Completed sets: 2003 Topps Total baseball, part 4

Previously:  part 1 (#1-99), part 2 (#100-198), part 3 (#199-297)

Episode 4:  iOS users can't see this post since it features Flash, or, Why didn't I finish this feature before the end of the World Series?

Dunn was the picture of consistency before jumping to the AL and failing spectacularly, but he's still a reasonable candidate for a bounce-back 2012.  Kinkade is from my original hometown of Livonia, MI, and therefore gets a shout-out.  You'd think the Cubs would have been smarter about Prior after the Kerry Wood injury tour extravaganza-palooza, but then I'd question whether you'd seen the way the Cubs do things for the last 100+ years.  Helton's 1-2 comparisons?:  Edgar Martinez and former teammate Larry Walker; yep, sounds just about right.

Koch is one in a string of closers got the most from then flipped for something better, (Keith Foulke) and while his career wasn't long, he had a nice run of seasons of 30+ saves.  Claussen is notable because he was traded this season for Aaron FUCKING Boone, who--well, you know the rest....  Walbeck played from some typically bad 90s and aughts Tigers teams, but he's turned into a solid minor league manager, which shouldn't surprise anyone since he was a catcher.

Graves was actually born in Vietnam, and he had some good years as a closer, mostly for the Reds.  Grimsley apparently had a big-time propensity for cheating.  Damon was part of a typical A's trade in which they fleeced the Royals, then signed with the Sawx before the 2002 season; here we see him a year before he was part of the famous curse-busting 2004 team.  I'm not sure if I've mentioned this, but Putz went to Michigan, and he's since had some nice years as a closer, something the Tigers might need after next year when Valverde's contract expires *hint hint*.  Higginson was sadly one of the better players on some awful, awful Tigers teams, parlayed that into a stupidly large (for the time) contract from the front office, then didn't live up to it; B-R.com compares him tom Carl Everett, which I don't think is fair because he ostensibly has enough brain cells not to consider dinosaurs a conspiracy. 

Ishii was a bit of a story when he joined the Dodgers, and he did win almost 40 games in his three seasons with them, but then he was dealt to the Mets and their force field of suck, and he only lasted one season with them before ending his American career.  Lee's put up some solid power numbers, compares to the always awesome Moises Alou, and came over to the Rangers in 2006 with future playoff stud Nelson Cruz.  Matheny is another Wolverine alum, (though one I don't seem to collect for some reason) and had a respectable career as a catcher.  

Conine had a nice career for a 58TH-ROUNDER, playing 17 seasons and helping both of the Marlins World Series teams win their rings.  Eckstein is the benchmark for the gritty, overachieving white dude in sports, and rings with the Angels and Cardinals prove his value.  I've mentioned Bagwell plenty of times on this blog, including his historic ties to Frank Thomas, but hopefully I'm staying consistent with my previous posts in saying I'd like to see him in the Hall.  I was wrong about my prediction that Holiday wouldn't hit all that well when he left Coors as he's been fairly valuable for the Cardinals, his injury-plagued World Series aside.

Infante was a Tigers stalwart until he was dealt to the Cubs, then moved to the Braves, where he inexplicably was an All-Star in 2010.  A-Rod was in his third year with the Rangers here, and he won the first of his three MVPs that year, which is all well and good, but he's still a massive douche and everybody likes to see him fail.  Ichiro is simply amazing and, like Bagwell, I've brought him up often enough around here that I'm not gonna say more right now than I hope he keeps playing and racking up hits.

The Tigers notably drafted Inge and felt his athleticism warranted a move to catcher; 2003 was his third season in the bigs and he barely cracked .200, foreshadowing his future hitting ability, though he's also had some big moments for Detroit.  Kent's stats compare to Dave Parker, and when you take into account that he played mostly 2B and the corner IF spots and had a notoriously bad temper during the steroid era, that kind of makes sense.  Konerko is a former top prospect that bounced around a few teams but finally got to show off that potential with the White Sox, rewarding them with quite a few outstanding seasons, many against my Tigers.

The Braves famously chose Chipper Jones over Van Poppel and the results speak for themselves, though he did at least last for parts of 11 Major League seasons.  Hairston is part of a noted baseball family which includes his namesake father and brother Scott.  In his 20th season, Rhodes finally won a championship after he was released by the Rangers and signed by the Cards.  (Very nice timing)  Jimenez actually threw a no-no in 1999 and beat Randy Johnson in the process, which is fairly impressive, even if his career wasn't.

