Now, That's A Name I Have Not Heard In A Long Time

Topps Pristine?  

Jack Flaherty?

The last time I opened a pack of Topps Pristine cards, I was trying to chase down some So Taguchi and Jason Simontacchi rookie cards. I do not think either of those players have appeared in a game during the past decade. Although, I still enjoy looking at their baseball cards.  

Here is my copy of the one of the Topps Pristine Simontacchi card. 

Whatever your opinion of short-lived long-relievers who get the occasional spot start, Topps Pristine were nice cards. They had a nice design, although the checklist was a little gimmicky, and the packs came with encased cards in separate packs inside the regular pack. If you could get past some of the packaging oddities, I am not really sure why Topps decided to stop making these cards.

I am also not sure why Topps decided to bring back this product line after a 15 year hiatus. I was intrigued when I saw other people talking about it, so I went and checked out some of the different Cardinals and former Durham Bulls players who had cards in the set. There were the usual selection of Nolan Arenado, Goldschmidt, Yadier Molina, and Wander Franco cards.  

They were are a little more than what I wanted to spend for a card that was as much brand nostalgia as it was trying to purchase a card of a player that I collected. I was about to move on when I saw a really cheap copy of a Jack Flaherty autograph.

Topps Pristine disappeared for a long time, just like Jack Flaherty has seemingly disappeared from the baseball diamond. It seemed like a perfect pairing.  

This Flaherty Topps Pristine autograph is one of the encased cards.

 

 

 

Quality signature as far as Flaherty 'graphs. I like the clear white space at the bottom of the card for the signature. The background design is decent, although it reminds me a bit of one of those graphics created to show the political party breakdown of the House or Senate with the blue and red dots jumbled up. 

 

 

 

Honestly, I have probably been teaching too long. 

The back design has the usual, boring congratulations letter about pulling an autograph from a pack of cards. I am not sure what is happening with the big red blob here. Is Congress being launched into the sun or is this some sort of psychological tests given to the person who pulled this $10 autograph from a $500 box of cards?

Set Appreciation Post #7 - 2017 Topps Heritage Minors

I let my 10 year old son pick out a random set for this post.  I am honestly surprised that he did not come back with the 1996 SPx set.  It is his all-time favorite set.  We both know it's because of the hologram pictures on the front of the cards.  Instead, he chose the 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League set, which is based on the 1968 Topps set.  Yes, the burlap sack set.  

He actually informed me that there are a lot of Durham Bulls card in this set. After taking five minutes to flip through the cards, it appears that he is correct.  There are a lot of Durham Bulls players and cards in this set.  

Basic Design 

I am going to go ahead and show my hand early in the post.  Personally, I find this design a little bit boring.  That's probably a generous assessment.  I also understand some of the attachment to this set.  When I was a kid it was a super cool set.  There were all sorts of cool unaffordable cards in this set.  Nolan Ryan and Johnny Bench rookie cards, Bob Clemente, old broken down Mickey Mantle.  

Really, when you get past some of the names on the card, it is really overrated.  Reminds me a lot of Nolan Ryan's actual playing career.  

I actually need to get back on topic.  This is the 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League set.  It's easy to drift off topic with design when Topps just recycles all of the old ones constantly.  Kind of makes the Heritage product line seem a little less special.  

Here's a card.  I will do better on the other side of the scan with focus.  

Is there something nice I can say about the design of the 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League set?  

I have two.  

First, the cards have pictures of Minor League players.  I like Minor League baseball.  This set features some pretty talented baseballers before they reached the Major Leaguers.  

Second, I like this yellow color that Topps used on the back.  Most of my 1968 Topps cards are not of the "pristine" variety, and therefore the color on the back is slightly less yellow.  These look nice with the black ink.  In my opinion, one of the most readable baseball card backs.   

I would rank the burlap sack portion of the 1968 Topps set in the bottom half of all Topps sets.  It might be in the bottom half of the bottom half.  It's at least better than 1996 Topps.  

Nickels.  

The "let me tell you something I like" and "let me tell something I don't like" theme really runs throughout this set.  I really like the coin cards that Topps puts in the Heritage Minors on an almost annual basis.  I am not sure that the early Heritage Minor League sets had these cards, but they have been in all of the recent ones.  

I have a few of these cards in my collection.  I wouldn't say that I collect them, but if I see one I like I will usually end up with it at some point.  There have not been any Durham Bulls, but there have been a few Cardinals, along with some other players I enjoyed watching in the Minors.  

