Better Late Than Never

About 1 year ago I sent a card to 12-time All-Star 3rd baseman Wade Boggs in hopes of getting it autographed. He's not only one of my favorite Red Sox players ever, but one of my favorite players of all-time because of his superb hitting ability and the fact that he was a multi-tool player. However, I did send the card out a while ago and mainly forgot about it. That is until I got the card back in the mail today that was autographed by Wade Boggs that made it all worth it.

The card I sent him was from 2002 Fleer Greats of the Game because I had more than one of the card. And since I hadn't always had good luck with autographs through the mail, I decided to play it safe. The card is quite gorgeous and Boggs' signature looks fantastic. I also appreciate how he, along with many other athletes are signing with a blue sharpie. It really makes a huge difference for autographs and helps them stand out a lot more.

I was thrilled to get this card back in the mail, but this wasn't my first time sending a card to Boggs. After all, he is a favorite of mine.

The other card I sent to him was years ago when I sent Boggs a 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen card, my favorite card I had of him at the time. The fantastic photo of 9-time Silver Slugger is what made me choose to send this card out to him all those years ago. This one came back a bit quicker with the same awesome signature on the card. I love these cards so much that I really wouldn't be opposed to trying to get maybe 1 more autograph of Wade Boggs. So much so that I wouldn't really care if it took another year, because that's what's so great about TTM autographs. 

Top 5 Cards: Bruce Sutter

While deciding to start a super-collection for Craig Kimbrel, I began to think about other relief pitchers that I collect to get an idea of how many cards I can expect to obtain of Kimbrel. The first relief pitcher that came to mind was Bruce Sutter, and not just because the 1979 NL Cy Young Award winner is celebrating his 65th birthday today. 

Sutter began his career playing for the Chicago Cubs where he played the best years of his 12-year career as he was an All-Star 4 years in a row from 1977-1980. Sutter then left to play for the Cardinals for 4 years in which he had some very good seasons before playing 3 mediocre seasons for the Atlanta Braves.

I have 36 cards of Bruce Sutter from all 3 teams he played for. Also, each one of those teams has at least one card on the list. Now, here are my 5 favorite cards of Bruce Sutter. 

#5 1984 Fleer

Showing cards of Bruce Sutter on the Cardinals can seem a bit weird to me because I mostly associate the 6-time All-Star with the Cubs, the team that he had his best years with and the team he was on for the longest amount of time. However, there are a few really nice cards that show him in a Cardinals jersey, and the 1984 Fleer card is the perfect example of that. Powdered blue jerseys are something that I always enjoy on cards, no matter who the player is. The 1984 Fleer set did a good job at capturing everything I like about Bruce Sutter, the 80's, and Fleer itself without Sutter being on the Cubs in this card, so I have to give them credit for that and put the card at #5. 

#4 1986 Fleer

2 years after the 1984 season, Bruce Sutter wasn't half the player he used to be and was playing in the 2nd of 3 bad seasons with the Braves. Still, as bad as he was for Atlanta I absolutely love this card. There are so many different examples of blue on the card that it all comes together and looks fantastic. The blue jersey, blue hat, blue border, blue logo, and the blue banner. And yes it may be a bit excessive, but I commend Fleer for doing this and creating such a unique card, and my personal favorite card of him on the Braves.

#3 1981 Fleer

Fleer strikes again as it has produced cards 5-3 on the list, and from all different teams that Sutter has played for. This time, it's the Cubs and Fleer's iconic 1981 design that earned the #3 spot. My favorite part of 1981 Fleer is the baseball in the bottom left. It really gives the cards a nice retro feel and takes everyone who looks at them back to 1981. And with the classic Cubs uniform also on the card, it really is one of the best cards of Sutter. Plus, he's holding a bat in this card, a bat! There can't be any other card of Bruce Sutter with a bit in his hand.

Nevermind.

#2 2016 Topps Archives

This part of the 2016 Topps Archives set is replicating the 1979 Topps set when Bruce Sutter played for the Cubs. Therefore, it would make sense to put him on the Cubs in this set. However, Topps didn't do that and I couldn't complain when I saw Sutter's Archives card that shows him in a Cardinals coat with the awesome logo on the right. The card doesn't have much else going on besides the photo of Sutter which is good because it shows that the focus of the card should be the image. Not to mention how well Topps replicated their 1979 set to make such a fabulous card.

