2005-06 Topps Basketball Set

The Christmas sets continue to trickle in.  On Saturday the 2005-06 Topps basketball set arrived in the mail.

Kobe Bryant was still wearing uniform number eight on this card.  I guess he wasn't going 24 hours a day yet.  There was the period of time when the Lakers wore these baby blue uniforms a couple of times a season.  I think they are throwbacks to the 1950's or 1960's.  They matched well with their in-town UCLA Bruins.

Here are a couple of Hall of Famers.  Ironically, I recently watched their induction speeches on YouTube.  Both were unexpected.  Iverson was very humble and appreciative.  Shaq used a lot of colorful language.

Here are a couple of future Hall of Famers.  When I was a little kid I remember Kareem Abdul-Jabbar closing in on Wilt Chamberlain's career scoring record.  I was pretty excited when he finally did it.  Now I'm starting to wonder the same thing about LeBron James as he closes in on Kareem's record.  There was a time when Karl Malone seemed certain to catch Kareem, but then he got hurt and things stopped in a hurry.  I'm a Lakers and Kareem fan, so I'm not rooting for LeBron to do it.  But I don't want the guy to get hurt either.  LeBron's been talking lately about not seeing his kids enough and how he's missing their games and everything.  But I think he sticks it out.  I think he'll break the record.

Hoops Set and a Couple Mid-70's Topps

In my pursuit of mid-70's Topps baseball sets, I picked up a couple cards that had eluded me thus far.

 

I've seen this card many times over the years, but Willie Mays in a Mets uniform still looks very strange to me.  The card is off-centered, but the price was right.  That leaves me 37 cards from having the complete set of 1973.  Most of them are high numbers.  I have something in the works to chip into that number a little bit.

 

The price was right for this Gary Carter rookie, which is in much better condition than for which I thought I would settle.  This was my #9 most wanted baseball card.  That leaves one card left for the 1975 complete set; George Brett of course!

 

I stopped buying complete basketball sets a while ago.  The last one I got was 2003-04 Topps.  It was a good year to get because it contains rookie cards for LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Bosh, and Dwyane Wade.  Well, I've decided to start those up again.  It looks like I can go with Topps until 2009-10.  And then I don't know what to do for 2010-11.  Any ideas?  Panini Hoops started in 2011-12 and has run every year since, so I'll go after them.

 

Panini Hoops from 2013-14 was available cheap, and arrived the other day.  Here are the big names in the set.

Is it just me, or does LeBron James look more like Alonzo Mourning in this picture?

I don't like it that sportscards have become one licensed brand per sport.  I liked it better when there were lots of sets.  i.e. competition to push the card companies to do a great job or lose market share.  But it is fun to be collecting basketball cards on a larger scale again.  Since 2003-04 it had just been Lakers team sets.

Old Red Sox Cards from 1916

The after-Christmas purchases are starting to arrive.  This week a couple of Red Sox oldies from 1916 came.  1916 was similar to previous years' issues in that the cards could be found with a variety of backs.  Sporting News was probably the most well known.  But there were local companies like Famous and Barr, Standard Biscuit, Weil Baking, and Fleischmann Bakery.  How these small (by today's standards) businesses got on the backs of these cards, I don't know.  But with address, logo, and sometimes a slogan on the back, they were obviously meant as advertisements.

H.B. Leonard was better known as Dutch.  His name is familiar to me because he was on this 1979 Topps card from my youth.
 

He got on this card because of his 0.96 ERA in 1914.  Leonard was the starting pitcher in one game apiece in the 1915 and 1916 World Series with the Red Sox, winning them both.  He missed out on the famous 1918 World Series championship due to leaving the team mid-season in order to avoid the WWI draft.  He was traded to the New York Yankees before the 1919 season. But due to a salary dispute, and ticking the team owner off, he was moved to the Detroit Tigers and never pitched for the Yankees.  An interesting fact about Leonard; when he died in 1952, he left behind a record collection of 150,000 discs and an estate worth $2.1 million.

 

Mr. Lewis here has seen his better days.  But for this old a card, I'm willing to accept a lesser condition.  Lewis was in that same trade to the Yankees as Dutch Leonard.  He won World Series championships with the Red Sox in 1912, 1915, and 1916.  And also like Leonard, he missed out on the 1918 World Series.  He served in World War I and missed the entire season.  Some interesting facts about Lewis; he lived until 91 years of age, dying the same year the Leonard card above was released.  He had no known relatives at the time of his death, and was buried in an unmarked grave.