Randa isn't pictured as a Tiger here, but he was also part of some of our worst teams.  I don't know why they went with such a goofy pose for Franco, but the guy had an awesome 21-year career as a reliever, mostly for the Mets, and compares well to another notable RP, Lee Smith.  The Rangers clearly don't deserve Young after the bullshit they pulled with him over the offseason, but fortunately for them, he was still part of their 2011 team and had a typically strong year.  Mauer was just 20 in 2003 and wouldn't be up with the big team until the following season, but it's been mostly success for him since then.  What's the deal with inserting the checklists out of order, anyway?

Kendall had a decent career as a catcher, but he never thrilled me much, as I think I've stated before.  Way to randomize the checklists, Topps.  Gordon had one of the game's best nicknames and enjoyed a nice 21-year career.  Shiggy had a memorable name and a not-so-memorable career.  Todd Jones is one of my least favorite Tigers closers and looks like he belongs at a NASCAR race, not on a Major League mound.

Crime Dog had an outstanding career, won a ring in '95 and had one of the all-time great nicknames; really, could a player ask for anything else?  Sweeney is one of the more memorable Royals of recent seasons, which isn't saying much, but he had a few good seasons with them.  Mientkiewicz is famous for having a crazy last name and keeping the game ball from the '04 Boston World Series-winning game after coming over from the Twins.  Moyer won 267 games in an astounding 24 seasons and won a ring with the 2008 Phils, one of seven teams he played for.

Trade with MCM and World Series thoughts

Trade with MCM:

Adam from My Cardboard Mistress shot me a note last week mentioning that he had this card for me,

an Austin Jackson 2011 Topps Lineage 1975 mini relic jersey, and that he'd rather send it to me than have to put it back.  That's as good a reason for a trade as any, and the result is a pretty cool Jackson hit, my first of him.  AJax really, really needs to learn to cut down the strikeouts and get on base, because he definitely has the talent to be the leadoff hitter Granderson, the man he replaced, never was.  Granderson, of course, only morphed into the power hitter he is after joining the Yankees, but I hope Detroit's staff can work on him and get him right--the Tigers offense would be ridiculous with a consistent leadoff hitter and stolen base artist.

Anyway, I definitely owe Adam something nice in return, and hopefully I can square us up soon.  Thanks, Adam!

World Series thoughts:

Well, Friday night ended the 2011 baseball season, and I'm happy to say that the amazing Cardinals capped off one of the most unlikely title runs ever for their 11th championship.  I don't mean to imply that I was specifically rooting against Texas, because I would have been thrilled especially for Nolan Ryan after all his hard work trying to revitalize the team.  Still, there's the George W. Bush factor, even if he no longer actually has a hand in the team after it went to shit along with every other one of his ventures. (but that's not a discussion for a sports card blog)  Besides, there's plenty to like about the incredible Cardinals run anyway.  All that said, here are some of my thoughts about the Series, some of which I hope prompt discussion in the comments:

