Cards on Cards Dumps Extra Cards

Everyone's favorite Cardinals fan, Kerry at Cards on Cards, was looking to shed some excess cards recently and I was the beneficiary of a nice bubble mailer a few weeks back. The only thing he asked is that a PWE or something gets sent back his way.

The bubble mailer was quite the eclectic package. Lots of Reds and lots of other stuff. Here are some shiny Reds that will definitely find a home in my Reds binder once it's re-organized. The Johnny Cueto card is some sort of shadow box card from the revived Pinnacle line a few years back.

I've never really been much on the Turkey Red cards but I really like that Frank Robinson card. All of these will also land in my reorganized Reds binder.

And two more shiny cards. Let's look at the threesome on the "Talent Pipeline" card. Hunter Greene was out all of this year after having Tommy John surgery, last I checked Shed Long is still with the Mariners, and Nick Senzel is the Reds everyday center fielder.

Keyvius Sampson has not resurfaced in the bigs since appearing in 18 games for the Reds in during the 2016 season. He was a decent pitcher and pretty much filled a gap in the bullpen and made spot starts as needed. For 2019, he spent the season with both the Giants Rookie League and Double-A teams appearing in all of six games. Here's a fun fact though...he was the KBO league's (as in the Korean League) strikeout leader for 2018.

Here's a nice Billy Hamilton relic card. I was not expecting this but I'll take it.

Speaking of Billy Hamilton, here are some cards of his when he was with the Royals. He didn't fare too well in Kansas City this year and hit a paltry .211 over 93 games. He was picked up by the Braves on waivers in August and has made 17 appearances for them as of this writing.

I love me some shiny cards and these certainly fit the billy. I've really, really liked what I've seen from the Panini Prizm line this year.

Oddballs are always appreciated as well. I've already covered Hills in a post this past summer but this is the first I've seen of cards from the True Value line. For those not familiar, True Value is a chain of independent hardware stores throughout the US (for those in the grocery business, kind of like an IGA) that sell tools, appliances, lumber, paint, etc. The Buddy Bell card above is from their 1986 set, which was the only mainstream set that the company ever produced.

Diamond Kings cards of Hall of Famers. I think it's great that card companies create cards of Satchel Paige with the Browns as that team it nearly all but forgotten about.

A few great cards of Juan Marichal including a card of featuring both Marichal and Bartolo Colon. How can you really go wrong with that?

Some fun Willie Mays cards from 1993 Upper Deck. That checklist card is super cool.

More Hall of Famers, this time from various runs of Allen & Ginter.

And finally, a nice random batch of cards that I couldn't find any place else for in this post. 

Lots of great stuff here from Kerry. I appreciate him sending these over and I'll return fire here soon with some Cardinals cards.

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.

You've Got Mail #50: Cards on Cards

Kerry over at Cards on Cards is one of the good guys around the hobby, despite him being a Cardinals fan. Recently, he dropped some unexpected mail on me loaded with good stuff. 

One of my favorite sets of the 80s is 1986 Topps, mainly because of the design. The Tony Perez card in the middle is a card I didn't think I needed until I actually got it. Now that I have it, I don't need it anymore. It's a nice sunset card and I like the image of Perez high-fiving Eric Davis. It's sort of symbolic of the old celebrating with the new as Davis would be an anchor of the Reds outfield until he was traded to the Dodgers following the 1991 season.

These three guys are poised to be part of the future for a Reds team that was pretty bad this past season. Peraza came over as part of the Todd Frazier deal last offseason and after getting some seasoning at Triple A early in the year, made his mark by being able to play a handful of different positions. Garrett should be with the team either in 2017 or 2018 at the latest and Stephenson is probably the top catching prospect the Reds have.

Reds cards weren't the only thing included in the package though as there was a plethora of St. Louis Browns cards. The Browns were one of the worst teams in the American League, consistently finishing at the bottom of the standings and making one World Series appearance in their history. After the 1953 season, the Browns were sold and moved to Baltimore to become the Orioles. Since then, the Orioles have pretty much distanced themselves from their past at the Browns. Even though the Browns were pretty miserable for most of their existence, they still had some pretty notable players, including Hall of Famer George Sisler, who isn't exactly a household name, except to historians of the game, and Rick Ferrell who started his career with the Browns in 1929. 

Not only are these Browns cards, but they are Conlon cards as well which makes them doubly appreciated. Of this batch, I think the only one of these people I've ever heard of before is Jimmy Austin.

These cards are curious. They are definitely Conlon photos but I've never seen this particular set before. According to the Trading Card Database, these are part of the Conlon World Wide Sport series. I like the fact they are full bleed photos but there is no name on the front of the card, plus it seems like there is a brown hue over them when compared to the black bordered Conlon set.

Reds and Browns ... I'd say this was quite the colorful package.