1998 Bowman Chrome rookie reprint refractors

Here's a refractor set I completed over the summer and have been meaning to feature on the blog: 1998 Bowman Chrome rookie reprint refractors. I even laid all the cards out for a big overview photo.

It's 50 reprints celebrating Bowman's 50th anniversary, featuring both their vintage era (1948-1955) and Topps' modern reboot (1989-). Odd-numbered cards were inserted in Series One, while even-numbered cards were in Series Two. Base reprint inserts had 1:12 odds, while refractors were 3x tougher to pull at 1:36. In addition to the front's rainbow shine, refractor parallels are notated by a big "R" on the back.

Bowman Chrome had just started the year before in 1997, which followed the debut of Topps Chrome in 1996, so these 1998 cards are the "1st Refractor" of most of the old-timers like Satchel Paige. This particular Paige was a card show pickup from 2015 that I plucked out of the PC once I was closing in on completion... before happily finding a replacement for the PC in a cheap lot soon after wrapping up the set.

Willie Mays had just received the full Commemorative Reprint Insert Set treatment by Topps in 1997 (which also included his Bowman cards), so that '51 Bowman Mays was on its second reprint refractor in as many years. Other than that, I don't think any of these original cards had seen refraction before. But Topps soon showed they weren't too concerned about redundancy. Bowman would go back to the rookie reprint well again in 2001 (vintage era only-- including 6 of the 8 such reprints included in '98), 2002 (modern era only-- most of which had been reprinted in '98), and then the flood of "sapphire" reprints in 2012. All the reprinting seems to have cooled down since Fanatics took over.

But anyways, I think these '98 refractors look pretty good. I didn't risk taking them out of their sleeves for the pic, so you've occasionally got some sticking-to-the-sleeve action going on like with the Bagwell, sorry.

The cards mostly ran me from a couple bucks to a few bucks. I probably had to go double-digits a couple times for highly-collected guys like Griffey and Jeter.

Lots of big names from the 90s. Brad Fullmer had some hype at the time, but shook out with the shortest career of the bunch.

Centering can sometimes be an issue with these, but at least there's no "hulking" (that's just a reflection on Manny's face). The Roberto Clemente refractors from earlier that year (inserted in 1998 Topps) are prone to hulking, so it would seem Topps was still getting the hang of making Chrome cards, narrowly figuring it out in time for these Bowman reprints.

The inserts reprint cards through 1996 Bowman, which makes sense with Bowman Chrome debuting in '97.

And there's an alternate group shot to close out on. Thanks for stopping by. Hope you're all enjoying playoff baseball. Go Padres!

Joe Namath commemorative refractor run

Are you ready for some football? Yep, it's pigskin season again. I pretty much checked out of football fandom when my Chargers ditched San Diego, but still have a soft spot for the old days of the sport. As a refractor enthusiast, a hobby focus of mine in recent years has been refractor reprints, where "old days" and "modern times" collide.

Refractor reprints are usually found in an insert set of rookie reprints, or occasionally "best year" type reprints, and every once in a while Topps would "commemorate" a retired great's career by reprinting all the main Topps cards from that player. By my count, they've bestowed the honor of a refractor reprint run just a dozen times across sports:

1996 + 1997 - Mickey Mantle
1996 - Joe Namath
1997 - Willie Mays
1998 - Roberto Clemente
1999 - Nolan Ryan
2000 - Hank Aaron
2000 - Johnny Unitas
2000-01 - Magic Johnson
2000-01 + 2001-02 - Mario Lemieux
2001 - Walter Payton
2001-02 - Kareem Abdul Jabbar
2002-03 - Patrick Roy

I've been working on completing all of those, which is kinda nuts. I'm doing ok/well/done with most, except the hockey (I just have one representative from each) and the Mantles (there are a lot because they also reprinted most of his subset cards and Bowman cards).

So expect me to get a victory post out of it when I complete one of these runs. First up is Joe Namath.

 There's the shiny rookie reprint. This one might be a bit scuffed, but the price was right.

 Here's the late 60s into the early 70s. Not of lot of variety in the photo selection.

Namath didn't really have a long career. Only 10 cards in total here. By comparison, Johnny Unitas has 18 cards in his reprint set, and that's with no subset cards included. But yeah, the refractor reprints look good and are affordable at a couple/few bucks a pop. Unlike most other mid 90s refractors from Topps, I haven't noticed much "hulking" blotchiness with these. (Mantle, Mays, and Clemente refractor runs are not so lucky.)

I've also got Joe Namath's refractor in the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites set-- slowly working on the football ref set (~22% complete) after stalling out with baseball (still 3 elusive needs left). Not a true reprint, it reimagines his 1969 Topps card with an action photo and squeezes in some extra border.

