Archivist.

     I have been in the middle of some major spring cleaning here at Starting Nine World Headquarters.  Not just the collection, which is getting a sprucing, but the whole darn house.  Which means two things, I haven't had time to blog much and I have to go to the store to buy something new every other damn day to replace or improve what's there.  Yesterday found me at Target and wandering around Target means but one thing, walking by that card nook 5 or 6 times.  This, as always, is too much to take and I found a few jumbo packs of Archives in my basket at the end of the trip...

I opened this Friday night while watching yet another disappointing Mets loss so maybe my enthusiasm was low so I waited until this morning to write about the cards; I can't say my mood improved much. 

Let's start with something they did very right, the 1973 design:

This is one of my all time favorites and they nailed it.  They got the fonts right and the position logos are there in all their glory.  My only quibble?  The pictures are all tightly cropped the way they have been this year and maybe they would have gotten things perfect if they had chosen a few off beat, wide angle oddball shots like they did back in the day. 

They also did they 1980 design:

And again, the design and font looks wonderful, the only problem?  They just used the 1980 design in Archives two years ago.

Now we get to where things start to come apart:

Okay, disregarding that the 1989 set is hardly a classic, let's look at the major flaw that makes this a failure.  They got the design elements of the team name and the angle of the ribbon and even the curved corner correct but look closely at the player names.  Once again, right font (which is always appreciated and a surprise from Topps) but the alignment is all wrong.  They all seem to be justified to the left and this is not how the original set looked.  Yes, it's a small thing but to someone who opened a million packs of this stuff, it is huge.  Look at the Sonny Gray or Bob Gibson or even the Adam Eaton or Joe DiMaggio.  The names on the 1989 set were centered and it makes 90% of these cards look all cockeyed and wrong.  It wasn't that good looking a set to begin with, so to flub this detail and make it look worse is just inexcusable. Plus, haven't we seen that picture of Adrian Gonzalez some place before?  Somehow, the page I made for current players has three of these '89 cards on it.

Let's have a brief six card palate cleanser.  Back to the 1973 design, these six vintage players look like they could come straight from the original set, if it weren't for a few team issues and the "Topps" logo...and maybe the fact that Juan Gonzalez was 4 years old in 1973, but I digress.  Even with a Tom Seaver photo they have used 100 times before, these six cards show what is right and good about this set.

Oh but we are right back at it with those bottom three, they show what is so so wrong.  It's like Topps did 95% of their job on this set and just said "eh, fuck it" and didn't bother with the rest.  It is what I find so frustrating with Topps and their exclusive agreement with MLB; they have no motivation to give that last 5% - which is maybe the hardest five percent - the little things that are the difference between a disappointing set and a "wow! this is freaking awesome!" set.  So what is wrong with those three cards?  Well, the Yankees cards are blatant and obvious to anyone who collected back then.  The Yankees team name was white and not blue.  The Braves blue was much lighter on the originals as well.  These are the little things that are the difference and they would make me pull my hair out if, well, it wasn't mostly gone already.

What is the other great failing of the 1986 design?  It is the smallest defect but really the largest....

Those damn copyright/trademark logos after every team name!  The originals did not have these and in the long run, they are superfluous as most of us have railed against oh so many times before.  The backs of these cards get marred by three or four lines of copyright information and ownership rights and the like.  If all that information is there, why on earth do they feel it necessary to mess the front with this as well?!?!?!?  If you have it on the back, you don't need it on the front and vice versa.  It's like I'm taking crazy pills here...  I am way too worked up for a Saturday afternoon but it just looks awful here; little bleach spots that are pretty illegible but so terribly noticeable.  Between that and the color issues (the Brewers and White Sox are incorrect as well), it ruins all the things they did get right. 

I didn't pull any short prints in four jumbos but I did nab a couple of inserts.  Those 1980's style glossy all star ones were never much to get excited about 30 years ago and nothing has changed.  That deckle edge Derek Jeter is beautiful, I hate to admit. 

There are six more vintage player cards that, once again, look tremendous and proper to the era.  I made a veteran page that tries to highlight the best looking of these cards.  Want to know something as a fabulous aside?  My brother got me a yellow A's Reggie Jackson jersey for my birthday.  I should take a picture of me wearing it holding that card. **UPDATE** Turns out that Reggie is a short print because they made the short prints this year in the same designs as the base set.  We can also put that on the "fail" side of the ledger for this set.

Also in the "so close but so far away" column are the backs.  They did so many things right with the backs but then once again dropped the ball with the little details...

I will let it pass that they can't print complete batting records for the vintage players without the font being so tiny as to be illegible but it is still frustrating.  You can also see the aforementioned copyright information and, come to think of it in tiny illegible font, you can believe every single card has that on it.  Topps got the colors and the fonts all correct on the back and even decided to include cartoons where they were appropriate and even matched the style of each set.  Problem is, they only made about 10-12 cartoons for each 50 card subset so they repeat over and over again.  Are you telling me that in Topps vast archives, they couldn't come up with 40-50 separate cartoons?  Or if they wanted to use new ones, were they too cheap to commission that amount.  Once again, it is the little things that kill.

