2016 COMC purchases: I ain't even Maddux

While there's still plenty of problems with the current Hall of Fame voting process, I was happy to see the trio of Tim Raines, Jeff Bagwell, and Ivan Rodriguez get elected last week.  Hopefully the several other deserving candidates won't be the victims of a crunch of very qualified individuals due to appear over the next few years.  In any case, a much deserved three-player class is a solid start.

Speaking of MLB legends, let's look at the last of my 2016 COMC cards I'll be showing off on this here blog, all of pitching guru Greg Maddux:

Let's kick things off with this--::RECORD SCRATCH::

That's much better.  Let's kick things off with this newly-peeled Mound Marvels insert from 1995 Donruss. (I'm generally fine with protective peels but not if they're accompanied by gigantic white stickers that obscure the best part of the card!)  This very cool chase set ("90s inserts rule!") featured some of the best pitchers of the time, and easily the best aspect of the cards is the circular, semi-transparent, sort-of holographic image of each player.  It's one of many examples you'll see today of the creativity of the 90s that's been destroyed by the Toppsopoly.  Fortunately, there's a ton of these great products to chase!

Don't be too surprised that I'm going back to the '95 Pinnacle well since it's my favorite all-time instance of that product.  First up is Maddux's Museum Collection card.  Unlike the other guys in my big four baseball PCs he didn't appear in any subsets of the base set so this is his lone Museum Collection card.  However, he did feature in some of the product's other inserts, including...

...this Red Hot card.  I showed off Gwynn's issue a couple posts ago and now I have Mad Dog's to go with it.  Ripken and Griffey are actually cards #1 and 2 in this set so I'll work on chasing them down too because I really like the design of these cards.  I mean, the heat they evoke looks pretty good right about now as I write this in the middle of another Michigan winter!

UC3 was a one-off Pinnacle product released in 1995; to read more about it, head over to the always-helpful BaseballCardPedia.  I'm not shocked that it lasted for just a year since the base set is pretty ugly, especially in comparison to Sportflix, which was also unfortunately short-lived in its 1990s incarnation.  Still, this fun insert, called In Motion, gives you a glimpse of the potential lenticular printing offered, and I feel like Sportflix delivered that in several of its 1996 inserts, which remind me quite a bit of this Maddux insert.

Let's keep this Pinnacle train rolling with another fun parallel--one of Greg's Starburst inserts from the '96 set.  Although the name changed from Museum Collection after its first two years of existence, the idea behind this Dufexed chase card is quite similar.  I said "one of" his cards from this set because Maddux was also part of the Hardball Heroes subset so I still need to track that parallel down at some point, along with others of my favorite PC guys.

Sticking with 1996 but switching up brands, here's a fun two-part insert from Upper Deck SP.  The 20-card set comprised 10 interleague matchups on a cool foilboard design.  While the only other one in my collection right now is Barry Larkin's, I may have to chase down Ripken's since he's the counterpart to Mr. Maddux here.  UD also produced die-cut versions of these, by the way.

And back to Pinnacle, but a couple years later.  1998 saw the release of the multicolored Epix insert which came in four different groups--"Play", like this one, "Moment", "Game", and "Season"--as well as three colors:  purple, orange, and emerald.  Though it might bring to mind the gaudiness of Pacific to some, I think it's a fun insert, even though it ended up as a one-off thanks to Pinnacle's demise.  It at least made it into other sports, though, and I have a couple hockey versions to prove it.

Today's last, but certainly best, Pinnacle card--and easily best overall!--is Maddux's entry in the 1998 Pinnacle Inside Behind the Numbers set.  This is a beautiful die-cut in the shape of the #31 jersey Greg wore while pitching for the Cubs and Braves from 1986-2006; he went on to sport #36 in his stints with the Dodgers in 2006 and 2006, and #30 in his one-plus seasons in San Diego.  With this post I've shown off entries from this set of Maddux, Ripken, and Gwynn, and will show off the Griffey I've had for quite a while in a future post.

Pinnacle definitely ruled today's post, but I certainly don't feel bad about closing things out with a Refractor!  Mad Dog had two cards in the 2007 Topps Chrome set--one with the Padres, and then this one showing him with the Dodgers and celebrating his 17th (and penultimate) Gold Glove; his 18 total are the most in MLB history.  Needless to say, the Refractor version looks fantastic, and this one reminds me that I have an unfortunate dearth of that type of parallel in my Maddux collection.  There's something for me to work on in 2017!

That's it for the 2016 COMC purchases I have to show off over here, but this evening's TMM post includes a couple more, then I'll have two more themed posts there before I wrap up my 2016 purchases and move on to other pickups, especially trade packages!