Mr. Tiger

The last time I did a single-card post from 1962 Topps, it was a much happier occasion. That was the day I acquired a real Mickey Mantle card, and I couldn't wait to share my find with the community. Today, however, we mourn the passing of Al Kaline, one of the all-time greats in Detroit Tigers history. He was 85.

1962 Topps #150 Al Kaline

Prior to that Mantle, the most money I'd ever spent on a single baseball card was this, Al Kaline's card from 1962 Topps. It was $40 at Jerry's Sportscards, which once stood on a nearby street corner that is now occupied by a Walgreens. It's no longer there, of course, but if it were, it would be within walking distance of my front door.

How times have changed.

Judging by how much I've spent on 1962 cards, one could easily make the argument that this is my all-time favorite set. This particular example is in pretty good shape, and though it's ungraded, it's probably about a sharp as that Mantle. And even on a vintage card like this, I can't help but notice the slight oddities in the photo, like the fact that Kaline is "swinging" someone else's bat. Kaline clearly wore #6, which was retired by the Tigers in 1980, the same year he was inducted into the Hall of Fame. But the bat appears to have #24 on the knob, belonging to rookie Frank Kostro.

Speaking of that retired uniform number, he was so beloved by Detroit that he was the first Tiger to ever be honored in such a fashion. Greenberg's and Gehringer's numbers were both still in circulation until 1983.

On the card back, Topps has a cartoon showing a left-handed batter ready to step up to the plate, framed by a pitcher holding a ball. Kaline was a righty, so clearly the cartoon isn't truly personalized, unless they're trying to show him in the on-deck circle or something. Under that, we're told that Kaline had played in ten All-Star games. He was at that magical age of 27 in 1962, right in the prime of his career and a year after leading the AL in doubles. He'd go on to play in a whopping eighteen All-Star games before calling it quits in 1974.

We've lost a few baseball stars in the past couple weeks. Jimmy Winn. Ed Farmer. And now Al Kaline. Under normal circumstances, I'd probably think that was a group of three, and we'd get a reprieve for a little while. But given the current state of the world, these kinds of posts might sadly become a bit more common in the months ahead.

Rest In Peace, Mr. Tiger.

The Trading Post #104: Dime Boxes (Part 2: Random Goodies)

Last time I posted, the League Championship Series were just getting underway. Today, the World Series started, featuring an old NL West matchup between the Astros and Dodgers. It's shaping up to be an interesting series already, as the temperature at gametime was 103°F. That's a scorcher, and much, much warmer than Game 3 of the 2007 World Series, where it was so cold the vendors were selling hot chocolate in the aisles of Coors Field.

My Rockies are long since out of it, and I'm not sure how far they would have made it even if they won the Wild Card game. But I have plenty of cards to write about, such as the team bag of "Random Goodies" that Dime Box Nick included in a recent trade. Unlike the long part 1 post, there are no Rockies to be found in this one, but it's a quintessential Nick trade package.

2017 Donruss #173b Daniel Murphy SP ("Murph" Black and White)

As luck would have it, I commented first on one of his frankenset posts, voting for a Wilson Alvarez card, who was a member of the White Sox in 1993, the first Postseason I ever watched. Or at least the first one I remember watching. That comment earned me a "little something special", starting off with a short print from 2017 Donruss featuring Daniel Murphy. The runner-up for the NL batting title in two straight years is referred to by his nickname "Murph" in a classic Donruss script font.

That nickname reminds me more of Matthew McConaughey's daughter in Interstellar, but I don't regularly listen to Nationals broadcasts, so maybe they really do call him that. Still, it doesn't quite have the same ring as "The Duke of Flatbush" or "Charlie Hustle", players who also got a short-printed variation in 2017 Donruss.