Night Owl Trade: Part 2. (or The Night Owl Strikes Back)

       Last month Greg of the indefatigable Night Owl Cards sent me what was promised to be "part one" of what is our never-ending volley of trades.  Part two arrived in my mailbox a week or so ago and, you know the old cliche about sequels never living up to the original?  Well, the Owl outdid himself here and sent me the Godfather 2 of trade parts (or it could be The Empire Strikes Back, depending on your level of film geekiness). 

Turns out ol' Greg was playing possum with me on this particular pile.  He knew all along that he had these cards for me but gave me no indication.  I knew it was you, Fredo, except he didn't break my heart this time.  He made it all a-flutter with shiny Mets cards. 

You have to wonder where this cadre of randomly awesome Mets cards came from...seems he was part of some massive group breaks and he chose the Mets as his secondary team for some of them.  This landed me those shiny ones from before and these Archives short prints that I never would have gotten around to acquiring.  Plus it landed me a Kevin McReynolds autograph which will go nicely on my page of 1980's Mets signatures. 

Look, more sparkly shiny Johan goodness!  Though you will also notice which player I chose to cover up with Greg's nice little note.  And I know how it must have pained him to send me minis, much less hall of fame Tom Seavery minis.  In fact, all those cards on the bottom there are tiny.  Those 1980's league leader minis are held in high regard in my world as I vividly remember finding a big lump of change in the cushions of my couch when I was 12 and buying out the Rite Aid of the 1987 variety.  You will also notice he didn't even Bip me this time around.  And to think I was looking forward to making a page of 9 1989 Donruss Lance Blankenships.  Oh well, you can't have everything.  Thanks Greg! 

Football '13 Week 2: Pajama Game.

       I like to take Sundays off.  Not because of any biblical edict, mind you, simply because, as someone who used to work seven days a week (and on the wrong side of 30), I have grown to appreciate the value of 24 hours to reset your batteries.  These days I work more sporadically - sometimes 3 days a week, sometimes 6 days - but I do enjoy staying in my pajamas all day and watching sports (or bad movies) once a week.  During football season, the Sunday day off is non-negotiable.

Since they haven't made an insert set of players in their pajamas (yet), I will give you the closest thing I could find, a 1992 Lime Rock set of Saints cheerleaders, the Saintsations:

Of course, 20+ years later, these outfits look downright Puritan for NFL Cheerleaders.  The 80's hair is also, as always, a hoot.

I haven't bought much 2013 football product yet.  Topps did drop some Archives very early this year and I picked up a lot on Listia and made a page:

The 1976 Topps is one of my faves.  I think they have reused the 1959 design a few too many times, though.  I find it a little odd that they used 1985 and 1986 designs, since those years are back-to-back (obviously), but the designs are so different, I guess that doesn't matter much.  I am in the minority of kinda liking the 1986 design; I never much cared for the 1985 look,

This is (I believe) the first time Topps has done Archives for football since 2005:

See? There is the 1959 set again.  Also here is the 1984 set (yay!), the 1975 set (double yay!), the 1971 set (meh), the 1966 (double meh - that design worked better for hockey), and my favorite, the 1962 design.  I really really need to make a page of that one. 

So on my glorious pajama day off, what am I wearing? (no, I am not coming on to myself) This page offers a hint:

OK, it was not much of a hint and it isn't a Deuce #26 jersey so I will tell just you.  On this page is the rookie (and only card ) of Steve Gleason - it is the middle left card, he is on the right of the three.  Gleason would have slipped through the cracks of even the most astute fan as an 8 year backup who wasn't even drafted.  Yet, he got himself a marvelous claim to fame in one tremendous play: he blocked a punt in the first quarter of the first game back in the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina.  This was a magical moment for a city that truly needed a magical moment.  I was at that game and up to that point, that block was the loudest sound I had ever heard.  Sadly, tragedy has struck Steve Gleason and he has been battling ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) since at least 2011.  He has become a very outspoken champion for research and has been very visible in public the last couple of years despite his declining health and physical condition.  When I was in New Orleans last week, I bought one of his organization's shirts and while I normally would never pay full price for a sport shirt, I felt that since all the money was going to his charity, I would make a rare exception.  While I doubt many of you would want a #37 shirt like mine, I think it would be a marvelous idea if you donated to his charity.

So right now I am getting some laundry done while baking an apple crisp (damn, I love autumn).  I am switching between the crappy early games and the Mets game waiting for the Manning bowl to kick off at 4:25.  I even went to the store to get ice cream and no, I didn't change out of my pajamas to do it.  I take my days off that seriously. 

Right On, Target.

