Saturday '67s

Not a lot of time today, or recently at all for that matter, but it's been two weeks since I posted last so I feel obligated to put something up. So, here are some 1967 Topps cards that have been sitting in draft format since I picked them up at the Flea Market way back in April. These came from the same seller that I got my 1971 Topps Thurman Munson from.

#493 - Phil Ortega

#494 - Bill Rigney

Rigney was actually the very first manager for the Angels franchise.

#498 - Larry Dierker

Houston pitching great; struck out Willie Mays in the first inning of his first career game at age 18. First Astros 20 game winner. His number 49 is retired by the team.

#499 - Indians Rookie Stars - George Culver/Jose Vidal

Vidal didn't stick around long in the bigs. Culver did throw a no-hitter against Cincinnati in 1968.

#502 - Derrell Griffith

This card is a bit funny as Griffith never played a single game for the Astros. After appearing in 124 games over 4 seasons with the Dodgers, he was sent to the Mets after the 1966 season ended. Before the 1967 season would begin though, the Mets dealt him to Houston. Unfortunately for Derrell, he would never play another game. I guess he'd qualify as a career-long Dodger since he never saw action with the Mets or the Astros? You can kind of excuse Topps for the hatless photo on this one I guess.

#504 - Orlando Martinez

945 career at-bats, 0 home runs. I wonder just how close his farthest hit came to clearing the fence.

#513 - Marcelino Lopez

#514 - John Werhas

#518 - Denis Menke

Apparently Denis played first, second, short, third and outfield over his 13 year career.

#519 - Ted Davidson

Just before the start of the 1967 season, Davidson was shot three times by his estranged wife. He would recover quickly enough to pitch by June of that same year.

#520 - Max Alvis

#522 - John Stephenson

Stephenson never actually played with the Mets in 1967, and was sent to the Chicago Cubs mid-season.

#532 - Jim Hicks

Another guy who didn't see any action in 1967 with the team he's depicted as a member of. In fact, Hicks didn't play Major League Baseball at all in 1967 or 1968.

#533 - Jack Fisher

Fisher gave up some notable home runs in the early 1960's. Ted Williams went long against him in his final big league at bat. He surrendered the 60th dinger in Roger Maris' historic 1961 season, and in 1964 gave up the first ever bomb hit at Shea Stadium (courtesy of Willie Stargell).

There you have it, fourteen random 1967 Topps cards. I paid ten bucks total, which I was very happy with considering the cards are in great shape and are high numbers from the more difficult to find 5th series.

Hopefully I'll be able to get back to some semi-regular posting here, I've got a couple of things in the works including my creative alternative to a 2011 Allen & Ginter hobby box.

Gypsy Queen Retail - One Last Hurrah

Here are the highlights from my final two Gypsy Queen retail rack packs. I made out pretty well with my Framed Green parallels:

#29 - Ty Cobb

#54 - Frank Thomas

#57 - David Ortiz

#66 - Sandy Koufax

Here are a few highlights from the base set, starting off with a couple of Red Sox currently on the DL...

#19 - Jon Lester

#32 - Carl Crawford

...three Hall-of-Famers...

#50 - Al Kaline

#65 - Babe Ruth

#174 - Reggie Jackson

...and a couple of short prints:

#306 - Tommy Hanson

#316 - Lou Gehrig

I got quite a few more inserts that I needed, including these few:

#GO24 - Ty Cobb - The Great Ones

#SF7 - Jose Reyes - Sticky Fingers

#WC9 - Jason Heyward - Wall Climbers

The minis were pretty boring to be quite honest, but there were two of note. Dustin Pedroia...

Mini #248 - Dustin Pedroia

...and my first Sepia:

Mini Sepia #93 - Victor Martinez (#'d/99)

Oh yeah, I also pulled this in the very last rack pack:


Well that wraps it up. It was fun while it lasted but now Gypsy Queen retail is nowhere to be found. I'm left with just over 100 cards from the base set, a good chunk of minis, and a decent stack of inserts and parallels. If I want to keep ripping I seem to have only one choice...hobby. Ugh.

Am I Alone in Thinking Black Diamond Sucks?

Here's a Black Diamond card from 2007-08:


Now, here's a Black Diamond card from 2008-09:

I can't show you a standard base card from 2009-10 or 2010-11 because I haven't purchased so much as a pack. In fact, I own just 27 total Black Diamond cards. I generally try to focus on the positive and post about what I like in the hobby, but I just really detest these sets. Year after year, the same dark, foil-covered abominations at a (relatively) high price point with few cards per pack. I'm sure someone can defend these sets in the comments and help me understand what's so great about them. After all, they keep making them year after year so clearly somebody's buying them.

