Signature Sundays - The Heater from Van Meter

Well, I broke my streak of posting every day during the month of July yesterday.  It was bound to happen I suppose, and I'm surprised I made it a full 24 days before dropping the ball.  After a few hours spent kayaking on the ocean in the hot sun, I simply didn't have any energy left to muster a post last night.

Let's get right back on the horse though with a Signature Sundays post today.  With Major League Baseball officially back in action now, it only seemed appropriate to show a baseball card for this week's segment.  Here's one that I picked up a couple of years ago that's been waiting for a chance to shine on the blog...

Yes, it's the latest addition to my small collection of these on-card Emerald Autographs from 2005 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes!  I've gone on about my love for these plenty of times in previous posts, but for now I'll just say there are 100 cards in the set, 20 subjects, 5 autographed cards per subject.

This particular card features the great Bob Feller.  Bob was known for signing a ton of cards late in his life, and while that may detract from the monetary value of his signatures, it certainly doesn't detract from the appeal of owning one if you ask me!  Each card highlights an achievement from the subject's career, in this case Feller winning the pitching triple crown back in 1940.  Only eleven pitchers have completed the feat since then, though Koufax and Clemens each achieved it more than once.

Here's the back, standard congratulations message from Upper Deck.  Other than that, not really much to see here.

I haven't picked any of these up since the batch that included Bob here, back in late 2018.  I'm under no delusion that I'll ever collect all 100 of them, but I have thought about maybe going for at least one card of all 20 subjects in the set maybe.  I'm not really sure yet, so for now I just hang onto any that I acquire out in the wild at a good price.  This Feller is my 19th card as far as these Emerald Autographs go now, not too shabby!

That's all I've got for today.  Just a solid on-card autograph of one of the best pitchers ever to take the mound.  You don't have to take my word for it though, just ask Ted Williams or Stan Musial, both of whom regarded Feller as the best pitcher of his era.  Pretty high praise there.

Thanks as always for stopping by, and I'll be back during the week with more new content and new cardboard.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday!

The Itch to Rip - Topps 206 Fail

Since I've avoided retail stores for many months now (and I hear they're bereft of cards anyway), I've relied on the internet to provide some enjoyment when I get the itch to rip a pack while dealing with COVID.  Tonight's post features a pack of cards that I actually purchased long before the Stadium Club blaster that I just wrapped up posting on.

I get Topps' daily (sometimes more frequent, lay off a bit Topps!) email updates, where they peddle the latest Project 2020 cards and other wares.  Generally I ignore them outright, but all the way back in April or May I believe it was, I saw a product that looked appealing to me.  Topps was reviving the classic T206 mini set with a brand new 2020 release, sold online in a few different waves of 50 cards each.

You get 10 mini cards in a pack for $14.99.  I picked up two packs, and after applying a coupon my total was around $27.  Fast forward to last week, and this arrived in the mail:

Alright, what can I say about this?  I fully realize that I'm not exactly a big spender when it comes to Topps retail or online purchases, but I'd hope that they'd package cards for any customer just a bit better than this?  I assumed my purchase would come in a small flat rate box or something of the like, but no.  My two packs came loosely floating around in a bubble mailer, which had been fairly well crushed in its travels.

Here's an overhead look at this first pack, totally mangled.  Thankfully I'm not someone who cares about keeping packaging around after opening it, so these were headed to the recycle bin anyway.  Still, bad look here Topps.

The good news is that the small silver package that contained my ten mini cards seemed to be undamaged in any way.  Had this been banged up or had the cards inside suffered any real damage due to the shipping and handling snafu I'd have been really upset, but thankfully that was not the case.

Within each pack, from what I've seen anyway, you typically get at least seven standard base minis, and at least two Piedmont back minis.  There are back variations that pay tribute to the many different back types that exist in the original T206 set.  I haven't researched the rarity of any particular back type other than a general awareness that the Piedmont ones are most prevalent of the variations at a couple per pack.

Anyway, I'll open the first of two packs in this post, and save the second one for a rainy day in the coming weeks.

As far as what I'd most like to pull?  Xander Bogaerts is in this series, of course I'd love to see one of those in here for my player collection.  Other than that, I'm probably more excited to pull minis of retired HOFers than current rookies, but I expect a mix of both.

Here we go...

