Card #127: 2000 Pacific #124

YEAR: 2000
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Pacific
NUMBER: 124
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Continuing along with cards that I received in packs is this base card from 2000 Pacific.  I have mentioned many times on both blogs how Pacific was pretty great for my collection due to its player selection and the focus on Latin players.  Alomar was not a victim of player selection crunch for most of his time with the Indians, but he was helped out greatly with the focus on Latin players by Pacific.  This card is fairly basic, featuring Alomar hitting a ball down in the zone, something he did pretty well at.

Most Wanted Card for Each Team

I have been doing some major scouring over the complete Sandy Alomar Jr. checklist trying to figure out what is still out there for the lesser teams in his career.  Not really much, but there are some things.  That lead me to look into my most-desired card for each franchise.  I stuck to the Top 10 Most Wanted list for a few teams, though the temptation to deviate a little bit was strong.  I tried to find scans but only ended up with one.  If anyone has any of these cards, I would love to work out a trade.

MINOR LEAGUE:
1991 Rock's Dugout Wichita Wranglers #NNO1

I can't find a ton of information about this card.  It appears to be some sort of bonus card for the Wichita Wranglers team set.  Alomar played for Wichita in the 1980's, when they were known as the Pilots.  This appears to be the only minor league card I still need.

SAN DIEGO PADRES:
2003 Donruss Rookies Recollection Autographs #1 1989 Donruss Rookies /2

I have no scan of this card because it is incredibly rare.  There are just two copies of this card out there.  It is the buyback of the 1989 Donruss Rookies card foil-stamped and autographed and is currently the last of three certified autos of Alomar with the Padres.

CLEVELAND INDIANS:
1998 Topps Tek #27 Patterns 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 23, 25, 27, 34, 40, 41, 51, 53, 54, 55, 66, 70, 71, 78, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88

There are a bunch of Indians cards on my Top Ten Most Wanted.  Since the 1998 Topps Tek set is my current biggest goal, I figured it would be easiest to simply enter all of the needed patterns.

CHICAGO WHITE SOX:
2001 Tops Traded Relics #SA

Alomar actually seems to have as many White Sox relics as he does with the Indians.  This is mostly due to the fact that relics became a lot more common in the early 2000's.  For some reason though, his relics are kind of hard to find.  Including this one.

COLORADO ROCKIES:
2002 Topps Chrome Traded Black Refractor #T68

This appears to be the only remaining Rockies card I do not have.  I have the Cliff Floyd card for this parallel set, but no Sandy Alomar Jr.

TEXAS RANGERS:
2005 Topps Total Press Plates (any color)

By the time Alomar was with the Rangers, he was barely a backup catcher.  Also, there were very few sets making large team sets.  So Alomar only appears in a couple of sets with the Rangers and I have all but the rarest cards.  Though there is a Rangers exclusive set that I suspect is more of a postcard size set.

LOS ANGELES DODGERS:
2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Blue #677

Similar to the Rangers, there are not many Dodgers cards of Alomar.  The blue version of this set is the rarest besides the printing plates.  I also need the red and purple versions.

NEW YORK METS:
To my knowledge, there are NO New York Mets cards.  Maybe some day he will manage the team.  Who knows?

OTHER:
1997 Pacific Baerga Softball #4

I do not think there is a team designation on this card, it was part of a set produced for Carlos Baerga's softball tournament featuring other Puerto Rican players.  There is also a Puerto Rican Winter League card I still need.

Card #126: 2001 MLB Showdown #126

YEAR: 2001
BRAND: MLB Showdown
SET: MLB Showdown
NUMBER: 126
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I discovered the card game MLB Showdown some time in 2001.  I picked up a pack that resulted in pulling a card of Rheal Cormier for the Red Sox and decided that I loved the player selection in it.  So I picked up more packs.  Of course, the Red Sox cards are not important for this blog, the fact that I eventually pulled this Sandy Alomar Jr. card is though.  I actually really liked the design and MLB Showdown would be a pretty good source for Alomar cards in the coming years.

