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world collector and i am unwilling to take on that risk it was once well understood that there existed such a thing as low end mid end high end and higher than high end box price ranges for each level were generally gauged to be 35 50 65 95 120 250 and 250 respectively each level offered a certain expectation for what you would get for that price point now that expectation is muddled as the mid end where i would assume most first world card collectors including myself feel comfortable for the majority of their purchases has moved into the high end and as a consequence the stable of products in the high end has increased leaving many collectors behind to not be able to buy their favorite products to which they ve developed loyalty and affinity over the years i have found alternate routes to satisfy my new card buying wants and needs i have bought the complete set of 2017 allen ginter because the set cost more than 50 less than a box i will buy a few retail packs to round out the collection i do like to get a sampling of the minis and for the first time in a while i am forced to forgo collecting all the full size inserts from this year s offering stadium club is another clear example where retail packs are the only affordable option retail is good for casual collectors those without access to a hobby retailer and for sampling a brand but it does not replace being able to rip open a hobby box of your favorite brand the expectation and the results vary greatly from hobby to retail with respect to guaranteed hits insert odds and cards per pack or cards per box and so here i sit lamenting the state of the current hobby because i am invested in it it is an infinite quest to find and discover it is a journey to connect to the present past and future it is an accumulation of knowledge of baseball and its players i am not leaving the hobby but because of the great baseball card price out my parameters for what i may want to collect in a given year have changed i am no longer a frequent customer of current product instead there is a sense that i am adrift and i would like to be tethered back to this hobby in the same way which has been a part of most of my life again posted by dan at 8 32 00 pm 6 comments labels collecting meta jul 2 2017 2008 topps heritage high numbers and updates and highlights two pack break i like to call this pack break the unsuccessful search for kershaw spoiler alert remember back in the days of multiple card companies with licenses after 2005 that there was a limit on how many sets a company could produce each year because of this this strange hybrid packing system was created where there was a topps heritage high number series the first of its kind packaged with two cards from the update and highlights series even though there was already a separate update and highlights series this was ostensibly done so that the heritage high numbers series wasn t counted as a separate release but rather a supplementary release to keep those license limits numbers down of course that whole story might be wrong because of this weird hybrid system there was a double opportunity for a rookie pull of the top pitcher in baseball clayton kershaw i dove in eagerly and awaited the ultimate disappointment pack 1 the pack 1 highlights for me both had phillies connections the brad lidge is a nice memory of the halcyon days of the team matt harrison was traded to the phillies in the cole hamels deal for salary purposes and has retired due to ongoing injuries he did have a great 2012 though the harrison is an sp and the thames is a chrome parallel 1959 remember when the chrome parallels were numbered to the year of the heritage homage rather than 999 pack 2 when i opened pack 2 and saw the star rookie design my hopes did rise a little alas it was not meant to be carlos gonzalez was briefly an athletic and then traded to the rockies in the deal for matt holliday anyone remember that justin masterson is best remembered for being the indians opening day starter for three straight years the mike jacobs is another chrome parallel card 1959 and i got the hit of the box with a curtis granderson clubhouse collection jersey card this was back when granderson was known for joining the 20 20 20 20 club rather than being a power hitter on the new york teams did you know that he is now a member of the 300 hr club this also shows the perils of chasing hits for a brand not known for it i was satisfied to chase a base card or two and instead was pleasantly surprised by the results even with ultimate prize not attained posted by dan at 11 12 00 am no comments labels 2008 topps heritage clayton kershaw pack break jun 18 2017 five players of their time a random card perspective baseball players and their actions and accomplishments on the field are products of their own time that is to say that everything they have done and do have a context and fit within the interwoven narrative of that particular