1992 Topps #888 Terry Mathews

Terry Mathews pitched in the Bigs from 1991-1999. He pitched for the Texas Rangers from 1991-1992, then signed with the Florida Marlins. He played with them until the middle of '96, when he was traded to the Baltimore Orioles. He pitched for them in 1997 and -998, and played his final season in 1999 with the Kansas City Royals. 

Terry only got into 1 base Topps set, the 1995 set. He got a 1992 Topps Debut card, and that was it for his Topps cards. He technically got into the 1992 Topps set, but as a checklist replacement in the ToppsGold set. John Ramos, Rod Beck, Brian Williams, Tony Perezchica, Terry McDaniel, and Mathews were chosen as replacements for checklist spots in the '92 ToppsGold set. For those cards, I used the Gold cards and tried to give the cards regular nameplates on the front and regular backs. Now Terry is just missing cards from the 1993, 1994, and 1996-2000 Topps sets. 

Work has finally slowed down, and things are finally getting somewhat back to normal at home. Baby Kyler got here on the 6th, so that kind of put things to a crawl on this blog, but I have been making templates and finalizing checklists for a good amount of the Topps sets from 1989-2001. 1989, 1990 and most of 2001 have the checklists done. 1991 is almost done. The 1989-1993 sets, 1996-1997 (basically) sets, and the 1999-2001 sets all have templates done for every team. I'm working on 1994, 1995, and 1998, and I will do templates for each team in the 1997 set, but there is a basic template that you can steal team logos from the 1996 set and add to. Slowly some of these Topps sets will get completed and I might just have to make more blogs like this one. Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

1992 Topps #878 Rod Beck

Rod Beck played for 13 seasons in the Major Leagues. He made his debut in 1991 with the Giants, and stayed with them through the end of the 1997 season. He played with the Chicago Cubs in 1998 and 1999, but was traded to the Red Sox midway through the '99 season. He was with the Sox until the end of the 2001 season. He had Tommy John surgery at the end of the 2001 season, and spent 2002 in the minors at Iowa with the Chicago Cubs organization. During the season, he lived in a mobile home behind the stadium, letting fans come over while he would sign autographs and offer free beer. In 2003, he made it back to the Majors with the Padres, and finished his career with them in 2004.  Unfortunately, Beck passed away in 2007. I was fortunate enough to have got Beck's autograph through the mail in 2006 on a '93 Topps Gold and '98 Bowman Chrome card.

Rod never got a 1992 Topps card in the main set, but he did get in the '92 set (sort of). 1992 was the first year that parallel sets came inserted in packs, and Topps made a parallel ToppsGold set, where the box with the player and team names were highlighted in gold foil. Every card in the '92 set had the ToppsGold parallel card, but the set had 6 checklists in it. Instead of making ToppsGold checklist cards, Topps decided to give 6 players that weren't in the regular Topps set a ToppsGold card. Those players were Brian Williams, Terry Mathews, John Ramos, Terry McDaniel, Tony Perezchica, and Rod Beck. I chose to add these players to my custom 1992 set, since they didn't have regular Topps cards in 1992. I did this as well to players who appeared in the 1992 O-Pee-Chee set as All-Star replacement cards. 

Rod appeared on a decent amount of Topps sets during his career. 1993 was the first set he appeared in, and he was in every Topps set from then until 1999. He was skipped from the 2000 and 2001 sets, and appeared on a 2002 Topps card, which was his final Topps card. He presumably wouldn't have got a card in the 2003 set since he didn't play in the Majors in '02. The '04 and '05 sets are missing Beck cards, which would've been his final 2 Topps issues. This custom gives him cards from the '92-'99 sets, leaving him with cards from the '00-'01 sets, and '04-'05 sets to give him a career Topps run.

