Turtlenecks: A Mini-Collection Guide

1955 Topps Jim Gilliam BRO #5

Let me start by saying that I don't want every card in which a player is wearing a turtleneck. Wait, let me rephrase that. I do want every card. Period. But I won't consider every card of a player wearing a long-necked undergarment to be worthy of a place in this mini-collection. There are a lot of cards of players wearing something that looks like a turtleneck. Most of these are subtle. This collection ain't about subtle. If you find yourself asking the question, "Is that really a turtleneck," then the chances are good that it's not a card for The Turtleneck Collection. This one is not about quantity, it's about quality.

Granted, the distinctions will be arbitrary, entirely in the eye of the collector (me). But if we take a look at what's made the cut so far, some semblance of a general criteria might become more clear. To do this, we need just look to the sidebar for the brand-spankin'-new Mini-Collections links (or you can cheat and simply click here).

I'll wait...

Okay, you back yet? Pretty obvious turtleneck action, right? Although I'd say the Griffey is borderline. Lots of players were wearing that type of long-necked undershirt around that time. But, particularly with that close-up shot, and with the shadows falling in such a way as to emphasize the extra fabric in the neck region, it makes the cut. (Plus, superstar status has its privileges.)

Let's see a few examples of cards that don't make the cut. These cards made me take a closer look. The players are wearing undershirts with higher-than-usual necklines. They might technically be turtlenecks. But, ultimately, I found myself deliberating enough to raise doubt, so they don't go in the collection.

1990 Topps Traded Wax Bob Patterson PIT #88T
1974 Topps Dick Allen CHW #70

Does NOT Make the Cut

Does NOT Make the Cut

They both may be wearing turtlenecks, but they just don't stand out enough for me. Patterson is just too far away for the long neck to really make an impression. For an action shot to make the cut, it's got to be spectacular. Allen doesn't have much of a neck to cover, and yet there's plenty of exposed neck-flesh there, so it's just not good enough. (Now, if this were a glasses collection...)

Then there's this:

1990 Donruss Brian Meyer HOU #648

Does NOT Make the Cut

This is friggin' awesome, right? It's a lot of bonus fabric in the neck region. But it's not a turtleneck, so it ain't in this collection. I know that's obvious. I just wanted to show the card. It might be the best card in this horrendous set. I would love to own one of those jackets, myself!

Here are some things that can help to increase a card's chances of making the collection: exceptional height and/or bulkiness, a neck that's so long that the fabric has to be folded down upon itself, an area so large that a logo or team name can be prominently displayed on it... basically everything that Joe Carter's fabulous Toronto winter gear has going for it. That's why he's the collection's honorary host.

Here are a few more cards (which you just saw if you looked at the collection page) that are among those that have made the cut.

1993 Topps Scott Fletcher MIL #97
1992 Upper Deck Dave Henderson OAK #172

Fletcher's turtleneck is wrinkly, folded over, and has a logo on it. He's looking up to the sky, affording us a great view of the collectible garment. A pretty obvious call. Henderson's is borderline. But it has just enough bulk, and the advantage of contrasting color, to push it into the winner's circle. Ultimately, this is something upon which no two people will always agree. But it's my collection, so that's not really a problem. I know it's Random, but that's really what it's all about, so just go with it.

Before closing this out, I have to mention that the Junior Gilliam card that opened the post is yet another card from my Cousin Craig's childhood collection. That makes three awesome vintage cards for three different mini-collections, including '54 Topps Hoyt Wilhelm for Getting a Grip and, of course, the '54 Topps Jackie Robinson that leads off the 42 Collection. You'd think that he gave me hundreds of cards, but only a handful survived... you guessed it, his mother throwing them out. That whole 2010 Topps theme would have definitely struck a chord with him. You've already seen most of Craig's Gifts, with a few exceptional exceptions to come. Thanks again to Craig for his generosity, and to his mom (my Aunt Jackie) for sparing a few gems.

Getting a Grip: A Mini-Collection Guide

Okay, the four mini-collections have been revealed. Before this thing gets out of hand let's take a closer look at the particulars of each collection. I'm going to start with Getting a Grip because it's the biggest, most complicated, and my favorite of the four.

2013 Panini Triple Play Cartoon Stickers Knuckleball Grip #6

Reducing it to its simplest description, this is a collection of cards about gripping the ball or featuring pitchers showing their grip on the ball. I emphasize "showing" because that's the key. Appropriately, I'm going to show you some examples of cards that go into this collection.

1992 Pinnacle Randy Tomlin Grips PIT #606

The Panini sticker above and this entire Pinnacle subset are the most obvious and fundamental type of card for this collection: cards about grips.