While I'm at it, here's my modest PC for Joe Namath. It's a passive pursuit, but I'm happy to add to it when I can. Namath's days as a stud QB were before my time, but he's always been a known legend, popping up in commercials and even a quick spot on the golden age of The Simpsons. 1972 Topps is the one vintage card of his I've got, plus a (paper) rookie reprint and a few modern cards that've fallen in my lap. 

I've got another refractin' rookie reprint of his within my complete set of 2001 Topps Archives Reserve football, though my in-progress master set still needs the Namath auto. Maybe I'll pony up for that someday or maybe not.

Welp, the Blogger reading list feed has been messed up for a couple days now, so who knows if this post will get many views, but hey, I'm glad you found it and gave it a read. Until next time!

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!

Set Completion Carousel

I wanted to jog through a couple sets that I've recently completed, as well as a couple other sets I've started with help from near-complete starters.

Joy of a Completed Set: 1988 Fleer

It was way back during that innocent summer of 2019 that I got a partial set of 1988 Fleer from my buddy (Padrographs) Rod. Took me a few years piecing together the couple dozen or so missing cards, but I've now finally made that partial set into a complete set. (#188 Denny Martinez was the final card thanks to an accounting mistake on my part.) That gives me a 3-year run of Fleer, 1986 through 1988. I've also got '84, '90, and '92 complete. So I'm in the market for complete or near-complete sets of Fleer from '81, '82, '83, '85, '89, '91, and '93, working towards a goal Fleer Baseball run of '81 through '93 (when I stopped collecting as a kid). And I think the only Fleer Update set I've got is 1987, but I'd like to get more of those complementary sets, too.

I should salute '88 Fleer at least a little here, but what more can you say about '88 Fleer? I do like the set, especially for the checklist more than the design. You get some key rookie cards that some other companies missed out on, such as Edgar Martinez and Ron Gant, and the rookie duos with Mark Grace, and deeper cuts like Jeff King and John Burkett. Also endearing is the Reggie Jackson final tribute, his only real base card that year. While they printed a ton of the stuff, '88 Fleer still seems relatively scarce compared to the other mainstream baseball cards of 1988. Like, I'm not sure it's the best set from that year, but it at least feels less junky than Topps and Donruss, right?

Coincidentally, here's another set from 1988 that I've been trying to finish since I was at my old place (which is how I keep track of things these days-- And this month marks 5 years in the new house, so it's been a while)...

Joy of a (2nd) Completed Set: 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse

I overpaid a bit for this oversized card the other day, but it was the final card I needed to complete a second master set of 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse several years in the making. The story there is I ended up buying 3 boxes of the stuff (well, one was a partial box) to build my first master set and I ended up with enough dupes that it made sense to go ahead and take that second set to the finish line. Man, such a frustrating set to build! If you're thinking of going after the set, I'd warn you the boxes have horrible collation. Particular singles can be hard to find and tricky to search for. You're better off buying a completed set on eBay. Or hey, I don't intend to hang on to my second master set, so if anybody wants to trade, let me know. Master sets (159 cards including variations) seem to be going for around $150 on eBay. Along those lines, I also have a second near-master set of 1991 MusiCards available with all the variations and most of the promos that I should try to sell or trade one of these days.

New partial set to work on: Will's Cigarettes 1926 Wonders of The Past

I saw this neat tobacco mini set in a post by Nick Vossbrink back in 2020 and then set an ebay search for a cheap set. Finally a near-complete set (46/50) popped up and I scored it for just under $8 shipped. Really beautiful images on these century-old cards. I've seen at least one of these wonders in person thanks to my trip to Greece a couple years ago. Hopefully shouldn't be too hard to track down the 4 missing cards. Looking forward to paging these up.

1926 Wills Wonders of the Past needs:

14 Easter Island

42 The Colosseum

43 Trajan's Forum, Rome

44 Tombs by the Appian Way

New partial set to work on: 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites

I haven't been documenting my progress on the blog much, but these past few years I've been building all 3 refractor parallel sets to the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites trilogy (just 14 needs remaining). A bulk lot on ebay included one refractor I needed plus a partial 2004 base set, and I ended up with it for a solid price. While I'm mainly interested in the refractors, hey, the base cards are cool too. Might as well work on completing that.

2004 ATFF needs:

31 Ralph Kiner

35 Willie McGee

47 Bret Saberhagen

61 Mike Scott

93 Darren Daulton

94 Harold Reynolds

96 Pete Incaviglia

105 Cal Ripken Jr.

Only the Ripken might be relatively-pricey out of those names, so that's not bad.

One bonus tale of closure to go out on. Maybe you remember back in February I got a bunch more cool stuff from Rod including a near-complete minor league teams set of 1986 ProCards Phoenix Firebirds. The trainer card (Cliff Shidawara) got pulled for Fuji's consideration, but no worries as I was able to land a replacement on COMC for a buck. So now I've got that full team set to enter as overkill for my Chris D. Jones supercollection that already included the single.

