Card Of the Week 6/30/08

Ok, you know the drill. Too busy, no time, here's card, text later. This post officially kicks off 2001 UD Legends week month on the Junkie. Check out that awesome stripe. Anyone know why the stripe is significant? You'll find out soon.


In the meantime, Since Bay Rat inexplicably asked for it in this post:

Shatner.

SINGS



Ah, I have smart readers. Somebody guessed. We have a "game used jersey" card of Hank Aaron with a Braves uniform that he never wore during his playing days. Here's Hank's Dressed to the Nines uniform page. Try to find a uni with red pinstripes in there. The Braves had blue pinstripes from 68-71, but the red ones weren't worn until 1976. Hank was wearing this uniform in '76 though. A quick recap:

Hank wearing the Blue Pinstripes

Larry McWilliams showing off the horrific red striped unis

Red Stripe on the jersey card

So Hank was retired by the time these uniforms were used by the Braves. Hank has been part of the Atlanta Braves' organization since forever, maybe he was wearing the uniform as a coach? According to MLB.com, he was never a coach for the Braves. But Tommie Aaron was... Oh dear lord, did I way overpay for a Tommie Aaron jersey card? If I did, so did everyone else who bought a 2001 Legends jersey of Aaron 'cause they all have the stripe.

So I overpaid for the card, had to hound the seller for almost a week to get him to send me an invoice before I finally get fed up and paid with (blech) PayPal, once it arrived it showed up in a penny sleeve with wrinkles around the swatch, and the swatch may be from a Tommie Aaron or Rowland Office or Adrian Devine jersey to boot. But it's HANK. And besides, it says "Hank Aaron game-used jersey right on the back. It's got Richard P. McWilliam's signature and everything. Upper Deck would never lie to me would they? O God... I better watch more Shatner to get my mind off this.

One Big Jawn Deserves Another

Inspired by this beaut over at Dinged Corners, I dug out the '53 Topps binder to show off my beat up Big Cat.

The pride of Demorest, GA, Johnny manned a solid first base for the Cardinals, Giants and Yankees. An all around slugger, he led the league in batting average, homers and RBIs at various times thoughout his career, had a career .312 batting average and .397 on base percentage. He hit 359 homers in a career that lost three years due to WWII. He was elected to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 1981 in one of many examples that the sportswriters have no clue what they're doing. Big Jawn is so good that Topps and Upper Deck are fighting like hell over the right to have his picture on their cards.


The card is double printed, beat up like Rocky at the end of the first movie, and I had to use color restoration to show off the pretty clouds because it's kinda dingy, but it's still one of the best cards in the 1953 set.

eTopps is very generous

Ever since I lost my mind and tried (unsuccessfully) to buy an eTopps card a while back, Topps has been spamming me with their latest 'IPO' each week. I never bothered to unsubscribe or block the e-mails partly because I'm lazy and partly because I had it in the back of my head to snap up a Brave next time one came around. Well they finally offered a Brave this week:


Woohoo, Brandon Jones. I guess they waited until he got called up due to Kotsay and Diaz hitting the DL to release this card. It's numbered to 499, costs $7.50 just for the honor of paying Topps to hold the thing, and I probably won't get it anyway because all the high roller dealers will snap them up. I'm so sad. I'll never get a Brandon Jones card that exists only online. Oh wait, I do have a Brandon Jones card that exists only online! It's right here in this post! And I didn't have to pay for it or nothin! Thanks Topps, this eTopps thing is great, keep sending the e-mails!


Hey look, now I have two of them! Anyone want to trade? Nobody right click -> save or anything, that would be cheating...

2008 Yankee Stadium Legacy checklist

Ok, I know. Mirror sets are worst thing ever and make baby kittens cry. If you don't like 'em, skip the post. I like cards of retired players, so I don't mind having UD's products infested with these things. When this set was first reported, I wondered if this set would be SuperStar City or if we'd see some working class players in there. Of course the set came out and I forgot all about my curiosity because I was all agog over Topps. Then Wax Heaven posted a photo of the whole shebang being dispayed in some cool plastic cabinet thing and my interest was piqued again. I know the idea of collecting a massive 6,661 card set seems ridiculous, but for OCD hardcore collectors who like this stuff but don't have several thousand bucks to try to get them all there are at least three other ways of collecting it:

1) collect every card of a single player
2) collect one of each player in the set
3) since the set is divided up into decades, collect a 'team set' for each decade.

This isn't even counting all the bizarre ways to collect, such as buying each card for the game played on your birthday, collecting only cards where the Yanks were playing your favorite team or only collecting the games the Yankees lost (sure to be a favorite of Red Sox fans). I was kind of interested in option 2 above so in order to find out who exactly is in this set I had to look over the checklist. So I went to Upper Deck's website, found the Yankee Stadium Legacy page and looked up the checklist.

That's when the problems started.

First of all, in order to view the checklist you have to register with My Upper Deck. Not a huge deal for me because I've redeemed a bunch of cards online there before. I log in and go to the checklist page. Here's what you'll find there:

A 6,661 card set is viewable only on pages of 20 cards each. You can also only view the cards by each decade. When you finish going through the cards in one decade and change to the next one, you stay on the same page number for some reason. For example, the last page of the 20's is page 24. You change to the 30's and you're suddenly on page 24 of the 30's checklist. This wouldn't be that bad if there was a button you could click on to go back to the first page, but there isn't. Three or four clicks later you get to page one and you get to click 40 more times or so to get through the cards in each decade. I was also randomly logged out a couple of times during the process for some reason. Let's just say it's not a very user friendly design.

Every so often I'll get a bug up my rear, decide I have to get some obscure checklist and waste several hours looking through my book and searching on the internet to find what I'm looking for. This was one of those times. So, after clicking several hundred times and typing out the checklist by hand, I figure I may as well share this info with my fellow collectors who might be interested in this stuff. There's probably one or two of you out there. Those two just got the checklist off of Beckett months ago, but that's a cold corporate propaganda checklist and this is a labor of love. Before you think I've gone completely mad, let me assure you that I did all this while listening to How to Be Hip by Del Close and this fantastic interview of Jean Shepherd so it was actually a very relaxing and enjoyable task. I like, just got hung up on this checklist, man. Dig?

With no further adieu, here's the entire checklist as painstakingly culled from Upper Deck's website. editorial notes (and this checklist needs 'em) will be in italics.