I do have 3 Black Diamond cards that I actually do plan to keep...2 from my Sergei Fedorov collection...

1999-00 Black Diamond - #D7 - Sergei Fedorov Diamonation

2000-01 Black Diamond - #IG-3 - Sergei Fedorov Diamonation

...and this one that I picked up for 99 cents on eBay over a year ago:

2009-10 Black Diamond - #BD11 - Bobby Hull Quad Diamond Die-Cut

Alright, so that last card is actually pretty cool. As a Whalers fan I absolutely couldn't resist a chance to pick up this card. It's not every day you encounter a Bobby Hull Whalers card.

My other 24 Black Diamond cards? I could do without them. Anyone want my 2008-09 Marian Hossa triple diamond?

Because I sure don't.

Happy 4th Everyone!

I don't have much time to write so this one will be brief. The 4th of July always makes me feel nostalgic about the 50's and 60's for some reason, even though I wasn't alive then. So, here's a relatively recent addition to my Red Sox collection from that time period:


Plenty of Red, White and Blue on that one!

If you live in the States I hope you're safely enjoying the holiday with friends and family. I for one have plenty to be grateful for on this holiday weekend.

Help! What Card is This?

Alright, I'm sure this is a relatively easy one but I'm looking for some card identification help. A while back I picked up one of those 100 baseball cards for $5 packs by Fairfield, or one of those similar distributors. One of the cards inside was this Conlon Collection Babe Ruth card:

The card has a copyright date of 1992 and is numbered 64. The only Conlon Collection cards I'm familiar with are the series released for a few years starting in 1991, which have the same design as this Ruth card. Problem is Conlon continued it's numbering scheme over the years, so the 1991 set contained 330 cards and the first card in the 1992 set is #331, and so on. So, there's no card in the 1992 set that I'm aware of numbered 64, and number 64 in the 1991 set is Bill Terry:

So, can anyone help me out with this one? I really need to pick up a Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards some day. Anyway, since I started a post here are some of the other cards I enjoyed from the $5 repack pack:

1992 Upper Deck #255 - Cecil Fielder

I bought a wax box of 1992 Upper Deck low series baseball from the hobby shop about a year and a half ago to get started on a set. It still sits unopened in my office to this day. What can I say, it's on the list.

1993 Upper Deck #755 - Juan Gonzalez

I'm pretty sure I already have this one (sorting my 1993 Upper Deck cards is on the list as well), but what a great card. If you don't have much 1993 Upper Deck in your collection, you should really fix that. Boxes are insanely cheap and it's a fantastic set.

I got a few 1987 Topps cards, including a miscut Tom Seaver in a Red Sox uniform and the now-infamous Ed Lynch card.

I was able to track down and identify these two cards. I had a few as a kid and recognized them instantly, but wasn't sure what they were. Thanks to Zistle I learned they're 1987 Hygrade All-Time Greats. Ugly cards for sure, but they cost me a penny each so how can I complain.

1989 Topps #757 - Brady Anderson

First Topps base card of the Orioles one season slugger...I still have to track down his '88 Topps Traded Red Sox card.

1988 Topps #470 - Dwight Evans

Just like 1992 Upper Deck, I've had an unopened stash of '88 Topps sitting around for quite some time. It's in the form of a rack pack box that I got for $10 about 2 years ago. Clearly I need to make a collection to-do list for this summer.

There were a couple of Dave Winfields. I already had the '82 Topps but not the Glossy All-Star.

2003 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition #62 - Mike Mussina

2002 Topps #385 - Fred McGriff

I believe this is now the only 2002 Topps card I own.

A couple of Sportflics cards. The Ernie Banks on the left is from the 1986 Decade Greats set, and it actually looks awesome in person.

An Eric Davis fan would've been pleased with this pack.

I also got two 1990 Topps Hills Hitmen. I'd seen this set before only because I collect Will Clark and have his.

1991 Score #419 - Ramon Martinez Highlight

1991 Bowman #609 - Darryl Strawberry

1990 Topps K-Mart Superstars #5 - Tony Gwynn

1988 Topps UK Minis #72 - Ozzie Smith

1987 Topps Glossy Send-Ins #57 - Kirby Puckett

I don't care what anyone says, these are pretty damn fun to open. Since I started rebuilding my collection basically from scratch in 2007 these don't bother me as much as most collectors that probably end up with about 90 doubles out of a 100 card pack. If you don't expect too much, you may be pleasantly surprised!