RLC Custom Card Project: Randy Flores

The Player: Flores is best known for his 5 season with the Cardinals, going 9-2 with 3 saves over 237 games, including a career high 70 games in 2007 and a World Series ring in 2006, but is including here for his two stops with the Rockies, the first being 8 games in his debut season of 2002, along with 2009 and most of 2010. His 2010 season was actually really good, going 2-0 with a 2.96 ERA over 47 games before being DFA'ed and claimed by the Twins in August. All told, he would pitch in 350 MLB games from 2002-2010, then would get into broadcasting and has served as the Director of Scouting for the Cardinals since 2015.

The Card: Really weird this the first 1971 design in the RLC set seeing as it is probably the first custom I ever did, but here it is, in all it's black bordered glory.

The link thing

10 Reasons to dislike the DH in Cardboard form

The 2020 baseball season was weird and short and weird. Among the weirdest was the universal DH. I miss pitchers batting. I miss double switches and I miss pinch hitters and I miss pitchers facing just one batter. In honor of the pitcher batting and hopes of seeing it again, here are my top 10 reasons to embrace the traditional 9 hole hitter.

10. Closers Batting
Above we have 1,201 career saves and 9 career hits. When was the last time you saw a guy with over 300 career saves sliding into a base? Very rarely does it happen, and very really do it go well, but it's still intresting.

9. Old School Pitchers Hitting
How great are these three cards with the flapless helmets.

8. Warm-up Jackets
These seem to have been out of fashion for a while, but how cool is a warm up jacket with your name and number on the back.

7. Hitting Dingers
Chicks dig the longball, from the classic Tim Hudson card, to German Marquez hitting a home run off a position player, to Jon Gray hitting one 467 ft.

6. Bartolo Colon
Speaking of dingers, Topps sure loved the legend of Bartolo Colon, and really who didn't?

5. Pre-Interleague A.L. Pitchers hitting
Mostly pre-season, although the wonderful weirdness of baseball with Roger Clemens getting his first career hit in his first career at bat in his 13th season in a game in which the Red Sox moved their DH to field, moving the pitcher into the line-up.

4. Pitchers hitting walk-off bombs
April 25th, 1986, Craig Lefferts enters a tie game in the 11th, gives up a run the top of the 12th, then hits a walk-off bomb in the bottom of the 12th, and yes, there is video of it, and it is glorious.

3. Jim Abbott
Born without a right hand Abbott still managed 2 career hits and 3 RBI. Also very weird is the amount of cards of him batting even though he never had a regular season plate appearance with the Yankees or Angels.

2. Pitchers Looking Ridiculous
Honestly, do you want cards of fat old guys that don't even own a glove, or stuff like this. You would miss horrible hitting pitchers, you know you would.

1. Pitcher Plays at the Plate
Maybe the most famous baseball card photo, Thurman Munson and A's pitcher Chuck Dobson along with an obsolute gem that might be a double rarity, a pitcher running, and a catcher collision at the plate.

There it is, maybe more on the way, but this should really be enough to convince any baseball fan.

1971 Topps Variations?: Billy Grabarkewitz #85

This falls under the "is it really a variation" file, but I have seen it mentioned as such around the internet, so I felt the need to include it here. I have been waiting to post about this card until I personally got one, and after forgetting for over a year, I found one for cheap and pulled the trigger. On to the variation, you see that little dot to the glove side of Billy's head. One is red and is yellow. Yup, that's it. Not sure if it would be a print error or what the deal is. The "Red Dot" version is by far the most common, and all of the OPC versions I have seen are of the "Red Dot" variety.

3 Newest Hall of Famers with a 71 Topps link

Most people have heard about the three newest Baseball Hall of Famers, the much deserving Bobby Cox, Tony La Russa and Joe Torre so I won't really go into that. The thing that I found interesting as a fan of the 1971 Topps set, a set that partially let me to start blogging in the first place, is that with Joe Torre's addition in 2014, there are now 46 Hall of Famers with cards in the black-bordered masterpiece that is 1971 Topps. I have no idea if that is close to a record for base cards of then current players, but something I thought was worth noting.

To save typing them all out I found a Sporcle quiz, a pretty fun way to test your knowledge.

http://www.sporcle.com/games/jaysee/1971thof

edit: After seeing CaptKirk42's comment I looked and Night Owl did start on a "Most Hall of Famers" project, his links are below. It looks like 1971 might have the lead with 1969 second at 44.

http://nightowlcards.blogspot.ca/2013/04/the-most-hall-of-famers.html
http://nightowlcards.blogspot.ca/2013/05/the-most-hall-of-famers-update-1.html
http://nightowlcards.blogspot.ca/2013/07/the-most-hall-of-famers-update-2.html

How to spend 1,600 Imaginary Dollars

A pretty interesting contest over at Drop the Gloves asking what you would buy if you had $1,600.00 to blow on eBay. As someone who is on a tight budget and is mostly limited to lower end cards, this is kind of a fun little time waster.