I got this J.P. Crawford card because he is shown as a member of the Lehigh Valley Iron Pigs.  I am generally of the opinion that Minor League Baseball often goes too far with odd and goofy nicknames.  There are a few that I am willing to overlook for various reasons.  Iron Pigs is one of them.  

The front of the card is really good looking.  The back is a disaster.  

What is all this talk about the Cubs on the back of the card?  I get that it is connected to 1968, but they also randomly throw in the fact that J.P. Crawford was born in 1995 at the top.  

Sir, this is a J.P. Crawford card.  

Couldn't we tie the card back to another shortstop who played in 1968?  Maybe a Phillies player who did something newsworthy in 1968?  You could even just make the card back about J.P. Crawford.  That would work too.  

It's like Topps couldn't get out of their own way while making this set.  

Autographs 

There are some really good autographs in this set.  I don't own any of them.  I won't hold it against the final ranking.  Of all the different baseball card products with autographs of Minor Leaguers, the Heritage sets is always the best.  

The players are in their Minor League uniforms, rather than Major League, which makes it better than Bowman in my opinion.  Pro Debut also has the players in their Minor League uniforms, but those sticker autographs look really bad at times.  

These are nice.....

Both pulled from packs of cards during a meeting at work.  Good story, but for another time.  

I usually try to chase down the different Durham Bulls players, future Durham Bulls players, guys I saw play in college or USA Baseball, or players I just enjoyed watching play in the Minors.  This was not a great set for my collection, but let's face it, this product generally has a good track record.  I know a lot of people who love the autographs in the 2017 Heritage set.  

The autographs are a definite positive.  

Bizarro World.  

I am not a fan of all the different variations.  I will just lump them into the category of "weird stuff".  It happens in almost every Heritage product, and there are very few over the years that I have actual considered owning.  

Just weird.  

Bizarro World.  

Grown men with magnifying classes looking at tiny little codes on the back of baseball cards, or hidden sparkles on the front of cards.  I'm over 40 and I do not wear glasses.  Probably because I do not read the little variation codes on the back of Topps cards.  

This is one of the variations from this set.  

The main variation in the actual 1968 set was the yellow and white team names.  

Why not just roll with that? 

Topps did include variations with the yellow and white teams names, I just don't understand the need to invent some ridiculous new variation for the Heritage remakes.  

Similar to the back of the nickel cards, this is something that should be really simple, but Topps overcomplicates things.  Does this card have any actual connection to the 1968 Topps set?  Maybe there is some variation on a card that I have heard of, but I don't think so.  

Best Cardinals Card 

This was a fairly easy choice, because it's the best Cardinals player in the set.  I am also not into all the gimmicky promotional uniforms that some of the Minor League teams wear at times. I've had it with Star Wars uniforms. This one from the Memphis Redbirds is actually pretty creative.  

Have other teams done themed jersey nights from bands?

Probably.  

In fact, I am almost sure the Toledo Mud Hens did a Sgt. Peppers night at some point too.  Maybe it's the fact Minor League teams have not beat this concept into the ground.  

There is also a Dylan Carlson card in this set from his days in the Midwest League with the Peoria Chiefs.  

The Flaherty card is much better though.  

Best Durham Bulls Card

As mentioned at the top of the post, there are a lot of Durham Bulls cards in this set.  No autographs, but lots of players in the base set, and a few others in the relic card set.  I am not going to scan the relics, but I did the base cards.  

The best of this cards is obviously Adames, who is the Rays starting shortstop.  

Casey Gillaspie was traded to the White Sox, but is playing an independent league this season.  Honeywell is still in the Rays organization, but has had arm injuries the past few years.  I think he might still actually be on the Durham Bulls roster.  

These three cards are far inferior to one other Durham Bulls card that appears in the insert remake of the 1968 Topps Game sets.  The original cards featured players, but the 2017 Heritage Minors set has picture of different mascots.  

This is the Wool E. Bull card.  

Not only is Wool E. Bull a great mascot, but the card has a cool shout out to the movie Bull Durham.  

Best Non-Cardinals Card 

There is a group of short-prints at the end of the set that feature some pretty big name prospects.  I believe Ronald Acuna and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. are both in there.  One of the big upsides to the Heritage Minor League set is the checklist.  I actually feel like Topps does a pretty good job of getting a good mix of big name prospects, along with some others that have good potential to make it to the Majors.  

It was hard to choose here.  

