1986 Topps Yoenis Cespedes Card Surfaces

As part of their Fantasy preview MLB.coms 1986ish Topps Cards includes this one of Yoenis Cespedes. 

Faux 1986 Topps Yoenis Cespedes

For the earlier Phungo post on Yoenis click here.   Note that the spelling change on the first name.

MLB.com fantasy report feartures 1986 Topps knock offs

MLB.com publishes a fantasy baseball preview profiling the leagues players, In a nice nod to baseball cards of the past MLB creates custom cards of each players to accompany their player summaries. 

This year they sort of used 1986 topps.  While the 1986 Topps design is somewhat minimalist, due to the sheer volume of 1986 cards it is quite memorable.  I am not as enthralled with this years sample as past years, but they are interesting to check out.  

Every year these cards sort of appear like UD Vintage or OPC cards where they try to recycle an old Topps Design, but change it just enough that it isn't really "stealing".  Not sure why MLB.com chooses to do this.  They are already in cahoots w/ Topps, so why not just use the design or build it into the partnership.  You would think Topps would be all for the idea. 

Faux 1986 Topps Cole Hamels

You can tell they are going for 86 topps, but right away you can tell that things are a bit askew.  The Fonts on both the team and player names are way out of whack - A subtler difference is the position is in a box while in 1986 Topps it was in a circle. 

For a more detailed look at 86 Topps - check out the 1986topps blog. 

New Phils

Faux 1986 Topps Jonathan Papelbon

I think this is the first card of the closer as a Phil!

Faux 1986 Topps Dontrelle Willis

And dare I say Super Short Print #333??

Faux 1986 Topps Prince Fielder  

Previous Previews

2011 (1983 Topps)

2010 (1987 Topps)

2012 Topps Hanger Pack All-Stars

This set of cards isn't really a set of all-stars, it is more of an all-star team made up of favorite players or favorite photos from the Hanger Pack.

The Battery

LHP - Mike Minor
RHP - Edwin Jackson
C - Bryan Pena
LHP - Tom Gorzelanny

The hanger was pretty soft on pitchers, but the shots of Gorzelanny and Jackson are interesting.  I have no idea who Bryan Pena is, but it is hard to go wrong with actions shots of catchers behind the plate. 


Infield

2B - Jeff Keppinger
SS - Ian Desmond
1B - Michael Morse
3B - Brent Morel

Wow 2 Nats make the Hanger All-Star Infield and neither of them is Ryan Zimmerman.  Brent Morel card has been documented elsewhere - once again a relatively novel photo - a third baseman handling a bunt.  happens all the time, but rarely on card.

Outfield

 LF - Delmon Young
CF - Marlon Byrd
RF - Jose Bautista
CF - Grady Sizemore

Bautista was the sole 00 hero number in the Hanger.  Sizemore always has been a Phungo favorite, despite is declining numbers.  The top two shots are pretty cool fielding pictures with interesting backgrounds. 

Looking Back

2012 Topps First Card
2012 Topps Phillies Cards

2012 Topps Hanger Pack - The Phillies

Warning - Team Phungo will be piling on the 2012 Topps this week.

Apparently these are referred to as Hanger Packs, not Kindle Packs, or Nook Packs as I wanted to call them.  Just for the record at my local big box the packs were not on Hangers.  They were instead in a box on the bottom shelf in the card aisle.

Today we will look at the 3+ Phillies cards that I got in the pack.

2012 Topps
NL League Leaders HR - Kemp, Prince, Ryan Howard
1987 mini Shane Victorino
Red Target parallel Antonio Bastardo 
Base Vance Worley

Good mix of cards here.  Getting two inserts of Phils more than makes up for getting only one base card.  One reason to pick up at Target rather than Walmart is that the retail specifc red insert works better for the Phils then the blue from Wal Mart.

I am with Night Owl regarding League Leaders cards.  The format doesn't work and now they have added the rather odd AL and NL active leaders cards to the mix.  And hey Topps lets put the LL cards back together rather than scattering them throughout the set. 

There was one other noteworthy sort of Phillies card in the Hanger, that was the Jim Thome Checklist card which commemorates his 600th Home Run.  Thome is pictured as a Twin on the card, as that was the uni he was wearing the day of the Milestone homer. 

Junk of the Month - January 2012

I am attempting to resurrect Junk of the Month for 2012.  We will see how things go....

I didn't open up any 2012 Topps until Wednesday, therefore none of that dreck qualifies for JotM 2012-01. To be fair I like 2012 Topps more than most opinions I have seen - promised thoughts on this hopefully will be published in the coming week. 

