COM-See ya

I've resisted shopping on the COMC site since my latest shipment, but I wouldn't feel confident stating definitively that it was my final COMC order because once in a blue moon they end up with a card significantly cheaper than you can find elsewhere, even with the jacked up shipping considered, and I have in fact bought a couple cards via the COMC eBay account since. But I try to avoid them. (If they're reading and want to offer me a "free shipping" voucher or something to win me back... lol)

That last (for now?) order of mine included some cards to help complete the We Didn't Start The Fire binder, as well as some needs for refractor sets I'm working on which I'll likely show off in separate posts, but for today, here are some other various cool cards I got in that big shipment.

These are probably the result of searching Tony Gwynn refractors and grabbing low-cost options that caught my eye. The 3000 hits card reminds me I wanted to make a display with the ticket from the game I got from Rod with a few cards documenting the moment, such as that one.

Seems like I'm pandering to Fuji by kicking off the post with Gwynn and Rickey, but hey, I like those guys too! That 2022 Topps Chrome Update Series - Diamond Greats Chrome in the middle there sure is attractive, in particular.

Heritage parallels that caught my eye at a good price. The Vogelmoster appearance serendipitously gives me the opportunity to tease an upcoming post of mine in the works wherein we catch up with an old friend from the cardsphere.

A pair of "Retrofractors" up top. Topps has used the term various time for different cardstock combinations. The retrofractors in 2001 Topps Traded (one of the aforementioned refractor projects I'm working on) have Chrome fronts and heritage stock backs. The retrofractors in 2002 Topps Super Teams, however, feature bumpy foilboard fronts with the heritage type backs.. not quite as cool-- I'm not chasing the set-- but I still grabbed a Kevin Mitchell and Don Hoak. (Figured I might put together a mini Hoak PC since I've got a partial autograph on a Clemente cut-auto, arguably my best card.)

The Hank Aaron kinda works as a card-that-never-was that I can sneak into my Refracting the Past collecting project of refractor reprints (and reimaginings that make chronological sense) sorted by year of original Topps design (so this "pre-rookie" gets sorted under 1953).

Akili Smith was the 3rd overall pick in '99 and made some starts for the Bengals but never had much of an impact in the NFL. But he was a local legend when I was growing up, probably the top high school quarterback in San Diego back when I was a high school athlete, so he was like a known dude. I'd love to say I competed at the same invitational track meet as him once or twice, but I wouldn't trust my foggy memory now. Turns out he played some minor league ball in the Pirates organization too (but doesn't seem to have gotten cards documenting it). And he had a nice senior year with the Oregon Ducks in 1998, so I bet Kerry has a decent Akili Smith PC. But yeah, he was a familiar name to snag while browsing cheap old-style xfractors like that.. love the pixelated movement on 'em.

I grabbed some refractors of active guys too. Solid names all around.

A little ink. Stickergraphs of MLB's current top Gavins.

As for older cards, the Roger Craig '64 need was the last card of the order, taking my store credit to just-above the required shipping cost. Still hoping to get around to completing 1964 Topps eventually, now just inching over 4/5's of the way there.

I've already got the complete set of 1988 San Diego State Aztecs 50th Anniversary All-Time Great Aztecs, but the cards damn near never surface (still have my old saved search saved out of curiosity [and because I know the Gwynn and Grace are highly sought after by supercollectors.. because they politely bug me to sell them mine!]), so I ended up grabbing "back up" copies of a couple PC guys when somebody was breaking up a partial set via COMC.

Closing out the post with a few pics of the biggest card of the order (in both size and money):

 1996 Topps Stadium Club - Extreme Players Winners - Gold #EW5 - Ken Caminiti 

I forget where I saw another collector talking about how incredibly cool these things are, but their words must have moved me, and so I took a chance on kicking up my Ken Caminiti PC with this chonker at an "over a blaster" price point. As a refractor enthusiast looking to get his socks knocked off, this does not disappoint. Topps was using their whole asses back then, delivering an impressive (and slightly oversized) special redemption prize exchanged for lucky winning pulls.

