Completed Set: 1988 Topps UK Baseball Minis

Here's a set that I put together solely through trades. That might sound impressive (or foolish), but the entire set consists of just 88 cards, and I received about half of them from a single trade, so it really didn't take immense effort to complete.

The small number of cards isn't the only thing that makes this set unique, however. Here are some other details:

• It was produced and marketed in the United Kingdom.
• The cards were sold in a box as a complete set, and also in individual packs (5 cards, 1 stick of bubble gum).
• Here in North America they're referred to as "Topps UK Minis", but over in the UK they were sold as "Topps American Baseball".
• The cards are in fact mini. They measure 2-1/8 inches by 3 inches. 

 Here are some of my favorite cards in the set:

Good, simple design. The yellow color bar across the bottom is eye catching, and highlights the player name and position well. Using each team's official wordmark across the top instead of the same standard font for all teams is a really nice touch, too—especially for the UK market.

Here are three top-notch hitters who've just connected. Tony Gwynn almost resembles a cricket batsman with the way he's following through there. As for Rickey, he didn't hold back, did he?

The photography in this set isn't spectacular, but for Topps in the year 1988 I'd say it was a little bit above average. And that does have some importance, as surely some of the UK kids opening these packs didn't know a whole lot about the sport and its stars.

At the time, there were 26 teams in Major League Baseball. All 26 were represented in this set. That's another check-mark for the designers. You'll find more good design on the card backs.

I'm impressed with the amount of information here. The player name really stands out. Same goes for the card number, which is surrounded by stars—a nice tie-in to the star design on the front. Next you've got a simple one-season stat line, with career numbers too. That's fine with me, considering the market Topps was going after with this set. Besides, that leaves more room for what we find underneath. 

There's a baseball graphic on the right, with the player's facsimile signature and bio-type information printed on top (notice the weight listed in stone!). On the left, you've got a classic Topps cartoon that shares some information about the player. Below that, perhaps the most interesting aspect of the card.

Topps really nailed it with the Talkin' Baseball box. Each box describes a baseball rule or action which would seem far too rudimentary for those of us who grew up watching baseball here in North America, but served a great purpose for the market in the UK. Just think about how helpful a Talkin' Cricket box would have been if you were opening a pack of "Topps UK Cricket" cards when you were a kid.

Continuing with the fronts now, we've got two legendary Orioles surrounding Kirby in the Homer Dome. I have a feeling some of the Twins and Cardinals photos used in this set were taken during the 1987 World Series. The catcher and player (or bat boy) in the background of Kirby Puckett's card here seem like Cardinals.

Here's Nolan in that classic Astros jersey, Ryno with a mustache(!), and Ruben with a strong swing. On the back of Sandberg's card, the American spelling of "favorite" is used, not the British "favourite". I wonder if that was just an oversight. Other copy is a little bit more British. For instance, the cartoon on Dave Stewart's card mentions how he signed his first professional "pact" as a catcher. We'd have used the word "contract" instead.

You can see that the set features a nice combination of headshots, players in moments between game action, and action shots. It also includes a good amount of pitchers (20).

Have a look at the red, white, and blue bunting in the background of Frank Viola's card here. Another World Series shot? In the middle, Robin Yount swings for the fences. And on the right, the final card of the set, which is a checklist. Another nice touch.

I'm happy to have completed this one. There are 9-pocket pages designed for smaller cards, and I'm thinking this set might look nice displayed in a binder. I'd only need 10 pages, after all.

Have you ever collected trading cards that feature a sport that's more popular outside of North America? Did the cards themselves help you learn about the sport?

Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading!

From the Favorites Box: Brian Propp, 1981-82 Topps #E110

A series where I post some thoughts about favorite cards. Previous cards in the series are available here.


The tough thing about hockey is that it's fast. Sometimes there's a giveaway at a bad time. Transition up the ice happens in an instant—and at a moment when you might be a bit flat-footed.

The great thing about hockey is that for just a moment, for a few hard strides, you do have the opportunity to catch up. And I think that's where Brian Propp might find himself here.

