Completed insert set – 2011 Topps Lineage Venezuelan

The main theme of Topps Lineage in 2011 was the insert sets – and this is the another one I’ve completed.  I think it’s the fourth one.

Info about the set:

Set description:  “Topps updates a tradition begun in 1959 with these 25 Spanish language variation base cards.”

That was the sell sheet wording.  These cards aren’t really the greatest representation of those Venezuelan sets – they are in Spanish, but like the regular Lineage cards, they don’t have stats on the back.

Set composition:  25 cards, 1:12 hobby odds

Hall of Famers: none, as the set is only current players

How I put the set together:

4 cards from my two hobby boxes

17 cards from Sportlots

2 cards from trades

1 card from COMC

Thoughts on the set:  Other than the base set, Lineage was a great idea.  But this is the least cool set of the insert sets.  The only difference from these cards and the base cards is that the backs are in Spanish.  This kind of compounds the negative that I (and everyone else I’ve read) has about the base set – no stats only write-up.  There were some differences between some of the Venezuelan sets from back in the day that Topps could have incorporated here and they didn’t.  I give this set a D – if it wasn’t that I just want to complete a master set of this product I wouldn’t have chased this.

Card that completed my set:  #TV12 – David Price

I got this from a Check Out My Cards purchase in December.

Highest book value:  #TV1 – Derek Jeter

Jeter is usually #1 when he’s in an insert set with only current players.  Pujols is 2nd here.

Best card (my opinion):  #TV3 – Felix Hernandez

Topps should have done a Spanish theme player-wise here, but they didn’t.  What about getting retired players and getting Dave Concepcion, Luis Aparicio, Ozzie Guillen, Andres Galarraga, Omar Vizquel in there?  Bobby Abreu, Magglio Ordonez, Carlos Guillen, Johan Santana, Victor Martinez, Miguel Cabrera – all guys who are Venezuelan and could have been great options for an insert.

King Felix is the only Venezuelan player in this set, so he gets my “best card” here.

My Favorite Reds card:  No Reds in this set.  Adam Dunn is in the set, but when he played for the Reds I wanted to trade him just about each and every year he was there.

Completed insert set – 2011 Topps Lineage Stand Ups

The real point of Lineage was the insert sets – and this is the third one I’ve completed.

Info about the set:

Set description:  “These colorful die-cut cards, patterned from the 1964 set, are designed to be displayed when folded.  Twenty-five current stars as well as reprinted cards featuring players from the original set will be included.”

That was the sell sheet wording.  Well – they ended up doing twenty cards of current guys and 5 cards of retired players who had cards from the 1964 Stand-Up set.  But they didn’t do reprints – they did new photos.  Which was pretty cool.  The cards feature a photo of the player against a solid background with yellow on the top and green on the bottom.  You could fold the top down and stand the card up due to the die-cut outline of the player photo.

Set composition:  19 cards, 1:6 hobby odds

Hall of Famers: Brooks Robinson, Hank Aaron, Mickey Mantle, Juan Marichal, Sandy Koufax

The first 20 cards are current players, the last 5 are retired players.  All 5 of those guys are in the Hall, and all 5 had cards from the 1964 set.

How I put the set together:

3 cards from my two hobby boxes

14 cards from Sportlots

4 cards from trades

4 cards from COMC

Thoughts on the set:  Other than the base set, Lineage was a great idea.  This set is cool – I love the throwback nod to an oddball set.  I also like that this one is only 25 cards, as opposed to the 50 cards that some other Lineage cards are.  The breakdown between old and new players (20 new / 5 old) is pretty good, too, though I kind of wish they’d just do one or the other.

Card that completed my set:  #TS5 – Tim Lincecum

I got this from a Check Out My Cards purchase in November.

Highest book value:  #TS23 – Mickey Mantle

The Mick is always #1 when he’s in the set…

Best card (my opinion):  #TS25 – Sandy Koufax

I like the shot of Koufax here – he’s following through on a pitch and it seems to go well with the design.

My Favorite Reds card:  #TS14 – Joey Votto

Votto-matic is the only Red in this set.

