At 7:00 p.m. CST, I invite you to visit a new site sponsored by this humble little blog called:
Right now, there are 40 posts (one from each year from 1951-1990, the rest will come later). Please feel free to view each one, make any comments (see the blog's mission when you get there), and let me know what you think.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Saturday, November 13, 2010
A Preview of The Topps 300 (and then some...)
Making it's debut on Sunday, November 14, at 7:00 p.m. CST is a new blog by the writer of bdj610's Topps Baseball Card Blog. It is my attempt to invite the Hobby Blogging Community to create their own list of the best Topps Baseball Cards of the past 60 years (1951-2010).
Above is a screen capture of what one of the posts will look like (so now you'll at least know what my choices are for the Top 5 cards from the 1957 Topps set. I invite the readers to comment on the five and include a card taht I may have missed onto what will eventually become the ballot for the best 1957 card of All-Time by the HBC.
Stay tuned for more as it develops.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Thursday, November 11, 2010
To The Men and Women Who Serve in the United States Armed Forces
November 11, 1919: President Wilson proclaims the first Armistice Day with the following words: "To us in America, the reflections of Armistice Day will be filled with solemn pride in the heroism of those who died in the country's service and with gratitude for the victory, both because of the thing from which it has freed us and because of the opportunity it has given America to show her sympathy with peace and justice in the councils of the nations." The original concept for the celebration was for the suspension of business for a two minute period beginning at 11 A.M., with the day also marked by parades and public meetings.
On June 1, 1954, President Eisenhower signs legislation changing the name of the legal holiday from Armistice Day to Veteran's Day. (from The History of Veterans Day)
To the Men and Women who serve in the US Armed Forces:
I will not pretend I know the infinite different reasons why you made the decision to join the US Military.
I can only imagine what your basic training was like (I'm not even sure the movies do any justice).
I will not pretend to know the feeling of being away from family, friends and all of the comforts of home, having been assigned to a foreign land, serving the interests of our country.
I will not say that I necessarily agree with ALL of the reasons why our country has gone to war.
I will not pretend to know what it is like out in the battlefields, not knowing if I was going to live to see another day.
But I will say this.
Thank you.
Thank you all for your service to our country.
Thank you for the sacrifices you made so that we can continue to live with the freedoms that we enjoy.
Your courage is nothing if not inspiring. Your stories become tales of legend that deserve to be told again and again.
For these, and countless other reasons, I give you my respect.
And I give you thanks.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Can We The Blogging Community Come Up With a Better Topps 100???
In response to my post regarding the ballot found at http://vote.topps.com/ and the Topps Company's selection of their Top 100 baseball cards of all time, I received this note from Devon Young who runs the blog titled My First Cards:
Idea...
What if all us card bloggers developed a new list of 100 best Topps cards, and then set up a place for people to vote on them? We could even allow write-in's in case we somehow overlooked a card.
Perhaps each year-specific blogger could nominate 5-10 cards from the set they feature, and bloggers like yourself who cover everything can nominate several from any year, and then after a couple weeks, collect all the nominations and set up a place for people to vote on which are the best?
What do you think?
I don't have the time to organize something like this, but maybe you do?
Devon
I was actually thinking about the possibility of doing my own Topps 100 cards. But with 43,133 in Topps catalog of regular and "traded" cards (not including variations, errors, etc), while there is a lot to choose from, how would I go about doing it? What should MY criteria be?
But I have an idea.
How about this, dear readers? By Sunday night, around 7:00 p.m. CST, I will pick 5 cards from all 60 years (1951-2010)...a Topps 300. They can be rookie cards (which seemed to dominate Topps 100), they could have awesome action shots, they could just be whatever strikes my fancy as a card worth including. After this is done, I will allow a two-week period to allow you the readers to make adjustments to my picks by e-mailing me at bdj610@hotmail.com. You can say, things like, "take this card out and put this one in because..." or, "this card is definitely better than this one (or two) that you picked," or "you're picks are awful. Here's who I'd have picked," or whatever, and if it makes sense, then before all is said and done, I'll have a final ballot (possibly create a third blog, just with ballots akin to the Gummie Awards) for people to vote on their favorites from each year.
By the time all is said and done, we will have the Hobby Blogging Community's very own "Topps 60". And this humble little blog will announce the 60 best cards once a day, just like the Topps will be doing (albeit we won't be able to add cards to the 2011 Topps set ourselves).
