Frankenset Page #67

It's been almost 2 weeks since the last post in my frankenset series, for no particular reason mind you. Now that I've finished recapping Sunday's trip to the Baseball card show, I figured this was the perfect time to resume.

Picking up where I left off, page #67 ventures into the 600s by featuring cards #595-603. After this post, just 7 pages remain in the series.

I don't usually like to make the frankenset page intros very long, so let's get right into things with the first card from page #67.

#595 1974 Topps Steve Blass

1974 was the 10th and final year of Steve Blass' major league career, though he barely pitched that season at all. Despite being an integral part of the '71 World Championship team, Blass was washed up just 2 years later, posting a 9.85 ERA through 89 innings pitched in '73.

It seems he just lost his ability to command his pitches, something his Wikipedia page claims also happened to Dontrelle Willis and Daniel Bard. Nonetheless, Blass retired after pitching just 5 innings in '74.

#596 1982 Donruss Bryan Clark

The only card on this page not from a Topps Flagship set, the 1982 Donruss set remains one of my favorite base design in the brand's history along with '85. 

Though I have a few scattered singles, I've never been able to amass a large number of these cards, nor have I tracked many down for my player collections. I'm pretty fond of the design, especially when paired with the uniforms of the early 1980s.

#597 2015 Topps Matt Shoemaker

Seeing "Future Stars" spelled out in foil at the top of Matt Shoemaker's 2015 Topps card reminds me of how recent his MLB debut was, despite being 33 years old. 

Even though he made his debut while in his late 20s, Shoemaker has had a respectable career, but his 1.57 ERA through 29 innings pitched with the Blue Jays this season brought him to another level.

Unfortunately, injuries cut his potential Cy Young award-winning 2019 season drastically short, but I'd love to see him come back just as strong next year. I do not, however, know what he plans on doing.

#598 1980 Topps Fred Kendall

Among the many types of cards that I found while searching through bins at the show last Sunday was a stack of 2011 Topps Platinum Diamond Anniversary parallels of which I purchased 4. 

Among the cards which I didn't buy were a couple of San Diego Padres' parallels where the players were wearing the same jersey that Fred Kendall has on above. The combination of this retro jersey with a flashy and modern parallel was certainly odd, but I must say that I'm a fan.

#599 2011 Topps Travis Ishikawa

Truth be told, I didn't even remember that there was a 2011 Topps card on this page until after I wrote the blurb about the set's parallels above. Seriously though, this set featured memorable parallels, legend SPs, terrific photography, and Mike Trout's iconic rookie card. 

More so than any other Flagship set, 2011 was the most iconic Topps product (as in Series 1, 2, and Update) of the decade, though I stand by that 2015 was the greatest design of the century.

#600 1977 Topps Jim Palmer

Of course, all the cards in my frankenset that end with -00 or -50 usually feature superstars and Hall of Famers. The 500th card in the set, for instance, was a 2016 Topps card of Albert Pujols, one of the greatest hitters to ever play the game.

Now, for the final card ending in -00 in the entire set, we have a fabulous 1977 Topps card of Jim Palmer. Thanks to the dark background, Palmer's orange jersey illuminates more than on a typical card. This, along with the yellow font that spells out "Orioles," makes for some unique color choices.

#601 2015 Topps Wade Miley

Ever since he left Arizona, Wade Miley has been a journeyman of sorts, playing for the Red Sox, Mariners, Orioles, Brewers, and, now, the Houston Astros. He truly revived his career in Milwaukee, and it seems to have continued into 2019, for I believe he's on Houston's ALCS roster.

Miley was only in Boston for one year (2015), the transition year between 2 consecutive last-place finishes and, eventually, a streak of 3 straight division titles.

#602 1970 Topps Ted Savage

I didn't' go as crazy with Topps Heritage in 2019 as I have in years past (ahem, 2017), so I find that I'm not burned out on the 1970 Flagship design like I was for the past few releases.

Rather, I still find the original 1970 Topps cards incredibly interesting, no matter how simple they may seem by today's standards. In 2019 Topps Flagship, you wouldn't look twice at a card like the one above, but there's something about vintage Topps that can elevate almost anything.

#603 2008 Topps Blake DeWitt

Last up, another of my favorite Topps Flagship sets, especially as far as modern releases are concerned, 2008. If the 2015 design is my favorite of the century, then 2008 is right behind it with 2011 coming in at #3.

The colors used for the team names are an excellent contrast to the white borders while the photography, just like the 2011 Flagship design, is stellar. They used a range of different images, resulting in one of Topps' better efforts over the last few decades.

Well-Priced Oddballs Galore; Card Show Recap #24 Part 3

I didn't head into Sunday's Baseball card show with as high of a budget as I do when I head to the monthly or bi-annually shows in my area, but I ended up with a variety of cards that rivaled these larger shows.

