A Quintet of New Age Performers

My 2021 Topps Heritage set is starting to come into view. I am still underwater a bit on the short-print, high-number cards in the set, but I suppose they'll come in time. The insert set from 2021 Heritage that I like best is this iteration of "New Age Performers", which they've had in previous series. They're based on the 1972 design, but there were no such New Age Performers in 1972 Topps baseball, as you may be aware.

Here's the checklist of the 25 cards included in 2021 Topps Heritage "New Age Performers". They're mostly young fellas, or not-quite-young but overperforming newcomers last year like Mike Yastrzemski. There's your 2021 AL Rookie of the Year, Randy Arozarena, feted as he is here due to his exceptional accomplishments in that weird 2020 postseason that now seems like kind of a long time ago.

I guess with this quintet of cards, and three more on the way, I'll have completed the 25-card insert set, so hurray for that, right? What an accomplishment! #lifegoals

1985 Looks a Lot Different From This Angle

1985 is another one of those Topps baseball years that, like 1981, I'd just sort of assumed I'd totally ignore when I resumed with my accumulation of cards. And yet from this angle, it - also like 1981 - is a pretty fantastic, dare I say iconic, design, isn't it? Perhaps it's the many Topps Archives and related cards that have totally aped the 1985 design over the years, but now it's become one of my favorites, and as such, I'm trying to pull together a set of these, ahem, 792 cards.

Something about the symmetry of the team name, team logo and image just works really well for me. I don't think anything from this set is worth more than a buck or two, but hey, that's not why we're here.

Here are a few more that came from Greg at Night Owl Cards, along with a couple others that trickled in this past couple of weeks. I'm partial to the Tug McGraw and Tony Pena cards, so we'll start with those.

A 1981 Topps Baseball Set Is Forming

When I first got back into this baseball-card collecting racket a few years ago, I x'ed out the possibility of collecting any post-1980 cards as "junk wax", including pretty much all of the 1990s in that assessment as well. It was really just pure naivete on my part, as I didn't really know the precise boundaries of overproduced "junk", and perhaps I still don't. But one thing I definitely was being a doofus on was 1981 Topps Baseball, one of the coolest-looking sets produced in that or any other decade. I actually bought pack upon pack of these in real time, as they were coming out, as a 13-year-old in San Jose, CA - but if I'm not mistaken, it was the last year in which I regularly spent my allowance money on baseball cards, moving on as I did that year to 7" punk and new wave singles.

Here we are in 2021, and I've been gently working my way into collecting the entire Topps 1981 set. Thankfully many folks have doubles they've been kind enough to trade, to help fill the many large gaps on my want list. One such good American is Greg from Night Owl Cards, one of our nation's finest card-collectin' blogs. He sent me a really nice batch of cards this past week in exchange for some Dodgers I fired his way; many of them were from years besides 1981, and I thank him for it - but right now we're taking a look at the '81s he sent over, as a way to represent a set that I seem to get a few new cards from every week. Thanks, Greg!

Here's What Just Arrived In My COMC Order

Waaay back in early September I placed an order with COMC for a handful of needed cards - the ones you're about to look at - and was told upon completion and submittal of my order that they wouldn't be shipping until late December (!). I'm used to that sort of thing with COMC; by now, reading others' accounts of ordering with the site, a 3- or 4-month wait for cards is pretty normal, post-pandemic. (I think I'd placed my first order with them in January or February 2020, and it shipped pretty much within a week or so). 

Anyway, here we are in mid-November, and those late-December cards are sitting here, in my hands, and now on this blog. Thank you, COMC. Who said there's a supply chain problem, right? Anyway, let's take a look at what we've got.

Here's John aka Johnny Antonelli, in a 1983 Fritsch anniversary set commemorating the 1953 Milwaukee Braves, of whom Mr. Antonelli was a member, before he'd later go on to be a New York and San Francisco Giant. He's a key cog in my player collections, and this one was most certainly a "need". 

