Changeup

According to Merriam-Webster, the definition of the term changeup is "a slow pitch in baseball thrown with the same motion as a fastball in order to deceive the batter". Wikipedia also mentions other names for the term changeup including: change, off-speed pitch, or change-of-pace. Over the weekend I was taking a look at the rookie cards I had acquired of Nick Senzel for my Senzational Rookies project and decided to change things up. While I could try to track down the numerous parallels of certain cards I had listed on the blog, specifically Bowman, Bowman's Best, Topps Update, Heritage and Chrome, I would be spending a large chunk of change on acquiring those cards just for different color borders and lower print runs. I've already attempted the rainbow thing with Joey Votto and his 2013 Topps Cards and I've been tracking down parallels for my 2008 Joey Votto rookie project. It just didn't make sense to me to throw a lot of money chasing parallels for this project too. Besides, it's been a while since I've devoted any funds to some of my vintage team sets and I would like to add more T206 and Goudey cards to my Reds binders before the end of the year. With that in mind, I've drastically pared down the number of Senzel rookie cards I'm chasing from 90 to 40. What boggles my mind is that out of those 50 cards I cut, all but 3 were parallels. I should definitely have this project wrapped up by the end of the year.

It's been 2 years!

That's right, it's been 2 years since I've been able to add a card to my 2013 Topps Joey Votto Rainbow project. Talk about a dry spell. This card appeared on eBay last week with an option of Buy it Now or Best Offer. Needless to say, I decided to pay full price for this card since this was only the second time since 2013 that I had seen a copy. The card arrived yesterday in the mail and I've already added the card to the binder. This marks my 36th card for this project. My goal is to track down four more cards for this project: 2013 Topps Factory Orange numbered to 230, 2013 Topps Silver Slate Framed numbered to 10, 2013 Topps Opening Day Toys R Us Purple, and a 2013 Topps Chrome Pink Refractor numbered to 5. At the rate I'm going now, I should have this wrapped up in 2030.

2020 Topps Reds Base Set is On the Way

I ordered my Series 1 Topps 2020 Cincinnati Reds Team Set today on eBay. Today's also the first day that I saw the design for this year's flagship brand from Topps. I'm not too thrilled with the look of this year's design. For whatever reason, I just get the feeling that Topps is slowly blending the look of it's flagship brand with Bowman. I can't stand it. You could once tell what cards belonged to what brand...now, not so much. In addition to that, Topps also decided to include short prints once again in this year's release. Some are ok, but this is the second consecutive year that they've included a super short print (that being the Aquino closeup). It's bad enough that the Aquino short prints are selling in the $40 price range on eBay and I've yet to see a super short print appear on the site. I'm sure those will be going well north of $100. Maybe in a few weeks the prices will drop as everyone's rushing to buy their cards now, but I doubt those Aquinos will fall simply because of what he did at the end of last season and the fact that his card has that little RC logo on it.

The Only Football Set I'll Own

Over the weekend I decided to purchase a complete 500 card set of 1991 Topps Stadium Club Football. I remember my mom getting a wax box (if you want to call it that even though the packs were plastic) of this for me Christmas 1991. It was fantastic tearing into it, looking at the full bleed photos and flipping each card over to look at the player's rookie card photo on the back. I loved everything about the Stadium Club brand in their inaugural debut. I've now acquired the baseball, football and hockey sets from that year. I'm on the fence as to whether or not I should track down the Charter Member and Member Only sets as well as the Stadium Club dome set. They're not "must haves" for me but I think it would be neat to have the full run from 1991 since I did want those cards 29 years ago. What about you guys? Are there still cards your on the fence about collecting that you wanted when you were younger?

The Pinnacle of My Collection

It's a new year and time to add a new set. I felt like there was a gaping hole in my collection that just needed to be filled. I started collecting baseball cards in 1986 and was very involved in the hobby through 1993. During that time we had some new players come on the scene. Score and Upper Deck came decided to show up to the party to give Topps, Donruss and Fleer a run for their money. It was during this time that companies tried to one up each other with releasing premium sets mostly to compete with Upper Deck's debut in 1989. Donruss released it's Leaf brand in 1990, followed by Topps showcasing it's Stadium Club brand and Fleer releasing Ultra in 1991 and Score debuting it's Pinnacle line in 1992 while Topps released it's revamped Bowman line that focused heavily on rookies that same year. Then Topps decided to get crazy and release Finest in 1993 and things just went berserk after that. For a while I had a complete 1992 Bowman set in my collection, but I never really cared for the design. Maybe it was the way stats were displayed on the back or the candid photos of rookies in their street clothes. Regardless, I got rid of the set a few years ago and created the predicament I had, no set for 1992. Well, I finally filled that hole today when I purchased a complete set of 1992 Pinnacle for less than a blaster from eBay. While I still have the insert sets to chase down, I'm glad to own the base set and I'm glad this hole is finally filled in my collection.

Puck-er Up

Every now and then I think back to card shops I visited as a kid that have been closed now for years. Whether it was walking round the perimeter of the store gazing are the cards in penny sleeves that were thumb tacked to the cork boards, peering at the vintage cards that were piled up in the display cases, or even gazing at the latest and greatest wax boxes that were stacked behind those same display cases, each of those memories makes me long to go back to that time when cards were king and life was so much simpler. One of those wax boxes that I had always admired (and even bought a few pack) was 1991 Stadium Club Hockey. I wasn't a huge hockey fan growing up and even today I don't really follow the sport. I attend a game or two here in Cleveland every year to watch the Lake Erie Monsters (the Columbus Blue Jacket's minor league hockey team) but that's about it. That being said, I love everything about the early iterations of Stadium Club. It doesn't matter if it's baseball, football or hockey, I think these cards are fantastic. This past weekend I was able to purchase a complete 400 card set off eBay for $12 shipped. I'm glad to have this set back in my collection and I'm hoping that sometime next year I can get the 1991 Stadium Club football set. Maybe I'll even track down some wax boxes of these three sets. I'm just grateful that these packs are no longer $5 each.

Schnozz

This is my second Goudey Reds card from the 1934 set. This was one of the more expensive cards I'm chasing in this set, the other being Chick Haffey. Lombardi was voted into the Hall of Fame in 1986 by the Veteran's Committee. In addition to being known for his big nose, hence the nickname, but also for "Lombardi's Big Snooze" during the 1939 World Series. According to Wikipedia, during the fourth game of the 1939 World Series, in the 10th inning, with the score tied and runners on first and third, Joe DiMaggio singled. One run scored, then Reds outfielder Ival Goodman fumbled the ball. Yankees right fielder Charlie "King Kong" Keller, well known for his sturdy physique, beat the throw to catcher Lombardi and inadvertently hit "The Schnozz" in his groin. Unfortunately for the Reds and Lombardi, he had failed to wear his protective cup and Lombardi was in pain and dazed. DiMaggio raced around the bases and scored while the ball was just a few feet away from the dazed Lombardi. The press was hugely critical of the sensitive catcher because of this and it came to be known as "Lombardi's Big Snooze".