The "glass-coated" refractor is a thing of beauty and you're going to want to take it out of any packaging to enjoy the feel of it in your bare hands as often as reasonable without getting it all smudged up.

You don't need to try to make sense of the back's text, but it's cool how the card is like glass on the front and then metallic when you flip it over.

And there you have some highlights from that shipment. I might eventually have a follow-up with stuff I didn't get around to covering here, and I think I've still got a stack of cards from my previous COMC order that I haven't posted about because I was going to do it via handwritten post, but then I ended up doing the handwritten post idea on peeling protective films on other cards. But enough time has probably passed where I could get away with doing another one soon. Anyways, yeah, thanks for reading!

halfways to the holidays

It's my half-birthday today (assuming this shows up for you on Wednesday) and the celebratory packages have been rolling in over the past few weeks.

Welp, ok, maybe the senders weren't aware of the timing-- hell, I barely remembered myself-- but let's just pretend for the sake of spicing up a standard "incoming non-purchases roundup" post that these are all half-birthday presents.

First, here's a fun little envelope from overseas. No question as to who sent these cards, but in case there's a newbie reading: they came from Zippy Zappy. It's my understanding that the dude is Munetaka Murakami (Nick also got one of these. [update: Fuji, too!]). The new White Sock got off to a terrific start in MLB this year before an IL stint. Hope he's back at it soon. Akagi Kuro, the lady, is featured on a pretty neat signed photo out of Zippy's cosplayer collection. Love it! (Nick got the more tame ladies, but I don't have any kids in the house to worry about, so I get the naughty getup.)

 

A pair of Star Wars cards also made the journey from Japan. Always welcome in my collection. Thanks, Kenny!

-  - ---o

The spoils from a pair of Maddux Monday victories thanks to the generous Johnny Miller. Hopefully I'll add a couple more W's before he wraps up that extended giveaway series. Then maybe I'll sort out my Greg Maddux PC and figure out which of these I actually need, lol. I try to not enter the drawing if the cards look too familiar.

Thanks, John!

-  - --o 

This was a TCDb trade of Ginter minis going both ways with user mookdaruch back in mid April. I was stressing out when he still hadn't updated "received" after a week and a half, but he was cool and said he sometimes has long lags with his mail. Thankfully the pair of Ginter minis I sent him just finally arrived a month and half later. "Looks like it got ran over by a truck--but miracles do happen! The cards are both fine." Whew, glad that worked out or it would've surely cast a dark cloud over my half-birthday. 

Not to brag, but I've still got the biggest Dick Allen PC on the site. (Hey-oh!)

-   -  - - --o

Last "half birthday gift" for today are some cards from Bob at Best Bubble. 

Gavs representing.

Padres shiny or signed. Very nice.

Closing out with notable Portland Beaver Darren Daulton, a glow-in-the-dark card from inside a 1989 cereal box, and a couple lovely swimsuit models posing for the camera.

Thanks, Bob! Did you get the new "Bubble Gum Baseball" customs I sent you a bit ago? I know Johnny got the set I sent him, but haven't gotten confirmation that yours arrived. If not, I'll print you up a replacement so let me know.

Anyways, thanks for reading, all. Until next time.

Vagabond Binder: Kenny Lofton

Man, my previous post-- re: the "We Didn't Start the Fire" binder-- was very well received. Felt great getting congratulatory comments from lots of folks including many I haven't heard from in a while. Ended up dragging my feet, but figured I'd follow up that post with another curated binder page.

My Vagabond Binder is a fun little project wherein I fill each page with cards of one player, but the catch is he's with a different team on every card. So for a guy to be considered, he needs to have been associated with at least 9 teams. (It also has to be a dude I enjoy collecting-- I don't force myself to include everyone who's eligible.) Previous featured players are Rickey (2019), Benito (2020), Canseco (2020), Goose (2021), and Kevin Mitchell (2025).

