1992 Topps #945 Brad Komminsk

Brad Komminsk played in the Majors from 1983-1991, spending the 1988 season in the minors. He played with the Atlanta Braves from 1983 to 1986, spent 1987 with the Milwaukee Brewers, 1989 with the Cleveland Indians, 1990 with the San Francisco Giants and Baltimore Orioles, and his final season with the Oakland Athletics in 1991. There are some interesting things about his career after he was in the Majors, but we will get to that later.

Brad got his first Topps card in the 1985 set. He got in the 1986 set, then was in the 1990 regular Topps set, and 1990 Traded set. He is missing card from the 1983 Topps Traded, 1984 Topps, 1987 Topps Traded, 1988 Topps, 1989 Topps Traded, 1991 Topps, and 1991 Topps Traded sets to complete his career Topps run. I actually have finished his '83 Topps Traded and '84 Topps cards when I completed those sets, so here they are.

On to the interesting things after his Major League career. Brad is technically missing another Topps  card. According to some of the records I have from Spring Training of 1995 when the replacement players took part in games, Brad suited up for the Minnesota Twins in 1995 as a replacement player. I have a team photo of the replacement Twins, and Komminsk is in it, so it should be easy enough to make him a 1995 Topps card.
I also found out from his BBRef page that Brad played 1 game in AAA for the Detroit Tigers in 1997, 6 years after his last Major League game, 2 years after he suited up as a replacement player, and 4 years after playing his last minor league game. He went 2 for 3 with a double. Pretty good for not having played regularly in 4 years. 

One last thing, I actually met Brad in 2002 or 2003 when I was living in Lakeland, Florida. A golf course near my house had a tournament every spring where you could pay however much it was, and spend a morning playing golf with players and coaches from the Cleveland Indians and Detroit Tigers. Well, a friend of mine was playing on his company's team, and he had an extra spot in his foursome, and he knew I liked baseball, so he invited me. I had no idea which player I would be paired up with, so I stuffed my 5-6 binders of Indians and Tigers in my trunk and went to the course. Soon, I found out I would be golfing with Brad Komminsk, so I went to my car, got the cards of him that I had, and went to play some golf. I don't think I really asked him that many questions. He talked a little about Pascual Perez, Garry Maddox, but it's been so long that I don't remember too much of it. I think I made a nice chip or putt at some point. Brad was nice enough to sign the cards for me, and I have a picture somewhere of our foursome, but after spending about 30 minutes looking for it, I still haven't found it. If I run across it, I will put it up. Later that year, when I went to an Indians practice in Spring Training, Brad spotted me, and he was with pitcher Jason Davis (who I didn't have any cards of), and he introduced him to me like I didn't know who he was (I did). If only I was a little more internet savvy back then, I would've probably had a few Davis cards and been able to get an autograph. It was cool to do. Probably the closest I'll get to hang out with a Major Leaguer unless I go to a fantasy camp or something. One day.

Thanks for checking out my latest card.

-Jeremy

1992 Topps #902 Ron Witmeyer

Ron Witmeyer played season in the Majors, in 1991, for the Oakland Athletics. He got 1 hit, a single, in 19 At-Bats. He currently is Owner/Director of Instruction at Frozen Ropes, a baseball instruction academy in San Diego, California. I emailed Ron a link to this post, so maybe he will see it.

Ron appeared in just 2 major sets, a 1992 Stadium Club card, and a 1992 Topps debut card, along with a dozen minor league issues. I also have Witmeyer listed as a replacement player for the 1995 Oakland A's, so I will be making a 1994 Topps Traded Update card to finish out his career Topps run.

I haven't had time to post much or do many customs, but I think I might find a little time this week. I am doing a little work on the 1999 Topps checklist, and I kind of want to see how it compares to the rest of them. I remember watching a ton of baseball in 1998, and even thought I don't have very much at all of the 1999 Topps set, I have a feeling that I will recognize player names in the 1998 set the most. I'm also hoping to make a few more customs of the Netherlands for the WBC set that we have going on at the Facebook Custom Card Group. You should join if you are into making customs or just enjoy viewing them. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1992 Topps #895 Lance Blankenship

Card #895 in the 1992 Topps set is Lance Blankenship. Lance appeared in the 1992 O-Pee-Chee set, and replaced the Will Clark All-Star card in the '92 Topps set. I don't see O-Pee-Chee didn't just copy the All-Star cards just like with the regular ones in the set. It's nice that they gave new players cards in the OPC set, but if they wanted new players in the OPC set, why not do it in the Topps set by expanding the set. That was 25 years ago, and now it's even worse.

Lance played his entire career (1988-1993) with the Oakland Athletics. He was part of the 1989 World Championship team. He was on the disabled list for the 1994 season, so without doing too much research, I would assume that the injury was the reason his career ended.

Lance appeared on his first Topps card in 1990. He was in the 1991 set, missed 1992, and got 1993-1995 Topps cards. It's interesting that he got the '95 card after being on the DL the whole year. The '95 Topps set was only 660 cards, so it's surprising that a player who didn't play in 1994 got into the set. Lance is missing just a 1989 Topps rookie to complete his career Topps run, and is in my 1989 Topps checklist of cards that need to be made (card #1002). The 1989 Topps A's template is up on the page if anyone feels like making it.

