HOFer Derek Jeter

One area of my collection I want to build upon this year is the HOF project whereby I get the final Topps card of players in the Hall of Fame. Why? I've already said but since you probably don't remember, I think it's great to see the players career statistics on the card. I guess I should say their largely traditional stats to acknowledge the existence of other stats. Anyway, Topps doesn't always include the players final year, but that's ok.

I pre-emptively acquired Derek Jeter's final Topps card from 2015 because I figured he was a sure thing when it comes to HOF voting. I wanted to get it for .18 cents before the price went up to .19 cents.

This is probably one of the happiest baseball cards you could own. The things I like best about it are tied together: that he's in his home pinstripes and as such, at a game at Yankee Stadium.

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John Kruk 1990 Sportflics

So. I remember being really impressed with Sportflics back in the 1980s but by 1990 I was basically over it. What about you?

I never collected these cards after the first few years it was on the market, so this John Kruk card, a new acquisition, was very new to me. The picture on the back is wonderful.

I think he's eyeing someone's nachos.

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1986 Big Apple Mets/Yankees

For Christmas my brother gave me this 1986 Big Apple Mets/Yankees set. He has no idea how or when he got it, and neither do I. Oh, wait. Actually, I do know. He gave it to me on Christmas. Duh.

The set features mostly awesome players at the time including a joint card of Dwight Gooden and Don Mattingly. They feature individually, too. The main allure of the set for me is, of course, Darryl Strawberry. He's the man. 

There are six Mets and 5 Yankees. Which is about right; and Mike Easler for me seems the weirdest guy included. I love him on the Pirates; his 1983 Topps card is one of my all time favorites --- along with Johnny Ray's. However, be that as it may. I'd've selected Dave Righetti. Why? 1986 was the only year Easler was on the Yankees and while he had an admirable year, Righetti was smokin' in relief for his team that finished second in the AL East. 

It's a solid set all things considered. Thanks brother!

Who would you have put in this little, special set?

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John Kruk 1989 cards

In my recent John Kruk buying binge, the first of its kind and likely not the last, I got these two needed 1989 cards. The first is his Donruss Baseball's Best card. 

A lot of these special sets and the like narrowed it down to 12 or 24 or 33 or 40 or so cards. Donruss wanted to be more inclusive by selecting 336 of the "Best" players. Were Chuck Crim or Gene Harris really the best? That's rhetorical.

If you were creating a Best subset, how may cards would you include?

The second likely needs to preamble. But in case you like words, it's Sportflics!

I got hosed because I was going to say how clever it was that Sportflics placed this card 8th in the set and how ironic it was considering that was his jersey number for the Padres until I realized this was card 184 in the set. Bastards.  That's just confusing.

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1992-1993 Cartwrights Aces

Uh. Normally Aces are pitchers. But Cartwrights 1992-1993 Aces card didn't seem to take that into consideration.

The set features just twelve cards. And they got it right by having Darryl Strawberry be Card No 1. He's clearly the best of the lot: Nolan Ryan, Frank Thomas, Ken Griffey, Jr., Tom Glavine, Cal Ripken, Jr., Roger Clemens, Ryan Sandberg, Tony Gwynn, Kirby Puckett, Mark McGwire, and Deion Sanders.

Er. Actually, looking at all those Hall of Famers he's probably only better than Sanders and McGwire. Clemens should be in.

I'm not entirely sure what Cartwrights was. I'm not entirely sure I even care. This is a wonderful card. Google seems to insist it's a department store in a Hallmark movie.

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2019 Topps 1984 Topps All-Stars

This is another one of my 2019 Darryl Strawberry card acquisitions. It's the 2019 Topps 1984 Topps All-Stars.  I've said many times before that I don't always like seeing modern players on old card designs, but contradictory (kind of) I don't mind seeing different images of player that did have historical cards. 

The thing I like about this card is almost everything. I don't know if this picture was from 1984, doesn't look like it. But it would have been really neat if it was. The 1984 set of course featured 1983 All-Stars so even though DS made the team that summer, he didn't have a card for his efforts.

But Topps over did it. As usual. I thought that they were issuing sleek looking new cards of all the players that played in the 1984 summer classic, but, silly me... One look at the checklist will show you that there are fewer actual 1984 All-Stars (starters, pitchers, reserves) than other players.

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John Kruk 1988 Score Young Superstars and Sportflics

John Kruk was included as a "Young Superstar" on this 1988 Score card. Not all the guys on this checklist went on to have super careers, but it's always interesting to see card companies attempt to prospect, be they Young Superstars, Rated Rookies, or Future Stars.

The card back image looks remarkably like that on the 1988 Sportflics card below and I'm curious if it was from the same game & photographer. I think this is from ye olde Jack Murphy Stadium.

The 1988 Sportflics card is a bit trippy with all the "images" somewhat visible. These cards, both of them, continue to "free" spirit and swing narrative that accompanied Kruk in his first years in the bigs.

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