Miscellaneous Maildays

The flow of mail in the CCHQ mailbox had slowed to a trickle recently, however I did receive a few small things here and there recently that can be combined into one blog post.

Peter from Baseball Every Night sent over a small sampling of Indians cards via PWE. There were two of the Encarnacion card, which is ok. My favorite of this batch though is the Joe Carter card. Really, how can you go wrong with Joe Carter Indians cards?

Tom at Angels in Order recently did a clearance of some old baseball books he had and he offered some up to the blogging community for a nominal fee each. I picked up one of my favorites, "Big Hair and Plastic Grass". If you haven't read it, I highly recommend it as it chronicles the craziness of 70s baseball in a fun and easy to follow way. It doesn't get too much into the weeds of stats and behind the scenes antics either, which I appreciate.

Finally, a rather unique piece. A while back Matt over at Parts of My Past (formerly Sport Card Collectors) talked about how he had obtained an autographed 8x10 of Pat Sajak and Vanna White of "Wheel of Fortune" fame. Being a long time fan of the show, I figured I would try my luck. I filled out the request form, got an email back the next day asking for my address, and then a few weeks later, there it was! My first ever TTM autograph request. This is a really cool piece that I'm going to find a frame for and put up on my desk at work.

That gets me caught up on some mail then. I picked up some cards from both Target and Walmart recently so expect to see those coming up shortly.

Mystery Group Break Expo-se

I received some mail last week from Kerry of Cards on Cards as part of his 10th anniversary free group break extravaganza. Since by the time I signed up for the break, the Reds and Indians had already been claimed, I went outside the box and claimed the Montreal Expos.

The results of the base cards from the minor league Team Best sets. Brad Wilkerson is really the only player I recognize from this pile but I thought it'd be the nice thing to do to at least show the base cards, if only in passing.

I got two autographs out of the Team Best deal ... Peter Bergeron and Michael Barrett. Actually, there were two Peter Bergeron autographs, the other has already been set aside into the trade box.

The other portion of the break was some 1999 Stadium Club, of which I have very little. It was nice to see these cards, especially the Vladimir Guerrero. This also reminded me I might have to look into some of this years Stadium Club.

Of course, not only were there cards from the break but Kerry also threw in some bonus stuff, such as these really cool old Fleer stickers. I'm not really one for stickers but I will admit, these are pretty neat.

It took me a minute to figure out that this was actually a Leaf card, despite the fact it clearly says "Leaf 2005" on the top right corner. I can honestly say that this is the first card from the 2005 Leaf I've ever seen in my life. Also, it being a card from 2005, shouldn't the team be Washington since the Expos ceased to exist after 2004? All that aside, I really dig this.

The oddballs that were included were my favorite of the bonus cards. I never was a Toys R Us kid (we had K.B. Toys in the mall where I grew up) but the recent trips I made there showed that the stores were horribly out of date and also the prices were very expensive. I guess I should all them to the list of defunct retail store chain oddball cards I collect (places such as Hills, Revco, etc.)

I saw a physical Drake's product in the grocery store for the first time ever last week. Until I learned about the cards they put out, I'd never heard of them. The cards I've seen though for them have always been pretty cool and I'm always happy to add one to my collection. Also, a Tim Raines SI for Kids card? Sure why not. 

It's odd that I would mention Kaybee (or K.B.) Toys earlier and there just so happened to be a Kaybee Toys card in the package. It's from the 1990 Kaybee Kings set. Zellers I'd never heard of so I had to look it up on Wikipedia. It turns out that it's a defunct Canadian discount retailer and in 1982 they issued an Expos "pro tips" set that came in three panel sheets.

As much as I liked the oddballs and other stuff Kerry included, this card, by far, was my favorite of the package. Since Panini launched the Diamond Kings line, it's always been one of my favorites. The card stock, the variety of old school and current players, the beautiful inserts, and of course the fact that it feels like a high-end release at a pretty affordable price point. I've always enjoyed the Heritage Collection inserts and this card, such a simple card with a black background and the player in a gold circle to me just screams "awesome card".

That's a wrap on the group break. Thanks to Kerry for putting it together. It was fun to participate and I appreciate the cards you sent over.

Blog Bat Around: All-Autograph Team

Well, yet another Blog Bat Around has commenced and it's another one I actually have time to participate in. It's a unique one at that, your "all autograph team". I wasn't too keen on the topic at first but after reading a few different entries in the series, I decided to take a stab. Seeing as I'm not really an autograph collector, I fished through my box that has my hits and otherwise good cards in it in the hopes that I might be able to put together a full nine, which I managed to do. Also, while doing so, I realized I really need to "thin the herd" so to speak in regards to some cards I have in there. 

Anyway, here's what I came up with, I've got a five-man starting rotation, a closer, and a full infield and outfield. I didn't bother with a DH for two reasons ... 1) I'm used to National League style ball where the pitcher hits for himself and 2) I honestly forgot to pick out a DH. That being said, here's what I came up with ...

