TTM autographs received: Mike Krukow

The longtime broadcaster for the San Francisco Giants signed my cards in several months - Krukow's career in the booth with partner Duane Kuiper and dealing with a condition called IBM is detailed in-depth in this ESPN story I stumbled upon through Krukow's page on Wikipedia.

TTM autographs received: Jeff Reardon

The former big league closer signed my cards in about three weeks - in the 1990s, I vaguely remember him going for some sort of save record, though in the time since, he has been lapped by other relievers.

TTM autographs received: Tom Niedenfuer

I was able to round up some junk wax era cards for the former big league reliever and he signed them in about a couple of weeks - Niedenfuer was a serviceable pitcher who spent 7 years with the Los Angeles Dodgers through the 1980s.

Unfortunately, despite his success, he was on the wrong end of a couple of big league home runs - hit in the 1985 National League Championship Series by Ozzie Smith and Jack Clark.

After pitching for the Dodgers, he had stints with the Baltimore Orioles, Seattle Mariners and the St. Louis Cardinals - before leaving the game for good at age 31.

TTM autographs received: Bryn Smith

The former Major League pitcher signed my cards in 7 days - though I've ended up with his junk wax era cards over the years, I've never had bothered to send him a TTM request until recently.

From what I've seen, Smith has always had a bold and legible autograph - so I wanted to check him off my TTM list of random guys who've generally been good signers.

The 30-Day Baseball Card Challenge - Day 19

"A favorite card from a country other than the United States."

1987 O-Pee-Chee Barry Bonds #320 - I randomly bought two or three loose OPC packs at some mall show I stumbled upon when I was a kid and likely pulled the Bonds.

I don't think the card was worth anything more [maybe less] than the regular Topps card, since the OPC cards are sort of carbon copies of their Topps counterparts - looking at other Bonds cards from 1986/87, I've always liked the picture used by Topps, since it looks like an action shot where he might be following through on his swing.

2017 Topps Heritage 7-pack break

I'm not exactly a fan of Topps Heritage because it has been played out card product to me - I feel like there should be more effort to come up with something original when it comes to baseball cards as opposed to dipping into your 'heritage' as sort of a crutch to stand on.

I do appreciate some 'old school' elements in baseball cards, so it's not like I don't get what these cards are about - I grabbed 7 random packs from a card shop and also a blaster box from a Target to see if I can get into these new cards for a little bit.

It may not feel authentic, but the thinner card stock is cleaner and the cards look fairly sharp - it seems like there was no effort to make the cards look like the originals, which may not be something people who collect Heritage seriously may like.

I read a little primer on the original 1968 Topps cards - but despite the inconsistent pattern scheme on the borders, I'm okay with the cards looking a little bland and maybe lacking a little imagination [just considering the cards themselves and not the wrinkles and gimmicks that come with a 2017 release].

The card backs are bright and bold - so that makes them easy to read.

I realize 1968 Topps wasn't a set that used facsimile autographs of the players as part of the design - so the fronts of these 2017 Topps Heritage cards look less cluttered.

Pack one
#280 Chase Headley
#283 Pittsburgh Pirates team card
#301 Martin Prado
#358 San Diego Padres team card
#NAP-14 Kyle Hendricks - New Age Performers

#307 Yordano Ventura - R.I.P.
#373 Nolan Arenado - All-Topps subset
#272 Wei-Yin Chen
#336 Colorado Sluggers - feat. LeMahieu/Blackmon

Pack two
#224 Matt Szczur
#58 Tony Watson
#62 Nick Markakis
#144 Ryan Zimmerman

#491 Jason Hammel - SP
#30 Tyler Flowers
#353 Zach Britton
#297 Ezequiel Carrera
#278 Jeurys Familia

Pack three
#286 Dellin Betances
#394 Texas Rangers team card
#225 Francisco Rodriguez
#165 2017 Detroit Tigers Rookie Stars - feat. JaCoby Jones/Dustin Molleken

#412 David Ortiz - SP/Color Swap variation?
#63 Alex Wilson
#42 2017 Miami Marlins Rookie Stars - feat. Austin Brice/Yefri Perez
#124 Chad Qualls
#378 Max Scherzer - All-Topps subset

Pack four
#188 Jedd Gyorko
#51 Derek Norris
#218 Jim Johnson
#111 Tanner Roark

#Topps Tan-10 Juan Marichal/Clayton Kershaw - Then and Now insert
#231 Matt Garza
#241 Travis Jankowski
#388 Yonder Alonso
#181 Corey Kluber

Pack five
#80 Eddie Rosario
#319 Washington National Rookie Stars - feat. Brian Goodwin/Spencer Kieboom
#132 Cheslor Cuthbert

#117 Chicago White Sox Rookie Stars - feat. Carson Fulmer/Yoan Moncada
#497 Kevin Gausman - SP
#243 Byron Buxton
#393 Toronto Blue Jays Rookie Stars - feat. Matt Dermody/Danny Barnes
#35 Anthony DeSclafani

#368 Manny Machado - All-Topps subset; it's totally not obvious who is partially pictured on the back of Machado's card.
Topps info card/Bunt pack code card

Pack six
#201 Martin Maldonado
#219 Pedro Alvarez
#107 Roberto Osuna
#105 Adam Lind

#149 1987 Topps Ray Searage - Rediscover Topps; damn, this is just what I wanted from a pack of 2017 Topps Heritage.

