CTB: 1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (ASR)

Our Second of Three 1996 HOF Profiles featuring inductees who were also honored on Rookie Cup Cards is of Phillies Nemesis Andruw Jones.  

1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (image swiped from tcdb)

On this card we have a quality action shot of Andruw just prior to contact - something that would result in hits 1933 times during Jones 17 year career (2541 hits as a professional). His Career Home Run totals were even more impressive 434 MLB/550 Pro. 

Notice on the card that Jones is wearing the Jackie Robinson 50th Anniversary Patch that all players wore during the 1997 season. Andruw finished 5th in the Rookie of the Year Voting - an Award that has been named after Jackie Robinson since 1987.  Nice seeing Two Hall of Famers represented on a rookie cup (keep reading there's more!) 

Rookie Cup Credentials 

Before his 1997 rookie campaign even started Andruw Jones was already a World Series hero who hit a Pair of Home Runs vs the Yankees, albeit in a losing effort. 

To earn his ROY votes Andruw Jones played a full NL season in 1997 with 18 HR, 70 RBI but only a .231 AVG (93 OPS+ / +3.3 WAR) which was similar to the 3 Cup Team outfielders - Jose Cruz Jr (26/68/.248, 101/+2.2), Jose Guillen (14/70/.267, 82/-3.3). Mike Cameron has a Snub Beef (14/55/.259, 109/+4.4) as does Vlad SR (.302 BA, 117 OPS+). In fact the BBWAA ranked Guerrero ahead of Guillen by a handful of votes on the NL side and Cameron received more AL votes then Guillen did within the NL bracket.  

Flip

1998 Topps #334 Andruw Jones (b-side image also tcdb)   

First we want to look at the demographic info and note that Andruw Jones was the 3rd MLB player from Curacao, after Hensley Meulens (1989) and Ralph Milliard (1996). In the 3 decades since Andruw Jones the number of players born in Curacao has grown to 17 (that is a 560% increase for a territory that had ZERO players 40 years ago)

Moving down the text mentions Jones as both an Offensive and Defensive threat. And he was - Andruw just missed the 20/20 targets during his rookie campaign but did hit them 3 times in his early career. In the Outfield he earned 10 gold gloves. 2005 was his standout season where he led the league in HR & RBI with 51 & 128 respectively (+6.7 WAR) good enough for 2nd place in the NL MVP voting (Albert Pujols 41/117/.330 +8.4 WAR) 

We also get a quote from Andruw Jones' Manager Bobby Cox that invokes the name of another well known CenterFielder, Joe DiMaggio. If you're keeping score at home that is 4 HOF on a single Rookie Cup Card Andruw, Jackie, Bobby Cox (as a Manager) and Joe D. 

Andruw Jones HOF Index

1998 Topps #334 (Rookie Cup)

2001 Topps Stadium Club Pat Burrell (Game Dated Card/Phungo Challenge)

Sources and Link

1998 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index

TCDB

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball-Ref

CTB: 1993 Topps #703 Jeff Kent

Jeff Kent was recently voted into the Hall of Fame by the Contemporary Era Committee making him the 35th All-Star Rookie Cup winner to also be honored in the Hall (Carlos Betlran & Andruw Jones bring us to 37)

1993 Topps #703 Jeff Kent (image stolen from  Lifetime Topps Project)

Jeff Kent earned the 1993 TASR for second base by posting 11 Home Runs and 50 RBI in 102 Games. His Batting Average was only .239 but it should be noted Kent had enough Walks and Power to post a 105 OPS+.

Toronto Blue Jays

However the bulk of Jeff Kent's 1992 season was played with a team that is not on the card, the Blue Jays. After debuting with Toronto April 12th Jeff played 65 games before being dealt to the Mets for David Cone. 

The deal worked for the Blue Jays who won their first Word Championship and for Cone who earned the first of his FIVE Rings. 

Andy Stankiewicz

Across Town the Yankees had their own rookie Second Baseman, Andy Stankewicz who like Jeff Kent had a decent if unspectacular rookie year: .268 AVG, 2.7 WAR. TASR authority hiflew who covers cards for Cards from the Quarry make an argument for Andy Stankewicz to win the award over Jeff Kent - check the details here. 

Of course in the end Kent had a better career than Stankiewicz whose 7 marginal seasons were not Hall worthy. 

Flip

1993 Topps #703 Jeff Kent (image stolen from TCDB)

Dave Blume is still in scouting, he is currently with the Orioles organization. Thirty years after signing Jeff Kent still cites the HOF second baseman among his highlights. 

