2020 Absolute

 

2020 brought the return of Absolute to the shelves, after fifteen years. This was brought out by Panini, which only has the players license. The previous set was introduced by Donruss.

The design is right in line with the previous Absolute sets. This feels like it could have been brought out in the early to mid-2000s. It's faithful to the feel of  the original sets, almost to a fault. The parallels are there. So are the short print cards. It's everything that was loved and hated about this release in one package.

If you throw in a few tiny elements from Leaf releases of the same time period, I think you found the inspiration for the 2020 set. What I really did not like about this year's Absolute was the distribution. $100 for twenty hobby cards. It breaks down to five bucks a card, which includes eight base cards, two parallels, four inserts, two memorabilia cards and four autographs. It sounds like a great deal on the surface, but most of those haven't held much resale value. Let's face it, that's what most people are looking for nowadays.

The set is broken down into a regular set of one hundred cards and a short print autograph set of sixty-six cards. A lot of these short print cards can be found for a steal on reselling sites.

Out of 166 total cards, the White Sox have five cards in the regular set and four cards in the short print set.

24 - Tim Anderson
50 - Jose Abreu
62 - Yasmani Grandal
79 - Yoan Moncada
84 - Eloy Jimenez
110 - Danny Mendick (auto) (/149)
113 - Luis Robert Jr. (auto) (/149)
145 - Dylan Cease (auto) (/149)
149 - Zack Collins (auto) (/149)

The main drawback with Panini product is the lack of MLB logos. Hopefully, someday that will be able to change. Until then, it will be their Achilles heel. No matter how nice their cards are, Panini will always lose a fraction of value because of that fact. These cards are nice looking and a bit nostalgic. In the short print cards, you can see why they went with the bigger autograph. It hides the majority of the player behind the cutout for the auto. The logo problem takes care of itself in most cases.

Overall, I like this set. It would have been much better with an MLB license.

2024 Topps Heritage High Numbers

 

This set came as a bit of a surprise. Released in March 2025, the 2024 Topps Heritage High Numbers set is a bit late to the game. It's a nice surprise, but this unfortunately pushes the boundaries of a set for a particular year. At the time of release, the next year was already roughly one-fourth of the way through.

With that unpleasantness out of the way, let's get into this release.

Since 2008, the Topps Heritage set has had a high numbers release later in the year.  It originally threw me for a loop. I had committed myself to collecting the entire 2008 set, not just the White Sox cards. I had come really close to completing the set and then a whole bunch of new cards were unleashed onto the public.

I still haven't completed either the regular of the high number set from 2008, but I'm inching closer every year. I still haven't found either of the name variations for 2008. I've pretty much given that pursuit up and have been concentrating on completing the set. This is just another in a long line of uncompleted sets from the overbearing glut of releases from 2008. My grandiose ideas of collecting that year really bit me in the butt.

In other words, the multiple releases have become the standard for the Heritage line. Not that I need another set to chase, but I think it's probably time to resurrect the Bowman Heritage line. Enough time has passed and after the fifties sets are completed, they can jump right into 1989.

This set borrows from the 1975 Topps flagship set. It's simple, bold and distinctive. The original set is one that really stood out when I was exploring older sets. I started my collecting journey in 1983 and was born one year after this sets design. This was also a really fun card to create in my Birth Years project. There were so many color combinations to choose from. It was never a boring endeavor.

The White Sox have six cards in this set.

554 - Andrew Vaughn
616 - Jonathan Cannon (multi-rookie)
622 - Zach DeLoach (multi-rookie)
627 - Garrett Crochet
647 - Nick Nastrini
694 - Gavin Sheets
716 - Jordan Leasure

Gavin Sheets has a throwback image gimmick in this set.

There are eight parallels to the set. White border, aqua border,  green border (blasters only), dark blue border (hobby only), black and white image, mini, black border (/50) (hobby only) and flip stock (/5) (hobby only). Important note: all borders are marked as "white border" above the number on the back of the card. Who knows why. It just makes it more frustrating to identify the different types of borders.

There are also chrome cards of each card numbered to 699. Along with refractor (/225), black refractor (/75) (hobby only), gold refractor (/5) (hobby only) and superfractor (/1).

A little late to the game, but welcome anyway. That's my general impression of this release. If you like the Heritage line, you know exactly what to expect here. Probably the most exciting for me is the mini cards. Those were always fascinating to me when I was a young collector, so it's a sense of nostalgia, which is what these type of releases are meant to conjure up.

A solid, yet not super exciting set. If you love the vintage feel with a few modern twists, you really can't go wrong with this one. If you're lucky enough to find an autograph in your pack, rest assured, it will be on card.

