Card #106: Spring Has Sprung

The weather today is beautiful. 
It is a sunny and breezy 60 degrees. 

Spring has sprung

Let's hope baseball is back soon. 

Card #103: My Very First Clemente Card

Back in 1987 I began baseball card collecting with my parents.  They would help me organize my cards, learn about the stats on the back, and figure out what cards I needed to complete my set.

It was during this time that I acquired a lot of 1987 Topps.

This is my very first Roberto Clemente card in my collection.  I plucked it from the many that were stuffed inside a 9 pocket page. 

I remember not liking this card as a kid for a couple of reasons. 

The first was that it looked a lot different than the rest of the cards in the set.

The other is that it didn't have stats on the back. 

My dad eventually told me about how great Clemente was and how he was one of the game's best players and how he made it into the Hall of Fame. 

Over time I began to like this card more.

Card #102: A 3rd Year Clemente

I am getting close to completing the Topps Flagship run from Clemente's playing days.  There was recently a 5% eBay bucks, no minimum purchase, off that I took advantage of to grab this

1957 Topps Roberto Clemente
The colors are strong. There is some corner fuzzing and it is off center, but man am I happy to grab this card.

Card #101: International Affair

Short on time, but wanted to keep the trend of posting 3 times a week on this blog.

This 2018 Topps International Affair was picked up as part of a COMC package I got late last year.

Card #85: Batting Practice with The King?

Nick Kingham has a rookie debut card in 2018 Update.  It is number US9.  Topps has been using legendary players in their recent releases of the past decade to get retired players on current designs. 

The Pirates pitcher was replaced with a Roberto Clemente SP photo variant.

This is a shot of Roberto that hasn't been used over and over again.  Love the pregame batting practice.

Here are the front and back of the Kingham card.

Card #55: Framed Reprint Rookie

This will have to be a worthy substitute until I can add an authentic 1955 Topps to the collection.

The back is awesome too.

I have always been a fan of these framed rookie reprints.  They're museum quality pieces. This particular example is the silver frame /99 parallel from 2014. 

Card #52: Heritage in Every Sense of the Word

This post was drafted back in January / February 2018....
Due to what I perceived was a lack of interest on the blog, I stopped posting.  Here is the post as it originally appeared.


I just saw the checklist for 2018 Topps Heritage and I am really looking forward to it.  The 2018 Heritage design is based on 1969 Topps.  Cutch has card #50 in the set.  Do you know who was card #50 in 1969 Topps?

Yup, the Great One.
I have a copy of this card safely protected.
One day I will take scans of all my vintage cards, but in the mean time here is a shot of it stolen from Google images.

Card #47: Where'd you go Cutch?

Clemente has been getting SP photo variants in recent Topps sets.  Here is one that removes Andrew McCutchen from card number 650 in 2017 Topps and replaces it with Clemente.

The back features 5 of Clemente's prime year stats.

This version sells for significantly more than other Clemente SP photo variants.  

Cards #43-45: More Golden Moments

It's Super Bowl Sunday.  Someone today will have a moment that will lead them to greatness.  Could it be a member of the Eagles leading the team to their first Super Bowl victory?  Could it be Tom Brady leading the Patriots to their 6th Superbowl?

History will be made today.  That's for sure.

I showed off another of these last week

Here are three more that I have.

I am currently missing GG40

Card #40: Calling Jeff Torberg and Cap Paterson, you're needed

It's Thursday so let's show some vintage cardboard to have fun with #tbt.

For $1 I grabbed this checked off Roberto Clemente checklist from 1967 Topps.

One of the previous owners needed 11 cards from numbers 371 to 457.  Not bad at all.  Hopefully they were able to complete it eventually.

Card #39: Golden Great

Considering that this card is number 39 it seemed appropriate to show it off today.  I have a few more of these Golden Moments

This insert was from 2012.  Topps produced these to be inserted in Series 1.  The 75 card checklist featured 5 cards of 15 of the greatest ballplayers to put on a pair of cleats.  Besides Clemente, others included Lou Gehrig, Babe Ruth, Nolan Ryan, Derek Jeter, Ty Cobb, Willie Mays, Cal Ripken Jr, Hank Aaron, Tom Seaver, Sandy Koufax, Joe DiMaggio, Mickey Mantle, Albert Pujols, Jackie Robinson.

This particular card discusses two games where Clemente amassed 10 hits.

Card #29: 3 All-time Greats on 1 Card

Today's card is the 1966 Topps League Leaders card that features the top 3 hitters for the 1965 NL batting title.  It also happens to feature three of the all time greatest National League outfielders to play the game.

The amount of star power on this card is insane.
7 batting titles
66 All Star Games
27 Gold Gloves
4 MVP
10,034 hits
1,655 Hrs
5,505 RBI


The back features the averages for the top finishers.

I've previously shown this card on my other blog Collecting Cutch where I compared Clemente's 1965 season to Cutch's 2014 season.

Card #10: Statcast in the 1960s

Could you imagine if Statcast existed in the 1960s?

The tape measure shot that Clemente hit off legendary pitcher Sandy Koufax would be analyzed in details by the spin rate of the pitch, exit velocity, launch angle, etc.

It would certainly be fun to analyze how one of the greatest pitchers of All-time surrendered a .905 OPS to the Pittsburgh superstar.  I would love to see the on field demonstration of how Clemente would be able to consistently hit one of the game's greatest.

Card #9: A Rare Feat of Feet

On July 25th 1956 Roberto Clemente was the first and only player in MLB history to hit a walk-off inside the park Grand Slam.

The rare event is celebrated on Topps 2015 Rarities insert as seen below.

Details of the event are on the back.

I really like the entire concept of this insert series.  The cards feature unique moments that many Hall of Famers have done.  Strange things like Ken Griffey Jr towering in 44 different ballparks or Rod Carew stealing 2B, 3B, and home all in the same inning.

Unfortunately Topps also included not so rare events which are still impressive in the set by non Hall of Famers.  Asdrubel Cabrera completed an unassisted triple play (14th in MLB history) and got the cardboard love.  Anibal Sanchez' 4 strikeouts to start an ALCS also got the production of a card for the rare but not 100% unique event.

The cards design is perfect as the background matches the player's primary team color as evidenced by the yellow in the Clemente above.  The back of the card giving a description of the rare event is perfect as well.

With so many unique things that Hall of Famers have done I think the only thing that could have made 2015 Rarities insert set better would be to limit it to strictly Hall of Famers and the rare and unique things they did in their careers.

Only 1% of all players become Hall of Famers.

The concept of a rarity should begin and end with only Hall of Famers.   Not Asdrubel Cabrera and Shawn Green.