• Is there a more entertaining manager to watch than Ron Washington?  I don't think I could ever root against a skipper who wears his heart on his sleeve.  He does make some goofy decisions but really, what manager doesn't?  He's the type of animated manager that's good for the game, not some moronic asshole like Ozzie Guillen, whom I hope loses 100+ games with the Marlins for all the shit he's pulled in his managerial career.
• I don't care for Josh Hamilton at all, for reasons I won't go into as they're also not relevant to this blog.  Still, I give the guy huge props not only for gutting though an obviously debilitating and painful injury, but for overcoming it with an outstanding performance instead of dogging it and blaming the injury.
• Nobody deserves more props than the Cardinals, though, for squeezing in to the playoffs on the season's final day, then beating the two best NL teams in the playoffs, not to mention a favored Rangers team.  I know they're already getting a lot of credit for this, but seriously, they earned it.  And what's cool is, it's nice to see that the wild card still makes sense--I wasn't always a fan of it, but we've seen some fun teams eke out a playoff spot like this and go on to win a title.  Nothing was handed to the Cardinals, but their resilience was definitely their biggest asset this year.
• Adrian Beltre was the real deal this year in the regular season and playoffs, and I was shocked because it wasn't a contract season, so I was wrong about him, at least this year.  I still think the Rangers massively overpaid him, but for now the results speak for themselves, to be fair.
• The Mighty Pujols had a bit of an impact in the other games, but besides his record-setting game three, he wasn't the deciding factor.  Instead, guys like Allen Craig and David Freese were the heroes who will forever be legends in St. Louis, and that's the fun of the championship being decided by a seven-game series.
• Speaking of Cardinals heroes, besides the two guys above, how about Lance Berkman?  He rightfully caught some flak for comments he made before the season when he called the Rangers an average team without Cliff Lee, although based on their pitching performance in the playoffs, he was somewhat vindicated.  Still, having not signed with them and then being traded to St. Louis, it looks like Fat Elvis had the last laugh.  Protecting Pujols because Matt Holliday was ineffective/injured, he punished the Rangers time and again with clutch hits after Texas was forced to intentionally walk El Hombre.  Hell, Berkman pretty much set up camp on second base throughout the series.
• Can you remember a more exciting World Series in the last decade?  The somewhat similarly crazy Yankees/DBacks matchup back in 2001 is the best I could do.  In my mind, nothing could compare to game six in which David Freese made a crucial error, (one of several between both teams) brought the team back from within one strike of losing, (which the Cards also did in the 10th) then smacked one of the most dramatic walk-offs in the history of the game.  I literally sat on my couch at 12:39 a.m. EST saying "I can't believe it!" after the hometown here Freese punched St. Louis' ticket for game seven.  I hope the Series' ratings improved this year.
• I definitely enjoy the games more when the pitchers bat, because sometimes they have an unexpected offensive impact, and even when they don't, the strategy of the game becomes so much more interesting.  All you DH apologists can have your 300-pound .260 hitter who contributes 20 HR and nothing else to the game, I'll still with exciting matchups like this one.
• I'll admit I like to see teams win championships at home, which has happened quite a bit recently in the World Series, apparently.  Because of that, I might have pulled a bit more for the Rangers had the AL won the All-Star Game this year.  It just has to be 100 times sweeter for the home fans to get the instant gratification of celebrating in the stadium instead of having to wait for the team to arrive at the airport.  The postgame festivities just work better that way.  I understand that the Super Bowl just couldn't work that way, but football really misses out on that experience, unless a team really beats the odds and gets a home game.

And now, in celebration of the Cards, and because this post is seriously lacking in images,

I give you Fat Elvis, sans awesome facial hair and mullet, plus

two-time champion and current best player in the League, Albert Pujols.

Now begins a long offseason, though fortunately for me, one that's devoid of the NBA, which means Christmas came early.  Time to focus on college and pro football, plus college hockey, as the weather turns cold and depressing.  For now, may your teams find success in free agency, trades, the Rule V draft, and the excitement that is baseball's winter meetings, not to mention the upcoming awards announcements.  What a season!

Michigan gameday: vs. Purdue

More actual content© hopefully tonight or tomorrow, including thoughts about an incredible World Series, but for now, it's college football Saturday and officially a Day of Rest for me, on a chilly and potentially stormy Ann Arbor fall afternoon.

Michigan is 6-1 and looks to rebound from a loss to hated Michigan state with a homecoming game against Purdue at noon.  Other interesting games:

• Michigan State (11) @ Nebraska (14), noon
• Oklahoma (9) @ Kansas State (8), 3:30
• Stanford (6) @ USC, 8
• Wisconsin (15) @ Ohio State, 8

So for now:  LET'S GO BLUE!

Completed sets: 2003 Topps Total baseball, part 3

Previously:  part 1 (#1-99), part 2 (#100-198)

Episode 3:  Griffey and Jeter meet Bong and Fick, or, 99 Reds Buffoons.

Cards #199-297:

Baltimore fans will remember Hammonds as the #4 overall pick in 92 who never really lived up to that hype, though he did play for 13 seasons.  I'll forever remember Nomah as the guy whose trade to the Cubs was the good luck charm the Sawx needed to end their World Series curse.  Christianson was a highly-touted Mariners catching prospect bust.  Moss is from Australia, which is about the only interesting thing about him.  Richard is another one of my favorite all power/no position sluggers who never did much.  Hundley put up some statistical outlier-type numbers for a couple years during the steroid era, but was a decent catcher otherwise.  

