1993 Topps Bret Boone Season Highlights

In 1992, Bret Boone made history by becoming the first 3rd generation player in the Majors. His grandfather Ray Boone, played for 6 teams from 1948-1960. His father Bob, played for 3 teams from 1972-1990. Had he not been injured in 1990, Bob could've played in the Bigs at the same time as Bret. Bret's younger brother Aaron made his debut in 1996, and his brother Matt played in the minors for a few years. I actually saw Matt play for the Lakeland Tigers in 2002 and got a broken bat from him, as well as a signed baseball. I got Bob's autograph once or twice in spring training, and got Aaron's as well. If I had known that I would get 3 of the Boone's autographs, I would've tried to get a ball signed by them all and try to get Ray through the mail in the early 2000's and go to more Rays-Mariners games to try to get Bret to finish it. 3 out of 5 ain't bad though.

Topps didn't make season highlight cards in the 1993 set, so collectors missed out on getting cards like this. I have previously made ones of Sid Bream and Bip Roberts, and there are a good number of ones to come.

Paul just emailed me the finalized checklist for the '94 Topps set, so I will be trying to post that next, and finish templates for the '97 and '98 sets, and make reference pages for the rest of the sets up to 2001 that don't have ones. My goal is to have every template you should need, lists of fonts and sizes so that won't be a chore, and then have complete checklists and update them as cards get done. I'm also working on printing my 1992 Topps set. Not too much has been done so far, and I don't have much sticker paper left, but I think I'll get 30 or so cards done at least. These will be some fun projects to work on in 2017 and I also hope to make customs too. I wish everyone a great 2017 and can't wait to see all the customs made in the new year. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1991 Topps #801 Ken Griffey, Jr./Sr. Season Highlights

I chose to make season highlight cards for the sets that Topps didn't produce any in, as well as add some that they missed in sets that they did. Today's card comes from the 1991 set where Topps did have Record Breaker cards, but didn't have Season Highlight cards.

Ken Griffey, Jr. and Ken Griffey, Sr. became the first father and son to play in the Majors at the same time in 1989 when Junior made his debut. In 1990, Senior was acquired by the M's, and he and his son got to play on the same team together. On August 31, they were playing the Angels when Senior took Kirk McCaskill deep. Junior was up next, and promptly did the same thing, creating a special moment that would be played on replay reels for the next 25 years.

For this card, I used the same ribbon at the top that is used on the 1991 Future Stars subset, and just cleared the team logo out of the bar at the bottom, and put the date there. Not too difficult, but it looks like it could've appeared in the 1991 set.

The 1994 and 1998 templates may be finished by tomorrow, and if so, I will add the 1994 ones to its page, and create one for the 1998 set. I think by the end of the year, I could have a page for just about every set from 1989-2001, and probably have another checklist or two finalized. Thanks for checking out my latest custom.
-Jeremy

1995 Topps Rich Gossage

Tops gave Rich "Goose" Gossage his final Topps card in the 1992 set. Gossage played his final season in 1994. He was not the closer he once was, but still was a valuable player, so it's strange to see that Toops didn't include him in a set from '93-'95, not even in a Traded set.

Cards that never Were did a 1991 Topps Traded card of Goose to fill in one of the holes in Gossage's Topps run. I have the 1993 and 1994 Gossage cards on my list of cards to make, but if everything goes well, I may not have as much free time to make cards in the coming months/years as I have had, but it will be worth it I think. I'll eventually make Rich's missing Topps cards, if not in the coming months, than certainly in the years to come if I keep this blog going, and there is nothing right now saying that I won't, just might be a slower pace of posting and making cards.

Thanks to checking out my latest custom.
-Jeremy

1994 Topps Pete O'Brien

Today's card is a 1994 Topps Pete O'Brien, which would've been his sunset card. I'm kind of surprised that Topps didn't use him as a checklist replacement in the ToppsGold set that year. Dan Pasqua was one that year, and I always kind of thought him and O'Brien were similar, 1st Base-DH types who could hit homers at a good pace and had a specialty (O'Brien was an excellent fielder, Pasqua could also field pretty well and was probably a better power hitter).

Pete got his last Topps card in the 1993 set. He got a Topps card for every year that he played (1983 a Traded set, '84 regular set-'93 regular set) except for the '94 sunset card. Now he has one, and the 1994 Topps set is a little more complete. Thanks for checking out my latest card.
-Jeremy

1987 Topps Traded Edgar Martinez

Edgar Martinez's first appearance on a Topps card came in 1990. He could've got a card in the 1988 or 1989 set, and if not in the regular set, then maybe in the Traded set. Omar Vizquel appeared in the 1989 Traded set, and he made it to the Majors only a year after Edgar. I decided to give Edgar a card in the 1987 Topps Traded set. He put up some good numbers in the fall of 1987 with the Mariners, and it's concievable that Topps could've put him in the '87 Traded set.

On another note, the Royals won Game 6, so that means I will know tonight who will appear on the next card. I'm thinking that if the Royals win, instead of doing a 1973 Brett/Schmidt/Cey card, I might to a highlight card of the Pine Tar game. That might be fun. Hopefully the Royals can pull it off tonight.

1988 Topps Traded Ken Griffey, Jr.

The second card I'm doing from the 1988 Topps Traded set is Ken Griffy, Jr. I think that if this card would've been released, that it still wouldn't have been as popular as the 1989 Upper Deck rookie, but you never know. Topps wasn't doing Draft Pick cards in 1988, and the 1989 Bowman set with more rookie focus wasn't out yet, but Topps did feature Delino DeShields (the Montreal Expos #1 1988 Draft choice) in their O-Pee-Chee set in 1988, so if Topps really wanted to, they could've made this card. Or better yet, a 1987 Draft Pick card. Maybe I'll try that in the future.