2015 Topps Update Chrome #US377 Taijuan Walker

Like Daniel Murphy, Taijuan Walker exited the postseason in the NLDS, of course earlier than he intended. The former Mariner had a disastrous outing in Game 1 of the NLDS, giving up four runs in the first inning. He got through the first, if you can call it that, but the bullpen took over to start the second inning, and the Diamondbacks didn't muster much of an offense against the Dodgers.

I've been hearing hype about Taijuan Walker for a long time, even picking him for my fantasy team a few years ago. He does have a .500 winning percentage in his five seasons, but I think he's past the "Future Stars" stage of his career. Star or not, I'll add a sparkly card like this from Topps Chrome any day of the week. It's not even a parallel; all the Chrome Update cards that year looked like this. And judging by the cold reception that 2017 Update has received, Topps might want to do something similar to jazz up the set.

Or put Chris Taylor in the set. The guy did just hit Dallas Keuchel's first World Series pitch for a long home run in Dodger Stadium.

2017 Stadium Club Black Foil #18 Fernando Rodney

This Stadium Club card tears at me in two directions. It is a Stadium Club card, and it's a black parallel, which goes quite well with the Diamondbacks uniform colors. But on the other hand, it's no secret that I'm not a big fan of the D-Backs, and Fernando Rodney might be my least-favorite player in all of baseball. There's never a dull moment when he's on the mound, which is fine when you're a Rockies fan, but it's nerve wracking to watch. And this sideways thing he and Pedro Strop do with their caps makes me cringe a bit.

2016 Topps Amazing Milestones #AM-05 Nolan Ryan

Despite his long and storied career, Nolan Ryan played in just nine postseason games. Some of those were in 1969, when he won the World Series with the Miracle Mets, but he never won another Postseason series. He has ties to the Astros organization right now, but he suffered some hard luck when he was CEO of the Rangers franchise earlier this decade.

Of course, he's well known for his eye-popping total of 5,714 strikeouts, which is the subject of this Amazing Milestones insert card. It's a staggering number, but I won't necessarily call it unbreakable. Randy Johnson fell short by close to a thousand when he retired, but the way strikeouts are piling up more and more in today's game, it's not inconceivable that someone might beat that. On the other hand, Rickey Henderson's stolen base record is probably safe, and coincidentally, Rickey was Nolan's 5,000th strikeout victim in 1989, as this card tells us.

2016 Topps Pink #237 Carlos Ruiz /50

The smoke effect of 2016 Topps is replaced by a pattern of small hexagons and "2016 Topps" lettering on colored parallels, just like you might have seen in Opening Day. When it's pink, that means it's pretty rare, and if you flip this foilboard card over, you'll see a silver serial number to just 50 copies! This one is rare enough that I'll probably put it in a toploader rather than a binder.

Horizontal cards are always welcome, and I particularly like that we're staring directly down the barrel of a TV camera in the background. And it's always a bonus when the parallel color matches the team colors reasonably well. The shades are rarely exactly perfect, but close enough, I say.

1991 Stadium Club #388 Jeff Bagwell (RC)

A very young-looking Jeff Bagwell was a highlight of 1991's inaugural Stadium Club set, marking the year when Topps starting taking their upstart competition seriously. Full bleed, gold foil, a colorful back. Put yourself in your 1991 shoes and remember how amazing (and expensive) this card once was. It was cutting edge, and let's not forget that we're looking at 1991's NL Rookie of the Year, back when the Astros were still in the NL West. Or in the National League at all, for that matter.

The Hall of Famer wasn't always a big-leaguer. Once upon a time, even future MVPs had to take practice next to the metal bleachers behind the school. 1991 wasn't that long ago, and while Heritage still gives us images like this, it's hard to picture a current flagship card showing us such humble beginnings. Let's be honest, this doesn't look too different from our Little League team photos, does it?

2016 Topps Archives Bull Durham #BD-T Tony / Tom Silardi

Nick finds oddballs better than just about anyone. I realize this is an official Topps insert set from Archives, but it's just whimsical enough to qualify as an oddball in my book. Topps accurately used the 1988 design for their Bull Durham insert set, starring none other than Kevin Costner, the king of baseball movies. The '88 film has plenty of memorable scenes, including the rainout scene, where Tony, the subject of this card, wants a day off in the middle of a dry spell. Crash Davis sabotages the sprinkler system, and minor league antics ensure.