1963 Jello

 

Kids today will very rarely know the joy of finding a baseball card in an unexpected place. It still does happen from time to time, but the chances of this materializing is slim to none. Some of this has to do with our mint obsessed culture, where every card needs to be pristine and everything else is just garbage. Some of it is the switch to digital. Some of the blame is on kids growing up with different expectations than previous generations.

There are some things I will never experience again. Carnation breakfast bars (not those abominations that came out in the 90s and later), tuning in to MTV at anytime to watch a music video and finding baseball cards on food packaging. There have been a few food issues in the past decade or so, but they are mostly packaged in plastic and slipped into the packaging. We have to keep everything in gem mint condition, or at least the illusion of it.

Oddball and food issues used to be everywhere. Boxes of mac and cheese, cereal and gelatin mixes had cards that you could cut out. Convenience stores had their own cards, coins and other paraphernalia. Sometimes they were regional, so you couldn't collect the whole set, unless you traveled. Hmm. That almost sounds like a tactic the companies would use today.

Now, Post cereals had the exact same checklist for their 1963 set. The only difference is that the Post cards have a wider red line than the Jello counterparts. In fact, the album where you could collect your cut out cards encouraged you to complete your set by collecting from both brands.

 The Jello set has 200 cards, and the White Sox have eleven cards.

35 - Joe Cunningham
36 - Nellie Fox
37 - Luis Aparicio
38 - Al Smith
39 - Floyd Robinson
40 - Jim Landis
41 - Charlie Maxwell
42 - Sherman Lollar
43 - Early Wynn
44 - Juan Pizzaro
45 - Ray Herbert

 Especially if you don't care about condition too much, these cards can come relatively cheap. Mickey Mantle was never a White Sox player, so you won't find any extremely high priced cards for the Pale Hose in this set. Nellie Fox and Luis Aparicio will probably be the highest priced on the secondary market. Even then, you can find decent copies for well under $10. 

I'll admit it. I miss cards on the boxes of Jello and other groceries. It was just another way to stay connected to the game and to the hobby. I don't anticipate ever returning to these glory days of food issues, but it would be cool if it did.

1985 Topps 3-D

It's baseball, COMIN' AT YA! in 3-D!!!!

As an eight year old during the summer of 1985, I would go to my local drug store (which has since turned into a liquor store) and I would scour the spinning rack of comic books and pick out a few. This was when the price of a regular comic book was just seventy-five cents. If it was an annual, it could have gone as high as $2.

After my excursion into the land of mostly Marvel and DC, I would head over to the candy aisles. Yes, I said aisles. There were three glorious aisles of candy and candy related items. I would pick out something guaranteed to put me on a sugar high, then it one of those aisles were sports cards. A pack of baseball cards were either thirty-five or forty cents for a regular pack and fifty or sixty cents for a cello pack. I don't recall the year that they went up to forty cents. It was somewhere in the mid-80s. I just remember that they were forty cents in 1987.

 But in 1985, I was collecting Topps, Fleer and Donruss. Of course, I was looking for White Sox players, but I had other interests too. The father/son cards were always a welcome find. The USA team cards were on my radar. Any Fleer in action or multi-player cards were treasured. Donruss All-Stars looked cool and futuristic (nowadays they look very dated). Cards of Eric Davis, Cal Ripken Jr., Tippy Matrinez, Roger Clemens, Tony Gwynn, Alfredo Griffin, Tim Raines, Rickey Henderson and a plethora of others would elicit excitement every time I unearthed one in a pack.

I also collected the Topps stickers, Topps rub ons, Topps Super. Basically any weird baseball related merchandise, I was a sucker for at that time. The weirdest set I remember buying was Topps 3-D.

I had absolutely no clue as to how to store these cards. They were rigid, bumpy and oversized. They were truly bizarre, but I enjoyed opening each pack. As a kid I was puzzled with this set. As an adult, I'm still puzzled by this set.

The White Sox have one card in this set.

30 - Tom Seaver

 I'm showing the front and back images for this card, so you might get the full effect of this misshapen cad. Not only did the White Sox have a card in this set, but it is a Hall of Fame player, who is best remembered on another team, but it happens to coincide with the year he won his 300th game. It's just a mess of circumstances that make this an even stranger release.

This is definitely a unique set that never made it past a trial release. It's a beautiful and clumsy set. The rose tinted glasses of nostalgia are especially on for this one. This card has more attachment to the memories that it conjures rather than the card itself. I guess that could be a true test of this set. It's awkward, but makes me think of wonderful days in my past. I suppose that's all you can ask out of a card.

