1993 Gary Carter cards

I am in the early stages of scanning all the cards I have of Players I Collect. I'm currently working on Gary Carter (it's going to be a long time until I get to Todd Zeile).  Carter retired after the 1992 season, having spend that season back with his first team, the Expos. There are 4 major card issues of Carter in 1993. I have 3 of them but managed to find an image for the fourth. You will notice the similarity among these cards immediately.

1993 Donruss #122

According to Beckett.com, that's Kurt Manwaring getting down with Carter. I thought it was Matt Williams.

1993 Select #55

I don't own this card. I'm not sure who Carter is giving the shoulder to but it's clearly a Dodger. I imagine that the photo on the back is from the same play.

1993 Topps #205

Here's Carter in the dirt with Fred McGriff. The Crime Dog was with the Padres in 1992.

And finally,

1993 Upper Deck #219

I can't tell for sure, but I think this is the same play as pictured on the Donruss card.

I have 52 other cards of Carter from his playing days and only one of them shows him in a collision at the plate. Yet all 4 of his 1993 cards do.

Sadly we lost Gary Carter earlier this year to brain cancer. He was only 57 years old.

Random Cards From My Collection #24

Card #23268
2008 Upper Deck Timeline Gold #11 Ryan Howard

You can't go wrong with a Ryan Howard card. This is the gold parallel of this set. The set featured multiple designs. This is the base designs. Other cards featured designs from past Upper Deck sets.

Card #1073
1998 Collector’s Choice #256 Brian L. Hunter

If a card features two players like this 1998 Collector's Choice subset card, how do you catalog it in your database? Especially if you're borderline excessive-compulsive. I always enter just the player featured first on the card, unless the other player is a Player I Collect, a Phillie or an Astro. So that makes this a Brian Hunter card. And don't get me started on the Brian R./Brian L. problem.

Card #27488
2011 Bowman Gold #170 Alex Rodriguez

I like the look of the Gold cards a lot more than the base black bordered cards.

Card #5933
1999 Upper Deck Victory #74 Sammy Sosa

1999 - the year of the Power Trip.

Card #18604
2010 Topps Allen & Ginter #257 Ervin Santana

Card #286122011 Topps Allen & Ginter #292 Wade Davis

Back-to-back years of A&G at random.

Card #9850
2004 Topps Cracker Jack #21 Paul Lo Duca

And another of one of my favorite retro sets.

Card #3494
2004 Upper Deck Power Up #46 Josh Beckett

A somewhat weirder card from 2004.

Card #18304
2010 Topps Allen & Ginter #106 Dustin Pedroia

And another A&G, back to 2010.  All this A&G is making me excited for the 2012 release. It's due July 11th according to Baseballcardpedia.com.

Card #12170
1996 Pacific Hometown #12 Jose Canseco

And now for something completely different. An insert set to 1996 Pacific. A big slab of gold holofoil on the front and a back with so many design elements it makes me dizzy.

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen - First Look Update

I did a quick post yesterday on this set. I was complaining somewhat about the short print variation cards. How were you supposed to know what you had?  Last night was was looking at other posts on the set and found this, a post showing all the short prints. Turns out I pulled three of them from the blaster I bought.

The best one, in my opinion, is the Schmidt card I posted yesterday.

With any luck I'll get the regular card in the hobby box I'm waiting for.

The other two are:

and

I also saw that Crackin' Wax reported he bought 2 blasters and got an auto in one and a relic in another. I had gotten a relic in my blaster.

Based on a very small sample, the blasters may be a good deal. Of course, your results may vary.

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen - First Look

Although I ordered a hobby box on eBay, I couldn't wait and bought a blaster and a rack pack over at Target today.  I'm sure I'll get several posts out of the hobby box. I haven't looked for anyone else's posts so you'll get my unvarnished opinion.

I really liked last year's Gypsy Queen, which is why I decided to buy a hobby box this year.

What's different? The front and back designs are much more ornate than last year. I like the background color of the front better (last year was a sickly pea green color). The backs are more sepia than the stark black and white of last year. I like it as much, maybe a bit more than last year.

I'm always happy if I pull a Mike Schmidt card from a blaster. Last year, the regular sized cards numbered 301-350 were short prints. This year the full sized cards are numbered to 300 and 50 of them have short print variations. There is supposed to be a variation of this Schmidt card. I pulled 8 cards which are supposed to have short print variations but I don't know how to tell them apart from the regular cards. This really don't like this sort of thing. I'm OK with the SP VAR but really, some help with the differences. Maybe if I pulled one I'd know somehow. This is one of the reasons I'm not a set collector.

You can't have a retro set without mini cards. The minis are numbered to 350. It looks like the cards from 301 to 350 are duplicates of players in the first 300 but maybe not the SP VARs from the full-sized cards. More confusion.

