A Giant Project Update #11

This is the giantest of Topps Giant updates. It has taken me awhile to assemble this set. Long than I thought, but I think that it actually helped to collect the tough short-prints and expensive Hall of Famers first. Since my last update in February, I have been able to find another 8 cards to cross off the checklist. Yes, there are short-prints in this post and Hall of Famers, but most were nowhere near the cost of the Mantle and Mays cards.

After my last post, I was closing in on the 2/3 mark for the set with 37 of the 60 cards. In the last month, I have brought that total up to 45. 

A quick look at the new cards.

First up is Kansas City A's infielder Wayne Causey. 

This was one of the short-prints that I still had leftover on the checklist. Causey was a glove-first, light hitting utility infielder. There are multiple Hall of Famers in this post and Wayne Causey cost more than all of them combined. If I were not putting together the set, this is a card I would 100% not purchase. At those moments where I thought about quitting on this set, Wayne Causey always flashed through my head.  

"Would I buy a really expensive Mark Lemke card?"

I will get back to you. 

Wayne Causey's career year involved him finishing twelfth in the American League batting average leaders. I am not really sure that is the type of statistic and brag you want on the back of your baseball card.  I guess it's better than saying he finished 21st in MVP voting that season. I think Topps could have squeezed it in: 

"Wayne just missed out on the American League MVP in 1963, finishing just a mere 243 points behind Yankees catcher, Elston Howard" 

Yes, this card cost a fraction of Wayne Causey.

Frank Robinson.  

This Frank Robinson guy seemed really good. I am not going to go look it up, but the Reds would be foolish if they ever traded him.

 

Pete Ward is an interesting player. He won the 1963 American League Rookie of the Year Award. Ward was a legit hitter with a .290s average, 25-30 doubles, and roughly 25 home runs in his first year or two in the Majors. He hurt his back and neck in a bad car accident after his second year and was never quite the same. Still, the guy is in the Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame. 

Ward still stuck around the Majors for a decade after injury, mostly with the White Sox. He played his last season as a left-handed bat off the bench for the Yankees. The back undersells his father a bit, which is the reason why I knew of Pete Ward before buying the card. 

Way back in the day, there was an antique store in my wife's hometown in northern Michigan that had a spattering of sports cards and memorabilia. It was next to the town's incredible coffee shop. One of the items in the store was an autographed photo and old O-Pee-Chee card of a Montreal Maroons hockey player, Jimmy Ward. I am not good with old hockey players, but the price for the two items was outrageous. 

I went home and Google searched the guy.  

Not mine, nor the items at the store, but he was a member of the popular 1934-1935 Montreal Maroons Stanley Cup winner.   

The card below is from Google. I don't buy hockey cards for hundreds of dollars. Nothing says popular Canadian sports star like appearing in an advertisement for syrup. Pretty dapper guy for a professional hockey player from the old days when they did not wear helmets. Although, maybe there is a reason his mouth is shut. 

Back to baseball cards.  

Not a Hall of Famer, but definitely a great of the era. I think he might have been one of the few players to appear for both the Minnesota version of the Washington Senators and the Texas Rangers version of the Washington Senators.  

The back describes his skill on the mound. His playing numbers are solid. 

Camilo was also a notable scout for the Mets, A's, and Dodgers following his retirement. Camilo convinced Cuban refugee Jose Canseco to sign with the A's, while also suggesting the team draft USC infielder/pitcher Mark McGwire. He also found a 15 year-old Tampa high school pitcher, Dwight Gooden, for the Mets. The majority of Latin American Dodgers players from the 1990s and early 2000s were discovered and signed by Camilo Pascal.  

Next. 

Heard this guy ended up on the Reds at some point. 

I hope the Orioles got a good return.  

The card is off-center. Although, in the grand scheme of things, this is a really inexpensive Roberto Clemente card. I might revisit this one at some point in the future. For the moment, I will take it.  

I feel the need to make a post ranting about Topps use of "Bob" in Roberto Clemente cards. 

Another really inexpensive Hall of Famer.  

Finally a Topps Giants card talking about an established Major League players Minor League career. This set has tons of cards were parts of the back are taken up by their Minor League numbers. This is the first card in this post. The PCL was serious baseball. The Sally League? Yikes. Someone was reaching.  

Final card.  

Dodger great Tommy Davis.  

Yes, Tommy Davis has two batting titles and helped get the Dodgers to the World Series, but here is something about his time with the Spokane Indians. 

