Oddball du Jour: 1982 Cracker Jack “Old-Timers”

Night Owl recently wrote about a copy of Baseball Cards magazine he has, and that issue had an article about “regional issues”… a.k.a. oddballs.  One of the sets featured in the article was the 1982 Cracker Jack set put out by Topps.

I own this set – which is actually 2 uncut sheets of 9 cards each – and had scanned the sheets over a year ago, but never got around to posting them.  I figured that Night Owl’s post is a sign to get off my lazy butt and do something.

This set was produced to promote a Cracker Jack-sponsored “Old-Timers’ Classic” baseball game played in RFK Stadium in Washington D.C.

I got these in 1982 through a mail-in offer involving proofs-of-purchase from boxes of Cracker Jack.  Regardless of what I might sing during the 7th inning stretch, I’m not a fan of Cracker Jack, so buying and eating a number of boxes was something of a sacrifice for me.  Don’t buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, you can just buy me a brat and a Coke, thanks so much!

…Yes, a hot dog will do just fine.

The design of the set borrowed as much from prior Topps designs as Upper Deck Vintage did!  Check it out… You’ve got the script team name borrowed from the 1978 set, the little pennant-y box that the name and position go in are lifted directly from 1979 Topps.  Hey, they paid good money for those designs, they’re gonna recycle them!

Many of the photos used appeared on other cards, like the 1953 Ralph Kiner and Bob Feller, and the 1958 Larry Doby.

Here is the back of the AL Sheet… The card in the middle plugs the Old-Timers classic.

For a better look at the design of the cards, I cropped the image to highlight just the Brooks Robinson card.  The photo used here is the same one used in the 1969 Deckle Edge set (except that one was in black & white, of course).

Brooks Robinson is wearing the only Orioles home uniform which didn’t feature “Orioles” in script… This style was worn from 1963 to 1965.

Here’s the back of Brooks…

…and since I got my inspiration from Night Owl, the least I can do is feature the Duke Snider card from the sheet.

Now that I look at it closely for the first time in a bunch of years, it’s kind of odd that they airbrushed a Brooklyn Dodgers cap on him.  I didn’t think too much about it at the time, but now I wonder if the photo is from Duke’s time with the Mets.  I’d also considered if it might be from when he was a coach with the Expos, but I think he had some 70′s sideburns when he was in Montreal.

1970 Fleer/Laughlin World Series: 1966 Dodgers vs. Orioles

I was in Baltimore yesterday to see the Dodgers playing in Camden Yards… While I had a good time despite the Oriole loss, an all-day event like that didn’t help me with regard to being behind in my posting. In an attempt to tread water, I thought I could do worse than featuring this card…

…And She Said “Let’s Go To My Room, I’ll Show You My Posters”…

On a recent road trip into Oriole Country, I picked up an Orioles “Early Bird” schedule… Mainly just to add it to my pathetic little sked collection. I glanced at it – fairly generic front, Matt Wieters on the back – and put it in my jacket pocket.

When I got home a day later, I realized that it unfolded into a pretty nice mini-poster featuring Wieters, Adam Jones, J.J. Hardy and Jim Johnson:

…and now I wished I’d grabbed a couple of these. At work, my cubicle walls are covered in this awful green fabric, and I take advantage of any and all opportunities to cover it with something more appealing.

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…And speaking of work, I’ve been learning a small amount of HTML and found out about the “horizontal rule” tag which I  used to make the line above (or hopefully above, depending on your browser).  I only mention this because I wanted to play with it here.

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If you want to play with it yourself, you’d enter the “greater-than” character, followed by hr and then the “less-than” character.  (I’m spelling it out because I don’t know how you’d get HTML tags in a post without it functioning as HTML.)   You’d probably have to enter it using whatever means you have of tweaking HTML (in WordPress it’s the “Text” tab).

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Horizontal rule. Heh.