1920-1930
Babe Ruth 1-25 For the most part the cards are in player groups of 25.
Wally Pipp 26-50
Waite Hoyt 51-75
Wally Pipp 76-100 Often in different groups of 25 there is a different photo.
Bob Meusel 101-125
Herb Pennock 126-150
Earle Combs 151-175
Lou Gehrig 176-200 These cards were not listed on the checklist at all.
Waite Hoyt 201-225
Babe Ruth 226-250
Urban Shocker 251-275
Lou Gehrig 276-300 Again, not on UD's checklist. Probably a reaction to the lawsuit.
Tony Lazzeri 301-325
Bob Meusel 326-350
Earle Combs 351-375
Urban Shocker 376-400
George Pipgras 401-425
Herb Pennock 426-450
Tony Lazzeri 451-475
Babe Ruth 476-500
George Pipgras 501-525

1930 - 1940
Lou Gehrig 526-550 Not on the checklist.
Babe Ruth 551-575
Lou Gehrig 576-600 Not on the checklist.
Tony Lazzeri 601-625
Bill Dickey 626-650
Lefty Gomez 651-675
Red Ruffing 676-700
Babe Ruth 701-725
Joe McCarthy 726-750
Bill Dickey 751-775
Babe Ruth 776-800
Lefty Gomez 801-825
Red Ruffing 826-850
Tony Lazzeri 851-875
Frankie Crosetti 876-900
Babe Ruth 901-925
Joe McCarthy 926-950
Red Rolfe 951-975
Lou Gehrig 976-1000 Not on the checklist.
Frankie Crosetti 1001-1025
Joe DiMaggio 1026-1050
Red Rolfe 1051-1075
Tony Lazzeri 1076-1100
Bill Dickey 1101-1125
Lefty Gomez 1126-1150
Joe Dimaggio 1151-1175
Red Ruffing 1176-1200
Joe McCarthy 1201-1225
Lou Gehrig 1226-1250 Not on the checklist.
Frankie Crosetti 1251-1275
Red Rolfe 1276-1300
Joe DiMaggio 1301-1325
Red Ruffing 1326-1329 Upper Deck broke the strict 25 cards per group rule here.

1940 - 1950
Joe Gordon 1330-1354 The 25 card groupings start on weird numbers from now on.
Tommy Heinrich 1355-1379
Spud Chandler 1380-1404
Phil Rizzuto 1405-1429
Joe DiMaggio 1430-1454
Tommy Heinrich 1455-1479
Phil Rizzuto 1480-1504
Joe DiMaggio 1505-1529
Charlie Keller 1530-1554
Joe Gordon 1555-1579
Spud Chandler 1580-1604
Joe Gordon 1605-1629
Spud Chandler 1630-1654
Joe DiMaggio 1655-1679
New York Yankees 1680-1729 The generic Yankees cards commemorate WWII.
Charlie Keller 1730-1754
New York Yankees 1755-1779
Charlie Keller 1780-1804
Tommy Heinrich 1805-1829
Phil Rizzuto 1830-1854
Yogi Berra 1855-1879
Allie Reynolds 1880-1904
Vic Raschi 1905-1929
Yogi Berra 1930-1954
Allie Reynolds 1955-1979
Yogi Berra 1980-2004
Vic Raschi 2005-2029
Allie Reynolds 2030-2054
Phil Rizzuto 2055-2079
Vic Raschi 2080-2104
Yogi Berra 2105-2114 Yogi's group gets chopped, tsk, tsk.

1950 - 1960
Joe DiMaggio 2115-2139
Johnny Mize 2140-2164 This group of Johnny Mize was purged from the checklist.
Joe DiMaggio 2165-2189
Allie Reynolds 2190-2214
Joe DiMaggio 2215-2239
Johnny Mize 2240-2264 This and all subsequent Mize groups were not.
Phil Rizzuto 2265-2289
Yogi Berra 2290-2314
Billy Martin 2315-2339
Johnny Mize 2340-2364
Allie Reynolds 2365-2389
Phil Rizzuto 2390-2414
Allie Reynolds 2415-2439
Billy Martin 2440-2464
Phil Rizzuto 2465-2489
Yogi Berra 2490-2514
Hank Bauer 2515-2539
Billy Martin 2540-2564
Gil McDougald 2565-2589
Whitey Ford 2590-2614
Don Larsen 2615-2639
Hank Bauer 2640-2664
Don Larsen 2665-2689
Whitey Ford 2690-2714
Gil McDougald 2715-2739
Yogi Berra 2740-2764
Hank Bauer 2765-2789
Don Larsen 2790-2814
Gil McDougald 2815-2839
Whitey Ford 2840-2864
Gil McDougald 2865-2889
Whitey Ford 2890-2912

1960 - 1970
Moose Skowron 2913-2937
Yogi Berra 2938-2962
Tony Kubek 2963-2987
Yogi Berra 2988-3012
Moose Skowron 3013-3037
Elston Howard 3038-3062
Roger Maris 3063-3087
Moose Skowron 3088-3112
Whitey Ford 3113-3137
Yogi Berra 3138-3162
Clete Boyer 3163-3187
Bobby Richardson 3188-3212
Elston Howard 3213-3237
Roger Maris 3238-3262
Tony Kubek 3263-3287
Whitey Ford 3288-3312
Tony Kubek 3313-3337
Clete Boyer 3338-3362
Bobby Richardson 3363-3387
Roger Maris 3388-3412
Bobby Richardson 3413-3437
Clete Boyer 3438-3462
Roger Maris 3463-3487
Whitey Ford 3488-3512
Elston Howard 3513-3537
Joe Pepitone 3538-3662 Joe Pepitone gets 125 straight cards here for some reason.
Bobby Murcer 3663-3733

1970 -1980
Roy White 3734-3758
Thurman Munson 3759-3783 Thurman Munson is also a player in the Topps lawsuit.
Roy White 3784-3808
Thurman Munson 3809-3833 All Munson cards were in the UD checklist.
Roy White 3834-3858
Thurman Munson 3859-3883
Sparky Lyle 3884-3958
Graig Nettles 3959-4033
Chris Chambliss 4034-4058 I'm happy to see Chris made the set.
Billy Martin 4059-4083
Chris Chambliss 4084-4108
Billy Martin 4109-4133
Reggie Jackson 4134-4158
Ron Guidry 4159-4183
Bucky Dent 4184-4208
Reggie Jackson 4209-4233
Goose Gossage 4234-4258
Ron Guidry 4259-4283
Bucky Dent 4284-4308
Reggie Jackson 4309-4333
Goose Gossage 4334-4358
Ron Guidry 4359-4383
Goose Gossage 4384-4391

