COTW for 3/9/08: 1994 Topps Finest #327 Marvin Freeman

"Starvin'" Marvin Freeman was one of my favorite players on the Braves in the early 90's. This was mainly because he was the only Brave to ever give me an autograph at the ballpark before the game started. He played for the Braves from 1990 to 1993 when he was released by the Braves and signed by the Rockies. When The Strike happened, Marvin was having a career year going 10-2 with a 2.80 ERA for the Rockies. Somehow, Marvin learned how to pitch in the thin air of Coors Field. Because of The Strike, he never got to be an All-Star. He pitched in the Majors until 1996, but never regained the form of 1994. Some say the incident with Jim Rome combined with his dwindling effectiveness sped up his departure from baseball. Marvin now is an assistant coach for a high school baseball team in Illinois.

COTW for 3/2/08: 1959 Topps #373 Herb Plews

In honor of last week's Topps Heritage release, we have this card. Prior to getting my Topps buy back in one of my boxes last week, this was the only 1959 Topps card I owned. I can't remember where I got it. I believe it was from one of those baseball card "chests" (it was actually a cardboard box that had a chest-like design on it) that you order from Lillian Vernon or a like catalogue that's filled with mostly late 80's Donruss and Topps crap, but you get some good old cards. Maybe not of stars, but old cards none the less. Old Smilin' Herb here played in the Bigs from 1956 to 1959 with his last season being 1959 where he split time between the Washington Senators and the Boston Red Sox. Herb wasn't known for his hitting, he only hit .262 for his lifetime average. Herb did put up some good defense, though with a career fielding percentage of .959. This is with Herb playing 2nd, 3rd and short stop in all 4 seasons that he played. Herb had some Real One autos inserted into packs of '59 Heritage and he currently lives in a retirement community in Boulder, Colorado.

COTW for 2/24/08: Chipper Jones 2007 Bowman Chrome XFractor 209/250

This is the first XFractor I have ever owned.  I found it on eBay last week for $1.04.  That's right: $1.04.  I couldn't pass that up.  I mean, a shiny reflective card of the best switch hitter in the history of baseball (yes, that's right...EVER.  There'll be a post backing this up soon, hopefully.)  So just look at the squares and ooh and ahh.

COTW for 2/10/08: 2005 Sweet Spot Classic Dale Murphy Sweet Spot Signatures #MU

One of my collecting goals is to have autographs of all of the Braves legends. I've got my Aaron, Neikro, Pendelton, Glavine, Smoltz, Maddux, Chipper and still need a Spahn, Matthews and of course the ultimate would be if I could somehow get a Babe Ruth, even though he was with the Braves at the very end of his career. But up until last week, I didn't have a Dale Murphy. The greatest Braves player in the 80's, somehow Murphy had always eluded me. I came across this card on eBay and got it for around $10. Very cool card and a very cool auto. This is also my first Sweet Spot Signatures card and I find it to be even more impressive in person than just the picture. However, I don't know if I'll be buying an $125 tin of these any time soon when I can just get the autograph I want for 10% or less of the price. But then again, you never know.

COTW for 2/3/08: Jarrod Saltalamacchia Custom Index Card

After I graduated college, I got an internship back home and lived with my parents for a year. In that time, because there wasn't a whole lot to do in town, I started collecting cards seriously again as well as sending stuff through the mail (TTM) for players to sign. When I didn't have a card of a new prospect or an older player, I would make a custom index card (CIC) and have them sign it and they turn out looking pretty good. So for spring training in 2006, I sent a CIC to Braves star prospect catcher Jarrod Saltalamacchia. This is what I got back.

Now there are probably several reasons why he did this. I know when people enter the leauge, they tell the new kids to not sign anything that is not MLBPA or MLB approved and I know that they tell them not to sign index cards because people can use their signature somehow and forge it and steal their idendtity or something along those lines. Now, while I was disappointed to not get this signed, I was actually quite happy with this return as I got a nice little handwritten note from Jarrod. So for me, this is as good as, or better, than an autograph. I did end up getting a few of his Upper Deck Star Rookie cards and he did sign them for me.

