Hit 'em with the Heiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii(m?)

I opened some packs of 2022 Topps Series 1 a while back, and I saw this:

Which made me laugh because it reminded me of this:

So, for some reason, I decided to do... this:

and if I do that... why not do this too?

Still looking for the /50 and /25 "1st Edition" parallels, but here's /75 and /10 . . .

You know what I think? Go big or go home.

Right?

This was made easier, I think, because the Rangers acquired a new catcher, Mitch Garver. This pushed Jonah pretty far down on the depth chart so I don't know how many other people are trying to get these. I was the only person bidding on most of these. 

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 2010s

Now we are catching up with the present-day with this series- here is 2011 through 2019. I switched back to double digit numbers to fill this page, which gets us Votto, Devers and deGrom!

Here are the backs, and it looks like Topps has gotten very comfortable with this format- banner on top with name, team, position and card number, followed by a little blurb. A sampling of stats follows, then you've got to give the remaining real estate to the legal department. In my opinion, the 2015 set with its varied colored borders is my favorite of the bunch. The 2019 entry is pretty good too, with a not so subtle nod to the 1982 set. Do you have a favorite set of the 2010s? Do you think the backs are getting stale?

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?

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - 1990s

the journey so far . . .

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

My first round of collecting ended before the decade of the 90s came to a close. I did have the first 5 years accounted for already, and thanks to a more recent purchase of a box of 1998 Topps Series 1, I still had a Kurt Abbott card laying around. The rest I had to find online. Despite the sheer quantity of these cards in existence, the local shows tend to favor either the latest releases or vintage cards with very little available past 1976 or so.  I think the only card that Topps made a conscious effort to plan in advance for this entire set so far was the 1996 Cal Ripken Jr entry. Obviously, Ripken's passing of Lou Gehrig on the all-time consecutive games played list was a watershed moment in sports. At a time when baseball was hanging on by their collective fingernails to the game, this event was a rare sweet spot in a bitter era.

I also think that Topps purposely chose a Marlin for card #98 as the team won the 1997 World Series, but that also could have been a coincidence. They didn't repeat the pattern in any of their other 90s selections. Do you have a favorite 90s Topps set? 1991 has always been a favorite of mine - Topps stuck to their guns for one more year with the old cardstock, but took a big step into the present with the careful curation of the photos selected for the cards. 1996 seems to me to be fairly universally disliked, but if you are a fan, I'd love to hear someone defend it.

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - 1980s

Moving into the 1980s now, having featured the 1950s, the 1960s, and the 1970s over the past month. These card designs were very familiar to me in my childhood collecting days. I wondered if there were any patterns for this cards, but there really weren't. It's been covered by other bloggers in the past, but cards ending in "0" or "5" were traditionally saved for stars. It was fortuitous, then, that 1983 featured Ryne Sandberg on card #83 - the only Hall of Fame player shown so far.

Do you have a favorite design from the 1980s? You can see that 1982 was the year that Topps started to regularly use their new lettering design. 81 and 82 still feature cartoons, though I have always been partial to the team logo on the back of the 1984 set. The 1980s left a little less room for fun facts, instead listing a single highlight (or 2) from the player's career. I didn't know that Mark Salas had a brother that pitched in the minors, or that Mike Marshall was nicknamed "Big Foot." Thanks Topps!

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - 1970s

Here now is the 3rd installment of the series, which started 2 weeks ago with the 1950s, and continued last Sunday with the 1960s. The premise is to use card #71 from 1971 Topps, #72 for 1972 Topps, etc etc. I've already broken the arbitrary rule last week since I didn't like the look of a team card on the page, but now I've broken that highly subjective rule by following my original completely arbitrary one. This page has a team card (hey, I had doubles) and also a League Leader card. You still get the idea of the card design on those two cards.

Here are the card backs and here are some fun facts gleaned from them: Sam McDowell outpaced all other AL hurlers with 304 ks in 1970, Bill Mazeroski was the Pirates' team captain in 1971, Ed Herrmann like cars, Harmon Killebrew had the most RBI (140) in a Twins season (still a team record). Ted Simmons caught a Bob Gibson no-no, Willie Crawford was in a pair of World's Series by 1976, Dyar Miller started out as a catcher, and Ted Cox had a base hit in each of his first 6 MLB games, which set an All-Time record.

Ted Simmons is on the "modern era" h.o.f. ballot this year for the veteran's committee. I think he has a pretty good case (frankly, everyone on the ballot has a good case), given that catchers are seriously underrepresented in the Hall.

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - the 1960s

Not much suspense involved with this series, which started last Sunday. This weekend we are looking at 9 cards from the 1960s. Where is 1960, you say? Well, I will have a separate page for all the "0" year cards at the end of this project. 9 pocket pages just work better this way.

