Card Stacks Blog: Chipper Jones

Showing posts with label Chipper Jones. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Ballplayer

There's no denying Chipper Jones is one of the greatest to wear the Atlanta Braves uniform. Being a Braves collector I have accumulated a decent number of Chipper cards despite not specifically calling him out among my player collections. Part of the appeal for me is he shows up in some interesting insert sets from the 90s that will give me an excuse to pick up cards from sets I otherwise wouldn't as I discover what I've missed from before I really started a baseball card collection in 2014.

And even though Chipper hasn't been retired that long, I remember getting goosebumps hearing his name announced during the only gave I saw him play in, at Turner Field against the Dodgers.

One thing I've been missing in my collection is a Chipper autograph. For my birthday back in April, my brother-in-law picked up a copy of Chipper's recent book, Ballplayer. While I've yet to read it, there's something special about this book outside of it being a birthday gift.

My brother-in-law went to a book signing and got the book autographed! Pretty neat item that I will hang onto for a long time.

I look forward to digging into the book and adding more cards of Chipper to my collection, particularly 90s inserts.

A few more Chippers that stand out to me from my collection.

Saturday, March 4, 2017

It's Been so Long Since I Received This Trade Package, His Blog Has a New Name

You can probably guess who this trade package is from. The 'Waiting Till Next Year' blog is now 'Eamus Catuli!'. I reached out to Tom about a Freddie Freeman card from National Baseball card day last Fall. I received a package that had much more than the one Freeman a short time later. This post is much more delayed than it should be, but I'm still glad to be able to recap Tom's package and to congratulate him on the Cubs World Series win!

Here is the card that started the conversation. Glad to have this one in my binder. It have to say it actually resembles a past Upper Deck base set. I hope Topps continues with this promotion. Even though I don't have a local card shop close by, the generosity of collectors is what brought this one to my collection.

Not just one Freeman, but two, showed up in this package. I'm starting to go back and fill in cards from previous years for Freddie and this is one less card I need to track down.

Believe it or not I have a decent sized Randall Simon collection. I enjoyed seeing him play at AAA Richmond in my childhood, a common theme for former Braves in my collection. It kind of tailed off when he was involved in this sausage incident.

Maybe Randall has been in my collector doghouse long enough. I think this one is my first rookie card of his.

I once got an in-person autograph from Scott Thorman at a AAA game. He never achieved much success at the big league level, though he displayed good power in the minors while manning first base. This is the first card outside of that autographed card that goes into my collection.

What an awesome card of the two-time Braves all-star shortstop on what looks like attempting to turn a double-play, could be wrong. Any Flair card of a team I collect is a good one. Really enjoyed opening mid-90s Flair packs. In fact a few years ago I opened a box of 1994-95 Flair basketball and broke it down here. Blauser's last year with the Braves was Atlanta's first season playing at Turner Field.

Also included in this package were a number of prospect cards, the best of which was this refractor of third-baseman Austin Riley. The 19 year-old hit .271 with 20 home runs and 80 RBIs for class-A Rome this past season. He's rated the 13th best prospect in the loaded Braves farm system. Last year he was in the top 10.

What would a trade package full of Braves be without a few Chippers? These are the first Braves in my collection from both of these brands, 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends and 1999 SP Authentic.

And what's one Jones without the other? The card on the right, an insert from 1999 Upper Deck Series 2, reminds me of graph paper. Unique insert set and cool design.

I have the box set for 1993 Upper Deck, but my 6 year-old self took the cards out and I'm sure it's no longer a complete set.

Two more cards to add to the Klesko collection, which is still my largest of any baseball player collection. These two were new to me, and the Metal Universe brand ranks among my favorites.

Awesome card of Aaron breaking Babe Ruth's home run record. A gold moment indeed.

So many cards in this package that I had to pick my favorites to share. Thank you again Tom! I'm setting aside Cubs to form a new stack to send your way at some point down the road.

Thursday, August 4, 2016

2015 Archives Stack

Someone's playing catch-up. Posting about last year's Archives well after I posted about this year's set. In general bloggers seem to like 2016 Archives better than previous years.