What Baseball and the Tour de France Should Have in Common

I'm a big fan of the Tour de France.  I guess it started in French class in high school when we got to watch a video of the previous year's race.  Like baseball, even more so, cycling has been tainted the past 30 years by its athletes using performance enhancing drugs.  Here's a trivia question for you.  Who won the Tour de France in 1999?  How about in 2002?  In 2005?  The answer is nobody.  In every year from 1999 through 2005 Lance Armstrong stood on the podium in Paris as the winner.  But about five years ago when all his performance enhancing drug use became public, he was stripped of those titles.  So why didn't they declare the winner to the be the second place finishers those years?  Because they too had used PED's.  How about the third place finishers?  Same.  What about the 100th place finishers.  Still the same.  Because there weren't any participants in those years' Tours who were thought to be clean, they decided not to give the title to anybody.  So for seven straight years the 2,000+ mile race was held and the history books record no winners.  That doesn't look good for the sport.  But they didn't lower their standards.

If you're still with me, this is where I'll draw the parallel to baseball.  I hear and read a lot of people who are willing to induct known PED users into the baseball Hall of Fame.  Everybody was doing it, so we must lower the standard, the sentiment goes.  And to that I ask, do we really?  If keeping steroid users out of the Hall means we have fewer inductees for the next few years, I'm fine with that.  It will go down as part of the story of baseball's history, just as it has with cycling.

My prediction is that Bonds and Clemens will eventually get in.  And then the floodgates will open.  I even think that McGwire will get in some day via a veteran's committee.

 

HOF Candidates in 2012 Topps

Piggybacking on yesterday's post, the 2012 Topps set was also represented by several of this year's Hall of Fame candidates.  I purposely held off commenting on a couple players yesterday because they fall into a unique category in these discussions, infielders but not first basemen.  When you discuss the Hall worthiness of second basemen, shortstops, and third basemen, an interesting thing happens.  Suddenly, the discussion isn't about being one of the all-time great baseball players.  It's now about being one of the best at their position.  Now we're in the territory of increased WAR talk and factoring current representation already in the Hall for their position.  I understand the rationale.  A player who hits 45 HR with 120 RBI as a second baseman is more important to the team than an outfielder who does.  Why?  Because second basemen who can do that are harder to find than outfielders who can.  But consider this.  There's an underlying assumption in that way of thinking which I've never heard brought up before.  Without realizing it, that thought implies that baseball players are fielders who also have to hit.  Is that true?  Or is it the other way around?  Instead, are baseball players hitters who also have to field?  I honestly don't have an answer to this.  Until I do, I'm not inclined to admit lesser hitters into the Hall based on the position they play.

Luckily, Chipper Jones makes this a moot point.  His career numbers are fantastic across the board.  An easy Yes vote from me.

And then there's Scott Rolen.  At first glance, he's an obvious No, right?  I mean, did you ever watch him play and think, there's one of the best to ever play the game?  I don't think very many have.  It's when you bring positional bias and WAR (a flawed statistic) into play that he even enters the conversation.  Hopefully, I can address WAR in a future post.  Rolen had nice career numbers, but not Hall worthy. 

Andrew Jones is in the discussion based on his defense and power.  He batting average was really low, and he didn't even get 2,000 career hits.  There's got to be a basement level for some of the important counting stats, and 2,000 hits is one for me.  His defense was stellar, though.  But considering you have a chance to impact the game's score every time you bat, but rarely when you're in the field, I weigh hitting a lot more.  Jones is a No vote for me.
Here's another card of Johan Santana.  He had the goods, that's for sure.  He just didn't have much longevity.

Manny Ramirez never played a game for the Oakland A's, but here he is in an A's uniform nonetheless.

Jim Thome played 30 games for Philadelphia in his final season.  He also played a few for Baltimore, but the Phillies get his card.

HOF Candidates in 2011 Topps

I'm for a small Hall.  Let me get that out first of all.  Hall of Fame was an unfortunate name.  There are lots of famous ballplayers in baseball's history for whom nobody is making a Hall of Fame case. (Bob Uecker, anyone?)  I think we can look at the first couple of Hall of Fame induction classes and get a really good feel for what the intent of the honor was.  It was to recognize the greatest baseball players ever.  And that's where the fun come in!  Everybody has a different idea of what makes a player great.  So I really enjoy the conversations each year!