You can see here that I took some liberties with the '63 entry - I didn't want to use a team card on this page (card #63 is the Reds team card) so I picked card #163 to represent the year to have a base card.
1961 and 1962's backs are "upside down" compared to the rest of the horizontal cards, I hadn't noticed that before now. Tony Kubek was the 1957 Rookie of the Year, and Al Weis was a Topps All-Star Rookie in 1963. Don Larsen is probably the biggest name on the page, thanks to his perfect game in the World Series. The Ted Abernathy card probably has the most creative cropping, but I think my favorite on the page is Steve Hamilton from 1969 - I like the casual feel of the background with his Yankee teammates gathering around the batting cage. Ken Berry likes to collect Rock n Roll records - he's just like you and me!

Next week - the 70s. 

My Favorite Padres, Just in Time* for Father's Day

*a few days late

Padres, Father's Day ... are you with me? I have been having a tough time getting the motivation to post. Summer in MN are to be enjoyed outdoors. So even though I have a fair amount of new stuff to post, I haven't been getting down to the basement to scan new stuff. Anyway, here's a bunch of Padres cards, just in time for Father's Day!

The best Padres mascot is the San Diego Chicken. That's science.

A couple righties and a couple lefties. I wouldn't say that these choices will be the "Best" Padres, rather these are the pitchers that I remember collecting as a kid, or liked watching play as an adult, or because their 1990 Upper Deck reminds me of Aphex Twin. Andy Benes wasn't even with the Padres all that long, but the sweet spot of my collecting as a kid lines up right with his rookie and prospect years.

Like Benes, Sandy Alomar Jr didn't stick around San Diego for too long, but her certainly left a card collecting impression. Benito Santiago was one of my favorite players in the early 90s, even though I only saw him in highlights on the weekends (This Week in Baseball, thankyouverymuch). There were plenty of 1B options like Garvey, McGriff, Joyner, Nevin, but I went with Adrian Gonzalez, who I think had his best years in San Diego. Chase Headley was probably the closest to a franchise player the Padres had since Gwynn retired.

Oh! I need a closer! Of course there's Trevor Hoffman, or Heath Bell, or Craig Kimbrel, Rollie Fingers. . . but when I think Padres closer, I think Goose Gossage. Doesn't have to make sense to be true! He's got a bit of reputation these days as a grumpy goose, but I don't mind that too much. He'll say something awful about younger players and for the most part I just laugh at it.

I am too young to remember Ozzie Smith as a Padre, but I definitely recall Garry Templeton. Robbie Alomar had a short stop in San Diego as well, but like his brother, his Padre cards were the ones I remember fondly from my early collecting days. Bip Roberts and Tim Flannery were utility guys that had some good days in the 80s and 90s.

It's not all a nostalgia trip - I have been able to watch a bit more Padres baseball now that I have cable and my parents no longer make me go to bed before the West Coast games get started ( I do what I want, Dad!). These 4 guys are making noise at the big league level or, in Buddy Reed's case, in the minor leagues. I saw the AZ Fall League Championship Game and Buddy had a great moment at the end of the game (even though he was not the hitter or one of the runners).

And of course last but not least, my favorite Padre also happens to be the best Padre of all-time. He has 2,000+ more hits than any other player in a San Diego uniform, and has most of the career hitting marks thanks to a Hall of Fame career.

Happy Padres Day!

MLB's Avengers

The big movie of the summer is out now, a continuation of a very successful franchise of superhero films. For the uninterested or un-doctrinated, Marvel's latest film combines nearly all of the characters that have appeared in the last 10 years of movies, all joining forces to take on the big bad guy.

I thought it would be a fun frivolous Saturday afternoon thought exercise to look at some of the characters and who their MLB counterparts would be.

  

Iron Man - Cal and Lou of course had the nickname, and Steve Garvey also played in a long Iron Man Streak of his own. Albert Pujols, also known as "The Machine" is a Super Rich guy that may be getting older but can still get the job done in the clutch, just like Tony Stark / Iron Man

Captain America - Adam Jones' catch during the WBC with the mini American Flags waving in the background just seemed about as Captain America as you could get. Joe Mauer had the reputation of being an "aw shucks" clean cut golden boy for most of his career.

Also Captain America, because duh, America's Greatest Hero (in Baseball). Ted Williams would be another good example.

Captain Marvel - Mike Trout seems to have superhuman abilities well beyond the realm of possibility, and his domination of the rest of the league seems at times almost unfair as he does it with seeming ease. Andruw Jones, Ken Griffey, Jr, Carlos Beltran, Mickey Mantle, Stan Musial, and Willie Mays were also considered.

Spider-Man - plenty of Wall crawlers to pick from - Torii Hunter of course had the nickname of Spider-Man for a good portion of his career.

Thor - Noah Syndegaard has the nickname, but Aaron and Murray know a thing or two about swinging a divine hammer, and Dutch-born Bert Blyleven had a thunderous curveball (aka Hammer) that would strikeout the 5th most batters in MLB history by the time he retired.

Ant Man and the Wasp - pesky, quick, resourceful - these guys can get under your skin in a hurry.

