Didn't Know These Existed

I connected with an old college friend thru a Facebook group (old NFL photos!) and he a few weeks ago sent me a Christmas gift. Other than the 1959 & '60 packs I got in my Easter basket as a kid and a few cello packs I remember getting for Christmas in the early 60s this is the only card holiday 'present' I've ever received. They were wrapped and had a bow and everything.

Not surprisingly they are from a set I'd never heard of...Topps Archives Snapshots. From what I've learned they were sold through the mail by Topps sort of like their Topps Now stuff. Looks like a pretty decent checklist but there is only one Oriole, Manny Machado.

My friend is an Astros fan and he bought several boxes in hopes of pulling some Astros sigs (there are several 'Stros in the set). He struck out on that but said he got all the base Astros and a couple of parallels (B&W?). The Killebrew above is my favorite of the group.

They are nice photos with a pretty simple design. A mix of current and former players. Not the best shot of Henry Aaron but at least it's not one of the same old pics that get used over and over again.

Francisco Lindor is kind of a favorite of mine among current players. He always seems to be having fun out there.

Seager as always appears to be fresh out of high school.

Several of these are Spring Training pics.The Swanson is pretty nice.

Gsellman and Lindor will replace previous cards in my fantasy baseball binder. I like variety in that collection.

Here's a look at the back of the Lindor card. Not much here in terms of info but I think the front photos are the draw for stuff like this.

A couple of oldies here. I missed nearly all of Bobby Abreu's career having bailed on baseball in 1995 and not returned until nearly 15 years later. Looking at the scan again it appears that his name is out of focus. And looking back it seems all the names are a bit fuzzy. Might be my scanner. Might be the fact that the font isn't the sharpest.

The Wakefield pic comes thru very nicely. but why isn't he holding the ball with a knuckleball grip?

Brad sent me eight cards and a nice bonus.....

Yup, a signed Cleon Jones. He knows that Jones was a '69 Met and he promised he wasn't trolling me. I appreciate the card even though the mention of Jones' name brings back memories of him making the last out of the 1969 Series. It was that catch which prompted me to get up off my friend's couch and silently head out the door to walk home.

Looking at the checklist when I was investigating this set I saw that there were Wally Moon signature cards. I found one on eBay and it arrived yesterday. I have a small but interesting Moon PC going. This is a nice addition.

It wasn't until I was looking closely at this one that I noticed that the colors that bracket the Archives logo match the players uni colors. A small but nice touch.

All in all a fun little group. I probably wouldn't go out and buy these on my own so I really appreciate the generous gift. Thanks Brad and Happy New Year.

It snowed in Houston!! (In more ways than one)

A couple of unexpected things happened here in the last 36 hours or so. First of all I got a surprise (but very welcome) envelope from my friend Mike McKay of Chicago. He had picked up a box of the holiday Topps set which I have since learned come only from WalMart stores in blasters. Mike forwarded the Orioles he got in his box. Pretty much the three biggest names on the team, Chris Davis, Manny Machado and Adam Jones. 

They are a pretty neat item. But if I was a team 'complete-ist' I might be annoyed with Topps adding to my needs list so late in the year. Then again I think the days of collecting every card from your team (or player) is long gone. I dunno how everyone else feels about these but I think the addition of the little snowflakes is kind of cool (pun intended). 

The other thing that kind of snuck up on us down here in Houston was snow. I woke up this morning to a nice layer of the white stuff covering everything except the street in my neighborhood.  As I expected Facebook is full of Houston folks screaming that it's the first time we've ever seen snow but you know how that is. It doesn't happen all that often but we've had the white stuff here every few years as long as I can remember.

Here are the other cards from the 'snow set' that Mike sent. Thanks, again, Mike!

The Adam Jones card makes it appear he's trying to catch some of the flakes with a diving effort. I wonder if that was intended.

That Reggie Guy

It occurred to me tonite that I had failed to scan and post this card that came from my '17 Archives blaster. Topps gets a big tip of the cap for using this Reggie Jackson photo. I've seen it on 'concept cards' before but not as a real release. Maybe I'm mis-remembering here.

But either way I really, really liked this one and wanted to give it it's due before I put these things to bed.

Everyone's doing it, doing it

I bought two 30-card packs of '17 Heritage today. I'm not gonna collect this but I'm sure I'll need at least some of the guys I got for my fantasy baseball binder this year so it's not really a waste of money. 

And I got an autographed card. No, it's not a star card but a signed card out of a pack is good nonetheless. This is only the second time I remember getting a signed card through a pack purchase. The other was an Eric Davis card from 2015 Stadium Club. In that instance I had bought a box in the misguided belief I'd try to collect that set. I think a signed card was guaranteed in that box purchase so this Bobby Locke is my first random auto 'pull'.

Bobby Locke played in parts of nine seasons from 1959 thru 1968. And I do mean 'parts'. Looking at his Baseball Reference page I noticed how often he bounced from the minors to the bigs and back.

Anyway he had cards several Topps during the 60s beginning with the 1960 set. His '68 card, which of course is replicated for this Heritage set, was his last one. The photo was the same one Topps used in 1962.

He won 16 games in his career against 15 losses. While with the Indians early in his career he was a part time starter. He pitched a couple of shutouts in 1960.