But this can only work if (and it's a big IF) this gets a lot of responses from the Hobby Community. It definitely won't work if only seven people comment on changes, or if less than 10 people vote per year (or worse...total). We need active involvement from both the Hobby bloggers and blog readers. We could certainly get input from those who participate in Hobby forums. (We could certainly use readers...Ego!!! Stop it.) We could even wind up with a better Topps 60 than the Topps Company themselves!!!
What do you think? Should we do it?
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Idea...
What if all us card bloggers developed a new list of 100 best Topps cards, and then set up a place for people to vote on them? We could even allow write-in's in case we somehow overlooked a card.
Perhaps each year-specific blogger could nominate 5-10 cards from the set they feature, and bloggers like yourself who cover everything can nominate several from any year, and then after a couple weeks, collect all the nominations and set up a place for people to vote on which are the best?
What do you think?
I don't have the time to organize something like this, but maybe you do?
Devon
I was actually thinking about the possibility of doing my own Topps 100 cards. But with 43,133 in Topps catalog of regular and "traded" cards (not including variations, errors, etc), while there is a lot to choose from, how would I go about doing it? What should MY criteria be?
- Should I go by design aspects?
- Particular player?
- Popularity of the card/player?
- Book value?
- Picture?
- Notoriety (gimmicks)?
- Should subsets (like All-Star cards, Record Breakers cards, Season Highlights cards) be included?
- Should variations (like the legends variations of the last two years) be included?
- Combination of one or more of the above?
- How many cards per year can we have in a ballot? 5? 10? 20?
But I have an idea.
How about this, dear readers? By Sunday night, around 7:00 p.m. CST, I will pick 5 cards from all 60 years (1951-2010)...a Topps 300. They can be rookie cards (which seemed to dominate Topps 100), they could have awesome action shots, they could just be whatever strikes my fancy as a card worth including. After this is done, I will allow a two-week period to allow you the readers to make adjustments to my picks by e-mailing me at bdj610@hotmail.com. You can say, things like, "take this card out and put this one in because..." or, "this card is definitely better than this one (or two) that you picked," or "you're picks are awful. Here's who I'd have picked," or whatever, and if it makes sense, then before all is said and done, I'll have a final ballot (possibly create a third blog, just with ballots akin to the Gummie Awards) for people to vote on their favorites from each year.
By the time all is said and done, we will have the Hobby Blogging Community's very own "Topps 60". And this humble little blog will announce the 60 best cards once a day, just like the Topps will be doing (albeit we won't be able to add cards to the 2011 Topps set ourselves).
But this can only work if (and it's a big IF) this gets a lot of responses from the Hobby Community. It definitely won't work if only seven people comment on changes, or if less than 10 people vote per year (or worse...total). We need active involvement from both the Hobby bloggers and blog readers. We could certainly get input from those who participate in Hobby forums. (We could certainly use readers...Ego!!! Stop it.) We could even wind up with a better Topps 60 than the Topps Company themselves!!!
What do you think? Should we do it?
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Sunday, November 7, 2010
I Voted...So Why Do I Feel Like Something is Horribly Wrong?
This past week, the Topps Company created a new site that will influence what we will see in packs of 2011 Topps Series 1.
To commemorate the 60th Anniversary (the Diamond Anniversary) of Topps Baseball Cards, the Company selected, in their opinion, the Topps (ha ha) 100 cards of all-time. In Topps' 60 year history, they have thrust upon the masses (by my estimate, as of 2010 Topps Update Series) 43,133 regular and traded Topps cards. This total does NOT include errors, variations, and the like. If you want to whittle it down further, that would be 37,759 cards in the eponymous set and 5,374 cards found in Topps Traded/Traded and Rookies/Updates and Highlights/Update Series. So out of 43,133 cards, they picked 100 cards (or 0.2318% of all cards)for us the collectors to vote on our ten favorites of their picks and the top 60 of them, one by one, from 60 to 1, will be added as reprints in packs of the upcoming product.
While the list of cards is impressive (go to http://vote.topps.com/ to see which made the cut), I have to wonder what the criteria was in selecting the 100 cards on the proverbial ballot. Obviously there are the iconic cards from the 1952 Topps set (Pafko, Robinson, Mathews, Mantle), and a ton of rookie cards (Gibson 1959, Maris 1958, Banks 1954, Bonds 1987, Maddux 1987 Traded, etc.), but there were a lot of headscratchers that made me think...WHAT??!
