Some Call Him Goldy

Have always had quite a bit of respect for Paul Goldschmidt. The guy has absolutely murdered my team over the years, particularly Tim Linecum. It got to be something of a joke. If Goldschmidt, then on the Diamondbacks, was 0 for 2 against Linecum early in a game - and that itself was rare - well, then you're about to see a home run. And then it would happen. And you'd sulk and gnash your teeth and say damn you Goldy. At least I would. And then you realized you were watching a hell of a good ballplayer - and the cycle would begin anew, next time the Giants played the D-Backs.

Now that he's on the Cardinals, he can only do so much damage to my team - and yet he did some, just the other week. With my begrudging respect for the man, I decided he'd make a fine addition to my player collection, and I therefore have started a Paul Goldschmidt Player Collection.

You know how this collection just improved by 8 cards? It's because of Gavin at Baseball Card Breakdown. He sent me a bunch of new-to-me Goldschmidts, along with a whole mess of other great cards. This one you see up top here is from 2016 Topps Archives - 1969 Topps Super. A great 30-card set! I'd never heard of nor seen it before this card arrived. Pick of the bunch.

Here are the other 7 Goldys - all with the Diamondbacks - that I am now the proud owner of. Thanks, Gavin!

Tradin' With Baseball Cards Come To Life

Executed a multi-PWE with Bo over at Baseball Cards Come To Life recently, and the man really took care of us here at Card Hemorrhage. This is a guy who looked at my want list and responded accordingly. He also unloaded a bunch of San Francisco Giants on me, which is fantastic; I didn't scan any of those and filed them all away already, but I did take the time to document some of the stuff that recently came over.

First, Bo understood that Mr. Frank Robinson is one of the players whom I collect, and send me 2 Robinson and one Robinson-adjacent card that I am very happy to now have. I'm especially into the 1975 SSPC manager card you see here; Robinson also played for the team that year, and hit .324 / 9 HR / 24 RBI while effectively managing himself. Frank! 

Here are the two other new ones to me:

Bo also took note of the fact that I'm trying to pull together the complete 100-card 2007 Upper Deck SP Legendary Cuts set, and sent along 3 Yankees I didn't have:

The other ones I ended up scanning all fit needs for me as well - either as part of 1975 SSPC; San Francisco Giants team sets; or other miscellania that I'm trying to pull together. Like the said, these scans weren't the half of it, but just the ones I haven't already frantically filed in my overzealous desire to catalog and organize everything. Great trade!

Who's Been Sleeping on 2021 Heritage?

When it became clear to me and anyone who can add numbers numerically that the 2021 Topps Heritage baseball design was set to recognize the landmark 1972 Topps template - the art deco design that is one of the finest card designs of all time - I was like, yeah, this is going to be a smash hit. There are enough middle-agers out there (me being one of them) who remembers at least the remnants of original 1972 cards in kids' collections, if they didn't outright collect them themselves, and aside from the glories of the 1975 set, it was by far the best flagship Topps baseball design they'd ever again create.

Naturally Topps Heritage 2021 was going to be blockbuster, right? Well, judging from the lack of enthusiasm I've seen out there in the card blog universe, I reckon that either it didn't make quite the impact I thought it would, or it's just, you know - ho-hum, another year of Topps Heritage.

I suppose that leaves it to me - who loves this set and plans to complete the whole thing (here's what I'm missing) - to crow about the set as new 2021 Heritage cards trickle into my collection. I love how it looks, smells, feels etc. There are many quibbles with it that have been documented in the early blog posts of others that I've read - right when these were first released a few months ago - but nothing that put me off the trail of trying to get the 500 base cards and all the extras into my hands.

A recent CardBarrel order netted me another 15 or so that I needed. Here are 9 of them.

I Guess You'd Call It Vintage

Look, if 1970s cards are vintage then I'm vintage. It is what it is, I suppose. That said, I recently took a flyer on a lot of good-looking 70s cards on eBay - and turns out I was the winner of said lot. I thought you might want to check them out.

There were two big draws for me here. First, this 1976 Topps Rod Carew was something I thought ought to be a part of my collection.  Now it is. I remember when Carew was flirting with .400 for the better part of a season - and then when the Angels traded for Carew in 1979, my head almost blew apart. Carew was a total legend by that point, and when a player of that magnitude switched teams, it was a "big-ass" deal for an 11-year-old. Only thing that topped it for me was that Tom Seaver trade a couple years earlier. I was so excited I nearly started crying. Yes, I was that baseball-obsessed. 

This lot also had some Kellogg's cards from 1970 that I decided I really needed. Check 'em out!

This Aaron card, albeit a little off-center (in reality, not due to my scan) was on my want list for the better part of the past year. Now it is not.

You know who totally dominated baseball during my main childhood years? Well, after the Big Red Machine it was those '77 and '78 New York Yankees. I still don't like 'em. But I like these cards.

Speaking of the "Louisiana Lightning", Ron Guidry, this gem was also part of the lot:

More rookie pitchers, with one standing out a bit more than the others. No, not Jack Morris - Tim Jones! Look at that hair!

A couple of Catfish Hunters, one of which has just been packed up and sent to the guy who runs this blog:

OK, so here are most of the rest that came in the lot. Good times, good buyin'. Have a great weekend.

2007 Flashback Fridays: When Giants Roamed

My good trading pal Ken from Missouri sent over an unopened pack to me the other day, something 13 years old in fact, and something I'd never heard of before. It was the 5-card "starter set" for a 25-card set Topps put out in 2007 called "Flashback Fridays", and it features a bunch of larger-than-life ballplayers of the era standing, swinging or pitching inside stadiums.

You feel like maybe you've seen it before? Yep, you have - the 1988 "Broder Type" Baseball Stars series. That was an unlicensed series, and something that you can really only find on eBay. (I'm collecting those & would love to complete the set - want list here).

The 2007 Baseball Flashbacks series starter set that Ken sent me is cards #1-5, or FF-1 through FF-5. The other 20 cards go up to FF-25. They seem to be available on eBay as well. I shall proceed with enhancing my baseball card collection with them in time. Here are those first five.