The Bane that is Short Prints

I've come to expect that each year I'll have to track down a short print or two in the Topps flagship set. Photo variations, retired stars or hall of famers, you name it and Topps has done it all for the sake of adding cards we collectors must chase if we want to have a "complete" team set. Sure, I could choose to ignore them completely and stick with only collecting the standard checklist, but the ocd portion of my brain would always be stewing over these cards. Of course it wasn't always like that. I still remember the junk wax days fondly knowing that I could put together a Reds team set for less than $5. Now it's not uncommon for me to spend around $20. If there's a super short print involved then all bets are off. That being said, I just noticed this past weekend that Topps released it's series 2 set for this year and I wasn't surprised to find out that there were 3 short prints in the series. I was able to track down the 12 card base set as well as the 3 short prints on eBay for just over $23. I wonder if there will come a day when Topps decides to go back to the way things were and put a stick of gum back in a pack of cards and remove those nefarious short prints from flagship. Who am I kidding, that's just asking too much.

2000 Cincinnati Reds Autographed Team Baseball

18 signatures total on this baseball: Jack McKeon, Aaron Boone, Dante Bichette, Sean Casey, Barry Larkin, Pokey Reese, Michael Tucker, Dmitri Young, Eddie Taubensee, Jason LaRue, Danny Graves, Pete Harnisch, Denny Neagle, Steve Parris, Dennys Reyes, Gabe White, Scott Sullivan, and Scott Williamson.

TTM: Todd Benzinger

While Barry Larkin and Pete Rose are my favorite Reds, Todd Benzinger will always hold a special place in my heart. Benzinger not only recorded the last out of the 1990 World Series, he's also a graduate of New Richmond High School (New Richmond, Ohio) where I too am a proud alumni.

2003 Fleer Authentix

While this isn't on my list of things to do for 2012, I would like to eventually finish my 2003 Fleer Authentix set. When I first saw this I was just amazed by the design of these cards. I've always been a team logo fan, and to put them behind every player photo was sweet. I also like the idea of making a baseball card resemble a game ticket. Genius! Sure, I'm not a big Fleer fan...in fact I hated most of the product they ever released, but this set (along with 1993 Flair) was different. My favorite cards in this set would have to be the Ticket to the Majors cards. Very cool to include a replica hometown ticket on those player's cards. If I had one gripe with the set it would have to be the back of the cards. How difficult would it have been to show the actual stadium on the back of the card instead of some generic stadium drawing. Not that hard in my opinion and it's the voice of the collector that should matter most to card manufacturers. After all, we're the one's buying the product! Anyway, if I can't get around to completing this set later in the year, it'll definitely be on my list of things to do next year.

1990 Leaf

Over the weekend I was able to complete one of my 2012 Collecting Goals. I picked up a 1990 Leaf set for $26.48 that included the complete 528 card set AND puzzle! Sweet. I remember when this set first came out in 1990 and how freakin expensive the packs were...especially for a teenager. This set has always had a special place in my heart, not so much for who's in the set, although that helps, but for the design. Silver ink...that's unpossible! Yes, you heard me correctly...unpossible! Never before had something like that been tried in the hobby and leaf capitalized on that. Going back to who's in this set: Frank Thomas, Sammy Sosa, Ken Griffey Jr, Randy Johnson, TWO Nolan Ryans, Ryne Sandberg, Ricky Henderson, Ozzie Smith, Eddie Murray, Cal Ripken Jr, Tony Gwynn, Wade Boggs...and on and on! Talk about Hall of Fame set! Of course my favorite card in the set would have to be the Larkin card. Here's hoping he gets the call to Cooperstown today. Sure, the 1990 Leaf set has come down in price since it first came out, but when it comes to collecting it's not about money but for love of the game!

Barry Larkin Bobblehead

On June 28, 2006 the Cincinnati Reds gave out 30,000 of these bobbleheads to fans who came for either a free bobblehead of Cincinnati's best shortstop of all time, or to watch the Reds take on the Kansas City Royals. The Reds ultimately won the game 7-2 with four Reds going yard in the game. This bobblehead is the second given out in 2006 in the Reds "Power of Tradition" series honoring the team's shortstops (Concepcion, Larkin, and Lopez). Barry made his major league debut with the Reds on August 13, 1986 against the San Francisco Giants as a pinch hitter. Larkin spent his entire nineteen major league seasons with Cincinnati where he was a twelve time all-star, won three Gold Glove awards as well as nine Silver Slugger awards and was the recipient of the 1995 National League MVP award. Hopefully Barry will be voted into the Baseball Hall of Fame this coming year!

