Custom Card: 1991 Pinnacle Jordan Pacheco

My love for Pinnacle brands is no secret on this blog and while 1992 marked the first year for Pinnacle baseball, the debut of Pinnacle came in 1991 with sets for NHL and NFL. The same design was us for the 1991 NHL and NFL, just as the same design was used for MLB, NFL and NHL in 1992 and 1993 so we can imagine that if Pinnacle made a baseball set in 1991 they would have stayed with a common design. 1991 did not feature as great a design as 1992 or as simple as 1993, but it's something that grows on you. I love the team color gradient which would be re-used in 1992. The biggest drawback of the 1991 design is the amount of unused space on the card, leaving the action photo fairly small.

Acetate Appreciation: 1998 Topps Tek

The first in a series highlighting acetate, the clear plastic cards that I for some strange reason have loved since opening packs of 1993 Classic Hockey as a kid. The first set I am profiling is the bizarre 1998 Topps Tek set. At first look you have a 90 card base set with all kinds of wacky patterns, but those patterns are actually a parallel of sorts. I am not a fan of parallels and get annoyed by brands like Bowman that seem to suffer from parallel overload, but Topps Tek took this to new heights. Each card in the set of 90 had 90 different patterns with a Diffractor, a refractor style card seeded at one per 6 packs, paralleling each pattern making a grand total of 180 different cards of each player. That makes a total of 8,100 cards in the set, with each of these having a Diffractor for a master set of 16,200 different cards. This is not including the Pre-Production Promo cards of Mark McGwire, Raul Mondesi and Roger Clemens of which I do not know how many patterns are available. I would love to sit down and have a few beers with whoever came up with this idea and just ask them "What the hell?".

2011 Gypsy Queen Wantlist

2011 Gypsy Queen Wants

Updated May, 2016

Base and Short Prints: Complete!

Framed Paper: 8, 45
Framed Green: 45, 96
Mini: 45, 276, 320
Mini Photo Variation: 45, 96
Mini Red GQ Back: 45, 276
Mini Black: 8, 45, 96, 237, 276

Tuukka Rask: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

Of all the cards I have acquired in my Bruins Stanley Cup Auto, this is by far my favorite, a 2008-09 Upper Deck Trilogy Ice Scripts Tuukka Rask. I love acetate cards and have never seen one this thick before. The graphics are on the front and back of the clear card giving a slight 3D effect. Hockey seems to have embraced the clear cards while baseball has sampled in it but I haven't seen anything new for a while as it doesn't seem like it's something Topps is interested in.

After playing all 13 games in the 2010 playoffs, Rask has sat for the last two playoff years, including not seeing a minute of time in the 2011 Cup run, but being the second string goalie gets your name on the Cup. Rask has performed well when called upon over the past four seasons and will get a chance to prove he's a number one Goalie with Tim Thomas taking 2012-13 off.

Loot from Jaybarkerfan's Card Draft

After participating in my first card draft over at Jaybarkerfan's Junk here is what I ended up with. The card that really interested my was the 2003 Donruss Champions Garrett Atkins Autograph numbered to 400. Atkins had a few good years with the Rockies and was a part of the 2007 team that made it to the World Series. I also ended up with a new Helton and a Gold Sparkle Eric Young, Jr. for Rockies. Added some Hall of Famers to my collection as well with a Josh Gibson, Walter Johnson and Cy Young. I have never seen those UD HOF placards before and really like the set, might have to add a few more someday. My keepers are rounded out my some 2012 Topps '87 mini's, the McCutchen is in the running for my "Best Card of 2012". I ended up getting the only 1971 Topps, but sadly the Hoyt Wilhelm  was not an upgrade over the one in my set. The rest are scanned below and up for trade.

Oddball Mailday: Sandy Alomar, Jr. Danbury Mint

A weird impulse buy from eBay. A 2003 Danbury mint 22K gold Sandy Alomar, Jr. card. This is my first Alomar with Colorado and my first gold card. There looks to be this card issued in 2003 and the original from 2000 with the Indians as the team. The Rockies card is a little different in that the jersey is changed with the shoulder patch and pinstripes, and the should pad on his chest protector has been removed although both cards are number 95 in the set. This is about all I can find on this card, no idea on print run or anything else, just something different to add to the collection.

Custom Cards: 2013 Topps Josh Rutledge & Carlos Gonzalez

First impressions of 2013 Topps get a big thumbs up for me, after not really digging the 2012 "surfboard" set, this is a huge improvement. I love the infield opening up to show the player photo, and using team colors in the design is great. I'm usually not a fan of using white as the main color, but I do like this, nice and clean, not to busy. Team logos on the front are a must and I really hope they stick with the hat logo instead of the primary logo, specifiably being a Rockies fan I love the interlocking CR logo over the mountain logo used on 2012 Topps. The player name looks fine as a grey gradient, but I fear the actual card will have the name in foil which I am not a fan of, but we will see. Early images show the parallels in pink and camo, the same as Topps did with the 2012 NFL set, I like the camo, pink not so much.

