I stopped by my local card shop a few days back. The shop had moved across the parking lot to a larger storefront a few weeks back and I was excited to see the new digs. Needless to say, it did not disappoint. I probably should have taken some photos inside the shop, but my mind was on cards.
Here are the latest pickups at Triangle Area Trading Cards.
First up......
You see a great card from your childhood and it's cheap, it's really hard to pass up. The card is off center and there is some chipping on the edges, but this is a great card. Could not pass it up. I need to post my first Rickey Henderson rookie on here one of these days, because it's a really good story from my childhood.
Luken Baker has hit a ton of home runs the last two years with the Cardinals Triple A team. They've left him in the Minors most of the time, given the Cardinals track record, it's only a matter of time until Baker is a really good player on some other team. Decent autograph, cheap card. Go team.
I spent some time in Michigan this summer, which included watching a decent number of Tigers games. I had been meaning to pick up a Reese Olson card all summer long, but never got around to it. He's a really impressive young pitcher, think this will be a good pickup in the long-term.
An old Archives autograph for cheap. Yes, please.
A newer Archives autograph for cheap. Yes, please.
Esteban played for the Durham Bulls a few years back. He's spent most of his career playing in Mexico, but spent time in the Minors with the Red Sox, Rays, and Phillies with a cup of coffee in the Majors with the Cubs. Lovable player, spark plug type. I am glad that someone gave him a baseball card and had him sign a few autographs.
Zack Gelof is having a terrible year, but I still like him. I saw him play in college while he was at the University of Virginia. He was also on my fantasy baseball team last year. Let's hope for a better 2025.
Next up, Luis Arraez. I loved the Silver Slugger cards when Topps made them back in the early 2010s, this one is not as thick, but still a really nice card. Serial numbered to just 10 copies, but it's on the back. Sorry, no back scans today.
A little bit quicker......
Masyn Winn, Junior Caminero Finest RC, and a cool Taj Bradley Chrome parallel.
Cal Raleigh RC, Willy Adames RC, and another Masyn Winn.
Shiny Big Mac, Xavier Issac should be the Durham Bulls first baseman next year, and a Jordan Walker.
Shiny cards of Yordan Alvarez, Willson Contreras, and a Satchell Paige with the Browns.
Last, let me tell you about the blaster box I bought. I saw the 2024 Donruss packs and boxes at the counter, decided why not. Let's try a few packs. Ninety-nine percent of the box was terrible and I am not going to waste my time scanning the cards, nor waste your time reading about the terrible cards.
It was the last thing I said as I was checking out. "Let me get a box of 2024 Donurss"
Famous last words and it turns out that 1% of the box was pretty spectacular.
This week's Set Appreciation Post has a special guest, my six year-old daughter.
She is a kindergartener who has some strong opinions on life and a love of art work. Parts of our house are frequently converted into art galleries for whatever art she is working on at the moment. Her art does not always stay on paper though. Sometimes, it appears in other forms.
For example, after returning home from a trip to Washington, D.C. this spring my computer was covered in sticky notes. Each sticky note was its own piece of art work, but it also somehow formed a larger work.
The explanation would take several minutes and there would be no baseball cards in this post if I wrote everything she said about the sticky note art work.
She already has some opinions about my baseball cards.
For example, according to her, my baseball card boxes are all pretty boring because they are plain white. She thinks that I should have the outside of the boxes match the baseball cards that are on the inside. At some point last year, she attempted to decorate the boxes for my autographed cards, which all have the letter "N" scribbled on the outside of them. She had bigger plans that her stopped. According to her, someone wrote on the cards inside the box, so she wrote the first letter of her name on the outside of the box.
They match and she is willing to add more art to the outside of the boxes.
I have not allowed her to continue to do her art work on my baseball card boxes, but that did not stop her from doing one final piece of art work on my box holding my copy of the 1995 Select Certified set. The cards are bright and shiny, so the box should match, right?
Here is the top.
Here is the front.
Her median was 1990 Upper Deck team logo stickers.
Let's talk about the cards.
Each of us will provide a take on the 1995 Select Certified set.
Here is the basic design of the 1995 Select Certified cards.
