A Giant Project Update #11

This is the giantest of Topps Giant updates. It has taken me awhile to assemble this set. Long than I thought, but I think that it actually helped to collect the tough short-prints and expensive Hall of Famers first. Since my last update in February, I have been able to find another 8 cards to cross off the checklist. Yes, there are short-prints in this post and Hall of Famers, but most were nowhere near the cost of the Mantle and Mays cards.

After my last post, I was closing in on the 2/3 mark for the set with 37 of the 60 cards. In the last month, I have brought that total up to 45. 

A quick look at the new cards.

First up is Kansas City A's infielder Wayne Causey. 

This was one of the short-prints that I still had leftover on the checklist. Causey was a glove-first, light hitting utility infielder. There are multiple Hall of Famers in this post and Wayne Causey cost more than all of them combined. If I were not putting together the set, this is a card I would 100% not purchase. At those moments where I thought about quitting on this set, Wayne Causey always flashed through my head.  

"Would I buy a really expensive Mark Lemke card?"

I will get back to you. 

Wayne Causey's career year involved him finishing twelfth in the American League batting average leaders. I am not really sure that is the type of statistic and brag you want on the back of your baseball card.  I guess it's better than saying he finished 21st in MVP voting that season. I think Topps could have squeezed it in: 

"Wayne just missed out on the American League MVP in 1963, finishing just a mere 243 points behind Yankees catcher, Elston Howard" 

Yes, this card cost a fraction of Wayne Causey.

Frank Robinson.  

This Frank Robinson guy seemed really good. I am not going to go look it up, but the Reds would be foolish if they ever traded him.

 

Pete Ward is an interesting player. He won the 1963 American League Rookie of the Year Award. Ward was a legit hitter with a .290s average, 25-30 doubles, and roughly 25 home runs in his first year or two in the Majors. He hurt his back and neck in a bad car accident after his second year and was never quite the same. Still, the guy is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Ward still stuck around the Majors for a decade after injury, mostly with the White Sox. He played his last season as a left-handed bat off the bench for the Yankees. The back undersells his father a bit, which is the reason why I knew of Pete Ward before buying the card. 

Way back in the day, there was an antique store in my wife's hometown in northern Michigan that had a spattering of sports cards and memorabilia. It was next to the town's incredible coffee shop. One of the items in the store was an autographed photo and old O-Pee-Chee card of a Montreal Maroons hockey player, Jimmy Ward. I am not good with old hockey players, but the price for the two items was outrageous. 

I went home and Google searched the guy.  

Not mine, nor the items at the store, but he was a member of the popular 1934-1935 Montreal Maroons Stanley Cup winner.   

The card below is from Google. I don't buy hockey cards for hundreds of dollars. Nothing says popular Canadian sports star like appearing in an advertisement for syrup. Pretty dapper guy for a professional hockey player from the old days when they did not wear helmets. Although, maybe there is a reason his mouth is shut. 

Back to baseball cards.  

Not a Hall of Famer, but definitely a great of the era. I think he might have been one of the few players to appear for both the Minnesota version of the Washington Senators and the Texas Rangers version of the Washington Senators.  

The back describes his skill on the mound. His playing numbers are solid. 

Camilo was also a notable scout for the Mets, A's, and Dodgers following his retirement. Camilo convinced Cuban refugee Jose Canseco to sign with the A's, while also suggesting the team draft USC infielder/pitcher Mark McGwire. He also found a 15 year-old Tampa high school pitcher, Dwight Gooden, for the Mets. The majority of Latin American Dodgers players from the 1990s and early 2000s were discovered and signed by Camilo Pascal.  

Next. 

Heard this guy ended up on the Reds at some point. 

I hope the Orioles got a good return.  

The card is off-center. Although, in the grand scheme of things, this is a really inexpensive Roberto Clemente card. I might revisit this one at some point in the future. For the moment, I will take it.  

I feel the need to make a post ranting about Topps use of "Bob" in Roberto Clemente cards. 

Another really inexpensive Hall of Famer.  

Finally a Topps Giants card talking about an established Major League players Minor League career. This set has tons of cards were parts of the back are taken up by their Minor League numbers. This is the first card in this post. The PCL was serious baseball. The Sally League? Yikes. Someone was reaching.  

Final card.  

Dodger great Tommy Davis.  

Yes, Tommy Davis has two batting titles and helped get the Dodgers to the World Series, but here is something about his time with the Spokane Indians. 

 

Eight more cards crossed off and I am at 75% of the set. Two Hall of Famers left and no short-prints. 

