January Vintage Show Top 20 - #7 Joy of a Completed Page

All righty then. A while back I showed off the cheapest '53 high number I could find. This one was slightly more expensive but I needed to pick it up. Behold Morris Martin of the Philly A's.

I love '53 Topps but the solid background cards seem a little cheap to me. They remind me too much of crappy '52 Topps cards. The paintings are still cool and all, It's just... I dunno. I want to see paintings of the grandstands with old outfield ads I guess. I passed up on Morris more than once until I realized I HAD to get him this time.

Morrie had arm problems in '52 but managed to pitch 58 games in '53 for the A's and hung around the league for 10 years as a reliever. It's actually a miracle he ever pitched at all as he served as an engineer in World War 2, fought in D-Day and the Battle of the Bulge and was wounded several times. Considering Morrie caught shrapnel in his pitching hand and almost lost his leg in the war he had a damn fine career. And he got to play on the same team with a guy named "Pecky".

So who did I have to get this card? I noted a few cards on my want list as "must gets" for a certain reason. This reason:

Joy of a Completed Page of 1953 Topps High Numbers including a Hall of Famer. Morrie might be the best looking card on that page, plain background and all!

Here's the complete list of Top 20 posts. See if you can guess what cards are coming up!

#20 - Wantlist Fail Part 1
#19 - Dollar Box Gem
#18 - At Least He's a Hall of Famer Now
#17 - Thurman Inaction
#16 - Cocktail Hour
#15 - Kid Stuff
#14 - Clubbed Cub
#13 - Cheapest High Number I Could Find
#12 - '59, Dude!
#11 - Look at the Whistler
#10 - Heartbreaking Taunt
#9 - '54 Ford With a Beat Up Chassis
#8 - King of the Bums
#7 - Joy of a Completed Page
#6 - HOW THE HELL IS THIS NOT IN THE TOP FIVE?!?!
#5 - Oh, because this one is...
#4 - Awwww, come ON.
#3 - Admit It, You Knew This Was Coming
#2 - Wantlist Fail Part 2
#1 - Feat of Clay

Heavyweight Retro Championship of the World: Card 5

The whole "Every celebrity on the planet dying all at the same time" thing has got my mind messed up so I took most of the weekend off. Time to get back on track with card #5.

#1 Heritage Young Hill Stars

This is a pretty cool card, although I'm almost certain James Shields is pasted in. The original Young Hill Stars card from 1960 featured Jack Fisher, Milt Pappas and Jerry Walker.

4 points

#2 Heritage High Joakim Soria

Forget the fact that this guy has his own trading card set, The best part about this card is on the back:

Cha cha cha!

2 points

#3 Goudey Mark Teahen

Ordinarily the sheer blueness of this card would be good for a high score, but poor Mark got caught up in a bad matchup. Story of this career, really.

1 point

fifth round, yadda yadda, scores...

2009 Heritage 12 - 2009 Goudey 11 - 2008 Heritage High Series 11.

Heavyweight Retro Championship of the World - Card 4

I'm already a day behind on this. Upper Deck's double barrel rack pack give them an advanage on this one.

#1 Ron Santo Ryne Sandberg Derek Lee Aramis Ramirez 4-in-1 Red

Since the Goudey racks are split into two packs of 8 cards each, it's possible to pull an insert or short print out of either half. This Goudey rack has a Cubs 4-in-1 '35 Goudey insert in it. I actually like these cards better than the base set. Not entirely sure why there are four different color variations when there was only red and blue in the original set (oh, yeah, now I remember, more parallels means soaking set collectors for more money) but I don't mind mixing and matching so no big deal. Normally I loathe all things Cub on this blog, but I've got nothing against Santo or Sandberg.

4 points

#2 Heritage Chad Tracy

I greatly appreciate the beard/no beard photo variations on this card. I also like the pinky-orange peach color to the bottom color bar. I'm not fond of pink cards, but I like peach. Go figure. The real genius of this card is on the back:

Chad's charity is responsible for teaching Ed Norton how to read. Nobody gets this reference, do they. You're all thinking about Fight Club now. Sigh, no one studies the classics anymore.

