My All-Star Team

In honor of tonight’s All-Star game, I thought what better time to show off some of the All-Star cards I’ve collected for my players.  Simple enough concept, right?  Let’s just jump right into it.

I was hoping he would be an All-Star again this year, but he had a rough start

I’ve already shown the All-Star Stitches relic I bought from this same Topps Update set.  No less than 8 Cubs made the All-Star squad in 2008.  Boy did we think we were going to win it all that year or what!  Everything seemed perfect until that first game of the playoffs.  Anyway, that night, in his second All-Star appearance (2000), Ryan Dempster pitched 1 inning and struck out each of the three batters sent his way.  Take that, American League!

Speaking of All-Star Stitches cards

The swatch you see is from an “event-worn piece of a 2008 MLB All-Star Festivities Jersey.”  Yay, festivities!  This is another prime example as to why I enjoy collecting a player like Carlos Marmol.  I can get stuff like this on ebay for just about as much money as a typical Marmol jersey card.  I don’t have the regular non-numbered version yet.  Hopefully it won’t be too hard to pick up sometime in the future.

This picture looks familiar

I’ve shown the gold jersey card and this card in it’s gold parallel.  It’s about time to see the normal version, even if it is a little more bland.  I still have high hopes for Marmol.  I think he has the potential to be something along the lines of a Mariano Rivera.  This year, he’s lost a little bit of his nastiness in favor of more control.  He’s also given up more runs.  Story of the Cubs’ life right now, I’m afraid.  What can I say, he makes sure the ball game stays interesting.

DNP due to blister

Kerry was chosen to be on the team, but had to decline.  That opened up a spot for Marmol to take, so it all worked out.  This is about as action-y of a shot you can hope to get out of a 2008 Kerry Wood All-Star photo.  Not much to be done about this one.  Oh, this was his second selection (2003), but first as a reliever.

I love '90s Fleer All-Star inserts

I don’t know why I love them, I just do.  If someone tried to do this today, they’d be accused of laziness.  The ’93 basketball inserts had color to them at least.  The write-up on the back is lengthy and gushes about how Frank Thomas is poised for greatness.  That he’s a franchise-maker and not just a promising young star.  Normally you’d take these types of things with a grain of salt, or with a bucket of optimism.  I suppose if you write enough of these, eventually you’re going to get it right.  It also mentions the nickname “Windy City Whopper,” which I can’t say I’ve heard before.

This picture looks so much older than '87, doesn't it?

I noticed something for the first time with this card that I never noticed in all my extensive time spent with 1987 Topps.  Those All-Stars aren’t all stars.  The red star is a complete star.  The white and blue ones are just oddly shaped 8-sided things.  Tony doesn’t mind.  Tony is here for you, ladies.  He’ll listen to all your problems and sing you some smooth R&B to make everything all right.  Don’t worry about those crazy stars, baby.  He’ll make you see some stars of your own.  He stole 5 bases in one game, now let him steal your heart.

Not quite as debonair, I must say

Tony Gwynn led the league in BA in 1984 (not really a surprise).  He beat out Lee Lacy by a whopping .030.  This is currently the second oldest Tony Gwynn card I own (or at least cataloged so far), and I’m surprised it’s in such good shape.  Anytime I can acquire a card from before I started collecting the first time is a good time.  I’d say about half of these cards came from a trade with hiflew over at Cards from the Quarry including this one and my oldest Gwynn card, which I’ll show in a full trade post another time.  I can’t thank him enough for that!

Oddly enough I don’t have any Greg Maddux All-Star cards that haven’t already been featured on the blog at one point or another.  To make up for the absence, I threw in an extra Marmol and Gwynn.  If I do this again next year, maybe I’ll have something new for everybody to show off.  Also, hopefully a couple of them will actually be on the roster again.