Platinum Padre

A quick post for this morning.  Catching up on life is putting me a little bit behind on blogging this week, but I have got the next two weeks off work.  Everything will get done.  I had the chance to add a cool card to my collection this past week in the shape of a 2002 Topps Gold Label Ray Lankford Platinum parallel.

2002 Topps Gold Label Platinum Ray Lankford 

The card is serial numbered to 250 and features one of my favorite Cardinals players as a member of the San Diego Padres.  He was traded to the Padres in 2001 for pitcher Woody Williams.  Lankford ended up back on the Cardinals for his final season in 2004.  Lankford does not have many cards as a Padre, but there are a few floating around.  Curiously, most of the really rare Lankford cards, printing plates etc, feature him as a Padre.  Like all Lankford cards, a welcome addition to the collection.  

 

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard-#40 Craig Biggio

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard
#40
Craig Biggio

1988 Score Rookie/Trade Craig Biggio RC

Hobby Impact-
This is one of the most underrated players within the baseball card hobby during my 30 years of collecting.  I will get into the on-field stuff in a couple of minutes, but I am not sure why he's not a little bit more popular and respected around the industry.  I've always thought two things worked against Biggio around the hobby.

1. All of his rookie cards are from late 80s releases which were the junkiest of junk wax.  His 1989 Upper Deck rookie is a pretty nice card, but the rest are easily found for less than $5.  Nice graded versions do not even cost that much in comparison to other rookie cards of Hall of Fame players

2. Biggio played for the Astros.  The team had a great run and were highly competitive throughout much of Biggio's career.  He played with other great talent.  Why do people ignore the Astros?  Show me a good player whose been on the Astros (minus Nolan Ryan) and I will show you someone that baseball card collectors completely undervalue.  Bagwell, Berkman, etc, etc, etc.

Biggio also has not been a bigger certified autograph guy over the course of his career.  He has some autographs floating around, but they are always numbered and always fairly limited.  The Biggio autographs have always held their value well and are usually in pretty high demand around the hobby if you have one you are willing to part with.  In fact, one of my favorite autographs I have ever pulled was a.....

2001 Donruss Signature Craig Biggio Autograph

I am not sure I had ever seen a Biggio autograph before I pulled this from out of a Donruss Signature pack, but I was really happy to see this card.  I am not thrilled its a sticker autograph, but many of the early 2000s Biggio autographs are stickers for Donruss products.  More recently Biggio has started signing for Topps and has signed several on-cards autographs.

On The Field Impact-
Biggio was an All-Star catcher, second baseman, and outfielder.  During his time with the Astros the team went to the postseason five times including the team's only World Series appearance in 2005.  Biggio also reached 3,000 hits, had over 600 career doubles, stole more than 400 bases, and had more than 250 home runs.  Pretty unique skill set.

Biggio seems like a slam dunk Hall of Famer to me with a quick check of Baseball Reference you will find that Biggio's 10 most similar batters include eight Hall of Famers plus Lou Whiatker and Johnnny Damon.  Not bad company.  While the JAWS system ranks him as the fourteenth best second baseman, he spent several years playing other positions which took away from his overall position ranking.

Favorite Card-
I did not have a Biggio card that stuck out in my mind before I did my countdown list and came up with my cards to put into my posts, but after flipping through my stack of Biggio cards I found one that seemed a little bit than the rest.  One thing I always remember about Biggio was his leg kick.  Always had it through his whole career, but for whatever reason MLB does not post videos of Biggio.  Kind of whack.  So, here's my coolest Biggio card-


1997 Upper Deck Craig Biggio

Biggio leg kick and shin guard.  Grass stain.  The bat is a little bit low on pine tar for Biggio and the batting helmet is a little on the clean side, but overall this is a really good picture of Biggio batting.  If you are looking for another cool Biggio card I'd look at a 1989 Donruss or a 1992 Upper Deck card.  Hard to beat Biggio as a catcher.

I Feel Dirty Owning This Card.