Hatteberg was briefly a part of the Moneyball A's, famously converting from catcher to first to take advantage of his OBP, an undervalued stat at the time. (Sidenote:  99% of the people who complain about the book's philosophy, hype and main character have never actually read the book; one of those people is JOE MORGAN)  Ken Griffey Jr. was a little-known outfielder for such teams as Seattle (twice) and Cincinnati, taking after his father, and hitting the occasional home run.  George is a former Royals first-round bust.  Neikro is Joe's son/Phil's nephew, and he got to play a few games in the Bigs.  Ransom is somehow still kicking around the Majors, though he doesn't get in a ton of games.  Biggio is probably the best Astro ever (with apologies to Bagwell and his badass goatees) due to his all-around game and willingness to get hit by pitches A LOT.  (Note to internet users everywhere:  "alot" is not a word so stop using it, because I know you all use it A LOT.)

Batista's been everywhere, man, and at 40 he's still available if your team wants him.  Escobar was a top prospect for the Mets that never panned out (stop me if you've heard that one before) but was sent to Cleveland when they acquired Roberto Alomar.  Hunter has certainly lived up to the first round pick the Twins spent on him in 1993, and I hope he makes it back to the Twin Cities before he retires because he just seems to belong there.  May only pitched for parts of seven seasons, but he certainly beat the odds after being selected in the 46th round.  Santiago was an excellent catcher and pretty good hitter for a long, long time, and his #1 comparison on baseball-reference.com is Bill Freehan, so he's cool in my book.

Dempster's had a reasonably successful career, though it's funny to see him in a Reds uni since I mainly remember him as a Marlin and Cub.  Bong got a couple cups of coffee with the Braves and Reds after coming out of South Korea, which is fairly impressive, though that pales in comparison to his awesome name.  Macias played for a couple years in Detroit, and that's all you need to know to explain how those early-to-mid 2000s teams were atrociously bad.  Stewart was a decent OF for a while after being a first-rounder, and spent most of his career with the Blue Jays and Twins, and his #2 comparison is Carl Crawford, which doesn't bode especially well for the Red Sox.  This is on Valent's B-R page:  "Until David Wright arrived, you were the only thing mildly interesting about the 2004 Mets."  Here are some words that rhyme with Corey.

Tomko had a decent 14-season career and was sent to Seattle in the Griffey deal.  Stairs has played for 12 teams in 19 seasons and could still play if he wants to as he's an incredibly talented bench player.  Valdes had a few decent seasons with the 1990s Dodgers and held on long enough to win 100+ games in a 12-season career.  Fuentes best compares to Brad Lidge, and while that might seem strange at first, it's actually fairly apt.  Izturis is a slick-fielding IF who was traded straight-up for Greg Maddux in 2006.

Jenkins was a Brewers first-rounder who managed to hit 200+ HR in 11 seasons and win a ring in 2008, his only season with the Phillies and final of his career.  I think Derek Jeter works for Jostens or a pawn shop or something because he always has a lot of rings on him.  Roberts, who was actually a Tigers draftee, famously came in as a pinch runner with the Sox down 1 in the bottom of the 9th, stole second and scored the tying run in game four of the 2004 ALCS, the beginning of the Yankees' legendary megacollapse and the Red Sox's rise to fame and uncursedness.  Williams was a pretty good above-.500 pitcher in 15 seasons.  Wells had some nice seasons as the Jays' former top prospect, then was unceremoniously dumped on the Angels, where his power has remained, though his average continues to trend downward.  Lieber is a former 20 game winner with the Cubs who had a couple more nice campaigns before retiring after 14 seasons.  German was part of the deal that brought Jeremy Bonderman and Carlos Pena to Detroit, but the future closer hopeful never did much.

Diego's son David played for 15 seasons in a Sean Casey-like career--not bad.  Garcia has bounced around a bit in his 13+-year career, but he's apparently still a pretty effective pitcher, and actually compares to Chris Carpenter.  Young had a hard time swinging with wires running across the telephone poles he called his arms.  Fick hit the final home run in old Tiger Stadium, which was a grand slam, and also the final hit and RBI.  Petrick never made it as a former top prospect with the Rockies, but he's since been diagnosed with Parkinson's; he's currently coaching football and baseball at his high school.

