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.

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.

'17 Archives...One and Done

OK, technically it's Two and Done since I bought a blaster and a single pack but what the heck. Nothing much to say about these that hasn't already been said a thousand times on better blogs so I'll keep it short. The collation in my blaster sucked. Bigly. I got 19 dupes. In a seven pack blaster. That's ridiculous! So any thoughts I might have had about buying more...gone.

The designs are fine. I liked the 1960 design in 1960. And the year they had it in Heritage. This is cool as well.

The orange Rookie Star cards are just as cool as the originals. One of my favorites.

I noticed that the Bregman RS card is on thinner stock than the other faux 1960s. Dunno why.

1960 card backs were awesome. Loved the Season's Highlights.

I got two Jeters. (shrug)

Same Bregman photo shows up in the '59 Bazooka-style cards.

Some sort of new/old design insert thing.

Coins!! I like these.

The '93 design is pretty nice on these. Congrats to Topps for not recycling the same old tired photos of the long ago guys. And stop the presses! I got an Oriole!!

I think Night Owl made the point about them going to the '82 well once too often. Yup. That Whitey Ford tho. He had one of the coolest cards in last year's Stadium Club and of the ones I got in this Archives blaster his is again the best card. Nice of them to do a Pettitte card with him not in a NYY uni.

Those are the highlights of my 2017 Archives venture. Blaster and a pack ran me $26+tax. This is me thinking about this.

A day late and a several dollars short

Everyone and their brother has weighed in on Topps Archive, so I guess I can, too. But you can take my opinion with a grain of salt because I'm among the least experienced/knowledgeable blogger around when it comes to contemporary Topps sets.

I buy Topps cards now the same way I bought cigarettes when I was a smoker twenty five years ago....once in awhile I grab a pack, if I find some 'extra' cash I'll buy a box. And because I like the '57 Topps design, I bought an eight pack box of these at Target.

The first two packs I opened had nothing but retired players in them. It made me wonder if that was all there were in the set. But in the back of my mind I knew that couldn't be the case. These are more or less the cards I liked the most from the box:

I've seen that Jim Palmer shot before, many many times before. Of the rest the Griffey, Clemente and Sutton cards were my favorites.

The Peralta card made me grin....so much face!

Of the contemporary players I got I like the Puig and Cain cards the most. 

I was happy to get a Barack Obama card but it's so different design-wise from everything else in the box it kind of sticks out. I'd trade this for an LBJ, JFK or Teddy Roosevelt card (if they are even on the checklist).

I'm not exactly a fan of Will Ferrell so I'm not sure why I threw him into the scan. Like the presidential cards having a 2015 design in the midst of the throwback designs makes it jump out. I wonder if they considered using the vintage card styles for these inserts. I think that would be cool.

I've read the criticism of the Archives set...thin cardboard and very hard to find short print cards. I can't argue with those. The cards are flimsy feeling but the couple I handful that went into various binder will be just fine in there. As for SPs...I'm not affected since I wouldn't be one who would try to collect the whole set. But I can understand why it would annoy someone that does. Why does Topps make them so hard to get? From the odds I saw one blogger post it would be damn near impossible to finish these by the pack.

I guess nobody can even attempt that anymore. That's too bad because that was so much fun once upon a time.

Thankful for Cards!!!

Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday. I love most everything about it. I mean how can one not love turkey, family, football and maybe a trip to the movies. And I'm thankful for a lot of stuff not the least of which are the friendships I've made since I got into this silly world of blogging.

One such friend, Fuji who's The Chronicles of Fuji is among the best blogs on the net, sent me a totally unexpected manila envelope which arrived yesterday. As I told him last night when you go to the mailbox expecting a shipment of thyroid meds and you get instead a shipment including vintage Orioles and Baltimore Colts cards, well that's a hell of a day.

And it was an fantastic and wide ranging group of cards that emerged rom the package. These were the first things I saw.