Jeff Kent HOF Index

1993 Topps #703 (Rookie Cup)

2010 Phungo #37: 2012 Survivor Phillippines

Sources and Link
1993 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index

LifeTime Topps Project

Cards from the Quarry

National Baseball Hall of Fame

Baseball-Ref

TCDB

Baltimore Orioles

Golden Mountain California Media

2026 Topps Two-Pack Break

I picked up a pair of 36 card fat packs at my LCS on Topps Opening Day. I challenge anyone to get more Doubles than I received in these two packs. 

Pack Highlights 

Before I get to the low-lights of the dupes I want to show some of the cards I liked. First off are the commons.

2026 Topps Trevor Megill

The first card of 2026 was Brewers Closer Trevor Megill. I like this card because almost all of the pitcher cards are exactly the same. It is nice to get action shots but there is so little variety in those action shots. 

Battery 

2026 Topps Bryan Woo, Michael Wacha, Logan Webb & Sean Murphy

Fairly typical pitchers photos for recent sets. Sean Murphy is the only catcher in the two packs that was shown catching. There were at least two catchers pictured running.

Infield

2026 Topps CJ Abrams, Kristian Campbell, Ben Williamson& Vlad jr

A couple of goofy jerseys here. I think Campbell is the only FS. I do like the CJ Abrams bat flip out of frame.

Outfield 

2026 Topps Jhostoynxon Garcia, Aroldis Garcia, James Wood & Byron Buxton

Getting Password may be the highlight of non-Phils 

Speaking of Phillies, we have one of the newest Phils in Aroldis Garcia with a good celebration going.

Speaking of Phillies 

2026 Topps Jhoan Duran, Bryce Harper, Edmundo Sosa & FoilBoard Cool Crushers (Schwarber and Harper) 

I always appreciate the use of the Liberty Bell Logo.

Between the 4 cards three different home jerseys are represented. 

Kind of a Meh Harper card - unless you hate the electric blue city connect than I suppose it's worse than meh.

Team Cards

2026T team cards: Dodgers, Dodgers b-side, Blue Jays Royals

Next up Team Cards. 

one good thing about getting a boatload of dupes is you can feature a front & back in the same shot. 

but these are a bit weak.

How does the Dodgers Team Card not have  the words "World Series" on the b-side? 

And what's with the Team Leader stats not having THE STAT?

Inserts

2026 Topps Titans of the Game De La Cruz & Mike Trout

Stars Insert Devers & Roman Anthony

Each pack had a couple of what I assume are continuity inserts. 

2 different styles but basically similar. one has baseballs the other has stars. kind of lazy kids.

Retro Inserts

2026 Topps 91T Roman Anthony, Matt Shaw ASR, 91T Mickey Mantle

Closing the feature cards with the Retro Inserts and Rookie Cup Cards. 

1991 Topps is solid so this is a nice retro - I wonder how many other 1991 cards Mantle is on. 

Bit of RedSox hot pack, couple of Roman Anthony Inserts, the FS Khristian Campbell and Password. 

And The Dupes

Out of 72 card between the two packs I was cursed with 19 Duplicates! that is over 25% of the cards

19 duplicate cards in 2026 Topps

A lot of this is just bad luck. I chose two packs from different spots in the bin and probably should stick to picking back2back packs.  Still this is some pretty lousy collation. 

2026 Topps

Overall I think it is a mediocre year. Good enough to open a few packs but I doubt I will ever build the set. Getting all those dupes may have soured my already muted opinion on the set, regardless my collecting new cards is winding down and the odds of me building a new set in the future is fairly slim. 

2026 Topps Rookie Cup Team Series 1

This is an index to postings related to the 2026 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which honored rookies from the 2025 season. 

2026 Topps #27 Matt Shaw

S2	Drake Baldwin	Atlanta Braves	C	2026
97	Nick Kurtz	Athletics	1B	2026
3	Luke Keaschall	Minnesota Twins	2B	2026
27	Matt Shaw	Chicago Cubs	3B	2026
204	Jacob Wilson	Athletics	SS	2026
202	Isaac Collins	Kansas City Royals	OF	2026
189	Roman Anthony	Boston Red Sox	OF	2026
37	Jakob Marsee	Miami Marlins	OF	2026
287	Agustín Ramírez	Miami Marlins	DH	2026
S2	Cade Horton	Chicago Cubs	RHP	2026
S2	Noah Cameron	Kansas City Royals	LHP	2026
S2	Jack Dreyer	Los Angeles Dodgers	RP	2026

At publication only 8 of the Dozen ASR card numbers were known. The S2 cards will be filled in whenever that checklist is published 

Sources and Links
All-Star Rookie Index

Topps

Beckett

2021 Topps Rookie Cup Team

This is an index to postings related to the 2021 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which honored rookies from the 2020 season.