2002 Topps Jon Lieber CHC #169
2012 Topps Heritage Francisco Cordero CIN #194
2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee Black Chan Ho Park PHI #416

These are the archetypal Getting a Grip card. The grip is the focal point of a posed shot. It was a very popular pose for pitchers in the 1950s, and it's a staple of modern Allen & Ginter sets. The pitcher may be holding the ball out in front of him, beside him, behind his head... anywhere, as long as he's posing and purposefully showing his grip on the ball.

1990 Topps Andy Hawkins NYY #335
1992 Upper Deck Jack Morris MIN #315

Unless the pitcher is taunting a batter by showing him what's coming, action shots aren't going to show up in this collection because pitchers don't show their grips during game action. However, they do sometimes show their catchers what type of pitch they're throwing while warming up, giving us a pseudo-action card type that does make it into Getting a Grip. It doesn't matter if the grip is being shown directly to the camera, as long as it's being shown.

Now let's take a look at a few cards that do not go in this collection:

2003 Donruss Francisco Rodriguez ANA #39
2003 Donruss Juan Cruz CHC #254

NOT Getting a Grip

NOT Getting a Grip

This gives me a chance to show two more great samples from Nick's recent trade package. As fabulous as they are, and as much I love having them, they don't belong in the Getting a Grip collection. K-Rod is posing, and you can see his grip on the ball, but he's not showing the grip. That's why Juan Cruz here, as with any action shot of a pitcher in his delivery, also does not qualify for this mini-collection, despite the fabulous view of his (palmball?) grip.

Finally, there are two specific types of cards that are about getting a grip, and therefore make this collection. There are two (legal) things that pitchers do to help get a grip.

2005 Topps Total Eric DuBose BAL #479

They use a rosin bag. So that's part of Getting a Grip.

1954 Bowman Virgil Trucks CHW #198

The other thing they do is rub up the baseball. So that's also part of Getting a Grip. Incidentally, Virgil Trucks is another of Craig's Gifts, the surviving portion of my cousin Craig's childhood collection that he gave to me back in the 1980s. Thanks again, Craig!

So that's Getting a Grip. Hopefully this was more informative than confusing. Considering that it was written by me, that's probably wishful thinking, but one can hope. I'll give it one more brief try:

Getting a Grip Includes:

• Cards about grips
• Cards with pitchers posing and showing grips
• Cards with pitchers warming up and showing grips to their catchers
• Cards with pitchers using the rosin bag
• Cards with pitchers rubbing up the baseball

I guess I could have just put it that way in the first place. But this blog just wouldn't be the same if I didn't ramble semi-coherently for much longer than necessary, would it?

Mini-Collecting: 42

In my last post I revealed that I was there the night Jackie Robinson's #42 was retired by Major League Baseball. I'm a Dodgers fan. And I'm a fan of civil rights (which is about as political as I want to get here). So this mini-collection seems like a natural for me.

I now collect cards of major league players wearing #42, after it was retired by MLB, and as long as they weren't among the thirteen players wearing the number in 1997 who were allowed to continue doing so. At first, that sounds like some kind of impossible brain teaser, until you remember that everyone now wears 42 on Jackie Robinson Day. So, in other words, I collect cards with pictures taken on Jackie Robinson Day, where you can clearly see the uniform number.

Here's what I've found so far.

2008 Upper Deck Rich Harden OAK #599

The number is featured so prominently on this card that even I managed to notice it. It's the card that got me thinking this would be a nice idea for a mini-collection. I frankly have no idea how prevalent such cards are. I haven't done any research, and I don't plan to, yet. I have no idea what year they began this tradition. I have a vague recollection that it was one player per team who wore 42 at one point. But I kinda want to find out about it as I go along and infer the facts from context.

Of course, I could have included the thirteen grandfathered players. For the record, here's the list: Mariano Rivera, Mo Vaughn, Jose Lima, Butch Huskey, Scott Karl, Tom Goodwin, Lenny Webster, Mike Jackson, Dennis Cook, Jason Schmidt, Buddy Groom, Kirk Rueter and Marc Sagmoen. The idea of getting people to send me all of their Mariano Rivera cards was a tempting pipe dream.

Actually, I do think I'll try to find one card for each of those players, if possible, which prominently shows the uniform number. That seems reasonable. (Though probably not possible. I'm looking at you, Marc Sagmoen.)

Oh yeah, and then there's this guy.

1954 Topps Jackie Robinson BRO #10

I know you can't see a uniform number, but I think we're probably all willing to give this guy a break, right? So this will be the honorary Jackie Robinson card for this collection. Incidentally, this is yet another card given to me by my cousin Craig about thirty years ago from what was left of his childhood collection. Truly a gift that keeps on giving.

