My mailbox took quite the beating last week for its official indoctrination as part of the #SuperTraders group. First up, was this package from Wes. Being the maniacal mind that he is, it was stuffed full of all kinds of goodies.
A quick side note, I was trying a new setting on my scanner that didn't quite work out so if these scans look a little fuzzy, blame the scanner. Let's start with this, a Pedro Villarreal autograph. While he wasn't the best pitcher in the Reds bullpen last year, he was respectable and figures to at least be in the equation for a bullpen gig this year, perhaps as a 7th inning guy.
These were from the Museum Collection box break he did to kick things off. The Votto card really stands out with the red uniform against the muted background. Getting newer cards of Big Red Machine players is always great. Could Joe Morgan be a new PC guy? Time will tell. Fun fact about Joe Morgan: he owns a Honda dealership about 20 minutes from my house.
Ok, I have to come clean here. I love 1993 Donruss. It's a clean, simple design, the nameplate and team logo on the bottom have the feeling of a TV graphic, and the photography is great. When I was a kid, I got a box of it as a "get well" present from my mom after a really bad illness where I was hospitalized for a few days.
As always with a package from Wes, there's a mix of new and old. Juan Francisco is a guy who just never really panned out with the Reds. He holds the record for the second longest home run ever hit at Great American Ballpark (502 feet) but was traded to the Braves shortly after since there was really no room for him for the Reds current closer by default, J.J. Hoover.
Old guys on old cards. Notice the position on the Bench card ... third base!
And of course, old guys on new cards! It's nice to see Jose Rijo finally getting some love on some newer products. The Bench card is great because it's simple.
Along with baseball, Wes threw in some Bengals cards as well. Let's start with this Andy Dalton die-cut.
More Dalton and some A.J. Green. I'm guessing "Rookies and Stars" is some sort of Panini brand? It's gotta be as I don't remember Topps football cards looking this good.
Speaking of Topps football, here's a pink parallel of the aforementioned A.J. Green and a green parallel of Jeremy Hill. I see a camo design in them too. I wonder if they are parallels of the parallels? If so, I think I'm living in a parallel universe.
A few others to close out the batch. The Tyler Kroft card is another pink version/variant/parallel/what-have-you. It doesn't have the camo design either. Not a big fan of Finest but the A.J. Green card will fit nicely in my Bengals binder.
Big thanks to Wes for including me in this group and and sending these cards. I'm in the midst of compiling and sorting stuff for all Super Traders (and a few outside the group as well) and will hopefully have the first wave of stuff going out in mid-to-late March.