Matt Merullo Missing Topps Cards

Matt Merullo played in the Majors from 1989-1995. He spent 1989, and 1991 through 1993 with the Chicago White Sox, 1994 with the Cleveland Indians, before playing his final season in 1995 with the Minnesota Twins. His Grandfather Lennie Merullo, played shortstop for the Chicago Cubs from 1941-1947.

Matt only got into 1 main Topps set, the 1992 one, but did get 1990 Topps Debut, 1991 Topps Stadium Club, 1992 Topps Stadium Club, and 1994 Team Stadium Club cards. Matt needed 1990, 1993, 1994, 1995, and 1996 Topps cards to complete his career Topps run.  Here are all of Matt's Topps cards to showcase his career Topps run.

1990 Topps custom rookie card

 1992 Topps card

 1993 Topps custom by Paul

 1994 Topps custom

 1995 Topps custom

1996 Topps custom sunset card

A few years ago, I sent Matt a letter and a 1992 Topps card to sign. I had some extra cards, so I sent them as well asking for him to keep them, and he sent the '92 back signed, as well as a note saying that he would be in Germany soon doing a camp and that he was excited to bring the extra cards I sent with him to hand out to the kids there. Matt looks to be a pretty consistent signer, so if autographs are your thing, I would send Matt a letter, and perhaps send a few extras of his that you can afford to lose so he can have more to hand out at camps and stuff. 

The 1997 Topps checklist is officially done, so that means the 1987-2001 sets are all ready to go, with every checklist done, and every template completed and up on its own page. 

I have kind of started a side project that I have wanted to do for some time now. I have always wished that Topps would just scrap their Archives brand as it is now with current and retired players on old designs, and turn it into a brand of nothing but cards that never were. Since they probably wont, I am. I am currently in the process of coming up with a checklist of 300-500 cards to make a base set out of, as well as a few insert sets. Not sure if I should split the set up into decades, or just make it into a 1-2 series set of 1951-2017 Topps cards. I do want to make maybe 100 cards in the set devoted to Draft Picks, Highlights, Managers, and Coaches. I plan on making a fake 'sell sheet' of the set, showcasing the cards, maybe a parallel set or two, all of the insert sets, and yes, even a relic and autograph insert set. As far as insert sets, I want to do a card with showcasing 2 players with 2 different Topps cards from the same set. Maybe 1/2 with a regular Topps card and a card that never was, and the other with both players' card that never was. Also have an autograph version of that one. The big insert would probably be cards of stadiums in various Topps designs (like the year after the team won or was in a World Series), but including a unique stadium/team-themed relic in it, like a tomahawk for the Braves, a piece of ivy for the Cubs, a Homer Hankie for the Twins, a dollar bill for the Yankees (just kidding!). That would probably be a serial numbered insert (maybe to 25 or 50). The main draw to the set would be a redemption card that would be redeemable for an original copy of every one of the depicted players' Topps cards, including cards that never were. These would probably be 5 per player, and then the holy grail would be one redeemable for every card, and each card would be autographed. So I will probably start working on a page to list the checklist, and then go through my inventory of cards I have already made and add them to the checklist and start working on insert cards. It might take a while, but keep your eyes peeled, and hopefully it won't bee good enough that Topps will want to sue me. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

1994 Topps Traded Update #TU6 Oil Can Boyd

Back in 1994, baseball went on strike, and I was 11 years old and just starting to become a huge baseball fan. I was old enough to know that there was no baseball that fall, but didn't really know why it was happening and all of the details. In 1995, the players were still on strike, and in March, replacement players were signed with the idea of having them play the 1995 season if the strike didn't end. The Chicago White Sox recruited Dennis "Oil Can" Boyd to pitch for them that spring. I remember my friend Donald telling me that Chicago signed Boyd, and I believe I knew about him, but probably didn't have any of his cards at that point. I really wished I would've saved more things from 1994-1995. It has been a horrible chore trying to find out just the names of replacement players, let alone getting any pictures to make cards with. There are a few pages that list a name or two, but nothing too big. Box scores in newspapers have been surprisingly hard to find, and even with the 2 or 3 that I've found, they are pretty useless since they don't list first names.

Boyd came to the Majors in 1982 with the Red Sox. He pitched for them through 1989, then played for the Expos in 1990. His final year in the Majors was 1991 where he pitched for both the Expos and Rangers. He pitched in the replacement Spring Training in 1994 for the White Sox, and that was the extent of his time in the Majors. Surprisingly, even his wikipedia page doesn't note his time as a replacement player, although a list of 1995 replacement players on wikipedia has him listed with them, as well as this article and a few others.