Eutaw Street Cardboard Mailday

Just a quick post showing of some finds from the Eutaw Street Cardboard "Selling out for the National" sale he did.It's not a secret that I love Gypsy Queen so I jumped on the chance to add a new black and green mini, the black minis are my favorite cards from 2012 so far by a long ways. Also got a couple Rockies catchers, who doesn't love Jayhawk Owens,  and a former Rockies catcher in Blanco, one of my favorite cards of 2011 looking really good as a red bordered D-Backs card, and a couple young Rockies pitching prospects in Tago and Matzek. The Cal Ripken leaves me 45 cards short of the 1992 Pinnacle Series 1 set.

Needed Nine (Want List Rev 2)

Another want-list update after some recent purchases if you have any of these cards for trade and want to work out a deal let me know, previous want lists can be found below
Original
Want-list Rev 1

Frank Wycheck 1994 Playoff Football #190
Not a lot of football cards left on my want list, but this one has been on it for a while. This is the only card of Wychek with the Redskins and his only rookie card. He played in 18 games over two seasons with Washington as a FB/TE. He was suspended by the NFL for a failed drug test and released by Washington. He would then play in 9 seasons for the Houston Oilers / Tennessee Titans and is best remembered as the guy who started the "Music City Miracle"

Acquired October 2012
Juan Nicasio 2012 Gypsy Queen Black Mini #134
The last card I need for the Black Mini Rockies team set.










Acquired July 2013
Justin Speier 2003 Upper Deck 40-Man #759
40-Man and Topps Total were great sets for team collectors giving us cards of players that might not get cards today. Speier has two Rockies card, both in the 40-man set. He pitched for three seasons in Colorado appearing in 177 games with a career high 9 saves in 2003.







Aquired November 2012
Giovanni Carrara 2001 Upper Deck Vintage #370
A shared card between Carrara, Josh Kalinowski and Craig House. This is the only card that Carrara appears with the Rockies and it a shared floating head card, of of my biggest dislikes from vintage that has resurfaced in the hobby with the retro/heritage style sets. Kalinowski has a few solo cards, but never made the majors not qualifying him for the One of Every Rockie project, and I already have a few Craig House cards.

Ed Bahr 1984 TCMA Playball 1946 Mini #40

One of seven major league baseball players to be born in Saskatchewan, Ed Bahr played for the Pittsburgh Pirates in the 1946 and 1947 seasons. Bahr was born in the town of Rouleau (the town that the T.V. show Corner Gas was filmed from 2004-2009), but was raised in Washington State and served in the U.S. Navy in World War 2. Upon being discharged because of an injured back he spend 1945 pitching for the Kansas City Blues of the American Association. He made his MLB debut in 1946 and pitched in 27 games, starting 14 with a 8-6 record and a 2.63 ERA over 136 2/3 innings. Also on the 1946 Pirates was Aldon "Lefty" Wilkie who was born in Zealandia, Saskatchewan. On June 2, 1946, both players would pitch in a 10-3 loss to the Phillies marking the only time two players born in Saskatchewan would play on same major league team. Bahr would only spent one more season in the majors finishing 1947 with a 3-5 record and a 4.59 ERA over 19 games, including 11 starts and ending his career with 11 wins and 11 losses.

Good to Be Home

I'm back and almost ready to continue regular posting, both the Rockies and Blue Jays won the games we attended on the trip making everyone happy. I was honestly surprised at how much fun the game in Oakland was, the stadium is in the middle of an industrial area with little around it, but the crowd was in the game and our seats were really good. The sight lines seem good and it really is a nice stadium to watch baseball. AT&T park was as good as advertised, really nice stadium right on the water. It was Matt Cain perfect game night with a pin giveaway and a little ceremony to recognize his perfecto earlier this year. Other than that little baseball related stuff, just good beer, good food and touristy stuff, as always its good to be back home.

"Going To California" or "Be Sure to Wear Flowers in Your Hair"

Not a card related post, but baseball related in a way, preparing for a week of no posts as I am flying out to San Francisco tomorrow for a week vacation to relax, eat and take in a couple ball games in Oakland and S.F. Going to a major league ballgame is no small thing for someone who lives about 900 miles from the closest MLB stadium. I am also lucky enough to have a significant other who is a baseball fan and we get to watch her Blue Jays against the A's and my Rockies in S.F. in the same trip. I will have a computer along but will not be posting anything until I get back so in case someone notices the lack of activity this is why.

Shawn Thornton: Bruins Stanley Cup Auto

A card that has been posted here before but never had a post dedicated to it, a 2009-10 Be A Player Signatures #S-ST. Shawn Thornton had as much to do with the Bruins winning the Stanley Cup as any player despite only recording one point in the playoffs and being a healthy scratch for 7 games, including games 1 and 2 of the finals. Thornton replaced Tyler Seguin in Game 3 of the Finals with Boston down 2 games to none, and brought physical and energetic play that helped turn the series, with Boston winning 4 of the 5 games he played against Vancouver. This was Thornton's second time winning the Cup as he was a member of the 2006-07 Anaheim Ducks Championship team.