Starting Rotation

Johnny Cueto

Dennis Martinez

Aaron Nola

Bob Tewksbury

Alex Meyer

I'll be honest, my "goodie box" consists of mostly Reds stuff along with some Bengals and hockey stuff, so trying to find some non-Reds autograph cards was a bit of a task but I found some. While this may not be the most impressive starting rotation ever, Cueto and Martinez are definitely a solid 1-2 punch. Nola is there because there should be a youngish veteran in the mix, Tewksbury provides the finesse, and Alex Meyer ... well, he's there because I honestly didn't have anyone better for the fifth slot.

Closer

John Franco

Of the options I found at closer, John Franco made the most logical sense he does rank 5th all-time on the career saves list, made four All-Star teams, had two seasons (1988, 1994) where he finished in the top 20 of MVP voting, and one season (1994) where he finished in the top ten of Cy Young voting. Plus, he owns a career 1.88 ERA in the postseason, so there's that too.

Catcher

Joe Oliver

I picked Joe Oliver for catcher as he was the first Reds catcher I remember and it was always fun to watch him play. Sure, he never mad any All-Star teams or anything of the like but he played the game hard and won a World Series in 1990 with the Reds. As a catcher, he owns a career .989 fielding percentage and could also fill in as a defensive replacement at first base (or DH) if necessary.

First Base

Kennys Vargas

Speaking of first base, Kennys Vargas will manning first for my team. While I'm not too familiar with his exploits, going by the stats on Baseball Reference, it looks like he's been a part-time player with the Twins for the last few years. I found it a little bizarre as well during Spring Training that the Reds claimed him off waivers from the Twins only for the Twins to turn around and re-claim him on waivers two days later. Currently, he's the DH for the AAA Rochester Red Wings and not on the Twins 40-man roster.

Second Base

Jose Vidro

The speedy second baseman for my squad will be Jose Vidro, who made three All-Star squads as a member of the Expos/Nationals franchise. He would be my lead-off hitter as well. 

Shortstop

Francisco Lindor

I had many options for shortstop but I decided to go with one of my favorite players in the game today, that being Francisco Lindor. Also, this particular card is from a National Baseball Card Day pack that I got from one of my favorite card shops a few years back. The Indians have another good looking squad this year I wouldn't be surprised to see them have a decent run in the postseason again this fall.

Third Base

Zack Cozart

I have exactly zero autograph cards of third baseman so I had to improvise a bit here. I went with Zack Cozart, mainly because he was one of my favorite Reds players over the past few years and the best defensive shortstop we had in a long time. This past offseason though, he left the Reds (as expected) and signed up to play third base for the Angels.

Outfield

Jorge Soler

Rusney Castillo

Mickey Rivers

I went for a nice selection with my outfield. Soler, Castillo, and Rivers should provide a decent amount of both potential power and speed and Rivers could team with Vidro at the top of the line-up to provide some base stealing threats. Soler could hopefully be middle-to-bottom of the order threat for power. As far as who plays where, Rivers with his speed would be in center, Castillo in left, and Soler in right.

Well, there's my team. It may not be the best team ever, but it's what I could come up with on the fly.

You've Got Mail #77: Off the Wall Cards (aka Secret Santa 2017)

Yes, I know it's February and only a few weeks out from Valentine's Day but last Christmas Matt at BWTP organized another wonderful blogger secret Santa extravaganza. In the draw, I ended up having to buy for Matt himself but the person who pulled my name was Shane over at Off the Wall Cards and someone who I've interacted with on Twitter quite a bit. 

Shane's package arrived just a few days before Christmas and was one of those large size USPS priority mail boxes stuffed to the gills with all kinds of stuff that hit pretty much every collection under the sun. I won't show everything because if I did, we'd be here until next Christmas 

There were these 1982 Topps Bengals cards to start with. While I'm not a big collector of modern football cards, I still enjoy getting older cards such as these, especially Bengals cards and these are a great addition to the Bengals collection.

I wanted to take a moment as well and show the back of the team leaders card. It's so cool that it shows the results of all the games from the 1981 season. It makes me want to go back and look up the records on some of these games. You'll see this card again in the future too for a "Multi-Player Mayhem" entry.

1982 Topps wasn't the only thing in the way of Bengals cards that were included. There was also this smattering of random Bengals.

But here's the most interesting item of the Bengals portion, this sticker/pocket schedule. I checked the front and the back for any info on who may have printed it and there's nothing but a quick gander over at COMC turned up the fact this is a 1982 Fleer Teams in Action sticker. The sticker itself is cool but it's really the schedule on the back that does it for me. Kind of makes me want to go back again and look up the results of those games.

Bengals cards weren't the only thing included. There were these WWF cards from the early 90s as well, including three Ultimate Warrior cards.

Some reprints of cards of defunct teams, from both the Topps 1952 reprint series and 2001 Topps Archives. I wonder if it would be feasible at some point to put together a 1952 Topps set using nothing but the reprints.

Here's something pretty cool, a 1970 Topps poster of Don Mincher, first baseman for the Seattle Pilots. One thing I really find interesting about 1970 Topps is that it features cards for the Pilots but by the time the season started, the Pilots had morphed into the Brewers. One of my collecting goals is to get every Pilots card from both the 1969 and 1970 sets. If you've got Pilots cards to send, feel free to let me know.

