2012-13 Score Hockey Ray Whitney #20

Here is a card celebrating Ray's 1000 career point in the NHL.  Ray was named NHL All Star second team last year at age 40. I believe he was the oldest first time player named the NHL to the first or second team All Star team. I believe that is a record for any sports All Star teams. Ray had his best season in assist and +/- rating last year. He signed with Dallas on July 1st.

After 113 years, the Albert Pujols curse is over, the 2124 St Louis Cardinals are World Series Champs.

Dateline: (Tokyo, November 17, 2124), after  a grueling 180 games seasons and winning 3 playoff series, the St Louis Cardinals beat the Tokyo Giants in the World Series. It is their first World Series Win since 2011, the Cardinals, ended a 113 year drought, which started after they let all-time home run champ Albert Pujols go in free agency....

Don't think the above might not come true, The Pittsburgh Pirates have not made the playoffs or even finished above .500 since letting Barry Bonds get away. The Red Sox did not win a World Series for 76 years after trading Babe Ruth. Heck,  the Cubbies did not let anyone go and they have not won a World Series in 104 years.

2012-13 PaninI Hoops cardstock is similar to 2012 Score Football

2012-13 Panini Hoops just like 2012 Score Football has slightly upgraded its card stock from the 11-12 edition. Just like Score Football, the card stock is less rigid and slightly more bendable than the last couple of years. Though not a Glossy finish, the cards give a slightly more brighter appearance. The color scheme for the teams in the set are great and really stand out absence logos. 

The Top 10 Comic Book/Super Movies of all time

In the last 10 years we have been given a plethoria of comic book hero movies. Dominated by Marvel and DC Comics Heroes, You are not going to find Spawn or Witchblade on this list. So here it goes.

1. The Dark Knight (2008) - The last action packed hour was some of the best movie making Ive ever seen. It will be hard for any villian to top Heath Ledger's Joker in any movie in the future.

2. The Dark Knigh Rises (2012) - It was almost as good as the Dark Knight and may in time be considered a better movie. Bane was almost the Joker's equal. Somewhat true to the comic book story. This dude broke Batmans back.

3. Avengers (2012). I got chills when Cap jumped into the crowd to save them from Loki's blast. A fanboys dream. Every Character was done right except maybe the Hulk. The movie makers have not yet been able to get hic character down right. Whoever does it may have the best comic book hero movie ever.

4. Batman Begins (2005) - I went back to watch it after I saw DK rises. It was a lot better than I remember. It gives a plausible explanation that a real life Batman could exist today. This made the trilogy more enjoyable.

5. Iron Man (2008) - A far drop off from the first four. This movie was a little bit better than the sequel. Ag great original story. The villian was just average in this one which hurt the overall movie.

6. Thor (2011) - A well written and well performed movie. The only complaints were Anthony Hopkins as Oden and the finale in a very small town. Loke is a great villian.

7. X-Men (2000) - All three X-Men movies were good but none stood out more than the other except I think the first one. A very solid first movie.

8. Batman (1989) - We get a glimpes of the Dark Knight character that Frank Miller wrote about in 1986. This movie holds up well over 20 years later.

9. SuperMan 2 (1982) - Your hero is only as strong as your villian. General Zod provided the antagonist.  This is one movie I would love to see remade with todays special effects.

10. Spiderman (2002) The first movie was the best movie of all the Siderman movie . The reboot "Amazing Spiderman was original in a way but just not as good as Toby McGuire's Spiderman.   

Was Dave Parker's 1982 Topps in action card photo taken seconds before his 1982 Donruss Card

Here is a comparision of both cards. It sure looks like his Donruss 1982 card is a continuation of his 1982 Topps in action card. However, the people in the backgrounds do not exactly fit. I don't see the camera man in the first photo and some of the other things in the background look different. It doesn't hurt to pretend they were taken seconds apart.

Dave Parker #95 (The first baseball card to show a broken bat handle)

This baseball card maybe the first baseball card to show a completely severed bat. Here Parker is holding only the bat handle in his hands. I am pretty sure that this photo was taken at Three Rivers Staduim.

