Card Draft II Countdown Part 2: 15-6

Hey y’all!  We’re jumping right back into the Card Draft Countdown, taking it down just shy of the top-5.  Light it up and go in hot.

#15

1974 Topps Traded Ron Santo..

This one is a little bittersweet.  Your best friend only moved across town, but you still get the sense that it’s the beginning of the end of your friendship.  Everything changes and life goes on, but it’s sad in the moment.  And you know that career is coming to an end when the team they’ve been with for their whole career lets them go.  But still, you gotta remember the good times, and Ron Santo was great.  So this is a bittersweet keeper.

#14

1974 Topps Al Kaline..

Another late-career card of a Hall of Fame slugger.  It is beat to hell, which is why it’s so low on the countdown, but still a fine card nonetheless.  I’m willing to trade this one away though.  Not my team, not my town.

#13

1974 Topps JR Richard..

And now for the “what could have been” I mentioned in the previous post.  JR Richard had the stuff to be an all-time great, but he flamed out probably not even halfway to immortality.  But the little we got was just crazy electric amazing.  This badass card is a keeper.  I’m working on a single page of him, and was able to score a couple more for the page in Card Draft III.

#12

Harold Baines RC..

A RC of the 2nd or 3rd best more-or-less pure DH of all time.  If Edgar Martinez is getting into the Hall one of these years, which seems like a very real possibility, then Harold Baines belongs there too.  Edgar has a better slashline .312/.418/.515 to .289/.356/.465.  But Harold has him in hits 2866-2247, 384-309 in home runs, and 1628-1261 in RBI, all of which Edgar would struggle to reach if given the extra 3+ seasons Harold played.  You would have to tack those years on at the beginning and/or end of his career, and he did all his best work from age 32-40 (dude never hit over 18 HR in season before that), so only the hits would maybe be in danger.  You can complain about accumulating all you want (and Harold Baines was unquestionably an accumulator), but if you put up 2866 hits, 384 home runs, and 1628 RBIs together, that’s Hall of Fame-worthy career, DH or not.

In other news, I completed a Harold Baines trifecta earlier this month thanks to landing this card in the draft.  I got the auto late last year, this in Card Draft II: The Search for Son of Curly’s Electric Boogaloo, and finally the relic courtesy of eBay.  Being that Harold Baines is probably my dad’s favorite player, all three are currently displayed on the parents’ entertainment center.

#11

’61 Moe Thacker..

An early ’60s Cub?  Of course I’m going to to take it.  I don’t really team collect anymore, but I have a binder for cool Cubs stuff I like that doesn’t fit into a specific player collection or set or single page.  There’s a place in it for vintage, rookies/prospects, inserts/parallels, hits, and certain oddballs and things.  So yeah, this be a keeper.

#10

1986 Topps 1000 Yard Club..

What better way to jump into the top-10 than with the greatest running back of all-time?  I have several cards from Sweetness’ playing career (including his RC!), but nothing from about 1981-86, so this starts to close that sad gap in my collection a little bit.

#9

Dock In Action..

Another ’70s pitching great with a dedicated binder page the card drafts have started to fill up.  I only had a single Dock before this, from epic time suck that was the Diamond Giveaway.  It should’ve been two though, Topps.  Thanks for screwing me out of the ’75, the only card from his playing career that could top this card and the next on the countdown.

#8

Dock not in action..

My ordering might’ve gone off the rails in this part of the list, but that’s okay.  It’s hard to beat a ’72 for anyway.  This was early in the era where I argue Topps peaked (from 1971-1985, they simply didn’t make a bad looking set, and ’71, ’72, ’75, and ’83 are all-time greats), and while the design is way… oh, let’s say flouncier, than ’71, it still positively reeks of the same kind of class as the straight black ’71s.

#7

Upper Deck Ovation Future Forces Ray Allen..

From the height of Topps powers to the height of Upper Deck’s, this is one of those scan doesn’t do the card justice types.  These days Ray is the most prolific 3-point shooter of all-time and a future Hall-of-Famer.  Amazing then that he might only be the fourth best player in his draft class!  Kobe, while kind of a douche, is unquestionably the best of the class, Allen Iverson is 6th in NBA history in points-per-game at 26.7 (from a guy not even legitimately 6’0″ tall!), and Steve Nash is a 2-time MVP and one of the greatest point guards in NBA history.

