1995 Topps #700 Mike Myers/Scott Sullivan/Eric Dinyar/Danny Graves

Today's card features 4 players. 3 of them were valuable relievers in the Majors, and 1 of them was a great pitcher I saw play in the minors that had an injury cut his career short before he reached the Bigs.

Mike Myers pitched from 1995-2007 with a number of teams, and won a World Series title with the Boston Red Sox in 2004.
Scott Sullivan had a 3.98 ERA in 10 seasons in the Majors, mostly for the Cincinnati Reds. He went to Auburn University, and gets bonus points for doing so.
Eric Dinyar pitched in the minors for the Detroit Tigers from 1994-1997. In 1996, I saw him pitch a few times, and he set the Lakeland Tigers single-season record for Saves with 27. He was injured in 1997, and retired shortly after. He was elected to the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown Hall of Fame in 2014.
Danny Graves played for 11 seasons in the Majors, making the All-Star team in 2000 and 2004 with the Cincinnati Reds. He finished his career with 182 Saves.

The next few cards coming up will be prospect and draft pick cards. Hopefully you will enjoy them. I have been working on finalizing all of the checklists that I have done by adding team photos that I could find, stadium cards, and notable draft picks that Topps missed. The 1989-1994 sets are done, as well as the 1996 set. I chose to make some customs tonight rather than doing the 1995 set, but I'll finish it soon enough. I think I will do the 2001 set and then just hold off with the '97-99 sets until all of the players are done for those. The 1999 set will be first (already have the Blue Jays and Rangers teams done), then 1998, 1997, and 2000. I'm hoping to finish a set or two by the end of the year and possibly more. Thanks for checking out my latest card.
-Jeremy

1990 Topps Kent Tekulve

Kent Tekulve pitched from 1974-1989. He is most famous for his submarine-style delivery, his trademark sunglasses, and his time with the Pittsburgh Pirates in the '70's. He has Topps cards for most years that he played, however he is missing cards from the Flagship brand in the 1975, 1989, and 1990 sets (he did get a 1989 Traded card).

Kent set many records for innings pitched by a reliever, games pitched by a reliever, and similar records. He saved 3 games in the 1979 World Series for the Pirates, and was an All-Star in 1980. While probably not quite a Hall of Famer, he certainly should be remembered as a quality pitcher, and perhaps be considered to have his number retired by the Pirates.

This card, as with most 1990 Topps customs I've done, was pretty simple to make, and would've made a nice sunset card. Thanks for checking out my latest custom.
-Jeremy

1993 Topps Bip Roberts Season Highlights

Bip Roberts is a fan favorite among card collectors. He appeared on Topps cards throughout his career, but did miss out on a sunset card, which I plan on making in the future. In 1993, Topps didn't make any season highlight cards, and they missed out on a chance to make a card celebrating Roberts getting 10 hits in a row. This is my take on what the card could've looked like. I got the photo from the YouTube video of the game where he got his 10th hit. Some highlights cards that Topps have made just have some random photo, instead of the photo from the actual moment, so I wanted to make sure I had a photo from the actual play instead of a random one.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: Topps needs to scrap the current version of Archives and make it into a set of cards that never were. They could put this card in the set, and quadruple print it, and insert it into packs so you get 4 of the Roberts card in a row. I'm sure some collectors wouldn't appreciate Topps "Bipping" them, but I would totally enjoy the irony. I think eventually I'll do a post outlining what I think an Archives cards that never were set would look like and contain, and maybe even make a fake sell sheet of it. They could really put out a nice base set, have autographs of course, do a 1 in maybe 5 pack insert featuring a pair of players that mixes a regular Topps card with one that Topps didn't make. They could have a 1 of 1 card where you would win a complete Topps run of  a player (including cards that never were) that would be autographed. You could also do a Topps Chrome/Bowman Chrome/Finest insert, a "What if?" insert featuring cards highlighting scenerios that didn't happen (Jeter getting drafted by Astros in '92, Pujols getting traded to Padres in '00, Braves drafting Todd Van Poppel instead of Chipper Jones in '90, Bill Buckner making final out in the '86 World Series, and so on. They could do another kind of "What if?" set featuring what sets could've looked like if they had started out a year before they really did, like a '92 Finest set, a '95 Topps Chrome set, and a '96 Bowman's Best set. And to make things really interesting, have an insert set featuring team cards that never were, and include oddball relics on them (a Braves tomahawk, an Angels Rally Monkey, a pack of the Brewers secret sauce, some Cubs ivy, stuff like that), and make them maybe 10-50 in all and serial numbered. Just some ideas to make the Archives set something every type of collector (basically would collect). Who knows, some Draft Pick cards (Mike Trout, Madison Bumgartner, Kris Bryant) could start commanding crazy prices.

I hope you enjoyed the Bip card and my rant on Archives. Maybe someday Topps will listen...Thanks for checking out my blog.

-Jeremy

1990 Topps Pete Rose

Topps never gave Pete Rose a 1990 card, and it's not difficult to see why. Tommy Helms managed the Reds for the rest of the 1989 season, so he got the Manager card in the 1990 set. Pete was banned from baseball, which also meant that he was banned from any MLB-licensed card sets, including 1990 Topps. I met Pete at a celebrity softball game in 2005, and he seemed like a nice guy, signing tons of autographs. I decided to dream a little and give him a final card from 1990 Topps.

1992 Topps Mike Piazza/Carlos Delgado Prospects

This card could've realistically happened. Both Piazza and Delgado appeared in the 1992 Bowman set, Lopez made it on Bowman a year earlier, and Wilson appeared on the 1991 Topps set in the #1 Draft Picks subset. They weren't as far along in the minors as Brad Ausmus and Dave Nilsson (who appeared on the original 1992 Topps Catchers Prospect card), but all 4 had potential. Piazza is a Hall of Famer in my mind, and I really think he should already be in. You could make a case for Lopez and Delgado. Lopez was the #1 catcher for most of the successful Atlanta Braves teams of the '90's, and he hit a good amount of Home Runs. Delgado had a 4-Home Run game, and he was at the top of the charts in HRs and RBIs at his peak. While probably not a Hall of Famer, Wilson played a good decade as the Seattle Mariners #1 catcher, and was an excellent defensive catcher. Finishing this card means there are only 4 more cards left in Series 1. There are some fun cards coming up, and I can't wait to get started.

1986 Topps Traded Barry Larkin

Barry Larkin was another player left off of the 1986 Topps Traded set. He made his MLB debut in August, so Topps probably didn't have enough time to get him in the set, but it's still a shame that he wasn't included in the set.
JT from The Writers Journey made a 1986 Topps Traded Larkin, and in reading his blog, I discovered that Barry didn't wear #11 until 1988, so it was difficult to find a picture of him wearing his old #15. I found the one I used on an Out of the Park Developments forum. This is off topic, but OOTP is a great game, and I eventually want to do a few custom seasons with it.
Here is the 2nd card from the 1986 Topps Traded set (Mark McGwire was the first).