The Sheff's Menu: 1989 Topps

By now you all should know my appreciation for Gary Sheffield and how he was a favorite player of mine growing up.  The bat speed, strong arm, and angry swagger made me really like him in my little league days and early teen years at high school.  I only got to see him play a few times as a member of the Florida Marlins when the fish came to visit Philadelphia.

I took a long break from baseball and got back into the game in 2005 when the Pirates drafted a highschooler named Andrew McCutchen.

My all time favorite player is obviously Andrew McCutchen.

I am going to try to show off a card of Gary Sheffield that has also had the design used for an Andrew McCutchen card.  You can view all items on the Sheff's Menu by clicking here.  (Title for this subject to change)

My very first Gary Sheffield card was 1989 Topps.  1987 Topps was the first set I collected and my dad and I put together the set.  My grandfather helped me build the 1989 set and one of my favorites was Gary Sheffield.

The gold chain, the "grill" with his initials, the Future Star logo, the pin stripe jersey

This card was cool!!!

The Sheffield has been used in several other releases over the years as both a reprint and buyback formats.

Here is the Sheff on top of a 2014 mini of Andrew McCutchen

As you can see by the size of the card, the mini is also a die cut format as the white border of the card has been completely removed.

The back of the minis are slightly different as well.

The pink is more pronounced on the mini back

The stats for the mini contain only the most recent season and major league totals while the original contains more in depth stat totals

The monthly scoreboard on the original is completely gone from the mini

There were two different minis produced of Cutch in 2014

The 1989 design was also used for a Chrome version in 2014

The backs as you can see feature the same problems as the mini

Interesting to see that MLB Network's Dan Duquette signed Gary Sheffield.

I also have the Superfractor of the Chrome version which I have shown off a few times.

I also have a stunning patch card of Cutch produced using the 1989 Topps design

It is limited to only 25 copies and is also a die cut

Do you have a favorite 1989 Topps card or any memories from the set?

Sheff's Menu: Entree #4: The Elite Series

Today I am going to show off my favorite hitter as a kid and my favorite hitter as an adult through another segment of 

What's on the Sheff's Menu?

We will be looking at a hobby game changer insert set called The Elite Series

The Elite Series was a "limited" insert set that debuted back in 1991.  Gary Sheffield appeared in the 1992 set and Andrew McCutchen appeared in the 2014 release. 

You can see them side by side above.

Before relic cards and before autograph cards were so readily available, there existed a "limited print run" of only 10,000 cards of an insert set called The Elite Series.  

Back in 1992, these cards were not just a big deal.  They were a HUGE deal.  The technology used for this insert set helped pave the way for current designs like atomic, cracked ice, and other similar designed cards.  

The fronts of the cards still hold up to modern cards twenty years later.  The backs appeared plain and simplistic just talking about the card's athlete subject and the "creator" of the card, the legendary Dick Perez. 

Cutch appeared in the 2014 Donruss set when it was relaunched.  With a print run at less than a tenth of the original run, these are still rare pulls, but nothing compared to the cardboard ecstasy of the original 90s versions.

Here they are side by side. 

Did you have any of these Elite Series cards upon release?  Which player (s)?

What do you think of the cardboard technology used back then compared to today's cards?

Sheff's Menu : Entree 3 (a pair of buybacks)

It's been about two months since I last showed off a Sheff's Menu feature.

For those that don't remember, this is where I take a similar designed card that Andrew McCutchen and Gary Sheffield both appear on.

In the past two features I had shown Cutch on a design that occurred during Gary Sheffield's playing days.  

Today I will mix things up and look at a card that Sheff appeared on after retiring in the same set as an Andrew McCutchen playing days card.

We will be looking at 2014 Allen & Ginter (sort of).

Cutch was in his prime in 2014.  He would finish in the top 3 for MVP for the third consecutive year.  

Sheffield would appear in the offseason on the Hall of Fame ballot for the first time since retiring.