Here's a handful of 1984 Topps cards for the set build. This reminds me, I really need to update my want list for that.

I'm not sure if these are TTM autographs or in-person autographs but this is probably my second favorite batch of Indians cards in the package. I think the one I like the most has to be Dave Burba, who was kind of a forgotten about pitcher. He was pretty solid with the Reds in the mid-90s and was part of two major trades the Reds made. He was acquired by the Reds in 1995 as part of a July deal that also netted Mark Portugal and Darren Lewis from the Giants in exchange for Deion Sanders and a few other players. The Reds would then flip Burba to Cleveland on the eve of Opening Day 1998 for a young first baseman named Sean Casey. The rest, as they say, is history.

I always enjoy it when vintage cards are hidden in a trade package and this is no exception. First, there's a well loved 1955 Bowman card of George Strickland, then a 1962 Topps Woody Held, and a smattering of 1959 Topps cards, of which I had none until just now. 

This is a sampling of the 1983 Reds yearbook team set. I really like the card with the aerial shot of Riverfront Stadium and the Coliseum. I look at that picture and realize that 20 years after the fact the stadium would be gone and a new one would be built right between it and the Coliseum. As for how the Reds did in 1983, they finished 6th (aka last) in the NL West with a 71-91 record.

Pretty much this whole post has been about oddballs and stickers so here's more. This time some Star stickers made by Fleer in 1981 featuring the remnants of the Big Red Machine.

Here's more vintage, this time with cards from 1958, 1957, and 1963 respectively and all three of popular Reds players in that era. The Gus Bell card will go well with the Vada Pinson and Joe Nuxhall cards I already have from that set. We also have another well worn 1955 Bowman card, this time of Fred Baczewski, a man whose major league career spanned only three seasons and in 1955, the year this card was produced, pitched 1 inning of one game and amassed an 18.00 ERA.

Moving on to more modern territory, there was a nice selection of Barry Larkin cards, these four I know I didn't have previously. I really should inventory my Reds player collection cards sometime but that's a major project and something I don't have time to do currently.

To go along with the Indians autographs previously shown, here's a nice IP/TTM auto of the newest Reds Hall of Famer Adam Dunn, and it's on his rookie card.

I'm nearing the end of this massive mail day but just wanted to touch on a few more newer cards that were thrown in before I show the major cards. First, there were these minor league cards

And a bunch of newer cards, including a nice Adam Duvall Donruss card from last year. I've said it before and I'll say it again, even though Panini doesn't have an MLB license, I think they do pretty well with what they've got and Donruss has been one of my favorite products to buy the last few years. I think last year and the year before, they really started to hit their stride.

Now the two big ticket items of the package and two cards off my most wanted list. First, a card that been haunting me seeming forever, that being the 1984 Topps #8 Don Mattingly card. I've seen it for sale at numerous places but the price was always a bit more that I wanted to pay. Now a glaring hole in my 1984 Topps set is complete and I can focus on getting the rest of it whittled away.

Here's another card I placed on my most wanted list and quite honestly forgot it was on there, that being this 1969 Tony Perez. This is really a nice early career card of Perez and trying to find a card like this around here isn't cheap since local dealers then to jack up the price of early cards of Big Red Machine.

A big thank you goes out to Shane for his generosity and all the awesome stuff both pictured and not pictured. Some stuff I scanned in but ended up cutting due to space but believe me, there was a lot of stuff and things that'll take me a while to organize. I definitely recommend getting in on the Secret Santa deal, it's a ton of fun.

You've Got Mail #72: Summer of '74

I received a package in the mail the other day from someone I like to call "The Man Who Made Milwaukee Famous."

No, I'm not talking about "The Crusher".

I'm talking about Matt from the somewhat new Summer of '74 blog. He's a Brewers collector and is also building some of the Topps base sets. I shipped a few late 70s extras his way along with a few from 2016 recently. In return, I received some cool stuff back last week.

First were these really cool TTM autographs. I haven't really dabbled into the TTM thing yet but I might give it a try at some point. Since Matt is working on an all-time Brewers signature project, I think it's safe to assume that these are extras. I especially like the Joe Oliver card as he was the Reds primary catcher when I first started getting into baseball.

There were also a decent batch of Indians, both old and new. I know there's a ton of 1991 Donruss out there so if anyone wants to dump their cards from Series 1 on me, let me know.

There were also Reds cards both old and new and even old players (Johnny Bench) on new cards. I swear on every Johnny Bench card Topps puts out, that same picture is on there. The Chris Sabo Upper Deck card I strangely didn't have before somehow.

This was the real star of the package though ... card #599 from the 1974 Topps set and it just happens to be the "Washington" variation of the card. One of my collecting goals is to finish the complete set of the Washington error cards and this definitely puts me one step closer. I only need 10 more cards to complete the set and if you have any of the cards on my want list that I still need, feel free to let me know.

Thanks for the great cards Matt. I've got a more Topps base cards I'm piling up to send to you later this summer in the hopes that you can put them to some good use.