Brad Mills may have been fired but his 1982 Fleer Baseball Card is still famous.

I heard the other day that Bred Mills was fired as the Astro Manager. The funny thing about this was I didn't even know he was managing the team. However, when I heard his name. I instantly recalled that he had one of the most famous baseball card ever produced. I no longer own this card and probably have not looked at it in 20 years but I knew it existed. Here it is. It is just a piece of awesomeness. It was the second largest bubble ever seen on a baseball card (next to 1976 Topps Kurt Bevaqua) and the largest of its kind on a regular players card.

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No 1 - 1992

The seeds of 1992, began to spring up years earlier. The hobby as it was known was being changed  forever.  The changes began in 1988 when Score came on the scene and the number of manufacturers where beginning to increase. In 1989, the “rare” Lombardi Trophy hologram in Pro Set football would lead to the “chase” insert craze that would take off in full force in 1992. In 1990, Upper Deck offered autograph cards of Reggie Jackson, By 1992  Score would offer rare insert autograph cards of Dimaggio, Mantle and Yaz, Topps offered 12,000 autos of  No 1 draft pick Brien Taylor, Donruss would offer  autos of Cal Ripken and Upper Deck would offer autographs of Ted Williams.

Topps and Upper Deck expanded into the four major sports. The number of sets in each sports were exploding and continue to grow through the years. 1992 was the last official year of the junk wax era (though 1991 may have also been it) .  By 1993, the actual number of cards produced per set were being cut back.

The most important change, Topps changed its card stock from gray backs to white backs and upped the price of a pack of cards. The days of getting 15-17 cards per pack for 50 cents was gone forever. Donruss and Fleer “upgraded” the card stock on their cards and upped the price of packs, also. 1992 Donruss had almost a glossy feel to it. It was similar to Upper Deck but less glossy than today’s Topps cards.

As an insert Topps introduced Gold Foil Stamped cards.  This would also change the hobby forever, as anyone who collects 2012 Topps cards can attest. . 1992 was a no going back point of return year.

*          The end of the thin grey back cardstock

*          Higher price per card, (better cardstock?)

*          The rise of the “chase” inserts,

*          The autograph card insert

*          Gold Foil Stamping.

The only thing that was missing was game used inserts. However, inserts were taking over and surpassing the base cards as a reason people supposedly collected.

Once Topps changed their cardstock from the thin gray back card board, the first 40 year era of the sports card hobby came to an end. For the last 20 years we have been collecting in the 2^nd era of the sports card hobby.

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No. 2 - 1952

1952 is what is considered the beginning of the modern era of baseball cards and produce what is considered the crème de le crème of modern cards Mickey Mantle rookie which is probably only surpassed by the T-206 Honus Wagner card. 

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No 3: 1981

With the entry of Donruss and Fleer. Topps had competition for the first time since 1955. Topps would have competition in the baseball market for the next 29 years until get an exclusive license in 2010.

The funny thing about this was it was Fleer who sued to be allowed to produce individual player cards but it was Donruss that got out of the gate first with their set.  Donruss would give us a set that was never seen before. The card stock was white and very thin but the fronts were very colorful. The Fleer lawsuit had another effect on the hobby. It gave the hobby media attention what it did not have before. This led to people pulling their old cards out of the attic and help fuel the rise of card shows, card shops and flea markets where sports cards exchanged hands.

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No 4. 1957

1957 Topps baseball set would yield the standard card size that would forever change the hobby.  2 ½ x 3 ½, just like 24 seconds, 60 feet 6 inches and 100 yards. Perfection. Anything smaller than those dimensions are considered mini’s anything larger are considered oversized cards. This was a subtle change to the previous cards but one thing I can guarantee would be that 100 years from now the 2 ½ x 3 ½ will remain in vogue.

Also as mentioned earlier 1957 would be the first year Topps had all four major sports though it would only last that year for a while.

