Stuck

There is of course a wide variety of baseball player picture memorabilia products out there. One of my favorites is probably the most overlooked in this oh-so-grown-up now "hobby" -

Stickers

Yes, Dave, stickers make me pretty happy too.

These stickers I picked up the other day do that especially well. These are the 1990 edition from Topps, perhaps their most unique sticker set.

I haven't assembled a collection with representatives of every year that Topps made these, though I can see my baseball player picture collecting tastes will lead me to that point.

So I'm not positive that these are the only dual image stickers issued (they are perforated in the middle and that is two stickers there, on a single backing piece we'll get too shortly). 

I have a stronger suspicion that this might be the only set of stickers that recall the design of the Topps baseball cards that year. Normally with Topps stickers, you get either a white border for all of them, or a combo of Red for the AL players and Blue for the NL players. With special exceptions for the All-Stars, most years. 

But in this case, I find this design much superior to the usual choices from 1 Whitehall Street. And by that I mean also superior to the base card design that year. One day last season I buried my thoughts on 1990 Topps in a long wordy word post about 2013 Archives, and then added to those thoughts in the comments after a smart comment from the Night Owl. He thought 1990 = Lichtenstein, I think 1990 = Mondrian. These stickers definitely support the latter, though you can't argue against connecting the dots to Lichtenstein (no, not the country, click around and learn something), either. I prefer these stickers to the baseball cards because Topps exercises restraint on how many colors they add to the frame, rather than just seemingly randomly rainbow-ing up the entire frame the way they did on so many 1990 cards. And they are still color-coded by League, even with this touch of Art on a 5¢ sticker.

I have always liked the variety of baseball picture card tropes in most Topps products, and this sticker set is no exception. Up there on the first one on to the scanner, we've got a sweet shot of Ozzie Smith, In Action, probably about to smack a pitch left up too high in the zone, it looks like. And I always like a Smiling Card. Or sticker.

Let's see what other baseball card archetypes I can find on these tiny (2" x 1.5") baseball player picture products:

Here we get a nice Batting Cage shot of Andres Thomas, while Melido Perez gets a nice Leg Kick pic as he pitches in some extra-empty weekday game somewhere. Who? Yeah, me neither, though when I cheated via today's online checklists, I did discover that Thomas was a former Topps All-Star Rookie (on those terrible wood-grain cards in 1987, which is why I probably forgot him), and I think Topps always kept those players on their checklists ever after. 

You may wonder why there would be a Topps baseball memorabilia product that doesn't identify the player in the picture (not even on the back of the sticker), which is pretty rare in the world of Topps, though I have always liked their occasional such efforts. Keep in mind that these are designed to be put in the official Topps album each year, where the player's name would probably be printed clearly underneath the empty frame where we are supposed to stick the sticker.

And there are plenty of other classic baseball photo styles:

That's Ivan Calderon hanging out in the dug-out showing off his snazzy red batting gloves. A young John Smoltz is not impressed. Dug-Out cards catch everyone's eye, but I have an eye for certain other things on my baseball picture deals:

Light-towers! Clouds! Storm clouds, at that. Nice stuff. What's up with Kent Hrbek growing a beard and Denny Martinez shaving off his mustache though? No silly, that is Jeff Reardon there on the left, and Craig Worthington on the right, the last sticker # in this set, as it turns out.

Did I finally pull an All-Star sticker there with the special blue star (for an AL guy? actually, all the little stars are blue, even for the AL), while Topps has fun using every part of the color wheel their printing machine had that year.

No, the All-Star players are on their usual special Foil stickers:

Though I appreciate the rare fielding shot for an All-Star baseball player picture thingie, I find the 1990 All-Star sticker effort a little …. meh …. even with all those stars, in part because the foil washes out the wonderful color present in the rest of the set. (Shades of the mmm, shiny baseball card products to come in the rest of the decade, and decades ever after, I guess.) The AL All-Stars get the same exact colors and stars, except theirs are on the left of the frame. Though the All-Stars do get their own complete 3" x 2" sticker.

So what is going on back there with Craig Worthington's special blue star? The answer is another possibly unique feature of this set - the presence of the Topps All-Star Rookies, though without the Rookie Cup, or the statue. Worthington made the team at Third Base, after belting 15 Home Runs in 1989, easily his peak year in the majors. Perhaps the sticker album noted his Topps AS Rookie selection, I don't know.

I like how the All-Star Rookie all-the-colors border somehow leads to his neighbor's frame getting an extra boost as well, as on this likely example of the ultimate Star Power sticker in this set:

Boom!

Imagine pulling that combo the year after Griffey Jr. rookie-card mania. I'm sure the set constructor back in Brooklyn grinned with delight pasting up that one. And no one had to cheat with their album or some computer checklist to figure out those two guys, even though as I mentioned, they aren't named on the back.