There's already been a Major League insert set, and with the number of baseball movies out there, Topps could milk this idea for years to come. You can bet that I'd chase a Terence Mann card from Field of Dreams. Or maybe a Danny Hemmerling card from Angels in the Outfield, featuring a young Adrien Brody.

2017 Topps MLB Network #MLBN-10 Dan Plesac

So I guess the question before us is this: can Topps make an oddball? They're the only licensed brand left, and they're practically synonymous with the hobby, at least from a postwar standpoint. But this is the second guy in a suit and tie to make it onto the blog this month, and both have been Topps cards. Most of my Dan Plesac cards show him in a Brewers uniform, where he's the career leader for Milwaukee in ERA, saves, and a few other categories. But now he's part of the MLB Network crew, with a card that somehow looks less like a TV graphic than some recent Topps sets.

The photo is rather fuzzy, just like Tony's card from Bull Durham. Topps might be using some inferior screen captures for these cards, and it's conspicuous considering how sharp Topps Bunt cards look to my eye. So yes, even though they're the juggernaut of the industry, my vote is that there can be oddball Topps cards.

Discuss.

2006 Greats of the Game Nickname Greats Autographs #NG-JM John Montefusco The Count (AU)

It's been all Topps so far, but Fleer got in on the action, too. Here's a beautiful autograph from Giants pitcher John Montefusco, a player I must admit I'd never heard of. "The Count" was 1975's NL Rookie of the Year, but had somehow escaped my baseball knowledge until now. I forget where, but I just saw another card from this set on another blog recently, and judging by today's nicknames, I doubt we'll see a set like this anytime soon featuring current players. As much as Donruss insists, I just don't see "Murph" showing up on a sticker autograph.

Bonus points to this card for giving us just a tiny bit of gold foil on the back, in the form of a Fleer logo.

1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes #179 Don Baylor

There's an error on this card. It's not that Don Baylor is pictured with a Rockies hat, as he was managing the young club when this card was printed. It's not a flipped negative or anything like that. The error can be unearthed in the paragraph on the back, where Baylor is said to have been hit by 244 pitches in his career. That number happens to be incorrect.

It's just one of those statistics etched into the baseball area of my brain, but Don Baylor was hit by 267 pitches. This was mentioned rather frequently in early Rockies TV broadcasts, and is rather difficult to forget once you hear it. I also remember when Craig Biggio took over this record, and these guys must have nerves of steel. My career HBP in little league was about two. Once on the helmet, once on the elbow. That was about enough for me. And I was not facing Major League pitching. I imagine that would look something like an old Western, where a single shotgun blast sends a bad guy tumbling backwards through a wooden wall and into a trough.

1980 Kellogg's #56 Don Baylor

That familiar-looking UD card highlights Baylor's MVP 1979 season. Kellogg's gave him a card in their 1980 set, and the fragile plastic has only picked up a single crack in over 35 years. No Angel had won the MVP award before Baylor, and only Vladimir Guerrero and of course Mike Trout have picked up the award since. The back has the old California Angels logo, which is just the outline of California with "Angels" written vertically down the state, a little halo up at the Oregon coastal border, and a tiny star right in Anaheim.

Kellogg's was giving us middle names of players before Donruss was around to educate us, and I'm glad to have a couple new cards of Donald Edward Baylor, who passed away just a few months ago.

1964 Beatles Black and White #145 John, Paul, George, Ringo

Further to my point that Topps can make oddballs, Nick found a card of The Fab Four from 1964, the year The Beatles became a worldwide sensation. Nick is a huge Beatles fan, so I'm not surprised that he sent me something like this. The back is plain, containing little more than the card number and copyright date, and this particular example has a bit of adhesive tape residue on both sides, and a little conveniently-located paper loss on the front.