timeframe of baseball history with the study out there that the the ball may be juiced player performances and their relative value can really only be compared within the present day how players are viewed through the lens of baseball history has to do with how they either rise above or are overshadowed by their peers historical comparisons across eras and decades are difficult because the playing field of baseball is constantly shifting let s examine some random players for some reason i tend to get the careers of don hoak depicted here on his 1963 topps card and dick groat mixed up i think the confusion stems from the fact that they both spent some of their final years with the phillies in the 60s and also played together on the champion 1960 pirates in the infield during that 1960 season they finished 1 2 in mvp voting a breakdown of their stats shows hoak 3rd baseman 282 366 445 120 ops with 16 hr 79 rbi 97 runs 5 4 war 2nd place groat shortstop 325 league leading 371 394 110 ops with 2 hr 50 rbi 85 runs 6 2 war 1st place it s interesting that even though the war stat didn t exist the one with higher war still won i wonder if it was an argument of intangibles during that time shortstops have won a lot of mvp awards tony conigliaro pictured here on his 1969 topps card is probably most remembered for getting hit in the eye with a pitch during the red sox impossible dream season of 1967 at the age of 22 he was on his way to a spectacular career until that injury he has the most home runs recorded before the age of 20 and the 4th most before the age of 23 behind mel ott eddie mathews and alex rodriguez he did hit 36 home runs 3 years after the injury but his eyesight became permanently impaired and had to retire by the age of 30 i feel that sal bando pictured here in his 1973 topps card is a historically under appreciated player he was three time world series champion and was an integral part of those teams finishing top 5 in mvp voting 3 times he had 7 seasons in the top ten in war 5 seasons in the top 10 in rbi and 8 seasons in the top 10 in bb if one was to name members of those athletic teams most people wouldn t name bando as the top 3 names off the top of their head my guess is jackson campaneris hunter blue fingers in some order would be first that s what i mean by under appreciated frank robinson pictured in a 2010 topps variation card on the other hand was a star his triple crown in 1966 looms large in the baseball history consciousness he is also overlooked because he had the misfortune of being peers with other stars such as mays mantle aaron and clemente twelve all star seasons seems small for a player of his caliber and longevity his 586 hrs are also overlooked since they came at the same time as aaron and mays record setting paces for the time sometimes it s not enough to be historically great if there are even greater ones playing as your peers and finally frank home run baker pictured here in a 1961 fleer card managed to have that nickname while leading the league in home runs four times with a high of 12 in a season in 1913 it was really given because of his postseason home run prowess in 1911 and 1913 an impressive postseason player he averaged over 1 050 ops over three consecutive world series appearances he is rightly viewed as a superstar of the 1910s he also sat out a season due to a contract dispute something that only happened during that time due to the rise of the federal league posted by dan at 11 01 00 am 1 comment labels baseball cards card spotlight may 23 2017 inkquest dave hollins 1993 phillies baseball biography dave hollins was a third baseman who played from 1990 2002 with the phillies red sox twins mariners angels blue jays and indians the majority of his career was spent with the phillies 1990 1995 2002 in my memory he was one of the first successful rule 5 selections by the phillies in 1990 his skills didn t really develop until 1992 when he received his first opportunity to start full time after the departure of charlies hayes he then embarked on a 2 year stretch in which he had 800 ops while hitting a combined 45 hr from 1992 1993 he led the league in getting hit by pitch in 1992 he did not match those two years over the rest of his career though he did have good seasons in 1996 and 1997 with 16 hr each season with ops 100 after that he moved from team to team and eventually retired in 2002 after getting bitten by a spider which exacerbated conditions of his diabetes unfortunately he is probably best known outside of philadelphia fans for being the other side of the trade that sent david ortiz from the twins to the red sox in 1996 role on the 1993 phillies he was the primary third baseman and a staple in the middle of the lineup batting cleanup for his starts he batted 273 372 442 good for a 119 ops with 18 hr 4th on the team 93 rbi 2nd on the team and 104 runs 2nd on the team he also made his lone all star appearance hollins was the quiet intensity representative of that roster standing