 

 

 

 

 

Completed set – 2011 Topps Lineage

I’ve done posts on a bunch of insert sets I completed in 2011 – but this is actually a completed base set.  It’s not my favorite set of the year, but at 200 cards with no SP’s, Topps Lineage certainly was a doable set.  I actually like the design on the front.  But the card backs, as many people have pointed out – are atrocious.  This set is more about the inserts – but to be honest, it’s great to have a base set that I can cross off the list.

One thing I found interesting about this set – for the retired players, it seems like the king of “this picture was displayed on an earlier Topps card”.  Some of the many examples I noticed – the Mantle card is the same picture as his Topps 60 card, the Willie McCovey ASR card is a cropped version of his 1961 Topps card, and I know I’ve seen Tom Seaver’s Reds photo somewhere other than this set.

Info about my set:

How I put the set together:

153 cards from my first hobby box

41 cards from my second hobby box

1 card from a Group Break

5 cards from trades

Card that completed my set: #194 – Cal Ripken ASR (I picked up the last card in a trade from Napkin Doon) – see picture below

Set composition: 200 cards - 48 retired players, 142 current players, 10 All-Star Rookies

Out of the ASR subset – 6 are retired players, 4 are current

Player with the most cards in the set: 10 players - 2 cards

Each of the players in the All-Star Rookie Team subset have 2 cards.

Johnny Bench, Willie McCovey, Joe Morgan, Cal Ripken, Chipper Jones, Ichiro, Andre Dawson, Andruw Jones, CC Sabathia, Tom Seaver

First Card and the Hundreds: #1 – Sandy Koufax, #100 – Babe Ruth, #200 – Tom Seaver ASR

Highest book value: #13, #194 – Cal Ripken

Most notable card: #1 – Koufax (see above)

This isn’t a base set that has any intention of having a notable base card – so for this, I’ll pick the #1 card.  Sandy Koufax being signed as a Topps sponsor was a pretty big deal this year, and he was in just about every set where Topps included retired players in 2011.  I thought he was most appropriate.  Also, this card is kind of interesting because it’s clearly photo-shopped (Night Owl posted on this a little while ago – I spent about 5 minutes trying to find the exact post then gave up).  Koufax has a Brooklyn cap on, but it’s obviously a game in LA’s Chavez Ravine.

Best card (my opinion): #158 – Monte Irvin

The background in this photo is awesome.  It’s just an all-around awesome card in general.

Second best card (also my opinion): #1 – Sandy Koufax

Wrong hat or not, this is a really cool photo with the edge of the stands in the background and the sky in the other side as Koufax gets ready to hurl one of his many strikeouts.

Best subset card: #196 – Ichiro

It was either this or the Johnny Bench where he’s squatting.  Those were the only 2 cards that I thought had pictures that were pretty cool.

Favorite action photo: #190 – Bert Blyleven, #76 – Roberto Alomar

Cool shots of the two newly inducted Hall-of-Famers.  If Topps is gonna include retired players, it’s good to see these guys start getting some love.

Favorite non-action photo: #158 – Monte Irvin (see above)

The background in this photo is awesome.  It’s just an all-around awesome card in general.

My Favorite Reds card: #33 – Tony Perez

Like the Ichiro above, this also beats out the Bench ASR card for my selection.  I just like this shot of a younger “Big Dawg”.

Completed insert set – 2011 Topps Lineage 3D

Here’s another Lineage insert set I’ve completed – and this one may be my favorite (except for the 75 mini set – which I hope to complete some day, but I don’t think that will happen soon).

Info about the set:

Set description:  “Designed after the revered test-issue 1968 3D set, featuring 25 stars of today, utilizing life-like 3D technology.”  This is another tribute to a past oddball set.  The 1968 3D cards are pretty expensive to find, but is a cool set.  Here’s my previous post comparing the current set with the old set.  The set has a white border with a yellow player name and a pink oval with the team name.  The cards have (naturally) a 3D effect, and are blank-backed and unnumbered like the 1968 cards.  The old set had 12 cards, but this year’s version has 25 cards.

Set composition:  25 cards, 1:12

Hall of Famers: None – only current players.

How I put the set together:

4 cards from my two hobby boxes

2 cards from trades

1 card from a blaster

6 cards from Check Out My Cards

12 cards from Sportlots

Thoughts on the set:  Despite some flaws, I like this product, and this is my favorite insert set.  I like that this one was only 25 cards; it was a challenge to collect it, but unlike some of the other insert sets that are 50 cards, it’s not impossible.

