Leading off tonight, the Cover Story is Carlos Baerga. I should have scanned the back of the card, because it looks like a magazine article with a simulated fold down the middle. Very cool effect. That is followed by an Upper Deck SP Baerga. The Shuey is a very shiny Bowman's Best with Chief Wahoo peeking out from behind Paul. I have always been a fan of the 'credit card' style cards. Martinez looks like he is trying to sell you AMEX. Of course, this Studio card is made of card stock, whereas many of these kinds of cards were actually made of plastic with raised letters and everything. Kenny Lofton's Fleer E-XL D-Fence card is the precursor to the UD Masterpieces we see today. The card as a raised border and actually Lofton is part of that diecut border. Yes, another Baerga comes into view. Hey, when you're the featured player on the Cover Story, you've got to be in the mix, right!? Well, this next card is a Leaf Steel. And, yes, it is a metal card. It's a 1996 and there are 77 cards in the set. The Martinez card is not just a regular UD. This one is an early "Electric Diamond" version. The Checklist card features Albert Belle on a Pinnacle Aficionado. I always liked the mix of foil and card on the Aficionado cards. Charles Nagy has been wrapped up by a big ol' snake on his Metal Universe card. Seriously, what were those guys smoking? And, finally in this group, we have Kenny Lofton showing us how to bunt. "Don't worry Kenny, we'll just paste in a baseball where you should be bunting one. It won't look fake. Really."
I realize I seem to be using only certain players for these photos today, but that's just how it worked out. Martinez appears on a "Global Reach" subset of Aficionado. The Albert Belle card next to it is a Select Certified with the words "Pastime Power" running around the background image. A weird thing about this card is that you have to turn it upside down to read the back. Grady Sizemore makes his first appearance tonight as a Topps Turkey Red card. How hard is it to duplicate that look in something like Photoshop Elements? I would think not very hard. The next Sizemore card may look like an ordinary Topps 2008, but it is in fact the CLE version! And Sizemore is CLE1. Good ol' C.C. (which happens to be my Mom's dog's name with no connection to the pitcher) stands in, representing a UD Game Face. I'd say that's about right. As for Showdown, I never got into the game for whatever reason. I love the cards, but the game itself just never hit me as worth doing. Ryan Garko heads out of the dugout on a 2008 Topps Opening Day Red card. Why are some red and some white? Why don't all red ones have serial numbers? You want to know why kids don't collect as much these days? Too many weird sets and subsets to keep up with. Who has time for that when they are YouTubing, Facebooking, MySpacing, texting, and Wii-ing all over the place? Well, I had to get at least one 'flaming balls' card in here, right? Okay, so the Sizemore is a 'Hot Commodity' and the ball is headed for the outfield judging by the photo. Let's move on to Larry Doby's UD Vintage. Another question: my database says there are 'regular' versions of UD Vintage from 2003 and there are "ALL CAPS" versions. What's the difference? Is this an 'all caps' version because his name is in all caps?
As we turn the pages near the end of this chapter of trading, we find Einar Diaz doing his best for the girls at Dinged Corners. Bartolo Colon seems to be floating in his Bowman card. Joe Inglett looks a bit weird on the Topps Heritgae card. Specifically, the "Indians" seems to be floating just in front of him. Next, Thome watches a ball he just launched sail striaght up into the air. If I had to guess, I'd say this is an out. The Donruss throwbacks were a bizarre attempt at the whole retro thing. While I do See some of the appeal, I'm not a big fan of these homage cards. On the other hand, the DOnruss Elite (Burks) and Elite "Extra Edition" (Lee) are very cool card. Well, the Lee looks funny because he seems so small and thin on that card. But, the Diamond Kings (Pronk!) are great looking and have wonderful texture for those that are tactile and enjoy the experience of holding the cards in your hands. Bob Lemon seems to have two different shoes on (his right shoe appears to be white while the left one is black. Or is that just me? Well, either way, I wrap things up with a shot of Burks signing autographs. "How do you spell that??"
Once again, thank you VERY much, FlyinLoco, for the great additions to my Indians collection!!
Stay tuned for an upcoming post with cards from AdamE and eTopps.
You're making me jealous !! Very nice cards.You deserve them !
ReplyDeleteIt's always good to see a fellow Triber happy!
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