2019 Allen & Ginter Blaster Box

I'll come right out and say it, Allen and Ginter isn't exactly my favorite product of the year. However, after seeing the cards around the blogs, I thought it looked like a pretty good set this year. So, I bit. While at Walmart the other day, I grabbed one of the random boxes of Ginter as I figured a blaster would be enough to satisfy my interest.

I'm sure by now everyone has seen the base cards. The one thing I like about this year as opposed to previous years is that there's actually a background. It doesn't feel like the player is just floating in space. And the backgrounds are pretty colorful and unique. That's a win for me.

Toukki Toussaint looks like he's standing in front of the warehouse at Camden Yards. I like the background of the Jose Altuve card as well, looks like he's mingling with some old school players as well.

Four short prints per blaster box and I got these. Not a bad batch.

Some old school players. I really like the fact that Reggie Jackson is shown with the Angels, which is a team he's not really known for. He played for the Angels from 1982-1986, was an All-Star for three of those five seasons and finished 6th in MVP voting in the 1982 season.

More old school, this time with some Expos (Vlad and Gary Carter), then Bob Feller and one of my favorite cards in the whole blaster, a card of the original 1869 Cincinnati Red Stockings. I can see why they were included in the set because of the whole 150th Anniversary of MLB thing and all.

Each pack had a mini. I'll be completely honest and say that mini's aren't my thing. These will probably be going to Night Owl at some point for his A&G mini frankenset.

On to the inserts now. Each pack had some sort of insert. I really like these "Ginter Greats" inserts. 

Another cool insert, Baseball Star Signs featuring the zodiac signs of top players. I've never really delved much into astrology or sign of the zodiac but I really dig the designs of these cards. For the record, my zodiac sign is Sagittarius.

Of course, with Ginter, there are non-baseball subjects. I got two of the "Mares and Stallions" inserts. These are pretty neat.

Other inserts in the blaster. One of the "Incredible Equipment" of the Pied Piper's Pipe (kind of made me think of Roddy Piper) and one piece of the history of flight series. I would really like to put together the whole "history of flight" series.

And then there's this ... a framed mini-relic of Vladimir Guerrero. I'll be honest, I'm really thrilled to have found this!

For grabbing a random blaster from the display in Walmart and going into this just for some fun, this is probably the best blaster I could've gotten for the money. It was light on the non-baseball content but still had some, some fun inserts, and a Vlad relic. I may splurge on some more A&G this year just because I really enjoyed this. For now, this will definitely suffice on my A&G curiosity.

Around the Horn: Baltimore Orioles

Time for another entry in the "Around the Horn" series .... up now the Baltimore Orioles.

This team presented me with a conundrum I've yet to face so far in this series, teams that moved cities and changed their identities completely. I considered doing a separate entry on those teams themselves but there wasn't enough content to warrant that.

I mentioned that because through the first half of the 20th century, the Orioles were actually the St. Louis Browns, a team that was at or near the bottom of the American League for most of their existence. I didn't realize until I was digging out Browns cards that Eddie Plank spent the last two years of his career with the team after being jettisoned by the A's in 1914 and spending 1915 in the Federal League.

The Browns only made one appearance ever in the World Series, 1944, where they lost in six games to their National League brethren the Cardinals. Rick Ferrell spent a total of 8 years on and off with the Browns. Ned Garver was an All-Star pitched for the team in their waning years, going 20-12 with a 3.73 ERA for a 1951 Browns team that finished dead last.

Speaking of the 1951 Browns, that's the year that Satchel Paige debuted with the team. It's nice to see Topps producing modern cards of Paige and chronicling his run with the Browns.

This is by far my favorite St. Louis Browns card. It just so happens to also be the first 1952 Topps card I ever bought. I was at one of the local card shops thumbing through the discount vintage box when I came across this for the low, low price of only $4. I couldn't resist the urge so I grabbed it up. I'm slowly adding as many decent 52 Topps cards to my collection as I can. There's no way I'll ever be able to afford the star cards or even some of the "name" players but if I see commons like this at a decent price, I'll gladly snap them up.

Some of you may remember seeing this card during my recap of my most recent card show visit. I figured it was appropriate to show it again here, considering it's now the oldest Orioles card in my collection. The Browns relocated to Baltimore and were rechristened the Orioles after the 1953 season. From what I've been told by fellow bloggers on the card show post, this Preacher Roe card is one of the earliest examples of a "zero year" card out there as Roe never appeared for a single game for Baltimore.

