Some of My Favorite 2023 Topps Stadium Club Photos

I bought a set of Stadium Club cards on eBay a little while ago, and flipped through the cards a bit to look at the pictures. Stadium Club would be a fun set to build through packs, but I can't justify the cost of building sets that way when I can get a base set for so little compared to busting a handful of boxes. The hits you pull rarely make up the difference, especially as most breaks I've seen of Stadium Club this year feature a whole lot of no-name autographs. I thought I'd post a few pictures here of cards I liked when I looked through the set.

That Yogi Berra photo is pretty cool, with the lounge chair, the big TV, and the neat cart in the background. The Joc Pederson photo hit me with nostalgia, as I collected the Chevron cars pretty hard when they first came out. After I had kids I opened all the packages and let my kids play with them, so they were all pretty well destroyed after a few years. I don't regret doing it, though.

Next up are a couple of intimidating fireballers, in Nolan Ryan and Randy Johnson. I love that particular Astros uniform, and Johnson looks as intimidating as ever in this photo.

Not much to say here, just a nice shot of a play at the plate and a good wide photo showing the catcher and umpire at work.

This is about the most 90's pair of cards you could come up with. That Frank Thomas photo could have been a poster sold at the Scholastic book fair.

I had to get a picture of the home team in here with that Jeremy Peña card, and the Starling Marte photo features a beautiful sky as the afternoon turns to evening, a perfect time to be at the ballpark.

Closing things out is a silly photo of Joey Votto and a pic of Xander Bogaerts signing autographs. These may not be the 12 greatest photos in 2023 Topps Stadium Club, but they are 12 that stood out to me as I flipped through the set.

Haven't been feeling the blogging vibe lately, so it's been a few days since I posted anything. I'm trying to stick with it, but sometimes I don't feel like I have anything to say. I'd like for the blog to be more than just a showcase of what I've picked up lately, but sometimes it feels like those are the easiest posts to write.

Blog Bat Around: My All Autograph Team

Zippy Zappy came up with the most recent Blog Bat Around idea, trying to build the best autograph roster possible using cards from your collection. His rules require you to trim your list down to a starting roster full of position players, a designated hitter, a starting pitcher, two relievers, and a closer. I looked at that and decided that instead I would try to build a full 25-man roster. I ran into a little trouble with filling out my pitching spots, but in the end I was able to build a full 25-man roster. It's made up of a mixture of my favorite players as well as the best guys I could find for a given position. If you just want to see which players I picked to match Zippy Zappy's format, you can skip past all the pictures and go to the bottom of the post.

Catcher - Craig Biggio

Craig Biggio played most of his career as a second baseman, but he played a few hundred games at catcher. That's good enough for me to justify placing him here in my roster. This beautiful autograph relic card came to me as a prize in a contest over at Collecting Cutch.

First Base - Wally Moon

Here's another guy who I'm playing out of position a little bit. He played 136 games at first base and his 1963 Topps cards lists his position as OF - 1B, so I'm putting him here. I just had a lot of outfielders on my list, and not a lot of good autographs featuring first basemen.

Second Base - Jose Altuve

I'm lucky I got this card recently, as it is my first autograph of the Astros' star second baseman, Jose Altuve. It's a nice-looking card, and it hasn't been featured here on my blog yet. He fits right in on an all-time roster, as the defending AL MVP.

Shortstop - Omar Vizquel

I think this card is still in my collection. I pulled it from a box of Topps High Tek. Vizquel may not quite be a Hall of Famer, but he'll be a solid defensive presence for my team. I kind of wish I had a Carlos Correa autograph for this spot, but I don't.

Third Base - Yangervis Solarte

Third base was kind of a black hole in my collection when it comes to autographs, so Yangervis Solarte is my guy here. So far this year, he's the 32nd-best hitter in fantasy baseball, although I imagine that ranking will fall a bit as time goes on.

Left Field - Frank Robinson

Frank Robinson was primarily a right fielder, but he made 834 appearances in left field. He won the 1958 NL Gold Glove award for his play in left field, so I think he'll do all right there for my team. I waited three years for Topps to send this Topps Archives redemption for a framed mini autograph, and by the time they sent it they couldn't be bothered to put the frame on it.

