1971 Topps Variations: Dick Bosman #60

No Black Line

The main reason for starting this blog was to document as much info on 1971 Topps baseball variations as I could find, but it's been something that I have set to the side recently despite being close to posting all the ones I know of. I usually try to avoid vintage in rough shape, but the Bosman to the right was the only one I could find without the black line on the glove hand side near his head. This is another case of variation vs. print error, it could be either depending on your point of view, either way, it's a good excuse to post a card where the player dots his "i" with a star.

Top 30 Colorado Rockies Cards (7-1)

Here are the final cards with 6 of the 7 being from Upper Deck, in fact cards 2-9 are all Upper Deck releases. I expected UD to have a strong showing, but am a little surprised there was not more Score. 13 of the 30 are Horizontal cards, which I have to agree give better photos, but look like crap in binders. Feel free to leave comments on cards that I might have missed or cards that are to high or low, I would like to come back to this at some point so I will be keeping track and adding to the list and any help or feedback is greatly appreciated.

Breakdown of the top 30 by brand:

Upper Deck: 15

Topps: 9

Fleer: 4

Pinnacle / Score: 2

7. Walt Weiss - 1995 Upper Deck #413

The Rockies new manager and the second 1995 Upper Deck on the list. Just a great photo with a set that focuses on the photo. Bonus points for an Expo sighting.

Congrats to some former Rockies

As a Giants hater this World Series was pretty painful to watch, but there were two things that make me feel a little better about the Tigers losing. The first is my general dislike of Prince Fielder, I'm just not a fan of the guy, and second being Marco Scutaro winning a ring. Scutaro only played in 95 games for the Rockies and was a below average hitter over that time, but he always had professional at bats and played solid defense and converted me into a Scutaro fan. I am still a little disappointed that the Rockies traded Scutaro for next to nothing, basically giving him to a division rival to make a championship run, but that is not Scutaro's fault and he should not be blamed for ineptitude of the Rockies front office. A couple other former Rockies picked up their second World Series rings with the Giants, Javier Lopez pitched for Colorado from 2003 to April of 2005, going 4-1 with a 3.70 ERA and one save over 75 games as a rookie in 2003. Jeremy Affeldt spent the last half of 2006 and all of 2007 with the Rockies, going 4-3 with a 3.51 ERA over 75 games in 2007, helping Colorado to the 2007 World Series.

A Quick Study of Batting Helmet Facemasks

1981 Topps #445 Ellis Valentine

Inspired by yesterdays Charlie Hayes card featuring a football style mask on his batting helmet, further research led to finding a few more cards with a similar theme. The first instance is probably the most famous, but was never captured on cardbaord, Dave Parker in the middle of his 1978 MVP season fractured his jaw and cheekbone in a collision at the plate. That lead him experiment with a Jason Voorhes style goalie mask before switching to mounting a football face-mask onto his helmet. This is already covered at Uni-Watch and Dick Allen Hall of Fame including a sweet custom card.

The first actual cards I have found with batting helmet masks is 1981 Topps with Ellis Valentine and Ron Roenicke using football masks cut in half and bolted on the batting helmet.

Charlie Hayes: One of Every Rockie

Not so much a tribute to Charlie Hayes, but more of an excuse to feature one of my favorite cards from my youth, a 1995 Upper Deck #172 Charlie Hayes. I love the 1995 Upper Deck set, great photography, full bleed photos and a nice simple design allowing the photo to be the star of the card. The unique thing about this card is the mask that Hayes wore in 1994 after being hit with a pitch and breaking his jaw. The Football style model shown on this card is also pictured on his 1995 Pinnacle and 1995 Sportflix cards. The other model he wore is pictured on the back of this Upper Deck card as well as on his 1995 Collector's Choice SE #207 card. He is also pictured with the more conventional cheek guard with the Yankees later in his career.

Hayes came to the Rockies with the 3rd pick of the 1992 Expansion draft and held down the starting 3B job for the teams first two seasons. In 1993 he lead the National League with 45 doubles as well as leading the Rockies with 25 home runs and tying for the club lead with 98 RBI, all career highs. He probably would have been the first Colorado All-Star if it wasn't for Andres Galarraga who would go on to win the batting title with a .370 average. Hayes would leave Colorado as a free agent after the 1994 season, signing with the Phillies. He would end up playing for 7 MLB teams (BR link), including two stops with the Phillies, Giants and Yankees and would win a World Series Title with the 1996 Yankees.

Trade with BA Benny

In response to my 2011 Gypsy Queen want list going up the fine fellow behind BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet contacted me about a trade, going his way was some set needs and assorted teams he collects. Coming back was around 50 Gypsy Queens I needed including some much needed short prints. He also threw in some Rockies I didn't have with two Chris Nelson's I needed for the "One of every Rockies" Collection and Seattle Seahawks starting QB Russell Wilson from when he was in the Rockies farm system. Finished out by a pile of Redskins cards, none of which I already had, which is impressive because I have around 1,500 different 'Skins cards. A small sampling of cards below. As always thanks for the great trade.