A closeup of Julio. Glad the Braves decided to hold onto this guy. Some of the text on his card is hard to read because of the Braves uniform. Same thing on the Freeman and Chipper. Nice cards otherwise. Hoping Freeman sees some better pitches to hit now that Matt Kemp is in town.

A trio of Orioles. Eddie Murray is my favorite in this row. Fancy sideburns. Gausman is turning in a pretty solid season for the Orioles, who are right in the playoff race despite a pretty poor rotation overall.

Love this card of Hahn, a former Virginia Tech Hokie pitcher. He's been in AAA Nashville for a good portion of this season, but recently had a strong start for the A's. Hopefully he gets another opportunity for some consistent starts before the end of the season. He's proven he can be a reliable starting option over the last few seasons.

I was sad to see Alex Wood traded as part of the deal to acquire Hector Olivera from the Dodgers. We saw how that played out for Atlanta. Looks like Alex Wood might be back from injury in September and used in a reliever role.

This Kershaw is probably the best card in this post. He sure has some great cards over the last few years, doesn't he?

I would like the Braves from this row if the top part of the border was red rather than purple. The Machado looks great! Both of the Braves are of course with other teams. Shelby Miller has not fared too well since leaving the Braves, making his trade look even more lopsided as of now.

I agree with the verdict that 2016 beats the 2015 version of Archives, as nice as a few of these 2015 cards look.

Friday, July 29, 2016

The Oh So Rare Trip to a Card Shop

Over a recent weekend I had an opportunity to visit a card shop while out of town. With none located within a few hundred miles of my house, I had to take advantage. It's been probably 10 years since I've visited a card shop in person. With a max of about 20 minutes to spare, I quickly dove into several boxes of random baseball singles and looked for Braves. I enlisted the help of my wife who graciously pulled a stack of Braves aside for me from a different section of the box.

At the end of the 20 minutes I came away with a stack of about thirty Braves from the mid-90s to today. I'd forgotten how fun it is to sort through a box of previously unseen cards.

All these cards are new to me, and I almost didn't pick up the first Smoltz from 'Future Stars' because, well, it's Smoltz in a set called 'Future Stars'. But it reminded me of some Upper Deck sets from the 90s so I added it to my stack. The Fond Farewells card makes me sad that Smoltz didn't finish his career as a Brave, but it's a sharp insert. The Maddux I can appreciate because it's shiny on the back as well as the front, and it's a Maddux.

A trio of Braves from 2009. Can never have enough cards of Bobby Cox. The Braves traded Kelly Johnson to the Mets for the second year in a row and was leading off against the Braves just recently. Glad he may get another playoff run, just not happy about it being with the Mets. I like these Red uniforms.

A few cards of one of my favorite Braves, Tim Hudson, all from sets that I like. Would have preferred an action shot on the O-Pee-Chee, though. The Green is nice on the 2013 Archives.

Couldn't pick up a stack of Braves without a handful of Chipper cards. Nice expression on the 2007 Upper Deck. The design is terrible, but I like the photo.

Next up a pair of guys that I remember watching in person at AAA Richmond. What a solid career for Martin Prado. Gregor Blanco has put together a nice string of solid seasons for the Giants. The Braves traded him to the Royals in 2010 for part of a season of Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth.

One of my favorite all-time Braves, with an insert from 2008. There are a couple other Braves in this set, Chipper Jones and a current Brave, Nick Markakis.

A couple Jason Heyward cards. Any Heritage card is a good Heritage card. This O-Pee-Chee might be one of my favorite Chipper cards.

Three Frenchies. It's been nice to see Francoeur back in a Braves uniform this year. He's been much better against left-handed pitching, hitting a respectable .288 as of earlier in the week. Seems the Braves might be looking to deal Francoeur if the right deal comes along.

And three current Braves up-and-comers. Folty in general has been solid. He'll have a string of good quality starts and then a poor start. Hoping to see more of Mallex Smith later this year. Based on latest reports it's looking like September. Wisler has been struggling recently and was just sent down to AAA, but looks to still be a key piece for the future. With the lack of starting options for the Braves and having recently traded away starter Lucas Harrell, these young pitchers, Aaron Blair and Matt Wisler for instance, have been thrust into starting in bad situations. The offense isn't giving any support which puts so much pressure on these young guys to try to carry the load. This is my first Wisler card, though. I'll expect to add many more over the years.