1980 - 1990
Reggie Jackson 4392-4416
Lou Piniella 4417-4441
Reggie Jackson 4442-4466
Rick Cerone 4467-4491 Rick Cerone?? We're in the 80's folks...
Reggie Jackson 4492-4516
Tommy John 4517-4541
Dave Winfield 4542-4566
Rick Cerone 4567-4591
Dave Righetti 4592-4616
Lou Piniella 4617-4641
Don Mattingly 4642 Don has a single card right here, but I can't find it online to confirm.
Don Baylor 4643-4666
Rick Cerone 4667-4691
Lou Piniella 4692-4716
Don Baylor 4717-4741
Willie Randolph 4742-4766
Ron Guidry 4767-4791
Don Baylor 4792-4816
Don Mattingly 4817-4841
Ron Guidry 4842-4866
Dave Righetti 4867-4891
Willie Randolph 4892-4916
Ron Guidry 4917-4941
Dave Winfield 4942-4966
Willie Randolph 4967-4991
Dave Winfield 4992-5016
Tommy John 5017-5041
Don Mattingly 5042-5066
Dave Winfield 5067-5091
Tommy John 5092-5116
Don Mattingly 5117-5141
Dave Righetti 5142-5166
Don Mattingly 5167-5177

1990-2000
Don Mattingly 5178-5202
Kevin Maas 5203-5227
Jim Leyritz 5228-5252
Kevin Maas 5253-5277
Jim Leyritz 5278-5302
Bernie Williams 5303-5327
Kevin Maas 5328-5352
Don Mattingly 5353-5377
Jim Leyritz 5378-5402
Bernie Williams 5403-5427
Wade Boggs 5428-5452
Don Mattingly 5453-5477
Wade Boggs 5478-5502
Bernie williams 5503-5527
Wade Boggs 5528-5552
Don Mattingly 5553-5577
John Wetteland 5578-5652
Derek Jeter 5653-5677
Joe Torre 5678-5702
Tino Martinez 5703-5727
Derek Jeter 5728-5752
David Wells 5753-5777
Joe Torre 5778-5802
David Wells 5803-5827
Tino Martinez 5858-5852
David Wells 5853-5877
Derek Jeter 5878-5902
Joe Torre 5903-5927
Tino Martinez 5928-5952
Derek Jeter 5953-5976

2000 - 2010
Derek Jeter 5977-6002
Paul O'Neill 6003-6027
Tino Martinez 6028-6052
Derek Jeter 6053-6077
Tino Martinez 6078-6102
Paul O'Neill 6103-6152
Andy Pettitte 6153-6177
Roger Clemens 6178-6202 Ha ha, Rick Cerone has more cards than Roger Clemens.
Andy Pettitte 6203-6227
Roger Clemens 6228-6277
Andy Pettitte 6278-6302
Mariano Rivera 6303-6327
Hideki Matsui 6328-6352
Jorge Posada 6353-6377
Alex Rodriguez 6378-6402
Hideki Matsui 6403-6427
Randy Johnson 6428-6452
Alex Rodriguez 6453-6477
Randy Johnson 6478-6502
Mariano Rivera 6503-6527
Jorge Posada 6528-6552
Derek Jeter 6553-6562
Erasmo Ramirez 6563 Erasmo isn't even a Yankee... Card should be Jeter.
Derek Jeter 6564-6577
Mariano Rivera 6578-6602
Alex Rodriguez 6603-6627
Hideki Matsui 6628-6652
Jorge Posada 6653-6661

That's all of the regular cards, here's the relics, autographs and whatnot.

Relic Cards
YSM-AP Andy Pettitte
YSM-BD Bill Dickey
YSM-BM Billy Martin
YSM-BR Babe Ruth
YSM-CL Roger Clemens
YSM-CS Casey Stengel Why did Casey not get a base card?
YSM-CW Chien-Ming Wang
YSM-DE Bucky Dent
YSM-DJ Derek Jeter
YSM-DM Don Mattingly
YSM-DW Dave Winfield
YSM-EH Elston Howard
YSM-FC Frankie Crosetti
YSM-GG Goose Gossage
YSM-GM Gil McDougald
YSM-GN Graig Nettles
YSM-GS Gary Sheffield
YSM-JA Reggie Jackson
YSM-JC Joba Chamberlain
YSM-JD Joe DiMaggio
YSM-JG Jason Giambi
YSM-JP Joe Pepitone
YSM-LG Lou Gehrig
YSM-LP Lou Piniella
YSM-MC Melky Cabrera
YSM-MM Mike Mussina
YSM-MU Bobby Murcer
YSM-ON Paul O'Neill
YSM-PN Phil Niekro Aw crap. Gotta chase this now.
YSM-PO Jorge Posada
YSM-RC Robinson Cano
YSM-RE Allie Reynolds
YSM-RG Ron Guidry
YSM-RJ Randy Johnson
YSM-RM Roger Maris
YSM-SL Sparky Lyle
YSM-TH Tommy Henrich
YSM-TM Thurman Munson
YSM-WB Wade Boggs
YSM-WF Whitey Ford
YSM-WR Willie Randolph
YSM-YB Yogi Berra

But wait there's more... Here are all the 'special event' cards.

Special Events
473HM Knute Rockne
1288HM Joe DiMaggio
2835HM Johnny Unitas
2946HM Whitey Ford
3407HM Pope Paul VI Finally a real Pope card.
4131HM Muhammad Ali
4181HM Reggie Jackson

Ok, there's the checklist. But I'm not done yet... I said I wanted a list of each player in the set. So here is the checklist broken down for people who would like to collect it in those three options I listed above: 1) player collecting 2) one from each player and 3) decade teams.