I am making some headway on the checklist of the 2001 Topps set on my other blog. All of the NL teams are done, and I have all of the templates for the NL clubs done as well. I will probably start on the AL team checklists and templates sometime in October once we are moved into the new house and time warrants it. I hope to have them all done by the end of the year, but I don't know what's going to happen once our baby arrives in November. If you enjoy seeing these cards, check out my other blog. I basically am doing customs from the 1989-present Topps sets, and I am attempting to complete the 2001 set right now, followed by the 1989 set, 1990 set, 1991 set, and so on. I have been getting some help making the customs by a reader or two, so if that sounds like something you are into, please let me know.  Thanks for checking out my latest custom.

-Jeremy

1992 Topps Houston Astros Team Set

It seems like I haven't posted on this blog in months. With work and stuff at home, sometimes I just don't have time to make custom cards, let alone post any. Today, however, I had a day off, so I got the chance to make some new cards, and post the newest team set.

The 1991 Houston Astros had a bunch of rookies on their team, as they were rebuilding, and they had a ton of players who weren't in the original 1992 Topps set. They are all covered now, as well as the coaches, an Art Howe All-Star card, and a combo card featuring Jeff Bagwell and Craig Biggio (you would be surprised how hard it was to find a photo of them in the old Astros uniform).

As far as what I have been up to in making cards (since I usually post that at the end of a blog post), I have finished the Philadelphia Phillies, Pittsburgh Pirates, and St. Louis Cardinals team sets. I will try to work on the San Diego Padres (another team with many cards missing from the '92 set) and San Francisco Giants team sets tomorrow to finish out the National League. I may also work on a Lee Smith Record Breaker card (he set a NL record for Saves in '91). Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1992 Topps John Ramos

John Ramos really does have a card in the 1992 Topps set. Sort of. In 1992, Topps issued their first paralell set (excluding Tiffanys), the ToppsGold set. The Gold cards were the same as the original cards, except that the section with the players name and team was overlayed in Gold foil. You could get the cards a few different ways. They were inserted in packs (1 in 36 regular packs, I think the odds in jumbos and rack packs were easier. Each 500 count vending box had 5 Gold cards, and you got 10 in every factory set.), they issued a Gold factory set at the end of the season, and they had game cards where you could win them.

The game cards had 8 sections you could rub off, and the object of the game was to match 3 sections that had stats. If you matched the stats, you could send in the card, and win whatever prize was listed in the box (usually 10 ToppsGold cards). There was also a way to collect "runs" at the bottom of the game card, and you could save up your runs, and once you got 100, send them in with 2 dollars, and get 10 ToppsGold cards. People figured out how to cheat at the game, and in response, Topps printed *Winner* on cards that were won from the Match the Stats game, and the cards that were pulled from packs, or were from the factory set didn't have the *Winner* stamp. I don't know if Topps did the *Winner* stamp on just the cards won from Runs or the Match the Stats game. You would figure you would still have to bust a lot of packs in order to get enough game cards to get 100 runs, and it many people were cheating at the Match the Stats game that Topps would've printed the *Winner* stamp on cards that were won from the Match the Stats game. I actually won 10 ToppsGold cards from the Stats game sometime in 1992, and the ToppsGold cards I recieved didn't have the *Winner* stamp on them. This leads me to believe that I probably won my cards before the game was compromised, and it was maybe later in the year (maybe around the time that Series 2 card hit the shelves nowdays) that Topps decided to put the stamp on the cards. As I was writing this I googled a picture of the Match the Stats card, and found This article, dated January 17, 1992, only days or weeks after 1992 Topps probably hit the shelves. Maybe I did win the game on the first try, but I swear it was midway through the year.

Back to the Ramos card, since all 792 cards in the set had a Gold card, Topps decided to place 6 players who didn't appear in the regular set in place of the 6 checklists. Ramos was 1 of them. I decided to use the back of his 1992 Topps Gold card, and make a different front. I think it turned out ok, and now John Ramos has a card in the 1992 Topps and 1992 ToppsGold sets, and the 1992 Topps Debut set.