Listia Lately

It's been a while since I've done a post of Listia finds and I have a stack here from the past few weeks that have yet to be organized so you see where this is going. Tony seems like a good starting point because, honestly, who doesn't like Tony Gwynn? I generally like Pacific cards but that Aurora issue is not one of their finest efforts. As for the one on the right, it's for some dice game I'll never play. But if I did play it, I'm sure I'd single my opponent to death with this card.

This 1975 Topps of Chris Cannizzaro is the most recent to show up. I "paid" 400 credits, which equates to about $1.33, but it was worth it to me to get a slab of vintage I didn't have yet. I'm nowhere near completing the '75 team set but, hey, baby steps.

The Tim Stauffer card was grouped with four other Bazooka cards which were of no interest to me but at 100 credits it was worthwhile just to get the Stauff. I'm glad he signed a minor league deal this offseason to stay with the organization. Stauffer is by far the longest tenured Padre and it would be strange to see him as anything else.

I think that gold sparkle parallel is the third version I have of that particular Logan Forsythe card but I'd have to double check to be sure and I'm comfortable right now. Cameron Maybin's poorly photoshopped 2011 Topps was part of a four card lot featuring the next two cards and a double of Cedric Hunter I've already passed along.

Matt Buschmann didn't pan out for the Padres but at least he's not Matt Bush, man.

Bip! It's really hard to come up with something to say about Bip Roberts that I haven't said before. Between five annual Bip Roberts Days and assorted other posts, I feel like I'm all Bipped out wordwise until next February 10. That 1990 Fleer was one of a ton from that set that particular user was getting rid of. I got this and two others for twenty-some credits apiece.

The Alex Cole card on the right was another of the aforementioned three 1990 Fleer cards I got for dirt cheap. I'm not an Alex Cole fan but I've always remembered his funky MC Hammer glasses. The reason I got this card was to send it to Dime Box Nick because it's a zero-year card. Not only is there this card of Cole as a Cardinal, I've since come to find out (or been reminded; it's hard to tell sometimes) there also exists a card of him as a member of the Padres despite the fact that he never played a regular season game for them either. That's getting in Canseco territory. Sadly, I don't have it. So, if you come across 1990 Upper Deck #751 I'd be glad to take it off your hands. In the meantime, I'll try to remember to mail this one to Nick.

I got that Finley with Backstop in mind but then I double checked his Finley list and there it was. So now I have another card of Steve Finley as an Astro that I don't really care about. Ehh, I'm sure I'll find somebody who will like it. For that matter, they might want the bunch of other cards of Finley with other teams which are just hanging out in what I just decided to call an apathy box.

It's odd that I don't collect cards of Steve Finley as an Astro but I do collect an Astro with no ties to the Padres. I don't try to understand the things I do. Anyway, if you read my last post you know I'm referring to Craig Biggio. If you didn't read it, sorry for ruining the surprise.

I forgot about Topps MBossed existing until I snagged this one up. I also forgot that they were, you know, embossed until it got here.

I generally don't collect much non-card stuff but sometimes you see such a good deal you can't say no.

Starting Lineup figurines aren't something I have ever collected but I was able to snap this Caminiti up for just over 1000 credits. That's only a little more than $3.00 in real world money so it wasn't much of a decision. The sweatbands should come in handy if I play softball again this summer. If I don't, having a pair of unused wristbands won't be the end of the world.

But what could be cooler than that?

Okay, I'm not even going to bother pretending to build suspense where there is none. By now you know if it's a long acquisition post there will be Joey Coras at the end.

And, sure as the sun dost shine, there's Little Joey. I have a few of each of these but nowhere near enough. I don't know that I'll ever approach a certain somebody's Tim Wallach collection but I am determined to accumulate the world's largest Joey Cora collection eventually. I have a loooooooong way to go before I even approach being in the discussion as such but these drops in the bucket help out. As always, if you have any copies of these or any other Joey Cora cards I'll trade you pretty much just about anything for them.

33 Card Pickup: A Little Bit Of Everything

I got the cards in this post about a week and a half ago but never got around to writing them up until now. I got that awesome trade package the next day and that took precedent. You don't care about all of that; you just want to see the cards. Fair enough.

Ben Davis isn't a guy I go out of my way to collect but I've wound up with quite a few of his cards. This one had the right combination of cool elements to merit getting it on purpose.