Not to mention a facsimile signature of John Lennon.

I'm sure a rock-and-roll buff could pinpoint this photograph quite accurately, the way we baseball nuts can find out which game George Brett's sunset card is from. I'm not that expert, but I'm happy to add a card from the most influential rock band in history to my collection.

1969 Topps #285 Don Mincher

Many of my Seattle Pilots cards are really hastily rebranded Brewers cards. And the others probably came from Nick. I have a half page worth of 1970 cards, but the expansion draft took place in late 1968. That gave Topps enough time to get an actual Pilots team set together for the 1969 set, but not with new jerseys. Rockies and Marlins collectors in 1993 ran into that a lot. Don Mincher (another player I'd never heard of) is an airbrushed California Angel, selected in the 1968 draft just a few years after the Angels themselves came into existence.

That led me to wonder how the Rockies and Marlins fared in the 1997 Expansion Draft to stock the newly-created Diamondbacks and Devil Rays, and it turns out that two of the first four picks came from the Marlins and Rockies. Tony Saunders was taken first overall from Florida, then the Rockies lost Quinton McCracken in fourth. Both teams had playoff appearances under their belt by then, and the Marlins were fresh off a World Series championship.

I wasn't really collecting in 1998, nor did I have much geographic proximity to either of the new teams, but I remember the card industry being a lot more focused on the Rockies and Marlins than on the Diamondbacks and Devil Rays.

Of course, I obviously wasn't collecting in 1969, either. Although I did find it interesting to see that the Padres, Expos, Pilots, and Royals all had to stay in their respective leagues for the '68 draft, and Mincher went second overall on the AL side of things.

And it was a much safer draft than some other drafts that took place in the late 1960s, if you get my meaning.

1962 Topps #133 Felipe Alou

I'll never know why a past owner of this 1962 Topps card decided to mark it with a large "W" in ballpoint pen, but it's a prominent feature. Felipe Alou would later go on to manage the team he used to play for, as well as one of those '68 expansion teams, and also presided over one of the worst baserunning blunders in baseball history.

I notice that these older sets were more likely to talk about a player's minor league performance. This was Alou's fifth Major League season, but the card back mentions his 1958 Pacific Coast League season, and his cartoon calls out his league-leading.380 batting average from his time in the Class-D Florida State League in 1956. .380 is great and all, but wasn't there anything he did on the 1958-1961 Giants besides have a brother on the same team?

Even Mickey Mantle's 1962 card was not immune. Despite Mantle winning six World Series rings by then, numerous consecutive All-Star appearances, a Triple Crown (which the paragraph at least mentions), and leading the league in pretty much everything for a decade, the cartoon could do no better than to feature Mantle's .383 average in the Western Association with Class-C Joplin in 1950.

Suddenly some design gripes here and there on modern cards don't seem so bad.

By the way, I also checked Al Kaline's 1962 card. Kaline never played in the Minors, according to the back, so Topps had no choice but to make the cartoon about his 10 All-Star appearances.

Regardless of any, um, customization that was done to this card, and despite some less-than-relevant statistics, it's my favorite vintage Topps set ever. I'll forgive a lot for a woodgrain design, apparently.

You never know where these vintage cards will take you. I hadn't even heard of two of these guys before. As well as you think you know this sport, or this hobby, there's always more to learn. And Nick is a great guide.

At least the cards are getting older, too.

I celebrated a birthday some months ago, and I'm just now getting around to writing about what I unwrapped that day, mostly cards I picked out at a card show in late February. A lot has gone on since then, including my recent overnight trip up to Nebraska to see a particular celestial event.

I'm not sure how many of you had the good fortune to see the mind-blowing spectacle that is a total solar eclipse, but it is a wondrous sight to behold. I'm glad the stars aligned (pun not intended) on Monday, offering me cloudless skies and an opportunity to stay with some wonderful hosts not far from Chimney Rock, right along the Oregon Trail.

