Frankly Friday: Reflecting on a Rainbow or Joy of a Complete Rainbow

2005 UD Reflections Dual Sig Frank Howard and Nick Johnson RED

Wow its hard to believe that this card is almost 10 years old, and even still that it has been six or seven years since I got the "base" version of this card and before I managed to get this variant to complete this sort of mini-rainbow. So in 2005 Upper Deck released a sub-set of these Dual Signatures for the Reflections set. Some of them are two HOFers together and others like this one are an older time player and a modern player some of the combinations have no reasonable connection whatsoever. Maybe they connected players by position, but most of the combinations are head scratchers. This card is sort of the "same" team it is technically not the same team but the same City. The combination of Frank Howard Washington Senators and Nick Johnson Washington Nationals. In September of last year I mentioned my acquisition of the Blue variant. Two of my favorite Washington Players both retired now. Here is the final card from this three card mini-rainbow the serial numbered to 99 RED variant. I got it via Ebay (17 May 2014) for $14.99 + $2.25 shipping. The most I've paid for one of the trio. I've seen each one especially the Blue and Red ones for much much more.

 

2005 Upper Deck Reflections Dual Signature Series RED: 

FHNJ Frank Howard Senators and Nick Johnson Nationals

blue sharpie on sticker #d 12/99

Here are all three together via a mash-up collage. I had scanned each one previously but have never scanned them together so I had to do some "photoshopping" (I used MSPaint) to put the trio together. I think I made them a tiny bit too long lengthwise.

Building A Rainbow: Nick Johnson Style

If you read enough card blogs on the internet then you have heard of "The Rainbow" which is simply a mini or sub-set collection of the variations/parallels of one specific card. Well I have been building a rainbow of this Nick Johnson Card:

2010 Topps Baseball 181 Nick Johnson Marlins

(Front and Back)

Oh boy was I steamed when the Nats Traded "Nicky Boy" over to the Marlins. Well that is part of the game players get traded. Anyway this is a cool looking action shot of Nick in the Fishstripes. I have a few of the variations or parallels of this card. Some of them I had gotten from COMC some months back. I still plan on blogging about that 44 card purchase from last year. No not all of the cards were of Nick and there thank goodness are not 44 different variations of this single one card, although it does seem like it at times.

So here is the latest parallel I got. This came from Ebay for $4.99 + $2.50 shipping. It is the Factory Set Red Parallel version serial numbered to /299. I am also blogging about this card on my regular card blog and mention the bonus "FOOTBALL" cards that were sent with it.

2010 Topps Baseball: Factory Set Red Border Parallel 181 Nick Johnson Marlins #d 214/299

(Front and Back)

Ninety-Nine Cents Nick And Paul

From a semi-recent catch over at The Bay (Ebay that is) I picked up four cards from a single dealer for 99¢ each with Free Shipping. Two of the cards were Nationals the other two were not. I blogged about the whole batch at my regular card blog here. Rather than just provide that link to the general blogging of this batch I decided to also do a more in-depth post over here about the cards that are Curly W cards.

The first of the two Nats is one of the two 2008 Topps Allen And Ginter's cards I got in the batch. The other A&G card was a famous Classic Music Composer. Anyway this Curly W A&G card shows Paul Lo Duca who even though he was only with the team for a short part of a season quickly became a fave of mine. He was on the team in 2008 when the Nats were trying to figure out what they were going to do with their fragile injury prone catchers. I thought I already had this card, I might even have the mini but I'm not sure since I hadn't yet recorded it into my Zistle PC list.

2008 Topps Allen & Ginter's 271 Paul Lo Duca Nationals

(Front and Back)

The other Curly W card from this group can now be considered an Oddball I guess even though it wasn't intended to be. The card is from the 2005 Donruss Zenith set. It is a beautiful card and now I have to get the rest of the Nats from this set and eventually the full set. It seems that 2005 was the only year for Zenith. That is a shame because it is a very nice look set. The design is both simple and complex. The color or lack of color is very classy and sort of art deco. 

2005 Donruss Zenith 162 Nick Johnson Nationals

(Front and Back)

Frankly Friday: Dual Autos UD Reflections Style

2005 Upper Deck Dual Signatures Reflections

I think the first card I'm showing in this post was one of the first "dual autograph/signature" cards I ever got, or maybe not. It may have even been the first time I got an "on-sticker" auto card. I don't recall. It was almost certainly one of the first Frank Howard autograph cards I ever got. Anyway at the time I got the first one a few years back the National player featured was one of my top five Nats players, since then there have been a few more players who have come and gone so my top five looks much different and probably has more current players on it. 