Trevor, on the other hand, is a guy I go out of my way to collect.

This is the second copy of that Gwynn/ Ripken UD Masterpiece I've gotten. I believe I sent the last one I had to Backstop Marcus.

Somehow I didn't have Craig Shipley's '94 Fleer. Gotta love a good horizontally oriented card.

Here's Tony, always the positive role model, demonstrating to the kids to always use two hands. Well, maybe not always a great influence, as evidenced by a glance at his bottom lip, but still...

I'm not a big Steve Garvey fan so my favorite part of this card is the cameo by John Kruk. Speaking of whom...

Kruk is one of the few guys whose non-Padres cards I collect. Well, just him and Joey Cora, I guess, although I'd hang on to cards of Hoffy as a Red, Marlin or Brewer; I just haven't sought them out. I'm pretty sure I already had the first two of these but you never can be too sure or have too many, for that matter.

'94 Fleer Ultra was actually fairly, dare I say, classy. I had pretty much forgotten about it until I happened upon a big patch of them in the middle of a dime box.

'91 Studio: The concept was great but the execution would be much better in years to come.

Stadium Club Member's Choice seems vaguely familiar to me but not that interesting of a topic to bother looking up. I do know that they aren't just a parallel because his regular SC card that year looked different.

I added a couple of cards from 1983. My Gene Richards collection was lacking this one and I got the Show just in case I didn't already have it. I'm getting close to having the full '83 Topps team set; I know I'm at least one notable card away.

Billy Hall never made it to the Padres but he had quite a career- one that deserves a post of its own, so look for that some time in 2014. I'm a procrastinator, I admit it. Of course, as would be expected, it took me way longer than it should have to get around to accepting it.

*crickets*

Anyway, Julio Bruno. He also never made it to the Padres or the majors at all. I think cards like these are the ones I get the most stoked about. "Whoa, I've never heard of that guy!" Okay, maybe second-most stoked about. You already know what's number one and probably also suspect that there's at least one at the end of this post.

There's something to be said about predictability. Exactly what that is, I'm not sure.

I showed Bob Scanlan the picture above and had the following conversation with him on Twitter last night:
Scan: "Wow! Those Scanlan cards must have set you back at least $0.12 each!!!!! Nice find!"
Me: "They were worth every cent. But you, Scott Radinsky, and Joey Cora are going to dime me to death."
Him: "I tried to corner the market and raise my value by hoarding all my cards...but you can see it didn't work."

Very cool of the Scan-Man but not out of character at all. He's one of the friendliest and most accessible guys in broadcasting and baseball in general. He has even been known to FanPost and comment over at Gaslamp Ball from time to time.

That's my first card of Randy Jones as a Met and it will never look right.

I don't think I've ever shown any cards on this blog not related to the Padres in some way or another. I'm going to stray from that on this instance just because these ones are part of the total "haul" and they deserve their share of attention too.

Scott Radinsky is the most amazing man alive. Here's a brief overview of why, If you don't know. I already had the '93 Topps but, like Kruk and to a much greater extent, Cora, it never hurts to have some extras. I really like his '93 Upper Deck. I had to do a double-take to see what was happening. It seemed that an industrious fan lowered a ball to him in a plastic cup at the end of a string. Nice work by both the fan and the photographer.

More Scott Rad raditude. That Score Gold Rush was one of a bunch grouped together; I found one of a certain one of his teammates that will appear, yes, at the end of this post.

Along with Radinsky, Jay Buhner is among the select handful of players I actively collect who has never been affiliated with the Padres. Tom Henke is another and Craig Biggio- well, we'll get to him.

I became a fan of Buhner when Joey Cora went to Seattle and I started paying attention to the Mariners. From the ages of around 9 through 13 I shaved my head every morning before school (don't worry, I wasn't some sort of racist skinhead; I just liked the way it looked) and thought it was cool that he had the same, uh, "hairstyle" as me. The Griffey cameo is just bonus.

See, I told you I'd get to Craig Biggio. I'd say something about these two cards but, nah, I'm too excited to get to the next one. After all, I've alluded to it about three times already.

Another Joey Cora card! Not only that but it's one I didn't already have.

That's one of the biggest beauties of collecting to me: That some basically monetarily worthless card like this that 999 out of 1000 people would pass right over can make somebody's day more than a relic or signature of some superstar would.