Thanks for swinging by, folks. Hope you're enjoying playoff baseball. I've got the deciding Cubs/Brewers game on as I type. With the Padres out, I'm rooting for whoever's gone the longest without winning (so, not the Dodgers). I'd love to see a first-time champ this year.

2001 Topps Chrome "Before There was Topps" refractors

Y'all know I like refractors. Well, one niche that especially interests me are guys' 1st Refractor, specifically talking about old-timers who played before such parallels were a thing. And in poking around, I found this 10-card "Before There was Topps" insert set from 2001 Chrome that features the first refractor produced of several inner-circle HOFers, and so I went about completing it. Took me a couple years, but I tracked them all down, paying about $10-20 per card. The base versions typically run a buck or two, but the refractors were tougher pulls-- 1:200 odds compared to 1:20 for base (per baseballcardpedia).

They didn't go too nuts in imagining what a Topps design from way back then would look like, going with a simplified 1959 Topps design with the photo circle in the middle. If this "what if" set came out today, chances are the pictures would be artificially colorized, but back in 2001, at least, Topps went old-school and kept the photos black and white.

With all these household names, you'd never guess what ended up being the final card I needed to track down. If you can believe it, it was Grover, who one might argue is the least-remembered of these 10 men today if you were forced to rank them. Hey, that gives me an idea, let's use TCDb to see which of these legends has the most cards out there as of May 2025.

#1 with 16,275 cards - Babe Ruth

Might as well do the list in descending order, since Babe Ruth having the most cards surely isn't a surprise. He's the original GOAT and still well-known today despite his heyday being a century ago.

I'd pick full stats over a little write-up any day, so I'm happy with these backs. Neat to see the Boston bookends to the Bambino's career.

#2 with 5,518 cards - Lou Gehrig

Quite a drop in card volume, with second-place Lou Gehrig having over 10,000 fewer cards out there than Ruth.

Great career ended by a tragic disease.

#3 Joe DiMaggio, Total Cards: 4,822

Yankee supremacy continues with Joe DiMaggio in third place.

I always thought it was a bummer that Joltin' Joe narrowly missed getting a playing-days Topps card.

#4 Ty Cobb, Total Cards: 4,729

Cobb just missed third place with less than one hundred fewer cards currently on the market than DiMaggio.

Ty Cobb still gets talked about a lot today, though it's often in conversations regarding Pete Rose. While he might not have the "Hit King" crown these days, check out that insane lifetime average.

#5 Honus Wagner, Total Cards: 3,189

Honus Wagner places fifth out of these fellas in terms of cards produced of their likeness.

Honus Wagner is best known in the hobby for his T206 SSP that's considered the all-time "best baseball card" to many. But yeah, he was a pretty good player, too! Not a lot of pop, but hey, that's pre-Ripken shortstops for you, right?

#6 Rogers Hornsby, Total Cards: 2,361

From Honus to Hornsby. Took me a while to notice the subtle lines of stars in the design.

More teams on the back than we've seen in the post so far. Hornsby was player/manager for most of the latter half of his career, which helps explain sticking around with limited action as his career wound down.

#7 Christy Mathewson, Total Cards: 1,423

The remaining players in this list are all pitchers. Christy Mathewson is arguably the greatest pitcher of all time, though his 1,423 different cards on the market are dwarfed by, say, Roger Clemens (19,958), but that's modern cards for you.

Imagine guys today pitching that many innings!

#8 Walter Johnson, Total Cards: 1,190

Walter Johnson is among the 3 graded cards in my completed set. I got the trio from COMC, though not all at once. I don't particularly want them graded, but I haven't been motivated to break them out either.

His total of 110 career shutouts is the record. One of those firmly unbreakable records.. at least until robot pitchers are legalized in 2063.

#9 Cy Young, Total Cards: 1,021

Cy Young is mentioned plenty today thanks largely to MLB's pitcher-of-the-year award being named after him. Barely a thousand different cards of him out there, though.

Tons of wins and losses. Cool seeing forgotten teams Spiders and Naps on the back.

Last at #10 Grover Alexander, Total Cards: 480

As I suspected, Grover Cleveland "Pete" Alexander does have the fewest cards out of the 10 players in this insert set. Less than 500 cards means he's not even halfway to the #9 spot.

30+ wins.. 3 years in a row.. Can you imagine?!

And that wraps it up. Nice group of shiny cards featuring all-time greats.

After completing this set, I decided I should go after the "What Could Have Been" refractors, also from 2001 Chrome, basically a similar 10-card set but with Negro League players. I don't have any of those yet, but I'm keeping an eye out.

Thanks for stopping by.