Hey Now...

You see what I'm doing here? If you're like me, any number of songs may have popped into your head. ...the dream is over... and, if you're like me, you now have the horrible all star song in your head. I'm sorry, but that's just how it is.

Consummate Tiger fan and card blogger sixtyfeetsix (aka Jim) was digging through some boxes and found a bunch of extra cards from the 2005 All Star fanfest in Detroit. I happened to be in Detroit for all of the All Star festivities, but didn't make it out to fanfest and also wasn't collecting cards at the time. That's where Jim comes in.

The 2005 All Star Fanfest set had 9 cards, thanks to Jim, I now have 6 of them. I also happen to have a few extras if anyone is interested.

First, there are some great dual Tigers Hall of Famers/HOFer-to-be cards:






Next, a couple of Bronx Bombers:




And finally...


JIM!

I know that people are tired of relic cards, but you know what? I'm not. When someone sends me a card like this out of the blue, I can't help but become overwhelmed with gratitude. Thank you so much for the cards, Jim. I am now officially on a mission to complete the rest of the 9-card set.

Always.

As someone who loves Oddball sets, you're sure to see me going ga ga over one that features a rookie card of one of the Tigers greats. This 1981 set was made by Topps and distributed by Coke in the Detroit area. There were sets made for 11 teams, most of which mirrored the 1981 Topps versions, but some which had subtle variations. Aurelio Lopez is the only Tigers card with a different picture than it's 1981 Topps version.

As oddball sets go, this one in fine, but nothing special. Really, it's just a 1981 set with a logo plastered on it. Still, for the Gibby alone, it's worth the price of admission (This came last week for $1 plus $2.50 shipping).

Title Card	#1 Champ Summers	#2 Al Cowens	#3 Rich Hebner
#4 Steve Kemp	#5 Aurelio Lopez	#6 Jack Morris	#7 Lance Parrish
#8 Johnny Wockenfuss	#9 Alan Trammell	#10 Lou Whitaker	#11 Kirk Gibson (RC)

Going Toppsless

I have nothing against 2011 Topps--in fact, all indications are that I am going to like it very much. It also seems that everyone in the world has been talking about it for days, to the point where, less than a week after its official release all card blog readers know everything there is to know about 2011 Topps.

So, to help balance the world out, this blog is going (2011) Toppsless for the next week. The good thing is, I've actually had quite a few nice card packages come across my desk, so there should be some good stuff to fill the void.


I'm not going completely Toppsless, I'm just not posting on the 2011 version. Everything prior to this year is still fair game.

RIP Woodie Fryman: We'll Always Have '72

Former Tigers pitcher Woodie Fryman died on Friday, at the age of 70. Woodie is one of those players that I know only from baseball cards. He was, by and large, a non-descript journeyman of a pitcher.

Except for in 1972.

Fryman was a portly 32-year-old southpaw whose career appeared all but over. He had never won more than 12 games. He was 4-10 with a 4.36 ERA for a lousy Phillies team when purchased Aug. 2

--snip--

All Fryman did was go 10-3 with a 2.06 ERA in 14 starts for the Tigers. He even won the division clincher on the next-to-last day of the season.

That, from a very nice Detroit Free Press article that remembers Fryman for being Doyle Alexander before Doyle Alexander was the guy that led the Tigers on an improbable stretch run to win the pennant in 1987. Fryman did it in '72.

He struggled for a few years, was traded, then struggled a few more, before turning to the bullpen to revitalize his career. He stayed in the majors until he was 43.

So RIP Woodie Fryman. For Tigers fans, we'll always have '72.

Card Cameos: Will Rhymes Makes His Topps Debut

There's a lot to like about Will Rhymes. He's the Tigers' most prolific twitterer. He's a humanitarian. He's tiny. He's a scrappy, gritty gritstein dirtball type in the mold of David Eckstein except way better and he doesn't throw like a girl. The hell with David Eckstein.

But to this point, there has not been a Topps baseball card made of Will. Sure, he made his major league debut just last year, but they found a way to fit Andy Oliver in, didn't they? And Danny Worth? Well, with the introduction of 2011 Topps Baseball this week, Will Rhymes finally makes his Topps Debut. Kind of.



