Tuesday, June 14, 2011

If This is His Topps Card, Then What Card is This?: Craig Biggio

I can't believe it's been almost two years since we last played this game.  You'd think between the differences between the retail sets and the regular cards from the last 6 years, I'd actually have written these more often.  But alas, the muse had left me...

UNTIL NOW!!!

Spurned on by the Night Owl's pack breaks, one of his comments made me dig out the pair for tonight's feature.

Craig Biggio was one of the best players ever to don the jersey of the Houston Astros.  An unselfish player, he would play whatever position he was given, and excelled!  Originally a catcher, he moved to second base, then centerfield (and having to play against that hill out in center at Enro...I mean Minute Maid Park), to left field (briefly), then back to second base.  Very unselfish, he knew when to take a pitch (holds the record for most times hit by a pitcher with 285 plunks). A five-time Silver Slugger, a seven-time All-Star (as a catcher, then at second base), in his 20 seasons in Houston, Biggio (half of the Killer B's with Astros slugger Jeff Bagwell, or a third of them if you add Lance Berkman) had 3060 hits, 291 of them home runs, drove in 1175 runs, stole 414 bases, and finished with averages of .281, .433, and .796 (batting average, slugging, and OPS).  He punched his ticket to Cooperstown upon retirement, and is the only player in the history of baseball with 3000 hits, 600 doubles, 400 stolen bases, and 250 home runs.

Funny thing is that I did include him in my mock 2011 Topps Archives Project as the second subject in what was supposed to have been completed in 2009 (this project stalled as well, but I promise it will make it's comeback during HOF induction - you can pretty much guess who the subject is at that point - but I digress). 

On to the cards.

So here is card number 1:


This is his 1993 Topps card #680. Now I loved this design because of its use of very minimal design elements on the front of the card (the color banner below makes it look like it's holding he large picture that takes up most of the card...again, a play on the scrapbooking element of card collecting).  Here he is possibly turning a double play against the Cubs, who did I mention he killed constantly?  That's current Yankee's manager Joe Girardi trying to break up the impending double play (possible game 05/07/1992).

Here is card number 2:


The picture is a bit brighter here than in card #1. And the name font is different in card #2 than in card #1.

So the question is, if card #1 is his Topps card, then What Card is This (card #2)???  Leave your answer in the comments. Have fun figuring this one out.  The answer (with commentary) to come later on today.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

UPDATE:  June 14, 2011.

Commenters were quick to point out that card #2 is from this year's 60 Years of Topps reprint set.

Now that we know the answer, it's time we find out the question we all want answered:

How could you guys screw up the font for the name???

Your reprint is not even close to the original, it's not even funny.  And don't try to say that you don't have the original fonts, because you've reprinted cards from this set over the years and the fonts were identical.  What happened here??!

jba

4 comments:

John Bateman said...

Topps 60 year card?

John Bateman said...

Topps 60 year card (2011)

Matt Pederson said...

60 Years of Topps from 2011

TonyGillen said...

I agree: 60 Years of Topps. I'd like to know why the fonts never come out quite right in the reprints. Something to do with the print process then vs. now or are those fonts just lost?