What's Going On?

What do Goose Gossage, Lou Gehrig, and Francisco Cordova have in common that makes them all legends?  The answer is in one of my new collecting projects.  Night Owl started an interesting Blog Bat Around about what current collecting projects he has.  I've been planning to write a post introducing my latest project for a while now, and here is my chance.  But let's start with other, larger projects.

I really don't want this to turn into a "What I Collect" post.  I'm going to stick strictly to what I would consider a "project."  For what I collect, let it suffice to say that I collect Packers, Cubs, and BYU players, and it is never a project.  It's just ongoing addition to my collection.

Most of you who read the blog regularly also know by now that my PCs and mini-collections center around All-Decade NFL teams, baseball All-Star Game MVPs, and baseball Rookies of the Year.  Those are ongoing collections, too.  However, there is an element to project about them that I will address here.

Project 1: Mini-Collection Binders

I have 5 binders of mini-collections: All-Decade Teams for the 80s, 90s, and 2000s, All-Star Game MVPs, and Rookies of the Year.  I will continue to seek out and keep any of these cards that come my way for most of these players.  However, some I've the players in this collection I don't like at all (see: Ryan Braun, Darren Sharper).  So there is a project for these mini-collections that will mark the end of my collecting for many of these players.  The is project is simple: create one entire page for each player.  After that, I will be more picky about the players I collect.

All-Star MVPs

All 1990s Team

Rookie of the Year

Project 2: Clean up my set wantlist.

I'm not spending much on cards this year.  I can't.  So the very limited budget I have will go mostly toward the hundreds of set needs I still have from yesteryear.  Sportlots, COMC, Just Commons, and ebay You-Pick lots will be main shopping spots this year as I seek out individual cards.  Just this week, I picked up nearly 400 cards from card sets ranging from 1992 to 2008.

Project 3: Refractors Frankenset

This one is self-explanatory.  I'm working on a Frankenset of refractors.  Any sport, any year.  1-300.  I'm probably about halfway done.

Project 4: Franchise 9

This is a project I started especially for this blog. . . and have done basically nothing with.  I need to start it up again when football training camp gets closer.  In a nutshell, I've got a 9 pocket page for each NFL team, featuring the franchise's best nine players in the Super Bowl Era.  I'm still missing about six cards to complete it, and I still need to do the write-ups.  By the time I get around to it, I may need to update the teams, though.

Project 5: Super Bowl Winning QBs

This one is simple: I add one card to the binder each year, of whichever QB won the Super Bowl that year.  Typically, I don't even need to buy a new card, as I already have a card of that player somewhere.  I wish I could have added Carson Wentz instead of Nick Foles to the binder, though.

And finally, my latest project.  I've been hard at work researching for this one.  I love projects that require some research and learning on my part.  So, who thinks they have figured out my initial question?  Gossage, Gehrig, and Cordova are legendary in the sense that they are all the best players ever to wear their respective jersey numbers.  That is my most recent undertaking.

Project 6: All-Time Best Jersey Numbers

I've spent a lot of time on baseball-reference.com for this one.  I've been finding out who had the best careers while wearing a certain number.  The names that have come up have been surprising.  Some numbers have far too much representation to include all of them, while others have just a few big-name players.  When the numbers get above 50, there are fewer players to actually play in the Majors with the number.  Some numbers have no real representation.  But the project will include the top three players of each number, to fill one row of a 9-pocket page.  It's kind of fun and I'm excited to show it off, but I still need quite a few cards.

So there you have it.  My collection in projects.  And, of course, the old team and player collection standbys will continue to factor in.

Card Madness 2018: Pt. 3

This week, I started my own tournament in conjunction with March Madness: Card Madness.  I  created a bracket and I'm pitting baseball teams against each other in a battle to the death by showcasing cards from my collection, which have been randomly selected.  The bracket is here, so you can view progress.

Four more teams were eliminated yesterday.  We have this weekend to narrow the field down by seven more to reach the Sweet 16.  Let's see what the cards hold for today.

Round 1: San Francisco Giants vs. Atlanta Braves

2016 Topps Bunt #72 Buster Posey vs. 1997 Leaf #97 Fred McGriff

Great matchup here!  Two All-Stars, McGriff is a borderline Hall of Famer and Posey will probably make it in.  Two nice sets as well.  I really liked the colorful, bold design when Bunt appeared two years ago, but 1997 Leaf is just as good for different reasons.  It looks more elegant.  Both have good action photos, but the recognizable Crime Dog follow-through is a work of art.  The back of these cards is where we’ll separate the two.  Leaf may not have full stats, but it does have a second photo.  Bunt’s backs are just terrible.  There is no contest with the backs.  I’m giving this one to McGriff.

