Base Set Calling

as in pulling his baseball card from a pack.

That's what I did today when I picked up my first Series 2 cards. I always like opening a pack of baseball cards on the day of a baseball game.

The top card was tonight's starter for the Tigers, Drew Smyly, and a very good baseball card it is:


This is probably the best "pitching grip" card I have ever seen. That is because it is a live-action image, so that is a real, game-used grip on display there. The card has plenty of imminent motion built into it, as your brain connects the dots on what Smyly's arms are about to do next. I think the foil wave (has anyone named this set yet?) of the design works especially well with the lines set up by the right forearm, and the line of his eyes focusing on the plate.

All those nice composition elements working together on yet another zoomed-in torso card - sometimes this approach to making a baseball card does work out very nicely.

I thought it was also serendipitous that I pulled Drew's card on his birthday today. Unfortunately the Topps Voodoo was not strong enough to make a happy ending to this post with a W for Smyly and the Tigers, as Drew took the loss despite giving up just a single Home Run and 3 other hits over 6 innings.

I pulled a more traditional "grip" card in my other baseball card purchase today. The tradition with these cards, going back to the 1950s, is to include the grip on a posed shot, like this one:


I'd have to say I'm about as excited about that card as Jarrod appears to be. Though I do like black borders on cards so I can be amused by all the whining about the terrible chipping. I also like Oakland's elephant appearing on cards, and I also like mysterious trees on baseball cards. Probably this card will grow on me over time.

It took me quite awhile to ever find any Archives for sale this year. I have been traveling for work waaaaaaaay too much with no time to stop at an LCS, and 2 of the 3 Big Box stores that I frequent for my plastic-y foil ripping fix don't seem to be carrying Archives at all this year. Only Target seems to have them - and I have also only found Opening Day cards at Target this year as well. Topps seems to have probably lost a few truckloads worth of sales to Wally World, I think.

I picked up some Archives because I like the 1980 design and will probably put together those 50 cards. But of course what you desire and what you pull out of 'packs' of baseball cards are two different things. From 72 cards I should have ended up with 18 of the '80 base design. Instead I got 6 - way off.

At least I got the Cabrera and the Kinsler I wanted; even a double of the sweet Miggy card.

As always I'm looking forward to sharing some more cards with y'all, but I will be back on the road tomorrow. I will be able to get a few trade packages out first, and that will be about it for baseball cards until July. 162 games is a long season, and I admire the baseball players that travel all year to entertain me. After working in 9 different states so far this year, I certainly know parts of what they go through. At least my cards wait patiently in all their little stacks for that nice day when I can finally un-stack them into their binder pages…what a relaxing day that will be, someday.

I'm sure this happens to all of us. Or at least, the collectors who just like baseball cards because they are baseball cards, not because they are instant financial instruments as soon as a player is drafted (or before) and his baseball cards are printed.

I have a new player on my cuz-of-the-card horizon:


I liked this card a lot last year. I always set aside the Topps All-Star Rookies anyway. But I always like cards with this iconic batting pose, probably because of this:


There are other cards which are a tighter simulacrum of that wrapper, but the Frazier card reminded me of it anyway, and that is a good thing. (I have made no progress on discovering any remnant history or examples of the 'Baseball Card T-Shirt' I always wish I would have ordered way back in '77).

I also like the All-Star Rookies in Heritage:


But a baseball card showing a baseball player with a huge smile on their face is just always a successful baseball card.

Obviously Frazier is liked at Topps HQ as well, being on their All-Star team and all. His 2012 card was enjoyable enough, though I'm not much of a Brandon Phillips fan:

And his Rookie Card was, well better than some and a good example of the wonderful 2011 set style, but not that high on my whatever-happened-to list:


Though I like all of these cards, why would I want to follow the career of an almost completely average  (though with some power) National League infielder?

Shouldn't I be more interested in this marquee player on the Cincinnati Reds?


Yes, sure, I like Joey Votto, he is an amazing player. I felt bad for a friend of mine who is a die-hard Reds fan when Votto headed off to the DL recently.

But when it comes to players on teams playing in leagues I don't have all the time I wish I had to follow, I lean on my baseball cards to pique interest in particular players.


Let's not work too hard on those worthless base cards now, Topps, be sure and save up for those gaudy hits cards everyone wants. But those two cards just aren't getting me very interested in taking the extra 60 seconds to read the Cincinnati box score when I can.

And even all those nifty Todd Frazier cards shown above haven't done that (I'm still on the hunt for his 2013 'Out of Bounds' Series 1 short-print). Nor has his heart-warming connections to honorary Cincinnati Reds ball-boy Teddy Kremmer. No, what tipped the scales for me to keep an extra eye on the middle of that box score was a brand new card I pulled the other day.

Last year I suggested that every set should have one of these cards (though I have no plans to see what ever happens to Kevin Frandsen) i.e., an on-deck circle shot. I like those. I like light-towers. I like clouds on a card. I love seeing the third deck on a card. I like the cool sox. A card that would be right at home in any number of vintage sets, and positively screams BASEBALL: