My Top 50 Players On Cardboard #45-Smoltz/Glavine

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard
#45
John Smoltz/Tom Glavine

1990 Donruss MVP John Smoltz-Tom Glavine Error

Hobby Impact-
Before I moved to North Carolina I was not sure if there were any actual Glavine and Smoltz collectors.  Are there two better players who fly under the radar more than Glavine and Smoltz?  Their rookie cards are from the junk wax area, which means they are worth next to nothing, and their base cards are easy to find in the cheapy bins in card stores.  There are not a lot of inserts of the two and few autographs and relics too.  I've picked up an autograph of both players and surprisingly played less than $20 for both autographs.  The prices and availability of Glavine and Smoltz cards seems to suggest that there is little to no market for the two future Hall of Famers, but it's far from true.  Loyal and dedicated Braves fans are typically in on both players and really value their cards greatly.

On The Field Impact-
The combination of Glavine and Smoltz, teamed with ace Greg Maddux allowed the Braves to dominate the National League for all of the 90s and the first part of the 2000s.  They only won the World Series once, in 1995 against Cleveland, but they were a force to be reckoned with every single year.  My worst memory of the duo, I guess this is good from their perspective, came in the 1996 National League Championship Series when the Cardinals had the Braves down 3 games to 1 with the trio of Smoltz, Maddux, and Glavine taking the hill for the final three games.  The Cardinals scored 1 run against the trio and lost the series (The Braves scored 32 runs the finals three games by the way).  Smoltz started the comeback in Game 5 with a seven strong innings and Glavine capped the series off in Game 7 with seven shutout innings.

Glavine ended up with more than 300 wins.  Smoltz ended up with more than 200 wins, but also spent a few years as a closer where he accumulated more than 150 saves, paired with more than 3000 strikeouts.  Both will end up in Cooperstown in the not too distant future.

Favorite Card (s)-
I am not sure that I really have a favorite Smoltz card.  Maybe the 1990 Donruss card.  I also kind of dig his Upper Deck rookie.  Smoltz has a lot of base cards, a few inserts, but nothing that ever really caught my eye.  If I HAD to list a card, I would go with his 2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball autograph.

2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball John Smoltz Autograph 

At some point back in the day, I decided it would be a good idea to own a Smoltz auto.  He's a good player and does not sign a lot of stuff.  I wish it weren't a sticker autograph, but still a nice card to own. Smoltz has become a good signer since his retirement, so maybe I will have to check out adding another autograph of his to my collection.  The Gypsy Queen one looked nice last year.

My Glavine card speaks for itself:

1988 Topps Tom Glavine

Pretty much the coolest looking Glavine card ever printed.  There are so many things that are going on in this picture...so many.  One last cool bonus card.  If you are a fan of the 90s/2000s Braves you must pick up the incredibly cool Smoltz/Glavine dual bat card from Topps Fusion.  Pretty cheap and easy to find.

2001 Topps Fusion Double Features John Smoltz/Tom Glavine Dual Bat 

A Dozen Alternatives To Triple Threads Pt. 1

I am still running on my Triple Threads posts for one more day and I promise I will move on to bigger and better things in my blog space.  After each of my posts in my Top 50 card sets I have offered a glimpse at a similar set which I did not include in my Top 50 countdown.  Today I am going to offer that same piece for the Triple Threads post except I am going to offer you a dozen card sets (broken into two posts) with some quality cards instead of the usual one alternative.  The sets are listed in alphabetical order and not in order of quality.  I will go ahead and tell you that the 2003 Topps Tribute set is my favorite alternative.  You will throughout many of these sets that Topps puts way too many sticker autographs in high end products.

2007 Bowman's Best Tom Glavine Autograph

1.  2007 Bowman's Best-Bowman's Best was always the shiny snobbier twin of the Bowman releases which focused on rookie cards of young minor leaguers.  Many collectors assemble these sets and put them in their closet, pull them out in five years, and see what they have.  Others go crazy of the here and now of 19 year olds in baseball uniforms playing in A ball and sink mad amounts of money into these cards.  I am more of the closet person, but I also know I pay a premium for some of these cards I could have had at cheaper prices (Not often).  The 2007 Bowman's Best set was cool because it actually included veteran players. The drawback for this set is the sticker autographs.  Common theme, get used to reading it in this thread.  How cool would this card be if it was signed on card?  See the 2003 Topps Tribute cards.  

2010 Bowman Platinum Jose Bautista Jersey/Autograph

2.  2010 Bowman Platinum-This set was similar to the Bowman's Best set except some of the cards were actually signed on the card.  Thank you, Topps.  Veteran players appear in this set too, but they are all on stickers.  The cards had a decent design and the jersey pieces.  In some cases patches.  Later issues of Bowman Platinum have followed the same pattern.  Veteran players and rookies with the former being on the stickers, rookies being on card.

2011 Bowman Platinum Shelby Miller

2004 Bowman Sterling Blake Hawksworth Autograph

3.  2004 Bowman Sterling-Bowman's Best was apparently not sparkly enough, so Topps brought us Bowman Sterling.  The cards always look cool, but they are almost always sticker autograph.  There are some on card autographs from Bowman Sterling floating around, but mostly from the 2004 set.  There are also sticker autographs in this set.  Think about the card below with an on card autograph.  Would be very nice.  

2004 Bowman Sterling Adam Wainwright Jersey/Autograph

2001 Topps Archives Enos Slaughter Autograph

4.  2001 Topps Archives-The greatest of all Archives/Fan Favorites releases.  There are cool autographs in some of the other Archives releases and Fan Favorites releases, but this one beats them all by a lot.  There is a great check list for every single team in the set.  My second favorite set on this list after the Topps Tribute.  

2008 Topps Finest Ryan Howard Autograph

5.  2008 Topps Finest- In my opinion the best of the Topps Finest autographs.  Again, a high end set needs autographs that are the card and not on a sticker.  Take a spin around Ebay or COMC and you will see some good names in this set with on card autographs including David Wright, Ryan Braun, and Cole Hamels.  Worth your time to find a copy of one.  The 2010 Finest set with the Letter autographs is cool too.  

2001 Topps HD Rick Ankiel Clear Autograph 

6.  2001 Topps HD- This is a 2001 Set without a Pujols rookie card, so you can find the boxes on the secondary market at really reasonable prices.  There are very few autographs and relics, but the design of the base cards is excellent with great photography and thick card stock.  This was the first autograph set and relic set I ever put together and still have all the cards.  The hardest card to find is a Todd Helton autograph which might set you back $10.  All autographs are on card and the jersey pieces are on clear cards too.    

2011 Topps Marquee Jeff Niemann Jersey/Patch/Autograph

2011 Topps Marquee Miguel Cabrera Quad Relic

2011 Topps Marquee Angel Pagan Autograph 

6. 2011 Topps Marquee- Tell me how this set is much different than Triple Threads?  It's not.  The cards generally feature sticker autographs, but there are a few non-stickers floating around.  There were plenty of cool relics cards too with multiple pieces of bat, jerseys, patches.  Basically, this set is Triple Threads with a different package.