in the batter s box with his bat straight up in the air before unleashing his swing he had a 910 ops in the 1993 nlcs with 2 hr but only managed one extra base hit in the world series though he maintained a 414 obp card facts this is a 1996 leaf signature autograph series card this set was distributed in four card packs with 1 auto per pack the first brand with an autograph in every pack srp 9 99 i remember scouring the internet for these in 1996 packs averaged between 20 25 and most common bronze autographs were easily sold for 3 5 posted by dan at 9 33 00 am 1 comment labels 1993 phillies dave hollins phillies inkquest apr 23 2017 stat anomaly 20 losses roger craig in 1963 this decade is passing quickly as we are in 2017 without an appearance from the always elusive 20 game loser in 2016 for the first time since 2004 there was at least one 19 game loser both respected pitchers big game james shields and chris archer chris archer was even drafted in the top 65 of my last fantasy draft so the expectations for repeating his record are not really being considered there is one pitcher in the annals of modern modern since topps existed baseball that turned convention on its head and excelled at accomplishing this most elusive accomplishment of sorts roger craig was a league average pitcher for his career yet ended up with two of the most spectacularly horrible w l records back to back such is the fate of one who toiled for the amazins in those formative years the awfulness of the 1963 mets is never noted because it was only the 3rd worst team of those early mets years with 111 losses the team had one eventual hofer duke snider and ended up being outscored by 250 runs roger craig pitched a team leading 236 innings that year with a 92 era and somehow finished 5 22 was there any conceivable way that he could have avoided this fate in a word yes how s this for run support he had 5 starts in which he allowed 1 run over 8 innings or more and that resulted in a loss he had 4 more quality starts allowing 2 runs or less with greater than 6 innings pitched that also resulted in a loss there were five 1 0 losses and two 2 1 losses in total on a league average team that would have scored 117 runs than the 1963 mets a 5 22 record definitely would not have happened this even didn t happen on the 1963 colt 45s who scored even less than the mets ken johnson had 17 losses with a 119 era based on the evidence the most likely reason for his record with the mets is that roger craig was cursed by a fortune teller in queens after losing his luggage and going into the wrong storefront another mystery solved posted by dan at 4 17 00 pm 1 comment labels 20 losses mets roger craig stat anomaly oct 30 2016 world series team cards from past and present which ghosts will continue at the time of this writing the cleveland indians lead the chicago cubs in the best of 7 2016 world series 3 1 on the back of really strong pitching and timely hitting cleveland is serving notice that their time in the baseball championship wilderness might be over for a world series match up such as this the past weighs heavily on the participants with experiences both heartbreaking and joyous dating back the 1940s let s examine some of the participants of those historic events the backdrop of the 1945 world series was the end of world war ii many veterans had started returning to their teams at the end of the season one of the most prominent was hank greenberg the power hitting first baseman of the detroit tigers who returned in july of 1945 after nearly 4 5 years off due to military service on the first game of his return he smashed a home run and did not look back hitting for a 948 ops with 13 hr in 78 games in the world series he led the tigers in ops hr rbi tied for the lead in runs and was 2nd in hits bill nicholson was the greatest power threat on the 1945 cubs hitting 13 hr which was a downgrade from his previous 5 seasons of hitting 21 33 hr he had been supplanted as statistical team leader by league mvp phil cavarretta and flanked by long time cub stan hack and young gun andy pafko nicholson had 8 rbis in the 1945 world series but had not much else to show for them as the cubs fell in game 7 to the tigers by the count of 9 3 the cleveland indians were led to their last championship in 1948 by 30 year old player manager mvp lou boudreau a 7 time all star in his career he had a career year in that year with highs in obp slg ops hr rbi hits and runs this herculean effort only allowed for a tie for the al lead with the boston red sox the indians advanced to the world series in a 1 game playoff the first and only playoff in the al in the pre division era strangely the nl had different rules for playoffs with a best of 3 system as evidenced by the giants dodgers clashes of 1951 and 1962 in the world series they faced down the boston braves of spahn and sain and pray for rain fame all they had to do was beat one of them to win the world series and they took two from the elite...