I really like the dark greyscale background behind the color photos, which is something different. I also like the card stock and texture. It's not exactly a thick paper stock, but definitely has a sturdy feel to the card. There is a glossy finish, which I think is interesting on a card that uses a greyscale background.
My daughter does not like this design and wants to know why a brighter color like purple was not used in the background. She suggests a pattern that you could color in like a coloring book.
That's actually not a bad idea.
I love the breakdown of the stats by team on the back of the card. It's like the Bowman cards, but with more color and better graphics. Sure, you get less numbers, but you still get a good sense of how the player faired against each team. Bonds torched the Expos in 1994, which is saying something because they were easily the best team in the National League.
My daughter likes that Barry Bonds is willing to wear earrings on his baseball card, but thinks at least one team should use a pony or hearts as their logo.
My favorite card of a former Durham Bulls player in this set is Chipper Jones. His early cards are always fun, looks a little silly here with the huge swing. I will add that the number of former Bulls players in this set is fairly small and the other choices had rather blah looking pictures.
The card did not scan well, but Chipper is actually apart of the Rookie subset in Select Certified and the background of the card is half grey and half gold. That stamp does not exactly show a ton of creativity.
My daughter also picked out this card for her favorite Durham Bulls player in the set, although her explanation started out with, "Have you ever ate lunch with boys at school?" and ended with "making farting noises". It took her about two minutes to explain the whole thing, I will let your imagination fill in the middle of the conversation.
My favorite Cardinals card in the set......
is Bernard Gilkey.
Several of the Cardinals players are pictured in road uniforms, which are nice, but are also a gray uniform on a dark gray background. I do like the action shot on the front of this card, but also really like the way that the white home uniform with the red helmet and uniform accessories pop on the dark background.
My daughter did not pick a favorite Cardinals card, because "none of them are very nice looking" and added a "No, thank you" when I told her that she needed to pick a Cardinals card. Later in the post she does pick a former Cardinals player card for her favorite overall card from the set.
Let me off-road a few other things I like about this set, but the little one rejoins the conversation.
One of the best parts of Select Certified is the Gold Mirror parallels.
I am generally not a parallel person, but this one is well done. There were a few Gold cards in every box, no serial numbers, and it's the only parallel that came in the product. Over the years, I have put together the complete set of Cardinals and I am close to having all the former Durham Bulls players. Good looking set of cards.
If you don't dig the dark background of the base cards, these are a really nice option and they are generally not that expensive compared to the price of other popular 1990s parallels at the moment.
Moving on.
Select Certified is a small set with only 135 cards in the set. There were 28 Major League teams in 1995, so there are roughly 4 to 5 cards for each team. Small sets generally tend to stick to the big names on rosters and not stray into many subsets or special cards. Select Certified has a bit of both.
The Dodgers got a special card for having three players win the Rookie of the Year in a row.
Eddie Murray also got a special card for collecting his 3,000 hit in 1994.
Always cool to see these kinds of cards to mark special accomplishments, especially on a small checklist like Select Certified. There are also Rookie Subset cards. I posted one at the top of the post with the Chipper Jones card, but the scan did not do a good job of showing the card.
Here is another Rookie subset with a picture taken using my phone's camera.
There are actually some pretty big names in the Rookie subset with Jeter and ARod. A few others including one later in the post. The Jeter and ARod are not actually rookie cards, but still early cards that are fun to own. You can see the two-toned background a little better on photograph.
Let's bring the little one back in to finish up the post and talk about our favorite cards.
My daughter is up first with Mark McGwire.
She picked this card, because Mark McGwire is the only player in the set with long hair.
That's it, her whole reason for picking the card. I will add for context that her favorite Disney Princess is Rapunzel, and that she keeps her hair long and it must be styled everyday before she goes to school. I would like to see Mark McGwire rock some bubble braids.
I went a little different direction for my favorite non-Cardinal, non-Durham Bulls card from this set. I decided to pick the Hideo Nomo rookie card.
Every year the baseball card world goes crazy of a certain player or two. In 1995, there was Nonomania. Everyone wanted a Hideo Nomo card and this was one of my favorites. A great card from the mid 1990s, I think if I made a list of the best cards from my time in high school, this card would be on the list.
How does it rank on my list?
