2003 Play Ball - Base set

Time to wrap up the Play Ball set so I can finally move on to the next Upper Deck set on my list. The set had two angles to reel in customers. The Retro nostalgia hook and the 'all painted base set' gimmick. Retro sets were on fire in 2003, especially after Topps206 hit the hobby like a ton of bricks. Art cards have also been wildly popular since Diamond Kings first hit Donruss packs, and an entire set of the suckers complete with paintings had just hit the market. This was Upper Deck's way of countering both the Topps Topps206 and Topps 205 sets as well as the Diamond Kings set with a product of their own. Each card in the set used a painting instead of a photo or photo badly doctored to look sort of like a painting. The paintings are all very well done too, they've got the same feel for the backgrounds as the original '41s while putting a little more details into the players' faces. Some of the original portraits looked pretty bland and generic, especially the ones where the full player was visible.


The mini card parallel set didn't copy the base card exactly, but added a new background. The basic backgrounds used are fluffy clouds, a stadium scene and abstract colors. Upper deck mixed these up pretty well on the cards and made the parallel set just as fun to collect as the base cards.


Along with the mini parallels there were also black and red back parallels of each card. I am not sure what the insert ratios were for the the red backs were but they are fairly common. As far as I can tell all the cards in the set including SPs and the Joe DiMaggio inserts can be found with both black and red backs. I have not seen any mini cards or jersey cards with red backs though so they may or may not exist.


Another cool thing about the set is the large number of Hall of Fame players in the set. The checklist is ordered by teams so you can fine the legends peppered throughout. You can't complain about a set with Stan the Man, Pops and Yogi.


The one thing that this set does not have in abundance is rookie cards. This was more of a star/legend vehicle and UD wisely decided not to clutter things up with a bunch of prospects. Sure, you miss out on rookies of Ryan Howard, Chien Ming Wang and Hanley Ramirez, but on the other hand there's no Bryan Bullington, Ben Howard or Mike Neu in there either. Upper Deck did manage to sneak in one big name rookie into the very last card of the set, Hidecki Matsui. The set was originally supposed to be only 103 cards, but Godzilla was added as card 104. Yep shenanigans were happening in 2003 as well...


Each box had 24 packs and a pack held five cards. In any given box you could expect 90 base cards, 12 reprint minis, 12 parallel minis, one Ted Williams SP, one Summer of '41 SP and four Joe DiMaggio Streak cards. Every other box had a jersey card, with numbered and autographed variations being much more difficult to find.

Yankee Clipper 1941 Hitting Streak Box Score cards: 1-42 - 1:8, 43-56 - 1:24
1941 Play Ball reprints: 1:2
Mini card parallels: 1:2
Game-Used Jersey cards 1:48
Tribute to Ted Williams: 1:24
Summer of '41: 1:24


I couldn't find a decent checklist for this stuff anywhere online, so here ya go!

1 Troy Glaus
2 Darin Erstad
3 Randy Johnson
4 Luis Gonzalez
5 Curt Schilling
6 Tom Glavine
7 Chipper Jones
8 Greg Maddux
9 Andruw Jones
10 Pedro Martinez
11 Manny Ramirez
12 Nomar Garciaparra
13 Billy Williams
14 Sammy Sosa
15 Kerry Wood
16 Mark Prior
17 Ernie Banks
18 Frank Thomas
19 Joe Morgan
20 Ken Griffey Jr.
21 Adam Dunn
22 Jim Thome
23 Todd Helton
24 Larry Walker
25 Lance Berkman
26 Roy Oswalt
27 Jeff Bagwell
28 Nolan Ryan
29 Mike Sweeney
30 Shawn Green
31 Hideo Nomo
32 Kazuhisa Ishii
33 Richie Sexson
34 Robin Yount
35 Harmon Killebrew
36 Torii Hunter
37 Vladimir Guerrero
38 Roberto Alomar
39 Mike Piazza
40 Tom Seaver
41 Phil Rizzuto
42 Yogi Berra
43 Mike Mussina
44 Roger Clemens
45 Derek Jeter
46 Jason Giambi
47 Bernie Williams
48 Alfonso Soriano
49 Catfish Hunter
50 Barry Zito
51 Eric Chavez
52 Tim Hudson
53 Rollie Fingers
54 Miguel Tejada
55 Pat Burrell
56 Brian Giles
57 Willie Stargell
58 Phil Nevin
59 Orlando Cepeda
60 Barry Bonds
61 Jeff Kent
62 Willie McCovey
63 Ichiro Suzuki
64 Stan Musial
65 Albert Pujols
66 J.D. Drew
67 Scott Rolen
68 Mark McGwire
69 Alex Rodriguez
70 Juan Gonzalez
71 Ivan Rodriguez
72 Rafael Palmeiro
73 Carlos Delgado
74 Ted Williams Summer of '41 SP
75 Hank Greenberg Summer of '41 SP
76 Joe DiMaggio Summer of '41 SP
77 Lefty Gomez Summer of '41 SP
78 Tommy Henrich Summer of '41 SP
79 Pee Wee Reese Summer of '41 SP
80 Mel Ott Summer of '41 SP
81 Carl Hubbell Summer of '41 SP
82 Jimmie Foxx Summer of '41 SP
83 Joe Cronin Summer of '41 SP
84 Charlie Gehringer Summer of '41 SP
85 Frank Hayes Summer of '41 SP
86 Babe Dahlgren Summer of '41 SP
87 Dolph Camilli Summer of '41 SP
88 Johnny Vander Meer Summer of '41 SP
89 Ted Williams Tribute SP
90 Ted Williams Tribute SP
91 Ted Williams Tribute SP
92 Ted Williams Tribute SP
93 Ted Williams Tribute SP
94 Ted Williams Tribute SP
95 Ted Williams Tribute SP
96 Ted Williams Tribute SP
97 Ted Williams Tribute SP
98 Ted Williams Tribute SP
99 Ted Williams Tribute SP
100 Ted Williams Tribute SP
101 Ted Williams Tribute SP
102 Ted Williams Tribute SP
103 Ted Williams Tribute SP
104 Hideki Matsui