Good job, Topps 3-D. You've made me think of G.I. Joe and Spider-Ham comics. Looking for the discontinued Summit cookie bar (it ceased production in 1984, but I had no idea) in the candy aisles. Riding my bike to the drug store and taking the secret way past two parks. For me, this could be one of the ultimate nostalgia cards.

2025 Topps Series One

 

Topps flagship is always anticipated (by me anyway). I feel that it marks the beginning of the new trading card sets for the new year. There always seem to be a few late straggler sets from the previous year that get released in January. This is my signal that the new year has begun.

This design reminds me of some of the Topps designs from the early to mid-2000s mixed in with a little bit of Donruss from the same time period. Is it an homage to that time period or a coincidence? Does it really matter? Not really.

The 2025 design is pretty sharp. Geometry in baseball seems to be the general theme on the card. Baseball diamonds, warning tracks nice photos, blueprint-like outlines of words and team emblems. Sorry Panini, the team emblems really do make the card. I wish that you had both licenses.

The white borders lend itself easily to many parallels, which there are many. My word. There are so many. For those who love to chase rainbows, you are in luck. There are sixty(?!) parallels of each card.

Ready?

They are as follows:

Rainbow Foil
Diamante Foil
Holo Foil
Topps Pattern Foil
Silver Crackle Foil
Pink Holo Foil
Sandglitter
Confetti
Pink Diamante Foil
Aqua Holo Foil
Aqua Rainbow Foil
Tinsel
Gold (/2025)
Purple Rainbow (/250)
Purple Holo Foil (/250)
Blue Rainbow (/150)
Blue Holo Foil (/150)
Green Rainbow (/99)
Green Holo Foil (/99)
Vintage Stock (/99)
Independence Day (/76)
Gold Rainbow (/50)
Gold Holo Foil (/50)
Gold Diamante Foil (/50)
Canvas (/50)
Orange Rainbow (/25)
Orange Holo Foil (/25)
Orange Diamante (/25)
Wood (/25)
Memorial Day Camouflage (/25)
Black Rainbow (/10)
Black Holo Foil (/10)
Black Diamante (/5)
Clear (/10)
Red Rainbow (/5)
Red Holo Foil (/5)
Red Diamante (/5)
FoilFractor (/1)
Platinum Holo Foil (/1)
First Card (/1)
Printing Plate Black (/1)
Printing Plate Cyan (/1)
Printing Plate Magenta (/1)
Printing Plate Yellow (/1)
Spring Training
Spring Training Green Foil (/99)
Spring Training Gold Foil (/50)
Spring Training Orange Foil (/25)
Spring Training Red Foil (5)
Spring Training Black Foil (/1)
Holiday
Holiday Flowers (/50)
Holiday Eggs
Holiday Rabbit
Holiday Umbrella (/10)
Holiday Watering Can (/5)
Holiday Birds (/1)
Golden Mirror Image Variation
True Photo Variation
Team Color Border Variation

There is also a Tokyo Series Murakami Variation. Luis Robert Jr., Brooks Baldwin and Drew Thorpe have cards in this limited parallel, numbered to ten.

The White Sox have no player number variations and no big head variations.

The White Sox have nine cards in series one.

95 - Gavin Sheets
121 - Andrew Vaughn
189 - Robert Luis Jr.
190 - Michael Vargas
249 - Brooks Baldwin
257 - Korey Lee
280 - Ky Bush
320 - Drew Thorpe
344 - Andrew Benintendi 

Yet another very good design for Topps flagship. They can usually be counted on for a solid look. There are very few years that would be considered a classic design anymore, but a consistent output of very good to great can usually be expected. 2025 is no different.

I usually enjoy chasing the parallels, but sixty (and in three cases, sixty-one) is a little like Lone Star demanding ludicrous speed It's a great way to get there. You might see some pretty colors along the way, maybe even plaid some years. In the end, it's a bit ludicrous.

The First White Sox card of 2025 Is...

 

I'm not going to make you scroll down this year. Here it is. Luis Robert Jr. This is my first White Sox card of 2025.

In a way, this is fitting. After last year's debacle of a season, this is one of the few remaining recognizable names on the team (as of this writing). I was so wrapped up in other things in my life last year, that I didn't even make a first card post last year. For those of you that were disappointed and were anxiously waiting... it was Andrew Vaughn from Topps series one. I know. Now you can get a good night's sleep after an entire year.

Work, family and household projects dominated my year in 2024. That doesn't mean that I didn't pay attention to baseball. I caught my fair share of games on MLB.TV. I even attended a game with my family for the first time in awhile. We had fun, but of course the Sox lost the game 13-4. My grandson got his first in play baseball at his first game. There wasn't the usual energy in the ballpark. The air had been sucked out before the game even began.