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No. 5 - 1989

Upper Deck Baseball in the Spring of 1989, showed up with a higher cost, higher quality card stock with large photos and holograms on the back. It initially seemed to dwarf all the other card sets out there. It seemed to be a big upgrade from 1988 Score Baseball which offered color photos on the back. The one dollar per pack cost (I think they were supposed to be 89 cents a pack but they were never sold that way) was something that was never seen before. It also helped fuel the over production of cards during this period. This would begin to change sports card era forever. 

Pro Set and NBA Hoops (their initial sets) were the firsts set to be called the official cards of their leagues respectively (NFL, NBA).  I remember buying Sports Collectors Digest which had a feature on the Pro Set cards in the summer of 1989. Jerry Rice’s card was the lead promo card with the tag line You have never seen football cards like these before. I think that was true

Tim Flannery #61

With the Padres being sold for $800 million there has been a wave of desire for them to return to their uniforms from the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Brown Shirts. This card does not do them justice. Flannery was a light hitting infielder who was typical for his day

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No. 6 - 2010

Exclusive return to the Hobby. In 2010, Topps took over baseball with an officially licensed set, Panini was the sole maker of basketball cards. In Hockey it was just Panini and Upper Deck and Football just Panini and Topps. That was the least amount of manufacturers since 1988 to produce cards in the four major team sports.

Jerry Mumphrey #261

A kind of shadowy blurry picture of Mumphrey. Back Facts: Yankess traded 4 players for him, signed a six year contract with Yankees after 1981 season. .

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No 7: 1969

With the 1969-70 Topps Basketball set being released, Topps now had all four major sports under its belt. Topps for one year in 1957 had all four sports but it let basketball cards go. Topps would have all four sports for 13 consecutive years until not producing a Topps Basketball and Hockey set in 1982-83. This would usher in the golden age of sports collecting in the 1970s.

The sports collecting world became so convoluted in the 1990s and 2000s that I cant say for sure that any one brand held all for sports for more than 13 years, Like the Topps brand did in the 70s.  Upper Deck may hold the record but I am not sure.

Chris Speier

Speier was one of the top, if not the top power hitting shortstops in the early 1970s with the San Francisco Giants. Here he is towards the end of his career with the Montreal Expos. That is Wrigley in the background

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No 8: 1948

In 1948 Bowman issues card sets of Baseball, Basketball and Football players. While the sets were not very large in number of cards, they were the first major national card sets of their day. It began a run that continues  today, 65 years later, of  major national sports cards sets being offered to the public.

That card is Frank Gottlieb of the Pittsburgh Steelers.   

2012-13 NBA Hoops is live on Ebay

Here are some of the first images on 2012-13 NBA Hoops on ebay. Just like score Hoops is going with the full bleed look. Not sure if the card stock has changed like 2012 Score football.

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No 9.- 1971

In the 1971 Topps Baseball set Topps issues game in-action photo of players on their regular card. Also (much to my dismay), Topps issues vertical photos of regular player cards  in a primarly horizontal card set.  Previously,  Topps issued action cards on subset (like the World Series subsets).  It should be noted the 1956 Topps set, a completely horizontal photo card set, had painted action photos in the background.

Thurman Munson card (his 2^nd year card) is worth more than his rookie because it was card number 8 in the set which made it the first horizontal in-action regular issued player card ever. The in-action photos would begin to pop up in 1972 Topps football, 1972-73 Topps Basketball and Hockey.

In game action photos on player cards have been the standard ever since.

The Top 10 Ground Breaking Years in Sports Cards - No 10:- 2006

Major League Baseball institutes the rookie card logo rules and the shrinks the number of baseball card manufactures to 2. For the first time a major sports league tries to influence the card manufactures and create rules for rookie cards (the cards drive the hobby). Well I can say it was not really a great success as Bowman was still allowed to print cards of players who were not in the majors. It was at least some attempt to try to standardize the rules. The rookie logo cards would have more meaning if less sets were made but everything can't be perfect.

Just missing the cut: 1986 - Fleer brings back NBA cards after a 5 year hiatus. While the set and cards are not worth as much as they were 20 years ago. It is a distinct set and help propel Michael Jordan to an industry legend. But this series is more about the cards themselves and not how much they would become in value.