Rather than brave the apocalyptic traffic back to Denver right away, I elected to explore a few more sights in Western Nebraska, still close enough to my home state that most everyone is a Rockies and Broncos fan. Before I headed back, I stopped in a local bar for a bite to eat, and ended up chatting with a regular who used to know Richie Ashburn. He also mentioned the name Zane Smith, who went to North Platte High School, just a bit north of there. Eclipses and baseball are the great unifiers, offering two total strangers plenty of conversation material in a mostly empty agricultural downtown.

1965 Topps #510 Ernie Banks

One of those Nebraskans shares some space in Cooperstown with Ernie Banks, depicted on this beautiful 1965 Topps card. Mr. Cub's career was winding down a bit by this point, but he still had a few All-Star selections left. A cute cartoon of a bear on the back is holding a sign with Banks' then-total of 376 career home runs, on his way to 512.

This card has a little ding along the left edge, but it's from perhaps the most iconic Topps set of the 1960s, offering us an interesting profile shot of Banks.

1962 Topps #139A2 Babe Ruth Special 5 (No Pole variant)

All the cards in this post came from the same vintage dealer as these cards, a nice older gentleman named Roy (Ray?), whose table has become one of my favorite stops at the monthly card show. He has a terrific selection of vintage at all price points, and if any of you are in the Denver area on the last Saturday of a month, I urge you to take a look. You won't be disappointed, especially when you can pull Babe Ruth retrospectives from the famous woodgrain set of 1962 Topps for just a couple bucks. Over a half-century after this card was printed, and darn near a hundred years later, Babe Ruth is still revered as one of the best home-run hitters of all time. The 60 home runs he famously hit in 1927 (while earning a whopping $70,000 salary), remains, in the eyes of many, the asterisk-free home run record.

Aaron Judge has cooled off significantly, instead striking out in a near-record 37 consecutive games, but Giancarlo Stanton has been going on an absolute tear after the Derby, getting his season total up to 49 with over a month left to play. Maybe, just maybe, Stanton will give us fans the asterisk-free home run record we've all been waiting 90 years to see broken.

I didn't know this until I looked it up on Beckett, but apparently there is a version of this card out there that doesn't show any dirt in the home plate area, and also shows a pole in the left-hand area of the image. Not sure which is more scarce, but even in the early 1960s, Topps had some work to do after the printing process started.

1955 Topps #85 Don Mossi (RC)

It wasn't just Hall of Famers in the vintage bin, each one safely tucked in a toploader. I managed to find one of Don Mossi, one of the Cardsphere's favorite mid-century players. This one is my first-ever from the 1955 Topps set, and it's really surprising how sharp and vibrant this card still looks after all these years, especially the back. That card back mentions that Mossi moved to the bullpen for his 1954 rookie season, after pitching as a starter during his previous seasons in the Minors. Mossi and his Cleveland Indians even won the AL pennant in 1954, which is where he made his only postseason appearance. The New York Giants won that Series, a team that Monte Irvin played on, whose card I also purchased from the same dealer.

This one and its 1955 Bowman counterpart are considered Mossi's rookie cards, and I couldn't have paid more than a couple bucks for this one either. It's a great choice to finally give 1955 Topps a home in my collection.

1956 Topps #99 Don Zimmer

Same goes for 1956 Topps, again setting me back just $2.00. '56, of course, marks the first appearance of action artwork on a Topps card, and it really makes it come to life. That famous blue "B" of the Brooklyn Dodgers appears in a couple spots, and let's not forget that this card was printed the year after the Dodgers finally won a World Series, the only time they'd do so in Brooklyn, thanks in part to Don Zimmer's "timely hitting". They won it all again in 1959, giving Zimmer his second ring as a player, but that was after the team moved to Los Angeles and found lots more success on the West Coast. The way things are looking for them this year, there's a strong possibility they'll bring home another title.