 It was probably the worst game I have ever attended. Not because of the score. I've attended worse blowouts before. Nobody seemed to be into anything going on. The team didn't even seem to hustle much. They were on par with hits, but Detroit managed to move the runners along and score them much more often. Almost to an embarrassingly degree.

We even managed to get on television once. You'd never know it was us, unless you knew who to look for and a general location of our seats.

 After the game, my grandson wanted to get his ball signed. So he went down to the fence and started asking players walking to the dugout. They ignored him, but the Tigers manager threatened to have him escorted out of the park. Needless to say, it was a first game experience that had its ups and downs.

Despite this, he's game to go again, even though A.J. Hinch made him cry.

Maybe Luis Robert Jr. will be traded as the rumor mill suggests. Maybe he stays with the team the entire year. Maybe things will click and the White Sox will surprise everyone this season. I'll be happy with a better record than 2024 and positive signs that the team is headed in the right direction. Maybe this first card will be a positive sign.

There's Always A Silver Lining

 

This season is the worst I have ever experienced as a White Sox fan. I still love the team, but it's a tough love. It would be an understatement to say that the Pale Hose are going through a bit of a rough patch.

They have tied a single season American League losing streak. They are well on their way to breaking the single season loss record (post 1901). Most of the jettisoned players have experienced resurgences on their new teams. It has been difficult to let go of favorite players. It has been even more difficult to watch the Sox get underwhelming returns.

Some blame the manager. Some blame the players. Some blame the GM. Some blame the owner. There are many factors that contribute to a toxic environment. All of these have their blame, to some degree.

What gives me hope in these dark times is knowing that the trying times do not last forever. There will be better opportunities that will present themselves for the team. It just won't be this season. The seeds to that better tomorrow may well already be planted. We just have to find the right pathway and watch the team grow. It won't be overnight. It won't be next year. It will come soon, little by little.

If I can have a favorite part of this process, it would be the wealth of brand new White Sox cards that will be available this year and over the next few seasons. Trade all your talent away? There will be new bodies to take their place. Those players didn't work out? There will be new bodies to replace them. All those people showing up and then being shown the door will need cards.

You had a cup of coffee with the White Sox? You get a card! That big name player that's down on his luck that signed because it was the last option? They get a card! That prospect that was called up because there were no other options? He gets a card too! That big hype guy that will become the next big bust? Yes, they get a card too.

This is the time to load up on White Sox prospect cards. The next Fernando Tatis Jr. could be toiling in the White Sox minor league system right now. All it takes is a lopsided trade for an aging veteran to unlock their true potential.

This is also the time to buff up on your obscure team players for immaculate grid. That guy was on the White Sox? Yes he was! He's the answer to the top left square!

This may not be a very fun time to be a White Sox fan, but there are positives in any bad situation. Always look for the positives, even if you have to look outside the box for them.

When Teams Are Sellers

As I write this, Lucas Giolito, Reynaldo Lopez, Lance Lynn, Joe Kelly and Kendall Graveman have all been traded away. Others, like Tim Anderson, have been rumored to have many inquiries and may go at any time. Or everyone may stay. It's really hard to tell what potential trades work and which fall apart until they get to that stage.

While this sell off signals the failure of the rebuild, it's also a time of hope and wonderment. One could drive themselves crazy analyzing everything that didn't work out the way it expected to. Whether it was injuries, laziness, sleeping managers or pod people, the end result was two years of soft playoff appearances and a huge cliff dive.

Ultimately, it comes down to the ineffectiveness of the Cerberus that is Jerry Reinsdorf, Kenny Williams and Rick Hahn. The talent was there, but there seems to be a missing ingredient that left the White Sox more comparable to a yeast-less dinner roll rather than a robust fluffy pillow of bread that compliments a cinnamon butter spread perfectly.

There seems to be major flaws in scouting. This hits all facets of scouting. Drafting is especially heinous. How else can so many high draft picks flame out? Assessing proper value on trades is spotty at best. Even in the actual games that all of this is building towards, the White Sox can't seem to capitalize on mistakes and weaknesses. When they actually do, everyone seems so distracted that things went well, that they give those runs right back with interest.

Does blame fall on upper management, the coaching staff, or the players themselves? In a word... yes. There are a lot of decisions that have to happen right above the players for them to be in the best position to win. That includes assessment of talent, training regimens, preparation of games, proper motivation and in the moment game decisions. That does not let the players off the hook. Chemistry is very important, but when the chemistry leads everywhere except the win column, it is not charging towards the task at hand. Friendships are awesome, but this is also a job. Individual accomplishments are great motivators, but it should not be the only one. Championships do not rely on team chemistry, but it goes a long way in helping.