What a draft that 1996 class was.  4 Hall of Fame locks (the above mentioned Kobe, AI, Nash & Allen), 4 of the better all-star/Hall of Very Good journeymen ever (Antoine Walker, Shareef Abdur-Rahim, Stephon Marbury, Peja Stojakovic) and several significant contributors and long-lasting role players (Kerry Kittles, Marcus Camby, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Derek Fisher, Jermaine O’Neal).

Oh, and I guess this card is available, but only reluctantly.

#6

Aramis Ramirez 2012 BowChro Blue Refractor #’ed /250..

This card is so so pretty with that deep blue border and surprisingly decent for a Bowman product design (although 2013 is pretty decent too).  The only thing keeping it out of the top-5 is the Cubs’ next Hall of Famer having moved on to the Brew Crew after the 2011 season.  Usually I stop actively chasing players when that happens, but I finally officially went over 100 Aramis Ramirez cards early this year and am still going strong, if mostly focused on using my own money to get his autograph cards right now.  I figure when I get back into trading again, the lower-tier Aramis base cards and inserts will start filling out some more.

Well, there you go.  I might even be questioning my list myself, but those are my 15-6 from Card Draft II.  That’s all for this one, lonely souls.  Thanks for stopping by and reading my rambles and looking at my cards.  Check back next time for the top-5!

Next time, Gadget…

Cubs and Bears COMC Keepers

Heyo, Loneycakes (yeah, that better not stick) back with the Cubs and Bears portion of the latest COMC order.

Bears!

The Gale Sayers scanned rather nicely, but still doesn’t do the card the justice it deserves.  Easily amongst the 10 best I picked up this time around.

The Pog card is kind of a mess.  Think I might pop ’em out.

Can’t get enough Hester cards.  That’s a collection I’d love to expand dramatically.  Incidentally, and to unintentionally totally rip Fuji off with related question audience participation, do you consider Devin Hester a Hall of Famer, or at least well on his way to becoming one?

Orton, man… can’t let ol’ neckbeard go.  Wrecking the Pack’s perfect season plans was most enjoyable.

Forte is a parallel with a super subtle rainbow shine and is #’ed /250 I think.  It reminded me a lot of the shine on the lesser American Pie parallels, where you can’t even tell unless the light hits it right.

Finally, A-Train!  What a great looking card with a great looking autograph.  It’s on (or in I guess) card too.  All I need is a swatch to complete his trifecta, and they are cheap and fairly plentiful.

Cubs!

Corey Patterson… what could have been?  He was fading a bit when he got hurt that year, but would he have become legit if it never happened?

Welington looks like an embedded window ala the A-Train, but it isn’t.  It is on-card though.  I do believe this completes my trifecta for him.

Brett Jackson.  Please pan out, please pan out, please pan out…  Josh Vitters too.

The Ryno back..

Honestly, I don’t even remember buying this one.  But it’s pretty cool.  And I totally did forget something in the non-Cubs post, but it’ll have to wait.  They really should have a post of their own.  So stay tuned for that, along with one other keeper post.  Then we go to the trade bait end of things.

Until our next…

Autographs

Haven’t been paying much attention to the blogs lately.  Been busy failing badly at NaNoWriMo again this year.  After literally years of trying to figure out how to start the dang thing, Somewhere Out There IS finally started and has an actual direction at least.  I’m 10000+ words in and know where the story is headed, so I guess I’ve got that going for me, which is nice.

That’s not why I’m here though.  I’m here to talk about autographs.  Just stumbled upon a post over at Nachos Grande, and even though I’m way behind, I thought I’d belatedly answer his questionnaire.  This is timely too.  I just pulled a sweet Brandon Phillips (on-card) autograph from a pack of 2009 UD Goudey from Target’s $1.59 bin on Sunday (it’s ridiculous how many nice pulls I’ve had from various $1.59 bins over the years).  It serves as an excellent tie-in to the lost art of the veteran player autograph VOTC was recently bemoaning as well.  Anyway, survey says!

1.) What is the best autograph you own?

I’ll assume this means favorite, and that’s an easy one.  2005 Upper Deck Hall of Fame Seasons Billy Williams Auto/Bat #’ed 9/15.  Perhaps the single most beautiful sticker auto set ever released.  It just oozes class.

2.) What is the best autograph you’ve ever pulled from a pack of cards.