Topps, of course, was founded in Brooklyn, and to have the team ripped away just a few years into the company's unbroken run of baseball card sets must have been traumatic. Yet they helped bring baseball to a new generation of Americans, and I can picture buying a pack of these for a nickel in the drugstore that surely once occupied the dusty main street in Nebraska I recently found myself on. 

1954 Topps #9 Harvey Haddix

Going back another year to the three-border 1954 set, we have a card of Harvey Haddix, right in the middle of his three consecutive All-Star appearances. This one was a bit pricier at $5, but I couldn't pass up the player who famously pitched 12 perfect innings yet lost the game in the 13th. Anyone who saw Rich Hill's last outing must surely understand how frustrating a lack of run support is.

As you can see, these are all a little off-center, the corners are all a little fuzzy, and there's a touch of paper loss here and there. But all in all, none of these were used in bicycle spokes, and that's good enough for me.

1955 Bowman #160 Bill Skowron

I added to my 1955 Bowman collection by acquiring a card of Bill "Moose" Skowron, the longtime first baseman of the New York Yankees. Like most players in this post, Skowron's career was just getting started when this card was printed. He had yet to win his five World Series rings (four as a Yankee), but already turned in an impressive .340 batting average in his rookie year of 1954, continuing the sharp Minor League hitting this card tells us about. 

That's two woodgrain cards added to the collection, and at an extremely affordable price.

I can't help but chuckle a little bit at the "Color TV" label underneath the painting. This card was prophetic, as Skowron and his Yankees faced off against the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1955 World Series, which was the first World Series broadcast in color. Now it seems like a given, of course in color, but also in ultra-sharp high definition. We're all pretty much surrounded by screens now, TVs, phones, tablets, and of course the screens on which we type out these blogs (except for the occasional handwritten post).

My mom generously purchased all the above cards I picked out as a birthday present, but I did drop a little extra cash on one more 1954 card.

1954 Topps #239 Bill Skowron (RC)

Continuing the Yankee show, Roy offered me Skowron's rookie card for $40, which I accepted. 1954 is my favorite set from the 1950s, and the general design gave me my first quasi-exposure to vintage, thanks to the 1994 Topps Archives 54 set. My local Wal-Mart carried packs of that set, out of which came my greatest pull ever, and my dad had an interest in the same set, often leafing through cards on display when he took me to the baseball card store. But I still have a hard time spending that much on a single card. Only the 1962 Al Kaline and the famous 1962 Mantle in my collection cost more. But it's still in great shape, and who knows, my dad may have had a card just like this.

And it's still way cheaper than those Griffey Gold Medallion parallels that occupy space in The Junior Junkie's vault.

Incidentally, having purchased two cards of a single player, I noticed that at least one of these had an error. This 1954 card lists Skowron's birthdate as December 30th, 1928, but the Bowman card says December 18th, 1930. Babe Ruth's 1927 single-season home run record was in place regardless, but Bowman is the one who got it right.

Sadly, of all the players in this post, only Don Mossi is still with us. These cards are pretty old, but as I look back on my 33rd birthday, it's a good reminder that time does pass by quickly, and, unlike when I first started collecting, the feeling that I have my whole life ahead of me is in the rear-view mirror.

All the more reason I had no intention of missing the solar eclipse, that rarest, most fleeting, and most amazing of events.

Buster Posey's Good Friend

Last month, I entered a contest at Red Cardboard, where four others and I came out as winners, giving us the opportunity to draft for about 115 cards. It was an interesting and thoughtful process, once I was kindly informed by the blog owner that I had actually won. Sorry for the delay on that. Anyway, I obviously didn't end up with all my top choices, but still got a nice little stack of cards, mostly of the Reds, but with a few other teams mixed in.