At the end of the day, the players are responsible for what happens on the field. They have the immediate impact on the team's success. When players lazily run out ground balls, don't have good reads on balls in play or completely waste at-bats, it makes winning that much harder. Carlton Fisk would drop dead from an arrhythmia if he were coaching this team. Deion Sanders may actually have his back on this one.

There are no easy fixes for this. I love the fact that Jerry Reinsdorf prefers to keep most people in the fold. It's great to see the ambassadors and former players as coaches and in other positions within the organization. I love it, but it's just not working that effectively anymore. Neither is the maddening random decisions on when to open the pocketbooks and when not to. Let's throw $12 million at a problem pitcher who may not be effective (and was in danger of not pitching due to those problems), but be stingy at a proven player in his prime because he wants a few more million per year. It's also at this point that I realize that I will never sniff the kind of money even the most fringe athlete gets and even Seby Zavala will be at a financial level I will never get close to.

Now let's get to the upside, because there is an upside to all of this. The last time the White Sox did a major overhaul, they got back some really nice pieces that had a really great chance at gelling and making the team a force to be reckoned with for years to come. That didn't exactly pan out, but the move was bold and exciting. I was genuinely interested in the future of the team. I was invested. Refresh and renewal is an admittance of failure, but it is also a time of eternal optimism. 

No team wants to go back to square one. I don't believe the White Sox will ultimately have to. They will have to have a long look at their organization and make some very hard decisions. If they can do that without rose tinted glasses, things will start improving fast. A mix of good rookies and solid veterans can be a glorious experience. 2023 is a lost season. So much potential wasted. It's not entirely their fault, but they definitely have not maximized the tools that they had.

Since this is essentially a baseball card blog, I'll end this with something card related. If the Sox play their cards right, I should have some new and exciting cards to collect in 2024.

The First White Sox Card Of 2023 Is...

 

Well... it's that time of year again.

Topps Series One is officially out, marking the first genuine 2023 cards on the market. One aspect of this release that I really enjoy is seeing what White Sox card will be the first to appear in a pack that I open.

Sometimes it tells me what kind of a year I'll have collecting. Sometimes it doesn't. Either way, it's pure fun and has become a tradition.

It can be full of intrigue and mystery, just like Ozzie Smith stuck at the Springfield Mystery Spot. The vendor at work was amazing at getting these out relatively on time. Compared to the last few years, one day after release was stupendous.

I picked a blaster box at random, checked out and took it home. There awaited surprises in each sealed pack. There's nothing quite like the feeling of opening a fresh pack ahead of a brand new season.

The first White Sox card of 2023 is...

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Davis Martin

I'm not sure who I was expecting, but this was the last name that came to mind. I didn't catch as many games as I would have liked to last season, so it was a familiar name, but I couldn't place a performance that I saw. As a rookie, there's tons of room to grow and I'm hoping that in 2023, Davis will take his 2022 experience and push to even greater heights.

That's the great thing about rookies. There's always potential. Each outing can be potential greatness. To be called up to the show, there has to be a need that is to be filled. There has to be a talent there. Why promote one guy over another? I will be looking forward to watching Davis in 2023. I have an extra incentive to hope he succeeds now, being the first card pulled.

A few cards later in the same pack, this pitcher loomed large.

Those were the only White Sox players that came out of that box. There will be many more that will make it into my collection, but these are the first. They will set the tone for the whole collecting year.

Here's to many more White Sox cards pulled this year and I wish that all of you pull the cards you collect. Happy hunting!

Cancer Sucks

 

I will start off by saying that I wish Liam a very speedy recovery. Any type of cancer is never a walk in the park. There will be rough times ahead. There will be ups and downs. If any player on the White Sox has the mentality and right attitude to head this face on, it is Liam Hendriks. The way he approaches every game and life itself, I have no doubt he will be fighting every step of the way.

In the past decade, cancer seems to have taken a lot of people from us. From family members to celebrities, there has been no shortage of people battling some form of this disease. Some succeed. Some unfortunately don't. 

I have been pretty lucky. I grew up with only a few members of my family passing away. As I've gotten older, that number has gone up considerably. As you age, the odds go up that someone you know will come down with a serious illness or even die. I don't mean to be such a downer, but disease is rarely a topic that's not serious.

My dad passed away from stage four cancer in October 2021. Every time I read about someone getting any form of that disease, I think of my dad. It wasn't something that was totally unexpected. Fifty plus years of heavy smoking really increases the chances of that happening. He was in pretty decent health for most of his life. Except for a horrible bout with pneumonia in the army reserves, he was only in the hospital once. That required intravenous medicine to be administered at home for a couple weeks after his discharge. The cancer diagnosis still came out of left field.