It's going to be another 19 years for 2036 Topps Heritage to come out featuring 'Today's Stars in The 1987 Design' - where pulling a buyback card from 1987 Topps would make sense, though I probably could have pulled any junk wax era card from this latest Topps promotion.

#77 Yadier Molina
#345 Jarred Cosart
#210 Carlos Rodon
#343 Marcus Semien
#104 Carlos Santana

Pack seven
#220 Joe Mauer
#275 2017 Philadelphia Phillies Rookie Stars - feat. Jake Thompson/Roman Quinn
#389 D.J. LeMahieu

#372 Anthony Rizzo - All-Topps subset; it's totally not obvious who the smiling mug on the back of Rizzo's card belongs to.

#26 Gary Sanchez - 1968 Topps Game insert
#221 Toronto Blue Jays team card
#66 Kyle Hendricks
#192 Zack Cosart
#158 Cubs Fly the W

Featured autograph - Jerry Rice

I got this 1987 Topps second year card signed in-person by the Hall of Fame wide receiver at some public appearance - the card might have been a card show pick-up 15-20 years ago when I was more open into at least dabbling in collecting other sports.

Though it was probably not worth much to begin with, I've always liked how the card looked and now that it has been slabbed - I'm pairing it with a PSA graded 1986 Topps rookie card I have in my PC.

R.I.P. Jim Fregosi 1942-2014

I remember him more as a manager with the Philadelphia Phillies and Toronto Blue Jays from the early 1990's through the early 2000's than as an actual player - the first time I probably heard of him was when I stumbled upon his 1987 Topps card when I was a kid getting into card collecting.

Of course as an Angels fan, I've learned more about Fregosi as one of the franchise's best ever position players at shortstop - he had an early start to his MLB playing career, but seemingly past his prime as he hit 30, he was infamously traded to the New York Mets for Nolan Ryan and three other players.

If my eyes were to be believed LOL

I thought I saw Glenn Hoffman at a Best Buy, possibly looking for a TV with his wife - the last thing on my mind was spotting a random former MLB player [brother of Trevor and current third base coach of the Padres], but according to the address listed for him on SCN, he may actually live 5-10 minutes away from the particular store.

Collecting topics focus No. 1 - the facial hair guys

I'm not prone to collect baseball cards [except to try and get autographed], but I still like flipping through all sorts of cards, especially with a unique focus - in recent years other collectors / card bloggers have been more proficient in hoarding and showcasing a variety of baseball cards that showcase a unique, sometimes quirky view of the game through baseball card images.

If I feel a little behind on all things related to actual baseball card collecting, I like the idea I can still build up my collecting topics collection - even though right now I'm trying to focus on only cards of players / coaches with facial hair.

This means for an indefinite period of time, I'm basically keeping an eye out for facial hair cards I've added this year - as well as trying to figure out if I have 100 percent of the cards listed in my database in-hand.

Once I figure out how to keep all the facial hair cards I have together - then I'll move into another collecting topic to swim in for a while.

My official position as far as cards out I don't have in my collection is I don't have to have them all - but I'd like to be able to discover and add 'new' cards here through pack breaks, quarter box digs, et al.

Last 2011 Topps Update Value Box recap

Bought one at Target for $14.99 and it was devoid of anything - since the Topps site was down, I had to enter my code cards on vacation and I ended up with 1987 Topps cards of Don Sutton and an Ozzie Smith All-Star subset card.

Topps Diamond Giveaway trade

I didn't exactly wait to jump on an 'interesting offer,' but I did dump my 1989 Topps George Brett for a 1995 Topps Jose Canseco - even 20 years later, I think the 1989 Topps set makes my skin crawl because it was such an uninspired, boring set devoid of innovation.

Probably from about 1994 through the present, Topps has come out with consistently decent looking sets - while not every set is a 'winner,' there are no '1989 Topps' among the last 16 or 17 years.

This was almost a done deal - if there were only more cards offered instead of one lone Cal Ripken Jr. card...maybe a combination of some vintage 1988, 1989, 1990 Topps to sweeten the pot for my 1960 Topps Frank Malzone.