Chipper Stack

My second largest player collection behind Ryan Klesko so far is likely Chipper Jones. I have a large stack of cards of his from the late 90s, early 2000s. He won the NL MVP in 1999, so I guess it makes sense that a lot of the cards I have of Chipper are from that time. It's rare to see a player stick with one team through his whole career these days, and Chipper was able to do that for 19 seasons with the Braves. 

Here are some of my favorites from the stack.

I appreciate this Vintage '61 from 1999 Fleer Tradition, made to look like 1961 Fleer. And honestly before seeing this card I didn't know that Fleer made sets that early on. Pretty good design for that early on. From reading, the original 1961 set featured players from baseball's history, from the 1800s to current players from that time. Would be neat to own a card from the original set.

I can check off the Chipper Jones from my 1999 Fleer Ultra team set wantlist. While the action shot of Chipper doesn't make the Andruw, it's still a nice looking card.

The backgrounds of these Ionix cards from Upper Deck just don't scan well, but I thought it did well enough to post here. A nice shot of Chipper's post swing.

The first card in this row is an insert from 2007 insert called Flashback Fridays. Maybe I should have saved talking about this set till a Friday, because I also have the Rafael Furcal from this set. From what I can find online, it looks like there were blasters of 2007 Topps that included 5 cards from this set as a 'starter'. Maybe someone who remembers can fill me in. This card really does have a flashback feel, as the back mentions this is part of a series on famous ballplayers, and each card has a tip on inside baseball. Sounds like something written on an older card to me.

This 2000 Topps Finest is one of my favorite Chipper cards, but it just didn't scan well. The background is supposed to be light blue and it of course is chrome-y. The background also has 1999 NL MVP written all over it, which you can't really tell in the scan. I had to include a card that mentions Chipper's MVP award. 

This card from 2003 Upper Deck Vintage might be my favorite in this stack. I always enjoy seeing the Braves throwback uniforms, and this card looks pretty close to the design of 2014 Topps Heritage, which I've already ranked #1 on my list of 2014 set releases, and of course looks like 1965 Topps. Interesting how Upper Deck was able to produce cards that look like an old Topps set. I am assuming there was some kind of deal made there, right?

Finally, a card with one of my all-time favorite Braves and my current favorite Brave, Freddie Freeman! Pretty cool to see them featured on the same card, this one from 2010 Bowman. The card points out how Chipper hit at least 20 home runs each season from 1995 through 2008. Pretty impressive.

2010 was the year Freeman made his major league debut. More hype surrounded Jason Heyward at the time than Freeman, but Freeman also looked very promising. I'm hoping Freeman will model Chipper in staying on with the Braves for his whole career.