A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - Decade By Decade

So here we have the last page in this mini-collection - showing the zero year from each decade of Topps. I'll be adding another card to this page in a few months, but will I ever finish the page? Will there still be Topps cards in 2040? 2030?

A look at the backs, to give a clear idea of how printing and design has changed over the decades. I may opt to swap out card #70 at some point, as the backs of most 1970 Topps cards have a different look to them. The 1980 set is my favorite design of these 6, but I have to say that 1990 Topps has grown on me a little after repeated viewings. 1960 Topps is of course known as the last fully horizontal set (though my favorite cards from that set are the vertical Manager cards). What is your favorite zero year set?

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - the 2000s

The legend continues! Seeing Hideo Nomo in a Detroit Tigers uniform is a little jarring, but for the most part these guys are in familiar places. The Pirates and the Giants appear two times apiece. The Jack Wilson card is a fantastic shot.

You'll notice that for the 2000s, I am pulling cards in the 200s from the checklist, rather than starting over with #1... Just making a different choice here on these. I was a fan of the backs in 2001 - 2003. The 2003 cards remind me a bit of the 1984 set, which had my favorite card backs of the 1980s. I think 2003 and 2004 have my favorite designs overall from this decade. How about you? What is your favorite design of the 2000s?

Ancient Relics

The early 2000s saw an explosion of new designs and card manufacturers trying to find all kinds of ways to "bring collectors closer to the game" especially if that meant bringing collectors closer to cleaning out their companies' warehouses of products.

2001 Upper Deck SP Game Used Edition Authentic Fabric - KL Kenny Lofton
How long can the name of one card be? This one is just a single color swatch from a road uniform. The Upper Deck Relic backs frequently would include this text from the CEO, telling you what was in your hands.

2000 Fleer Tradition Lumberjacks Moises Alou
I am a big fan of the Alou Brothers, and by extension that includes Felipe Alou's son, Moises. Alou was best known to me for his time playing for his dad in Montreal, but he had a long and successful MLB career for a ton of different teams. He was a World Series Champion with the Marlins in 1997, and had some memorable moments with the Astros and with the Cubs. I really like this design, which has what looks like pine needles arranged to make a baseball diamond.

2001 Upper Deck SPX Winning Materials Jeff Kent, Barry Bonds, Rich Aurilia
Sometimes the card companies would get especially ambitious, and try to jam several players at once onto the same card. It's cool that these guys are all teammates, though selfishly I would have liked a better variety on the jersey swatches. This card could potentially have 2 Hall of Famers on it someday!

2002 Fleer Triple Crown rbi kings Manny Ramirez
Other times the company would go crazy on the design elements, and of course it's Fleer bringing out the crazy lines and loops. It's hard to tell from the scans, but many of those lines are raised from the card surface, giving the card a mottled texture. Manny had an ignominious final few seasons with injuries and a PED suspension, but that will never take away from my own memories of the fantastic hitter he was in his prime.

2003 Fleer Showcase Thundersticks Vladimir Guerrero
This card is a combo of classy and cheesy - the design is very subtle, with clean lines and muted colors, even though the name of the subset is "Thundersticks" which is fairly stupid, frankly. The relic piece is modest, but then there's also that weird designation of "TF0130" It's not the card number, and it doesn't seem to apply to, say, the bat model that Guerrero used. It's the same on all of the Thundersticks cards I've seen, so it seems completely random. But hey, Completely Arbitrary is my jam.

2002 Flair Power Tools Doug Mientkiewicz
I couldn't complete this post without including at least one of the early 2000s Twins players. They weren't the most glamorous guys, but they were superstars in eyes of Twins fans. Mientkiewicz ultimately was traded away to make room for Justin Morneau, who was a much needed source of power for the Twins. Mientkiewicz of course, went from the Twins to the Boston Red Sox and caught the final out of the 2004 World Series to "Break the Curse."

2003 Topps T205 Game Used Bat Jim Thome
I love these framed cards. I think part of it is that I really like minis however I hate trying to collect minis because of their awkward size. This has the best of both worlds, a mini with a full size frame.

Topps of course has been in the relic game just as long as the rest of the companies, but in the early 2000s there was still a fair amount of competition, and for the purposes of this post, I'd rather let Topps take a back seat to those scrappy underdogs from Fleer and Upper Deck. I picked up all the cards in this post on COMC, just by searching Memorabilia in the 2000s and sorting from the lowest price.

Day Fourteen - 2002 Topps Joe Mauer #622

Day 14: A Favorite Card From the 2000s

Taking the lead from Tony at Off-Hiatus Baseball Cards this will be the fourteenth of 30 posts, using the prompts provided. I won't necessarily post one every day, but I will do one for each card, toss in a few "insights" (as insightful as I can be, anyway), and usually include an honorable mention or two, just because I'm like that.

Here's my pick - Had to go with Joe! I mentioned yesterday that I don't have many cards from this era, I wasn't collecting at all in the 2000s, though I did buy a pack or two on rare instances when I was feeling the itch. This card, along with the vast majority of cards in my collection from this decade, was picked up as a single. I purchased this one at a local card show, which is probably the least cost effective place to get Joe Mauer cards on the planet. Mauer was effectively "the most popular Twin" from the day he was drafted until he started to have injury issues, at which point his contract became the target of every armchair GM and bleacher bum in the state. Nevermind that he won 3 batting titles and an MVP while still earning his rookie contract... Kennys Vargas is currently my favorite Twin, but Joe has always been near the top of my list.

Since these are essentially one card posts, why not share the backs, too? You can tell, even from the limited stats on the back of this card, that Mauer was a special talent. He only struck out one time in High School - not just as a Senior, but in his entire 4 years at Cretin-Durham Hall. He was also recruited by Florida State to be their starting QB, but he opted to play pro baseball instead. Unfortunately, baseball didn't prevent him from suffering the concussions that nearly ended his career. He did crank out his first home run of the season last night, however, and has been hitting the ball very hard all season.

How about some honorable mentions?

Upper Deck (and Fleer) were pushed out of the sport by the end of the decade, but before they left UD gave us some amazing sets including the UD Masterpieces cards. It wouldn't be the 2000s without more Stadium Club, as well as companies making ridiculously large sets that commemorate every single hit, strikeout, homer, etc. of a given season.

Just a sampling of some of the more notable players and sets of the decade - Heritage was in full swing, and everybody was in on the action. Allen & Ginter's was re-introduced by Topps. Pedro was in his prime, Mark Prior made his highly anticipated debut, as did Ichiro.

BONUS! This card arrived today via a trade package from Jim aka GCRL from cards as i see them - complete with a glorious view of the Metrodome from the visitor's dugout. Never knew this card existed, and I nearly re-wrote the whole blog to make this one the "winner" instead of Joe.