2005 Topps Retired Baseball: Signature Edition

I splurged a little bit recently and picked up a box of 2005 Topps Retired Baseball Signature Edition. The allure for me was the one uncirculated autographed card in every pack. I already have the Robin Yount base card from this set, but none of the parallels or Autos, so I thought perhaps I could swing a little good luck my way.

The design of the set is identical to the 2005 Topps base set, except for the lower-case-t-with-a-giant-smiley-serif Topps logo from days of yore. This alone makes the cards awesome. As this is the last pack in my box, I've noticed that each pack has come with one gold parallel card numbered to 500, although there are black parallels numbered, I believe, to 54. Oh, and the packs are gigantic as well, so as to fit the tamper-proof card case for the auto. The wrappers have either Wade Boggs of Ryne Sandberg on them.

Let's tear in.

Top to Bottom:
8 Carlton Fisk (The facial expression and the direction of his eyeline seem to point to his having recently thrown out a runner trying to steal. His card makes me wonder...Is there another player who approaches the status that Fisk holds as a legend for two distinct teams? He was in a unique position to play roughly half of his career for each of the Sox, and he walks as a god among men in both cities. Other players that immediately come to mind are Reggie Jackson (although he's much better known as a Yankee) and Paul Molitor, who played for a short time in Toronto and Minnesota, earning a ring and the 3,000 hit milestone with each organization, respectively. Twins fans I know love to call him their own, mostly because of his St. Paul upbringing. I'd love to hear from readers about players fitting this Fisk description. I'm not quite sure if Jackson and Molitor fit, though. Clemens? Too many teams. Rod Carew? He's pretty close with the Twins and Angels. This will have me thinking all day.)

3 Al Kaline (No split allegiances here. Twenty-two seasons spent as a Tiger. Plus he hit a hole-in-one this past spring. Way to go Al!)

53 Dale Murphy (Topps made some strange choices for the photos in this set. Players like Murphy, who played their last few years with teams other than the one they were best known for, aren't always pictured playing for their main team. There's no distinct pattern for team choice by Topps. For example, in a earlier pack I got Darryl Strawberry, pictured as a Dodger, not exactly the team he was best known for. Then there was Steve Garvey, who was pictured in Dodger blue. No rhyme or reason whatsoever, but that makes it fun to open these packs. I will not make a Forrest Gump reference here.)

7 Bo Jackson Gold Parallel (454/500)

(Topps gives us the White Sox uniform. They could have really thrown us a curveball by putting him in a Angels uni. I didn't even remember he played for California in 1994. You get to see the back of this card for some more cool tuff Topps decided to include. There's a little field graphic that shows the player's position, and next to that is a box containing a standout stat from the player's career.)

TA-BEB Bob Brenly AUTO (This was not the best autograph I pulled from this box. There was another Joe Pepitone, this time pictured as a Yankee, but the best one I'll save for my year-end best pulls posts.)

By the way, there's a Halloween contest running over at Thorzul Will Rule. Put your creative skills to use and try to win a great memorabilia card!

1981 Topps Movie Giant Pin-Up Revisited

My apologies for posting back-to-back, but when I got these in the mail today, I just couldn't wait!

Not long ago, Thorzul posted a great and unique find (here) on here: 1981 Topps Movie Giant Pin-Ups.

You can read about it by using the link in parenthesis above. After reading his post, I went on my own search and scarfed up four of these packs to see what I might get. I was glad I did!

One thing I did not see in his post (do not recall seeing) was the size of the actual posters themselves. They are close enough to be called 12" x 20".

According to Thorzul's list of hits and misses in this set, I scored THREE "Epic Wins" and a "Not Too Shabby." I'd have to say I agree:

2003 Fleer Double Header

Fleer went berzerk with oddball sets in 2003 and one of the weirder ones was Double Header. These cards were not only smaller than the normal 2 1/2 by 3 1/2 inches, but they included one 'flip' card that showed two players on the same card sharing the lower half of their body. There's a reason for this, which I'll get into later, but they were probably just as strange to card buyers in 2003 as they are now. I found this pack in a Wal-Mart $1.50 bin so I grabbed one to spread the knowledge.

24 Tomo Okha
81 Eric Chavez
139 Randy Winn
251 & 252 Albert Pujols & Drew Henson
128 Roy Oswalt
107 Omar Vizquel
91 Andres Galarraga
170 Rich Aurilia


Oof, not much there unless you're a fan of one of these players. I like Oswalt and I'll always love the Big Cat for his couple of years in Atlanta so this pack isn't a total disaster. Pairing up Albert Pujols with Drew Henson is a disaster though. What a waste of a Prince Albert card. So that's the one per pack flip card, but what the hell is a flip card anyway? Well, this set completely ripped off the 1955 Topps Double Headers oddball set (to be fair, Topps ripped off the 1911 Mecca Double Folders set as well). Here's the lone example from that set in my collection, a card of Braves catcher Charlie White:

As you can see, it's a drawing of the player with a stadium scene in the background. I think if you have a complete set of these cards, you can put them together to show a panoramic view of the stadium. These cards are slightly smaller than normal just like the Fleer cards, but look what happens when you unfold it:

Shazam! Charlie White has turned into Dean Stone of the Washington Nationals. Note again, the detailed drawing of the stadium in the background. Now note the half-assed Photoshop filter used to fuzz out the background of the Fleer cards in a lame attempt to make them "Retro". Now you understand why these are showing up in cheesy repack boxes. Topps did a much better homage to this set as boxtoppers in their 2004 Topps Heritage set. If you ask me though, I'd say just pick up an original instead. You can get one in off grade cheap and a really nice one for not too much more.