Nick's Knick Knacks

I'm not sure what this 1970 Topps Mike Hershberger card did to warrant getting written on. Nor, am I sure who "Rick" is or what that phone number is for. What I am sure about is that this came in an envelope from Nick at Dime Boxes, who loaded me up with a bunch of cards. 

This all came about when he was looking for a home for the Aristides Aquino card below he'd pulled from Stadium Club.

He mentioned there was a little peeling at the bottom, which didn't really bother me at all. I just think this is a really cool card of one of the Reds young stars. Despite a really down season in 2020, he raked in 2019 when he was called up and hit 19 homers over the last 56 games of the season.

Did I mention it was also numbered 16/25? That's pretty cool! Hopefully Aquino can find his form again this upcoming season but we'll see.

Aquino wasn't the only autographed card that Nick included. Here's another one from Stadium Club of utility player Josh VanMeter, who was shipped to Arizona in a deadline deal last year for reliever extraordinare Archie Bradley, who only appeared in six games for the Reds and was then non-tendered this offseason.

Nick also threw in a pair of Expos cards. I love getting Expos cards from pretty much any era. 

Now for the meat of the envelope, lots of cards to fill out my Indians and Reds team binders. These were some 2020 issues I didn't know I needed until I saw them, although by the time the Clevinger card came out he was with the Padres.

A couple horizontal goodies. Bowman was never my thing as I'm not a prospector but I just love this shiny Bowman Chrome Tyler Freeman card (you'll see another card from this shortly.)

A few more cool cards. I'm writing this just days after the blockbuster deal that sent Francisco Lindor to the Mets. I'm sad to see Lindor leave Cleveland and I know the trade was purely for economic reasons but he was by far my favorite Indians player.

This may look like a 1975 Topps card but it's not!! It's actually a 1975 Topps mini (I think that's the right terminology)? It looks like a 75, smells like a 75 (no I didn't actually smell it), but is a touch smaller.

Anyway, Jim Perry was at the tail end of his career here and was only with the Indians for about a month or so before he was traded to the A's where he finished out his sunset season. The previous season, 1974, he paired up with his brother Gaylord to form a decent 1-2 punch in the Cleveland rotation for a club that finished 77-85. Fun fact, did you know that the Perry brothers accounted for 38 of the 77 wins for Cleveland that season? 

This was probably my favorite card of the package that Nick sent. I'm definitely gaining an appreciation for 1959 Topps and might consider picking up more players like Herb Score here. Upon looking up his info for this piece, I had no idea he was the 1955 Rookie of the Year and was a two-time All-Star. I think the coolest thing about this card though is the photo. It just has that 1950s "feel" to it and I can totally dig it.

Reds were also included starting with this trifecta of Nick Senzel cards. 

There were also a few vintage Reds with this 1961 Jim Brosnan, who pitched will enough in 1961 for the NL Champion "Ragamuffin Reds" to earn some MVP votes.

This is probably my second favorite card in the batch, a 1976 Hostess Tony Perez.

Can't go wrong with cards from Johnny Bench either. I think the Starting Lineup card might be a duplicate but I'll have to check my binder.

These 2020 cards filled in a bunch of holes as well and highlights the Reds significant additions from last offseason in Shogo Akiyama, Nicholas Castellanos, and Mike Moustakas. If you look at the Moustakas Archives card, I find it curious that Topps squeezed "Second Base/Third Base" as the position when they could've just as easily put "Infield". Also, there were come cool Bowman Chrome cards (see I told you those would come back).

This was another great package from Nick and I appreciate him sending all this my way. 

Oscar Winning Cards

(Author's note: This is my first official post back. I'm out of practice with writing blog posts so apologies in advance if these aren't as descriptive or well-written as before. I'll get back to form soon. Also, thank you for all the great "welcome back" comments. I really appreciate it!) 

During my hiatus, I received a few packages in the mail, some of which I documented from the "Epic Baseball Card Adventure" blog I attempted (and have since uploaded to this blog). 

One package I received after that blog kind of dropped off the face of the earth was from Oscar at the "All Trade Bait..." blog. Apparently I'd send him cards a while back and he said these returned the favor. So let's take a look and see what he sent over.

