Thank you, Jackie

Although today is not the only day he should be honored, Jackie Robinson should be on everyone's mind today.  He made so much possible for so many people that weren't being treated like people.  Much of that injustice sadly lives on today because stupidity, intolerance, and ignorance take a long, long time to disappear (if ever).  But because of him, a minority finally got its chance to prove it belonged, in more than just baseball.

Thank you, Jackie, for being the first, and carrying yourself with grace and dignity in the face of hate--from the fans, some of your own teammates, and even the sport itself.

Thank you for being such a memorable player and an inspiration to this very day.

Thank you for making this possible:

Thank you for having the guts to drag baseball kicking and screaming to a place where all men are equal.

Thank you, #42.

2014 COMC purchases: JV and the HOF

It's time to show off some more COMC pickups!  As usual most of what I scored this time will be displayed over at TMM, but I did find a few things I wanted to highlight here.

First up is a trio of cards from the 2002 Fleer Fall Classics HOF Plaque set:

I was surprised that I was able to land these three greats for a total of just $5.50 considering what some of them go for.  You may recall that I started the set back in April when I found 19 of the 30 in quarter and $0.50 boxes for a total under $10 at a show.  Well, I now have three to add to that pile--and three GREATS, to be more specific, leaving me needing these eight:

1  Ruth
3  Wagner
6  Young
9  Gehrig
12 Musial
20 Bench
26 Brett
30 Ozzie Smith

If any of you has any of these available for trade, please let me know as I'd love to be able to show off the set in its entirety soon!  As a reminder, it's the only set left on my baseball set wantlist, which means it's literally the only set I'm still chasing now that I've completed everything on my football and hockey lists.

While I was at it I dug around for some cool Tigers stuff and came up with this:

Justin Verlander 2014 Topps Commemorative All-Star Rookie Team Cup manupatch

As far as Topps manurelics go, I thought this was kind of a fun one.  I got it for a low enough price that it doesn't matter to me that it's not a "real" relic.  Instead, it highlights Verlander as a member of the 2006 Topps All-Star Rookie team, and of course he earned that distinction after being named the AL Rookie of the Year thanks to his 17-win debut.

This is actually my third Verlander manurelic as I received this All-Star Stiches card and this rookie reprint manupatch in separate deals.  I've still got a ton of his stuff that needs to be scanned (which I'm obligated to mention every time I post his stuff), but that'll be a good winter project.  Here's the link to the album again.

With November just a couple days away I may put more time into getting some nice Tigers (and other baseball) stuff on my watch list for COMC's Black Friday specials, which are usually worth it if only for the usual free shipping deals, not to mention credits based on how much you buy.  Hopefully I'll have more nice stuff to show off to you in a few weeks!

Completed sets: 2011 and 2012 Topps Prime Nine promotions

You might remember that I put up a series of posts highlighting my fantastic last trade with legendary blogger BA Benny back in March.  In the very first post I was so overwhelmed with all the complete sets he had sent me that I decided to just take a quick snapshot of all of them together (mostly in boxed-set form) so I could return to posting them individually later.

Well today I'm ready to show a couple of them off, and I decided to do both of these at once because they're relatively small at nine cards each, plus they're related--the complete versions of Topps' 2011 and 2012 Prime Nine promotions.

First up is the 2011 set, which was subtitled "Player of the Week Refractors."

Topps chose nine players--one for each defensive position, of course (which means no DH!)--and then listed nine reasons each was worthy of the selection:

Happy belated Jackie Robinson Day, everybody!

The set works pretty well if you don't think of it as Topps' version of the All-Century Team or something like that.  And obviously they didn't do that or all NINE cards would have been Yankees.  Anyway, these are shiny, Refractory, purdy cards that were available at select hobby shops that year for collectors that pulled their redemption cards (two per hobby box, says SportsCardRadio).  I complain about redemptions pretty often, but a card that drives collectors to hobby shops to pick up free cards they don't have to wait for is a logical way to do it, and for this I salute the company (a rare honor these days).  And to keep the lovefest going, I'm even willing to say that the player selection here is pretty reasonable as well.  Personally, I would have gone with Ripken over Jeter, but Jeter's plenty deserving himself, so I'll abide.

The following year, Topps went homerunnier, Yankee-er and curvier with its Home Run Legends set:

Chrome cards are bendier than Bender "Bending" Rrrrrodriguez!

Each player in this series had made it to the 500 HR list at the time except Pujols, who's still around 25 shy as of today.  Conspicuously absent are players such as Barry Bonds, Sammy Sosa, Mark McGwire, and Rafael Palmeiro, though it's very likely they were left off due to lack of collector interest.  The strangest snub to me is Ken Griffey Jr.--throw him on there instead of Jackson--you've got enough freaking Yankees as it is!  Junior is one of only eight players to reach the 600+ mark, while Reggie was a self-important strikeout machine.  At least Topps deigned to include a few non-Yanks, including one of my favorite legends, Frank Robinson:

McGwire still owns the rookie record with 49, though at least Robinson went on to a much, much more storied career.  And what a card from last year said holds true today:  no active player is anywhere near his 586, with Pujols being the next big threat.