1994 Topps

1994 was the first year I decided to get out of the hobby since I started back in 1986. Due to so many products, rising prices, the players strike...it made for the perfect storm for turning me away from baseball cards for eight years. Of course my wife hopes that I'll go on hiatus again, but that's not likely to happen anytime soon. So, 1994 Topps. Another dull and less than stellar year for the Topps company. I don't really understand the design element regarding the photos on the front. Not sure if that's suppose to be home plate or not, but it doesn't work for me. No team image on the front....shame on you Topps! The player names and fielding position on the front of the cards are very small....almost nonexistent. The photography is ok. I like many of the cards depicting pitchers the best, but the Barry Larkin card is a nice change with the shades. Either than that, not too impressed. Sorry 1994 Topps, just not feeling the love.

1989 Upper Deck

Not much to say about what's already been said about this set. It WAS a game changer for the hobby with it's sleek design, quality stock, hologram, and full color photography on both the front and back of the card. I remember when this set was released back in 1989 the sticker shock of $1.00 for a pack of cards. I was completely blown away. I thought to myself "There's no way I'm spending a buck on a pack of cards when I can get a couple of packs of Topps for that price!" Of course, the following year I didn't hesitate to hop on the Upper Deck bandwagon when my mom would bring me home packs of the stuff from the grocery store when the Reds were on fire and heading for the World Series. I like the 1989 Upper Deck set, don't get me wrong. In fact I think it's probably one of the best sets ever produced. However, looking back at the evolution of baseball cards these past two decades, a lot has changed and in a way I see it as innocence lost. We've gone from the standard card from 1957 through 1988 to a premium card in 1989 to super premium cards joining the scene in 1993. We've had inserts and parallels and 1 of somethings. All this so that we can have one card produced with all the colors of the rainbow. We've cut up uniforms, shaved bats, sliced apart seats from historic stadiums to put those little pieces on cards and dub them as "relics". I feel as though artifacts of our pastime have been cannibalized by the card companies just to make a buck. I just don't get it.

1993 Topps

1993 was the last year that I collected baseball cards until I decided to start back up in the fall of 2001. A lot of things contributed to my baseball card collecting hiatus: too much product on the market, the prices for a pack of cards continually rising, getting ready to start college. Up until that time I had strictly collected Topps sets and this year was no different. Yet, when I decided to dive back into the hobby I decided to heed the advice of many collectors and collect only what I liked, nothing more...nothing less. Anyway, I digress. I liked the 1993 Topps design. White border, great photography, and decent graphics at the bottom where the player name was listed. The back of the cards weren't too shabby either. Although I liked the back of the 1992 Topps cards with their photo of the team's stadium, the color photo of the player was a nice change. My only gripe with this set is that there's no team logo or player position on the front of the card. I like my Reds logo of the 90s, not just plain text on the bottom that says "REDS". I just think logos look nicer!

1996 Topps

One word for this set... UNINSPIRING! To say that I'm not a fan of this set would be an understatement. Hate is a strong word, so I'll just say I greatly dislike what Topps released in 1996. The photos are nice, don't get me wrong, but the photos are also part of the problem. Namely, I think Topps was lazy for using the same photo of the player's face superimposed at the bottom of the card. Seriously?! How hard would it have been to just use a different photo instead of the exact same thing! The foil is a nice touch for the front of the card, but what's up with the big orange home plate on the back of the card? Last time I checked, home plates were white and not fuzzy! Such a disappointment. As for a card favorite, if I had to choose it would be Jose Rijo. Sure, Larkin was and still is my favorite Reds player from the 80s to when he retired, but Rijo was an awesome pitcher for the Reds especially in the 1990 World Series. This card takes me back to those glory days of 1990 when everything was right in the world of Reds baseball.

