Topps Retired Triad: October Edition

A few more pickups from over the summer I've been meaning to show off on the blog.

Steve Garvey still has some ardent collectors out there, including the cardsphere's own gcrl, but I was able come out on top when the dust settled for this '05 Retired refractor auto. Now I just need an '03 refractor of his to upgrade the base auto I've got and I'll be done chasing Garvey.

This post has an "October Edition" gimmick going since we're at the start of the division serieses, so I'll remind you Garvey was no stranger to postseason baseball, first with his Dodgers battling the Yankees, and then helping San Diego make it to their first World Series in '84.

Tragically, the Padres were mauled by the Tigers that year. But in a tiny blip of karmic retribution, I got this '03 Lance Parrish-- Detroit's backstop for that most-recent championship season of theirs-- for a good price, in part because the seller had it listed as a base auto, though the hint of shine in the picture had me suspicious and the serial number on the back confirmed it was a refractor parallel.

Solid career.

Printing plates aren't really part of my Retired setbuild, but if I stumble upon one cheap-- or less-cheap but a PC guy of mine-- I might take a run at it. The sticker auto slapped on a plate is kinda weird, but whatever.

No career stats on the back, no surprise, so you can't marvel at all the tiny text from his long career, but Jesse Orosco is still the all-time leader in Games Pitched. He won it all with the '86 Mets and '88 Dodgers. He also pitched for both the Brewers and Padres, who face each other in the postseason for the first time tonight. Let's go, Padres. Why not, right?

Ok, that was 3 cards, which will usually close out a "triad" post, but I snapped pix of a couple bonus cards to include here.

My 2005 Topps Pristine Legends refractor set is still 99.29% complete. I don't include the relics in my quest, but again, if the price is right and/or it's a dude I collect, I might end up with it.

I don't have to mention the October relevance here since this one does it for me.

Finally, here's a big get for my 2004 Chrome black refractor set that's still crawling along to the finish line (98.15% complete).

Chase Utley played in the World Series three times in his career, winning in 2008. I was kinda sad to see the Phillies lose the Wild Card series the other day. I still consider the Braves a secondary favorite team of mine, but I'd love to see Don Mattingly finally get a ring.

But anyways, should be a fun month of baseball. And with the lockout on the horizon, it could be the last MLB action for a long time, so enjoy it!

Vagabond Binder: Goose Gossage

I've been meaning to crank out this post for a while, and I'll use his 70th birthday today recently as motivation. Rich "Goose" Gossage was among the most dominant relief pitchers of his era. He stuck around a long time and played for several teams, so he was a good candidate for my Vagabond Binder, which is basically a page per player, with that page featuring 9 cards of the player suited up for (ideally) 9 different teams. This is the 4th post in the series, following Rickey, Benito, and Canseco.

Solid page featuring 9 different teams and 4 big smiles.

Rich came up with the White Sox in 1972, eventually having a breakout season in '75 when he lead the league in saves (26) to go with a 1.84 ERA. Chicago figured they'd try him as a starter for the '76 season, his lone year in the rotation. They traded him to Pittsburgh after the season and it was back to the bullpen in '77. I happened to have a spare '73 Topps RC to use for this project. Getting him pictured as a Pirate is tough, as your options are basically limited to his '77 Hostess card (where he's airbrushed into a Pittsburgh cap) and his '78 Kellogg's card, which I had to go out of my way to score another one of (already had one in my Kellogg's setbuild, but they're tougher to find than you might think). Technically, the card identifies him as a Yankee on the back, having signed as a free agent with New York prior to the 1978 season.

His 1978 Topps card is a silly one, putting the airbrush artist to the test changing a Pirates uniform into Yankee pinstripes. But it's what I went with based on the limited dupes from my Gossage PC (I try to use dupes for the Vagabond Binder when possible as opposed to picking up new cards for it). His successes in '78 included closing out the "Bucky Dent game" and 3 of New York's World Series victories over the Dodgers. It was the only ring he'd win in his career, though he did help San Diego win the pennant in 1984 after singing as a free agent once his Yankees contract was up. I had lots of options to choose from for his Padres card in the page, ultimately going with the big smile of his '87 Topps.

