Topps Cards That Should Have Been: The Jason Varitek Chronicles

One of my goals with this project has been to right the various wrongs Topps has gone through with over the past 20 years, be it with omissions or contract issues or the like. One of the big ones that subsided right when I got into the hobby was that of Jason Varitek, the longtime Boston backstop.

From the beginning of his career until 2007, Jason Varitek did not have a contract with Topps, and therefore received absolutely zero Topps cards. The humanity. 

And let's be fair- for the first few years of his career, Varitek was a replacement-level catcher who got by on decent seasons, and he doesn't start truly tearing up the league until 2003, so it wasn't a huge loss til around then. But still, Topps not making any cards of the catcher of the Boston Red Sox is a big deal, and one that I had no choice but to rectify.

So, starting in 2001, here they are. In 2001, Varitek mostly backs up Scott Hatteberg but hits .293 in 51 games. 

2002 is Varitek's first season with a WAR over 2, as the catching gig is all but his thanks to him playing 132 games behind the plate, hitting .266 and notching 61 RBIs. Not pristine, but he's beginning to benefit from being on the Sox with Ramirez, Damon and Ortiz all at once.

2003 is the breakout year. Tek hits .273 with 25 homers, a career high for him, 85 RBIs, another career high, and his first ASG appearance. He also gets MVP votes, postseason playing time, and a stranglehold on the position . Here is where Topps starts really regretting not signing Varitek to a contract.

And they begin to regret it even more in 2004, another strong year for Varitek with a .296 average and 73 RBIs, one that would see him win his first of two World Series rings. Tek has 11 postseason RBIs for the Sox, and cements himself as a reliable, necessary presence in the Boston dugout. 

So...Topps can't even make a card for the catcher of the World Series champions. Awkward.

It gets worse. In 2005, Varitek has his most impressive season yet, getting a gold glove, a silver slugger, more MVP votes, a 70-RBI year AND...

His second ASG appearance, marked by a card that would have shown up in 2005 Topps Update. This would have been a cool one, too, as it represents a great RBI moment from that ASG. 

And in 2006, Varitek would wind things down with a .233 average in only 106 games thanks to an injury [Doug Mirabelli would be on hand to back up]. 

2007, he'd have a posed shot against the Sox's maroon background, and from then on Topps would be on top of things giving him flagship releases. Again, I wish they'd acted sooner, but there's a lot you can't control about Topps. 

Cards on my Mind: 2002 Topps Chrome Tim Raines

Figured I'd start a new series on here in the wake of...there not being anything to write about [at least for another month]. 

So here's a card I received in the mail recently from a CardBarrel order. I didn't do a whole post about the order because it mostly consisted of cards from the past two years of Stadium Club, and I figured there was no way to make that interesting.

But this is...maybe one of the most interesting cards of its time.

First of all, it's a low-number card from 2002 Topps Traded, one of the most maniacally complicated sets in  the company's recent history. For those unaware, it was sold as a dual flagship/chrome set, unlike recent Update sets that have a chrome edition in mega-boxes in retail. The deal was you get 8 base cards and 2 chrome cards per pack. Sounds simple.

Well, the base set, which was 275 cards, has the first 110 cards short-printed. These are your traded cards. They are seeded 1 per pack. So actually pulling cards of the traded players the set was actually made for, people like Bartolo Colon as an Expo, Jeff Weaver as a Yankee, Rookie of the Year Eric Hinske, Juan Gonzalez as a Ranger again, and Johnny Damon as a Red Sock, was painstakingly difficult, while the PROSPECT CARDS were all seeded evenly, 7 to a pack. So you could find 5 Jason  Bay rookies before you found Rickey Henderson's base card.

The Chrome base cards, on the other hand, came 2 in every pack, and had no Short Print separation. All 275 were printed equally. So you had more of a chance to get a chrome base card of Placido Polanco than you did his actual base card. It's genuinely dumbfounding.

However, thanks to CardBarrel, I did manage to finally attain two cards from this set that I'd been looking for since I'd become aware of the set. One was an account of Bartolo Colon's two glorious months in Montreal, and the other...was this one.

There is so much to love about this card.

First of all, it's the...insanely weird combo of 1981 Rookie of the Year runner-up Tim Raines in a 2002 Marlins jersey. He's really one of those players that look odd in a Marlins uniform, much like Charlie Hough, Darren Daulton, Carlos Lee and Ozzie Guillen. 

Second of all, not just the contrast of baseball eras stands out to me, but the contrast of card making eras. Tim Raines was a part of the very first TRADED set Topps ever did in 1981, and 21 years later he finds himself on the checklist for not just the 2002 Traded set, but the 2002 Chrome traded set. Seeing people from the 80s, and not just the 80s but the  EARLY 80s, wind up on chrome or dufex sets is never not gonna be weird to me. Like Socrates stepping into the San Dimas Mall.