Hey, you have to start somewhere, right?

WANT. (More 2011 Topps Tigers)

Ooh boy, the good stuff is flowing now.

I love the SP of Ty Cobb driving a freakin' car.


Mark Fidrych autograph is a great addition, following up on the unofficial RIP George Kell auto from the 2010 set.



Kaline, Obvs.



I'm liking these retail exclusive inserts. Here's a "Red Diamond" from Target of Miguel Cabrera. There's also a Cobb and Walmart has "Blue Diamonds":



Topps introduced silk cards a couple years ago, as some sort of quasi-parallel set with 50 cards. This year they are full fledged inserts (still 50 cards, I think) with different pictures and all!



More and more cards will appear in the days ahead, and I'll put a gallery together once I have images of everything. In the meantime, here's the working checklist

It also appears as though my crazy gold foil/silver foil hypothesis was just a trick of the light. Sorry if I got anybody in a tizzy.

First Take on 2011 Topps

Working Checklist Here.

2011 Topps officially releases tomorrow, but cards are popping up in retail stores and have trickled on to eBay. I like what I see.

But first, things first. Here's a Tigers team set on eBay from TNT cards:


Now here are some cards posted by Dropped Third Strike last night:

See any difference? It looks to me like the first cards have Gold Foil and the second ones have Silver. In other words, it is possible that Topps has created two complete parallel sets--one for Hobby boxes (Gold) and one for Retail (Silver). This is an interesting (disturbing?) development, if true.

Anyway, onto the Tiger show. The base checklist is small, but I kind of like it. There is nobody on there that makes me go WHO? or WHY? the way that certain people have in the past (Brent Dlugach last year, Chris Lambert in 2009 etc.)

33 Max Scherzer
94 Ryan Raburn
109 Hamilton/Cabrera/Mauer LL: AVG
121 Brandon Inge
150 Miguel Cabrera
175 Brennan Boesch
179 Armando Galarraga
181 Magglio Ordonez
182 Jeremy Bonderman
202 Bautista/Konerko/Cabrera LL: HR
264 Ryan Perry
306 Cabrera/Rodriguez/Bautista LL: RBI

I dig it, especially with Miguel Cabrera on all three triple crown league leaders cards. Bondo and Galarraga are gone, but those are recent developments and they deserve a Series 1 card, IMO. Props to Ryan Raburn for making the cut.

There are a ton of inserts, as always, but it feels like there are especially alot this year. Already, I have spotted SEVEN cards of Ty Cobb. Ridiculous. It's their 60th anniversary, so I'm going to give Topps some slack on this one, but next year I'd really like to see this Topps slim down its set to just a couple of inserts.

Speaking of which, I really dig the look of the Topps 60 subset. Relevant, nicely done, maybe a little dull, but I like it. Here's Johnny Damon, on the only Tigers autograph or relic that has surfaced yet:



"Most consecutive 80 run seasons in the AL*" Hmm. I wonder what the asterisk stands for. I guess everybody does have a record, right Heartbreaking Cards?

One of my favorite additions in recent years have been the retail-only commemorative patches. I talked about them the other day. Well, this one may be the best yet, featuring my the old-school Tigers logo that I've always loved.



Having not seen the whole card, I'm not exactly sure what they're commemorating, but I dig the concept of a current player somehow paying tribute to the past, although for the life of me, I can't figure out what stands out about the 1961 Tigers.

Finally, although no Tigers have cropped up yet, I wanted to point out the new "Platinum Diamond" parallels.



Yeah, I'll be collecting these. They look amazing. I may try to collect a Gold set, as I typically do, but with INSANE ODDS for them (1:25 Blasters and 1:17 Retail?!?!) I may have to take a pass. Hopefully my OCD side can forgive me. I guess we'll see.

I'm sure that there will be more to come from me as more cards leak out. I'll be putting together a gallery as soon as I can get a definitive checklist and good images start cropping up. In the meantime, welcome to the real start of 2011 everyone!