2018 Topps Gold Label Review and Box Break - Topps hits gold with their framed autographs

Collectors looking to follow the postseason gold rush will set their next destination for the hobby-only 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball. The product's signature gold framed autographed and relic cards create a premium piece worth chasing.

2018 Topps Gold Label

2018 Topps Gold Label Base Set

The base set contains 300 cards, each 100-card series organized in a tiered system. The three tiers (Class 1, Class 2, and Class 3) are differentiated by their label and their image variety. The Class 1 cards are the most abundant and increase in scarcity as they ascend in the system.

2018 Topps Gold Label Base Cards / Topps

One box guarantees 35 cards, which puts set collectors far away from a base set. With the three different classes for the base set, collectors are going to have to think hard about whether pursuing a base set is a challenge they want this off-season.

2018 Topps Gold Label Parallels

Each series has four colored parallels (Black, Blue, Red, and Gold). These inserts become harder to find by class, with the odds sharply decreasing as between Class 1 and Class 3. The parallel odds are listed below.

2018 Topps Gold Label Parallels / Cardboard Connection

While the image variations and designs will attract collectors, the true gems in 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball are the framed autographs. They are guaranteed one per box and have limited edition parallels that add even more value to a desirable product.

2018 Topps Gold Label Chris Sale Red Parallel / Topps

2018 Topps Gold Label Autographs and Relics

Topps gives collectors a ready-made collectible by framing their autographed cards. The thick gold border creates a card that demands a display, not one destined for a binder like most traditional signed trading cards. The box provided for this review uncovered both a Scott Kingery rookie framed autograph and a Lewis Brinson blue parallel autograph redemption.

The relics are even harder to find, with their Golden Greats Autographed Relics and MLB Legends Relics all numbered to 75 or less. Lucky collectors will rejoice in finding a black (#/5) or gold (1/1) parallel.

After opening a box of 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball, it is apparent that the framed autographs will be the key driver of interest to this product. One question that collectors will have to answer is if they want to hold on to the base set. The images are crisp, and player collectors will enjoy the variations; however, the prospect of opening ten or more boxes to complete a set will send the average collector to the secondary market.

Despite the challenges of finishing the base set, 2018 Topps Gold Label Baseball ranks highly among Topps' guaranteed hit products and is worth checking out a box or two for the framed autographs alone.

Read More

The Top 5 Books About Baseball During World War II

As we celebrate Veterans Day across the country, here is a look at the top five books about baseball during World War II. At a time when our entire nation was focused on the war, President Roosevelt ordered the game to continue for the morale of citizens everywhere. These five books illuminate the efforts to preserve the game on the home front, as well as the experiences of those who traded their baseball uniforms for military ones.

5) Bluejackets of Summer: The History of the Great Lakes Naval Baseball Team 1942-1945

Roger Gogan’s “Bluejackets of Summer,” details the Great Lakes Naval Baseball team, a unit so strong that it was often referred to as the “17th Major League team.” The Great Lakes Naval Station hosted an array of All-Star talent from 1942-1945, led by Hall of Fame manager Mickey Cochrane. The team included Hall of Famers Bob Feller, Johnny Mize, and Pee Wee Reese, as well as All-Stars Schoolboy Rowe, Virgil Trucks, and Dom DiMaggio.

4) Hardball on the Home Front: Major League Replacement Players of World War II

When the draft took many of the major leaguers from their teams, players who were exempt from service stepped up to the plate. These included teenagers such as Joe Nuxhall and Tommy Brown, as well as post-retirement forty-somethings Babe Herman and Clyde Sukeforth. Craig Allen Cleve interviewed nine wartime baseball players for "Hardball on the Home Front," who generously shared their experiences playing baseball after President Roosevelt ordered Judge Landis to keep baseball going.

3) The Game Must Go On: Hank Greenberg, Pete Gray, and the Great Days of Baseball on the Home Front in WWII

When President Roosevelt made his decree, players mulled the decision to enlist (before they were drafted) or to stay home and play. Author John Klima penned “The Game Must Go On,” to tell the story of American baseball during World War II - of both the players who left to join the war and the ones who kept the game alive stateside. Klima provides a deep look at the stars that left and the players like one-armed Pete Gray, who fought to inspire others on the field. The book finishes with the 1945 pennant race where Gray’s St. Louis Browns fought mightily to upstage Hank Greenberg’s Detroit Tigers.

