Completed insert set – 2013 Panini Golden Age Tip Top Bread

This is the 2nd completed insert set for me out of the Panini Golden Age product from 2013 (I also have a couple from the other year they did the product – 2012).  As I said a few years back when I completed the first insert set – I love retro-themed cards, but didn’t have the time or budget to get everything.  I do really like this set, however.

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Info about the set

Set description:  There are 2 types of Bread Label inserts in 2013 Panini Golden Age.  The first one I completed was Bread for Energy, this one is the Tip Top Bread set which was based on the 1952 card set from the Ward Baking Company of New York to promote their Tip Top brand of bread.  They used 47 big leaguers in the set, with a heavy trend toward players from the Northeast.  The cards were inserted into the bread and are square but with circle cuts at the edges.

The 2013 Golden Age cards are rectangular, in the standard size of today’s cards.  The corners have rounded cut-outs like the originals, with a red background and the red Tip Top label at the top.   The product logo is on the front above that, with the player name and city (usually) at the bottom.  The backs have a card number and the position / team city, but are fairly minimal to mimic the blank originals.

Set composition:  10 cards, 1:24 odds (2013 Panini Golden Age)

This 10-card set as twice as hard to pull as the blue Bread for Energy set.

Hall of Famers:  5 Total: 4 Baseball, 1 Football, 1 Horse Racing

• Stan Musial, Yogi Berra, Brooks Robinon, Mel Ott
• Red Grange
• Man o’ War

How I put the set together:

• 1 cards from hobby box I bought
• 9 cards from COMC (though I did this in 4 different purchases across 8 years!)

Card that completed my set:  #1 – Stan Musial, #2 – Yogi Berra

I got these 2 cards from COMC last December to finish off this set after making no progress for a few years.

Thoughts on the set:  These 2 Bread Label throwbacks are my favorite insert from this product.  Any time a card company pays homage to an old oddball set, I’m in.  I like the other one a little better.

Best card (my opinion):  #2 – Yogi Berra

 

Not that I need to justify Yogi as a pick – but he’s the only subject that was in the original 1052 set and that kind of thing makes me giddy.

Here’s a scan of the full set.

Completed insert set – 2001 Topps Noteworthy

Another completed set from 2001 Topps from Sportlots last year!

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Info about the set:

Set description:  50-card set of current and retired players with bullet points highlighting their career accomplishments on the back.  This insert set isn’t my my favorite idea, but it’s not the worst either.  The backs are a good read.  This is the kind of set that it’s good to have one of per year.  In the set Topps puts out these days, there’s quite a few more than that.

Set composition:  50 cards, 1:8 odds (2001 Topps series 2)

Hall of Famers:  39.  78%!!!!

Derek Jeter, Chipper Jones, Ken Griffey Jr., Frank Thomas, Randy Johnson, Cal Ripken, Mike Piazza, Ivan Rodriguez, Jeff Bagwell, Vladimir Guerrero, Greg Maddux, Tony Gwynn, Larry Walker, Scott Rolen, Pedro Martinez, Willie Mays, Whitey Ford, Jackie Robinson, Ted Williams, Babe Ruth, Warren Spahn, Nolan Ryan, Yogi Berra, Mike Schmidt, Steve Carlton, Brooks Robinson, Bob Gibson, Reggie Jackson, Johnny Bench, Ernie Banks, Eddie Mathews, Duke Snider, Hank Aaron, Roberto Clemente, Harmon Killebrew, Frank Robinson, Stan Musial, Lou Brok, Joe Morgan

How I put the set together:

• 4 cards from my 2001 series 2 hobby box
• 5 cards from trades
• 5 cards from a card show (1 was the 2015 NSCC)
• 9 from Just Commons, which I think doesn’t exist any more
• 9 cards from COMC
• 18 cards from Sportlots

Card that completed my set:  #TN42 – Don Mattingly

I got this and the Jeff Kent card the same Sportlots purchase late in 2022.  This is the one that showed up last, so it makes the post.

They mention his record of 8 straight games with a homer; he’s tied with Griffey Jr. and Dale Long for that.  Griffey is in the set and that didn’t seem to make it to his card back.  I wish they would have got Dale Long in this set, and put those 3 guys back to back to back to make it a triumvirate!

Thoughts on the set:  The design is not my favorite, there’s a ton of cards in it.  It’s kind of one of those sets that as I get further into this project – they just don’t seem necessary.  Filler.  Like one of them existing makes sense.  But there are like 5 of these. 

