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.

Frank Robinson 1935-2019

Frank Robinson passed away last week and with that the world of baseball lost a true legend.

When I saw last week that he'd passed away, I felt like I should do a tribute post. Others have already chipped in with their tribute posts so I may be a bit late to the party here but I figure it's appropriate, especially for a man that began his career with the Reds. I wanted to attempt to take a bit of a different approach and cover his playing and managerial career in card form.

Robinson signed with the Reds as an amateur free agent before the 1953 season. Before debuting with the Reds in 1956, he spent three years in the minors playing for the Ogden Reds, Columbia Reds, and Tulsa Oilers. This was a time before minor league baseball is what we know is at today where AAA is the highest level.

When Robinson debuted with the Reds in 1956, he made an immediate impact, not only winning the Rookie of the Year award but also making the All-Star team and finishing 7th in NL MVP voting. Throughout his Reds career, he made 6 All-Star teams (including 1956), finished in the top ten of MVP voting 6 times and winning once in 1961. He also won a Gold Glove in 1958 and was a part of the 1961 Reds team that surprised everyone by making a run to the World Series only to get thwarted by the Maris and Mantle Yankees. Then, in December 1965, the Reds made one of the worst trades in history, sending Robinson to the Orioles for Milt Pappas, Jack Baldschun, and Dick Simpson.

Despite Robinson only being 29 at the time of the trade the Reds general manager felt Robinson's best days were behind him, according to various literature that I've read. Robinson would prove that theory wrong and continued to tear it up in Baltimore and won the AL MVP award in his very first season. He made the All-Star team in five of his six seasons with the Orioles (1968 being the lone exception) and also never finished lower than 11th in MVP voting in those same five seasons. He also won two World Series rings in 1966 and 1970, defeating his former team, the Reds, in 1970.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

After the 1971 season, Robinson was traded again, this time over to the Dodgers in exchange for Doyle Alexander, Bob O'Brien, Sergio Robles, and Royle Stillman. In his lone season in Dodger blue, he hit .251 with 19 HRS, and 59 RBIs in 103 games. That 1972 Dodgers team finished a respectable 85-70 which was good enough for 2nd place in the NL West, 10.5 games behind the Reds.

Just short of a year to the day when the Dodgers acquired him the previous off-season, they traded him up I-5 to the Angels as part of a six-player deal that netted the Dodgers Ken McMullen and Andy Messersmith. The majority of Robinson's stint with the Angels was that of the newly minted DH position and still played a handful of games in the field. Despite being nearly 40, he still finished 15th in AL MVP voting in 1973 and made his final All-Star team in 1974.

At the tail end of the 1974 season, the Indians acquired Robinson in exchange for two players and cash. Robinson's on field career was winding down at that point as well as he was named the player-manager for the Indians, thus becoming the first African-American manager in MLB history. He retired from active playing in 1976 but continued to manage the Indians into the 1977 season when he was dismissed after 57 games.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

In 1982, he was inducted into the Hall of Fame with 89% of the vote. This was also while he was the active manager of the Giants, a post he assumed in 1981 and would hold until 1984.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

In 1988, he went back to his old team, the Orioles, taking over for Cal Ripken Sr. and helming a truly dismal Orioles team that went 55-106 and lost 21 straight to start the season. The Orioles turned it around in 1989 finishing 2nd in the AL East with and 83-79 record which was good enough to earn Robinson his first and only Manager of the Year award. After the Orioles dismissed in favor of Johnny Oates 37 games into the 1991 season, he wouldn't resurface as an on field manager until 2002.

Image courtesy of COMC.com

His last managerial assignment in the majors was that of the Montreal Expos, leading the team through the last few years of their existence (2002-2004) and subsequently becoming the answer to the trivia question "Who was the last manager of the Montreal Expos?". The Expos didn't fair too bad under Robinson, posting back-to-back 83-79 seasons in 2002 and 2003 but the wheels feel off in 2004. He stuck with the team when they relocated to Washington and managed the first two seasons of the teams existence.

His uniform number 20 has been retired by the Reds, Indians, and Orioles, making him one of only two players to have his uniform number retired by three or more teams (Nolan Ryan being the other).

It's amazing to see what all he did during his professional baseball career from a young star with the Reds in the early 50s all the way to working for the Commissioner's office in recent years. He definitely had a long and distinguished career in baseball.

Farewell, Mr. Robinson. You will be missed.

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.

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.