I don't get back to the Chicago area often enough. A family and work keep me pretty busy in Michigan. I try to visit a few times a year. In the summer of 2021, I tried to visit every other weekend. I was able to keep that schedule for the most part.

I cherish the extra time I got to spend with my dad. At this time, the minuscule filter he had was completely gone. I heard family stories from a perspective I had never heard before. I heard stories about him growing up and stories about me growing up. He swore up and down that I met a White Sox player in the eighties and got his autograph, but I was petrified at meeting one of my heroes. From the description, it may have been Daryl Boston, but I don't think I'll ever know for sure. I have absolutely no recognition of the event.

Every Sunday game we would go to, my dad would encourage me to get in the line and get an autograph and shake a player's hand. I always got in line and I always chickened out before I arrived at the players. I have no idea what I thought was going to happen. Maybe I was afraid I would be a rambling incoherent mess, like I was when I met Weird Al. I should probably mention that I met Weird Al at an after concert meet and greet that I had won through his website. I was twenty-two. I can only imagine what a single digit aged me would have done.

I skipped one weekend of visiting my parents in 2021. My dad was doing pretty good and I had a long work week. I decided to put off the trip until the following weekend. I did go out the next weekend, but it was to help my mom figure out what all she needed to do in the aftermath of his passing.

I kicked myself for a little bit for skipping that last weekend. I soon realized that an extra weekend didn't matter so much. I had got to spend a whole lot of time with him leading up to that. Time that I wouldn't have gotten had I not made the time.

There is a great chance that Liam will come out of this just fine. I'm sure he will. A scare like this forces one to stop everything, breathe and live in the moment. I don't always get to live in the moment. Most of the time I am buried in the past or looking to the future. When I focus and appreciate the moment, I never regret it. It's not somewhere I always find myself, but I'd like to get there more often.

Liam. You've got this. Live in the moment and come back better than ever.

2022 Topps Spotlight 70 II

 

Cards are getting interesting lately. I appreciate all the different ways that cards are being created. Artists and celebrities create or dictate what a set should look like and who should be in it and suddenly it's for sale on a website. 

It could be the most beautiful piece of artwork in the galaxy or a huge steaming pile of crap sent through the mail for a fee. It's all in the eye of the beholder. I would never intentionally try to yuck someone else's yum, but some of these cards are catered to my tastes, while most of them are not. Some look like a lot of thought and effort was put into the design and each brushstroke was a dazzling liquid diamond pouring out onto a mystical canvas until Leonardo Da Vinci wept salty tears of happiness at the pure ethereal joy birthed into the world. Others look like a second grader drew a spite portrait of the MLB player that crushed their hamster. In other words, it can be a bit of a mixed bag.

This offering by Andy Friedman, at first glance looks a bit off. It wasn't until I saw that the chosen medium was ink and watercolor, that I started to really look at the cards. I have painted some great portraits in my time as an artist, but watercolor is one of the most difficult to work with. Throw in ink to the mix and there will be some massive color bleeds in the journey to the final product.

The combination is not without its charms, but it will clearly not be everyone's favorite.

The White Sox have three cards in this release. Two cards in the regular set and one in a rookie insert subset.

29 - Harold Baines

33 - Jerry Manuel

R-8 - Gavin Sheets

Pablo Picasso, Mark Rothko, Georgia O'Keeffe, Vincent Van Gogh, Andy Warhol, Jackson Pollock and June Leaf each have distinct styles and some have widely ranging techniques. Some people love them. Some people loathe them. It's all a matter of taste.

I think it's absolutely wonderful that a variety of modern artists are getting their chance to explore and imprint their creative minds onto cardboard. Mixing baseball and artwork is a long standing tradition that goes back to the hobby's roots as advertisements for department stores and tobacco. It's a practice that fell out of fashion with the rise of the camera and occasionally has a resurgence.

I think that the most impressive feat in these types of cards are the risks that the artists are willing to take. It also takes great commitment on Topps part to keep these ventures going. All the efforts may not please all the consumers out there, but I don't think it was ever meant to.

2022 Topps Cesar Hernandez Rainbow

 2022 Topps #28 Cesar Hernandez

Gold Foil

Purple

Rainbow Foil

Royal Blue

Gold (/2022)

Green Foilboard (/499)

Advanced Stats (/300)

Orange Foilboard (/299)

Red Foilboard (/199)

Vintage Stock (/99)

Independence Day (/76)

Black (/71)

Father's Day Blue (/50)

Mother's Day Pink (/50)

Memorial Day Camo (/25)

1st Edition

1st Edition Gold

1st Edition Green (/150)

1st Edition Orange (/75)

1st Edition Red (/50)

1st Edition Black (/25)

5x7 (/49)

5x7 Gold (/10)

By my calculations, I only seem to be missing a few.