My family knows that for Christmas I want nothing more than sportscards.  And they all realized long ago that they have no idea what to get me.  I'm not much of a pack ripper.  I have pretty specific wants.  So everybody gives me cash, and I'm happy with that!  This year I anticipated that and did a little spending before Christmas was even here.  Two packages have arrived already, those being the Topps complete sets of 2011 and 2012.

There are several players from this year's Hall of Fame class in the 2011 Topps set.  And some of them have very familiar faces in very unfamiliar uniforms.

How strange is this card?  It's easy to forget that Manny played 24 games for the White Sox in 2010.  A look at Manny's career statistics show he's easily one of the greatest players of all time.  But the failed drug tests make him a No vote for me.

Living in Twins land, Jim Thome in a Minnesota uniform isn't that strange.  But I bet it is for many of you.  He's got the career power numbers.  I wish he had a better batting average.  But 612 HR's and 1699 RBI's put him over the top for me.  He's a Yes, but not by much.
How about Johnny Damon in a Rays uniform!  He played one season in Tampa, and did pretty well.  He's got a lot of hits and runs scored, and overall a very good resume.  But he falls just short in my mind.  This isn't the Hall of Very Good.

I'll talk about Chipper when I get to the 2012 set.  Omar Vizquel looks strange in a White Sox uniform.  He played his last two seasons with them.  Vizquel is a No for me, and he's not even close.  He was such a below average hitter, that not even his brilliant fielding can make up the difference for me.

Trevor Hoffman in a Brewers uniform is odd too.  He played there his last two seasons.  I'm really torn when it comes to relief pitchers.  The save statistic has really blown up in the past 30 years.  I could easily be swayed, but right now I still don't consider someone who averages an inning an appearance, even at the end of close games, an all-time great.  I'm No for Hoffman, but reconsidering each year.
Johan Santana is another challenging case.  To me, to be considered one of the best players of all time, you have to have played at a very high level AND played at that level for an extended period of time.  I hear lots of people rationalizing a Yes vote based on one or the other.  But to me, it takes both.  Santana was terrific for a spurt of time, but it didn't last long enough.

Here's Vlad Guerrero in a Rangers uniform.  I love that he was a power guy with average.  He played at a high level just long enough for me.  He's a Yes.

I'll also cover Scott Rolen with the 2012 set.

2018 Card Collecting Goals

I hope you all are having a great start to the new year!  It's been very interesting to read the other card bloggers' reviews of 2017 card collecting goals and new goals for 2018.  I really admire how many of you have specific goals and measure against them over the course of the year.  I started this blog in February, so this is my first time coming up with resolutions for the coming year.  I've put some thought to it.  Should I aim to pick up certain old Red Sox cards like Cracker Jacks or Sporting News?  Should I try to fill in my player collection of Carl Yastrzemski more for recent years?  Should I finally buckle and purchase the Fleer Roger Clemens XRC?  While any of these accomplishments would be great to achieve, they just won't do as a goal for the coming year.  So without further ado, my card collection goals for 2018 are really just one goal: to truly enjoy the hobby of card collecting.  That's it.  No long list, just the hope that I can really enjoy the hobby this year.  Some of you might think I'm cheating with this, but consider this.  Last year at this time card collecting had become mundane.  I had certain team sets that I bought every year, mostly out of habit rather than joy.  I was also working on team sets from vintage eras which was kind of fun, but my attitude was really one of just checking off boxes.  It was in the search for old Red Sox cards that I was brought into the world of card collecting blogs.  I had googled a certain old card I was after, I can't remember which one exactly.  Google returned a list that contained, near the top, a link to RED SOX FAN IN NEBRASKA.  He had the card I was looking for on his want list page.  I read several entries in the blog while I was there.  On the side was a link to other card blogs.  I drilled into and read several of those as well.  Each of these had links too.  So I branched out a ways and found a whole new world of people just like me, who hadn't outgrown their childhood hobby.  Your excitement and passion, and the joy you all got out of collecting and getting new cards was contagious.  My love of the hobby grew back more and more.  I expanded my collection.  I traded with new people.  I started recording my collection in the trading card database.  I've gotten to know some of you a little bit.  So now, heading into 2018, my goal is to continue that newfound passion for collecting the whole year through.  If I get some old Red Sox cards, that'll be great.  If I knock some off my most wanted list, that'll be great too.  But if I don't, and I'm having a great time with the hobby nonetheless, then it'll be a great year!

I leave you with an old card from my youth, in honor of the latest movie.

Here's to 2018!