#1 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game- Cubs Greats

Even though he didn't play as long for the Cubs as some players, there's no denying that Bruce Sutter is one of the greatest Cubs of all-time. Every detail of the card works in harmony, from the ivy to the logo as well as the Wrigley sign and the choice of a black and white image of the star pitcher. Everything on the card is there for a reason, yet with so much going on the card isn't even crowded. Upper Deck revised the Fleer brand in 2006 after Fleer stopped production, and this card has to be one of the best that Upper Deck has created not just in a Fleer set, but all-time. 

Kimbrel Collection Update

The past few days during this "Bomb Cyclone" storm in Massachusetts followed by extensive cold weather has given many people nothing to do but stay indoors all day. I have taken this opportunity to go through some boxes of cards in the hopes of finding some more cards to add to the Kimbrel Collection. This has worked and I have been able to add around 8 new cards to the collection, bringing the current grand total to 28 cards. Just to give you all an overview before I start adding new cards, here are my 28 Craig Kimbrel cards. The first one is shown above as #1 2011 Topps Lineage Rookies.

#2 2012 Topps

Kimbrel's 2012 Topps base card shows him in the red Braves jersey, which happens to be my favorite jersey of the team along with the 2011 All-Rookie Team Cup. 

#3 2012 Topps Gold Futures

The 2012 Gold Futures insert sets features players that went on to do well in the Majors like Eric Hosmer and Aroldis Chapman. It also includes players who were well thought of but never panned out like Jose Tabata and Alexi Ogando. 

#4 2012 Topps Opening Day

I'm not quite sure why they didn't use the same image for Opening Day that they did for Flagship, but the card looks nice either way. 

#5 2012 Topps Update

This card from 2012 Update is from Kimbrel's All-Star appearance in 2012. He's appeared in 4 All-Star games since then and 6 all together.

#6 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen

The only card I have of his from 2013 is from my favorite set produced that year, Gypsy Queen.

#7 2014 Topps Gypsy Queen

I also have Kimbrel's 2014 Gypsy Queen card which I like just a little bit better.

#8 2014 Topps Spring Fever

The bright colors of the Spring Fever set were what made it so distinctive from 2013-2016, though it seems like it's not being produced anymore after not appearing last year.

#9 2014 Topps Update

Another year, another All-Star appearance for Kimbrel. After all, he's only missed the Midsummer Classic once throughout his whole career. 

#10 2015 Topps

Kimbrel had been traded to the Padres for the 2015 season in exchange for Cameron Maybin and Carlos Quentin plus 2 minor leaguers. Pretty crappy trade for Atlanta, they could've gotten much more for their star closer.

#11 2015 Topps Allen & Ginter Starting Point

This was a card I recently acquired at a card shop for part of my holiday card purchase. I really like the concept of the set and I appreciate that Topps changed it up a bit by having the insert set appear in Allen & Ginter.

#12 2016 Bowman

As you can see I don't have any cards of Craig Kimbrel on the Padres. That has to change soon.

#13 2016 Bowman Chrome

By the time Bowman Chrome came out in 2016, Topps didn't have to photoshop the Red Sox jersey like they did in the regular Bowman card.

#14 2016 Bowman Platinum

This isn't a parallel, it's just the way the card came out on the scanner. Still a really nice card though.

#15 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter

Topps made a really good decision by using red as the background color for Kimbrel's 2016 Allen & Ginter card. It's one of my favorite cards I have of him.

#16 2016 Topps Allen & Ginter X

Both the Ginter base and the X base card have so much going for them that it's hard to pick one that I like better than the other.

#17 2016 Topps Archives

This is my favorite card I've shown thus far, Topps made the right decision by putting him in the 1991 Topps set in 2016 Archives.

