Omega Parallel

Pacific parallels can be a little hard to find.  And sometimes when they can be found, they are expensive.  I have seen a couple of these Copper parallels on Ebay several times, but the price was always too high.  I decided to submit a Best Offer on one of them and managed to get one of them.  I like the copper foil on the right side, but the Platinum Blue parallel is even better.  That is one that still eludes me.

RESOLUTION TRACKER
1.  No progress.

2.  One down, up to 916.  84 to go.

3.  Previously achieved.

4.  No progress.

Card #184: 1998 SPx Finite Radiance #268

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: SPx Finite
NUMBER: 268
SUBSET/INSERT: Radiance
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

1998 SPx Finite was one of the first sets I remember where even the base cards were serial-numbered.  This is the Radiance parallel which was the more common of the two parallel sets.  It is numbered out of 4,500, half as many as the base card.  The card stock is thick and the logo is embossed and textured.  I picked this one up off of Ebay and it lead to a brief resurgence of interest in my Alomar collection.

Score Team Collections and an Oddball

In the mid to late 1990's, most of the major companies released team-centric sets for some of the more popular teams.  They were mostly just like the base cards, but with a different logo or foil and coming in boxes with just one team represented.  I loved the idea as a team collector.  However, it was not a fad that lasted long or was terribly popular.  Some of the parallels are extremely hard to find on the secondary market.

I recently purchased a couple of the base versions I still needed.  As said above, I am still on the lookout for the parallels.

1.  1997 Score Indians Update.  This one is odd.  There was already a Team Collection card with a red foil bottom that was released.  Apparently Score decided to release a different version updating some members of the team.  I had no idea there would be much of a difference, but the card was cheap so I picked it up.  I was surprised with the red foil lettering and team logo.  It is actually a nice-looking card.

2.  1998 Score Team Collection.  I bought a box of the Red Sox Team Collection.  I didn't need a box of this, just this card and the parallel.  Still looking for the parallel.

3.  1991 Stadium Club No Foil.  I have no idea what this is.  I don't believe that this card was meant to end up on the secondary market.  It is not finished.  The card is missing the gold foil entirely and the glossy finish.  The Stadium Club logo and the lines around the player name are missing entirely.  I have seen a number of these elsewhere, but this is the first Alomar I have seen.  If it were not as cheap as it was, I doubt I would have picked it up.

RESOLUTION TRACKER:
1.  No progress.

2.  Three new cards, up to 915.  85 to go.

3.  Resolution previously achieved.

4.  No progress.

Card #183: 1998 Studio Press Proof Silver #181

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Studio
NUMBER: 181
SUBSET/INSERT: Press Proof Silver
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I always liked the Studio set.  1998 saw Alomar return to the set for the first time since 1994.  It was also the first time that Alomar was in a Studio set with some parallels.  The Silver Press Proof is not serial-numbered per se, but the back does indicate that there were 1,000 made.  This is the most common parallel of the set in 1998.  This is one of those weird moments where I got the parallel before the base card.

Knocked Another One Off My Top 10

This is the 1999 Pacific Prism Red parallel, a retail-only parallel that completes the entire rainbow for the Prism set for me.  While it is nowhere near as impressive as the 2000 Prism set, for which I have the entire run of Jason Varitek cards, it is still nice to have.  Some day soon I will post a picture of all of the Prism cards together.  This scan comes off looking purple, but I assure you it is actually red in person.

RESOLUTION TRACKER
1.  This was card #3 on my Top 10 Most Wanted List.  It is the second card I have knocked off of my Top 10 list as it was on January 1.  3 more to go.

2.  I now have 912 Sandy Alomar Jr. cards.  88 to go to 1,000.

3.  Resolution previously achieved.

4.  No progress.

Card #182: 1998 Topps Minted in Cooperstown #135

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 135
SUBSET/INSERT: Minted in Cooperstown
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Topps did not have gold parallels in 1998.  Minted in Cooperstown was the only parallel that the set had that year.  The foil stamp is the only difference between the parallel and the base card.  The stamp is a nice touch. 