After passing some time with the dealers that I chat with each time I'm there. I ventured back into the separate room where I bought the Prizm parallels and 3D cards at the beginning of the show.

The vendor made an excellent offer on that group of cards, and he had about a dozen 4-row boxes of cards that looked promising, so I had an idea of where I'd be spending the rest of my time and money.

Usually, boxes of mixed sports cards that aren't priced wouldn't draw my attention, but the prices and variety of the first purchase made me hopeful. These bins were one of the craziest things I've ever seen at my local show, and I couldn't wait to start searching through them.

There was no rhyme or reason involved in the organization, so I simply chose a bin and got to looking. This led to 1/2 of a row devoted solely to 2018 Topps Allen & Ginter hot box cards back when they were silver glossy parallels as opposed to this years' gold foil.

Though I purchased my fair share of '18 Ginter, both packs and individual cards, I never came across a single of these parallels until Sunday's purchase where I found a surplus to add to my player collections.

None of the cards were priced as marked, so I still have no clue what I paid for each individual card. Instead, I just made an offer on a lot, and the dealer accepted it, leading to some incredible deals.

For some reason, many of the hot box parallels featured Cubs and Astros players, 2 teams that are heavily represented in my active player PCs. Though I missed out on Rizzo and Altuve, I'd say I landed most of the big names from the 2018 Houston and Chicago teams.

Seeing this design in person only makes me wish that Topps brought it back for '19 Ginter as well. The gold foil cards are nice looking, but I wouldn't choose them over the glossy silver parallels.

I haven't found any information about this TCMA set from the back of the cards, but they were even more common than the Ginter hot box parallels. Because the vendor was reasonable and there were a ton of cards of players I collect, I picked up a reasonable number of these vintage oddballs.

It seems like the set is from the late 70s or early 80s based on the cardstock as well as the players in the checklist. Most of these guys stopped playing in the early 1970s, leaving a few years between their retirement and the release of this TCMA product.

Whenever it's from, these cards will be excellent additions to my retired player PCs, particularly the card of Lou Brock on the Chicago Cubs.

There was also a selection of green-bordered cards from what appears to be the same set, though pitchers and sluggers are included in this portion.

Most of the players whose cards resembled the ones above were legends from the early 20th century, but there were a couple of names from the 70s just like the 9 above.

When I hear other bloggers or card collectors talk about oddballs, Hostess and Kellogg's are almost always mentioned, but one of my personal favorites, Drake's, is often left out.

An annual release throughout the 1980s, Drake's Big Hitters featured the greatest sluggers in the game in 1 set, usually in a checklist around 30-35 cards. The designs differed slightly each year along with the selection of players.

Looking more closely at the Boggs card, I believe I already have it in his PC, but the Rickey Henderson from '87 is definitely a new addition.

One day, I'd love to find an entire bin, or at least a row, chock-full of these terrific 2002 Topps Archives Reserve refractors, but I'll take anything that I can get from this set for the time being.

These gorgeous reprints combine my 2 favorite things about baseball cards; vintage designs and chrome refractors. These 2 aspects are drastically different, yet when they come together, you can't think about Al Oliver's original 1982 Topps card without a chrome refractor finish.

Chrome cards were also one of my favorite parts of the 2019 Topps Gypsy Queen set as they appeared in a 3-card hobby exclusive box topper.

In addition to the one box of Gypsy Queen that I opened, I tracked down a few more of these singles for my player collections via the show, including the Joey Votto card above. The serial numbered versions, like the Miguel Cabrera blue that I pulled, are unbelievably beautiful.

Deviating slightly from the chrome cards that I had previously spoken of, I'm transitioning to the 2 cards of Ken Griffey Jr on the Chicago White Sox that I picked up on Sunday. After all, it's not every day that you land a card of a player who only had 131 at-bats for the team their shown to be playing for.

In addition to the base card from 2009 Topps, I found the Walmart exclusive black parallel which looks awesome with the Chicago home uniform on the foreground. Griffey Jr is one of my largest PCs, so this duo of White Sox cards will be excellent additions to an extensive player collection.

The Platinum Diamond Anniversary and Cognac parallels from 2011 Topps significantly upped the appeal that regular Series 1 & 2 had.

Though I understand it would be challenging to do something like this every year, I bet Topps could've figured something out for 150 years of professional Baseball instead of choosing a boring gold stamp and calling it a day.

I didn't buy any packs in 2011, so my selection of these terrific parallels is somewhat limited. I was, however, able to change that with the addition of these 4 cards, 1 for the Cubs PC and the rest for player collections.

Last but certainly not least, a want list pickup that was hidden amongst the vintage oddballs and shiny parallels; the Houston Astros team card from 1979 Topps, featuring the entire team in front of the Astrodome.

I don't think I could've ended on a higher note, especially considering the huge variety of different cards that these bins delivered.