2 points

#3 Heritage High Miguel Tejada

Miggy should have beat Tracy, but I can't see Tejada in any uniform other than A's green without feeling uneasy. Besides, it was just discovered that the copyright was falsified and that this card is from 2006 and not 2008. I feel obligated to give equal time to Tejada's cartoon, but I can't think of a joke that isn't rude.

You guys make up your own captions on this one. After the MJ stuff VOTC sent me yesterday I'm sure there will be some good ones.

1 point

A quarter way through the battle, there are the standings:

2009 Goudey 10 - 2008 Heritage High Series 9 - 2009 Heritage 8.

Heavyweight Retro Championship of the World - Card 3

I have to be diligent about this and post at least one round a day or else I'll be finishing this up around Halloween.

#1 Heritage High Series Dioner Navarro

Catcher's mask and helmet perched upon a regular cap while Dioner sport sthe cool shades and a bad ass look on his face. If this card had come out in 1959 it would have made many straight-laced Eisenhower Era collectors wet their britches.

5 points

#2 Goudey Garret Anderson

Ok, so Braves don't always automatically win. Even if Garret was in a Braves uni and was living up to the absurdly high expectations Braves fans had for an end-of-career stopgap corner outfielder he wouldn't have beat bad-ass Dioner.

3 points

#3 Heritage Brandon Lyon

This one's pretty meh all around. There's a building a I guess. And Brandon's got a goatee. And it's red and blue. Yawn.

1 point

At the end of three:

2008 Heritage High Series 8 - 2009 Heritage 6 - 2009 Goudey 6.

(Don't Forget! Contest!)

Heavyweight Retro Championship of the World: Card 2

Note: Don't forget the contest... You have about a day to get in on it.

Goudey makes a comeback in the second round, and at least two bloggers may make snide remarks on my choice. They won't be that far off the mark to be honest, but I calls 'em as I sees 'em.

#1 Goudey James Parr

I'm the judge so I get to be biased. Braves always win. Even if they're a Gwinnett Brave. Besides, the card is not disgusting like the Guillen and you can read the BEACH patch on Parr's uniform.

3 points

(tie)#2 Heritage Khalil Greene

Anyone else remember when he was on the wrapper of every Draft Pick set? Now he's on his second franchise, playing a new position and is suffering from an anxiety disorder. Prospecting is a fickle business. I don't understand why Khalil's color photo isn't a portrait. That's the point of '60 Topps, you get an extreme close up in color and a tiny action shot in black & white.

1 point

(tie)#2 Heritage High Joe Crede

You know, in the '50s and early '60s pink was a very manly color often worn by men completely comfortable with their sexuality. Then the '80s happened and someone wrote a book about quiche and women started wearing huge shoulder pads and everyone got all uptight about everything and now pink is all messed up in the heads of the poor souls that had to grow up during that nightmarish decade. Poor Joe now has to suffer the brunt of Pink Bigotry. The blue tarp in the background don't help matters at all.

1 point

Two rounds in the books:

2009 Heritage 5 - 2008 Heritage High Series 3 - 2009 Goudey 3.

Heavyweight Retro Championship of the World: Card 1

Ok, let's get this party started. You guys voted that the next pack war be between jumbo packs of Retro products Heritage & Goudey. I threw a curveball at ya and added a jumbo of '08 Heritage High series. Let's see which retro product reigns supreme! (at least until Allen & Ginter comes out)

The Rules: I will be matching up each card as they come out of the pack. I'll rank them in order of who I think is the best and assign 0-5 points to each card. Whichever pack has the highest number of points will be teh winnah. If I am unable to determine the winner of a certain round I'll have you guys decide in the comments.

Let'e start 'er up... Card 1:

#1 09 Heritage Cole Hamels

The man won the NLCS and the World Series MVPs. Not a bad pitcher at all. I like th fact that Topps was able to stay with the '60 Topps mugshot motif and still get an interesting background with the stadium press boxes over his shoulder.