Dermal "Dee" Brown was yet ANOTHER failed Royals first-rounder.  Patterson went #3 to the Cubs in '98, and though he showed some flashes of that talent, well, as his B-R.com page says, "All hope abandon, ye who enter here...."  Man, what a crappy page this is, I'm not even gonna bother with the rest!

Johnson is a former Yankee-turned injury machine.  Zito famously signed an enormous contract with the Giants (which they're STILL regretting) after his successful seasons alongside Tim Hudson and Mark Mulder.  Byrd wasn't exactly a fireballer but won more than 100 games in 14 seasons.  Gagne was an elite closer (and Cy Young-winner once) for three straight seasons, then injuries essentially derailed his career.  Ramirez was amazingly poached from the idiotic Pirates, along with Kenny Lofton for, among others, Bobby Hill, some propane and propane accessories; can we please contact the Pirates now?

Ray-Ray had a nice 14-year career, mainly with the White Sox and Giants, and compared well to Joe Morgan and Craig Biggio for a few years.  The Mariners sold the farm for injury-waiting-to-happen Bedard in 2008; way to go, morons.  Faison was a first-round bust for the Padres.  Gomez's career highlight was making the World Series with the 2006 Tigers, though he was hitless in three at-bats.  Guerrero has had a fine career and his comparisons are ridiculous:  Jeff Bagwell, Larry Walker, Jim Rice, Chipper Jones, Billy Williams, Willie Stargell, Duke Snider, Andres Galarraga, Carlos Delgado and Todd Helton; crazy!

Appier was a fine pitcher through parts of 16 seasons after defying the odds and NOT sucking as a Royals first-rounder.  Meche was a .500 pitcher after being a Seattle first-rounder.  Grissom was an outstanding player with a 17-year career, and was a poor man's Ricky Henderson in many ways.  Castilla is pictured here back with his original team, though he's more famous for some nice seasons filled with Coors-inflated stats. (the park, not the beer!)  Halter is another symptom of ridiculously bad 90s-2000s Tigers teams, and whoever thought it was a good deal to pick him up should've been muzzled. (get it?)  Finally, Hinske bounced around a couple teams before winning the 2002 AL Rookie of the Year with the Jays, and was another example of voters apparently being swayed by homers and not much else, not that there were many great options that year.

2011 Topps football value box

I hadn't busted anything in a while so while I was at Meijer today I grabbed one of those Topps football value boxes, the ones that come with a nice assortment of stuff.  For $20 you get:

• 11 packs of 12 cards of 2011 Topps football
• Two "exclusive rookie Refractors" (I think these are always the same two)
• One guaranteed Super Bowl Giveaway code card

Here's what I got:

• 103 different base cards, 13 doubles
• One spectacularly damaged card whose top each must've been smashed by the pack sealing portion of the process
• My two guaranteed rookie Refractors, (Newton and Gabbert) both of which are definitely available, so make me an offer
• Three total Super Bowl Giveaway cards, including my one guaranteed by the package (Tom Brady, the last one I needed for yet another complete set of those) which produced two useless virtual items and one card (see below)
• Two Super Bowl Legends inserts I needed (Biletnikoff and Dent) plus one other I didn't
• The last card I needed for my fourth base set (Alex Green)
• Six base cards I needed for set #5 (meaning I still need 60 69 142 171 229 357 385)
• Another Cam Newton RC (also available)
• One Gold parallel, a Dexter McCluster
• TWO Faces of the Franchise inserts of Peterson/Harvin (plus one other)
• More inserts I didn't need:  three Game Day, two ToppsTown
• Two Minis (Steve Smith (Giants) and Bilal Powell)

The aforementioned Super Bowl Giveaway card was this:

Ottis Anderson from Super Bowl XXV.  I'm actively trying to trade it but likely won't be able to, so if nothing else I'll get it shipped with my other six cards and make it available then. (probably to Mike, right?)
Update:  I flipped the Anderson for a Marques Colston from XLIV.  That might still go to Mike, but at least it's a player I can appreciate more.  Hooray for trading!

Overall I thought this was a great value.  I didn't need very many cards from it, but to be fair, I previously purchased a case.  The number of doubles was a tad high, but for what you get, $20 is a fair price, and I do recommend grabbing one of these whether you're building the set or not.