To wit, the 1989 Topps Randy Johnson card. Sure, it's the Big Unit on an Expos card. But is that really one of the 100 best ever? Dwight Gooden's Record breaker card is on here from 1985 Topps, but not his 1984 Topps Traded card? If you're going to include the 1983 Topps cards of Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs, what happened to Ryne Sandberg??! Nothing against Sammy Sosa and his 1990 Topps card, but where's the Big Hurt??!
And if you're going to go with the gimmicks (oooh, I know that Chris Harris must be having a field day with this one...) a la the 2006 Alex Gordon and the 2007 Derek Jeter, then why not something more fun, like the 1985 Topps Gary Pettis, or even the 1972 Billy Martin? I guess they wanted cards that they PURPOSELY created, not something that was out of their control.
Finally, once again, I understand his importance in the role of making Topps synonymous with baseball cards, but did you guys have to include ALMOST EVERY MICKEY MANTLE CARD IN THE CATALOG (15 cards if you're counting, somehow all except his 1958 and 1961 base cards make the list) on the website??! And on a totally unrelated note, if the guy can't even be included on insert cards, how in the heck did two (not one...two) of Pete Rose's cards get on here? And really...the 2010 Stephen Strasburg is already one of the 100 greatest Topps cards ever??!
So for the faint of heart, here are the 100 cards on the list, by year:
The ten cards I chose based on this list, and in by year, were:
There are many cards that were totally ignored and horribly excluded from this list. The 1983 Sandberg comes to mind. The 1995 Royce Clayton or 1996 Chuck Knoblauch (heck, the 1994 Sandberg) for Topps use of the triple action shot (their response to that other card company's photography) would have been good. The 2004 Jason Michaels card was a nice one. How about the 1991 Oscar Azocar.
So I did my part. I cast my ballot. You all should too, as card #60 will be announced on December 18, 2010. You can supposedly vote once per day, but I don't plan on doing so. Once is enough I think, and I have this funny feeling that while the promotion is going to be good, a lot of backlash is going to come of it between now and when card #1 is selected. May the best card win.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
To commemorate the 60th Anniversary (the Diamond Anniversary) of Topps Baseball Cards, the Company selected, in their opinion, the Topps (ha ha) 100 cards of all-time. In Topps' 60 year history, they have thrust upon the masses (by my estimate, as of 2010 Topps Update Series) 43,133 regular and traded Topps cards. This total does NOT include errors, variations, and the like. If you want to whittle it down further, that would be 37,759 cards in the eponymous set and 5,374 cards found in Topps Traded/Traded and Rookies/Updates and Highlights/Update Series. So out of 43,133 cards, they picked 100 cards (or 0.2318% of all cards)for us the collectors to vote on our ten favorites of their picks and the top 60 of them, one by one, from 60 to 1, will be added as reprints in packs of the upcoming product.
While the list of cards is impressive (go to http://vote.topps.com/ to see which made the cut), I have to wonder what the criteria was in selecting the 100 cards on the proverbial ballot. Obviously there are the iconic cards from the 1952 Topps set (Pafko, Robinson, Mathews, Mantle), and a ton of rookie cards (Gibson 1959, Maris 1958, Banks 1954, Bonds 1987, Maddux 1987 Traded, etc.), but there were a lot of headscratchers that made me think...WHAT??!
To wit, the 1989 Topps Randy Johnson card. Sure, it's the Big Unit on an Expos card. But is that really one of the 100 best ever? Dwight Gooden's Record breaker card is on here from 1985 Topps, but not his 1984 Topps Traded card? If you're going to include the 1983 Topps cards of Tony Gwynn and Wade Boggs, what happened to Ryne Sandberg??! Nothing against Sammy Sosa and his 1990 Topps card, but where's the Big Hurt??!
And if you're going to go with the gimmicks (oooh, I know that Chris Harris must be having a field day with this one...) a la the 2006 Alex Gordon and the 2007 Derek Jeter, then why not something more fun, like the 1985 Topps Gary Pettis, or even the 1972 Billy Martin? I guess they wanted cards that they PURPOSELY created, not something that was out of their control.