Center Field - Fred Lynn

Fred Lynn gets my center field spot. A lot of the autographs in my collection come from Topps Archives products, and this one is no different. This is probably one of the first autographs I pulled when I got back into collecting in the middle of 2013, and it even came out of a retail blaster. I have typically had terrible luck with retail breaks of Archives, but not this time.

Right Field - George Springer

Going back to the home team for The Raz Card Blog, we've got George Springer in right field. That's where he's made the majority of his appearances so far, so I didn't have to push him out of position to get him onto the roster.

Designated Hitter - Aaron Judge

I have a nice power bat in my DH spot, with Aaron Judge looking to follow up his monster rookie year with another great season. I pulled this autograph from a blaster of Gypsy Queen before Judge-mania really set in and baseball cards disappeared from store shelves.

Catcher - Evan Gattis

My back-up catcher is Evan Gattis. I had to find an excuse to get this card into this post, as it's one of my favorites from my collection. I went crazy on 2014 Topps Stadium Club, and this was a card I pulled from the product.

Bench - Bo Jackson

The potential of Bo Jackson was undoubtedly greater than the reality turned out to be, but I was at a very impressionable age when Bo Knows was everywhere. If there was a Hall of Hype, he could be one of the first guys inducted.

Bench - Josh Reddick

I couldn't get all of my main player collection guys onto this list, but I think Reddick will fit in just fine on this roster. I watched him hit a grand slam tonight to go along with another home run, so he's got power in his bat. He is better known for his glove, though, making acrobatic catches at the wall. I have autographed cards featuring him as an Astro, but I like the way this one from his time on the A's looks.

Bench - Francisco Lindor

I probably should have picked an infielder who plays more positions for this bench spot, but Lindor has been about as good as it gets at the shortstop position over the last couple of years. I guess my manager will have to work out those playing time issues.

Starting Pitcher 1 - Randy Johnson

I've got a pretty decent staff ace here in Randy Johnson. This is the other card in this post that hasn't been featured here on the blog yet. I got it a couple of months ago, but just haven't found the right moment to post it. He put up a lot of numbers, and was probably one of the most intimidating guys to ever step foot on the mound.

Starting Pitcher 2 - Phil Niekro

My second starting pitcher is another Hall of Famer, knuckleballer Phil Niekro. Batters should be suitably bamboozled by his offerings the day after facing Johnson's flamethrower stuff. 

Starting Pitcher 3 - Luis Tiant

I went with Luis Tiant as my next starter. I considered a couple of other guys for his spot, but I couldn't deny his career numbers and kept him in the rotation.

Starting Pitcher 4 - Roy Oswalt

Oswalt was one of the key pitchers during the Astros' last run to the world series, and for several years he was a perennial Cy Young contender. He never quite got there, with a large part of that thanks going to Randy Johnson. Not a bad guy to have as your fourth starter. 

Starting Pitcher 5 - R.A. Dickey

He might be the one guy who doesn't quite fit in here, but I can't keep R.A. Dickey off of this team. He does have a Cy Young to his name, although the rest of his career hasn't quite lived up to that. I still like collecting his cards, though, and I want him on my team. Maybe he and Niekro can share knuckleball tips with each other.

Relief Pitcher - Michael Fulmer

I had to bump a couple of starters down to my bullpen. Hopefully their egos can handle it. I'll start off here with the 2016 AL Rookie of the Year. He should be able to handle long relief duties for this team.

Relief Pitcher - Jim Abbott

Jim Abbott may not have had the greatest career on paper, but I couldn't leave this fan favorite off of this roster. He was a career starter, so hopefully he'll be able to eat up some innings out of the bullpen.

Relief Pitcher - Kent Tekulve

Kent Tekulve is the first lifetime reliever in my bullpen, and he was a pretty good one. He spent a couple of years in the Cy Young conversation, made an All-Star appearance, and was a key part of the Pirates' 1979 World Series team. But the real reason he's on this roster is that he always looked awesome on his baseball cards.