So in 2005 one of the zillions of Upper Deck sets was called Reflections and an insert set consisted of dual autograph cards and some parallels of those dual auto cards. As with many autograph cards they are "on sticker" not on the card itself, I of course prefer the on card. Many of the pairs don't make sense to me anyway, but this pair is a pair of Washington Sluggers. Frank Howard and Nick Johnson. There are a few other combinations with both these players one is Frank with Dave Kingman of the Cubs and another combo is another Nats combo of Nick with Chad Cordero. I plan on getting those someday. 

The base card of this pairing I think I might have actually gotten from a group break, I don't really recall. The second card the Blue Parallel I got from Ebay for a decent price $10 or less. I don't have the patience to look up how much I got if for exactly even though it was only earlier this year or maybe late last year. So without further adieu here are the two cards.

2005 Upper Deck Dual Signature Reflections FHNJ

Frank Howard Senators and Nick Johnson Nationals

(Front and Back)

2005 Upper Deck Dual Signature Reflections FHNJ

Frank Howard Senators and Nick Johnson Nationals

Blue Parallel serial numbered 14/35 (Front and Back)

 

Franks, Senators and Nationals mentioned in this post:

Chad Cordero

Frank Howard

Nick Johnson

Update Edit: OK so I did look a little to see how much I paid for the Blue Parallel only $8.00 + $2.50 shipping (technically a little more than $10 that is because I had to outbid someone to win LOL). Oh and it was received 25 May this year.

The Amazing Schneider-Man: Brian Schneider

BRIAN SCHNEIDER - (39) 23

Expos to Nationals transition catcher
Expos 2000 - 2004 / Nationals 2005 - 2007

photo by Getty Images - 29 April 2004 Expos in San Diego.

I'm trying to get this semi-regular player scheme going again. The biggest problem I've had with it is deciding which 5 (or 6 maybe) cards of an individual SeNator to feature, make sure I have the backs scanned (I didn't use to scan card backs for the longest time) and to hunt for photos to decide which if any to show along with the cards, and then to plan who will be featured next. The basic criteria for me to feature a player is for me to hopefully have more than just one or two of a player's cards; the player must have been on one of the DC Club incarnations so guys like Gary Carter and Vladimir Guerrero will not be mentioned in this series. I may blog about them from time to time since they were Expos, but neither actually played in DC on the home team. The closest Vlad got was playing in Baltimore for the Orioles.

OK so onto this post's Curly W Player Brian "Schneider-man" Schneider. Brian was the Expos main catcher when the team moved over to DC to become The Nationals. He caught the inaugural first pitch President Bush tossed in 2005. At the time he was my fave currently playing catcher. During his tenure as a National, Brian was an Amazing catcher (at least to me) and had a pretty decent arm for catching base stealers. He was one of the "take the lead" team mentors for younger players and worked well with the pitchers as their "quarterback".

Photo by Getty Images?

During the off season in the winter of 2007 News of him being traded to the New York Mets along with Outfielder Ryan Church (another fave Nat) for Lastings Milledge really ticked me. Probably because it was the first trade I recall that involved some of my faves that I heard about when it happened. I blogged my Gut Reaction to it on my regular blog in a post titled Nats + Mets Trade = UH OH. At the time I didn't have a card blog yet so all my card posts and sports-news posts were made there. It took me a couple of years to get over the trade, by that time Lastings Milledge was traded to the Pirates and Brian was still with the Mets about to move to the Phillies. Brian's last playing season was 2012 with the Phillies he announced his retirement on 29 January 2013 a day after, fellow Expo to National, Nick Johnson (last with the Orioles) announced his retirement.

Lookie what I found. "Final?" Play at the Plate between Ex-Teammates.

Photo via Associated Press from 09 June 2012 Game Phillies at Baltimore

Baseball Historian fans may recall that Brian was the Catcher at the plate in the 2007 "Chasing the Record" Circus game vs. The Giants in San Fran. where Barry Bonds hit homer number 756 off of Mike Bacsik -  freezing the game for an hour or two.

photo via Getty Images - 7 August 2007 Bonds his #756 at home vs. Nationals.

OK it was only about 35-45 minutes but it seemed about an hour too long. Yes I know it was baseball history and it was a big thing at the time, but halting the game for more than 10 minutes was uncalled for. 15 minutes tops would be acceptable for anything of this nature. 

