Ginter Gap Cards #4

The fourth installment of Ginter Gap cards - custom A&G cards with subjects that Topps didn't include - uses the 2024 design.  

It's unfortunate that this tribute comes at the time of Bob Uecker's passing.  I won't go into his career and biography, since almost everyone that knows baseball knows who he is.  Just check out some of his appearances on the Tonight Show with Johnny Carson via YouTube if you want a good laugh.

I took a bit of a liberty and moved the Topps name from between the subject name and the A&G wordmark.  It seemed so crammed in there.  

This picture is somewhat more square, so there's a lot of headroom (and background to fill in when I removed the player that was in the original template image.)

You can see that Kirby is shown from halfway to his beltline, while Uecker's image stops just below the collar.  It didn't take me nearly as long as it typically does to create the framework and then integrate the image in it.  

I actually started with the name.  I moved the "U" on top of the "P" and then copied the "E" into the space that was created.  That gave me "UECKE", so I just had to find an "R".  It came from Gunnar Henderson.  That "R" was out in the middle of a bright background of the same color, so it pasted right in.

Then all that was left was to adjust and fill in the background around him.  And paste over the side "rails" where the image covered them, or extend the blue areas of his jacket to meet the side edges.  And voilà!

Auspicious Beginnings And A Melancholy End

It usually doesn't take a whole lot for me to collect a certain player.  But in the case of Brian Matusz, it was a lot more than usual.  I never met him in person, but the connection was closer than most other players I follow.  He wasn't a superstar, but I rooted for the guy more than anyone else I ever watched.

Brian was found deceased in his home this past Monday, January 8.  Phoenix authorities are still investigating and have not released the cause of death.  

As described in the linked article above and many others, Matusz was an Orioles starter for a few years and did OK, but then extended his career in 2012 by moving to relief.  He continued in this role for a few more years.  He was well known for being able to strike out David "Big Papi" Ortiz 13 times out of their 29 matchups with only four hits and no homers.  He was traded to the Braves after his numbers declined in 2016, but didn't last long.  He caught on with the Cubs just enough to earn a World Series ring.  He spent a couple more years in the minors and Mexican League before retiring in 2019.

I first saw him when he was with my hometown minor league Frederick Keys.  I was at his debut game there, and then also happened to be at his major league debut in Detroit while visiting Stuart.  Ironically, that was also the same date (Aug 4) as the debut of another of my Oriole PC's Mike Mussina.  During his time here, Matusz lived in the neighborhood in Frederick that was managed by another good friend of mine.

So all that inspired one of my first "supercollections".  Here is my attempt to show it all to you.  Please forgive the reflections.  I can't ever take photos without reflections fogging up the images no matter what angle or lighting I use.  I'll highlight some of the more interesting cards.

I've got most everything in top loaders in chronological order.  These are minor league and Team USA issues from Razor, Upper Deck, and Obak among others. 

I've got the whole name in these signed Lettermans.  Though it is a hybrid of both sets.

These were some of the first autographs I found of his.  This particular one came a bit later than the rest, since it's only numbered out of 25.

I've been lucky to find almost all these UD USA baseball jerseys, patches and autos.  Even the low numbered ones.

I found these Obak printing plates at their table at the National one year.  They had almost every card in this series along with all the plates for each.  Not sure if they do that regularly, or they were shutting things down.  I'm glad to have them either way.

A lot of these parallels take me a minute to figure out the differences.  This one (and the green one like it) are die cut versions.  (Again, the reflections on the penny sleeves).

His 2010s start with a bunch of Bowmans.  

...and continue with Topps issues including Chrome and eTopps.

I got one without and one with the sealed case. 

Sorry for the blurry shot of the Bowie Baysox team set.  He's on top, so there's no reason to open it.

Transitioning from 2010 to 2011 starting with Upper Deck, then back to Bowman and Topps again.  

That Triple Threads jersey auto really caught the light.  The Futures Game swatch is how all GU's should be.

Haven't seen many other gold Upper Decks after this one.

He got on the checklist for these online 2011 Diamond Die Cuts.  

Lots of colorful shiny-ness in the 2011's too.

Some really fancy stuff in the 2011-2012 range.  A little bit of everything.

Don't remember where I bought this A&G printing plate for that year's mini.  These are really nice looking, though.

These are all logo- and photo-less issues by Upper Deck.  Not sure what ostriches have to do with Baltimore baseball, but this is what you get with exclusive contracts.

My 2013's include more printing plates, colorful parallels, and minis.

Here are the standard size plates...

...and the mini one.  (Could have put a reference card in the photo I guess.)

Angled this shot to keep the reflections at bay.  Rainbows are pretty cool.

Probably should have tried that with these too.  Ah well, you get the gist.

Ooh, shiny...

And a closer look at the stamps on the lower ones. 

To cap it all off - his bobblehead in the box.

I'm number one on the Database among Matusz collectors, of which I don't imagine there are many who seek him out specifically.  His passing just fuels my ambition to find everything they made of him.

Rest In Peace Brian.  You've been immortalized in cardboard at the very least.

Adiós El Tiante (part 2)

Luis Tiant was my favorite baseball PC player.  He passed away on the 8th at the age of 83.

Here is everything I have of his that isn't really a plain standard card.

I've got a bunch of these Sportscaster game cards of my PC players.  One of these days I'm going to have to plow through all the listings to see which ones I'm still missing.  They aren't necessarily listed by player - like this one - so it's a bit tougher to research.

These Linnett portraits are a little smaller than the Sportscasters.  They are very colorful and very '70's.