#18 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen

Quick rant; Topps had enough time in 2016 to put Kimbrel in a Red Sox jersey for the Gypsy Queen set, but not enough time to use a real photo of him in a Red Sox jersey, so they had to photoshop him into one. I just don't get why they used those hats considering that the Red Sox never wear those hats in games. They went out of their way to use hats the Red Sox don't wear, nice job Topps.

#19 2016 Topps Heritage

This was the very first card I got of Kimbrel on the Red Sox.

#20 2017 Bowman

No more photoshopped cards in 2017 of Kimbrel as they were able to use actual images of him in a Red Sox jersey.

#21 2017 Bowman's Best

It's official, the 2017 Bowman's Best card is my favorite card I have of Craig Kimbrel as of now.

#22 2017 Topps

Seeing Kimbrel's 2017 base card makes me anxious for the release of the 2018 Topps Series 1 checklist and the product. Then I'll be able to begin hunting down Kimbrel cards as they come out.

#23 2017 Topps Allen & Ginter

Along with 2016, I have Kimbrel's 2017 Allen & Ginter base card...

#24 2017 Allen & Ginter X

Along with his 2017 Allen & Ginter X card.

#25 2017 Topps Archives

2 years in a row Topps chose the best possible set of the 3 included in Archives to put Craig Kimbrel in.

#26 2017 Topps Chrome

Kimbrel's 2017 Topps base card was one of my favorites, so I was eager to get the same card in Topps Chrome.

#27 2017 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor

And I was surprised and pleased to pull his pink parallel card in Topps Chrome as well.

#28 2017 Topps Gypsy Queen

And the final card is a nice one from 2017 Gypsy Queen.

Well, that's it for my Craig Kimbrel cards for now. I'm quite happy that I was able to put 28 cards of his together before I began to seriously collect him. And I will be getting some new cards of his relatively soon, so stay tuned for that.

Claiming My First Trade Stack

I claimed my very first trade stack from Chris of Nachos Grande in exchange for some Topps Archives cards from his want list. I'd never done anything like this ever before, but I really like the whole idea of it. There's a whole stack of cards available to claim in exchange for a minimum of 1 card from his want list. And since I collect so many players, there were quite a few cards in the stack of players that I collect. Like the Ken Griffey Sr. card shown above. 

3 of the 10 cards I claimed were from 1999 Just. These 3 cards included prospects at the time of the sets' release. Ndungidi and Anderson never went on to play in the Majors, while Hector Almonte played a couple of years for a few teams including the Red Sox. If nothing else, I actually really like the set, specifically the Just logo and the faded border design. Not to mention that the color strips on the side are a nice touch.

However, getting cards of players like Tom Seaver and Dave Concepcion is way more my type of thing. These 2 cards are from the inaugural Fleer set back in 1981 which remains my favorite set of that year. To make that even better, Seaver and Concepcion are both players I collect and these cards are cards I don't have, so I'm very pleased to add them to their respective player collections. 

Fast forward 36 years from my favorite set of 1981 to one of my favorites of 2017. Topps Gallery was the most surprising release of 2017 and I ended up purchasing 5 rack packs of the product. The Paul DeJong card ended up being one that I missed out on this year, but this trade pile changed that as now I have the Gallery rookie card of the Cardinals infielder. 

And if you've seen any base cards from the Gallery set you've likely seen the name Mayumi Seto on the card back. She's the artist for the Gallery base set as well as the primary artist for the Topps Museum and Transcendent products. That must be an awesome job.

Speaking of Topps Museum

Perhaps my favorite card of the trade stack was this 2015 Topps Museum Giancarlo Stanton. Despite him joining the rival Yankees, Stanton is still a player I respect and collect. His cards on the Marlins are so colorful and fun to collect, and since there are so many of them out there I doubt I'm going to stop collecting him anytime soon. It will be weird to see him in Yankee pinstripes on March 29th, but it will make for a more fun rivalry between the Red Sox and Yankees.

The final card included in the trade stack was a relic of James Shields from 2012 Topps Heritage. I've always liked the designs Topps has done for their Clubhouse Collection relics included in Topps Heritage, and while James Shields is way past his prime, I always enjoy adding relics to my collection so I was quite happy to put this card with my other relics. 

Thanks a lot for trading Chris, I appreciate it a lot.