andruw jones is in my hall of famer collection

in a week we will know if any players from the "classic" era will be inducted into the hall of fame. we will have to wait a few weeks longer to find out if andruw jones will make it in 2025. i decided that regardless of what the writers decide to do, i would add him to my hall of famer collection and so i did, with this card serving as his entry:

that's a 2021 topps chrome black refractor autograph numbered 148/150. here's the back:

topps goofed and kept the "base" text on the back for the parallels, as this is clearly a refractor.

jones was clearly a hall of fame caliber player during the first 12 years of his career. those are the years he spent with the braves, winning 10 gold gloves in a row, and helping the club to their impressive era of divisional and league dominance. he was terrible as a dodger in 2008, his first year outside of atlanta, but he rebounded a bit in his final four seasons when he played for three teams in the american league.

jones was a multi-tool threat in that he hit for power and fielded his position well, including by using his arm to cut down a high number of baserunners. case in point, he led the league (and the majors) in home runs and rbi in 2005 while also leading the league in outfield assists. he finished second in the mvp voting that year which is the closest he came to winning that award.

i saw him play in person twice. first on may 25, 1997 when he was 1 for 4 with a stolen base and then again on june 10, 2002. that was the 15 inning game i saw at the metrodome, and jones played the entire game, going 1 for 6. while he falls just short of my hall of fame sniff test of reaching base 3,000 times, his defense and presence on those successful braves teams puts him over the top for me. and i forgive him for 2008.

remember, you can see jones and all of the members of my hall of famer collection here.

the k is for kershaw kountdown - post yankee edition

yes, the kountdown to 3,000 strikeouts for clayton kershaw continues as he pitched against the yankees on friday night. he struck out 9 batters to give him 84 strikeouts on the season. those 9 yankees that he k'd increased his career total to 2,891.

in honor of his performance, here are 9 cards to represent strikouts 2,883 through 2,891.

2,883 - 2014 topps archives 1987 all-stars

2,884 - 2016 topps walmart marketside pizza

2,885 - 2020 topps heritage

2,886 - 2020 topps opening day

2,887 - 2021 panini mosaic stare masters mosaic

2,888 - 2021 topps 1952 redux chrome

2,889 - 2021 topps chrome black

2,890 - 2021 topps gallery masters of the craft

2,891 - 2022 topps finest flashbacks

kershaw remains in 21st place on the all-time leader board, and will remain there until he passes zack greinke, who struck out 6 earlier in the week to increase his strikeout total to 2,929. kershaw is now 38 k's behind greinke and 109 behind the 3,000 milestone. 

kershaw's start against the yankees was a bit of a bounce-back performance following a lackluster month of may. he picked up his seventh win of the season and went seven strong innings while matching his season high for strikeouts. the win marked the first of his career over the yankees, and gave him a victory over every major league team (other than the dodgers, of course). he has made 12 starts so far in 2023 and is averaging 7 k's per start. at this pace, he needs to make 16 more starts to reach 3,000 strikeouts. he is definitely on that pace, although he hasn't made 28 starts in a season since 2019. fingers crossed!

it would seem that kershaw's next start would come later this week against the reds in cincinnati. regardless of when he makes his next start, i will be back to update the kountdown soon thereafter. stay tuned!

these garveys are gravy

i do not know what the delay was that kept 2021 topps chrome platinum anniversary from hitting the market in a more timely manner, but i am happy that it was resolved. for the first time in a long time (19 or 20 years depending on whether you count release years or actual years), steve garvey got the chrome treatment in a base set. the last time was 2002 topps chrome traded when he was given a "who would have thought" card.

anyway, here's his base card from the 2021 release:

and here's the back:

i am happy he was featured in the set as a dodger and more grateful after seeing that the yearly stat lines on the back are all from his padre tenure. it would have been easy for topps to put him in his taco bell uniform for sure.

of course, we know that this set offers a ton of parallels and i didn't shy away from them.  here's the base refractor:

the aqua wave refractor:

the prism refractor:

the blue prism refractor:

the xfractor:

the black & white mini diamonds refractor:

the blue mini diamonds refractor numbered to 199:

the red atomic refractor numbered to 100:

the green/yellow 70th anniversary refractor numbered to 99 for some reason instead of 70:

and the rose gold mini diamond refractor numbered to 75:

by my count there are six more refractor parallels that i do not own, including the superfractor 1/1.

while i am pleased to see garvey in this set, i wish topps had chosen a different photo. this is a zoomed in version of the photo that was used on his 1972 topps card, and we saw it again in 2016 on the 1979 design as a short print in that years' archives release. that said, a young garvey works well with the 1952 design.

back to the cards i picked up, which include the autographs, of course. here's the base:

and its back:

i also have the refractor auto, but i guess i didn't scan it.

here's the aqua refractor:

numbered to 150:

this is the blue prism refractor:

numbered to 99:

and here is the gold refractor:

numbered to 50:

i am missing six of the autograph parallels, including a 70th anniversary version that is, in fact, numbered to 70.

while i don't know why that set was delayed, i do know that 2021 topps big league was held up due to the action figures that accompanied some hobby boxes.  once the set was released, it was revealed that garvey was featured in the autograph subset.

i have only seen four or five of these hit the secondary market, and none of the supposed parallels. i was happy to snag the second one i saw for just less than what the first one went for.  and speaking of scarce, the 2021 topps chrome black garvey autographs are tough to come by, too.

i added that green parallel (numbered to 99) from comc a while back. it came without its case which was disappointing (and not noted by comc). all they said when i asked them about it was that they post images of all cards. i guess i should have noticed that it wasn't in its case.  according to the checklist, garvey has an unnumbered base auto in this set along with one numbered to 150. i have seen neither of those nor the versions numbered to 50, 5, or 1. i do also have the orange parallel numbered to 25 though.

each of these cards are ones that i count myself fortunate to own given the issues that surrounded their release or availability. they are great additions to my collection of my favorite player who just happens to turn 74 tomorrow. happy birthday to the nl iron man!

i am usually not a fan of cards featuring black and orange

when it comes to baseball, the colors black and orange, to me, conjure up images of jack clark and joe morgan and other nefarious characters. i didn't hesitate, however, to add this card to my collection a few months ago

it's a 2021 topps chrome black steve garvey orange parallel autograph.

it looks really sharp, and i think i would have preferred to chase this rainbow more than the clearly authentic and tribute rainbows i pursued last year. as it stands, i only have this one and likely won't add any others unless the prices come down.

even though i noted that i should be careful what i wish for, 2021 was a banner year for garvey in topps products, and on the field, it was nice to see the boys in blue vanquish the black and orange in the wild card series.