4 points

#2 08 Heritage High Ryan Ludwick

Quad-A player who finally broke through last year. Nice posed swing as he stares off into the distance gazing at his FUTURE. The spring training scoreboard and ads don't hurt neither.

2 points

#4 09 Goudey Carlos Guillen

This card is hideous. I totally understand Carlos isn't Brad Pitt or anything, but did Upper Deck really need to make him look like Quasimodo wearing pajamas? Ugh, this card disgusts me.

0 points

After one round:

2009 Heritage 4 - 2008 Heritage High Series 2 - 2009 Goudey 0.

Jackie vs. Mickey: Teh Winnar

Chris Carpenter won in a rout so as promised, I picked up a pack of series 2 with Robinson on the wrapper when I stopped by the card shop for some bubble mailers today. Here are the results:

453 Javier Valentin

Full catcher's gear throwin out a RUNNER! Awwww yeah.

520 Adrian Gonzalez

Does he have a nickname? 22 homers in two months you need a nickname. Gonzo perhaps? A-Gon? Skippy? Yeah, that sounds right. Skippy with the mighty cut.

583 Francisco Cordero

The joys of cropping. I think part of my obsession with this is that I'm becoming an old geezer very quickly and the eyes (which were never good to begin with) are starting to go.

607 Jarrod Washburn
636 Armando Galarraga
Not interesting enough for scans.

416 Josh Whitesell RC

The red jersey and border and orange dirt make this a nifty looking card. Is he playing on Mars or something? Did the bag get swiped by a Mars rover?

606 Nick Johnson black border #17/58

These black border cards are nifty. I like the sparkly on the border. I've got an autographed minor league ball of Nick in my collection for some reason. It seemed like a good deal at the time.

TTT48 Blech.
536 Khalil Greene
Boring

325 Jim Thome

Posed shot of a 500 home run hitter! Do this more often Topps!

595 Vernon Wells

Crash imminent!

Pretty good pack, it was the last Jackie in the box too. Lots of David Wright packs in the box for some unknown reason.

As for the next war, 17 of you wanted to see Jumbo packs of Topps and UD, 5 of you wanted to see a 1989 Topps 100 card pack fight with a First Edition basketball blaster, 7 preverts wanted me to make love not war and the winner with 25 votes was...

2009 Topps Heritage Jumbo

vs. 2009 Upper Deck Goudey Jumbo

But wait, there's more! A third party has jumped into the ring!!!

2008 Topps Baseball Updates and Highlights presents 2009 Topps Heritage High Number Series with Three Completely Superfluous Updates and Highlights Cards Per Jumbo Pack!!! AND GUUUUUM!!!!!111ONE

A three way battle for Retro Supremacy! I think the High Series pack may have snuck in a FOREIGN OBJECT! Stay tuned for this one folks! But don't hold your breath, I have 46 cards to scan for this thing. I'll start this puppy by Monday at the latest.

Dilemma

So when I bought that box of Timelines from Dave & Adam's, they send me a coupon good for $10 off a $50 purchase this month. The coupon expires in three days. Also, if I order today there's free shipping if I order over fifty bucks worth of stuff. So, Heritage High Numbers is $51.95. If I use the coupon, I can get it for $41.95 which is right around the price I was waiting for the awful stuff to drop to anyway. Problem is, I don't like this product, even though it's Heritage. I don't like Fukudome, I have a ton of Bruce already and Evan Longoria's first cards were from 2006, sorry Rays fans. But, it's a good deal and it's Heritage. But, all the 2009 stuff comes out next week and I might want to just save my money. A little help here folks?

2008 Topps Baseball Updates & Highlights Presents 2008 Topps Heritage High Numbers Series Review

So there I was in the card aisle. I was staring at the blaster of - let's just call it High Series - in my hand. Looking deeply into the pretty blue package cluttered with too many words and logos. Looking at the three sample cards of Jay Bruce, Evan Longoria and, ugh, the Topps card of Kosuke Fukudome. Flipping the box over to look at the odds, and the offer of gum in every pack, and the groups of possible relic cards. Just looking at it. And not putting it in my basket. Looking at the other stuff on the shelf. Old baseball I don't want. Lots of football I don't want. Loose packs of Timelines. Blister packs of Stadium Club. A whole lotta nothin. I looked at the blaster one more time... and put it back on the shelf.

