Frank Robinson 1935-2019

Frank Robinson passed away last week and with that the world of baseball lost a true legend.

When I saw last week that he'd passed away, I felt like I should do a tribute post. Others have already chipped in with their tribute posts so I may be a bit late to the party here but I figure it's appropriate, especially for a man that began his career with the Reds. I wanted to attempt to take a bit of a different approach and cover his playing and managerial career in card form.

Robinson signed with the Reds as an amateur free agent before the 1953 season. Before debuting with the Reds in 1956, he spent three years in the minors playing for the Ogden Reds, Columbia Reds, and Tulsa Oilers. This was a time before minor league baseball is what we know is at today where AAA is the highest level.

When Robinson debuted with the Reds in 1956, he made an immediate impact, not only winning the Rookie of the Year award but also making the All-Star team and finishing 7th in NL MVP voting. Throughout his Reds career, he made 6 All-Star teams (including 1956), finished in the top ten of MVP voting 6 times and winning once in 1961. He also won a Gold Glove in 1958 and was a part of the 1961 Reds team that surprised everyone by making a run to the World Series only to get thwarted by the Maris and Mantle Yankees. Then, in December 1965, the Reds made one of the worst trades in history, sending Robinson to the Orioles for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson.

Despite Robinson only being 29 at the time of the trade the Reds general manager felt Robinson's best days were behind him, according to various literature that I've read. Robinson would prove that theory wrong and continued to tear it up in Baltimore and won the AL MVP award in his very first season. He made the All-Star team in five of his six seasons with the Orioles (1968 being the lone exception) and also never finished lower than 11th in MVP voting in those same five seasons. He also won two World Series rings in 1966 and 1970, defeating his former team, the Reds, in 1970.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

After the 1971 season, Robinson was traded again, this time over to the Dodgers in exchange for Doyle Alexander, Bob O'Brien, Sergio Robles, and Royle Stillman. In his lone season in Dodger blue, he hit .251 with 19 HRS, and 59 RBIs in 103 games. That 1972 Dodgers team finished a respectable 85-70 which was good enough for 2nd place in the NL West, 10.5 games behind the Reds.

Just short of a year to the day when the Dodgers acquired him the previous off-season, they traded him up I-5 to the Angels as part of a six-player deal that netted the Dodgers Ken McMullen and Andy Messersmith. The majority of Robinson's stint with the Angels was that of the newly minted DH position and still played a handful of games in the field. Despite being nearly 40, he still finished 15th in AL MVP voting in 1973 and made his final All-Star team in 1974.

At the tail end of the 1974 season, the Indians acquired Robinson in exchange for two players and cash. Robinson's on field career was winding down at that point as well as he was named the player-manager for the Indians, thus becoming the first African-American manager in MLB history. He retired from active playing in 1976 but continued to manage the Indians into the 1977 season when he was dismissed after 57 games.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

In 1982, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame with 89% of the vote. This was also while he was the active manager of the Giants, a post he assumed in 1981 and would hold until 1984.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

In 1988, he went back to his old team, the Orioles, taking over for Cal Ripken Sr. and helming a truly dismal Orioles team that went 55-106 and lost 21 straight to start the season. The Orioles turned it around in 1989 finishing 2nd in the AL East with and 83-79 record which was good enough to earn Robinson his first and only Manager of the Year award. After the Orioles dismissed in favor of Johnny Oates 37 games into the 1991 season, he wouldn't resurface as an on field manager until 2002.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

His last managerial assignment in the majors was that of the Montreal Expos, leading the team through the last few years of their existence (2002-2004) and subsequently becoming the answer to the trivia question "Who was the last manager of the Montreal Expos?". The Expos didn't fair too bad under Robinson, posting back-to-back 83-79 seasons in 2002 and 2003 but the wheels feel off in 2004. He stuck with the team when they relocated to Washington and managed the first two seasons of the teams existence.