So what was on the back? Let's take a look:

More Boom! Check it out kids, you get two stickers on the front, and a baseball card on the back!

And I get to type this again: Miiiinnnnnnnnnniiiiiiiii!

Maybe one of the most unknown mini sets Topps has ever made. The 1990 Superstar Checklist included 66 players, evenly split between the AL and NL, and of course with a special entry for the Checklist sticker card, #67.

I probably won't chase and binder this esoteric mini set with my snazzy new mini card binder pages, as I've never liked baseball picture cards that strip out just the baseball player from the original image; again this foreshadows what was to come in the world of baseball cards the rest of the decade and beyond. Though now that I think about it, perhaps I'll just binder up all the pitchers in this set...

I picked the Langston card to show you due to that cool stat there. Amidst space for only 5 stats, Topps included SHO (shutout), a neat illustration of how the game has changed even in just 24 years. I thought it was amazing this year when Tigers pitcher Rick Porcello pitched sequential shutouts, surely one of the more remarkable pitching performances of the season. 2014 baseball cards no longer even list CG for complete games, and I have to wonder how long it will be before Complete Game shut-outs might get their own special highlight card, they are so rare these days.

Even in 1990 though, a Closer makes this short checklist. I pulled Baltimore Oriole Gregg Olson, who instead of SHO, gets his 1989 SV (saves) stat listed = 27. Another illustration of the game changing over time; though Topps used to issue "Leading Firemen" cards even in the 1970s, I wouldn't expect to see a reliever on any of their special short checklists before this.

Some things never change though, when it comes to special checklist construction:

Yes, in 1990 any modestly successful stat line as a starter for the Chicago Cubs made the player beloved nationwide, though I should note that Dunston did make the NL All-Star team in 1990 for his second and final time.

But did the card back match the front? Nope, that wouldn't be possible with 67 card backs and 164 card fronts (I would expect some double-printed backs). Here is the front, i.e. the sticker, affixed to SuperStar Fred McGriff's entry in that mini checklist:

So, no, that is not the front of SuperStar Mark Langston' card, but it is a nice regulation baseball player image of Langston pitching at Wrigley, I think, nearing the end of the Powder Blue era by this point. I can not determine why some non-All-Stars got full size stickers all by themselves….what Topps set would be complete without some mysteries?

I do like all the ones I pulled, including this one:

That's Ellis Burks, batting as the shadows creep down from the Upper Deck. Apropos today, a day of two shadowed games in Kansas City and San Francisco. I again like how the scanner highlights the shaded portions of the image better than the actual card, err, sticker does.

Unfortunately I only pulled four of those full size / mini stickers (so far…), and only have one more baseball pose to share with you, though I don't have a cheeky name for it:

Yes, Jay Howell, you are correct to have some obvious disbelief here: Fred Lynn is not a Pitcher! I hope the runner was out at Home, at least. One of the more unique fielding shots I have ever discovered.

One of the best things about this little baseball memory acquisition at the LCS the other day is revealed on the wrapper:

What that might be? This was one heckuva deal for only a quarter, still today. Having an appreciation for the Junk Wax era (with real wax, still), can make for some cheap entertainment these days; I spent a whole buck on four packs. I picked up some other cool cheap stuff along with these that I will be sharing with you some other night.

This wrapper also delights me, because, Yeah I Save the Wrappers too. And this is one of the best wrappers I have ever found from the world of Topps Chewing Gum. I poked around the web and even tried the usual best possible reference for questions about all the miscellany on Topps packaging, the excellent Topps Archives blog. I didn't find anything about what feels like the first time I have ever seen this:

Ever the punsters at Topps. Perhaps these things really are designed for children.

While you await your irregularly scheduled Topps products

Please enjoy these other Topps products.

I have been waiting patiently to dive in to Heritage this year. I want to mostly purchase blister packs from Target, for those cool black parallels only available inside. Topps sure knows how to push my buttons, I must admit.

But Excell, the subcontractor for Topps over Tar-jhey way (a fine French store, oui?), is pretty slack sometimes. So I have been in Target admiring the fine scenery several times the last couple weeks, awaiting Christmas morning, errr, the arrival of some 2014 Heritage.

Instead I ended up with this year's stickers. Which sated my jones at least a little. Lately I hear Opening Day has hit the shelves. Except of course, at the Target I have been driving by of late (and today's Wal•Mart for that matter).

And also except I haven't always been driving much. What better excuse not to blog than … my truck was hit by lightning. Yep, while I should be on my way north to suave life in hotels for a few nights, I am instead still stuck in a mostly internet-less condition for several more days. Except when I borrow my friend's car and park down the street by the hotel, so I can hang with yous guys at least a little bit, and forget about the hopeless task of trying to source a used PCM for a 2000 F250 7.3L for a little while.

