do you miss upper deck baseball?

i was a late adopter to upper deck baseball. i wasn't buying a whole lot of cards by the time 1989 rolled around, and at that time i was loyal to topps when it came to baseball with my limited hobby spending. i did buy a lot of upper deck hockey starting with their 1990-91 release through 1994 or so. still, i didn't pay a lot of attention to upper deck baseball until i saw some 1992 packs for sale at my college campus convenience store.

later on in the 90's, i went back and started building the 1989 set and completed numerous dodger team sets from their flagship (and other releases). reading "card sharks" in the early days of blogging gave me a new appreciation for what the founders of the company were trying to do. as it mentioned in the book, the cards were certainly an upgrade to what the other companies were putting out at the time.

they put out some weird stuff, too, like this 1997 upper deck sp special fx card of eric karros

which demonstrates their commitment to holographic imagery and die-cut experimentation. 

by the end of the 1990's, i was all-in on upper deck baseball. they had, it seemed, more sets with legends than topps and i collected many of them. maybe fleer was the only one giving them a run for their money in that regard. here's a 2005 upper deck artifacts don drysdale card

which is the only one of four dodger "legends" short printed as part of the team set that i currently own.

they put out repetitive and redundant sets, too, like their annual obsession with "x". these three dodgers are from 2009 upper deck spx

they look pretty good scanned, i will admit.

my favorite upper deck baseball flagship set is probably 1994

there was a lot of "stadium club" level photography as andre dawson's card can attest, and i liked the design. topps, of course, took the "phantom zone" inset image and used it in their bowman release the next year, as well as in their 1996 flagship set. that dawson, by the way, is the "electric diamond" parallel, which was upper deck's answer to topps' "gold" full set parallels.

a couple of things that were pointed out in "card sharks" were the large numbers and the holograms on the card backs

one of the pet peeves of the founders (who owned a card shop) were small and/or hard to read card numbers. i am also very frustrated by that as my eyesight declines. the 1990 eddie murray card above is testament to upper deck's commitment to legible card numbers for sure. i don't know if anyone was clamoring for hologram authentication technology back then, but it certainly was a differentiator from the other card manufacturers at the beginning of the junk wax era when reprinting of key cards was somewhat rampant (of course, upper deck reprinted their own cash cow - the 1989 ken griffey jr rookie card - at will).

eventually, upper deck began to stray from some of these design tenants. the numbers got smaller

and there were releases later on in their existence that lacked the holograms on the backs, too. however, in the mid-2000's, they introduced my favorite innovation - one i wish topps would fully embrace. they put the set name on the card back

this was done as far back as 2004 from what i can find - some of their sweet spot base cards from 2004 say "2004 sweet spot" on the backs - but their flagship set in 2007 seems to be the first primary set that included this for all cards. it was issued in two series, and they identified each one on the backs. that nomar garciaparra checklist card is from series 1. that's great to know, although i consider series 1 and 2 of flagship releases to really just be one total set (although i have stopped combining the checklists in my want lists). still, it's a nice touch - one that topps has sort of embraced by putting "series one" or "chrome" under the numbers of their base card releases.

however, here are a couple of insert cards from 2024 topps chrome releases

gerrit cole got an "all-etch" insert in both topps chrome and topps chrome update. they are different, but how do you know which is from which set? in this case, topps added a "u" to the card number

so those who understand the nomenclature might also understand that one of the cards is from the update set. still, would it be so hard to add text above the copyright box stating which sets these cards come from?

here are another two cards, this time from 2025 topps series 1 and series 2

coby mayo was featured in the "stars of mlb" insert set in both releases. here are the card backs:

there is really no way to know which is from series 1 and which is from series 2 without finding a checklist database as topps even restarted the numbering with series 2. i am pretty sure that series 1 is on the left, but i forget at this point.

