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?
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!
Well, I didn't intend to be blog silent for the past three weeks, but a series of unfortunate incidents put a crimp in my writing schedule. Thankfully, everyone is on the road to healthy again and I am back with some more nonsense.
One card from each 1950s era Topps set - nothing jumps out right away looking at the front of each card.
The backs reveal the not-so-arbitrary pattern - each card is matched up with the year it was issued - Card #52 from 1952, card #55 from 1955, etc etc.
I've put together a collection spanning all the Topps years like this (more or less, you'll see when I get there) and it serves as a nice visual progression of Topps designs. The cards could as easily have been completely random selections, but I kind of like having the card # match the year on the back. Plenty of fun facts for each player, from Hall of Famer All-time great Eddie Robinson, to the trivia on the back of Sherm Lollar's card noting that the pitcher used to only be 35 feet from the plate in the early days. "Rip" Repulski is a Minnesota kid from Sauk Rapids, and Don Mueller played in Minneapolis before his call-up to the New York Giants.
My goal is simple. It is a complete understanding of the universe, why it is as it is, and why it exists at all. -- Stephen Hawking
My goal is simple - collecting a Joe Mauer card in every flagship Topps design. Mauer's career began just after Topps started its tour of Heritage designs, and as a result he's been featured on quite a few different designs over the years.
Joe was still working his way up from the Minors when the 1955 Topps Heritage set came out, but he was featured on this 2014 3X5 ad for Topps online cards.
He's been on a Heritage card every year since then, racking up designs throughout the 50s and 1960s.
Even with his brief minor league career, he's been on Topps flagship every year since 2002, including one of the few "rookie / prospect" cards to feature 2 league MVPs. The 2018 Topps card just arrived today via Jim aka GCRL -- Thanks Jim! More from that mailing coming soon.
It's probably easier to list out the years that he's still missing- though I'm not sure the 1976 OPC above should count. He should get a 1970 Heritage card next year, leaving 1973, 74, 77, 78, 79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 88, 92, 93, 94, 95, 97, 98, 99, 00, and 01. Several of those designs were featured in Archives, but Joe either was on one of the other designs or omitted from the set that year altogether.
I've done it - I finished a complete run of Elmer Valo's Topps cards from his playing days - let's take a look:
1951:
Topps Red Back # 28 - "hustling" is an adjective you'll see often in reference to Elmer, his 10 Homers in '51 were a career high..
1952:
Valo is tied with Joe DiMaggio for career on base percentage at .3983.
1953:
Elmer only appeared in 50 games in 1953, he struggled with injuries to his leg and probably lingering effects of concussion(s) (undiagnosed at the time) suffered in '52.
1954:
As the Athletics had a hard time drawing fans in Philadelphia, Valo had a hard time drawing time in the lineup. His injury plagued 1953 campaign had won him no favors from the manager, and he scuffled to the tune of a .214 batting average in a little over 100 games, mostly coming off the bench.
1955:
Valo had the best season of his career in 1955. He reached high water marks for batting average, on base percentage, and a gaudy 155 OPS+. Valo even received MVP votes, as the now Kansas City Athletics rose from the cellar to a respectable 6th place in the American League.
1956:
Valo was known as a fearless defender in the outfield, crashing into walls and robbing home runs. This also meant frequent injuries - Elmer robbed a Ted Williams home run in '46, crashing into the wall so violently that he had to be carried off the field. During the Athletics' improbable run in 1947, Valo took a hit away from Yogi Berra in the 8th inning of a close game, his third such catch of the contest. He did not hear the raucous crowd's reaction at first, his collision with the wall had knocked him temporarily unconscious.
1957:
no copy here - just enjoy the beautiful card...
1958:
Upon being traded to the Dodgers Philadelphia sportswriter Red Smith called Valo "The Most Sincere Fella" and "Whipping Boy-Elect." He said he hoped the fans would boo Duke Snider instead of Valo because Snider would "give it back to them, whereas Valo would agree with them." Elmer was in the lineup for the final game at Ebbets Field in Brooklyn for the Dodgers, and made the move to Los Angeles, playing part time in the outfield and pinch hitting.
1960:
Why no 1959 card? Valo had no offers from MLB clubs following his 1958 campaign, so he signed on to play and coach in the PCL with the Seattle Rainiers. He led the league in hitting, which earned himself a new gig in August of '59, playing for Cleveland. While getting on base at .424 clip, his efforts at the plate and in the field were not enough to earn Cleveland the AL pennant. He was able to latch on with the Yankees in the off-season, only appearing in 8 games (strictly as a pinch hitter) for the Bronx Bombers before moving on to the Washington Senators.
1961:
For the third time in his career, Valo was playing for a relocated franchise in 1961. The Senators moved to Minnesota to become the Twins and Valo split the final year of his playing career between the Twins and the Philadelphia Phillies, his second stint with that club.
