- When I first pulled this out of the page I thought it was a SP Authentic card. The design, especially the red bars, reminds me of a speeding train...
- Good photo, Jim's face very intent on receiving the ball from one of his fellow infielders.
- 3 copies of the card on COMC right now, ranging from $1.25 to $1.85. A bit expensive for a base card if you ask me.
- Robert
- Hot damn! This beauty arrived on my doorstep the day after Christmas courtesy of a surprise envelope from Dennis at the Too Many Verlanders blog. Need it!
- Not cheap either. COMC has 2 copies, one listed at $3.50, and the other at $5.25.
- It also surprised me that this hadn't been added to the TCDB yet. I submitted it just before posting...
- I may have to go and buy a couple of cards at a buck or two now just to celebrate. Thank you Dennis!
- Robert
- Got lucky and found this card for 95 cents on COMC. I've had a tough time finding Sakic parallels from the late 90's for less than a dollar.
- Added this to the Trading Card Database; was surprised that it wasn't already there.
- As I mentioned on my main blog a couple days ago, the scanner doesn't do the card justice. It looks much better in hand.
- I've hit the 700 card mark for my Sakic PC, and that's not counting jersey cards which I keep separate from the binders. It's getting tougher to find cards on the cheap as the number of base cards is dwindling.
- Robert
- Same only different. The only difference from last night's card to this one is the gold tint. Scan makes it look different because you can't see the players in the background.
- Kind of surprised that this wasn't added to the TCDB yet. That's been taken care of.
- 4 copies of the card currently on COMC. 3 priced at $1.40, the 4th at $1.45. Man that's a tight range...The cheapest base card from last night is $1, a little overpriced if you ask me.
- Robert
- Yes, that's none other than Doug Weight trying to check Sakic off of the puck. That's a battle of two great centers for sure!!
- Early start: Interesting that UD in Joe's bio already mentioned his start in the 98-99 season; they stated that in the first two weeks of the season he already had a pair of 3 point games.
- I don't mind this design from Upper Deck, although I would like to have seen the foil borders on either side of the photo a little smaller, and straighter.
- Robert
- Spring training duds for sure. I'm guessing that he's kneeling at second base after hitting a double...
- Bio on the back: "Thome has been giving the fans at Jacobs Field thrills since the mid 1990s and shows no signs of stopping." I will be thrilled if he gets elected to Cooperstown in a few weeks. Saw an early vote count that shows him on nearly 90% of the early ballots (as my memory serves).
- I don't ever remember seeing this set in stores. It's only 90 cards, so it almost makes me think of it as a large insert set rather than a pack release. 40 of the 90 players featured are in the HOF. Here's hoping #41 isn't too far off...
- Robert
- Start the 98-99 Sakic collection off with one of the more expensive releases at the time, Finest. It's interesting that the Trading Card Database doesn't list the card as Topps Finest, but just Finest.
- No peel, no way, no how. Never.
- I do like the skate marks on the side of the card, something different and it looks good.
- Same as this morning's Ichiro card, the cheapest copy of this on COMC is 64 cents. The others range from 73 cents to $1.24. Right on target price wise...
- Robert
- A-Rod in the background? Sure looks like him to me.
- I really like the emerald green accents that the card has. They don't take over the card, but add enough to make you aware that it's a Mariners player on the card (you know, besides the logo).
- Game #12 saw Ichiro extend his hit streak to 10 games with a leadoff single in the 9th inning. Nothing like waiting to the very end, huh?
- 20 copies of this card currently on COMC, ranging from 64 cents (about right) to $1.75 (a bit much). There's also a die cut version of this card, which I don't think I'll chase, but won't be upset if it lands on my doorstep....
- Robert
- Previous versions of Ovation were better, especially those with the cards that felt like the stitches of a baseball.
- 2002 Ovation had 180 cards. Ichiro was featured in 7 of them. Superstar? You bet.
- Game #11: Ichiro goes 1 for 4, running his hit streak to 9 games. 12 of the 14 hits he has during the streak are singles, and the Mariners are 7-2 in those contests.
- Robert
- Parallel on the brain: Took this card out of the binder, saw the red script and immediately thought parallel. Nope, this is a base card.