1) Individual players in the Yankee Stadium Legacy set and their card numbers:
Alex Rodriguez 6378-6402, 6453-6477, 6603-6627
Allie Reynolds 1880-1904, 1955-1979, 2030-2054, 2190-2214, 2365-2389, 2415-2439
Andy Pettitte 6153-6177, 6203-6227, 6278-6302
Babe Ruth 1-25, 226-250, 476-500, 551-575, 701-725, 776-800, 901-925
Bernie Williams 5303-5327, 5403-5427, 5503-5527
Bill Dickey 626-650, 751-775, 1101-1125
Billy Martin 2315-2339, 2440-2464, 2540-2564, 4059-4083, 4109-4133
Bob Meusel 101-125, 326-350
Bobby Murcer 3663-3733
Bobby Richardson 3188-3212, 3363-3387, 3413-3437,
Bucky Dent 4184-4208, 4284-4308
Charlie Keller 1530-1554, 1730-1754, 1780-1804
Chris Chambliss 4034-4058, 4084-4108
Clete Boyer 3163-3187, 3338-3362, 3438-3462
Dave Righetti 4592-4616, 4867-4891, 5142-5166
Dave Winfield 4542-4566, 4942-4966, 4992-5016, 5067-5091
David Wells 5753-5777, 5803-5827, 5853-5877
Derek Jeter 5653-5677, 5728-5752, 5878-5902, 5953-5976, 5977-6002, 6053-6077, 6553-6562, 6564-6577
Don Baylor 4643-4666, 4717-4741, 4792-4816
Don Larsen 2615-2639, 2665-2689, 2790-2814
Don Mattingly 4642, 4817-4841, 5042-5066, 5117-5141, 5167-5177, 5178-5202, 5353-5377, 5453-5477, 5553-5577
Earle Combs 151-175, 351-375
Elston Howard 3038-3062, 3213-3237, 3513-3537
Frankie Crosetti 876-900, 1001-1025, 1251-1275
George Pipgras 401-425, 501-525
Gil McDougald 2565-2589, 2715-2739, 2815-2839, 2865-2889
Goose Gossage 4234-4258, 4334-4358, 4384-4391
Graig Nettles 3959-4033
Hank Bauer 2515-2539, 2640-2664, 2765-2789
Herb Pennock 126-150, 426-450
Hideki Matsui 6328-6352, 6403-6427, 6628-6652
Jim Leyritz 5228-5252, 5278-5302, 5378-5402
Joe DiMaggio 1026-1050, 1151-1175, 1301-1325, 1430-1454, 1505-1529, 1655-1679, 2115-2139, 2165-2189, 2215-2239
Joe Gordon 1330-1354, 1555-1579, 1605-1629
Joe McCarthy 726-750, 926-950, 1201-1225
Joe Pepitone 3538-3662
Joe Torre 5678-5702, 5778-5802, 5903-5927
John Wetteland 5578-5652
Johnny Mize 2140-2164, 2240-2264, 2340-2364
Jorge Posada 6353-6377, 6528-6552, 6653-6661
Kevin Maas 5203-5227, 5253-5277, 5328-5352
Lefty Gomez 651-675, 801-825, 1126-1150
Lou Gehrig 176-200, 276-300, 526-550, 576-600, 976-1000, 1226-1250
Lou Piniella 4417-4441, 4617-4641, 4692-4716
Mariano Rivera 6303-6327, 6578-6602, 6503-6527
Moose Skowron 2913-2937, 3013-3037, 3088-3112
New York Yankees 1680-1729, 1755-1779
Paul O'Neill 6003-6027, 6103-6152
Phil Rizzuto 1405-1429, 1480-1504, 1830-1854, 2055-2079, 2265-2289, 2390-2414, 2465-2489
Randy Johnson 6428-6452, 6478-6502
Red Rolfe 951-975, 1051-1075, 1276-1300
Red Ruffing 676-700, 826-850, 1176-1200, 1326-1329
Reggie Jackson 4134-4158, 4209-4233, 4309-4333, 4392-4416, 4442-4466, 4492-4516
Rick Cerone 4467-4491, 4567-4591, 4667-4691
Roger Clemens 6178-6202, 6228-6277
Roger Maris 3063-3087, 3238-3262, 3388-3412, 3463-3487
Ron Guidry 4159-4183, 4259-4283, 4359-4383, 4767-4791, 4842-4866, 4917-4941
Roy White 3734-3758, 3784-3808, 3834-3858
Sparky Lyle 3884-3958
Spud Chandler 1380-1404, 1580-1604, 1630-1654
Thurman Munson 3759-3783, 3809-3833, 3859-3883
Tino Martinez 5703-5727, 5858-5852, 5928-5952, 6028-6052, 6078-6102
Tommy Heinrich 1355-1379, 1455-1479, 1805-1829
Tommy John 4517-4541, 5017-5041, 5092-5116
Tony Kubek 2963-2987, 3263-3287, 3313-3337
Tony Lazzeri 301-325, 451-475, 601-625 , 851-875, 1076-1100
Urban Shocker 251-275, 376-400
Vic Raschi 1905-1929, 2005-2029, 2080-2104
Wade Boggs 5428-5452, 5478-5502, 5528-5552
Waite Hoyt 51-75, 201-225
Wally Pipp 26-50, 76-100
Whitey Ford 2590-2614, 2690-2714, 2840-2864, 2890-2912, 3113-3137, 3288-3312, 3488-3512
Willie Randolph 4742-4766, 4892-4916, 4967-4991
Yogi Berra 1855-1879, 1930-1954, 1980-2004, 2105-2114, 2290-2314, 2490-2514, 2740-2764, 2938-2962, 2988-3012, 3138-3162

2) Each player in the Yankee Stadium Legacy set:
New York Yankees
Don Baylor
Hank Bauer
Yogi Berra
Wade Boggs
Clete Boyer
Rick Cerone
Chris Chambliss
Spud Chandler
Roger Clemens
Earle Combs
Frankie Crosetti
Bucky Dent
Bill Dickey
Joe DiMaggio
Whitey Ford
Lou Gehrig
Lefty Gomez
Joe Gordon
Goose Gossage
Ron Guidry
Tommy Heinrich
Elston Howard
Waite Hoyt
Reggie Jackson
Derek Jeter
Tommy John
Randy Johnson
Charlie Keller
Tony Kubek
Don Larsen
Tony Lazzeri
Jim Leyritz
Sparky Lyle
Kevin Maas
Roger Maris
Billy Martin
Tino Martinez
Hideki Matsui
Don Mattingly
Joe McCarthy
Gil McDougald
Bob Meusel
Johnny Mize
Thurman Munson
Bobby Murcer
Graig Nettles
Paul O'Neill
Herb Pennock
Joe Pepitone
Andy Pettitte
George Pipgras
Lou Piniella
Wally Pipp
Jorge Posada
Willie Randolph
Vic Raschi
Allie Reynolds
Bobby Richardson
Dave Righetti
Mariano Rivera
Phil Rizzuto
Alex Rodriguez
Red Rolfe
Red Ruffing
Babe Ruth
Urban Shocker
Moose Skowron
Joe Torre
David Wells
John Wetteland
Roy White
Bernie Williams
Dave Winfield