This Metallic Impressions is from 1993.  I just got this one last month or so.  Actually got two of them - bought one and got one in trade around the same time.  Might work out if I can trade it for the other four PC guys I need from that set - Blue, Bonds, Foster and Lolich.

Also from 1993, the BAT card from UD All-Time Heroes.  Technically, this is the base card.  There are no other kind in the set.  I always think these are an insert from the 1994 set, but I'm wrong.  The whole deal in '93 are these derivatives of the old T202 Triple Folders.

One of the seven PC guys in these 2024 Oversize '75 box toppers from Heritage.  I still need Guidry and Tenace to finish them.  I wish Heritage did more with retired players, but I guess that's what Archives is. 

Speaking of which, here are two autographed Archives cards.  But these are just in-person signed, as opposed to the officially sanctioned flavor with the bigger stamp - like this one.  I didn't remember these were what they are until I pulled them for this post.

Here's both sides of the same situation.  The one on the left is an encased and serial numbered issued autograph.  The one on the right is a base card with an IP auto.  That one was probably cheap.

Here are two more recent officially issued signatures.  The Prizm is a bit over the top gaudy - must have also been cheap or I might have passed it by.

Surprisingly, this is the only jersey I have of Luis.  I don't strive to pile these up for most of my PC's except for the few I'm going for supercollector status with.  Nice looking card though.

And finally, a quadruple dual jersey of Boston's finest numbered out of 75.  You could argue I need a second one for my Fisk collection.  I would say that it's too bad that Dwight Evans and Cecil Cooper weren't the other two players featured.  Then I would have 100% player collection guys on it.  Oh well, I like Rice & Lynn too. 

And that wraps it up for my Tiant collection.  Hope you enjoyed. 

A lot of my PC's started when I had a few cards of the same player and I just liked him.  Tiant was definitely one of the coolest dudes to play the game.  He was funny and kinda badass at the same time.  Plus, he was a loyal and caring family man, as you could see in the program about bringing his parents to America.  I appreciate players much more when they're good people too.

Adiós El Tiante (part 1)

Just a day after I posted about my favorite football PC player's birthday, my favorite baseball PC player passed away.  Luis Tiant was 83.

This 6" x 9" MLB photo decorates the cover of the first of nine binders that house all my baseball player collections.  Luis' cards are right up front.  There are 13 pages from the binder and several other things, so I'll split this into two posts since there are 27 images.  

Here is everything I have of his so far....

It all starts with the personalized IP autographed 1965 Topps rookie card.  Somewhere I had a picture of he and I when I got that signed, but I can't find it.  Not a great shot anyway and he seemed like he wasn't enjoying himself that day.  I just started the '65 set, so I'll need another one at some point for that.  

Found one of the '69 Topps highlights with his signature on it too.  Don't think it was very expensive.  Going through my collection to make these scans, I realize how bad some of these vintage cards are as far as centering.  That '66 is terrible.

The second page is a 9-pocket mini sheet with several inserts and oddballs.  (The bottom slots are empty so I cropped them out.)  A '69 Topps transfer, the regular and OPC deckle edges, a Dell photostamp, a Milton Bradley, and the '70 Kellogg's.  

The O-Pee-Chee versions of the '69 League Leaders cards begin page 3.  As a rule, I put Topps first, then Hostess and Kellogg's, then any others after that.  That changes in 1980 when Topps is no longer the dominant company.  The middle card is a Kahn's.  It might be '70, but only fits in the middle page slot sideways.  There will be a bunch of odd-sized items later that live in the odd-size binder, but that Kahn's just didn't have a good spot in that one, so it stays here.  And those '70 "Supers" aren't really super-sized.

The next page has holes - mostly for OPC versions.  Tiant has no '72 cards.  He was injured and spent significant time in the minors in '71 according to the back of the '73 cards.  I left a slot open for the OPC ERA Leaders below the base card, and for the '74 OPC below the base Topps too.  It works out better to show the pairs this way with an odd number of pockets. 

More from the '75 design later.  That SSPC is such a funny shot.  It looks like he's thinking "If this fool doesn't take the picture and get out of my way, I'm gonna sock him in the mouth!"

More OPC's, a cloth sticker, and a '79 Burger King that is like a Traded card.  Ya gotta love the pairings of the late '70's Topps & OPC's when a player changes teams.

Here's where the order switches.  All companies are in alphabetical order now.  I stuck that little stamp from '83 with the Donruss.  It's actually in a folded penny sleeve draped over the card.

Now it gets really diverse.  Senior Leagues, Swell, Line Drive, Minor Leagues, and Action Packed.

Moving on to post-career issues.  Ted Williams, Upper Deck, Fleer, etc.

Lots of reprinted images in this section.  Archives, Fan Favorites, Retired Signature, and the more uncommon Shoebox Topps issues, among others.

Now the finishes get more fancy then the photo selections.  I'm sure there are a lot more out there that would expand this part of the PC.

More retired player sets, more repeated pictures.  I think there are even more parallels of those Absolute Heroes.  I'm sure I'm still looking for the pewter '06 Greats.

And finally, you have the Topps Chrome Anniversary premiere edition and all the parallels, along with a few of the other issues from around the same year.  The base and Mustaches card are online exclusives.  The Archives '75 isn't what I was talking about before.  This year's Heritage box toppers are even nicer.

Had one straggler stuck on the back of the last page.  Didn't want to start another sheet just for one card.

Stay tuned for part two - all shapes and sizes - plus the mojo hits and a non-card item or two.