Now why the hell would an admitted junkie pass up a fix of what is usually the really good stuff and go wandering towards the produce aisle instead?

Is it the lousy checklist?
Is it the two unwanted Updates & Highlights cards per pack?
Have I been trained to start lusting for 2009 Heritage each December instead?
Is it that horrible, wretched gum?
Is it the fact that it seems like Topps just mailed this one in?
Am I bitter that I want Bowman Heritage and Topps gave me this??
Is it all of the above?

I don't know what it is, but I looked at that box of Heritage High Numbers and didn't feel even remotely interested in opening it. There wasn't even a bonus insert box topper to sweeten the pot. It just felt like Topps just knew we would buy Heritage no matter how shoddy a product it was so they just pooted out an inferior product and sat back to wait for our money to roll in. Will I eventually get desperate enough for a Heritage fix to buy a blaster? Maybe. There was a first series Heritage box there too and I was more tempted to get it instead just for the short prints. You know... be careful what you wish for. I raked '52 rookies over the coals for their laziness in design, but you know what? Another series of that would be better than this. At least '52 Rookies had the guts to give us only 6 cards a pack without trying to insult our intelligence by inserting two Updates & Highlights cards (undercutting their own product by the way) that we didn't really want.

So do I hate Heritage now? No, I love Heritage. If I saw a big pile of commons from High Series in a nickel box I'd snap 'em all up. Buying packs though.. I just don't know. If any one of the problems with the set were fixed - a checklist not comprised of bench players, team cards and rookies - no #$^@% Topps cards in the pack - something, ANYTHING, special to chase other than short prints, the same inserts from the base set and the occasional relic which you rarely find in a blaster anyway - even gum that didn't taste like rotten vegetables - I might be ripping a hobby box right now. As it is though... I don't know. Maybe I'll just wait a few months and see how far the price drops.

5 Packs of Heritage High Series

I was not expecting to find this at the card shop yesterday. I went in specifically to get a monster box to try to organize my doubles for trade and to pick up a pack of Timelines for a post I'm working on. So I walk in and a box of blue packs are staring me in the face. Dammit. I don't have the money for a box. I wasn't expecting this for at least a couple of weeks and it really took me by surprise. I ponied up for 6 packs and went on my merry way. The first pack I ripped can be found here. I did pretty well actually, with a Jermaine Dye jersey and what I think is a short print. I haven't seen an official Short Print list, but the indispensable ToppsHeritage.com has both a checklist and a short print list up on his site. If that's correct there are no Braves in the short prints, hooray!

Here's the lowdown on the set. It's a 220 card update to the main set, numbered 501-720. There are 35 short prints and 35 black back variations. There are three insert sets: 10 Flashbacks, 10 Then & Now and 15 Rookie Performers. There are also 100 more Chrome cards numbered C201 to C300. These can be found in regular, refractor and black border refractor versions. There are also autographed Real One cards and Clubhouse collection relic cards. Box Toppers are the same as the fist set, 3 card advertising panels in every box and a foil stamped buy back card in every other box. Other than the smaller set size and the two Topps cards per pack, the setup is pretty close to the original Heritage set. The checklist is filled with rookies and not-quite-star players though, dont' expect any Howards orA-Rods or Pujols in this set.

Here's 5 hobby packs, I guess retail packs will be out in a couple of weeks. I'm crossing my fingers for T205 mini cards in the Target packs again. Topps Update & Highlights cards will be marked in blue in these rips so you can easily ignore them.

