Merry Christmas, to Everyone

 Merry Christmas to all.  I hope you find the cards you wanted under the tree.  Aren't we lucky that Christmas falls between the end of the World Series and the beginning of Spring Training.  Only 48 days to go. 

Hey It's Me

 I am still here and reading your blogs and plotting how to get cards to y'all after Christmas.  I finished the 1969 Topps Football set and am currently working on the 1965 Philadelphia Foot.ball set (I have 30 cards to go).  I have one card for my next set build which is the 1965 Topps football set.  I recently picked up all of the Bowman draft Padres autographs for this year.  I think that will put me over 1,300 Padrographs.  I know that I am getting many boxes of cards for Christmas and will be distributing them among people.  If there is something specific you are interested in please let me know.  

I have not retired from blogging.  I feel busier now than when I was working full time and I can't find time to blog, so I am trying how to make time to blog in the future.  I plan to start again shortly after the holidays.

Thank you for all your friendships.  See you soon.

Hello Again, I got a bobble card today.

 I am still reading blogs and collecting.  

I started a set build, 1969 Topps football.  I had two cards from the set, Brian Picollo and Gale Sayers, so I decided to build the set.  I have liked the set for a long time.  I am now at 24% complete.  I keep spending about $20 at a time.  I am not two worried about condition. So it is a good condition set.  

I am still opening product and sorting it to go to various collectors.  I have added a 2008 Topps card of White Sox utility player Josh Fields to my National Anthem collection.  I found an autographed one on eBay.  

My City Connect mini collection needs to be sorted by team and sleeved.  

I have added a few cards to my Padrographs collection.  

Gavin from Baseball Card Breakdown sent me some cards of Tim Flannery that he had worked his magic on the cards.

I think my favorite is the 1985 Topps card.  I would collect a rainbow of that card.  The 1988 Fleer card is the aforementioned Bobble card.

1992 Padres Stadium Club Team set

 There seem to be a lot more action shots in the 92 set and fewer posed shots.  

There are 33 cards in this set, which is up 9 cards from 1991. With 33 cards that is several more than would be on the roster at any one time.  

I had all kinds of ideas for this series, but I don't seem to be able to muster the same enthusiasm for writing that I did when I started the blog back in 2008.  I still enjoy collecting and reading other blogs and trading, but the writing not so much, so you may see more picture filled posts from me.

1991 Stadium Club Skydome Padres

The Skydome set was produced in conjunction with the All-Star Game, which was played at the Skydome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The Padres team set contains two All Stars and three draft picks.

Greg Anthony was drafted as compensation for the Padres having lost Jack Clark in 1991.  He played for three seasons, getting no higher than A ball.  

Jon Barnes was also drafted by the Padres in the second round of the 1991 draft.  He got up to AA and played through 1995 in organized baseball and in 1997 he played for the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks in an independent league.

Sean Mulligan was drafted in the fourth round in 1991.  He made his major league debut in 1996 for the Padres.  He played a total of 2 major league games.  In 1997 he played in the Cleveland System, in 98 he played in Mexico, then for a couple of years in the Montreal and Baltimore systems.

Also in the set were All Star team cards of Tony Gwynn and Benito Santiago.

 

mini collection, City Connect uniforms

 In 2021 Nike and MLB started another cash grab, I mean a new program for team stalwarts.  City Connect uniforms are supposedly designed to reflect the cultural aspecet of each teams home city.  So far twenty teams have City Connect uniforms.  Eight more teams are scheduled to get them in 2024 and the Dodgers are expected to debut a new City Connect uniform this year.  The A's and Yankees are the only teams without a City Connect uniform.  The Yankees have said they do not want one and who knows where the A's will end up.

The Arizona Diamondbacks were one of the teams to get City Connect uniforms in 2021.  The color is called sand and Arizona does have a lot of that.  The uniforms feature the team "name" Serpientes on the front in black with a the players number in red.  

Serpeintes is an homage to Arizona's Hispanic Community.

So far I just have these three cards to represent the D'backs in my mini collection.