Best card (my opinion):  #TN38 – Reggie Jackson

I actually like this one by a long shot.  One of those pictures that goes particularly well with the card design, at least compared to some of the others in a set design that ain’t my favorite.  A couple of things also going for this – it’s a cool shot of Reggie – wearing sunglasses while batting?  And it’s one I haven’t seen recycled a million times (he tends to have a pose or a follow through showing his back).

My Favorite Reds card:  #TN39 – Johnny Bench

It’s Griffey, Bench or Morgan.  I think Bench fits this set the best?  Any could have done, as I’ve said, this set is OK.

Here’s a scan of the full set:

Other tidbits:  Of the 11 players who aren’t HOF-ers, I’d say:

• 1 will get in (Helton)
• 1 maybe will get in later (Kent)
• 1 maybe won’t get in later (Mattingly)
• 2 was just kind of early in his solid career (Burrell, Nomar)
• 4 are steroids casualties or something like that (McGwire, Sosa, A-Rod, Bonds)
• 2 were maybe steroids casualties (Juan Gon, Giambi)

Completed set – 2003 Topps

Another one I’ve had in the queue but not for nearly as long as the 2004 set.  I completed this one in December last year with a Greg Maddux card purchased form Sport Lots.

I now have 24 flagship Topps sets from the Lifetime Topps project completed, still not a full string with 2002 missing.  But I have 1980-2001 and then 2003-2004.

Info about my set:

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How I put the set together:

• 274 cards from the series 1 HTA jumbo box
• 319 cards from the series 2 HTA jumbo box
• 62 cards from trades
• 31 cards from Sportlots

Card that completed my set:  #694 – Greg Maddux AW-GG (purchased on Sportlots)

I missed this card in late 2021 so had just this one open for a while for this set.  I purchased a bunch of cards on Sportlots on Black Friday last year and this arrived in December.

Set composition:  720 cards (526 individual ML player cards*, 30 First Year cards**, 10 Future Stars dual player cards, 10 Prospect dual player cards, 15 Draft Picks, 26 Managers***, 12 League Leaders, 23 Sporting News All-Stars, 24 Award Winners, 5 Season Highlights, 9 Postseason Highlights, 30 Team Checklists)

*The 526 individual player cards include 10 All-Star Rookies

**I’m including the First Year cards as a subset – but one player did actually play in 2002 (Cliff Lee)

***There are 4 teams without managers and Topps just randomly filled in those gaps in the numbers for the manager subset with player cards.  Kind of weird how many that is.

Representation of ’02 MLB season:

Out of the 526 player cards, 3 players did not play in the 2002 season.

• Jose Contreras was in series 2 despite not making his MLB debut until 2003.
• John Franco & Darren Dreifort both had Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2002.

No players have two regular cards in the set, a phenomenon that cropped up in the 2001 set.

With the above and the Cliff Lee card from the First Year subset, that leaves 524 different players represented.  In addition, there were 15 players in the Future Stars subset (Brandon Puffer and Jung Bong on the same card) who did play in the 2002 regular season.  And the Prospects subset had 2 players who made the Majors in 2003 – including a guy who would have an NFL start at QB in his future (Drew Henson).

So now that leads to 545 players who were in 2003 Topps and played in the 2002 MLB season.  The 545 players represent 44.7% out of the 1,219 players who played in MLB in 2003.

Earliest active player from this set:  #72 – Rickey Henderson, #279 – Frank Robinson (if you include non-active players)

Again, two answers to this.  2003 Topps was the final base Topps card for Rickey Henderson (during his playing career), so this is the last time he is the earliest active player.  He made his debut by playing both games of a doubleheader on June 24, 1979.

If you include subsets, etc., and retired players – Frank Robinson gets the nod as the Expos manager.  Robinson made his debut for the Reds on Opening Day 1956.

Last active player from this set:  #200- Albert Pujols

There are no currently active players in this set.  Oliver Perez pitched a few games in April of last year for the Diamondbacks before being released, so Pujols holds the latest player distinction via his incredible retirement tour last year with the Cardinals.  La Maquina played his final regular season game on October 4, 2002, notching a single to plate 2 runs in the third inning for this final play of the regular season.  The Cardinals lost both games of the Wild Card Series to the Phillies, the final game being October 8, 2022.  Pujols did go 2-4 in that game, pulled for a pinch runner in the 8th after his last single in the 2-0 loss that ended St. Louis season and his career.

