More Sosa HR Parade Cards

After my last post about the 1999 Topps Sosa Home Run Parade set, I went to Beckett and found a number of reasonably priced cards that I needed to complete my Sosa set. I am not completely done but I have made a big dent in this 66 card set. In the last 2 days I have recieved cards #9, #14, #22, #23, #37, #38 and #55. In addition, I should recieve #18, #29 and #52 shortly.

When every thing has been recieved, I will need only 5 more cards to finish this set. The ones that I still need to find are #16, #19, #26, #42 and #61. I believe that #61 will be both the most difficult and most expense to finish my set.

Two More 1999 Topps - Sosa Home Runs Added

Although I took some time off during the holiday week, I was able to add two more home runs from the 1999 Topps subset. There are 66 variations of card number 461 in the 1999 Topps set. Each variation commemorates one of Sosa's 66 Home Runs during the 1998 season. I now have 51 of the variations, leaving only 15 more to complete the subset.

The challenge to this subset is not finding the variations because they are reasonably easy to locate on EBay, Sportslot or Beckett. The challenge is finding the home runs that one needs for a reasonable price. It would seem that most of the numbers can be purchased for $3.00 or $5.00 including shipping. At this price it would cost about $300 to $350 to complete a set. But I have seen these cards listed for $6.00 to $10.00 (and higher).

The cards that I have just added are home runs #4 and #53. Sosa hit home run #4 on April 23, 1998 off of Dan Miceli of the Padres. This was before Sosa's big June home run explosion. After this home run, he was on track to hit a season total of 37 HRs.

Home run number 53 came on August 28, 1998 against the Rockies. The pitcher was John Thomson. This home run tightened the race between McGwire and Sosa to just a single HR.

The 15 cards that I still need to complete this HR Parade sub-set are; 9, 14, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 29, 37, 38, 42, 52, 55 and 61.

1999 Sosa Home Run Parade #20

I just received the 49th card in the 1999 Topps Sosa Home Run Parade set. This is a sub-set of the 1999 Topps Baseball set.

I recently bought HR #20 in an EBay auction. Sosa's HR #20 came in an inter-league game between the Cubs and the Twins in Minnesota. Both the Cubs and Sammy were HOT at the time. For the Cubs it was win number 10 in a row. In those 10 games Sosa had hit .405 with 11 HRs and 25 RBIs.

The 17 cards that I still need to complete this HR Parade sub-set are; 4, 9, 14, 16, 18, 19, 22, 23, 26, 29, 37, 38, 42, 52, 53, 55 and 61.

1999 Topps - Sosa HR Parade

In 1998, nearly every baseball fan got caught up in the home run race between Mark McGwire and Sammy Sosa. Even though, this period in baseball has been tainted by alleged use of steriods and other performance enhancing drugs, it was a time when nearly everyone knew the status of the HR race.


In 1999, Topps included multiple variations of card #220 and #461. Card #220 featured 70 variations for each of McGwire's HR's and card #461 featured 66 variations of Sosa's 66 HR's. The front of the cards were the same except for the HR number. The back featured a description of each HR including date, location, pitcher and other interesting information.



To collect each different variation is a labor of love, but something that I am committed to completing for Sammy Sosa. Currently, I have 47 of the 66 different variations. Almost all variations are readily available but I don't want to pay $6.00 to $10.00 each. So I will continue to pick up individual cards from EBay, Beckett or Sprotslots as they become available at a reasonable price.

Home Run #66 is interesting to me. Sammy hit his 66th HR off of Jose Lima from Houston. In 2001, the Cubs and Sosa came to Detroit for three inter-league games. I was able to get tickets about four rows from the field along right field. Sammy was always a great ambassador for baseball. In Detroit as every where he went, he interacted with the fans. After he warmed up before each inning, he threw his warm-up ball into the stands. He was happy and just appeared to love to play the game of baseball. In this game, he hit 2 HR's off of Jose Lima, now a pitcher for the Tigers. Lima may have fooled most of the Cubs that day, but certainly not Sosa. Unfortunately for me the Cubs lost that game 9 to 6. Kerry Wood pitched but did not have a stellar game giving up 9 hits and 6 runs in six innings pitched. Sosa has 2 HR's, 4 RBI's and 2 walks.

The cards that I still need to complete this HR Parade sub-set are; 4, 9, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23, 26, 29, 37, 38, 42, 43, 52, 53, 55 and 61.