First card out of the pack is Amed Rosario of the Mets, a player I'm not all that familiar with other than the fact that he's the young full-time shortstop for New York, and has been the past couple of seasons.  30 doubles, 15 home runs and 70+ RBI last year, pretty good offensive numbers for the position.  This one will be sent off to one of my Mets-collecting buddies in the near future.

Next up, David Dahl of the Rockies, another NL player that I'm only marginally familiar with.  As you can see, these stay relatively faithful to the original T206 design, which isn't all that hard to do.  A mini card with an inset photo within a white frame, and player and team name at the bottom.  These first two just used solid color backgrounds, but like the original set that this one draws inspiration from, there are detailed backgrounds on some cards.

Like this Mo Rivera.  That's much more like it!  While I don't see either of those first two cards sticking around in my collection for long, I'll probably tuck this future HOFer in with the rest of my non-Red Sox mini cards for now.

The next card is even better.  I'll absolutely be hanging onto this Babe Ruth, even if the background is nearly identical to the Rivera (just with a different color sky, and a flag thrown in for good measure).  To me, the old-time players just look so much better as far as this release goes, which makes sense I suppose.

Next up, another keeper with the lone Cincinnati Red in the first wave of this set, Johnny Bench.  Now's probably a good time to take a peek at one of my gripes related to the set...

...and that is a lack of card numbering.  Ugh.  As you can see, the only information you get on the back is the player's name, position and team, and then a note along the top indicating that it's from the first series of 50 subjects.  I'm really not sure why Topps couldn't have numbered these 1-50, and the next wave 51-100, and so on.  Oh well, I won't be chasing the set, just keeping a few select singles and enjoying the ripping, so I won't get hung up on it.

Really got on a great streak here, with four consecutive cards that are keepers for me.  That's honestly more than I was expecting out of this pack going in.  Can't wait to see JD and the rest of the Red Sox take the field shortly here to kick off this strange 2020 season!

Back to some guys I'm not all that familiar with now.  I guess I can forgive myself for this one, as Justin Dunn's MLB experience consists of four starts for Seattle last year.  He looks like he performed very well though in that limited action (2.70 ERA), so I guess I can see Topps' rationale behind including him in this set.

Here's Brandon Lowe of the Tampa Bay Rays.  We've gotten to the point in the pack where we have a couple of the alternate back versions.  Brandon here is a Piedmont back, and I'm grateful that we have the internet available because if you weren't aware of who this was...

...you'd have no way of knowing it by looking at this card.  Nowhere on these back variation cards, front or back, does it list the first name of the player depicted.  I'm just pointing this out, but not really giving Topps any grief over it, because the reality is that this is true to the original T206 cards these are based off of.

I'll be totally honest and admit that, since it's a Piedmont back, I had no idea who this was when I pulled the card.  Turns out it's Bobby Bradley, who swatted .178 over 15 games with Cleveland last year.  Alright then...

Final card in this first pack is Max Kepler of the Twins.  36 home runs and 90 runs batted in for this guy last year, pretty crazy.  He even made at least one MVP ballot.  This one is a rarer back parallel...

...a Sweet Caporal back.  Again, not sure how rare these are but, like the three cards before it, this one is headed to my trade/giveaway stack I'd say.

So, there's my first look at Topps' 2020 206 set.  Was it worth the $13 and change that the pack set me back?  Absolutely not, but is it ever, and is that even the point?  As for how I feel about the set, I like it enough that I don't regret picking up the two packs that I did, but it doesn't do enough for me that I'll plan on purchasing any more from future "waves" of the product.  I'll most likely keep my eyes peeled for cheap Red Sox and retired stars on COMC whenever these make it there in the future, but that's about the extent of what I envision for these in my collection.

At some point I'll bust the other pack open and do one more post like this, but for now thanks for joining me on my journey through this first one!  Have a great weekend everyone!

The Gallery of Heroes Pursuit is On!

Recently I showed off a sweet trio of Topps Gallery of Heroes inserts that I'd acquired for less than the cost of a blaster combined, with shipping included.  Chris the Collector asked in the comments if I had any plans on trying to complete the insert set.  Well, I certainly do!

I'm really enamored with the creativity and overall beauty of these "stained glass" inserts from 2013 Topps Archives baseball.  That's why shortly after I got my initial trio in hand, and from the same seller, I picked up Albert Pujols here.  A future HOFer, for sure, and a great looking card, as they all are in this set.

Here's the back, given that it's an acetate-type card it's just a mirror image of the front of course, as I've shown before.  That's not all though...