And I also must admit I did finally get into some Heritage, courtesy of my #1 winter-time Friendly Local Card Shop. But my scanner, baseball cards, laptop, and brain are having difficulty all arriving at the same location in the evening, thanks to that lightning strike.

Luckily for you I did scan in some of my new stickers. Let's take a look.

On that one you can just about hear the announcer say "cocks the bat high up over his right shoulder…"

Now, I frequently whine about Topps' fetish of late for cropping their images to a never-ending series of torso shots. Which would make an astute reader wonder just why in the heck I would want to fool with Heritage, a set in which for the mid-60s styles, a torso shot is like pure Action Jackson compared to all the straight-up head shots. I think I'll answer my complaint on that soon, when I can wander you through what I have found so far in Heritage.

In the sticker set, Topps has every reason to use simple torsos only. It's not like they have the full regulation 2.5" x 3.5" to work with after all. So torsos can be just fine on these stickers, which are of course, supposed to be for children. Right?

In the end, it all depends on the photo the Topps editor selects. Some somehow really do work well:

Such a nice sense of motion on that one. And he doesn't even look fat yet either.

And upon further review, i.e. editing my boo-boos after I post the first time, I discover this mystery image:

WHAT's THIS!?! Topps you fiendish Fiend. A sticker short-print. Of course my immediate first thought is - hey, maybe I pulled a Puig short-print and the rest of you kids will get this one I just downloaded from Cardboard Connection. Or maybe that second one is a pre-release mock-up that didn't make it off the drawing board (or out the Back Door in an employee's pocket, hmm?). Don't worry, Base Set will be on the case. Eventually. Work base is still pretty intense right now.

Anyhow, generally the non-pitchers are shown at the plate; I'm thinking fielding shots might be a little more rare this year, though they do exist:

Perhaps these are rare because the usual subjects of fielding shots in baseball player image products are the more light-hitting players, and what kid wants a sticker of players from the bottom of the line-up? But then Zobrist did sort-of make the All-Star game last year, so he has to have a sticker this year.

Pitchers can get just as repetitive as hitters when it comes to torso views. But even with pitchers (who don't often make the sticker set), gems can still be found:

Topps seems to like Yovani, or he has very good luck when a photographer is pointing a camera at him. He had a sweet, to-be-featured-here-eventually card in Series 1 last year, and also one of my favorite stickers in 2013 - it made it into my permanent collection, stuck right to the cover of a binder of baseball cards.

Of course the sticker set includes at least one All-Time Great for each team, and they frequently come off well, as well:

Run, George, Run!

That one has just a hint of this somewhat frightening sticky image of another All-Timer:

Be afraid, Willie, be very afraid. I'm not sure just what the high-end photo software at Topps HQ is up to either. I think I'll be saving this scan for some more photo critique later.

And at this point I must apologize for the so-so scans I'm presenting. My Neat-O mobile scanner isn't really worthy of such Topps masterpieces as this one:

A photo Topps likes so much they've already used it twice. Is there a statue of limitations, err, legal limit,  for these? Though Chris has a long way to go to catch Ted Williams in this department, among others.

The sticker set also wouldn't be the kid-centric set it is supposed to be without the mascots. Topps added an odd wrinkle to them this year, up there in the right corner:

That odd bit of illustrated-mascot-logo-thingie has pushed a button once again as now I absolutely must find out what Paws looks like in a small drawing, for some reason I'm thinking only my readers here might possibly know, because I sure don't.

I even got a kick out of my first Photoshop score of 2014:

I just love this one. It makes me laugh. When I look at it, I can't help but sing this song in my head -

You may tell yourself, this is not my beautiful uniform

You may tell yourself, that is not my beautiful wife

and You may tell yourself, my God, What have I done?

So I have to give out mad props to a 15¢ product that makes me pleasantly jumble up lyrics to a pleasantly jumbled-up classic song. And I do look forward to picking up some more of these, because who knows what song they might make me sing next, and because I am ALWAYS on the hunt for this one, which Topps absolutely positively should repeat every single year:

Because, you know, I like to get the lower half of that one … and stick it on things.

Withdrawal Symptoms

It was a very long week in a baseball-less black hole. About an hour in any direction from any store that sold baseball cards. Although my phone worked as a phone, data service in total boondocks is mind-blowingly amazing in some places, and non-existent in others, such as where I kept ending up.

Even worse, the hour-to-the-baseball-card-store was also the distance to the same small outposts of humanity that hosted an AM radio station hosting a baseball broadcast. Which is not close enough for low-power AM radio stations any more. Oh how I miss the days of my youth, when I could measure the distance to a baseball broadcast by how many state lines there were between me and the radio station.

Some teams still have games on such stations of course, but not the Tigers. I will never ever forget being in northern Michigan in October, 2006, and having to listen to a Tigers playoff game on a clear-as-day station from New York. With the Yankees announcers. Because where I was sitting in Michigan, none of the Tigers radio network could be pulled in.