Smallville

I never really watched Smallville when it was on Television. However, over the last few months I have been catching episodes on TNT. I am surprised how well the shows were produced.

Smallville premeired a week or two after 9/11. I might have caught maybe parts of 10-15 episodes over the period of time that it was on until 2011. I did buy season 1 of the DVD version of Smallville and probably watched all the episodes of that season. It was not a bad show. However, it appears to be one of the few shows that were actually better at the end of its run as opposed to the beginning. That is very hard to do.

It appears about after 6-7 seasons or so, the character of Lex Luthor, Lana Lang, and the Kents had left the show. Having just seen season one I thought it may have been the best Super Hero Mythos shows ever. I caught Super Boy in the early 1990s and The adventuers of Lois and Clark in the mid 1990s and for me it was watchable TV.

WHat TNT appears to be running is about the last 3-4 seasons of Smallville and I could saw this his the best Comic Book Super Hero arch that was ever put on TV. The show has introduced Green Arrow, the Hall of Justice, Hawk Man General Zod and Doomsday in great fashion.

The special effects are first rate, stories compelling and Tom Welling is the Best Superman ever (and he is not Superman) He shows great empathy for the charachter and I wish he would get a chance to portray it on the big screen. Lois Lane (Durance) is ever more erotic than Lana Lang (Kreuk) and that was hard to do. The Green Arrow actor is great and the guy who plays General Zod makes him one of the best comic book villians ever on film.

I guess that most surprising thing was all of these changes the show was better at the end of its ten year run than the beginning. I can't think of any program that did that.

Recent Baseball Card Price Guide History: 2011 Mike Trout Bowman Chrome

His first Bowman Chrome with the rookie card logo. Mike Trout is the hottest baseball player on the planet right now. In the last month there were 233 individual non graded sales of his basic Bowman Chrome card #175 on ebay. The average selling price of this card with the MLB rookie logo on it was $9.96.

The Top 20 - Product Review Page Views on Sports Card Radio.Com

I always check out Sports Card Radio (SPC) product reviews. The great thing about the reviews is that it contains a checklist of the cards. Also, on the page that is interesting are the number of page views for each product.  Here are the top 20. (as of 8/5)

01. 2010 Topps Series 2 BB (37723)
                      Strasberg Mania leads the way.
02. 2010 Bowman BB (29892)
03. 2011 Topps Series 1 BB (27256)
04. 2010 Allen Ginter (24383)
05. 2010 Topps WWE Attack (19964)
                        This was a big surprise
06. 2010 Topps Football (18690)
07. 2011 Topps Series 2 BB (17408)
08. 2011 Bowman BB (15962)
09. 2010 Topps Series 1  BB (15602)
10. 2012 Topps Series 1  BB (15576)
11. 2010 Topps Series 1  BB (15354)
                          There were 2 post about series 1
12. 2010 Topps Triple Threads (14685)
13. 2011 Topps Heritage BB (13818)
14. 2011 Allen Ginter (13229)
15. 2010 Topps Heritage BB (12820)
16. 2010 Topps Finest BB (12798)
17. 2010 Topps Update BB (12758)
18. 2011 Topps Football (11932)
19. 2010 Topps WWE (11556)
20. 2011 Bowman Platinum BB (11280)

and for good measure

21. 2012 Bowman Baseball (11199)
22. 2010 Topps Chrome (11179)
23. 2011 Bowman Chrome (11109)
24. 2010 Prestige Football (11009)
                          You had to get to 24 to find a non Topps product.

2008 Rookie Card Logo stars lead their teams in Batting

One of the best things to happen to cards in the last 10 years was the introduction of the rookie card logo (for baseball).  What it does is give the cards an identity which allows you to remember them easier. I opened the USA Today and looked at the team stats and saw that Sam Fuld and Justin Ruggiano were atop of their teams statistics in batting. Seeing their names made me recall  instantly that both had rookie cards in the 2008 sets. Here are their Bowman rookie cards (Fuld was a short print auto in the set). I wish I had the Fuld autograph.