But also, 2002 Topps is one  of those sets that looks weird in chrome anyway, because it belongs to a color scheme that contrasts with chrome, like the gold, so the whole design has to be redone for chrome. It's not like 1999, 2000, 2001 and 2003 Topps, whose border color deviations actually fit really  well with chrome. This one sticks out, and even the rectification doesn't completely work.

Look at those sweet career stats for Tim Raines, one of the greats. Look at how happy he looks to still be in a baseball uniform at the age of 42. This card shouldn't fit together, and yet it kind of does, a lot like Rickey Henderson's late-career issues.

I will say that his stats from 1999 to 2002 are all very interesting in itself, as he was used mostly as a bench guy with speed, and these are teams associated with different types of youth movements. The 1999 A's are associated with the grassroots youth movement guys like Jason Giambi, Eric Chavez, Miguel Tejada and Tim Hudson. The 2001 Orioles are associated with veterans crowding around Ripken while the young guys like Mora slowly repopulate the team, and the 2002 Marlins are the prelude to the Championship year, with pieces like Beckett, Lee, Burnett and Lowell being shifted into place. Tim Raines shouldn't fit into any of these teams, and yet he tried to, and did what he could for a lot of them.

This is a card that shouldn't exist  for a year that's only being commemorated because it's Tim Raines, and it's likely his sunset issue [it was], and yet it works so well despite that because it represents the sort of late-career push that you don't get many cards of lately. Last year you had late career pushes from Hanley Ramirez in Cleveland, Carlos Gonzalez in Chicago and Cleveland, and Carlos Gomez in Queens, and none of them got Topps cards! Omar Vizquel had a fun final season in 2012 with the Blue Jays, and nobody knew about that. Same with Jim Thome's farewell in Baltimore. The sort of thing where a Hall-of-Famer gets a final sendoff in an unlikely place on a Topps card doesn't happen anymore, and cards like the 2002 Tim Raines one aren't ideas that Topps still has. And that saddens me.

I'm happy this card exists, and I'm even happier it exists in my collection.

Nostalgic Box Break: 2002 Topps Total (Part Four)

Here now, the last 9 packs of a very nostalgic and interesting box of 2002 Topps Total. Expect more Nostalgic Box Breaks to follow until we get baseball back.

 Pack 28-
Guys I Have Never in My Life Heard Of: 6/11
Future Hall of Famers: 1/11

A very cool Total Production insert of Ichiro, in his second year (of 19). Ichiro might be one of those guys in contemporary baseball where you can't possibly be mad at pulling a card of them. There are very few people who fall into that category (Jackie Robinson, Roberto Clemente, Bo Jackson), and Ichiro's gotta be a charter member, despite his Yankee tenure.

 Pack 29-
Hall of Very Good: 3/11
Interesting Names: 1/11

 It's 2002, and I don't think Marlins prospect Wes Anderson had to disambiguate often. Give him 10 years and then he probably has to specify. 'No, I'm not the director, I'm just a forgotten former Marlins pitcher'.
Also, nice of Topps to give journeyman infielder Luis Sojo a sunset card.

Three very good players that are fun enough for fringe collectors to take upon. I still collect Beckett, and every once in a while I'll ponder if it's worth it to do Olerud.

 Pack 30-
Fringe NY Heroes: 2/11

Not much to report in this one, so here's a great mask shot of Eli Marrero and a solid shot of Brad Penny before he got big.

 Pack 31-
Guys Who Pitched Forever: 2/11
Legends Who Retired in 2019: 2/11

Ichiro's is the base, though it could be the checklist. Adrian's is technically a rookie. With Adrian, anything from 2000 to 2005 can be considered a rookie, because he didn't really start PLAYING-playing until 2005 or 2006. So all his Marlins issues are fun Pre-RCs, and I love pulling them. This is not TECHNICALLY his rookie, as he has 2000 issues, but...it's still a nice one.

 Pack 32- Wasn't a great deal in this one. Fernando Vina? Frank Catalanotto?

 Pack 33-
Hall of Famers: 2/11
Steroid Abusers: 2/11

 Luis Gonzalez was coming off his HUGE 2001 and his W.S. win.
Phil Nevin was just coming into his own as a Padres mainstay, which says a lot about the 2000s Padres

Robby Alomar was starting his tenure in Queens, a tenure that would not be very well remembered whatsoever, but this Topps Total insert looks cool.

MOOOOOOOSE. This was only his second year in the Bronx, and he was still killing it.

 Pack 34-
Future Managers: 2/11
Personal Favorites: 2/11
2010 Phillies: 2/11

 Mike Sweeney was just coming into his own as the requisite power hitter in KC. Joe Girardi's career was winding down, but he was still starting games in Chicago.

Our Topps Total insert is Aramis Ramirez, soon to be traded to Chicago. I'm still a fan of Robin V as a Yankee cards, as it's a very underrated, short tenure. And J-Rol is awesome, so I love pulling his cards as well.

 Pack 35-
Hall of Famers: 1/11
Fringe Heroes in Tampa: 1/11

 The Pudge is a cool one, as that's his last year in Texas til 2009. That's Grant Balfour's rookie, and that's a a Futures Game uniform, which is hella cool. And a Topps Total insert of Troy Glaus.