These are Topps Archives representing some of the '54 Topps Orioles cards and each of them is autographed! Pretty astounding I'd say. Hard to pick a favorite but I'd say mine is the Bullet Bob Turley card above. The autograph really jumps off the card at you and that posed B & W action shot is classic 50's baseball photography.

Of course all of them have the wonderful Bird On A Ball logo. that has a lot of nostalgic value to me.

Next up, BALTIMORE Colts. That blue colored font is not a tribute to Fuji who loves to highlight his blogs with a rainbow of hues, but it's how I always try to reference the team I grew up worshiping from the one that was stolen in the night plays in Indy.

David Lee punted for the Colts for more than a decade.

It's The Rabbit, Billy Ray Smith on his '68 Topps card. He played for the Colts through the decade of the 70s and was a defensive captain. His son Billy Ray Jr. is a College Football Hall of Famer who played at Arkansas like his father.

Don McCauley is a College Football Hall of Famer who played for North Carolina and went on to become a Colt for the decade of the 70's. He was a starter for just a couple of seasons but stuck around because of his work ethic and willingness to do anything that was aksed of him.

It's David Lee again! Do punters get cards these days? 

The Rustin Rifle, Bert Jones. Here is how old I am... Bert is 62 years old but I actually had him on my first fantasy football team. That was in 1980. 

here is a smaple of the backs of the football cards Fuji sent. I chose these three because they have great cartoons.

Now for some vintage Orioles. All of these cards are in nice shape, btw. These two '61s will replace those I have in my Orioles team set from that season. Kevin at Orioles Card O' The Day just had a post that featured a card with the pitcher Mark Williamson displaying this pose. That was the first thing I thought of when I pulled this Gene Stephens out of the envelope. I hate to sound like an old 'Get off my lawn' grump but those Orioles caps sure look good, don't they? They are among the better ones worn in Baltimore.

Old Blue Eyes, Steve Barber. I saw him beat the Yanks in Yankee Stadium on the first day I ever saw the Orioles play in person.  He won the second game of a doubleheader. Whitey Ford, who by law I believe HAD to pitch every Sunday I went to the Stadium, beat my Orioles in the first game that day.
Roger Maris homered in that game.

Mike Cuellar, what a guy! Posing at the batting cage.  Great card.

Don Baylor, a Texas kid, played as hard as anyone in the game. I even rooted for him after he left the O's. Roric Harrison and the late Johnny Oates.

The eEarl of Baltimore and....

Pat Kelly who's card isn't as off center as my lousy scan makes it appear. I can't see a Pat Kelly reference without remembering the great story Kelly tells of the time he, a 'born again' carouser turned clubhouse evangelist, tried to 'save' Earl.

Kelly told him  "Earl, it's great to walk with the Lord, it's great to walk with Jesus." To which Weaver responded "Pat, I'd rather have you walk with the bases loaded."

A 1970 Bobby Floyd. He didn't hit enough to justify that batting glove. And I just noticed that his bat looks brand new and un-scarred. I bet it still looked just like that at the end of the season.

Ken Singleton. He was 'class' personified. A damn good hitter, too.

Here are a pair of shiny Albert Belle cards. This Topps subset sort of card has Hank Aaron featured more prominently than Belle.

This is one of those cards with a protective film. I wasn't collecting when this tecnique was first used by Topps and I never have figured out if it's better to take the film off or not. I'm going to pull this one because the card should shine more without it, Plus, it's pretty annoying.

Two card from this year. A mini Adam Jones flashing his Gold Glove skills and...

Chris Davis. he's a fun guy to watch when he's in a groove. This reddish border davis scans better than the regular white border new Topps I have. Topps likes these garish borders don't they? 

That's not nearly all of what my Thanksgiving gift from San Jose contained. But that's all I have time to do tonite.

I hope everyone gets to spend some family time today and do the kinds of things you enjoy on Thanksgiving.