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…And because I expect that nobody’s going to get my subject line reference, here’s the most awesome 20-year-old song you’ll hear today: “Posters” by dada:

Why The “1972 Mini” Cards Might Look Wrong To You

Whenever Topps does something Heritage-y, Archive-y or Lineage-y, my thoughts turn to “How will they re-create these cards for teams which didn’t exist at the time?”

So when I saw that they were going to do 1972 minis, my first thought was –

Well, to be honest, my first thought was “Minis. Why did it have to be minis?”

– But my second thought was “I’ll be curious to see how they handle all the teams that they can’t just copy from the original 1972 cards” (i.e. the Blue Jays, Mariners, Rockies, Marlins, Rays, Diamondbacks and Nationals).

So after pulling this Giancarlo Stanton card from a pack…

…I just shook my head and disapprovingly said “Duuuuuuuuuuuuuude…”

The first thing I noticed was the fact that the “LINS” part of “MARLINS” sort of sags down closer to the border, which looks sloppy.

…but something else about it looked wrong.

After a minute or two, I realized that the big problem is on the perspective. The letters are supposed to look like they’re coming out from behind the photo, all of them originating at some distant vanishing point.

Here, I’ll give you an example… I took a 1972 Frank Robinson card and used pink lines to extend the drop shadow on the letters (This was done virtually; no HOFers were harmed during this exercise):

The letters are meant to look like they’re emerging from some distant point behind Frank’s head.  These lines don’t all converge on exactly the same point, but that’s probably just me not drawing the pink lines right… it’s still close enough to get the idea across.

But look at what happens when I do the same thing to the Stanton card:

See? It’s a freakin’ mess. The person who did this may have the skills, but didn’t “get” what the original artist was doing… or maybe they weren’t given enough time to do it right.

Whatever the reason for this, it fails a critical test: Is it better than I could’ve done?  I’ve got some artistic ability and I like to play around with Paint Shop Pro, but I am not, by anyone’s definition, a Graphic Artist.  I’m not even one of these people who thinks they can call themselves a Graphic Designer because he/she made up a business card saying that they’re a Graphic Designer.

…So when someone who makes a living out of manipulating pixels, someone who ostensibly calls this their career, when that person produces something which makes me feel like I could do better, then that’s a failure.

You know what? I’m not objective on this. We should ask someone who doesn’t have a stake in this… someone like…. Oh, I don’t know… Someone like the 1971 National League ERA Leaders. I just happen to have them here… OK, guys. Look at this mini. What do you think of the job Topps did on this card?

See, it’s not just me. Even Seaver, Roberts and Wilson are unimpressed.

Hostess Card Of The Week: 1977 Doug DeCinces

Doug DeCinces had the unenviable task of taking over at third base after Brooks Robinson retired.  DeCinces was inducted into the Orioles Hall Of Fame in 2006, so you know this story has a reasonably happy ending.

Even so, many of Doug DeCinces career highlights came after he was traded to the Angels for “Disco” Dan Ford early in 1982.

DeCinces responded to the trade by having a notable season in 1982;  he had career highs with a .301 average, 42 doubles, 5 triples, 30 homers and 97 RBI’s;  he won a Silver Slugger that year and played in the ALCS against the Brewers.

Over the course of his career he had 1505 hits, 312 doubles and 237 homers.

Before retiring, he played a season in Japan with the Yakult Swallows.

2013 Topps Stickers & Opening Day: Topps Keeps Giving Me The Bird!

I was in Target yesterday intending to buy a pack or two of Opening Day, and I was surprised to find that they also had Topps Stickers.  Of course, I bought packs of both. In for a penny, in for a pound.

Neither set is the pinnacle of excitement, but I did well Oriole-wise;  From the Opening Day packs I got the Bird (one of the few times it’s good to get the Bird)…

…and I got a Manny Machado “Ballpark Fun” insert.  Two cards I probably would’ve sought out anyway, so that’s all good.

The stickers aren’t bad looking, and look!  I got the Bird AGAIN!