Lots of Expos were included in the package, including this Ron Hassey card which I had no knowledge of. This is also a sunset card as Hassey retired after the 1991 season. Several of the late season 1991 cards showed him with the Expos but this is the only 1992 card he had in a major set.

More Expos including longtime Brewers pitcher Bob McClure, who is another guy I never realized suited up for the Expos.

One last batch of Expos. Is just me or are the blue uniforms of the late 80s/early 90s completely wild?

The majority of the package was made up of Hall of Famers I enjoy collecting like Robin Yount, Nolan Ryan, and the like.

There was also this nice batch of Cal Ripken cards. I think the 93 Donruss one may be a duplicate. My collection is so disorganized right now, I'm not even sure.

There were also some nice George Brett cards as well. My favorite of these has to be the 1988 Score card with the baseball coming into the picture. I wonder if he got a hit on that at-bat or not?

Some random horizontal cards here with a pair of All-Star cards from 1993 Topps and two Barry Larkin cards.

But this is probably my favorite card of the pile, a 2008 Topps Joey Votto rookie card. I'd been considering adding a Votto rookie to my collection for a while but when card shows were still a thing, the cards were so overpriced, I always took a pass. But to have one come in a trade envelope is really super cool.

Many thanks to Oscar for sending over these cards back in the summer. I really appreciate it!

Nick’s Super Stuffed PWE of Super Stuff

It seems like Thursday is becoming my regular posting day. I hadn’t really intended it to be that way but with work being incredibly busy right now, it’s the one night of the week where I don’t have much going on.

So, might as well use my time to write about baseball cards, right?

Anyway, I received a bunch of cards in a PWE from Dimebox Nick after I claimed a card or two on one of his last “Free Card Fridays”.

I don’t remember which ones I chose but I think the Christian Yelich card shown above was one of them. With Nick being the kind card sharing soul that he is, he also stuffed the PWE with as much as stuff as humanly possible.

A couple of Jose Ramirez cards. The Big League card was my first in-person look at that product this year as this arrived before my massive Card Barrel order I wrote about last week. 

No, you’re not seeing double. Yes, it’s kinda the same card but different. The left one is the holiday variation and the other one is Topps Chrome. I’m not too big on those Holiday variants but I have a really good idea for that card for when the Christmas tree goes up later this year.

Now, here’s where things get really interesting. First, we’ve got this 1978 TCMA of Reds shortstop Leo Cardenas. Funny story is that I only know Leo Cardenas from getting his autograph on an index card at the local mall when I was a kid. I had no clue who he was at the time but he was sitting at a table in the middle of the mall signing autographs for free. I don’t remember if it was part of a card show or what, but I just remember him sitting at a table by the fountain signing autographs.

I love me some vintage cards, it’s even better if it’s vintage Expos. I don’t know much about Ron Hunt honestly but after looking him up on Baseball Reference, it turns out he led all of Major League Baseball in HBP (that’s hit by pitch) for six straight seasons! Between 1968 and 1973, he was hit by 176 pitches with 50 of those coming in 1971. Oh, he was also a two-time All Star and finished second in ROY balloting in 1963 behind some guy you may have heard of named Pete Rose.

Sticking with the Expos theme, here’s some interesting oddball cards. I’m not familiar with the “Stuart” brand but a quick glance on TCDB tells me that Stuart is some kind of bakery. I’m guessing these are team issue or issued by the Stuart Company itself. I’m not sure but these are really, really neat. The Doug Flynn card really stands out to me because of the white Expos uniforms.

Here’s the backs if you’re curious. Pretty plain and simple, nothing exciting really. Just the basic vital stats and a quick blurb about each persons career.

Here’s another oddball from a company named Provigo of Floyd Youmans who only spent five years in the majors, all with the Expos. Fun fact ... Floyd Youmans led the National League in walks in 1986 with 118. Yes, 118 walks in 219 innings.

Finally, we come to this batch of 1970 cards. While these may look like any other mild-mannered 1970 cards, they’re not. They’re actually 1970 O-Pee-Chee cards ... and Expos nonetheless (well, except for Tommy Helms). It’s really such a treat when I can add really cool cards like this to my collection. 

And the backs, both English and French. But I’m showing these mainly for the cartoons because, honestly, who doesn’t love cartoons.

