Set Appreciation Post #11 - 1998 Topps Tek

The Topps Tek set with a grand total of 8,100 cards.  There are 90 cards, each with 90 different background patterns.  The idea is slightly absurd.  I know a lot of player collectors who love this set, not many set collectors though.  I collect Ray Lankford cards, he's in this set, but I do not own all 90 different variations of his cards.  It's not even really something I am working on anymore.  I tried, but it is not a very easy task.  

They don't really scan very well, but here are six of my seventy something Ray Lankford cards.  

This one is going to be quick.  

Base Card 

A little closer look at the patterns.  The cards are transparent and made out of an acetate material.  The action photo on the front of the cards is the same regardless of the pattern.  The pattern number is on the back of the card.  

The pattern number is on the bottom corner underneath the card number.  The card backs all have a portrait style color photo.  There are no stats on the back of the card, rather Topps put down the date they thought that the players should reach certain milestones.  Topps used a similar stats set up on an insert set in their Topps Laser product, but we will make fun of that set on a different day.  

The design on the front of the card is decent enough.  The design on the back is not great.  I feel like the second player photo on the back looks busy.  I also wish there the stats were a little different.  Again, Speculative stats are never great.  

No Inserts

Yep.  There are no insert sets in the 1998 Topps Tek set.  Makes collecting the set a little easier.  However, there Diffractor parallels, same idea as the refractor cards in every other Topps product.  Nobody knows how many Diffractor cards of each patterned card there are, but it is a small quantity.  

I have a few Lankfords.  If you have a favorite 1990s player in this set, they do pop up from time to time.  I didn't own any Lankford diffractors, but then managed to find three of them in roughly a year.  

I kind of like the idea of not having any inserts.  The Topps TEK set is geared towards player collectors, it's actually nice to just have the base cards with nothing else to find.  

Best Former Durham Bulls Player In The Set 

I like that there are some different players in this set.  Always nice to see new faces, especially in a set that was only 90 cards.  I decided to go with a player who did not get into many of the small sets from the late 1990s/early 2000s, but also a former player with a current connection to the Durham Bulls.  He's actually connected to the area in general.  

I decided to go with Quinton McCracken who was the Durham Bulls first base coach in 2019.  He also played for the Durham Bulls as a player in 2000.  Beyond his two appearances with the Bulls, McCracken is actually from Wilmington, North Carolina and played football and baseball at Duke.  Did Chipper Jones ever return a punt for a touchdown against Clemson?  How about Andruw Jones or David Justice?  No?  Quinton McCracken did.  

Best Cardinals Card 

Again, whoever made the checklist for Topps TEK did a great job.  There are three Cardinals players in this set.  The standard Cardinals who appeared in these late 1990s small sets were Mark McGwire, Ray Lankford, and then some combination of Ron Gant, Dennis Eckerlsey, or Andy Benes.  Every once in awhile, you got a Brian Jordan, like you get in this set.  

Obviously not on the same level as McGwire, not quite as good as Lankford, but he was a pretty big contributor for the 1990s Cardinals.  In his last three full seasons as a Cardinal (95, 96, and 98), he led the team twice in WAR and finished second the other time.  His career numbers are also better than both Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders.  

Best Non-Cardinals/Durham Bulls Card 

Topps TEK is a pretty unique set, so I am trying to pick a card here for a different reason.  

There were no update sets in the late 1990s, but you could usually find players in new uniforms as the season went along.  Topps TEK was a late fall release, so there were several players who were traded within the season.  

Gary Sheffield is a Dodger, but started the year as a Marlin.  

Mike Piazza is a Met, but started the year as a Dodger.  Also a stop off with the Marlins.  

Randy Johnson is an Astro, but started the year as a Mariner.  

There is one long-time Major Leaguer in this set who is in a rather odd looking uniform.  I love cards like the 1984 Fleer Update Pete Rose Expos card, or Rickey Henderson Mariner cards, etc, etc.    According to COMC, this is the only card this player had with this team during the 1998 calendar year, and only one of two dozen cards this player had with this team in all.  They have over 1,500 cards in stock of this player.  

Here is the card. 

Konerko played 2,200 games as a member of the White Sox and 28 games as a Red.  His lone 1998 card as a member of the Reds with this Topps TEK.  He had several Reds cards at the beginning of the 1999 card calendar, but was traded to the White Sox weeks after the end of the 1998 season. Most of his 1999 cards are with the White Sox.  I know he was also on the Dodgers for part of a season and had tons of cards made while he was in their Minor League system. 