Card that completed my set:  Joey Votto

This is one of 2 cards I got picked up from a Sportlots purchase.

Highest book value:  Albert Pujols & Derek Jeter

Best card (my opinion):  Troy Tulowitzki

This is the best action shot and has a good background, which lends well to the 3-D effect.

My Favorite Reds card:  Joey Votto

He’s the only Red in the set.

Completed insert set – 2011 Topps Lineage Rookies

The real point of Lineage was the insert sets – most of which are fairly large and quite difficult to complete.  Except the Rookies set, which is only 19 cards and comes 4 per box.

Info about the set:

Set description:  “Twenty 2011 Rookies displayed on cards featuring the standard 1980′s rookie design.”  As with the other Topps Lineage products, this set is in tribute to an older oddball set from the past.  The design mentioned is also the same that was on the All-Star Glossy inserts.  There is a yellow oval with the year at the top, a red, white and blue banner with “Rookies” at the top, a white border and the player name in yellow at the bottom.  The Rookie sets these cards pay homage to started in 1987 as a 1-per card insert into jumbo packs, continuing for a 5-year stretch until 1991.  Starting with Jose Canseco as the big name, finishing with Frank Thomas.   They were 22-card inserts the first 3 years, then 33 cards in 1990 and 1991. 

This year’s version actually has 19 cards – 20 were originally intended, but card #15 was not released.  My guess is some player was going to be included but didn’t get the call up to the majors like Topps has expected.  While the earlier sets contained rookies from the previous year, this year’s set contains players who are rookies in the 2011 season.

Set composition:  19 cards, 1:6 hobby odds

Hall of Famers: None – only current players.

How I put the set together:

8 cards from my two hobby boxes

1 card from a group break I bought on eBay

5 cards from trades

5 cards from Sportlots

Thoughts on the set:  In general, I like this product because of the throwback to older oddball Topps sets.  This is probably not my favorite design – but I’m definitely glad they included it.  I wish some of the other sets were more like the size of this one – as opposed to a bunch of 50-card insert sets!  Also, since this product came out a little later in the baseball season, I wish they could have gotten surprise rookies like Mark Trumbo and Ivan Nova into the set.

Card that completed my set:  #TR1 – Freddie Freeman

I got this in a trade from reader Kyle at about the same time I bought the 5 cards from Sportlots.

Highest book value:  #TR8 – Craig Kimbrel

We’ll see if this holds up.  The other Rookie of the Year – Jeremy Hellickson – is a starter and I think will have more staying power.

Best card (my opinion):  #TR2 – Chris Sale

This is easily the best action shot from a set that doesn’t have many

My Favorite Reds card:  #TR4 – Aroldis Chapman

The only Red in the set.

Topps Lineage – oddball sets that “didn’t make the cut”

This wraps up my looks at Topps Lineage – and I must say I’ve been excited to do this post for quite some time now.  I think Topps did a pretty good job picking the inserts they used for Topps Lineage.  As I’ve mentioned in earlier posts, my main gripe is that they made the inserts too difficult to come by when that’s what should be driving the product.  Here’s a look at some other sets they may have considered:

Honorable Mention – Topps Rub-offs

These sets were inserted into packs in 1961 and 1966.  The images were reversed, as shown, and you could rub the image off onto a flat surface.

#5 - 1971 Topps Greatest Moments

This 55-card test set has a black-bordered design that borrows from the design of the 1971 set.  The horizontal cards are as “longer” than the standard card, measuring 2-1/2″ x 4-3/4″.  The back is written in newspaper style format, similar to the Topps Giants.  These cards would have been very cool – Topps could have done a “season review” type set.  Since they were a separate test, not an insert, it would have fit very well into the Lineage idea.  But the cards would have been difficult to do in a standard card size, and the Topps Giants were the box topper.  Look for these as your 2020 Heritage box topper!