2003 Topps

This was a nice change up for Topps. I don't remember a baseball card having a blue border before 2003, but then again, I'd forget my own head if it weren't attached to my body. The blue was a nice follow up to the gold border Topps used in their base set the year before. The player portrait on the bottom of the card harkens back to previous Topps sets (most notably 1963, 1983 and 1984) and to have it placed in a baseball infield was very ingenious in my own opinion. I think Topps also did a great job placing all the information I look for on the front of a card (player name, position, team logo) without it looking too gaudy and crowded. Photography was nice and my favorite card would have to be the Larkin. Although it captures the captain at the twilight of his career, it shows a nice fielding shot of him. The Reds were sporting my favorite jersey at the time with the cutoff sleeves and pinstripes for a retro 50s look and feel so that just adds to my likability of the card. Well done Topps.

1995 Topps

Not much to say about this set, except that it's another boring Topps set from the 1990s. Since there was so much product out there during this time period I guess I'm not surprised that the name of the game was quantity and not quality. What I do find fascinating about this set is that it appears that the card design resembles a fuzzy dream in that there's no real border on the card, at least from my perspective. It just kind of fades into the picture. The one bright spot is that I love the photo Topps used for Barry Larkin in this set. Barry's one of my all time favorite Reds players and the way he's squared up to bunt, but decides not to in this pic is very sweet. Not only that, but 1995 was his MVP year. Here's hoping that he'll get the call from Cooperstown after the next vote!

1992 Topps

So here's another set that helped to add to the glut of baseball cards in the 1990s. I will say that I do have a soft spot in my heart for the 1992 Topps set. The photos weren't too bad and I liked how on the back of the card a picture of the team's stadium was posted below the stats. Although the era of the cookie cutter stadium was coming to a close, seeing my first baseball game in Riverfront Stadium was nothing short of spectacular. The 1992 Topps Reds set had a lot of competition, especially from it's pristine brother Stadium Club. Regardless, the simplicity of the base product sets will always have my loyalty than the super supreme high end sets that made their debut in the early part of the decade. So here's to you 1992 Topps Barry Larkin! I still love you no matter how much of a plain Jane you may be.

To Relic or Not To Relic

That is the question. And the more I think about it, the more I'm inclined to stay away from purchasing relic cards for my collection. It helps to know that I'm not the only collector out there that has this feeling. In fact just today I read an old post from SportsCollectorOz. While I do admit that I think Relic cards were cool when they first came out, I think they're completely out of hand now and destroying numerous artifacts that would be best left alone and completely preserved. The other thing that troubles me about recent relic cards are their authenticity, as mentioned in a post I read by The Mojo Beard. What the hobby learned from the 90s was that too much of a good thing can be a bad thing when it comes to production and now I think the same can be said for relics.

More Autographed Baseballs

Aside from my autographed team baseballs and the three baseballs from individuals affiliated with the reds that weren't players (Marty Brennaman, Marge Schott, and Hal McCoy), here are the other autographed baseballs in my collection as well as a rundown of why I have them:
Tom Browning - Only Red to throw a perfect game
Johnny Vander Meer - Only pitcher to ever throw back to back no hitters
Chris Sabo - 1988 National League Rookie of the Year
Tommy Helms - 1966 National League Rookie of the Year
Eric Davis - Tied for most grand slams in a month (3)
Frank Robinson - 1956 National League Rookie of the Year and Hall of Famer
Barry Larkin - 1995 National League MVP, 12 time All-Star and future Hall of Famer
Ken Griffey Jr - future Hall of Famer
Joe Nuxhall - youngest player ever in professional baseball (15 years 10 months 11 days old)

Although Robinson (and probably Griffey) was elected to the Hall of Fame not as a Red, he did spend time with the club and made it in to my collection.

1987 Topps

I didn't care much for these cards when they first came out (although the Barry Larkin rookie is pretty sweet) and I don't care much for them now. Maybe it's because I wasn't a big fan of the 1962 Topps set and how it's suppose to mirror a poster applied to a wooden fence, but to me the concept was just plain stupid.....no other way to put it. The only other card I like in this set is the Pete Rose player card, but I guess that's only because I'm a huge Pete Rose fan. I see Pete as a tragic hero for baseball......a man that had a passion for the game and played hard whenever he took the field, but also a man controlled by an addiction that ultimately resulted in his ban from the sport. Sad story really. Just about as sad as the 1987 Topps design.