Card #134: 2004 Topps Total #522

YEAR: 2004
BRAND: Topps
SET: Total
NUMBER: 522
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Chicago White Sox

Once again, I had to purchase a hobby box of Topps Total in 2004.  This is still at a time when I was not focusing on my Alomar collection, but was adding cards from packs.  This is still one of my all-time favorite Alomar photos.  This is the precursor to a play at the plate with Alomar preparing to catch the ball.  The runner is not in the shot, but the ball is and Alomar is bracing for impact.  It also features the extremely cool hockey-style mask.

Card #133: 2003 Upper Deck Vintage #335

YEAR: 2003
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Vintage
NUMBER: 335
SUBSET: Update
TEAM: Chicago White Sox

The Update series of 2003 Vintage were inserted one per pack in Upper Deck 40-Man.  I honestly do not remember if I pulled this card as well as the 40-Man base card in the same box.  This card chronicled Alomar's return to the White Sox as a free agent in 2003 after being traded from the White Sox to the Rockies during the 2002 season.  I actually really like this card and particularly because I managed to get it in a pack.

Missed Opportunities for New Cards

Sandy Alomar Jr. has not really had any new mainstream cards since 2006, which is one year before his playing career was over.  He did not have any cards in 2007, other than one minor league team set issue, despite still playing eight games during the season with the Mets.  He also has not had any new cards, other than buybacks ever since.  I recognize that Alomar is not a Hall of Fame talent but he was a very popular player who played for many years with a terrific Indians team that was one of the best teams in the league for about five years.  And Alomar was a big part of that.

Some time last year was when I started keeping my eyes open for Alomar cards, although I did not delve deeply into it until early this year.  In that time, I have watched as several possible opportunities for new Alomar cards have come and gone from new sets with no new Alomars.  This post will look at those opportunities.

2013 TOPPS HERITAGE
Sandy Alomar Jr. completed the 2012 season as interim manager of the Indians.  He managed the final 12 games of the season with a record of 6-6.  It is not unusual for Topps to make a manager card of an interim manager though.  I have 2002 cards of Joe Kerrigan who managed the final part of the 2001 season with the Red Sox.  Alomar could have been included with a manager card but Topps decided not to give the Indians a manager card since they changed managers over the offseason.

2013/2014 TOPPS ARCHIVES
From 2003 to 2005 Topps Fan Favorites was one of my most-anticipated sets, so I was very excited when Fan Favorites was brought back as a short-print and autographed insert set in Topps Archives.  While I would have preferred that it was a full set on its own, this was not too bad.  Players like Mike Greenwell, Charlie Hough, Keith Miller, Hal Morris, and Mickey Rivers showed up in 2013, but no Sandy Alomar Jr.  2014 saw Mookie Wilson, John Olerud, Carlos Baerga, Bip Roberts, and Lenny Harris get cards, but again, no Sandy Alomar Jr.  I will look forward to 2015, but Alomar seems like the kind of player who should get into this set.

2013 TOPPS ROOKIE OF THE YEAR TROPHY
The thick trophy cards are rare cards that fall about once per box.  I don't have many in my Red Sox collection either.  In 2013, one of the trophy inserts sets was for the Rookie of the Year, which of course Alomar won in 1990 unanimously.  Most of the players featured went on to terrific careers, but there was a Jeremy Hellickson card in there.

2013 TOPPS UPDATE ALL STAR GAME MVP PATCHES
Similar to the Rookie of the Year trophy cards, these are manufactured patches.  Alomar won the 1997 All Star Game MVP yet did not appear in this insert set either.  There were just 15 card in this set and all were Hall of Famers or likely Hall of Famers.  And Bo Jackson.

2013 TOPPS POSTSEASON HEROES
Okay, this one may be a stretch, but Alomar had a terrific postseason in 1997.  I think it is a stretch because the Indians did not win the World Series in 1997. 

2013 PANINI HOMETOWN HEROES
This is one of the biggest misses in my opinion.  This set was basically Fan Favorites with some current players thrown in.  Some of the more surprising players included in this set were John Tudor, Rick Aguilera, Paul O'Neill, Teddy Higuera, Ben McDonald, Keith Moreland, Dan Gladden, freaking Johnny Ray, and many more.  Yet again, no Sandy Alomar Jr.  I was hoping for a set in 2014 that might fix that, but none came.  If Alomar is not a Hometown Hero for the Indians, I don't know who is, especially in looking at some of the players that are in the set.

2013 PANINI HOMETOWN HEROES RIVALRY
Alomar left the Indians to join the division rival Chicago White Sox in 2001.  He could have had a card that featured him with both teams in this release.

2014 TOPPS ALL ROOKIE CUP MANUFACTURED PATCHES
Yet another Topps manufactured relic set, this one celebrated players that received the Topps All Star Rookie cup, which Alomar did in 1991.  Again, this was a smaller set and seemed geared toward the best of the best.  Topps of course put out the Rookie Cup set in 2005 which did feature Sandy Alomar Jr.

2014 TOPPS UPDATE FOND FAREWELLS
I am including this here because of the Omar Vizquel card.  That card featured him with the Blue Jays, his final team.  Topps did not have a card with him as a Blue Jay that year, or the next year.  It would have been interesting to see a Sandy Alomar Jr. insert in this set depicting him as a Met.

Of course, Alomar did not appear in any of these sets.  But hopefully one of these days, he will get some new cards. 

