Famous Last Words

I stopped by my local card shop a few days back. The shop had moved across the parking lot to a larger storefront a few weeks back and I was excited to see the new digs. Needless to say, it did not disappoint. I probably should have taken some photos inside the shop, but my mind was on cards.  

Here are the latest pickups at Triangle Area Trading Cards.  

First up......

You see a great card from your childhood and it's cheap, it's really hard to pass up. The card is off center and there is some chipping on the edges, but this is a great card. Could not pass it up.  I need to post my first Rickey Henderson rookie on here one of these days, because it's a really good story from my childhood.  

Luken Baker has hit a ton of home runs the last two years with the Cardinals Triple A team. They've left him in the Minors most of the time, given the Cardinals track record, it's only a matter of time until Baker is a really good player on some other team.  Decent autograph, cheap card. Go team.  

I spent some time in Michigan this summer, which included watching a decent number of Tigers games. I had been meaning to pick up a Reese Olson card all summer long, but never got around to it.  He's a really impressive young pitcher, think this will be a good pickup in the long-term.  

An old Archives autograph for cheap. Yes, please.  

A newer Archives autograph for cheap. Yes, please.  

Esteban played for the Durham Bulls a few years back.  He's spent most of his career playing in Mexico, but spent time in the Minors with the Red Sox, Rays, and Phillies with a cup of coffee in the Majors with the Cubs. Lovable player, spark plug type. I am glad that someone gave him a baseball card and had him sign a few autographs.  

Zack Gelof is having a terrible year, but I still like him. I saw him play in college while he was at the University of Virginia. He was also on my fantasy baseball team last year. Let's hope for a better 2025.  

Next up, Luis Arraez. I loved the Silver Slugger cards when Topps made them back in the early 2010s, this one is not as thick, but still a really nice card. Serial numbered to just 10 copies, but it's on the back.  Sorry, no back scans today.  

A little bit quicker......

Masyn Winn, Junior Caminero Finest RC, and a cool Taj Bradley Chrome parallel.  

Cal Raleigh RC, Willy Adames RC, and another Masyn Winn.  

Shiny Big Mac, Xavier Issac should be the Durham Bulls first baseman next year, and a Jordan Walker.  

Shiny cards of Yordan Alvarez, Willson Contreras, and a Satchell Paige with the Browns.  

Last, let me tell you about the blaster box I bought. I saw the 2024 Donruss packs and boxes at the counter, decided why not. Let's try a few packs. Ninety-nine percent of the box was terrible and I am not going to waste my time scanning the cards, nor waste your time reading about the terrible cards. 

It was the last thing I said as I was checking out. "Let me get a box of 2024 Donurss"

Famous last words and it turns out that 1% of the box was pretty spectacular.  

Friday Five: My Favorite 1988 Topps and Topps Traded Cards

I got a copy of the 1988 Topps set from my parents for Christmas that year. I was excited about getting a complete set, so I opened the set box and sorted out all of the cards. Everyone from the 1980s knows you are supposed to leave your complete Topps sets sealed, right? I was in fifth grade and baseball cards are fun, of course I opened the box. Also, it's the 1988 Topps set.  You can probably find a copy of the set at your local thrift shop for $5.  

There are probably multiple copies for less than $5 at your thrift shop.  

Is the 1988 Topps set unpopular because it's really that bad, or because it lacks a signature rookie card Truth be told, I kind of dig the 1988 Topps set. The design is underrated.  

Topps is using the 1988 design as an insert set with the 2023 Topps set. Many have not liked the 1988 Topps set for the past thirty years, but you're going to love it now and buy all the retail packs from Target and Wal-Mart.  

I personally like the Nolan Arenado card.  

Now, let me get to the countdown. I am going to include cards from the 1988 Topps Traded set in this post, because there are some good cards in there and it is also a $5 set.  

Shall we?  