1941 Play Ball Reprints
R-1 Ted Williams
R-2 Hank Greenberg
R-3 Joe DiMaggio
R-4 Lefty Gomez
R-5 Tommy Henrich
R-6 Pee Wee Reese
R-7 Mel Ott
R-8 Carl Hubbell
R-9 Jimmie Foxx
R-10 Joe Cronin
R-11 Charlie Gehringer
R-12 Frank Hayes
R-13 Babe Dahlgren
R-14 Dolph Camilli
R-15 Johnny Vander Meer
R-16 Bucky Walters
R-17 Red Ruffing
R-18 Charlie Keller
R-19 Indian Bob Johnson
R-20 Dutch Leonard
R-21 Barney McCosky
R-22 Soupy Campbell
R-23 Stormy Weatherly
R-24 Bobby Doerr
R-25 Bill Dickey

Hope you enjoyed 2003 Play Ball, up next - 2001 Upper Deck Legends.

2003 Play Ball - Jersey cards

I didn't have one of the Play Ball Jersey cards to post, but while looking for an image online I found an auction for a Chipper Jones Play Ball Jersey card. So I bid on it - only so I would be able to inform my loyal readers, mind you - and I ended up winning it. And just maybe six other Chipper jersey and patch cards from the same seller. What? It's all to expand the knowledge base of baseball cards on the internet. Really. So anyway, here's the scan from the auction so you can take a gander at it.



Basically the base card squished a bit to get "Game-Used Memorabilia" on top and a little swatch of jersey shaped like a baseball diamond on bottom. The stretched out diamond is cool in that if it's placed right some swatches can fit two pinstripes on there. Pinstripes used to be cool back in the old days. There were two parallel versions, one numbered to 150 and a gold version numbered to 25. The only autographs available in the set were signed memorabilia cards numbered to 50. T'was a simpler time back then... No patches, no autographs from basketball players or golfers, no box toppers, no cut autos. Then again, compare this set to another Upper Deck homage set from ten years earlier and this is a hedonistic display of excess. I'll wrap this sucker up tomorrow or Monday and we can move on to the next set.

Play Ball - Old and New

Today was a little too hectic to write up my post on the 2003 Play Ball base set, so instead here are some old and new Play Ball cards of some Braves. See if you can tell which are the originals and which are the Upper Deck cards. They're so similar it's SPOOKY.

Tom Glavine - Note that Tom both bats and throws from "From". Also note the hated M-Word on the back of the card.

Chipper Jones - I have literally hundreds, if not a couple thousand Chipper Jones cards, and this is the first time I ever noticed that he is 6'4".

Greg Maddux - 350 wins. Just say it to yourself. Three HUNDRED and fifty WINS. Oh it sounds so damn good.

Andruw Jones - I normally have a nice bit of schadenfreude whenever a player leaves the Braves for more loot and subsequently stinks (see: J.D. Drew), but I really want Andruw to be a Hall of Famer and you ain't getting in the Hall of fame hitting .165. What the hell happened to Druw?

Max West - Slightly above average first baseman for the Braves during The Dismal Period. He was the starting right fielder in the 1940 All Star game and hit a three run homer in his only at bat.

Gene Moore - Another one-time All Star for the Boston Bees. They had to send somebody I suppose. I want to know why his nickname was "rowdy".
Johnny Cooney - Johnny played baseball from 1921 to 1944, and 16 of those 20 seasons in the bigs were with the Braves. He started out as a pitcher, was out of the league in 1931, but returned in 1935 as an outfielder.

Frank Demaree - Frank went from an All Star in Chicago to a backup in Boston. Frank is on the only 1938 Goudey card I own.