upper deck treated their cross-release inserts differently. here are a couple of starquest inserts from 2009

the one on the left is one i own and is from their flagship set - series 1. i know this because the back says so

the one on the right is not in my collection but i know straight away that it is from a different release - in this case 2009 upper deck first edition - because they identify that set on both the front of the card and its back:

they are both numbered sq-9, but the set information tells me that they come from different sets. so helpful.

now, upper deck wasn't perfect by any means - check out these 2007 nomar garciaparra and takashi saito cards

that are from series 1

now check out these nomar garciaparra and takashi saito cards

that say they are from series 2

trust, but verify.

i do wish topps would go all-in with set identification and include the information on every card they print. they do it on their autograph and relic cards (for the most part) as well as the base cards (again, for the most part). it would make me miss upper deck a whole lot less.

byproducts of the retired number collection

i've been posting cards weekly from my retired numbers collection, and i've been enjoying preparing those posts. i also enjoyed looking through my collection for cards that would fit the collection, as well as slogging through comc to find cards for players whose inventory i already owned fell short. inevitably, i found cards that fit better into other parts of my collection.

this 1993 ted williams etched in stone roberto clemente card

features the same photo that topps used in 2022 on a turn back the clock card. in the end, i decided to use a different clemente card for the retired number collection, and i put this one in the name/number on the back collection.

same goes for this 2016 topps stadium club catfish hunter card

this 2007 upper deck roy halladay card

and this 1994 score burger king cal ripken jr card

this card is interesting in that it makes no reference that i could find to burger king.

the angels have not retired reggie jackson's number (for good reason) but i pulled this  2004 topps all-time fan favorites card

from a dark corner of my collection to put in the name/number on the back binder.

during my search for michael young cards to use, i came across his 2006 topps heritage card and promptly bought one for my 42 collection

i am not really sure why the rangers were wearing 42 back in 2005, and i guess i am not 100% sure that young is wearing 42, but i have convinced myself enough to put it in the 42 collection.

finally, this 1992 topps kids card of roberto alomar

was the card that i had in my retired number collection until the blue jays unretired the number and thus eliminated alomar from that collection. 

not all lurkers are in the background

my lurker collection was borne out of a desire to find a place in my collection for cards like the 1975 topps world series cards that covered a's victories but featured ron cey and steve yeager in the photo used. or, the 1976 topps steve ontiveros card that featured mike schmidt - a card that i featured in my very first lurker mini-collection post . those were the first cards i remember seeing that fit the "lurker" bill for me (you could argue that the cey and yeager examples are not lurkers at all), although there are other, better known examples.

one of the best known features a foreground lurker - here's nolan ryan on bud harrelson's 1971 topps card

plus, that's either joe morgan or jimmy wynn sliding in to second base. i know i have shown the harrelson card before, but it's a great example of a foreground lurker.

over the last couple of years, i've gone through a bunch of cards that were sitting in monster boxes and found some specimens to extract and add to this mini-collection of mine.  take a look:

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee alfonso soriano

i went looking for the play shown on the card, and if i recall correctly, it's from a game in 2007. dodger andy laroche is there in the foreground, and that's jeff kent in the background.

2009 upper deck o-pee-chee ryan sweeney (derek jeter)

plays at second base - whether they be double play turns or not - and plays at the plate are good for lurkers in front of the card's main subject.  case in point:

2014 topps jose altuve (mike trout)

2012 topps chrome jordany valdespin (giancarlo stanton)

more double plays to follow.

1997 fleer ultra rickey henderson (mike piazza)

yes, that's piazza's arms and leg waiting for rickey

mike piazza also gets the foreground lurker treatment on kerry wood's 2003 topps stadium club card

here's a good one - albert pujols' 2007 upper deck card

features justin verlander in the foreground and ivan rodriguez in the background.

staying with the background, my lurker collection allows me to keep a 1984 fleer glenn hubbard card

thanks to barney rubble and the phillie phanatic. of course, i would have had this card in my "meaningful and just because" mini-collection - there's no way my collection would be complete without it.

here's another good example of background lurking - 1990 fleer baseball all-stars robin yount (paul molitor)

sometimes the lurker is as prominent on the card as the subject, like this 1995 upper deck michael jordan card 

featuring harry caray, for example. and this 2001 upper deck joe dimaggio pinstripes exclusives card

featuring dimaggio and mickey mantle.

i guess what i am getting at is that there are a bunch of lurker cards out there that i've formally moved to my mini-collection. i may have shown some of these before, but oh well.  enjoy.