We are down to the last day of the regular season and I am really close to conquering the 2013 Cardinals roster in certified autographs.  Molina, Beltran, Wainwright, Matt Holliday, etc, etc, etc.  I have them all.  There are a few players with no certified autographs such as Tony Cruz, Randy Choate, Kevin Seigrist, and Trevor Rosenthal.  So, I am down to two missing autographs which belong to backup outfielder Shane Robinson and seldom used pitcher Sam Freeman.  

Robinson has several autographs in the 2005 Upper Deck USA Baseball set including one with teammate Jon Jay.  I am still working on tracking down a copy, but if I cannot find one there are single signed cards of the fourth outfielder.  That leaves Sam Freeman.  Well...

Sam Freeman autographs are pretty easy to find and they are really cheap.  I just lack a little bit of enthusiasm in adding this card to my collection.  The Freeman autograph comes from the 2008 Donruss Elite college set, which I have stated is a personal favorite, except for Sam Freeman.  Let's take a look at everything that is wrong with this card...

2009 Donruss Elite Sam Freeman Autograph 

This card goes downhill from the top with the appearance of the Jayhawk on Sam's hat and the word Kansas written across his chest.  Of course, there is the Big XII (UT-Austin Conference) Conference patch on the side of Freeman's jersey.  Luckily, this card cost me a whole dollar which is the price I would expect to pay for a Kansas baseball card.  

An intersting quirk to this card is the fact that Sam Freeman played four years of college baseball, but only played one year at KU.  He started out at a community college in Texas and then went to KU.  Freeman was drafted by the Cardinals, did not sign, and played his senior year at Marshall.  The Cardinals drafted Freeman again.  So, that means that the year this card was made Freeman was actually a member of the Thundering Herd.  Why is he a Jayhawk on his baseball card?  I can handle a Marshall card and would have picked up a Freeman autograph sooner if he was pictured in their uni.  

Yes, as an NC State alum I am not a huge fan of the Tar Heels either, but I do respect the job that Mike Fox does with their baseball team.  UNC is also a really good school.  Kansas?  I don't think so.  As a long time resident of Missouri there is nothing more annoying than Kansas.  And their baseball team?  You like Tom Gorzelanny?  Steve Jeltz?  Hardly anyone does.  Somewhat happy to fill a whole in my collection and a little disappointed that it has come down to adding a Jayhawks card.  

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard-#41 Ozzie Smith

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard
#41
Ozzie Smith


1979 Topps Ozzie Smith RC

Hobby Impact-
Ozzie Smith has always had a pretty good following in spite of the fact that he was a defense first player for the first half of his career.  Sometime in the mid 80s Ozzie started doing a little more hitting, but I am still often amazed at how popular the Wizard is around the hobby.  His rookie card is the star of the 1979 Topps set and is a pretty good chase card around Ebay and other seconday market sites.  The condition of the cards, centering and corners, can be rough at times.  Clean, well-centered copies are definitely at a premium.  I own several copies of the card and do not think I have one copy with good centering.  For example, the copy above is shifted slightly right.  Really common occurrence with this card.  Someday I will track down a really nice copy.

Ozzie Smith retired from baseball after the 1996 season, but still frequently appears in newer baseball releases.  Just this year Topps put Ozzie in several of its 2013 including Gypsy Queen, Allen & Ginter, Topps Archives, and Topps Tier One.  I am always amazed at well his cards still sell and how competitive bidding gets on Ebay over Ozzie cards.  In fact, I would guess with the passing of Stan Musial this past year, collectors might see more and more of Ozzie Smith in some of the Topps releases.  Topps always has Cardinals in their sets, and with Red Schoendienst slowing on his signing, I am going to guess that Ozzie will fill the void.

On The Field Impact-
Ozzie was the best defensive player of his generation and probably the best defensive shortstop ever.  It always slays me when people argue with me over whether Omar Vizquel is better than Ozzie.  Please.  Jeter too.  The JAWS rating system ranks the Wizard as the 8th best shortstop of all-time ahead of all modern shortstops not named Alex Rodriguez.  Omar is not even in the top 25.

Defense is always hard to quantify, so here are two stats that I love about the Wizard:

1.  He is the all-time assists leader for shortstops.  Omar Vizquel played five more seasons than Ozzie and is still almost 700 assists behind him.  Jeter has played the same amount of time and is a mere 2000 assists away.