So in January I didn't open many packs, but still manage to find some junk.  One of the things I found was a pack of the bargain bin ubiquitous 2006 Fleer Ultra.  You think 2012 Topps has a lot of inserts - go out and grab a $1.59 pack of 06 Fleer Ultra. 

Junk of the Month

2006 Fleer Ultra Home Run Kings #HRK15 Mike Piazza

What the hell is this? Piazza hit a grand total of 22 dingers for the Padres.  Does anyone remember his bit 06 season for the Fighting Friars?  The card is actually commemorating Piazza's two 40 home run seaons from last century, 1997 with the Dodgers and 1999 with the Mets.

Pull of the Month

2011 Topps American Pie Walk of Fame Leslie Nielsen

For the fun of it, Team Phungo picked up a pack of Topps American Pie last month.  The otherwise worthless pack (that contained both the Twitter and the Google cards and No Frank Zappa) did yield this gem.

This is a nice looking insert set that I think I could get behind. All kinds of whacks have stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame so I am sure there is some variety in this set.

And in a release that is not baseball product, we do get a baseball related card in the form of Lt Frank Drebin.  

Sources and Links
Mike PIazza HoF Index

2012 Topps Live in the 19355

Sort of - explain at the bottom of the post.  Here are a couple of teaser images.  Try and get up some more observations in the next 48 hrs or so.

First Card of 2012 

The first card of the year is a stinking Yankee, but at least it is a future HoF. 

First Phil

Left Handed SetUp Guy Antonio Bastardo.  One advantage to Photgraphing these cards is that in some scans I have seen the last name is unreadable on a scan - the black background hurts them.  The Red Parallells are a Target Exclusive I think and are related to...

The Box

I have no idea what this configuration is called - I have seen them for a while, but never bought one.  I assumed they had packs in them.  But it is just a single brick of cards. 

Until I hear differently I will refer to these as KindlePacks - although I am sure this is much bigger then an iPad Nook or Kindle.  Apparently 2012 Topps Series 1 Blasters do not carry relics or Autos. According to the KindlePack odds there is a 1 in million chance of getting one in these boxes. 

The Target I went to in Malvern PA only had 2 configurations of Cards, these Kindle Packs and Blasters.  No Lose packs.   

For me or anyone colecting base cards the KindlePack seems to be better then blaster.  The KindlePack has 72 cards vs 81 in the blaster - 80 + 1 Manupatch card.  No gauranteeed Patch Card in the KindlePack, but it costs only half as much for almost as many cards. 

If you look at the top right of the KindlePack you see a price of $9.99, but when the shrinkwrap is removed a price of $10.49 is displayed.  not sure how Topps screwed that up, but I am glad to see somebody had the good sense to figure out that $9.99 sure looks a lot cheaper then $10.49. 

Ok I wanted to get a couple of quick images up.  enjoy.  will try and post a more comprehensive review later.

Phun Cards and a Phungo Challenge

Phun Cards is a new feature that we are going to try running here at Phungo.  There have been numerous series that have been started here and never quite finished or returned to at all.  Like everyone here, I have a bit of ADHD and bunches of ideas dance around my brain and don't make it to the page or only do in a half-ass way.

Well today I want to introduce one of those ideas.....and see where it goes.

I am hoping that Phun Cards can be our version of the Cardboard Appreciation err I mean CA feature.  Typically single cards that are interesting for one reason or another.  I would also like to bring Hall of Fame profile back and make it part of Phun Cards.

Enough blabbing - Here is the first ever Phun Card 

2000 Topps Stadium Club #148 Pat Burrell

yeah yeah I know, gotta get the scanner hooked up.  not a priority - I have all this house stuff to do and all these important twitter feeds to follow.  And it's a shame because this is a pretty decent looking action shot from way back at the turn of the century.  Stadium Club has always had banging photography - in 2008 I think it may have come at the expense of Topps Flagship product which had horrid photos.

This card features a young Pat Burrell at the other end of his career which appears to be coming to an end.  We also have a pretty decent guest star on the card in the Person of Andruw Jones.  Amazingly Jones had already been in the league 4 years and will likely bookend Burrell's career by playing for the Yankees this season. 

Phungo Challenge

It is a Friday and you read this far because you really don't feel like working so here is your Phungo Phriday Challenge ....

I have always wanted to do this - Ok all you Baseball-Reference junkies - you know where we are going here:  What day was this game played?