Half A Six Pack

I was going to show these cards separately as Senators Singles but decided since I got them at the same time and I have a huge backlog of cards to blog about on all my blogs I need to do them together. I got these three cards in a PWE six-pack of cards I got from Jeff at 2x3 Heroes. The first two are some of those retro modern cards and the third one is one of those modern trading card games that nobody can figure out how to play so nobody ever plays the games.

 2007 Bowman Heritage Baseball 106 Felipe Lopez Nationals

(Front and Back)

I love vintage cards and now I love the modern retro cards in the vintage styles. I didn't use to like the retro Heritage styles but after getting some several years back I grew to like them. Some years and designs work much better than others. The 2007 Bowman Heritage is a bow to the Original 1952 Bowman design.

Second Up we have a nice 2011 Topps Heritage card the design which honors the 1962 Topps Design, which in itself is sort of a homage to the days when kids would peek through a knothole in a wooden fence outside the ballpark to see the game.

 2011 Topps Heritage Baseball 186 Rick Ankiel Nationals

(Front and Back)

Now this next card is technically a game card. How you play the dang thing I'll never know and as a card collector and not a card player I don't really care that much. I don't even think any official rules have been printed for this silliness, if there are then I'm wrong. Anyway I'm not even sure how well these things sold originally, and now they mainly just sell to the player or team collectors. There might be some set collectors but since the cards are not numbered who knows how many cards there are exactly. Oh OK there might be a checklist or two on the interwebs somewhere. Anyway here is one of the cards of the kind that I never really wanted to get but I guess I'll get the Nationals and Orioles and my PC players from this set sometime.

2009 Topps Attax Baseball Card Game NoNumber Lastings Milledge Nationals

(Front and Back)

Oh the toppstown website. I guess the game was something that used codes from the website to play. Which means the website probably explained how to play, but since this is now over five years old the website is probably closed and abandoned.

Frankly Friday: Playing Around In 1968

TOPPS PLAYING AROUND IN 1968

In 1968 Topps included as an insert a 33 card set of mini-sized cards with rounded corners that resemble standard playing cards more than baseball trading cards. These game cards had a standard back that is reminiscent of the 1951 Topps Red Backs and Blue Backs :

1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert Back of Card

The fronts had a headshot image of an All-Star or big named current player with a facsimile signature and a play result such as "Home Run" "Pop Out" on the top and bottom. The bottom play result was upside down so you could read the card from either orientation. Also on the bottom is the card number that says "No. X in a series of 33". The cards were included in the regular 1968 Topps Baseball cards issue and apparently were also available as a full set (If purchased through Topps I guess). 

Not sure if they ever had some sort of rules card or guide book to tell kids how to play the dang game. Place shuffled deck of cards face down and draw top card follow play instructions. I guess you would draw cards until you got 3 outs then the next player would draw cards. After going through the deck reshuffle and play again? In 1971 Topps came up with a Football game that was similar that was played in conjunction with some mini posters that had a football gridiron field on the back with rules. On my regular card blog CaptKirk42s Trading Cards Blog I have mentioned both and have a want list for each. For the baseball game I only need 10 more cards. I have duplicates of some of the cards from both sets.

Anyway Both Frank Howard and Frank Robinson were included in the set.

 1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert 21 Frank Howard Senators

1968 Topps Baseball Game Insert 7 Frank Robinson Orioles

Senators mentioned in this post:

Frank Howard

Frank Robinson