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

1992 Topps #869 Bruce Walton

Bruce Walton played 4 seasons in MLB, getting time with the A's in 1991 and 1992, the Expos in 1993, and the Rockies in 1994. After his playing career, he became a coach, making it back to the Majors with the Blue Jays from 2002-2012.
Walton didn't appear in any Topps regular issues during his career, only making it into the 1992 Topps Debut set and '92 Stadium Club set. He doesn't appear in that many non-Topps issues either, only getting a '91 Score Rookie/Traded card, a '92 Donruss The Rookie card, a '92 Fleer Update card, and a '92 Fleer Ultra card. I have a card of just about anyone who appeared in MLB from 1989-the mid '00s, and I don't believe I have any Walton cards in my collection. Needless to say, Bruce is missing cards from the '92-'95 Topps sets, and coach cards from the '03-'13 Topps sets. This '92 Topps Walton rookie gives him his first Topps card.
Thanks for checking out my latest card.
-Jeremy

1992 Topps John Briscoe

I decided to go back to the old way of writing posts. I thought changing it up would be a good idea, but discovered that some of the categories I made didn't include that much info, and that if I just wrote about the cards I made and added necessary info, that it should suffice.

 John Briscoe made his MLB debut in '91, but didn't appear in the 1992 Topps set, probably due to the fact that he only appeared in 11 games. He pitched with the A's from 1991-1996, and that was his only time in the Majors. He only appeared in 1 major Topps set (1995), but did appear in the '92 Stadium Club and '92 Major League Debut set. This would've probably been his rookie card, unless Topps had expanded the '91 Traded set to include him.

I finished the back to card #1012 today, getting me a little closer to finishing the set, and officially putting me on the back side of the 2nd checklist. I'm not gonna lie, it is a little tedious making backs to cards of players who were really either rookies or journeymen, but sometimes there is a draft pick card, or a card of a star, or a numerical goal that I try to reach that makes it worthwhile. Someday I will finish this set, and maybe I'll get really lucky and maybe a collecting publication or website or maybe even Topps themselves will take notice and maybe we can get them to make some of the types of cards that we want or actually produce some of the customs we've been making for so long. One can only hope. Thanks for checking out my latest card.

-Jeremy

1992 Topps Reggie Harris

Reggie Harris is the next card in my attempt to complete the 1992 Topps set. He made his MLB debut in 1990 and received a card in the '91 Topps set, but no cards the rest of his career, which spanned all the way to 1999. He pitched with Oakland in '91, didn't make it back up to the Majors until '96 with the Red Sox. He spent '97 with the Phillies, '98 with the Astros, and '99 with the Brewers, his last year in the Bigs. Another case of a reliever not getting cards in a Topps set, although the small number of games played in '91 may have had a factor in why he wasn't in the 1992 set.

Many cards in the '92 Topps set had parts of players overlap the actual nameplate sometimes. Card #1, Nolan Ryan comes to mind immediately, and I believe Frank Tanana was another. I tried to do the same on this card with the baseball overlapping a tiny bit. It's a strange nuance of the '92 set (kind of like players overlapping the borders in the '91 Topps set), and Topps took it a step further in the '92 set, with some players/equipment even overlapping parts of the Topps logo (Jim Leyland). I've tried to stay true to that while making my customs, so if you pay attention to detail, you can see things like that in many of the cards I will make in the set.

I'll probably not make as many backs as I have been doing just so I can relax and get other things done with my free time, so I may very well not finish the entire set by the end of 2016, which I was hoping to do, but maybe sometime in 2017 (the 25th anniversary of the 1992 set), and hopefully by then I will have figured out some way to print out the cards and put them in a nice binder with the rest of the set (regular and Traded), and officially complete the 1992 Topps set. I would love to see what Topps would think of this project (as long as they are ok with me using their designs/etc.). I would love to see Topps go all out and produce a complete 2016 set with every person that put on a uniform in 2015 in the set. If they sold it online, they could really just copy and paste photos into a design and give a deadline for orders, then really just print the exact number of sets ordered and save all kinds of money and give some of the collectors who aren't in it for the money a small taste of what they want.

Only a few more days until 2016 Topps is live. Can't wait to check it out and I hope you pull your favorite teams/players/and some good inserts. Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1992 Topps Troy Afenir

Troy Afenir appeared in a few seasons in the Big Leagues, debuting in 1987 with the Houston Astros, and making a few appearances with the Oakland A's in 1990, and 1991, and then playing for the Reds. He doesn't have any Topps cards despite all of his time in the Majors. Here is his 1992 Topps card, which happens to be the first horizontal card of the A's in 1992 (Topps used all vertical cards in their set for the A's team).

1992 Topps Tony LaRussa All-Star

The manager for the 1991 AL All-Star team was Oakland A's skipper Tony LaRussa. Tony had led the 1990 A's to the 1991 AL Championship, and lost to the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series. He was chosen as the AL's manager for the 1991 All-Star game, but was left off of Topps' 1992 All-Star subset. He was, however, given a base card in the set (card # 429). Here is his All-Star card.