It has been a hot minute since I have done a set appreciation post. The last set I added to my list was the 2001 Donruss set last November. The set was terrible. The 1995 Select Certified set is definitely not terrible. In fact, it's a pretty good set of baseball cards.
Narrow it down. Looking at the top half of the sets I have posted, I think it's better than Emotion XL (they are kind of similar though) and the 2017 Heritage Minor League set. Topps TEK feels like the right neighborhood. I am actually going to give Select Certified the slight nod given its a set that you can actually complete, unlike Topps Tek's 8,100 card craziness.
I got a copy of the 1988 Topps set from my parents for Christmas that year. I was excited about getting a complete set, so I opened the set box and sorted out all of the cards. Everyone from the 1980s knows you are supposed to leave your complete Topps sets sealed, right? I was in fifth grade and baseball cards are fun, of course I opened the box. Also, it's the 1988 Topps set. You can probably find a copy of the set at your local thrift shop for $5.
There are probably multiple copies for less than $5 at your thrift shop.
Is the 1988 Topps set unpopular because it's really that bad, or because it lacks a signature rookie card Truth be told, I kind of dig the 1988 Topps set. The design is underrated.
Topps is using the 1988 design as an insert set with the 2023 Topps set. Many have not liked the 1988 Topps set for the past thirty years, but you're going to love it now and buy all the retail packs from Target and Wal-Mart.
I personally like the Nolan Arenado card.
Now, let me get to the countdown. I am going to include cards from the 1988 Topps Traded set in this post, because there are some good cards in there and it is also a $5 set.
Shall we?
5T. 1988 Topps Traded Andy Benes #14T
5T. 1988 Topps Traded Ron Gant #39T
I did not touch the 1988 Topps Traded set until the Cardinals signed Andy Benes and Ron Gant as a free agents before the 1996 season. There was a high-end card store that was a few minutes from my house back in the 1990s. When the Cardinals signed Benes and Gant, they set out a huge stack of 1988 Topps Traded sets on one of their counters with all the sets costing $10. I bought the set expecting it to have a Ron Gant rookie and a bunch of junky cards.
Not the case.
As a Cardinals fan, I got cards of Jose DeLeon, Luis Alicea, and Tom Brunansky on top of Gant and Andy Benes. There was also David Wells, Jim Abbott, and Roberto Alomar amongst others. It's a pretty good set and I have no idea how it is only crispy Alexander Hamilton.
4. 1988 Topps Traded Robin Ventura #124T
Robin Ventura is not quite a Hall of Famer. One of the best third baseman from the 1990s and early 2000s, just a step below players like Scott Rolen. In the aftermath of the 1982 Topps Traded set, every Topps Traded set had a potential Cal Ripken waiting to rising from the checklist. This was the "it" card from the 1988 Topps Traded set. Not sure it was every really all that expensive at any point, but the fact that the card costs less than a dollar is insanity.
This card should cost at least a dollar at a minimum.
3. 1988 Topps Vince Coleman #1
I loved the design of the Record Breakers cards in the 1988 Topps set. That red background really pops and it was great to see a Cardinals player on the first card of a Topps set. The Record Breaker was for Coleman's third consecutive season with more than 100 stolen bases. I believe that Topps has reused this design in one of their Throwback/Customer Direct products.
Here is the moment.......
The previous record was held by Rickey Henderson.
2. 1988 Topps Mark McGwire #580
Mark McGwire with a Topps All-Star Rookie logo in the corner. It was a no-brainer. No goatee or crazy muscles, just skinny Mark McGwire holding a bat and posing for a picture. This is one of my favorite early McGwire cards. Topps also used a picture from this same photo shoot on McGwire's 1988 Glossy Mail-In card and the A's Team Leaders card.
I am sure if I looked hard enough, Topps has probably recycled these photos on modern McGwire cards as well. It would be borderline shocking if they have not.
1. 1988 Cardinals Leaders #351
Great picture here with long-time Cardinals player, manager, and coach Red Schoendienst standing next to catcher Tony Pena. Most coaches do not get cards, so it was nice to see someone as high-profile as Red get the nod from Topps. It is somewhat surprising that Pena appeared on this card over some of the more popular 1980s Cardinals players like Ozzie Smith, Willie McGee, or Vince Coleman.