- With the two baseballs on the front of the card, how cool would it have been if UD could have found a photo with Jim making contact with the ball?
- Six copies of this card on COMC right now, ranging from 65 cents (not bad) to $2.75 (yikes!). Hopefully those sellers at the higher end realize some day that this is a base card.
- Robert
- It's interesting what happens to some cards when they go into a scanner. This card in hand is bluish in color, and as you can plainly see it scanned green. Looks good to me though...
- Unless I find a stash of Sakic cards somewhere that I didn't know I had, this is the final 97-98 card that I have in the binder.
- Only 4 copies of this card currently on COMC. The cheaper 3 are all under $2, which isn't bad for a SP Authentic insert card. $3.65 is the higher priced card, maybe a tad expensive but not totally unreasonable.
- Robert
- Already the 24th card from 2016 in my McCutchen collection. Will probably end up with at least another page of cards by the time it's done.
- It will be interesting to see what happens with Cutch this year. Have recently started seeing Gerrit Cole rumors, and if the Pirates star pitcher is traded, can Cutch be far behind?
- Currently 8 copies of this card on COMC, cheapest at 82 cents, highest price is $1. That's a pretty tight range; usually that many copies of a single card has a wider variation.
- Robert
- I guess people will be able to tell when I've hit a card show or ordered from COMC, as there usually ends up being quite a few consecutive cards of one of my smaller PC players. I still have a couple more Cutch cards to post.
- I must have missed a few games over the past couple of years; I don't remember seeing Andrew with a beard that looks like this. Ever.
- Career home run #110 was hit on 6/6/2014 against Kyle Lohse of the Milwaukee Brewers. It was a solo shot in the 3rd inning that would put the Bucs ahead 3-0 on their way to a 15-5 trouncing of the Crew. 7 different Pirates would have 2 hits or more that evening.
- Robert
- Do you remember when you were a kid, and you would stand up against a door frame and your parents would measure you and put a mark on the wall? That's what this card reminds me of.
- Also, Jim's left leg. All the white at the bottom of the card made 1st base disappear, and it looks as if he's holding his foot in the air for no reason.
- Career home run #264 was hit 7/22/2001 off of Detroit's Jeff Weaver. It was a 3-run shot that broke a 1-1 tie and propelled the Indians to a 6-3 win. The ageless one Bartolo Colon pitched 5 innings, giving up 2 runs for his 9th win of the season.
- Robert
- Wasn't exactly sure if I had this card when I was at the card show a couple of weekends back. I had it in my mind that I did, but I figured for 20 cents, I'd take a chance. Need it!!
- OK, now I just need the blue, orange, metallic, green and gold parallels to go with it. Well, the metallic is SN out of 1, so that probably will not be happening.
- Bio on the back: "Topped circuit on OBP and OPS in 2014." OBP I can see because his average was over .300 then and he took a lot of walks, but OPS? Surprised that there wasn't a slugger out there that didn't fare better than him in OPS.
- Robert
- 1st multi-player card that I've featured for Ichiro. Quite a few good players listed in the top 10 in the AL batting average race, including Juan Gonzalez (6th), A-Rod (7th) and Derek Jeter (9th).
- 4 of the top 10 hitters had 200 or more hits. Giambi reached base over 300 times that year (178 hits, 129 BB).
- I loved the Vintage release from 2002. Black borders are always a hit, and the yellow back was a nice contrast.
- Interesting stat: Ichiro loved the 2nd pitch in the 2001 season. On the 2nd pitch (count being 0-1 or 1-0), Ichiro hit an incredible .424 (67/158).
- Robert
- Showed this card off on the main blog last night; thanks again to Mark for sending it my way via PWE!
- Just above Andrew's name, the design of the card reminds me of a Band-Aid.
- The card number on the back was quite difficult to find for a moment. I'm so used to looking at the top of a card to find the number, in this case it was on the lower left corner above the Topps name.
- Quite a few copies of this card on COMC right now, 26 of them ranging in price from 40 cents to $1.25. Surprising that there's cards from this release as cheap as 40 cents...
- Robert
- No stats on the back, they're right on the front for you! Simple math, .352 average in his first 1000 AB's is an incredible stat, something right out of the early 20th century.