...as the seller had one of my childhood favorite players available, Cal Ripken Jr!  I mentioned this previously, but one of the reasons I've gravitated towards these 2013 inserts rather than the late '90s/early 2000s cards they mimic, is that the 2013 release includes retired greats like Cal here.

There's not much I can say about these cards that I haven't already covered in recent weeks.  I love the creativeness and bright, bold colors of the Gallery of Heroes line in general, and with retired stars included this 2013 revival is my favorite of them all.  I'm absolutely going to go for a set now, and in fact picked up a few others before my spending hiatus began in July.  With the five I've featured here so far I'm at 1/3 of a complete set already.

As I've done with the other cards I posted from this set, here's a look at Albert and Cal as they're meant to be enjoyed, in brand spankin' new Ultra Pro OneTouch magnetics with some nice back-lighting to accentuate the stained glass effect.

Yep, simply beautiful cards.  Can't wait to track down and feature the remaining ten here on the blog.  Until then, thanks as always for stopping by!

Random Hockey Card Mixer

Here's a few random hockey cards that I've added to my formal, organized collection in recent weeks.  None of these were necessarily interesting enough to warrant a post of their own, but as a group they're entertaining enough...

The 1994-95 Pinnacle Rink Collection parallels are among some of the best parallels of the '90s, and of all-time in my opinion.  Same for the '94 Museum Collection parallels on the baseball side.  LaFontaine was a stud back in the day, and I love his facial expression on this one.

If you like gold cards, I'd imagine you'd be a fan of this Premier Pad Men insert from Fleer Ultra.  The '90s certainly were a decade of excess in many ways.  Sometimes that worked out well, sometimes not so well.  You be the judge here.

'90s Finest Refractors absolutely rule, regardless of the sport.  These '94-95 hockey versions in particular are just awesome.  The blue borders absolutely glow.  At just two per hobby box, these are tough little buggers to track down on the cheap.  I believe I paid a dollar even for this Geoff Courtnall, which is actually a steal.

A nice, clean copy of Peter Mahovlich's 1976-77 Topps issue is next.  I believe this was quarter box fodder back in the day as well.

This Chris Pronger has "yellowed" a bit with age, but it's actually an acetate card.  I guess I was drawn to it because Chris was property of the Hartford Whalers when the card was released, but it doesn't do a whole lot for me these days.

We'll close it out with a few singles from the 2001-02 Upper Deck set.  Many years ago I purchased either a complete or near complete (honestly not sure) set at a bargain price online.  It sat in the box in my closet for the longest time, until I decided to ship it off in one of my boxes to Billy Kingsley.

I did hold onto a select few singles from the set for my own collection though, like this great shot of Jaromir Jagr in front of the White House.  I can't seem to pass on any Jagr cards that I don't already have, and the oddness of this one made it irresistible.  I think I'd trust Jaromir to lead us through this COVID crisis more so than the guy currently doing so, but this is a blog about sports cards so let's move on, shall we?

Each of the Sedin twins, Daniel...

...and Henrik!  Fresh-faced and with barely any NHL experience at this point (2000-01 was the first season in the NHL for these guys).

Teemu Selanne with the Sharks?!?!  Yeah, it happened.  For just a hair over two season there in Teemu's early 30s.  Great card commemorating one of the less-remembered stops on his NHL journey.

For whatever reason, Upper Deck gave collectors a whole lot of "press conference" shots in this set, featuring players who'd recently been dealt or signed with new teams.  After sitting out the entire 2000-01 season, Lindros moved to Manhattan for the 2001-02 campaign.

The Red Wings re-tooled quite a bit before the 2001-02 season, adding 37-year-old right wing sniper Brett Hull...

...future HOF left wing Luc Robitaille, 35 years old...

...and one of the best goaltenders I've ever seen play, Dominik Hasek, who like Hull was 37 years old for the 2001-02 season.  How'd it work out for the Wings?  Well, they won the Stanley Cup in 2002, so I'd say pretty damn well.  I thought this trio of cards representing their "aged" off-season additions that season was kind of cool.

Last but not least, just a fantastic overhead shot on this Eddie Belfour.

Some fun cards there, thanks for joining me in taking a peek at these random new additions to my hockey collection.  I'll be back tomorrow with more new card content, until then thanks as always for stopping by!

Shiny Cardboard - Bowman's Best Nomah!

