Cards and Snow

It snowed this weekend .... a lot.

According to the local National Weather Service office, my town received 8 inches officially. I felt every bit of that 8 inches as well when I went out this morning and shoveled and salted the driveway for three hours.

But I know you didn't come here to read about my adventures in the snow. No, you came here to read about cards. 

I received cards a few weeks ago from Marc at Remember the Astrodome. Marc is from Texas, someplace where it's warm and they don't have to battle with snow and salt. Let's see what Marc sent.

First off, Marc hit on a bunch of my player collections. There were about 18 new Jeff Bagwell cards included, which helped increase my Bagwell collection substantially. The nice thing is too is that they're from all rages of Bagwell's career.

There were also some Craig Biggio cards.

Some new Nolan Ryan cards as well.

And finally some Eddie Taubensee cards. These are two brand new cards to me. I also

Moving on, from the player collections, Marc included a great number of other cards, including this Cesar Cedeno card from 1981 Fleer. This may seem like just a random card but it's a nice card of a former Red.

There was also a good pile of Reds cards, including these cool cards from the 80s. I really like 1981 Topps and feel like it's a forgotten set. 

90s cards! These are right in my wheelhouse as I love collecting Reds from the 90s. They had some fun teams and lots of great players on those teams like Hal Morris, Reggie Sanders, and Benito Santiago.

I remember this card from my initial foray into collecting when I was a kid. At the time, I'd never heard of Eppa Rixey but I came to realize he was a star for the Reds in the 1920s. In 13 seasons with the Reds, he appeared in 440 games with a 179-148 record and a 3.33 ERA. Before the Reds, he spent 8 seasons with the Phillies and was just as dominant. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 1963 by the Veterans Committee.

Closing out the package from Marc, here's some more recent Reds cards, including Johnny Cueto and Billy Hamilton, two Reds who are no longer Reds. Hamilton was non-tendered by the team this winter and signed with Kansas City as a free agent.

Lastly, here's some 2018 Allen and Ginter Reds cards. I spent exactly zero dollars on A&G packs and such last year and I intend on continuing that trend this year. Castillo and Mahle will be battling for a spot in the back end of the rotation this season that looks to already be vastly improved from last year.

There were also some cards that Marc sent that I didn't include here, like some additional Bagwell cards and some Ken Griffey Jr. cards mainly because when I took the pictures, they didn't turn out all that well. I appreciate Marc sending these over. I'm building up some Astros to send back in return, once spring hits and all the snow melts.

Ten Cent Twitter Cards (and more)

I finally did it. I participated in my first Twitter dime sale, courtesy of everyone's favorite Twitter trader, Jenny Miller.

While I never followed Jenny until recently, I've seen lots of fellow bloggers buying stuff from her. So, I decided to jump in on the end of summer dime sale she ran on Twitter back around Labor Day.

If you're not familiar with one of Jenny's sales, the concept is simple. She posts cards, you claim what you want, then she gives you a total (which includes $3 shipping no matter how many cards you buy) at the end of the sale, and you pay via Paypal. Simple, easy. Just the way I like stuff to be online. 

These are my two favorite Reds cards that I bought. I'd had my eye on the Konerko card but never really pulled the trigger on it. I'm a huge, huge fan of the Heritage Collection cards from Diamond Kings and I try to always grab a few if I can find a good deal on them.

I don't collect much in the way of minor league cards, only cards of Reds affiliates. Probably my favorite team out of that group is the Dayton Dragons, mainly because they're just up the street in downtown Dayton but their games are literally impossible to get tickets too (and I mean that in a good way) as they have the longest consecutive sellout streak in professional sports currently. Topps doesn't include the Dragons in every set so when they do make cards of them, I kind of have to jump on them.

Some 1994 Fleer Reds, including Kevin Mitchell. The Reds got Mitchell in the 1992-93 offseason from Seattle in exchange for Norm Charlton. Mitchell's best season in red was 1994 with 30 homers and 77 RBIs in 95 games. With the Charlton trade, that left Rob Dibble as the only one remaining from the 1990 "Nasty Boys" bullpen. He got injured in 1994 and signed with the White Sox to attempt a comeback. It didn't fare too well. Neither did his last stand with Milwaukee later that year as well.

I couldn't resist these either. Tyler Mahle has been a bit hit and miss this season. I'm hoping he'll have a better season next year as he's a pretty decent pitcher when he's doing good. 

Who can resist some Triple Play cards for a dime each? I know I can't. I think of all the Triple Play cards issued in the early 90s, the 1993 design has to be my favorite, mainly because of the black border.

Some choice cards from 1994 Collector's Choice? Yes please.

I couldn't resist the Roberto Clemente card from 1987 Donruss, it's just so cool looking. I know pretty much everyone rags on 1990 Donruss but I find joy in the weirdness that it is. I always liked the Diamond Kings cards as well, and they look even neater with the red border. 1986 Donruss is always a hit as well, heck pretty much anything is from Donruss glory years (except 1988). This gives me an idea for a future post.

