Welcon to the Hall of Fame Vladimir Guerrero: 2001 Topps Gallery Heritage #GH10

Today's HOF Recognition posts goes to Vlad Guerrero. He is going in as an Angel but I will think of him more as an Expo. For this reason our Vlad HOF posting features the following Expos card.

2001 Topps Gallery Heritage #GH10 Vladimir Guerrero (image swiped from trading card db)

Topps Gallery returned this past fall and I found the cards pretty meh. For me the apex of  Topps Gallery is the 1965T Homage insert that was produced in 2002. Guerrero is the last of the 10 offerings in the set.

Bill Purdom
The artist responsible for the Guerrero portrait above is the late Bill Purdom who appears to have done the artwork for all ten cards in the set. The paintings are all well done and in my opinion superior to anything I have seen in the latest edition of Gallery.

Purdom has done a number of really cool pieces for various baseball entities including the Hall of Fame. His Phillies related subjects include Robin Roberts and Mike Schmidt during the teams 1976 season when the club hosted the All-Star Game

Mike Schmidt Lithograph by Bill Purdom

During the 1976 season the Phillies celebrated the Bicentennial, among the teams various decorations to honor the occasion is the Happy Birthday sign in Left-Centerfield.

1965 Topps
In addition to the original artwork I like how Topps has brought forward the classic 1965 Design. The colors on the card are really sharp and really pop off the cardboard.

Flip

2001 Topps Gallery Heritage #GH10 Vladimir Guerrero (b-side - image swiped from trading card db)

The design carries through to the back. The blue is significantly brighter than on the originals but that doesn't bother me. 

2001 Topps Gallery Heritage Checklist
GH1 Todd Helton
GH2 Greg Maddux
GH3 Pedro Martinez
GH4 Orlando Cepeda
GH5 Willie McCovey
GH6 Ken Griffey, Jr.
GH7 Alex Rodriguez
GH8 Derek Jeter
GH9 Mark McGwire
GH10 Vladimir Guerrero

I am thinking of building this Set and this posting will be an index for those cards. As things stand it appears this set will have 7 or 8 Hall of Famers. Todd Helton who debuts on the 2019 ballot  and A-Rod are the "Maybe" players while Mark McGwire appears doubtful.

Peanut Gallery
Dime Boxes 1998 Topps #5 and others (top 5)
Orioles Card o The Day 2011 Bowman #167
Sports Card Info 1995 Bowmans Best Refractor #2
Padrographs Custom

Vladimir Guerrero Index
1998 Topps #5 HOF Candidacy / Game Dated 1997 05 21
2012 Heritage #108  Pack Break
2009 UD Rivals #R9 Pack Break

Sources and Links
The Art of the Game
Andrews Mortuary
Tom's Old Days
ebay/brotherly love memorabilia
2014 Heritage/1965 Topps Index
Trading Card Database

Fan Authentics Card Show 2015 1030-1031 Oaks PA

I was in a crazy mood for this years Fan Authentics show. I picked up lots of stuff but wasn't looking for anything special. Most of my time was spent in Dime Boxes but I also dedicated a fair chunk of my trip to BuyBacks - which I think were mostly from 2015T Update.

Here are some highlights, If time permits I may come back at a later time and give some of these cards more analysis.

1958 Topps Pancho Herrera

Buybacks made up a big part of my day1 finds. I handn't picked up many Phillies Buy Backs and I believe this Pancho Herrera is my earliest. This card went for 50 cents or a Dollar.

Collecting goal may be to pick up a Phillies BuyBack from each year of Topps.

1974 Topps Steve Carlton BuyBack
1978 Topps World Series Highlight Reggie Jackson

Even found Buybacks of Hall of Famers. Each of the above 70s era cards went for $2.


1959 Topps Buybacks Walt Moryn, Morrie Martin, Murray Wall

Found 3 buybacks from one of my favorite early sets. 50 cents or a Dollar on each.

1975 Topps Jim Kaat

Found lots of 1975T buybacks. Most are destined for Night Owl territory, but Kaat is likely staying in the Phungo collection.

 

1975 Topps Buybacks

These are the 1975T BuyBacks, Twitchell will stay local, the rest are destined to travel.

