "She's Not There" from 1964. I have two albums of theirs, the 1965 release The Zombies which includes "Leave Me Be" and "She's Not There" and 1968's Odessey and Oracle, which has their other well-known hit "Time of the Season". Odessey and Oracle is on Rolling Stone Magazine's Top 500 albums. For me, both albums really capture that mid-1960s British Invasion sound.

My latest Fairfield repack

A Fairfield rack-pack gives you 100 baseball cards for 5 cents a card. The package says that a relic card is seeded 1 in 4 packs but I've never seen one. Regardless, I like to buy these on occasion (I probably buy 3-4 a year) and I'm rarely disappointed. There are a number of Players I Collect so I always find cards of these guys I didn't have. I even find some cards I didn't have to add to my reference card books. And there are usually a few cards from the '70s, which since I don't have many of these which aren't Phillies, are always welcome.  So what made me happy with this pack?

1997 Donruss #406 Juan Gonzalez

Here's a card of a Player I Collect that I didn't have. This was a subset card from 1997 Donruss.

1997 Fleer #514 David Justice

Another Player I Collect, and in a ski cap. Justice had a great year in 1997, hitting .329 with 33 home runs. 1997 Fleer was one of their more experimental years. The cards were printed on non-glossy card stock but featured gold foil lettering.

1992 Fleer ProCards #903 Tim Bogar

I have a number of Phillies minor league cards from the 1980s which were published by ProCards. I didn't know that Fleer had taken them over by 1992. This is a massive set with something like 3,500 cards. This goes into my reference card book.

1989 Donruss #219 Steve Rosenberg

These Fairfield repacks always have a good assortment of Donruss and Topps cards from the 1987-1989 era. I'm within about 100 cards of completing the 1989 Donruss set (660 cards), mainly through acquisitions in repacks. Here's Steve Rosenberg looking like he regretted whatever it was he had for lunch.

1991 Upper Deck #535 Glenn Davis

You can also be sure to get a few 1989-1992 Upper Deck cards. Someday I will complete these sets through repacks.

2001 Topps #540 Chad Curtis

You don't often see outfielders getting this much elevation.

1984 Topps #266 Steve Lubratich

Repacks can also be a good way to beef up your collection of obscure players. Lubratich appeared in 64 games for the Angels in 1981-82.

1976 Topps Traded #632T Rogelio Moret

In 1976, the Topps Traded cards had the same number as the player had in the regular issue set, but with a T appended to the number. This is only the second card of this 44-card set I've seen. What I find funny about this card is that Moret was traded to the Braves in December 1975, yet he appears in the 1976 traded set with an airbrushed hat. The other card I have is of Jim Kaat who was traded to the Phillies in December 1975 and also features an airbrushed hat.

1979 Topps #299 Steve Ontiveros

I remember Steve Ontiveros as a pitcher who played a couple of years with the Phillies. Who knew there was an earlier player named Steve Ontiveros?

1978 Topps #354 Cesar Geromino

My first Cesar Geromino card. He's hard to look up on baseball-reference.com because you have to spell his name César Gerónimo. 


1991 Stadium Club #232 Melido Perez

Here's another set I hope to complete someday through repacks.


1993 Fun Pack #133 Ben McDonald

I bought a few packs of this set, which was aimed mainly at kids, back in 1993. I'm fairly certain that this is first card from this set I've found in a repack.


1989 Fleer #635 Dwight Gooden

A Doc Gooden card I didn't have.


1995 Topps #592 Bo Jackson

Bo retired in 1994, so this is one of his last cards. I actually already had this card but I'm showing it because Bo was just in the news. He lead a 300-mile bike ride across Alabama to raise money for tornado relief.

Random Cards From My Collection #27

Card #24102
2002 Donruss Best of Fan Club #184 Shane Reynolds

Donruss, apparently believing that they could never underestimate the obsessiveness of baseball card collectors, released their Fan Club set in 2002, followed up with Best of Fan Club set. The difference? None, except Best of Fan Club was printed on foil board.

Card #23014
2006 Sweet Spot #64 Bobby Abreu

I got this card from a group break run by fellow blogger Thorzul Will Rule in 2009.

Card #3113
1993 Fleer Final Edition Diamond Tribute #9 Dave Wingfield

This 10-card set was only available as part of the 1993 Fleer Final Edition factory set, which I did not buy. I have the whole set but I don't remember how or when I got it. A Player I Collect.

Card #6847
2006 Topps Turkey Red White #440 Brian Giles

The white bordered parallel, inserted 1 in 4 packs. I got this is a blaster box.

Card #21286
1995 Upper Deck #144 Kevin Stocker

Nice action shot. I wish I knew who the sliding player was. It looks like an Oriole. In 1995, that would mean this photo came from a spring training game.

Card #409
1989 Fleer For The Record #5 Greg Maddux

In 1989, you would get one card from this 6-card set in every rack-pack of Fleer you bought. I got the entire set on eBay for $3.29 in 2003. A Player I Collect.

Card #32062
2012 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-13 Dinger

A purple triceratops as a mascot? Why not?

Card #1038
1996 Select Certified #58 Carlos Baerga

In 1996, a 6-card pack of this would set you back $4.99. I bought the entire 144-card set on eBay in 2004 for $12 (including shipping). The cards came with a peel-away protective cover.

Card #23792
1999 Bowman #313 Carlos E. Hernandez

Even as far back as 1999, Bowman had already established Red/Black for veterans and Blue/Black for rookies. Hernandez, a second baseman, played 16 games for the Astros in 1999 and 2 games for the Mariners and that was his major league career.

Card #4592
2005 Topps Opening Day #6 Mike Cameron