I'm excited for this sixth guy, as we get to OVERMAXXX the boundaries of the project, squishing an astonishing 10 teams into a single binder page (and still couldn't fit all his teams in). Behold, Kenny Lofton:

Now we take a closer look at each card while recapping the player's career.

 

Kenny kicked off his MLB career in 1991 when he was a September call-up with Houston and got into 20 games. Sorry, Astros fans, but the team didn't make the cut for the page; I couldn't justify swapping out any card here in favor of an overproduction era rookie card. He established himself the next year after being traded to Cleveland, leading the AL in steals and narrowly missing out on ROY thanks to Pat Listach's one good year. An impressive run followed with 4 straight Gold Glove awards and 5 straight stolen base titles. Just before the 1997 season, Lofton was traded by the Indians with Alan Embree to the Braves for Marquis Grissom and David Justice. After an uneven year in Atlanta (--must've been weird playing for the team that recently beat you in the World Series [1995]), Kenny returned to Cleveland as a free agent and remained with the team through 2001.

Kenny signed to patrol center field for the White Sox in 2002 and ended up swapped to San Francisco at the trade deadline, helping the Giants win the pennant that year. Of course that was the "David vs. Goliath" World Series where Eckstein slayed Bonds.

2003 saw him sign with the Pirates, then another trade deadline swap sent him back to the Windy City to finish out the season at Wrigley. The Cubs looked tough to beat that year until one ill-fated play in the NLCS knocked the wheels off.

 

In 2004, Lofton signed with the Yankees and spent the whole year in pinstripes, though by this point he was more of a role player, only getting into 83 games. Glad to find a use for this dupe 2004 Chrome black refractor that I've already got in my setbuild. (BTW, that long-running project has finally hit the "down to single digits" milestone, with just 9 needs remaining.)

Refraction overload! Compare this to the muted image in the scan up top-- looks like a totally different card.

We close out with this pairing. The Yankees traded Kenny to the Phillies for pitching help before the 2005 season, and he finished out the year in Philly. He signed with the Dodgers for 2006 and Topps found it significant enough to commemorate on a Trading Places insert, squeezing an extra team on the page. Then he signed with the Rangers for 2007, and played well enough for them to be swapped back to Cleveland at the deadline. The Indians went on to make a strong postseason run before getting knocked out by eventual-champs Boston in the ALCS. No teams came calling for 2008, so that wrapped up Kenny Lofton's playing career at age 40.

He was one-and-done on the Hall of Fame ballot, and sure, he was no Willie Mays, but in the years since, nerds have used statistics to determine that he was actually pretty good and kept it going longer than most, maybe enough to consider him among the most valuable center fielders of his era. So it wouldn't be a shock if a committee sends him to Cooperstown one of these years.

That wraps up another page in the Vagabond Binder. If you dig this project, welp, sorry to say there isn't another page anywhere near completion on the horizon.. but then again I suppose all it takes is a focused Sportlots order or two to help turn that around. 

Coincidentally, the next guy I've got in mind for a page was also a speedster who suited up for the Indians, Braves, Yankees, Dodgers, and Rangers among his several teams. I've got the tough one out of the way-- he only has one true Yankees card and it's an oddball-- but still need to round up more of the common ones.

We Didn't Start The Fire (but we finished the binder!)

Way back in 2017, I got the idea to put together a binder corresponding to subjects referenced in the Billy Joel song "We Didn't Start the Fire". 

Fun way to combine the hobby and history, right? Took damn near a decade, but I've now finally filled every open slot. 

Is every selection a perfect match? Nah, there are definitely some cheeky placeholders that might be a stretch, and occasionally small/flat non-card items take the place of cards, plus a few homemade customs for subjects where no viable card/item could be found. So while it's still very possible that I upgrade/change a spot here and there in the future, I'm good with the group as-is and appreciate the closure of the now-filled binder.