1974 Topps Fred Kendall Buyback

I bypassed the Padres Kendall initially, until I saw the one with the Phillies flags. Will definitely return to this one at a future date. (.50 each)

Vintage

1958 Topps Kluszewski/Williams

Picked up the Ted's card for $9.

1967 Topps Checker w/ Jim Kaat

Focusing a bit on 1967T a bit getting ready for 2016 Heritage. Curious if the Checklists which have been left out of recent editions of Heritage will return in the upcoming release. The presents of a player on the card may factor in Topps decision.

1973 Topps Dick Allen

This is a Stamp Card as well, but it is of the 75th anniversary variety. ($1)


World Series

1973 Topps World Series Highlights Johnny Bench

And there were buybacks of WS HL cards that included Hall of Famers. ($1-$2)

1967 Topps WS HL Brooks Robinson

More 1967 Topps, This is the Vanilla no stamp variety.  ($1)

 

Special Collections

2010 Topps Ring of Honor Brad Lidge

Another more modern WS Highlight Card. This is one that reps a game that Team Phungo was very happy to have attended. (Dime Box)

Nolan Ryan No-Hitter Number Six

Added to my Nolan Ryan No-Hitter Collection with this one. Will probably be a future posting on this one at some point. (dimebox)

Len Dykstra, Ken Griffey Jr

As part of Our 2016 HoF Ballot feature we discuss this card (DimeBox)

Dom Brown RC Auto

I am not sure that I was supposed to get this but, they were handing out free autographed Dom Brown RCs when I entered the Show on Friday.



 

2015 ASG Franchise Four Johnny Bench

Tonight MLB concluded their Franchise Four promotion. It ended with a ceremonial first pitch that was thrown by Don Sutton and caught by the Reds own Johnny Bench.

1978 Topps #700 Johnny Bench

I wouldn't immediately think of Bench at one of the four greatest living players.

Further research has revealed he has the highest career WAR of all catchers in History and he won two World Championships including 1976 when he was Series MVP.

During his 17 year career the first ballot Hall of Famer represented the Reds on 14 All-Star teams at one of the games most grueling positions. 

1978 Topps 
Johnny Bench's 1978T #700 was his second of six hero number cards. Judging by the era and condition of this card I believe it is from the v1.0 Phungo Collection.

Johnny Bench HoF Index 
2011 Topps #198 Legends Variation
2014 Topps Heritage Draft Pick Cards

Sources and Links
2015 ASG Coverage
baseball-ref
baseball card database

50th Anniversary of the June Draft - 36th overall pick Johnny Bench

This week the MLB will be holding their annual amateur draft. 2015 marks the 50th anniversary of the event which was first held in 1965. With the Phillies in Cincinnati to face the Reds it is an apt time for us to discuss the best hitter taken in the initial MLB draft. 

2014 Topps Heritage #65MLB-JB2 Johnny Bench

With their 2nd pick (36th overall) the Cincinnati Reds took Catcher Johnny Bench from Oklahoma City OK.

Using WAR as a barometer Bench (75.0) was the most successful position player taken in the original draft. The runner up to Bench was Graig Nettles (68.0 WAR, Twins - 4th round 74th pick)

There were also two prominent pitchers taken in 1965: Tom Seaver (Dodgers - 10th rd 193rd pk - did not sign, 110.5 WAR) and Nolan Ryan (Mets - 12th rd 295 pk, 81.8 WAR)

Among backstops 2nd place went to 1st round and 7th overall pick Ray Fosse (Indians 12.9 WAR)

The Phillies most successful selection from the 65 draft was Larry Hisle (24.9 WAR - 2nd round, 38th overall). The club failed to sign their first pick Mike Adamson (18th overall) but that is a subject best saved for another posting. 

2014 Heritage - 1965 Draft Insert Set

2014 Topps Heritage #65MLB-JB Johnny Bench

The 2014 Heritage 1st Draft insert set is a bit peculiar. There are only four cards which fall 1 in every 12 packs - the entire set can be built from 2 hobby boxes. The set only has three subjects because Johnny Bench appears on two cards. The other two players are Ryan and Nettles.

2014 Topps Heritage #65MLB-JB Johnny Bench (b-side)


Sources and Links
Johnny Bench HoF Index
baseball-ref
Cardboard Connection

2014 Topps A&G: Quick Hits and Thoughts

Yeah I am way behind on this quick hit review but I am going to publish it anyway.