5T. 1988 Topps Traded Andy Benes #14T 

5T. 1988 Topps Traded Ron Gant #39T 

I did not touch the 1988 Topps Traded set until the Cardinals signed Andy Benes and Ron Gant as a free agents before the 1996 season. There was a high-end card store that was a few minutes from my house back in the 1990s. When the Cardinals signed Benes and Gant, they set out a huge stack of 1988 Topps Traded sets on one of their counters with all the sets costing $10. I bought the set expecting it to have a Ron Gant rookie and a bunch of junky cards. 

Not the case.  

As a Cardinals fan, I got cards of Jose DeLeon, Luis Alicea, and Tom Brunansky on top of Gant and Andy Benes. There was also David Wells, Jim Abbott, and Roberto Alomar amongst others. It's a pretty good set and I have no idea how it is only crispy Alexander Hamilton.  

4. 1988 Topps Traded Robin Ventura #124T

Robin Ventura is not quite a Hall of Famer. One of the best third baseman from the 1990s and early 2000s, just a step below players like Scott Rolen. In the aftermath of the 1982 Topps Traded set, every Topps Traded set had a potential Cal Ripken waiting to rising from the checklist. This was the "it" card from the 1988 Topps Traded set. Not sure it was every really all that expensive at any point, but the fact that the card costs less than a dollar is insanity.  

This card should cost at least a dollar at a minimum.  

3. 1988 Topps Vince Coleman #1 

I loved the design of the Record Breakers cards in the 1988 Topps set. That red background really pops and it was great to see a Cardinals player on the first card of a Topps set.  The Record Breaker was for Coleman's third consecutive season with more than 100 stolen bases. I believe that Topps has reused this design in one of their Throwback/Customer Direct products.  

Here is the moment.......

The previous record was held by Rickey Henderson.  

2. 1988 Topps Mark McGwire #580 

Mark McGwire with a Topps All-Star Rookie logo in the corner. It was a no-brainer. No goatee or crazy muscles, just skinny Mark McGwire holding a bat and posing for a picture. This is one of my favorite early McGwire cards. Topps also used a picture from this same photo shoot on McGwire's 1988 Glossy Mail-In card and the A's Team Leaders card.  

I am sure if I looked hard enough, Topps has probably recycled these photos on modern McGwire cards as well. It would be borderline shocking if they have not.  

1. 1988 Cardinals Leaders #351 

Great picture here with long-time Cardinals player, manager, and coach Red Schoendienst standing next to catcher Tony Pena. Most coaches do not get cards, so it was nice to see someone as high-profile as Red get the nod from Topps. It is somewhat surprising that Pena appeared on this card over some of the more popular 1980s Cardinals players like Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, or Vince Coleman. 

Still, not a complete reach.  

If you weren't around for 1980s baseball, Pena was the premier defensive catcher in the league and the Cardinals were loaded with Gold Glovers. The Cardinals had outfielders to spare, but no catcher. Prior to the 1987 season, the Cardinals traded Andy Van Slyke to the Pirates for Pena. The Cardinals ended up winning the National League that season, but injuries caught up with them in the World Series and they lost in seven games. 

A card back.  

Solid numbers on the Cardinals Team Leaders. I am sure Red helped somehow, someway. 

A Nice Day For Some Artwork

I spent some time cleaning up around my card room last weekend and found some Project 70 art cards that I bought over last year that were worthy of a post. I picked up a few of these back at the start of the 2021,  but the Project 70 cards have not held my interest as much as the Project 2020 cards from two years ago. Some of the artists are the same between the two projects, with plenty of new artists mixed in, but it felt like there were a lot of similar card subjects.

If you are a Yankees collector or Fernando Tatis Jr., there are a lot of cards. Cardinals and Durham Bulls collector? Not so much?  

I did not check-in with the new designs on a daily basis, so maybe there are a few good cards that I am missing out on, but these were the four cards I ended up adding to my collection during the past year.  

First up is an Ozzie Smith card by Shoe Surgeon.  As you can guess, the Shoe Surgeon is a guy who customizes shoes. His rates are a little step, otherwise I would send him my canvas Nikes I wear to school and get some cool 4th Grader customization. Back to the card. I like the play on the movie "The Wizard of Oz" on this card. It's a no-brainer with Ozzie Smith, but I am honestly not that many card companies have made that connection over the years.  

