i recently decided to add bob lemon to my hall of famer collection, and i added this card as his entry: that's a 1994 front row premium all-time greats signature series card. here's the back: and here's the coa that accompanies the 5-card set in this case, my set is number 537 of the 2,000 that included a signed card. i am keeping the full set together, and here are the other four: pretty much any of those other cards would have been better suited to hold the certified autograph, in my opinion. the decision to add lemon came a few weeks ago when i was putting together my post about t ..read more

i mentioned the other day that i picked up some 2024 topps heritage last thursday. after the quick post to share the shortcomings of the fred lynn (and jim rice) baseball flashback card, i am here with some additional th---------squirrel! this card or sticker, i guess, was in the hanger box i bought at walmart. i didn't really know what it was until i turned it over and saw jeff mcneil's name. i then remembered that these are the zoo's who stickers that represent real life animals used in baseball nicknames.  i later found the cubs' sticker in a blaster pack. it stinks that there is n ..read more

no surprises today, as i am posting some of the jackie robinson cards that i've added to my collection over the last few months, starting with this 2016 topps mlb debut insert celebrating that event that occurred 77 years ago today! 2006 upper deck sp legendary cuts when it was a game insert /550 2006 upper deck all-time legends insert 2014 topps triple threads 2015 topps 1st home run gold parallel insert four of a kind there. i am happy to report that the rest of the cards in this post have unique photos, starting with 2017 topps stadium club black foil parallel topps' acceptance of bl ..read more

the dodgers sure seem to have had a large number of highly touted catching prospects since mike piazza took over behind the plate. maybe that just coincides with the proliferation of prospect focused baseball cards, but it feels like i've heard about more catchers in the dodger pipeline than any other non-pitcher position over the last 30 years. one such prospect was angel peña, and this is his 1999 upper deck retro inkredible autograph card i have seen this card so many times over the years, i would have sworn that i had it in triplicate. turns out, i didn't have it at all (i do have some o ..read more

i bought some heritage on thursday, picking up a couple of differently packaged items. in the monster box i found one of the cards that i was hoping to find that's a baseball flashback card featuring two guys in tuxedos.  now, you and i and a lot of baseball fans know from the text that the card is all about fred lynn, even though he is not named on the front of the card. he was the 1975 american league rookie of the year and most valuable player. and, those same fans know that he is the gentleman on the left. you and i and they also likely know that the gentleman on the right is lynn's ..read more

i finally added todd hundley's 2000 skybox card to my collection a few months ago i hadn't paid a lot of attention to this set in recent years, and even back in 2000 i was mainly focused on topps, fleer, and upper deck offerings. so, as a result, i failed to notice the pee wee reese memorial patch above the roy campanella heroes patch prominently shown on this card until sometime last year. the other thing i like about the card is hundley's gear. it looks like the stuff i wore back in the 1980's in little league and babe ruth. simple wilson equipment, including a fabric chest protector and f ..read more

i've been paying some attention to my "1978 master set" lately (as a refresher, i featured the non-1978 flagship cards that i've included in my 1978 master set in this post). as a result, i've tracked down some more cards to add to the effort. i had previously dismissed the reprints of nolan ryan's 1978 topps card that topps issued back in 1999 because they were reprints. however, i decided to pick up the "finest" and "finest" refractor versions because they offer the first glimpse of 1978 topps chrome-ified.  similarly, i had ignored willie hernandez's 2001 topps archives reserve an ..read more

i thought that topps big league was ok when it came out in 2018, and again in 2019. i liked that they brought box cards back with the blasters, but the design was nothing special - still better than opening day, however. then, in 2020, i really liked the simple design, and i had fun busting a box and putting together the set. unfortunately, 2021 was a complete disaster, so i was skeptical last year.  it turned out that the 2023 set was fine even though the tiered checklist annoyed me to a slight degree. i knew i wasn't going to complete the set, so it didn't really bother me too much, an ..read more

i want to take a moment to acknowledge the passing of jerry grote.  because he was a member of the 1978 topps dodgers, i was automatically a fan of his. as i did with vic davalillo a few months ago, here's a look at grote's career in topps cards thanks to my evolution of the 1978 topps dodgers collection: grote was famously left on the cutting room floor by topps in 1977, and he didn't receive a card when he returned to the majors in 1981. i, of course, made customs for him to fill in the blanks as i did for other members of the 1978 topps dodgers. the 1977 topps test card sho ..read more

looks like mike piazza is striking a pose for the camera, and the card is giving all the glitz just after christmas last year i received that glorious mike piazza parallel, a 1996 pinnacle summit above and beyond parallel to be exact, from nick at dime boxes. it's one of a few model-esque dodger cards that i would use to put on a baseball card fashion show if i were ever to do a post with that as its theme. anyway, dodger cards - especially parallels like that - are always welcome here, but the card i requested from nick as part of his anniversary giveaway was actually this 1986 scott cunning ..read more