Into the Mailbag

I haven't gotten cards in the mail in a real long time but in the span of a week I received one bubble mailer and a few PWEs.

It's amazing what happens when you make a blogging comeback.

The wonderful 2002 Reds team card above was part of a nice PWE I received from Fuji about a week or so ago. It's probably one of my favorite team cards in my collection now. There's several cool things about it ... the dirt infield, the interesting uniforms the team was wearing then but my favorite thing is that it's one of the last team photos from old Riverfront Stadium (which just celebrated the 50th anniversary of its opening on June 30th).

There were also cards from players I enjoyed watching when I was growing up, namely Barry Larkin and Sean Casey. 

Some cool horizontal cards. I remember how emotional everyone was when the Reds traded Aaron Boone to the Yankees in 2003.

Another one of my favorite Reds players, Hal Morris, on a card design I've always liked, 1992 Leaf.

It's not just Reds players that Fuji threw in, he also hit up some of my other player collections. I always welcome cards of Hall of Famers.

Charlie Hough is a guy I always liked collecting, especially when I was a kid. I'm not sure why I gravitated towards his cards, maybe it's the insanely long career he had and the fact he played for the Marlins of all teams when they weren't even around when he debuted.

In a separate mailing from Fuji way back in January, he loaded me up on cards for my 1984 Topps set build that I've been working on seemingly forever.

Lots of good stuff, right?

Anyway, look for an updated 1984 Topps waitlist to show up on the blog soon as soon as I get these filed away and can figure out what I still need.

Thanks for all the great cards Fuji! Really appreciated.

Surprise Cards from SumoMenkoMan

A few weeks ago, in the middle of a crazy week at work, I received a surprise mailer from Ryan of the Sumo Cards blog. Apparently, during his travels with Fuji, he'd grabbed a bunch of Reds from a bargain box for me. 

First, a few 1993 Donruss cards. I've always been a fan of 1993 Donruss because of the pretty simple design, although I'm less familiar with series 2 than series 1. The Reggie Sanders and Cesar Hernandez cards are from series 2. I don't recall Hernandez playing with the Reds, turns out he didn't make much of a splash. Just 61 games over parts of two seasons.

Jose Rijo and Pete Schourek were anchors of the Reds pitching staff in the mid-90s. Although Rijo got injured during the 1995 season, Schourek finished second in Cy Young voting and helmed a staff which also included John Smiley and Tim Pugh. Dave Burba and David Wells were late season additions that propelled the Reds to the NLCS that year.

Hal Morris was always one of my childhood favorites and whenever I get cards of his, I'm pretty happy. Plus, I don't have a lot of 1995 Topps, so that's good too.

Speaking of 1995 Topps, two of the Reds top pitchers during the mid-90s. Jeff Brantley is now part of the Reds TV and radio broadcast team. John Smiley's last good run was with the Reds. After they traded him to the Indians in July of 1997, he was pretty much done. His career ended with a broken arm/shoulder injury not long after that.

I always enjoy some early 80s cards. The Reds of 1981 were starting to come off the high that was the 1970s "Big Red Machine" but still had some steam left. However, due to the split season, they didn't make the playoffs.

Here's something I wasn't expecting, a Tom Browning rookie from the 1985 Topps Traded set. Browning had an excellent rookie campaign in 1985 going 20-9 with a 3.55 ERA over 38 games. He finished second in Rookie of the Year voting and 6th in Cy Young voting

Here's a card of Mike Bell, the brother of current Reds manager David Bell. I'd forgotten Mike Bell ever played for the Reds.

Some mid-2000s action. I really like the Austin Kearns card. I remember the days when Kearns and Adam Dunn were supposed to anchor the Reds teams of the future. 

And a few shiny Bowman Chrome cards to close things out with.

Much thanks to Ryan for sending these my way. It was nice to receive a completely unexpected package.

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.

You've Got Mail #78: Bump and Run Cards

It's always nice to come home to cards in the mail and that's exactly what happened while back when there was a surprise PWE on the kitchen counter from Trevor over at Bump and Run Cards. It was nice to see something from Trevor as it's been a while since he and I have exchanged cards.

A few Gypsy Queen cards from last year, including one of those green retail parallels of Carlos Santana, who sadly departed Cleveland for Philadelphia this off season. The Dan Straily card is one of the few cards I have of him with the Reds. They definitely bought low and sold high on him when they traded him to Miami before the 2017 season and got back three good prospects in return. Suarez has some competition coming to him for third as Nick Senzel is quickly climbing the ranks.

And here's a random batch that just happens to include my first Nick Senzel card. Anthony DeSclafani (or, as I call him "Tony Disco") missed all of last year. Starting pitching has really been a sore spot for the Reds the past few years. Here's hoping that most of the starters can stay healthy for a while.

A few cards of Hal Morris manning first base. One of my goals in 2018 is to find non-Reds cards of him to add some variety to my PC of his.

