1992 Topps #955 Stump Merrill Manager

 Stump Merill never appeared in the Majors as a player, but he did get to manage the New York Yankees in the 1990 and 1991 seasons.  Those 2 seasons would be it as far as appearing in the Majors, although he served as a special assistant to the GM of the Yankees for a number of years. 

Stump recieved his first Topps card in the 1990 Topps Traded set, and he got a card in the 1991 regular Topps set. Topps had a habit of making a card of the new manager if one got fired the previous season, so since Merrill got fired in the 1991 season, they chose to put the manager for 1992, Buck Showalter, in the 1992 set as the Yankees skipper. This 1992 Topps custom is the last card needed to complete Merrill's career Topps run.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

1992 Topps #918 Darrin Chapin

Darrin Chapin appeared in 4 MLB games, 3 in 1991 for the New York Yankees, and 1 in 1992 for the Philadelphia Phillies.

Chapin only got 2 major-issue trading cards, a 1992 Donruss card, and a 1992 Topps Debut card. He is still missing his 1993 Topps card, and surprisingly, I did a quick google search, and the blog The Phillies Room actually has a photo of Darrin in a Phillies uniform, so I'll be able to complete his career Topps run when I work on the 1993 Topps set.

I just finished the NL teams on the 1997 Topps checklist, and did the first 2 in the AL. Hopefully I can get a couple more done on Tuesday when I am off, and give me a nice push to help me finish the rest of the checklist before the end of the year.

Thanks for checking out my latest 1992 Topps custom.
-Jeremy

1992 Topps #911 Alan Mills

Alan Mills pitched in the Majors from 1990-2001. He played for the New York Yankees from 1990-1991. From 1992-1998, he pitched for the Baltimore Orioles. He was with the Los Angeles Dodgers from 1999 through the middle of 2000. He was traded back to the Orioles, and pitched with them from the rest of 2000, through 2001 when he retired. This year, Alan became the pitching coach for the Orioles.

Alan first appeared on a Topps card in the 1990 Topps Traded set. He got into the 1991 Topps set, and was left off of the 1992 set. He had cards in the 1993 and 1994 Topps sets, and was left off of Topps sets from 1995 through what would've been his final Topps card in 2002. Alan will also probably need a 2018 Topps card since Topps hasn't made manager/coach cards in years.

Thanks for checking out the latest card in my custom 1992 Topps set.
-Jeremy

1992 Topps #883 Mike Blowers

Mike Blowers played 11 seasons in the Majors. He spent his first 3 seasons with the Yankees from 1989-1991. From there, he spent 1992-1995 with the Mariners. He played 1996 with the Dodgers, and was back with the Mariners in 1997. He played with the Athletics in 1998, and finished out his career in 1999, spending it in Japan, and then coming back to the Mariners.

Mike got his first Topps card in the 1990 Traded set. He appeared in the 1991 regular set, then was left off of the 1992 and 1993 sets. He got into the 1994-1997 sets, was left out of the 1998 set, and got his final Topps card in the '99 set. He is missing cards from the 1992-1993, 1998, and 2000 Topps sets. This 1992 Topps custom leave Mike with 3 cards needed to complete his career Topps run.

This card actually gave me a difficult situation. Mike was traded to the Mariners on May 17, 1991, which would've been plenty of time to get a picture of Mike in a M's uniform. The only problem is that Mike never played with the Mariners in 1991, but with their AAA club in Calgary. I decided to leave Mike's photo as a Yankee photo, but to designate that he was traded (ala O-Pee-Chee). Here is a version I made without the traded designation.

While researching Wikipedia for info about Blowers' career, I found what looked like a fans' website devoted to Blowers listed as an external link. When I clicked the link, it sent me to some Japanese? website. When I translated it, it turned out to be a website about hair loss or something. I seem to be finding crazier and crazier things online while researching players in my project. 

I didn't get to work on as many customs as I wanted to yesterday night, but I am so close to finishing the 2000 Topps templates. Maybe by next week. I think I'll also try to finally finish that 1992 Topps Scott Brosius card to finally finish the '92 set. I think sub-consciously I have been putting the card off because Brosuis was one of those pesky Yankees in the '90's, which were the years when my Yankee-hating came to be.  Might as well finish the set though.  Thanks for checking out my latest custom.

-Jeremy

1992 Topps #880 Chuck Cary

Chuck Cary played 8 years in the Major Leagues. He was drafted in the 7th round by the Detroit Tigers in 1981 after a nice career at UCLA Berkeley, whom he pitched for in the 1980 College World Series. He got called up by Detroit in 1985, and pitched for them in 1986. He got into a total of 20 games for the Braves in 1987 and 1988. He was injured for the better part of the '88 season, prompting the Braves not to resign him. The Yankees took a gamble on him, and he responded with a 3.26 ERA for them in 1989. He played the 1990 and 1991 seasons with the Yankees before opting to play in Japan in 1992 with the Tokyo Giants. He pitched one last season in the Majors with the Chicago White Sox in 1993.

Cary got his first Topps card in the 1987 set, got another in the 1989 Traded set, and got his last 2 cards in the 1990 and 1991 regular sets. He is missing cards from the 1986, 1988, 1992, and 1994 Topps sets. I guess since Chuck only appeared in 10 games in 1991 that Topps decided to leave him out of the 1992 set, but now he has his 1992 Topps card, and is only missing 3 cards for his career Topps run.

I'm here at work getting prepared for hurricane Matthew to approach us. I live near Daytona, so we'll probably feel some effects of the storm, but hopefully it won't be as bad as everyone says it will be. Everyone is buying a ton of bread from the bakery and we've been swamped the let 2 days, and I'm hoping corporate decides to close us down on Friday, because that is my only day off until Monday, and I would really love to relax a little and later in the day try to unpack more, but should we stay open Friday, I have a feeling I'll be called in. Fingers crossed. If I am working, I'll try to post some cards on my lunch. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1992 Topps Mike Humphreys

Mike Humphreys is the latest card in the set. He never appeared in any main Topps sets during his playing career, but did get a '92 Topps Debut card, a '92 Stadium Club card, and a '93 Team Stadium Club card. He appeared in Donruss, Fleer, Pinnacle, Score, and Upper Deck sets in '92, but for some reason, didn't get a Topps card.

Mike played in 25 games in '91, 4 in '92, and 25 in '93 which was his last season. He did manage to hit a Home Run in '93. This 1992 Topps card would've been his rookie card, and first of 3 he would get if Topps put him in their base sets. He put up some good power numbers in each of his first 3 Minor League seasons, so you would figure he would've appeared in the '92 set, especially after getting a Bowman card in 1991 and getting a '92 card from every major brand except for Topps and Bowman.

I had to fix the front of this card after I was doing research and realized I spelled his last name incorrectly. Or maybe I should've left it and made it some special SP card and it could've been like some of the gimmicky crap Topps is giving us 24 years later.

I'm slowly but surely making backs to the set. I'll probably make a few Thursday or Friday. Next up will be a player I met during one of his last years in the Bigs and a good candidate to get a managerial job in the future. Thanks for checking out the latest card.
-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.