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From the Houston Chronicle: Card number 666 in the Topps Total Set

Coincidence...or revenge?
By David Barron
The Houston Chronicle

When Boston relief pitcher Keith Foulke closed out the St. Louis Cardinals for the final out of the 2004 World Series, he became a hero to Red Sox Nation.

But Foulke's accomplishments had darker, more sinister connotations in the hallways of 1 Whitehall St., in lower Manhattan, headquarters of the Topps Co., the nation's leading manufacturer of baseball trading cards.

And when Topps Total, the company's newest 770-card set, emerged earlier this month, who should show up on card number 666 but Keith Foulke.

Coincidence? Perhaps until you consider that the biblical mark of the beast in 2004 Total was assigned to Florida Marlins pitcher Josh Beckett, who beat the Yankees in Game 7 of the 2003 World Series. Troy Percival of the Angels, who got the final out of the 2002 Series, was number 666 in 2003, Topps Total's debut season.

Company spokesman Clay Luraschi said the editor who compiles the Total checklist is a "die-hard Yankees fan" who prefers to remain anonymous.

Alas, barring a turnaround by the 2005 Yankees, who are in third place in the American League East, the pinstriped editor will be left to wreck his revenge once more when 2006 Total hits the hobby stores next summer.

Comments

  • envoy98envoy98 Posts: 4,000 ✭✭
    lol. That's hilarious! A guy should start a registry... All the yankees from the topps total previous year and card #666 from the current year. I think I'll put in my set request now. image

    Thanks for the article, that's interesting.
  • julen23julen23 Posts: 4,558 ✭✭
    770 card set. Topps is out of control.


    Julen
    _________
    Collecting:
    1980 Topps: Over 4,000 cards from vending and wax boxes awaiting a giant bonfire
    1969 Topps Master: # 1 1
    1987 Kraft Home Plate Heroes
    image
    RIP GURU
  • Stone193Stone193 Posts: 24,410 ✭✭✭✭✭
    Dude
    That's too cool! Personally? I'm into voodoo.

    image

    mike
    Mike
  • NickMNickM Posts: 4,895 ✭✭✭
    Why is 770 out of control?
    At any time pre-Sept. 1, the 30 major league teams combine for 750 active players, plus everyone on the disabled list (usually 4 or 5 per team by late August). Add in the September call-ups, and the possibility of doing cards of managers and coaches, and 770 isn't even a fully comprehensive set.

    For over a decade, regular Topps was 792 cards, and in 1993 it went to 825. Score was 893 one year (plus factory sets had an additional 7 cards). Upper Deck 40-Man holds the record, at 1200.

    As an autograph collector, I love these sets.

    Nick
    image
    Reap the whirlwind.

    Need to buy something for the wife or girlfriend? Check out Vintage Designer Clothing.
  • calleochocalleocho Posts: 1,569 ✭✭
    That's a cool story DUDE.

    thanks for sharing
    "Women should be obscene and not heard. "
    Groucho Marx
  • mudflap02mudflap02 Posts: 2,060 ✭✭
    Didn't Topps Tek have 8800 variations or something?
  • Interesting. I wonder what's the story behind #666 in 1980-1984 Topps.
    1980 Tigers Rookies
    1981 Tigers Team
    1982 Tigers Team
    1983 Tigers Team
    1984 Tigers Team

  • Actually the first year of topps total was 2002, #666 that year was Byung-Hyun Kim who got those walk off home runs hit off him in the 2001 Series vs the yanks
  • satan rocks. And he gets those damnn yankees!! next year the yankees team card will be #666 as one of the biggest flops in baseball history.

    GG
  • RipublicaninMassRipublicaninMass Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭


    << <i>satan rocks. And he gets those damnn yankees!! next year the yankees team card will be #666 as one of the biggest flops in baseball history.

    GG >>



    Zing! Where is Lothar52 for this one?
  • Mac53Mac53 Posts: 805
    image
    "Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well."image
  • Mac53Mac53 Posts: 805
    Oh sure, laugh. But if you convert the words "Susan Estridge" into Aramaic numerals, and then add the numeric equivalent of "Mudflap" to that of Stone193, and then divide by 3319, which just so happens to be the number of posts made by NickM, and then add the number of feet from the grassy knoll to the point of the head impact shot (57), and then add 696, which just happens to be the number of posts made by RipublicaninMass, and then multiply by 937, which just happens to be the number of posts by envoy98, then multiply by 59, which is the IQ of Ted Kennedy, then add 78, which is the IQ of Jerry Rivers (aka Geraldo Rivera), then add 1, which is the number of people which Ted Kennedy has killed by involuntary manslaughter, then divide by whatever number you can pull out of your bee-hind, and you have this result:

    "The Percenters"

    the greatest novel of this century.
    "Charlie, here comes the deuce. And when you speak of me, speak well."image
  • RipublicaninMassRipublicaninMass Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭
    Ya know, you never hear Ted Kennedy use the aphorosim "We'll cross that bridge when we come to it, Mary Jo".
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