Finally, once again, I understand his importance in the role of making Topps synonymous with baseball cards, but did you guys have to include ALMOST EVERY MICKEY MANTLE CARD IN THE CATALOG (15 cards if you're counting, somehow all except his 1958 and 1961 base cards make the list) on the website??! And on a totally unrelated note, if the guy can't even be included on insert cards, how in the heck did two (not one...two) of Pete Rose's cards get on here? And really...the 2010 Stephen Strasburg is already one of the 100 greatest Topps cards ever??!
So for the faint of heart, here are the 100 cards on the list, by year:
- 1952 (9): Ed Mathews, Andy Pafko, Pee Wee Reese, Roy Campanella, Jackie Robinson, Duke Snider, Willie Mays, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra
- 1953 (4): J. Robinson, Mays, Satchell Paige, Mantle
- 1954 (4): Ted Williams, Ernie Banks, Henry Aaron, Mays
- 1955 (5): Williams, Sandy Koufax, Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Harmon Killebrew
- 1956 (4): Williams, Koufax, Mantle, Clemente
- 1957 (7): Brooks Robinson, Williams, Don Drysdale, Frank Robinson, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Sandy Koufax
- 1958 (1): Roger Maris
- 1959 (3): Mantle AS, Mantle, Bob Gibson
- 1960 (3): Carl Yastrzemski, Mickey Mantle, Willie McCovey AS
- 1961 (3): Maris AS, Mantle MVP, Juan Marichal
- 1962 (1): Mantle
- 1963 (2): Pedro Gonzalez/Ken McMullen/Pete Rose/Al Weis, Mantle
- 1964 (2): Rose, Mantle
- 1965 (3): Mantle, Joe Morgan/Sonny Jackson, Fritz Ackley/Steve Carlton
- 1966 (1): Mantle
- 1967 (2): Mantle, Bill Denehy/Tom Seaver
- 1968 (3): Mantle, Johnny Bench/Ron Tompkins, Jerry Koosman/Nolan Ryan
- 1969 (2): Mantle, Reggie Jackson
- 1970 (2): Nolan Ryan, Thurman Munson/Dave McDonald
- 1971 (1): Thurman Munson
- 1972 (1): Mike Garman, Cecil Cooper, Carlton Fisk
- 1973 (2): Roberto Clemente, Ron Cey/John Hilton/Mike Schmidt
- 1974 (1): Dave Winfield
- 1975 (2): Robin Yount, George Brett
- 1977 (1): R. Jackson
- 1978 (1): Eddie Murray
- 1979 (1): Ozzie Smith
- 1980 (1): Rickey Henderson
- 1982 (2): Bob Bonner/Cal Ripken/Jeff Schneider, Cal Ripken (Traded)
- 1983 (2): Wade Boggs, Tony Gwynn
- 1984 (2): Don Mattingly, Darryl Strawberry
- 1985 (4): Roger Clemens, Kirby Puckett, Dwight Gooden RB, Mark McGwire US
- 1986 (2): Jose Canseco (Traded), Bo Jackson (Traded)
- 1987 (3): Barry Bonds, Greg Maddux (Traded), McGwire
- 1989 (2): Randy Johnson, Ken Griffey, Jr. (Traded)
- 1990 (1): Sammy Sosa
- 1991 (1): Chipper Jones
- 1992 (1): Manny Ramirez
- 1993 (1): Derek Jeter
- 2001 (2): Ichiro Suzuki, Albert Pujols (Traded)
- 2002 (1): Joe Mauer
- 2005 (1): Ryan Howard/Cole Hamels
- 2006 (1): Alex Gordon
- 2007 (1): Derek Jeter
- 2010 (1): Stephen Strasburg
The ten cards I chose based on this list, and in by year, were:
- 1952 Mantle (if this card isn't number one, then you might as well shut down the legitimacy of the site, the reputation of the company, and the sanity of the collectors/voters who rigged it so that it won't win)
- 1954 Banks (needed to put a Cub in here)
- 1957 Aaron (the reverse negative that made even Aaron feel bad about it - he thought he posed incorrectly on purpose)
- 1973 Clemente (has, sadly, the complete stats of probably the greatest players, if not human beings, on the planet)
- 1984 Mattingly (when I started collecting in 1987, this card was KING)
- 1985 McGwire (between the home run chase and my first forays into collecting online, this card was KING)
- 1987 Bonds (admit it what other reason was there to include this card other than to stir the pot)
- 2001 Suzuki (one of the most sought after cards in the 21st century...still is ten years later).