2011 Topps Update Gold #US207 Jay Bruce /2011

I've always liked Topps Gold, and I jumped at the chance for a few serial-numbered Topps cards, including this one from 2011 Update. There are always lots of All Star game cards to be found in Update, and that often means cameos. Behind Jay Bruce, who was recently traded to the Mets, Andrew McCutchen can be seen celebrating with Buster Posey's Good Friend Hunter Pence.

Why would I say it like that? This was from a broadcast blunder by Jon Miller earlier this year, when he misattributed a home run call and then changed it at the last second. It's quite amusing. Pence was on the Astros when this card was printed, but now is palling around with the Giants catcher, who didn't miss a beat on his Instagram.

2014 Topps Opening Day Blue #211 Mat Latos /2014

I miss Opening Day blue parallels that include serial numbers, so I picked one from 2014, the last time Topps did that. I've seen this card a lot, but I never really looked very closely at his tattoos. The first thing that jumps out at me is the baseball stitching on his left wrist. He's pitched with four different teams since then. No word on whether he's added to his tattoo collection.

2014 Topps Gold #277 Mike Leake /2014

Another serial numbered Reds pitcher (now on St. Louis) from 2014, only this one is at the plate! He may have actually put this one in play, judging from his reaction. The back has a fun fact that Leake skipped the minor leagues entirely before reaching the big leagues, and he's in the rare company of Jim Abbott and John Olerud on that count.

2010 Bowman Draft Gold #BDP59 Drew Stubbs

One more gold card, only this one doesn't have a serial number. Drew Stubbs was on the Rockies for about a season and a half, but originally came up with the Reds. He's actually had a few playoff appearances; and he might get another this year if the Rangers keep it up. Bowman Gold cards are always nice and thick, and this has a nice green border signifying it's one of the prospect cards.

1995 Ultra Gold Medallion #367 Hal Morris

In the card draft, I ended up with a few Reds that were contemporaries of the Blake Street Bombers. First baseman Hal Morris played in only 112 games in 1994, according to the back. That might not seem like much, but he only missed two games all season, as the rest got cancelled due to the strike. Fleer Ultra dialed back the gold foil for 1995, although the Gold Medallion seal does clash a little bit with the silver foil on the rest of the card. This parallel set has been popping up a lot lately, and there were two more I chose not to scan.

1997 Score Premium Stock #242 Barry Larkin

Mid-'90s parallels actually made up a significant portion of this contest win, and Score didn't miss out on the fun. It's a bit hard to read, but that seal says it's "Premium Stock", and this card does indeed feel thicker than a regular Score '97 card. I know I say this about a lot of sets, but I am pretty sure that 1997 Score was the last product I added to my collection before stepping away from the hobby. They sold it in a tin that my parents bought for me at an outlet mall, and even though it did have some neat team dividers, it was not a complete set as I had expected, and a dozen or so cards were damaged with that same ruffled pattern I found on the bottom of that miscut Tulo card.

This Score card seems to be a tiny bit off-center, which is more apparent when looking at the back. Not a big deal though, as a Hall of Famer on a premium insert card is nothing to sneeze at.

1994 Pinnacle Museum Collection #322 Jose Rijo 

Jose Rijo often gave the young Rockies fits, and he was sort of an antithesis to Barry Bonds. Rijo was always up to some antics of some kind, and this is reflected on his baseball cards, where he's often found with stethoscopes and Super Soakers (child of the '90s here). It depends on whom you ask, but Rijo underwent Tommy John surgery anywhere between two and five times. Looking at the stress a pitcher's elbow experiences during a game, its a wonder they don't all need it every other year. There's even a growing trend of preemptive TJ surgery, which sounds radical, but makes sense in a twisted way. Better to do it in college or the minors than when it can potentially affect a Major League pennant race or a multi-million dollar contract.

Rijo literally shines on one of Pinnacle's parallels with a Dufex pattern, the beacon of the Pinnacle pyramid illuminating the entire scene. If baseball cards existed during the Renaissance, they'd probably look something like that.