2) The Catcher Was a Spy: The Mysterious Life of Moe Berg

Moe Berg was a major league catcher for 19 seasons, but his true fame came for his work as a spy during World War II. The Office of Strategic Services sent Berg to investigate Germany’s Atomic Bomb developments. After the war, he helped draw European scientists to the United States. The President awarded Berg the Presidential Medal of Freedom; however, he refused to accept the honor. Author Nicholas Dawidoff digs deeply into the mysterious life of one of baseball’s enigmas with "The Catcher Was a Spy."

1) The Corporal Was a Pitcher: The Courage of Lou Brissie

Lou Brissie was an All-Star pitcher for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1949, but his road to stardom was marred with hurdles unlike any other major leaguer has ever faced. To call Brissie's experience in the war remarkable would be an understatement. Life changed drastically for Brissie on December 7, 1944. While serving in Italy, an artillery shell exploded on his squad leaving him for dead with his left leg tattered from the explosion. Doctors wanted to amputate, but Brissie pleaded with them to save his injured appendage.

“The Corporal Was a Pitcher,” is an intense look at the horrors of war, as Brissie waited over sixty-years to tell the painful details of the carnage he witnessed while he managed his own suffering.

Read More

Ron Negray, pitcher in the first ever Los Angeles Dodgers game, dies at 88

Ron Negray, a former pitcher with the Brooklyn Dodgers, passed away November 8, 2018, in Akron, Ohio after a brief illness. He was 88.

Negray signed with the Dodgers in 1949 after briefly attending Kent State University. Although only 19 in his debut season, he looked like an experienced veteran with a 21-6 record for Class D Valdosta. Over the next three years, Negray battled his way up the crowded ranks of Brooklyn’s farm system en route to the major leagues.

Ron Negray / Author's Collection

The Dodgers finally reached for Negray once their roster expanded in September 1952. Fresh off an 11-7 performance with their Triple-A club in St. Paul, Negray entered a Brooklyn clubhouse anonymous to a Hall of Fame roster.

“The first day I came to Brooklyn, I came in during the morning,” Negray recalled during a 2008 phone interview his Ohio home. “We were playing Cincinnati and Charlie Dressen told me to go to the bullpen. Nobody even knew me; I wasn't even introduced to anybody.”

Negray's anonymous September 14, 1952 debut

After the Reds chased starter Johnny Rutherford, Dressen summoned Negray to start the fourth inning. Hidden among the throng of September call-ups, his Brooklyn teammates met Negray with surprise as he approached the mound. (Ed. Note – Some names were corrected from Negray’s recall of the following events.)

“I went in relief in about the 4th inning," he said. "Campanella [Rube Walker] came up and said, 'Who are you?' I said, 'Well, I'm Ron Negray.' Gil Hodges came up and asked if I was in the right ballpark. Campanella [Walker] then asked me if I knew the scoreboard signs. I said, ‘What scoreboard?’ They worked signs off the scoreboard, but I didn't know what he was talking about, because we didn't have that in St. Paul. That broke everybody up.”

After pitching a scoreless frame, he returned for the fifth to stare down the power-hitting Ted Kluszewski. With his bulging biceps exposed by his cut-off sleeves, Big Klu cut an intimidating figure just by standing in the batter’s box.

“He looked like Man Mountain Dean,” he said. “I guess Campanella [Walker] must have told him I threw really hard. The first pitch I threw him a change of pace, a low slow ball, and he popped it up. He cursed Campanella [Walker] because he must have told him I threw really hard.”

Negray left the game unscathed, hurling three clean innings in relief. He made another three appearances for the Dodgers down the stretch, pitching 13 innings without a decision.

Jackie Robinson's special gesture

As the Dodgers rejoiced for yet another opportunity to play in the World Series, the team skipped over Negray when they distributed watches to celebrate their National League victory. One teammate however, went out of his way to ensure that Negray felt like one of the regulars.