#4 - 1951 Topps Connie Mack’s All-Stars and 1951 Topps Current All-Stars

These cards were issued in the 1951 “Topps Baseball Candy” packaging which would usually contain one of the 3 possible larger-sized sets (2-1/16″ x 5-1/4″) surrounded on each side by a 2-card red-back panel.  One of these 3 sets was Topps Teams, which were team photos for 9 of the 16 ML teams.  The other two were Connie Mack and Current All-Stars, which are “fold-out” cards similar to the 1964 Topps Stand-Ups.  These were 11-card sets, though 3 of the current All-Stars were only available by writing in to Topps.  Anyways, there’s a bunch this would again have fit in really well with the current and older player theme that Topps has been doing.  Again, though, these cards probably wouldn’t make sense because of the larger size and the fact that Topps did include the Topps Stand-Ups insert cards.

#3 - 1948 Topps Magic Photos

In 1948, Topps issued a small-sized (7/8″ x 1-7/16″) set containing non-sport and sports cards.  This set contained Topps first baseball cards.  The cards are actually developed photos – there are 19 baseball subjects, including a few all-time great Hall-of-Famers.  I’m going with Grover Cleveland here, since I found out in my “300″ post that I hadn’t scanned a card of him yet.  This would have been a very cool thing to add, if you ask me.

#2 - 1986-1990 Mini Leaders

These cards were issued for 5 years in the late 1980′s  in their own packs.  These cards measure slightly smaller than the standard cards - depending on the year, this is around 2-1/8″ x 3″.  The sets were  66, 77, or 88 cards and are designed similar to the team leaders cards from the base set that year.  The cards show the league leaders in various statistical categories from the previous years.  Remember when card companies used to do that?  They’d pick a standard for a set and stick to it – not just throw together something like “Great Ones” so they could put Mickey Mantle and 2 different Babe Ruth cards in a set?  Anyways, I’ll digress.  This starts to get where I really think Topps could have done something creative.  The 75 minis measured 2-1/4″ x 3-1/8″, so that’s pretty similar to these cards.  Why not do away with the other parallels and add these cards in.  You could have 1 mini per pack – and they could have done like 10 or 15 cards from each design, for a total of 50 or 75.  I think this would have put a lot more value in the product – regardless of how many relics or autos you have!

Note – Topps is apparently including a throwback to the 1987 leader cards in next year’s base Topps set.  If you ask me, they should have gone with the every 25-year theme of wood grain borders, but this is at least a good tribute there.

#1 - 1965 Topps Embossed

This is my #1 – because I can’t find a good reason not to have put this in here!  If Topps did a throwback of this set and made parallels of gold, silver, bronze, and any other color, I’d probably try to collect them all.  When I was younger, my mom used to take me and my brother out antiquing.  She liked antique copper luster-ware, and we’d go to antique shops every now and then.  Sometimes I would find a few baseball cards here and there, and I remember one time buying a few of these.  These gold cards have a raised relief sculpture-type picture of the player.  American League cards are bordered in blue, National Leaguers in red.  These can actually be found for fairly cheap.  I hope someday Topps does a throwback to this – maybe the 2014 Heritage set will have these in the product somehow.

2011 Lineage Autos and Relics

Here’s a brief description of each of the relics and autos available in Topps’ 2011 Lineage product.  As always, odds shown are for hobby packs.

Relics

1975 Mini Relics – 99 cards (1:24 overall; 1:28 to 1:6,500)

Many of the 75 mini parallels have a version with a piece of game-used memorabilia in the lower left corner.  These cards are noticeably thicker than the regular ’75 minis.  As with many other products, the of the Gypsy Queen relics and autographs are inserted based on a tiered system – this time into 3 tiers. You’re guaranteed 1 relic per box, so Tier A is much easier.  Tier B isn’t quite as tough as the third “Ruth” tier, as 1:331.

****Added note:  There is one card that I’ve found where the relic picture did not match the mini picture.  This would be Reggie Jackson.  They have Mr. October in his Yankee pinstripes on his regular card (and regular 75 mini), but his Oakland green and yellow for the relic.  I’ve looked up just about every player who could have this happen, and he’s the only one.

I like Reggie better in the A’s, but it also makes me want to get the damn card…

1975 Mini Relics Canary – 99 cards (1:747; #/10 – hobby only)

There’s canary diamond version of each relic card numbered out of 10.  I got a Jay Bruce – let’s see how it scans.

Not bad, except the edges seem to miss when scanning the minis.

Topps Giants Relics – 20 cards (#/64)

Each of the Topps Giants hobby box topper cards has a relic version that’s numbered out of 64 in honor of the 1964 set.  If you do the math, this comes 1 per 24 boxes, or just about 1 per 2.5 cases.