Huge Ebay Steal

I should have known a little better.  When I first started this collection back up again, I thought to myself that I would not have much problem finding cards and getting them for cheap.  After all, Alomar is now retired and he declined dramatically for years after his 1997 season.  But, he is still a fan favorite and fan favorites can demand high prices on rare cards.  I have even run across other serious Sandy Alomar Jr. collectors.  So some of the cards I have found have been pricier than I expected.  Others, I have yet to see. 

Still though, once in awhile something happens that surprises me.  One of those things happened just this week when I managed to win an auction for less than $15.00 for these two cards:

Both of these cards are very rare.  It was the first time I had seen either one.

1.  2005 Topps Rookie Cup Rookie Reprint Chrome Refractor.  The Rookie Cup set was an interesting and underrated set celebrating Topps's All Star Rookie teams.  I love the Alomar additions to this set, in particular the Original Reprint Relic which is my favorite Alomar card.  This one is nice too and only serial-numbered to 15.

2.  2004 Donruss Timelines Recollection Autograph 1990 Blue Ink.  This card also came in black ink which is actually rarer.  These cards were bought off of the secondary market, stamped and serial-numbered and autographed.  There are a number of these out there.  This 1990 issue is numbered to 13.  It is one of the few autographed cards of Alomar with the Padres.  As much as I love to add the Indians cards, I like to get the other teams even more, particularly when they are this unique.  Nothing against the Indians, but I already have a ton of great Indians cards and there are very few of Alomar's other teams.

This was an incredible couple of cards to add to my collection.  Well worth the little amount of money I paid for them.

Card #125: 1999 Pacific Invincible Red #43

YEAR: 1999
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Invincible
NUMBER: 43
SUBSET/INSERT: Red
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I have mentioned many times here how I rarely pulled any Sandy Alomar Jr. cards from packs.  That is mostly true.  There were a few years in the late 1990's/early 2000's where I was only passively collecting Alomar.  It was at this point that I was actually pulling several Alomar cards.  I was also occasionally pulling some decent Alomar cards as this one demonstrates.  This was a retail-only parallel that only fell every few packs.  The base cards themselves were only inserted one per three-card pack so this card was pretty rare.

Flair Parallels

Okay, I have been on a little bit of a binge lately again.  Today's pickups included two parallels from Flair sets:

1.  1996 Flair Gold.  I figured out that the gold parallel card is the version with silver foil lettering.  I had the gold foil letter version, which is apparently the base card.  Also of note is the fact that this card was #10 on my Most Wanted list, which now needed a new card.

2.  1999 Flair Showcase Legacy Collection Row 1.  This pickup means that I just need one more Legacy Collection card from the 1999 set.  I still need all of the Masterpiece cards though.  This is my personal favorite version from the 1999 set.

So, a nice couple of Flair parallels to add to the collection.

Card #124: 2000 Pacific Crown Collection #75

YEAR: 2000
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Crown Collection
NUMBER: 75
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I remember buying a lot of Crown Collection in 2000.  The store I shopped at a lot had tons of the stuff.  I did not have a ton of luck with Red Sox cards out of the set, but I did manage to pull a few and I managed to pull this one as well.  Not much to say about this card, kind of a boring shot, the only interesting aspect is the Spring Training jersey.

Card #123: 1999 Pacific #123

YEAR: 1999
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Pacific
NUMBER: 123
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Another pack-pulled card.  There is not much to really say about this one.  This is from the base Pacific set, one of several sets Pacific released in 1999. The photo is decent but not really something to be terribly excited about. 

Card #122: 2001 Topps Chrome #243

YEAR: 2001
BRAND: Topps
SET: Chrome
NUMBER: 243
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This is an ugly scan, I know.  It is way too dark and the top is cut off.  The card looks a lot better in person.  I was shocked when I pulled this from a pack.  Historically, I was not very lucky with pulling Alomars from packs.  The fact that this came from a pack with just four cards in it was really surprising.  A nice surprise though.

Post Canadian Oddball

My newest pickup is this 1992 Canadian Post card that is also a pop-up card on the back.  I have not gone through the necessary steps to pop it up but the option is there.  Maybe if I find another cheap one:

A nice oddball piece.  I really miss food issues.  Alomar luckily played at the height of food issues so I have a number of them in my collection.