There is no doubt I have to go with my 2008-09 Fleer Derrick Rose Signature Approval Autograph from a 60%-off clearanced blaster from K-Mart.  There is no question anymore, it’s easily my greatest retail pull ever, and part of my first ever definitely completed trifecta.  Second would have to be my 2005 Upper Deck Legends Tony Dorsett SP auto, from a wonderfully disorganized little comic & card shop in the Quad Cities.  I pulled it awhile before my blogging days and I didn’t find any posts about.  So maybe I should look into posting about it one of these days.

3.) What’s the worst autograph you’ve ever pulled from a pack of cards?

I don’t even remember the guy’s name.  Nachos Grande might actually have it though.  I know it was a Red.  I recall the other four guys in the pack all being pretty good, if not superstars, and then this schlub that barely cracked the lineup was the big hit.  I was just happy to at least get something though.  It was the last pack in a pretty terrible 15 pack for $9.99 cube at Target.  A quick search of COMC tells me it was from a pack of 2005 Donruss Team Heroes and that Jacob Cruz may have been the guy I pulled.

4.) Do you try to get autographs through the mail?  If so, what sort of success (or failure) stories do have?

I’ve been wanting to try this but have never gotten around to it.  So I guess the failure story would be my own laziness and/or shyness.

5.) Who was the subject of your first ever autograph?

I don’t remember which one came first for sure, and I don’t have or know whatever became of two of them, but there are three I remember from my youth.  Bozo the Clown appeared at the local mall for an autograph signing, I got an autograph from an area TV news guy (I want to say this was a school field trip, but I dunno for sure), and my dad took me to see the King and His Court own a team of local radio and newspaper guys & gals in softball and we got a hat signed by the whole team (this is the one that’s still around, because it isn’t mine and pops can actually keep track of things reasonably well).  The news guy was a mildly interesting case.  He had us sign our autographs for him too, lol.

6.) Do you actively collect any autographs (certain players, teams, brands, etc)?

I try to get my players of course.  And I have some random Cubbies from back when I was able to be freer with my money.  Brand doesn’t really matter too much.  As long as it’s visually appealing, I’ll happily take it.

7.) Which is better: Autographs or Relics?

Well, I do like relics a lot more than your average collector.  A good patch/prime swatch is always welcome, and I dig the odd swatches.  I recently added a race-used tire and a Stadium Seat in my not-terribly-serious-but-still-kinda-there quest to land every type of relic card possible.  I also have shoe, football helmet, laundry tag, face mask, hat, base, baseball, bikini and lingerie (what?) amongst my lesser-seen relic collection.  But autographs, you can’t beat autographs.  They have a certain level of intimacy about them… Just something about writing one’s name I’d guess, even in sticker form.  Seeing Shawon Dunston Jr.’s twitpics from signing that ridiculous amount of stickers… hey, the guys might not touch the card itself, but those dumb things still gotta be signed.

8.) What do you think of cut autos?

Love the idea.  Don’t always care for the execution.  Checks are awesome, index cards are awesome.  Things that aren’t a part of something bigger make for a great cut auto.  But don’t cut up letters or documents or signed photos to make a cut auto.  I’m don’t get as upset as many people do over younger people having cut autos.  Life is unpredictable, and unfortunately bad things happen sometimes.  Still though, you might ease up a bit though, eh companies?  Cutting up an autograph card you yourself made just last year to make a cut auto… Really, topps?  That’s pretty pathetic.  Like I said though, when they manage to get them right, cut autos are one of the absolute best pieces of memorabilia you could ever hope to own.

9.) What is your favorite autograph design (say in the last 5 years)?

It’s a little past 5 years old now, but see question 1.  That is a hard design to beat.  I also love me some Sweet Spot/Shot.  The autos on embedded ball/puck/mini helmet are gorgeous, even though certain years have been known to fade.  UD Black has some amazing autos too.  I’m partial to the Lustrous and Game Day Lineup autos myself.

10.) If you could get the autograph of any five people (dead or alive), who would you want a signature from (and why)?

Walter Payton- The greatest running back of all-time played for my team and finished his career just before I was old enough to really start getting into sports, and he died way too young.

John Lennon- One of the most legendary musicians ever.  Helped influence and define a generation.  Seemed like a pretty cool dude too.  Also died way too young.

Any influential comic book creators from the medium’s earlier days- Jack Kirby, Bill Finger, Stan Lee, Will Eisner, Jerry Siegel, Joe Shuster, Gardner Fox, etc.  Any of those guys.  I’m a huge geek, and comics are a big part of that.  They set my imagination afire, and I would love to have an autograph of any of the influential people that built comic books into such an amazing medium.

