2009 Topps Wal-Mart Black

This year, Topps tried to go stealth on us. In April, Wal-Mart was supposed to sneak indistinguishable blasters into the mix with the regular 2009 Topps blasters. Well, Wal-Mart being Wal-Mart decided to mix them in a month early.

While the product reached the shelves unannounced, the immediate reaction was mixed upon the card collecting community. Some were elated. Some were confused. Some were mad. Some even tried to make a quick buck on eBay.

After the initial dust had settled, Topps in a rare openness, revealed the information about this variation. They included the UPC numbers that identified the blaster as having "black" cards. Topps also confirmed that a different variation was planned for Target stores and gave the UPC numbers for that variation.

I think Topps did the right thing when first confronted. Normally, the word would be deny, deny, deny. I, and many others, appreciated the honesty and frankness of Topps. This makes the madness of a variation project like this, fun and smile inducing.

As for the cards themselves... they look great, in person. They don't scan so well, but they scan well enough. Some people have nothing better to do than to put the cards up to their nose and sniff. There is a faint odor to the cards, but you really wouldn't notice it unless the card was millimeters from your face.

The cards look absolutely gorgeous. The background is darkened and the player is not. This creates a spotlight effect on the player. The result is spectacular on most cards. How would you like to be facing Greg Maddux highlighted, while everything else is blackened? His fastball about to come out of his hand looks fierce. Greg looks scary, as everything else is gone. I would not want to face him in this scenario. Truthfully, I wouldn't want to be in the batter's box against Maddux in pristine conditions. This would scare the life out of me, if I was a batter!

1977 Burger Chef Fun Trays

In 1977, MSA teamed up with the fast food chain Burger Chef to create "Fun Trays" for kid's meals. For those way too young to know (or not in the geographic location to know), Burger Chef (at least in the recollection of my childhood) was the ugly stepchild to Mcdonald's and Burger King. The food was cheaper in every sense of the word. But, for a kid growing up outside of Pittsburgh, it was the place we would go for a 'treat' BECAUSE it was cheap.

The Burger Chef "Fun Meals" were the equivalent of "Happy Meals." They were fun, not necessarily happy.

In an effort to create some happiness for the kiddos, Burger Chef served their meals in trays that featured punchout discs with baseball players on them.


There were 24 trays in all, featuring the stars of the teams included on the tray. All tolled, there are 216 cards in the set (a list of players by team appears at the end of this post, supplied by www.teamsets4u.com).

The teams included Rangers, Astros, Cardinals, Red Sox, Orioles, Twins, Indians, Royals, White Sox, Brewers, Tigers, Giants, A's, Angels, Padres, Mets, Dodgers, Expos, Phillies, Yankees, Pirates, Cubs, Braves, and Reds.


You can find individual discs if you look, but I actually found the whole unpunched trays easier to locate.

LIST OF PLAYERS BY TEAM:

