Happy Memorial Day

I want to first of all thank all of the veterans who have served this country.

Now on to an appropriate card from my collection:

2007 Topps Distinguished Service Bobby Doerr

This was a set in which Topps paid tribute to players who served in the military as well as several presidents and other notable people.  Bobby Doerr, the Hall of Fame second baseman for the Red Sox, served in the Army in World War II.  Of course he is not the only player to do so, and far from the most notable.  Ted Williams was a fighter pilot and he does have a card in the set.  But this is the only one I have so today is a good day to show it.  There was also an autograph partial parallel to the set.

My Favorite Retro Set: 2003 Topps 205

There have not been a lot of sets that I have picked up more than one hobby box for, but 2003 Topps 205 was one.  Maybe that is not fair because I picked up one for each series of this one.  I have always preferred this set to the Topps 206 sets that they have done a couple of times.  I do not really know why.  There is more of a design to this one.  It is not just a simple picture of the player, there is more to it.

Of course the major reason to love the set is the minis.  This is one set that I worked hard on adding a bunch of minis.  I always like minis anyway, but this is one that I really focused my energy on finding the minis.

Just like the 206 sets, 205 had a variety of backs.  The above picture is the Cycle Purple back.  There were several others as well.  One thing I spent a lot of time on was tracking down as many of the variations of the Hanley Ramirez rookie card as I could find.  I ended up with all but the two Bazooka backs.

Of course there was an impressive relic set as well.  The Red Sox had several notable players in this set, including Nomar Garciaparra, Manny Ramirez, Jeremy Giambi, and a Derek Lowe hat card that I am still trying to find.

Series 2 was released late enough that they were able to include Curt Schilling as a Red Sox despite the fact that he was acquired in a trade in November, 2003.

2003 Topps 205 has always been a favorite set of mine.  It is definitely my favorite retro set.  I wish Topps would give it another shot.  But then there are a lot of sets I want Topps to bring back.

My Ideal Set

As much as I enjoy inserts, relics, and autographs, they are not often what I strive for when I am opening packs.  I know my chances are usually slim that I will pull any relics or autos at all, much less autos and relics of the Red Sox.  I have pulled a few in my lifetime, but not many.  So those pulls are bonuses rather than cards I ever expect to get.  I do significantly better with Red Sox inserts.

But the real reason I collect is to get the Red Sox cards.  And I do enjoy getting the star players, but let's face it, the stars are in every single set.  I love getting the lesser-known players.  The backups, the middle relievers, the players who spent a brief time with the team.  I love getting cards of players who just do not have a lot of cards.

Topps's flagship brand is decent at providing a diversity of players, particularly with the Update set.  This year Vicente Padilla and Ryan Sweeney were both included in the basic set, neither player had many cards last year at all.  Update has provided cards of Casey Kotchman, Franklin Morales, Kevin Jarvis, and many other Red Sox cards of players who had none previously and none afterwards.  But as good as Topps is, it is not as diverse as Topps Total, Upper Deck 40 Man, and Pacific Online from years past.

Those are my ideal sets.  Each one had a large number of cards for each team, including some subsets to include more cards of star players as well as featuring a diverse group of players.  Topps Total had a large number of rookie cards, rivaling Bowman, the Home of the Rookie Card.  Those are sets that I really miss and I hope Topps can bring back Total, but there has not been a set since 2005.

Spotlight: 2011 Topps Kimball Champions

I like inserts.  I like vintage designs.  I like minis.  Combine them together and you get one of the best insert sets of the last few years.  The 2011 Kimball Champions insert set was a large set that carried over three series of Topps base cards and was made up of 150 cards.  It had a classic design with the player's portrait at the time and a small action scene at the bottom.  It was a very attractive set made even more attractive to me personally because of the inclusion of a number of Red Sox.

The player makeup was a mix of present-day stars, rising stars, and former stars.  For instance, the Red Sox representatives were players like Jon Lester, Clay Buchholz, Adrian Gonzalez, Tris Speaker, Carlton Fisk, and Babe Ruth, among others.  That brings me to another point: Babe Ruth with the Red Sox.  I love it when there are cards of Babe Ruth with the Red Sox.

   

Spotlight: 2005 Zenith

2005 was one of the years that I was not quite as active as usual in buying new cards.  Much of the reason for this is that I was in law school at the time and did not have a lot of time or money.  In addition the Red Sox had just come off of a long-awaited World Series victory so most cards were coming at a premium price.  I did collect in 2005, but I was focusing most of my attention on Jason Varitek cards.

One of the sets that did jump out at me in 2005 was Zenith.  It was a throwback to some of the Pinnacle brands in the mid 1990's.  The Museum Collection and Artist's Proof parallels were all very impressive with the dufex finish.  They made very attractive cards.  The parallels and inserts with the finish were definitely the big draws here.  As a Varitek collector at the time, I managed to pick up one of each of the parallels.

Of course many of the inserts also had the dufex finish.  Later on I went and grabbed some of those inserts as well.  I am always on the look out for some more of these cards.  So if anyone has any of the Museum Collection or Artist's Proof Red Sox parallels, I could definitely use some.  I have all three Varitek parallels as well as the Johnny Damon Museum Collection and Curt Schilling Artist's Proof.

The scan below shows the Red Hot insert of Ted Williams, Team Zenith card of Schilling, Z Team card of Damon, and Positions card of Manny Ramirez.

The team set was reasonable for a set from this time.  Boston had 12 cards in the set, including most of the big-name players from the World Championship team.  It also had a couple of Hall of Famers and a Rookie Prospect card of Hanley Ramirez.  All in all, it was a very nice set and one of my favorites from 2005.  It was not terribly heavy on game-used and autographs, instead its primary focus was on nice-looking parallels and inserts.  Certainly a rarity in that year.