2021 Sportlots purchases part 9: Tony the Tiger

Previously: Quick summary and set wants; Big and small we have them all!; Better off Ted; A Tettle-ton of Froot Loops; Lucky Tiger Seven; Dizzying Deans, Sportlots has been Barry, Barry good to me; more Michigan? Marvelous!

One of the many reasons I'm glad I've evolved into a player collector over the years is how rewarding it can be to relive a favorite athlete's career through their cards. Tony Phillips is a guy I remember enjoying watching during my younger days, especially during his stint with the Tigers, and as I've repeated a number of times here, I've come to appreciate his game even more as I've gotten older.

One of his most defining characteristics was his versatility, and if you needed any evidence of that beyond, say, his Baseball-Reference page, pay attention as you scan through the cards I picked up from Sportlots below and witness the crazy number and combinations of positions listed on the fronts: OF comes up the most with 2B not too far behind, and you'll also see standards like SS, 3B, and LF. But don't forget SS/2B, 3B/OF, IF/DH, IF/OF, OF/2B, and OF/2B/3B! This guy played around 1/3 of his career in the outfield with most of the rest of his time spent in the middle infield and 3B, plus he could get on base (including walks) and score runs, and occasionally he even offered a bit of pop. Put him anywhere in the lineup and you're all set!

In the spirit of the late Keith Anthony Phillips' many facets, please enjoy this look at a huge variety of cards I added to his collection thanks to Sportlots:

We'll start all the way back the year I was born: 1983. Because the rules for such cards are goofy, the 1983 Topps Traded that kicks off this scan is generally not considered a RC, but an "XRC". Whatever, it's still his first Major League card and it shows him hitting in one of his 40 appearances in 1982. By the way, did you know he was actually drafted by Montreal #10 overall in the 1978 January secondary draft (way back when they had those), then traded to the Padres in 1980, and then to Oakland in 1981?

After that is a pair of '84s, including his Donruss RC (which gives me all three of them) and one of a bevy of food issues you've enjoyed this series: Topps' collaboration with Nestle. Tony can be seen smiling, as he often was, on his Fleer base from the following year.

The rest of the cards in this group are glossy/Tiffany versions of cards I already had the base versions of from 1987-89. They're difficult to discern from a scan like this and even sometimes in-hand so I try to remember to put them in penny sleeves to remind myself and avoid tossing them as dupes.

Now we're into the 90s stuff where we pretty much spend the rest of the post. The top row isn't too exciting with 1990's Donruss Best of the AL, Fleer Canadian, and Topps Traded Tiffany. Under that, though, we have 1992 Bowman and Topps Gold sandwiching two very nice inserts from the same year: Donruss's Diamond Kings and Leaf's Black Gold. The artwork for the DKs always looked amazing but I really like the brand's switch to the different card stock and foil accents here. Then from '93, in addition to Pacific Spanish, I added Phillips to my collection of that year's OG Finest set. I may be searching forever for affordable versions of the iconic Refractors, but otherwise I'm pretty much done with the set save for the biggest guys like Griffey/Gwynn/Maddux/Ripken.

1993's representatives include a Select Stat Leaders insert, Stadium Club Members Only parallel, and three different Topps flagship versions: Gold plus the Inaugural Marlins and Rockies cards. How did Phillips pile up 114 runs to lead the AL in 1992 on a team that went 75-87? It helped that he got on base at a .387 clip with an outstanding 114 walks, but just as importantly, the lineup was stacked with power, with Mickey Tettleton, Cecil Fielder, Lou Whitaker, Travis Fryman, and Rob Deer combining for 138 bombs and 438 RBI. Also, can we talk about how amazing that photo is from the Stadium Club card, with a throwback uni-bedecked Phillips defying gravity to turn two while Fryman looks on? Topps may whiff on the images they use in flagship, but Stadium Club never misses.

Anyway, it's time to move on to '94 with the super premium Flair, a very different O-Pee-Chee look (starring another smiling Tony!), and the first of a multi-year Pinnacle run that I still love to this day. I would have been excited enough with the debut of the Dufex Museum Collection parallel at the end of the scan, but I also tracked down Tony's Artist's Proof version. I don't think I can emphasize how tough the latter was to find back then, so they still feel special to me today when I can find them for a fairly reasonable $1 each.

We need 2/3 of this scan to finish up 1994, and that's mostly because of parallels. We start with Score's Gold Rush, then move on to the second year of UD's SP, plus its die-cut version, followed by the Members Only parallel of Stadium Club, an issue from the 50-card confusingly named Members Only boxed set, and finally, Topps Gold. It's kind of funny looking at the Score parallel and SP base and realizing they have pretty much the same kind of gold thing going on!

