The Well Traveled Envelope Arrives in Ohio

So there's a thing going around right now amongst the blogs called the "Well Traveled Envelope". The gist of the whole deal is to re-use the same envelope and the supplies contained within as many times as humanly possible. There's also an ongoing log and note to fill out as well. I was lucky enough to have been selected by Chris of "The Collector" blog as the next recipient of the envelope.

When I opened the envelope, this was the first card I saw. After that, I knew things were going to be good because it's not every day that your open a bubble mailer and find a Renata Galasso Warren Spahn card starting back at you. 

Here's some 1984 Topps I can put towards the set build. Frank Robinson was canned by the Giants 106 games into the 1984 season with an awful 42-64 record. 

Some 2019 Diamond Kings and my first Carl Hubbell card. The Al Simmons I think might be a duplicate as I'm pretty sure it came out of a pack that I ripped a few months back. 

The package was also littered with team collections on the baseball side ... Reds and Expos most notably. I've never seen this Gary Carter card and it's got to be definitely one of my favorites now. I think I've mentioned this before but I really like 1992 Pinnacle. It's got to be the black borders though.

More Expos with the bottom row featuring some 1994 Fleer. About a week or so ago as I write this, the 25th anniversary of the 1994-95 baseball strike just passed which many argue effectively doomed baseball in Montreal. I believe that 1994 Expos team would've made it to the World Series had it been played that year as that was possibly the best team they ever had in Montreal.

Some Reds cards now and we've got some super shiny ones to start with. Blandino hasn't played a single game for the club this year after appearing in 69 games last year as a utility infielder. The Suarez card is one of the refractor variety

Nice mix of cards here, including a somewhat early Joey Votto card. I'm admittedly horrible at placing the year on Bowman cards. The most interesting card to me here is Scott Feldman. It falls into both the "short term stops" variety and the "sunset cards" variety. Feldman pitched the 2017 with the Reds going 7-7 over 21 starts including Opening Day of 2017. His last start for the Reds (and final MLB appearance in general) was August 17, 2017.

Another fun batch of cards. I love it when Topps includes manager cards in the Archives sets. I think they're just fun additions to the checklist. The Scooter Gennett card is pretty neat but again, I'm horrible at placing the year on Bowman cards.

Baseball wasn't all that Chris included in the well-traveled envelope. He also hit me with a bunch of new hockey cards. All five of these Marty's are new to my collection. I particularly like the "hockey heroes" and the shiny Leaf card on the left.

Some cool new Devils cards. I can't place the Travis Zajac card but it looks like it's from a throwback set of some kind. Scott Stevens and Patrik Elias were part of the awesome Devils teams of the early 2000s. The Devils this season should be fun to watch with the addition of P.K. Subban and Jack Hughes.

Oooh! Shiny Coyotes including a really neat card of Oliver Ekmann-Larsson. Speaking of fun teams, with the Coyotes dealing for Phil Kessel, and him joining Oli, Clayton Keller, and Derek Stepan on offense, that should be quite the team to keep an eye on.

By far my favorite hockey cards in the batch were these old school O-Pee-Chee cards. I'm not too familiar with John Anderson but Blaine Stoughton I know because he's a former Cincinnati Stingers player. 

I appreciate Chris including me in the Well Traveled Envelope challenge. My next mission is to figure out who I'm sending it to next and to dig out cards for said individual. However, it might be a bit before I get to that as I'm working roughly 65 hours this week between two jobs. Should I not fall over from exhaustion by the end of the week, it'll be on it's way to the next recipient soon.

Blog Bat Around: Thinkin' Problem

When I was a kid, I used to listen to country music as that was pretty much all my grandparents listed to. My grandpa usually had the radio on his favorite station, K99.1 FM, or had the country music video channel on. I've since moved on from most of those twangy tunes but I clearly remember one song called "Thinkin' Problem" sung by a guy named David Ball. I think it was his only hit.

I hadn't thought of that song for years until I saw the latest in the series of "Blog Bat Around" posts in which you name the first player that you think of for a given team. This turned out to be a much harder exercise than I first, well ... thought ... as some of these teams were quite difficult to come up with someone.

Anyway, now that my thinkin' problem is over, here's what I came up with. There will be a brief comment after each card. For a bit more fun, I threw in some defunct teams at the bottom of the list. Side note, because I'm not writing this at home, I'm going to be reliant on COMC for images.

Let's begin.

AL East

Red Sox - Nomar Garciaparra

Weird that Nomar was the first guy I thought of for the Red Sox. The obvious choice would've been Ted Williams.

Yankees - Babe Ruth

Kind of a gimme here.

Orioles - Cal Ripken

Another gimme.

Rays - Fred McGriff

Remember when the Rays signed big hitters like McGriff, Jose Canseco, Vinny Castilla, and Greg Vaughn to try to win right out of the gate?

Blue Jays - Joe Carter

The hero of many a Toronto fan.

AL Central

Indians - Bob Feller

Surprised I didn't come up with Jim Thome or Albert Belle. 

