Blog Bat Around: What I Collect - An Addendum

A few months ago there was a blog bat around topic brought up by Night Owl about what you collect. There were a number of things, card wise, that I listed in that particular post that I talked about, however, sitting at the office last weekend on a rare Saturday that I had to work, I looked around my cubicle and realized there were a number of things I had there that I collect that I failed to mention. So, here's a quick addendum to that blog post from a few months ago with more stuff that I collect ...

Starting Lineup Figures

If there's one thing I love to get if I can get a good deal on them, it's Starting Lineup figures. I haven't added more to the collection in about a year though but if it's a player I like from the past or a cool figure from any sport, I'll add it to the collection. I've only got two baseball ones right now but these four hockey ones are my favorite. I think the one that wins for most awesome is the Gretzky/Messier double pack with the Stanley Cup floating between them. 

Bobbleheads

Oh how I love bobbleheads. While they definitely can be expensive (and I flat out refuse to pay $25 or more for one), I've always liked them from when they first became popular again in the early 2000s. These two above are an old Joe Nuxhall one and next to him is Howler, the Coyotes mascot. While he got damaged somehow, it's still a pretty cool piece to have a sometimes mascot bobbles aren't all that easy to come by. Also, there's a Chris Sabo Starting Lineup figure hiding in the background.

Speaking of mascot bobbleheads, here's my newest addition ... it's my high school mascot, a cougar. I got this from the school registration office when we signed my five year old up for kindergarten a few weeks ago. It was sitting on a shelf in front of some framed high school team photos of the past season. I made a remark about how it was neat and the registration lady said "take it if you want, I think we've got a bunch of them". Well, she didn't have to tell me twice!

And here's the last of my current collection, Tony Perez and Mat Latos. While I'm not a big Mat Latos fan, he was a pretty decent pitcher when he was with the Reds and was part of the awesome rotation we had at the early part of the decade with Cueto, Latos, Bailey, Leake, and Arroyo. 

Funkos

Ok, I'll finally admit it .... I collect Funkos. These crazy little things finally got me to start buying some en masse and while the typical going retail rate of ten bucks is enough for me to go crazy, I have to actually be interested in something to buy a figure of it. Case in point, the Big Lebowski figures. It's one of my all time favorite movies so I just had to get a figure of both The Dude and Walter. Mr. Redlegs came from the flea market and the mascot line is the only baseball Funkos I know of that they've done. Also, while I'm not a huge fan of the Penguins, the Sidney Crosby figure was a Secret Santa present from a co-worker last year.

I don't always keep them in the box either. That's the nice thing about the Funkos is that they look good both in and out of the box. I forget the name of the tall Ghostbusters figure of Ray at the left but it know it's made by the same people who make Funkos. Plus, of course there has to be Ecto 1 and Winston nearby.

I do like the fact that Funko has a line of figures from horror movies and I just couldn't resist taking them out of the box. Previously, these had been part of my annual Halloween "mood display" at home but I took a different route to that display last year, so I made these part of my Halloween decorations at work. They were such a hit with co-workers I decided to leave them up the whole year round.

And since they all didn't fit it one picture, here's the rest of them. I've really got to find some more of the Universal Monsters figures and I hope there's one of Dracula floating around out there somewhere.

So, that's a quick addendum to the "What I Collect" blog bat around from a month or so back. While I know this stuff isn't exactly card related, it's still some pretty neat and fun stuff that I probably should have included in the original post.

Single Card Post: 1974 Topps #599

Behold! This is a card that to me is a beauty of a card. Not due to the fact that it's from the fantastic 1974 Topps set, but due to the fact that it's the Washington error version of said card. I've covered this in the past about these error cards and it's one of my major collecting goals to get a complete team set. I'm just over halfway there and will chronicle what I have in a blog post upcoming. For now though, as I do in these one card posts, let's take a look at the careers of the players pictured.

Ron Diorio had a very brief major league career, only appearing in 25 total games, with 23 of those coming between August and the end of the season in 1973. By April of 1974, he was out of the majors. Most of his career though, was spent in the minors in the Phillies organization bouncing between A and AA ball. Most of his time was spent with the Reading club, where between parts of six seasons he would appear in 173 games with a 2.28 ERA and a 21-11 record. After baseball, he spent 35 years refereeing high school and collegiate basketball in Connecticut and was the first person inducted into the Sacred Heart High School Hall of Fame.