Can't go wrong with a Freeman rookie card. Even Freeman is having a down year by his standards. It's been a tough year for everyone in Atlanta offensively.

Great card of Markakis beating a throw, sliding into a base. It's been fun watching Markakis in Atlanta this year, and while his power hasn't really returned, he did recently have a streak where he didn't have a swinging strike for 32 plate appearances. Markakis just doesn't strike out that often.

Well that is certainly a record for me as far as number of cards scanned for one post. Those of you who have a card shop within easy driving distance, I envy you.

Wednesday, June 22, 2016

Archives Braves, including a new Klesko!

After reading about the new Archives set all over the sports card blog world, I decided to pick up the Braves from the set for myself. It's rare that I just grab all the Braves at once, for a couple reasons. First, I enjoy the chase, even on a smaller scale of putting a team set together. Second, sometimes there are guys that I don't particularly need to have in my collection. In this case it's Hector Olivera, who I am thinking the Braves would cut ties with if they could get anything for him. But for the sake of getting them all, I did end up with the Olivera as you'll see below.

Here we've got two pitching greats. The Niekro looks better here with this design, in my opinion. Can't go wrong with a new Smoltz, though.

These might be my favorites. Hammerin Hank and a new Klesko in the Topps 79 design. Did you know that Klesko was first scouted as a pitcher?

Here's the Olivera, who is showing up in just about every 2016 set along with Freddie Freeman. It's pretty rare to see current Braves outside of these two show up in sets this year. Would have loved to see Markakis or Julio Teheran in this set.

These are pretty sharp. I was three or so years away from my collecting start in 1991. I will likely go and pick up some of the originals after seeing this Archives release up close. Chipper was my first baseball player collection. It's ended up being outclassed by Klesko and others, but it'll always be the original. And on Spahn, being a lefty myself, can't help but admire the man who has an award for the best left-handed pitcher in baseball named after him.

Couldn't help but pick up the lone Brave in this insert set, and I have to say, I wish there were more. Great card, and well done Topps on this Archives set! And if you could, stop including Olivera? He's a rookie, but he's not playing.

Monday, July 27, 2015

Changing Teams

Players staying with one team for their entire major league career is becoming increasingly rare and nearing impossible in baseball today. For me that's always been the dream, to have my favorite players finish their careers where they started. It's happened in the past, in multiple sports. Reggie Miller spent all 18 years of his NBA career with the Indiana Pacers. Tim Duncan will end up retiring as a Spur after spending his whole career in San Antonio.

This guy did it too, spending 21 seasons with the Orioles.

And this guy, spending 19 years with the Braves.

I've got high hopes for Freeman, but chances are he won't make it his whole career with the club.

Even rarer is a guy who goes from your favorite team to your other favorite team the following season. But that's exactly what happened with Nick Markakis. Great Heritage card, by the way.

Markakis is having a great season with Atlanta. He's not hitting for power after coming back from neck surgery, but I would expect some power to return next season. He's hitting .286 with 1 home run and 32 RBIs for the Braves so far. He's hit leadoff and is currently hitting third in a power lacking Braves lineup.

He returns to Baltimore today as the Braves take on the Orioles at Camden Yards. He and former teammates admit it'll be weird seeing him return in a Braves uniform. Hoping he has a successful series against his old team. And maybe he'll finish his career with Atlanta, only playing for my two favorite clubs. One can dream.

Monday, September 29, 2014

Chipper Stack

My second largest player collection behind Ryan Klesko so far is likely Chipper Jones. I have a large stack of cards of his from the late 90s, early 2000s. He won the NL MVP in 1999, so I guess it makes sense that a lot of the cards I have of Chipper are from that time. It's rare to see a player stick with one team through his whole career these days, and Chipper was able to do that for 19 seasons with the Braves.

Here are some of my favorites from the stack.