Another thing I've been working on are the San Francisco Giants Topps Heritage team sets. I have every base card - I think it's the collection of mine, besides all of the 1969-1982 Topps Giants team sets, that I like looking at the most. So now it's on to the much more expensive and difficult-to-acquire Chrome parallels and various rare inserts that feature Giants players on them. I have a few of these already, but knocked a ton of those sparkling chromes off the want list with this order:

Honestly, that's really what this order was about - those Giants Heritage chromes. I still don't really know who Billy Sadler is. I then topped off the thing with some Max Fried needs, all cards from when he was a Padres prospect. Now that's a team that could have used Fried this year, am I right?

Fall In Love With My New Cards

Well, Joey Bart, I hope you're ready. No pressure. With the retirement of Buster Posey this week, Mr. Bart has become the heir apparent at catcher for the San Francisco Giants, starting with the 2022 season. The team stashed him at AAA-Sacramento for most of the 2021 season, whereupon he proceeded to "rake". I think it was the right call, as he was a little lost in the big leagues in 2020 during the weird pandemic season, which Posey sat out. 

I've been collecting his cards for a couple of years now, as I'm sure regular readers are aware, and am hoping that he becomes a solid major leaguer to justify the dozens upon dozens of rookie cards created by Topps, Bowman, Panini and others for this guy. I mean, seriously - there are new cards almost every week for this guy: variations, relics, autographs, etc. I've done my best with what I have, you know?

Here are the 3 newest ones I got this past week.

I also got my first two cards from 2021 Topps Heritage Minor Leagues! I want I want I want this entire set. If you've somehow accumulated a bunch of doubles, let's make a deal! (by which I mean a trade).

Finally, three more cards from 2021 Topps Fire that I grabbed. Guys in my player collections.

2010 Salem-Keizer Volcanoes Tribute Cards

How cool is this? in 2010, right after the San Francisco Giants won their first World Series, their minor league affiliate the Salem-Keizer Volcanoes put out a 7-card tribute set that featured players who had passed through town and had been on the team. They're each pictured in their original Volcanoes uniforms, looking like baby-faces dreaming of one day becoming big-league ballplayers. All of these guys, save Schierholtz, have places in Giants postseason lore for their heroics in 2010, 2012 and/or 2014, or some combination thereof.

3 of these players - Pablo Sandoval, Tim Lincecum and Buster Posey - are guys I have personal player collections of, and therefore getting this set from an eBay seller is what you might call a "no-brainer". I did not know that these existed until last week. Take a gander!

The Fruits of Another Surprise Trade

Every now and again I'll receive an envelope or even a box of card-shaped treats from Dave in California, whom I've been trading with for the better part of a year now. The trades are probably more one-sided - in my favor - than I'd like, but I try to do my part to get him what he needs as well. Just a few days ago a full-fledged surprise BOX of cards arrived, and it was like Christmas in October, baby. I had zero clue what was in there, and that's often as good as it gets for an arrested-development card accumulator like myself. Let's take a look at what he sent!

The cards you see above were from 2013 Topps Archives, and they're based on the 1982 Topps design. Cards #51-100 in that set were based on the '82s. Very snazzy, and he sent me about a half-dozen of them.

You all remember Willie McGee, the San Francisco Giant, right? This is from 1994 Pinnacle. Honestly, I still forget that McGee spent as much time with my favorite team as he did.

How about Los Angeles Dodger Jason Schmidt, wearing his San Francisco Giants uni?

Speaking of Giants, one guy in my player collection is Jack Clark, who along with Willie McCovey was my first "favorite player" and basically my idol in 6th grade. I decided I'd only collect his Giants cards, since there are a ton of junk wax-era Cardinals, Padres and Yankees cards I just don't really want. Dave sent me 3 Clark cards - all common as hell - that I still didn't have yet. He didn't even know that.

One set that I am now intrigued by because of this surprise trade is 1984 Donruss. It's a pretty sleek design! I'll bet, aside from the # of cards I'd have to accumulate, it's not all that tough to put this thing together, right? Aren't these nice?

Then there are these prospects from the 1999 Team Best "Player of the Year" 50-card set. I love prospect cards, even the guys who never even had a whiff of the big leagues, especially when they're on teams like the "Erie Seawolves":

I'm only really scratching the surface of stuff that arrived in my home a few days ago in that box - you know you can only scan so much - but here are a few other cool things Dave was kind enough to send.