2015 Allen & Ginter featured the 10th Anniversary of the product and it offered a buyback parallel looking at the previous 9 years products.  There were a few minis that got the buyback treatment too.  These minis were encased inside frames and given the gold foil treatment as well.  

I was able to get the Sheffield in a recent COMC shipment and had the McCutchen for many years.

The backs of the minis are different.  The McCutchen is an A&G back, while the Sheffield is a standard back.  

Oh Sheff!!!! That's A Lot of Cards

Greg, otherwise known as the famous Night Owl, sent me a message that he had some extra Gary Sheffield cards in Dodgers uniforms.

I've mentioned a few times that Sheff was one of my favorite players growing up.  The way he could swing the bat and battle off pitches was very impressive, especially with his raw power. 

Greg sent me 28 new Gary Sheffield cards for my collection!

28!

There were multiple companies included in the mix.  

It was really fun and refreshing to see cards not just by the Topps company, 

but to also see cards from brands like 

Pacific (the refracting light on this Prism card is amazing)

Multiple brands of Fleer products

Including a set of Fleer cards that looks like Topps cards

Many Upper Deck

Donruss

Even an oddball Topps cards brought to you by Post Cereal

Remember Skybox? Got one of them too

And the lone Sheff horizontal card is this awesome fielding shot

I had so much fun looking through these cards and remembering what it was like when there were multiple companies making baseball cards.  

The Evan Meek autograph card was a welcomed surprise too.  I considered super collecting him back in 2010 when he was the Pirates lone All-Star that year.

Thank you Greg

What's on the Sheff's Menu: Entry 2

Last month I discussed my appreciation for Gary Sheffield and how he was a favorite player of mine growing up.  The bat speed, strong arm, and angry swagger made me really like him in my little league days and early teen years at high school.  

My all time favorite player is obviously Andrew McCutchen.

Each month I am going to try to show off a card of Gary Sheffield that has also had the design used for an Andrew McCutchen card.  You can view all items on the Sheff's Menu by clicking here.  (Title for this subject to change and open for suggestions)

Today I am going to look at the Donruss Studio line.

Donruss Studio began in 1991.

It quickly became known as a set for getting to know the actual faces of the game by not only showing bust up shots of the players, but also getting more personal on the backs.

Early Studio releases didn't talk about stats, they talked about hobbies and heroes.

I didn't go through all the card backs and tried to shy away from the "Superstars" of the release time so I can get a better understanding of what athletes were into in 1991.

Well we learn that John Smiley, Pirates pitcher, and Juan Gonzalez, Rangers Outfielder, both enjoy watching Miami Vice.

Do you think that Joe Girardi and Goose Gossage ever got together to talk about their favorite Sanford & Son episodes?  Did you even know they both liked that show?

1991 Studio provided us with that tidbit of information.

Studio was made until 1998, then resurrected in 2003 and lasted for a few more years before becoming an insert set in 2014-2016 Donruss releases.  1993 Studio also had one of the coolest insert sets ever made for the early 90s Junk Wax Era when they had modern players wear the old throwback uniforms. 

It is the original 1991 design that was used in 2013 for a Panini Father's Day product that we are going to look at today.

Here are the Cutch and Sheff side by side.

As you can see, much of the original 1991 design was sustained for this limited hobby store only release in 2013.  The photos are black and white with a border.

The biggest difference is the city name replacing the team logo in the bottom left corner and the complete omission of player position in the bottom right corner.

And here are the backs.

The most notable difference on the back is the current is a sepia style card back, where the original 1991 is strictly black and white.  PERSONAL, CAREER, HOBBIES & INTERESTS are all still featured on the back.  The biggest omission is that we no longer know who the athlete's hero is. The copyright details are also different since Panini only has a player's license and not an MLB license. 

Overall, I thought the 2013 Panini Father's Day paid a very nice homage to the 1991 Studio set. Due to legal reasons there are some things they can't do with the set now that they were able to do back then and I actually like the Sepia tone more on the back than the traditional black and white.

Couple questions for today

Did you collect 1991 Studio at release and what were your thoughts on it?

