Jeter & Mantle Reunite in Topps 2008

I am not, nor have I ever been a Yankees fan, but what Topps did with Derek Jeter's card in its 2008 Series 2 is intriguing. First of all, Jeter is checklisted on card #455. (You'd think that the captain of the most famous team in American sports would at least garner a 2nd Tier number.)

The second thing is that the spirit of Mickey Mantle makes an appearance in the photograph. In the upper-left of the photo, a fan is wearing a #7 t-shirt. Nothing really bad about it, but does it have to be there? Presumably, the Topps photography team had more than one shot of Jeter from which to choose. So why go with this one? If they had wanted to include the essence of Mantle, why not go all-out and show Jeter in the Yankees Clubhouse store, purchasing a Mantle jersey? That might be kind of fun, in an US Weekly way: Baseball Players Are Just Like Us!

Chuck Stobbs, RIP

Chuck Stobbs died two weeks ago, and I can't help but think that, like Al Downing, he made more history with one pitch than he did the rest of his career. In April of 1953, Stobbs gave up the longest home run ever recorded (a whopping 565 feet) to someone named Mickey Mantle.

And even though it's not something he probably wanted to be remembered for, it's almost a perfect highlight to a relatively inglorious career spent mostly with the Washington Senators.

Read More:

The Tale of Chuck Stobbs (WashingtonPost.com)

Best of 2008 (so far)

I came out from under my rock yesterday for the good of some new cards. A few quick thoughts: Topps flagship disappoints in terms of photography and overall base card design. Also the incessant need for them to include a bounty of checklists, when really they should seed them one or two to a box. Also, a number of their inserts strike out, notably Own the Game, Mantle Home Run History (seriously, let's put this one to bed, Topps), and a needless gold foil parallel (I think I got a gold foil card in my pack, but I can't really tell the difference between the regular silver and special gold foils).

I like the gold-bordered parallel, as the gold helps balance the photograph on the front--much better than the regular white. Also winners: 50th Anniversary Rookie Team and Trading Card History inserts. The store where I got my cards had packs of TCH cards 26 - 30 (including the Ryan Howard 1982, above).

I also picked up a pack of the new Upper Deck, and I have to admit: I like the idea of getting 20 cards in a pack. I'm not so much a fan of paying $5 for a pack, though. Take it down to $3 per and I'm on board. Unlike my card blogger counterparts, the delicate silver foil name doesn't bother me so much, though I feel like UD has got to put more thought into the backs; they land somewhere between Fleer and a CBS Sports graphic. And you can count me as an early fan of the photography. This one of Jake Peavy is a contender for Card Photo of the Year.


For a full pack breakdown, see my post on A Pack A Day.

User Friendly

In less than 24 hours, the entire American media will be consumed with Roid Rage. Columnists and bloggers will never have had it so easy, with myriad angles to cover, so-called big names to out and moralizing to be done. But the question that probably won't be raised (because it doesn't sell papers) is: Does anybody actually care? Seriously. Do you really want to know if your favorite sports star has injected himself with more hormones than a Perdue chicken?

I mean, read any anecdotal baseball book and you'll see that ballplayers have been popping greenies since the Seventies. It's one of the things that ballplayers are all about: getting an edge, acting batshit crazy on the road, and winning the World Series. But you still like those players from the Good Ol' Days, right? You still collect their cards. Even if they were users.

And what about the Pittsburgh Drug Trials? Players were buying cocaine from the Pittsburgh Parrot, for chrissakes. Sure, it may have ruined Tim Raines's and Dave Parker's chances at making the Hall of Fame, but Keith Hernandez figured into that stuff as well, and well, he's still a well-liked baseball celebrity.

Baseball has probably weathered more vice charges than any other sport in America, and may rank second to soccer on the world stage in terms of public relations nightmare scandals and fuck ups.

Here's a handful of other good times: Hal Chase gambling on games while still on the field playing in them, Tris Speaker and Ty Cobb fixing a game in 1927, legends Mickey Mantle and Willie Mays banned for life for appearing at a casino, and who could forget Sammy Sosa losing his grasp on English before the Senate Committee? Yes, it's easy to make it through a whole post on baseball's storied scandals without even mentioning Pete Rose or the Black Sox. (Well, almost.)

So let's face facts. There will be hundreds if not thousands of articles written on the Mitchell Report. ESPN will launch special coverage and Pedro Gomez will go without sleep for six weeks as Barry Bonds will most certainly be named in the report.

Will card prices suffer? Cards of The Asterisk have had plenty o'time to have the bottom fall out, and if anything, it's been a slow decline. But what about others? I just don't see it happening. Well, unless Clemens is named...

The Arms Race Continues

Boy, what a year Topps has put together, eh? They started 2007 with Jeter, Mantle and The Prez. From there it was on to what seemed like six long months of speculation, back-stabbing boardroom greed and the eventual buyout that polarized the hobby. So how have they followed it up? With a whoopsie on Michael Vick and now a slew of 'errors' in their brand-new baseball Series 3.

What can we take away from all of this? At its most base, it shows that it's a hobby for us but a cutthroat business for the manufacturers. One minute Topps is fighting off a hostile takeover from Upper Deck, the next they're figuring out ways to head UD off at the pass not only with Joba Chamberlain and Jacoby Ellsbury rookies, but with a Joba error and a super-rare Ellsbury not even on the set checklist.

And what's with that Ellsbury, anyway? Traditionally, Topps Series 3 (or Traded, or Updates & Milestones, or whatever) has been for late-season call-ups, trades and other stuff they couldn't fit in the set. But didn't this change with the designated rookie card? I thought the point of all the hoopla about using the standard 'rookie card' logo was to eliminate cards of guys like Jacoby from regular sets. First of all, he didn't have enough at-bats to qualify for rookie status. So that opens up a whole can of worms in trying to determine his true rookie card, because after his stellar play in September and just this past week on the national stage, you know he's going to be one of the major rookies for 2008 sets.

I don't know how I feel about all of this. Topps' strategy towards their baseball card products has been somewhat predictable this year, and these developments only cement their reputation. It begs the question: Do they employ the worst quality-control staffers in the business? Or do they have such a grim outlook towards their own product that they feel it won't sell without an error or two?