Archive for the ‘Pitcher’ Tag
2012 Topps Spring Training Royals: Jake Odorizzi Leave a comment
History of Joakim Soria: 1951 Topps 2 comments
1951 Topps is significant to my History of Joakim Soria project for a couple reasons. First, it is the very first year Topps put out a card… there is no 1950 Topps. They weren’t exactly the as other Topps years either. They had rounded corners and were shorter than the regular 3.5 inch baseball card that would soon become common. It had different baseball results so they could be played like a card game. I chose “Ball” for Joakim Soria because it was one of the first cards I found to use for a template.
Secondly, it is the LAST History of Joakim Soria card. My last post was 2012 Topps and soon after I got the motivation to finish off my complete set! I’m pretty excited about it. I spent about a year and a half (off and on of course) re-creating the Topps cards and have finally finished all 61 years. I think it may be a set like no other. I will continue to post these throughout the season as I still have several left to put up on the site.
2011 Topps Greg Holland autographed custom card Leave a comment
Danny Duffy 2011 Topps custom card autograph 2 comments
This is my Danny Duffy from my 2011 Topps Spring Training set. At the time he wasn’t on the Royals yet but he turned out to be a big part of the team late in the season. The Royals Caravan came through town last weekend and I saw it as a good opportunity to get one of my custom cards signed. Very cool by the way. Duffy’s comment about the card: “I haven’t seen this one before, I look mad!”
Custom Card of the Day: 1978 Topps football Aaron Crow Leave a comment
History of Joakim Soria: 1964 Topps 1 comment
I’ll just throw it out there right away; I think I nailed this one. It’s odd that the look of certain years of cards are hard to pin down but I got 1964 Topps here. As always it is pretty much always about the picture. I wanted a good high quality head shot of Soria and to crop it tight. I found a nice picture with a bit of a scowl on his face. I know this is a very basic design but I still think it is one of the better re-creations that I have done. I might have to throw in a few Custom Card of the Day’s in the 1964 format since I like it so much and see if it translates well with other teams.
The design of 1964 is very simple and plain. The one distinct thing about it is that the players head breaks the border of the top of the picture. This helps give the card just enough life to keep it from being boring. In 1964 there were obviously no Royals cards so what I usually do is take a Dodgers card to get my color pallet. The Dodgers have been around forever and they have a similar color pallet as the Royals would have had.
Custom Card of the Day: Aaron Crow 1984 Donruss Leave a comment
I found this card when I was digging through my stuff today. I forgot I made a lot of these 1984 Donruss cards that were really nice. I wish this picture was cropped out just a little bit more so Crow’s hand didn’t hit the swoosh in the design though. This design would make almost any picture look nice though. One of the greatest sets of all time.
Custom Card of the Day: 1984 Donruss Tim Collins Leave a comment
Royals rookie Tim Collins was very good for the Kansas City bullpen in his rookie season. He posted a sub 4.00 ERA easily was left handed, two very valuable attributes. He was key part of the Royals sending two very disposable pieces of their team to the Braves in 2010 and showed his worth already. Rick Ankiel and Kyle Farnsworth were sent to the Braves and Collins was the most valuable player the Royals got in return.
I will say he hasn’t shown the ability to be a lefty specialist thought. It seemed like he failed in that role and was timid to challenge hitters. He is likely a lock for the bullpen next year and if he can cut down on his walks he could be huge for the Royals in 2012.
History of Joakim Soria: 1987 Topps 2 comments
I think that 1987 Topps has a lot of fanfare. I’m not really sure but I think a lot of people like it. It is very distinctive with it’s wood border and nice clean design. I think I am in the minority saying that I don’t like this set. I think it looks cheap and generic. It is iconic for the Bonds rookie and the classic Bo Jackson card but overall I think it is a miss by Topps.
For the wood border I had no choice but to use a nice clean jpg file and put my graphics around it as I did with 1990 Topps and will be doing with 1968 Topps when I get to it. The font on this card is sloppy. Both mine and the real one. The font I used is Marker Felt and it is close; I don’t think it is right but it is very close. On the bright side this was a very easy card to re-create. It is simple but doesn’t really impress me very much.
Major League Debut: Kelvin Herrera custom card Leave a comment
Here is the 12th and final installment of the Major League Debut cards for 2011. Having 12 players make their major league debut is a pretty amazing statistic. The Royals are so young that this really wasn’t too surprising however. I plan to continue these cards next year with hopefully a few more(Mike Montgomery, Clint Robinson, David Lough, it is hard to tell.)
Kelvin Herrera has great stuff but his major league debut didn’t really reflect that fact. On his first major league pitch he hit a batter. Things didn’t get a whole lot better after that. His final line was 1 inning, 2 hits and 3 earned runs. He has the dreaded ERA of 27.00 for right now and received the loss in his very first game. Still a major milestone making it to the biggs for Herrera. Hopefully he will get opportunities to redeem himself in the bullpen in Kansas City next year.
A Hair Off Square 