Rare Parallels from COMC

Every once in awhile COMC puts up some new Alomar cards.  This happened most recently last week with two new cards that I needed.  I snatched them up as fast as I could.

1.  1999 Upper Deck Exclusives Level 1.  This card features bronze foil instead of the silver found on the base card and is numbered out of 100.  A very rare parallel for the time.

2.  2001 Pacific Retail Ltd.  A retail-only parallel numbered to just 80.  I just added the Hobby Ltd. the other day.  It was definitely strange to add both in the span of just a few days.

RESOLUTION TRACKER
1.  No progress.

2.  Two new cards brings me to 911.  89 to go.

3.  Resolution previously achieved.

4.  No progress.

Card #181: 1998 Topps Gold Label Class 1 Black #26

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Topps
SET: Gold Label
NUMBER: 26
SUBSET: Class 1
INSERT: Black
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I love the photos used on the Gold Label cards.  Vibrant colors and sharp photography make this a very impressive-looking set.  This is the Class 1 card and has the black label instead of the gold.  This is the easier parallel to find in this set as I have seen several copies for sale on a variety of sites.  It is also the only Black parallel I have from this set.

Burbank Order with Some Tek Progress

Someone alerted me that Burbank Sportscards was selling some more Tek cards.  I rushed over to see if I needed any of the Alomars and figured I would pick up a couple of additional cards if there was something I needed.  There was one pattern I needed so I decided to make the purchase a little more worth my while.

1.  1994 Finest Refractor Sandy Alomar.  I am not sure how this one had escaped me for so long.

2.  1998 Topps Tek Pattern 10.  Another one down.  18 to go.

3.  1997 Bowman Chrome International Refractor.  The last of the 1997 Bowman Chrome parallels I needed.  I like the flag in the background.

RESOLUTION TRACKER
1.  I picked up a Tek pattern leaving 18 to go to knock it off my Top 10.  Still seems a ways off.

2.  3 new cards leaving me with 909.  81 to go to 1,000.

3.  Resolution previously achived.

4.  No progress.

Card #180: 1997 Finest #113

YEAR: 1997
BRAND: Topps
SET: Finest
NUMBER: 113
SUBSET: Silver/Warriors
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

1997 Finest was set up a little strangely.  There were three colors: bronze, silver, and gold, which determined how common each card was.  And there were multiple themes as well, depending on position, experience, and more.  Alomar, as a star player from 1997, is in the Warriors theme of the set.  The card is silver making it an uncommon card, but not a rare one.  Just kind of an odd setup to me. 

Photographic Evidence that Alomar Played for the Mets

As regular readers of my blog (if there are such a thing) know, one of the things that irritates me the most is the fact that Sandy Alomar Jr. does not have any cards with the New York Mets.  He does have a card with the New Orleans Zephyrs, the Triple A team for the Mets at the time.  This is obviously mostly due to the fact that he only played eight games with the Mets in 2007.  Topps Total was already gone in 2007 and Fleer, Donruss, Pinnacle, and Pacific were all gone, leaving just Topps and Upper Deck.  Upper Deck's base set was decent-sized, but alas, no Alomar.  So there are no Alomar cards with the Mets.  Also disappointing because the Mets are one of three teams that all three Alomars have suited up for.

I would love to see an insert set some time featuring well-known players depicted with teams that have never appeared on a card, or very few.  Obviously Alomar would be an example with the Mets.  But there would also be Gary Gaetti and Jose Cruz Jr. with the Red Sox, Steve Carlton with the Giants, Juan Marichal with the Dodgers, Hideki Matsui with the A's, and several more.  I think that would be a creative and interesting insert set.

One of my collection resolutions this year was to find an autographed 8x10 with the Mets and I found it.  There were several to choose from, but I chose this one because I love the action shot.  I have determined that this photo is from the game on August 23, 2007.  That is Milton Bradley of the Padres being tagged out at the plate.  Moises Alou was credited with the assist for throwing out Bradley at the plate.  Alomar had a single in five at-bats during the game.

