2015 Stadium Club....a glimpse

I ordered and opened a box of 2015 Stadium Club. Not being that familiar with contemporary sets I thought I'd come closer to having a complete set when I added in the cards I already had. But I guess I'll just keep digging.

I'm not going to post any regular cards for the '15 SC set. they've been all over the blogs for a year now. But when I get something I think is worth scanning it'll show up here.

The highlight of the box by far was the Eric Davis autograph I put at the top. I always enjoyed watching him play for the Reds and was very happy that he brought his talents to the Orioles during his 'second career'. Davis of course fought and defeated colon cancer at an all-too-young age and returned to the game after missing the 1995 season.

The other auto was this one:

Not only do I not know who he is but that's a very, very lazy sig. A waste of cardboard and coating.

I got a handful of the various subsets. I got two or three of the die-cut cards. I'd rather take a stick in the eye than mess with those things.

These two True Colors cards aren't bad. Shiny, multi-dimensionalish (I made up a new word?) and very different than anything else in the box. A kind of 1992 vibe for me. And I don't mind a Mays card. And anything is better than die-cut.

I got more dupes than I counted on so they are off to a couple of SC collectors. I'm hitting the TriStar show this weekend to 'Tri' and fill a few holes in this set.

An Owl On My Shoulder

About two or three weeks ago I read another in a long line of posts about the 2015 Stadium Club set. Again I saw a couple of cards that I thought were very cool. It dawned on me that maybe I should try to collect it. I had a few of the Orioles and a handful of others so I wouldn't be starting off empty.

I gave it some thought, looked at the checklist, and decided to go for it. I determined that I would not worry about inserts or variations and all that sort of thing. I read that the base set comes in various foil colors (SC guys, help me out here) but I can't tell the difference without looking hard at them so I'll just fill slots with whatever foil color I happen to get.

I looked at eBay and started bidding on a few lots, mostly 100 or so card lots, but I kept missing out. So last week I decided to just order a box. Not an hour later I grab my mail and there is a manila envelope from upstate New York courtesy of Night Owl. And damn if it didn't contain a big stack of Stadium Club (among other things). It was a weird but wonderful (and timely) coincidence. That's part of the stack up top.

Collecting a contemporary set is going to be unusual for me but Stadium Club is an unusual set. I'm not going to blog it step by step because by now every card has been posted at some point by someone, probably a dozen times. but I will post a wantlist as soon as I have one.

I'm just going to put up a couple of the cards N.O. sent, ones that I don't remember seeing on the blogs I frequent. I ususually complain about cards where the subject is just 'one of a crowd' in the photo but even with about a dozen birds in this shot Britton remains the focus. Fun photo.

I like this card of Alex Cobb for two reasons. First that 'fauxback' uni is so hideous that it's cool. And for another there is just so much of it! Pajama unis...harumph. Get off my lawn! Neat stirrups though.

But Night Owl didn't limit his envelope to just Stadium Club. He added a fistful of Orioles cards, all of which were new ones for my O's box.

In 1994 Brady Anderson was still evolving from 'skinny' Brady to 'bulky' Brady. He was still a couple of years away from his outlier 50 dinger performance. I'd like to think that 50 homers were due to the fact that MLB jazzed up the ball in hopes of making the game more attractive post-lockout/strike. But I'd also like to believe in the Easter bunny.

Dylan Bundy. He's been the Orioles 'next great hope' for what seems like 10 years. I think I read he's out of options, or nearly so. Welcome to Charm City, Dylan.

Score brand cards....one of my secret fetishes back in the day. I had a zillion Score baseball. But I never saw these. I dug a bit and found out why. These are from a set sold in conjunction with a book at big box book retailers.

Here is what Baseball Card-pedia has to say about these: "1991 Score 100 Rising Stars is a 100-card set issued as a factory set, in a blister pack, with an accompanying book. The sets (with the book) were sold primarily through mass-market chain bookstores with a suggested retail price of $12.95. Each factory set also included six Magic Motion Trivia cards."

I also received a couple of new Cal Ripkens.......

It's impossible to estimate what one player has had the most cards issued for them but if you made a list of guesses I'd sure stick Cal on it.

...and a shiny Kevin Gausman (I have the non-shiny version). Some days on the mound Gausman looks good, some days, well, not as much.

All-in-all it was a great batch of cards that I received from Night Owl. I'm looking forward to getting my Stadium Club set off the ground and this made for a nice start. Thanks again, Greg.

More Picking the Best Card

While I await the discovery of a mystical cure for my scanner woes I present a few more cards from my Fantasy baseball binder and the cards they bumped. I had these scanned for my original post but they didn't make the cut. So please ignore the fact that you are getting second string scans.

Here is what I said in the first post a few weeks back:

I put one card of each of my players in my binder. I have certain criterion in mind when I hunt up a player's card. I prefer a vertical card, one that shows the player on the correct team, and one from a year I had him. The whole thing forms a hierarchy with a card fitting the above description at the top, and a horizontal, multi-player, die-cut, minor league, different organization card from a previous year at the bottom. But I'll ignore all that to add variety or to spice up the binder with a card I really like. 