Or maybe I'm just weird. Probably a combination of the two.

Happy You Know What

HA! Get it? Because today... yeah, you get it.

Have a good one. Hope you get some chocolate 

...or a fake mustache.

59 Rectangles: An Insanely Long Trade Post

I recently agreed to an informal trade with @ItsDis over Twitter; one of those "Hey, I'm going to send you some cards" "Okay, I'll send you some too" kind of things. I didn't know what to expect so I was pretty excited when I saw the huge stack that showed up. I was even more stoked when I looked through them. So stoked that I'm going to do it again, right now, with you. You might want to go get a snack because this is going to take a while. Like I said, huge stack.

He sent along a note that mentioned that the Ashby above was his favorite of the batch- and rightfully so. I love cards that show players doing something offbeat- like the cards of Tim Flannery, Ryan Klesko, and Jason Thompson that show them with surfboards, for example. I had somehow never seen this card. It came out around the time I pretty much quit collecting for about a decade. This one was definitely worth the wait. Archi Cianfrocco shares top billing because he's Archi Cianfrocco and everybody loves Archi.

 This is my first card of Juan Melo and I'm betting there aren't a lot of cards of him out there. He never did make it to the Padres but he did get a taste of the Majors in the year 2000 (typing that reminded me of all those great "In The Year 2000" bits Conan did way back when) with the Giants, hitting one single in 13 ABs.

Did you know that Reggie Sanders's middle name is Laverne? I know, I know; "Shirley you jest." But it's true.

This is my first card of Chris Welsh as a Padre; the only other one I have of him is an '86 Topps with the Rangers. He's a Reds broadcaster now and during a game last year he mentioned that he still has one of his old brown Padres jerseys at home.

Nice socks, Joey Hamilton. Note to all players: Do that.

This is also my first Buddy Carlisle card. I can't say that I remember his time with the team but, trust me, it happened. I really like the shot on that Wally card. It's now my favorite I have of him.

Another '83 Topps; what a great, classic set. Gene Richards is pictured once again, like he was on his '79 issue, choking up more than I've seen anyone else do. Also, those chops are remarkable. It looks like somebody peeled out on the side of his face... The Tucson Padres' current manager Terry Kennedy is shown here on his '87 Topps getting some practice yelling at players.

 One can never have too many Eric Owens cards. He was as balls to the walls as anyone who ever stepped on a baseball field. His legacy was cemented when the team held an Eric Owens dirty shirtsey giveaway, with simulated stains on the t-shirt. To his right is Gary Matthews, Jr years before making that 55 million dollar catch.

Here are a pair of '93 Donruss. Jeremy Hernandez pitched for the Padres in parts of three seasons before getting traded to Cleveland mid-'93. Walters was with the team in '92 and '93, the extent of his Major League career. After baseball he became a police officer. Tragically, he was shot in the line of duty in 2003 and was paralyzed from the neck down.

Wow, that's depressing. I'm just going to go ahead and change the subject.

Oh, hey, look, there's Steve Finley. That first one is snazztacular. I didn't have it and now I don't again. It wasn't on Marcus at Backstop's list of Finleys he has so it only seemed right to send it that direction since Finley is one of the players he, you know, collect collects. Me, I just collect him. That made sense, right?
I love that both cards capture the exact same moment in his swing, identical despite being taken years apart.

That card of Finley on the D-Bags is one of maaaany cards he included featuring one-time Padres pictured with other teams.

Here's Geoff Blum, he of the World Series homer, great hair, and beautiful wife Kory. He was a fan favorite during his time in San Diego and I imagine everywhere else he went. Blummer made his retirement official this offseason and signed on to be a television commentator for the Houston Astros.

Man, those old D-Bags uniforms were ugly. I mean, the ones they have now aren't anything to write home about but sheesh. Sorry you had to look like a clown, Andy. As for the Cardinals... well, I'll just say it's cool that he got to be teammates with his brother Alan Benes.

These are a couple of good shots of Sheff after he left. I know he hit over 500 home runs and all that jazz but to me he'll always be the guy we traded for Trevor Hoffman. Well, we didn't trade him for Trevor per se, but the Marlins included the no-name reliever in the deal and the rest is... oh, you know. I especially like the one on the left with Dan Patrick and Keith Olbermann. I watch The Dan Patrick Show a bit and as for Olbermann- uh, I think I saw him making a guest spot on MLB Network a few months back.

