Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Another Mess Of Dubs

I did some well-overdue organizing the other day, sorting a few hundred cards I've gotten over the past couple of months and putting them where they belong. In the process I turned up a fair amount of duplicates I was previously unaware of. Like before, I'm going to post them here so Backstop, Underdog, and whoever else can claim whichever ones they need... That Eichelberger card above is one of my favorite cards ever, period. That huge chopstache he has going on, along with that uni- everything about it just clicks.
Don is the least known of the three Reynolds brothers in baseball. Larry is a player agent and I'm pretty sure you know about Harold... I'm not a big fan of '88 Fleer; it just seems so, um, disposable I guess. But any card of Goose Gossage is a good card so it all evens out.
Here are a few worthless cards from sets I like. You can't go wrong with '93 Upper Deck or mid-80s Topps.
It's worth noting that Topps got Cory Luebke's first name right after calling him Corey on his Gold Futures card. As for '90 Donruss, I consider it the kudzu of collecting. It's everywhere and you can't get rid of it.
More kudzu but this time it's Bip so you know it's going somewhere. Cedric Hunter doesn't have quite as much of an underground following but he is still kicking, signing with Cleveland in November. To date he has one Major League hit, a single in four at bats spread out over six games for the 2011 Padres.
Yep, more of 'em. Moving along...
Okay, that Whitson is the last one of those. I swear.
And finally, a few more slabs of junk wax from twenty-some years ago. I hope somebody has a use for some of these. If you're one of those somebodys, just let me know.

More Embarrassment For Grandal

Well, this just got uglier. I imagine you've already heard about the news out of Miami. They figured out who Yasmani Grandal and a bunch of other guys were getting their PEDs from. Where he got them didn't really matter at this point since he already got caught; the more damning part was the information as to when he got them. A lot of people had been excusing him or holding judgement under the pretense that he took them just to recover from his late-in-the-season injury. LobShots has a better rundown with all of the pertinent quotes and dates along with a hilarious illustration.

As for the card pictured above, I picked it up at the LCS this past summer. I got a good deal on it and was stoked for ages. These days, not so much. Anybody want to make a trade?

Sunday, January 27, 2013

Alexi Archives: '84 Topps

This is the other of the two Alexi Archives cards I mocked up yesterday; I lucked out finding two pictures that fit the template so well.

I'm ordinarily not a fan of baggy, pajama-style baseball pants, preferring the classic high cuff with stirrups, but on Amarista it just looks right. It's like he showed up and the equipment manager said "Sorry, Alexi, these were the smallest ones I could find." I have seen him rock the high socks and it indeed a sight to behold but that's another card for another day. '91 Fleer, maybe?

Saturday, January 26, 2013

Alexi Archives: '92 Topps

I think this might be my favorite of all the Amarista mock-ups I've done. I saw this picture of him and immediately thought that I needed to throw together an era-appropriate "card" from it. I'd like to do every year of Topps eventually but so far I've stuck to sets that can be easily mimicked with MS Paint. I haven't done a '79 Topps yet and that seems like the next logical one to do since there are plenty of pictures of him rockin' the '78 uni last year. That said, I also whipped up an '84 Topps for him today and unfortunately he isn't pictured in '84 throwbacks but... ehh, never mind; you'll see it tomorrow.

Wednesday, January 23, 2013

Remember To Put A Witty Title Here; Maybe Like A Pun Or Something

 Here are a couple of autographed cards I picked up from Listia. Well, not so much 'autographed cards' as much as 'autographed stickers placed on cards'. I'm not a fan of the practice, preferring autographs directly on cards, but apparently I don't mind it that much since I went ahead and got them.

I don't remember Ben Howard. He pitched nine games for the Padres in '02 and '03 but that was during a few year span when I didn't really pay much attention to baseball. I was back in the fold by the time Kevin Cameron came around, though. He was a Rule 5 draftee from the Twins in December of 2006 and was a solid contributor to the great 2007 bullpen, putting up a 2.79 ERA in 58 innings over 48 appearances. Ugh, I cringe every time I think about that season or even see the number '2007'. Matt Holliday never touched the plate. I'm not over it yet and I can't imagine that I ever will be.

Monday, January 21, 2013

Card O' The Day

It's a shame that R.J.'s magnificent fro is muted under that classic cap while Jim Palmer's Farrah Fawcett thing gets its moment in the sun. Don't feel too bad; Jones got to air it out on his regular card in this same set.

Saturday, January 19, 2013

Dubs

I mentioned in my last post that I'd trot out my doubles stack for the next one so here we are. It seemed like this would be the easiest way for people to let me know which of them they need. The stack has changed since I listed its contents at Gaslamp Ball a little over a month ago; it has shed some cards and added others. I had ten duplicate Gwynns then and ten now but only six are the same. Below are the ones I have now:
They're all fairly common and "nothing special" but hopefully somebody will be glad to have at least some of them.
These are the oldest of the bunch. I remember the first time I got a copy of that Tom Griffin card I got really excited because he was in Ball Four. A dream collection of mine would be having a card of every player who appeared in that book but I'm nowhere close. I do have a proverbial handful, though, including one of and autographed by Jim Bouton himself so I can't complain. Coincidentally, I'm currently re-reading Ball Four for the hundred-somethingth time (no exaggeration) and for the first time in a couple years. I loaned my last copy of it to somebody, never saw it again, and finally got around to replacing it.
Here's a quartet of cards from the early to mid 80s. That card is from Fred Kendall's last season; he hit 0 triples and 0 HR in 24 AB; exactly 30 years later his son Jason would also hit 0 triples and 0 HR in his final season. But here's the crazy part: Jason Kendall did it over 490 plate appearances as opposed to his dad's 24.
Here are a few slabs of junk wax that I recently obtained twinsies of; the '92 Fleers and old Upper Decks along with most of the random ones in the linked post are still ripe for the picking too. So, just let me know if you need- well, truthfully, none of us need any of these- want any of these and I'll get them out to you. I'm also up for trading cards I have only one of if it's a player I don't go out of my way to collect. Like Santiago, for instance. I have twenty-some different cards of him but there isn't a single one that I wouldn't trade for a Joey Cora I already have a copy of. Speaking of which, who's got all the Joeys? I know somebody here is holding. I need 'em, man. Never mind what I said a couple sentences ago; I NEED 'em.