Acetate Appreciation: 1998 Topps Tek

The first in a series highlighting acetate, the clear plastic cards that I for some strange reason have loved since opening packs of 1993 Classic Hockey as a kid. The first set I am profiling is the bizarre 1998 Topps Tek set. At first look you have a 90 card base set with all kinds of wacky patterns, but those patterns are actually a parallel of sorts. I am not a fan of parallels and get annoyed by brands like Bowman that seem to suffer from parallel overload, but Topps Tek took this to new heights. Each card in the set of 90 had 90 different patterns with a Diffractor, a refractor style card seeded at one per 6 packs, paralleling each pattern making a grand total of 180 different cards of each player. That makes a total of 8,100 cards in the set, with each of these having a Diffractor for a master set of 16,200 different cards. This is not including the Pre-Production Promo cards of Mark McGwire, Raul Mondesi and Roger Clemens of which I do not know how many patterns are available. I would love to sit down and have a few beers with whoever came up with this idea and just ask them "What the hell?".

Eutaw Street Cardboard Mailday

Just a quick post showing of some finds from the Eutaw Street Cardboard "Selling out for the National" sale he did.It's not a secret that I love Gypsy Queen so I jumped on the chance to add a new black and green mini, the black minis are my favorite cards from 2012 so far by a long ways. Also got a couple Rockies catchers, who doesn't love Jayhawk Owens,  and a former Rockies catcher in Blanco, one of my favorite cards of 2011 looking really good as a red bordered D-Backs card, and a couple young Rockies pitching prospects in Tago and Matzek. The Cal Ripken leaves me 45 cards short of the 1992 Pinnacle Series 1 set.

Ed Bahr 1984 TCMA Playball 1946 Mini #40

One of seven major league baseball players to be born in Saskatchewan, Ed Bahr played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1946 and 1947 seasons. Bahr was born in the town of Rouleau (the town that the T.V. show Corner Gas was filmed from 2004-2009), but was raised in Washington State and served in the U.S. Navy in World War 2. Upon being discharged because of an injured back he spend 1945 pitching for the Kansas City Blues of the American Association. He made his MLB debut in 1946 and pitched in 27 games, starting 14 with a 8-6 record and a 2.63 ERA over 136 2/3 innings. Also on the 1946 Pirates was Aldon "Lefty" Wilkie who was born in Zealandia, Saskatchewan. On June 2, 1946, both players would pitch in a 10-3 loss to the Phillies marking the only time two players born in Saskatchewan would play on same major league team. Bahr would only spent one more season in the majors finishing 1947 with a 3-5 record and a 4.59 ERA over 19 games, including 11 starts and ending his career with 11 wins and 11 losses.

Matt Miller: One of Every Rockie

Some people get excited for autographs or relics or vintage, I get excited for obscure Rockies cards. After searching Sportlots for a 2003 Fleer Tradition Update #369 for a few months, it finally turned up and I jumped on it for $2.24 shipped. This was a hard on to track down and up until today I have never even seen a scan of it. This one is the glossy version serial numbered to 100 and is the only MLB set with a card of this Matt Miller. One of Every Rockies project now up to 280 out of 316 (88.6%). Matthew Jacob Miller pitched in 4 games for the Rockies from June 27 to July 3 in 2003 as a 31 year old rookie in his 8th pro season. He would go on to pitch in 96 games of relief for the Indians from 2004-2007, finishing his career with a 6-1 record and a 2.72 ERA with 2 saves.

1971 Topps Variations?: Denny Lemaster #636

In researching for this '71 variations project I have come across a lot of conflicting views on variations vs. print errors. The reason for starting this project was to gather information and make it available in one place for people to check out and make their own decisions on what is a valid variation. The 1971 Denny Lemaster would most likely be a print error, but I thought I would include it here as some are listing in as a variation and there is not a lot of information is out there. The difference between the two is on the back photo. There are versions with a black blob or splotch on his left cheek and versions without. On COMC right now 5 of the 8 cards listed do not have the blob. I have yet to see the back of the O-Pee-Chee version so I have no idea about that.

1971 Topps Variations: 4th Series Checklist #369

Back to the long ignored 1971 variations with another checklist. Card number 369, the 4th series checklist comes in at least three variations including "Red Helmet, No Line", "Red Helmet, w/ Line" and "Orange Helmet". The most noticeable difference is the black line on the helmet above the batters ear is missing on and the black squiggle near the back of the helmet is smaller on the "No Line" version. There is some confusion on the "Orange Helmet" versions as PSA doesn't designate the "Line/No Line" on the Orange, below there are examples of Orange with line and Orange without line, but nothing mentioned on the grade designation, in addition to graded versions with no designation at all. All three variations are readily available and none really demand higher prices than the others. As with all the helmets the color variations are not easy to spot and I am going off PSA designations for these. According to the PSA registry all three variants appear in the O-Pee-Chee set.