2016 topps update edwin encarnacion (mike trout)

2015 topps update paul goldschmidt (mike trout)

2000 fleer ultra sandy alomar jr (roberto alomar)

2012 topps opening day joe mauer (david ortiz)

2002 upper deck magglio ordonez (derek jeter)

2002 fleer ultra tino martinez (mike piazza)

2002 fleer ultra jeff kent (mike piazza)

i promised more double plays...

1990 upper deck bill doran (tony gwynn)

1992 donruss delino deshields (tom glavine)

1992 upper deck jose oquendo (ryne sandberg)

1993 leaf lance blankenship (robin yount)

1993 topps mickey morandini (andre dawson)

1993 upper deck jeff huson (back - rickey henderson)

1994 topps felix fermin (rickey henderson)

1994 upper deck collector's choice bret boone (rickey henderson)

1999 ud choice damion easley (rickey henderson)

1995 topps jose lind (cal ripken jr)

1995 upper deck denny hocking (frank thomas)

1998 pinnacle carlos baerga (ryne sandberg)

1998 topps joey cora (roberto alomar)

1998 topps kevin plawecki (larry walker)

1996 upper deck royce clayton (back - henry rodriguez)

2000 upper deck jay bell (dodger player)

2001 topps stadium club jose offerman (derek jeter)

2005 topps all-time fan favorites rod carew (brooks robinson)

2012 topps chrome orange refractor/2012 topps chrome/2012 topps opening day dee gordon (chipper jones)

2003 upper deck jerry hairston jr (dave roberts)

yes, he's hard to see, but that's dave roberts sliding in during his dodger playing days.

how about some catcher cameos?

1997 upper deck fred mcgriff (back - tom prince)

1993 upper deck kirt manwaring (gary carter)

1989 topps padres leaders (gary carter)

1978 topps roy white (carlton fisk)

2011 topps brian duensing (joe mauer)

2012 topps javy guerra (dioner navarro)

time for some coaches/managers!

1993 topps donovan osborne (joe amalfitano)

1975 topps mike marshall '74 highlights (walt alston, bill russell, steve yeager)

1995 score gold rush brian anderson (rod carew)

2008 topps john mclaren (ichiro)

here are even more lurker cards - background and foreground and equal ground!

1981 topps carl yastrzemski (carlton fisk)

1998 fleer si world series fever jim thome (cal ripken jr)

1995 upper deck collector's choice se juan gonzalez base and silver signature (reggie jackson)

1994 upper deck collector's choice frank thomas up close & personal (rickey henderson)

1994 upper deck harold baines (cal ripken jr)

1995 upper deck ozzie guillen (eddie murray)

1999 upper deck ray durham (rickey henderson)

1993 upper deck kelly gruber (jack morris - and pat borders)

1993 upper deck fred mcgriff (back - tony gwynn)

1993 upper deck ramon martinez (brett butler)

1999 topps sammy sosa (eric young - and (i think) todd hollandsworth)

2014 topps update chone figgins (clayton kershaw and don mattingly)

2015 topps stadium club carlton fisk (tom seaver)

2015 topps stadium club ernie banks (barack obama)

2007 upper deck masterpieces cal ripken jr (lou gehrig monument plaque)

yes, i know this one is a stretch.

just a couple more...

1994 upper deck all-time heroes johnny podres (roy campanella and don hoak)

and one of my favorite finds from the last couple of years:

1994 upper deck all-time heroes marv throneberry (bob gibson)

such a mets card. one of the best cards to show an error this side of dick green's 1973 topps card, and the fact that bob gibson is on the basepath makes it even better.