Pack 1:
516 Salomon Torres
552 Jose Castillo
561 Mike Aviles RC
581 Gabe Kapler
665 Texas Rangers
612 Jeff Baker RC
UH100 Jay Bruce
UH11 Matt Holliday All Star

Aaaaand we're off. This was a good Milwaukee pack with Salomon Torres and Gabe Kapler. The Giants damn near ruined Solomon in 1993, I'm glad to see his career's back on track. Gabe Kapler is another good story from this year. For some reason Mike Aviles is in the Rookie Stars design and Jeff Baker is not. I'm not sure why Topps didn't just use that design for all rookies this year, unless they are saying that those other rookies suck. I'd go after Eisner with a baseball bat if I were you Jeff. Admittedly, Aviles had the better season, he just won a Topps Rookie Cup. One thing that gnawed at the back of my brain about the Heritage, um, Low Numbers set was that some teams didn't get Team cards. I guess Topps had it planned out the whole time to put some of them in the high series. the card has a checklist on the back and looking it over there is NOT much to speak of in this set other than the rookies. From cards 679-720 the biggest name I see is Kenny Rogers. The checklist also shows the Rookie Performers inset set. Since I have nothing better to do, here it is:

RP1 Clayton Kershaw
RP2 Mike Aviles
RP3 Armondo Galarraga
RP4 Joey Votto
RP5 Kosuke Fukudome
RP6 Chris Davis
RP7 Jeff Samardzija
RP8 Carlos Gonzalez
RP9 Max Scherzer
RP10 Evan Longoria
RP11 Johnny Cueto
RP12 Hiroki Kuroda
RP13 John Bowker
RP14 Justin Masterson
RP15 Jay Bruce

I was about to mention I've pulled my fourth Jay Bruce U&H card, but no one wants to hear about them, do they? Let us speak of them no more.

Pack 2:
684 Jo-Jo Reyes
568 Damion Easley
521 Angel Pagan
679 Erick Aybar
629 Dennis Sarfate
592 Mike Hampton Black Back
UH45 Eric Hurley RC UH227 Carlos Quentin All Star

Ahhh crap. I thought we were done with the back backs after I didn't get one in the first two packs. At least it's Hampy. So is this a parallel or what? I guess I'll have to do some research this weekend on the short prints and black backs. Other than the two Braves there is absolutely nothign exciting about the rest of this pack. EXCEPT... Dennis Sarfate's cartoon. Best Cartoon In The Set. This cartoon will be incorporated into the ambiance of the blog eventually.

Pack 3:
647 Matt Macri RC
578 Carlos Gonzalez RC
611 Max Ramirez RC
613 Houston Astros
TN3 Then & Now Larry Sherry & Mike Lowell
C235 Vicente Padilla Chrome #1862/1959
UH75 Matt Treanor UH105 Dan Giese

Three rookies, one team, a Then & Now and a Chrome. Interesting mix there. I've never seen two inserts inside a pack of Heritage ever before. Not that I can remember, anyway. Max Ramirez doesn't get a Rookie Stars card this time while Macri and Gonzalez make fun of him. Topps is just cruel sometimes. Adding to the strangeness is the fact that teh Rookie Stars are scattered all over the checklist instead of being put all together like in the low series. Second Checklist pops up here, this time of cards 501-560. A couple of names really pop out on this checklist: Cliff Lee and Mike Mussina. I also spy Jair Jurrjens which makes me happy and a Curtis Granderson which will make the gals at Dinged Corners happy. I'm 0-for-3 on short prints according to ToppsHeritage.com's list. They are supposed to be in every third pack so I'm getting scrooged. Alo one in three packs are Chrome cards. Lord help the poor sap who decided to build that set back in February. He gets to chase 'em in three sets now, Heritage, Chrome and High Series. No 2008 stats on the back, but Padilla's card does mention his double digit wins in '08. The Then & Now card is pretty neat, it features the 1959 and 2007 World Series MVPs. Maybe we'll see Maz and Hamels on a card next year?