I'm not sure the best way to share the experience without flipping though the binder yourself while the song plays. I'd be tempted to make a video, but I still haven't really cracked the nut of making YouTube videos, plus there's the whole "legal rights to use the song" headache.

So I'll link to the song above via YouTube then show full-page scans, hopefully legible enough for you. You might want to first scroll down without the music, so you can go at your own pace on each card, and maybe then go back and give it a quicker go while the song plays. Or do it the other way: trying to keep up with the song first, then go back afterwards to take a closer look. Or don't even play the song at all, if that's asking too much. Regardless, enjoy!

And now here's the recap in text form. First card is an introductory custom I made in 2017 using the cover of the song's single.

Harry Truman	2012 Panini Americana #33
Doris Day	1991 Starline Hollywood #46
Red China	1961 Domino Les Produits du Monde #21 La Chine (China)
Johnnie Ray	Johnny Ray 2013 Hometown Heroes auto
South Pacific	2017 The Lights of Broadway
Walter Winchell	(2018 custom I made with real cut signature)
Joe DiMaggio	1984 Renata Galasso #235
Joe McCarthy	1992 Conlon Collection #589 (I've also got an oversized Senator Joseph McCarthy card in the binder's front window.)
Richard Nixon	2012 Panini Americana #37
Studebaker	1924 Imperial Tobacco Canada Motor Cars E50 #4
Television	2011 Topps American Pie #40
North Korea/South Korea	1991 Pro Set Desert Storm #53 (Yeah, this could be 2 spots, but this card says both names on the map, and other North Korea [only] cards proved elusive.)
Marilyn Monroe	1995 Sports Time Marilyn Monroe II #141
Rosenbergs	1989 Donruss #219 Steve Rosenberg
H-Bomb	1997 Metal Universe #38 Gary DiSarcina
Sugar Ray	1991 All World Boxing #123
Panmunjom	(2026 custom I made)
Brando	2011 Topps American Pie #10
The King And I	2007-08 Breygent Classic Vintage Movie Posters #55
and The Catcher In The Rye	2011 Topps American Pie #31
Eisenhower	2007 Topps Allen & Ginter #62
Vaccine	2015 Topps history insert #2A Vaccine
England's got a new queen	2013 Ginter mini #HHH-QE Elizabeth II
Marciano	2011 Topps American Pie #56
Liberace	1991 Starline #41
Santayana goodbye	(2026 custom I made)
[Chorus]	2022 Topps Fire insert #EF-17 Trea Turner
Joseph Stalin	2009 iCardz/Valor Studios America at War: Series 1 - D-Day
Malenkov	1954 North VN stamp w/Malenkov, Ho Chi Minh, and Mao Tse-tung
Nasser	1973 Panini OK VIP #36
and Prokofiev	2012 Ginter Musical Masters Minis #MM-10
Rockefeller	2016 Goodwin Champions Goudey #47
Campanella	2012 Panini Cooperstown #108
Communist Bloc	2018 Ginter - Flags of Lost Nations: East Germany
Roy Cohn	2023 Historic Autographs The Mob #216
Juan Peron	(2026 custom I made) (There's a vintage Juan Peron card I've got a saved search for in case it pops up at a good price, but otherwise a custom will suffice.)
Toscanini	1952 Topps Look 'n See #117
Dacron	"On The Move with Dacron" vintage matchbook cover
Dien Bien Phu falls	1988 Dart Vietnam Facts #7 Dien Bien Phu
Rock Around the Clock	2011 Topps American Pie #42
Einstein	2008 Allen & Ginter #19
James Dean	2001 Topps American Pie #147
Brooklyn's got a winning team	1971 Fleer Laughlin World Series 1955
Davy Crockett	2008 Allen & Ginter #232
Peter Pan	1991 Topps Hook - Stickers #7
Elvis Presley	1992 Elvis #358
Disneyland	2011 Topps American Pie #50
Bardot	1950s Dutch Gum A. Set (Sweden) #A. 24
Budapest	2019 Goodwin Champions Map Relics #WT-194 - Budapest, Hungary (The thickest card in the binder, with a real piece of a map embedded.)
Alabama	1987 Zoot U.S. of Alf Stickers #1 Alabama
Khrushchev	2008 Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF6
Princess Grace	2013 Panini Golden Age #63
Peyton Place	Peyton Manning 2012 Score #297
Trouble in the Suez	2009 Topps Allen & Ginter #220
[Chorus]	2020 Spider-Man - Primary Elements #E-4 Fire
