So the Regular Season MIGHT End Today...

Races are down to the wire in the Central divisions and one wild card spot is still at stake in the AL. It is wholly possible that there could be up to 3 (that's right...three) game 163's to play tomorrow. Lots of things would have to happen though:

• Pirates would have to win and the Cardinals would have to lose
• Royals would have to win while the Tigers would have to lose
• Mariners would have to win while the Angels would have to lose

If the Cardinals and Tigers win, they become the NL and AL Division champions respectively. The Pirates and Royals, who are already in the postseason, would begin their postseason chase with the one-game Wild-Card. If the Angels win, the Mariners are eliminated from the playoffs.

So lots of things happening baseball wide before the playoffs. And because both the Cubs and White Sox are ending their seasons today, this humble, little blog will become a bit busier as we anticipate the arrival of 2014 Topps Update Series and 2015 Topps Series 1.

First up will be a debut class comparison (and another plea to Topps to bring back MLB Debut) of those who debuted in 1994 and those who's first MLB games came during the season.

Then a look at the best rookies of the 2014 season, all in preparation for the annual "Guess the All-Star Rookie Team" contest. No one beat me last year, so once again, the grand prize will be the 2005 Topps Rookie Cup set.

Third, and most importantly, I will begin the selection of this year's bdj610's NL and AL All-Star Teams. Seventy spots up for grabs. Closers and middle relievers will be announced first. The starting pitchers come next. Ensuring that every team has a rep comes third, and then finally the complete rosters will be announced.

Writers in the Hobby Blogging Community are beginning to contemplate their end-of-the-season posts. Jason Carter of the Writer's Journey has invited bloggers and their readers to cast their votes for the second (he missed doing this last year) annual BBBWARAOAAE (Base Ball Bloggers and Readers Association of America and Elsewhere) Awards. The usual categories are in play (NL and AL Rookies of the Year, Cy Young, and MVP's, along with the Best Shortstop Ever, and Most Deserving Non Hall of Famer). Everyone has until Tuesday to vote. Click here for details.

There are three teams who are trying to extend their seasons. It should be a fun Sunday.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Now This is a Brilliant Idea

Topps is trying, really trying, to branch out on the "Entertainment" side of their business. They have MLB and MiLB locked up for a long time, and although the countdown before their NFL contract expires, MLS and WWE might not necessarily pick up the slack.

Last year, Topps started issuing canvas prints of individual cards from the 80's, and then 70's, of many fan favorites, suitable for framing (Topps even supplies the frames). At the time I was working at the framed art place, I thought this was a brilliant idea. Too bad they didn't take me up on the idea of trying to license these for framing. But hey, I no longer work there, and it doesn't matter to me what they do now (lost opportunity I tell you...but I digress).

Topps has also reached deep into the archives for more pictures of the games past, issuing prints of unused pictures of stars that didn't make it onto the cards.

Now Topps has come up with their best idea yet, and if it wasn't limited to 99 per run, I'd be placing my orders.

This time, they are taking the complete (as of 2014) run of cards of a certain player. With guys like the White Sox' Paul Konerko, and that guy from New York that's retiring as well as two of the six initial subjects, Topps is now featuring on their website a framed art display of all of their cards (almost...I'll explain in a bit) in one completely product.

A fitting tribute for Paul Konerko, and this is coming from a Cubs fan.

Look at that. All of Konerko's base Topps cards from 1995 through 2014 (so he didn't have any Topps cards in 1997 and 1998), and with the exception of the first three cards, it's a complete retrospective of Paulie's White Sox career, with a black and white picture of the man himself included. I have all of these cards (along with the cards of the other guys), and I have to say, this looks really good.

You can bet that Topps will be adding a lot more subjects to this set of products. They've got the card library to do it. And what better way to display the cards of the guy you idolize? A couple of caveats though:

• These are only pictures of the cards, they are not going to put actual cards in this product. That would be insane.
• The horizontal cards are displayed vertically and facing the left. Either Topps should have had these displayed the correct way or at least facing to the right. But I get the reasoning why, as there is only so much space.

There are six subjects in this initial run. Besides Paulie, Miguel Cabrera (complete with a Topps 203 card), David Ortiz, David Wright, Albert Pujols, and oh yeah, Derek Jeter, get the retrospective treatment. Maybe they should have kept it to the two retired guys, and probably a couple of recently retired legends (who wouldn't want to see a Chipper Jones retrospective or a complete run of Todd Helton cards all displayed with the Rockies all-time great?) I mean the other four guys still will have cards going forward, and Wright's art piece consists of nine card images.