But all great jobs come to an end, and along the way home I was ever so happy to find a Wal•Mart. I'll ponder the place tomorrow. For now, let's see what I found inside:

Yep, a sticker I have been chasing. To ease back into the 21st Century and some cheap baseball picture products I went with a few packs of 2013 Topps MLB Stickers. I had a hunch buying them in a different locale might shake up the Topps sorting machine enough to get me several I need, and my managerial instincts were correct. Kaline at last. Still just a few Tigers to go. And logo stickers. I forget just exactly which right now. At least I already have Scherzer, though I hope next year Topps sees fit to celebrate like I do when pitchers get a W _and_ a GWRBI.

A surprising sticker though. Almost every team in the set has a fan-beloved veteran in their short checklist. But all of them I have seen so far included an image from their playing days. Instead we see Kaline acknowledging some sort of tribute right there at Comerica Park, with his old TV broadcast partner's name there next to his left ear. But somehow appropriate for a fan-beloved veteran still very much involved in helping his baseball team win games every day.

And as usual, even in a pack of 16¢ stickers, Topps hooks me up with baseball player pictures I haven't seen before, amidst all the many stickers I already have, and the many I have already seen on their other products.

Why here is a skinny Oakland "A" that somehow seems familiar. Skinny like Billy Beane. Long blonde hair like Brad Pitt. I'm so confused now. With a frame like that, how in the heck did Reddick hit those home runs last year, and for that one week this year? Beware the Topps Voodoo, Josh. Leave it to Topps to reveal the real deal on those baseball players. Topps, always bringing me closer to the game and its leading players, just like they pledged to me on the back of that Fernando Rodney relic they CONGRATULATED me on receiving twice last year.

It seemed to be a bit of an Oakland A hot box of stickers with Reggie Jackson about to swat one all the way, way up there to the southern shore of Lake Superior, a baseball purgatory if there ever was one; yet every little town still with a Little League diamond. One of the stickers had more official MLB news from Topps, as it announced that a Little Leaguer is all grown-up now:

Bye Tommy.

Another sticker shows us what happens in a perfect world after Superman slides into 3rd base:

He simply trots home when the next batter smacks a home run and all the fans ignore him while they stand up to watch the ball fly. A perfect world being the world of baseball stickers for kids that don't need to have anything at all on the back, such as stats for a season with 50 less games played than the year before. But I am a sucker for baseball cards, err, pictures including a standing crowd.

And even after perusing a couple-three thousand baseball picture cards the last couple-three years, Topps also hooked me up with a baseball image archetype I don't think I have seen:

That's binder material there. Though of course, that would be stuck on the outside of the binder. If only we could have got a bit of red in the image so we could have a perfect touch of the irony of a foreign-born player so perfectly honoring our own country. I feel bad for Topps sometimes having to try and make good looking baseball image products with the materials the Brewers give them to work with. I predict many more throwback uni cards in the Brewer's roster's future. They did hook up Gallardo with a great card in Series One though, totally worth the 14 ~ 20some¢ it would cost you to acquire, if you don't count the costs of all those doubles.

Now maybe those of you with a couple-three score thousand baseball cards have seen a great National Anthem deal like that one before. Either way, we all like classic baseball images, like this one:

Red, White, Blue. Can't be beat. Fly your own flag, Anthony. Roll that logo back up the hill, again. Playing in Chicago must surely be one of the more Sisyphean tasks in the Universe. Everything I need to know about baseball, I learn from Topps.

You Can't Do That to Baseball Memorabilia #2

As usual, your protests are too late. The Base Set umpire has already made the call:

Yes, those highly collectible pieces of baseball memorabilia from Topps have been ruined. They are no longer even PSA grade 1, and can not be sold or traded for a profit.

These particular pieces have been stuck somewhere — my poor neglected Tigers binder. That's what they were designed to do after all. The other day I was coincidentally encouraging another blogger to put a totally different baseball collectible to it's designed use, though I had this project and post planned for a long time. There are a lot of this year's stickers sitting in a pile on my card desk, wanting to head off to your house, and maybe an appropriate surface of some sort there. 

A scissors was even involved (X-acto not yet acquired for another memorabilia deconstruction project) for the logo sticker there on the spine. And yes, I picked up the Scherzer sticker today. Couldn't help going for just a few more 2013 Topps Baseball stickers to stick on things. My travel coffee mug out in the truck has been looking rather bare lately...Paws should brighten the truck cab nicely.

The Tigers played a big, big game tonight, the start of a four game set on the road at the red-hot second-place Indians, who we do not play in September. I had thought to put in some time assembling pages in this binder while I listened in. Instead I lucked into a lot of those Blue Sparkle cards and had to re-configure the Parallel Project, again.

