Completed Set - 1990 Topps - Cards 300-399

On with the next installment of the 1990 Topps set, cards 300 - 399. Am I getting sick of this project? You bet I am! Onwards and upwards though, I'm determined to finish this if it takes me another month. Cards 300 - 399 might be the best 100 yet.

#300 - Bo Jackson - Bo was the man back in the day. Do you think we will ever see another two-sport professional athlete again? Considering how much money pro franchises sink into their star players I don't think we will. Any halfway intelligent owner nowadays would never let a player participate in another pro sport.

#305 - Eddie Murray - Steady Eddie led the Majors with a .330 average in 1990. He garnered some MVP votes as well, finishing 5th in the NL MVP race.

#307 - Bip Roberts - The now infamous Bip...

#312 - Dan Quisenberry - I have to confess that I don't know a whole lot about Dan. His form looks flat out awful on this card though.

#314 - Donald Harris - #1 Draft Pick - Another 1st round bust. Harris was taken #5 overall in the 1989 entry draft by the Rangers. He would play just 82 games from 1991 to 1993, finishing with a .205 career average and just 24 hits.

#331 - Juan Gonzalez - I think this is a rookie card if I'm not mistaken. I seem to remember this being one of the more sought after cards amongst my group of friends back in the day.

#336 - Ken Griffey, Jr. - One of the top 3 cards in the set in my opinion. This is Griffey Jr.'s first base set Topps card, although his true Topps rookie is in the 1989 Traded set. This was pretty much the card to pull back in the day, and its image graced the front of the '90 Topps wax boxes.

#337 - Lloyd McClendon - I chose this one just because the catcher's gear is great.

#340 - Fernando Valenzuela - 1990 was Fernando's final season with Los Angeles.

#345 - Harold Baines - I always forget that Baines made a quick pit stop in Texas. He was there for the latter part of the 1989 season and the first part of the 1990 season before being shipped off to Oakland.

#353 - Sandy Alomar (Jr.) - Nice portrait shot.

#360 - Paul Molitor - Paul is showing the proper way to field a ground ball, per my 8th grade little league coach.

#365 - Ozzie Guillen - The current White Sox manager about to lay down a bunt.

#366 - Mike Heath - This one has always been a favorite of mine, although I can't quite explain why. It sticks out so much in my mind that as I was sorting through the cards I knew the minute I saw the picture that it was Mike Heath, before the name even became visible.

#375 - Dwight Evans - One of Dewey's final cards. 1990 would be his last of many great seasons with the Red Sox. He played one more year (with Baltimore) in '91 before hanging up the spikes for good.

#380 - Dave Winfield - In what seems to be becoming a common theme, 1990 was also Winfield's last season with the Yankees. The Hall-of-Famer would play 5 more seasons though after his time in pinstripes was done.

#381 - Frank Robinson - This was the first Frank Robinson card I ever owned, so before I found out about his impressive career as a player, he was just the jolly looking manager of the Orioles as far as I was concerned.

#385 - Fred McGriff - All-Star - Cards 385 - 395 contain the American League All-Star subset. Crime Dog starts things off.

#387 - Wade Boggs - All-Star - Wade is the only Red Sox representative here.

#388 - Cal Ripken Jr. - All-Star - The All-Star subset is just as gaudy as the rest of the 1990 Topps set in terms of design.

#389 - Robin Yount - All-Star

#391 - Kirby Puckett - All-Star

#392 - Carlton Fisk - All-Star

#396 - A. Bartlett Giamatti - Wedged in between the AL and NL All-Star subsets is this tribute card to Bart Giamatti. Mr. Giamatti suffered a heart attack and died at age 51, just 154 days into his tenure as Commissioner of Baseball. I can't believe I never knew that Paul Giamatti (the actor) was his son until I read a bit in preparation for this post.

#397 - Will Clark - All-Star - After Giamatti's card we have the NL All-Star subset. Of course I had to feature the Will Clark.

#398 - Ryne Sandberg - All-Star

Well that wraps up cards 300 - 399. We're halfway home at this point. This is turning out to be a good deal more work than I expected, but I'm hoping to be done with this by the end of April.

Pack Rip - 2009-10 Upper Deck Champs Hockey (Retail)

I can't believe I haven't posted in over a week. Work has been extremely busy, but I guess I am grateful to have a job ultimately. Anyway, it's time I finally posted in April here. I have no plans to buy any hobby boxes of this year's Champs hockey release. After seeing a few box breaks on Puck Junk and Is this a Wasteland...No it's Tampa Bay Sports I just didn't think the hits and parallels were really worth the price of a hobby box. On top of that, I like the look of the base cards but I'm not a big fan of mini cards, which are a huge part of this set. When I saw retail packs in Target recently for $1.99 though, I couldn't resist picking one up so that I could at least see the cards in person. Each retail pack contains 4 cards. Here we go:

#60 - Jason Arnott - Like I said above, I think the base cards actually look great, better than last year's Champs release even. I think the faded blue borders are nice, and the crossed hockey sticks at the bottom of the cards give them a classy look.

#567 - Herbert Hoover - Historical Figures Mini - Herbert was faced with the unfortunate task of serving as President of the United States during the Great Depression. As I stated before, I'm not big on minis nor am I collecting this set, so if anyone needs this let me know and I'll set it to the side.

#41 - Alex Delvecchio - Here's where the pack starts getting a little better. This card is great. I love that the photos are overlayed on an outdoor background, it really adds to the old time hockey feel of the set. Good stuff.