His uniform number 20 has been retired by the Reds, Indians, and Orioles, making him one of only two players to have his uniform number retired by three or more teams (Nolan Ryan being the other).

It's amazing to see what all he did during his professional baseball career from a young star with the Reds in the early 50s all the way to working for the Commissioner's office in recent years. He definitely had a long and distinguished career in baseball.

Farewell, Mr. Robinson. You will be missed.

Everything Is In Order

I love it when a surprise PWE comes in the mail. That's just what happened the other day when I was sorting and taking some pictures for future blog posts when the mail lady came by. Along with the city utility bill and some grocery coupons for my wife, there was an envelope from Tom from the Angels in Order blog. 

Tom had mentioned on my "Around the Horn" post for the Angels that he was sending over some team cards I didn't have. I'd kind of forgotten about that but yet, here they are. The 1978 Angels finished second in the AL West with a 84-78 record under two managers, Dave Garcia and Jim Fregosi. Two years later, in 1980, they finished a dismal 6th with a 65-95 record.

It's nice to add some more Dave Winfield cards to my collection as well. I think a couple of these are dupes (I know the 1991 Upper Deck is for sure) but the rest are super cool.

Angels cards weren't the only thing that Tom included, he also threw a batch of Calgary Flames cards from the 1990-91 Score set. Here are three Hockey Hall of Famers (Joe Nieuwendyk, Doug Gilmour, and Al MacInnis )and one of the top goalies of the era (who's not in the Hall of Fame) in Mike Vernon.

I need to check to see if these are the American or Canadian versions.

I'm pretty sure he included the whole team set, which is super generous. 

Also there were these 1991 Classic Draft Pick cards. I'm not sure if any of these guys panned out in the NHL.

This was a really cool surprise PWE from Tom so a big thanks to him! I've got to gather a PWE of Angels and Patriots to send back soon.

Around the Horn: Los Angeles Angels

Ah yes, the Angels ... the "other" baseball team in L.A. Despite them taking up residence only an hour south of the Dodgers, I never really hear them get talked about as much as the Dodgers do. 

The Angels have been around in some form or fashion since 1961, when they and the new Washington Senators (now the Texas Rangers) were granted a team in the first round of American League expansion. 

This is the only card I have representing the 1961 Angels and it's a pretty interesting one, Ted Klusewski (one of my player collections I'll get to when I cover the Reds) with a White Sox hat with the Angels listed as the team. It also doubles as his "sunset card" as 1961 was his last year in the bigs.

In terms of player collections, my biggest player collection for the Angels would have to be Mike Trout. These are my two favorites. The first is from 2015 Heritage and is one of those pesky "action image" variations that I pulled from a pack I from a card shop in Jacksonville, NC on a trip to visit the in-laws. The other one is a 2016 Heritage Chrome card that came from, of all things, a random Target 50-card, 4-pack repack deals.

Some horizontal Trout cards, I always think the 2013 card is the famous rookie card because of the rookie cup but I'm not lucky enough to have that. I'll settle for the rookie cup card though.

Overall, I've got 27 unique Mike Trout cards in my collection, most of them pack pulled. I didn't realize exactly how many cards of him I had until I pulled them all for this post. I guess I'll consider him an official player collection now.

I can never figure out if this card belongs as part of my Mike Trout cards or my Albert Pujols cards. Maybe I should count it for both?

Speaking of Pujols, these are all my Pujols Angels cards. I tend to think of him more as a member of the Angels now instead of the Cardinals

I never realized I had this many Tim Salmon cards. He's not really someone I collect but when I get cards of his, I don't mind at all.

Seeing Reggie Jackson as anything but a Yankee is always cool. I always forget he had a couple stops with the Angels. My favorites of these are the Diamond Kings card at the bottom and the 1987 Topps since it's his sunset card.

I just need 1971, 1975, 1978, and 1980 to complete the entire team card run from 1970-1981. 