It all worked out in the end. The Tigers newly evolving line-up rallied to beat a tired Indians closer in the top of the 9th, a rare feat for the Tigers this year, who have had trouble scoring runs late. Cabrera seems to need a true stint on the DL to heal up for the stretch run to the playoffs, but I think the Tigers can afford that, though it will be tricky. Victor Martinez is producing at last. Hopefully Prince Fielder can step up and get back into gear as well. The Tiger's new infield of Jose Iglesias and Hernan Perez should complement their excellent starting rotation and newly revived bullpen. Leyland will have a lot of new options with two speedy infielders in the weeks ahead, when runs might be a little more scarce.

Should Cabrera need more time off, Iglesias appears to be as good at 3rd as Short, which would require Ramon Santiago to complement Perez in the middle of the infield. As Santiago's playing time has gone up recently, so has his batting average. Meanwhile Omar Infante is starting a rehab assignment, again, and should be back with the big league club soon.

The binder decoration project also moved forward for me; here is the back:

1982 Topps Stickers don't stick very well any more though, and a bit of clear packing tape was needed to keep Whitaker and Trammel together up there. Too bad I assembled them bass-ackwards sorta.

The card project worked out nicely as well. Another dozen doubles for your set needs were freed up from the active roster and put on the trade block. Several binder slots were filled, though no pages are complete yet.

Assembling 660 colorful parallels is a long project, with another 330 cards in the Update set on the horizon; just as 162 games is a long season, with the Playoffs to follow.

And at least the few Tigers that have made it into the binder won't be living in plain jane card boxes any more. Topps would surely approve; the more I use up their memorabilia products, the more of them I will need....

A look at a 2013 set without au, gu, inserts or parallels? WHAT?

How could that be? Who would buy such a boring baseball memorabilia product? I have an idea who buys these, and they definitely buy 'em up because while looking for packs of this stuff I have found many a gravity feed box that is already empty.

Baseball memorabilia and bubble gum go oh so well together. I have a certain fondness for the combo that can no longer be satisfied of course, though I can never understand why. You would think Topps and Big League Chew would have got married a long, long time ago in the age of marketing synergy for everything. I think some corporate consultants are asleep at the switch on that one.

But of course it is the fault of us grown-up baseball card collectors that gum never comes in the packs anymore. If it were to ever return, I think this would be the product where it will appear.

I'm babbling on about the 2013 Topps Baseball Stickers of course. The checklist is chock full of interesting entries. Though I do not have a complete set of them, I did select the Adam Jones shown above as a favorite. Because of the bubble gum...such a rare baseball image now. I was pleasantly surprised when I took it off the scanner to discover that perhaps someone at Topps has the same keening nostalgia as myself, since that is sticker #1 in the set. But then the stickers are #d by team like an old Fleer set, and the Baltimore Orioles, of the American Leauge, are the first team on the list.

Still probably my favorite player sticker I've found yet so far.

There are plenty of Hall of Famers in the set...

...generally one per team, with exceptions of two for the Yankees, and a few younger teams that have a popular veteran not yet in the HOF. All teams receive an even 9 stickers.

Two thirds or more of MLB teams have a mascot sticker in the set, like this one which will definitely be on my Topp Ten list for 2013:

Two great hobbies for just 13¢. I will never have too many of these stickers to stick places and give to a few friends. So, yeah, I will super-collect this one! Send them along! (More on that in a bit.)

The set is a Topps product with a few images we've seen before, sometimes just the player's image from their 2013 Topps Series 1 or 2 card cropped differently, or an image borrowed from some other previously published set. Overall though there aren't many of those and I think the set will hold a vast majority of unique images. The checklist tells me there are two "RC" stickers (Bundy and Bauer), but I haven't pulled either one to see if that certain logo appears here too. I think I would laugh if I see that. Adam Eaton, who sports the RC logo on his '13 Series 1 "Topps" debut, does not have that on his sticker. I could hardly care less; I am not shooting for a set of these. My plans are a bit different, though you will have to tune in tomorrow to see.

Meanwhile, let's continue our tour of perhaps the ultimate base set: just current baseball players, a sprinkling of veterans, and two small subsets — not sticker:pack inserts.

The player images include _a lot_ of night shots. Night stickers, like this one:

A sunset sticker? I suppose.

The image gallery features lots of pitchers pitching, and hitters admiring their bat's contact a moment ago, as baseball images always will. There are some other action shots, and these are frequently from night games, like this nice one of Michael Brantley maximizing his lead-off:

Topps does continue their 2013 fetish for maximum cropping on lots of these stickers, but this is one product where that is pretty much necessary, as each sticker is only 75% the size of a card. A pity, though, that Jayson Werth's sticker...

...doesn't give up just a little more baseball game-context, as the crowd is standing and Jayson has his home whites on. Perhaps the image sleuths can sort this one out with the resources that go a little deeper than Google does, I haven't figured that out yet. This is likely a shot from the bottom of the ninth, at a night game, a time when it seems many baseball photographers have already filed their images for the evening, as I just don't see many shots like this one on my baseball cards.