1994 was Tony's last season with the Tigers so some of the '95 cards start showing him with his next team, the Angels. While the Collector's Choice SE Silver Signature and first of two Finest cards in a row show him with Detroit, a Collector's Choice base from the "traded" section depicts him with California, just as the same subset has his former teammate Tettleton with the Rangers. Tony would bop a career-high 27 homers with the '95 Angels.

A graph of the increase in sets from the various manufacturers must have looked like a vertical line back then because this scan is all 1995 and it doesn't even cover everything from that year! Finest Series II captures Phillips with his new team while one of Fleer's goofiest designs uses a very similar photo, albeit with the Tigers, giving us a look at how consistent his hitting mechanics were. One of my favorite Leaf designs shows some batting action that serves as a reminder that Tony was a switch-hitter, further upping his versatility.

Inserts down the middle here include Score's return of the Gold Rush parallel along with Hall of Gold, an insert found in both series that focused on some of the bigger stars of the game. And SP's third year included another parallel, but instead of going the die-cut route, Upper Deck went with a shinier Silver foil on the left side of its insert that's also known as "Superbafoil". If you're still counting, there's another smilin' Tony!

The bottom row's first card reminds me that while the '96 version will forever be my favorite Sportflix product, '95's looked awesome too, and I'm quite happy with how Phillips' card scanned here. That's joined by another example of Stadium Club's Members Only boxed set (called "Members Only 50" this time), and Topps' foiltastic Cyberstats parallel, which attempts to extrapolate stats for the strike-shortened '94 season.

Ok, now we can finally finish up '95, with an Upper Deck trio. Tony looks like he's about to make some solid contact on his UD flagship and Electric Diamond parallels, and then we get one more happy moment with the Tigers thanks to the Special Edition product.

In contrast, 1996 can be summed up in the remaining six cards. Four of those happen to come from Fleer: the matted and embossed Emotion-XL, flagship and its Tiffany parallel, and a White Sox team set. I really like the way Fleer did the matte cards plus glossy versions in '96 and '97. Also, the White Sox come into play here as Tony spent '95 with the Angels, signed with Chicago the following January, then returned to the newly-named Anaheim franchise in '97. Speaking of the ChiSox, you get another issue with them thanks to a Finest subset that focuses on trades. Then, for the third straight year, Phillips made the Stadium Club boxed set, which again added the "50" to its name to denote the set size.

1997 makes up a perfect nine-card scan here. Both his Leaf base and the crazy Fractal Matrix version capture him back with the Angels, and I'm happy that with the Matrix Bronze card out of the way I just need to find a Die-Cut version. Pacific's offering that year isn't great in my book, but they came up with some solid designs pretty soon after. Both Score and its foiled up Showcase parallel feature Tony looking a bit alarmed about something mid-swing. He was perfect for Studio, especially one of the best versions of it, and proves that with another smile. Don't call the Ghostbusters--that Chrome card isn't nearly as haunted as it scanned. That year's Gallery is typically excellent, and it's a shame it's his only appearance in the product. And I love the big leg kick and pinstriped uni in Ultra's Gold Medallion version, which I'll remind everyone includes a different photo than the base, something that doesn't typically happen with a "parallel".

Here we have the last of the verticals and first of the horizontal cards. As often happens when there's a bunch of scanning involved I goofed up by flipping the two Y-axis cards, so Ultra's '98 Gold Medallion should have been first followed by 2000 MLB Showdown Unlimited, which captures Tony back with Oakland on his final mainstream card made during his career (which ended in 1999), along with the 1st Edition and a couple inserts.

The horizontal contingent opens with Phillips about to make a great play, back with Detroit, on a '94 UD Electric Diamond parallel. That's followed by '95's Collector's Choice Silver Signature and the high-end Flair. We won't be ending on cards with him as a Tiger, but this trio is still nice to see near the end of this evening's post.

Speaking of endings, here we are with the final scan, and boy does it start with a bang. I don't think I need to repeat how much I love 1995 Pinnacle and here I have both the Artist's Proof and Museum Collection versions. I already mentioned how tough the APs were back then, and I prefer that year's Dufex parallel above all other versions. The fact that he has a great horizontal action photo here is a big bonus.