(Without cheating) Can you recognize these 6 players? Hint, they all won an MVP Award

2 of my favorites: Now and Then

Gary Sheffield was one of my favorite players growing up.  Like him I played 3rd base.  Unlike him I didn't have the strength to put the bat over my head preswing or the bat speed to get the bat barrel to the ball during my swing.

His run at a triple crown in 1992 was so fun to watch the boxscores each day and when he eventually got traded to the Florida Marlins, a young expansion team, I was really taken with rooting for him.

With all the recycled designs these days for Panini Products and Topps products, I thought it might be fun to show off some "comparison time" of my All-Time Favorite player, Andrew McCutchen, and one of my first players I enjoyed collecting, Gary Sheffield.

Today I will look at the Select En Fuego inserts.

En Fuego was an insert from 1996 Select that featured a lot of etched foil with a flame like background and used technology similar to the Dufex stuff in Museum.

The insert series was resurrected in 2013 Select with some etching, a chrome printing process, and a bit of a Refractor look.  It also had 2 parallels to chase (Gold /25 copies and the 1/1 black)

The original 1996 Select En Fuego insert checklist had 25 cards as part of the set.

The 2013 rebranding had a checklist consisting of 30 cards. 

The back of the most recent design features an identical picture to the front with an inverted upside flame on the back.

The original has an additional posed photograph of the player with a flame that at first glance appears to be differwnt than the one used on the front.  The back also features a writeup by Dan Patrick of ESPN fame. 

I will continue with this series in future blog posts (maybe once a month?) if there is interest in it.

Here are some other cards I may look at in the future as I have both a Cutch and Sheff card of each:

Team Pinnacle

Team 2020 vs Team 2000

1991 Studio

1991 Topps

1992 Topps

1994 Topps Finest

If you have any Gary Sheffield cards that you don't want anymore, I will happily take them.

Since Gary Sheffield played on so many teams in his career (many teams with strong followings too) what are your thoughts on him? 

Other Players I Would Collect

So news is out there that Cutch is out for the season with a torn ACL.  I think as a fan of his and baseball in general this is worse than when he was traded.  At least I could still watch my favorite player (albeit for another team) throughout the season.  News of him losing four months of a season and potentially a playoff run with the Phillies is crushing.

I still plan on Collecting Cutch and have some big cards coming up on the blog soon.  I don't see myself starting new PC players or stopping my collection, but I got to,thinking about some guys I would consider collecting if I was so invested in Collecting Cutch.

All my other true player collections I have are all Pittsburgh related guys.  I don't super collect them the way I do Cutch, but I do have over 80% of Charlie Morton's cards, nearly 300 Roberto Clemente cards, and over 2500 unique Andrew McCutchen cards.  I also have over 200 Gerrit Cole cards of which 70 are autographs.

So here is a list of other players I would consider starting PCs of that have ZERO Pittsburgh influence.

Up first is a guy I already have a PC of that many people don't know about.  I loved watching Reggie Miller single handily go up against the Knicks in the mid 90s.  He is my favorite player of all-time on the court.  I have just over 100 cards of his and would love to add some more.  I don't have an autograph yet so that would be the featured card I would want.

Gary Sheffield

A lot of people don't care for him too much because of his off field and media problems over the years, but I remember trying to be a 12 year old with that batting stance.  It didn't work for me because I didn't have the strength like him to twist that bat over my head, but he has had a lot of cool cards over the years.  As a third baseman and centerfielder in Little League Sheff was a guy I really want to be like while playing baseball.

Nolan Arenado

This dude is the second best player in the game behind only Mike Trout.  Wish I had gotten more cards of him when he was cheaper.

Justin Upton

When you steal a homerun from my favorite player, you grab my attention.

Daredevil

DD is one of my favorite comic characters.  I used to have a complete run of the Frank Miller era along with the entire run of Volume 2 until it went back to it's original numbering at issue 500.  I loved the Netflix series and have toyed with the idea of buying a box of Season 1 to rip in hopes of building a base set and getting an autograph.