Or any like this one:

Turning a double play — at night! For whatever reason, all the turning two cards I can recall, and I have seen a lot since I started reading the baseball card blogs, are always shot in the daytime. There are at least 1 more of these (Pedroia, as A-Rod waves bye-bye sliding in), and possibly 2 (Altuve), in the set I have found so far. Jason Kipnis gets a daytime shot probably taken a frame before his Series 1 card this year, and Hanley Ramirez sees some field action with his shades on, though not necessarily on a double play as the ball is still coming in and the runner is likely safe. I'm leaving you a little fun to hunt for on your own dime at just a dollar-a-go. So you can build up your trade bait. For me.

There are some fun images amidst the live action, such as a nonchalant Jacoby Ellsbury:

And it looks like Josh Willingham should be playing for the Angels:

One of the funnier single stickers keeps butting in to the packs I purchase:

Which is a portion of the Giant's World Champions montage that closes out the Sticker Album sold separately. The Album has 6 stickers included on a perforated page, which I think is great. There will never be a PSA 10 of the first Topps Manny Machado sticker (Rookie Sticker) unless it arrives out the back door of the sticker factory. And yes, I have read collectors complaining about the fact that the free stickers aren't in the packs so those 6 players will never be in Pristine 10 condition, without trimming, and of course an investment grade baseball collectible like these 13¢ stickers should never ever be trimmed. You chuckle, but graded and slabbed stickers do exist these days.

Anyhow, aside from the World Champions there at the end of the album, the set includes one other simple subset, the MLB Team logos:

These are cleverly paired; I'm sure many a younger collector could not tell me why these two teams share space.

I have enjoyed my little piles of these stickers, but I will probably quit purchasing them, so I can foist off all the left-overs on you dear readers. And thank you for reading, by the way. The blogosphere chatter does seem correct that things have been slow lately; work reared up on it's demanding demands again, and I used up most of my softball scans while I had family in town before that. Though I have been participating in the hobby a good bit anyway, via my first Group Break, which was part of the Parallel Project which is a little ridiculously time-consuming. Each blaster and skim of the current eBay action changes everything. (A few trade emails headed out into your mailbox by the time you wake up as well).

So in my usual round-about way I am announcing some trade needs. I want to complete a set of the mascots, and for that I need the Nationals' Screech and the Phillie Phanatic. I also want all the Pirate Parrot stickers ever printed. Same for Bernie Brewer, he's the Man, and he wants to go visit some places with Mr. Parrot. Send them to me and I will make that happen. I also need extras of Wally the Green Monster, the Oakland Athletics Elephant (pink ears, really, it's not just all the beer you drank watching the game), Mr. Met, Fredbird, and the Orioles' Oriole.

I am also woefully short on the Detroit Tigers collection, for which I need Austin Jackson, Victor Martinez, Al Kaline, and Max Scherzer.

I also hope to assemble a set of the team logos, for which I need the White Sox, Rays, Cubs,  Marlins, Phillies, and Padres. And all of them over again as I have lots of uses for these stickers and can use them all. If you are really, really nice and read my list of 2013 Topps Parallel Project needs maybe you can pry one of these logo stickers away from me.

Otherwise, if you need or want a 2013 Topps Baseball Sticker, I probably have one for you, including most of the ones scanned-in above. Of course, we could limbo lower than a PWE trade and trade them on a post card even, but these stickers do have purposes (tune in tomorrow), so a nice, simple PWE would be fine. Let's Trade! You could even send them to me without using a top-loader. I won't tell anyone.

Sometimes, Topps is smarter than me

Actually, they are smarter than me all the time, since I always give them more money than I think later that I probably should have.

But sometimes, they really surprise me.

In a post back in March, I asked Why Topps, Why?, referencing several of their set inclusion selections this year, ending with a question mark on "Papa Grande".

It seemed like a no-brainer at the time. But unlike Ryan Raburn and Delmon Young, Valverde was neither traded nor had signed with a new team. And though Valverde isn't in Series One or Opening Day and I will be very intrigued to see if he makes Series Two (a Pitcher never makes an Out-of-Bounds catch, so they can't sneak him in as a last-minute Short Print). It was very telling that Valverde was not in the Official Factory Sealed Topps Detroit Tigers® Team Set, though Phil Coke and Joaquin Benoit are. Perhaps Topps was starting to re-think this.