Rumor has it that Elmer was actually a four-decade player, getting a single at bat from Connie Mack's Athletics in the 1939 season. The story goes that Valo was traveling with the team after his minor league season ended, and Mack asked him to get up from the bench and pinch hit, not realizing that Valo was not yet officially on the roster. This at-bat was later expunged from the official record at Mack's request; playing Valo without being on the roster would have resulted in a hefty fine for "The Tall Tactician."
Much of the information from this post comes from the great biography on Valo found online at the SABR bio project. Please click through to read the whole thing here. More Bios from the author Mel Marmer can be found HERE.
Here's the deal - I'm putting up scans of some of the items that are available for trade from me. The Vintage cards I am trading are almost always cards that I have upgraded in my own collection, so condition is generally not so good.
If you're looking for minty fresh vintage cards, I am probably not the guy to trade with right now.
That being said, on to the scans:
UPDATE: Well, the 1960 Ryne Duren and the 1961 Elmer Valo are still available, but the rest have been claimed for trading, that was fast!
Interested in anything scanned above? Interested in trading in General? Send me a message using the handy contact form on the right of my blog, or a comment with a way to contact you below. I'll update this post as things are claimed. I'll make new posts when I add new items.
I was so ready to write a post about the awesome cards I ripped from the 2015 Topps series 1 . . . but the local Target hasn't gotten them yet. So, instead, here's something that will more than likely not become a weekly feature:
This week's edition of Highly Subjective is a look at my favorite cards from the 1980 through 1989 Topps base sets. As usual, these selections are Highly Subjective and in some rare cases they are also completely arbitrary.
1980 Gary Carter:
The Hall of Famer with a sweet play at the plate. He thinks the runner is out and his game face is in full force.
1981 Bruce Sutter:
Another Hall of Famer, rocking the big gnarly hair that comes the territory for closing the big game. I enjoy cards that capture the ball in flight like this, too. You can see the back of the Carter card here - maybe if his brother didn't play in bell-bottoms, he'd have advanced further in the Giants system...
1982 Carlton Fisk in Action:
Three for three for Cooperstown. The early version of "Doing the Carlton" was less graceful, but no less athletic than Alfonso Ribeiro's dance moves. The front of this card is technically upside down, though I think the makes more sense for "in action" to be right side up.
1983 Bert Blyleven:
Another Hall of Famer, but I swear it's just a coincidence. Blyleven is a two-time former twin and a current t.v. broadcaster for the team, so he's around the Twin Cities often - he was just at TwinsFest a couple weeks ago and I said hello in the hallway. The best part about this card is that it looks like they made him shave his beard for the portrait on the bottom.
1984 Neil Allen:
The first non-hall member, but he is sporting a first rate jacket. Allen is now the Twins' Pitching Coach, but that did not affect the highly subjective voting at all (probably).
1985 Gary Pettis:
I mean, come on. Where is Pettis posing for this photo? Lifetouch? Or perhaps he is in The Void - a massless, featureless vacuum of gray slate. He's pondering existence here. Also, my vote for best card backs of the 80s Topps run goes to 1984. Really like the team logo there and the color scheme. Edited to Add: Nick posted this awesome story in the comments about the Pettis card. The photo is actually Gary's younger brother Lynn! I feel this cements the choice even further.
1986 Tony Perez:
This one is a sentimental vote - all my cousins live in Ohio, and my very first baseball cards came from their castoffs and included this Tony Perez card (though in a much more mangled form). I might vote for it anyway given the Eric Davis cameo and the double high five, but since this was the first "cool card!" I ever owned, I had to vote for it.
1987 Keith Mitchell:
The sandstorm of the century! Just one of the best cards of the 80's, period. Great shot and Mitchell was on his way at the time to be a very special player.
1988 Ed Hearn:
It starts to get tough here as I feel like there was a lot of "blah" photography in 88 and 89 in the Topps set. But here Hearn is showing how tough a guy with glasses can be. You wouldn't dare hit a guy with glasses, if that guy was Ed Hearn, would you? The Manager cards from this set are actually some of the more interesting ones - Lasorda is riding a golf cart, and Pinella is showing off his W.S. ring...
1989 Kelly Downs:
Just a pleasing geometric pattern - lines. This one was pretty arbitrary.
There you have it, now I'll be looking to score some 2015 Topps again for tomorrow!
This beast of a book arrived last week from Amazon.
I would have scanned the cover but I feared it would pulverize my poor scanner.
A dealer at one of the card shows tipped me off the existence of the book, and I was able to use some gift card $$ from the holidays to essentially get the book for free!
This might be the closest I'll get to owning a complete set of 1952 Topps in mint condition - I could easily spend hours just poring through the various year's pages.
Leafing through the years helps my efforts to complete a vintage wantlist of Topps cards. It's kind of a bummer that the book doesn't have the card backs too, but the full color reproductions of the front of each card is a real treat.
There's even an index in the back so I can make sure I have all the Elmer Valos and Coot Veals I could ever want:
There a bunch of books out there about baseball cards, do you have a favorite?
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