Mattingly Madness

Donnie Baseball time! I didn't get into baseball until 1990, so, having missed out on his 80s peak, I wasn't really a big Mattingly fan growing up. But since returning to the hobby as an adult, he's become one of my favorite guys to collect and I've ended up with some pretty nice cards of his in my collection.

Very happy to finish his Topps Retired refractor trifecta recently. I wouldn't mind someday upgrading my '04 to one that is unfaded/ungraded. But still, so satisfying to have these three secured after years of chasing this set.

Another look at 'em refracting away in all their glory.

Here's another completed trio of Mattingly refractors from the years 2003-2005, these from Topps All-Time Fan Favorites. I've nearly completed the full set run of TATFF refractors (/299), with just a few from '04 remaining. 

 

Here's a trio of different rookie reprint refractors. I mentioned last post I've been going nuts for reprint refractors lately. I mean, years back I completed the Archives Reserve base sets (which are essentially all reprint refractors), but I've recently been expanding into Chrome inserts from other years. I think of the 2019 versions as "Refractors Your Mom Threw Out" because they've got a write-up on the back, while the 2014 versions are more desirable as "original back" reprints. Otherwise they look pretty similar on the front, even if the one on the right didn't shine much in the above photo.

Now to feature some cardart I've been whipping up lately.

Last time I checked in with what I've been up to in regards to cardart, you may remember I was all about coming up with silhouette cards. Further down that path lead me to come up with "logoman minis" which I'm really digging. The plan is keep each of these as a 1/1, but try to come up with several variations.

A second Mattingly style. I've also got Rickeys in the works.

I'm still making lots of "mods", tweaking real cards to spice them up as after-market parallels. This is the latest style I've been working on. Holographic overlayers on cards is basic "cardart 101" stuff, but I think it looks dumb when you cover up the player with it, so I don't cover up the player on mine. I plan to start putting some of these in my ebay store soon. Been trying to keep these all one-of-one and not repeat myself.

Took a long, long time to make this "white border" mod. I had intended to make it to sell, but with all that went into it, no one could ever appreciate it as much as me, so guess I'll hang onto it. ha

I've got a couple Mattingly cardart displays I made a year or two ago that I've been meaning to make available. But again, sometimes the combination of being lazy and liking it enough myself, I end up hanging onto stuff I originally intended to "side hustle" out of the house.

Last year I was all about making custom displays, but don't think I made many in 2025 other than for silhouette ideas.

More original cardart from a year or two ago. Available for trade or maybe I'll add some of them to my ebay listings at some point. I generally shoot for $10@ but settle closer to $5 if I don't find much interest after awhile. Yeah, maybe it's silly "making" cards like this when there are billions of real cards out there already that collectors would rather spend their money on, and if it was just about me making money, I have plenty of decent real cards I could list, but cardart is a fun creative outlet for me, so I'll keep at it.

Leftovers of some Mattingly customs I've made over the years. Funny, that Big League Chewing Gum custom I made in 2016 ended up getting "mass counterfeited" on eBay, even with the back crediting Baseball Card Breakdown. Dumb.

As far as Donnies I'm still on the hunt for, there's yet another rookie reprint refractor out there I need (the "50 Years" one), plus relics for my ARMS (Archives Reserve Master Set), and a couple tough "junk" era issues.

MY MATTINGLY MOST WANTED:
2004 Topps Retired refractor auto /25 (signature upgrade wanted)
2001 Topps Chrome Through The Years refractor reprints #32 (1984 Topps)
2001 Topps Archives Reserve Relics ARR7 (“1984” jersey)
2001 Topps Archives Reserve Relics ARR28 (“1984” bat)
2002 Topps Archives Reserve Relics TRR-DMB (“1985” bat)
1992 Leaf Preview - Black Gold parallel #22
1990 Topps Batting Leaders #4 (aka "Kmart greenies"; I'd be down for the '89 red, too)

If you happen to have any of those available, feel free to drop me a line.

Ok, I guess that's pretty much all the Mattingly stuff I wanted to mention. To keep things light, I've deleted my sour rantings about the HOF and the Dodgers and other things that suck the fun out of today's game. But yeah, baseball back in the 70s through 90s.. that's my wheelhouse. And Donnie Baseball is a major figure of that golden era.

Thanks for reading, guys!

2004 Topps Retired Whitey Ford refractor auto

Yesterday I showed off a Frank Robinson 2004 Topps Retired refractor autograph. Matthew Scott left a comment saying, "Oh man this is awesome. Hank Aaron....Frank Robinson....I totally expect a Mantle auto by next week!"

Well, not exactly, but I'll give ya partial credit on that one, as the next big pickup to feature is Mickey's buddy and teammate on those classic Yankees teams, Whitey Ford.

That's a nice looking card!

I feel like Whitey doesn't get a ton of hobby love these days compared to contemporaries like, say, Sandy Koufax, but he did have a heck of a career. Brought home a whopping six World Series rings.. wow! Lost a couple prime years due to military service. (The stats on the back leave off his debut season of 1950 for some reason, jumping right to his return in 1953.) Whitey is still kicking today at age 89.

Anyways, yeah, this was a nice one to check off as I slowly inch closer to completing this refractor auto set.

2004 Topps Retired Frank Robinson refractor auto

My #1 collecting goal is 2004 Topps Retired refractor autos (see my title banner above). I recently checked another one off my list.

The great Frank Robinson! He's gotten a lot of facetime on my blog lately thanks to recently picking up his '57 rookie card and a couple 2011 sparkly variations. Snatched this ref auto up at a steal of a buy-it-now a few days ago. (Hell, I think I paid more for my base auto version, which is now available for trade, btw.)