1 Gary Peters
2 Ken Johnson
3 Sandy Koufax SP
4 Bob Bailey
5 Milt Pappas
6 Ron Hunt
7 Whitey Ford
8 Roy McMillan
9 Rocky Colavito
10 Jim Bunning
11 Roberto Clemente
12 Al Kaline
13 Nellie Fox
14 Tony Gonzalez
15 Jim Gentile
16 Dean Chance
17 Dick Ellsworth
18 Jim Fregosi
19 Dick Groat
20 Chuck Hinton
21 Elston Howard
22 Dick Farrell
23 Albie Pearson
24 Frank Howard
25 Mickey Mantle
26 Joe Torre
27 Ed Brinkman
28 Bob Friend SP
29 Frank Robinson
30 Bill Freehan
31 Warren Spahn
32 Camilo Pascual
33 Pete Ward
34 Jim Maloney
35 Dave Wickersham
36 Johnny Callison
37 Juan Marichal
38 Harmon Killebrew
39 Luis Aparicio
40 Dick Radatz
41 Bob Gibson
42 Dick Stuart SP
43 Tommy Davis
44 Tony Oliva
45 Wayne Causey SP
46 Max Alvis
47 Galen Cisco SP
48 Carl Yastrzemski
49 Hank Aaron
50 Brooks Robinson
51 Willie Mays SP
52 Billy Williams
53 Juan Pizarro
54 Leon Wagner
55 Orlando Cepeda
56 Vada Pinson
57 Ken Boyer
58 Ron Santo
59 Johnny Romano
60 Bill Skowron SP

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: 1999 SP Signature Edition

#35-This release represented Upper Deck's first venture into the world of a huge autograph focused set.  By the time 1999 rolled around, the hobby had already seen the release of the 1996 Leaf Signature Series and the 1997 and 1998 releases of the Donruss Signature Series.  Since Donruss was bankrupt by the end of 1998 I am guessing that Upper Deck was trying to fill the void.

The packs for the 1999 SP Signature Edition were $20 and only available at Hobby Shops.  Each contained three cards.  Two base cards and one autographed card.  Now, there were some really nice cards in this set that are really cool and worth owning.  However, in a mega-autograph set there are also plenty of cards that are painful to see inside a pack of $20 cards.

One of my big pluses in owning cards from this set is the design.  The autographs are all on card and the card themselves feature a white background which showed the blue ink autographs very well.  As far as the autographs go I break them into three categories.  Lets take a look at a few cards from the set using a few Orioles.  Just picked a team.

1999 SP Signature Edition Ivan Coffie

1. Common Cards- Every mega-autograph set has tons of filler cards like this Ivan Coffie.  It stinks to buy a per pack autograph, spend good money, and pull a card that sells on Ebay for $2 on a really good day.  I often look at the common cards in mega-autograph sets from this perspective:  Collect your favorite team and fill in your autograph collection.  For example, one of my favorite Cardinals teams was the 1996 National League Central Champions.  It was LaRussa's first year, Ray Lankford and several other personal favorites were on the team, and they came within a game of the World Series.  It was also the same year the Leaf Signature set was released and I was able to get a lot of the team in the set with a certified autograph.  They won't all fit in the picture, but here's a sampling.  

1996 Leaf Signature Cardinals Autographs: John Mabry, Tom Pagnozzi, Mike Gallego, and Gary Gaetti

Love the Gary Gaetti card the most out of this lot.  

1999 SP Signature Edition Albert Belle Autograph

2.  Current Stars- In 1999 Albert Belle was fading at the end of his career.  His cards were still pretty desirable and held their value pretty well at the time.  Even to this day his cards have a bit of following and are never super cheap.  If you scour the internet and local card shops you will find that Albert Belle has a few autographs floating around out there.  Especially recent autographs.  At the time of this product release however there were very few floating around.  If you wanted an Albert Belle autograph, this was your best bet.  Most mega-autograph sets have a few cards like this.  Ron Gant is another big one from this set with a similar story.  

1999 SP Signature Edition Frank Robinson Autograph

3.  Hall of Famers-My third category is what most people want to find in their one per autograph packs, but the odds are always difficult on these cards.  Looking at my Frank Robinson, it is probably one of the cheaper Hall of Fame autographs in this set.  In fact, some people would argue that a card like Frank barely covers the cost of the pack on a good day on Ebay.  I disagree.  While it is probably just in the $20 range, covering the pack cost, the cards in the 1999 SP Signature Edition are on card.  For my collection I would much rather own a slightly less expensive on card autograph then a limited print number, high end, sticker autograph.   

Like the 1999 SP Signature Edition?  Not in my 30 Year Top 50 is the By The Letter insert in SP Authentic sets.  If you have been following my countdown you'll notice that the Not in the Top 50 and the in the Top 50 set are often tied together somehow.  Today, I am straying a little bit.  Upper Deck has released some other uber-autograph sets, but this thread is supposed to be about the highlights.  

I could have easily focused this section on one of the Ultimate Signature sets, but the By The Letter Autographs deserve a little bit of love.  I miss them so very much and while Topps has duplicated them into their own creation:

2010 Topps Finest Buster Posey Letter Patch Autograph

They aren't quite the same as the original Upper Deck product.  The By The Letter Autograph concept started in the 2006 SP Authentic set.  The cards were an instant smash hit.  The concept of course was to collect all the letter patches of a player to spell out their name.  Here's how they started out:

2006 SP Authentic Matt Holliday By The Letter Autograph

Over the next several years the cards changed very little in concept and design, but still offered collectors a cool product to chase every year.  Whether you were collecting players from your favorite team:

2009 SP Authentic By The Letter David Freese Autograph

Or you just ran into a cool inexpensive card of an average player.  

2008 SP Authentic By The Letter Edwin Encarnacion Autograph 

The By The Letter Autographs are a set that I strongly considered bundling together and putting on my countdown.