 

Eight more cards crossed off and I am at 75% of the set. Two Hall of Famers left and no short-prints. 

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

Great Art. Well, Mostly Great.

Virtual school is wearing me down.  I didn't think I was that tired on Friday night, but I spent all of yesterday sitting around resting.  Maybe it was the combination of virtual school and the fact that my own children required a trip to the emergency room (dislocated elbow) and we had a pet pass away (Rita The Betta Fish) this week.  

Elbow is back in place.  We now own Alexander (Hamilton) the Betta Fish.  

Anyway, I am well-rested and ready to do more school work today.  Also write about some baseball cards.  

This is my second Project 2020 post in a row.  These cards have gotten to be pretty inexpensive.  I spent a little time the other week circling back and trying to pick up a few more cards that weren't Mark McGwire or Bob Gibson.  I think I did pretty well here, until you get to the McGwire card.  

First, is a Roberto Clemente card from Sophia Chang.  

She definitely has a similar pattern on her cards with the bubble letters, quotes, and backgrounds made up of small baseball/player related items.  I like that she keeps some of the elements from the original card, like the player photo of Clemente.  

The home run quote at the bottom is a little suspect, but I like the overall appearance of the card.  Clemente was not really a home run hitter, more of a line drive/slash hitter with speed.  Great defender.  Maybe a quote about those skills would fit better.  

"I Was Born To Play Baseball" is a good, but I would have considered using the quote that the Pirates have hanging in the tunnel in between their locker room and dugout.  I like this one better..... 

That's a little thing.  I am being picky.  

Overall, really good looking card.  

This is the back of the card, which has the artist bio on Sophia Chang.  I really like her baseball cards, I would put her second behind Efdot with the artist on the Project 2020 cards.  

Speaking of Efdot, here is my second card for the post.  This is really good art work.  

The small circle in the corner and border are trademarks of all his cards.  I like that he blended in the football, basketball, baseball, tennis, and golf ball on the lower right side of the border.  Those were the other sports he played at different points.  You've also got a Kansas City Monarchs logo in his name, which is done in UCLA colors.  There is also a faint Army color pin on the right side of jersey. 

There is a lot here.  It feels like one of those Highlights magazines hidden picture pages, but you can step back and appreciate the entire picture if you don't want to find all the little hidden things inside.  Those Highlights pages are garbage if you ignore the small pictures hidden inside.  

Back of the card.  Overall, this is very well done.  

Which brings me to my last card. Mr. Cartoon's recreation of the 1987 Topps Mark McGwire rookie card.  How did we get here?  I was buying two cards, and the seller told me he'd throw in a McGwire card for next to nothing.  I said sure without even searching the card.  I appreciate the generosity, but I am here for the art this morning.  So, I will just say that I see why this was practically a give-away.    

If you don't know what the 1987 Topps McGwire rookie card looks like, this isn't it.  

I see there is an A's logo, kind of.  You've also got a picture of McGwire.  Those are the two similarities between the two cards.  

How bad is this card?

My 10 year old has a small collection of cards.  He's picky about who he puts into his box of cards.  I was recently given an Andrew Knizner card because he's a back-up catcher.   I was also given an Edwin Diaz card because everyone knows he's terrible.  Tyler Chatwood.  Nobody says anything nice about him.  

I offered him this McGwire card.  His first reaction?  "Is this a team checklist?  I don't collect those"  

Vernon Wells has better artwork, but seems fair.  

Artist bio.  Sigh.  I see.  

Set Appreciation Post #3 - 2002 Topps Super Teams

No music this week.  

Basic Design 

I really like the concept for this product, and I am kind of bummed out that Topps only put this out once.  The set features players from 11 different World Series winning teams starting with the 1954 New York Giants, and ending with the 1986 New York Mets.  In between there are cards for the 1955 Dodgers, 1957 Braves, 1960 Pirates, 1961 Yankees, 1967 Cardinals, 1969 Mets, 1970 Orioles, and the 1974 A's.  

I am not going to scan cards from every team, but the fact that there are only a few teams represented in the set probably limited the appeal of this product.  As a Cardinals fan, living in St. Louis when this was released, I was all for owning some cards of the 1967 Cardinals.  

So, here is the quick run down.  

Each team has roughly 15 cards in the set.  Each team features one manager card, roughly a dozen base player cards, a World Series MVP card, and a team card.  Here's a look at each.  