Dennis got his first Topps card in the 1985 Topps set, and appeared in every set from 1985-1992. He also got into the 1990 Topps Traded set. He is missing 1983 and 1984 Topps cards to complete his career Topps run.

Thanks for checking out my latest card.
-Jeremy

Favorite Player Collection Part 5: 1994 Topps Terry Leach

I figure hardly anyone except for maybe Mets, Royals, Twins, and maybe White Sox fans know who Terry Leach is. I started really following baseball during Terry's last year, so I really didn't know much about him until years later, even though I owned maybe 10 of his cards. I had been a big Florida State fan when it came to college football growing up. I hated the Florida Gators and really didn't pay attention to any other teams or rivalries. That changed in 2006. I moved to Montgomery, Alabama, and within a month or two, I had to decide which team to pull for, the Alabama Crimson Tide or the Auburb Tigers. That's the way it is in Alabama. You have to choose a side or they think you are crazy and it's like life or death with them. So I took a few weeks and kind of saw what each team had to offer. Auburn got screwed out of playing for the national championship just 2 seasons before, even though they were 14-0. They had a pretty good team and their fans for the most part seemed genuine and nice. Alabama fans just talked about past championships and how they won 20 titles and how great Bear Bryant was and how much lower class Auburn was. There were some nice fans in the bunch, but all I ever heard from 65+ percent of them was "Bear Bryant is God and Auburn sucks and we really did win 25 national championships, the NCAA doesn't know what they are talking about when they say it is only 9!"  So I decided to root for Auburn.
I collected ttm autographs back then and noticed that Leach was a good signer, so I got a few of his cards prepared to send him. I noticed on the back of one that he went to Auburn. I wrote him a request and put "War Eagle!" (Auburn's rally cry) at the end and sent it off. A few weeks later Terry sent the cards back signed with an index card inscribed "War Eagle!" on it. From then on, I collected Terry's cards.
Topps gave Terry his last card in the '93 set, even though he played his final season that year. He was left off of the '94 set and missed out on a sunset card. I made him this one, and I think it looks like it would fit right into the '94 set.
Terry recently wrote a book about life as a journeyman reliever, and tells some stories about his Auburn days in the book. I'm hoping to pick it up soon and check it out. He's usually good about answering his fan mail, so if you are into that, I'd send him a request.
I'm hoping Michigan State can beat the Tide so I don't have to hear about another Bama championship, but everyone knows that Bama pays the NCAA so they will probably have #26 in a few weeks.  Don't get me wrong, there are plenty of nice Bama fans, but the constant, never ending, 24-7 houndstooth wearing loudmouths who won't shut up about all their titles just get to me. It's kind of why I really don't care for FSU at all anymore. Their fans just won't shut up and never give anyone a break. I guess I should just be happy that college football doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of thigs.

Hope you enjoyed today's post and had a great Christmas and have a happy new year.
War Eagle!
-Jeremy 

1996 Topps Mike LaValliere

Mike LaValliere is probably best known for his role in the 1992 NLCS when Atlanta Braves first baseman Sid Bream beat Barry Bonds' throw to LaValliere, winning the game and the series for the Braves. I did a '93 Topps Postseason Highlights card of the play here. So, technically, this isn't the first card of LaValliere I've done on my blog.
Mike, or "Spanky" as his nickname is, was a good field, no hit catcher, who came up in 1984 with the Philadelphia Phillies. He played for the St. Louis Cardinals in '85 and '86, and then went to the Pittsburgh Pirates from '87- midway of '93. He finished his career with the Chicago White Sox from '93-'95. His '85 Cardinals team made it to the World Series, and if not for a bad call, would've won it, and his '90-'92 Pirates made it to the NLCS in all 3 years. Then, in '93, he threw out 75% of runners trying to steal on him.
Mike's last Topps card was in '94. He didn't get Topps cards in his final 2 seasons, although he appeared on cards in '95 with a few different sets.
I've been finding that the '96 Topps set is pretty easy to make cards with, although '94 Topps is probably right behind it in difficulty. This card of Spanky was pretty easy to make, with the most difficult part being making the small photo. I've been working with some of the more difficult sets like '95 Topps lately, and those sets will start to become easier to deal with once I get the letters from the sets cut out so they won't have to be cut out each and every time I use the design, and I'll be able to crank out cards like crazy pretty soon.
I only have 1 more regular season softball game left. Yesterday I went 0-2 with an RBI at the plate (I've been in a pretty bad slump the past 4 games), but I made 2 difficult catches in RF. The first kept sinking, and I somehow caught up to it and caught it, but as my glove hit the ball, the force made the ball pop out of my glove. It was all in slow motion after that. I was picturing dropping the ball and making an error in my head as all of this was happening, but somehow dropped to my knees and the ball came back in my glove, and bounced again, but I grabbed it with my bare hand and held on for the out. 2 innings later, the same guy that hit the first one was up again, and he hit it to me again. I thought the ball would land right where I was standing, but at the last second it curved to the left, and I reached out to the left as far as I could, and caught the ball. I spun around as I caught it, and hurled the ball back to the infield. I kind of wish I would've wore a hat because I'm sure it would've fell off and kind of looked like a catch Willie Mays would've made. If I can just get a hit in next Monday's game, I will have a .300 batting average for the season. I really hope that happens, and  a win would be nice too as we have only won 1 game this year (against the team we will be playing).
My next card will be one that one of my readers has requested, and I'll give the reason why Topps didn't produce it as well. Thanks for checking out my blog.