Now lets get on with the Card Show:

 2002 Fleer Baseball 84 Brian Schneider Expos

 2004 MLB Showdown Card Game 014 Brian Schneider Expos

(Front and Back)

 

 2005 Topps Total Baseball 17 (WAS7) Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

 2006 Topps Heritage Baseball 357 Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

 2007 Topps Heritage Baseball 114 Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

 2008 Topps Heritage Baseball 616 Brian Schneider Mets

(Front and Back)

Oddly Brian sort of bears a slight resemblance to this 1960s Senators Catcher. I noticed the resemblance when I first got this card from sportlots (I think).

1963 Topps Baseball 94 Bob Schmidt Senators

Senators/Nationals mentioned in this post:
Mike Bacsik
Ryan Church
Nick Johnson
Lastings Milledge
Bob Schmidt
Brian Schneider

Other Noteable "Franchise" players mentioned in this post:
Gary Carter
Vladimir Guerrero

Brian Schneider Baseball Reference

On Deck: Ed Brinkman - (2, 38) 11

In The Hole: Ryan Church - (38), 19

Last of the Expos: Nick Johnson

NICK JOHNSON - 24

Last transitional Expo/Inaugural Nat to be traded away.

Expos 2004 / Nationals 2005 - 2009

Nick as a "Damn Yankee"
 

Nick Johnson started his Major League career with the New York Yankees. Post-Nationals he would return to the Yankees after his brief stint with the Florida Marlins, and due to the Yanks super-star roster be sent back down to the Minors). Nick was the last of the transitional Expos/Inaugural Nationals players to be traded away. He was traded for a Minor League pitcher Aaron Thompson plus some cash on the 31 July 2009 trade deadline. Thompson has yet to be brought up permanently from the Minors and has since been traded away. He had been put on waivers by the Nationals and picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates he made his Major League debut with them. Last December he signed a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins and was invited to their spring training.

 Nick was traded to the Marlins for this guy Aaron Thompson who is still in the Minors

Aaron Thompson in Nationals uniform 2010 (photo via wikipedia)

I was really upset with that trade as I have been with all the trades that involved a fave player. This one like most of the others I feel were not really worth it and the player the Nats traded for has since moved to another team, usually within a year or two.

As for the Ex-Montreal coaching staff most of them were fired when the club cleaned house while getting rid of Manny Acta in September of 2008 pitching coach Randy St. Claire was the lone exception who would last until June 2009 the last of the old Expos Coaching Staff.

Nick may not have been the best first baseman but he was the current Nationals "First" 1st baseman. When the Nationals started up in 2005 he was one of my fast first favorites along with Brian Schneider, Ryan Church and Brad Wilkerson. Part of his charm is his old-school way of wearing the high socks over the shorter pants, all he needs are the stirrups and he is the retro king. His on base percentage I thought was exceptional. He would often get to a full count and then after 10 pitches or so either draw a walk or force the pitcher to get him out. So yeah he struck out a lot.

23 September 2006 Shea Stadium vs New York Mets - Aftermath of collision between Nick and Austin Kearns

Unfortunately Nick has had a string of injuries over his career and set-backs due to those injuries. He never had much speed, and after his big leg injury at Shea Stadium in 2006 vs the Mets (a result of a collision with Austin Kearns) he was never the same running the bases, but he was still a decent first baseman.

Nick Johnson slides home to score vs the Boston Red Sox during spring training game 06 March 2012 Tho Orioles lost 5-4. - Associated Press photo

Currently Nick is trying to reboot his career with the Baltimore Orioles. He signed a Minor League contract (on 08 February 2012) with them and has been at spring training with them. I'm hoping for good things for both the B'More team and Nick. Now onto the cards.

I love vintage and I love these Retro sets. Ironically when I first saw one of the first Topps Heritage card packs for sale at a 7-Eleven (Football I think) back in 2001 or so I thought it was a terrible idea. I now think it is because football doesn't retro as well as baseball does. Now I really enjoy them.

2006 Topps Heritage Baseball - 188 Nick Johnson Nationals

(Front and Back)

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Series 2 - 700 Nick Johnson Nationals

(Front and Back)

2009 Topps Baseball Updates & Highlights - UH289 Nick Johnson Marlins

(Front and Back)

2005 Topps Heritage Baseball - 183 Nick Johnson Nationals

(Front and Back)

2003 Topps Total Baseball - 271 Nick Johnson Yankees

(Front and Back)

Senators/Nationals mentioned in this post:

Manny Acta
Ryan Church
Nick Johnson
Austin Kearns
Brain Schneider
Randy St. Claire
Aaron Thompson
Brad Wilkerson

On Deck Brian Schneider - (39) 23

In The Hole: Ed Brinkman - (2, 38) 11


Nick Johnson Baseball Reference

Posts on Nick Johnson from my other blogs:
2005 Donruss Diamond Kings: Nick Johnson Framed
Ice Fun: 2010-11 Upper Deck Artifacts Hockey Twofer (brief mention)
NO NATS! NOT NICK!
Back to Classic Pinstripes
What's Wrong With This Picture?