The manager card is the first in each of the 11 team sets within Super Teams.  I am glad that Topps put the manager cards in here.  There are some great names here, including a few Hall of Famers.  The design of the manager card is roughly the same as the player card outside the obvious "MANAGER" stamp across the top.  

I also love that Topps used the time appropriate logos on the bottom of the card.  

The card backs are generally the same.  The player cards have stats, which you will see in a moment.  My only complaint about this set, leaning heavily on the appreciation in the post this week, is the location of the card number.  It's a little weird off to the bottom left.  

Here is the team card.  

I am not sure who the artist was for these pictures (Gardner??), but I really like how they are done.  Each has three or four players on the front with the team name at the bottom of the card.  All of the manager, base, and MVP cards are portrait style, while these team cards are all landscape.  I am a big fan.  

The back of the team card has a little write up about the players in the picture.  If you work at a card company, and you're looking for a way to make a good team card, these are well done.  

The base cards have a decent design, and I really like some of the pictures that Topps used in the set.  The Durocher at the top had a black and white photo, but the cards after the 1955 Dodgers, 95% of the cards have color photos.  

This is a nice card of Roberto Clemente.  Again, I love the little logo on the bottom of the card, which was used by the Pirates in 1960.  The card back.....

The base cards all have a little blurb about the player, along with their stat line from that season, and the career stat line.  I like this card back.  I am going to ignore the weird placement of the card number 50 on the side of the card.  The write up on the base cards gives a little bit of information about the player from the championship season, and their overall career.  

Last one.  

Each team set features a World Series MVP card.  The front has the red, white, and blue script at the top.  The biggest difference is the content on the back of the card.  

The World Series MVP card for each team has a write up specifically about the player's performance during that World Series.  The stat line also only features their numbers from the World Series.  

Favorite Former Durham Player 

There is not a former Durham Bulls player in here, so I am going to share the card of someone with a loose connection to a former Durham Bulls player.  Here is the card......

Story time.  

This is Fred Haney, the manager of the 1957 Milwaukee Braves World Series team.  He took over a Braves team that featured a lineup a deep lineup anchored around Hall of Famers Hank Aaron and Eddie Matthews.  The Braves had actually been a very good team throughout the mid 1950s, prior to Haney taking over as the manager.  

Rewind to 1952.  The Braves were a seventh place team.  They fired their manager mid-season and hired former Cubs manager Charlie Grimm.  He was the last manager to get the Cubs into the World Series before 2016.  Grimm also played for the Durham Bulls prior to a long productive career with the Cubs.  

Non-set card.  

I've written about Charlie Grim before.  He really under appreciated.  What did Charlie do?  

Grimm's first moves as the Braves manager were to dump the older players on the roster in favor of younger players whom he saw as more talented.  A 20 year old Eddie Matthews was given the starting third base job.  In 1953, he got rid of more old players at the end of their career and gave 20 somethings Del Crandall and Joe Adcock the starting catcher and first base jobs.  Probably his best move came in 1954 when he opened up a starting outfield job for Hank Aaron.  

Grimm finished in second place a few too many seasons in a row, so he was fired in 1956.  While Grimm did not manage the 1957 Braves, but his finger prints are all over the roster.  

Favorite Cardinals Card 

There were autographs and inserts in this set too.  The autographs are all on card, and worth your time to find if you are a fan of the teams featured in this set.  I like the Cardinals cards in the base set, but autographs are nice too.  A ways back, I went out and found a really nice copy of an autograph of Bob Gibson.  

I posted this a few years back, so I am going to reuse that scan.  

That was a few scanners ago.  

I don't love relic cards, but this was way too good of a card to pass up.  

Favorite Non-Cardinals Card 

The Super Team set is loaded with all sorts of Hall of Famers, so it feels like a tough task to pick out one single great non-Cardinals card.  Like the previous two Set Appreciation posts, I am going with style over any sort of substance.  

Look at this picture.   

In a set full of nice portrait style photographs, I am picking out Rollie Fingers because of the facial hair.  I didn't scan the back of the card, so you can't look at his stats from the Series.  Rollie Fingers pitched 9 innings in 4 games, which was good for 1 win and 2 saves.  Mariano Rivera never pitched that many innings in a single Postseason Series.  

So How Does It Rank?  

This was a tough call.  That Ionix set from last week is still dead last.  I had to go back and re-read my 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders set post.  Here is what I am going with....

3. 2000 U.D. Ionix 

2. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

1. 2002 Topps Super Teams