Relic only cards:
Melky Cabrera
Robinson Cano
Joba Chamberlain
Jason Giambi
Mike Mussina
Phil Niekro
Gary Sheffield
Casey Stengel
Chien-Ming Wang

3) All-Decade teams from the Yankee Stadium Legacy set:

1920's
Earle Combs
Lou Gehrig
Waite Hoyt
Tony Lazzeri
Bob Meusel
Herb Pennock
George Pipgras
Wally Pipp
Babe Ruth
Urban Shocker

1930's
Frankie Crosetti
Bill Dickey
Joe DiMaggio
Lou Gehrig
Lefty Gomez
Tony Lazzeri
Joe McCarthy
Red Rolfe
Red Ruffing
Babe Ruth

1940's
New York Yankees
Yogi Berra
Spud Chandler
Joe DiMaggio
Joe Gordon
Tommy Heinrich
Charlie Keller
Vic Raschi
Allie Reynolds
Phil Rizzuto

1950's
Hank Bauer
Yogi Berra
Joe DiMaggio
Whitey Ford
Don Larsen
Billy Martin
Gil McDougald
Johnny Mize
Allie Reynolds
Phil Rizzuto

1960's
Yogi Berra
Clete Boyer
Whitey Ford
Elston Howard
Tony Kubek
Roger Maris
Bobby Murcer
Joe Pepitone
Bobby Richardson
Moose Skowron

1970's
Chris Chambliss
Bucky Dent
Goose Gossage
Ron Guidry
Reggie Jackson
Sparky Lyle
Billy Martin
Thurman Munson
Graig Nettles
Roy White

1980's
Don Baylor
Rick Cerone
Ron Guidry
Reggie Jackson
Tommy John
Don Mattingly
Lou Piniella
Willie Randolph
Dave Righetti
Dave Winfield

1990's
Wade Boggs
Derek Jeter
Jim Leyritz
Kevin Maas
Tino Martinez
Don Mattingly
Joe Torre
David Wells
John Wetteland
Bernie Williams

2000's
Roger Clemens
Derek Jeter
Randy Johnson
Tino Martinez
Hideki Matsui
Paul O'Neill
Andy Pettitte
Jorge Posada
Mariano Rivera
Alex Rodriguez

So now the fearsome six thousand card set has been trimmed down to 74 if you want just one card of each player. Or you can go for all 235 Yogi cards, or even cut the thing down to 10 cards if you want to focus on just one decade team. Not too difficult a chore. Most people couldn't care less about this set, but for those who do there are reasonable collecting options.

Well this guy, he's just a dork

Oh. My. GOD.

Funniest video ever. Look at him watching MXC and showing off his "PC". What a tool. Talking about box breaks and and pulling 1/1"Masterpiece cards" and talking about "book value". What a Beckett subscriber. I wonder if his parents know he broke the video camera filming this. Albert Pujols numbered to 500? Come on, no one wants that old junk anymore. And did you see him wiggling the A-Rod card to show off the 3-D lenticular effect? What a maroon. The funniest bit was when he showed off his game jersey and bat cards. Ha! I have some game jersey cards and bat cards that I pulled out of packs I searched at Target to sell him! They're not worth anything anymore anyway. The guy thinks he's some kind of "expert" on baseball cards or something. What a Joe Collector.

Sticky Sunday - Bleary eyed edition

Oh dear Lord, what the heck am I doing up at 5am blogging about stickers?? Buzzing pagers are a real pain in the keister. We're back to Fleer stickers finally after weeks of strangeness and holograms. This is one I got from FleerFan. This was the first Fleer sticker I ever saw with a blank back. All the others had stats or puzzles or cartoons or something on them. I didn't know what year this sticker was from until FleerFan explained it in this post. Blank backs are from the 1977 High-Gloss Sticker set, the first non-cloth sticker set in a while for Fleer.

This is the cap logo sticker. There's a second style sticker featuring the screaming Brave logo, but I can't find it right now so we'll stick with the cap logo for now. This is two stickers in one, you've got the Braves script logo and the cap logo A. This logo always seemed strange to me. I started following the Braves in '81 which is right when they switched over to the script A on the caps. Those uniforms always seemed to feel right to me, while the '70s style lower case A unis with the weird red pinstripes just seemed odd and creepy. Of course the '70's in general felt odd and creepy to me most of the time. The script Braves logo doesn't feel right either. The logo on the sticker is the version used with the screaming Brave full logo, just without the Brave. Check here to compare and see what I'm talking about. This logo screams '70s and I'm just an '80s kind of guy.

Thankfully the Braves have stayed pretty close to that '80's logo all these years. They ditched the Brave and added a tomahawk but it's essentially still the same. Having watched my Hawks do the logo and uniform switch every other year since the glory of the old Pac-Man Hawks logo I can honestly say that I much prefer when a team stays one logo and uniform design. If it ain't broke don't fix it. I couldn't imagine being an Arizona fan and having 5 Diamondbacks t-shirts all with different logos on them. If it ain't broke don't fix it. Then again if I were born five years earlier I'd be pining for the old red striped unis with the lower case a just like this card. Seriously though, red pinstripes?? What were they thinking? It's stuff like that that keeps me awake at night.

Praise Him With Great Praise

This kid really loves his cards.



Good for him.

Thoughts on tonight's game

I sort of half listened to most of tonight's game against the Blue Jays on the radio. When I finally finished with all the other crap I was doing I settled in to watch the last couple of innings on TV and saw everyone dressed up like this:


This frightened and confused me as I thought a time vortex had somehow swooped me back to 1981 or something. I'm not a real big American league guy and I haven't seen a single game with the Jays this year before now. I finally remembered about the Jays going with the old school alternate jerseys this year but it was still a little unsettling. The Jays played in their alternates about the same way we're playing in our new navy blue road jerseys. Lousy. Shut out over 8 innings by Jair Jurrjens.