That wraps up a super stuffed PWE from Nick. Big thanks to him for sending these cards my way. I really appreciate it.

83 From 82

83 from 82. That's a pretty simple math question right? Well, the answer would be (-1) that's because 83 things cannot be taken from 82 different things. Example: If you had 82 different baseball cards and you tried to take 83 of them away, you couldn't. You could take 82 from 82 and be left with nothing. But that extra card? Hmmm...

I can however take 83 from 82 a different way. That being 83 cards from 1982 which is what I discovered when sorting the mega-haul box. I've got 83 cards from 1982. Let's see if I can take 83 from 82 that way. I might even try to keep a running tally.

These two make up the only two 1982 Fleer cards in the box. Early Fleer cards may not be all that great in terms of design but I think they make up for some of that in terms of odd photography. Look at the background of the Rowland Office card. It's definitely Veterans Stadium but something is off about the picture. Why is it tilted?

Running tally: 83 - 2 = 81

Nine cards of the 1982 Donruss variety. More fun photography as well. We've got Greg Luzinski in the old White Sox softball uniforms, Jose Morales right under him posting at what appears to be Spring Training, and Burt Hooton preparing to heave a pitch towards home. Speaking of Luzinski and the Chicago uniform, there's also the appearance of some old-school powder blue road threads from the Rangers and Braves.

Also, someone clearly was not a fan of something on the back of the Luzinski card. Maybe they were trying to scratch out the Phillies stats? Not sure.

Running tally: 81 - 9 = 72

Now comes the bulk of the cards ... 1982 Topps. If my math is right, there should be eight scans of nine. Jeff Reardon headlines this first group. There's also a pretty cool Mariners team leader card. That reminds me, I probably should get back into reviewing some of the multi-player cards I have.

Running tally: 72 - 9 = 63

Ron Hassey and Jim Clancy on the next batch here. But the real star here is the Danny Ainge card. His last regular issue baseball cards came in the 1982 sets and he'd left MLB after the 1981 season so this card could be considered a "sunset" card. We all know what happened next. He debuted in the NBA in December of 1981 and played 14 seasons for Boston, Sacramento, and Phoenix. He also coached Phoenix for four seasons after he retired and led them to the playoffs 3 of those 4 seasons.

Running tally: 63 - 9 = 54

Lots of good stuff in this batch ... Dave Parker, Bruce Sutter, Danny Darwin, and Bill Buckner just to name a few. But look on the bottom left. I spy a Lee Smith rookie card. I wasn't expecting to find that in a pile of random 82 Topps cards.

Running tally: 54 - 9 = 45

Not much happening here unless Joe Lefebvre's garish Padres uniform counts.

Running tally: 45 - 9 = 36

Rick Sutcliffe and Alan Trammell highlight this nine. Denny Lewallyn looks confused and Wayne Garland could be a stand in for my friend's dad. Did anyone else remember Alan Trammell managing the Tigers from 2003-2005? I'd completely forgotten about that. 

Running tally: 36 - 9 = 27

A much better group here. I love seeing Twins cards from the late 70s/early 80s just because I'm completely unfamiliar with them during that time frame.  The Expos cards here are pretty cool too. My favorite though has to be Al Oliver at the bat rack.

Running tally: 27 - 9 = 18

We're getting to the home stretch now. Some pretty notable names with Doug Flynn, Oscar Gamble, Rick Monday, and Lou Whitaker here. Flynn is currently a studio analyst and fill-in radio announcer for the Reds. I probably should've paired Whitaker and Trammell together in the scans but oh well.

Running tally: 18 - 9 = 9

And our last group of nine includes two former major league managers. Jerry Narron managed the Rangers and Reds in the 2000s. His best season in Cincinnati came with the 2006 squad where they finished a surprising third in the NL Central. I'm kind of drawn to Jim Tracy cards since he's a local guy (Hamilton, Ohio). Tracy managed the Dodgers, Pirates, and Rockies during his run from 2001-2012. 2008 was the only year he didn't manage in the bigs during that time.

Running tally: 9 - 9 = 0

So there you have it. I've successfully shown how 83 can be taken from 82 without any negative numbers involved at all. Not bad for a guy who got a "C" in high school algebra.