COTW for 1/27/08: 2006 Topps Mickey Mantle Home Run History: Home Run Number One #MHR1

I know what you're thinking: "Why is this card that I had what seemed to be hundreds of when I opened all those packs of 2006 Topps the Card of the Week?" Ah, my friends, you have to turn the card over in order to see the magic. "Illusions, Michael!"
Since I had a ton of these laying around after many blasters back in 2006 and it'd kinda be hard to get Mickey to sign them, I sent a few off to Randy Gumpert, the pitcher who gave up Mantle's first home run as named on this card. I didn't know whether he would sign them or not as some pitchers don't like to be known as "the guy so and so hit his xth home run off of". But Mr. Gumpert was glad to sign them and he has a great signature. This is one of those items that's just a little outside of normal and that's why it's the Card of the Week.

COTW for 1/20/08: 1995 Pinnacle Museum Collection Checklist #177

In today's world of having multiple parallels that are silver, orange, gold, frankincense and myrrh, I recall a simpler time when each set had one or two parallels if any at all. The search for the ToppsGold cards of your favorite players or that particular Stadium Club 1st Day Issue was so much easier for people who like to collect players. Now they have to buy tons of cards for every set if they're a completest and like to have every card of that player in the set. Not only that, the scarcity of the cards that are 1 of 1 or 1 of 10 or whatever makes them even harder to find even though we do now have eBay. One of my favorite parallels was the Museum Collection from Pinnacle. It featured a foil on the entire front of the card that gave it a bit of an effect that was kind of like a poor man's refractor. Every time I pulled one of these cards I was thrilled. Until one day in 1995, I pulled this:
That's right, I pulled a Museum Collection checklist. No, not a checklist of the Museum Collection cards, a checklist that had the Museum Collection foil on it. This might be the crappiest insert ever. A checklist? Really? Not only did I have a checklist taking up a card that might have been one of my favorite players, but it was an insert checklist. I feel like this would be the perfect insert for chemgod over at Bad Wax. Every time I look at this card I get depressed.

COTW for 1/13/08: 1994 Coca-Cola Monsters of the Gridiron #8 Emmitt "Lone Star Sheriff" Smith

In honor, or dishonor potentially, of the Cowboys' loss last night, I decided to post this ridiculous card. Now this was a set that was inserted into Coke products and being from Georgia, I love my Coke. However, every time I bought a 12 pack, I always seemed to get the same card. Emmitt Smith. Now while this might seem all well and good to get a card of a prolific player, it enraged me as I wanted whoever the Falcon was because that was my team! (The Falcon featured in this set was Jessie Tuggle who was given the nickname of Tarantula for this set. Why they didn't just use "The Hammer" I don't know) But each time I opened a pack of Coke, it was like sports card Groundhog Day. Emmitt Smith would always be staring up at me. Now onto the card itself. This getup they have Mr. Smith in is ridiculous and I don't even know where to begin. Do I start at the cowboy hat that's ON TOP of a football helmet? How about the white gloves featuring lightning bolts? Maybe the angular shoulder pads or the "football" made of metal? No the most telling thing about this photo is Emmitt's face. Lets take a closer look:

Looking into those sad, melancholy eyes makes me think Emmitt didn't have any idea what he was getting into and probably about after a few hours of makeup and costume and then an hour or two of photography, he was thinking twice about being the guy who said "ok" to this card. I think he face says it all and he wishes he would have passed this chance to Aikman.

Card of the Week 1/06/08: 2002 Donruss Super Estrellas CP-12 Barry Bonds Poder de Cuadrangular

Sorry about the bad pictures lately. My laptop that I connect to my scanner is in for repairs and hopefully I'll have it back by Tuesday and will give you more high quality scans. This card comes from one of Donruss' Spanish language sets. The easy joke here is "I think that translates to cheater in English!" but the truth is actually pretty funny in itself. If my remedial Spanish is correct, this translates literally to "Being able of the home run". I would say that Bonds is most definately able of the home run and is probably the most able out of every player. The blurb on the back says something about him hitting 57 home runs in Pac Bell and 36 in 16 different parks in 2001. But this is an interesting card and good to see that our friends south of the border have the joy of baseball cards and are able to collect players who are able of the home run.