Look at the expression on his face. He's grinding. He's looking up the ice, either toward an opponent he needs to cover or toward his teammate who's rushing through the neutral zone with the puck. The card's design even lends itself to action, with that bright yellow team name flying across on the diagonal, and the thin, rounded orange border giving you a great little portal into the scene.

And speaking of action, Brian Propp was no stranger to the offensive side of it. Check out these stats from his 15-season career:

1016 GP, 425 G, 579 A, 1004 PTS, 825 PIM, 59 GWG

Even for a guy who played throughout the high-scoring 1980s, you can't shake a stick at those numbers. To back them up, here's more:

In a five-season stretch, Propp reached the 40-goal mark four times, and just missed hitting the mark in all five.

1981-82: 44
1982-83: 40
1983-84: 39
1984-85: 43
1985-86: 40

He had a couple of great playoff runs with Philadelphia, too, most impressively in 1986-87 when the Flyers made it to the Stanley Cup Finals, losing to Edmonton:

26 GP, 12 G, 16 A, 28 PTS, 5 PPG (tied for league lead), 104 SOG (led the league)

For certain we're looking at a great career, not to mention a great hockey jersey and a great hockey card design. But for reminding us of the grind and how great it is—that's why 1981-82 Topps #E110 has a spot in my box of favorite cards.

Print Version

Reading a blog is fun, isn't it?

The digital format is easy to navigate. You read, scroll down, view some images, scroll down some more, and leave a comment at the bottom if you'd like.

Fun. Easy. You can do it all from a digital device. Sitting in the park. Lying on the couch. Almost anywhere, anytime. And that's great.

But I hope some of you will agree with me when I say that there's nothing like holding an actual book in your hands and flipping through the pages.

Nothing.

And that affinity for printed material is why I decided to put some of the more personally meaningful posts from my first year of blogging into a print version using Mixbook, one of the many photo book services out there. (Other good photo book services include Snapfish, Apple, Flickr, and Shutterfly.)

It took some time to choose the posts I wanted to preserve most, and more time after that with layout, but it was well worth it. Here are some images of the finished product, as well as some tips if you think you might want to try a fun project like this yourself. I'm only familiar with the Mixbook interface, But I'd guess the other services are similar in the way you navigate around and create your book.

Overall, Mixbook's design tool was fairly easy to use. It's not professional publishing software, but it did get the job done without much fuss.

Text boxes can be inserted, dragged around, and resized on the page as much as you'd like, and you can change the font type, size, and color just as you would with any other publishing tool.

Same goes for your images. They can be moved around easily and resized right there on screen. If you do happen to enlarge one too much, a warning icon will appear to let you know that the image might not print at a high enough quality. You can also add features to your images such as borders and shadows. (The shadow feature works great for trading cards, as it gives them a little dimension on the page.)

 
The trickiest part might be reworking the layout for print, because you've only got so much space per page. Very long blog posts that contain dozens and dozens of images won't work well, for example, just for the sheer number of pages they'd take up. (I whittled a couple of my entries down for the book.)

However, once you get the hang of adjusting column widths and figure alignments, the layout goes by more quickly. There's even a built-in feature that helps you align one image with another on the sides, top, or bottom.

 
Mixbook also gives you numerous choices for book size and paper finish, which is a nice touch. Each book comes with 20 blank pages for you to fill, but take note that there's an extra charge for each page after that. (Currently it's anywhere from $0.69 to $2.39 per page, depending on how big and fancy of a book style you choose.) This really can add up if you're not paying attention. However, for the ability to hold a printed version of some memorable, meaningful blog posts in your hands, the extra page cost might really be worth it. 

And the good thing is that Mixbook often runs excellent specials and promotions, such as $20 off your order, 50% off your order, and so on.

Why not go through your blog history, choose 5 or 10 entries (or more) that hold special meaning for you, and consider making a print version? It's a great way to look back on some of the work you've done, especially if you've been blogging for years. You'll be preserving some of that work in print form, and there's nothing like it.

Martinez Brothers

Have a look at the pitching deliveries featured on these two cards, as Ramon Martinez almost seems to morph into his brother Pedro.

1994 Pacific Crown Collection #314 Ramon Martinez and #313 Pedro Martinez

 
Same road uniforms, same high jersey numbers, same blue long-sleeve shirt, same black baseball glove, same stride off the mound. 