Still, not a complete reach.
If you weren't around for 1980s baseball, Pena was the premier defensive catcher in the league and the Cardinals were loaded with Gold Glovers. The Cardinals had outfielders to spare, but no catcher. Prior to the 1987 season, the Cardinals traded Andy Van Slyke to the Pirates for Pena. The Cardinals ended up winning the National League that season, but injuries caught up with them in the World Series and they lost in seven games.
A card back.
Solid numbers on the Cardinals Team Leaders. I am sure Red helped somehow, someway.
I started collecting baseball cards in the early 1980s when I was in early elementary school. Some of my initial impressions of players from those cards lingered for a long time in my world. At some point in late high school or early college, I realized that a lot of the "washed up, old guys" from those early 1980s sets were actually good players during the 1970s. There were even a few lingering from the 1960s.
As a baseball card collector, I have ended up circling back to collect cards of a few of these players. This past week, I managed to snag two autographs from the 2021 Topps Archives set of players who appeared in 1983 card sets. That was my first year opening packs and these two players seemed way past their prime. The six-year old version of me did not fully appreciate their skills for very likely superficial reasons.
First up, Cardinals back-up catcher Gene Tenace.
He was the Cardinals back-up catcher during the early 1980s. Gene Tenace was a .230 hitter and managed a grand total of 12 home runs in the 2 seasons he played for the Cardinals. Not exactly someone to be excited about pulling from a pack of cards. I kind of ignored those 1970s seasons while he was playing for the A's.
Some years later, I learned about the Gene Tenace from the 1970s. He regularly hit 20 home runs a year? Gene Tenace won the 1972 World Series MVP by hitting 4 home runs in a 7 game series against the Reds? You're sure that wasn't Reggie Jackson?
It turns out that before he was an old guy and the back-up catcher for the Cardinals, Gene Tenace was a good player. It's true. All of it. There are other things that I really appreciate about his career beyond winning a World Series MVP and being a back-up catcher on the Cardinals.
+Gene Tenace regularly walked more than he struck out.
+Gene Tenace 1060 career hits and 984 career walks.
+Baseball Reference has him rated as the 13th best catcher of all-time ahead of Roy Campanella, Buster Posey, and Yadier Molina.
+Amongst modern catchers, Tenace has the second highest OPS (on-base percentage and slugging percentage) amongst modern catchers. He's ahead of Johnny Bench, but behind Mike Piazza.
He was a really good player. Here is my latest Gene Tenace card.
I am still waiting for Topps to make a card of him as a back-up catcher for the Cardinals.
Next player.
Those polyester White Sox softball uniforms were not kind to Greg Luzinski. "The Bull" was still a good player with the White Sox, but he was definitely a player ignored while I was collecting in the 1980s. I think Luzinski was my first run-in with a professional athlete who did not look the part. I first started to appreciate Greg Luzinski when I moved to North Carolina roughly 15 years ago and started reading up on the Durham Bulls.
He was a member of the 1969 Raleigh-Durham Phillies, which was a renamed version of the Durham Bulls. It was a really dumb idea to rename the team briefly, but it was not as bad as the team splitting half of its games between Durham and Raleigh. Despite a lot of bad off-the-field decisions by the Phillies, the team absolutely bludgeoned the rest of the Carolina League. It's arguable one of the better teams in the history of the franchise.
The team led the league in almost every team offensive category and almost every team pitching category. Many of the players on the team also were league leaders in individual categories. Luzinksi was an 18 year-old fresh out of high school and hit 31 home runs and drove in 92 runs.
I have posted a bunch of Luzinski cards here over the years. Been a fan for awhile.
Love the 1960 Topps design on this card and Luzinski has a great signature.
Overall, I am happy to add these two cards to my collection and I am glad that I learned a little bit more about these two players who were "old and washed up" when I first started collecting cards.
I have been working hard over the past two weeks to find a few more cards from the 1964 Topps Giants set that I am taking on as my first project of 2021. I posted five cards the other week when I introduced the project, which included Hall of Famers Bob Gibson, Warren Spahn, and Joe Torre. This week, I have five more cards to cross off the checklist.
Here are my newest additions. I will start out with the two Hall of Famers I found.