Player with the most cards in the set: 

Alex Rodriguez – 6 cards – #1, #338 / #339/ #340 (League Leaders), #358 (SN All-Star), #690 (Award Winners)

Like the nest year’s set that I just posted, A-Rod* had a ridiculous* year* in his 2002 Rangers campaign, so he is on a ton of cards for the 2003 Topps set.  He has 3 cards in the League Leaders subset (Runs, HR, RBI), a card in the Sporting News All-Star subset, a card in the Award Winners subset (Gold Glove), and of course his regular card which is the first card of the set.

Randy Johnson was runner up here with 5 cards.

First Card and the Hundreds:  #1 – Alex Rodriguez, #100 – Ichiro, #200 – Albert Pujols, #300 – Andy Marte (FY), #400 – Derek Jeter, #500 – Mike Piazza, #600 – Garret Anderson, #700 – Andruw Jones (AW)

Highest book value:  #311 – Kevin Youkilis RC

This isn’t the greatest pure rookie card set, which has a lot to do with Bowman prospecting but also just some timing stuff.  Youkilis generally is viewed as the highest valued card when I’ve checked on Beckett.

Most notable card: #680 – Joe Mauer / Justin Morneau PROS

Not a true RC for either guy, but a pretty great tandem.  It’s not too often Topps hits this well on a 2-player card like this.  But here you’ve got 2 future MVPs, from the same organization who both came up at relatively similar timeframes and stayed with that organization together for over a decade.

Best card (my opinion): #400 – Derek Jeter

Nobody will confuse me with a Derek Jeter fan, but I have learned to appreciate him more in his retirement.  This is a really cool card, him making a play at 2nd, with Gil Hodges retired number in the background.  Plus, one thing that I always think about when I pick these cards is how it goes with the design.  I don’t particularly like the 2003 design, mostly because of the odd blue that just doesn’t seem baseball card-ish to me.  But Yankees & Mets with that background and the right spacing from the camera and it works really well here.

Second best card (also my opinion): #64 – Mike Williams

If you look closely at this one, someone appears to be handing Williams his own 2000 Topps card to sign.  With the foul pole in the background, a pretty cool and interesting shot overall.

Best subset card: #693 – Torii Hunter AW-GG

Honorable mention to the NL Center Field winner Jim Edmonds.  The pictures from this subset seem a lot better than the 2004 version (I noticed since I just did that post).  This is just an awesome photo – particularly for a card that honors his Gold Glove award – and could arguably be the winner for the next category…

Favorite action photo: #31 – Brian Giles

A few potential ones here – the Hunter AW above, Craig Wilson and Jim Thome regular cards also got consideration.  I just like the focus on this one, it really feels like it caught a moment.  And maybe a moment before a moment.

Favorite non-action photo: #582 – Dmitri Young

Da Meat Hook!  Doing some ninja stuff!

My Favorite Reds card: #510 – Jason LaRue

The horizontal shots are few and far in between for this set, but they are generally the best action shots.  This was a pretty easy choice.

Other Notable Cards:  A few more really cool shots.  Sorry again for duplication on the Dmitri Young card, I’m using photos from an earlier post!

Saturdays Suds: Baseball & Beer #95 Goose Island – Sox Golden Ale

Another Saturday Suds I’ve had waiting in the wings!  I had this a couple of years ago at a Sox game, and unfortunately have since learned it’s been discontinued.  For a couple of years, Goose Island did a collaboration with the White Sox that was pretty neat.

Brewery: Goose Island Beer Co. in Chicago, IL

The brewery has been 100% owned by Anheuser-Busch InBev since 2011.

Beer: White Sox Golden Ale

Description:  “This easy drinking, refreshing golden ale is perfect for a day at the ballpark or hanging out with at the tailgate. Balanced cereal notes, with honeysuckle and a subtle fruitiness. Subtly sweet with an easy finish. Brewed for and in collaboration with the Chicago White Sox.”

I remember not loving it, but thinking it was a good beer for a ballgame.

Medium:  It came in 12-oz cans and 16-oz cans and was readily available at .  You can also find it on tap at certain restaurants – the first of the two I had in Cooperstown was a draft.

How it’s related to baseball:  Collaboration with the White Sox.  Unfortunately it’s not around any more as of last year, when the Sox re-upped with Miller and thus a collaboration with an AB/Inbev subsidiary wasn’t gonna stay.

When it was first released, cans at Guaranteed Rate Field got a special edition can with a peel-back label showing the 2020 schedule.  They also did a retro can in the 2nd year based on the 1980’s uniform design.  For that reason alone, wish this had kept going, would have been fun to see even more of these!

I will say, this beer was one part of the White Sox expansion to include more craft beer at the park, and I’m glad to say that has stayed in place.