Two great careers, too, as foreshadowed by the opening sentence on the back of Pedro's 1991 Upper Deck Final Edition card #2F: 

As if Ramon Martinez was not formidable enough for the Dodgers, Los Angeles also has his younger brother Pedro speeding through their farm system.

Most folks these days will know more about that younger brother Pedro, of course. He did speed through the Dodgers' farm system, so quickly in fact that he'd spend parts of the next two seasons up with the big club. But he started to show his stuff in earnest with the Montreal Expos in 1994. He built on strong numbers there until in 1997 he really let loose, going 17-8 with a major league–leading 1.90 ERA and 13 complete games. He also put up a whopping 305 strikeouts. 

From there he went to the Red Sox, where remarkably he'd show even more of his stuff. In the five seasons from 1999 to 2003, he led the majors in ERA four times, and led the A.L. in strikeouts three times. In those same five years he went 82-21 and put up 1,205 strikeouts to only 181 walks. Those numbers could have been even more staggering had he not been injured for a good portion of the 2001 season.

He's a three-time Cy Young Award winner, eight-time all-star, 2004 World Series champion, and the 1999 A.L. triple crown winner (23 wins, 2.07 ERA, 313 strikeouts). He played for the Dodgers, Expos, Red Sox, Mets, and Phillies.

But let's go back to that time when Pedro was still speeding through the Dodgers' farm system. Because in 1989 a whole lot of people were raving about older brother Ramon. If you were a baseball card collector back then, you'll remember Ramon's rookie cards being sought after. And he'd quickly prove there was good reason for that.

He had an all-star year in 1990, going 20-6 with a 2.92 ERA and 3 shutouts across 234.1 innings pitched, putting up 223 strikeouts to only 67 walks. And get this: 12 of those 20 wins were complete games. That led the majors. He'd post some pretty good win-loss records for a few seasons thereafter, too (17-13, 12-7, 17-7, 15-6).

And the guy was also a decent hitter. Check out these career stats:
596 AB, 91 H, 33 R, 12 2B, 1 3B, 1 HR, 33 RBI, 68 sac bunts, .153 avg.

In 1994 he had a fantastic season at the plate, going 18-for-66 with 3 doubles, 3 RBI, 5 sacrifice bunts, and a .273 average.

Rotator cuff surgery in 1998 shortened his career, but his totals across 14 seasons with the Dodgers, Red Sox, and Pirates are more than respectable.

Here are the career numbers for both brothers.

 

 

 

	PEDRO (18 seasons)	RAMON (14 seasons)
WINS	219	135
LOSSES	100	88
ERA	2.93	3.67
STRIKEOUTS	3154	1427
WALKS	760	795
SHUTOUTS	17	20
COMPLETE GAMES	46	37
INNINGS PITCHED	2827.1	1895.2

 

So here's to Ramon and Pedro, and to two careers worth celebrating here on the blog. I can only imagine how fun it must have been for them to pitch on the same team for those couple of early years.

1992 Fleer Baseball: Expanded Redesign

Back in March, I tried a redesign of the 1992 Fleer baseball set. It was mainly to see how the cards would look with a border color other than the green that Fleer went with.  

I settled on two color options, navy blue and charcoal, and then selected a few cards to experiment with for each color. Well, I enjoyed the outcome (not to mention the reader response) so much that I wanted to experiment a little more. That's where this expanded redesign comes in. 

With charcoal looking especially sharp—and probably being a better, more neutral fit across the board—I decided to try that color on one card from each baseball team. Results are below, running alphabetically by city.

For the sake of comparison, let's start by showing the original 1992 design. Here we have cards from the first three teams: Atlanta, Baltimore, and Boston.

And the redesign:

Let's go through the rest of the teams.

With 26 teams total, I needed to fill that last slot. So I found one of the art cards that appear at the back of the set and gave it the charcoal treatment as well. It's rad enough that Ken Griffey Jr. is in outer space, deposited on an unknown planet by a diffraction of light through some sort of prism or interstellar travel device. But change the green border to a charcoal gray and it's even more rad. (Were kids still saying "rad" in 1992?)