But here's the real star of the envelope .... buybacks!! The note that was included stated that he'd been sitting on these since last March! Buybacks have become my new favorite thing to collect and give otherwise forgotten commons from the 80s and 90s a new lease on life. Apparently at some point I staked a claim on the Charlie Hayes card but I'd long since forgotten about it. Kudos to you, Trevor, for remembering it. Also, thanks for the surprise envelope! There will be some Packers cards headed your way soon.

Blog Bat-Around: Player Collection Origins

A week or so ago, P-Town Tom of the Eamus Catuli blog (formerly Waiting Til Next Year) suggested a fresh topic for a blog bat-around, that topic being the origin of your player collections. I know I'm a bit late to the party here but as I was doing some sorting (as shown by the picture above), I came across a few cards of some players I collect. So here are five random picks from my player collection list and the reasons I collect them.

Barry Larkin

I'm a bit too young to remember Dave Concepcion but when I was growing up, Barry Larkin was the first shortstop I remember playing for the Reds. By the time I was old enough to finally get memories of baseball, Concepcion had retired and the shortstop spot was taken over by Larkin, who would hold it down until 2003. After Larkin retired, the Reds went through a revolving door of shortstops but now seem to have settled in with Zack Cozart. When I got back into collecting, Larkin was the first guy who's cards I went after.

Dennis Eckersley

The only non-Red on this list, I've had an affinity for Eckersley cards going back to my original collection. The first card that drew me into him was his 1991 Fleer which featured the craziest picture of any pitcher I've ever seen. Since then, I've been collecting his cards, all of which seem to have some sort of crazy picture of him in mid-delivery.

Sean Casey

Casey was acquired on the eve of the 1998 season for Dave Burba and my, how that trade worked out for the Reds. In eight seasons of manning first base for the Reds, he hit .305/.371/.463 and amassed over 1000 games. Not long after Casey was traded away after the 2005 season, Joey Votto came along and has continued the chain of long serving first basemen.

Chris Sabo

As I mentioned before, Barry Larkin was the first shortstop I remember playing for the Reds, so to go along with that Chris Sabo was the first third baseman I remember hanging around the hot corner for the Reds. "Spuds" played the majority of his career for the Reds, with only the 1994 and 1995 seasons being the ones where he was away from Cincinnati. He returned for a final season in 1996 for 54 games before retiring. I've got two cards of him not in a Reds uniform (Orioles and White Sox) and I'm always looking for more non-Reds cards of him.

Hal Morris

I didn't have any Hal Morris cards in the box I was sorting so I took this image from COMC. Morris was always someone I found interesting, mainly because of his wacky batting stances but he could hit like crazy. Like most of the other Reds on this list, he's the first person I remember playing at a certain position, first base in this particular case. I haven't really found many cards of his post 1994 for my collection so those are the ones I'm definitely trying to find currently.

You've Got Mail #60: San Jose Fuji

It's February and yep, it's still winter. One more cold and snowy month to go until March hits and spring arrives shortly thereafter. Luckily, back around Christmas, Fuji warmed up my mailbox with a package that arrived on Christmas Eve. Yes, that's how behind on trade packages I am. Something that arrived on Christmas Eve, I'm just now getting around to posting about.

I always love it when oddballs are thrown into a trade package, especially random food issues from the early 90s. My family never really bought Jimmy Dean breakfast sausage but on the rare occasion they did, there were baseball cards to be included. Like most oddballs, the uniforms had to be airbrushed. When I got these as a kid, I always wondered how they got the team logo and name off the uniform as I always thought said player wore a generic looking uniform for a day. 

No, you're not seeing double on these 2013 Bowman Platinum cards, they're just different parallels. One is the blue sapphire version and the other is the gold version. I'm not sure which one is the actual base version as stuff like this confuses me. These are really nice cards though and I'll find room in two of my three Reds binders for these.

Retail oddballs are always a guilty pleasure of mine, especially those from defunct chains such as Woolworth. These are from the 1991 Woolworth Baseball Highlights set, a 33-card set meant to highlight the best of the prior season. Nine of the last 11 cards in this set are Reds cards that highlight their unexpected World Series win. My personal favorite is the "celebration" card in the bottom right. Some day though I'll have to go through my cards and do a defunct retail post.

Unfortunately these cards scanned like crap but they are neat inserts called "Golden Idols" from the 1995 Topps Embossed set. I never had these in my original collection but I can definitely say they are unique.

Late 90s die-cut cards! I need to find more of these, especially from this time frame as my collection is sorely lacking in cards from this period.

Despite this being a very baseball heavy package, Fuji also threw in these two Bengals relic cards. As I've mentioned before, my Bengals collecting has slowed to a crawl recently and is going to focus on mainly vintage and current and past stars this year, which means I'm going to be super selective now when buying singles. However, relic cards like this I'm definitely happy to add!

A big thanks goes out to Fuji for all these cards plus the ones I didn't show off. Since I referenced it in the post title, here's a classic song to warm up your winter blues ...