1992 Topps #943 Barry Lyons

This is going to be a fun post. Barry Lyons played in the Majors from 1986-1995. He came up to the Bigs in 1986 with the New York Mets, and spent '86, '87, '88, '89, and part of '90 with them. The rest of 1990 was spent with the Los Angeles Dodgers, and he split 1991 between them and the California Angels. He spent 1992-1994 in the minors, and played the final season of his Major League career in 1995 with the Chicago White Sox.

Barry's first Topps card came in the 1987 Traded set. He then got cards in the 1988, 1989, and 1990 regular sets. He is missing a 1986 Topps Traded rookie card, a 1990 Topps Traded, 1991 Topps, 1991 Topps Traded, 1992 Topps, 1995 Topps Traded, and 1996 Topps card from his portfolio. I have actually made all of these missing ones, and here is where it gets fun.

Back in 2017, I had the chance to visit my mother in Houston while on vacation that June. While looking on Google for images for customs, I stumbled on an article about the Biloxi Shuckers minor league team having a camp for kids hosted by Barry Lyons. Barry is the Ambassador for the team (scroll down to Community Relations and Outreach), and is a lifelong resident of Biloxi. I will spare you a long story, but here is a link to Barry's personal story, highlighting his time as a player on the Mets, some downs with depression and drugs, and high points when he came clean and met his wife.

Since we were driving to Texas, I suggested a stop in Biloxi. My wife was born there, and I figured we could stop at the stadium and drop some duplicate cards of Barry to hand out to the campers. Before going up to the stadium, I made customs of Barry's 1990 Topps Traded, 1991 Topps, 1991 Topps Traded, 1992 Topps, and 1996 Topps cards. We got to the stadium, and I met up with a contact from the team, and she ushered me down through the dugout, and through the clubhouse to the underground batting cages where Barry was speaking. It was the first time I had been in a clubhouse, and it was a nice place. After he talked, Barry walked out to the dugout before a session, and I introduced myself, gave Barry his 'regular' cards, and asked if he had time to sign a few customs. I told him I made the White Sox photo out of an Angels photo, and he was impressed. I gave him extras of the customs to keep, thanked him for his time, and was on my way. It was an amazing day, and I now have Barry in my Favorite Player Collection, and I am saving all of the Barry Lyons cards I can so I can ship them out to Biloxi for future camps. 

Here are all of the Barry Lyons customs I have, including the ones I got signed, and some random Donruss and Fleer ones I made.

 

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

1992 Topps #933 John Orton

John Orton played in the Majors from 1989-1993 with the California Angels. He only appeared on 1 Topps card, coming in the 1991 Topps set. He is missing cards from the 1990, 1992, 1993, and 1994 Topps sets. This card crosses off the '92 card, and I also made his 1994 Topps card while finishing that set.

As for the '92 card, John was left off of the 1992 Topps set, but got a card in the 1992 O-Pee-Chee set, which is the same design as the '92 Topps set, just with the OPC logo. O-Pee-Chee would always choose not to copy the All-Star and Record Breaker cards for their sets, instead choosing to add more Montreal Expos, Toronto Blue Jays, and random other players in their spots. Orton got a card in the '92 OPC set because of this, so all I had to do to make his card was to take off the OPC logo, and add a Topps one. The back was a little difficult, but I think I did ok. 

It has been a long while since I've posted on this blog, but having a 2-year old can take up most of your time. Probably since my last post here, I have finished the 1998 Topps set, started working on the 1984 Topps/Topps Traded sets, added a few checklists for '70's sets on my other blog, as well as start the 1993 Topps set until the '84 Topps set came up with a deadline of February. I will still keep posting on here every now and then, so check back, and you never know, you could see a new card up.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

1992 Topps #898 Cliff Young

Cliff Young pitched in the Majors for 3 seasons. He came up with the Angels in 1990, and pitched for them in 1991. He spent 1992 in the minors, and pitched in 1993 for the Cleveland Indians. Sadly, Young was involved in a car accident in shortly after the 1993 season and lost his life.

Young never appeared in any regular Topps issues, but did appear in the 1991 Bowman, 1991 Topps Debut, and 1992 Stadium Club sets. He is now just missing cards in the 1991 and 1994 Topps sets to complete his career Topps run. This 1992 Topps customs I made would've been Young's final Angels card and middle Topps card of his career.

