Yep, here's the start of a new recurring blog series where I'll take you readers on a tour through my beloved 2005 Topps Pristine Legends refractor frankenset. It's 140 cards deep (well, currently 139... I've still got an eye out for that final card), so it's a bit of a commitment. But part of the point is to prompt some easy-lifting posts for me to turn around my faltering goal of getting the annual post count up here.
Sometimes this series might cover multiple cards in one post, but a decent "PC guy" of mine like Vida Blue will likely warrant a full post to himself, seeing as I plan to take the opportunity to show off other favorite cards of that player in my collection. See, I had been thinking for a while now about doing something along the lines of the Diamond King's "Pick me a player" series, but instead of turning to readers, I'll just let the 2005 Topps Pristine Legends checklist pick the players for me, since around half are PC guys of mine anyways. (Though if any readers happen to be especially curious about seeing highlights of any certain PC of mine, and it's not a guy in 2005 Topps Pristine Legends, then by all means suggest away in the comments and I'll be happy to work up a post for you.)
I should mention I'll often refer to this project in shorthand as simply my "Pristine Legends" set instead of the full "2005 Topps Pristine Legends refractor" frankenset. The fact is it's the only Legends set that Pristine put out, with all the other releases under the product line featuring active players or a mix of active and retired. And it's my understanding that a current MLB or MLBPA licensing agreement stipulates no new set/product can be released featuring only retired players anymore, so that would seem to stand in the way of another Pristine Legends release ever coming out, even with (non-Legends) Topps Pristine seeing a return here in the Fanatics era. Hence if you just refer to a set as "Pristine Legends", there's not really another set to confuse it with. There's only 2005!
With that intro out of the way, here's Vida Blue...
As this series continues, we'll see that Topps selected many photos for the set that are familiar thanks to being featured on other cards already (e.g. Rod Carew reprises an old Hostess photo), though this shot of Vida doesn't ring a bell. This was later on during his Oakland tenure, as opposed to his early 70s days as a young phenom. Mustached Vida doesn't appear on cardboard until 1976 oddballs, helping narrow this photo down to probably '76 or '77. It's a nice picture-- Vida was always game to fake a set/wind-up for a Topps photographer-- and one that could still look fine were it lightly edited due to a lack of licensing, thanks to only a couple visible "A's" bits poking out.
Here's a look at the card with softer refraction. The first 100 cards in the set are a subset of "The Legendary Years" featuring dudes in their MLB uniforms with a layout riffing on the classic 1965 Topps design. Later subsets to come are The College Years, The Negro Leagues, and The Early Years.
The backs are solid, with Vida's vitals, a sizzle-reel write-up, and a career stat line.
He's still the most recent switch-hitter to win MVP, right?
There hasn't been another "Vida" in MLB, though there have been a few guys named Vidal.
He's not in the Hall of Fame, thanks to drug-addled off years knocking his career arch out of shape, but he has a higher career WAR than Harold Baines, so that makes him an honorary HOFer to many big-hall dreamers such as myself.
One of the first vintage cards I ever bought back in my childhood collecting days of the early 90s was a 1970 Topps Vida Blue / Gene Tenace rookie. I remember my local card shop had it priced at a few bucks, one of the less expensive offerings behind glass in the vintage section, and Vida Blue was a fun and slightly familiar name, which must have helped draw me to the card.
That '70 Topps card remains a personal favorite of mine and was among the holdovers after I jettisoned the bulk of my childhood collection before moving up to Portland. After returning to the hobby as an adult, I gradually built up a decent Vida Blue PC and still enjoy adding to it.
Looks like I've nearly finished his flagship Topps run, and for what it's worth, I didn't raid any sets for this group pic, meaning I've got dupes of most of these in sets/builds, happy to say. Among other PC highlights I didn't get around to showing off in this post are some of his Kellogg's cards, a few OPC, and the 1983 Fleer "2-card puzzle" with Royals teammate Bud Black on the other card ("Black & Blue").
From 2015 into 2020, I did a bit of through-the-mail autograph requesting, usually using my own customs, and Vida was among my best returns. He charged $5 per card back then, totally reasonable. He signed the custom card I made using a slightly tweaked version of his old Time magazine cover, and he included a nice little note asking if I could send him a few extra copies of the custom, which I happily did.
My most-wanted Vida Blue card is his 2003 Topps Retired refractor autograph. Scoring that would complete the "Retired Refractor tRifecta" for me, already having '04 and '05. I have the drab base '03 auto, but dang it, really hope to upgrade to a colorful refractor version someday.
I'll have a Blue Christmas...
In fact, make it two.
(Sorry for the bad photo, but above are [the backs of] my pair of 12/25 Vida autos. If you want a clearer look at his full stats, here's a handy link to his baseball-reference page.)
The rock band The Cult have a song called "Soldier Blue" on their 1989 album Sonic Temple. I owned the cassette, rocked it a lot in my youth, and loved to sing along to the chorus of "Soldier Blue" changing the titular lyrics to "Vida Blue!". LOL, not exactly Al Yankovic caliber stuff, but amusing to a kid (..well, a kid who happens to be a fan of both The Cult and Vida Blue). But no, really, if you make that subtle change to the lyrics ("Soldier"→"Vida"), it basically becomes a song about Vida's tumultuous relationship with Charlie Finley.
Speaking of music, there was later a jam band called Vida Blue featuring the keyboard player from Phish. Vida himself made an appearance at their 2004 gig at The Fillmore in San Francisco, apparently happy folks were still out there celebrating him. Sadly, he passed away from cancer in 2023 at age 73.
Some oddballs to close out this salute to Mr. Blue, with another "Legends" card making a nice bookend for this initial post in my Pristine Legends blog series. Ready for #2? Bert Blyleven's on deck.
No comments:
Post a Comment