Extending an Olive Branch

Once upon a time, I was as big a fan of the Allen and Ginter product line as just about any other collector out there.  Each year, I looked forward to seeing the combination of baseball players, pop culture icons, historical figures, and other athletes were on the checklist.

But the past few years, I've grown less and less interested.  There's truth to the saying... "there is too much of a good thing".  I love spaghetti and filet mignon... but I don't want to eat it everyday.

If it were up to me, I'd put Allen and Ginter on a cycle and release it once every three to five years... along with products like Topps Gallery, Tek, Fire, Gold Label, and Gypsy Queen.  The same could be applied to their higher priced line of products like Tier One, Museum Collection, Triple Threads, Five Star, Inception, and Tribute.  That way Topps would have extra time to develop these products and not produce cards that seem rushed and stale, while collectors could grow to miss and crave them.

I know it's not going to happen.  Topps is in the business to make money and in order to do that, they need to push out products faster than rabbits.

Plus there are enough collectors who crave Allen and Ginter.  However... I wanted to share my personal thoughts on the hobby topic and the popular product line.

Just in case my opinion annoys fans of this product, I'll extend an olive branch and share some of my favorite minis that I've recently added to my collection.  

The first four minis have one thing in common...

2016 Allen and Ginter Subways and Streetcars #SS-5

2011 Allen and Ginter Uninvited Guests #UG7

2016 Allen and Ginter U.S. Mayors #USM-3

2011 Allen and Ginter Uninvited Guests #UG8

They all relate to the Bay Area.  I've never personally met Mayor Liccardo, but I have visited Alcatraz, the Winchester Mystery House, and ridden a cable car before.

Next up are a pair of sumo cards:

2018 Allen and Ginter Exotic Sports #MES-6

2017 Allen and Ginter World's Dudes #WD-9

Both of these were added to my Japanese collection along with these two non-sport minis:

2010 Allen and Ginter National Animals #NA30

2013 Allen and Ginter Heavy Hangs the Head #HHH-EM

And rounding out the acquisitions are two human rights advocates who have stood up for equality...

2009 Allen and Ginter National Heroes #NH10

2016 Allen and Ginter Laureates of Peace #LP-6

All of these were part of two Sportlots purchases and most were only 18¢, although the Malala Yuosafzai did set me back a full 98¢.

A huge shout out goes to Chris over Nachos Grande, because his contest opened my eyes to several of these insert sets and motivated me to track them down.

Speaking of contests... The Bucs Stop Here is hosting a contest over on his blog.  It's pretty simple to enter.  All you need to do is write down your 2020 MLB season predictions and/or promote his contest on your blog.  Interested?  Click here.  Actually here.

And rounding out this post are some cards I won in a contest over at Chavez Ravining:

2017 Allen and Ginter Relics #FSRA-TAN

2018 Allen and Ginter Relics #FSRA-SSI

2019 Allen and Ginter Relics #FSRA-DC

First up are some more Allen and Ginter.  Only this time around, they're standard sized relics.  Have to admit, I'm not familiar with any of these people.  

But thanks to the internet, I learned that Tom Anderson was a co-founder of MySpace, Steve Simeone is a comedian who was once crowned Philadelphia's Funniest Person, and Daneille Colby is a reality television personality who has a lot of tattoos.

Alex, who runs Chavez Ravining also sent me some cards for my PC's:

This prize package was actually delivered a while back, but on Thursday he sent me another package containing a bunch of Clayton Kershaw cards:

Plus a huge stack of 2017 Stadium Club cards for my set build:

The fifty-plus cards pushed me past the 70% completion mark.  After updating my wantlist, I'm down to needing only eighty-one cards for the set.

Two weeks ago, I didn't remember this set build and was 160 cards away from completion.  However thanks to Alex and Bob, my wantlist has been cut in half.  Eighty-one cards is still a challenge.  And I'm not quite ready to go out and spend 18¢ for each single over on Sportlots, but I've added a search for 2017 Stadium Club lots on eBay.  We'll see how that works out for me.

Thanks Chris for refreshing my memory on some really cool minis that slipped my mind over the years.  And thank you Alex for the generous prize package and for putting a huge dent in my forgotten set build.

Okay peeps... it's your turn.

How big of an Allen and Ginter fan/collector are you?

Leave your thoughts in the comment section below... and then head over to The Bucs Stop Here for your chance at winning a 2020 Bowman and/or 2020 Topps Series 2 pack(s).