Friday, January 18, 2013

Part II: Return Of The Nick

Picking up where I left off with Part I, here are the other twenty-some cards sent by Nick from Dime Boxes. Of the ones above I'm especially fond of, uh, well, they're all pretty cool in their own right. Ruben Rivera cards always make me smile because I think of "the worst baserunning in the history of the game". Seriously, stop reading this and take 1:15 to watch that.
...
Okay, you're back. That Perry card is pretty great, too. It's the only Ted Williams Card Co. card I have now; I had a bunch back when they came out but you know how that goes. Another company whose cards I was always a fan of is Pacific. This design is a pretty good representation of the sort of thing they brought to the table every year back then. I have the Joey and a couple of others from this set but that great sliding shot makes this one bonus-nice. I probably should have taken a better picture of that Interleague Showdown card but if making you squint is the worst thing I do today I'm going to call it a success. Sorry I'm lazy.
Ed Whitson and Bruce Hurst are two guys I don't go out of my way to collect but manage to have about a trillion cards apiece anyway. I actually didn't have either of these though so... nice! As for the Ausmus, that is some quality photography. Timing. It's everything. Also, it's weird seeing Joey Hamilton naked-faced. I always remember him with a big, round, David Wells-ish goatee on his big, round, David Wells-ish face.
In addition to the eight '84s I showed in Part I, Nick also sent along ten '83s. I'm pretty sure these are my first cards of Juan Bonilla and John "The Count" Montefusco. The Bonilla is my favorite of the batch because, well, you know how I feel about unsung second basemen.
Here are the other four of the aforementioned ten. I got really excited when I saw the Swisher. I have a card of him as a Cub but this is my first of him as a Friar. Not only is he Nick's dad, he is one of only four (hopefully soon to be five) West Virginia-born Padres. Can anybody name the other three? One's pretty obvious.
As luck would have it, very few of the cards he sent were ones I already had. In addition to one of the two Montefuscos above, only six cards are going on my ever-expanding doubles stack. I need to do an updated doubles post; it seems like the easiest way for Backstop and Underdog to let me know which ones I need to send their way. In addition to that OPC of Adrian Gonzalez, I have a bunch of non-double cards of him that I want rid of just because I don't collect people who say they "bleed Dodger blue".
These are the other three that will bring joy to another collector as I already have copies of them. And, yes, I still collect Mat Latos even though I assume he bleeds Reds red.

Wow, that was a lot of incredible cards! A huge thanks once again to Nick; I'm definitely going to have to package up my "Nick stack" and head to the post office in the very near future.

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Nick Strikes Again, Pt. I

There are few things as great as pulling a bubble mailer out of the mailbox, looking at the return address, and seeing that it's from Nick of Dime Boxes fame. He has repeatedly mailed me nothing but awesomeness. Odd thing is, we've never made a formal trade. I won his first contest and he sent me a slew of great Padres and some other assorted gems; I sent him back some cards I thought he'd like and a casual pattern emerged. This "non-trade" method of trading is definitely my favorite. The surprised joy of unexpected new cards is what I imagine Christmas must be like for kids whose mom isn't in some cult that thinks it's a pagan holiday so you get screwed out of presents and everyone in school thinks you're a weirdo. But anyway, as I was saying... envelopes from Nick are great and this one was no different.

Up top are two of the first I saw and two of my favorites. I have very few A&G cards and this one is nice. Topps managed to photoshop the new uniform on him correctly- unlike Carlos Quentin and Huston Street's Heritage issues- but he hasn't had the dreads since he shaved them of in May, 2011. Details. It's a good look, though. I wonder if he misses his dreads as much as I miss mine? ...That McCovey is a thing of beauty.
Next up are some oddballs. That Chase is my first Padre from the 2012 Triple Play set. I got a pack of them as an impulse buy this summer and I'm a fan. They're cheap and fun, which seems to fit the Triple Play mold. I looked up both of the players on the Old Judge cards; neither made the majors but Randy Curtis did get to AAA briefly for two organizations.
Everyone likes O-Pee-Chee, right? I love that split second right as you're about to put a card on the doubles stack and then you notice that it's not a Topps logo. I'm going to assume that everybody else stores OPC cards side-to-side with their Topps counterparts also.
I feel like '84 Topps are underrated. For as much as I like them, I didn't have very many before now. Of these, all but the Kennedy are new to me. I also enjoy the logo in place of an extra face shot on the manager card. My favorite of the bunch is Gwosdz, though. It's pronounced "Goosh"; his teammates called him "Eye Chart".
Camouflage! Of all the camo jerseys the Padres have worn, the original ones as shown here on Mark Kotsay his first time around are my favorites. The camo jersey on Yefri Carvajal is of the Fort Wayne Wizards, before they became the TinCaps.
Here are a few randoms I didn't have. I'm sure everybody reading this knows that Rick Wise had the greatest individual game ever so I'm not going to bother you with the details.

This hasn't even been half of what he sent. I'm going to make this a two-parter just in the interest of anyone who might happen to be reading this. I've been neglecting this blog for a while so this will help get me on a roll. Thanks, Nick; not only did you send me incredible cards, you got me blogging here again!