- Love how the copy of the game cards shows Ichiro's card as a stolen base. He had a few of those (87 to be exact) during his first 2 MLB seasons.
- Hit #9 was in his 3rd at bat on 4/7/01 against the Rangers Doug Davis. Ichiro would later score on a bases loaded walk to John Olerud.
- After that game, Ichiro's .417 average didn't even lead his own team, let alone the league. Edgar Martinez was hitting a sizzling .611 to start the season for the M's.
- Robert
- Another card with a smear on it. I'm wondering if the glass on the scanner needs cleaned.
- Sawed off. I had to take a closer look, but it appears that Jim's bat is sawed off and resembles a toothpick. That's something you don't see on cards very often.
- I was surprised to see that this wasn't scanned on to the Trading Card Database. Hopefully my scans are added...
- 6 copies of this card currently on COMC. Cheapest at 74 cents, costliest is $1.75. Somewhere in the middle is probably the most I'd pay for the card if I had to buy it again.
- Robert
- Almost looks like a smear on the right hand side of the card, over Joe's left shoulder. It's invisible on the card when in hand.
- It's amazing how the card is silver foil, but the silver scans blue. It looks better to me on the scan than it does in hand, smear aside.
- Bio on the back: "...Colorado's captain heads into 1997-98 needing 126 points to pass Michel Goulet for 2nd on the franchise's all time scoring list." I guess we all know how that turned out.
- Robert
- The scan does this card no justice, it looks much better in hand.
- This was part of a 20 card insert set featuring a lot of the games great players. In my opinion, the Sakic card looks a little bland compared to others such as Lindros and Bourque. The orange and yellow on those 2 cards really jumps at you, while the blue on Sakic is a little more muted.
- Only 2 copies of this card on COMC right now; one lists for $3, and the other lists for $3.58. That's actually not bad at all, compared to the lone Gretzky card which is listed for $59.25 (about 40 bucks more than it should be listed for).
- Robert
- 192 singles in a season. Let's wrap our heads around that for a second. There were only 4 players in 2017 that had more than 192 hits (Blackmon, Altuve, Inciarte, Gordon---Hosmer had 192). Of those 4, only Dee Gordon came reasonably close with 170 singles. That might be another number we don't see surpassed for decades.
- I thought that the AL record for singles might have been a lot older than it was, but Ichiro broke Wade Boggs' 1985 record of 187 singles.
- Career hit #8 was Ichiro's first game winning hit, a 2 run homer in the top of the 10th for his 4th hit of the game against the Rangers. Jeff Zimmerman gave up the homer as the Mariners won 9-7.
- Robert
- The card is very glossy, but I was surprised at how bright it scanned. The bottom of the card looks worse on the scan than in hand, as the brown bar looks a bit like a glove.
- Bio on the back: "Ranks fifth among actives with .410 OBP." That's quite a number indeed, would love to know the four that ranked ahead of him at the time.
- Career home run #262 came off of the White Sox' Sean Lowe, 7/19/01. It was his 2nd in as many days, a solo shot that put the Indians ahead 4-0 on their way to a 10-3 victory. Dave Burba won his 9th game, not bad despite having an ERA of 6.01 after this start.
- Robert
- 116 victories. That's a .716 winning percentage. Don't think that I'll see that kind of season again in my lifetime.
- Dig the shades. Not even the normal flip down style that most players use. Leave it to Ichiro to employ his own style.
- Hit #7 was a single to left off of Mike Venafro, who was brought in the game on 4/6/01 to get the left on left matchup. Didn't work. Ichiro would be stranded at 2nd base.
- Robert
- Fantastic. No other words to justify describing this card for me.
- Bio on the back: "Has added 40 pounds to frame through hard work since 1991 rookie season." I've done the same in the 8 years I've been at my current position, but that's mostly due to sitting on my ass for 8 hours a day.
- I would love to see another Topps Gallery release sometime in the near future. The artists do some great work on these cards.
- Robert
- I really like this design; I remember that Zenith always did a good job with their products. I also remember it being quite expensive which is what turned me off from purchasing it.
- Was shocked to see that this card wasn't submitted to the TCDB. Took care of that.