Pack 4:
656 Pablo Sandoval RC
604 Fernando Tatis
564 Chris Burke
658 Arizona Diamondbacks
643 Jeff Mathis
594 Joe Mather RC
UH201 Travis Denker UH192 Craig Hansen

YES! Checklist trifecta! Zona has the checklist for cards 621-678 on the back. Eeecch. This set has NO ONE in it. Joe Crede is the best on this list and Moose is the King of the Set. Yeah, ok, fine. Rookies. Longoria, Bruce, Cueto, Flopudome. Whateva. I sure hope that SP checklist is wrong 'cause I suck at pulling short prints right now.

Pack 5:
510 Joe Saunders
720 Ivan Ochoa RC
678 Alex Romero RC
545 Justin Masterson RC
672 Taylor Teagarden RC Black Back
C212 Ryan Ludwick Chrome #1393/1956
UH143 CHIPPER JONES 400th Home Run UH57 Ramon Castro

Four rookies, one trick card #720 that looks like it should be a short print but isn't, a Chrome and a Chipper. Not a bad pack although I still don't know what's up with those damn black backs. Ludwick came out of nowhere to hit 37 bombs this year and the Braves are reportedly giving him a look over to man left field next year. The rumor is that the Braves would trade Kelly Johnson for him, but if the Peavy deal truly is dead I wouldn't be surprised if Escobar goes to the Cardinals. He seems to be in Bobby's doghouse and the Braves have their eye on bringing back Rafael Furcal as well. I don't know who the hell is going to pitch if we don't get Peavy though, but interesting stuff is happening at least in the Hot Stove. I don't have much to say about the rest of these guys other that Teagarden's cartoon is unique in that it continues the story in the text to its left. It actually doesn't make sense without reading the story, something I haven't noticed on any other card in this set. I said I wasn't going to discuss the U&H cards, but......

Chipper.

ChipperChipperChipperChipperChipper.

Chipper.

That is all.

Totals from 6 packs:
28 Base cards
1 Short print (?) - Seth McClung
2 Black back parallels - Mike Hampton, Taylor Teagarden
2 Chrome - Ryan Ludwick, Vicente Padilla
1 Then & Now - Larry Sherry & Mike Lowell
1 Clubhouse Collection Jersey - Jermaine Dye

So... it's Heritage. Looks like Heritage, smells like Heritage, tastes like Heritage but with a little bitter foil aftertaste that rubbed off from the Topps cards. If you've never opened a pack of Heritage in your life and were interested in trying a pack, RUN! RUN FAR AWAY!! RUN AND HIDE! YOU DON'T WANT THIS!!! If you've already got a binder full of the stuff and two monster boxes filled with the 2001-2007 Heritage sets then yeah, you'll buy it. If you have the binder full of Heritage and just bought two boxes of Updates & Highlights to finish that set, you'll still buy it anyway and will mutter curses under your breath when opening every pack. Dennis Sarfate's cartoon sums up how I would like to express my feelings about the Updates & Highlights cards to Topps.

Someone out there will understand.

2008 Topps Heritage High Number Series is Live

It arrived at the local card shop yesterday. I'm typing up a pack rip over at A Pack A Day now, I'll have a five pack rip up here later this evening.

UPDATE: Ok, the pack's up. Stay tuned if you want to see some more this evening.

2008 Topps Heritage High Numbers Edition

Reader Chris just pointed out this cryptic Pre-Sell for 2008 Topps Heritage High Numbers Edition. I can't find any info on this online, but it states in the ad that it releases around November 17th. $65 a box, 24 packs a box, 8 cards a pack. Sounds like a normal Heritage box to me... Has Topps ditched '52 Rookies and replaced it with Heritage Series 2? Is this why they killed off Bowman Heritage? My Topps Heritage binder is already pretty full... I may have to upgrade now. Man, I hope this isn't the new '52 Rookies... Can you imagine an entire set full of gaudy '59 Rookie Stars? My eyes hurt just thinking about it.

In other news The sell sheets for 2008 Updates & Highlights are out if you're interested. You can check them out in a .pdf file here or in .jpg form here. (I'd go with the .jpgs) I'm still pissed at Topps for fucking up their base set, but the finally show a Kosuke Fukudome rookie, and a couple of sweet Chipper Jones cards in the sell sheet so it's worth a look.