Nearly a glitch in the Matrix - feat. Kirby Puckett

I made this 2006 Fleer Greats Decade Greats Puckett a keeper out of a 25 card dollar dig at a card show where I was charged $20 - I have Puckett rubber stamped as a Hall of Fame legend to collect from the junk wax era and this retro card from the 2000s ends up a little more unique, where it goes into my stadium project.

Like my last post, I thought the same image on one card was used for another card and sure enough Puckett's 1988 Fleer card used nearly the same image - maybe it makes a little more sense where Fleer [or Upper Deck, which had bought out Fleer in 2005] would be able to dig around and look for an archive of images to use.

On first glance, the pictures on the cards are virtually the same where they could have been taken seconds from each other - the only wrinkle that makes the images slightly different are Puckett's eyes, where the retro Fleer card has him looking towards the side, while the 1988 Fleer card has his eyeballs sort of looking downward.

A glitch in the Matrix - feat. Wade Boggs

I don't know if I liked the image on the 2023 Donruss Wade Boggs - I imagine Boggs following through hitting a ball during an at-bat, but kind of hard to tell, where it's almost an awkward shot.

As I'm scrolling through some f/s posts on social media, I saw a Boggs lot with a 1992 Upper Deck Boggs that kind of looked familiar - it looks like Panini found and used the same image that Upper Deck did all the way back in 1992.

Maybe better eyes will spot the minute differences between the two images but I have to go look for the 1992 Upper Deck Boggs - as both a stadium project card and to put together as a pair with the newer Panini Donruss card.

Some stadium project collection adds

I probably had 45 minutes during another pit stop at a card show - I ended up hanging around the hosting card shop's bulk bins and eventually started to find some probable keepers, where I was able to build a take home stack.

By the time I was seriously collecting in the early 1990s, I was probably aware of the Classic game cards - though probably not the early sets from 1987 or 1988.

I don't think I've ever seen these particular cards before - so they end up nice finds, even if their only value is esoteric.

No one is coveting a common of Mark McLemore in 2023 - but I had to make room for a 1996 Upper Deck Collector's choice in my pile since it is a nice horizontal shot of McLemore, presumably taking a hack at an Angel game.

I wouldn't remember McLemore actually playing with the Angels through the first part of his MLB career - though I kind of remember he was at a career crossroads back in the early 1990s, before re-inventing himself as a valuable jack-of-all trades utilty guy that allowed him to stick aroud.

Now it's like a reward finding a parallel for my stadium project - I don't think I'd ever buy any Panini baseball product outright, but the occasional parallels maybe worth a second look.

Stadium project cards I found through my rummage at the card show

Maybe I've had to turn my back on picking up more cards that are over a dollar or more [depending on type] of visiting players at Angels or Anaheim Stadium - but it is a thing to indulge at the bulk level, where I feel like I'm doing a thing salvaging random cards.

My favorite is probably the 1987 Topps Danny Tartabull #476 - I've always thought it was good looking card of a guy who was a star slugger for a little bit through the junk wax era, though I never really thought I needed it.

The 2007 Upper Deck Jim Thome #80 teases a nice horizontal image of the Hall of Fame slugger about to take a whack at the ball - you can see the red in the background and the fan in the dugout seats wearing an Angels jersey.

I was iffy on grabbing a copy of the 1990 Score Young Superstars Series 1 Omar Vizquel #28 online - but it made it easier for to stash it in my keeper pile as just another card, rather than make a deliberate decision to pick it up.

Because I assume it's a fairly common card, I was iffy on grabbing a copy 1989 Upper Deck Fred McGriff #572 when I'd see it posted online - I probably didn't have it however and I assume it's a stadium card, so it went into my keeper pile.

The 2009 Topps Update Gold Jeff Weaver #UH115 - teases signage promoting Las Vegas and the rock pile at Angel Stadium, so it's kind of a nice parallel with some identifiers to where the image was taken.

Maybe the 2008 Upper Deck A Piece of History Baseball Alex Rios #96 and 1987 Fleer Glossy Card Dennis Eckersley #U-30 end up being close enough to stadium cards - where there might not be obvious 'tells' at first glance whether or not they do count, but I'll assume they are anyway.

Some baseball cards for Christmas

For Christmas, my brother actually bought me some baseball cards - a blaster box of Topps Series II [with two Throwback packs] and a retail version of the 2010 Topps USA box set [the $9.99 retail versions contain just the base USA set with no hits compared to the 'hobby' version with about 10 various game-used / autographs hits per box and around a $120 SRP].

Commemorative Patch Card
MCP 54 Rod Carew - 1967 All-Star Game commemorative patch; the manufactured patch card commemorates the last time the Angels hosted an All-Star game before this past season, so it is a nice pull [even though former Angels' star Rod Carew was still a Minnesota Twins' player at the time of that particular All-Star game].

The rest of my packs were a usual mix of inserts and base cards - I did get another Rod Carew insert, a The Cards Your Mom Threw Out insert original back of his second-year 1968 Topps card.

I was surprised to see this box of USA set, though it is marked $9.99, so it must have been made to be purchased at Target / Walmart type stores - kind of disappointing there was not one token hit inside, but I guess that is how it goes. Actually, I got an extra base card of George Springer [#USA-41] in the set, so maybe that is my 'token hit.'

The best card in the base set maybe Anthony Rendon - he spent only three days with the U.S. National team in 2010, before injuring his ankle.