Here are the rest of the images, in case you're curious.

Oh yeah, did I mention Topps is only making 99 copies of each? For Konerko and Jeter, these are fitting tributes to their long and illustrious careers.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

So the 2015 Topps Series 1 Sell Sheets Have Been Live For a While Now...

Eventually I can devote a bit more time to this humble, little blog. For those who have stuck around, waiting to see if I'm ever going to post again (or have asked if I'm even alive), thank you for the support. I am hoping that when 2015 comes around, and the prospects that Theo and company have been raising start fulfilling their potential, that it would be a great year in the Windy City for baseball.

Anyway, I've been quite busy work wise. Lots of things happening since the big conversion and it looks like things are finally starting to settle down. There are major advantages to working at home, but there has to be a balance and after reading some articles on LinkedIn (that's the social media site for professionals...or at least a way to keep tabs on former co-workers), I think I can get into a better rhythm when it comes to balancing my work time and my "out-of-office" time.

Okay, to the point.

Not long after Topps posted images of the wildly anticipated 2015 Topps cards, the sell sheets came were posted on certain sites. To save time (and to keep you from leaving to see them), here are the images:

It's always nice to see the sample images in this setting. It's too bad that they no longer distribute actual sell sheets. I would have loved to see this up close.

So it seems that the Baseball History insert set will consist of pairs of cards, not just one card reviewing a particular year. That should make things interesting. Will people only want the baseball half? Will there be a market for the "History" half? Will cards be sold in pairs? Who knows?

I don't collect them, but you have to admit, the relic cards look better and better every year. The manufactured stuff seems to be a big hit as well.

September is normally a busy time for the blog. We look at top rookies in anticipation of the annual Topps All-Star Rookie contest (which nobody won last year...sorry), as well as prepare for the announcements for the End-of-the-Year All-Star Teams. With the way this 2014 season has played out, all positions 70 positions are up for grabs.

Until next time.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama

Two Thousand Nine Hundred Seventy-Four

Sometimes, it seems like it all just happened yesterday. Other times, it seems like it happened an eternity ago. My daughter, who was just over a year old when this tragic event took place, is now a freshman in high school. Was it really that long ago?

I wrote the words below in 2011. For that article, and when I re-ran the story since, I used the total number of people I had heard to have died due to the events of that day, not including those who heinously perpetrated the attacks. That number was 2,974. Depending on where you read it, it could have been 2,977. Tallies since then have brought the number up to 2,980. But regardless of the number, that's too many lives lost.

So while I know that it's been almost a month since my last post on this humble, little blog, I thought I'd come back and honor the memories of the people for whom this country still mourns, and think how the events on that fateful day changed the course of American history, thirteen years since. By the time this posts goes live, it would have been thirteen years ago that the final plane crashed in a field somewhere in Pennsylvania.



Two thousand nine hundred seventy-four.

2,974.

That's the number of people who lost their lives when everything was finally taken into account. Countless lives were affected by this national tragedy. Even if you didn't know anybody on those planes, at the World Trade Center, or the Pentagon, you grieved along with those who did. You stood there in shock, in a daze, just glued to the television or radio.

Our lives have not been the same since. My daughter, now eleven, asks what we (her parents) were doing that morning. "We were just going about our lives," was my reply. "We watched the morning news, getting ready for work, and couldn't believe what we were seeing on the screen." She was just over a year old. She couldn't have understood what was going on then. But she will learn that what she sees as "normal" now, really wasn't before that Tuesday morning.

Two thousand nine hundred seventy-four. It is the number of reasons why we never forget what happened eleven years ago today.

On this day, the thirteenth anniversary of the September 11 attacks, my family and I send our prayers to those who lost loved ones that Tuesday morning. We pray, and will continue to pray for:

the children who lost their parents that day.

the children who would never meet their fathers because of the events of that day.

the firefighters and policemen and women who risk their lives doing their jobs, running into the face of dangers as many are running in the opposite direction.

those servicemen and women fighting for our freedoms away from home, whether or not we agree with the conflicts they battle.

for our leaders, regardless of their affiliation, that they make the right choices to keep the citizens of our country, and others, safe.

And finally, we pray for peace. Peace amongst ourselves as family, as a community, as a nation.

Sincerely,

JayBee Anama