Needless to say, I'll be visiting this vendor as soon as I run into him again.

Ranking Topps Sets by Decade; 2010s

The time has finally come. I have officially reached the final part of my ranking Topps sets by decade series that I started a couple of weeks ago. Today, I have finally arrived at the 2010s.

With 2019 Topps Flagship set to be released at the end of January, we're soon to have another decade of Topps Flagship sets completely in the books. Thus, it's become time to access the entire time period as to the quality of Topps Flagship products that it has released.

Truthfully, the 2010s have produced some of the worst Topps sets of all-time. However, we've also seen some brilliant Topps sets developed in this decade as well.

Unfortunately, the endless modernizing of their products, large sets, and poor designs tend to outweigh some of the better sets from this decade. Plus, we still haven't seen 2019 Topps in-hand yet so my opinion could alter slightly after this set is released.

Speaking of 2019 Topps, I've decided to leave the set off the list for the very reason I listed above; we haven't seen the cards in-person yet. We don't know what the card backs look like nor do we have a sense of what cards will look like for different players and teams. 

I can always add 2019 Topps onto this list a month or so from now, but for the time being, it's best that I leave it off and stick to the 9 sets released so far this decade.

#9 2012 Topps

An unfinished mess with too much foil is the best way I can describe 2012 Topps. It's truly one of the worst Topps sets I've ever seen. Yes, even worse than the disaster that was 2016. While 2016 at least had a complete design, 2012 Topps has a little oval in the bottom left corner and that's it. The foil circles around it don't make much sense and the bland photography takes up way too much space. Even a minor detail, the rookie cup trophies, are too small. There's really not a whole lot to like about this set.

#8 2016 Topps

When there's smoke, there's fire, and when you have some smoke and cut-off logos, the result is an infamously bad Topps Flagship design. Both the top right and bottom lefthand corners are filled with smoke not to mention the box that has the player's name as well. But if that wasn't enough, Topps felt the need to cut-off every team's logo, leading to one of the most frustrating and mindboggling sets in Baseball card history.

#7 2010 Topps

Unnecessarily big team names and not much else is the way I'd describe 2010 Topps which, up until today, I didn't even know included the players' position in tiny text in the bottom left corner. In addition to foil names (ugh), the set features gigantic logos that take up far too much space. I don't think Topps could do anything to this set to make it more interesting, so they just created the most mediocre and unmemorable set possible, and it worked.

#6 2014 Topps

2014 Topps is just so harmless that I felt obligated to place it towards the middle since it's neither a great set nor a terrible product. With the white borders, the team logo, and small bits of color throughout the card, 2014 Topps manages to blend in with all the other 2010s products. It's still not that great of a set, but there are far worse and far better products out there.

#5 2013 Topps

Although it came before 2014 Topps, the 2013 set is almost an upgraded version of the subsequent product. With simple and well-executed card backs and a clean front, 2013 Topps is a nice product by 2010s standards. There's just the right amount of color, though I could always go for more, and the logo takes up just the right amount of space. Take notes, 2010 Topps.

#4 2017 Topps

Call me a villain, but I don't think 2017 Topps was all that bad. The slanted silver design wasn't my favorite feature, and I still miss borders, but at least we had improvement from 2016 Topps. Overall, I really like the sleekness of the silver and wish it took up more space and wasn't slanted at such an angle. There are no cut-off logos, everything is the right size, and cards like the Mookie Betts one above feature some eye-catching photography across the entire set.

#3 2018 Topps

Despite my feelings about 2017 Topps, neither it nor 2016 were that well-received. It took one of the simplest sets in Topps history before a Topps Flagship set was declared to be a nice looking product. That set was 2018 Topps, and it finally proved that Topps could pull off a respectable, borderless Flagship product. 

The pictures are great, but the detail I like the most is the little slide that holds the logo at the bottom of the card. It does a nice job of complimenting the team colors as do the bars with the player name, position, and team name as well.

#2 2011 Topps

If you spotted an image like the one on the Joe Mauer card above in a Topps Stadium Club set, you'd be impressed, big time. For whatever reason, 2011 Topps was like its own Stadium Club product with fantastic images spread out throughout the entire set, including unique photos that you don't usually see in a Flagship set. The base set design is also pretty well-done, but the main thing to take from 2011 Topps remains the fabulous photo quality.

#1 2015 Topps

While I was forming the final list, I gave no second thought to which set would end up at #1. To me, it wasn't even a debate, 2015 is far and beyond the best set from not just the entire decade, but the 21st century as well. Finally, Topps listened to what we wanted, and after white-bordered average sets for quite some time, 2015 Topps came along and brought with it all the color you could ever ask for.

Moreover, the 2015 Topps Chrome set was one of the best in years with gorgeous chrome cards resulting from this Flagship design. I'm currently in the process of completing this set, and I can't wait to see how colorful the binder sheets will be when I finish it off.