And yes, that is a Heritage card up there. I have been buying some of those too, mostly just to have a trade stock to get a set of Managers cards that I can't get in The Base Set. Or the "Flagship" if you must, though that always makes me think of either Star Trek or Master & Commander books I wanna read someday. And I want the Leader cards, Heritage gets those so right. And a certain Memorable Moments card. And Brian Jones on a 'baseball' card. And those nifty cards with a pitcher casually tossing the baseball into mid-air, like he might go back to his original calling as a juggler, if getting paid a few million dollars to be a baseball player good enough to be on a Heritage baseball card doesn't work out good enough. And that wicked cool sky-and-clouds Evan Longoria card. And a card with the crisp "Venezuelan" back-in-black. Tight. And more of those cards with a mysterious small tree growing in the Arizona desert on Colorado Rockies cards. And chain-link fence cards. And light-tower cards. And heck, if I buy any more Heritage, I'll just dream up more reasons to buy more of them for weird binder pages to bind them up in.

But one thing in Heritage was mostly eluding me until just recently, which will make for an epic scan of the most evil card I've purchased in probably forever. That will require blowing the dust off the scanner. Anyhow Heritage just wouldn't give up it's Tigers cards to me. They only played in the World Series last year, you'd think that would earn them a couple more spots on the checklist than usual. But then being swept is almost like they never even played in the Classic at all and it might be better to just pretend that never happened.

Except one card. Jose Valverde. The Tiger released the day after the Series and basically told to not let the door hit him on the way out, got a Heritage card. And a sticker in the sticker set, which was also the only Tiger I could pull out of nearly 100 stickers.

The only-on-Topps 2013 Tiger, and the only one I could get in those two sets, despite lots of "pulling". [Author pauses here to open tonight's acquisition of 2 packs of 2013 Topps stickers, purchased in-lieu-of a few more Opening Day packs since you can't quite get the ones with Opening Day Highlights unless you luck into just the right Wal-Mart. No Tigers. Again. Adam Jones blowing a bubble though, pretty cool. How long has it been since you've seen a baseball player blowing a bubble on a bubble-gum card, errr.....whatever.]

But truth is _always_ stranger than fiction, and tonight Topps' faith in Valverde was redeemed. A 1-2-3 ninth inning for his first save of the year in his first appearance. 18 or 19 pitches, all fastballs, two-thirds for strikes....saving his rejuvenated cut splitter or whatever his fancy pitch is for a real jam some other night. And though Series Two might show that faith to have wavered some with no Valverde card to be seen, at least now they already have an easy spot to fill in all the padding called the Update set.

Color me surprised. And wrong. And totally mystified.

Actually, I have a theory on this. For once, something outside of baseball that might affect a player's performance was kept out of the way overly hyper-active 21st Century media. I kinda hope that is the case; that would be cool. Though for it to be cool, I will never find out.

And I hope Valverde saves 93 or 100% of his chances again this year, like only Mariano Rivera can do otherwise.

But I think my second theory is more fun. Scott Boras has a mole at 1 Whitehall Street. So, get ready for Kyle Lohse to be card #662 this year. It will turn out that at some point in the last couple years while backing up the catcher on a long throw in from the outfield, the ball will have bounced off a squirrel down in the corner of the shot, leading Lohse to attempt a catch Out Of Bounds, which spilled a fan's Gatorade and then tipped over a piece of cream pie the fan next to him was eating. Unfortunately, this could not be explained at the Press Conference, though plenty of boring pictures were taken.

This still doesn't explain the inclusion of all the Alex Rodriguez cards no one wants to see any more in the insert sets. Perhaps this mole is under such deep cover they didn't get the memo from the agency on that.

So though you can wonder and wonder just why Topps, why, sometimes the Topps Voodoo works in mysterious ways.

Why Topps, why?

I know, everybody has seen this one. Quite the photograph. Kudos, Topps.

This card would have to be an all-time contender for having the most people on it with their mouths open, easily. Memorable. Maybe that is why Topps made it card #330. Raburn certainly doesn't make the cut for handing him a Uni # card. Mark Teixeira, Matt Holliday, and Will Venable get the 3 #25 cards in Series One, and are all worth more than Raburn. Venable has an average set of averages in his short career, but he is a speedy guy.

And, it is a Shades Card. I like those.

The color elements on the outfield wall there, combined with the colorful fans, make it one I will be looking for in the parallels. Reminds me of a certain painter....a subject of a future blog post that ties in with a card from '12 Update. Again, a well-chosen photo...many, many points on composition.

And it was from a dramatic moment in a Tigers win. Though there are fans pictured with both a Tigers uniform and a Pirates T-shirt, Raburn is wearing his road grey uni. So most likely it is a game @ Heinz Field. Raburn played in 2 games there last June, but in the first he played 2nd Base the whole game. In the second game, on June 24th, he started at 2nd again, but in the 8th inning he was shifted to left field in place of Delmon Young. I'll get to some thoughts on Delmon shortly. Or, it might take a minute.

Jim Leyland's defensive switch was just in time. In the bottom of the 8th, ace workhorse (workhorse ace?) Justin Verlander was still mowing down the Pirates, and the Tigers held a 3-2 lead. The final batter up for Pittsburgh was their 2nd Baseman, Josh Harrison, and although not known for having a lot of power, he hit a deep fly to left. Caught by Raburn a second or so after the shutter was clicked.