I had no clue that Vada Pinson and Frank Robinson were on the Angels together in 1973. They're shown as member of the team in the 1974 set but by then Pinson had been traded to the Royals. Speaking of 1973, I've got both a 1970 and 1973 Sandy Alomar card and when I see cards of his, I usually tend to pick them up.

Who can go wrong with a Kellogg's Nolan Ryan card?

Some fun players from the huge batch of 1982 Donruss I picked up in the community yard sale last spring. 

More neat cards from the mid-80s. Bobby Grich is one of only a handful of 1985 Donruss cards I have in my collection. I really like the design of it and it's one I wish I could find some more cards of in dime and quarter boxes.

A handful of Topps cards from 1985-1988. I'd forgotten that Don Sutton was still pitching in 1987. 

Dave Winfield is definitely someone I have on my player collection list but these are the only two Angels cards I have of him. Maybe once I wrap up all going through all these teams, I'll go back and show the cards I have of all my PCs.

I always like Eduardo Perez when he played for the Reds and I think I got an autograph from him when I was a kid. That minor league Classic card is probably one of my favorites.

A mixed bag of random cards from the 90s. I never understood the name change from the California Angels to the Anaheim Angels and from the red and white uniforms to the blue uniforms with the winged, flying "A" on it (seen here on Troy Percival).

I never did see Bert Blyleven pitch but seeing as he's a Hall of Famer and had a long career, I tend to pick up cards of his when I see them for a decent price. He's not on my official player collection list but if I get enough cards of his at some point, I might eventually add him.

I've shown this card off and talked about it previously but it's a pretty unique card from 1993 Topps. Long story short, the Angels scouts were looking for new talent anywhere and found it by signing three players from Russia as an experiment to see if they could open up a talent pipeline there. MLB.com did a great article and retrospective on it (here) and I encourage reading it and it's incredibly interesting.

In terms of short term stops with the Angels, Eddie Murray is probably one of the most interesting. He played 46 games for the Angels during his sunset season and swatted the final three of his 504 career home runs with them. This is the only Eddie Murray card I have of him that chronicles his brief stint with the Halos.

Some cards from the 2000s. My favorites here are the UD Decades Don Baylor and the 2001 Topps Garrett Anderson. It feels to me that 2001 Topps doesn't get a whole lot of love from the card community but I've always enjoyed it as it's the last Topps set I bought packs of during my initial foray into collecting. Maybe someday I'll attempt the set but the Pujols and Ichiro rookies might dissuade me from doing so.

Some cards of the famous Rally Monkey. Who doesn't love a little mascot action? 

A few random cards from the current decade. I'd had no clue that Jason Isringhausen played his final season in 2012 for the Angels. The Nolan Ryan I picked up at a card show last fall and it's some sort of Panini VIP card.

I don't know much about Jeremy Moore but this has always been one of my favorite cards from 2012 Topps, mainly because of the awesome throwback uniform. As a matter of fact, it's the card that inspired me to start chasing throwback uniforms.

I instantly thought of Dimebox Nick when I plucked this card out of of a dime box at a card show. It's probably one of my favorite cards in my collection overall.

I'm sure most everyone forgot about Brandon Phillips' 24 game sojurn to L.A. towards the tail end of last season. Truth be told, I'd forgotten about it too until I pulled this card out of a Heritage pack earlier this year. Despite him being an anchor of the Reds infield, he never was one of my favorite players. I always found him a bit too cocky and show-boaty.

Even though I've shown this card previously, I felt it was appropriate to close out with my lone card of Shohei Otani that came out a Gypsy Queen retail pack.

That pretty much covers the best of the Angels cards in my collection. I hope you enjoyed this entry in the "Around the Horn" series. 

Next up .... the Houston Astros.

Single Card Post - 1990 Fleer #640

Back in my return post in mid-January, I mentioned I came up with some new ideas for blog posts as one of my goals is to come up with more creative posts using cards I already have in my collection, as opposed to going out and buying things to blog about all the time. As I was doing some sorting and organizing during my hiatus last winter I came across a bunch of cards with multiple players on them and I thought to myself "what can I do with these?", then it dawned on me that I could easily get blog posts out of them by doing some posts some single card posts.