Munnatawket Custom #100 Ichiro Suzuki

One of the items I put pretty high in my draft selection was a small stack of custom Munnatawket Minis. I've received a few of these before, and Nachos Grande is typically involved, another Reds fan.

Card #100 is obviously a recent creation, as Ichiro has only been a Marlin since 2015. There's really no player-specific information on the back, but I continue to be impressed at the quality of these custom minis.

Munnatawket Custom #20 Mr. Met

This set even has mascots. Dinger's probably too obscure to appear in this small set, but Mr. Met gives it two thumbs up. By the way, you've heard the song, right? It's a little surprising he isn't an apple, but I'm sure that decision was made long ago.

Munnatawket Custom #32 Hunter Pence

Buster Posey's Good Friend (tm) even makes an appearance on a custom card, and this time it's as a Giant. That looks like the 2012 Champions patch on his sleeve, so I'm guessing this card came before Ichiro's. But Pence was probably buddies with Posey by then.

Serial numbered cards, 1990s parallels, and custom minis. What could be left?

1962 Topps #46 Jack Baldschun (RC)

Vintage!

The older cards I got weren't of players pictured on the Reds (or even the Redlegs, as old as one of these was), but still some great additions. I must admit that I've never heard of Jack Baldschun. The back of the card says plenty about his performance as a relief pitcher, and his cartoon mentions that he appeared in eight straight games out of the bullpen in 1961. The centering isn't great, but it's in really good shape otherwise, and will go well with my other 1962 cards, which remains my most complete vintage set at about seven cards. So I have a long way to go if I want to get that one out of the way.

At least the Mantle is off the list.

1958 Topps #409 Frank Thomas

Even older is this 1958 card of Frank Thomas. No, not the Hall of Famer that appeared in almost every insert set of the 1990s, but rather the third baseman that played for teams all over the National League, including the inaugural New York Mets. I believe this is my sixth-oldest card, and though it's in pretty rough shape, the thing is almost sixty years old. I might even stick it in a binder, since there's not much point in putting it in a toploader at this point.

In looking this card up on Beckett, the more recent Frank Thomas, aka The Big Hurt, was also given card #409 in the related 2007 Topps Heritage set. Obviously not a coincidence, but a nice nod back to the past set (unlike those infuriating short prints).

1975 Topps #204 Frank Robinson / Roberto Clemente MVP

Finally this is the card I spent my highest draft pick on that I ended up getting. That two-color design is a dead giveaway for the epic 1975 Topps set, and it features each league's MVPs from 1966, Frank Robinson and Roberto Clemente, both Hall-of-Famers.

We've all seen Topps push their Anniversary cards on us pretty strongly, 40 years in 1991, 50 years in 2001, and the ubiquitous Diamond Anniversary celebration in 2011. 1975 marked Topps' 25th anniversary, and while I never really thought of that before since this was long before my collecting career began, Topps has clearly always been pretty big on their anniversaries. They're really celebrating their 25th set rather than 25th anniversary (depends how you count it, I guess).

This was just a couple years after Clemente's tragic death in 1972, so Topps saw fit to honor his and Robinson's accomplishments with this dual-player card. 1966 marked Robinson's second MVP award, who remains the only player to win it in both leagues. He won the Triple Crown, something only Carl Yastrzemski and Miguel Cabrera have done since. And the Orioles were World Series champs that year.

Clemente had a pretty good year himself, ranking near the top of the leaderboard in RBIs, hits, triples, and average. There is a very slight error on this card, saying that Clemente played in "all" 154 Pirates games. Clemente did indeed play in 154 games in 1966, but MLB moved to a 162-game schedule in the early 1960s as part of expansion. So while the game count is correct, he must have sat out eight games. The 162-game season was still a new development in 1975, about as new as our concept of the All-Star Game winner having home field advantage in the World Series. Especially when viewed through the lens of 1966, it's an understandable mistake.

It's fun to win contests! Especially when there are five winners and you're not shut out when you're randomized to #4. Thanks to Reds Cardboard for running the contest!