There are also HOFers in the set;  I didn’t buy the album, so I don’t know what the story is with these.  Pretty cool, though.  Reggie Jackson with the A’s, as nature intended…

…And Robin Yount in the ball-in-glove Brewers logo that seems to be the favorite of everybody but me.  I’ll admit it’s fairly clever, but it doesn’t do much for me.  It is better than what they wear now, which is completely unobjectionable but also completely uninteresting.

I like the Stickers, but I’ll only buy them when I’m looking for a cheap pack bustin’ fix.  Sticking them in the album seems wrong to me (I wasn’t raised on stickers), but they’re too small to put in plastic sheets, so these will just sit in a box with its 2011 and 2012 brethren.

…Oh, and BTW the backs of the stickers mainly consist of the card number and legal info.  You were expecting something different?

Opening Day is a set I want to like, but since it’s essentially a parallel of the regular set and I don’t do parallels, that pretty much means I don’t do OD.  I’d buy a lot more OD if they’d use different photos, but then it probably wouldn’t be as cheap.  I do like the Mascot cards though.  I’ll have to track down Mr. Met and maybe the Phanatic (who I like despite his affiliation to a certain team).

Repacks, Small Boys In Target, Weird Airbrushing And Other Things

Back in January I was in Target to get a couple of things, and while I was there I grabbed the last Fairfield 100 card repack they had… I put it in my basket and then started looking at the other stuff there.

Also in the card aisle was a boy, I’m guessing about 8 years old (although I’m terrible at guessing ages), and he looked at me and asked “What did you get?”

I showed him the repack and said “Oh, I’m just getting this… I’ve had pretty good luck with them”.  I saw a couple of packs of Topps football cards in his hand, so I said “I like the Football cards this year”.  He went on to tell me that he liked the Redskins and RG3, I said I didn’t care one way or the other about the Redskins but I liked RG3.  I made a comment about baseball cards coming in another week or two, and then said something along the lines of “see you later” and left.

Afterwards it occurred to me that I couldn’t remember the last time I had a verbal hobby conversation with someone who wasn’t trying to sell me cards. Now I kind of wish I’d spoken to the boy longer.

At any rate, it was nice to meet a boy who was interested in cards, and it was very nice see a kid in the card aisle instead of some guy camped out on the floor feeling up packs.

Before we got to talking, this card on the back of my repack caught my attention:

When I saw the card, a voice inside my head – very much like Mel Brooks doing an old man – said “What the hell is this?”  The airbrush artist wasn’t satisfied with removing the Brewers logo, he decided he’d go all-out and add red to the collar and red side panels on Simmons cap. It’s odd, but sort of appealing. The end result is a sort of combination of the Brewers and Expos… Ladies and gentlemen, your Montwaukee Brewxpos!

Here are the other highlights of the the repack…

This Oriole came from the 1990 Donruss “Best Of The American League” box set. I wonder if the “regular” 1990 Donruss set would’ve been met with such universal disdain if they’d used this blue instead of traffic cone orange.

I also got the usual assortment of Topps Stickers, including this one which features two Shlabotnik favorites:  Steve Jeltz and a very young B.J. Surhoff.

On the back of some other stickers, I got a Sid Fernandez to add to my Mets collection…

Finally, I got another addition to my 1980′s/1990′s Topps Glossy insert collection:

I have to admit, I was fairly well disappointed by this repack.  It was largely devoid of  “fun junk”… I know that’s very subjective, but there were no obscure regional 1980′s box set cards, no Studio cards, no Topps Total or UD 40 Man, no cards older than 1982, just the one Topps glossy insert, and only a couple of what used to be “high end” cards (i.e. Stadium Club, Leaf).  Part of the disappointment might be because a couple of cards which could’ve been fun were done in by having Sammy Sosa on them.

Mystery Box Of 1970 Topps: O-R-I-O-L-E-S!!!

A couple of weeks ago I bought a box of 100+ 1970 Topps cards, and I’m going through them in roughly “pack-sized” lots of 10-15 cards.