2021 Topps #277 Alec Bohm

349	Sean Murphy	Athletics	C	2021
575	Jared Walsh	Angels	1B	2021
371	Jake Cronenworth	Padres	2B	2021
277	Alec Bohm	Phillies	3B	2021
339	Willi Castro	Tigers	SS	2021
539	Luis Robert	White Sox	OF	2021
42	Kyle Lewis	Mariners	OF	2021
641	Ryan Mountcastle	Orioles	OF	2021
642	Tony Gonsolin	Dodgers	RHP	2021
643	Kwang-Hyun Kim	Cardinals	LHP	2021
644	Devin Williams	Brewers	RP	2021

Sources and Links
All-Star Rookie Index

Baseball-Ref 

CTB: 2025 Topps Holiday #H182 Jackson Chourio (candy cane sleeve variation)

Covering the Bases(CTB) is a feature where we take a deep dive into a single card, today we look at a recent Topps Rookie Cup Winner. 

A recent LCS purchase of a 59 card Topps Holiday Tin yielded 3 All-Star Rookie Cup, one of which was an image variation.

2025 Topps Holiday #H182 Jackson Chourio

This is such a great image that one may not notice Jackson Chourio has antlers and a right sleeve wrapped in a candy cane pattern.

Rookie Cup

Chourio earned the outfield Rookie Cup with a 21 Home Run 79 RBI season which was good enough for 3rd place in the NL Rookie of the Year voting behind Padres Centerfielder Jackson Merrill and Paul Skenes.  

Base

2025 Topps #376 Jackson Chourio (from TCDB)

On the Base Card we see Chourio sans antlers and wearing a Milwaukee Brewers team colored yellow sleeve. We also see the original team label border without the Holiday Evergreen Garland. The remainder of the card is identical including the great action shot and Rookie Cup flare. 

Game Dating

The uniqueness of this shot made it easy to find in Getty Images and it turned out to be a big moment in Jackson Chourio's rookie campaign.

Stacy Revere photo of Jackson Chourio in Getty Images dated 2024 Jun 26 

The text accompanying the photo reveals something fun "Jackson Chourio #11 of the Milwaukee Brewers slides safely into home following an inside the park home run against the Texas Rangers" 

Jackson Chourio's eighth career Home Run can be seen here. In the video we can see the In the Park Home Run is largely due to a misplay by Texas Rangers Center Fielder Derek Hill and Jackson Chourio's aggressive base running. Milwaukee won the game 6-5 so the two out in the park home run may very well have been a difference maker. 

Topps Now

2024 MLB ToppsNow #349 (image via ToppsNow) 

Jackson Chourio's first ITPHR was also chronicled in 2024 as part of the Topps Now series. Here we see Chourio just after the plays completion with a sly smile indicating the Venezuelan Rookie is keenly aware of what he had just done. Topps has added a nice bit of text indicating that Jackson is the youngest to accomplish the feat since future Hall of Famer Ken Griffey Jr did it in 1989.  

Photographer Stacey Revere 

The images used on both the Rookie Cup and ToppsNow cards were taken by Stacey Revere, a self taught Native American(Choctaw) Photographer who is based in Milwaukee. In addition to covering the World Series, NBA Finals, Olympics, SuperBowls, Indy500 and the UFC Revere has also worked to bring attention to issues affecting Native Communities. 

A really interesting Andscape profile of Stacey Revere can be found here. Among the topics covered are the persistence of the Cleveland Indians name and use of Chief Wahoo as a Mascot. Stacey Revere's Photography site can be found here. 

Team Phungo

Have not posted here in a while, not sure if this is a return. If it is future posts will likely be similar to this. CTBs on Rookie Cups, Phillies and HOFs.

in the meantime I ask you to check out my baseball trivia game Starting9. For details on game play click here. 

Sources and Links
2025 Topps All-Star Rookie Cup Index

Game Dated Cards

Stacey Revere

AndScape

Getty Images

ToppsNow

Baseball-Ref

mlb.com

TCDB

Beckett

1993 Topps Rookie Cup Team

This is an index to postings related to the 1993 Topps All-Star Rookie Team which honored rookies from the 1992 season. 

1993 Topps #331 Kenny Lofton

• RHP – Cal Eldred
• LHP – Dave Fleming
• C – Todd Hundley
• 1B – Eric Karros
• 703:  2B – Jeff Kent 
• 3B – Scott Livingstone
• SS – Pat Listach
• OF – Kenny Lofton, 
• OF - Moises Alou, 
• OF Reggie Sanders

Sources and Links
All-Star Rookie Index
Baseball-Ref

LifeTime Topps Project

Cards from the Quarry

TCDB