- Topps Premiere Party

- Topps Rip Party

- Platinum (/1)

- Printing Plate Black (/1)

- Printing Plate Cyan (/1)

- Printing Plate Magenta (/1)

- Printing Plate Yellow (/1)

- 1st Edition Hot Pink (/10)

- 1st Edition Light Blue (/5)

- 1st Edition Platinum Stars (/1)

 

I was surprised to see the 5x7, as I don't recall seeing it listed anywhere. I'm going to assume that I'm not going to find anything on this list that is numbered at five or one. I'm OK with that. The odds would definitely have to be in my favor to obtain six cards numbered to one.

This is the closest I have come to collecting a true rainbow. The hunt was just as fun as opening the cards. I chose Cesar Hernandez because he is already on another team. He isn't a superstar, so the prices wouldn't be astronomically priced. I could get the bulk of the rainbow under the radar.

As much as I would have loved chasing a rainbow for Luis Robert or Tim Anderson, I think this was the correct decision. If I happen to complete Robert or Anderson or any other White Sox card, I'm certainly not going to complain.

The Frustrations Of 1971 Topps

 

1971 Topps has got to be one of the most frustrating sets to collect. I can't even begin to imagine what patience it must take to collect the entire set. I'm getting frustrated just collecting the set for one team.

Finding an entire team set with near mint or better qualities is easy, if you feel like skipping your bills for a month. High quality condition cards can cost you a pretty penny. That's not even counting the high numbers, which can be astronomical to acquire. Most high numbers in fair condition will cost you an arm and a leg.

Not only are older cards harder to find in mint condition, the black that was used on the border is extremely prone to chipping. Even the best looking card may be foiled by the black color flaking away. Dinged and soft corners are another problem with this set. The black border really makes this stand out.

I am three cards away from completing the White Sox master team set from 1971 Topps. All three missing cards are high number cards. All three cards I have watched on auctions climb way out of my price range. I understand that the nature of these cards increases the price, but I find it hard to pay inflated prices for cardboard collectibles produced in the same decade I was born. Call it a principle, if you will.

I have this issue with a lot of vintage Topps products. I complete most of the cards in the team set, but struggle to get the high numbers. There are enough listings of these cards out there that I should be able to squeeze a bargain or two. Yes, the high numbers are rare, but not that rare.

I could settle for filler cards, but I don't want to. I shouldn't have to settle for filler cards for cards issued past 1950. Do I want the card just to have the card or do I want a decent example in my collection. If it's post WWII, chances are the answer is going to be best example out there. There just is a fine balance between financially affordable and high grade. It's an issue that I struggle with constantly. It also depends on the day, which I will prioritize.

It's always a good feeling when you hit that sweet spot. There are millions of online listings out there for cards. Not every card is going to sell for insane amounts of money. There will be some that slip through the cracks.

The last two years have been incredibly trying for the hobby, as thousands of people stuck home, found themselves with a lot of time on their hands. They tried to make money at card investing. This created a rabid marketplace, where people would try to swoop in and buy all the cards, so they can sell them online at a drastic markup. I'm all about free enterprise, but there are things that are frowned upon. Pack searching and secondary retail markup are some of the most rampant.

It wouldn't be so bad if the sellers would open the product and sell cards individually, but most of them would sell the unopened box for triple the cost or more. The sad fact is that most of them would get those prices because they had cleared out most stores of product. I work in retail and saw greedy adults swoop in and make children cry. I'm thankful that most of those extreme practices have subsided.

Vintage card collecting isn't nearly that cutthroat, but it can be close. I've had auctioned usurped last second. I've had auctions climb sky high in the last few minutes. I've seen inflated prices and questionable grading. Trust your instincts and your eyes. If it's too good to be true, it usually is.

Eventually, I will obtain the last three cards to complete the set. If I have enough luck and patience, I might just do it.

What Happened to 2010 Upper Deck Wave 2?

 

2010 Upper Deck was a gigantic middle finger to MLB and as a result, to the fans as well. Upper Deck responded to losing the MLB license similar to a vengeful toddler stealing cookies after being told they couldn't have any. The release became the pettiest excuse of a set, trying to push the envelope of what they could "accidentally" get away with. There were more logo slips than a Janet Jackson/Justin Timberlake Super Bowl routine. Logos were in your face, taunting MLB, implying that Upper Deck was above the law.