Autographs

Autographed Reprints – 74 cards (1:24 overall, 1:38 to 1:1,810)

Autographed Reprints Canary– 74 cards (#/10 – hobby only)

These are reprints of old Topps cards, with an emphasis on cards from the 1952 set.  Some of these were packed out as redemptions.

As I mentioned, most of them are 1952 cards.  However, there are a few that are newer.  Here’s the players I could determine have newer cards:

2010 – Andrew McCutchen, Daniel Hudson,

2009 – Pablo Sandoval

2008 – Fausto Carmona

2007 – Ian Kinsler

2001 – Roy Halladay

1992 – John Smoltz, Roberto Alomar

1990 – Nolan Ryan

1967 – Fergie Jenkins

1965 – Sandy Koufax

1960 – Stan Musial

Unsure – Hank Aaron, Joe Morgan (these are exchanges that I’m not sure were ever filled by Topps)

1952 Autographs – 22 cards (1:24 overall, 1:38 to 1:397)

1952 Autographs Canary– 22 cards (#/10 – hobby only)

These autographed cards are sticker autos of current players on the 1952 design.  The canary version of the 96 available autographed cards are packed out at a combined total of 1:771

60th Anniversary relics and autos

60th Anniversary Jumbo Relics – 25 cards (1:1,190; #/25 – hobby only)

60th Anniversary Jumbo Patches – 25 cards (1:5,923; #/5 – hobby only)

These relics were made to honor Topps’ 60th Anniversary.  I kind of think these weren’t originally intended for Lineage – they don’t have the Lineage logo anywhere on the product, just the Topps Diamond Anniversary logo.  These are only included in hobby packs, and there are 2 versions – one with a really large jersey piece #’d out of 25 and another with a really large jersey patch #’d out of 5.

60^th Anniversary Autograph – 3 cards (1:4,115; #/60)

This is a continuity set from other Topps releases throughout the year.  One of the 3 cards is signed by Sy Berger, the “father of the modern baseball card” who co-designed 1952 Topps.

60th Anniversary Diamond Ring redemption – 10 cards (1:74,045 – hobby only)

From the odds, there are 10 of things out there.  This is a redemption card for one of the Topps hobby rings.  You could also win one on the Topps Diamond site if you dug up a Mantle ring and got the other 59 rings.  This one sold for just over 400 bucks on eBay.

2011 Lineage parallel sets

The 2011 Lineage product has quite a few parallel sets.  I already covered the ’75 minis in my last Lineage post – but there are 4 other parallels – all standard-size – in the product.  There are two versions of the Diamond sparkly type – Platinum Diamond (“silver sparkly) and Canary Diamond (1/1 gold sparkly).  There is also a completely unnecessary parallel called Diamond Anniversary that looks kind of like a refractor.  Finally, Topps also included 4 different printers’ plates of each base card.  Odds below are for hobby packs, except where noted.  I’m going after each of the Reds parallels that aren’t numbered.

1975 minis – 200 cards (1:4)

As mentioned – I covered the 1975 minis in my last post.

Platinum Diamond – 200 cards (1:4)

Canary Diamond – 200 cards (1:3,702; #/1 – hobby only)

These are the “gold sparklies”.

Diamond Anniversary – 200 cards (1:4)

Printing Plates – 200 cards (1:925; #/1 – hobby only)

Black, Cyan, Magenta, Yellow

Redeeming Topps Lineage Finale – comparing 75 mini sets

75 mini – 200 cards (1:6)

The last comparison I’ll do for Topps Lineage is the 1975 mini parallel set.  The 1975 mini set was a full, 660-card miniature parallel of the base 1975 set, and the Lineage version is a full parallel of the 200-card 2011 Lineage base set.   There are 18 players who have base cards in both sets (note, I didn’t include players who only had the MVP subset – Mantle, Koufax, Musial, J. Robinson, Campanella would be included if I had).

Before I get to players in both sets – this father-son tandem also accomplishes the task:

The Alomar family – Sandy and baseball’s newest Hall-of-Famer, Roberto.