- I was also surprised that the TCDB just calls this set "Zenith" instead of Pinnacle Zenith. Wonder why that is.
- Instead of a bio on the back, Zenith broke up Joe's 96-97 stats into home and away games. Not a big difference in points per game; 41 points in 37 home games, 33 points in 28 away contests.
- Robert
- Never was a really big fan of the design. Maybe one of few UD designs I didn't really enjoy.
- Bio on the back. Upper Deck actually wrote a two line blurb about Ichiro on the top of the checklist. He hit a homer in Seattle's 61st game to become the fastest player to reach 100 hits in Mariners history.
- Hit #6 was his 2nd hit in as many innings against the Rangers on 4/6/01. It was a single to lead off the 2nd, but he would advance only as far as 2nd base this time around.
- 13 copies of this card currently on COMC, ranging from 69 cents to $1.25. I'm guessing that's about normal for Ichiro?
- Robert
- OK, I'm sure it's been said hundreds of times by hundreds of other collectors, bloggers, etc., but I'm going to say it again. Who in the hell thought about putting cards in a can?
- This is actually a decent design, and may have done better if people were able to rip it out of packs. What a pain in the ass the cans were to open.
- Base card goes for a buck on COMC. Just about standard any more for Sakic base cards. There's a coaches collection parallel (which just appears to be bronze foil instead of silver) which sells for $2.48 to $2.74.
- Didn't realize it until I finished the post and set it for publishing, this is post #750. Approaching the end of year 2, I'm glad that I've been able to post this many times, even if it is just 3 or 4 lines.
- Robert
- When you create a set based on the Top 10 players in a category, it's almost as if you're creating it for stars like Ichiro. 7 base cards and 7 matching die cuts.
- Some of the names on the top 10 for stolen bases on the back bring back some memories. Juan Pierre, Bob Abreu and Chuck Knoblauch all had some great seasons. Some more than others...
- Hit #5 for Ichiro was his first XB hit, a double to right in the first inning on April 6/01 against the Rangers Rick Helling. He wouldn't stay at second long, Mark McLemore would hit a 2 run homer next.
- Robert
- Not a bad looking front, although I could do without the photo on the left hand side that looks as if Jim has been put in jail.
- I thought that Game Time was a bigger set than the 121 cards it actually is. I remember buying packs of this many many years ago. Maybe it's another set I'm thinking of.
- Career home run #260 broke a streak of 12 straight dingers at home. This one was hit in Cincinnati off of the Reds Chris Reitsma. It was in the 2nd inning, a solo shot that would give the Indians the only run they needed in a 7-0 blanking of their Ohio foes.
- Robert
- Fantastic shot of Ichiro laying a bunt down. I have a feeling that adding Ichiro to my PC's is going to lead to a myriad of great photos. Looking forward to it...
- I'll be damned if I can remember Fleer Maximum at all. Anybody remember buying packs of this 15 years ago?
- Career hit #4 came in the at bat following his 3rd. It was a single off Gil Heredia of the A's. Ichiro didn't make it past first base.
- I should be able to make a nice dent into the Ichiro collection quickly if most of his cards are as cheap as this one. 40 cents on COMC is very affordable.
- Robert
- Had one heckuva time finding this on the trading card database. I knew I had checked it off my list, but couldn't remember exactly where. I then realized that it's a "1997" card, instead of a 97-98.
- The Maple Leaf on the Canadian flag looks a little squashed, don't you think?
- This was part of a 6 card foil subset, the other 5 players were Lindros, Roy, Kariya, Messier and Arnott. All but one in the HHOF.
- The only copy of this card on COMC is listed at $2.75; I'm kind of surprised it isn't higher.
- Robert
- One of 6 Upper Deck cards of Ichiro from 2002. My ebay purchase netted me 4 of the 6.
- Appears to be a spring training jersey that Ichiro is wearing in the photo; it almost looks like a windbreaker rather than a jersey.
- After going hitless in game 2 of his career, Ichiro didn't waste any time in game #3, his third career hit being a single to right. He would score later on a ground out by Bret Boone.
- Robert
- Look up. Wayyyyy up.