I appreciate this Vintage '61 from 1999 Fleer Tradition, made to look like 1961 Fleer. And honestly before seeing this card I didn't know that Fleer made sets that early on. Pretty good design for that early on. From reading, the original 1961 set featured players from baseball's history, from the 1800s to current players from that time. Would be neat to own a card from the original set.

I can check off the Chipper Jones from my 1999 Fleer Ultra team set wantlist. While the action shot of Chipper doesn't make the Andruw, it's still a nice looking card.

The backgrounds of these Ionix cards from Upper Deck just don't scan well, but I thought it did well enough to post here. A nice shot of Chipper's post swing.

The first card in this row is an insert from 2007 insert called Flashback Fridays. Maybe I should have saved talking about this set till a Friday, because I also have the Rafael Furcal from this set. From what I can find online, it looks like there were blasters of 2007 Topps that included 5 cards from this set as a 'starter'. Maybe someone who remembers can fill me in. This card really does have a flashback feel, as the back mentions this is part of a series on famous ballplayers, and each card has a tip on inside baseball. Sounds like something written on an older card to me.

This 2000 Topps Finest is one of my favorite Chipper cards, but it just didn't scan well. The background is supposed to be light blue and it of course is chrome-y. The background also has 1999 NL MVP written all over it, which you can't really tell in the scan. I had to include a card that mentions Chipper's MVP award.

This card from 2003 Upper Deck Vintage might be my favorite in this stack. I always enjoy seeing the Braves throwback uniforms, and this card looks pretty close to the design of 2014 Topps Heritage, which I've already ranked #1 on my list of 2014 set releases, and of course looks like 1965 Topps. Interesting how Upper Deck was able to produce cards that look like an old Topps set. I am assuming there was some kind of deal made there, right?

Finally, a card with one of my all-time favorite Braves and my current favorite Brave, Freddie Freeman! Pretty cool to see them featured on the same card, this one from 2010 Bowman. The card points out how Chipper hit at least 20 home runs each season from 1995 through 2008. Pretty impressive.

2010 was the year Freeman made his major league debut. More hype surrounded Jason Heyward at the time than Freeman, but Freeman also looked very promising. I'm hoping Freeman will model Chipper in staying on with the Braves for his whole career.

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

A Backstop Stack, Part 2

Last time I started showing off a stack of cards that Marcus from All the Way to the Backstop. I hit some of my favorites from the older sets, and this time I'll look at some of the more recent cards.

A nice start to a Mike Minor collection, with this year's Bowman, a Topps Chrome Refractor (yes!!) and a Blue parallel. Mike has rebounded somewhat from a miserable start to the season, putting together a string of quality starts from mid-August to mid-September. Overall though a season to forget for Mike. Hopefully 2015 will be better!

Marcus also set some sweet Craig Kimbrel cards. All of these are awesome, but my favorite is probably the Hometown parallel from this year's Bowman set. I need to pick up some more of these. Maybe a Braves hometown team set should be added to the wantlist. The Allen & Ginter is my first ever ripped card.

Next up an array of cards of some other current Braves. While I'm honestly not a fan of the inserts from this year's Topps, I'm glad to add any card of Freeman to my collection.

Bethancourt appears to be a promising catcher, great defensively. He's getting some playing time currently for the major league club with the Braves out of the playoff race and he is hitting pretty well.

And lastly a Heritage Blue parallel of one of my favorite pitchers, Julio Teheran. I've said on multiple posts that I really enjoy this heritage set, and why would a blue parallel be any different?

While Marcus included a good number of current Braves, he also included a couple of the recently retired Chipper Jones. I particularly enjoy the Stadium Club card from 1994 showing the date from his major league debut. The back of the card mentions his time in AAA Richmond. I enjoy seeing the references to Richmond.

Rounding out my favorites from the package are a few current Orioles. Even with Chris recently suspended, I'll still cheer for him when he comes back because of things like this.

Markakis has been one of my favorite Orioles for years. This season's he's in a leadoff role, and while it isn't his best season statistically, I'd say he's been a big part of the team's success this year.

Thanks again, Marcus! I've got a stack of cards ready to be sent off to you.

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