How Does It Compare?  

On paper, this is a really great concept for a set.  My main criticism is the fact that it is actually pretty difficult to assemble the full run of 90 cards for a player.  Should it really take more than 20 years to assemble a set?  No.

The design is decent, but nothing spectacular.  The back is weird with the speculative stats too.  Give me some good old home runs or strikeouts.  If we are just strictly comparing it to other acetate card sets from this era, it's definitely behind the Skybox EX products.  

The two biggest positives are the checklist and the fact that the set is focused on collecting base cards and not not bogged down with inserts.  I love that Topps squeezed in some different players, star players in new uniforms during an era with no update sets, etc.  

It feels like it fits best in the middle of my list.  It obviously needs to be below the 2001 Fleer EX set.  I will also put it below the Mini League Leaders set, but above the burlap sack cards in the 2017 Heritage Minors.  

11. 2000 Pacific Paramount Update 

10. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

9. 2000 UD Ionix  

8. 1995 Emotion XL 

7. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

6. 1998 Topps TEK 

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3. 1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

2019 Durham Bulls Team Set

The Bulls team set came out a little later than normal this year, but I picked up a copy a few weeks back when I went to a Bulls playoff game with the little man.  The Bulls won the game, and the series, but they ended up losing in the International League finals against the Columbus Clippers (Indians). 

I only went to a handful of games this year, I felt a little disconnected from the team.  Probably does not help that the end and beginning of my schools years have been a little hectic, I switched grade levels, and my summer vacation was spent almost entirely on an almost 3,000 mile road trip.  

Some great names in this set, so let's have a look.  I scanned the cards in groups of three.  

I do not love the design.  I cannot remember the last time the Bulls used Choice, or similar company to produce their team set.  Feels like it has been a few years, the majority have been made by smaller, more local companies.  Although, the photographer for the set is from the area.  

Out of this first group, Brosseau is my favorite player.  He ended up being a pretty important player for the Rays down the stretch.  

Like the Cronenworth card on the end.  He did not get called up by the Rays at the end of the summer, but he hit .334 for the Bulls, and also appeared as a relief pitcher for the roughly a dozen games too.  He was a two way player in college at Michigan a few years back.  Not sure he could pitch in the Majors, but he's fun to watch in the Minors.  I believe that batting average ended up winning the International League batting crown.  

This is actually two groups of three.  I like that the photographer shows off some of the different home uniforms that Bulls wear.  Tan caps, blue caps, blue jerseys, white jerseys, and Dalton Kelly with the 4th of July hat.  In the first group of cards you can see Brosseau has the white front panel cap.  Not much on the players in these two groups outside of Nate Lowe on the bottom right, who has spent some time with the Rays already.  

McKay has to be the best card in the set.  Love the idea of having a two way player, although the Rays seem to really be leaning towards towards just having him pitch.  The amount of time he has spent playing in the field, or as an offensive player seems limited.  

Pruitt is my favorite veteran player on the Bulls.  He shuffled back and forth a lot this year, something like nine call ups to the Rays. 

Love the Dashenko Ricardo card.  He was an independent league player for a few years, made back to Triple A with the Bulls, and actually had some pretty decent play at times.  I believe he might have hit a home run in first Triple A game, or something like that.  

The Rays traded Nick Solak to the Rangers towards the end of the season for a pitcher.  He hit two home runs and had a ton of RBIs in a series against the Rays late in the year.  Sulser is on the Orioles now.  Slegers is still in the Rays system, I think. 

We are to the end of the set.  Kean Wong had done a lot of clutch hitting for the Bulls in the playoffs the last two years, got called up to the Rays, but was eventually claimed by the Angels.  I think that Kean might find some more playing time there, so probably for the best. 

Brady Williams was in his first year managing the Bulls.  He had some great shoes. 

That's always important. 

Last three cards.  We have the mascot.  Wool E. Bull is a great, he's better than the majority of Major League mascots, but we get to enjoy him in Durham. 

Last we have Quinton McCracken.  You might remember him from being an outfielder in the Major Leagues during the 1990s and 2000s, but to locals he was a standout defensive back and kick returner for Duke during the early 1990s.  

A Venerable Old Card Part 44

Yesterday was Super Bowl Sunday.  It's the first Sunday since 1995 that I have not had an NFL team to call my own.  I have lost two different NFL teams during my lifetime, the Cardinals and the Rams, so I am just going to ignore professional football from this point forward.  I will keep track of a few players I watched at NC State or Mizzou, but other than that my Sundays are now free.