I had this minor league card of Freddy Galvis in the binder. I had Galvis a couple of years ago and he only had minor league cards so I had to overpay for one.

It's not bad as MiLB cards go but it gives no indication of his MLB team so it got the boot....

 ...for a 2015 Topps. The weird number of the back makes me think it was from one of those team sets that you see on cardboard hangers in stores. Wrong year but it shows him in the Phils' gear.

Nearly the same holds true for Yasiel Puig. I don't make many smart moves in fantasy baseball but drafting him before he made the Dodgers was one. He hasn't turned out to be the second coming of Willie Mays but he really made a nice impact on my club when he broke in two seasons back.

This card wasn'y hugely expensive but it cost more than the card I replaced it with for sure. No Dodger logos? No good in the binder!

I waited for a nice card to come along and this year I liked the Archives Puig. So there ya go.

But my Archives Maikel Franco which I picked up when I claimed him made way for a better '15 card.

I just got this one in a couple of weeks back. Stadium Club > Archives, at least in this case.

Kyle Seager on a Bowman card. I don't remember when I had this guy but that Bowman card, even if it was from the correct year, yuck. Dark and unreadable.

'15 Stadium Club, wrong year, better card!

But SC doesn't trump all. I really like this next one. James McCann chats behind his glove with his pitcher. Unique and really cool. But I can't get around the fact that either of them could be the card's subject. Aesthetically, it's a sweet card. But for the binder it's like a two player card. Unacceptable.

2015 Topps gives it the bump.

Finally we have the case of Jordan Zimmermann. I like the 2012 Archives. that's even the year I had him.

But I bounced it for a '15 Stadium Club. And I'm having second thoughts. I may switch back. that Archives may not be as pretty but it is from the right year, right team and it's the only one of that set in my binder so it ticks the 'unique' box. I need to think more on this.

Stadium Club....finally

I'm a bit late posting some 2015 Stadium Club cards. But since I think this is the best set Topps has put out in quite awhile I'd give them their due. I'm going to post some of the cards I like from the small box I bought at Target. I'll skip the ones I've seen posted in many other places.

The card of Devin Mesoraco up top is a nice blend of colors against the dark sky. I didn't know that he was an All Star last season and he's had a season ending injury this year. That ignorance is likely why I've had fantasy baseball issues.

Victor Martinez listens to the National Anthem. I'm sure there are many other cards showing players during the anthem but I can't think of any at the moment. The Anthem is woven into the game. Nice card  that would be cool to have signed.

Wil Myers in one of the better posed shots that came in my box. He looks like he enjoys playing baseball, yes?

Nothing special about these two pitchers' cards other than the fact that they are so similar and came back-to-back in one of the packs. I'm no fan of color baseball tops but the Mets' orange and blue isn't bad.

The look I get when someone asks me about Albert Belle's time in Baltimore*:

(*=Belle had some pretty good numbers in his two years with the O's. It was the team that sucked). 

Chase Utley's National's Park 'mirrored' dugout photo is unique.

The final two cards are of Yankees (Don't judge, thanks) because they are two of the best that I got in the box.

The Brett Gardner card immediately made me think of this:

Too bad an O's fan isn't reaching over the wall to snare that one away from Gardner.

On this next card, Yankee (and former Red Sox..the double whammy!!) Jacoby Ellsbury reaches out for, what... a high five? fan auto request? in Yankee Stadium. It's a wonderful shot. One worthy of Night Owl's Awesome Night Card binder I believe.

I really like the Fernando Valenzuela card, the Frank Robinson and Bo Jackson cards, too. But this may be (godhelpme) my favorite of the bunch.

Diecut cards...yea or nay?

I picked up an 8 pack box of Stadium Club and a pack of 2015 Score football at Target recently. The Stadium Club cards are great. No need for me to repeat what everyone else has said. Seems they get universal praise and I like them a lot, too. My only gripe is that I didn't get much in the way of Orioles or players I'm interested in. But that's probably on me. I did get an 'Albert Belle as an Oriole' card. Thanks a bunch.

I buy a pack or two of football cards each year just to do it. I'll probably spring for a pack of Topps football when they come out. Score is Score. They don't cost a lot and they won't bowl you over but I did get some nice cards for my fantasy binder. I'm always looking for cards of guys in the uniforms of the team he plays for when I own them. I was able to upgrade from some 2014 rookie cards of guys in college unis so I was happy.

One thing I picked up in both the box of SC and the Score pack was a diecut (diecut?, die cut?, die-cut?) card. Diecut cards have been around forever. There were some in the 1920s and probably before that. But I'm no fan of them. In modern sets they are just another gimmick. I like the color scheme of the SC Jackie Robinson card but that's about all.

That Robinson card is in the shape of a shield, more or less. But what's the deal with the Aaron Rodgers card? Is there some significance to the way it's cut? Am I overlooking something obvious here?