In one of my clean-up “blind trades” I made a week or so ago, I sent Kin at Bean’s Ball Card Blog some 1958 Topps All Stars in exchange for whatever he had for me. Today, I got a bundle of mostly 2013 Topps series one cards, a most of it stuff I needed for set building. A few of the highlights:
This set has a number of really great photos. This one reminds me of that Kerry Wood/ Andre Dawson ad from a a few years back. WHAT YEAR IS IT?
This was a nice gesture by Topps, honoring Adam Greenberg, who was drilled in the head by the first Big League pitch he ever saw back in 2005. The beaning left him with a concussion and he suffered from vertigo and terrible headaches for months afterward. He lingered in the minors for a few more years before ending up in an independent league. On the second to last day of the season in 2012, The Marlins signed him for a day so he could get an official at bat. He struck out on three pitches, but that hardly mattered in the end. His career MLB line is two plate appearances, seven years apart, and a solid .500 OBP.
Also, this was the year that Topps had a “chase” theme, so they took the time to note that Greenberg was 4,256 hits behind the all-time record of HE WHO CANNOT BE NAMED.
A couple more nice shots… they have the fun and gimmicky feel of SP variations, but are mere commons. I like these kind of pictures. They’re cheeky without being stupid.
A pair of former Brewers, who are actually both still playing, looking sharp. That Aoki card made my list of the 25 coolest Brewers cards of all-time. And the Weeks is from a game honoring the 30th anniversary of the 1982 World Series. Did you know that 2012 was the only year that the Brewers neglected to host an anniversary event (10/15/20, etc) for the 1982 AL Championship team? Guess what they are doing this year, 35 years after the fact? I have ventured to declare that no non-championship team has been so often honored.
Bart! And he’s so skinny! A word on the design here… I really like it. This is, I think, one of the best-looking Topps sets since the bluegeen-bordered 2001s (which doesn’t excite many people, but I really like it). I always thought 2003-2009 was one of the ugliest stretches Topps ever had. 2010-2013 was a nice bounce-back. It’s a clean look, bright and streamlined, and is better than anything they’ve released since.
I love how the faces behind Rayburn run the gamut. R-L, we have the terrified woman, the amused girl, the Andy Dwyer guy who doesn’t even bother to put down his beer, the bikini-top (maybe?) chick preparing to bare hand it, and the young Meredith Palmer who seems to be disapproving of the whole scenario. And, of course, the doofus dudemen on either side reaching over the fence like they actually have a chance of catching the interfering with a live ball. If you go to a major league game, you will – at least once – see some dingus jokingly make those “oh so close” double extended hands over the rail at a ball that missed his deck by at least 150 feet. It’s the baseball equivalent of “Workin’ hard or hardly workin’???”