Face of the Nats: Ryan Zimmerman

RYAN ZIMMERMAN - (25) 11

Face of the Nationals
Nationals 2005 - Present

One of the big decisions I had to make with this blog was what cards to feature first and which player to choose as the Lead-Off Hitter. It is hard enough trying to decide who to pick from the current line-up but to pick someone from the entire history of the Franchise? OK Technically the current Washington Franchise is just the 1969 Expansion team Montreal Expos and they inherited the Curly W through some kind of weird DC area osmosis. To be completely honest the Curly W should have remained buried in the remains of RFK stadium (even though RFK is still standing). I don't think I would have liked that though. It was hard enough spending 33 odd years without a real "homie" baseball team and not knowing if DC would ever have one again thus I was mostly a Football and Hockey fan during the "Non-Existent" years. To see a Washington baseball team without the familiar Curly W would be weird it would be like a New York team without some kind of interlocking NY logo. Sure the Baltimore Orioles are a red-headed (or rather orange-headed) step child of sorts and even though I have lived in Maryland all my life (minus a short 3 years of misspent college) the O's have never really felt like my Home "Homie" Team. I have still liked them followed them a bit and played the role of a casual fan. The odd thing about this current DC franchise is when the game commentators talk about franchise records and mention a player who only played in Montreal and never set foot in a Washington Uniform or played in DC it just doesn't sound right.

 Ryan Zimmerman 2008 Spring Training - Getty Images

I decided I would go with the man who is the Face of The Franchise and the Nationals very first draft pick for their Inaugural 2005 Season Ryan Zimmerman. Ryan recently signed a six year Contract Extension for $100 Million with a full No Trade Clause. That Locks "The Z-Man" with the Nats till 2019. Ryan is fine with that, and the Nats fans rejoiced! Ryan was called up on 1 September in the Nationals Inaugural 2005 season. Ryan may have missed out in getting the ROY (Rookie Of the Year) in 2006, but in 2009 he won not only the Silver Slugger Award but also the Golden Glove Award. That sort of makes up for not getting the ROY. Hopefully he will win many more GG Awards in his career, he as an uncanny ability to make some spectacular difficult to accomplish grabs look easy. He has been mostly healthy but there have been a few periods of injury, I don't recall him being out an entire season like Nick Johnson...

Sorry Nick that leg injury hurt me as emotionally as it hurt you physically.

...although an injury that puts a player out a few months seems like a full season to us super fans. In Nick's case it was a full season 2007.

Here are some early Z-Man (The Ziminator) cards I really like. Don't worry these are not my only Z-Man cards there are loads more to show sometime later.

 2006 Fleer Flair Showcase Baseball - Wave of the Future

#WF-4 Ryan Zimmerman - Nationals (Front and Back)

The 2006 Fleer Flair Showcase "Wave of the Future" sub-set is a 30 card set that features young players, many if not all of them rookies including Ryan who came in 2nd for the ROY to Hanley Ramirez of the Marlins card #13 in the set. Hanley's fellow Marlin Josh Willingham card #5 would join the Nats and become Ryan's team-mate 3 years later (and become one of my fave players). Josh is now with the Twins (the old Senators) on a 3 year $21 Million contract. Card #18 is Yankees' Wil Nieves who would become a Nat a year before Josh and be traded away the same year 2010. Wil appears to be with the Rockies in their Minor League System.

I really like the look of this set and how the design matches the imagery of the title. I might try getting this full sub-set. I at least need to get the Josh Willingham and Wil Nieves cards and card #28 Anderson Hernandez - Mets who would also be on the Nats (2008-2009) he is also an "Andersen" (see my "What I Collect" page at my Trading Card blog for the reason). I don't think these cards are too hard to get or too expensive so getting all of them is a strong possibility. I found an Anderson in an Ebay store for $1.50 delivered. I plan on picking that one up soon.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter #220 Ryan Zimmerman Nationals
(Front and Back)

How I love me the Allen & Ginter sets (most of them anyway). These sets of "retro throw-back to the tobacco era" cards are somewhat responsible for the onslaught of retro-tobacco style cards that we find ourselves in now-a-days. They are not the only ones, but A&G helped get the whole "mini" tobacco-like bandwagon back on the road. There have been retro sets and vintage inspired sets many times before and will always be I suppose. A&G uses the size of original vintage tobacco cards, not just slightly smaller than the standard card as in the 1975 Topps mini Baseball. (I plan to do a post on the few '75 minis I have at my regular card blog contributions to the collection are always welcome).

