More Ripken Stacks

While the Braves are now below .500, the Orioles have kept on winning despite injuries and suspensions and are now division champs for the first time since 1997! And so, in honor of this, I'll post and talk about some of my favorite Ripken cards!

Turkey Red was one of my favorite basketball sets from the mid-2000s and I was pleased to come across this one in my stack of Cal cards. Just a unique set.

The card in the center from 2000 Upper Deck Ovation did not scan very well, but it's a cool design with most of the card being taken up by a baseball with a different texture there from the rest of the card.

If there's a player that belongs in a Pure Grit insert set, it's Cal. Not sure if I've mentioned this, but I also like shiny cards, and this insert is shiny, even if you can't tell from the scan.

Continuing the trend of cards that didn't scan well, this Piece of the Game insert from 1998 Pinnacle Plus mostly talks about Lou Gehrig on the back.

This 2000 Prism card actually scanned very well. The back of the card wastes so much space, as only one year of stats appears on the back. Cool card for sure, though.

And another favorite Topps brand, Gold Label. Just a great design and a card that I think I picked up at a card show back in the day. The card mentions one game against the Braves in June of 1999 where Cal scored 5 runs, the first time he'd managed that feat in his career.

On to the last row! This Flair Greats design isn't one of my favorite, but how can I not like a card picturing Cal from the early days of his career. I appreciate a card back that has a lot of stat, and this one has 16 years of stats, missing just the early years of his career.

This 1999 Revolution card scanned decently, but the gold and white really looks great with the Orioles uniforms.

And finally the card that I may as well not even post since it scanned so poorly, an insert from Fleer Focus called 'Focal Points', in case you can't read it in the scan (which you probably can't). This card has an orange background which you can't see in the scan, and goes nicely with the black Orioles uniform. I enjoy lesser known tidbits on the backs of cards, but this card tells about his home run total (over 400), hit total (over 3,000), and his two gold glove awards.

Getting close to documenting all the Ripken cards in my collection. More to post about soon!

From the Binder- Smokin' Smoltz

Continuing to share some of my collecting interests by getting card stacks into binders, I'll move onto one of the 'Big Three' in Atlanta during the 90s/early 2000s, John Smoltz.  Although I don't think it was a common nickname of his, I've always called him Smokin' Smoltz.  I won't go over his accolades as I'm sure if you are reading this blog you probably already are familiar with his career as a starter and closer.  I never did see Smoltz pitch in person, unfortunately, as his time in Richmond was when I was too young to know that baseball even existed.  

On his 1990 Donruss card you see a younger Smoltz without all the facial hair. Apparently there is an error card out there that shows a young Tom Glavine with an MVP background and John's name at the top.  If there's another card from 1990 Donruss to add to my collection, I'd say that's it.

The next two are Stadium Club releases from 1999 and 1997.  I thought the 99 version was a nice shot of Smoltz throwing right towards the camera.  The 1997 I added because that was a Stadium Club design I wasn't all that familiar with.

When I was younger I was all about trading for cards from Topps Gold Label, although I couldn't afford to buy packs of them for myself at the time.  Glad to have this version in my collection.

I was more limited to my good friends from Collector's Choice.  I've got a number of these All-Star Connection inserts from the 1997 set.  Again, the scan doesn't do the card justice.

Again, the scan on this 2000 Pacific Prism card just isn't as impressive as how the card looks in hand.  Maybe at some point I'll go after some of the parallel versions of this card.

The current Braves have a good staff of starting pitchers despite some injuries, especially some guys who have unexpectedly had pretty great years for their salaries such as Aaron Harang.  But it would take a group of special players to top the trio of Maddux, Glavine, and Smoltz.