However, I went with the best current Major League player with a card in this set......

Little Fernando, as I like to call him, was in A Ball when this picture was taken.  First year in the Padres organization after being traded from the White Sox for James Shields.  Not sure that was the best move in retrospect.  Anyway, I am sure this card is now selling for the equivalent of a second mortgage on your house with the way baseball cards are working at the moment.  

Honestly, I know he's not a Cardinal, but I always liked watching his father play.  I have enjoyed cards of Tatis Jr. for a few years now.  I just wish they weren't suddenly really expensive.  

How Does It Compare?  

The list of sets I would consider placing above the 1983 Topps set is very short, and this is not on that list.  I wouldn't even rank the 1968 Topps set that high.  Again, my biggest positive is the checklist.  The on-card autographs are nice.  My negatives are the odd card backs on the coin cards, the imaginary variations, and basic design.  

I acknowledge that the design could not be helped here, but those other factors are going to push it down my list a ways.  

7. 2000 UD Ionix 

6. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League  

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3.1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

and now for some 2020 cards.

There have been 2020 baseball cards out for roughly a month.  I have not touched them on my blog, but if you follow my Twitter I have done a little posting about both the Topps base set and the Topps Heritage set.  Here's what you missed: I went to Target and bought a few packs of each product.  I got some decent cards out of each set, but don't get too worked up.  I am not going to finish either set. 

I am all in on single cards this year. 

Not really feeling the sets.  I think I said that I would do a Heritage set.  Not feeling it.  Maybe I will change my mind.  I do really like the design of the Heritage cards, so there is that. 

My first three single cards of 2020 are all from the base set, and are all somehow connected to the Cardinals.  That's two Cardinals cards, with players pictured as Cardinals.  One non-Cardinal card with a former Cardinal player pictured. 

Here we go. 

Who remembers last year when I posted 30 different Blake Snell autographs?  If I repeated that same activity, it would be with Jack Flaherty.  I am not going to do that though.  That was a lot of effort for one player.  I am not a set collector at the moment, but I also do not think I can narrow my collection down to just a few players.  Thirty different Blake Snell autographs felt like I was just collecting one player.  Flaherty is a great young player.  His cards are starting to get pricy, but they are not bad yet. 

Next. 

Junior Fernandez has some cheap autographs, and there are seemingly a ton of them.  Hopefully Topps will not turn him into the next Henry Owens, who was seemingly in every Topps product at a rate of one autograph per box a few years back.  Junior has a good arm.  I am going to file this card away and revisit it in a few years.  Let's hope I am happy.   

I like the 1985 style cards.  That's part of the reason I went after the Fernandez.  Same with the McGwire below.  

Seems wrong that he is not in his USA Baseball uniform for a 1985 style card, but still very nice.  I am not going to put together this insert set this year, but I am going to work on the Cardinals and Rays players, along with maybe trying to find an autograph or two of players who were actually around the league in 1985. 

I have seen a Strawberry and a Dawson, but neither really piqued my interest. 

Trending Up

I have avoided really committing to collecting a Cardinals player in recent years, more of just a general interest in their cards.  There will always be Ray Lankford cards.......

There will always be Albert Pujols cards.......

and Stan Musial too.....

The second half of this season really has me contemplating spending a little bit of time and money working on Cardinals starting pitcher Jack Flaherty.  He has pitched really well......

There are already some Jack Flaherty cards hanging out in my card room that are pretty nice.  

They are just kind of cheap considering he is one of the better pitchers in the Majors at the moment.  He's right up there with pitchers like Max Scherzer and Jacob deGrom.  

I mean he's only won 10 games.  Snark.  

I found a new Five Star autograph of the talented 23 year old for less than $10 last week.  Great looking card of a great pitcher.....

The card stock on these is still super thick, hopefully the edges won't the chip the way that some of the older sets did.  Even if they do, this is probably my favorite Flaherty autograph that I have added to my collection this year.  Not saying he's going to reach the same status as Blake Snell, but for the moment Flaherty is going to be my go to Cardinals player.  

Silver Signatures

One of my favorite Cardinals autographs in my collection belongs to former third baseman David Freese.  It's a Five Star card from a few years back.  I love the combination of the red background with the silver pen used to sign the card.  The red does not like quite right when the card is scanned, so I prefer this picture of the card instead.  

There are other silver signatures in my collection beyond the Freese autograph.  They all look nice for the most part, I just think the Freese stands out a little more than the others I have with a silver signature.  

