1994 Topps Traded Update Series #9 Tom Runnells

Tom Runnells played in MLB for 2 seasons with the Cincinnati Reds in 1985 and 1986. After his career, he spent the 1990 and 1991 seasons with the Montreal Expos as a coach, before becoming manager of the club midway through the 1991 season. He managed them through May 1992, before losing his job to Felipe Alou. After his time in Montreal, he managed in the minors for the Detroit Tigers organization in the minors. In Spring Training of 1995 while the major leaguers were on strike, Tigers manager Sparky Anderson quit managing, saying he wouldn't manage replacement players. Runnells was named Tigers manager, and managed them in the spring until the strike was settled in April and Anderson came back. Runnells came back to the Majors as a coach for the Colorado Rockies from 2009-2016.

Runnell's only Topps cards came in the 1991 Traded and 1992 main sets. He is missing cards from the 1993, and 2010-2017 Topps sets. This card covers his time as Tigers manager in '95.


I recently completed the 1987 Topps page and did some work on the 1988 Topps page.  Looking forward to working more on the '88 page and the 1983 set this week. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1994 Topps Traded Update Series #TU8 Chris Brown

Chris Brown played in the Majors from 1984-1989. He played with the San Francisco Giants from 1984 through mid-season 1987, and then was traded to the San Diego Padres in the Kevin Mitchell trade. He played with the Padres until the end of the '88 season, and finished his career with the Detroit Tigers in 1989. After his retirement, he signed as a replacement player for the Tigers during 1995 Spring Training while the '94-'95 strike was going on. He worked in Iraq after his baseball career, and passed away from injuries due to a house fire in 2006.

Chris's first Topps card came in the '85 Traded set. He got into the '86-'89 Topps sets, and missed out on a 1990 Topps card, as well as a card in my fantasy 1994 Topps Traded Update set to highlight his time as a replacement player. For those of you who don't know, the '94 Traded Update Series has the '94 Topps design, and is made as if it came out in 1995 and featured replacement players in anticipation of MLB playing the '95 season with them. I finished Brown's 1990 Topps card, so along with the '94 Traded Update card, Chris's career Topps run is finished. Here is the 1990 Topps Brown card.

I have been working on checklists and templates a bunch lately. I have all of the NL cards (besides highlight ones) done in the 1983 Topps set, and they are all posted on the FB Custom Card Page. I have done a few team checklists in the '98 Topps checklist, I have done a few templates/team checklists (with the help of Paul B.) on the '88 Topps set (I will post the page link soon), and I saved the best for last. I know everyone and their mom it seems loves the 1987 Topps set. Everyone remembers collecting it and it is famous for the wood grained borders. I worked on creating templates for the whole set, and posted the checklists for all of the coaches of the NL teams. Here is the link to the templates/checklist page. The templates are in .png form. The only thing I ask is if you are wanting to make cards off of the checklist for the set is that you use the templates I made and NOT the ones you can make from the Topps website. I made the templates from the actual '87 Topps cards, so the logos are exactly like the ones in the set, and the colors are the same as well. If you need the templates in .jpg forms or anything that can be created by using MS Paint and GIMP, I can e-mail them to you. I just hate how the custom Topps '87 cards made from their website look for some of the teams. I have coach templates made for them, and also have a file with a 'Future Stars' logo that can be cut and pasted onto templates as needed. I will keep adding cards to the checklist, so check back soon. 

Thanks for checking out my latest customs.

-Jeremy

Meet the Mets

I don't know how many of you are into collecting autographs, but I would like to think that at least a few people that ready this blog are. I went to my first Spring Training game in 1992 when I saw the Pittsburgh Pirates take on the Detroit Tigers at Joker Marchant Stadium in Lakeland, Florida. I got blown off by Barry Bonds, but did get autographs from Kevin Ritz and Gary Redus. After that, I was hooked. I would bring my cards to games and try to get autographs. I started doing ttm autographs in 2004, and by the time I slowed down in 2011, I had 6 binders full of autographed cards, and was approaching 10,000 autographed cards. I sold most of them, and haven't been doing ttm's near as much, but I still try to get autographs at games.
I am a member at SportsCollectors.net, an autograph website where members can track which players they have sent requests to and use as a great research tool when trying to get ttm autographs. One of the members there is collecting the New York Mets and trying to get an autograph of anyone who played for them during the Shea Stadium era. I decided to make a few Mets team sets and post them here. I had another member contact me and say he wanted customs of the Dodgers, so I might try to do them next and make another post like this. Here are the Mets team sets from 1990 to 1994.

1990 TOPPS

Shea Stadium, thanks to Richard from the Facebook Custom Card Group

1991 TOPPS

 Davey Johnson by Richard

1992 TOPPS

1993 TOPPS

1994 TOPPS

Vince Coleman by Richard

(note: The last 2 cards are of replacement players for the Mets who played in Spring Training in 1995. I chose to use the 1994 Topps design and make a 2nd Traded series featuring a few more traded players and replacement players who played in the first round of Spring Training games in 1995). 

I hope this was enjoyable. It seems like all my customs are scattered when it comes to each year's set, so it's nice to make a post and show some of the cards I have just sitting in a set folder that haven't been shown yet. 

I'm slowly making headway on the 1994 Topps set, and building the '99 Topps checklist. Someday all of it will be done and the '89-'01 Topps sets will be complete. If you have any requests for teams or players to work on in those sets, let me know. Most of the checklists are done, so all that needs to be done is to just make the cards. Thanks for checking out my latest cards.

-Jeremy