You've Got Mail #69: Mark Hoyle

I can't believe it's already May. It seems like just yesterday it was Opening Day and now Memorial Day is creeping up. Crazy. What else is crazy is this PWE that arrived unannounced from Mark Hoyle. 

A nice bunch of random Reds for the binders. I think the Reggie Sanders card might be a duplicate but I'll need to double check. Alfredo Simon (nicknamed "Big Pasta" last year) was signed by the Reds for 2016 to eat up innings in the starting rotation last year. Simon ultimately disappointed by giving up tons of runs and being generally unreliable. He ended up going on the DL with shoulder issues and was quietly released.

A trifecta of cool Tom Seaver cards from the 1992 Pacific Tom Seaver set. Seaver was acquired by the Reds in June 1977 in exchange for Pat Zachry, Doug Flynn, and two others. In six seasons with the Reds in the post Big Red Machine era, he amassed a 75-46 record and a 3.18 ERA pitching in 158 games. He also made two All-Star teams before being traded back to the Mets in December of 1982 for Lloyd McClendon, Charlie Puleo, and a minor leaguer.

Mark definitely paid attention to my team collection list and threw these in among others for me to add to my Expos and Indians collections.

Fleer Ultra sets are looked on pretty fondly in the hockey card world, especially this particular set. While the Devils didn't make the playoffs this year, they did win the #1 overall pick the NHL Draft Lottery this summer. 

Finally, here's the gem of the PWE, a 1939 Play Ball of Buddy Myer of the Washington Senators. Myer was one of the early Jewish stars of baseball and spent 17 seasons in the bigs, mostly with Washington and just under two years with Boston. His best season looks to have been the 1935 season hitting a gaudy .349 for a lowly Senators team that finished 6th in the AL that year. He was also an All-Star for the first time that season and won the batting title and finished 9th in total bases. He retired after the 1941 season to focus on his construction business, of which he had just been granted a government contract to build army camps. His final stat line after calling it a career was .303/.389/.406 with 38 career home runs, 1,174 runs, 848 RBIs, and 2,131 hits. An interesting note I found while doing research is that 15 of his 38 career home runs were inside the park home runs, with 13 of those coming at Griffith Stadium in Washington. He would eventually settle in Baton Rouge and suffered a heart attack in May 1974 and eventually passed away on Halloween of the same year. He was posthumously inducted into the Jewish Sports Hall of Fame in 1992.

This was a really fun PWE to sift through, especially for the Buddy Myer card. Thanks Mark for sending these my way. I really appreciate it.

You've Got Mail #15: Highly Subjective & Completely Arbitrary

My first official trade package as part of the "Super Traders" group that Wes (aka Jaybarkerfan) put together (and graciously included me in) arrived in the mail the other day. It just happened to be from the gracious soul known as Brian from Highly Subjective and Completely Arbitrary and proved to pack a huge punch in a small package.

It started innocently enough with these two nice cards from Upper Deck's last baseball set in 2010.

It also had these random cards included within ... mid-90's Reds cards are always a plus.

Here's where things started to get interesting ... this Drew Stubbs autograph was unexpected. Even though he wasn't the greatest lead-off guy, he could make contact and had a monster year in 2010.

This 1972 Topps card of Ross Grimsley posing in a field with a bullpen jacket on looks innocent enough, right?

But then I flipped it over and BOOM! It's a blank back! I had no idea that this even existed!

I've saved the best three for last.

First, we have a very nice 1950 Bowman of Reds Hall of Famer Ewell Blackwell. Nicknamed "The Whip", he was one of the Reds best pitchers of the late 1940s and early 1950s. His best season was 1947 with a 22-8 record and 2.47 ERA over 33 starts. The same season he also boasted 23 complete games, 193 strikeouts, and 6 shutouts in 273 innings pitched.

Going backwards, there was also this 1949 Bowman of Hank Sauer. I'm not too familiar with him but the back boasts him as one of "baseball best sluggers" and apparently won the 1952 NL MVP award as a member of the Cubs. A quick check of his bio on Baseball Reference says that he was traded to the Cubs by the Reds for Peanuts Lowrey and Harry Walker.

Finally, there's the gem of the whole batch and a card I wasn't familiar with. This is a 1939 Play Ball card of Billy Myers, shortstop for the Reds and part of the back-to-back NL pennant winners in 1939-40 and member of the 1940 World Series champion team. His stats aren't all that impressive but he did manage to get inducted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 1966.

A big thank you to Brian for sending this my way and who outdid himself on this PWE. I'll dig up some Twins in return for you!