That makes it three mini-collections, so far. I had ideas for about five or six others, but I don't want this getting out of control. Plus it's more fun when they mean something to you. So I'm just going to reveal one or two more, and leave it at that for now. Then I'll put together a little primer about the subtle details and other Random BS, and we'll be off and running with the Playing With My Cards mini-collections.

Whoo hoo! Long live the Random!

Speaking of Random, two pieces of trivia:

1) The last player to wear #42 for the Dodgers? Ray Lamb, 1969. Seriously.

2) I have not seen the movie, 42 (or Moneyball, for that matter). The answer to the question forming in your mind: many things. Many things are wrong with me. But I'm not sure which things, exactly, contribute to my delinquency in watching these films. I'll get around to it. I promise.

Mini-Collecting: Getting a Grip!

When I discussed the fruits of a recent trade with Nick at Dime Boxes, I mentioned that I had one more card to show. And I had a good reason to single it out, as it represents the honorary first card in my favorite mini-collection. This is appropriate since Nick is the king of such collections. I have no designs on usurping his throne, even if that were possible. But I just couldn't ignore the fun of this type of collecting. Let's play...

1960 Topps Fork & Knuckler: Roy Face/Hoyt Wilhelm #115

This is the card that cemented the deal. Even though you can't see the grips on the card, it's a card about grips, which certainly works for me.

I can't say things were the same for Nick, but I wouldn't be surprised if his collections just kinda found him, rather than the other way around. That's the way it's been for me. This one really started when I pulled a Steve Avery fastball grip card out of a pack of '92 Pinnacle a couple of weeks ago. Shortly thereafter, this card popped out of another pack:

1992 Pinnacle Tom Candiotti Grips LAD #610

Loving pitching as much as I do, I really dug this subset. And it had an effect on me

I started seeing grips...

1994 O-Pee-Chee Pete Harnisch HOU #73
1993 Bowman Blas Minor PIT #486

Then I started looking for grips...

1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Alejandro Pena PIT #458
1994 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Trevor Hoffman SDP #494

Then I remembered that I've got a grip...!

1954 Topps Hoyt Wilhelm NYG #36

And we come back to Hoyt Wilhelm, and his knuckleball. I should mention that this was another of my cousin Craig's gifts from his collecting days as a kid, like the Roy Campanella card that I showed on the very first post at this site. So it's come full circle. (Which reminds me, I gotta find a good circle change grip!)

There are some gray areas when it comes to Getting a Grip, but I'll discuss them in a few days, after I've revealed the rest of my new mini-collections.

Play Ball!

Whenever I would open packs or sort my cards as a kid, my Grandma would always observe that I was "playing with my cards." That used to piss me off. I was not playing with my cards. Baseball cards were serious business to me. Not in the sense of investment type business. But in the sense that they were more important to me than toys or running around and making noise. Baseball cards really meant something to me.

They still do. And my Grandma still insists on saying that I'm playing with my cards. But, you know what? She's right. Play is all about fun. And few things are more fun to me than collecting, looking at, trading and sorting baseball cards. Just as I would look forward to coming home from school as a kid and engaging with my collection, I look forward today, as a 43 year old, to coming home from work and playing with my cards. I'm no longer ashamed to say it.

And that's what this blog is going to be all about. I started Top of the Topps a couple of months ago as an excuse to, well, play with my cards some more. That blog has given me a reason to look more closely at the sets I grew up collecting and loving. The result has been to make me love them even more. In the course of working on that project, I've come to know and enjoy a number of different card blogs out there, and have even had the chance to get to know a few bloggers a little bit and exchange some cards. That experience made me really want to join the community, so to speak.

Here at Playing With My Cards, I intend to do just that. I'll talk about and show cards that I find interesting, maybe do a little trading, have a few contests... well, if you're here, you know what a card blog is all about. This will be my little playground. Hopefully some of you will join me for the fun.

I wanted to start things off by showing you all my favorite card, which also happens to ideally embody what this blog, as well as my feelings about cards, is all about. My cousin Craig (Grandpa's sister's son) gave me a handful of cards from his childhood about 25 years ago, when I was in high school. Like me, he was a Dodger fan. In fact, he was at game four of the 1959 World Series at the LA Coliseum. And, like me, he enjoyed playing with his cards. He loved this 1953 Topps Roy Campanella (#27) so much that he carried it around with him. When he gave it to me, I stuck it in with all of my other (smaller) cards, managing to mangle the top of the card even more. Now, I sometimes leave it sitting on my nightstand, just so I can see it often. It's a card that's been played with for sixty years, depicting a man who once said, "To be good you've gotta have a lot of little boy in you." That's what it's all about.