Frank Frazetta- One of the greatest artist ever, period.  I could never hope to have even a fraction of his talent, but great art still inspires me to maximize whatever skill I do have.

Roberto Clemente-  Sensing a theme amongst many of my choices?  Also died way too young.  He was something I dream of being.  He made good, and turned around and used his fame to make the world a better place, and did it in such a way as to look effortless.  That is so amazingly cool.  If I should ever be able to make good myself, I want to do that.  I want to be smart and cool and use my good fortune to bestow good fortune on others.

There you go.  That’s my autograph answers.  I really had to some legitimate thought into it, but I think it was worthwhile.  We laughed, we cried, we shared some great memories, and we learned a little something about ourselves in the process.  It was fun, oh my.

I dunno when I’ll be back, but don’t consider this a goodbye…

Flea Market Finds #4: Third Binder Page

Hello all.  Tis I… back once again with the third of a dozen binder pages full of goodies (and other things) I picked up from the card guy at the flea market over the past weekend.

2008 topps U&H Josh Hamilton, 2003 Josh Hamilton/Carl Crawford, 2010 topps Cole Hamels, 2007 topps Roy Halladay and Travis Hafner Own the Game, 1994 Post Tony Gwynn, 1979 topps '78 Bears Team Leaders x2, 2003 Bowman Franklin Gutierrez prospect

Why Purchased: The beat up Bears Team Leaders, Future Stars Hamilton/Crawford.

Keepers: At least one of the Bears Team Leaders.

Notes: The Hamilton/Crawford is the actual card, not the Yo Momma version, which I also have in original back form.

Also, the reprint is somehow apparently worth more?  Lolwut?

I like the design on the Post Tony Gwynn a lot.  Who says a promotional product tie-in cards can’t look nice?

Mind-Blowing Statistics: The reprint is worth more… Oh wait, I can do better than that.

James Scott’s 759 receiving yards in 1978 is the third highest single season total posted by a Bear in the 1970s.  Only his previous season’s 809, and Dick Gordon’s 1026 in 1970 are better.  On a related note, I’d like to nominate Bobby Douglass as the worst QB in the HISTORY of the NFL.  Ho.  Lee.  CRAP!  How can you be THAT bad and get significant playing time off & on for an entire decade?!  Yeesh… Andre Ware and Ryan Leaf, eat your hearts out.

(stats via Pro-Football-Reference)

Until we tweet again…

Sweetness…

It's a Walter Payton rookie card. Nothing else needs to be said. Just enjoy it.

Until our next…

Trading Day Pt. 2: The Search for Curly’s Gold

Here is the other package I received (last) Monday.  These are from Too Many Grandersons hisself.  Behold!

Suh-weet Walter Payton reprints, Gold Hester, base blue Manning parallel /500, Urlacher (foil and thus poorly scanned) insert from rookie year, and more Urlachers (have at that code)! How much better does that blue parallel look than the boring black borders that they've trotted out most of the last 10 or so years?? A set that looks that good I might actually consider collecting, as I once did the the '02 Gridiron Kings (even picked up about half the Legend SPs in a lot once upon a midnight's dreary).

More Bears! Greg Olsen, Bernard Barrien black parallel from one of the single greatest set designs in the history of cards, Cutler, some rookies, and my personal favorite, my first and Julius Peppers as a Bear.

Last of the Bears... The more I think about, the more I think Rex' dad was right about the Bears mismanagement of QBs, especially in the Super Bowl. Fortunately, in getting Martz, they seemed to have wised up to some degree. Not sure I like the total abandonment of the running game though. Somehow Bronko was the only card I already had amongst the Bears.

Moving on to baseball now…

Vladdy! I may have the Own the Game & one of ToppsTownies, but the rest are new to me, three I've never even seen before. The Diamond King is the gold parallel version #'ed to /2500.

Ichiro! Don't get a lot of him in trades. The '04 Own the Game in the middle just insane. And a rookie of the BEST catcher in baseball. Well, he's in that elite group with Mauer, McCann, and Victor Martinez (and maybe Posey in a year or two) at the very top anyway.

And a few of my favorite Cubs to finish it off. I really hope Big Z sticks around if it's between keeping him or Dempster. In fact, I think I'd just rather Dempster leave regardless. Something bothers me about him.

Thanks for the great cards!  I’ll get together something worthwhile to send in return… eventually. *sigh*

.::~Outtro~::.