- The Christmas Crush is on. Less than 2 weeks to go, and I'm going away for a couple of days during the holiday. I'm going to have to find a way to put 25 posts together to get to the 400 plateau by years end. I know, 3 lines per card, it shouldn't be hard, right?
- This card's scan appears as if it's snowing. Well, it is probably snowing in Cleveland right now.
- Ugh. Career home run #143 was the first of 4 straight home runs off my beloved Blue Jays. This one was hit May 23rd, 1998 off of Roger Clemens, a shot down the left field line in Jacobs Field. It tied the game at 1-1 in the 2nd inning, but Toronto would take over, scoring 2 runs in each of innings 4, 5 and 6 to win 7-2.
- Robert
- It's been very disheartening to hear all the trade rumors swirling with Andrew's name. It's a shame that a star like Andrew should be just another chip off the old trade block.
- Love the scan, kind of a greenish yellow tint to it. I looked at other cards from this set and they seem to scan the same. Speaking of scans, this one was not added to the Trading Card Database, so I made the effort of adding it in.
- Needs 196 hits to reach 1500 for his career. If he stays healthy, I think 2500 career hits is quite likely, but 3000 would be long shot. He'd have to play into his early 40's in my opinion to hit that golden number...
- Robert
- The cavalcade of parallels and variations of Brett's 2012 Topps card ends here, with the mini version, which can easily be made to look as large as any of the other cards shown to date.
- It's amazing to see the range of prices on cards sometimes on COMC. This card is a good example. 13 copies up for sale currently, low end is 40 cents, mid range 75 cents. Perfectly acceptable. High end....$2.75? Really? Guess people don't mind having their cards sit forever.
- I see that Brett is signed with the White Sox for 2017, $3.5 million. The way things are shaping up on the south side, he may need a program to tell him who his teammates are when spring training rolls around.
- Robert
- If you think that my frugal nature when it comes to cards was born when I started the "$30 a week habit" blog, think again. I waited 15 years to buy this card. Why? Every copy I came across the price was too high. It has an 8x multiplier on it, and I refused to pay double digits for the Gold version. I finally found it for $8 a few years ago...
- None the less, I love the card. Finally landing this was one of the highlights of my Sakic collecting "career".
- I noticed that directly behind Joe you'll see two women sitting in the 2nd row behind the glass. I can't say that I've ever seen women shown on a hockey card in the crowd. Baseball I know I've seen, but not hockey. The things you notice sometimes.
- Robert
- 1995-96 was a killer year for hockey cards for me. Not only did my love for parallels start the year before with the Electric Ice parallels, the Special Edition cards and the Players Choice Parallel set from Collector's Choice really turned me into a junkie.
- The Special Edition set wasn't a direct parallel per se, it was a 180 card release that came one card per hobby pack. I never did finish it, but I still have a brick of these somewhere. Some day....some day...
- If you ever get a chance, do a search for the Paul Coffey version of this card. The image of him with an octopus on the end of his stick is an image you'll not soon forget.
- Robert
- I would say I was playing detective by identifying that the Blues player is Shayne Corson, but really I'd be more of a junior grade beat cop. Anybody who follows hockey regularly could put that together....
- Bio on the back: John Davidson provides the commentary here "An explosive player, Sakic does everything at a high level of speed." Very true. Joe had the skill to process situations very quickly and make good decisions more often than not.
- Only one copy of this card is currently for sale on COMC. 60 cents. Fair if you ask me.
- Robert
- I need to pay better attention. It wasn't until only recently that I noticed that these cards aren't licensed by MLB. Only the MLBPA. I guess I never really clued in because Pacific included the team logo on the cards.
- Bio on the back: Pacific mentions that Jim was also a basketball star in high school, and he played both b-ball's at Illinois Central College.
- The Indians 1st round pick the year Jim was selected (1989) was Calvin Murray, an outfielder from the U. of Texas. Murray didn't play a game in the majors until 10 years later with Giants, and only played a total of 288 games over 5 seasons in the bigs.
- Robert
- Pulled this out of the binder this morning, and I think to myself "Pinnacle Performers"?? After doing a little research, I find out that this was the second to last set that Pinnacle released before they went bankrupt. It was all veterans, no rookie cards at all, and was priced at $1.99 for an eight card pack.
- Rarity: Umpire in the background of the card. Don't have too many cards that feature an umpire anymore. I could probably count the ones I have on one hand.
- The back of the card breaks down the '97 season for Jim by month. He hit the most homers in June (12), which was also the month that he played in the fewest games (22).
- Robert
- Wow, the scan turned out way better than I thought it would. At certain angles in hand, the writing on the card may as well be invisible.
- It would have been nice if this card had a bio on the back instead of the 2nd and 3rd photo. I get that you're trying to keep up with UD, but 3 photos is a bit much for my taste.
- Career goal #140 for Joe was his 20th of the 1991-92 season, and it came as part of a 3 point night against the Red Wings. The game ended in a 4-4 tie, and Detroit's goalie that night was Tim Cheveldae.
- Robert
- Similar to the scans of the other two Metal cards from earlier this week, the Fleer Metal logo in the upper right corner is unreadable. The background to me looks like a blurry finger print.
- All the back of the card features is 4 bars with previous season and career totals for games played, goals, assists and points. Meh.
- Checked the price range for this card on COMC, it's very tight. 96 cents for the low, 99 cents for the high. The user ID for the 99 cent card? "Morecowbell" SNL fans will get the reference there. If not, have fun on YouTube here.
- Robert
