2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Rack Pack Break

Picked up a Rack Pack of Gypsy Queen at the big T this week. The rack went for $10 and included three 6-card packs plus a "bonus" 3-card pack of framers.

Here are the highlights althoug GQ really isn't my thing - pithy comments will be minimal.

2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Gary Sanchez (base & framed)

One of the three framed cards I picked up was Yankees prospect Gary Sanchez, We also picked up the base card which gives us the opportunity to put up the above side/side.

2016 Topps Gypsy Queen #321 Tony Perez (sp)

The bottom 50 cards in the GQ set are short-prints of retired players, mostly Hall of Famers. Thankfully the HOF SPs doen't interfere with building a set including today's stars.  We will hopefully return to this one in our 1976 ASG feature. And there is a Sloppy Topps issue with this card as well. 

2016 Topps Gypsy Queen Andrelton Simmons,  Jayson Heyward, Scott Kazmir, Zach Greinke 

The April release date for GQ gives Topps more of an opportunity to photoshop players into their new unis. There were at least the above four among our 18 cards. 

2016 Topps GQ #133 Mike Trout

I am all for card photos from other POV, but this one strikes me as a lil dull for a superstar of Trout's caliber.

2016 Topps GQ Power Alley PA-7 Dave Winfield

Home Run Hitters Insert.

2016 Topps Mini MVP #MVPM-BL Barry Larkin

Between this and the Perez SP it was kind of a Reds Hot Pack. Neither the Power Alley nor Mini MVP insert sets contain any Phillies.

Alex Cobb, Mike Moustakas, Charlie Blackmon, Yasiel Puig

The rest of our minis and framed cards are above.

21 Cards no Phillies.

Sources and Links
cardboard connection
baseball-ref

Happy New Year - Year of the Dragon

On Janary 23rd the Year of the Dragon will commence.  Today we are going to check out some famous Baseball Dragons:

1940 Ron Santo
1964 Barry Larkin

We start out with this years Hall of Fame inductees Ron Santo and Barry Larkin,  Pretty cool Larkin card - Cooperstown Collection issued 2 decades prior to his actual election.  Like Santo, Willie Stargell is also a 1940 Dragon and a Hall of Famer.    

1976 Pat Burrell

It is starting to appear as if Pat the Bat will not hook up with a team for 2012.  He had a mixed career in Philadelphia, but won a World Championship in the end and then went on to win another championship with the Giants in 2010.  Pretty nice finish.  Form Phil Randy Wolf is also a Dragon from the 1976 birth year.

1952 Fred Lynn
1988 Clayton Kershaw

Our next pair of Dragons features young Phenoms.  Well Fred Lynn was a young Phenom when he won both the Rookie of the Year and MVP award in the same year (1975).  Clayton Kershaw is of course the reigning Cy Young award winner. Fellow Dodger Dee Gordon is also a class of 1988 Dragon.  

1916 Enos Slaughter
1928 Billy Martin 

These two are both Fiery Dragons.  I picked up the 57 Topps Slaughter card out of a 3 for a dollar bin a few years back - of course that is because the back is marred to the point of being non-existent.  Billy Martin's longtime teammate Whitey Ford was also born in 1928.

1880 Christy Mathewson
1904 Chuck Klein

We finish with a couple of retro cards of Hall of Famers who played in the first half of the previous century.  The Mathewson card is from the Great Ones insert series of 2011 Gypsy Queen.  Chuck Klein comes from a 1970s Fleer issue. 


1964 Dragons
I just wanted to note that the 64 Dragons are quite the PED class and include Canseco, Palmiero, and Bonds.

Sources and Links
Ron Santo HoF Index
Pat Burrell PC Index