The good news is that the latest “pack” was almost all Orioles. The bad news was that, since I actively collect Orioles, I didn’t need as many. Even so, I still knocked off 3 of my wants.

Chico Salmon was originally a Cleveland Indian, was taken by the Seattle Pilots in the 1969 expansion draft and traded to the Orioles just before the start of the 1969 season.

Chico’s real name is Ruthford. Who would’ve guessed? And you gotta love those stirrups. They brought back the cartoon bird, now they need to bring back some striped stirrups!

Paul Blair was originally signed by the Mets as an amateur free agent, and then was drafted by the O’s from the Mets in the 1962 minor league draft. The O’s converted him from a shortstop to an outfielder, and the rest is history.

Paul Blair would later be traded to the Yankees for Elliott Maddox and Rick Bladt, a trade that keeps resurfacing on this blog for no good reason.

I like this shot of Andy Etchebarren grabbing some lumber before heading out on the field. It’s either batting practice or a pathetically-attended game. Anybody recognize the concrete dugout and blue seats?

Etchebarren is the 2nd best Oriole to wear #8.

Best card in the ‘pack’: Paul Blair
Best Cartoon: Chico Salmon

I also got a Tigers team card in this pack; it’s in rough shape, but that’s the way it goes.

So now with 4 more cards added to my set I’m at 434 with 286 to go.

Cal Repack, Jr.

During my recent obsession with Fairfield 100 card repacks, I’ve had pretty good luck adding to my wife’s Cal Ripken binder, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Joe Shlabotnik Collection, Inc.

Mrs. S has been a Cal fan since 1983 and enjoys checking out new (to her) cards of Cal, so I seek out inexpensive additions to the collection, plus keep anything that comes my way.

This card was on the front of one of the repacks, and I thought this was the 1992 Leaf card which is missing from the binder, but then I looked at the number on the back and it was “13 of 26”.

I had to do a search to find out that it was a Leaf preview card, and it has a different photo of Cal and Carlos Quintana… check it out:

1992 Leaf #52 – Cal Ripken – Courtesy of COMC.com

I’m going to have to get a copy of the “real” Leaf card; these two will look great together.

Also in that repack, I ran across this 1993 Studio Cal Ripken card.
SWEEEEEEEEEEET!!! I love this set, and I really need to get more cards from it. For me, this card was worth a good chunk of the $4 I spent on the repack.

Here’s the back of that card… Ladies and gentlemen, the piercing eye of Cal Ripken, Jr.

These next two were from different repacks… I added to my 1980′s Topps Glossy insert collection…

…and got a 1990 Topps Sticker with Cal on the back.  I never bought these stickers the first time around, but one thing that I like about getting them in repacks is that you sometimes get two shots at a player you want with each sticker. I couldn’t tell you without looking what sticker was on the front, but the backing card is Cal, so it’s AAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLL good.

Happy Birthday, Rick Schu!

Former Phillie, Oriole, Tiger, Angel, Expo and Nippon Ham Fighter Rick Schu turns 51 today.

Back in the 80’s, minor league baseball was a novelty to me as I only saw a game or two in any given year. Only a handful of guys from those games established themselves in the majors, and I latched on to each and every one of them as a favorite, along the lines of “I saw him back when…”

Rick Schu is one of those guys.

He came up through the Phillies system and was well-regarded enough that he took over at third base when the Phillies moved Mike Schmidt over to 1st base in 1985. This lasted just one season before Schmidt was moved back to third, a move which seemed to be more about Schmidt’s comfort (and knees) than an indictment on Schu’s performance.

Rick was traded to the Orioles and started at third for much of 1988, but ended up bouncing around the Majors for a few years.

He then played two years in Japan with the Fighters, then came back stateside and played one year with the Expos.

I got this card at the 2010 National; I love this action shot, and I would’ve gotten this card even if I didn’t collect Rick Schu.

Schu was the D-Backs hitting coach for two years, and was recently considered for the Red Sox hitting coach position. He’s currently an organizational hitting instructor with the Nationals.