-Jeremy

1994 Topps Nolan Ryan/Robin Ventura Highlight

In 1993, Nolan Ryan was playing in his 27th and final season. His Rangers were playing the White Sox on August 4th, and Ryan, who had a few grudges against Ventura and the White Sox, hit Ventura with a pitch. Ventura started walking to first, and then turned and charged the mound. Ryan managed to get Ventura into a headlock, and started wailing on his head before teammates came along and the fight got broken up. I remember hearing about it on the news for the next few days.

I decided to do a highlight card of the famous fight. I used a 1994 Topps pre-production card of Ryan for the front. The area above the color bar underneath the name is brown on this card, unlike the regular cards in the set, which are green. I think I might stick with that design if I end up making more 1994 Topps highlight cards.

Thanks for checking out my custom cards.
-Jeremy

1998 Topps Ron Karkovice

I think I am getting to know myself better as a card collector and a custom card maker. I think that like many other card collectors, that I am mainly interested in cards that came out during the years I collected (1988-2012 or so). While I have many cards from before 1988, and I will always be fascinated with older cards, I guess you could say that sets that I remember busting packs of, or seeing in a beckett, or seeing in friends collections are ones that I enjoy. So I guess I shouldn't be surprised that I have been deviating from my set checklists when it comes to making custom cards. This card was supposed to be a 1984 Topps Traded Kirby Puckett. While Puckett was a great player, I know other bloggers have made this card before, and I guess I kind of want to be different and make cards nobody else will make. I loved the 1998 Topps set, and I had Ron Karkovice in my list of final cards to make from that set, so I decided to do his '98 Topps card for card #34.
I have been a fan of "Karko" for a while now. I got his 1989 Topps card out of one of the first packs of cards I ever opened, I watched him and the Chicago White Sox on WGN games since probably 1993 or so, but the real thing that sticks out in my mind about Ron was the 1994 Post-Season. "But wait. There wasn't a Post-season in 1994", you say. Oh yes there was. In 1994, Dateline NBC simulated the rest of the 1994 season on a computer program, and if I'm not mistaken, they had the New York Banee$ beating the Cincinatti Reds in the World Series. Topps also did the same thing with a computer system, and they actually kept the stats that were made, added them to players' 1994 regular stats, and put versions of cards with the computer-simulated stats added into their 1995 Topps sets in the paralell set called 'Cyberstats' or 'Spectra Light', whichever you prefer to call it. In their simulations, they had the Cleveland Indians beating the Atlanta Braves in the World Series. They also made a 7-card insert set that was placed in factory sets, which highlighted the Playoffs and World Series. I had wanted that set ever since it came out, but since I only had a small card shop, and haven't really been on eBay much, I wasn't able to get the set until 2009 when I finally got the set off of COMC.
Around that time, I had got Strategic Baseball Simulator for my laptop, and decided I wanted to do my own version of the 1994 season. I simmed the season, and the playoffs, and the Chicago White Sox and Cincinatti Reds were the last 2 teams standing. The playoffs had some great moments, including a Paul O'Neill walkoff HR off of Dennis Eckersley, a Sean Berry series-clinching walkoff HR, and a Complete-Game Shutout by Cleveland Indians pitcher Denny Martinez against the Baltimore Orioles in a 1-game playoff to determine the AL Wild Card. In the World Series, the White Sox took on the Reds. In Game 1, the Sox won 19-2. Robin Ventura had 2 HRs and 7 RBIs, and Ozzie Guillen had 5 hits. Karkovice hit a 2-run HR in the bottom of the 8th to give the White Sox a lead they would never relinquish. Bret Boone hit a Sac-Fly to give the Reds a 3-2 lead in the 8th of Game 3, that would prove to be the winning run. Boone also won Game 4 with a RBI hit in the bottom of the 10th Inning. Jose Rijo pitched 7 innings of 3-run ball, and had 2 RBIs at the plate to give the Reds a 5-3 win in Game 5. In a must-win game for the White Sox, Julio Franco came through with a game-winning Sac-Fly in the bottom of the 12th inning of Game 6. Game 7 was never in doubt, as the White Sox took an early lead, and ended up winning 12-4. Karko had 3 Home Runs in Game 7, and was named the World Series MVP with a .310 Batting Average, 4 Home Runs, and 11 RBIs.
I was in the midst of making an ill-fated custom set featuring me, some of my friends, places I've been to, and great memories I've had at the time, and decided to make a set similar to the Cyberstats 7-card playoff insert in my set. The whole custom set turned out to be a waste of time, but I still have the photo of the Karkovice World Series card.