2003 Play Ball - the Promos

Remember when the card companies gave away promo cards in Beckett and Tuff Stuff? You know, to advertise and drum up interest in their new products? Back when there were more than two companies in the marketplace? When card manufacturers actually had to innovate and put out an excellent product instead of crapping out some short printed cards they hoped would get on the news and provide them some free advertising? Yeah, neither do I. That was a looooooooong time ago. Nowadays they only give away promo cards at large conventions to dealers who put them on eBay for 20 bucks a pop. I miss promo cards.

2003 Play Ball - The Short Prints

I was going to post one of the relic cards from the set tonight, but it turns out I don't actually have one. They're not all that special anyway... I'll scrounge around and find an image somewhere to show off tomorrow. Here's an example of the short prints from the set instead.

This is a Ted Williams Tribute card. These were inserted one a box and were numbered 89-103 on the checklist. Joe D got an insert set in his honor and Ted got these painted short prints instead. The DiMaggio cards were three a box and these were only one per, so I guess Upper Deck liked Joe better than Ted. Damn Yankee bias. This is the only short print in the set that I have. I was far more interested in the base set and the Joe-D cards at the time than the expensive short prints. Well, actually, I was far more interested in ToppsT205 cards at the time. Most of my money went to mini cards with various ad backs instead of Play Ball. This one has a nice big dink in the upper left corner so I got it cheep. It's got Joe and Ted chumming up in a nice painting on this card so it's like all the short print sets in one.


Here's the back. See how red it is? You didn't think Upper Deck started the red variation backs in 2007 Goudey did you? You silly person. I'm not sure how many red cards are in a pack, but there sure are a lot of them out there. I've got probably half the set in the red version. Even the DiMaggio streak cards can be found with the red backs. I'm going to go out on a limb and say maybe one red back per pack. There were only five cards in a pack so anymore than that and we'd be talking about the black backs being the variation cards. The text is the same on the red and black backs so it's not a big deal.

The other short print set is "The Summer of '41" and is numbered 74-88 in the set. I don't have one of these cards at all although I've been looking for Babe Dahlgren, the lone Brave representative from the 40's in the set, for a while. While Ted Williams gets 15 cards all by himself, 15 other players from 1941 get one each in this subset. Like the Ted Williams cards, they were one per box and pricey at the time. I don't know if they are still pricey, 'cause I can't find any online. The local shop has one or two mixed into their star boxes though so I might have to snag one for completeness' sake. Most of the subjects can be found in the mini reprint set, although Indian Bob isn't one of them. If I find a card or a scan I'll post it, if not, eh, no biggie. Like I said, I didn't buy these cards for the short prints, I bought them for the base set, which I'll get into next post.

Hey look! I found it! I may even buy the thing if it lasts long enough for my paycheck to hit the bank. As long as I haven't convinced at least three of you to hit eBay and buy every Play Ball card you can that is.

2003 Play Ball - Joe's Streak

This is the coolest insert set from 2003 Play Ball. Remember the DiMaggio Streak cards from last year's Topps set? These make them look pathetic. First of all, these are hefty cards. They are thick as a brick as the box score is recessed in the card. Completely unecessary, but the shadowbox effect looks nice. UD used the same technique on box score cards and base parallel cards in the 2004 set also, but these look nicer. The set is dedicated to the Yankee Clipper's 56-game hitting streak in 1941. There's one card for each game, each with a photo of Joe, the Yankee half of the box score and a summary of the game. The one above is game 14 of the streak, a rainout in Washington where DiMaggio hit a chopper off the plate for a single before the game was called in the middle of the 6th. Nowadays the umps would rather eat a bug than call a game, but back then with no lights the Sens were probably happy to wait till it got too dark and escape with a tie.

Here's game number 15 of the streak , where Joe barely kept the streak alive with a single in the ninth inning of the opener of a twinbill in Boston. Note that the two photos are different. Upper Deck did this set right, every card has a different photo of Joe, and they are related to the hit in some instances. Card 45 shows Joe in front of a sign stating "45 cracks" and card 56 has him kissing his bat. The box score is cool as this is before you could go on Baseball-Reference.com and pull up RetroSheet box scores whenever you wanted. Actually, the box scores only go back to 1956 right now, so you can't really look these up that easily anyway.

What is extremely cool about this set is that each card has a game summary on the back. It's pretty neat to read about these games that happened over 60 years ago. It adds some context to this legendary streak. These were actual baseball games they were playing after all, not just Joe getting a hit and everyone going home.

These cards were somewhat difficult to find in packs, I think they were maybe one or two a box or so. They weren't cheap, either. I only got these two back at the time, and then pulled a third out of a pack. Unfortunately it was a dupe of card 14. Anyone need card 14 for their set? Sets are pricey nowadays too, there's one on eBay right now for the low, low price of $250. Gotta admit, it's a pretty freakin' sweet set though.