- Can't say that I remember this set when it was released, but it isn't very big, just 135 cards total. It does contain serial numbered RC's of Albert Pujols and Ichiro, both limited to 500 copies.
- I'm guessing that it would have made a little more sense to include players that won Gold Gloves in the set. Jim never did win a gold glove, just one silver slugger award (1996).
- Robert
- Back to back Fleer Platinum cards to start off the Ichiro collection. It didn't take manufacturers long to jump on the bandwagon; there are 477 cards of Ichiro in his debut 2001 season.
- Yesterday's card was $1.24 for the cheapest copy on COMC. Today's cheapest copy of this card is $1.
- Career hit #2 was just one inning after his first. It was a bunt single in the 8th inning against the A's. 3 batters later John Olerud singles in a run and the Mariners take the lead 5-4. Kazuhiro Sasaki would come in for the save in the ninth to start the M's season off right.
- Robert
- I'm imagining Joe coming out from behind his own net, leading the rush on the power play. That's the image I get when I see this card.
- Interesting how the silver bar with Joe's position on the right scanned gold, but in hand it's silver. The full bleed photo on this card definitely helps the old phrase "less is more" come to light...
- The base card currently has a range of 87 cents to $1.25 on COMC. Not bad. The lone rink collection parallel, which I need, is listed at $2.75. If it didn't have corner wear, I might have bought it this evening.
- Robert
- Part of the recent ebay lot of Ichiro cards I picked up, this is the first of hopefully many Ichiro cards I'll be able to show.
- One of the things I have always enjoyed about Ichiro is his hitting ability, especially the way he can almost steer the baseball to whatever part of the field he desires. I plan to go through his hits (instead of homers or goals) one by one. He has over 3000 MLB hits as everyone knows, so there's lot of hits to go over.
- Ichiro's first hit came in his first game, 4th at bat, against TJ Matthews of the Oakland A's. It was a single to center field, and two batters later he scored his first MLB run on a single by Edgar Martinez.
- Robert
- Similar to last night's Bowman Chrome card, this Donruss Elite scanned "dirty". It even looks as if there's a chalk mark on the card, which isn't visible in hand.
- 2 copies of this card currently on COMC, cheapest being $1. There are three "Primary Colors" variations, one of which is red and #'d to 975. That was priced at 74 cents (the cheapest one was anyhow) and it's now in my cart.
- Before I moved from PA, I frequented a hobby shop that had Thome singles priced at $1 apiece. I always thought that base cards for a buck for Jim were a bit pricey, but now that I look at COMC regularly, I wish I had bought more back then...
- Robert
- The Chrome cards make me chuckle sometimes after they're scanned; this card scan makes it look like the card is filthy.
- Bio on the back: "Slams high fastballs out of sight". Hard to beat that description.
- Career home run #257 was Jim's 2nd of 3 homers that he hit on 7/6/01 against the Cardinals. It was also the 2nd homer off of Matt Morris, and his 10th consecutive HR at home as the Tribe hammered the Cards 14-2.
- Robert
- Donruss Classics might be the name, but a classic design this is not.
- Bio on the back: this is one of a few cards that mentions the 100+RBI & 100+walk season that he had the previous season. It also mentions that Jim tied a club record with his 7th straight 20+HR season. He would break that record in 2001
- Not a whole lot of cards in this release for Jim, just 2 as a matter of fact. I need the timeless tributes parallel #'d to 100. I found one copy of the card on ebay, priced at $51.78. Guess it might be a while before I pick up that parallel...
- Robert
- I remember this product very well. Paid around $70 for a box, the autograph I got was some common player, and I felt very empty at the end.
- I'm sure that one day I'll end up with the autographed version of this card; I'll probably have to pay more than half of what I paid for the box two decades ago.
- This is the first of several Pinnacle cards from 97-98 that I have yet to show.
- Maybe one of the cheaper base cards of Joe, there are currently 5 copies of this card on COMC, with the cheapest being 74 cents.
- Robert
- An easy card detective this time around; that's Philly's Eric Desjardins checking Joe on the front.
- The border is actually silver, not black as it scanned. It's interesting how the card looks with the black border; the border reminds me of snow falling in the middle of the night on a dark street.