Happy Saturday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Nothing like waking up to find out your favorite baseball team won on a walk-off grand slam on Opening Day.

When I fell asleep, the A's had taken their first lead of the game in the bottom of the 8th.  I completely missed Jason Castro's 9th inning home run that tied things up... and of course Matt Olson's home run.  

You know it's a pretty cool event when Jomboy breaks it down the following morning:

Nice way to kick off the season for A's fans.  Here are a few Olson autographs to celebrate the special occasion:

2019 Topps Gypsy Queen Indigo Autograph #GQA-MO

2018 Topps Inception Rookie and Emerging Stars Auto #RES-MO

2015 Bowman's Best of 2015 Autographs #B15-MO

As for the Angels pitcher, I feel bad that his first pitch of the season resulted in this.  And to make things worse, Jomboy screwed up his name.  It's actually Hoby Milner, not Hoby Miller.  How do I know?  Well... I recognized his name, because I pulled his autograph back in 2012 out of one of those Team USA sets.

2011 Topps Team USA Autograph #USA-A14

Actually now that I know he's made it to The Show, I'll quietly be rooting for him whenever he's not facing the A's or Padres.  Only on the next time around, it'll be a positive highlight and Jomboy will get his name right.

And yes... I did notice the lack of social distancing at home plate.  Tsk.  Tsk.

A Simple Project for Not So Simple Times

Opening Day has finally arrived.  Didn't think it would happen, but it feels good to be wrong.  As much as I'd love to see the Oakland A's or San Diego Padres win a World Series title, I'll be happy as long as the players, coaches, trainers, umpires, and everyone else involved in entertaining millions of baseball fans remain safe and in good health.

Speaking of the A's and Padres, I recently finished a simple card project involving my two favorite teams.

I've been a fan of the 1982 to 1991 Donruss Diamond Kings subsets for years and finally managed to pick up all of the A's and Padres from those sets.

1982 Donruss #19

1982 Donruss #21

Dick Perez did a fantastic job with the artwork, which is what attracted me to these cards back in the 80's.  I'm not sure who created the checklist, but each franchise was represented by one of their top players.

In 1982, Ozzie had just won his second consecutive Gold Glove Award and was coming off of his first MLB All-Star Game appearance... which explains why he made the checklist.  On the other hand, the Norris selection is a bit confusing.  Rickey Henderson had just finished 2nd in AL MVP voting.  And even if Donruss or Perez wanted to go with a pitcher, Steve McCatty had much better numbers in 1981 than Norris.

Oh well.  Norris was still a fan favorite... and Rickey would make the subset in 1983.  McCatty's window of opportunity had passed.

Don't worry, this is pretty much the extent of my analysis.  I won't waste your time with a year by year breakdown.

Here are the final nine years in nine pocket form:

The Oakland A's are a great example of how Donruss and/or Perez made sure that they weren't selecting the same players year after year.  Not a single player was repeated during that first decade of Diamond Kings.  And even though Rickey is the only guy enshrined at Cooperstown, every single one of these guys are household names to Oakland A's fans.

Tony Gwynn was the only player to be honored twice for the San Diego Padres:

But at least they spread him out and put three other guys between him.  Just like the Athletics, there might be a few lesser known players here, but all of them are recognizable to Padres fans from that era.  They also have two more hall of famers than the A's do.

It's nice to finally cross this project off my list of things to do during my summer break.  I've been thinking about taking this project to the next level and putting a binder together with every Diamond King produced during these years.  However for now, these twenty cards will suffice.

I'll wrap things up with one more Diamond King from the collection:

1982 Donruss #1

I realize that Pete Rose is not the most popular player among collectors, but he's still the MLB Hit King and holds the honor of being the first card on the first Diamond King checklist.  I picked this card up last summer off of eBay for less than the price of a blaster.

It's your turn...

What are your thoughts on Diamond Kings?  Where do they rank among your favorite 80's subset cards?

By the way, if you were hoping to find a much more detailed write up on these cards, then click here.  Subset analysis doesn't get much better than that.

Okay the New York Yankees and Washington Nationals are set to kick off the 2020 MLB season in about an hour.  I'm hoping to be able to find this game online somewhere, so I can watch Dr. Anthony Fauci throw out the first pitch.

Happy Opening Day and sayonara!