The gold path and the Emerald City/St. Louis skyline mash-up are the best elements of this picture. Not sure about an emerald Arch, but I am willing to let it go for this card. The action shot of Ozzie in front is a nice touch as well. Are those flying monkeys around the Arch? The cloud picture on the right-side looks like the play where he cleared Lenny Harris. 

This happened in the early 1990s. Lenny Harris went into second base half-standing trying to take out Ozzie. Pretty impressive given the fact that Ozzie Smith was not a very big guy.  

I checked out the other cards that the Shoe Surgeon has made for Project 70. Seems talented, but I am sticking with just this Ozzie Smith. He would be one of the artists who went for a lot of really common and repeated subjects.  

Next.  

It appears that there were not many current Cardinals players included in the Project 70 set. I am not really surprised. Arenado has two cards, but one is a dual card with Red Sox third baseman Rafael Devers. I really like this card with him pictured as both a Cardinals and Rockies player with the Arch in the background. A Cardinals only card would have been better, but I don't really have much of a problem with the Rockies. All of their good players end up in the Cardinals, right?  There is a lot of purple here, but I like the overall concept of the card.  

Mimsbandz is another new artist for Project 70. He actually has some really good artwork and I might have to pick up a few of his other cards. There are a lot of really great 1980s players featured in his artwork. Yes, a few Hall of Famers, but also a lot of personalities from the decade along with great of the era types. There will definitely be some more Mimsbandz cards on my blog at some point in the future.  

The next two cards were both made by a favorite artist from the Project 2020 cards, Efdot.  

Beyond enjoying the artwork made by Efdot, he also picked some different players out for his Project 2020 cards. Yes, I think he made an Ohtani, Trout, and a few Yankees players, but also some players who probably do not get enough attention. Tim Anderson seems to be one of those players. Flashy and exciting, but he's also made the All-Star team and won a batting title. There is a lot going on at the top of this card with the black background and white doodles over the top.  Efdot always has a lot of "Easter Eggs" in his art work. It's fun to stare at these cards sometimes and see what you can find. A few old White Sox logos, an L train, a 2005, the fireworks pinwheels from the Comiskey Park scoreboard, etc.  

Efdot is also one of the few Topps artists who made cards of Negro League players for the set. Even as Major League Baseball has worked to claim the players and their stats as part of the past history of the game, it still feels like the great Negro League players are completely underrepresented with baseball cards. Love the art work here with the high leg kick.

The 1942 on the bottom of Satchel's shoe is for the year that the Kansas City Monarch defeated the Homestead Grays in the Negro League World Series. The Grays were led by Josh Gibson, the best power hitter, while the Monarchs were led by Paige, the best pitcher. The Grays apparently had Satchel's number and always got the best of him when the teams played.  

The highlight of the series took place in Game 2 when Paige entered the game in relief with two out in the seventh inning and the Monarchs leading 2-0. The first Grays batter tripled. After a mound visit from his manager, Paige walked the bases loaded to face Josh Gibson. There are different stories about how the at-bat progress, but they all end with Gibson striking out to end the inning. The Grays lost the game and were swept by the Monarchs. 

A Giant Project: Update #8

I promised an updated checklist before the end of October and here I am, following through. I am actually making this post because I am procrastinating on things that I should be doing to get ready for my return to work tomorrow.  As a year-round teacher, I have enjoyed being tracked-out the past few weeks.  Definitely needed the break.  On to baseball cards.  

I have three more 1964 Topps Giants cards to post today.  This has not been too difficult of a set to pull together so far, but there are a few short-prints.  I have them labeled on the checklist.  I have picked up two of them so far and added another a few weeks back.  The short-prints in the Topps Giants set aren't too hard to find in most cases, they just cost more than what you'd think.   

Here is my latest short-printed card.  