Little Rock	2002 Topps American Pie Thurgood Marshall #96
Pasternak	Dawson Pasternak 2023-24 Upper Deck CHL Blue #7
Mickey Mantle	1952 Topps #311 reprint
Kerouac	2011 Topps American Pie #62
Sputnik	2012 Ginter - Historical Turning Points #HTP19
Zhou Enlai	1973 Panini VIP sticker #19
Bridge On The River Kwai	Kawhi Leonard 2017-18 Panini Status Aspirations #51
Lebanon	1991 Pro Set Desert Storm #33
Charles de Gaulle	2007 Topps Distinguished Service #DS27
California baseball	2013 Hometown Heroes Gary Pettis state parallel
Starkweather Homicide	1992 Eclipse True Crime Series 1 #79 Starkweather & Fugate
Children of Thalidomide	(2026 custom I made)
Buddy Holly	1993 American Bandstand #5
Ben-Hur	1984 Hoyle Photo Trivia MGM Movies Game #86
Space Monkey	1963 Lyons Maid Space Exploration #30 Ham the Monkey
Mafia	2016 Historic Autographs The Mob #42 Al Capone
Hula Hoops	1991 Impel Minnie 'n Me Series 1 #75
Castro	2008 Topps Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF3
Edsel is a no-go	2011 Topps American Pie #61
U-2	2000 Air Force History and Museums - U2
Syngman Rhee	(2026 custom I made)
payola	Alan Freed 1957 Topps Hit Stars #62
and Kennedy	2007 Upper Deck Masterpieces #47
Chubby Checker	1993 American Bandstand #9
Psycho	2011 Topps American Pie #73 Hitchcock
Belgians in the Congo	1965 Topps Silly Stickers - Visit the Congo
[Chorus]	2006 Flair Showcase Manny Ramirez Hot Numbers
Hemingway	2009 Topps American Heritage #10
Eichmann	1990 Clemson Tigers #22 Eric Eichmann
Stranger in a Strange Land	2010 Rittenhouse LOST #61
Dylan	2018 Edward Vela art card #5
Berlin	1910-11 ATC Flags of all Nations
Bay of Pigs invasion	2001 Topps American Pie #117
Lawrence of Arabia	2007 Breygent Lawrence of Arabia
British Beatlemania	1964 Topps Beatles #165 George Harrison
Ole Miss	2021 Panini Prizm #124 Elijah Moore Green Prizm
John Glenn	1992 Starline Americana #227
Liston beats Patterson	1991 All World Boxing #102
Pope Paul	2012 Heritage - News Flashbacks #NF-PP
Malcolm X	1993 Pinnacle #302 DeShields/Malcolm X
British Politician sex	2002 Inkworks Osbournes #26 Sex, Drugs (Ok, the Osbournes aren't politicians, but they're British, and the first word on the back of the card is "Sex", so 2 out of 3 ain't bad!)
J.F.K. blown away, what else do I have to say?	2013 A&G Assassination of JFK (CC-JFK)
[Chorus]	1991 Score #884 Doug Jones Dream Team
Birth control	2011 Topps American Pie #76
Ho Chi Minh	2002 Topps American Pie #53 Vietnam War
Richard Nixon back again	2011 Topps American Pie #116
Moonshot	2018 Heritage - News Flashbacks: Moon Shot
Woodstock	2009 Upper Deck Philadelphia #327 Woodstock
Watergate	2001 Topps American Pie #135
punk rock	2011 Topps American Pie #123 Ramones
Begin	2009 Topps American Heritage #125 Camp David Accords
Reagan	2005 Topps Turkey Red #287
Palestine	1924 Ogden's Children of all Nations Stand-Ups #33
Terror on the airline	1993 SkyBox Ultraverse #61 Hijack
Ayatollah's in Iran	1991 Face To Face - Ayatollah Khomeini
Russians in Afghanistan	1910 Types of Nations - T113 #AFG
Wheel of Fortune	2011 Topps American Pie #120
Sally Ride	1992 Starline Americana #198
heavy metal suicide	1985 AGI Rock Star #2 Ozzy Osbourne
Foreign debts	1994 Fleer Beavis and Butt-Head #5169 Foreign Exchange
homeless Vets	2022 Garbage Pail Kids #15a Homeless Hazel
AIDS	1992 Wild Card Decision '92 AIDS/Magic Johnson
crack	2006 Family Guy S2 #28 Crack & Pancakes
Bernie Goetz	2011 Topps American Pie #194 Bernie Madoff (Wrong bad Bernie, I know, but still seems like a better fit than a John Rocker card.)
Hypodermics on the shores	2006 Topps Barry Bonds Home Run History #666 (Ribbing Bonds here, though he's a guy I enjoy collecting.)
China's under martial law	1991 Impel Disney #177 World Tour: China
Rock and Roller cola wars, I can't take it anymore	1991 Pepsi Rickey Henderson #NNO
[Chorus]	2012 BBM Cross Blaze - Kazuhisa Makita
[Chorus]	2007 Score JaMarcus Russell Hot Rookie
[Chorus]	2014 Bowman Chrome Addison Russell Fire Die-Cut