RESOLUTION TRACKER
1.  No progress.

2.  No progress.

3.  Resolution Achieved.

4.  No progress.

Card #179: 1990 Kenner Starting Lineup Extended #2A

YEAR: 1990
BRAND: Kenner Starting Lineup
SET: Extended
NUMBER: 2A
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This is the basic card from the first Starting Lineup figure I got of Alomar.  One of these days I will show off the SLU figures I have here.  This card is not terribly exciting, I definitely prefer the other card.  The figure was not the most exciting either, just a hitting pose.  This is as basic a pose as possible.

Card #178: 1990 Kenner Starting Lineup Extended #2B

YEAR: 1990
BRAND: Kenner Starting Lineup
SET: Extended
NUMBER: 2B
SUBSET: Rookie Year
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I made a trade to get my first Starting Lineup figure of Alomar.  Getting the cards was a bit of a deal-breaker for me though.  It took a few days for the other party to find the cards.  There were two cards with this figure and this is the second card portraying his rookie year.  Oddly, the card shows Alomar in a Padres uniform, but shows that he was traded to the Indians since his official rookie season came with the Indians.  Too bad.  Not nearly enough Padres cards showing him in the catchers' gear.

A Ltd. Parallel

Ah the Pacific parallels.  In 2001, the final year Pacific released baseball cards, they had parallels exclusive to retail and hobby.  They were typically low-numbered parallels and are very hard to find these days.

This is the Hobby Ltd. parallel:

It is numbered out of just 70 and came in today.  A fairly rare parallel, with a nice shot of Alomar in his full catchers' gear and hockey mask.

RESOLUTION TRACKER
1.  No progress.

2.  906 cards down.  94 to go.

3.  No progress.

4.  No progress.

Card #177: 1998 Donruss Preferred #80

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Preferred
NUMBER: 80
SUBSET: Mezzanine
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I know very little about the Donruss Preferred set.  I never purchased any packs, just a few Red Sox singles and then, much later, the Alomar singles.  So I have no idea what the Mezzanine thing means, other than a hierarchy of the cards.  Some were more short-printed than others.  I suspect these were short-printed.  I do like the bronze foil on the card though.

I Hunted It Down

It took a little bit of time and some exhaustive internet searching but eventually I managed to find this card.  I mentioned before that I did not receive the 1999 Topps Gold Label Class 1 Black card in a COMC order as I was supposed to.  Instead they sent the base card version.  I contacted them to try to correct the error but all they could do was issue me a refund.  So I began scouring the internet.  No luck on Ebay, COMC, Sportlots, Just Commons, Beckett Marketplace, or any of the forums.  No luck digging deeper.  And then I discovered a member on the Beckett forum had the card.  It was just a matter of getting in contact and making a trade.  Success.

This was Card #10 on my Most Wanted List.  I have mentioned before, my biggest collecting pet peeve is not getting the card that I am supposed to get.  It infuriates me.  So finding this card became an obsession.  Now I have it.

RESOLUTION TRACKER
1.  This was card #10 on my Most Wanted List, however I wanted to get five of the cards that were on the list as of the day that I created the resolutions.  This card was only added after I already knocked one of those off afterwards, so it does not count.

2.  Up to 905 cards.  95 to go.

3.  No progress.

4.  No progress.

Card #176: 1998 Ultra Gold Medallion #397G

YEAR: 1998
BRAND: Fleer
SET: Ultra
NUMBER: 397G
SUBSET/INSERT: Gold Medallion
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

1998 was one of the better versions of the Gold Medallion parallels.  The player photo was still in color while the background was colored in gold tones.  Some years the only difference was a gold foil stamp.  This is much better.  I like the All Star Game patch on the uniform.  I can't think of too many other cards that show that as clearly.