       It was my birthday a few weeks ago and one of the presents I got from a lazy family member who will not be mentioned was a $100 Target gift card.  Now, I am never one to look a gift horse in the mouth, but most people who know me know that I never want money or impersonal gifts; my mandate when it comes to giving stuff to me is "entertain me" and you can use that phrase to mean anything you want it to.  But I made the most of my gift card and decided instead of buying something practical or regifting the thing (something I do with gift cards nine times out of ten) I would go and break all my rules of buying new product and blow it all in the card section of the local Target store.

So what did I come up with?  Well, let's see the big pile before I tore it all to hell:

I bought some blasters and some loose packs and some rack packs (just to relive my childhood a little).  I also picked up some pages but I forgot that the retail store pages are pretty cheapo, oh well.  I will find a use for them no matter what.  That shiny piece of plastic on top is the aforementioned gift card.

I grabbed a series 2 Topps blaster, pretty much because it was the newest thing they had.  I got a couple cool things in it, one of which you will see in a second, the other was this:

I got not one but two whole packs of red Target parallels.  Is this normal?  I bought a Target blaster of series one and got exactly zero parallels.  Is this a new thing?  A new thing for series two?  Just a lucky snag?  Anyway, I made a page out of them.  As usual with colored borders, the similar teams look awesome, illustrated here by the Red Sox, the Angels, and, unexpectedly, the Twins.  Even the contrasting ones don't look too bad.  This is a good color red all around. 

I had read various things about the new Topps Archives.  Since I am a sucker for faux vintage, I decided to dive in head first.  I grabbed a blaster and then saw some rack packs, so I grabbed three of those too.

I made this page with the vintage stars from packs.  Well, I only got eight of them to be honest, but Brian from 30-year old cardboard had been nice enough to send me that sweet 1980 Strawberry, so it found its way onto this page as well.  The highlight in my opinion is that 1984 style Clemente; it uses a picture we haven't seen 1000 times before (coughcoughtheTyCobbcoughcough) and it really captures both the player and the card set very well.  The Schmidt, Rice, and Berra also look great, though the 1984 Rice seems a little redundant since he had an actual Topps card in 1984.

Since in my three rack packs and blaster I got 7 doubles, I decided to make a contemporary page as well:

I see how people think of this more as Fan Favorites than Archives.  I would also throw Heritage into that mix as well.  This effort from Topps was either half assed or not thought all the way through.  Typical Topps no matter what you may think of this stuff.  They have a pretty good idea but then cannibalize their own brands by not committing completely and following through. Plus they have all these extra rules about players past and present to abide by that makes these retro products extra difficult to pull off properly.  All that criticism aside, I kinda like the cards anyway.

Plus, I did pull a nifty Frank Howard autograph from one of those rack packs, a pretty cool pull from a retail pack:

Also shown here are my awesome obligatory manufactured patch from the Series Two blaster, and it was a great one - my favorite player Gary Carter.  I can live with the fact that it is an Expo, what I cannot fathom is why they used a rookie year photo of him wearing #57 when the patch is his more familiar #8.  Just more sloppiness from Topps.  That Mantle is from the Gypsy Queen rack packs I got, I believe it is the short print.  It will join my other nouveau Mantles regardless.

In a fit of madness, I broke down and grabbed some Gypsy Queen rack packs. 

These cards are just as ugly in person as they are on screen.  I got some cool minis out of the packs, but the rest were very underwhelming.  I will not be making a page out of any of them.  This was not the best use of my gift card dollar.

I suppose if I had waited until mid July, I could have gotten this year's Allen and Ginter, but since I didn't break a single pack of last years, I decided on a blaster of 2011 A&G.

Once again, rather underwhelming.  I am glad I was not spending my own money on this stuff.

To fill out my electronic C-note, I grabbed a discounted blaster of last year's Panini Americana, since I didn't even know they made this set, I figured I would make a page out of them:

And there it is.  Usually, it is the women in these sets that are the highlight - heck, I don't even know who Noureen DeWolf is, though I do know she is easy on the eyes - but for a Star Wars nerd like me, the Kenny Baker card is primo.  Having an astronaut and a Monkee is also a plus.  Good non-sport page all around.

In a bout of patriotic blindness, I also snagged five packs of the Topps USA Olympic team.  At a buck a pop, I figured these would be fun and possibly even educational. 

I suppose you get what you pay for...in those five packs (10 cards each) I got twelve doubles. Obviously, collation is not high on Topps priority list for low end packs.  I know I have been bashing the hell out of Topps in this post, but come on, what the hell?  Twelve doubles in five 10-card packs?!?  Anyway, this made my choices for the page pretty easy.  If anyone is putting this set together, email me and I will gladly send any or all that I have that you need...in fact, that goes for the other stuff in this post too.

So there were plenty of highs and lows in my reintroduction to retail pack ripping.  In the long run, I have made a wise choice by not taking part in this low grade lottery anymore, but honestly, this was a pretty fun way to spend my Sunday night, especially on someone else's dime.