Completed set – 2004 Topps

I’ve had this one in the hopper for quite a while – about 2.5 years, actually.  One thing I realized – man, I used to have a lot more free time!  Doing these complete set posts is a bear for figuring out the percentage of players who the Topps (and Topps traded sets – which I do for when I do the master set) represents.  Anyways, this was fun, even if there was some legwork involved.  Hopefully now that I’m back in practice I can knock these out more quickly when the next arises.

I now have 23 flagship Topps sets from the Lifetime Topps project completed, though this breaks a string as I have 1980-2001 and 2004.  No 2002 or 2003 yet!

Info about my set:

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How I put the set together:

• 362 cards from the series 1 HTA jumbo box
• 364 cards from the series 2 HTA jumbo box
• 4 cards from trades
• 2 cards from Sportlots

Card that completed my set:  #325 – Zach Duke FY (purchased on Sportlots)

I made a bunch of purchases in January 2021 on Sportlots, which was the first time I’d bought cards from that site in almost 3 years.  However, I got cards from a few buyers and got the last 2 cards I needed for this set.  Kyle Sleeth was the other, but this Zach Duke from the First Year subset was the later to show up.  So it wins by being last!

Set composition:  732 cards (536 individual ML player cards*, 30 First Year cards**, 5 Future Stars dual player cards, 5 Prospect dual player cards, 20 Draft Picks, 29 Managers***, 12 League Leaders, 23 Sporting News All-Stars, 23 Award Winners, 5 Season Highlights, 11 Postseason Highlights, 3 Combo cards, 30 Team Checklists)

*The 526 individual player cards include 10 All-Star Rookies and one All-Star Rookie cup on a card where it wasn’t supposed to!

**I’m including the First Year cards as a subset here because none of the players actually played in 2003; all were expected to make the Big Leagues in 2004 (and a good portion did).

***The Reds, who fired manager Bob Boone mid-season, didn’t have a manager card.  Boone was replaced by Dave Miley, who did have a card in 2005 Topps, so I’m not sure what happened there.  Juan Castro of the Reds ended up getting a player card out of this for card #267, which should have been where Mike Scioscia was slotted since the manager cards are alphabetical by City for this subset.  But Topps gave Castro card #267, Scioscia is also card #267 but is considered #274 (where Boone or Miley should have been) for checklist purposes.  My guess is that it was something of an oversight contractually with Miley.

Representation of ’03 MLB season:

Out of the 536 player cards, 6 players did not play in the 2003 season.

• Adam LaRoche & Joe Mauer- both had cards in series 2 despite not making their MLB debut until 2004.  Obviously this is the time where even tracking the main set (let alone the Traded set) to the prior year begins to become less realistic.
• John Lieber & Paul Byrd – both had Tommy John surgery and missed all of 2003.
• Robb Nen – missed all of 2003 with a rotator cuff issue.  He tried to return to baseball, but retired before the 2005 season.
• Steve Karsay – missed all of 2003 due to shoulder surgery

No players (thankfully) have two regular cards in the set, a phenomenon that cropped up earlier in the decade.

That leaves 530 different players represented.  But, on top of that, there were 5 players in the Future Stars subset (Khalil Greene, Ryan Madson, Rich Harden, Bobby Crosby, Jimmy Gobble) who did play in the regular season but didn’t have a regular card.  There were 2 such players (Ryan Wagner, Rickie Weeks) in the Draft Picks subset who made the majors the year they were drafted.  And there were 2 players in the Prospects subset (Edwin Jackson, Neal Cotts) who played in the Bigs in 2003.

So now that leads to 539 players who were in 2004 Topps and played in the 2003 MLB season.  The 539 players represent 43.8% out of the 1,230 players who played in MLB in 2003.

Earliest active player from this set:  #518- Roger Clemens, #284 – Frank Robinson (if you include non-active players)

Like most of these sets after the mid-90’s – there are again two answers to this.  2003 Topps was the final base Topps card for Rickey Henderson during his playing career, so for this set the earliest active player is Clemens, who made his debut on May 15, 1984.  Both John Franco (a little earlier in the 1984 season than Clemens) and Julio Franco (1982) could have been in this set but being left out gives the Rocket that honor.  Julio Franco is in fact in the flagship Topps product in the Hit Parade insert set, just not the base set.

If you include subsets, etc., and retired players – Frank Robinson gets the nod as the Expos (and eventually Nationals) manager.  Robinson made his debut for the Reds on Opening Day 1956.

