2016 Topps Gypsy Queen and Museum Collection keep things hot for collectors

Now that the obligatory release of the 2016 Topps Baseball set is in the rearview mirror, the famed baseball company has opened up the season with two products that are primed to set the table of any collector’s lineup. The 2016 Topps Gypsy Queen and Museum Collection sets are next on deck in Topps’ expanding baseball card line.

This year’s Gypsy Queen set blends a classic retro portrait design with the clarity of modern card manufacturing to create a truly wide appealing collectible. With exciting action shots frozen in time by the masterfully painted canvases, the cards make for a journey worth pursuing. The 350-card checklist gives a nod to the past by honoring almost 50 Hall of Famers with a dazzling subset of short prints, while all the major stars and rookies are covered in the base set.

The box provided for this review provided an array of inserts including two autographed cards and two relic cards. In addition to the two dozen mini cards that were randomly inserted into the packs, the box also yielded a pack of 10 parallel mini cards, which are part of a more limited set of 100 mini cards.

2016 Museum Collection (l.) & 2016 Gypsy Queen (r.) / Topps

For collectors seeking a fancier indulgence, the 2016 Topps Museum Collection will satisfy their hunger. Each four pack box boasts one on-card autograph, one autographed relic, one quad relic, and one prime relic.

The thick glossy design of the Museum Collection cards are similar to Topps’ other high-end products, giving collectors a heavier feel that a premium product deserves. Each of the relic inserts that came in the box had vibrant patches that equally highlighted the relic and the player featured on the card. Especially attractive was the quad relic card that came in the box, featuring four prominent players from the same organization with a mix of bat and jersey pieces.

As collectors dig deeper into Topps’ releases during the baseball season, both the 2016 Gypsy Queen and Museum Collection products are worthy of a look. Whether it is a collector searching for a set oriented product in Gypsy Queen, or a guaranteed-hit product like Museum Collection, both issues offer satisfying returns for the purchase.

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Megdal explores 'The Cardinals Way' of success in new book

Author Howard Megdal peels away the layers surrounding the long-standing mystique of the St. Louis Cardinals system of player development in his new book, “The Cardinals Way.” Detailing the history of the storied franchise that has garnered 11 World Series Championships, Megdal connects the dots from over a century of innovation that started with the legendary Branch Rickey and continues today under the watchful eyes of general manager John Mozeliak and owner Bill DeWitt Jr.

The Cardinals Way / Thomas Dunne Books

Baseball franchises have been historically resistant to changing the status quo; however, the St. Louis Cardinals, beginning with Rickey pioneering the concept of the farm system, were able to fast track their players on a pipeline to the major leagues armed with a blueprint for success. The residue of Rickey’s design was passed down through the teachings of George Kissell, who spent almost 70 years with the franchise as a player and coach. As much as Rickey set the standard, it was Kissell’s lessons which are expertly illustrated by the author, that created the glue that held constant the missions of the franchise to develop their players with the habits that were later dubbed, “The Cardinals Way.”

As the Cardinals emerged into the 21st century, Megdal demonstrates how St. Louis continued to be trendsetters through the advanced statistical methods employed by Sig Mejdal and Jeff Luhnow. Their methods of analysis led the Cardinals to have tremendous success in the Major League draft, as they sent more homegrown players to the big leagues than any other franchise in a seven-year period of Mejdal’s employment.

The Cardinals remain perennial contenders due to their seemingly endless supply of talent from their minor league system. With DeWitt Jr. serving as one of the last living links to Mr. Rickey, and Mozeliak embracing the modern-era application of analytics to on-field performance, “The Cardinals Way,” has evolved into the 21st as a blueprint that other franchises have tried hard to study, but can’t come close to duplicating

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Start the 2016 baseball season with Topps Opening Day

As fans turn their attention from watching prospects and non-roster invitees compete during Grapefruit League games to the performance of their favorite team’s franchise players, the Topps Company celebrates the journey into the 2016 season with the release of their Opening Day product.

2016 Topps Opening Day Baseball / Topps

The 2016 Topps Opening Day Baseball set is a perfect complement to the excitement surrounding the calls of the umpires summoning the major leaguers to play ball. Topps brings back a fun simplicity to collecting by making it easy for fans to compile an entire set by purchasing a box of cards.

Click here to read more in depth about Topps' 2016 Opening Day Baseball card set.