Winner: Braves

Round 1: Kansas City Royals  vs. Seattle Mariners 

2013 Topps Opening Day #5 Eric Hosmer vs. 1994 Collector’s Choice #317 Ken Griffey, Jr.

For the second matchup in a row, both players are PC guys.  And my first thought is “It’s Griffey!  Of course he wins!”  But let’s just slow this down for a minute.  First, there is no contest between Hosmer and Griffey.  But the rest of the cards tell a different story.  If this were the regular base card of 1994 Collector’s Choice, it would be better for Griffey.  But this checklist isn’t really to my taste.  It’s not all that excited and the artwork isn’t eye-popping.  Hosmer has a nice follow-through shot on the Sea Turtle design, and it just looks better.  Add in the backs, where we have full stats versus cards 65-128, and the advantage goes to Hosmer.  I’m not a checklist enthusiast, unfortunately.  Eric Hosmer pulls off an upset against Ken Griffey, Jr.

Winner: Royals

Round 1: Miami Marlins vs. Milwaukee Brewers

2016 Topps Bunt #98 Dee Gordon vs. 2017 Topps #3 Chris Capuano

If this matchup were on TV, I wouldn’t be watching.  But one of these teams will advance to the Sweet 16.  I like the intensity shown in the photos of both of these cards.  I’m not sure who I would take between Gordon and Capuano.  I typically like Bunt, but I don’t like Miami’s new look, and seeing it so big on the card in this set is not appealing.  The clincher here is the back, though.  Capuano’s blurb is a shout-out to his “tenacity” for overcoming multiple injuries throughout his career maintaining a Big League level of play.  I’ll take that for the win.

Winner: Brewers

Soon we'll finish up the first round and finalize the Sweet 16.  Thanks for reading!

 

Card Madness 2018: Pt. 2

Yesterday I started my own tournament in conjunction with March Madness: Card Madness.  I  created a bracket and I'm pitting baseball teams against each other in a battle to the death by showcasing cards from my collection, which have been randomly selected.  The bracket is here, so you can view progress.

Three teams were eliminated yesterday.  We have this weekend to narrow the field down by 11 more to reach the Sweet 16.  Let's see what the cards hold for today.

Round 1: Los Angeles Dodgers vs. San Diego Padres

2017 Topps #325 Chris Hatcher vs. 2015 Topps #99 Yonder Alonso

This is the third 2015 Topps flagship we’ve seen in Round 1.  I’ll just say right now—I have a lot of sets in my collection, but the randomizer seemed to love 2015 flagship.  There will be more.  To the cards at hand, Yonder Alonso was an All-Star last year and he won me over with his Indians FanFest prank.  He wins hands-down in the player category.  For the design, Hatcher has one of the dreaded horizontals of 2017, which cuts a large chunk of the picture away.  The 2015 flagship has already been established as good.  The photos are both good action shots, but I might give the edge here to Hatcher because Yonder’s is too closely cropped.  It doesn’t matter, though.  Alonso has already won it.

Winner: Padres

Round 1: Texas Rangers vs. Tampa Bay Rays

1996 Ultra #420 Daryl Hamilton vs. 2015 Topps #16 David DeJesus

First, the players.  Hamilton was a solid hitter, ending his career with a .291 average and .360 OBP over 5177 plate appearances.  That’s not too shabby.  DeJesus was also a solid player, posting a 23.2 WAR over his career.  Neither player made an All-Star team.  This is pretty even, player-wise, though I might have a soft spot for Hamilton due to his tragic death a few years back.  As far as design goes, 2015 Topps wins again in the battle of two sets that keep popping up.  For the photo, I like action shots like DeJesus’, but a well-posed Spring Training photo is good too.  I think I’ll go with Hamilton because I like the arm on the bat and the fact that you don’t see too many like this in modern sets.

Winner: Rangers

Round 1: Cincinnati Reds vs. Washington Nationals 

2015 Topps #375 Johnny Cueto vs. 2015 Topps Gypsy Queen #56 Vladimir Guererro

This may be the best matchup so far: a Hall of Fame hitter against a legitimate staff ace.  I’m not sure I favor either player more than the other.  I never became as big of a fan of Vlad as many other bloggers out there, but there is no denying his credentials.  I’m not a huge Cueto fan, either, but he can be dominant.  And I don’t know that I like his little wiggle wind-up, but it is interesting to watch.  I think I’ll give the edge to Vlad here.  I like both of these card designs, too.  I think I might give the slight edge to Gypsy Queen in a head-to-head.  Neither photo is especially great, and they both feature a blowfish face.  2015 Topps has a superior back with actual stats, whereas GQ only has about a sentence of writing.  In, the end, I’ll call the . . . 

 

Winner: Nationals (via the Expos)

 Round 1: Boston Red Sox vs. Oakland A’s

 

1996 Ultra #591 Mo Vaughn vs. 2017 Topps Negative #146 Chad Pinder

Here we have subset versus parallel.  Mo Vaughn wins the player category.  He has more All-Star seasons than Pinder has seasons.  An AL MVP doesn’t hurt either.  I like the design of Mo’s Ultra Stars subset, too.  It looks like it would have made a decent insert set.  The Negative is kind of cool, and it’s the only one I own, but it’s also kind of weird.  Mo also gets the edge in the photo because of his signature shades and the fact that the negative parallel obscures details on the other card.