The Scarlet Witch - Reds veteran Joey Votto has supernatural bat control, which allows him to hit the ball with power to all fields, and has a kind of sixth sense for plate discipline and plate coverage.

Hawkeye - Few possess the accuracy and vision of Greg Maddux and Tony Gwynn.

The Incredible Hulk - You wouldn't like these guys when they are angry (unless they're on your side.). The madder they get, the bigger they get.

Black Widow - Uh, because Moe Berg was a spy and Black Widow is a spy?

The Guardians of the Galaxy - like the curse breaking World Champion Red Sox, the Guardians of the Galaxy are a ragtag group of misfits and oddball characters that win through unique talent and heart over traditional super powers.

Doctor Strange - A slightly bent view of the world coupled with a high level of self confidence, these hurlers are masters of their craft through study of the most arcane and novel techniques known to human history.

Kicking Off The Blog In A Brand New Direction!

Behind that calm demeanor lies the heart of a champion.

Ya know what? I'm sick of baseball. It's time to shake things up and start showing appreciation for the true athlete - the kicker.  Moseley is the only kicker to win a regular season MVP award, but there's no way he'll be the last. Right? Kickers have been getting snubbed for years, and this blog will now be dedicated to getting the MVP trophy back to the real heroes, the Kicker. Remember, it's called FOOTball, not Catchball or Runball or Throwball.

To prove my point, I'll be publishing a new post each day until the next NFL MVP award day (when do they do that? Sometime in May?) We'll be covering all the greats - and Fuad Reveiz.

And who says it has to be a place kicker? Maybe we should talk about the great punters, too, huh? Ray Guy, he's in the Hall of Fame for some reason, why don't we figure out how that happened? Maybe there should be, like, 2 Punters in the Hall Of Fame? Oh, and let's not forget Fuad Reveiz. He should be in the Hall of Fame too.

We'll cover the weird dudes that refused to wear shoes when they kicked. These brave souls had no fear of splinters, loose screws, or stray Lego pieces. Some of them still refuse to wear to shoes to the dinner table. Gutsy. And we'll check in with Fuad to see if he's planning on kicking those footballs any time soon, or can the offense start practice?

We'll talk about this guy. Someone had to kick the extra point after the exhilarating Montana TD passes to Jerry Rice. Maybe it was this guy? He was from Austria.

We'll cover Kicker ROOKIE CARDS! Oh Man, so exciting! The Moseley card at the top is also a rookie card, I think the photo is from his high school yearbook.

We'll discuss Kicker Oddballs! This Greg Coleman card was distributed by local Minnesota Police forces in collaboration with the D.A.R.E. program. Kickers Don't Use Drugs.

Blog Bat Around - The Arbitrary Sources of My Subjective Collections

This Blog Bat Around is courtesy of Tom from Eamus Catuli! who in turn got the idea from Kin's comment.

What is it about the players you collect that made you want to collect them in the first place? Like many of my blogging colleagues, the hometown team(s) provide the foundation of my player collections.

My first player collection began all the way back in 1987 with one card -

My mother likes to tell a story about one of the first games I went to-  I was probably 4 or 5, and the seats we had were in the general admission section of the Upper Deck at the Metrodome, probably the portion of the section that in later years were cordoned off by large banners showing the Twins' retired numbers. We were, however, sitting dead center, so our closest professional athlete was Kirby Puckett, roughly 100 feet away and 50 feet below our seats. The batter crushed a deep line drive to right center field, and Puckett raced over on his tiny legs and made some impressive leaping/diving/acrobatic catch that dipped out of our sightline. The crowd's reaction was all that was needed to clue in to our family that Kirby had made the catch. As he headed back into view, the crowd's cheering got even louder, prompting him to briefly lift his cap, and his focus stayed squarely towards home plate. I grabbed my mother's arm and pulled her closer.

"Did you see that?!" I said.
"Yes, Kirby made a great -"
"KIRBY. WAVED. AT ME!"

So, from that moment on, Puckett was my favorite player.

When I returned to collecting as an adult, I became more interested in the history of baseball, and a set like the T206 tobacco from the early part of the 20th Century held a certain appeal. When I started to look more closely at the checklist, I found another local connection - the set contained players from the minor league Minneapolis Millers. Among those players was the fascinating  Gavvy "Cactus" Cravath. What started as a quest to collect various Minneapolis/St.Paul and outstate Minnesota players turned specifically to this forgotten Home Run King of the 1910s. Cravath has all the ingredients for a great player collection target. Great talent; a long and winding road to success; a set of killer nicknames; and enough mystery to keep people interested.

Pioneers, innovators, and players that broke new ground are of particular interest to me. The only player I know of that broke a team's color barrier and played in a professional game in my lifetime was Minnie Minoso.  Whether or not you think the Saint Paul Saints are wrong to trot out old timers to get legitimate professional at bats long after their careers were otherwise over, I still think it is objectively cool to give the fans (and the players) a thrill. Kevin Millar was the latest guy to do it, hitting a home run this weekend at the age of 45.