Up Next-The Boston Red Sox

Mini Collection, National Anthem

I found these two cards in the Topps Update that I opened. They struck a chord with me.  I had an ancestor who fought for the Union during the civil war.  My grandfather was in the National Guard during WWII.  My Dad served in the US Navy during Korea and Vietnam during his twenty one year Naval Career.  I served four years in the US Navy from 1975-1979.  I have lots of friends that served in the military. I have never seen any cards like these before.  I am aware of one other which was also in the Update set.  I ordered one of it.  

If you know of any others please let me know.  

 

1991 Stadium Club backs

 To me one of the coolest things about the first year of Stadium Club was the backs.  Not so much the stats but the rookie card of each player on the back.

Garry Templeton has the oldest rookie card in this set, 1977.  Every year through 1985 except for 1980 is represented in this bunch.  I hadn't realized that Whitson had broken in with the Pirates.

There are 4 rookie cards from the 1985 set.  Hobby legend Bip Roberts represents 1986.  Phil Stephenson is part of a set that came out for a few years that featured players with their major league Debut.

Many instances of the debut set in this bunch.  

1991 Padres Stadium Club team set.

24 cards, 2 Hall of Fame members and 2 players who are no longer with us.

Stadium Club

When I was opening my blaster of 2023 Stadium Club I was reminded how much I liked the photography and the look of the cards.  I was working in the LCS when they first came out.  I remember the Topps rep telling us about them and showing us the promo cards.  Once they were out everyone working there ordered multiple sets of the members only and the gold Nolan Ryan.  

I tracked down all the Padres team sets since 1991 and going to take a look at them here.

1991 Stadium Club was 600 cards issued in two sets of 300. There were 22 members of the Padres in the set.

The only two horizontal cards in the team are Dennis Rasmussen and future HOFer Fred McGriff.  These two photos demonstrate what you got in that first year, either an action photo or a posed candid shot.  Once in a while you would get an unposed candid shot.  

One of the Clark brothers appears in the set, his brother Phil will join the Padres later.  Oscar Azocars' nephew Jose plays for the Padres now.

10 of the 24 players in the set are pitchers, 2 catchers and the rest are position players.   

Tony Gwynn and Benito Santiago were the stars of the team in 1991.

Two of the members of the 1991 Padres team are now members of the Baseball Hall of Fame.  

Customs of 2024

So far I have made 5 custom cards.  The Mike Shildt card was for me and is at Spring Training to get signed for my Padres Manager collection.  The Puig and Qualls cards were made for an autograph dealer I work with.  Rich Puig played four games for the Mets in September of 1974 and that was the extent of his major league career.

Jim Qualls played for the Cubs, Expos and White Sox between 1969 and 1972.  63 games in all and 11 for the White Sox in 1972.

This card is also for the autograph dealer I work with.  Gary Alexander had a 7 year major league career between 1975-1981.  He played in 58 games for the A's in 1978,splitting that season with the Indians. He came to the A's as part of the trade that sent Vida Blue to the Giants.

John "Blue Moon" Odom had a legendary career with the A's from 1964-1975.  In 1975 he played with the A's, Indians, Braves and White Sox.  He finished his career with two games for the White Sox.  This was also made for the autograph dealer I work with.

 

 

My first look at 2024

 I preordered two blasters of 2024 Topps Baseball.  One to rip and one to put away for Christmas 2024.  I have three blasters of different product to put under the tree come December.

I got a bunch of cards for my City Connect collection.  First cards I have seen with the Red Sox, Mariners and Reds City Connect uniforms.  I need to sort through my city connect cards and see what teams I don't have yet.

 A couple more City Connect cards and Bobby Witt doing Superman into the base.  Of course it wouldn't be a box for me if I didn't get a Bobby Witt, Jr. card.

Nick Fortes presents Easter Bunnies.  I have no clue what is behind Corbin Carroll.

Kerry can pick a game for Nolan Arenado to go yard.  I still haven't figured out what is in the background of Gonsolin and Schanuel.