This Terry Pendleton autograph is a step down from Freese, but it is still a nice card.   

The Pendleton card does not have a strong contrast with the background.  I am not sure that color you would call that background, sort of a brownish/greenish, but no matter it does not allow the silver signature to pop as much.  

Another good one with contrast.....

If only Alex Reyes could stay healthy.  One day, maybe.  

That brings me to my latest card with a silver signature.  The contrast stands out, but there are some design elements I am unsure about with this card......

Mainly the different colors that are around the player picture of Jack Flaherty.  I like the orange over his left shoulder, usually a color that does not look good on Cardinals cards, but less sure about the purple semi-circle around his pitching hand.

I guess the important thing here is that the card is signed with a silver pen on a dark background.  Of all the different colored and patterned variations that Topps creates for all their different sets, the silver ink cards always seem to be my favorites.

Living Set Cards That Are Still Alive

Topps sells cards on their website.  They have a store with packs and boxes.  There are Topps Now cards, Throwback Thursdays, The Living Set, and probably a few others that I am missing on my list.  I see collectors get these different types of direct to consumer cards, post them, and many of them look like really nice cards.  I did that once.  It's been two years since I have touched the Topps website.  

Not going back.  

The last card I bought off of the Topps website was an Aledmys Diaz rookie card.  It did not arrive in mint condition.  The customer service people at Topps kind of shrugged their shoulders.  I did end up with another copy of the card, but I got it from another collector.  No more cards directly from Topps.  

I have been checking out some of the cards out of the Living Set, also known as the set that is supposedly never going to end.  Until enough people get bored.  Seems like a nice product with some nice looking cards.  I was curious.  I bought a few of the cards.  

Not from Topps.  

There are a few different Cardinals players that have appeared in the set, along with a few different Durham Bulls players.  I decided to start off with one of each, checking things out. 

My Durham Bulls player is Willy Adames.....

The art work on the front of the card is nice.  Adames has been a pretty prime prospect for a few years now and has a ton of cards.  Not sure he has an "art" style card.  Kind of something different after years of Minor League and Bowman products.  

Back of the card.  Would have been cool if Topps had put his Triple A stats in the past year column on the stat box on the bottom of the card.  

My Cardinals card is Jack Flaherty.  

This picture feels a little bit more like a sketch book drawing than a baseball card.   A few of the students in my class this year are really into art and do a lot with sketchbooks.  This feels like something in a sketch book.  I should get one of them to make a Jack Flaherty picture and see how close it is to this card......

Back of the card.  It would not shock me that 100% of the Dugout Quiz cartoons on the Living Set cards are about only four or five players.  

One more for today.  Besides the two cards from the Living Set, I also ended up with a Topps Now card from 2016.  I actually have a few cards from this set, which I bought before the whole Aledmys Diaz debacle.  Mainly, just a mix of Cardinals and Durham Bulls players.  I think I might have a Bryce Harper card too.  

My new Topps Now card is a former Durham Bull.  

I have a few other Upton cards out of the Topps Now set.  I was surprised that one of them is actually a pretty tough find, definitely on the expensive side for a B.J. Upton, I mean Melvin, card.  This one seems to be fairly ordinary.  

The back of the card has a quick description of the event that got the player the Topps Now card.  

Overall, some nice cards that I am happy to add to the collection and they arrived safely at my house without any bends, folds, or the need to call Topps customer service.  

Stack Of Stadium Clubs

Stadium Club came out awhile ago, there are a lot of repeat signers for the Cardinals and Rays who are in multiple 2018 products, so I took my time trying to add a few cards.  I really like the Stadium Club cards.  Topps has done a great job of bringing this product back over the past few years and reviving it's 1990s branding of being a high quality set with high photography. 

I have done some posts in the past just to showcase some of the base cards from the recent Stadium Club sets.  They are fun sets to sit down with and just flip through the cards.  So many great photographs. 

In keeping with putting together fewer sets this year, I have actually decided to add single cards of the Cardinals and former Durham Bulls players, along with a few other cards that I thought looked really nice.  Obviously, I am going to showcase my autographs for my post this evening. 

I managed to land a pair of Cardinals cards and a former Durham Bulls player.  However, I am going to start out with a different card.  I participated in a charity break awhile ago.  It was for a good cause, I was given two spots in a case and got whatever autographs were pulled. 

One of them was one of the Cardinals players, the other was a 1980s nemesis of my favorite team.  Pretty sweet looking card.....

