Throwback Month: 2001 Topps Fusion

I am doing a themed month for August.  Sounds pretty teacherly, but I will still post some cards that go against my theme.  This month I will be doing some posts about some of the older card sets in my collection which I will simple call Throwback Month.  I set pretty generic goals for my blog, but one of them was to spend more time talking about cards that are already in my collection.  I am going to set the bar for these posts at sets that are at least a decade old.  Should be a fun set of posts and I had a pretty good time planning these out and think they should bring back some good memories for my fellow thirties something collectors.

First up on my list for Throwback Month is a one-time release from Topps that came out during the 2001 baseball calendar year Topps Fusion.  The 2001 baseball card calendar was pretty eventful.  It was a good year for rookie cards with the release of the first Albert Pujols and Ichiro cards and also featured the first edition of the Topps Heritage set.  If you go back and try to find old wax to open from 2001 it can be pricey and difficult to find because almost every set had a Pujols or an Ichiro rookie many of which are short printed or serial numbered.  Then there are a few that have no Pujols and no Ichiro.  Fusion is one of them.

I always think of this set as sort of a greatest hits album for baseball cards.  The set does not really do anything new for baseball cards, but here it is in your collection.  How did it get here?  Don't you basically have all of these cards in other sets?  More a less yes, but they are still fun to see all in one place.  For the Fusion set Topps took several of it's brands: Stadium Club, Gallery, Bowman's Best,  Finest, and Gold Label and merged them all into one set.  The designs were changed slightly for their previously released designs, but you could definitely see the resemblance.

Here's a look at the different sets within the set:

Bowman's Best 

Topps Gallery 

Stadium Club 

Gold Label 

Finest

I would have collected any of these sets by themselves and I really overlooked the fact that this set was just a rehash of a bunch of different brands.  In fact, all five brands were released again during the 2001 baseball card calendar.  I actually like some of the designs used in the Fusion set better than the regularly released set.  My only real fault with this set is the fact that Topps included a bunch of rookie cards in this release (Mike Jacobs and Marco Scutaro are the notable names) and placed all of the rookie cards in the Gold Label brand.  Even in 2001 most of the rookie cards were in Bowman products and the Fusion set would have done well to place them with the appropriate brand.  While Gold Label is not around today, it was always a small set with veteran players.

Fusion also had some really nice autographs too.  Like any set there are naturally a few duds.  Jason Hart, Phil Wilson, and Tony Alvarez are all "prospects" who signed for the set, but never quite made it anywhere.  There are also some solid veteran players like Jason Marquis (He has a nice autograph) DerreK Lee, Geoff Jenkins, and Barry Zito.  Then there are some really good autographs.  Several Chipper Jones, A-Rod, Josh Hamilton, Todd Helton, and Warren Spahn to name a few.  The Spahn autograph is shaky, but it's an on card autograph.  My favorite is the Helton...

There are also relics in the set, including some nice looking dual relics, but I never really got into them.  Overall, this is a really nice set from 2001 and is one of the more affordable sets from that calendar year due to the absence of Pujols and Ichiro.  Wax boxes of this product can be found at reasonable prices or you can piece together the set through lots and singles and not spend a fortune.  Yes, this is a rehash in many ways, but it's well done.  

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