I found the Al Kaline card on Ebay in an auction. I am still amazed at how little these cards cost in comparison to the regular 1964 Topps cards. This card was less than $10.
This is a mid-career card for Kaline. I did not realize that he never played a Minor League game until I looked up the batting title listed on the back of this card. I thought maybe as a 20 year old he had led the league during his rookie season, but it turned out to be his third year. Kaline played 22 years in the Majors, but retired before he was 40.
The second Hall of Famer I found the past two weeks is Giants first baseman Orlando Cepeda.
I have a few other Orlando Cepeda cards, but most of them are from his time with the Cardinals in the late 1960s. I like this posed photo with the shot over his shoulder.
The back of the card has a typo in his stat line from his rookie year. The card states that Cepeda had 38 triples his rookie year, but that should have read doubles. "Cha Cha" does not seem like the type of player who hit a lot of triples. Looking on Baseball-Reference, he had a total of 27 in 17 years.
Last three cards. A little quicker. All three of these players would be greats of the era. They were all All-Star caliber players at some point in their careers, but just not enough to be Hall of Famers.
I always think about Rocky Colavito as an Indian or Tiger, but apparently he played one season with the Kansas City A's. He was an American League All-Star his only season in Kansas City hitting more than 30 home runs and driving in more than 100. I learned something new.
He hit four home runs in a game before Mark Whiten.
I did not know much about Jim Gentile before buying this card. I have an old Cadaco disc of him from the All-Star Baseball Game. That's most of my exposure to his career. Gentile had a short career, but had some great seasons, especially early in his career with the Orioles. In 1961, he hit 46 home runs, drove in 141 runs, and had a .646 slugging percentage. If it were not for Mickey Mantle and Roger Maris, he would have likely won the MVP Award that season.
The centering on the card is off on this card. On the front scan, you can see the card is off left to right. On the back, the print looks a crooked. This was a really cheap card, so I might upgrade to a better copy if I can find it cheap enough. Not a high priority, but still will put it on my list of things to do.
Last card.
Callison was a good player for the Phillies during the 1960s. One of the eras "What if...." players. He was an athletic outfielder from Oklahoma with some pop in his bat, so he naturally got branded the "next Mickey Mantle". Callison was an extra base machine, hit his fair share of home runs, but also lots of doubles and triples. According to the Phillies people on the internet, he was also about the only player on the 1964 team who did not completely tank during the last few weeks of the season. Leg injuries wrecked his career along with vision problems.
The back describes his home run in the 1964 All-Star Game off of Red Sox pitcher Dick Radatz, which was Callison's defining moment in the Majors.
My updated checklist. Ten cards down, fifty to go.
1 Gary Peters 2 Ken Johnson 3 Sandy Koufax SP 4 Bob Bailey 5 Milt Pappas 6 Ron Hunt 7 Whitey Ford 8 Roy McMillan 9 Rocky Colavito 10 Jim Bunning 11 Roberto Clemente 12 Al Kaline 13 Nellie Fox 14 Tony Gonzalez 15 Jim Gentile 16 Dean Chance 17 Dick Ellsworth 18 Jim Fregosi 19 Dick Groat 20 Chuck Hinton 21 Elston Howard 22 Dick Farrell 23 Albie Pearson 24 Frank Howard 25 Mickey Mantle 26 Joe Torre 27 Ed Brinkman 28 Bob Friend SP 29 Frank Robinson 30 Bill Freehan 31 Warren Spahn 32 Camilo Pascual 33 Pete Ward 34 Jim Maloney 35 Dave Wickersham 36 Johnny Callison 37 Juan Marichal 38 Harmon Killebrew 39 Luis Aparicio 40 Dick Radatz 41 Bob Gibson 42 Dick Stuart SP 43 Tommy Davis 44 Tony Oliva 45 Wayne Causey SP 46 Max Alvis 47 Galen Cisco SP 48 Carl Yastrzemski 49 Hank Aaron 50 Brooks Robinson 51 Willie Mays SP 52 Billy Williams 53 Juan Pizarro 54 Leon Wagner 55 Orlando Cepeda 56 Vada Pinson 57 Ken Boyer 58 Ron Santo 59 Johnny Romano 60 Bill Skowron SP
