2006 Topps Jason Varitek Gold Glove

A month or two ago I was reading a post about the 2005 Topps Alex Rodriguez Spokesman Insert set on 21st Century Topps Baseball, a blog dedicated to all things '90's Topps baseball up to the present. REJ, the owner of the blog stated how he wish Topps would re-issue more cards that never were, including some Mariano Riveras from '92-'95. I mentioned how I was working on a few, and asked if there are any more cards he knew of that Topps missed. He listed a card for the '05 Gold Glove Award winner at catcher was missing from the '06 Topps set. That seemed kind of mysterious, so I got to work finding out who the card was of and why it wasn't made. Turns out, it was mainly for the same reason that the ARod cards weren't.

In 1991, Jason Varitek played for the Team USA. Topps produced cards of the team in the '92 Topps Traded set. I guess Varitek had a feud with Topps or something, because he refused to sign a contract with Topps after that, similar to what ARod would do in 1992. After Varitek's '92 Topps Traded card, he missed out on cards in the '95-'06 (ARod would miss cards from '94-'97). It just so happens that Varitek won the AL Gold Glove award in '05 and that is why this card is missing from the '06 Topps set.

I might very well do a Missing Topps Cards segment on Varitek. There are some cool cards I could do, including his '95 Topps Draft Pick card, maybe even a '94 Topps Traded Draft Pick card, and a '96 Topps Prospects card. This card was a little difficult to make due to the curvature on the name part. I need to figure out a way to get text to go over a background without making it look all crappy. Paint has come a long way, but is still missing the mark on that part.

It's funny to see how there are a few players on Team USA cards who are missing Topps cards after that (ARod, Varitek, Charles Johnson to name a few). I wonder how many refused to sign Topps contracts and missed out on Draft Pick and early cards because of it. It would be interesting to get a list going.

I'm almost up to card #100 in my set. I really like how some of the cards have turned out, and I like the direction this set and blog is heading. I'm hoping to keep cranking out cards, and hopefully by next year, I will have a few of my usual segments with a good number of posts in them. I hope you enjoy reading them and seeing new cards that Topps should've made. Thanks for checking out my blog.

-Jeremy