2.  He's the all-time leader in defensive WAR by 4 points.  4 points.  4 points.  That's 14 more points than Omar Vizquel and I stopped looking for Jeter on the list after I passed by Clint Barmes.

Here's some video evidence of how awesome Ozzie was:



I also suggest finding a video of the Curt Ford catch where he dives over a diving outfielder to catch a ball.  Might be better than the one above.

As previosuly stated, Ozzie was not always a good offensive player during his career.  He was a pretty good bet to do a little running, but generally kept the ball on the ground.  While he was not a flashy offensive player, he certainly picked his moments to come through with the bat.  My favorite all-time Ozzie Smith play came during the 1985 National League Championship Series.  Good time to hit your first career left-handed home run.



Favorite Card-
I could do a top ten list on cool Ozzie Smith cards, but if I had to pick one card which summed up the player that was Ozzie Smith I would go with his 1991 Fleer Ultra card.

There are way too many Ozzie Smith cards where he has a bat in his hands.  Way too many.  The guy was the Wizard because of his fielding.  Outside of his 1987 Topps card, I think almost ever Topps base issue card of him from the 80s and early 90s featured him with a bat in his hands.  I would have loved to have seen a card of Ozzie laying out for a ball hit up the middle.  Something.  Anyway, this card was a good choice because you have got Ozzie jumping for a ball (you know he caught it) and he is playing in Wrigley.  Cool card.

Repeat Cards

Somedays I see really cool cards that I already have in my collection.  I often pass them by and go on with my day and do not give them a second thought.  This past week I ran into a collector who was shopping around a few nice cards.  Amongst the cards in his photo album was a nice looking Stan Musial seat card from the 2011 Topps Heritage set.  It looked nice, but I picked up a copy of this card a few years back.

So what to do?  My first inclination was to pass and move on, but how often do you run into a sweet Stan Musial card.  I asked about the price and settled on a few nice Rockies autographs.  So, for the second time I added this great looking card to my collection.

2011 Topps Heritage Stan Musial Seat Relic 

My trading partner found a small Larry Walker jersey at the last moment and offered a few Cardinals cards, but again ran into a bunch of cards that are already in my collection.  I will go double on Stan, but there are limits on Daniel Descalso and Jon Jay.  We were switched over to looking at some Rays and USA Baseball cards when he offered a sweet card I could not pass up.  It's also a double.

2011 Topps USA Baseball Marcus Stroman Triple Jersey/Autograph 

I picked up a copy of this card almost a year and a half ago in another trade.  Stroman starred locally at Duke and also appeared for the USA College Team which is also here locally in Cary.  I love the look of these cards, so it obviously was an attractive option when it popped up in the discussion.  However, I have also been really impressed by Stroman's performance in the Blue Jays system and do not mind having a few extra cards of his hanging out.  Stroman pitched for Toronto's Double-A team in New Hampshire posting a winning record of 9-5 with an ERA of 3.30, more than a strikeout per inning, and a WHIP of 1.12.  Really impressive.  

So, while I do not like to take on doubles in trades and am not going to make a habit of it, I guess that some cards are nice enough to be an exception to the rule.  A nice Stan Musial card is worth a little rule bending and so is the awesome Marcus Stroman card.  

More Goodness From the Vault

One of my favorite Durham Bulls players, Leslie Anderson, has almost zero cards out on the market.  It's actually not quite zero.  More like one.  The Rays signed Leslie Anderson after he defected while playing for the Cuban National Team.  At the time of his defection, Anderson was 28, and was starting off at the bottom of the Rays organization playing for the Charlotte Stone Crabs.  Topps captured him in his Stone Crabs uni and included him in their 2010 Pro Debut set.  His only card.

So, as a fan of Leslie Anderson I guess you could say that my collection of his card revolves around the team sets sold at the Ballpark Cornerstore and finding the parallels of the Pro Debut card on Ebay.  Well, this week I was fortunate enough to land a really cool Leslie Anderson card.  I can honestly say, my collection may very well be complete.  Really.

I found the front proof, blank back, of the Topps Pro Debut card.  Topps often sells them on their Topps Vault account on Ebay.  This card was actually bought by someone and then resold.  For $9.  I was happy to have a one of a kind card of a one of a kind card.  Here's a look at the front proof which Topps sealed in a plastic case.