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Watch Duke Snider as he hits a magical walk-off home run for the Mets

While Duke Snider will be forever associated with the Brooklyn Dodgers, "Boys of Summer," Snider returned to New York in a homecoming of sorts when he was purchased by the New York Mets in 1963 from the Los Angeles Dodgers. Well past the peak of his career, Snider batted .243 with 14 home runs in 129 games for the Mets who were only in their second year of existence.

One of Snider's most memorable moments in his only season with the Mets came during a  June 7th, 1963 game against the St. Louis Cardinals at the Polo Grounds. Digging in with two men on in the bottom of the 9th inning against reliever Diomedes Olivo, Snider crushed his offering into the second deck for a three-run walk-off homer.

Snider's magical Mets moment was recently published from the Major League Baseball vaults for everyone to relive. Take a few seconds to watch the sweet swing that produced 407 major league home runs.

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Tony Phillips | Brian McRae Explains How His Arrival Stabilized The Mets Lineup

When the New York Mets acquired Tony Phillips in a string of perplexing moves at the trade deadline in 1998, many wondered if bringing Phillips to the Big Apple was the right move in Flushing. For Mets outfielder Brian McRae, Phillips’ arrival was just what the team needed to stabilize their lineup.

“I was excited when they said that trade went through because I was hitting down in the order by that time and we really didn’t have a leadoff [hitter],” said McRae speaking Friday evening from Marshall, Texas where he was coaching the Park University baseball team. “We had done all of the shuffling in the outfield with [Todd] Hundley playing a little bit in the outfield after [Mike] Piazza got traded [to the Mets], so it was good to have him on the ball club.”

Tony Phillips with the New York Mets / Fleer

The versatile Phillips passed away at the age of 56 on Wednesday February 17, 2016 in Arizona due to an apparent heart attack. The news hit close to home for McRae who still had the death of another mutual teammate on his mind.

“It was like a month and a half ago with Dave Henderson too,” he said. “I lost two former teammates in a short time.”

Coming up with the Kansas City Royals in 1990, McRae was familiar with Phillips from playing in the American League. He remembered Phillips as a hitter that pitchers weren't fond of seeing at the plate.

“You didn’t like him because he was pesky,” he said. “Pitchers couldn’t bury him and get him out. He fouled off a lot of pitches and always seemed like he was in the middle of rallies for those good A’s teams. He just did a lot of things well to help his team win games."

The 39-year-old Phillips brought the same tenacious approach that McRae described to the Mets, quickly invigorating the clubhouse. There were a lot of intangible elements to Phillips’ game that didn’t show up in the box score, but enabled the entire team to elevate their play.

“He was a good on-base guy for all the guys hitting behind him,” he recalled. “I think our offense got better once he came along. It wasn’t so much him hitting his way on, but just working the count. He might have had a low average, but his on-base percentage was pretty high, and he did a good job running up pitch counts to let everybody else in the lineup see pitches that the pitcher had. He was really comfortable in that role as far as taking a lot of pitches, getting deep in the count, and doing those types of things.”

Spending time with Phillips away from the field gave McRae the opportunity to see how Phillips approached the game that could not be learned from the opposing dugout. He found Phillips to be a real student of the game who was willing to share the intricacies of the trade with him.

“I got to know him a lot better than I did in passing from playing against him,” he said. “We spent a lot of time talking about baseball, his approach mentally, and how he went about getting prepared for a game by checking scouting reports of other teams, pitchers, and things that he picked up.

“He was good with sharing a lot of that knowledge with me; I liked to sit at his locker [to] listen and learn as much as possible. [He] put a lot of his heart and soul into what he did on the ball field, and with him being on those championship teams, you gravitated to those guys because there’s something special about them. When you’re around guys who have been a part of something special, you listen to them and try to learn as much as possible.”

McRae shared an example of Phillips’ tenacity while playing for Mets by relaying an incident that occurred against the St. Louis Cardinals and his former manager Tony LaRussa. After a first-inning brushback by Cardinals starter Matt Morris, Phillips directed his angst at the Hall of Fame skipper.

“He brought a different aura to our ball club and he didn’t back down from anything,” he stated. “I remember we played against the Cardinals and Matt Morris threw up and in on him. He was jawing at Matt Morris, and then Tony LaRussa his former manager was yelling at him; he went right back at LaRussa. He brought a different edge that I think we needed.”

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