I know Galen Cisco more for being a pitching coach for the Blue Jays and Phillies than as a player. He had a short career that was most spent with the expansion Mets.  He played 7 seasons in the Majors with a career win-loss record of 25-56.  Thanks, Mets.  In 1964, Cisco had an ERA of 3.62 and lost 19 games.  Ray Sadecki, a pitcher for the Cardinals, had an ERA of 3.68 and won 20 games.  Sadly, Galen Cisco's career ended when he ended up on the expansion Royals team in 1969.  Should probably be a rule that you can't end up on two first-year expansion teams during your career.  

Nice photo on the front of the card.  

I really like this card back.  I have complained about the heavy focus on the Minors on other posts, while that is still mentioned on the back of the Galen Cisco card, I like that they gave an interesting story about a memorable game.  Pitching 8 innings of relief in a 23 inning loss is way better than hearing about what Cisco did in Double A.  I even went and found the box score.  Willie Mays went 1-10 in the game.  

As a short-print, it was not hard to find this Galen Cisco card, just cost more than the average Galen Cisco card would normally cost.  

Up next is White Sox pitcher Juan Pizarro.  

I already have a bunch of Juan Pizarro card floating around my house.  Hardly any of the them are with the same team.  He was Edwin Jackson before Edwin Jackson.  Pizarro pitched 18 years in the Majors and played for 8 different teams. He appeared on the Pirates twice with seven year gap in between. Pizarro was traded to the Reds during the 1960 off-season, but the Reds traded him to the White Sox later on the same day.  In 1970, he went to Spring Training with the Angels, did not make the team, and was traded to the Cubs.  Does that count as 11 teams?  Considering his career started with the Braves in the 1950s when there were no expansion teams, also no free agency, that's a long list.  

Juan Pizarro reached the Majors as a 20 year-old long reliever/spot starter for the good Braves teams of the late 1950s. He appeared in both the 1957 and 1958 World Series against the Yankees.  The early to mid 1960s were his best years.  Pizarro won 16 and 19 games for the White Sox in 1963 and 1964.  He made the All-Star team both seasons.  

Nice picture of him on the back of the card mid wind-up.  Nice write up about him too.  

Last card for this post.  One of my favorite player nicknames from the 1960s.  

Tony Gonzalez was an outfielder, primarily for the Phillies, and had the nickname "Little Dynamite".  He was small in stature, but had a lot of power and a great outfield arm.  Gonzalez was from Cuba and his parents worked on a sugar cane farm.  As a teenager he was able to lift 250 pound bags of sugar.  A teammate once described grabbing his arm as "touching concrete".  

Another nice write-up on the back of the card.  I like the photograph of him running down a fly ball.  The snow cone catch action-shot is not something you see often on older baseball cards.  Is this photo from Spring Training or was there a team in the 1960s with a chain link fence in their outfield?  

Maybe the Dodgers when they played in the Coliseum?  

It's the only stadium that comes to mind. 

Here is my updated checklist.  I am now up to 28 out 60 cards in the set.  

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

A Giant Project: Where Are We?

It has been 4 months since I last updated my progress towards completing a set of 1964 Topps Giants cards.  Way back in July, during my last 1964 Topps Giants post, this was the last card I shared....

I could feel the positive momentum after posting this Mickey Mantle card.  Nothing was going to stop me from finishing this set off by the end of the summer.  After all, this set has a small checklist and the Mantle card is one of really challenging cards in the 1964 Topps Giants set.  

A few more tough cards and thirty easy to find commons?  

Slam dunk.   

I will be kind to Duke later in the post. 

Well, I went on vacation to Michigan and I did not post any new Topps Giants cards.

School started and I did not post any new Topps Giants cards.  

Several have come in the mail.  I have not scanned the majority of the cards and I have not updated the checklist from the previous posts.  I am going to divide the Topps Giants cards that have arrived in the past two months into a few posts during the second half of October.  I will update the checklist on the last post.  

So, for this post I have two new 1964 Topps Giants cards.

First, is a card of long-time Reds outfielder Vada Pinson.  