Starting in 2006 Topps revived the Allen & Ginter concept of a multi-sport but primarily baseball card set with historical figures. One thing these sets like to do is have the "holding the bat behind your neck" pose. I liked that at first but since there seem to be several dozen of those cards each year it got old real fast. Anyway the mini sub-sets are actually variation sets because they have the same cards and same number of cards in the set as the base set, plus there are alternate backs and black border minis and usually 2 or 3 separate mini sub-sets so to collect a Master set of A&G each year you are collecting nearly a thousand or more cards.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Dick Perez Sketch Cards

#30 Ryan Zimmerman Nationals (Front and Back)

Man oh man A&G hit a homer with this 30 card sub-set. Each of the 30 teams is represented by their young ace players with a portrait by Dick Perez the man who drew the portraits for the Donruss Diamond Kings sets for so many years. They call them "sketches" but they really should be called Masterpieces some of them are better masterpieces than Upper Deck's "Masterpieces" and those sets are very sweet. The set is in alphabetical order by the Team's City and numbered so of course Washington is last. They remind me a little of Hall of Fame plaques mixed with tombstones. I've got the full Portrait set. I got it for $15 or $20 I forget exactly how much.

 These next four cards are the final four Zim cards of this post, and four of my very least favorite Zimmerman cards I still have. Why show and talk about four cards I don't really like much? They are variations of the same card. I like the initial concept of them but the execution is terrible in my opinion. After seeing them in person again I am starting to like them a little, but the problem with the silver leaf part is bad. I am speaking of the 2007 Topps Co-Signers.

2007 Topps Co-Signers Baseball #16 Base Ryan Zimmerman Nationals

(Front and Back)

(That little white splotch on the bottom is from the scanner not on the card)

The main reason I don't particularly like these cards is the silver top and bottom borders which look charcoal black in the scans can be hard to read and are silver leaf so they tend to scratch and ware down making the already hard to read names even harder to read. Some collectors love chrome stuff I am not a big fan of it and this particular use of it I think is bad. ACK the scan on that Zimmerman base card above is awful the silver image of Zim is really not that bad looking in person, the scan highlights and emphasizes the line detailing/shading they have. Notice on the back how they use the same photo as the color one on the front without the left hand cropped out but with his legs below his knees cropped.

2007 Topps Co-Signers Baseball Blue 116/250

#16 Ryan Zimmerman/Nick Johnson Nationals
(Front and Back)

 (again the back has some scanner schmutz on the bottom)

For these next three cards we add a bonus player Nick Johnson the last of the Expos/Original 2005 Nationals to be traded away. Now these color dual player versions again the concept isn't bad but the silver part of the card UGH. If they didn't have the silver leaf it would be OK and I would probably love them. The color comes out much better than the gray shading ghost on the base card. Oh and this "blue" version is serial numbered 116/250. The backs are not that awful just the frackin fronts. These two player variations add facsimile signatures on the front in silver and for the backs they use the same exact back as the base but with darker gray on the borders and the addition of the serial number at the bottom. They probably should have added the second player on the back somewhere as well, maybe have side-by-side head shots or profile shots facing each other?

2007 Topps Co-Signers Baseball Gold 158/225

#16 Ryan Zimmerman/Nick Johnson Nationals
(Front and Back)

This is the "gold" version of the Ryan and Nick card and is serial numbered 158/225, and the serial number is a smaller font than the other serial numbered variations and is more of a silvery-gold weird. The "gold" on the front of the card looks more like a tan or sandy brown to me rather than gold. Again the design and most of the card is OK and pretty sweet looking, but the silver top and bottom border sucks. Pardon my ancient Gallifreyan.

 2007 Topps Co-Signers Baseball Silver/Red 064/199

#16 Ryan Zimmerman/Nick Johnson Nationals
(Front and Back)

EEK! This is the Ugly Duckling Silver/Red step child card of the Ryan/Nick card it scans awful, but in reality it is a really nice looking chromish type card. Much better done than the base card and the color variations that have the silver borders. The serial number on this is a semi-low one 064/199.The facsimile signatures are in red on this.

So that does it for this post. We will be seeing more of Ryan you can bet as I said I've got loads more cards of his plus he is going to be with the team for quite a while and most likely be one of the few "franchise men" left in the league.

Senators/Nationals mentioned in this post:

Anderson Hernandez

Nick Johnson

Wil Nieves 

Josh Willingham

Ryan Zimmerman

Ryan Zimmerman Baseball Reference

On Deck: Frank Howard - (9) 33

In The Hole: Nick Johnson - 24