Card show report: 10/16, a very good vintage, or, You Can Call Me Al

As promised, here's a look at my card show haul I'm blogging about as I cheer for Albert Pujols and the Cardinals to take down Josh Hamilton's Rangers:

Baseball relics:

Here's a gorgeous Frank Robinson manupatch from 2004 Sweet Spot Classic, #d 260/300.  This was totally worth the $4 I threw down on it, and it was surprisingly the only baseball relic I picked up that day.

Hockey relics:

This here is an Al Montoya 2005-06 UD Rookie Threads jersey that I picked up from the same seller who had the Robinson above.  I'm working on getting more stuff of his because he was a star goalie here, but especially since he's finally seeing some playing time in the NHL.

Bill Freehan stuff:I've been trying to get back into finding his stuff because I'd like to get at least one of each of his vintage cards, plus as many of his hits as possible, someday.  Between a couple sellers I came up with these:

The seller who had a ton of vintage stuff I bought (upcoming) had this in-person auto (with COA) of Freehan on a 1988 Domino's Tigers 1968 World Series set.  I got a deal on it from him because of the other stuff I bought.  I know have three Freehan autos, which I think is pretty cool.

1968 Topps All-Star

1969 Topps All-Star

1969 Topps

1970 Topps All-Star

1971 Topps

I'll scan whatever else I have of him soon and post it up here, probably when I get more organized and get something set up for my individual player collections.

Other Detroit Tigers:
A couple of the cards you see above and everything else from here on out came from one guy who had a ton of ridiculously cheap (due to generally poor condition) vintage cards.  I'm talking about most of them being 90% off.  My dearth of vintage was cured in one single bound and I may go back for more at the next show.  I was glad that I put some money towards these rather than wasting it on hits since nothing impressed me this time, and I think that proves I'm not entirely entranced by autographs and jerseys.  By the by, please check on my growing vintage collection getting scanned right over here. (and on the right sidebar with all the other albums)

1975 Topps 3000th hit

1968 Topps 1967 AL Batting Leaders

1964 Topps 1963 AL RBI Leaders

Darrell Evans 1970 Topps RC

Evans was a part of the 1984 World Series champs, having joined the team as a free agent in the off-season.  He had statistically better seasons before and after 1984, but it was still a great year for him in a career during which he hit more than 400 HR.

1960 Topps team checklist

1969 Topps 1968 World Series Game 7

 This seemed as good a way as any to celebrate the 1968 champs.

Vintage RCs:

This Fergie Jenkins RC is obviously not in the greatest shape, but it's still pretty nice to have a rookie of another HOF pitcher.

An off-center but still desirable RC of Keith Hernandez. (along with future Tigers manager Phil Garner tagging along)  Gotta love the colorful 1975 design, and better yet, the good ol' multiplayer RCs.  By the way, Hernandez's top two comparisons are Wally Joyner and Mark Grace, making them a great trio of Hall of Very Good players.

This 1975 Topps Yount RC (in which he always looks like he's wearing a Michigan hat due to the logo of that era) has a nice fat crease going through it, but I thought it was still a nice buy for as cheaply as I picked it up.  I do have a copy in much better condition, although it's the mini version.

Everything else:

1971 Topps Orioles World Champions/checklist

1968 Topps All-Star

1968 Topps Game

1969 Topps All-Star

1970 Topps All-Star

1973 Topps

1975 Topps

1968 Topps Game

1967 Topps

1967 Topps

1966 Topps star rookie

1969 Topps

1959 Topps

1962 Topps

So as you can see, I ended up with a ton of HOFers, especially a couple Orioles greats.  As I mentioned, the condition on most of these isn't terribly great, but when you consider I didn't pay more than $6 for any of them and spent an average of about $2-$3 per card, you might agree that I did pretty well.  I didn't buy these to grade or sell anyway--they'll have a happy home in my growing vintage collection.

I'm happy to have found something else to collect that will add some quality and diversity to my collection.  I have quite a few options here, pursuing Tigers, especially Kaline and Freehan, some of my other favorites like the Oriole Robinsons, and Hall-of-Famers in general.  I'm really excited about the last two because they're relatively old (something I can't say about most of my collection) and they highlight historic moments for two legendary players.  That happily gives me more to get excited about than random hits at future shows!