White Sox - Frank Thomas

I honestly couldn't name one current White Sox player if I tried. Ok, well, maybe Jose Abreu, but that's it.

Twins - Kirby Puckett

The first Twins player I remember. Harmon Killebrew would've also been an acceptable answer.

Tigers - Alan Trammell

This was actually a tough one. It took me a second or two longer to come up with a Tigers player.

Royals - Salvador Perez

Another hard one believe it or not. I wrote down Salvador Perez, then my mind said "duh, George Brett!" Too late.

AL West

Angels - Mike Trout

I might have to find a copy of this card since it's from the 2015 All-Star Game in Cincinnati.

Astros - Jose Altuve

Seems like everyone is thinking Jose Altuve from other posts I've read.

A's - Rollie Fingers

I surprised myself with this one. Rickey Henderson, Dennis Eckersley, Reggie Jackson all escaped me but Rollie Fingers didn't.

Mariners - Omar Vizquel

Again, I'm surprised it wasn't Ken Griffey Jr that I thought of first. Still, Omar was a great shortstop for many teams.

Rangers - Jeff Burroughs

That came from left field ... no pun intended.

NL East

Braves - Greg Maddux

When you think of the Braves, why wouldn't you think of a pitcher first?

Mets - Tom Seaver

This was another tough one. Tom Seaver was the first one that popped in my head.

Nationals - Bryce Harper

Still a free agent currently.

Marlins - Charlie Hough

The ageless and well traveled Charlie Hough was my pick for the Marlins. He's honestly the only person that I can actually remember from the first team in 1993.

Phillies - Mike Schmidt

Our first gimme in the NL.

NL Central

Reds - Barry Larkin

I grew up with Barry Larkin manning short for the Reds. This makes sense.

Brewers - Robin Yount

Another gimme. 

Pirates - Wille Stargell

Of course I had to use a card that said "Star" on the top as Willie Stargell was famous for his "Stargell Stars".

Cardinals - Vince Coleman

Not the 80s Cardinal speedster you were expecting? Me either.

Cubs - Kris Bryant

A fun player to watch on a not so fun card design.

NL West

Dodgers - Clayton Kershaw

When there's a Dodgers game on MLB Network, it's usually Kershaw that I see pitching. 

Giants - Barry Bonds

Surprised I didn't come up with someone like ... oh, I don't know ... Willie Mays?

Diamondbacks - Randy Johnson

Again, another one I had trouble with. I had to rack my brain to think of a Diamondbacks player.

Rockies - Todd Helton

I believe Helton is/was the longest tenured player in Rockies history. I could be wrong on that though.

Padres - Trevor Hoffman

Another shocker. As soon as I jotted down Hoffman's name, my mind started rattling off Padres players like Tony Gwynn, Phil Nevin, Randy Jones, etc.

Now for the bonus round ... the defunct teams category

Expos - Andre Dawson

I guess you could say that he was one of the first Expos stars. Well, him and Gary Carter. By the way, if you haven't read the great book "Up, Up, and Away" which details the history of the Expos, you should. It's a fantastic read.

Pilots - Lou Piniella

A guy who never played a single game for a team that lasted one season. Piniella won the 1969 Rookie of the Year award though as a member of the Royals.

Browns - George Sisler

The Browns didn't have many notable players in their history. The only other ones that come to mind are Rogers Hornsby and Pete Gray.

Senators (original) - Walter Johnson

How could you not think of Walter Johnson when thinking of the original Senators.

Senators (expansion) - Frank Howard

Really the only player I could come up with for the expansion Senators.

I have to say, that was a fun but challenging exercise. I could see myself maybe taking this in a number of different directions (hockey and even "short term stops"). The possibilities are honestly endless.

COMC Cards for Christmas

I had to jump on the COMC Black Friday sale bandwagon. I placed my order and patiently waited for my cards to arrive. When they arrived, my wife intercepted them and wrapped them up as a Christmas present, which was kind of the plan all along. So when I opened them on Christmas Day, it was new to me as I'd almost forgotten most of what I'd ordered.

Since it's currently hockey season, it feels right to start with the hockey cards I ordered. First, there are these two cards documenting Jaromir Jagr's brief run with Calgary last season. I can scratch the Upper Deck one off my wantlist now.

Clayton Keller and Oliver Ekman-Larsson are the two young studs anchoring the Coyotes out in the desert currently. I didn't have any cards of either player so I just had to grab these. The Ekman-Larsson card is a Tim Horton's exclusive.

When I get hockey cards from COMC, I always try to get a few cards of local teams, past and present. The top card is Jonathan Hedstrom as is my first official Cincinnati Mighty Ducks card. The other two are old school Cincinnati Cyclones cards. The "Edge Ice" one is hard to read but it's Don Biggs, one of the few players to have their jersey retired by the team.

I'm a big fan of shiny cards so I couldn't resist these. Kovalchuk is actually a 2008-09 Upper Deck McDonalds card issued in Canada.