Speaking of Jair: Edgar who? 8-3 with an ERA in the twos. I'm loving that trade now.

One last thing. Brent Lillibridge is twelve years old. So what if he got a double tonight. He's 12. Even if his driver's license says he was born in 1983 I still say he is 12. I don't care if I get notarized documents from his mother, the pope and the guy who fact checks the personal info on the back of his baseball cards swearing he is actually 24, I watched that game tonight and that was a 12 year old in that uniform. A twelve year old who is damn good at playing baseball, but you can't tell me he's older than 12. Brent is the youngest looking player I have ever seen. I am including little league. He and Gonzo played well tonight though, so add the LaRoche trade to the Renteria trade as good ones for the Bravos so far.


The Braves are still not back to .500 yet, but at least they're not completely out of contention. Now if the Rangers can just hold on against the Phillies, we can inch a little closer to first place. Still behind the Mets and the Marlins though. At least the stinky Nationals are keeping us out of the cellar.

Friday Afternoon Cartoon Contest

I found this cartoon on the back of a card today and I wanted to share. The look on the moose's face freakin' kills me.


Here's the contest: Answer these three questions:

1) What is the answer to the cartoon's question: What is known as the "bushes"?
2) What set is the card with this cartoon from?
3) What player is on the front of this card?

Send your guesses to dayf13 at gmail. Winner gets a 2008 Kosuke Fukudome Upper Deck rookie.

#3 is going to be tough, so here's some hints, 88Topps blog style:




I want to send out the winner's package tomorrow or Monday. If no one gets all three correct, I'll take the closest answer. If no answer is close I'll give it to the most imaginative answer so guess away!

UPDATE - Reader Don was first in with the answers! more details shortly...

Answers to the question:

1) The Minor Leagues
2) 1955 Topps
3) Rudy Minarcin

Don wins this here Kosuke Fukudome rookie card, which is not available in 2008 Topps, but is apparently triple printed in Upper Deck as I've pulled four of the buggers already.

Scott over at Hand Collated wins a runner up prize of some sort for coming in just after Don with the three correct answers. My evil trickery of cutting short the M worked, muahaha! More contests up soon, so hit that RSS feed button and keep watching.

Chipper List Goodness

Readers head my pleas and supplied me with some good info for finding a list of Chipper cards.

Capewood gave me the 411 on setting up an account at Beckett.com and getting the list from the My Collections page.

Reader Maximillian also hooked me up with a Beckett list.

Roger (who had helped out this and opther blogs many times) pointed me to this link to the Sports Card Source which has a nice huge list (38 pages!!!) but which seems to be missing a lot of the crazy parallels which I didn't want to deal with anyway.

I even got an offer to increase my Chipper collection from reader cpfiles. Thanks for all the help out there, if I go nuts and try to get all 8,109 cards listed on Beckett you'll be the first to know!

Some Late '90s Gold

One of the things I'm working on right now is a complete reorg of my Chipper Jones collection. Get 'em all in one place, sort through and pick out the doubles, organize by year and company, get the good ones in top loaders and eventually get a list of what I have and don't have. I'm kind of intrigued to see exactly how many different Chippers I have. If anyone knows where I can get a find a list of the Chippers that have been printed without buying a Beckett Alphabetical Checklist for just one player, let me know. I have a checklist from the late 90's and Chipper already takes up two pages in that book. I'll bet he has a novel's worth of cards listed by now.

The latest bit of organizing involved pulling Chipper's pages from a binder of Braves cards I put together in the late 90's. I kind of hated to mess up a snapshot of my collecting from 10 years ago, but I don't want to do this halfway and need the pages for my next organization project. While sifting through a bunch of late '90s cards I felt the urge to pull the most gaudy, ridiculous and obnoxious inserts from the bunch. Here's a 9 pocket page full of the best for your viewing pleasure. Just click to enlarge:

In order from top left to bottom right:
1997 Pinnacle Away Jersey
1997 Score Team Collection Platinum Team
1996 Fleer Tomorrow's Legends
1997 Topps Team Timber
1998 Leaf State Representatives
1999 Ultra Thunderclap
1998 Collector's Choice Bobblehead
1996 Score Highlight Zone
1997 Upper Deck Ticket To Stardom

Wild and wacky stuff right? Wait till you see the subset cards... These were actually part of the base set:

In order from top left to bottom right:
1997 New Pinnacle Aura
1997 Fleer Update Encore
1995 Pinnacle Swing Men
1998 Donruss Hit List
1996 Upper Deck Beat the Odds
1998 Donruss Spirit of the Game
1996 Zenith Honor Roll
1997 Score Goin' Yard
1996 Ultra Ultra Stars

Oh the excess! All these crazy looking subset cards when a decade before you got a Rated Rookie or an All-Star card and thought it was the coolest thing on earth. I need to find an Aura card now for Lucy, she of all people would appreciate the total zen of that card. Thank goodness that crazyness is over, now I can post some nice safe boring base cards of Larry Wayne.

1998 Skybox Thunder
1995 Fleer Update cut off the box
1995 Zenith
1997 Donruss VXP 1.0
1995 SportFlix UC3
1998 Pinnacle Mint Collection
1996 Pinnacle Aficionado
1997 Fleer Metal Universe
1997 Fleer Circa

Ok, so absolutely nothing in the late '90s was boring or safe. I think the Skybox Thunder card is hypnotizing me. It's telling me to BUY MORE FLEER. I can't you silly card, Upper Deck bought them up and bumped them off. BUY JUNKWAX THEN. A WHOLE MESS OF FLEER FOCUS MAYBE. Whoa, I'm feeling dizzy. You guys enjoy the cards, I'm going to take a break to look for some cheap boxes on the web.

2008 Topps Chrome Autographs

Yay! Topps Chrome is out! That means autographs! Autographs that could be worth hundreds of millions of billions of dollars! I don't know what we're yelling about! I'm going to go out and buy several cases now! I might get a SuperDuperFractor! Then I can flip it on eBay and buy more boxes! LOUD NOISES!