Card #175: 1994 Topps Gold #273

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 273
SUBSET/INSERT: Gold
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I am glad that Topps eventually switched to gold borders on the gold parallels.  There is just not much here to differentiate this card from the base version.  The player name is in gold foil and there is a Topps Gold logo in the corner.  But that's it.  I still love the comedy of errors in this shot though.

Card #174: 1999 Upper Deck MVP Silver Script #59

YEAR: 1999
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: MVP
NUMBER: 59
SUBSET/INSERT: Silver Script
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I think MVP was the replacement for Collector's Choice in 1999.  I base this almost entirely on the white borders, low SRP, and the signature parallels.  I don't recall whether the photography was as interesting.  This one certainly is not.  This is the silver signature version.  This is the only parallel I have of Alomar from this set so far.

Tek Progress

I am getting there.  Recently I reached out to Matt, the other Sandy Alomar Jr. collector, with a proposal.  I would send him a bunch of my duplicate Tek cards for the five Tek cards he had that I didn't.  He agreed to the proposal which I was very happy about.  In the meantime I managed to acquire one of the five, so I only ended up with four new cards.  That means Matt will be getting one back soon.  But anyway, four new Tek cards is nothing to sneeze at, particularly since I have only been able to add one at a time for awhile now.

Here are the new ones:

Those are patterns 34, 51, 70, and 87.  That brings me down to just 19 needed to complete the run.

RESOLUTION TRACKER:
1.  I did add four more Tek cards from the #1 item on my Top 10.  Not enough to knock it off the list, but it is an improvement.

2.  Four new cards bringing my total up to 904.  96 to go to 1,000.

3.  No progress.

4.  No progress.

Card #173: 1999 Topps Gold Label Class 1 #58

YEAR: 1999
BRAND: Topps
SET: Gold Label
NUMBER: 58
SUBSET: Class 1
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Gold Label is kind of Topps's version of Flair I think.  The card stock was thick, the photography was vibrant, and the cards seemed very high-end.  Each player featured had three different classes with different photos.  Then each class had a black label, red label, and a one of one.  This is the basic Class 1 version.  I like the logo shining through in the background on this one.

Card #172: 2001 Ultra #24

YEAR: 2001
BRAND: Fleer
SET: Ultra
NUMBER: 24
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Another nice play at the plate shot on an Alomar card.  That is Jermaine Dye of the Royals on the ground behind him.  Alomar is holding up the ball to show the umpire that he tagged him out.  This is another one of my favorite play at the plate shots.  Ultra used to be pretty good about getting players in their new uniforms, but by this point it was one of the first sets released each year.  Definitely evident here as Alomar is still shown in his Indians uniform instead of being shown with the White Sox.

Card #171: 2004 Topps Total Silver #522

YEAR: 2004
BRAND: Topps
SET: Total
NUMBER: 522
SUBSET/INSERT: Silver
TEAM: Chicago White Sox

This is one of my favorite action shots of Alomar from his time with the White Sox.  This is the silver-bordered parallel and I did the base card earlier on in this series.  I love the full catchers' gear, the hockey-style mask, the black uniform, and the setup for a play at the plate.  Just a terrific-looking card.

Card #170: 2006 Topps Update #UH79

YEAR: 2006
BRAND: Topps
SET: Update and Highlights
NUMBER: UH79
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Chicago White Sox

This is the last base card issued of Alomar during his playing career.  2006 saw him sign with the Dodgers at the beginning of the season and be traded to the White Sox a little before the trading deadline for some minor leaguer named B.J. LaMura.  It was his third stint with the White Sox.  He did have an Upper Deck card issued with the Dodgers earlier, and then this card was released late in the year.  He would not have a card in 2007 despite playing part of that season with the Mets.

Some 90's Parallels with Tek Progress

1997 to 1998 was the peak time period for Sandy Alomar Jr. cards.  Sure he had a lot coming off of his Minor League Player of the Year, Rookie of the Year, and Gold Glove Awards in 1990 to 1991, but there were not nearly as many sets as there were in 1997 to 1998.  He had a huge season in 1997 which lead to his All Star Game MVP award and followed that up with a terrific postseason.  And the companies noticed, so he was in virtually everything in 1998.  Because of that, it will take a long time, if ever, to track down all of the parallels that are out there.