I'm a sucker for old school hockey cards and these I couldn't resist. I really like the design of the 1981-82 Topps hockey set. It's not one I'm going to build but I'm going to try to find some of the star players and fan favorites from this set. I picked up the Mike Liut card as well as he's a former Cincinnati Stingers goalie.

More classic hockey. Bryan Maxwell is a former Cincinnati Stingers player. Plus I couldn't resist an early Ron Francis card.

Team cards of teams that don't exist anymore from 1978-79 Topps. The Flames left Atlanta for Calgary after the 1979-80 season and the North Stars relocated after the 1992-93 season for Dallas. As far as how these teams did in the 1978-79 season, the Flames finished last in the Patrick Division with 90 points (41-31-8 record) and the North Stars finished last in the Adams Division with 68 points (28-40-23 record).

And to cap off the hockey section, here's a couple jersey cards that I couldn't pass up for just over a buck each. The Jerome Iginla card is from the 2016 Stadium Series game between Colorado and Detroit. Also, I can't pass up a card from a defunct team and that's exactly what the Ilya Kovalchuk card is.

Kenta Kobashi is my all-time favorite Japanese pro wrestler. His match against Samoa Joe with Ring of Honor in 2005 in an absolute classic and was the match that got me interested in Japanese wrestling. Kobashi was one of the best, racking up championships in All Japan Pro Wrestling and the subsequent off-shoot promotion, Pro Wrestling NOAH. He retired in 2013, with age and injury being a factor in his retirement. My two favorite Kobashi matches ever are the ones he had at the Tokyo Dome in the mid-2000s. The first was against Jun Akiyama in 2004 in one of the most hard-hitting matches I've ever seen, and the other against Kensuke Sasaki the next year in an insane and brutal match.

I also grabbed a few cheap relic cards from pro wrestling and MMA because, well, why not? Tajiri, nicknamed the "Japanese Buzzsaw", was a favorite of mine during the dying days of ECW where he teamed with Mikey Whipwreck and was managed by the Sinister Minister. I also couldn't resist a cheap relic card of my fourth cousin Jessamyn Duke.

I only grabbed a handful of football cards and they were relic cards at that. I find the Jon Kitna card interesting because he's advertised as a member of the Bengals, but yet the relic swatch is blue.

On to what everyone has probably come here for, the baseball content. I'll start with these absolutely beautiful 1952 Topps cards. For early Topps cards, especially 1952, condition and corner wear doesn't bother me at all. They're cards from 1952, they are supposed to be a little beat up and have some road miles on them! Anyway, I nabbed these three because of the artwork on them. Raffensberger represents my first 1952 Reds card. 

Yay for oddballs! I got the Cap'n Crunch Tony Gwynn card in my secret Santa package as well from Andy so now I have two of it.

Here are three cards from the 1987 Topps Traded set I've been after for a while. Reggie Jackson looks normal in an Oakland uniform but Carlton and Cey look completely out of place, especially Cey.

Whenever I buy from COMC, I'm always on the lookout for decently priced vintage and that's exactly what this 1957 Topps Larry Doby is. Doby spent the last few years of his career on the South Side, appearing in 280 games for the Sox over parts of three seasons (1956, 1957, 1959). He was part of two pennant winners in Cleveland and even played 21 games for the famous "Go-Go Sox" in 1959 but wasn't on the postseason roster.

This is a beauty of a 1959 Topps card and something that would probably go for a pretty penny out here in my area. While the 1959 design isn't my favorite ever, this is a great card. Just look at the background with the bleachers, and the sleeveless uniform as well. Plus the black on the card compliments the red on the photo as well.

Dennis Eckersley with the Cardinals? Yes please.

I don't buy any high-end packs or boxes when they come out but singles I'll gladly pick up.

More higher end singles from Topps Tribute. 

Here's a few completely random cards, a gold Hideo Nomo Donruss Preferred card and a Lou Boudreau/Francisco Lindor card.

Finally, I'll end this with the Reds cards I picked up. I got these really nice Museum Collection singles. Since these are thicker that normal cards, they'll probably stay in the penny sleeves that they came in.

Lee Smith and Ruben Sierra were two well traveled veterans who landed with the Reds in the late 90s. Smith was acquired by the Reds on Memorial Day 1996 from the Angels in exchange for Chuck McElroy. He appeared in 43 games over the rest of the season, going 3-4 with a 4.06 ERA and earning two saves. Sierra only appeared in 25 games for the Reds during the early part of the 1997 season before being let go in May. Over those games, he hit. 244 with 2 homers and 7 RBIs.

And here are two cool cards I just couldn't pass up. The Griffey is from Topps High Tek, which is one of those late season releases I never pick up. It's a really cool card though. The Votto is from 2018 Panini Chronicles and it's such a nice card, I didn't even notice until just now that there were no logos.

That's my latest COMC order. I got a bunch of Christmas cash so some of it will be going to cards, possibly more cards from COMC, and some will be going to supplies.