1977 Burger Chef Discs - Angels
Bobby Bonds
Dave Chalk
Bobby Grich
Paul Hartzell
Ron Jackson
Jerry Remy
Joe Rudi
Nolan Ryan
Frank Tanana
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - ASTROS
Enos Cabell
Cesar Cedeno
Jose Cruz
Joe Ferguson
Ken Forsch
Roger Metzger
J.R. Richard
Leon Roberts
Bob Watson
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - A'S
Stan Bahnsen
Vida Blue
Phil Garner
Paul Lindblad
Mike Norris
Bill North
Manny Sanguillen
Mike Torrez
Claudell Washington
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - BRAVES
Jeff Burroughs
Darrel Chaney
Gary Matthews
Andy Messersmith
Willie Montanez
Phil Niekro
Tom Paciorek
Jerry Royster
Dick Ruthven
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - BREWERS
Jerry Augustine
Sal Bando
Von Joshua
Sixto Lezcano
Charlie Moore
Eduardo Rodriquez
Jim Slaton
Bill Travers
Robin Yount
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - CARDINALS
Lou Brock
John Denny
Pete Falcone
Keith Hernandez
Al Hrabosky
Bake McBride
Ken Reitz
Ted Simmons
Mike Tyson
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - CUBS
Bill Bonham
Bill Buckner
Ray Burris
Jose Cardenal
Bill Madlock
Jerry Morales
Rich Reuschel
Manny Trillo
Joe Wallis
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - DODGERS
Ron Cey
Steve Garvey
Davey Lopes
Rick Monday
Doug Rau
Rick Rhoden
Reggie Smith
Don Sutton
Steve Yeager
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - EXPOS
Gary Carter
Dave Cash
Tim Foli
Barry Foote
Larry Parrish
Tony Perez
Steve Rogers
Del Unser
Ellis Valentine
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - GIANTS
Jim Barr
Willie Crawford
Larry Herndon
Randy Moffitt
John Montefusco
Bobby Murcer
Marty Perez
Chris Speier
Gary Thomasson
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - INDIANS
Buddy Bell
Frank Duffy
Dennis Eckersley
Ray Fosse
Wayne Garland
Duane Kuiper
Dave LaRoche
Rick Manning
Rick Waits
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - METS
Bud Harrelson
Dave Kingman
Jerry Koosman
Ed Kranepool
Skip Lockwood
John Matlack
Felix Millan
Tom Seaver
John Stearns
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - ORIOLES
Mark Belanger
Paul Blair
Al Bumbry
Doug DeCinces
Ross Grimsley
Lee May
Jim Palmer
Brooks Robinson
Ken Singleton
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - PADRES
Rollie Fingers
George Hendrick
Enzo Hernandez
Mike Ivie
Randy Jones
Butch Metzger
Doug Rader
Gene Tenace
David Winfield
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - PHILLIES
Bob Boone
Larry Bowa
Steve Carlton
Jay Johnstone
Jim Kaat
Greg Luzinski
Garry Maddox
Tug McGraw
Mike Schmidt
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - PIRATES
John Candelaria
Duffy Dyer
Al Oliver
Dave Parker
Jerry Reuss
Bill Robinson
Willie Stargell
Rennie Stennett
Frank Taveras
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - RANGERS
Juan Beniquez
Bert Blyleven
Campy Campaneris
Tom Grieve
Mike Hargrove
Toby Harrah
Gaylord Perry
Lenny Randle
Jim Sundberg
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - RED SOX
Rick Burleson
Dwight Evans
Carlton Fisk
Fergie Jenkins
Bill Lee
Fred Lynn
Jim Rice
Luis Tiant
Carl Yastrzemski
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - REDS
Johnny Bench
Dave Concepcion
Dan Driessen
George Foster
Cesar Geronimo
Ken Griffey
Joe Morgan
Gary Nolan
Pete Rose
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - ROYALS
Doug Bird
George Brett
Dennis Leonard
John Mayberry
Hal McRae
Amos Otis
Fred Patek
Tom Poquette
Paul Splittorff
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - TIGERS
Mark Fidrych
Bill Freehan
John Hiller
Willie Horton
Ron LeFlore
Ben Oglivie
Aurelio Rodriquez
Rusty Staub
Jason Thompson
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - TWINS
Lyman Bostock
Rod Carew
Mike Cubbage
Dan Ford
Dave Goltz
Larry Hisle
Tom Johnson
Bobby Randall
Butch Wynegar
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - WHITE SOX
Jack Brohamer
Bucky Dent
Ralph Garr
Lamar Johnson
Bart Johnson
Chet Lemon
Jorge Orta
Jim Spencer
Richie Zisk
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1977 Burger Chef Discs - YANKEES
Chris Chambliss
Don Gullett
Catfish Hunter
Reggie Jackson
Thurman Munson
Graig Nettles
Willie Randolph
Mickey Rivers
Roy White

Things NOT Done to Cards...

As a baseball card collector, there is nothing quite like pulling a "hit" from a pack of cards. Jersey swatches, pieces of bats, autographs, or anything that brings me closer to the game is a welcome addition to my collection. Pulling one of these memorabilia cards is always a thrill for me. Heck, even when I buy a box of cards with guaranteed "hits", I still get excited when they show up.