- COMC has 5 copies of this card currently, the cheapest priced at 93 cents. There also is a Prime Numbers insert (which I need) that is priced at $30.25. Interestingly, the Prime Numbers insert is numbered out of 307, which was the number of career goals Joe had scored by the end of the 96-97 season.
- Robert
- Never understood the red shading below Jim's name on the card. Have no idea why UD did that.
- Otherwise it's a great photo, Jim just out of the batters box following a recently hit ball.
- Bio on the back: The UD card also mentions that Jim was third in walks in the AL, just as the Bowman card last night did.
- Career homer #25 was Jim's 8th straight homer at home, hit July 1st, 2002 versus KC's Dan Reichert. It was a 2-run shot in the middle of a wild high scoring affair, which the Indians eventually lost 13-11.
- Robert
- Simple design, black border and nothing else fancy. Great looking card in my opinion.
- Bio on the back: Ranked third in AL in walks (116) and 10th in hits in 2000. Had to look up the # of hits Jim had in 2000, and was surprised that 150 hits was good enough for 10th overall in the AL.
- Glad I didn't have to still buy this card....it's listed currently on COMC for 85 cents. I'm hoping to find a couple of cheap cards of Jim at the site this evening...
- Robert
- Love. This. Photo. The concentration on Jim's face is in sharp focus on this card.
- Jim's 253rd career homer was his 6th consecutive homer at Jacob's Field. It was hit 6/19/01 vs. Minnesota's Eric Milton. It was a solo shot to bring the Tribe to within 6-3, and the game would go to 12 innings before the Twins won 10-9.
- Sticking with the COMC holiday weekend sale, this card is listed at $1.05 on the site. Both of the inserts are 40-50 cents cheaper. Crazy.
- Scanned a lot darker, typical of silver foil cards. Still I like the design, simple but different with the generations vertically on the card.
- You know, I thought about 2 weeks ago that I was running out of 97-98 cards. I counted just before I started this post, and I have 10 more to go. Yikes...
- COMC started their Black Friday sale, so I decided to check on this card for pricing. No copies of this card, but the gold die cut version is listed for $20. It's limited to 100 copies, but there's no way I'm paying that much.
- Robert
- The refractor definitely scanned much better than the regular base card did. Love how the dots/holes in the background pop with a gold tinge to them.
- This is the final card of Andrew from my last COMC order, finally cleaning off my desk. This morning's base card was just 34 cents, while the refractor was very cheap (in my eyes) at just 40 cents.
- Another card added to the Trading Card Database. It amazes me sometimes just how many cards of star players haven't been added yet. The site is currently at 2.12 million cards added.
- Robert
- The dots or holes or whatever those are in the background remind me of the punchboard game on the Price is Right.
- Drafted ahead of him: Justin Upton was drafted first overall in 2005, 10 spots ahead of Andrew. Justin was one of only 2 HS players drafted ahead of Andrew (the other being Cameron Maybin).
- Career homer #105 was hit 4/21/13 against Manny Parra of the Reds. It was a solo shot in the eighth inning that tied the game at 5-5; the Pirates would go on to win the game with another run in the bottom of the 9th off of J.J. Hoover.
- Robert
- Collectors choice was never much for inserts; 97-98 saw the normal Starquest and Crash the Game inserts along with a Stick 'um card, but this was the closest thing to a "real insert" card that CC released. Not bad.
- I like how the back talked about his gold medal at the '94 World Championships and the silver at the '91 WC. Within a decade he would add a couple of Olympic gold medals to his resume.
- The cheapest copy of this card right now on COMC is actually a penny cheaper than the cheapest base card. All the other inserts are priced more than a dollar, while this is listed at 55 cents.
- Robert
- Part of a very large (for Upper Deck) 60 card insert set. Most of the big name stars are there, even some 2nd tier stars such as Ziggy Palffy and Ed Jovanoski are part of the set.
- I was very surprised to see that this wasn't submitted to the TCDB as of yet. As usual, I took care of that.
- Career goal #268 came on 2/3/96 vs. the Rangers. It was one of 2 goals on the night for Joe as the Avs handled the Broadway Blueshirts 7-1. Glenn Healy was the victim that night for both goals.
- Robert
