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? 

Frozen Mars Chips

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month.  Visit the official site here.

Breast Cancer will be detected in one of eight women in the US each year.
It is the second leading cause of cancer death among women each year.
On average every 2 minutes a woman will be diagnosed with breast cancer and every 13 minutes one person will die from breast cancer.
There are currently 33 million breast cancer survivors in the USA.

It's important to support the research for cancer.  Breast Cancer is often associated with the color pink so I will be showing off some pink Cutch cards.

In addition, you can expect to see some boobs with each post.  Who doesn't love boobs?

So let's start with what we're hoping to save!

Wait...
Is that Kristen Bell?

Kristen Bell may be best remembered for her role as teen sleuth Veronica Mars or her roles in Chips and Bad Moms...

But it is her voice as Princess Anna of the animated movie Frozen that many younger people will always associate her with.

The number one animated studio movie in 2013 was Frozen.

The magenta progression for Studio '13 has been in my collection for nearly 5 years.

I think these were limited to a print run of 5 if I remember correctly.  I am still seeking the cyan and yellow progressions from this same set.

I realize that Bell may not be a top selection for showing off giant juggs, but it's important to note that this terrible disease can take all shapes and sizes from us. 

F*** Cancer!

Tiger Sharks, Tiger Printing Process

Tonight on Discovery Channel's Shark Week is a special about tiger sharks.  Of all the sharks, tiger sharks are one of the most dangerous to humans.

Tiger sharks get their name for the stripes they have.  They have beautiful grey, black, and white skin that make these majestic creatures stand out in the oceans.

I will be missing the episodes tonight as I have to close the store.
As a fan of the Discovery Channel, I wonder if Cutch has been watching Shark Week.

I have half of the printing proofs used to make this card (still need the yellow and cyan). These are really cool in person as they aren't numbered and don't have backs.  They are strictly just like the blank backs that Topps puts out, but only feature one color of the printing process.  Panini has been doing the same thing with their Donruss line recently, but have been numbering those.

This proof resembles the colors you will see on a Tiger Shark.

Happy Father's Day

I want to say Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there.

I know that the greatest influence on my life is my own father.

He was there for me while growing up.

I still go and visit him once a week and enjoy catching up with him about whatever life is throwing his way.

As someone who is self employed I am continuously impressed with the hard work and ethics he has and how he instilled them i to me.

One of my favorite moments of my childhood was when I was 12 years old in little league. Unlike now where there are pitch limits, all my league had was 6 innings limit for a 7 day period.  My dad was the head coach and I was one of our team's all stars.  I however wasn't our best pitcher.  I was the second best pitcher on the team.  

Our star pitcher had been used for 1 inning against what equates to this year's MLB version of the Reds.  They were called the Yankees and the team stunk.  Sean, the stud pitcher, had to be used though because of other inning limits for myself and our third best pitcher, Dave, the previous seven days.

I was cruising through 5 innings of no hit ball striking out 11.  I walked 4, but my Kent Tekulve sidearm pitching style was nasty that day.  

My dad told me he was going to take me out since we had a 7-1 lead (few wild pitches caused a walk to turn into a run). 

I remember looking at him with determinition saying "I want to finish this".  

He then said "I'm probably going to need you for an inning against the Giants," the best team in the league.  

While not as firm I remember getting upset knowing that I probably wouldn't win the battle, I looked and said "please Dad".

I went out for the sixth and final inning getting one more strikeout and getting the next two guys to hit groundballs to Sean at shortstop.  

We won the game and I pitched a no hitter.  

My arm is still fine.

I didn't need Tommy John surgery despite throwing over 100 pitches.

Rain engulfed NJ for the next week so we had to reschedule the game.

Sean was allowed to pitch all six innings against the Giants, which we also won by a score of 1-0.  I got the team's only hit off their ridiculously good pitcher "Woody". I stole second and third, then came home on a sac fly.  

Those memories of my dad coaching the team, having my best friend on my team and his dad being so close with my dad are amazing memories that I will treasure for the rest of my life.

After the game we celebrated with icecream and a trip to Sports Authority.  There I got a pack of Donruss Studio 1993 and a Florida Marlins tshirt.  I remember pulling one of those throwback Will Clark cards and thinking how cool it was.

So again Thank You Dad!!!!

Thank you for inspiring me and believing in me!!!

Now here are some Cutch Father's Day released cards and parallels.

I will start with an unofficial Father's Day card.
This 2011 Bowman and it's Chrome counterparts features an image of Cutch from Father's Day June 20, 2010.  The blue armband and headband combined with the Sunday alternative pinstripe uniforms give the game away.  Cutch would go and help lead the Pirates to a victory ending their 12 game losing streak.

I have 6 of the paper parallels

And 4 of the Chrome parallels

Moving on to 2013 we have the begining of a 4 year stretch that Cutch appeared in Panini's annual Father's Day release.
Meant to look like Donruss Studio 1993 is the 20 year retro look at that classic set.  I have both the lava flow and regular versions in addition to a Cracked Ice autograph version and two production proofs.

The back features the exact same concept as the 93 version...

The 2014 Father's Day release is an extremely boring lackluster design both on the front

and the back.

I need a bunch of parallels to this set, but am in no rush to get them.  At least begining in 2014 they designated this as an official set and made it a little easier to catalog.

2015 Father's Day by Panini brought one of my favorite images of Cutch to appear on cardboard

and a reference to one of my favorite super heroes.  This card is awesome!!!  There may be an autographed version of this card as the checklist states some of the Elements photos have autograph parallels, but I can't find any additional information to confirm who got the autograph treatment.

2016 would be the last year that Cutch appears in the Father's Day yearly release.  The design is nice and there are so many parallels that I still need for both the regular stock and thick stock versions.  I currently only have this thick stock base version /50. There are hyperplaid and cracked ice for both regular and thick stock if I remember correctly.  I need that base version too.

Even though it is the same image on the back, it is nice to get an image on the back of this year's product.

I love the design of this card.

2018 Donruss provided fans with a new parallel to chase down...Father's Day blue ribbon /49.

Begining in 2017, Topps started to call their powder blue parallels a Father's Day parallel and numbered them to 50 just like the Mother's Day parallels.  I currently have both the 2017 and 2018 cards, but need the Allegheny Armada with John Jaso from 2017.