But I got a little bit closer today.  I found a website in the deepest, darkest depths of the internet recently that had a bunch of members selling cards.  One seller had a number of rarer inserts and parallels of Alomar and I contacted him to pick up a bunch of his listings.  He even had some Tek cards that I took off his hands, not knowing whether I would get any new cards or not.  A couple of the cards were very hard to find and/or very expensive when they could be found so I braced myself for a high price and the possibility that I would not be picking up some of the items, but when he quoted me a price of $10.00 total, I was so shocked I had to email him back to ask whether he was talking about just one card or the whole lot.  Well, he meant for all of them, so here are my new Alomars:

1.  1997 Pacific Crown Collection Silver.  Limited to just 67 copies, this is a hard card to find.  There are a couple out there for sale for $20.00 each.  I thought the seller was asking for $10.00 just for this card alone, which would have been understandable given the $20.00+ out there on others.

2.  1997 Circa Rave.  This one is numbered out of just 150.  I bought a lot of packs of this quintessentially 90's set and never pulled a Rave parallel so that just shows how hard these were to find.

3.  1998 Topps Tek Pattern 88.  This was the only new Tek pattern.  There were a couple of duplicates in there, but that leaves me with just 23 more to get.

4.  1997 Pinnacle Certified Mirror Red.  I had the Red version, and the blue and gold, but I did not have the Mirror Red.

So this was a very successful transaction, and all for the low price of $10.00.  Two of those cards on their own probably would have cost me that.  The site was Sports Card Depot by the way, if any of you out there want to check them out.  They don't appear to have a lot, I think I was pretty lucky to find this much stuff from just one seller.

RESOLUTION TRACKER:
I am going to do this with new purchases to keep track of my resolution progress from this post.

1.  I knocked one Tek card off my list.  That does not eliminate the Tek cards entirely obviously.  I need 23 more.

2.  Four new cards were added bringing me up to 900.  An even 100 cards to go.

3.  No progress.

4.  No progress.

Card #169: 1993 Triple Play #251

YEAR: 1993
BRAND: Donruss
SET: Triple Play
NUMBER: 251
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Card #80 was the 1993 Donruss card that featured another photo from this same play.  That is Luis Rivera of the Red Sox sliding in safely.  This is another angle a little bit later from the same play and it makes it quite obvious that Rivera is safe.  I previously determined that this photo came from the June 7, 1992 game between the Red Sox and Indians in the seventh inning.  The Red Sox would win that game.  Still, a really cool play at the plate shot.  And of course the Red Sox are my favorite team, so I have no real problem here.

Card #168: 1993 Pacific Spanish #91

YEAR: 1993
BRAND: Pacific
SET: Pacific Spanish
NUMBER: 91
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

1993 was the first year of Pacific's brief run as a mainstream set.  They released some oddball sets for a few years previously, but this was their first real set.  All of the cards were in Spanish and the company focused on players of Latin descent.  I learned a lot of baseball terms in Spanish thanks to Pacific.  This was not one of their better sets, and the logo at this time was not real great.  Alomar is just shown in his batting stance, so the picture is not terribly exciting.

Card #167: 1993 Upper Deck Fun Pack #106

YEAR: 1993
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Fun Pack
NUMBER: 106
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Fun Pack was Upper Deck's answer to Donruss's Triple Play set released in 1992.  It was a way to appeal to a younger audience without the cartoony designs of Topps Kids.  The colors were vibrant and there was a small cartoon on the back with a little quiz.  Some of the photography was a little light-hearted too, although this one makes Alomar look angry.  He looks almost like he is scolding the person looking at the card.  Kind of a misstep for a photo in my opinion.

