Gifts from '88 Topps Cards

These cards have been sitting in front of me for a while now, taunting me because I haven't gotten around to posting them. I got them from Andrew, who writes for the Baseball-Reference.com Stat of the Day blog, and has his own blog featuring the 1988 Topps set. He's had a few contests on the 88 Topps blog and I've gotten a few cards from Andy when he was in a generous mood as well.

First up, we have a pile of 1988 O-Pee-Chee, Andy got a set of these and started doling them out to his readers. I got a little pile of them including these two :

It was nice to get a Greg Maddux card I didn't already have, And I didn't know the Derek Bell existed. Derek was a nice player for a while, but he kinda fell of the face of the earth a few years ago. Cards with him in a Pirates uniform still make me sad. I got a bunch of 88-O-Pee Chee packs cheap a while back but I was still missign a ton of the set. Andy Hooked me up with a few I needed including:

Cecil Fielder
Joe Niekro
Wally Joyner
Claudell Washington
Rafael Ramirez
Billy Ripken
Steve Bedrosian
Doyle Alexander
Pascual Perez
Rick Mahler
Julio Franco
Terry Steinbach
Jimy Williams

Along with the 88s, Andy included a handful of Bowman Draft.

a sweet Terry Steinbach rookie and the best of all, a 1974 George Scott card.

Nice big cut by the Milwaukee slugger. Once I'm done with my 500 other projects I really need to pick a set from the 70's and just flat out complete it. The '74 set is a nice one, especially since it has the Hank Aaron love affair cards. Nice haul eh?, but wait there's more...

Andy picked up a 2003 Fan Favorites set to showcase the 1988 cards and he offered me a few to finish my set. He had two of the three I needed (down to a lone George Brett card) but he also included a couple of '85 Braves cards as well:

A Murph All- Star card and a Bob Horner. Very nice. The two Fan Favorites I needed was eventual Hall of Famer Jim Rice and this beauty:

Monte Irvin! Monte was one of the first vintage cards I ever got (a 1953 Topps card) and is a favorite of mine. What's even better is this is the 'no sig' variation from the set. Topps printed up a card with the facsimile signature and one without. I'm not sure if it was on purpose or a mistake but neither is any more scarce than the other. I just could never find the silly thing which was irksome since I had passed it up at one point without realizing I needed it.

Thanks again Andy, and I hope you get those Chien-Ming Wang cards signed! Show 'em off if you do!