So now that I've whipped you all up in consumerist frenzy, ready to forgo this month's mortgage, your child's college fund or half a tank of gas so you can run out and buy a case of Chrome for the autographs that will one day make you rich, what autographs can you actually get from 2008 Topps Chrome exactly? I got a checklist in a retail pack today, here are the Autographed Rookie Cards you can pull. This is from the retail checklist, I'm not sure if there's a difference between that and the Hobby checklist mind you. I will list out the rookies, the team they are playing for right now and link to their current MLB stats.

221 J.R. Towles - optioned to Triple-A Round Rock Express after 42 games with the Astros.
222 Felipe Paulino - on Astros DL, hasn't played this year.
223 Sam Fuld - Hitting .222 for the triple-A Iowa Cubs.
224 Kevin Hart - 12 games with the Cubs before being optioned, he is out with a concussion after getting clocked with a line drive while playing for Iowa.
225 Nyjer Morgan - Sent to Indianapolis, then recalled to Pittsburgh to replace DL-bound Xavier Nady.
226 Daric Barton - Starting first baseman for the Oakland A's.
227 Jonathan Albaladejo - Pitched 7 games for the Yankees, broke his elbow and is out for the season.
228 Chin-Lung Hu - Optioned to Triple-A Las Vegas 51s after 49 games with the Dodgers.
229 Clay Buchholz - Started 8 games for the Red Sox, is currently dominating at Triple-A Pawtucket.
230 Rich Thompson - Pitched 2 games for the Angels, is now with the Triple-A Salt Lake Bees.
231 Brian Barton - St. Louis Cardinals.
232 Ross Ohlendorf - New York Yankees.
233 Masahide Kobayashi - Cleveland Indians
234 Callix Crabbe - Rule V pick of the Padres, returned to the Brewers, now Playing in Triple-A Nashville
235 Matt Tolbert - Minnesota Twins rookie slid into first, wrecked his thumb and is on the DL.
236 Jayson Nix - Given the starting second base job by the Rockies, blew it and is now with Triple-A Colorado Springs.
237 Johnny Cueto - In the Cincinnati Reds starting rotation.
238 Evan Meek - 9 games pitched for Pittsburgh, now with Indianapolis.
239 Randy Wells - Rule V pick for Toronto, pitched one game for the Blue Jays and was given back to the Cubs. He's chillin' with Fuld and Hart in Iowa.

There's your autograph lineup. I say go for the case, I don't need to drive anywhere this month anyway.

Seen at the local Wally World this morning

Blister packs of "Hobby Exclusive" 2008 Donruss Elite football.

I almost wish I hadn't sworn off football cards so I could have visual proof while mocking it on the internet.

The Lost Box of Total Awesomeness - Show Your Bottoms

I've got a big pile of '87 Topps from The Lost Box of Total Awesomeness staring me in the face, and I'm a bit intimidated by it all. I'll leave that for later and instead show you a cool Griffey card from the box:

That's not cool, you say. That's just a 1990 Topps card. Ok the Rookie Cup is kinda cool. But the design is ugly and there's a crease and what the heck is up with the borders? And what's going on with the back?

HAY THERES NOTHIN ON THE BACK?? Ha ha! Fooled you! This card was cut off the box! Here's the cards off the bottom of the box:

E - Doc Gooden

I'm showing off the back of Doc's card because the highlight is so freaking astounding:


Mull that one over kids... 100 wins... BEFORE YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO RENT A CAR. A lot of pitchers haven't broken past Double-A by that age. A lot more are retired. Man, what could have been.

F - Rickey Henderson

Highlight - Rickey Henderson becomes 4th player to achieve 850 lifetime stolen bases.

G - Tommy Lasorda

Highlight - Tom Lasorda manages his 2000th game since becoming skipper of the Dodgers.

H - Fred Lynn

Highlight - Fred Lynn wallops the 300th home run of his 15-season major league career.

That was back when 20 homers a season meant something.

That's not all of the box bottom cards I found though, here's a cut up panel from 1991 Fleer. They did a No-Hitter theme since there were nine of them thrown in 1990. Here are the ones from the box I hacked up with scissors:

#3 Nolan Ryan

Note the backs are blank, and use a slightly crummier grade of cardboard than the Topps.

#4 Dave Stewart

#9 Dave Stieb

The Pirates get a logo card since they won the division the year before. Where's my 1992 Braves box bottom card dammit! Why did cards have to go high-tech right when the Braves got good?


So there's my awesome box cards from my awesome box. Next up will likely be those '87 Topps cards. I need to finish that post before the pile topples over and crushes me.

Amazing 19th Century Non-Sports Auction

I was doing my weekly dig through the tobacco card listings for one of the three Allen & Ginter cards I still need. I had a golden opportunity to get one of the three last week but forgot to bid. D'oh! While I was looking I found an auction for this:

That's a pretty nifty looking card there. It's from the N219 Kinney Brothers "Harlequin" deck of cards. It was a standard deck of cards where each card had the card number incorporated into a cartoon. I'm not sure why the fez-wearing three card monte hustler there has a clockwork spade on his chest, but I suppose it meant something in 1888. If there is a 'star' card in a deck of cards, I suppose the Ace of Spades would be it, but that did prepare me for the price the card eventually sold for...

$898.88

Whoa! That dude really wanted that card! There were 22 bids although it looks like 18 of them were placed by the final winner in a 5 minute period trying to eke out the high bidder. I knew that non-sports cards were becoming more and more sought after, but wow. The Harlequin set isn't terribly rare from what I can tell, but this is a very good looking copy of the premier card in the set. This is the most expensive non-sport card I've seen so far, and it is the highest priced card in the completed Tobacco card listings and that includes a few baseball issues put in there by mistake. I was watching the aution during the last few minutes to see if a smipe war would break out and cause it to break four figures, but no dice. I'm really interested to see what this Mark Twain Duke card from the same seller goes for now. That seems like a much better card to me. Of course you all know the real reason why I'm posting this and it sure ain't about cards. Enjoy...

Probably the Only SP Legendary Cuts Card I'll Bother Getting This Year

I hit the card shop today, you can see my other big purchase here. This one cost me all of 50 cents and satisfied my requirement of buying a Chipper Jones card every time I walk in there whether I need to or not. The SP Legendary Cuts boxes must have been ripped left and right recently because they had a nice pile of 'em in the 10 and 50 cent boxes. Legendary Cuts is usually a product I avoid ripping but I'll snatch up the discarded base cards after the hits have all been slabbed away. In years past though, the base cards included actual legendary players, i.e. one who are long retired such as this Yogi card from last year's set. UD managed to screw it up this year by including the same 100 boring current stars that are in every single other set released this year and short printing all the legends to hell.