Looks like my order from COMC should be coming in the next week. As soon as I get them, I'll take pictures and show off what I got and post it on my other blog, and I'll probably post a link here too. I've started doing customs in the 1989 Topps set of the Detroit Tigers, and I think I'm going to try to work on each Tigers team set for a while, and also try to knock out some favorite player cards. I'm also working on the 1996 Topps checklist, and Paul is working on some other ones. Stay tuned for more customs and checklists.
Thanks for checking out my latest card.
-Jeremy

1992 Topps Chris Cron

Chris Cron played 2 years in the Majors, 1991 and 1992. He appeared in the 1992 Donruss, Fleer, and Score sets, as well as the 1992 Topps debut set. He was left off of the '92 Topps set, but that's understandable since he only played in 6 games. He put up some good numbers with the Angels organization in the Minors, and that got him the cup of coffee in 1991. He got into 6 more games in 1992 with the White Sox, and the only 1993 card he got was in the 1993 Fleer set. 

I actually got to meet Chris when he was coaching in the Tigers system a few years ago in Spring Training. He signed my '92 Donruss card, and I mentioned that I was collecting autographs from the 1992 Topps set at the time and that I wished he was in the set. He said that he doesn't have many cards out. I wished I had thought of this project before then and been able to show him this card. 

I worked on back to a ton of cards in the last 2 days, and finished with card # 1076 today. I'm a few cards away from getting done with the 2nd checklist, and in about 70 cards, it will be on to a string of a ton of coach cards. The checklist is complete as of yesterday as well, since I took out the extra coach cards, put other cards in their place, and added the 3 players I had left out of the set. The 1992 Topps set will be complete with card #1364 as well as the 132 cards in the Traded set. I am 288 backs away from finishing the set, but that number is a little high since I have done backs to checklists, all of the team combo cards, and a few random cards here and there. I think I am still on pace to finish up the set by the end of the year. Thanks for checking out the latest card in my set. 

-Jeremy

1992 Topps Scott Lewis

Scott Lewis pitched for the California Angels from 1990-1994. He only appeared on 1 Topps card in his career (1993 Topps), but did get a card in the '91 Topps Debut set. His missing '92 Topps card would've been his 2nd Topps card, and if he would've appeared in a Topps set during his entire career, he would've had 5 total cards. This card was pretty easy to make, even though I had minor league stats to deal with. The next card in the set (Ron Hassey) should be pretty easy to make since he was well established in the Majors by then and because I believe it is his sunset card. 

Thanks for checking out the latest guy in the set. 

-Jeremy

1992 Topps Chris Beasley

I guess I've sort of been on a California Angels pitchers kick the last few cards. Card 808 was a combo card of Angel lefties Mark Langston, Jim Abbott, and Chuck Finley. Card 812 was of Angels reliever Floyd Bannister, and today's card is of Angels reliever Chris Beasley. Chris appeared in the 1992 Topps Debut set (card # 12), but not in the 1992 regular set. His only year in the Majors was 1991, so this would've been his first and last Topps card. Now the set will be Angel-free until card # 824.

1992 Topps Floyd Bannister

Floyd Bannister got his last Topps card in the 1990 set, even though his last season wouldn't be until 1992 with the Texas Rangers. He missed out on Topps cards for the 1991, 1992, and 1993 sets. Here is the missing 1992 card of the former #1 overall pick.

1992 Topps Angel Lefties

I decided after I made my preliminary checklist to take out any players who appeared in the 1992 Topps Traded set. That left me with a few spots to fill, and I decided to make some "team nucleus" kind of cards for each team to fill the empty spots in the old checklist. Not sure, but I might also make cards of all the coaches of the teams, and perhaps put pitching/hitting leaders and complete team checklists on the back of them. I've done research for the first 5 teams in the American League as of now, and so far, I've been able to find not only the names of the coaches from 1991, but also pictures that I think I may be able to work with. However, if I am unable to find the names of coaches and/or pictures for other teams, I will probably scrap the whole project. I might finish the research up on my next few days off. For now, the project is still a go, and here is the first of my "team nucleus" cards, featuring California Angels left-handed starters Mark Langston, Jim Abbott, and Chuck Finley.