2000's represent!

sometime around the year 2000, i began putting together "sampler" sets of topps sets from 1952 through 1969. i had no intention of ever completing any of those sets, and i figured it would be a fun idea to pick up a card from each team and each subset for those older sets.

i finished the task in a few years (it was a low priority), but then decided to scrap the collection as i began putting together the 1965 and 1957 sets.  now, i've decided to put together a "representative card" mini collection that will make it easier for me to see a great card from each topps flagship set from 1952 on.

i'll show off the cards occasionally, along with a reason for choosing that particular card. i won't use a card that is in my dodger collection, or any other collection for that matter, so i should wind up with a good variety.  here are the cards that represent the 2000's in this mini collection:

2000 - mike piazza

piazza had only been a met for a couple of years when this card came out, but it became clear to me by the end of the 2000 season that he would not be wearing a dodger hat on his hall of fame bust that would eventually be installed in cooperstown. he led the mets to the national league pennant and made his only world series appearance that year while putting up what i considered to be typical piazza power numbers - 38 homers and a 1.012 ops. in 2001, he would help bring baseball back in to the national spotlight after 9/11 and even further cemented himself as a met.

2001 - garret anderson

ga may seem out of place in this collection, but i do love this card. it was almost my favorite non-dodger card in 2001, but just couldn't surpass the awesomeness of another flagship card. for their 40th season which occurred in 2000, the angels added murals to their outfiled wall similar to the treatment the dodgers had been featuring at chavez ravine for a couple seasons prior. as far as i can tell, the images were just of notable angels, not limited to any specific theme like the dodgers had over the course of several seasons. some of the angels that were featured were frank tanana, chuck finley, troy percival, don baylor, mike witt, brian downing, doug decinces, reggie jackson, rod carew, jim fregosi, and even gene autry (even though they were owned by disney in 2000), along with nolan ryan and bob boone who both show up on this card. i wanted more of these cards for both the angels and dodgers!

2002 - albert pujols

the machine. pujols burst on the scene in 2001 with a monster season. i was actually more in tune with what ichiro was doing at the same time in seattle, but pujols' numbers were hard to ignore. in 2002, he did the same, and helped the cardinals reach the nlcs.

2003 - derek jeter

2003 was the year that jeter missed a bunch of games after injuring his shoulder in an opening day play involving old friend ken huckaby. he returned in may and helped the yankees win the american league east. again. he destroyed the twins in the alds (although the twins actually won a game that series - their last postseason win to date, in fact) as the yankees advanced to the alcs against the red sox. in game 3 with the series tied 1 game apiece, he hit a solo home run off of pedro martinez in the third inning to tie the game. i was watching the game with a buddy, and i recall us looking at each other in a bit of disbelief. there have been many who have tried to define "clutch", and we agreed that we had just seen it in jeter. the yankees went on to win the series on aaron boone's home run in game 7 (that same friend and i were watching that game and he just about swore off of baseball when boone's homer landed). thank goodness for josh beckett and the marlins.  

by the way, the 2003 topps jeter card is one that almost had me starting a "retired number" mini collection. gil hodges' 14 and parts of tom seaver's 41 and jackie robinson's 42 are visible in the background. i settled for a "42" mini-collection subset, and have jeter's 2003 topps opening day card (same image) in that collection even though the number is partially obscured.

2004 - manny ramirez

give credit to the red sox, they came back in 2004 and finally beat the yankees thanks to old friend dave roberts, plus david ortiz and a cast of cowboys. manny was being manny in 2004, and this card is a great one in my opinion to represent 2004 in this collection. as fate would have it, the dodgers visited fenway park in 2004 - the first time they had been there since the 1916 world series. i made my first (and only so far) trip to fenway and attended all three games that weekend, the first of which featured a fly ball muffed by ramirez with 2 outs in the top of the 9th inning that allowed the dodgers to tie the game. no worries, though, as david ortiz hit a walk-off single to win the game in the bottom of the inning. manny and his teammates went on to break the curse of the bambino in 2004 which was great except that the boston fans seemed to go from suffering to insufferable as a result.

2005 - carl crawford

just like with the jeter above, i am drawn to this card due to the presence of the retired numbers (this time it's the yankees) on it. the layout of the display of retired yankee numbers is quite different from ken mcmullen's 1971 topps card which also showed some of the yankee monuments, but it is still neat to see them show up on cardboard. here we have billy martin (1), reggie jackson (44), and don mattingly (23). it would have been nice to see this as a horizontal card to fit more yankee legends on it.

2006 - felix hernandez

king felix was 19 when he debuted for the mariners in 2005. i had added him to my fantasy team, and was pleased with his performance for his first few weeks in the bigs. he struck out 11 royals in his third big league start, and then 9 twins in his next game. i missed out on drafting him in 2006, but was excited to get to see him pitch against the white sox in a game at comiskey/us cellular in may of '06 while on a work trip to chicago. he wound up giving up a three-run homer to jim thome in the bottom of the first and only lasted five innings, but i was still a fan.

2007 - josh hamilton

this was the last card that i needed to complete my 2007 topps set - the first set i put together by hand since the 90's, and the first topps flagship set i completed that way since maybe 1987. hamilton had finally made his big league debut after conquering his demons, and was playing pretty well. hopes were high that he was living up to his potential, and so this card was tough to find on the secondary market. hamilton spent just the one season in cincinnati before being traded to the rangers where he won the 2010 american league mvp and put on a show at the 2008 home run derby.

2008 - joe mauer

joe mauer was still a catcher in 2008, and he proved that his 2006 season was no fluke by winning his second american league batting title. he would do that one better in 2009 by winning his third batting title, an achievement not accomplished by any other catcher in history. he tied fellow twin icon tony oliva on the all-time list of multi-batting championship winning players, as well as folks like george brett and pete rose. i went to a few twins games in 2008, including one in seattle, and mauer was 6 for 13 in those contests. i loved watching him hit, even though he seemed to always take a fastball down the middle for strike one.

2009 - mickey mantle

i chose this mickey mantle card to represent 2009 for a couple of reasons. one, it shows him fooling around during spring training doing his pee wee reese impression at second base. two, it lists him as a shortstop. both of those could be reasons for me to add this card to my double play collection, but i have chosen not to. instead it is here for a third reason, and that is that 2009 was the year that topps began to add retired legends to the flagship set as variations. this mantle is not one of those - it is base card #7 as topps "unretired" card #7 in 2006 in order to add mantle to the flaghsip sets - rather, the variations were of players like reese, babe ruth, jackie robinson, lou gehrig, and even guys like george sisler. i didn't mind it, although i do not like how it morphed into multiple variations and super short printing in later years. so, mantle gives a nod to other retired players who got cards in topps flagship in 2009, even if he is just a plain ol' base card himself.

up next, the 2010's represent! stay tuned...