If I had to estimate, I would say that I have opened over ten thousand packs of cards in my life. Granted, before 1990 there was not much in the way of "hits" you could pull from a pack. Nonetheless, in the last nearly twenty years I have had plenty of opportunity to pull autograph and jersey cards.

These are the backs of two of my favorite "hits":

2000 Fleer Greats of the Game - Willie Randolph

Take some time to read the back of the card...

Done? Okay check out this one:

2005 Bowman Heritage - Troy Glaus PG-TG

Did you read the back of this one? Hmmm... Not such great "hits" that a Tony Gwynn collector should call them his favorites. Well check out the fronts of these "hits"...

I posted them over on my PunkRockPaint Blog if you want to see.

Rescuing A 1971 Topps Billy Martin Card

Hi. this is Matt F. Long time reader, first time blogger...I'll let my video speak for itself but if you are interested in the back story read this.



This was a lot of fun to try to do and I'm glad I was able to rescue the card without destroying it. Until next time.

Look! I'm Ozzie Smith! 1990 MLB Punch-out masks

In 1990, a company called "Gallery Books" published a 16-mask set of baseball players. The set was broken up into four books, each with four punchout masks. The masks (Ozzie seen above) are made up of the player's face with team hat, a brim for the ballcap, and two earpieces. I do not own these, but wonder how on earth I managed to miss these wonderful oddball items. I noticed several pages (maybe all the pages for all I know) have instructions for assembling the masks. Really? I am pretty sure that if I had been 8 or 9 in 1990, I could have figured out how these things work. Then again, as a child I had the entire collection of Whitman 'Tiny Town' books, so maybe I'm just special that way....

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The books include the Rookies: Chicago Cubs' Jerome Walton; NY Mets' Gregg Jefferies; Angels' Jim Abbott; Seattle Mariners' Ken Griffey Jr:

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The Power Pitchers book includes: Texas Rangers' Nolan Ryan; LA Dodgers' Orel Hershiser; NY Mets' Doc Gooden; Boston Red Sox's Roger Clemens:

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The Power Hitters book features: NY Yankees' Mattingly; NY Mets' Darryl Strawberry; SF Giants' Will Clark; Oakland A's Jose Canseco:

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And, finally, the Golden Gloves book: Cardinals' Ozzie Smith, Cubs' Mark Grace, Cubs' Ryne Sandberg, Braves' Wally Joyner:

A Charlie Brown Christmas Tree Equivalent

Over the holidays, I received a huge stack of cards from dayf that were unfortunately damaged during transit. About the only card that wasn't damaged during the trip from Georgia to Illinois was this 1954 Topps card of Fred Marsh. It had the pleasure of already being damaged goods!

Seeing cards like this one make me want to invent a time machine, just to see what happens to these cards during the course of their lives. This 1954 Fred Marsh must have one great story to tell.

The corners are worn away. There are pinholes in the cardboard. Nicks, chips and creases abound! There are even two holes in Fred's neck! This card has seen a lot of history.

There is a card wide crease right under Fred's eyes that seem to prop up the crow feet around the eyes. There are scuff marks along the edges that suggest this card may have been part of some baseball card war. Perhaps even thrown into a pile of bicycle spoked tragedies.

It's dirty looking. Scruffy looking. A poor man's near Picasso. Despite it's flaws (or maybe because of them) it is now one of my favorite cards.

1996 Pinnacle

Pinnacle was always in love with gold foil. The 1996 edition was no different. The Pinnacle logo is just gold colored, but the bottom of the card is a mass of gold foil.

At least the shape of the foil makes sense. The cards are called Pinnacle. Pinnacle means a high, pointed piece of rock. It has also come to mean, the top, the best, which is probably what Pinnacle Brands meant by their name. But going to the original meeting, a sharp, pointed slab of gold foil fits the name.

But take a close look at the foil. You may have to click on the card to see the larger image. There is some texture to the foil. Why, it looks like a spider web! And what's that stuck in the spider web? Oh my God, there's a baseball player stuck in the web! He's trying to bash his way out with his bat!

I've had these cards for years (will, since 1996) and I never noticed that poor batter there until I scanned this card. What was Pinnacle trying to tell us?