More smiles here. In a return to the Windy City, Goose was traded to the Cubs for the '88 season and eventually released in spring training of '89 before being picked up by the Giants. Tough finding him in a San Francisco uniform, with this Mother's Cookies card being your best bet. Neither of these are doubles for me, sacrificing them from the PC. But hell, I suppose the page in the Vagabond Binder is really just an extension of the PC, with some of the cards "on loan" for display, if you wanna look at it that way. (Taking cards out of sets/setbuilds is typically where I draw the line, though, hence buying that second '78 Kellogg's card.)

Goose returned to New York for the last couple months of the 1989 season, and so his 1990 baseball cards feature him as a Yankee. But he played in Japan that year-- there don't seem to be any cards documenting this overseas stint-- before finishing out the early 90s in the American League.

I try to stick to vertical cards for this project, but sometimes you gotta go horizontal. Now more of a set-up man than a closer, Rich pitched for the Rangers in 1991, Oakland in '92 and '93, before finishing his career with the Mariners in 1994. He was still a solid option out of the pen in his final year even at age 43, and were it not for the strike grinding things to a halt, he may have kept going a while longer.

Here's the back of the page. The rookie card on the Stadium Club back really ties the lot together.

I don't currently have any more pages in the Vagabond Binder, though I've been meaning to see if I can rustle up a page using my Hoyt Wilhelm PC, so chances are that'll be the next post in this series.

Thanks for reading.

Yankin' Around

I've been working on a post that's taking a while to finish (involves entering some of my PCs into TCDB), and it's been a while since I posted anything, so in the meantime here's a quick one with some recent additions to my Topps Retired collection.

Super happy to snag this '05 Tim Raines at an underpriced buy-it-now.

I'd probably prefer Rock pictured during his younger days as an All-Star in Montreal rather than his time as a role player on the dynasty Yankees, but it's still cool. I suppose part of the appeal of these Retired autos is they often go with an unexpected team, especially by 2005, the product's third and final iteration. He's pictured as an Expo in 2004 Retired, but didn't get an autograph that year.. and he wasn't in 2003 Retired at all (probably hadn't actually retired at the time that checklist was being built), so that's a wrap on Rock for me. This is my second auto of his; I've also got a Christmas Card (in a White Sox uniform).

Ron Blomberg is a fun one, not really for the stats he put up in a relatively short career, but for being a notable figure in the game's history.

Next up, a card so nice, I bought it twice.

I already had Goose in my 2004 Retired refractor auto collection, but when this one popped up with a low opening bid, I went ahead and ended up winning it. Well hey, by virtue of being a Pad in the Hall, he's an upper tier PC guy for me, so figured I'd score a "dupe" for the player collection since the price was right.

I recently completed a page of Gossage for my "Vagabond Binder" (one card per team), and that's another post on my to-do list.

untitled post for November 1st, 2019

I wanted an on-card Padres auto from Dave Winfield and ended up scoring this one. It's pretty cool.

Goose Gossage has a lot of similarities with Dave Winfield:

- Spent the lion's share of their careers with the Yankees.
- Put in some time quality in San Diego.
- Won a World Championship once.
- Bounced around with a few different teams near the end of their careers.
- Formidable facial hair.
- Hall of Famer

Goose here is my 50th 2003 Topps Retired auto. There are 70 left in the set for me to track down. Snatched this one up recently for a fair price. It's not a refractor, but still.

Tough times at Baseball Card Breakdown HQ as our official mascot and licensed card-sniffer Annie Lou is currently at the emergency vet and in rough shape. Please send her some good vibes.

Incoming cards from Wes and Bru

I've had a couple semi-surprise trade packages show up recently.

First up is a stack from the Pancake King, the former JBF. Good to see Wes still out there spreading the cardboard love even after stepping away from blogging.

I love seeing Winfield in the brown and gold.