Edwar Cabrera Debuts Tonight

Rockies prospect Edwar Cabrera will make his MLB debut against the Nationals. I have been excited about Cabrera since last season went he lead the minors with 217 strikeouts. He has not been seen as an elite pitching prospect even though he has had good numbers striking out 577 batters in 469 1/3 minor league innings. This year at AA Tulsa he has held batters to a .186 batting average against, but his strikeout numbers have dropped to 7.5 per 9 innings while averaging less than one base runner per inning. His best pitch is reported to be his change-up to go along with a sinker, but he still needs to develop a third pitch. This is somewhat similar to Juan Nicasio last season who was called up from AA last season and was seen as a pitcher who need to work on secondary pitches to go along with his fastball, but Nicasio preformed well and became a fixture in the Rockies rotation until going on the DL recently. It is always exciting for Rockies fans to see a new pitcher come up in hope we can finally find that top of rotation starter that we are sorely missing.

MLB Rookie Home Leader Auto

No it's not the hyped up Bryce Harper, Mike Trout, Yoenis Cespedes or Jesus Montero. Right now baseball's rookie home run leader is Rockies catcher Wilin Rosario, as well as the rookie leader in RBI until Will Middlebrooks passed him this weekend. Rosario has been a highly regarded prospect for a few season, but this season with the injury to Ramon Hernandez, Rosario has taken the starting job and ran with it. He still suffers from "Pedro Cerrano Syndrome" (Straightball I hit it very much. Curveball, bats are afraid.) but his defense is improving and he looks like a star in the making. His handling of the pitching staff has improved even though Rockies pitching has been putrid this season. He still needs to work on his on base numbers and strikeouts (7 walks to 45 strikeouts) but he is still young and has the raw power to do big things. I picked up this nice on card auto about a month ago, now seemed like a good time to show it off.

Custom Card: 2012 Gypsy Queen Larry Walker

Something I have been working on for a while is to try and match the filters Topps uses for Gypsy Queen. After some messing around I am getting closer so I decided to share the first version I feel ok with. So here it is, Larry Walker in the "so terrible they are awesome" 1999 Turn Ahead The Clock jerseys. The Rockies have been fairly conservative with their jerseys since 1993, but this one is way out there. The photo might be a little over-processed, but the jersey looks pretty close. I am not totally satisfied with it so there might be new versions in the coming months.

Custom Card: 1970 Topps Wil Nieves

First custom card in a while, newest Rockies catcher Wil Nieves. Nieves was called up from Colorado Springs a few weeks ago when Ramon Hernandez went on the disabled list and is serving as Wilin Rosario's back-up. Nieves was signed by Colorado in December of 2011 to be the third catcher, after stops with the Brewers, Nationals, Yankees and Padres.

I like the simplicity of the 1970 design, although a logo somewhere would have been nice and the lack of team colors make the set kind of bland, but all this considered it's still a nice vintage set.

Rockies from JABO

Not much going on for me card related right now, so far Topps Series 2 is getting a "meh" response from me other than Rafael Betancourt finally getting a Rockies card, so in the interest of keeping up to my at least 3 posts a week goal I have a chance to show off some Rockies from Jabo's Blogarage Team Lot Clearance. He sent about 80 cards with only around 15 I already had. I am pretty high on Jordan Pacheco so his cards are always appreciated, and a couple more guys I collect in Chris Iannetta, Kaz Matsui and Larry Walker. He still has some teams available if you are looking for some cheap cards. Also if anyone knows why mt thumbnails would not be showing up in the reading list please let me know how to fix this.

---

2012 Panini Triple Play Preview

I haven't seen too many people mentioning 2012 Panini Triple Play, but the previews really caught my eye. Panini's MLBPA license allows them to make card of baseball players, but they can not use MLB logos. To me this really hurt's their other offerings, but this set featuring vector style art actually looks pretty good, I prefer the "Samurai Jack" art style of these cards to some of the awful sketch cards we have been subjected to in the past. It is nice to see a company market a product to kids instead of making a super high end set with 2 card packs for $300 a pack. From what I have seen this looks like a fun little set, cartoon artwork, and among the inserts are peel off eye-black stickers and cartoons of current players as little kids. I applaud Panini for bringing some goofyness and fun to the hobby that has become all about the "hits".

Contest Pimpage

Baseball Cards, Sports and Life is having a contest to gain some followers, go there a follow, looks quality, full support.

Pinnacle Apprecation: 1992

Topps is in their second year of baseball monopoly, and while I am not hating on Topps I do miss the other products, looking back the one I miss the most is Pinnacle. 1992 was the first year of Pinnacle baseball after producing football and hockey sets in 1991, with both sets sharing the same design. 1992 added baseball and shared the same design with hockey and football. 1992 Pinnacle remains in my top 5 set designs of all time. It was Score's higher end product but still suffers from overproduction with the most valuable base card being the Manny Ramirez rookie which books around $4.00. I love the black borders and the nice simple design with the team color gradient adding some color, but nothing garish. The lack of team logos might turn some people off but I would rather them left off than have then intrude on the design. The photo selection is decent and appealing to me is a lot of the catchers are featured with there gear on, which I love.