Some more inserts.  The blue print card reminds me of a Nike Tony Gwynn Hitting Machine poster from the 80's or 90's.

The lone Padre card in the box is no longer a Padre.  The Betts card is a chrome card.  

Overall I like the design of the 2024 cards.  I like the parallels that seem to have metallic ink on them.

unboxing box 21, the final box, Costco big box

This box was available at Costco.  It contains one oversized card, 2 packs of series 1, 3 packs of series 2, 5 packs of update and three exclusive packs. 

Like the box I got at Target this had a oversized card and and a regular size card along with it.  Unlike the Corbin Caroll card from the Target box, this Francisco Card had a different number from the regular base card, CTC something.

These are the cards that were in the silver packs.  Different design, different pictures and different stock.  Each of these is thicker than a normal card. I thought I had scanned the back of one of these but I can not find it.  There are no stats just a write up about the player.

Inserts from the series 1 packs

Inserts from the series 2 packs.  I haven't seen the Legends of the Game insert before. I will have to pick up a copy of the Tony Gwynn card.

And the inserts from the update packs.

So exactly two months from the date I got them I have completed opening all the boxes I got for Christmas.  They are all sorted and will be going out to people in the next couple of weeks.

 

Unboxing Box 20, the Penultimate Box, 2023 Topps Update Target Big Box.

 My granddaughter and I were in Target looking for something, right after Christmas, when I saw this and picked it up for right around $30.  Upon opening the strangest thing was that all the packs were glued together lightly to maintain that fanned appearance.  

I was going to do a bunch of individual scans but I decided to do this to show the relative sizes of the big card and the pin.  The pin is of Yordan Alvarez of the Astros.  I didn't catch the difference in the two Actions Stars cards until I looked at the scan.  I don't know why they are different.  I don't what the wording is supposed to mean on the Bo Bichette card.  But it looks like a card I will send to Cards as I see Them for his mini collection.

In all the Stars of MLB cards I have seen I don't think that I have seen anyone from the Padres featured.

I am not sure if the Brice Turang card is what sort of parallel but the colors work well with the Brewers color scheme.   I still like the 1988 homage cards especially the Carlton Fisk.  More stars of the MLB including a chrome of Matt Olsen.

The five silver cards were in the special silver pack in the box.  The Bobby Miller card is numbered out of 199 and came out of a regular pack.  

This card is noteworthy because it was loose in the box, hidden behind the big card.

Just one more box to go.

Unboxing Box 19, 2023 Topps Heritage High Numbers

 

Starting with the inserts.  I remember the Bat Slam HR.  Davey Lopes is one of my favorite non Padres, he was a Padre for a while as a coach.  I haven't heard of Taj Bradley.  I like the combination of players on the stamp sheet.

 A couple of Padres, Seth Lugo had a really good season and signed a two contract with the Royals.  David Dahl played in four games for the Padres and signed a minor league deal with the Philllies for this year.

Luis Campusano has played for the Padres for the last four seasons, while the team tries to figure out what to do at the catcher position.

Tom Cosgrove made his made league debut last year for the Padres.  I think he will be a valuable part of the teams pitching staff.

A trio of cards for my City Connect collection.  

A hand numbered relic insert of Johnathan India to close out the box.

Unboxing Box 18, 2023 Topps Update box 2

Starting off with parallels and inserts.  One halloween parallel, three chevron parallels, a numbered green parallel of Eury Perez, a black gold homage and two 1988 Topps homage cards.

Eight stars of MLB, five are rookies and one of the rookies is Chrome.

A bunch of rookies. I like the Bachman and Miller cards because of the intensity of the delivery.  Zach Neto has a big leg kick as he hits. Hicks and Bachman will go into my city connect mini collection.

I like the Triston Casas card cause I don't believe I have seen very many cards of that pose.  Maybe I'll start another mini collection.

Michael Fulmer is a parallel, any card with Clemente on it is a winner.  Castro and Wacha will go into my City Connect mini collection.  

Ohio Tim email me your address at padrographsatlivedotcom.  

There are just three more boxes to go.