Card #132: 2003 Upper Deck 40-Man #307

YEAR: 2003
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: 40-Man
NUMBER: 307
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Chicago White Sox

Like Topps Total, Upper Deck 40-Man was a very large set focused on putting out cards of as many players as possible.  Which is particularly good for the Alomar collection because few sets were including him at this point.  Unfortunately, Upper Deck discontinued this set after 2003.  This is also the first White Sox card in my collection in catchers' gear.

Sportlots Order

I don't check Sportlots frequently.  Well, that's not entirely true.  I check it frequently but usually just to find Tek patterns which show up once in awhile.  But recently I happened to be doing a little longer search and came across two cards that I really wanted from the same seller and decided to place a quick order.

1.  2001 Upper Deck Vintage Team Lineup.  I really liked the Red Sox version of this card which had some kind of unusual choices on it.  I don't know enough about the Indians as a team to know whether this was a very accurate portrayal of the team in 2000 though.  As a side note, I am pretty sure that picture of Manny Ramirez is not really him.

2.  1998 Donruss Preferred Seating.  This was one of the cards I wanted from the seller.  It is a nice-looking die-cut card from a mostly forgettable Donruss set.

3.  1995 Stadium Club 1st Day Issue Best Seat in the House.  I love the action shot on this card.

4.  1998 Donruss Collections.  I am not sure of the purpose behind the Donruss Collections set other than to reprint almost all of the Donruss base card sets once more, similar to Topps Chrome but much more all-encompassing.

5.  2000 MLB Showdown.  This is the last base card I needed from Showdown, although there is still possibly another promo out there.

6.  1994 Triple Play.  Proof that there are still some base cards out there that I still need.

7.  1993 Upper Deck Gold Hologram.  The factory sets for Upper Deck in 1992 and 1993 had gold holograms.  They are a little harder to find on the open market.

8.  2003 Upper Deck MVP Celebration Gold.  This was the major card that I wanted.  A parallel of a nice insert honoring his All Star Game MVP that is also numbered out of just 75.

Card #131: 2003 Topps Total #36

YEAR: 2003
BRAND: Topps
SET: Total
NUMBER: 36
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Chicago White Sox

I bought another hobby box of Total in 2003 because I was such a big fan of the 2002 set.  Once again, I found my fair share of Red Sox cards and a Sandy Alomar Jr.  Again, not the most exciting looking photo, but in 2003 Alomar was not really getting many cards anymore, so it was nice to get something at least.

Card #130: 2003 Topps #595

YEAR: 2003
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 595
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Chicago White Sox

One thing that has been disappointing to me over the years has been the fact that card companies have been updating players to reflect their new teams right away.  This has lead to difficulties in finding cards of players with the Red Sox who were acquired late in a season and joined new teams for the next season.  It also effected my Alomar collection.  Alomar has very few cards with the Colorado Rockies after spending the second half of the 2002 season with the team.  This is Alomar's base card from the Topps set which skipped his stint with the Rockies and updated him with the White Sox, his new team for the 2003 season.

Card #129: 2002 Topps Total #522

YEAR: 2002
BRAND: Topps
SET: Total
NUMBER: 522
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Chicago White Sox

This was my first true White Sox card of Sandy Alomar.  Topps Total was another great set for a team collector and I remember picking up a hobby box of it because of that reason.  It helped me pick up a bunch of new Red Sox cards and also managed to get this card out of it.  It was a little strange really seeing Alomar in the black pinstripes of a White Sox uniform after so many years with division rival Cleveland, I am sure moreso for fans of the team.  My personal view was that I was excited to get cards with a new team. 

COMC New Additions

I mentioned some time ago that I have been on a binge lately.  That was particularly evident with my series of orders on COMC over the last couple of weeks.  It started off with an order of 11 cards centered around a promo.  Then, the following week there were newly added cards on consecutive days that I had to order.

1.  2000 MLB Showdown Diamond Star Promo.  This one actually came from Ebay but I received it the same day.  I previously had the Jason Varitek, so I had to add the other big catcher in my personal collection.

2.  1998 Pacific Paramount Copper. 

3.  1999 Pacific Revolution Red.  The red parallels from Pacific are retail-only and can be pretty hard to find these days.

4.  1999 Bowman Chrome Refractor.

5.  2001 Fleer Platinum Parallel.  Numbered out of 201, I wanted to add this because it is one of a dwindling number of White Sox cards I still need.

6.  1999 Black Diamond Triple.  I still need the green Quadruple card to finish out this run.

7.  1997 Bowman International.  I had no idea I did not have this one yet until I was filling out my order.

8.  2001 MLB Showdown.  I think I still need a couple of cards and I will have all of Alomar's MLB Showdown cards.  This is another White Sox card I needed.

9.  1999 Topps Stars Foil.  This card is also serial-numbered to 299 and is a card I had not seen before.

10.  1997 Score Showcase Series.  I had a number of these from packs, but never managed to pull the Alomar or any Red Sox.

11.  1989 Star Promo.  This was the card around which the first order was placed.  There are still a few Star cards still out there.

12.  1998 Pacific Red.  Another retail-only red parallel.

13.  1998 SPx Finite.  This is the last of this run I needed.  Oddly it is the most common version.

14.  2001 Fleer Focus Green.  This is the card that kicked off the second order.  Again, I had the Jason Varitek already.

15.  1998 Topps Tek Pattern 41.  And this is the card that started the third order.  I am down to just 27 more Tek patterns to have them all.

Card #128: 1998 Pacific Online #210

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Online
NUMBER: 210
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

From a player selection standpoint Online is one of my favorite sets.  Sure, the design was a little too 90's and the whole webpage idea was pretty lame, but it was a huge set with a ton of players that were not frequently in other sets.  Here is the Sandy Alomar Jr. card from the set.  Not much going on here unfortunately.