Today was a crazy day with both work and personal stuff, so all I have time for posting this evening is a single shiny card.  It's the latest addition to my organized collection from a set that I became really attracted to in 2020, the 1999 Bowman's Best Refractors...

From the Best Performers subset, it's the great Nomar Garciaparra!  This guy was my favorite baseball player for quite a few years, and certainly was when this card was released (though I wasn't actively collecting at that time).  This will pair quite nicely with Garciaparra's base refractor that I showed off just last month.

Actually, I now have the base and Best Performers pair for Nomar, Vlad and Sammy Sosa, plus a base Todd Helton.  Given that these are relatively rare at 400 copies each, I'm pleased to have accumulated seven of them already.  I know I have at least a couple more in my to-be-posted box too, picked up before I went on a spending hiatus for the month of July.

Here's a look at the back, which I always show for these refractors, as it's a bit different than most card back designs.  I actually like the layout quite a bit, even if the serial-numbering is a bit tough to make out here.

Well, that's really all I have time for this evening.  I've got plenty of great cards, and plenty of great post ideas kicking around in my brain, but just suffering from a total lack of time tonight.

Hopefully tomorrow I find myself with more free/hobby time, and can cobble something a bit more elaborate together.  For tonight though, thanks for stopping by and checking out my shiny Nomar!

The Itch to Rip - 2018 Stadium Club Blaster Finale

Time for the fourth and final installment of my recent 2018 Stadium Club blaster.  This has been my cheap way to satisfy the itch to rip these past few weeks, purchased off of eBay since I'm not venturing out much and I hear there are no retail cards available anyway.  Tonight we'll tear into the final pair of packs...

Just five cards per pack in retail, pack number seven, here we go...

BAM!  This is the rookie card I was most hoping to pull from the blaster, given that I already have the Devers, and that there are no Acuna or Soto cards on the checklist.  Really happy to have stumbled upon one in the second-to-last pack here.  Sure, I could have bought one on COMC for a couple bucks but again, this was all about the itch to rip. 

I'm sure everything else in this pack will be a letdown by comparison, but let's see the other four cards anyway...

Liked this guy when he was with Boston, and have been happy to see him achieve at least some measure of similar success with the Brew Crew.

Fantastic horizontal photograph on Manny Machado's card.  This was Manny's last season in Baltimore, as he'd be dealt to Los Angeles mid-season to finish out the year with the Dodgers (and lose the World Series to the Red Sox, just sayin'!).

I hate to be critical, but this is a pretty bland shot of Cody Bellinger.  Proof that not all of the horizontal cards in Stadium Club are masterpieces.

This kid had a really good season in 2019, going 11-8 in 33 starts with a very impressive 2.75 ERA.  Since this has the official rookie card logo on it, I'm sure it'll be worth a bazillion trillion dollars someday if Flaherty continues to pitch like that.

Final pack of the blaster...

Gotta be honest, I've never heard of Felix Jorge.  Some quick research shows that Topps thought it was appropriate to include a player with two career appearances that resulted in an ERA on the wrong side of 10.00 in the checklist for this set.  Head shaker there.  Moving on...

I've at least heard the name Aaron Altherr before.  He bounced around to three different MLB teams last season alone, and appears to now be playing in Korea.  Boy, this pack is off to a fantastic start.

A card of Rhys Hoskins is next.  This is a rookie card in that it has the official 'RC' logo.  It's not a rookie card though in that it's an insert.  I'm confused, but all I know for sure is that I don't intend to keep this as I do the base card needs from the blaster.  Off to the giveaway stack with Rhys. 

Ah, that's much, much better!  After those first couple of duds this Jackie Robinson pretty much saves the final pack of the blaster, actually.  I finally posted my first playing-era Jackie earlier this year, and while I don't necessarily keep all modern cards of his that I come across, this one is an absolute beauty.  Jackie gets fantastic cards any time he appears in Stadium Club, it seems to me.

Final card of the blaster is another good one, with your 2018 and 2019 NL Cy Young winner Jake DeGrom!  Dude has turned into a real stud for the Mets.  Can he nab a third straight Cy in this crazy, 60-game season we have upcoming?  I can't wait to find out, I only hope MLB can actually complete the abbreviated season before it all comes crashing down.  Fingers crossed!

So, that's a wrap for my 2018 Stadium Club blaster, the first retail product of any sort that I've opened in a good long time.  Thanks for tuning in and following along, and if you've got any extra base cards laying around from this set hit me up!