The catch probably didn't make that day's highlights, but it kept the Tigers on top, and they went on to win the game with the same score — a complete game win for Verlander.

So many good things about the front of this baseball card. But why was it issued?

Topps knows the game of baseball inside out. But I have to wonder how much they keep up with the personnel moves some times, and this is one of them. Raburn was released by the Tigers on November 20th. The day before that, Jose Reyes was traded from Miami to Toronto. Topps found time before the Series One cards were printed to create a card featuring Reyes in a Blue Jays uni — Card #331, the one after Rayburn. No, I don't get off on pointing out Photoshop efforts. BFD. I have another post on that idea bubbling around my brain that will certainly piss off some readers.

Anyhow, why did they even choose to issue a Raburn card in Series One? Seriously. The Tigers have a slew of players more likely to make the Opening Day roster than Raburn looked last fall. Raburn got a lot of playing time in the first third of the 2012 season, but was hitting below the Menodoza/Uecker line and was sent down to AAA in the summer, then returned with the expanded rosters in September and got all of 7 at-bats. Avisail Garcia came up and went on to have such a hot fall that Topps put his Rookie Card in Series One too. Detroit also has Austin Jackson and Andy Dirks for the outfield.

And the week before Raburn was released, the Tigers signed free agent Torii Hunter. Career minor leaguer Quintin Berry made his Topps Card debut in the 2012 Update set and the fans in Detroit loved his high energy contributions to the team last year, though he faded a bit down the stretch. The #1 prospect in the organization, by some counts - Nick Castellanos - is converting to the outfield from his natural third base position.

How did Topps think Ryan Raburn would be playing in the outfield for the Tigers in 2013? Every baseball fan in the state of Michigan knew this would not be the case.

Raburn has always been a problematic player. Lots of baseball players are known for having poor stats in April. Raburn is well-known for having awesome stats in September. But only in September. At least until 2012 anyhow. Last year he had a great Spring Training. Currently, he is tearing it up for Cleveland on their Spring roster. Maybe Terry Francona can psych him into being a consistent all-season player. I wish Raburn all the best, unlike many Tigers fans. Though if he does break his mental logjam and becomes an every day player, I hope Cleveland trades him to the National League for another worthless starting pitcher.

Perhaps Topps just drooled so much at using the awesome photo, that they just ignored all of the above not-very-secret information. I wish Series One would be made up of players solidly under contract and likely to start to avoid these problems, of which Topps always seems to have many...

Here we have pretty much a repeat of the above problem. Delmon Young got the majority of his playing time in 2012 as the Designated Hitter for the Tigers. In 2013, Victor Martinez is returning to the Tigs to be the everyday DH. Young was not considered by the organization to have sufficient defensive abilities to play the outfield, and they have a plethora of other options there. I really don't know what the Phillies (DY's new team) are thinking on this. Their cupboard must have been that bare, or they just plan to slug their way to victory.

Once again, every Tigers fan in Michigan, and every person with much interest at all in who will the 750 players on Opening Day rosters in 2013, knew that Delmon would not be one of the 25 Tigers come April 1st. And he was released from the organization the day after the World Series.

But Topps released a 2013 card of him as a Tiger anyway.

I just don't get this. So many collectors dump all over Topps for the Photoshop cards. But these types of cards are just considered a standard part of baseball cards.

I do like Delmon's card. I always like Horizontal cards. I don't really care if Delmon is admiring a Home Run, or the shot he just hit curved to the wrong side of the Foul Pole. Either way, a classy, somewhat standard baseball card. It would have made a great shot for the Tigers ALCS card, as Young was the MVP of that series. Far better than the over-done team celebration shots, though thoughts on that may depend on how many of those cards you have been able to enjoy recently. It is great to see an Orioles fan in the presence of their ALDS card this year.

Then other day I picked up some packs of Topps stickers. I want lots of the olde English D sticker, you know, to stick on things. And I like the inclusion of a famous player for every team - I got Reggie Jackson in my first pack. Thanks Topps!

Then I discovered this one:

What the hell? Valverde was released the same day as Delmon Young. Though only 34, his wheels have fallen off so badly that he bailed on pitching for his native country in the recent World Baseball Classic. Not that the Dominicans needed him much with Fernando Rodney in their pen of course. Sadly he can only be said to be having 'issues'. He is still awaiting a phone call from anyone this spring. And again every baseball fan in the state of Michigan knew he would not be pitching for Detroit this year. It was almost the only Tigers topic in the Hot Stove League - who would replace Valverde?

There will be some kids in Michigan putting that sticker in the album upside-down. And perhaps not in a completely unmodified condition either. If, of course, kids actually buy these things. It is a nice Night Sticker at least.

So, Really, Topps — WHY?