Winner: Red Sox

Card Madness 2018: Let's Get It Started!

I started this blog in 2016 and one of the first things I did was to create a Card Madness series to match up with March Madness.  In a nutshell, I put all 32 NFL teams in a bracket and pitted random cards from my collection representing each team against each other until we had declared a true NFL card champion.  The result?  A wildly popular blog series that averaged about 11 pages views per round.  Okay, so maybe it wasn't wildly popular.  But, hey, I was just starting out and had never made a trade and I'm frankly surprised anybody stumbled upon this little blog.  If you're curious, the Raiders beat the Vikings in the final round.  I skipped last year, but I feel like it's time to do a Card Madness tournament again--baseball style. 

When I ran this little tourney through the first time, I had set criteria and I gave each card a score.  That was a little too much work.  This year, I won't be scoring the cards, but I will be looking at roughly the same criteria and making less objective judgment calls.  That may be less transparent, but I don't feel like spending as time as I did before, it's just for fun anyway, and I want to play with my cards how I want to play with them.  The general criteria for selecting a winner are

1. The player featured on the card.
2. The design/overall look of the set.
3. The photo on the card.
4. The back of the card.
5. Any extras that might break a tie.

The bracket was created using all 30 MLB teams and will be divided by league.  One team in each needed to have a bye, so I selected reigning champs Houston for the AL and my Cubbies from the NL to get a free pass.  The bracket can be seen here.   Cards were chosen at random and each team will have a different representative every round.  This is baseball after all.  You can't pass the ball to Michael in Crunch Time; you have to go with the next man up in the order.

Got it?  So let's to our first four matchups.

Round 1: Cleveland Indians vs. New York Yankees

2015 Topps Gypsy Queen #139 Jason Kipnis vs. 1996 Ultra #392 Melido Perez

First, we’ll look at the players.  Kipnis has been one of the better 2^nd basemen in the Majors for the past few years.  Melido Perez had one pretty good year in 1992, posting a sub-3.00 ERA and pitching 10 complete games.  Other than that, he’s better-known to me for having a brother, Pasqual, who also pitched in the Majors.  The card design is an easy pick for me here, too.  I may be in the minority, but I like Gypsy Queen’s designs, and 2015 was one of my favorites.  1996 Ultra, on the other hand, is the probably the least interesting set that Ultra ever produced.  There is nothing that catches the eye, and the thin foil lettering is hard to read.  GQ hands down on this one.  Combine the card design and the player, and the Indians win this round going away.

Winner: Indians

 

Round 1: Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Colorado Rockies

1996 Ultra #535 Mike Kingery vs. 2015 Topps #587 Daniel Descalso

Oof.  96 Ultra again already.  I have a lot of this set because I obtained the complete thing in a collection I bought off a guy a few years ago.  I have broken it up into my trade boxes and sent some away since then, but much of it is still hanging around in my collection.  2015 Topps, however, is beautiful.  It’s bold and beautiful and completely unique among flagship sets.  The purple of the Rockies looks especially good in this set.  As far as players go, I honestly have no idea who Mike Kingery is.  Every time I see it, I think Jeff King (I know him), but Kingery is a mystery.  A quick baseball-reference search tells me that he had a pretty long career and a couple of decent years, but mostly hung out just above the Mendoza line.  The Pirates were his last stop.  Descalso isn’t the greatest player either, in fact, he’s probably not even as good as Kingery, if I look at the numbers.  I’ve always kind of liked him, though, because of his name.  “Descalso” means “barefoot” in Portuguese, so I’ve always had fun thinking of him as “Shoeless” Daniel.  The players are about a wash, so I have to look at the way the purple pops on the Descalso card.

Winner: Rockies

Round 1: Minnesota Twins vs. Toronto Blue Jays

2015 Topps #399 Josmil Pinto vs. 2017 Topps #82 Aaron Sanchez

Pinto only played in 84 Big League games.  Aaron Sanchez’s card touts his league-leading ERA.  I think we can settle the debate on the better player.  2015 Topps is more colorful and interesting than 2017.  It is superior.  So let’s examine the photos.  I like the All-Star Game patch on Pinto’s jersey; Minneapolis hosted the 2014 Midsummer Classic.  And is he holding his batting gloves?  When was this picture taken?  The Sanchez has a really interesting detail to me: I like the blue stitching on his glove.  This is close call, so I’m going to be very subjective here.  The crowd in the background of Pinto’s photo and the speckly color of the border become very busy and the card feels crowded.  Sanchez, however, has just the wall in the background of a borderless card.  The feeling of simple clarity that the Sanchez card gives me beats out the jumbled colors of Pinto.

Winner: Blue Jays

We'll continue Round 1 later.  I may not keep up with the tourney perfectly, but I will try to have the Card Madness Sweet 16 before the real Sweet 16 begins next week.  Let's see which team has what it take to come out on top!