For more info on specifically what Billy Joel was talking about, Wikipedia has you covered with a handy page: List of references in We Didn't Start the Fire.

It might not be perfect, but I like this ragtag group of assembled cards. Years included range from 1910 up to modern stuff. Some cards were sourced from my collection, a lot I bought specifically for the project, and several were traded to me back in the project's early days. I didn't blog about it much over the years, though, just slowly kept it going on the backburner. I know fellow cardblogger Nick V. in particular has spoken highly of the project in the past, and so I'm relieved to get this follow-up post done that I've felt I owed him for several years.

I don't doubt if another collector put together a similar project from scratch, it would look much different, though I'm sure there'd be some only-card-of-the-subject-out-there repeats. Feel free to make suggestions for cards that could upgrade a slot for me-- especially if you're offering it for trade or kindness-- as long as you don't be snobby about it.

I probably ended up spending more on this project than I would have liked-- some of those vintage cards and oddballs are tougher than you'd expect, so it's like, "Do I pony up a few bucks for a nice match, or settle for a cheaper card that's not quite a home run?" Sometimes I cheaped out, other times I ponied up a few bucks.

A brag-worthy eBay deal I looked up in my old emails: December 2018, I scored a hand-collated 200-card set of 2011 Topps American Pie for just $16.50 (free shipping), which as you've seen helped me fill over a dozen slots in the binder. Glad I've also hung onto the rest; These days the set's "Kanye West interrupts Taylor Swift" card is no stranger to selling for 3-figures.. yowza! It's almost like the non-sport equivalent of the Mike Trout rookie from the same year. Thinking I should maybe get around to acquiring "dupes" of those several cards I plunked out for the binder so I'll have a separate complete '11 Pie set in the collection. They're added to my TCDb wantlist now, at least.

That'll wrap it up. Hope you enjoyed checking out the binder!

Pristine Legends #1 - Vida Blue

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.