Relief Pitcher - Rollie Fingers

Here's another Cardboard All-Star, Rollie Fingers. He's got a great baseball name and the mustache of a silent film villain. He had a Cy Youg award and some World Series rings, but if he gets into the Hall of Fame, there are probably a lot of other relief pitchers who should be in ahead of him. This Blog Bat Around isn't about who should and shouldn't be in the Hall of Fame. I'll still collect his cards and put him on my autograph team.

Relief Pitcher - Charlie Morton

Charlie Morton is another lifetime starting pitcher, but he pitched four innings of relief to close out Game 7 of the World Series last year, so you know he can handle the pressure. His career has been a bit bumpy, but he seems to have found himself in Houston, with a 17-7 record so far as an Astro.

Relief Pitcher - Billy Wagner

Billy Wagner is one of just six players with over 400 career saves, so he gets a spot in this bullpen. I probably should have made him the closer on the team, but he didn't quite make the cut, and instead will play the role of set-up man in my bullpen. He's a 7-time All-Star and a great Astro, so I had to include him on the roster.

Closer - Goose Gossage

Goose Gossage doesn't have as many saves as Billy Wagner, but he's in the Hall of Fame, he has 9 All-Star appearances, he's got a World Series ring, and he threw the ball really hard. He's pretty opinionated, but the eccentric closer is kind of a stereotype in baseball. You've got to be a little off to thrive in the pressure cooker of finishing off baseball games.

So that's the best 25-man roster I could come up with from my autograph collection. I'll type it all out here, and bold my choices if I stuck to Zippy Zappy's restrictions.

C - Craig Biggio

C - Evan Gattis

1B - Wally Moon

2B - Jose Altuve

SS - Omar Vizquel

3B - Yangervis Solarte

IF - Francisco Lindor

LF - Frank Robinson

CF - Fred Lynn

RF - George Springer

DH - Aaron Judge

OF - Bo Jackson

OF - Josh Reddick

SP - Randy Johnson

SP - Roy Oswalt

SP - Phil Niekro

SP - Luis Tiant

SP - R.A. Dickey

RP - Michael Fulmer

RP - Jim Abbott

RP - Kent Tekulve

RP - Rollie Fingers

RP - Charlie Morton

RP - Billy Wagner

CL - Goose Gossage

edit: I was so focused on the relative merits of baseball players that I forgot to include a card featuring the signature of a baseball player's relative! In the celebrity baseball fan spot of my roster, I am selecting Kate Upton, spouse of Justin Verlander, one of Houston's current ace pitchers.

Now my roster is complete. You can't have a good baseball game without some fans in the stands.

Contested Shots 32: World Series Door Prize from Collector's Crack

Cynical Buddha of the blog Collector's Crack held his 7th Annual Almost the Easiest World Series Contest on the Web last year. I guessed the right participants and the winner, but I was off on the number of games it would take, so I didn't win the contest. I did, however, win the random door prize drawing, so I got a prize package anyway. It was mailed out promptly, and I have unfortunately delayed posting about it until now, as the new baseball season is about to get under way.

First up is this winter-themed parallel from Topps' 2017 Holiday offering. I went hard after this set last year, trying to get the accidentally short-printed Cole Hamels card by busting blaster boxes. I think I opened at least 10 blasters before I gave up and bought the Hamels card on eBay.

That Jon Singleton relic card out of Gypsy Queen is a welcome addition to that player collection. He also included some shiny Astros and a retro Yulieski Gurriel insert from Gypsy Queen. The Joe Musgrove card is numbered # 032 / 250. That Randy Johnson Upper Deck Artifacts card is especially nice, and numbered # 01 / 50. There is also a Nolan Ryan phone card, a collectible that went on a pretty big run in the 90's.

The Nolan Ryan phone card is unused, but the one minute of air time expired a little over 17 years ago. Even if the minute hadn't yet expired, it might be a chore to find a pay phone to make the call from. I'd have to search for nearby pay phones on my smartphone.

