Before you read anything else, if you like one of these and want them autographed, let me know! The show is this weekend, and I am looking for some extra scratch to get them autographed myself as well!

WARNING WARNING WARNING 

 The following pictures may cause an artifical digitally induced sugar rush. Haters of these

 or these

 

 or even these

 

 need not apply. (Shout out to the double rainbow dude for making it okay for guys to like rainbows again.) 

With that said, let’s get to it.

As you probably well know by now, Christmas is just around the corner. Well, my Christmas, that is – the Tri-Star baseball card show. A card show so nice, you can go twice. /italianaccent.

 I was cruisin’ my local craig’s list site, and found a nice little ad stating that they had a 3 day admission for the card show, PLUS a premium $99 Tom Glavine signature ticket for sale. I inquired about it, and it turns out it is someone I knew that is local here.

 We cut a deal for a little bit more than the tickets themselves cost (which I would have purchased anyway), and my mind INSTANTLY went to “what should I get mr. Glavine to sign?”

Certainly, no regular card will do, nor will a jersey, bat or ball. I wanted to get creative.

 I know his rookie card was 1988. I had often wondered why they didn’t put that beautiful rated rookie logo on Tom’s card. Epic fail by Donruss.

I checked online, and noticed something that I fell in love with – Glavine pitched in 1987! You know what that means … let’s create a 1987 Donruss Tom Glavine Rated Rookie!

 I admit, I didn’t start up with this idea. I was thinking about doing a high end booklet, and even designed it, but after tons of hours in it, I abandoned it, because I liked the rated rookie version so much better. Plus, it might give us something to talk about when I meet him!

So, I got to work. I did a number of tests. Here are some:

 

 I think they came out GREAT! But something was missing. I mean, it looks like an authentic 1987 Donruss card … but what is the fun in that? Actually, there is a LOT of fun in it – I love the designs that Donruss created as they are, but hey – this is 2014, and I’m sure we can improve upon them a bit.

Why not add color?

So I went to work again, and came up with this.

 

 You know those guys out there that wear shirts like this?


Well, that isn’t me. I’m very anti-pink. Call it not being secure enough in my masculinitiy or whatever, but you won’t see me wearing a pink shirt. Ever.

Well, scratch that – if it is for breast cancer awareness, then I’m all for it. But I’m not someone who is going to wear something like this “just because”. I don’t get it, nor do I get it when guys paint their nails (do they even do that anymore?)

So, what if we threw in some extra color to tone down the girliness?

 

Still a negative.

I finally got a great idea to use some colors of what Donruss used for their regular issue, their highlights subset and (what should have been) used for their opening day set. Voila!

 

I also did a slightly different version as well.

 

The card show has two other guys that I’d love to get, but not without bartering or wheeling and dealing for them. The next guy is someone you may have heard of. Frank Thomas – The Big Hurt. Gah, such an awesome player. He deserves to have a card made of him either way.

As with Glavine, Thomas never had a rated rookie. I had made one here already at this link

but again, lacked color. So, I tried a few different things:

the BLACK WIDOW THOMAS BWAHAAHAHAHA

 Double Rainbow all the way Thomas

 Skittles Thomas

 Can’t think of a name Thomas

 

Altogether now!

Last, but certainly not least – the hometown hero. Craig Biggio. Biggio played a bit in ’88 yet STILL doesn’t have a rated rookie in either ’88 or ’89!

Pfft. Well, he already has an ’89 regular card, and I love that design as it is. I don’t think I’m too terribly big of a fan of the ’88, so I wanted to

take on the challenge and see if I could make it look cooler.

 

 Note the career # of hits in the background for a personal touch.

 

 So, that is all the eye candy I have for today. Oh, before I forget – here is a pic of the back of the Glavine:

 

With all that said, let me end this with an appeal to you: If you have any interest in any of these cards, and/or want them autographed, let me know! I’m going to the show and can get them autographed for you.

With all that said, let me end this with an appeal to you:  If you want an autograph from the show, let me know!  I’m going to the show and can get them autographed for you.  All I ask is you pay the cost of the ticket, and a fee for me to get the autograph for you (say, $25 extra) and I’ll get something autographed for you.  My hope is to get a few so I can be able to get a few of these autographed for myself!  Either way though, I’d LOVE to see them autographed whether they are for me, or not!