Card #166: 1994 Collector's Choice #34

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Collector's Choice
NUMBER: 34
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This is something we don't see very often: Alomar on the basepaths.  As a catcher, Alomar is not really known for his speed.  His season high in stolen bases was eight, in 1994, and he only stole 25 for his career.  This may be an attempted steal, or it may be him advancing on a wild pitch.  The back of this card is rather amusing, and I will break with my standard form and show it off here as well:

Nice, um, goatee there Sandy.

Card #165: 1994 Fleer #98

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Fleer
SET: Fleer
NUMBER: 98
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I'm pretty sure this ball is going to be fouled off.  It does not look like he got the bat on it very solidly.  Fleer's design was pretty boring in 1994.  The odd bright colors were gone in favor of a white border.  Photography was still decent, though that does not really show with the blurriness in this card.

Card #164: 1994 Pinnacle #44

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Pinnacle
SET: Pinnacle
NUMBER: 44
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

1994 was the first year that Pinnacle went without the black border that became its most identifiable feature in its first two years.  The result is a set that really was not much different than anything that Leaf, Stadium Club, or Ultra were putting out.  There was some decent photography, so there was nothing wrong with that route.  In this shot, it appears that Alomar is watching a foul fly back into the stands.  It's a sunny day and the squinting in the sun is obvious.  Not a bad card, but I really liked the black borders.

Some New Playing Cards

Okay, so this is not the most exciting mail day in the world.  I received two playing cards that are very similar to cards I already had.  But these are the silver versions, only available in double deck special edition sets.  The foil is only on the sides and is difficult to see.  Like I said, not the most exciting mail day ever, but if you are going to supercollect a player, that is what happens.

Kind of an interesting oddball item.  And I am now at 896 different cards.

Card #163: 1994 Studio #90

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Leaf
SET: Studio
NUMBER: 90
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I always kind of liked Studio.  In 1994, the design was to feature the player in front of what would appear to be their locker.  I have no idea if they actually went to each ballpark and got the shot in front of their own lockers, or if they just made it look like they did that.  It would be pretty interesting if this was actually Alomar's locker.

Beckett Order

I received a small order from one of the Beckett storefronts.  There were a couple of cards that really caught my attention and then I threw a few more in for good measure.

1.  1998 Donruss Prized Collections Elite.  The Donruss Collections set was kind of strange.  Similar to Topps Chrome, it was a multi-tiered parallel set to four of Donruss's regular releases.  The Prized Collections were similar to refractors.

2.  2003 Topps Total Silver.  Probably the most common of the White Sox cards I still needed.  They are going to start getting a lot more difficult to find.

3.  2000 Pacific Gold.  Before Topps, before Donruss, Pacific was the king of parallels.  They had tons of parallels and many were not too much different from the base cards.

4-5.  1992 Upper Deck Gold Hologram cards.  These cards were from the factory sets and feature a gold hologram on the back instead of a silver hologram.

That brings me up to 894 different Sandy Alomar Jr. cards.

Card #162: 1994 Topps #273

YEAR: 1994
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 273
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This is one of the great action shots in my Alomar collection.  As Nick from Dime Boxes points out, it almost resembles a scene from Major League.  We have Alomar diving to the side to try to catch a ball that is clearly way off the mark and another player trying to back up the play.  I wonder what the two people in the dugout are thinking on this play.

In Recognition of the Hall of Fame Vote Today...

I wanted to look back at the only season that Sandy Alomar Jr. was on the ballot.  For some reason I did not do a Hall of Fame post that year.  It was 2013.  I am not going to argue that Alomar should have been elected.  I am not even going to argue that he should have received more support than he did.  Frankly, I am surprised he received as much support as he did.  He may have been one of my favorite players, but I am realistic.  His career was not good enough to merit much Hall of Fame support, if any.  Shockingly, he received 2.8% of the vote.  That is 16 votes.  16 people believed Sandy Alomar Jr. was a Hall of Famer.

2013 was kind of a strange year for the Hall of Fame.  Nobody was elected that year, with Craig Biggio coming the closest.  A number of the PED guys appeared on the ballot for the first time and a lot of voters were determined to make a statement.  Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza, and Sammy Sosa all appeared for the first time, none of whom did very well.