Also, it's nice to see Banks get a little more recent hobby love.  His 512 HR tie him with Eddie Mathews for 21st overall, and that total best such legends as Lou Gehrig, Stan Musial, Chipper Jones, and Carl Yazstrzemski.

All in all, I'm happy to declare both of these promotional sets a victory for Topps.  They're shiny Refractors that came from a fairly well handled promotion and highlight some players that deserve plenty of attention (and Reggie Jackson).

I'll scan more of the sets Mike sent my way in the future when my posts get boring or I'm lacking for content--and if you go back and look at that first post, you'll see I have plenty left!

COMC order placed, a quick wantlist, and #42

First things first:  I finalized all my purchases and clicked the "ship" button on COMC, so hopefully that package will show up real soon; I have a bunch of cards to ship out to some outstanding traders!

All told, I spent $230.04 (I had $0.04 left in credit from my previous purchases) on 136 cards, including one duplicate because I'm an idiot.  Combined with my other purchases for the month that put me over my $300/month spending limit (and $200/month average), but not by much, and I did it with the intent that I wouldn't have to order from COMC again for a while.  The $300 limit is there for me mainly so I don't spend around $400 in a given month and then have to take a future month off from spending.

I grabbed the usual assortment of Michigan hits to bolster those PCs, but this time I focused much more on my baseball player collections.  And, as I said previously, this was the first time I've spent this much on COMC for cards I purchased for trades.  Lots of those will be sent out as thanks for the outstanding packages I received in December, but a few of them are going towards new trades, and I know doing it this way assured that everyone would be happy.

So that's the good news for all of you.  I just have one quick request:  I declined to purchase the following cards in part because I didn't have enough funds and prioritized other stuff first, but also because I figure there's a chance some of you may have them, so if you do, please keep me in mind!:

2006 Upper Deck:
-#799 J.J. Putz

2011 Topps:
#376 Clayton Richard

2012 A&G:
-#167 J.J. Putz

2012 Topps Heritage:
-#307 J.J. Putz

2012 Topps Mini:
-#148 Chris Getz
-#339 Clayton Richard
-#480 J.J. Putz

Ok, now on to the most important topic of the day.  As daily sports birthday blogger hackenbush of Can't Have Too Many Cards so helpfully reminded us, today is baseball pioneer Jackie Robinson's 94th birthday.  Although many also celebrate his legendary accomplishments on the anniversary of the day on which he broke baseball's color barrier for good, (April 15, 1947) there's no such thing as an inappropriate day to take a look back, especially when it's his birthday.

Not that you'd know it if you were reading ESPN, of course.  Fortunately, Google's main page doodle has you covered:

That's pretty freakin' cool.  Anyway, as always, take some time out to remember the bravery, toughness, resilience, and baseball skill that went into laying the foundation for many of our past and current favorite players to succeed.  Racism and ignorance haven't gone away, but thanks to the actions of Jackie and Branch Rickey, the league is what it is today:  a place where all men can play regardless of race.

I'm very much looking forward to 42, a movie about Robinson which will be opening just a few days before the 66th anniversary of his first game.  The film stars Harrison Ford, and Jackie will be played by hitherto unknown-to-me actor Chadwick Boseman.  I hope it proves to be a rousing success for all involved and a hot topic for the younger generations (like mine) that never got to see him play but should be reminded of his greatness and realize the significance of his career relative to the era.

Back with more regular posting tomorrow or Saturday!

Happy Jackie Robinson Day

You don't have to be a Brooklyn/L.A. Dodgers fan to celebrate one of the game's greatest and most important players.  On April 15, 1947, Jackie went 0-3 while playing 1B for Brooklyn against the Boston Braves, but scored the winning run.  That year he finished with a .297 AVG, .383 OBP, 175 hits and a league-leading 29 steals to go along with 12 HR, plus he was named MLB's first Rookie of the Year, and the award is now named in his honor.  The Dodgers would lose to the Yanks in the World Series that year, but Jackie would enjoy six pennants and, ultimately, one World Series ring in 1955 (every series being against New York, of course).  He also won an MVP in 1949 and, of course, capped off all accolades with baseball's highest honor, entrance into the Hall of Fame, in 1962.  Although he only played for 10 seasons, his career is forever etched in history, not just because of his trailblazing achievement, but on its own merit as well.

Much has been written about it (and hopefully more will be) but Jackie proved to be the right player, and more importantly the right person, to break baseball's indefensible color barrier.  So as you're busting packs, trading or looking over your collection today, take a minute to remember one of baseball's all-time greats, and if you have one, throw on a #42 Robinson jersey like I did (and if you don't have one, go out and grab one!).  Here's to #42, Jack Roosevelt Robinson.