The design is not bad although the front and back are exactly the same. The front has spot UV coating on Chipper's portrait which has a neat looking cross hatch thing going on at the bottom by the name. Horizontal layouts are pretty uncommon and it's a nice change of pace. Of course nobody who rips this stuff gives a toss about the base design. They just want that cut, baby. It bums me out though that the vintage players get the shaft in this set. With Legendary Cuts moving to a contemporary player base set I don't think there is going to be any set at all this year that focuses mainly on the old timey players. A set with old timers might not even be practical anymore with the lawsuits flying over who can produce cards of who in what set nowadays. Maybe by doing this the manufacturers are telling us to buy the actual vintage cards of vintage players instead of their new products. Hmmm...

Cards Of the Week 06/24/08

The card I wanted to post for Card of the Week hasn't arrived yet, so I hastily scanned a bunch of stuff to use as a backup plan. This week features a whole mess of cards in honor of my flea market haul this past weekend. There was a ten cent box there with a bunch of commons from 2007 and 2008. Probably 90% of it was Topps and Upper Deck, but right in the middle was a big chunk of Moments & Milestones. Even though the rational left side of my brain keeps screaming at me that this set is useless gimmicky junk, the right side said WOO PRETTY LOOKIT THE NUMBERS and I ended up buying it all. Since this stuff is serial numbered to the hilt on multiple team and stat number variations, buying over a dozen packs worth of base cards can cause some interesting numerical oddities to show up. Here's a few neat things I found in my newly found pile of crap.

All Three Jim Thome Variations
(To be fair, I had the Philly variation already)

A Card Numbered 1/150

A Card Numbered 150/150

A Card Numbered the Same Number as the Stat

A Card Where the Serial Number is the Same as the Player's Jersey Number
(eBayers inexplicably go nuts over these things)
(I had this one already too, I just didn't realize the numbers were the same)

Another Card Where the Serial Number is the Same as the Player's Jersey Number
(This one is a little cooler to me for some reason)

A Card Where the Player's Jersey Number is the Same as the Second Part of the Serial Number, Not the First Part
(ok, so this one is cheating)

This Card Has No Interesting Numbers Whatsoever, But the Powder Blue Phillies Retro Uniform Is Freakin' Sweet
(and there's no denying that)

And Finally, Submitted For Your Approval, This Week's Magnificent Spectacular Amazing Card of the Week:

A card serial numbered 10/10 bought for 10 cents.

And it's a card of Brad Hawpe, who would have won me a Fantasy league championship last year had I not been a dumbass and dropped him so I could pick up Jason Bay. What the hell was I thinking?? Oh, it's also a pretty, pretty blue. I like blue. Blue Blue Blue! Yessir, I got me the blues.

88 Score Blog

I'm pretty cranky right now and probably won't post much of anything today, but in the meantime check out a new blog I found from a link on one of the comments over at Wax Heaven:

1988 Score is about... 1988 Score. I love 1988 Score so it's made me slightly less aggravated than I was before I saw it. Especially after I saw a post with Murph, Gant and, um... Jamie Moyer. It pays to click on the homepage links of comments sometimes!

Baseball and Football

So long, Mr. Conductor.

Sticky Sunday - Late But Loaded Edition

Ok, so I'm not only late again posting a Sticky Sunday, when it was originally designed to be a Sticky Saturday, when it was supposed to be a showcase for Fleer stickers but I haven't posted a single thing from Fleer since May, and last week it wasn't a sticker at all, but a cheesy 'relic' card with stickers plastered to the card... what can I say, I'm a disaster when it comes to sticking to a project. Ha! I made a funny. Well, since I've derailed this sucker so badly, here's what I'm gonna do for you: You not only get one Upper Deck Sticker tonight, you get TWO! Both remaining stickers in fact. I'm gonna knock out Upper Deck and next week we'll have a brand old Fleer sticker from Fleerfan's stash. 'Cause that's the kind of guy I am. The kind that blogs about baseball stickers on a Sunday night. Here's the first one:

This is the sticker from 1990 Upper Deck. It's less than half the size of a normal card, but is a pretty good size for a sticker. The Braves' tomahawk logo fills out the smaller card better than on the large size anyway. The hologram is also different from the large size cards, it looks like someone modeled the logo out of clay before they holographized it. It looks a lot more cartoony than the normal logo which is not necessarily a bad thing. Unfortunately, the handle of the tomahawk looks... well, how to describe it. Let's just say I've been on the internet too long since I'm seeing stuff like that on a Braves sticker. Look up 'The Little Mermaid" on Snopes if you don't understand what I'm talking about. It's a good thing the scan is blurry or the blog might get flagged for filth. Another weird thing on this sticker is that dot on the B. That's not schmutz on the scanner, that's a flaw or something on the hologram itself. I need to find another Braves sticker to see if they all have the dot or if this is just a mutant sticker.

Here's a 1989 Upper Deck sticker. I scanned it lopsided and the brave looks terrible. Let's try this again.

Ok, a little better but not much. It's ok that I posted two '89 UD stickers, each pack had two of these small round stickers in them. At least two. I saw one pack where five or six of the buggers rolled out of it. These were pretty dang neat for the time although today I curse them whenever they start falling out all over the place while I'm rooting through my 80's junk boxes. As you can see, the old style logo is used here, and it fills up the sticker but is a pretty weak subject for a hologram. The design is pretty flat and there's not a whole lot of 3-D to it. Upper Deck was on the ball in one way, their 1990 stickers used the new tomahawk logo while Fleer still had the laughing Brave on their stickers.

So why did I start on the '92 stickers and work my way back? Because I had the '92 sticker handy when I started this thing. To tell the truth, I just found the '90 sticker about a half hour ago in my Braves box. I also found one other thing in that box and I'm gonna give it to you as a bonus:

I'm not sure where this sticker even came from. Maybe it was inserted into one of the Heroes sets that were released in 1992. Maybe it was given away at the game. I found it for 50 cents and snagged it because I didn't have it already. It's a nice oddball Braves card though and the pennant kinda sorta waves in 3-D a little bit. Too bad relics and autos have taken over the hobby, we could use some sticker innovation like this nowadays.