You can't have mini cards without color and back variations. The fronts come is regular, black, sepia and green. I only pulled one green.

Last year there was just one back variation, the Gypsy Queen. I pulled just one of these. This is Bob Abreu.

This year they also have the "Straight Cut" back. I pulled 2, Bob Abreu (again) and Drew Stubbs (pictured). You probably can't see it but this is card #328. There is also a Stubbs #165, Presumably with a different picture. Stubbs is not one of the regular sized cards identified as having an SP VAR.

I actually pulled a relic from the blaster. Last year there were only 20 full-sized relic cards, giving you a shot at collecting them all. I've managed to get 13 of them so far. This year there are 62 of them so we can forget about completing that set. Last year's full sized relics featured a different player picture than the base card. I didn't pull a Sandoval base so I don't know if it's different.

The rack pack yielded 3 of these. This card has a paper frame. There was something similar in last year's set. There is also a blue (numbered to 599) and a black frame (one of one) available. Neither beckett.com nor baseballcardpedia.com acknowledge this paper framed variation. In keeping with the set in general, this card is more ornate than last year's card with more silver foil. It's hard to see, but the border is a gold color with flecks.

New Bonsai Plants

It's been awhile since I've done a post about my bonsai plants. I'm afraid they suffered horribly in the Texas drought last summer and a lost a couple of plants. But it's a new year and we've had plenty of rain so far. I bought 2 new plants to replace the ones I lost.

There is a very nice nursery near us called Maas Nursery. They've always had a few bonsai but they recently enlarged their offerings, which you can see behind me on the right. While we were there we bought some other stuff.

I've been wanting a Japanese Maple bonsai for a long time but never saw anything I could afford. This is a nice little one at a good price.  I added the gray stones. I like to put stones on top of the soil to keep the soil from eroding while watering.

This is called a Serrisa. It gets little white flowers but it has already bloomed. It needs some trimming.

The bench is looking a little lonely (note the empty pots on the right). The Japanese Maple is on a windowsill in the shade. The Texas sun will damage it. Next weekend I'm going to build a sun shade for the bench, something I should have done years ago.

1950 Bowman Reprints

19 Phillies cards from this 1950 Bowman Reprint set were given to me by a friend a few years ago. I believe they were published in 1986 by the Card Collector's Company (C.C.C.). The cards only copyright information is the 1950 Bowman mark. They are clearly not actual 1950 Bowman cards because they sport a glossy front, and the word "Reprint" appears in tiny type. The originals are untouchable, but even the lesser known players are going for $8 and up on eBay right now, so I'm happy to have these. I'm not going to show all 19, just the one's I like the best.

Eddie Waitkus #30

1 am familiar with some of the players on the 1950 club since they played with the Phillies for years, and their fame as the "Whiz Kids" lives on. Eddie Waitkus was one name I didn't know. He was with the Phillies from 1949 to 1955. His career formed part of the basis for the book The Natural at least the part where he gets shot. The back of the card says "Eddie had appeared in 54 games last season and was hitting at a .306 clip when he was shot and seriously wounded by a demented girl fan". You can read about it on Wikipedia here.

Del Ennis #31

Ennis played 11 years in Philadelphia. He was born in Philly and lived the rest of his life in the area. He was a very popular player.

Robin Roberts #32

Roberts was one of the best pitchers in Phillies history. His Phillies record is 234-119. He led the NL in wins from 1952 through 1955 and is 26th on the all-time win list. He was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1976. He remained a popular figure in Philadelphia up until is death in 2010.

Curt Simmons #68

Another good pitcher. He was 115-110 in 13 seasons with the Phillies, pitching from 1947 to 1960.  He is one of the few Whiz Kids who is still alive.

Richie Ashburn #84

 Ashburn played 15 years for the Phillies, hitting .308 and stealing 234 bases. He was one of the best center fielders of his era. He played the last few years of his career for the Cubs and the infamous 1962 Mets. When he retired, he returned to Philadelphia to work as a Phillies announcer on radio and television. To many people of my generation, he is the embodiment of Phillies baseball. He was elected to the Hall of Fame with Mike Schmidt in 1995. Richie died in his hotel room on the road with the Phillies in 1997. The event still makes me sad.

Andy Seminick #121

Seminick caught 985 games for the Phillies in 12 seasons. He was an All-Star in 1949.

Granville "Granny" Hamner #204

Played shortstop for the Phillies for 16 years, hitting .263. He was a 3-time All-Star.

Eddie Sawyer #225

Sawyer took over a perennial cellar dweller in 1948 and led them to the World Series in 1950.

Jim Konstanty #226

In 1950, Konstanty appeared in 74 games for the Phillies, all in relief. He compiled a 16-7 record with 22 saves, and an ERA of 2.66. He was appeared in the All-Star game, was named the National League MVP and won The Sporting News Pitcher of the Year Award.