Hope this post wasn't too long or too confusing to understand. In the end, Karko gets his final Topps card, a World Series ring, a 3-HR World Series game, and an extra Cyberstats card.

1980 Topps Highlights: Disco Demolition Night

While Topps hasn't normally done Highlight cards of promotions, and Disco Demolition Night was more of a catastrophy than a highlight, I thought I would make this card protraying one of the most memorable promotions in Major League History. In 1979, Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck wanted to generate more ticket sales, so he decided to have Disco Demolition Night during the middle of a doubleheader between the Detroit Tigers on July 12. A local DJ invited listeners to come to the game, which helped lead to the boost in attendance for the game. People could attend the game for 98 cents, and were invited to bring disco records to be burned/exploded in a giant bin in centerfield during the middle of the 2 games. The Sox drew a little over 15,000 people to the previous night's game, and Veeck expected maybe 10,000 to 15,000 more people to come to Disco Demolition Night. Over 50,000 people came. During the first game, many fans threw records on to the field. Many people broke into the stadium through windows and openings once the gates were locked. After the records were blown up, fans poured onto the field, tearing up grass, stealing the bases, and climbing the foul poles. The field had a hole in it from where the records were destroyed, and players could smell pot smoke and feared for their safety as fans chucked empty liquor bottles onto the field. The second game was postponed, and untimately forfieted. I don't believe any card companies have made cards comemmorating Disco Demolition Night, and I was surprised, seeing how Tristar Obak had a few cards that were different (first person to sell hot dogs at a baseball game, first person to catalogue baseball cards, inventor of Heisman Trophy), and all of the random cards that are in the Goodwin Champions and Allen/Ginter sets. Here is what Topps may have had their Disco Demolition Night card look like in their 1980 set.

1981 Topps Minnie Minoso

Minnie Minoso first appeared in the Majors in 1949 with the Indians. His last season as a regular was 1964. He recieved a Topps card in 1964, but not 1965. He came out of retirement in 1976 and became the oldest player to get a hit, and Topps did put him in their 1977 set. Then, in 1980, Bill Veeck decided to let Minnie play in the White Sox's last 2 games, adding a spark to what was an otherwise miserable season. Topps, Donruss, and Fleer didn't include Mr. Minoso in their 1981 sets, although John from Cards That Never Were made a nice 1981 Fleer card. Minnie also played in Minor League games in 1993 and 2003 to get playing time in those decades. Who knows, he might just be able to play a game this year.

1994 Topps Carlton Fisk

In 1993, I was 10. I had just started following baseball and watching games on TV and getting baseball cards. I was into the sport deep enough to know many of the more popular players, and my favorite team was the Detroit Tigers since I was born in Michigan and they spent their Spring Training in Lakeland, Florida, where I lived at the time. I also followed the Atlanta Braves because they were on TBS just about every night. 1993 was a big year. Nolan Ryan, George Brett, Robin Yount, and Carlton Fisk were all in their final seasons. In 1994, Topps issued cards of each of them, except for Fisk. The 1994 Topps Ryan card was one of the most popular cards out at the time. I never got why Topps gave a final card to Ryan, Brett, and Yount, but not Fisk. He was a popular player, and while typing up the stats on the card, I realized that he missed alot of games in his career, and that if he had played in 140-150 games each year that he would've put up some numbers that only maybe Mike Piazza would've touched. The stats are blurry as heck because I could only fit a 2pt font on the card in order to get all of them to fit, but trust me, they are there. It's a challenge to make these custom card, and sometimes I feel that they look like crap, but I enjoy making them, and it completes something that Topps should've done in my opinion, and that makes me feel like it's worth it. Here is what Topps' final Carlton Fisk card could've looked like.

1995 Topps Traded Michael Jordan

In 1994, MJ shocked the sports world by announcing that he was going to play Minor League baseball. Upper Deck made many cards of Michael that next year including a whole insert set in the 1995 Upper Deck Minor League set. Topps missed the bus on the whole Jordan baseball craze, but here is what his 1995 Topps Traded card may have looked like.