 Pack 36-
Guys With The Same Name of People I Roomed With in College: 1/11
Steroid Abusers: 2/11
HOFers: 1/11

Gotta end on Thome. Dude was a hero of mine in Philly. This is a cool enough insert of Jim Thome to end the box on.

So, that was 2002 Topps Total. It's a fun rip, and you get a lot of fringe guys and uniform combos you don't see often, well-seeded inserts and ample hero cards. But, if you're a set collector, one box won't do it for Total. I feel like I pulled like a third of the base set? I dunno. 360 cards? And it's a 1000 card set. So if you have enough to buy 3 boxes, then MAYBE you'll have a base set. Or...probably more.

Still, it's a cool break. I got what I wanted out of it.

I'm gonna do another one of these in the next few days. I have a few other boxes archived. I could go early-2000s or 90s. 

Nostalgic Box Break: 2002 Topps Total (Part Three)

Things have continued to be insane around here, which explains why I haven't posted in a week. I'm not gonna go into too much detail because I don't like being candid round here, but there's been a lot going on, and not all of it's been happy. You hear things on the news about the virus, but you can't say anything about it til it knocks on your door. And while I'm healthy, and my parents are healthy, one of my relatives hasn't been so lucky. And it's been hell over here.

All I can do is keep writing. Keep making content. Because it's miserable out there. And sometimes it's miserable in here.

Anyway. We were 18 packs into 2002 Topps Total. Here's 9 more.

 Pack 19-
Hall of Famers: 1/11
Future Hall of Famers: 1/11

 Two 2002-era infielders. Castillo was great  for a long period of time, and has two rings, I believe. Aurilia had some strong seasons, but never consecutively.

I believe Jeter's is a checklist, and Pujols' is the base card.

 Pack 20-
Forgotten Relievers: 3/11

Not much going on in this one. Cool Derrek Lee fielding shot, and a nice one of Adam Kennedy pulling a bunt. Those 2001-era Angels uniforms look so weird considering they ditched them right before they won the title.

 Pack 21-
INSANE ROOKIES: 1/11
Hall of Famers: 2/11
Potential Future HOFers: 2/11

 BOOM. DAVID WRIGHT XRC. Aw YEAH.
Threw Bobby Abreu in there too as he's a fellow NL East destroyer of the 2000s.

Glavine's is a checklist? Maybe not? Vlad's is a Topps Total insert.

 Pack 22-
Guys  Who Played Forever: 1/11

Nice mishmash of 2000s names- Brian Giles, the Pittsburgh/SD hero, Sean Casey, the Mayor of Cincinnati, and Julio Franco who played for like 25 years.

 Pack 23-
Hall of Famers: 1/11
People who are Still Technically Active: 1/11
JOHN VAN DER WAL WAS A YANKEE????: 1/11

Brad Radke, I believe, is the checklist. FERNANDO RODNEY is a rookie, or something close. Weird seeing him so young. And the Total insert is of Spongebob-suit owner Larry Walker.

 Pack 24-
Future Rookies of the Year: 1/11
Guys Who's Kids Played: 1/11
HOFers: 1/11
Steroid Abusers: 1/11

Roger Clemens inserts in 2001 were completely ordinary and valid. What a time.
Smoltz was just finishing his closing years.

 Pack 25-
Stars of Moneyball: 1/11
Barry Bonds Cards I am Ignoring: 1/11
Guys  Who Played Forever: 6/11
Hall of Famers: 1/11
Future Hall of Famers: 1/11
Guys Whose HOF Cases Will be Reconsidered Soon: 1/11

 Eric Young  was rounding out his career in 2002 with  Milwaukee.
Meanwhile, under Billy Beane's management, Scott Hatteberg's career was about to begin in Oakland.

 Jeff Conine  was always the guy the O's used to set up Ripken. So it was weird seeing him in a Baltimore lineup without  Cal
John Franco may have been the most consistent reliever of his time. My uncle will insist he's a Hall of Famers.

ICHIRO won the Rookie of the Year in 2001, as he  should have. Meanwhile, Frank Thomas was still one of the strongest hitters in the league.

 Pack 26-
Hall of Famers: 1/11
Future HOFers: 1/11

Piazza's a legend. Vizquel will get his due in the next few years. Shawn Green joins Ryan Braun as a jewish ballplayer who saw that steroids were, in fact, kosher.

 Pack 27-
Guys Rounding the Last Bit of their Career: 1/11
Guys Who are Still Playing  Professional MLB: 2/11

 Magglio Ordonez was powerful for a while, and could have secured a World Series for Detroit had it not been for Tony Larussa.
Pat Hentgen played for the Orioles long enough to see them tank. Poor guy.

BARTOLO COLON. I've become so happy to pull Colon's cards.
And, of course, Pujols was the other 2001 ROY winner, though some of his foil's been pulled up.

Last 9 should come soon. Topps Total was better like this.