1) 2007-08 Upper Deck Trilogy Ice Scripts Bobby Orr ($170.00 / $170 Total)
 In my biased opinion as a Bruins fan, Saint Robert is the best Hockey player ever when you consider what he did as a D-Man and in the era that he played. It would have been amazing to see what he could have done with good knees and a couple more healthy seasons. I do have a Bobby Orr autographed puck, but I still don't have a certified auto card. Not the most expensive Orr auto around, but my love for clear thick plastic cards makes this a easy pick.

Custom Card: 1971 Topps Jaromir Jagr

Because I never liked Iginla anyway.

1971 Topps Variations: Dick Bosman #60

No Black Line

The main reason for starting this blog was to document as much info on 1971 Topps baseball variations as I could find, but it's been something that I have set to the side recently despite being close to posting all the ones I know of. I usually try to avoid vintage in rough shape, but the Bosman to the right was the only one I could find without the black line on the glove hand side near his head. This is another case of variation vs. print error, it could be either depending on your point of view, either way, it's a good excuse to post a card where the player dots his "i" with a star.

Custom Card: 1971 Topps Bryce Harper (All Aboard the Nat's Bandwagon)

The Rockies are mercifully done the abyss that was 2012 today, so no more watching the Tulsa Drillers and Colorado Springs Sky Sox rosters playing in Rockies uniforms. As an old Expos fan I am officially jumping on the Nationals playoff bandwagon. It's not much of a stretch as at work I listen to Washington radio for Redskins updates so I have followed the Nats for a few seasons now. So now it is officially time to take the Larry Walker powder blue Expos uni out of the closet and hope my presence on the bandwagon does not jinx the Natspos.

All credit for the photo used in this custom goes to www.photoshopsports.com

1971 Topps Variations?: Denny Lemaster #636

In researching for this '71 variations project I have come across a lot of conflicting views on variations vs. print errors. The reason for starting this project was to gather information and make it available in one place for people to check out and make their own decisions on what is a valid variation. The 1971 Denny Lemaster would most likely be a print error, but I thought I would include it here as some are listing in as a variation and there is not a lot of information is out there. The difference between the two is on the back photo. There are versions with a black blob or splotch on his left cheek and versions without. On COMC right now 5 of the 8 cards listed do not have the blob. I have yet to see the back of the O-Pee-Chee version so I have no idea about that.

1971 Topps Variations: 3rd Series Checklist #206

More 1971 checklists, more weirdness, more "is it really a variation". With card number 206, the 3rd series checklist, we have the usual Red helmet vs. Orange helmet that is recognized and designated by PSA as well as a minor variation/print error. Some cards have the card list tilted leaving a larger space between Joe Morgan and the black border. I would honestly not even mention this if I wasn't doing this card already just for the helmet colors. Going by the amount of cards in the PSA registry, the orange helmet is much harder to come by. As always the images below show it better than I can explain. According to PSA both helmet colors exist in the O-Pee-Chee set. A minor change on the OPC checklist is that card number 289 in the set is Rusty Staub, while in the Topps set card number 289 is the White Sox team card. Oh My O-Pee-Chee explains that here.

COMC Haul

Destined to be lost in the swell of Ginter posts just showing off some cards from a recent COMC order. First some auto's, Current Oakland Athletic and member of the 2007 National League Champs Seth Smith, followed by prospect Tyler Anderson, probably the worst looking auto in my collection and left handed specialist Mike Munoz rounded out with bat cards of Andres Galarraga and Matt Holliday. I think this is the only "relic" card of Galarraga with the Rockies.

1971 Topps Variations: 4th Series Checklist #369

Back to the long ignored 1971 variations with another checklist. Card number 369, the 4th series checklist comes in at least three variations including "Red Helmet, No Line", "Red Helmet, w/ Line" and "Orange Helmet". The most noticeable difference is the black line on the helmet above the batters ear is missing on and the black squiggle near the back of the helmet is smaller on the "No Line" version. There is some confusion on the "Orange Helmet" versions as PSA doesn't designate the "Line/No Line" on the Orange, below there are examples of Orange with line and Orange without line, but nothing mentioned on the grade designation, in addition to graded versions with no designation at all. All three variations are readily available and none really demand higher prices than the others. As with all the helmets the color variations are not easy to spot and I am going off PSA designations for these. According to the PSA registry all three variants appear in the O-Pee-Chee set.

Custom Card: 1971 Topps Chris Iannetta

My first 1971 custom featured here, I saw that Iannetta hit a home run for the Angels on Monday, and while I am sad he is gone from the Rockies, it is good for him as he was in Jim Tracy's doghouse and designated to the the 8th spot in the lineup. I really hope he has a good season moving to the American League. This is my first attempt at washing out a photo to make it look old, didn't work out to bad. I find it really hard to make card backs have that vintage old cardstock look, but it's getting closer to what I want it to look like.