Here’s the list of names.  WordPress isn’t always the most friendly as far as putting up pictures next to words, so the easiest thing to do is put these at the end for your viewing pleasure.  Some useless info:

Of these guys, 6 are with different teams on the Lineage card then they were for their 1975 Topps card (I had to use Seaver’s subset card to get him with the same team).  Of those 6, two of them are with a team they played with later in their career than 1975 (Ryan & Reggie), 3 of them are with a team they played for earlier than 1975 (F. Robinson, Aaron, McCovey), and 1 is with a team he played for before and after 1975 – though the picture is clearly of a 1960′s Fergie Jenkins.

Jim Palmer, Tony Perez, Carlton Fisk, Mike Schmidt, Nolan Ryan, Willie McCovey, Reggie Jackson, Joe Morgan, Brooks Robinson, Al Kaline (HL), Hank Aaron, Thurman Munson, Johnny Bench, Fergie Jenkins, Bob Gibson, Tom Seaver, Frank Robinson, Bert Blyleven

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Redeeming Topps Lineage #7 – comparing Topps 3-D

Topps 3-D – 25 cards (1:12)

Topps 3-D Lineagraph – 25 cards (Black - 1:446, #/99; Red – 1:30,873, #/1)

My 2nd to last comparison for Topps Lineage is my favorite of the standard insert sets in this product - the Topps 3-D set.  The 1968 3-D test set consisted of about 12 cards, and is an extremely rare find.  The current year set has 25 cards, all of whom are current players.  Of note – the two notable players from the ’68 set that I passed on below are Mel Stottlemyre and Rusty Staub. 

One thing Topps did that was a kind of neat throwback – the Lineagraph versions have the phrase: “This is an experimental LINEAGRAPH not intended to for release.  To be Returned to: The Topps Company 1 Whitehall St. New York, NY 10004″.  This is a throwback to some of the “proofs” of these cards that had this written on the back, with a different address and the term “XOGRAPH”.  Also, the player name and position are not included on the front of the Lineagraph cards.

I’ll try to primarily use cards that I’ve pulled from the Lineage product and am thus able to scan myself.  The most notable card in the 1968 set is that of Roberto Clemente, whose career was tragically cut short due to a plane crash en route to his Puerto Rico after the 1972 season.  The 2011 Lineage set has a different MVP-caliber outfielder whose career will be shorter than it should have been – this one on the front-end.  It’s good to see that Hamilton has come back, and it’s even better to see him start to turn his game back up a notch the last few weeks after an injury-plagued first half of 2011.

The other Hall-of-Famer in the 1968 set is Big Red Machine RBI-man Tony Perez.  This was pretty early in Tony’s career – 1967 had been his first year playing every day for the Reds.  He did make the All-Star team that year and in 1968, so he was certainly a player on the rise.  I don’t have it yet, so this is an ebay-swiped scan of the current big RBI-man at first base for the Reds in the early stages of his career.  That would, of course, be reigning NL MVP Joey Votto.

 

Boog Powell won an MVP for the 1970 World Champion Orioles.  He had his 3 best seasons (1966, 1969 and 1970) in the 4 pennant-winning seasons his Orioles had (the other being their loss to Clemente’s Pirates in 1971).  Similar to Perez, who never led the league in a statistical category, Powell had only one “black number” – he led the AL in slugging in 1964.  He hit 339 homers and knocked in nearly 1200 runners, and is one of the great Orioles in history.  Today, you can get a pretty good barbecue sandwich from “Boog’s BBQ” on Eutaw Street inside Oriole Park at Camden Yards.  Ryan Howard is a slugging first-baseman with an MVP award on his resume as well, and most importantly for this comparison – he can be seen all over your TV for his Subway commercials.

The last player I’ll cover is one of the most influential players in history.  Following in the footsteps of Monte Ward from the 1880′s, Flood is one of the most pivotal athletes in the battle between players and owners.  Flood was an excellent player who put together 7 seasons with over 170 hits and helped St. Louis to 3 pennants and 2 World Series titles.  But his fame came from challenging the reserve clause after he was traded from the Cardinals to Philadelphia.  He sat out a year and sued MLB, with the case eventually ending in the Supreme Court.  He didn’t win, but his case signaled the beginning of the end of the reserve clause and was one factor in the creation of free agency in Major League Baseball.  I’ll show him next to Mark Teixeira, who has done fairly well for himself with this Free Agency thing.