For the longest time, this was my oldest Orioles card, a 1962 Topps Boog Powell rookie card. I remember buying this card from a 3 for $5 vintage bin at a card show a number of years ago. I forgot the other cards that I got from that deal but I just think this is a super cool looking card.

The Orioles have a had a number of great players over the years but perhaps there was none greater that Cal Ripken Jr. Much like Ken Griffey Jr. with the Mariners, if someone mentions the Orioles, I guarantee the first thought goes to Cal Ripken.

Like I did with Griffey, I decided to show off all the Ripken cards in my collection. If my counting was correct, I have 42 different Ripken cards. I guess you could say I have a decent collection of his cards. If I had to pick some favorites, I'd say the Topps Big League card, the Highlight of the Year card, and the Gold Standard card right below it. 

My most interesting card by far is the Leaf "Slideshow" card from 1995. The deal with these is that there's a second card that goes with it and by putting the cards together, you'll get a cool slideshow of the player. For the 90s, it's a pretty interesting concept although 1995 was the last time Leaf would do it with baseball.

Jim Palmer is another Orioles player I tend to collect and I can usually find his cards for a decent price. Photography was not the strong suit of early Fleer cards but I really do like the one of him getting ready to throw.

The Orioles made out like bandits when they got Frank Robinson in the now infamous December 1965 trade with the Reds. The Reds, who thought Robby was over the hill, sent him east for three players, the most notable being Milt Pappas, who did next to nothing in a Reds uniform. Robinson proved the Reds wrong, winning AL MVP in his first season in orange and finishing in the top twelve of MVP voting in all but one season in Baltimore. 

The "other" Robinson on the Orioles was Brooks Robinson, who spent his entire 23-year career manning third. I'm not a super big Brooks Robinson collector but I'll pick up a card of his here and there, especially if it's a neat looking card like the two Stadium Club cards.

One of the most notable "short term stops" in history is Reggie Jackson with Orioles. Everyone remembers his time with the A's and Yankees, but most forget he had a quick stop off in Baltimore during the 1976 season. 

Eddie Murray is more of an unintentional player collection. I've got cards of his from nearly every team he's been with. I guess I should probably add him to the official PC list as I always tend to keep cards of his when I find them in repacks, yard sale purchases, card shows, etc.

Who doesn't love 1971 Topps? The team card I got in one of my best community yard sales hauls of all time a few years ago. My goal for 1971 Topps is just like 1952 Topps, acquire as many of the cards in the set as I can without breaking the bank.

Here's a bunch of random 80s cards. It's really hard to pick a favorite from this batch. Rick Dempsey and Mike Flanagan on mid-80s cards, a fresh-faced Pete Harnisch on an 89 Donruss card, the pop of the orange on Lee May's 1980 Topps card. There's a whole lot to like here.

Fred Lynn as an Oriole is just strange to me. 

I find it a bit strange that Davey Johnson is listed as both "2nd base" and "Manager" on this card. He wouldn't manage the Orioles until 1996 and this card was issued in 1990. Oh well, still, it's the lone oddball card I have in my Orioles cards.

Here's a whole slew of random 90s cards. I'd forgotten Rick Sutcliffe pitched for Baltimore. As a kid, I always thought Mike Mussina would be with the Orioles forever as he was their star pitcher throughout the 90s. Also, how can you not love Brady Anderson climbing the outfield wall?

Chris Sabo spent the 1994 season with the Orioles as a DH/outfielder. His stints with different teams such as the Orioles and White Sox are what led me to be a collector of "short term stops" cards.

Eric Davis had the last great season of his career in 1998 as a member of an O's squad that finished near the bottom of the AL East. He hit .327 with 28 HRs and 89 RBIs and finished in the top 20 of MVP voting.

Joe Carter played the majority of his final season with that same 1998 team and appeared in 85 games before being traded to the Giants for minor leaguer Darin Blood.

I always thought this was a neat card with both Manny Machado and Cal Ripken on it. I really felt like the so-called "pundits" went crazy last summer with the Machado trade stuff and interviewing him about it in the dugout at the All-Star Game was ridiculous.

I like this card mainly because of the old school style uniforms. 

Finally, some newer cards with a random Nick Markakis card thrown in just because of the picture on it. Last season, the Orioles had a horrible record at 47-115, the second worst record since 2000, only behind the 2003 Detroit Tigers who posted a 43-119 record.

Well, that's it for the Orioles/Browns edition of "Around the Horn". Next up will be another team with two identies ... the Texas Rangers/Washington Senators.

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.