2011-12 NBA rookies will not get any rookie designation on the front of their NBA Hoops cards

The official Panini American Blog has released images of 2012-13 NBA Hoops cards. The 2011-12 rookie class will not carry any official rookie card designation on the front of their cards. This is the first NBA class of rookies to not receive any type of rookie designation since the late 1980s Fleer sets.

In the 1990-91 NBA Hoops set, the 1989-90 NBA Rookie class got a rookie card designation on the front of their cards. The 1989-90 NBA Hoops set did not include any 1989-90 NBA rookies class.

Will Starling Marte and Mike Olt's rookie cards make it into Topps Update and Bowman Draft sets

Since both players made their debuts before late August, I think they beat the deadline under the rookie card rules to be included into this years sets. So I am looking forward to seeing there rookie logo cards in Topps Update and Bowman Draft.

Baseball Card(s) Mystery: George Hendrick Part 3

O.K. something strange was going on with George Hendricks baseball cards from the late 1970s until the 1980s. It is more than just a coincidence about the certain look of his cards. Here (above) is his Donruss 1982 card.

Here (above) is his 1977 Topps.

Here (above) is his 1978 Topps. Notice something. He is wearing a team jacket.

I can't be positive here but I think he was photographed with a jacket on in his 1979 Topps photo.

He is again wearing a team jacket on his 1980 Topps card.

Also a Jacket on his 1981 Topps card.

He is wearing the red cardinal jacket on his 1981 and 1982 Fleer cards. None of these last 4 cards make me believe the photos were taken around the same time.  

He is wearing the same Cardinal Jacket on his 1981 Perma Graphs and 1982 Squirt cards.

He is wearing a jacket on his team issued Padres card in the late 1970s.

He is wearing a Pirate Team Jacket on his 1986 Topps Card.

On his Topps 1987 Angels card he is not wearing a team jacket but some sort of team pull over shirt. (I could be wrong about this). The Baseball Card Mystery surrounding these cards are why was Hendrick usually photographed for his card wearing some sort of team apparrel. Was this done on  purpose or was he a player that always wore this type of clothing and so it would be logical that a lot of his cards had him wearing a team jacket/shirt.  Was he always cold (but he played in San Diego and St Louis summers are hot). Did he request that his baseball card have him wearing a team jacket? This is a mystery.

Baseball Card Mystery: George Hendrick Part 2

Disregard the ripped nature of this card (Not exactly a rip card). But what exactly is George Hendrick wearing. It almost looks like a Houston Astro uniform but with different colors. Was this some sort of Cardinal Warmup uniform or workout uniform.  

Baseball Card Mystery: George Hendrick Part 1

Were all three of these photo's (1974 Topps, 1975 Topps and 1975 Hostess) taken approximately at the same time.). I would say the 1974 and 1975 Topps were because you can actually see the same cloud formation in the background. These two photo were taken seconds apart. However on the Hostess card I can't be sure if it was even taken at the same staduim.  Though it would have been odd for Hostess to capture a photo of George that nearly mimics his Topps cards 

Toby Harrah #72

Toby was a big hitting shortstop for the Rangers and Indians, he was durable and walked a lot and hit a lot of home runs for a shortstop. This is kind of a blurry photo of Toby. He would make the all-star team in 1982 (25-78-.304)

Steve Braun #418

Here is another pregame Wrigley field shot, this time of long time backup outfielder Steve Braun wearing the powder blue Cardinals uniforms.

Back Facts: It acknowledges that Braun was released at the end of the year. However, there is no record of this on baseball reference and he played with the Cardinals in 1982. 

Randy Big Mouth Bass #439

Now why would anyone grade a 1982 signed Donruss card of Randy Bass beats me. Maybe it is because we have a great background shot of the green ivy at Wrigley Field. Maybe it is because we have Randy wearing those great looking brown Padre jerseys. Or could it be the classic firstbaseman pose. Randy was supposed to be a big homerun hitter but in 1981 he hit only 4 in 176 at-bats which would pace out to 12 in about 500 at-bats

Dave Stapleton #208

We have Dave here swinging on the follow through from a game at Fenway Park, I believe. As a rookie in 1980, Dave hit .321 in 449 at-bats but did not qualify for the batting title.