1971 Topps Variations: Mickey Lolich #133

Eyes down

Similar to the Ron Cook variation, but not as creepy looking, card number 133 featuring Mickey Lolich has the eyes up / eyes down variants. The eyes down version has Lolich looking straight ahead and his left eye is slightly more open than the version where he is looking up at his cap. A small difference, neither is noted on any graded versions and both are readily available. This card is notoriously hard to find centered and considered one of the toughest cards to find in a high grade. All the O-Pee-Chee's I have seen are the eyes down version.

1971 Topps Variations: 6th Series Checklist #619

Another checklist, this time it's the 6th Series checklist with three variations, all fairly easy to spot and noted by most grading companies. We have the following:

619a: No copyright on back.
619b: Copyright on back, no wavy line on helmet
619c Copyright on back: wavy line

1971 Topps #216 Reggie Cleveland / Luis Melendez

This card is part of my collection as part of the 1971 set, and part of my Saskatchewan ball players collection. The Saskatchewan collection is much smaller. This is Reggie Cleveland's second year card after sharing a 1970 Rookie Stars card with Cardinal pitchers Sal Campisi and Santiago Guzman. Shared rookie cards are the one thing I really dislike about vintage.

Reggie Cleveland is one of six players from this province to play in the majors. He was discovered in his home town of Swift Current by a carnival operator who told his friend, Cardinals manager Red Schoendienst, to to sign him. Cleveland was signed as a 17 year old in 1965 and pitched in the minors for 4 season before making his MLB debut in 1969. In 1971 he went 12-12 for the Cards and was named the Sporting News National League Rookie of the Year. Traded to the Red Sox after the 1973 season, he would become the first Canadian pitcher to start a World Series game, taking the loss in game five of the 1975 series. He finish his career with a 105-106 record over 428 games, including 203 starts from 1969-1981. Cleveland would go on the be inducted into Canadian Baseball Hall of Fame in 1986.

1971 Topps Variations: Coins Checklist #161

This might be the most boring baseball card post ever, but the completist in me forces me to do such things. Another 1971 checklist variation, nothing as exciting as vaguely different helmet colors (or colours for the OPC crowd). Here we just have the number being placed in a different spot, and nothing as exciting as bottom right corner compared to bottom center, one is just slightly higher than the other. One version features the top of the number 161 even with Mickey Lolich and the other the top of the number is even with Tim McCarver. Both are readily available, and the difference is not noted by any grading service I know of. Nothing groundbreaking, but if I am going to document all the variations, I have to do the boring ones. This card was so boring that OPC excluded it and just put a second card of Ron Hunt in it's place. The Oh My O-Pee-Chee blog does a good job of explaining the actual reason here, linky.

1971 Topps Variations: 2nd Series Checklist #123

Now we get into the confusing part of the 1971 Topps variations, the checklists. From what I can find the series 2 checklist comes in three varieties.We will call them 123A, 123B and 123C.

123A - Has the number on the back of the card centered, and the helmet on the front of the card has the black accents.
123B - Has the number on the back of the card in the bottom right, and has an orange helmet on the front. 
123C - Has the number on the back of the card in the bottom right, and has an red helmet on the front.

I am finding it very hard to tell what is an orange helmet and what is a red from scans. As far as I can tell the black accents only appear on 123A. What makes things worse in that I have seen "number centered" cards with a orange helmet notation.

The O-Pee-Chee versions have the same number placement variation, but I can not find anything on the helmet colours for OPC. The OPC checklist also differs in card #161, Topps has the coin checklist, while the OPC has Ron Hunt. This is because coins were not found in OPC packs. The back of the Topps also lists card 202 as "Reds Celebrate" and the OPC set has Claude Raymond. Topps added some extra Expos in the OPC set to add Canadian interest.

1971 Topps Variations: Jim Nash #306

Blobbed Version Above

Back to the 1971 Variation project that I have ignoring for a bit, here we have card number 306, Jim Nash. Similar to the Jim Northrup variation this card has a Blob and Blobless version, but from what I can find the Blobbed version is the original with the later versions having the Blob airbrushed out. The difference is noted on most graded versions as "Black Blob, Left Center" and "Blob Airbrushed Away", although there are graded cards with no notation at all. The Blobbed version seeming to be a little more rare and more expensive, going for around 10-20 dollars ungraded, while the unblobbed version goes for around 1-2 dollars. I have seen mention of a version with a red dot on his cap, but that seems like more of a printing error than a variation.

1971 Topps Variations: Jim Northrup #265

Another in the series of 1971 Topps variations, card number 265 Jim Northrup. This card has at least two variations and maybe three. There is the version to the right with a small black dot to the right of his hands, then it seems like someone wanted to remove the spot from the printing plate and it resulted in a large smudge (after the jump). There are versions of the smear that are a dark black and versions with a lighter grey smudge, but I would think these are more of a printing error rather than a true variation. The Blob/No Blob variations are noted on most graded versions of this card. All three versions can be found after the jump.

Jim Northrup spent 12 season in the Majors from 1964-1975, playing in 1,392 games, 1,279 of those with the Tigers. Hit for a .267 career average with 153 home runs and 610 RBI. His best seasons came in 1968 and 1969, driving in a career high 90 runs in 1968 finishing 13th in MVP voting.