Accidentally Left Out

Friday's post celebrated The Collector's 10th Anniversary.  I didn't have time to open up the 1986 Topps rack pack he included in the care package.  Today we resolve that issue.  However before I show off the highlights from that pack, let's check out three lefties that were also part of the care package:

While organizing and sorting Chris's care package... I set these three cards to the side and accidentally left them out.  Then I read Jim's post about International Lefthanders Day and was reminded of the two lefties Chris had sent my way.  As a fellow lefty, I decided a few years ago to collect left-handed athletes.  Randy and Clayton are two of the greatest from my lifetime.  

2026 Topps #22

I was especially excited to see Kershaw's 2026 Topps card, because it shows off statistics from his entire MLB career.  Topps drops the ball a lot these days, but kudos to them for giving him and his fans a proper sunset card.

Okay, let's take a look at the contents of that 1986 Topps rack pack...

I'm pretty sure Chris chose this specific rack pack for me, because I need this Garvey for my set build:

1986 Topps Glossy All-Star #13

One card down.  One card to go:

When it comes to collecting, 1986 Topps holds a lot of nostalgic value to me.  One one hand it reminds me of stolen cards and the end of a childhood friendship.  But it also reminds me of a time when I'd open up packs of cards, look them over, and sort them in a variety of ways.

Sometimes I'd sit down and try to build the best team out of the cards pulled in my pack.  

Here's my starting nine:

Since this was a rack pack with forty-nine cards, I decided to only use regular base cards (no subsets) to build my squad.  If you're wondering why I used Jose Cruz in center when he spent most of his career patrolling left... it's because Oglivie had dibs on that position.

1986 Topps #583

I considered putting Al Bumbry in centerfield, but ultimately I'd rather have Cruz out there playing out of position.

However like Kershaw... Bumbry gets to be in the spotlight today, because his 1986 Topps card is his sunset card.  Here's a look at his career stats:

Bumbry is a huge fan favorite among Baltimore Orioles fans, but this card captures his lone season in San Diego.

I'll wrap things up with Al's manager in 1985 and a few other familiar names from the rack pack:

Thanks again Chris for this generous care package.  It was cool to see some sunsets.  And this rack pack took me back to my middle school days in more than one way.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

BBA: A Special "Sunset" Card

When I was nine years old... I made the decision to start collecting baseball cards and forty-three years later... it's something that is still a huge part of my life.   As a card collector of the 80's... the rookie card has played a prominent role in my collection the entire time and I'm pretty sure Fernando Valenzuela, Joe Charboneau, and The Official 1982 Price Guide to Baseball Cards were the biggest influencers.

Fast forward four decades and I'm still interested in collecting rookie cards.  But thanks to the ever-evolving hobby and to fellow collectors, I've opened up my collecting interests to a lot of other things.

Today's post focuses on my all-time favorite player's "sunset" card... which is a term coined by Dime Box Nick.  Well... at least that is who I learned it from.  "Sunset" cards are essentially a player's final regular issue base cards, which means subsets and inserts are excluded.  However he does include brands that are outside of the traditional big companies, like Line Drive, Classic, ASA, and SSPC.  He even used a Topps Now card as his favorite Ichiro "sunset" card.

John over at John's Big League Baseball Blog kicked off the most recent Blog Bat-Around two weeks ago and asked us to show off the final base card of our favorite player.  His guidelines were a little more strict than Nick's.  He requested that we not include inserts, relics, autographs, specially made cards, new releases, or buybacks.

That works for me, because personally... when I collect "sunset" cards, I tend to focus on a player's last regular issue Topps flagship card.  And here is my Tony Gwynn "sunset" card:

2002 Topps #99

Personally there isn't anything too great about the card front.  The photo features a nice action shot, but it's a little too zoomed in for my taste.  And although the 2002 Topps card design isn't the worst ever, it won't crack my Top 20 either.

However the back is truly something special:

I'm especially fond of the "sunset" cards that are released the year after the player played in their final game, so they have their total career statistics on the back.  Topps found a way to cram Gwynn's entire twenty season career onto the back of his "sunset" card.

If I'm going to give props to Topps, it's only fair to recognize Donruss and Fleer (Tradition) too.  Both companies included Gwynn's full career statistics on their card backs.  Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of his Fleer card, but here's his Donruss "sunset" card:

2002 Donruss #19

Donruss scored bonus points for making him card #19 in the set.

And for those who are curious, Upper Deck did put Gwynn into their 2002 flagship set:

2002 Upper Deck #495

They even mentioned his retirement.  Unfortunately, it's part of the checklist subset.

Thank you Nick for inspiring me to collect "sunset" cards.  And thank you John for introducing this Blog Bat-Around and making me realize I need to add a copy of Gwynn's 2002 Fleer Tradition card to my collection.

Happy Monday and sayonara!