Among all this chaos, Alomar received 16 votes.  Did he deserve them?  Probably not.  Alomar's career lasted 20 years, but he only played in more than 100 games four times.  He won the 1990 Rookie of the Year and Gold Glove, and the 1997 All Star Game MVP.  He was an All Star six times, but really only deserved it twice.  He was never among the league leaders in any offensive category.  1997 was a terrific season for him, but it is definitely a fluke compared to his other seasons.  Unfortunately, injuries simply wrecked his career.  But nothing can change that.  If he had been healthy, maybe is career would have been different.

So I was curious how the voting shook out in 2013.  Luckily we have the handy HOF Tracker to help.  With this, we can look at voters who made their vote public and follow their reasoning.  Unfortunately not every voter makes their ballots public.  And in this case, only one ballot for Alomar was public.  So 15 voters who voted for Alomar did not make their vote public.

So who was the one voter we know of who voted for Sandy Alomar Jr.?  Pierre Ladouceur of La Presse, a Canadian newspaper.  How he got a vote, I am not sure.  I can't find much information on him.  But he voted for Alomar, among other players.  His article was in French so I had to use a translation program to read it.  Unfortunately he did not explain why he voted for Alomar, just that he did.  So after all that, I am not any clearer on why Alomar received any votes than when I started.

I am left with conjecture.  Alomar was seemingly clean, there were not whispers of PED usage surrounding him that I ever heard.  I have no idea about that.  He was a very well-respected leader and handler of pitching staffs.  And he was a big factor on two World Series teams.  So maybe some Cleveland Indians writers voted for him.  I really have no idea what happened.  I am not surprised that he dropped off the ballot after just one year.  I am more surprised that he got as much consideration as he did.

Die-Cut Pickup

I actually picked this up in a separate package yesterday, but the Special F/X Blue was definitely the high point:

This is the Fractal Materials leather parallel, but with a twist.  The card is serial-numbered to 1,000, but the first 100 were die-cut.  I have the non-die-cut version and now added this one.  The fact that the card has a leathery texture is that much better.  It is a cool card, an interesting gimmick that Donruss attempted in their last year with a Major League license for a couple of years.

Card #161: 1995 Leaf #121

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Leaf
SET: Leaf
NUMBER: 121
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I actually always liked this design for Leaf.  The full-bleed photo, the little inset headshot, the team name.  I think this was kind of an underrated design.  There is not much to say about the choice of photography in this card, other than the colors are vibrant, and it is a decent action shot. 

Dodger Blue

This is pretty big.  I just received my first card from my Top 10 Most Wanted for the year, one of five slots I wanted to knock off this year.  This was #7 on my list, as well as the Most Wanted Dodger card:

2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Blue.  The research I have done on these seems to lead to the conclusion that the Blues are exceptionally rare, possibly only 20 of each card.  I bought this for a buck for an incredible steal I think.  There are not many Dodger cards of Alomar out there, pretty much just variations of the 2006 Upper Deck card as Alomar only played part of the 2006 season with LA.  The blue background looks great with this card. 

Card #160: 1995 Topps #522

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 522
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This card possibly looks familiar because I did the Cyberstats version for Card #142.  Because there was so little background, the technology used to distinguish the parallel from the base is kind of lost.  I still love this shot though, with the intense look in Alomar's eyes and the extreme closeup.  It is a little bit of an unusual shot.

First New Cards of 2015

I received a COMC order on Friday, my first new cards in either collection.  Unfortunately this was supposed to be a six card order:

1.  1998 Leaf Fractal Materials Sample.  This card has a big, bold, black "Sample" stamped on the back.  The texture is leather, which is kind of cool.

2.  1994 Pinnacle Artist's Proof.  I am not sure what the point of the Artist's Proofs are.  Other than the gold foil stamp, there is nothing to distinguish this from the base card.

3.  1998 Pacific Invincible Platinum Blue.  This is the rarest of the three colors from this set.  I picked up a number of packs from this set as well as a hobby box and had a couple of blue cards, but nothing like this Alomar.  Definitely my favorite card from the order.