“When we won the pennant, they gave out watches,” he said. “Since I came up and I was a low-life rookie, I was the last man and didn't get a watch. Jackie [Robinson] came over and gave me his watch. He said, ‘You could have my watch.’ I gave it to my dad and I don't know what happened to it. … We talked a lot of baseball. He told me what I should and shouldn't do.”

After his sip of big league coffee, Negray stayed in the Dodgers minor league system until he was traded midseason in 1955 to the Philadelphia Phillies. He spent the remainder of 1955 and the entire 1956 campaign with Philadelphia on their big league roster.

The Dodgers reacquired Negray in 1957 as part of the Chico Fernandez trade. While he did not return to the majors for the Dodgers' farewell in Brooklyn, he made history when the team moved to California.

Breaking ground in California

When the Dodgers and the San Francisco Giants squared off at Seals Stadium on April 14, 1958, it marked a frontier for baseball’s westward expansion. Both teams left New York to build a new legacy, and Negray made his mark on the inaugural contest. Appearing in relief, he pitched the final two innings in the Dodgers’ 8-0 loss. At the time of his death, he was the last player alive from the Dodgers lineup that groundbreaking day.

The Dodgers sent Negray back to the minors a month later, never again to return to the big leagues. He finished his career in 1963 after 15 seasons in professional baseball.

Negray stayed close to the game by selling uniforms and athletic equipment to local high schools for 34 years until his retirement. His death leaves only 18 living Brooklyn Dodgers alumni.

Read More

2018 Topps Heritage Minor League Baseball Review - Why 2018 Topps Heritage Minors is right on time for the offseason

Now that the MLB postseason is finished and hot stove discussions are in full swing, fans are looking towards the top prospects honing their skills in the Arizona Fall League and the various winter leagues throughout the Caribbean for their baseball fix. Topps has saved their classy 2018 Topps Heritage Minor League Baseball set to coincide with baseball’s fall shift from now to next.

2018 Topps Heritage Minors / Topps

2018 Topps Heritage Minors Base Set and Parallels

Set in the design of its 2018 Topps Major League Heritage counterpart, 2018 Topps Heritage Minor League provides tomorrow’s stars with the big league stage that they have been waiting for. The 220-card base set features 20 short-prints, as well All-Star and League Leaders subsets.

2018 Topps Heritage Minors / Topps

Topps hits all of the major talents in the MLB pipeline in the base set, featuring the likes of Vladimir Guerrero Jr., Eloy Jimenez, Royce Lewis, Estevan Florial, and yes, even Tim Tebow. For those looking to corner the market on their favorite up-and-comer, colored serial numbered parallels run aplenty, and a new twist for 2018 Topps Heritage Minors is the inclusion of one three-card glossy card pack per box.

2018 Topps Heritage Minors Parallels / Topps

2018 Topps Heritage Minors Inserts

The inserts are where 2018 Topps Heritage Minors starts to percolate. The 1969 Deckle Edge inserts cast the prime performers in vintage black and white shots, and limited edition color parallels even further spice up the design. The 1969 Collectors Cards inserts capture the quick and dirty about the next 20 minor league stars that you need to follow. Each box also contains two chances to win a one-day contract with the Richmond Flying Squirrels that includes your own Topps Pro Debut baseball card.

2018 Topps Heritage Minors Inserts / Topps

2018 Topps Heritage Minors Autographs and Relics

Each box guarantees one relic card and one autographed card. The Real One autographs are the most common, and as with the base set, there are colored serial numbered parallels of each. Collectors with a luckier hand can score signed base image variations numbered to 50, autographed deckle edge inserts, and signed 1969 Mint Coin relics.

2018 Topps Heritage Minors Brendan McKay Autograph / Topps

The box Topps provided for this review uncovered a Brendan McKay Real One autograph, and a Justus Sheffield Clubhouse Collection relic. McKay, the Tampa Bay Rays 2017 first-round selection, is following Shohei Ohtani’s footsteps as a two-way threat on the mound and at the plate.

2018 Topps Heritage Minors Justus Sheffield Relic / Topps

This year’s Topps Heritage Minors is an enjoyable break due to the exciting future stars, the sleek insert sets, and the guarantee of both an autograph and a relic from next season’s coveted prospects. With boxes of 2018 Topps Heritage Minors under $50, now is a great time to get familiar with the next wave of MLB talent.