2010 Topps Pro Debut Blank Back Proof Leslie Anderson

Topps also sells the back proofs of cards on the Topps Vault, so maybe one day I can put the two proofs together and have the complete set of 1/1.  The blank back of the card features a Topps hologram with a serial number, certificate came with the card, and a 1/1 stamp.  

Leslie Anderson has been on the Durham Bulls the past four seasons and there is little hope that the Rays will actually call him up for a cup of coffee.  While I would love to see him stick around and play another season with the Bulls I think he might go somewhere seeking a chance at some playing time in the Majors.  In a lot of ways Anderson reminds me a lot of Justin Ruggiano.  He's not going to be an everyday player if he ever sticks in the Majors (Ruggiano should not get 400 ABs in a season), but could be a nice player to stick into certain situations.  Spring will tell.  In the meantime, I am off to find the back proof of this card.

My Top 50 Players on Cardboard-#42 Mike Schmidt

My Top 50 Players On Cardboard
#42
Mike Schmidt


1973 Topps Mike Schmidt

Hobby Impact-
Schmidt has always been a pretty popular player collect across the hobby.  One of the most feared hitters of the 70s and 80s and a class act.  Schmidt earned a good following, not only with Phillies fans, but across the hobby with fans across baseball.  As a Cardinals fan, I remember Schmidt being one of the first autographs I added to my collection in the late 90s when I started to really get into finding certified autographs.

I am not a huge fan of Schmidt's rookie card.  Ron Cey is okay.  John Hilton?  Hmmm.  As cool as the 70s and 80s prospect cards were to collectors something about them always bothered me about these cards when they would include a really scrubby player.  It's not like these cards were like the Bowman cards of today and Topps was projecting players out from Rookie League and A Ball.  Topps has done several reprints of this card in Topps Archives sets and they always cut off Cey and Hilton.

The coolest thing about Schmidt in my opinion is his autograph.  Schmidt is one of those guys who takes a lot of pride in what he signs and how he signs it.  Take five minutes on Ebay to scroll through some Mike Schmidt autographs and you will be hard pressed to find one that is the least bit shaky.  In fact, Schmidt spent a little bit of time last year blasting modern players for their poor and hard to read signatures.  Here's a look at one of his autographs.


2002 Topps Team Legends Mike Schmidt Autograph

On The Field Impact-
As stated earlier, Schmidt was the most feared power hitter of the seventies and eighties.  The Phillies third baseman won a total of 8 home run crowns during his eighteen year career.  His totals for his home run titles were as low as 31 in the strike shorted 1981 season and as high as 48 in 1980 on the way to helping the Phillies win their first World Series.  While it seems commonplace for power hitters to slug thirty home runs out in a season nowadays, Schmidt hit his thirty home runs when the number was still an impressive plateau.

In fact, when Schmidt hit his 500th home run the feat had only been accomplished a dozen times.  The size of the 500 home run club doubled after Schmidt's retirement.  Besides the home runs, Schmitty also picked up ten Gold Glove awards and also managed to snag three MVP awards.  The JAWS rating system has him rated as the best third baseman of all-time.  Here's a look at Schmidt's sweet home run swing on the final dinger of his career.

Favorite Card-

1977 Topps Mike Schmidt

This is my well loved 1977 Topps Mike Schmidt card.  It's always been my favorite Mike Schmidt card.  I remember seeing Schmidt play when I was a kid, but he was an old guy by that point.  The prime of Schmidt's career really happened when I was probably a little bit too young to remember much about him.  Despite being a little too young, I think this card gives a good picture of Schmidt in his prime.  The shaggy air, cool 70s mustache.  I dig the powder blue Phillies uniform with the cool bi-centenntianal patch and zipper.  I think the Phillies were the only team to wear uniforms with zippers.  Maybe.  The batting gloves are also clearly from yesteryear and the bat is an older style Rawlings Power Stick with the color ring much lower.  I am pretty sure this card was taken in Shea Stadium, powder blues were road jerseys, and the background shows a triple deck on the stadium.  Really cool card in my opinion.