Billy Pierce '13 Heritage

I picked up a couple of Billy Pierce items over the course of the last month. But I can't access the scan of the 2nd one at the moment so I'll save it for another post.

I debated with myself over picking this one up. It's a 2013 signed 'Certified' Heritage in the '64 style. I actually had to check to see if I had one because it seemed familiar (even outside the obvious ' '64 Topps' aspect of being familiar).

Turns out I had a different version of the same card, one signed in red (oh my!!) and numbered by hand (double oh my!!). Topps was obviously considering the fact that they could make money by having 'completists' like me chase several different non-vintage versions of this version of a vintage card. All it really does is is make eBay sellers happy.

But whatever. I didn't spend much. And I got to add another row to my Pierce collection spreadsheet and 'X' the 'Got It' column. That's always fun. items that feature BP with the White Sox are always better than those that have him with the Giants but I like the '64 design a bunch and the orange/black/white scheme with the blue San Francisco sky make this a nice card, in any rendition.

I'll post the other new Pierce item, one from Comiskey Park, later this week once my fantasy baseball draft is over.

Even I'm tired of this card!

Look! It's another by-gawd Topps Heritage version of the 1964 Billy Pierce card! This version had a blue sig, is unnumbered and has a Topps Certified 'tagline' printed below the photo.I swear this is my last one. I was thinking it might be fun to have one full page containing the '64 card and the many variations of it but I don't think there are quite enough of them available and I'm spending my money in other ways now anyway.

Just to make sure this post has something new and different in it I'm posting a photo sent to me just this week of the Billy Pierce tribute that is shown on the outfield wall at Comiskey Park. It comes from my "Chicago Insider" Mike McKay. Thank you Mike, for the photo and the holiday wishes. My best to you and yours, and many thanks!

This and that, Billy Pierce Style

Seemed like a good day to try to clear out some of the backlog of scanned cards I've been saving. Let's start with these. 

Top card is a Bill Pierce Topps Archives from 2001. I didn't really know Topps was doing these 'throwback' cards 13 years ago. Anyway it's obviously just a reprinted '64 with a gold stamp. I like the original '64 card, love that the color compliments the Giants' colors. But having said that I rally don't pursue these 'modern' Pierce cards wholeheartedly. I keep a list of the ones I have but I'm not tracking down a 'wantlist'. There are so many variations of these sorts of things I'm not sure a wantlist is even possible. 

There is a Heritage Pierce card on COMC that is signed. It is supposedly a 2013 card and it has a number of 18/64. I can't tell if its a 'signed through the mail' card of if it was issued like that. Either way for $25 the guy can keep it. I made him an offer of about half the asking price since the card has been there f-o-r-e-v-e-r but, just as I figured, it was rejected.

Next is another 99 cent Pierce card, this one is a variation of something I already had. It's an Upper Deck All Time Heroes card from 1994. I posted my original one awhile back but this one is "special"... it has a gold stamp reading 'Major League Baseball 125th Anniversary' along the right side. Why? I don't know. And I wouldn't have bothered with it had it cost more than a dollar or so. 

But along with the Pierce Upper Deck the seller included an extra card (don't you love it when sellers do that?). He stuck an '89 Fleer Tony Gwynn into the same case. I'm sure I have this card someplace and, yes, the '89 Fleer set isn't anything to be excited about but a Gwynn is a Gwynn. If nothing else it gave me the chance to flip over a card and be astounded at some player's stats.

I blew up the scan of the back, just because. Here are a couple of things I found out when this card prompted me to look at TG's Baseball Reference page: he was second in the NL in triples three times. Triples!  

In 1994 he won the batting title with a just plain silly .394 average but he also led the league by grounding into 20 double plays. He was in the top four in putouts by a rightfielder eight times and top five in fielding eight times. 

Mr. Padre, indeed.