This is card #640 in the 1990 Fleer set, a major league prospects card featuring Rudy Seanez and Colin Charland.

Rudy Seanez carved out a 17-year career in the majors for a number of different teams. He debuted for the Indians in 1989 and through three seasons with them, appeared in 34 games with a 6.75 ERA. He sat out the 1992 season due to injury and showed back up with San Diego in 1993 for three games and the the Dodgers for the 1994 and 1995 seasons. After the 1995 season, he disappeared and didn't resurface in the majors until 1998 with the Braves. In four seasons with the Braves, Seanez had probably the four best years of his career, going 12-6 in 125 games with a 3.30 ERA in that span. In August of 2001, the Braves sent him to the Padres for a player to be named later. From that season on until his last appearance in 2008, he was a bit of a nomad, playing for the Padres (three times), Rangers, Red Sox (twice), Royals, Marlins, Dodgers, and finally the Phillies in 2008.

Colin Charland never played in the majors and, according to the Trading Card DB website, this is his only major league issue card. He spent 1986-1989 in the Angels minor league system, getting as high as the Triple A Edmonton Trappers in 1989. His best season in that span looks to have been 1988 with Single A Palm Springs where he went 17-5 with a 2.51 ERA in 27 starts and 204 IP. In 1991, he showed up in the Indians minor league system after being acquired by the team the previous year in a trade that sent Scott Bailes to California. He reached Triple A again in 1993 with Charlotte in the Indians system and Vancouver in the Angels system, but I can't seem to find any record anywhere of how he wound up in the Angels system again. Interesting side note though, he holds the Dallas Baptist University record for most strikeouts in a single season with 127 in 1986.

Of the two players on this card, it looks like Seanez had the better career spending 17 years in the majors, mostly under the radar. 

Back Packs: 1993 Topps Series 2 Jumbo Packs!

I picked these up on my flea market trip back in January for 25 cents a piece. While I could split these up amongst four posts, that would require effort. So, I'll look at these as a collective. While I'm not going to show every card, I'll show the highlights.

Doc Gooden, Jeff Kent, and Rickey Henderson. Two Mets and one future Met.

Here's a Bret Boone RC, Nolan Ryan, and Jim Abbott. I'm not a huge Nolan Ryan collector, especially from this era as he seems to be everywhere. That being said, since this is a card from the last days of his career, I'll hang on to it.  Also, Bret Boone was one of my favorite Reds players from the mid to late-90s.

Another batch of some 90s stars. I really like the posed shots on the Marlins and Rockies cards from this set. I've also officially added Charlie Hough as a PC guy. The Brett, Grace, and Belle cards are pretty nice too.

Here are a few horizontal cards that came in the batch. The Glavin/Fleming card I remember having in my original childhood collection. Big Unit cards are always fun to pull as well.

Each pack guaranteed five Topps Gold cards. I'm not showing all of them but these are the best of the batch. I thought Girardi didn't officially suit up for the Rockies, but I stand corrected as noted in the comments below!

The obligatory Reds cards and another card to add to my Hal Morris collection. The guy was a great hitter and solid player for the Reds through the 90s.

I pulled both the regular version and the gold version of these cards. Not sure which one I like better though. Interesting that I got both the Dan Wilson and Bret Boone RCs in these packs as they were part of the November 93 trade that sent Wilson and Bobby Ayala to Seattle for Boone and Erik Hanson. Talk about a small world!

Finally, there's this card. I was pretty excited when I pulled this card out of one of the packs. While it's nothing special, it's a nice time capsule of when the Angels signed three Russian players and had them in the minor leagues. There's a great MLB.com story on it here which is why I popped when I pulled this because I had just read the story a while back.

Opening these up was a lot of fun. Hope you enjoyed reading!