Hall of Famers were in plentiful supply. I don't have too many 1994 Topps cards so I had to nab the Griffey and the Thomas. I consider 1991 Donruss to be the last of Donruss "glory years" as in 1992 they completely flipped the script on everything.

More HOFers. That Al Kaline card is just beautiful.

Two Craig Biggio cards found their way into my stack as well. 2007 was Biggio's last season and I guess this could be categorized as his "sunset card" as he didn't have a card in the regular issue Topps flagship in 2008

Shiny cards are always fun. 

2018 Stadium Club is much nicer in person than it looks on paper. 

Some more cool Stadium Club cards. 

Yay for team cards! The Nationals card I believe is their first team card ever after moving from Montreal.

Complete randomness will close out the baseball portion. Three guys with really nothing in common.

Baseball wasn't the only thing Jenny was offering. She offered some football cards outside of the regular sale. I nabbed these fancy Bengals cards for 50 cents each. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I am I the only blogger out there that collects Bengals cards?

This Johnny Unitas card was part of the ten cent sale. It was way too good to pass up.

And my most expensive card from Jenny, this Tyler Eifert card which set me back a whole dollar. While he's been often injured during the past few seasons, when he's on the field he's a force. I really dig this whole chrome retro design thing.

So that's it, my first experience with buying cards through Twitter. Thanks for the great cards Jenny! I hope to buy from you again soon.

Around the Horn: Houston Astros

Time for another entry in the "Around the Horn" series! This time, the Astros are up to bat!

The Astros were founded in 1962 and spent the first three years of their existence as the Colt 45's before moving into the Astrodome and being re-christened the Astros. 

The Astros has a plethora of great talent in the 70s ranging from Joe Morgan and Cesar Cedeno (two future Reds) to young fireballer J.R. Richard. The picture on the Jesus Alou card is just fantastic. Side note, I can't wait for Topps Heritage two years from now when they pay tribute to the 1971 set.

The great pitching carried over into the early 1980s when the Astros made the playoffs three times during the decade (1980, 1981, 1986). My favorite of this batch has to be the Lee May Swell oddball. Funny thing I just realized, I have cards of two players from the most important Reds trade in the 70s in Astros uniforms, Lee May and Joe Morgan (in the first batch). 

Here are four of my favorite Nolan Ryan cards I have covering his stint in Houston. I'm not a big Nolan Ryan collector by any means but these were all found in quarter bins or pack pulled and if I can find stuff of his cheap, then I'm all about it, especially stuff of him when he's not in a Rangers uniform.

Here's a curiosity ... two Phil Garner cards from 1982 Donruss. I was confused as heck when I found these in the giant box of 1982 cards I bought at the community yard sale last spring. It turns out the one on the right in a reverse negative error card. Pretty cool!

Moving towards the 90s now and the "Killer B's" of Craig Biggio and Jeff Bagwell. Instead of taking pictures of all my cards of a certain player/player collection, I'm just going to narrow it down to my favorite 3-4 cards of a particular player.

These Craig Biggio cards are my four favorites of his and I really, really like the Panini Diamond Kings cards. I'd honestly forgotten I had it until I was digging out cards to show off. I've got two copies of the 1989 Donruss rookie, I can't remember how I acquired them but I know one of them was pulled from a 100-card repack.

Jeff Bagwell is someone I really don't have a lot of cards of but he's definitely someone I need to acquire more cards of. The 1992 Topps card is the actual one, not one of the numerous reprints floating around out there.

I love collecting Reds players from the mid-90s regardless if its before or after their run with the team. Eddie Taubensee was the primary catcher for the Reds from 1994-2000. I always liked watching him as a player and he was pretty solid behind the plate.

When I'm sorting through cards trying to find stuff to talk about, I always come across a few curiosities, like this Miguel Tejada card. I'd completely forgotten about him playing two seasons in Houston towards the tail end of his career.

Same goes for J.D. Martinez, who is absolutely crushing the American League right now. I'd completely forgotten his first big league team was the Astros. That was during the lean years where losing at least 100 games a season was almost a guarantee.

Speaking of the lean years, Jose Altuve came along in 2011 for an Astros team that lost 106 games that year in what was their second to last year in the National League. He's always a guy that I see playing with a smile on his face and seems to enjoy every minute of every game. I've started a small Altuve collection as he's one of the players on the Astros I really enjoy watching.

Here's one of my favorite cards from Topps Archives last year. Everything on this picture just works, the orange of the uniform, the green of the railing on the dugout ... everything. It's too bad Archives this year really couldn't come anywhere close to this.

As far as short-term stops go, I honestly don't have too many as far as the Astros go. I think this Carlos Beltran card would probably be as close as I can get though. He had a full year stint in Houston in 2017 and another half-season with the Astros way back in 2004.

I think this card in particular is one of my favorites of this year. Not only does it show him as a member of the Astros, it's also a sunset card (meaning the his last regular issue card after his final season), plus look in the background, there's actually a sunset! It's a perfect card for a player that went out on on top and will eventually be in the Hall of Fame someday.

Last year, the Astros stunned everyone and won the World Series, their first. They'd been to the World Series one other time, in 2005 against the White Sox and got swept. I honestly didn't think they had a chance against the Dodgers last year but I was really happy to see them get their first championship, especially after all the city went through last fall with Hurricane Harvey and the catastrophic flooding thereafter.