Great photo on the front of the card.  I love the sleeveless Reds uniforms from this era.  I also noticed that Pinson is holding a bat with the number 18 on the knob, rather than his number 28.  I went to look up the player with that uniform number, which belonged to Gordy Coleman.  He's a well-known player in these parts.

Quick side story and interesting ACC sports factoid about Gordy Coleman.    

Gordy was the Reds first baseman for most of the 1960s, before being replaced by Tony Perez.  Prior to playing with the Reds, Coleman played both baseball and football at Duke University in 1953.  That was the first season that the ACC played football and Coleman helped the Blue Devils to a perfect conference record.  Duke was the first team to win a conference title in the ACC in football.  Shocking.  Gordy Coleman dropped out of school the next year to play for the Cleveland Indians, who later traded him to the Reds.  

Back to Vada Pinson.  

The picture of Pinson flying into home is incredible.  

However, this is another card back that spends time talking about a good Major League player's career in the Minor Leagues.  Why?  Yes, they gave some highlights from the Majors mixed in there, but Vada Pinson was a really good player in the early 1960s.  There was nothing better to talk about than his stats in A Ball?  

Prior to 1964, Pinson had already hit over .300 three different times, led the league in hits twice, led the league in double twice, led the league in runs once, made two All-Star teams, and also appeared in the 1961 World Series.  Yes, some of this did end up on the card, but there is no reason to talk about his career in the Minors.  He's not quite a Hall of Famer in my opinion, but I have heard some good arguments over the years for including him.  

Next.  

Picked up another Hall of Famer from the set, Nellie Fox.  This is a really odd card for me.  Nellie Fox is one of those players who only looks right in one uniform.  I know he played for the early Colt 45s/Astros teams, but to me, Nellie is always a White Sox player.  He is still got a big wad of tobacco in his mouth, which seemed to be a frequent feature on his cards during the 1950s. 

Back of the card.  

This is one of the better cards of the set.  No Minor Leagues and a solid write-up on what made Nellie Fox a good player.  For a guy at the end of his career, I dare say this is a good career summary if you did not know anything about Nellie Fox.  I even like the picture of him throwing the ball over the runner sliding into second base. The only way to improve this card back would be to squeeze Luis Aparicio into the picture.  

A Giant Project: Update #2

 Picked up a few new Topps Giants cards for my set project.  There are a total of four cards in this post, they were all pretty easy to find and inexpensive.  My next update is going to have some really good names.  Thought about waiting a week, but I think the next group of cards deserve their own post. 

First up for this post is Reds pitcher Jim Maloney.  

Here is the back of the card.  

Solid player.  Made a few All-Star games, struck out a ton of batters.  

Next up is Bob Bailey.  I know him mainly as an Expo in the 1970s, but he started out with the Pirates in the early 60s.  Kind of an interesting career path.  Here is the front of the card.  

He was much more of a fielder at the beginning of his career who hit the occasional home run.  Then he got sold to the Expos before the start of their first season.  He started hitting home runs in bundles and was one of their offensive stars.  

The back of the card focuses on his defense.  The second sentence was generous in describing his offensive talents at this point in his career.  Love that action picture on the back.  Very nice.  

Next.  

I was a little disappointed in the top to bottom centering on this card.  I bought it from an Ebay seller who had multiple copies.  I paid for one copy, got another copy.  Tried to return this copy, got my money back, and the guy told me to keep the card.  I might replace this one at some point, but for the moment it's staying.  

Back of the card.  

Another great action shot here with the pitch almost over his head.  I also like that the mention his basketball career at Duke on this card.  Groat's career with the Pirates was far more notable than his time with the Cardinals, but he did win a World Series with them in 1964.  

Last card.  

I did not know too much about Gary Peters before writing this post.  He had a really good beginning of his career, but was out of baseball by his mid 30s.  He won the 1963 American League Rookie of the Year, two ERA titles, and once won 20 games.  

Back of the card.  

Looks like he had a really odd motion.  

Here is my updated checklist.  I have 14 out of the 60 cards, roughly a quarter of the set.  A few new cards will be posted next week, a good name or two is included in the next group of cards.  

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