A couple hits here, with an Xavier Nady certified auto and a printing plate of Sean Thompson from 2007 Bowman.

A bunch of Padres parallels here. The Huston Street black refractor is #'d /10. Pretty sweet.

Striking gold here, with a Gavin crashing the Padre party.

And finally a couple football cards and the Pancake King's calling card.

Thanks, Wes! Good stuff. I plan to work on those customs for you soon, plus I have a Willinghammer or two set aside for you.

 - - - ---o

Next up is a package from Bru from the Remember The Astrodome blog that's now become marcbrubaker.com.

Looks like Bru was able to take a chunk out of my '88 Fleer wantlist, including a couple HOFers.

Also a need for my nearly-complete '88 Topps set, plus some early 90s Padres.

And some recent Padres. Pretty sure that Goose is my first 2019 Archives card (well.. and the Urias coin is from '19 Archives, too.)

Thanks, Bru! I'll continue keeping an eye out for interesting Astros to send your way.

Sportlots by Surprise

A made a few small Sportlots purchases late one hazy night a week or two ago. I had totally forgotten about the order until PWEs with unfamiliar return addresses started sprinkling in my mailbox. These aren't the most exciting pickups, but I haven't posted since Monday, so figured I should crank out something before I lose my reputation as a blogger who posts multiple times per week.

I think 1993 Topps Black Gold inserts are my favorite 90s insert. If I have room in my cart to add some cheap without making the postage go up, I'm all about it.

A gratuitous second look. I've said it many times, but I wish Topps would bring these back for an encore, preferably in Archives, but failing that, even an online exclusive would do. Would be neat to see current players on these. But I suspect the crazy gold foil makes them a bit too tricky/pricey for lazy Topps to bother with.

This must be what initiated the Sportlots order. It wasn't long ago that I tracked down Rich Gossage's 1989 Mother's Cookies card-- the lone Giants card to come out from his short-term stint in San Francisco-- but I figured I'd also snag this tiny 1990 Publication International sticker, too.. the only other card-like-thing out there picturing Goose in the unfamiliar duds.

I have no recollection of putting this Reggie in my cart, but I think I was looking for card #1 in this subset (featuring an oh-so-rare shot of him with a KC cap), but either got this one by mistake or settled for this one when the other was unavailable. But whatever, I'm always down for a new Reggie card.

I have a love/hate relationship with Topps Chipz. I hate them... but I love glow-in-the-dark collectables, so sometimes I'll look for cheap glowly parallels, such as these. I didn't take a pic in the dark, so you'll have to trust me that they glow (just a little, behind the player). Beltre is from 2013, while I've got Cespedes in both '13 and '14 varieties.

I'm working on a big post of glow-in-the-dark stuff, but it's still a ways off since it'll have to wait till my next COMC shipment. But know that I've been hitting my glow-in-the-dark "type collection" hard lately, trying to get at least one example from every glowing trading card set out there.. which I hope to chronicle in that forthcoming post.

Anyways, that's all the baseball stuff for today.

Here are some bonus pictures from my commute home yesterday...

I ended up walking over the bridge since the Max I was on kicked us all off the stop before for maintenance or something. There are some ships in town for the big Rose Festival this weekend.

Pretty cool.

Those funky towers in the middle are part of the Convention Center. I haven't been in there. Sure would be cool in the National Baseball Card Convention came to Portland, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

Here's a Max train passing me by.

You can kinda see the roof of the Moda Center here (where the Blazers play).

After I crossed the bridge, I made it to the next stop to get on a Max the rest of the way.

As I got close to home, I saw a bunny! Always a highlight of my day when that happens.

Then my cute pooch welcomed me home and wanted to play, wrapping up this little tour through my Portland commute.

Hey, it's a Card Show Weekend for me! As is my tradition, I wore a Topps shirt today, the Friday before. I originally put on my red one, but this morning I saw on Twitter that you're supposed to #WearOrange today to stand up against gun violence, so I played along and changed into the orange one.

Have a great weekend, everybody!