I definitely agree that logo-less uniforms seem amateurish and very beer softball league. In fact, I commented on that in a card spotlight (that evolved into a now deleted Baseball Digest post), turning Ron Karkovice's 1989 Upper Deck card into a logo-less softball card, removing logos from his jersey and hat, plus removing the logo from the edge of the card too. Karkovice looks like an electrician who is on a bar's sponsored softball pickup team. Not exactly a card someone would feel inclined to collect. The only difference is the lack of logos, but sometimes that makes all the difference. It's between a fully licensed card and one you cut out of the back of a box of macaroni and cheese.

That being said, being only licensed with the MLBPA does not mean your product is doomed to languish at the bottom of the bargain bin with most late 80's/early 90s junk wax. Panini does a wonderful job with their limitations and they truly seem to respect the game and their small part of it. I can't recall seeing a logo on a Panini product, but I certainly remember them on 2010 Upper Deck. All over the place. On the card pictured on this post, there are four instances of logos. One on each photo with the hat, one on the sleeve, one on the front of the jersey. A case could be argued for each photo of the hat. The X is only visible on the head shot. That's not too bad. The left side of the logo is visible on the main photo. Not horrible, but lazy. The alternate logo on the sleeve is in full view and there is no mistaking the top of the S on the jersey. Each logo slip is distinctive enough to realize what the logo is. All four together creates a terrible circumventing of the rules. It's fine if Upper Deck wants to be anti-establishment, but it should not have been surprised at the swift reaction and ban it got.

Under an agreement, Upper Deck was allowed to sell through it's existing inventory of product that was already released. This meant that the public was bombarded with 2010 Upper Deck Series One product for the rest of 2010. That brings me to Wave 2.

Wave 2 was supposed to be a fifty card extension released on or around May 4, 2010. It would be an extension that would be one card per fat pack or two cards per rack pack, to my understanding. There is not a checklist of what was supposed to be in this extension, that I could find. I would be very interested in knowing what was on that checklist.

Here's what makes Wave 2 intriguing to me. The lawsuit that ceased baseball operations for Upper Deck was finalized in March 2010. That was roughly two months before Wave 2 was supposed to drop. With that short window, I would believe that some cards were actually printed. At the time, I was actually expecting them to randomly show up in packs of remaining inventory. I thought that I had heard of a few cards doing exactly that, but I can find no evidence of that actually happening.

At this point, twelve years later, I would like a few things to happen. I would like to see a checklist of those cards. I would love to see pictures of each card that was in the set. The cards were definitely finalized by this point, so there should be at least a finalized mock up of each card. If any cards were printed, and they featured White Sox players, I would love to have them in my collection.

I understand that is a pretty tall order, but for someone who is still trying to complete White Sox related mirror card sets from 2008 (not to mention a complete set of Heritage from that year), I figured this would probably happen before I get those sets completed. One can always dream.

The First White Sox Card Of 2022 Is...

 

Liam Hendriks!!

I feel pumped for the 2022 season, that is if it will ever start. Millionaires fighting about money always seems to turn me away from a sport. Unfortunately, in the end it's all about both sides getting richer and the fan getting poorer. Yes, the players and the owners should be able to get their money. There is a balance, but the only ones that should be crying poor are the rookie minor league players. I guess, minor league players in general.

I realize there are other things on the table, but the major sticking point is money. An insane amount of money. If a compromise can be reached, these two entities should work together to strengthen the sport. The longer they squabble, the less interested the average fan becomes and the more money both parties lose.

I can remember being in elementary school and getting free tickets for good grades. I can also remember my dad getting free tickets through his work. They were almost always for the upper deck and we would sometimes exchange them for upgraded seats and we would cover the difference. That's part of what hooked me into the sport. I remember going to a lot of games growing up. Even if the majority of those were horrible teams, I still had a wonderful time. I got to see my heroes on the field. I have great memories of comebacks, the crowds, the plays, the near wins, the blowouts and the search for great ballpark food.

Baseball cards only helped enhance that experience. I could flip through my cards and the memories would come flooding back, even to this day. With my dad passing last year, these memories become even more important. Sure, those times of yesteryear will never be repeated, but the chance to make new experiences with my dad have seen their last game. Fortunately, I have the chance to do that with my own family. That is, if the owners and players association can come to a new agreement.

Until that is sorted out, I will continue to hope for the best. I'll keep opening packs and smiling at the wonders that I've uncovered. The search for my team and my favorite players is never ending. Along the way, I cherish the memories of yesterday and await the unknown experiences that lie ahead.

Open a pack and find your adventure.