Picked up a Rack Pack and a single of 2014 Topps A&G a few weeks back. These are the Highlights.

 

2014 Topps A&G #307 Cliff Lee 

Decent Design, still says Ginter but it just different enough form other sets to keep it interesting. 

The Team Name dwarfing the player name is a bit jarring. This is a departure from prior A&G designs.  For most part past A&G designs have not featured team names. In 2011 a square team logo was displayed on each card.

Lee was the only Phillies player I got in the bounty. 

2014 Topps A&G Heritage #223 Tony Gwynn

I don't remember how many cars I picked up in the packs. I am thinking 24. Close to half of them were Hall of Famers. This is probably my favorite out of those - Pulling a card of the recently deceased Tony Gwynn brought a pang of sadness to me. 

2014 Topps A&G 129 Hank Aaron

2014 Topps A&G 228 Orlando Cepeda

2014 Topps A&G 215 Johnny Bench

I have a pretty solid HoF cards collection and these are nice additions. I like the classic Braves uni on Hammerin' Hanks card. 

2014 Topps A&G Minis

Minis are always a highlight of AnG. The Carew and Wacha cards are both members of the 3 card special border pack that comes inside rack packs. Massaccio was a painter, the image Topps used is directly from wikipedia - glad I spent $3 on that pack.

2014 Topps A&G Pastimes #PP-MT Mike Trout #PP-NR Nolan Ryan

I think this is the 2014 A&G common insert. The B-sides lists the players hobbies - Trout collects baseball cards, Nolan runs a baseball team. 

#100 Queen Victoria @#119 Felicia Day

Some of the non-baseball cards in this year's set. Here we have the one time Queen of England and an actress from "Buffy the Vampire Slayer"

 

At the outset A&G inserts were always minis, not so much anymore. Neither of these do anything for me, maybe if I see some of these other members of these sets I will change my mind, but both of these are losers.

 

Pull N Junk of the Month - February 2011 - Mostly Catchers Edition

I had intended to do a whole Retail v Hobby comparison of 2011 Topps, but sort of lost my momentum on that one as I (and many others) seemed to be suffering from new release fatigue.

I picked up three packs each of Topps Retail and Topps Hobby this month plus 1 rack pack.  Out of those seven packs I was pretty happy to come up with this pull:

2011 Topps Legends Variation #198 Johnny Bench

Amazingly enough this came out of a Target gravity feeder.

Apparently the Legends Variations are pretty rare, with a 1:80 seed ratio for HTA boxes according to BaseballCardPedia.

The #198 Bench Variation shares #198 with the San Francisco Giants fine young catcher Buster Posey.

(click to enlarge)

My question to you is if you only bought 3 packs at a retail outlet and got a hit, would you:
A) return to the same store and pick up another set of packs
B)go to another retail outlet knowing that the first store was tapped out of hits
C)quit while you were ahead?

2011 Topps Phillies

2011 Topps Carlos Ruiz

Six packs plus a rack pack and I come up with 1 stinkin Phillies card. But we have a Catchers theme posts going so The Ruiz card is appropriate

Junk of the Month

(click to enlarge)

The team cards all have season highlights on the back, unfortunately one of the BoSox Highlights happens to be a Phils low-light when Joe Blanton through a clunker of a game which included giving up a Grand Slam Home Run to Daniel Nava in Nava's first career AB on the first pitch the rookie saw at the major league level.

Honorable mention:

Yet another Catcher themed card - These are CYMTO 2011 to me.  who needs them.   

2010 Pull of the Year
 
I also wanted to take the time to note the 2010 Pull of the Year.  And we have another great pick featuring one more catcher - but he is a very special catcher.      

2009 Goodwin Champions Black Border Mini Gypsy Queen Back #62 Yogi Berra

Thanks all for helping me pick out the 2010 Pull of the Year via a series of Poles - And also Junk of the Year.

2010 was the year of the mini for me - so it is very appropriate that the Pull of the Year was a mini and a 2009 Goodwin, which is one of my favorite sets that I discovered in 2010.

Previous 2011 Pull N Junk Posts
2011 January