- 2001 Pujols Traded (see Suzuki)
- 2006 Gordon (gimmicks aside, finding this card was akin to Willy Wonka's Golden Ticket)
There are many cards that were totally ignored and horribly excluded from this list. The 1983 Sandberg comes to mind. The 1995 Royce Clayton or 1996 Chuck Knoblauch (heck, the 1994 Sandberg) for Topps use of the triple action shot (their response to that other card company's photography) would have been good. The 2004 Jason Michaels card was a nice one. How about the 1991 Oscar Azocar.
So I did my part. I cast my ballot. You all should too, as card #60 will be announced on December 18, 2010. You can supposedly vote once per day, but I don't plan on doing so. Once is enough I think, and I have this funny feeling that while the promotion is going to be good, a lot of backlash is going to come of it between now and when card #1 is selected. May the best card win.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
As Today is November 2, 2010...
November 2 is traditionally All Souls Day. It is the day where we celebrate the lives of family and friends who have passed away. Many will go to cemeteries and pray, some may even picnic on the grounds. It is not really a day of mourning, but a day of reflection. Remembering those who we strongly miss.
Personally, I would like to honor my grandparents, Felix Anama, Leonor Filoteo Anama, Gloria Y. Nichols, Ruben S. Menguito, Sgt. Clinton H. Nichols. As well as countless great aunts and uncles too numerous to list.
Today I want to remember the seven souls who died on January 8, 1993, at the Brown's Chicken in Palatine, Illinois: Michael C. Castro, Rico Solis, Thomas Mennes, Marcus Nellsen, Guadalupe Maldonado, Richard Ehlenfeldt, and Lynn Ehlenfeldt.
I would like to remember the people I've met over the years who left us too soon: Shannon McNamara, Linda Beyer, Gail Leff, Lois Winesburgh, Nancy Huber.
On behalf of my wife, I would like to honor her grandparents, uncles, and especially, her mother (since I have not asked for my wife's permission to do so, I am not adding their names here).
Finally, I would like to take a moment to remember the families, the loved ones who were left behind.
Now that the personal side of the blog has been taken care of, I would also like to take time to remember 78 more people. Between 11/02/2009 and 11/01/2010, 79 people who can lay claim to playing major league baseball, passed away. Many lived long productive lives, even after their careers ended. Others, tragically, either passed away before their potential could be fully reached or before they could enjoy the fruits of their retirement.
On this night, I take time out of my humble little baseball card blog to remember:
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Personally, I would like to honor my grandparents, Felix Anama, Leonor Filoteo Anama, Gloria Y. Nichols, Ruben S. Menguito, Sgt. Clinton H. Nichols. As well as countless great aunts and uncles too numerous to list.
Today I want to remember the seven souls who died on January 8, 1993, at the Brown's Chicken in Palatine, Illinois: Michael C. Castro, Rico Solis, Thomas Mennes, Marcus Nellsen, Guadalupe Maldonado, Richard Ehlenfeldt, and Lynn Ehlenfeldt.
I would like to remember the people I've met over the years who left us too soon: Shannon McNamara, Linda Beyer, Gail Leff, Lois Winesburgh, Nancy Huber.
On behalf of my wife, I would like to honor her grandparents, uncles, and especially, her mother (since I have not asked for my wife's permission to do so, I am not adding their names here).
Finally, I would like to take a moment to remember the families, the loved ones who were left behind.
Now that the personal side of the blog has been taken care of, I would also like to take time to remember 78 more people. Between 11/02/2009 and 11/01/2010, 79 people who can lay claim to playing major league baseball, passed away. Many lived long productive lives, even after their careers ended. Others, tragically, either passed away before their potential could be fully reached or before they could enjoy the fruits of their retirement.
On this night, I take time out of my humble little baseball card blog to remember:
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
Monday, November 1, 2010
Coming Soon to a Store Shelf Near You...
Congratulations to the San Francisco Giants. They have just won their first World Series title for the city of San Francisco. The last time they won it all was in 1954, when they were known as the New York Giants. And because of this, Topps will be making the above product available to the masses (in the Bay area anyway...).And so the 2010 Major League Baseball season finally ends.
Heat up the Hot Stove folks...it's time to see what the Free Agent market holds!!!
And after today, everyone is 0-0.
Sincerely,
JayBee Anama
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