Maybe someday I will reach the end of the stack of 50¢ Baseball Cards I have been enjoying. That's probably a little tougher than pondering true Dollar Box cards, because the fiddy¢ card pile grows a little faster, of course. Which is a very fun fact.
Why I selected it: This one might be because I need to do some homework on 1999 Topps, more than anything. Of course Brad Ausmus will be a name connected to the Tigers organization for a lot more than a 1999 Topps Baseball Card, which is why it is in the 50¢ box in my town and nowhere to be found, ever again, in your town. He managed the Tigers basically unsuccessfully after the retirement of eventual Hall-of-Famer Jim Leyland; an essentially impossible-to-be-successful task given the Tigers slowly closing "window" at the time.
But for some reason, I can't seem to find whatever 1 or 2 sample packs of 1999 Topps Baseball I purchased, a year I didn't collect beyond a check-it-out purchase. This card makes me think, "for obvious reasons."
So one thing I want to check out is - how did they make a Gold parallel, for this year? Maybe they didn't?
I also need to wade through all of the Brad Ausmus cards ever made, to find the one with him on the dugout steps with a laptop computer. I believe I have seen the card, now I just need to find it...
Why I selected it: Tall players get better cards, for one. 2002 Topps is a major improvement over doings just 3 years before. And this is just a great Empty Seats card, so apropos for a 2021 card. Recently I decided to assemble a best Empty Seats page, of just Rookies, so it will be easier to also assemble another best-of Empty Seats. This card, though, would look great on the Best-of, too.
Why I selected it: This card feels like an homage. Not to another player, per se / specifically, but definitely to a certain Baseball Card: the 1974 Topps Steve Garvey card. So I just had to have this one and it will 100% certainly make it to my Top 9 verticals of whatever year Stadium Club this card is from, which is something I can never remember just by looking at the front of the card. Meanwhile on the back, I have to use the handy "Magnifier" app on my phone these days to sort out what year a Stadium Club card is from. Doesn't matter, for this card.
Why I selected it: This happy Baseball Card single-handedly made me want to assemble 9 of the 2021 New Age Performers, a Heritage insert I rarely pay much attention to. Those inserts do, however, pay attention to the graphical styles and motifs of the year, and set, they came from, usually. Here, the overall level of 1972-Topps-ness is quite strong.
I figured I had pulled a few of these in my purchases of 2021 Heritage, and that proved correct - 2 each of 2 players who did not "Perform" at all in MLB but rather flamed out quickly and dramatically. The eternal problem with putting Rookies on insert checklists that are supposed to be interesting, later. And it's never any fun to start an insert collection by pulling 2 doubles right off the bat.
So this great Ke'Bryan Hayes card will just be a reset to begin building up a few of these; a happy find.
Why I selected it: I can't say it would help me to have to keep track of another Pirate outfielder named Polanco. Though differing decades would keep me straight eventually. But then, a Bowman card only sometimes = Major Leagues. This one, probably does not, it appears, now, after 3 seasons have passed since it was issued.
But I bought this Baseball Card because I like cards with Trees on them. Trees = good.
Why I selected it: I do always like a road uniform on a card design that just prints the team name and nothing else. Washington. Nationals. Really though a build of this 2021-1986 checklist is looking increasingly likely, so here I have knocked down another one of the "big boys" in the set though I am near certain an Ohtani card will still be waiting for me on top of the mountain. Maybe soon I will start collecting only checklists without an Ohtani card. At least now I can afford to complete all the checklists with Trout cards.
Why I selected it: I was afraid I did not pull a Kyle Tucker Rookie Card card back in 2019. I think his career, or more particularly, his Baseball Card career, might really take off in Chicago in 2025.
If it turns out I already did pull a Kyle Tucker Rookie Card card back in 2019, well I think his Baseball Card career might really take off in Chicago in 2025, so having a "double" of this card will be, good.
Why I selected it: This had to have been discovered after I wrote a recent post largely about the Topps Stars of MLB inserts, and a small bit of certainly way incomplete history of graphical stars-on-cards. Can't have too many Stars in a Baseball Card collection.
Why I selected it: I figured it would be nice to have a Tigers card in with the Empty Seats cards, which usually come from Cincinnati, not Detroit. But the Tigers are on the road here, so ... wait, those empties aren't red, so this isn't Cincy. This just barely qualifies for a nice Empty Seats card but I got to have some Tigers cards outside of the Tigers binder at least occasionally, somehow.
Why I selected it: A Powder Blue Hall-of-Famer. Is this Morgan's Sunset Card, you ask? No, he still hadn't been to Oakland yet.
Why I selected it: Well I do like the Giants' Alternate black uniform even when it's not real, I guess. But mostly I kept this one because even Bowman players might display The Cross, which I quite respect.
Why I selected it: Well this horrendous scan certainly begs that question. I collect/save Dontrelle Willis cards when they appear in front of me, because I like daydreaming about the idea of playing Baseball while under the influence of Xanax, a thing of the past now in MLB.
Normally Dontrelle sure looks chillax-d on his Baseball Cards, but on this one you can't see his face, so who knows. That's usually a no-go for my collection, but this card is unique in that it is a promo card for a Topps&MLB collaboration of some sort, for a video game. It was issued in packs of 2006 Topps it turns out.
The back of the card features a "cheat code" to use playing the game, that is very hard to read ... except maybe my scanner can read it:
The code is a bit more discernible, electronically, appropriately enough. But it is just the word "Unhittable," which feels pretty lame in that I could probably guess the other 10 cheat codes now. Cracking the top 9 Dontrelle Willis cards might need a stronger cheat code, for this card. But it is a nice reminder of how strong his career was, there in the mid-00s.
Why I selected it: I am definitely heading into collecting all of the Significant Statistics cards, which appear in multiple years of Topps Baseball. I'm not even sure how many yet; I just keep these when I find them now. Can't be a bad thing to start another year of them with the Mike Trout card, even those aren't expensive any more.
I wrote up this same Average Distance for a Mike Trout Significant Statistics card from 2021 just the other day month; thus this 2020 card back has little mystery but these cards are meant to be enjoyed on the back, so
I haven't decided yet, but I might put these into binder pages showing the back of the card, for easier 'memberin of the text, later on down the road.
No comments:
Post a Comment