Which reminds me that congratulations in order to former NC State players Jacoby Brissett and Joe Thuney who both won Super Bowl rings last night in their rookie seasons.  Brissett is a back-up quarterback and made a start or two in place of Brady during his suspension.  Thuney was the guard much of the season.

While basketball is the sport of choice in these parts, it's still fun to watch the local football teams too.  This year I managed to make it to games at both NC State and Duke.  Both fun places to watch games.....

Duke has a smaller stadium, but you're close to the field.  When I first moved to North Carolina more than 10 years ago the Blue Devils were terrible.......

but have improved greatly over the last few years since hiring David Cutcliffe to coach the team.  While I was in grad school I had to do an internship in a local school district as a school administrator for the year.  We used to have administrator meetings at the district office, Duke Football would give out tickets at the meetings, not many people took the free tickets.  

I do a lot of posts about NC State, obvious favorite school of the blog.  They have my money, I have a degree.... Probably the best football atmosphere of the four ACC schools in North Carolina.  

Since I do NC State posts all the time, I am going to do a little post on Duke's football team.  Yes, it still has something to do with baseball cards....

For those unfamiliar with Duke's football program, their current coach is David Cutcliffe is excellent, but the best modern coach in the school's history is one Steve Spurrier.  He was always proud of his time at Duke and kept a helmet from his time there in his office....

on the top shelf, left-hand side, white helmet towards the middle.  One of the football's on the shelf is from his last game at Duke which was a 41-0 win over the dreaded Tar Heels.  I am not sure if that team had an NFL players on the roster, but they did have a future Major League outfielder on the roster.....

a defensive back who also returned kicks and punts.  

Quinton McCracken.  

He ended his Duke football career with 5 interceptions and 1 kick off return for a touchdown against Clemson in 1988.  I did not live here at the time McCracken played for the Blue Devils, there have also been some very lean years in their recent history, but many of the avid Duke football fans in my life remember him well.  

Beyond football, McCracken also played baseball for the Dukies and ended up being selected in the 1992 amateur draft by the Colorado Rockies.  He made his way through their system fairly quickly and made his first appearance at the very end of the 1995 season for a brief 3 games.  He went on to play two full seasons with the team before he moved on to the Devil Rays.

While many two sport stars are giving a lot of attention McCracken's football career seemed to generally fly under the radar.  Every once in awhile someone would bring it up, but it's not like he was Deion Sanders, Bo Jackson, Brian Jordan, or Drew Henson.  One late 1990s baseball card broached the topic.....

While the 1997 Topps set is not necessarily one of their better base sets, this card is a pretty cool one for fans of the Duke football program.  Flip the card over to the back and.......

there is mention of his football career on the back of the card.  It also mentions that he was a double major and graduated from the prestigious school in 4 years.  I have no idea what his two Majors were while he was in school at Duke, but there are not really any cheapie degrees at that school. 

1998 Topps Tek Set Update

Two weeks ago I started working on trying to finish up my 1998 Topps Tek set.  Last week,  I added a Ken Griffey Jr. card to my set brought which brought me to needing a total of 32 more cards to finish off the 32 card set.  This week I did a little bit better.  First, I found cards for trade which meant that I did not add any money to my total amount of money spent on the set.  I am still at $5.  Second,  I was able to add almost a quarter of the cards I need for the set in one week.

Seven more cards were added bringing my total needed down to 25 cards.  I was especially happy to land the Pedro Martinez and Orlando Hernandez card.  One of the hardest parts about assembling a set is tracking down the cards of some of the star players and key rookies.  These two cards definitely fit that description.  I have a few more Topps Tek cards on my radar, so hopefully I will be adding a few more in the next few days.  

Updated list:

2 Kerry Wood, 3 Barry Bonds, 6 Frank Thomas, 7 Bernie Williams, 16 Brady Anderson, 17 Vladimir Guerrero, 18 Dave Justice, 19 Chipper Jones, 21 Roger Clemens, 22 Mark Kotsay, 23 Tony Gwynn, 25 Tino Martinez, 26 Andruw Jones, 29 Gary Sheffield, 32 Curt Schilling, 33 Robin Ventura, 34 Larry Walker, 37 Paul O'Neill, 42 Derek Bell, 45 Kenny Lofton, 51 Cal Ripken, 52 Jason Kendall, 60 Juan Gonzalez, 62 Jose Cruz, 64 Edgar Martinez, 70 Chuck Knoblauch,  76 Derrek Lee, 79 Jeff King, 80 Mike Mussina,  86 Mike Piazza