Six Pack of Stadium Club Part 1

I am focusing on Stadium Club this week.  The Topps brand was successfully relaunched last year which made the product a highly regarded release on this year's card calendar.  There are autographs and die cuts in the set, but my favorite part of this product is the base cards.  How many products can you say that about during a calendar year?  Not many.  As a long time collector a great base set harkens me back to my early days as a collector when there was little more to a baseball card product outside of the base set.

At some point I will post an autograph, or two, that I have picked up from the set.  However, for this week I am going to pick out the base cards that I love from the set.  Some of the cards are going to have a simple explanation, such as, the card features a cool or unique picture.  Other cards will have other reasons for making my list.  Six per night all week long.  Here are six for tonight:

#64 Brett Gardner - New York Yankees

Brett Gardner has been know to make some nice defensive plays.  I like that this card has a cool picture of Gardner scaling the wall to make a catch.  I like the faces on the people in the crowd even better.  There is a wide range of emotions in that front row.  I also like that the ball is in the picture, but we do not know if Gardner actually makes the catch.  Or do we?  

#57 Marcus Stroman - Blue Jays 

I first saw Stroman while he was pitching at Duke.  I was a big fan then and I am a big fan now.  He's pretty fun, and interactive, follow on Twitter too.  He's a positive, energetic, and emotional player.  I collect Stroman cards and have plenty of the Blue Jays pitcher in games, but I feel like this card does a great job of capturing his personality.  Great card and a little something different for my stack of Stroman cards.  

#24 Dale Murphy - Braves 

The first year I collected cards was 1983.  It was the height of Dale Murphy's career.  I am not of the opinion that Murphy belongs in the Hall, but the peak of his career was spectacular.  The picture on this card looks like the great version of Dale Murphy who won back to back MVP awards.  I am not sure what's going on with all of the bats and balls on the floor.  Maybe one of those pictures someone took on photo day during spring training.  Anyways, really cool card of The Murph.  

#22 Ivan Rodriguez - Rangers 

Do you remember when stadiums used to have foul ground?  There are still a few, but I feel like most stadiums have a really limited amount of foul ground.  Plenty of cool plays happened because of foul territory.  I can think of dozens of times I watched Ozzie Smith chase down long foul balls behind third base, near the visitors bullpen, in old Busch Stadium.  While I grew up watching Ozzie, this card shows another great defensive player tracking down a foul ball near the railing of the dugout in Arlington.  It looks like the ball is in Rodriguez's glove, so I am going to go ahead and say that he made this play.  Really like that Rodriguez has a card showing him as playing defense.  

#34 Mariano Rivera - Yankees 

I watch the World Series without fail every fall.  There are some that are anti-climactic, but still turn out to be memorable.  I watched the Giants and Tigers a few years back.  The Giants swept the series, but not too memorable.  I also remember when the Yankees battled the Padres in the 1998 Series.  I was happy to see Tony Gwynn make the World Series and I was hoping to see him get a ring.  Honestly though, the Yankees were in complete control of the series.  They were a great team and you knew, watching them in the playoffs, they were going to win it all.  As much as people complain about the Yankees "buying" a team to win the World Series, those late 90s teams were heavy on the word "team".  I think the 1998 Yankees might have been one of the best teams of my lifetime.  Love this picture of Rivera.  

#36 Frank Robinson - Reds 

Rain delay or was this the pre-game routine?  No videos, no video games, no Beats by Dre.  Just a Hall of Fame player wearing his uniform reading a newspaper.  Something really different and really cool from Topps on this card.  

30 Year Top 50: 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game

#9- The second entry from the Greats of the Game line comes in one spot ahead of the original set.  There aren't many things to complain about with the original set, but Fleer did a great job of making the second run of this set even better.  Let's start with the best set.  The original Greats of the Game set was tied to the photography and covers of Sports Illustrated.  The 2000 set dropped the Sports Illustrated name and featured a much simpler base card.

2000 Fleer Greats of the Game Ralph Kiner Autograph

The older players in the base set were pictured in black and white photos and the more modern players were pictured in color.  The simple border and picture made the clean design of these cards a favorite of mine.  The borders of the cards were susceptible to dings and chipping making the base cards a condition sensitive set.  

2000 Fleer Greats of the Game Dale Murphy

If you compare the edges of the Dale Murphy card below to the Ralph Kiner card above you can see the slight white dings along the edges of the Murphy card.  When I first opened a box and a few packs of these cards back in 2000 I was able to complete an entire base set.  However, it took my another year to complete a mint version of the set.  The single cards can be found for less than dollar on the secondary market, but many have the same problems as my Dale Murphy card.  

2000 Fleer Greats of the Game Red Schoendienst Autograph 

One of the biggest changes in the 2000 set is the autograph insertion rate.  The 1999 set featured one autograph per pack, but the 2000 set featured one autograph per six packs, or four per box.   Fleer issued a total of 93 autographed cards, but Fleer offered little details about short prints.  It's widely believed that several cards in the set are harder to find then others.  A few of the cards were purposely shirt printed, but others were signer created short prints.  For example, Dave Concepcion signed his cards in both red and black ink even though the signers in the set were all provided black pens.  

2000 Fleer Greats of the Game Bruce Sutter Autograph

Overall, the quality of autographs was spectacular.  The plain design of the cards lent for an excellent space for the players to sign, as opposed to the 1999 set which featured a small white square with a Sports Illustrated Cover or Photograph.  Fleer did a great job of getting a wide variety of different signers for the set.  This Bruce Sutter autograph is one of my personal favorites.  While Sutter has had several different certified autographs over the years, this was the first one I ever owned.  Love the picture with the polyester Braves uniform and the shaggy beard.  

2000 Fleer Yankee Clippings Willie Randolph Jersey

Beyond the base set and great autograph set in the 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game set, collectors also flocked to this set for the Yankee Clippings jersey cards.  The 15 card set featured a variety of great Yankees players from different periods of time.  When the 2000 Greats of the Game set was first released this cards were hot sellers and could easily push the autographed cards on price.  As time has passed, some of the lesser stars in the set have become easier and cheaper to find.  My Willie Randolph card is my only Yankee Clipping card and cost me right around $10 shipped last summer.