Other than the Locke autograph I received nothing of note. I will say Topps did a nice job of replicating a few of the little details of the '68 set including the variation in the 'burlap' pattern.

I don't know what cards are short prints and don't care either. I looked at the backs of these and didn't see any gum stains. I got one of those in one of these Topps non-flagship sets a couple of years ago. Not this time.

This 'game' card is a nice touch. I liked the original insert set. These are bigger though.

One thing I didn't like is that of 60 cards not one was an Oriole. Not one. I got four White Sox guys though. These packs were misdirected I guess. They were meant for Jedi Jeff.

So all in all I liked the cards and I hope to get some use out of them. One weird card though is this one of Matt Holliday. He just looks creepy. Like a toy or movie character I've seen but can't put my finger on. I guess he's photoshopped into a Yankee uni, too.

And I got five team cards. I like Photo Day shots of guys standing on bleachers a lot more than team 'action' shots. Now get the hell off my lawn.

2017 Legends Inserts

Last week I was buying a Civil War News card on COMC. It was in great shape and very cheap and upgraded a terrible one in my binder. But the $4.00 shipping made me want to get a bit more into my cart to make it more palatable. I hate paying as much for shipping as I do for a card so I dug up a few 2017's.

I haven't read many (any?) positive comments about this '17 Topps subset. But I like them. I think they are sharp looking. Sure there is some wasted space but at least there isn't any 'fog' or ESPN-esque graphics. I know there are several different categories within this group of cards...Legends... Mother's Day.. Jackie Robinson Day, etc. but I'm not interested enough to investigate.

I'd seen the Frank Robinson Legends card on another blog. I don't have many cards of him with the Indians and I always sort of liked the 'caveman' feel the Indians' wordmark at that time. It's just ugly enough to be cool.

Koufax. Dude worked his ass off on the mound.

Jim Palmer. I've seen this photo before. He and...

...Brooksie are my go-to guys when it comes to buying 'pieces' of sets. That's what happens when you name your sons after ballplayers. When you find a card set you like you go look for Brooks and Palmer in it.

That's it, nothing earth-shattering today. Posting cards, finishing the workday and heading off to watch some college baseball.

Obligatory 2017 Topps Card Post

I got a lot of great stuff at the TriStar show on Saturday. None of it is in this post.

I haven't been in a Target or a Wal Mart to see if the 2017s have arrived out here in the boonies. So I picked up three loose packs at the show. A few packs to start the card season is my modus operandi these days. I'll pick up individual cards for my fantasy baseball binder as the season progresses.

So how did I do and what do I feel? We'll start with the first card out of the first pack. I like it. Nice picture, The Pirates have nice colors. I thought Matt Joyce was the name of the ump who blew the perfect game call at first base a few years ago but Google tells me it was Jim Joyce. What everyone says about the design is true. I've seen better, I've seen worse.

The first pack (amazingly given my track record) yielded my first Orioles card. But my first Oriole isn't even an Oriole. OK, he was one once upon a time but Dewey was retired after one year in Charm City when his 1992 Topps card was new. This is a stamped buyback, correct? My first thought...I hope I get a real Orioles card. I was, very predictably, going to be disappointed. Again.

Let's move on past some cards of just guys that I didn't scan.

Mickey Rooney!! Oh, wait...who the hell is this guy?

Leslie Jordan? The card tells me he's an actor who won an award for a show I never saw. Whatever. Unless I'm throwing out the first pitch, or it's a card of a supermodel wearing shorts I just don't see the point. In Minute Maid Park at Astros games I've seen three 'first pitches' before a game. If someone needs this LMK.

Kris Bryant. I'd go into a long monologue about how much I dislike horizontal base cards like this because I don't use any in my binder but nobody would care and most of you would roll your eyes and figure (correctly) that I'm an old fart that likes griping. Nevermind. It's cool to get a Kris Bryant even though I can't use it in my fantasy binder.

Chris Sale. The design and colors looks pretty good on this one.  My third favorite card of the bunch I got.

Question for the group. This card has a shiny and Butler is sort of 3D-ish. Plus it clearly says Series 1 in the bottom right hand corner. What does all this mean?

For just one nanosecond I got all excited when I got a tiny glimpse of this card coming out of pack #2:

Topps ad card, dammit. I really want a real copy of this. Then again, who doesn't?

The only other card of note in this pack was this one....Bryce Harper 5 Tool insert. You'd think I'd be all over these this year. You'd be wrong. Looks cooler in hand than they did when I first saw these posted. I thought they were too 'busy'. Maybe it's the fact that I have liked Harper since my Nats spring training trip in 2015 but I'm digging this one 5 Tool in  particular.

I really like the design of this special card of Ian Kinsler. Yes, there is wasted space but that's OK. I'm booting my 'Kinsler as a Ranger' card out of my binder for this one. Second favorite card from my packs.

Orioles team card. It's an Orioles card but it doesn't count really.

This is probably my favorite card of the bunch. Carlos Correa a.k.a. Baby Jesus. It goes in the binder, even over his rookie card that is in there now. Weird how this design looks good to me on some cards, lousy on others.

I didn't scan any card backs except the Mickey Rooney card because they've been discussed to death.

There is is, my 2017 Topps post. I'm looking forward to posting some of the vintage I got at the show. And waxing philosophical about how shows have changed over the years.