1992 Topps Chad Kreuter

Chad Kreuter is the next card in my attempt to complete the 1992 Topps set. Chad had appeared on the '89 and '90 Topps sets to this point, but was left off of the '91 and '92 sets. He would get cards from '93-'95, then none again from '96-'99. He got cards for the next 3 years, and then was left off of what would've been his final 2 Topps cards in 2003 and 2004.

I think if Chad would've got a little more playing time in '91 he could've made the '92 set, but Ivan Rodriguez and Geno Petralli were in the fold, so it was kind of hard for him to get playing time that year. He got a decent amount of At Bats with the Tigers the next few years, as well as during his time with the Dodgers, and what do you know, he got cards for those seasons. I think Chad was just a classic case of Topps putting players who were starters or received more than 100 At Bats on most of their cards.

I've been working on backs a good deal, and am almost finished with every card on the first checklist (793-940). Not much if you consider the number of cards in the rest of the set (once I hit card 940, I will have 427 more to go), but it is a small dent and it's nice to complete a goal, and doing every card on a checklist front and back is no small project. I've learned a lot about some of these lesser known players that Topps didn't include in the set, and Trading Card Database, Baseball-Reference, and Google (for pictures) have been invaluable resources in this project. If you ever decide to try your hand at making customs, these resources as well as a good photo editing program should be basically all you need.

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

1992 Topps Randy Knorr

Randy Knorr has been in oragnized baseball since 1986. He made it to the Majors in 1991 with the Blue Jays and was with them through 1995. He signed with Houston for 1996 and 1997, and went to the Marlins in '98, the year after the won the World Series. He was back with the Astros for '99, then on to Texas for 2000, before finishing out his career with the Expos in 2001. 

As far as Topps cards go, Randy only recieved 3 in his career, appearing in the '93, '94, and '95 sets. He got a '92 Topps Debut card, but missed out on the '92 set. I was surprised that he didn't have any other Topps cards, especially in the '01 set, which was the biggest set (792) Topps had made in quite some time. 

He went on to coach with the Washington Nationals, and I got to meet him and get his autograph in Spring Training (2007, I believe). He was nice and signed a few cards for me. Wish I would've had this card to show him.

I'll probably work on some backs tomorrow after work. Hoping to knock those last few out of the way before I have to figure out what the backs to the season highlight cards are going to look like. It will probably be a combination of the back of the record breaker cards and possibly the all-star cards.

We will find out soon enough. Thanks for checking out my latest card.

-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 Tarrik Brock Draft Pick

Today's card marks the first draft pick card in my custom 1992 Topps set. The Detroit Tigers had a draft pick card of Trevor Miller, but missed out on draft pick cards of top prospects Justin Thompson and Brock. I added Thompson and Brock in my set so the first 3 picks in the '91 Draft for the Tigers now have a card in the '92 set. 

Tarrik never made it to the Bigs with the Tigers, but did make it to AAA with them. I actually saw Brock play in the Minors in 1996 while I was living in Lakeland, Florida and he was playing in low-A ball with the Lakeland Tigers. I probably went to 5 games that year and got his autograph on a pennant, which is hanging up in my man-cave. After the '96 season, Tarrik was selected in the Rule-5 Draft by the Mariners. He stayed with them until 1999, when he signed with the Rockies before the season started. In July that year, he was traded to the Cubs, and then in 2000, he reached the Majors, playing in 13 games with them, getting 2 hits and stealing 1 base. He spent 2001 with Elmira in the Independant League, and spent 2002-2003 in the Dodgers system before retiring. After his playing career, he started coaching in 2006 with Ogden. Then from 2007 to 2013, he was the Marlins outfield and baserunning coordinator. He was their interim 1st Base Coach in 2010. In 2014, he was back in the Majors again, this time as the Astros 1st Base Coach. 2015 was spent as a Padres Minor League Coordinator, and this year, he is the Padres 1st Base Coach. 

Brock's only major-issue cards include a '92 Bowman, '92 Stadium Club Dome, 2000 Fleer Mistique and 2000 Fleer Tradition Update card. He also has a '92 Upper Deck Minor League card.

I consider Tarrik part of my Favorite player collection, but only have 1 of his cards, a 1991 Classic/Best Minor League card. One of these days, I'll try to print out this card and make it card #2 in my Brock collection. I will also probably make his 2001 Topps card, finishing up Tarrik's career Topps run (although I may try to add him to a few prospect cards in the '93-'97 sets). 

Thanks for checking out the latest card in my set.

-Jeremy

1992 Topps Jose Escobar

Card number 834 in my custom 1992 Topps set belongs to Indians infielder Jose Escobar. Jose started playing professional ball in 1979 and finally made it to the Majors for the first time in 1991. It would be his last pro season. I couldn't find much about his career, but from the looks of it, I'm assuming he was a no hit, good fielding middle infielder.

Jose had only 2 cards in major brands during his career, a '91 Bowman and a card in the '92 Topps Debut set. He does have a variety of Minor League cards. This card would've been his first and only Topps card as he only spent 1991 in the Bigs. 

I got a few packs (3 regular and 1 jumbo) of 2016 Topps yesterday and did ok. Got a few First Pitch inserts and pulled a jersey card of Corey Kluber (who went to college at Stetson University in DeLand, Florida just a few blocks away from my apartment). I did a post on my other blog with pictures if you want to see it. Thanks for checking out the 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 Archi Corbin

Card #832 in my custom 1992 Topps set is Archi Corbin. Archi spent 3 years in the Majors, playing for the Royals in 1991, the Orioles in 1996, and the Marlins in 1999. The only Topps cards he ever appeared on were in 1992, on the Stadium Club and Major League Debut set. He missed out on the '92 Topps set, as well as the '97 and '00 Topps sets. Although he spent the majority of his career in the Royals' system, his photo on Baseball Reference shows him with the Orioles. If I could find a photo of him in a Marlins uni, I could finish out his career Topps cards. 

Archi put up some decent numbers in the Minors, posting ERAs under 3 twice before getting called up to Kansas City in '91. He bounced around between the Royals, Expos, and Pirates systems from '92-'95, before putting up a 4.74 ERA in '96 with Rochester and getting called up to the Orioles for 18 games in '96. He got his only 2 Major League Wins that year. He played for Rochester in '97, then it was on to the Padres organization for '98. He was traded to Florida midway through the season, and was called up to the Marlins in late '99, pitching in his last 17 Major League games. In 2000, he was back with the Royals farm system, going to the White Sox during the season. He stayed in the Minors with Chicago again for 2001, and then spent the 2002-2003 with Nashua in the Independant League. He stayed in the same league in his final season, playing for Atlantic City in 2004. 

I have Archi's 1992 Donruss card in my card collection, and if I ever get around to finishing all the backs to this set, I will try to print them and have his '92 Topps card to go along with it. 

While making some backs today, I found another card I am missing: Mike LaCoss. I have made his card, and he will hopefully finish the set at 1367 cards. I figured I would probably miss a few players, but I've seemed to have missed like 10 San Francisco Giants, as well as about 5 players who appeared on the '92 O-Pee-Chee set, and a random player or two I just overlooked. With all the research I'm doing, though, I think I should manage to catch anyone who tries to fall through the cracks. Speaking of backs, I finished the back to card #900, which means there are 468 cards left in the set that need backs. 

Thanks for checking out the latest project on my set. 

-Jeremy