Closing things out are a Harmon Killebrew / Mike Schmidt Classic Combos card numbered # 160 / 400 and a Future Phenoms relic card of Edwin Jackson, who has played for 12 different teams in his 15 season career so far.

Thank you so much for the prize package, Cynical Buddha! There was a lot of really cool stuff here, and I really enjoyed these cards! I'm sorry I took so long to post about them.

A Christmas Package from Stealing Home

I feel bad for not posting about this package earlier. It arrived right in the middle of my Cyber Week breaks. Stealing Home from the All Trade Bait, All The Time blog sent out a bunch of Christmas packages in December, and I was one of the lucky recipients of a bubble mailer full of baseball cards. He hit on several of my player and team collections.

I was happy to see a bunch of Randy Johnson cards in this package. The Big Unit just seemed like such an intense and dominating guy on the field. I really should pursue more of his cardboard. There are also a couple of Astros pitchers here, one maybe a little more well-known than the other. Goose Gossage also makes an appearance here, with a Topps Archives issue. 

Next up are some more Astros and some Athletics from a variety of years and card brands. I was primarily a basketball collector during my teen years in the 90's, so most baseball cards from earlier than 2012 or so are going to be new to my collection.

Following the Astros and A's, we have some Blue Jays content and a couple of guys with impressive mustaches. For a second I was confused as to why Franco and Aase made it into the package, but then I noticed that they are both sporting some impressive lip fur.

Closing things out are a couple of horizontal cards, a Heritage card celebrating the Astros, who would go on to win the World Series, and the other showing Eddie Murray at different points in his career, but always sporting an impressive caterpillar under his nose.

Thanks for the fun card package, Stealing Home! I had a great Christmas, and I hope that you did too!

Pack of the Day 163: 2017 Topps Archives Rack Pack

This is going to be a pretty quick post, as I have a pretty big test tomorrow and I need to get to bed very soon. I had to make a Wal-Mart run this evening, and I happened to stop by the card aisle to see if they had any 2017 Topps Archives. They only had rack packs, so I grabbed one. I feel like rack packs cost too much for what you get, but that's what I had available to me.

Here's the front of the pack. There are 18 cards inside, plus a little security tag on a blank card. These packs didn't even appear to have been felt up by the local pack searcher, so that was nice. Usually he gets to everything first and damages it and leaves the shelves a mess.

Here are the pack odds. Remember, these are for rack packs, so the odds on other packaging will be different. There is also the NPN info, for people who are into that. I keep meaning to give it a try, but I never do. I guess Topps is probably counting on that.

Here are the vertical cards from the pack. There are some 1992-patterned cards at the top, and beneath them are the 1982-design cards. Tom Seaver's got some good UPF (Ugly Pitching Face) going on up there. It was very pleasant to see that the cards this year are printed on thicker stock. It doesn't feel quite as thick as Heritage, but it's thicker. The 1960 and 1982 designs also have a rough texture to the backs, while the backs of the 1992 design are smoother. But the thick stock is nice, and I am glad that Topps listened to the collectors on that.

That Rollie Fingers 1960-design card was the first one out of the pack. I was pretty happy to get it. I am also a big fan of the Randy Johnson card up there. I scanned a couple of card backs, but Julio Teheran's card apparently took a ride on the scanner glass. You'll just have to imagine what the missing edge looks like. The Dansby Swanson card at the bottom right is the promised 1960 Topps Rookie Star insert mentioned on the front of the pack. I also pulled his base card. I guess it's a Dansby Swanson hot pack.

Tucked into the middle of the pack was this Al Kaline tallboy insert, a 1959 Bazooka insert. I scanned the back because I think it looks better than having a single card photo centered in the post, not because it is particularly exciting. It would have been nice to pull a parallel in the pack, but it wasn't to be.

Overall I like the design and execution of this year's Archives product based on this small sample. Topps listened to the complaints about the card stock, which is a nice move on their part. I don't know how much more of this I will pick up, but if the prices don't go crazy I could see myself trying out a Hobby box of Archives this year.

Thanks for All the Fish!