#43 - Jari Kurri - The last card in the pack is actually my favorite. His 1981-82 Topps rookie was one of my favorite cards as a kid. I do wish that they didn't use the exact same wooded background on all of these cards though. Yes, I am aware of how sad it is that I even noticed that.

I gotta say, I would normally cringe at the prospect of paying $2 for just 4 cards, but this pack was actually pretty interesting. I just might have to pick up some more of these. I think retail might be the way to go considering it's the 100 card base set I'm interested in. Coming up later this week will be cards 300 - 399 of the 1990 Topps baseball set (sorry), another hockey pack break, and my card of the month for April, which is a good one!

David Krejci Collection - Cards 20, 21 & 22

All of this 1990 Topps sorting and scanning has gotten me pretty sidetracked. Although I've continued watching all the Bruins games (painful at times) I've slacked off on posting a new Krejci card every time he registers a goal. Since the Olympic break, and even more so since Marc Savard went down, David Krejci has really stepped up his play. In fact, he's gotten back to the level that he was at last year when he had such a spectacular sophomore season. Since I posted last, Krejci has registered three more goals. I just happened to have three parallel cards I haven't shown yet:

First up is the 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee gold parallel. You can see the base card here. It doesn't show well in the scan, but the gold parallel consists of a slightly sturdier, foil type card stock that gives them a "gold" tinge. I bought two hobby boxes of this stuff last season and I want to say these were seeded at maybe 6 per box or so. Just the sort of thing I hate as a set collector.

Next we have a parallel of a parallel, a 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Retro Rainbow card. This is a parallel of the regular Retro parallel, which you can see here. The Retro Rainbow cards are on glossy card stock with a rainbow foil, and are numbered to 100.

Finally, we have a 2009-10 Fleer Ultra Ice Medallion parallel. These mirror the base set with the exception of the "ice colored" left border. They are numbered to 100 as well.

The Bruins have won 3 of 5, but suffered a tough home loss last night to Ryan Miller and the Buffalo Sabres. Huge game tonight in New Jersey against the Devils. The Bruins are desperately clinging to the 8th playoff spot in the East, and need the two points badly, but it's not going to be an easy win...

#1 - 2007-08 Upper Deck SPX (Auto/Dual Relic/#'d to 999)
#2 - 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee Premier (Auto/Quad Relic/#'d to 299)
#3 - 2007-08 Upper Deck Ice Fresh Threads (Dual Relic)
#4 - 2008-09 Upper Deck Champs Mini
#5 - 2007-08 In the Game Heroes & Prospects
#6 - 2009-10 Fleer Ultra
#7 - 2007-08 Upper Deck SP Authentic (Auto/#'d to 999)
#8 - 2008-09 O-Pee-Chee
#9 - 2007-08 O-Pee-Chee
#10 - 2009-10 Upper Deck
#11 - 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Stat Leaders Insert
#12 - 2009-10 O-Pee-Chee Retro Parallel
#13 - 2005-06 In the Game Heroes & Prospects
#14 - 2007-08 Upper Deck MVP
#15 - 2008-09 Upper Deck Powerplay
#16 - 2007-08 Upper Deck Young Guns Rookie
#17 - 2009-10 Upper Deck Victory Gold
#18 - 2009-10 Upper Deck MVP Winter Classic
#19 - 2007-08 Upper Deck Rookie Class

Completed Set - 1990 Topps - Cards 200-299

Work was hectic towards the end of last week and the weekend wasn't much better, but I'm determined to keep this 1990 Topps set moving. I just finished scanning in cards 200 - 299, here are my favorites:

#200 - Don Mattingly - Not one of the finer star cards in the set in my opinion. Mattingly's 1990 season wasn't much better...

#210 - Ryne Sandberg - On the opposite end of the spectrum, Sandberg had an awesome 1990 season. He set career highs in home runs (40), RBI (100), and runs (116). Oh yeah, he also captured a Gold Glove and hit .306.

#214 - Terry Francona - I believe this is the final Topps player card for the current Red Sox manager. He would see action in just 3 games in 1990, his final season.

#220 - Barry Bonds - The first of two players I find completely obnoxious.

#224 - Delino DeShields - This particular card was always a favorite of mine.

#229 - David Wells - A very young Boomer...

#230 - Keith Hernandez - Kieth would play in just 43 games in 1990 before retiring. It was not for the Mets though, but rather the Indians.

#240 - Mark Grace - I think the positioning of this photo is perfect.

#245 - Roger Clemens - The second player that I find obnoxious.

#250 - Jose Canseco

#261 - Whitey Herzog - I always liked the manager cards.

#273 - Bobby Bonilla - Bobby looks pretty threatening here.

#278 - Pascual Perez - Once again we have an Expo with a mullet! I wonder how long this will keep up...

#283 - Albert "Joey" Belle - When I was younger, I was never sure whether Albert and Joey were one and the same.

#284 - Mark Gardner - Future Star - Mark stuck around in the majors for a few years, and has been a bullpen coach for the Giants for quite some time apparently.

#285 - Willie McGee - This is one of Willie's least funny cards. He had some great ones in the 80s.

#290 - Robin Yount - A smiling, helmetless Yount. I'm not a huge fan of hatless players on cards.

#294 - Craig McMurtry - I picked this one because Craig might honestly be the goofiest looking guy in this set.

#295 - Fred McGriff - The Crime Dog, looking pretty happy.

#296 - Jeff Ballard - We end with Jeff Ballard. I think it's safe to assume this is one player who was not on steroids in 1990.

Well, there you go. This is getting to be quite the project, but I'm going to keep pressing onwards. I hope to have cards 300 - 399 sorted and scanned by the end of the week!