4.  1997 Leaf Limited.  I had the Exposure parallel of this card from long ago.  These cards featured two players.  Dan Wilson of the Mariners is on the other side.

As I alluded to, there was a problem with this order.  I ordered two additional cards:

1.  1997 Pacific Crown Collection Prism Platinum. 

2.  1999 Topps Gold Label Black.

Both cards were clearly pictured and clearly described, but the cards that I received were not the ones I ordered.  Both were cards I already had.  I contacted COMC customer support, but at this point it is not clear where the mistake was.  The only thing I know is that I need to return the wrong cards.  I am trying to figure out whether COMC had the cards I was supposed to get or whether the cards were mislabeled entirely.  Unfortunately this means that I have no idea if I am getting those cards or not.  My biggest pet peeve in collecting is not getting cards that I count on getting.  It drives me crazy.  I am not sure where to find those two cards if they are not available.  They are not for sale on any other site I am aware of and I can't seem to find anyone else that has them available.  I may have to wait awhile and see if they show up somewhere unless someone out there reading this has them.  Then please contact me.  Also, if you have any of the other cards I need.

Card #159: 1995 Ultra #35

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Fleer
SET: Ultra
NUMBER: 35
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I actually really liked 1995 Ultra despite the fact that almost all of the players with new teams still had their old uniforms.  Obviously that is not a problem with the Alomar collection.  This is a decent shot, though it is pretty clear that not much is happening.  It looks like the inning is over or he is walking out to start the game.  At any rate, it is an interesting photo.

Does anyone have 1999 Topps Gold Label Class 1 Black Label #58 Sandy Alomar Jr.?

I thought I was getting this card today but the seller sent the wrong one and now I cannot find another copy of it. Please help me out in finding this card. I can buy or trade.

Thank you.

2015: Looking Ahead

As I said over on my other blog, I don't typically make goals for my collection, but just for the hell of it, let's do a few easy ones.

1.  Knock five items off of my current Top 10.  Obviously I move new cards in every time I knock one off, so I want five off of the current list, which is as follows:

• 1. 1998 Topps Tek #27 (I still need these patterns: 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 27, 34, 40, 51, 54, 55, 66, 70, 71, 78, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88)
• 2. 1997 Flair Showcase Masterpiece #115 (any version)
• 3. 1999 Prism Red #41
• 4. 1997 Topps Stars '97 All Stars #AS20
• 5. 1997 Pacific Baerga Softball #4
• 6. 1989 BYN Puerto Rico #105
• 7. 2006 Upper Deck Special FX Blue #677
• 8. 1998 Donruss Crusade Red #20
• 9. 2002 Topps Chrome Traded Black Refractor #T68
• 10. 2005 Topps Rookie Cup Blue #75

In order for the Tek cards to count, I would need all of the remaining cards.  I would think 4 would be the easiest to find.  I would absolutely love to knock off the remaining Tek cards, but let's be realistic.

2.  Get to 1,000 different cards.  I have 883 now, so this is certainly possible, though it will be challenging.

3.  Get a signed 8x10 of Alomar with the Mets.  I want photographic evidence of Alomar with the Mets, since there will likely never be a card of him.

4.  Get the elusive bobblehead that I see on Ebay frequently.

Hopefully this will be the year that Alomar finally gets his managerial position.  There should be a few positions opening up over the course of the year.  It would also be nice if he started to get some new cards in new sets this year.  Archives is always a possibility.

So that's it.  I will check back on this post by the end of the year.  Hopefully I will have accomplished a bunch of this stuff.

Card #158: 1996 Upper Deck #313

YEAR: 1996
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Upper Deck
NUMBER: 313
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Upper Deck got rid of the white borders in 1994 and thus never quite seemed the same to me.  But they kept the great photography as evidenced by this card.  Alomar is reacting to a foul ball and has already thrown off his mask.  Just a terrific action shot here.