Last active player from this set:  #330- Zack Greinke (FS), #575 – Miguel Cabrera

Greinke & Cabrera are the only 2 players from this set who are active in 2023.  Cabrera is on his retirement tour and Greinke is looking like he might need to retire, so we’ll probably know the answer between the two by the end of the season.

Player with the most cards in the set: 

Alex Rodriguez – 7 cards – #100, #339/ #340 (League Leaders), #358 (SN All-Star), #693 (Combo), #701 / #716 (Award Winners)

A-Rod* had a ridiculous* year* to round out his Rangers tenure, so he naturally is on a ton of cards.  He has 2 cards in the League Leaders subset (HR, RBI), a card in the Sporting News All-Star subset, 2 cards in the Award Winners subset (MVP, Gold Glove) a Combo card with Jeter in series 2, and of course his regular card.

First Card and the Hundreds:  #1 – Jim Thome, #100 – Alex Rodriguez, #200 – Nomar Garciaparra, #300 – Brayan Pena (FY), #400 – Dontrelle Willis, #500 – Ivan Rodriguez, #600 – Alfonso Soriano, #700 – Eric Chavez (AW)

 

Highest book value:  #324- Yadier Molina RC

Most notable card: #324- Yadier Molina RC

This tends to go hand in hand – the most notable rookie is the most valuable.  Last I saw, Beckett listed this card as $25 and nothing else was above $2.

Best card (my opinion): #510 – Ken Griffey Jr.

One of the best Griffey cards out there, particularly from his Reds days.

Second best card (also my opinion): #452 – Chone Figgins

 

I hate to have the same general idea, but these are two great cards.  The 400 sign and the hang time could put this ahead of Junior, except it’s not Junior…

Best subset card: #693 – Kings of New York

I do like the style of the regular season highlight cards – but none of the events were particularly intriguing to me.  The postseason highlight cards are mostly multi-player, which kind of eliminates those.  The Boone home run would likely be here if it got its own card, but it’s barely mentioned on one card.  The Sporting News cards aren’t bad but not great.  So the card showing A-Rod coming to New York seems the neatest, so to speak, of the available options.  It was a big deal at the time, obviously!

Favorite action photo: #204 – Jack Wilson

For the pure action, I’ll take this over the Chone card, which is a better picture overall.  This one may actually work even better with the design though.

Favorite non-action photo: #160 – Bernie Williams

Another card I could have argued for best card overall.

My Favorite Reds card: #510 – Ken Griffey Jr.

Pretty easy when it’s your overall favorite card.  I’ll say it again – the sleeveless uniforms were the best.

Other Notable Cards:  A few more really cool shots.  Sorry for some duplication, I’m using photos from an earlier post!

Saturdays Suds: Baseball & Beer #94 Noon Whistle – Cubbie Gummy, Gummiskey

Another Saturday Suds I’ve had waiting in the wings for a while – a double release from Noon Whistle Brewing, whose original location is about 4 miles from me.

Brewery:  Noon Whistle Brewing in Lombard, IL

Beer:  Cubbie Gummy & Gummiskey

Description:  2 beers brewed for each Chicago MLB team!

Cubbie Gummy – Hazy New England IPA loaded with Falconers Flight, Citra & Simcoe hops. Full bodied and the juicy mouthfeel will give you a burst of sunshine on cloudy and hazy game days.

Gummiskey – Triple dry hopped with Idaho 7, Azacca, and El Dorado. This hazy beer boasts tropical orchard flavors with a sweet orange malt hue and a citrus finish.

Medium:  Draft and 16-oz cans.  Dressed up like the respective team as you can see above.

How it’s related to baseball:  Brewed by a local suburban Chicago brewery to pay homage to the mostly-friendly Southside/Northside rivalry.  You can usually find Cubbie Gummy on draft at Lucky Dorr, and you can find Gummiskey at the much more craft-beer friendly Guaranteed Rate Field (fka New Commiskey).

Noon Whistle, based in Lombard, IL but with a newer brewhouse in Naperville as well – was one of the earli-ish adopters of the Hazy IPA trend in these parts.  They called their hazy IPAs the Gummy series, and in early 2018 for the start of the baseball season they brewed a new one in collaboration with the Lucky Door, a craft beer bar right outside of Wrigley Field during the early stages of the renovation of that part of Wrigleyville.

That reminds me – I should do a Lucky Dorr post at some point!

Gummiskey was first brewed 2 years later when baseball came back after Covid.

I personally liked the Cubbie Gummy a lot better, but I had them almost 3 years apart so memory can be deceiving for this kind of thing!