He's undoubtedly one of the best hitters ever, though still has the "Mr. Underrated HOFer" tag. He hit a ton of home runs, but not as many as Aaron or Mays. He won the triple crown, though Yaz usually gets the credit when people think of triple crown winners from that era. And let's not forget the groundbreaking being the first black manager in the MLB. And how cool is it that he was a player-manager? God, I hope baseball has another player-manager in my lifetime!

Retired Refractor Review: Red Sox Royalty

It's Easter, so that's as good a time as any to post some lovely pastel rainbow-looking cards. My Topps Retired refractors are among the top jewels of my collection. As a theme to tie them together, the three guys I'm featuring today all first made a name for themselves in Boston, though not all of these are Red Sox cards.

This is a cool shot of Carlton Fisk, apparently shouting to second base or perhaps giving direction to a cutoff man. Those 80s White Sox uniforms with the number on the pants are pretty funky.

That's a long time behind the dish. I didn't realize Fisk had such quick legs for a catcher, swiping 128 bases in his career and leading the league in triples during his ROY campaign in 1972.

Here's a nice posed shot of Fred Lynn from his days as an Angel. I always love picking up 2003 Topps Retired refractors when I can find them for a good price. They don't seem to pop up as often as their 2005 counterparts.

Freddy put up great numbers during his Red Sox days, but leveled off a bit once he moved on to California and later Baltimore. I know it sounds like a joke everytime I say it, but I think of him first and foremost as a Padre, since 1990 happened to be the year I first really got into baseball as a kid in San Diego.

(Update: I've since sold the Fred Lynn for twice what I paid for it. Sorry to see it go, but couldn't pass up that deal.)

This Jim Lonborg card is another instance of a seller screw-up lending itself to a good deal. The listing neglected to mention that this was a refractor parallel, or that it was serial numbered out of 25. But I could tell by the rainbow sheen in the photo that it was definitely a refractor, so I was able to score it for the opening bid. Not that it would have been considerably more expensive had the seller properly listed it, but I bet he could have easily gotten a few bucks more, perhaps even twice as much if a couple BoSox fans got into a bidding war over it.

In a happy coincidence, I'm posting this on Jim's birthday. As the red stats indicate, he was at his best in 1967, helping the "Impossible Dream" Red Sox reach the World Series. As the sentence on the back states, he did very well in his first two WS starts, but then they put him back out there on short rest for Game 7 and well, you know how that ended for Boston. He won the Cy that year, and had a few more solid seasons in his career, but was never quite as dominant.

A fun fact about Lonborg is that he's the real baseball player in the "Sam Malone pitching" photo hanging in the bar on the show Cheers.

Good enough excuse to revisit the fun TTM return last year from the great Wade Boggs.

That's gonna do it for today. Happy Easter, everybody!

Retired Refractor Review: 2004 Luis Tiant

I hardly ever have the foresight to plan out a post for a special day in the future, such as featuring a player on his birthday. But I had been thinking of doing another Retired Refractor Review post today, and this morning I saw a tweet from Mark Hoyle that it was Luis Tiant's birthday, so that helped me decide on a card for today's post and I snapped a few pics before heading out to work.

Tiant is often noted as one of the greatest players not to be in the HOF. Hall of Stats agrees, calculating a very strong score of 130, good for ranking him as the 34th best pitcher of all-time (..well, of those eligible). And he doesn't just have the numbers, as El Tiante was also a colorful character adding spice to the game during his 19 years in the big leagues. Gotta love the guy.

My Tiant PC isn't very big, so I went ahead and took pictures of the few other cards of him I got.

Some cards from the 60s including his rookie card from 1965.

Some cards from the early/mid 70s. I've also got his 73 Topps card in that complete set, not pictured.

Finally a Burger King oddball and a modern Upper Deck card #'d 3/100. And yes, I did print out little paper tabs to help me keep track of which cards are Burger King variations, since they often look the same as regular 1979 Topps only with a different card number on the back. This one actually is a photo variation, though, with flagship showing him still with the Red Sox.

So there you go, a decent little PC highlighted by a shiny /25 autograph. If anyone has any other Tiant cards to part with, I'd love to add to my collection.

Thanks for visiting and have a great Thanksgiving, everybody!

Retired Refractor Review: 2004 Dale Murphy

This is the first of what I'm envisioning will be a recurring series on the blog. One-card posts for when I don't have anything interesting lined up but still want to post something that day.

I love the card product trilogy that is Topps Retired Signature Edition. It was even topic of the first substantial post of this blog back in 2013. It came out from 2003 through 2005, with the middle child being my favorite. And I especially love the refractor parallels of the autographs. The 2004 ref auto set is my #1 collecting goal. I also sometimes pick up 2003 and 2005 auto refractors when they pop up at a reasonable price.

Today we're taking a look at Dale Murphy.

Lovely card. I believe I accidentally wound up with two of these. Oh well, I guess I've got a nice card of offer a Braves collector in case of a big trade opportunity, or maybe I'll try to flip it on eBay for a little profit.

As for the player, Dale Murphy was among the best hitters in the game in the 80s. Just look at all those red stats! The guy could mash. He looked like a sure-thing HOFer, but his skills diminished near the end of the decade as he finished his career with largely forgettable stints with the Phillies and Rockies.

He was a rare clean-living ballplayer who didn't drink or curse, and was just a genuinely good guy. These days you can find him on Twitter, where he's got an active and entertaining account at @DaleMurphy3.

That's it for today. Thanks for stopping by.

P.S. Fuck you, America. Seriously!?? Oh-kaaaay! Brace for it. This is gonna suuuuuck. Seriously!! WHAT THE FUCKKK????!!!