That's another edition of "Around the Horn" in the books. On deck .... the Toronto Blue Jays.

Retail Repack Adventures #16

As I was putting some cards away the other day, I took inventory of just exactly how many of these 100-card bricks I have sitting around. Not including this particular one, I've got two baseball oness and two hockey ones left. I guess this is a good a time as any to tear into this.

As usual, the cover card. This time is a 2017 Donruss Optic of Freddie Freeman. I bought a box of Optic back in 2016 and wasn't impressed with it. I don't mind getting Optic (or Chrome) singles here and there but I'm not going to be buying any packs of it.

The one thing I like about these repacks is that you find little random cards like this. How this card of factory set limited edition card of Albert Pujols would up in this re-pack at a Walgreens in the middle of the country, I'll never know.

Here's something I never really knew I was searching for until I found it, that being this 1986 Topps Tom Seaver. His official "sunset card" would come the following year in the 1987 Topps set but 1986 was his last active year of pitching. For a White Sox squad that was on their way to finishing 4th in the AL West that year, he appeared in 12 games, going 2-6 with a 4.38 ERA. In June of that year, he was swapped to Boston for Steve Lyons where he appeared in 16 more games. Overall, in his sunset season he went 7-13 with a 4.03 ERA in 28 games.

2000 Topps I always think is a bit of an under appreciated set for a few reasons. First, the design was pretty clean both front and back. Second, there was a plethora of nice action shots (see the Barry Larkin card) and finally, it's the first set of the new millennium for gosh sakes! Now, all that being said, the Craig Biggio card certainly didn't Chrome up very well since it's a basic posed shot. And yes, that's my reflection you see at the bottom of the card. 

Man, this repack is rife with Hall of Famers. Here's a few from the middle of the junk wax era. Yeah, the 1990 Donruss set may be bowling shoe ugly, but the Diamond Kings card, well at least this particular one, are pretty nice looking. It almost makes me want to get a box of it on the cheap and tear into it.

Random minor league cards are always fun to find in these repacks and boy are these random. On the left, we have Bob Davidson of the Albany-Colonie Yankees, someone who literally was one and done in the majors. Not one season and done, but one inning done. He pitched one whole inning in his major league career, presumably at the end of the Yankees season in 1989, at left with an 18.00 ERA. As for the 1989 Albany-Colonie Yankees? They finished 92-48 in the Eastern League that season.

The other card of this duo was a mystery until I started doing research for this article. It turns out that it's a 1980 team issue card from the Nashville Sounds, which oddly enough, was a Yankees affiliate in the 1980. Anyway, Ted Wilborn played in 121 games for the Sounds that year, hitting .270 with 6 HRS and 63 RBIs. He also had a very brief career in the majors, appearing in only 30 games with the Blue Jays and Yankees over parts of the 1979 and 1980 seasons.

Here's something I found rather curious on the back of the Ted Wilborn card, it looks more like business card instead of a baseball card. Sure, it's got the vital info of the player but look at the bottom right, there is the photographer's name, address, and phone number. Also, there is no date or stats or anything. I don't think I've ever really seen a card like this before. For curiosity sake, I plugged the address into Google Maps just to see what came up ...

And wouldn't you know it, looks like the photographer is still in business after all these years.

There was plenty of 2016 Topps included as well, these are the best from the mix of standard base cards and team issues. Ben Revere was briefly with the Reds during Spring Training this year but obviously didn't thrill anyone as he was cut towards the end of camp.

2016 Heritage ... still meh.

Some gems from 1990 Fleer that were included. Being a card blogger has afforded me the opportunity to gain a nice appreciation for cards from this time as previously I had just overlooked most of them and kept only the notable stars. Kevin Appier was a fresh faced rookie for the Royals during 1990 and finished third in the ROY voting that season. The photo on the card looks like it was taken during spring training that year as why else would there be a scoreboard in the background. Pedro Guerrero was still going strong in 1990, finishing in the top 25 of MVP voting. He'd hang around with the Cardinals for a few more years after this and finally hung up his spikes in 1992.

Speaking of 1992, I've always had a bit of a soft spot for 1992 Upper Deck. While I'm not trying to complete the set or anything, the design was a favorite of mine as a kid, mainly because of the "alternate logos" (for lack of a better term) and the photography that Upper Deck used on the cards.

I'll close out this repack by showing off a smattering of random cards to finish this up. 1994 was the first year I really liked Stadium Club during its original run as the design was very MTV-ish and Topps tried to be hip and cool. The designs of the previous years I always get mixed up because they all look nearly the same. Also, there's a Carlos Delgado rookie card from Triple Play (did anyone else forget he was a catcher?) and a 1983 Fleer Carney Lansford, which I though was the oldest card in the box until I discovered what year the Ted Wilborn card was from.

I'd say this was one of the better repacks I've torn into in recent memory. Was there some junk? Yes. But for five bucks and a few minutes of enjoyment thumbing through cards that are new to me, I'll take it.