If you ever saw a Darryl Strawberry at bat, this is a pretty cool moment in the whole process of how he swings a bat.  He always had a leg kick when the ball was being thrown and his bat was angled forward.  You can tell this is a second before he swings, or maybe he took the pitch.  Either way, it's a cool moment in time.  

Here is a look at the swing on a pretty crazy looking home run.  Apologies for the announcers.  McCarver is on this video and he's the better of the two.  

On to the Cardinals.  

Flaherty has been a priority of sorts for my Cardinals collection.  The was my second autograph out of the charity break.  I am a believer in the abilities of Jack Flaherty.  I like the red Spring Training jersey with the green grass in the background.  Nice contrast.  I also like that you can see his grip on the ball.  I'd guess some sort of changeup.  

Next. 

I am posting a Tommy Pham card on the day he was traded.  It's got a nice photograph.  I will miss Tommy, but I understand why the Cardinals traded him.  I made my peace with it about thirty seconds after I saw the news of the trade.  

Let's share a good Tommy Pham moment and move onto the last card.  

Last one is a former Durham Bulls card.  

Tim Beckham has been in a few different sets this year as an autographed card after having a good half season in Baltimore.  It seemed like a change of scenery really helped, but he's not having a very good year at the moment.  The Orioles have cleaned house the last week, so I am pretty sure that Beckham and Chris Davis will now be covering the entire infield.  

Finest? Not This Year.

I am usually a big fan of the Finest product.  If you are willing to give the title of "classic" to a modern card product, this would be a long running brand that would be worthy of that honor in the opinion of many collectors.

In recent years, I feel like the brand has done a good job of returning to its roots.  It had sort of drifted off into the wilderness at some point in the mid 2000s, but Topps did a sort of reboot with the brand in 2013 for it's 20 anniversary/birthday.  The reboot included an insert set with 2013 players on the 1993 designed cards.

Some of the others years since have also been strong.  I have not done much with the base sets, but I have still tried to find the Cardinals and Durham Bulls autographs.  Always some nice cards to add to the collection.  I think my favorite of these autographs has to be a Carlos Martinez I picked up out of the 2016 Finest set.....

Which brings me back to this year's Finest set.  I feel like we are somehow back in the wilderness again with this year's design.  The difference between the Martinez autograph and the cards below are pretty stark.  The Martinez card has a simple colored bar on the right side with a team logo.  Add in a splash of color on my copy.  Simple designs are really easy to like.

Then we have this.....

What in the world is behind the players on this card?  It looks busy and complicated.  Apart of me thinks it looks like some random piece of graffiti which could be spray painted an overpass or sound wall.  You get the point.  

I ended up with five different autographs from this year's Finest set.  I used it as a chance to pick up a pair of autographs from players who are not in my collection and two players who are a focus of mine this year.  One is here just because....  Alcantara is the first, above.  He is no longer a Cardinal, traded for Marcell Ozuna, but Topps did not airbrush him into a Marlins uniform.  Gave me sort of a mulligan to find one of his cards.  

This Shaw card was for sale with the Alcantara card.  Saved a little on shipping, neither cost me much at all.  He is not an All-Star by any means, but a solid player with the Brewers after washing out with the Red Sox.  Saw him play for Pawtucket a few times a few years back too.  Always like getting cards of players I see in Triple A.  

Last three picked up in a trade off of a Facebook group.  

I like Matt Olson and I know that I have picked a few autographs of his last year when he caught fire with the A's.  He's likely to hit 30 home runs again this year, likely to strikeout more than 150 times.  I think he's the sort of player that the "modern baseball is horrible" crowd really hates.  He hits home runs.  This is also some sort of insert card, but it cannot be that hard to find based on the trade package I gave up for this card and the two below it.  

These are the two cards that I was really interested in when I started in on the Finest cards this year.  I have become a pretty big fan of Jack Flaherty this year.  Still not an ace by any means, but he's really young and I would at least go as far as saying he's one of the top two or three pitchers on the team at the moment.  Player collecting kind of stinks nowadays, but I am interested in getting my hands on some of his autographs this year.  

Last one.  I have been working on Banda cards this year too.  He was on the Durham Bulls for awhile this year, spent a bit of time with the Rays too, but was shut down with an elbow injury a few months back.  Banda ended up having Tommy John and is out for the remainder of this year, but I am still out trying to find some more of his cards.  A few more really good ones are coming soon.