Congrats Ichiro!

I'm a little late for this post as the Hall of Fame results were announced a few days ago, but better late than never. While I knew that Ichiro was a lock for the Hall, I still couldn't believe that he fell one vote short of a unanimous selection. Just sad that one writer felt that he couldn't vote for him on his first year of eligibility. Regardless, I'm glad that Ichiro will now be forever enshrined in Cooperstown. I spoke last month about a couple of projects that I started. The first being my Rookie book project and the second is tracking down all of Ichiro's Topps Flagship Short Prints (SPs, SSPs and an SSSP that I'll probably never own). My favorite of the bunch is this 2012 Topps Update of him bowing to the fans at his return to Seattle after signing with the Yankees. Such a great card and I'm glad to have it in my collection. I've always admired Ichiro for how he played the game. He was more interested in getting a hit than mashing a home run (similar to Pete Rose in my opinion without all the baggage). If you're interested in seeing the other short prints I've picked up you can click here or select the Ichiro Topps Flagship Short Prints Image Variations link in the pages section. Once I grab the remaining three short prints that I need then I'll consider my Ichiro collection complete. I already have his Topps Flagship rookie and a 2007 Topps Chrome Japanese variation so I think that's a nice assortment. I might chase after a Topps Chrome Rookie but I'm still on the fence about that.

Sometimes I still feel like a rookie collector

I haven't made much progress lately on my wantlist as it relates to my Reds team sets. I'm still sitting at needing two more 1951 Bowman cards and one more 1941 Play Ball to wrap those two up. I had hopes of getting those three cards before the end of the year but I got a little sidetracked. I started two new projects, one being mentioned here. Since I started collecting back in 1986 I was always enamored with certain rookie cards. Rickey Henderson, Wade Boggs, Mark McGwire, Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield and Cal Ripken Jr were just a few that caught my eye. I had always wanted to own a copy of each but as a teen I never had the income to make that dream a reality. Fast forward thirty years later and I decided to start tracking down those cards that I could never afford. This 1974 Topps Dave Winfield is one of twenty three rookie cards I've managed to acquire out of my fifty card Non-Red Rookie project. I've included quite a few modern cards in addition to junk wax and vintage. I'm sure I'll add more vintage cards to the list eventually like a 1969 Topps Reggie Jackson and 1960 Topps Carl Yastrzemski. But for now I'm content with trying to grab fifty. If your curious as to what I've picked up so far you can view the Rookie Album in the Pages section.

I Normally Don't Collect Heritage...

But I had to make an exception. When I first saw this card a few weeks ago I immediately knew that I needed to pick one up. This is the 2022 Topps Joey Votto short print variations and I just think it's an amazing card. A very nice nighttime shot of Votto in the on deck circle under the stadium lights just makes for a nice image. I was able to track down when this image was taken on Getty Images and it's June 21, 2021 when the Reds faced the Twins in Minneapolis. Cincinnati lost that game 7-5 and Votto went 2-5.

Throwback Thursday

It amazes me that after all these years of collecting I'm still discovering cards that I didn't know existed. Case in point are the 2015 Topps Throwbacks. These were included in one of every two rack packs that were sold in Target and Walmart. I guess these would be considered image variations since they have the same number on the back as their standard counterpart but the border on these are light bown. I love the old Reds pullover uniforms since I grew up watching the Reds play wearing them. Out of the 50 cards that were produced, the Reds had five of them (Votto, Frazier, Phillips, Hamilton and Cozart). While not a "short print" according to today's standards, I still think these are fantastic and I'm happy to have them in my collection. 

Farewell Charlie Hustle

I was keeping tabs on the Braves/Mets series yesterday when I received word from my wife's Uncle about the passing of Pete Rose. It's still a little bit of a shock, but I guess at 83 years old it was only a matter of time. Sparky Anderson, Joe Morgan and now Pete Rose. I know that the remaining members of the Big Red Machine aren't getting younger and no one knows how much longer those players will be with us. Love him or hate him, Pete Rose knew how to play baseball. I think that passion for the sport is what drew me to him as a collector. That and the fact that he was a flawed individual. He was far from perfect and a very polarizing figure. He made some mistakes and committed the cardinal sin in baseball that will probably forever keep him out of Cooperstown. I wanted to show off the last card I picked up of Pete prior to his passing. This 2010 Panini Century Collection Six Cent Stamp is fantastic. While I'm normally not a fan of Panini cards, in my opinion, this is just an amazing piece of cardboard. I don't have this card in hand yet as it's at COMC headquarters. There was a 3 cent stamp listed on Beckett that I purchased today since I had been eyeing that card for a while but hadn't pulled the trigger yet. I figured I had better grab it since a lot of the Rose cards I had been watching on eBay vanished quickly after the news broke yesterday and I wasn't sure when another copy would show up. There's nothing more I can say about the Hit King. He belongs to the ages now. People either liked him or they didn't. He was a polarizing figure before polarizing became the norm of society as it is today. But no one can argue his drive and determination to play the game hard. A game he loved probably more than life itself. After all, Pete once said "I'd walk through hell in a gasoline suit to play baseball." 

Getting Ready For The Call

In just a few short months we'll find out who will be the inductees of the Hall of Fame Class of 2025. There's little doubt that Ichiro will be a member of that class. I always appreciated his old school playing style of trying to slap the ball into play instead of trying to go yard the way most players approach the game today. I don't think we'll see another Ichiro for quite some time, if ever. That being said, I've had my eye on this card for quite some time and I finally decided to purchase one off of eBay since it seems that not a lot of them are available. This is the 2007 Topps Chrome Japanese version and while they're not numbered, their production run is definitely a lot smaller compared to the English version. According to Baseballcardpedia, six Japanese players had a short print Japanese text version of their card (Matsui, Johjima, Ichiro, Okajima, Igawa, and Matsuzaka). The Hobby odds of pulling a Japanese variant from a pack was 1:82 packs. I'm glad to finally have this card in my collection and though I'm not an Ichiro super collector, there are a few more cards of his that I'm hoping to pick up before he gets his call from the Hall. 

A Different Kind of Elly

Over the past few months the 2024 Topps design has grown on me. So much so, that I thought about chasing a rainbow of Elly De La Cruz flagship cards. That project was quickly dashed once I started looking into what it would cost to acquire just nine different parallels (and we're not talking about short print stuff either). I thought I would go after anything with a print run of 499 or greater, but after I added up the cost the project would have run me well over $700. NO THANKS! Prices have become stupid expensive for stuff that would have only cost a fraction of that 10 years ago. I feel like fanatics has built their business on a house of cards (figuratively speaking) and it's only a matter of time before it comes crashing down. It can't last, and it won't last. Enough of my ranting. Instead of a rainbow I decided to purchase something way more affordable and I'm very happy with these cards. These three Elly cards are from the Topps Flagship Companion set. I love the different images and the prices for these were reasonable. I would eventually like to add a Reds Team set card of Elly to this grouping and place the four cards in a BCW four card screw down to show them off.