Read More

Why teammates hold Roy Halladay in elite company a year after his tragic death

The tragic news of Roy Halladay's death has sent shockwaves throughout the baseball community. The two-time Cy Young award winner died at the age of 40 when his plane crashed in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday. Frank Catalanotto, Halladay's teammate for four seasons with the Toronto Blue Jays from 2003-2006, was suddenly frozen when a co-worker relayed the news while he was giving a hitting lesson.

“I was shocked and I couldn't believe it,” Catalanotto said in a phone interview on Wednesday. “Obviously, I was very saddened.”

Roy Halladay / Keith Allison - Flickr

Catalanotto arrived in Toronto in 2003 after the Blue Jays signed him as a free agent in the offseason. He was relieved that he no longer had to face the 6'6" right-hander.

“I hated having to face him,” he said. “He had a nasty sinker, he cut the ball, and he had a great breaking ball as well. He could basically put the ball wherever he wanted; one of the few pitchers in the league that was able to do that. I remember facing him when I was with the Tigers and the Rangers and it was never fun. If you went into Toronto, you were hoping that you missed Roy Halladay. [He was] one of the best during my time in the big leagues, probably one of the top two or three best pitchers that I had faced.”

Coming together for the 2003 season, Catalanotto watched as Halladay's blazed through the American League en route to his first Cy Young award. The late pitcher posted a 22-7 won-loss record with nine complete games, while only walking 32 batters in 266 innings. His mound dominance gave his Blue Jays teammates the confidence that they were never in danger of going on an extended losing streak.

“We knew whenever he was pitching he was going to bring his 'A' game,” he said. “During those times, whenever you lost a game or maybe two-to-three games in a row, you knew that Roy was going to be pitching and that streak was going to stop. You always had that in the back of your head. We never went on big losing streaks because we had this ace that we knew that we could fall back on. It was great.”

While Halladay worked his magic on the mound, his teammates were often able to just sit back and admire his wizardry as he sent most challengers back to the bench with their hopes of getting on base dashed into oblivion. He was so stingy on the mound that Catalanotto likened it to having a vacation defensively whenever he pitched.

“It was almost like a day off defensively,” he said. “Playing behind him, you didn't get a lot of work in the field because he was striking guys out, and when you did get work in the field, it was never pressure situations because he very rarely had guys on base.”

Even though Catalanotto acknowledged that Halladay made their jobs a little bit easier every fifth day, there was no chill when it came to what Halladay did to create his electric nature on the mound. Early in Catalanotto's tenure with Toronto it was evident that Halladay's focus on preparation was unparalleled.

“I quickly realized that he was an intense individual and extremely focused in what he did every single day,” he said. “There wasn't a time when I ever saw just him sitting down doing nothing. He was always trying to get better whether it be through watching video of the hitters that he's going to face or video of himself and his mechanics. Whether [he was] going through scouting reports or working out and working on his mechanics and things like that, he always seemed like he was dedicated to his craft and left no stone unturned. For me, he was the biggest competitor that I have ever played with and it rubbed off on other guys on the team.”

When Catalanotto was able to get Halladay away from his intense moments on the mound, he found a different side of the pitcher that was hidden to baseball fans. Halladay had a jovial nature that included pulling pranks on his teammates, especially the rookies.

“The more you got to know Roy, you realized that he had a lighter side,” he said. “He wasn't always just ultra-focused on pitching. He did have a lighter side. And he was a jokester. He loved pulling pranks on the younger guys.”

Reflecting on Halladay's tremendous accomplishments that included multiple Cy Young Awards, a lifetime .659 winning percentage, and a postseason no-hitter, Catalanotto cited how Halladay's 2001 demotion to the low minor leagues fueled his transformation into an elite pitcher. Catalanotto feels his eventual selection to the Hall of Fame will vindicate Halladay's tremendous life and career.

“He accomplished a lot,” he said. “I know that early in his career he got sent down to Single-A to work some things out. He took that personally and he wasn't happy about it. I know that he wanted to prove a lot of people wrong, and that's what he did. He became one of the best pitchers of his generation and I do think that he deserves to be a Hall of Famer.”

More of Catalanotto's interview is featured in the video below.

Read More