As for the rest, Studio's credit card-themed set also represents 1995. Stadium Club's Team Stadium Club base subset, plus a Silver parallel, are from 1996. Like I said, Pacific did better after the '97 set that didn't do much for me, and the '98 set feels like a step in the right direction. Phillips spent 1998 with the Blue Jays and Mets, with whom he's seen on his '99 Fleer Tradition base and parallels, such as the red-foiled Warning Track parallel above, though it also mentions that Oakland signed him as a free agent. And fittingly, the final card here has him back with the franchise for whom he played the most games and seasons, Oakland. That would be Pacific's Omega product, also from '99, which comes with two images up front, one of which is used both in an inset photo and in a foiled area on the far right.

This haul of one of my favorite former Tigers gave his collection a huge bump, and I now own 242 different cards of Phillips, putting him at #15 among baseball players I have on TCDB, so hooray for a new milestone. I also became the undisputed #1 collector of Phillips cards on the site, something that's been happening more and more often as I continue to put my effort into collecting players few others chase:

Just as I'd hoped, it was fun not only strengthening one of my favorite PCs, but enjoying looking at some very cool brands and inserts at the same time, so I'm glad I unintentionally made Tony the last of the single-player posts in this series.

You can expect the final one, which some of you will be roaring about, fairly soon, but first I need to log and scan those cards, and I appear to have a couple envelopes heading to my mailbox in the near future, so I'm not exactly sure yet when you'll be seeing the finale. As for me, I'm happy to be putting away even more cards from this huge Sportlots purchase, freeing up a bit more room on my desk!

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!

2016 COMC purchases: Grandy and the Juniors

First, here's a quick notice to head over to TMM this evening for a celebration of James Earl Jones' birthday and a bunch of cards starring that blog's namesake!

With this year's Hall of Fame class less than a day away from being revealed, here's some more player collection cards I picked up on COMC.  I grouped these together and named them in the style of a 50s band so you know they'll be good!

Today's newest card is this 2010 Topps Update manu-bat of former namesake to this blog Curtis Granderson.  Topps has made some manufactured relics I've loved and loathed over the years and this one leans more towards the former.  It may not be a real bat barrel but then again it's not like I could afford one of those, much as I'd love to.  As I near 100 cards of Grandy this is just my third of him with the Yankees and fourth overall where he appears in a uniform other than Detroit's.

The good old "90s inserts rule" tag is back and happy as ever to be here with Mr. George Kenneth Griffey, Jr.  From one of my all-time favorite parallels (out of one of my top-five sets overall), 1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection, I dug up two of Junior's issues:  the Swing Men subset and his solo checklist.  Along with those I already own his other solo base card from this insert, and just need the multiplayer checklist to complete the run.  After showing off another of these in a post I may get to tomorrow, I'll have shown off 13 of these Dufexed cards of 10 different players I collect, with one more to come when I get around to it.

Besides those two I grabbed one more 90s insert favorite:  Griffey's entry in 1998 Topps Flashback.  This set combined a recent photo up front with a throwback photo on the flip side (which also includes a throwback Mariners logo!).  It's a fun look at baseball middle-aged Griffey and baseball kid Griffey, a.k.a. the Kid.  Hopefully I can track down Gwynn's card from this set as I already own Ripken's and Maddux doesn't appear.

Speaking of the Iron Man, here's a fun four-spot I found of him from my favorite card provider.  First is his 1997 base card from Fleer's Sports Illustrated product.  I've always enjoyed these card-sized reproductions of SI covers, such as this one from July 29, 1991 marking 1500 straight games played.

Meanwhile, the Behind the Numbers die-cut in the shape of Ripken's iconic #8 should look a bit familiar since I just showed off Tony Gwynn's version the other day.  I had to shell out more than I usually like to for inserts to grab this but happily did so as the feeling of nostalgia it brought me was priceless.  You'll be seeing one more card from this set in my next post and a final one when I finish scanning cards of my big four PCs.

Lastly I grabbed a pair of cards from the 2000 Fleer Gamers insert called "Cal to Greatness."  The set comprises 15 cards with the first five coming in at 1:9 packs, the next five at 1:25, and the final quintet at 1:144.  These are numbers 7 and 8, so they're the somewhat rarer versions to go along with the cards I already own, which I believe are numbers 1-5 (unscanned so far).  While the first bunch feature a more subtle design, these are of the reflective foil variety, and the rarest ones have more of a rainbow foil look to them.  I'll slowly try to complete this set as reasonable pricing allows.

Stay tuned (as soon as tomorrow) for my final COMC pickup post over here, though I'll have a few more yet over on TMM.  Also, I hope everyone's as excited as I am for the big Hall of Fame reveal tomorrow.