Dave Friesleben debuted in 1974 for a not very good Padres team that almost wound up in Washington DC. However, Ray Kroc (yes, that Ray Kroc) stepped in at the last minute and saved the Padres from moving. Friesleben accounted for nine of the Padres 60 wins that season (which tied for the team lead with Bill Grief). In five seasons with the club, he never won more than 10 games and never had an ERA lower than 3.50. The Padres shipped him to Cleveland in the middle of the 1978 season, who then traded him to Toronto that offseason. By the end of the 70s, he was out of the majors entirely.

Frank Riccelli played 17 whole games in his major league career, debuting for the Giants on September 11, 1976 against the Reds. In that game, he pitched 5 innings, gave up 4 hits, 4 earned runs, had 4 Ks, and 4 walks. He only pitched 11 more innings for the Giants that season, and spent the 1977 season in the minors with the PCL Phoenix Giants. In 1978, he resurfaced for two games with Houston and in 1979 made it into 11 games with the Astros and was out of the majors by the summer. After missing the 1980 season, 1981 was spent with Single-A Alexandria and Double-A Buffalo in the Pirates organization and then wrapped up his career with Triple-A Syracuse (Toronto) in 1982.

Finally, we have Greg Shanahan who has the shortest career of any of those pictured on this card ... 11 games with the Dodgers between 1973 and 1974. As a matter of fact, when this card was issued, he had only appeared in 7 major league games as was a late season call-up from Triple-A Albuquerque both seasons. After his MLB cup of coffee, he spent the rest of his career at the Triple-A level with both Albuquerque and Omaha (part of the Royals organization).

Of these four, none of them had outstanding careers but just based on longevity, Friesleben I'd say had the best, plus he gave us this image during his playing career ...

Enough said.

Retail Repack Adventures #17

Seeing as the NHL is neck deep in the Stanley Cup Playoffs currently, I thought this would be a good time to go through another hockey repack. Full disclosure here, I took a picture of the actual box but I have no clue what happened to it. To be honest, it may not even be necessary.

Here's the cover card and it's from the same 2015-16 Upper Deck Star Rookies set as the Connor McDavid in a previous repack. Looking at the checklist for that set, I forgot how good of a rookie class there was that year with not only McDavid and Jack Eichel but also Fabbri, Max Domi, Artemi Panarin, Sam Bennett, and Nikolaj Ehlers just to name a few.

Here's a very trippy card of Wendel Clark in a very strange New York Islanders uniform. This particular uniform was worn only for two seasons in the mid-90s by the Isles according to the research I found and it was universally hated. Gone was the traditional orange, white, and blue and in it's place was this weird conglomeration of white, orange, and teal along with a character logo resembling that of a sea captain.

Moving back to more traditional means, I've spoken before of my fondness for 1992 Upper Deck baseball but I've never really checked out the hockey issue from that year. I think I might have to change that at some point. This card of Caps goalie Mike Liut is a "sunset card" from that year. While I never watched Liut play, I enjoy collecting his cards as he was once the goalie for the long gone Cincinnati Stingers of the WHA.

What is a repack without junk wax? Here's a good smattering of some stuff from the early 90s including two cool goalie cards in John Vanbiesbrouck and Curtis Joseph.

Here's more of these random Canadian minor league hockey cards. I was fully prepared to say that none of these guys played in the NHL but from my research, only one of them did, that being Marquis Mathieu. Mathieu enjoyed a brief 16-game NHL stint with the Bruins over parts of three seasons. 

One of my favorite things of these hockey repacks is getting cards of defunct teams, such as the original Winnipeg Jets (now the Coyotes), the Atlanta Thrashers (now the new Winnipeg Jets), and the Quebec Nordiques (currently the Colorado Avalanche. I always forget about the Thrashers when I'm out searching cards of defunct teams.

The utter insanity that is 1995 Fleer was not just limited to baseball cards, it bled over to hockey cards as well. At some point when I have some spare time, I might dig out some of the 1995 Fleer cards I have from various sports and compare them. That should be quite the trip.

And the last card of the box, a nice Upper Deck Artifacts Zach Parise.  That's a pretty good way to end the box and it's a Devils card to boot. 

I'm kind of torn on these hockey boxes and to be honest, I quite prefer the baseball ones. Yes, it's a good way to amass some hockey cards but honestly, half the cards in them either go to the trade box or the donation bag for Goodwill. I usually only keep the "star cards" or players I collect so I'm not sure if investing in these 100-card hockey bricks in the future will be worth it. The baseball ones are much better as I know the cards and most of the players.