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!

Indian Giver

Hey, look what Santa left in the mailbox yesterday... I'll have to open this this up and share, but first more Xmas revelry. Stay Tuned...

Indian Baseball Cards. Always. celebrated the Holiday season by sending out a bunch of goodie bags with a "12 Days of Christmas" theme. I was honored with the first one and it arrived wrapped just in time for Christmas. I put it in my stocking and opened it up on Christmas day. Here's what arrived (scans to come soon):

12 Greg Maddux:
1994 Topps, 1996 Pinnacle, 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack, 2000 Stadium Club (2), 2000 Ovation, 2000 Skybox Dominion, 2000 Ultra, 1997 Bowman's Best, 2003 Ultra, 2002 Donruss Classics, 1996 Pinnacle Summit Above & Beyond parallel

11 Vintage cards:
1971 Topps* Bob Didier, Sonny Jackson and 1971 National League Rookies (Enzo Hernandez, Bill Buckner (!!!) and Marty Perez), 1977 Topps Braves Team, Jerry Royster, Clarence Gaston, Ken Henderson, Andy Messersmith, Carl Morton, Jim Wynn, and an absolutely fantastic cloth Milwaukee Braves sticker that I have never ever, ever seen one of before in my life.

10 John Smoltz:
1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack (2), 1989 Topps RC, 1992 Ultra, 1991 Score, 1994 Topps, 1989 Score, 1999 Topps, 1994 Team Stadium Club, 1990 Donruss

9 Steve Avery:
1994 Upper Deck (2), 1991 Score, 1992 Ultra, 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack, 1994 Upper Deck Electric Diamond, 1993 Triple Play, 1993 Donruss, 1993 Score

8 Chipper Jones:
2002 Fleer Hot Prospects, 2005 Topps Pristine**, 1996 Bowman's Best, 1996 Pinnacle Checklist (with Garrett Anderson), 1996 Pinnacle , 1997 Donruss Elite, 2002 Fleer Premium, 2002 Upper Deck World Series

7 Andruw Jones:
2007 Topps Gold Glove, 2007 Artifacts, 1996 Bowman's Best, 1999 Ultra. 2001 Pacific, 1997 Leaf Checklist, 1998 Donruss Spirit of the Game

6 Tommy Traitor Glavine (sorry, I still haven't gotten used to the fact he's a Brave again):
1992 Ultra, 1994 Topps, 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack, 1989 Fleer, 1996 Pinnacle Summit Above & Beyond parallel, 1995 Collector's Choice Special Edition

5 Fred McGriff:
1994 Topps, 1996 Bowman foil, 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game, 1996 Pinnacle Summit Above & Beyond parallel, 1996 Pinnacle The Naturals

4 Dale Murphy:
1989 Score, 1988 Donruss, 1989 Topps, 2004 Fleer Greats

3 Jason Schmidt:
1996 Leaf Gold Leaf Rookie, 1996 Pinnacle Summit Above & Beyond parallel, 1996 SP Premier Prospects

2 Phil Niekro:
2005 Donruss Champions Impressions parallel, 2005 Legendary Cuts

1 Hank Aaron 1994 Topps 20th Anniversary #715.

That is some cool stuff to open up on a Christmas morn. Thanks David!

* I'm absolutely sure I need at least one, if not all, of these '71 cards for my team set. Since completing at least some of my Vintage Topps team sets was one of my goals for 2007, this is way cool.
Update - yep, needed two of 'em. I only need two more high numbers to finish that one off now.

** I didn't even know Pristine existed in a non-Chrome variety. Eeeeexcellent.