P-Town Tom over at the Waiting 'til Next Year blog has been cleaning house recently when it comes to his non-Cubs cards. One of his posts detailed how hard it has been to find a taker for his Florida/Miami Marlins extras. I am not a closet Marlins fan or anything, but there are plenty of players I follow who have passed through the team's roster at one point or another. I gave it a couple of days to give a real Marlins fan a chance to step up and claim the cards; then I posted a comment offering to take them off his hands. A little while later, a few hundred Marlins cards showed up in my mailbox. I didn't scan all of them, but I pulled a couple dozen to show here.

In my younger years I was almost exclusively a basketball and non-sports collector, with the occasional foray into football or baseball. I dropped out of card collecting almost entirely around 2000. Over the next decade or so, I picked up cards from trading card games like Magic, World of Warcraft, and WWE Raw Deal, but no sports cards. In 2008 I picked up most of a baseball set because my wife and I were having our first kid and I wanted to collect a full set of baseball cards from his birth year. My dog knocked the box containing Series 1 out of the box and peed on the pile of cards, so I've only got 2008 Topps Series 2 now. In 2013 I picked up card collecting again, this time going all-in on baseball and non-sports cards. I don't know exactly why I switched over from basketball to baseball, but that's how it worked out. I still gather cards for a couple of player collections in basketball and football, but those sports are pretty far down the list in comparison with baseball, Star Wars, comics, NASCAR, wrestling, and UFC.

The main point of all that text is to say that I missed out on nearly a decade worth of card sets and designs, and the 2000's were full of card sets. This lot was a great chance to look at many of the sets I missed out on over those years. That first scan really contains some cool stuff, like Upper Deck Ionix, Topps Stars, and Fleer Metal Universe. I remember the basketball versions of some of these sets, but a lot of them were new to me. Even though I was out of collecting for many years, I still played fantasy sports pretty heavily. Many of the guys in this lot spent time on my fantasy rosters, like Josh Beckett, Juan Pierre, and Hanley Ramirez. 

P-Town Tom would probably like to see his Cubs re-enacting the scene pictured on the first card in this scan, as the Marlins celebrate a victory over the Indians in the World Series. The Cubs have an uphill battle, though, as they dropped Game 3 and fell behind 2-1.

A.J. Burnett found his way onto quite a few of my fantasy rosters, as he usually piled up a decent number of innings and strikeouts. There is plenty of awesome shiny foil in this group, and a cool farewell-type card for Andre Dawson, whose time in Miami wasn't exactly the highlight of his Hall of Fame career. He also missed the Marlins' 1997 World Series run by one year.

Future Yankee Miguel Cabrera has piled up so many stats with the Tigers that I sometimes forget he was a Marlin. He even won a championship in Florida. Mike/Giancarlo Stanton is the current face of the franchise, and he's got the contract to match his status. Jake Marisnick is currently a defensive specialist for my Houston Astros, but his bat hasn't kept up and I don't think he's the answer as a full-time guy. We'll never see the full extent of Jose Fernandez' talents, as he died in a boating accident last month.

The box of Marlins also included this nice Hanley Ramirez Clubhouse Collection relic card from 2009 Topps Heritage. It's got a pinstripe and unlike most relic cards of today, it even has some text and a cartoon on the back.

In addition to the Marlins cards, P-Town Tom included some PC cards of famous Mariners. I don't add to these player collections very frequently on my own, so it is always pleasant to have them show up in a package.

I think that bubble gum card in the center is one of the more famous baseball card photos out there, and I am glad to finally have a copy of it. There is plenty of other cool stuff here, too, including a couple of father/son cards and a representative from the ever-cool Collector's Choice brand.

Even though the Marlins are not at the top of my favorite teams list, there was plenty of stuff in this package to entertain me. There were a lot of familiar names for me to reminisce on, and a lot of unfamiliar card designs for me to discover. The only part that I dread is the sorting, as I've found in my big sorting project that big player or team lots are time-consuming to process just because you're jumping around from year to year and brand to brand instead of just collating a big block of cards from the same set.

Thanks for all the fish, P-Town Tom! I know this was a no-obligations offer, but I will try to gather a few cards to send back in your direction.