The Non-Reds Frankenset: Cards #1-18 (A Cure for the Baseball Card Blues?)

Last year, I found it difficult to stay motivated to collect and talk about baseball cards.  For me, a large part of my interest in baseball revolves around actually watching baseball.  I'm a lifelong Reds fan so I'm used to them being quite bad...but last year's 3-22 start to the 2022 season basically killed my interest in baseball before it was even May.

This year, the Reds started slightly better but then proceeded to be almost as bad with a recent six game losing streak that included four (!) losses to the Pirates.  Even worse, that streak of six losses contained three shutouts for Reds hitters which basically meant that the team was unwatchable.  

There wasn't any hope that this year's Reds team would be truly competitive, but I would have liked to see a bit more progress.  Instead, it's the lowly Pirates who look decent thus far in the year while the Reds appear destined for another 100+ loss season.  Discouraging to say the least...and that lack of care by the Reds seems to directly rub off on me in terms of how I feel about baseball - and by extension - baseball cards.

With all that said, I still want to keep blogging here at Nachos Grande and I'd like to try and rekindle some of the love of cardboard if I can.  Thus, I think I'm going to back to a project that I started a long time ago but never got around finishing...my non-Reds Frankenset.

After all, if the Reds aren't making me happy, why not work on a set where Reds aren't allowed within it?!

My basic rules for the non-Reds Frankenset are simple:

1. No players featured as a Red in the binder (former or future Reds players are allowed if they are on a different team on the card)
2. Make it a 792 card set like the old Topps sets
3. Try not to have any cards from sets that I've actually collected in full
4. Certain players for whom I have some sort of PC going aren't included (though eventually I'm going to cut way back on the players I've semi-collected over the years - for example guys like Frank Thomas or Eric Davis)
5. For cards #1-99 only, I'm keeping two of each card number which will bring my set up to a total of 891 cards which means I'll still fill a full set of 9-pocket pages.
6. Variety, variety, variety.  Variety in sets, variety in teams, variety in players.  When in doubt, go with variety
7. Nostalgia plays, cards that bring back specific memories from my childhood have a great chance of making the binder over splashier, shinier cards
8. No vintage, at least not for now.  I'm defining "vintage" for me as anything from before I was born (1982)

With the rules out of the way, let's start adding some cards to my non-Reds Frankenset binder - shall we?!

Cards 1-9 (page 1):

Best card on the page:  For as much as I like Coco Crisp's hair, I have to go with the Billy Wagner card featuring him with firefighter props.  Add in a gaudy Topps Opening Day logo and it's cardboard perfection.

Worst card on the page:  Probably the Matt Williams but I happen to like Pacific Invincible way more than the average collector.  If that card stays, I could easily see replacing any of the cards in the middle row.

#'s missing still:  None

Cards 1-9 (page 2):

Best card on the page:  Pedro Martinez leaning on the railing is the most interesting photo while the Pete Alonso "big head" Score card reminds me of my childhood and the early 90s Score All-Star "big head" cards which I always loved.

Worst card on the page:  Once again, the middle row (specifically Moncada or Damon) are the weakest links on the page.

#'s missing still:  None

Cards 10 - 18 (page 1):

Best card on the page:  I like the A-Rod Score card quite a bit as well as the Sosa Zenith (so much green grass)!  The Klesko card makes it into the Frankenset purely on childhood nostalgia, that was one of the first "rated rookie" cards I remember pulling from a pack and I always thought it was super special back then.

Worst card on the page:  The Edgar Martinez or the Shawn Green (though I love the 2000 EX set so that's the main reason why that card made the cut).

#'s missing still:  None

Cards 10 - 18 (page 2):

Best card on the page:  The Brandi Chastain card is a nice one, as is the Chipper Jones Gold Label.

Worst card on the page:  Probably either the Kevin Young, Rick Ankiel, or the Jose Fernandez rookie card.

#'s missing still:  None

There you have it, the first four pages of my Non-Reds Frankenset are now ready to go!  Once I get the entire stack of cards added to my binder, I hope to keep the set a "living" set in that I do plan to replace cards with better/more interesting cards over time.  If I keep up with it, in a few years I should have a solid binder full of all sorts of interesting cards.  

Oh, and if you were wondering - by the time I got the first 36 cards sorted and put in the pages, my mood increased dramatically.  Perhaps this binder full of cards that make me happy for one reason or another really will be the cure to my current baseball card blues!