Overall, I tried to match the color of the player names to the team colors a little more than Fleer did with the original design, while also making sure to keep the names bright against the dark gray.

As for the photography, I hope you'll agree that there are some excellent examples in this set. With the charcoal borders, I think the images really stand out more than they do against the original green, and I tried to choose a card from each team that exemplifies the point.

I have to admit something, though. After seeing each team laid out like this in the charcoal border, I started to think, Wait a minute. This looks like 1986 Topps, but using the player names instead of the team names and then rotating the text 90 degrees.

I wonder if the designers at Fleer considered using a similar color for the borders, but then thought the same thing. After all, 1986 was only a few years in the rear-view mirror at that point.

Regardless, I still really like the way these cards turned out. Hope you do, too.

Thanks for reading, as always.

From the Favorites Box: Pete Rose, 1986 Fleer #191

A series where I post some thoughts about favorite cards. Previous cards in the series are available here.

Here's Pete Rose, representing his Cincinnati team with a red warm-up jacket, red helmet, red batting gloves, and almost a smile.

1986 Fleer #191, Pete Rose

More accurately, perhaps it's the look of determination that comes before some hard work in the batting cage (or the look of fulfillment that comes after).

Why do I say that? 

Look closely at the barrel of his bat:

Is it just me, or has the black paint been completely worn off around the sweet spot?

How many batting practice sessions does it take to even do that?

It reminds me of a story:

During my college hockey days, our home rink was also the practice rink of the New York Islanders. We'd have our practices early in the morning, and on rare occasion the Islanders would come on for a practice afterward. If we didn't have to immediately get to class, a few of us would hang around, sit in the stands, and watch the professionals go through their drills. It was a treat.

And who do you think was often the first player on the ice? 

The healthy scratches? 

No. 

The backup goalie? 

No. 

The recent call-up from the minor leagues? 

No. 

It was Ziggy Palffy. 

At the time Mr. Palffy was a star, scoring more than 40 goals per year. He was by far the best player the Islanders had. 

And there he was, stepping onto the ice as soon as the Zamboni drove off.

It goes to show that talent might give you a chance at the professional ranks, but only hard work will get you there and keep you there year after year. And if you're gunning to become the player with the most hits in the history of Major League Baseball, like Mr. Rose did in 1985 (the year this picture was likely taken), you put in that hard work for more than two decades. Until the paint wears off the barrel of your bat.

For sticking to that work ethic no matter who you are, and having the physical evidence to show for it, 1986 Fleer #191 has a place in my box of favorite cards.

Waka Waka Waka Waka . . .

How many of you have fond memories of arcades? 

You know, those expansive rooms that contain rows and rows of coin-operated games; the air permeated with glowing lights, digital sounds, and the smell of electricity, soda, and stale french fries?

They still exist, of course (Chuck E. Cheese, Dave & Buster's, etc.). But arcades were just something else back in the '80s and '90s. And one of the most popular games you'd find within was Pac-Man.

Even though it was a game that didn't really interest me (I was more of an Arkanoid and pinball kid), when I saw a few of these Pac-Man cards and stickers on a fellow collector's trade list, I felt compelled to grab them.

I'd imagine just about every arcade back in those days had at least one type of Pac-Man cabinet somewhere inside, whether it was Original Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Super Pac-Man, or even the cocktail table version (look that one up).

I'd also imagine those cabinets were surrounded by players and onlookers alike. Maybe even some who felt like they were part of this team:

The cards and stickers you see here were released by Fleer in 1980, the year the Pac-Man craze began (which means this year is the 40th anniversary of the game, wow).

The entire set consists of 54 stickers, plus these rub-off game cards:

Wax packs contained 3 stickers, 3 game cards, and 1 stick of bubble gum. Here are the instructions for the rub-off game:

 
I think I'll resist the urge to play. After all, I don't want to get hooked and end up like this guy:

Considering how popular the game was back then, "Pac-Man hangover" was probably an actual thing. 

Here's a look at a standard sticker back:

And finally, for some audio-visual nostalgia, here's some gameplay from the original arcade version:
 

Any Pac-Man players out there? Any fun arcade memories? Share in the comment section, and thanks for reading.