I never really thought about it before but there were three teams David Wells had two stints with- the Blue Jays, Yankees, and Padres. He's shown here his second time with Toronto and his first time in New York. The pictures I took don't really capture the shimmery sandpaper thing those Metal Universe cards have going on.

Kevin Brown was an absolute beast in 1998. He was good other seasons but that's the only one I care about.

Here's Benito Santiago pictured with three of the eight teams other than the Padres he played for. It's not strange seeing him in other uniforms but it is odd to see him clean-shaven as he is on that '95 Topps. That was back when the Reds still had their silly no facial hair rule. They finally did away with it in 1999 when they traded with the Padres for Greg Vaughn. He lobbied hard to keep his signature goatee because his kids wouldn't recognize him without it and the deplorable Marge Schott gave in after local media and fans took his side. I'm sure if he hadn't hit 50 HR the year before it wouldn't have changed but, hey, that's how the world works.

I actually followed Brian Giles's career long before he was a Friar. When he was in the minors I read in Baseball Weekly that his grandparents got an RV and went to all his games. I thought that was interesting and made note of seeing him when he played with AAA Charlotte in a game against the Rochester Red Wings and kept an eye on him as he tried to crack that loaded mid-90s Indians outfield. Eventually he went to Pittsburgh where he worked his way up their franchise leaderboards before heading home to sunny, sandy San Diego.

Here are a couple of guys who both put in two tours of duty with the Astros. Cammy is on another one of those awesome Metal cards in his second stint. This Brad Ausmus card is from his first go-'round in Houston. The picture must have been taken in Spring Training or a pregame session because he never played anything but catcher that time there. By the time he retired he wound up playing 17 innings at 1B spread over 11 games along with 7 innings at 2B, 7 at 3B and 1 lonely inning as a SS.

Before I saw this card I had no idea Bob Tewksbury ever played for the Twins. Turns out Tewks, owner of some of the best control the game has ever seen, spent the final two years of his 13 year career in Minnesota after going 10-10 for the 1996 NL West Champion Padres. I did, however, know that Fernando was a Cardinal. Valenzuela pitched the final five games of his career in Cardinals cardinal after being traded in June of '97 in a deal that brought Mark Sweeney to San Diego. I really like this card but, like the Steve Finley one earlier, it seemed like there was someone else who should have it. I popped it in a PWE and sent it to Dime Box Nick because I thought he might want it for his Into The Sunset series if he doesn't already have it. It's a true sunset card; the foil stamp at the top right corner even notes it as a tribute along with "1980-97".

At a glance, Mark Loretta and Brad Ausmus could pass for being pictured as Padres. Ausmus, with the Tigers at this point, looks like I remember him in this one. And that Matt Stairs card is about as Matt Stairs as it gets. Swing big, all or nothing.

 

With Geoff Blum's recent retirement, Mark Kotsay is the lone survivor of this batch still in the Majors. He looks considerably less grizzled on this card than he does now. As for A.J. Hinch, he's the only player in this post who never played for the Padres organization. Why's he here then? Because he's now San Diego's vice president of professional scouting. You may recall his less than successful stretch as manager of the D-Bags but you can't really blame him for not being able to make chicken salad out of what they gave him.

What? A Dodgers card on this blog? You can clearly see why this one's a keeper, though. I like cameo cards like this. I have a Dean Palmer card I've held onto for about twenty years because Joey Cora is in the background.

Along with the previously pictured Reggie Sanders, Wally Joyner and Quilvio Veras made their way to Atlanta the free, home of the Braves in exchange for Ryan Klesko, Bret Boone and whatever a Jason Shiell is.

Speaking of Ryan Klesko, here's Mr. Boot Barn himself out in the clouds. This trio of cards was confusing to me because the background of Rod Beck's card actually makes some semblance of sense while the other two do not. I'm assuming Shooter got the Golden Gate Bridge because the Giants play in San Francisco but I don't believe the Reds relocated to Cincinnati from Saturn. Logistics aside, I thought these were awesome back then and I can say now that's one thing I wasn't wrong about.

Hello again, Andy Ashby. I like how the stripe on his pants merges perfectly into the stripe on his mock-stirrup. 

The Collector's Choice card of Sterling Hitchcock is from his only year with the Mariners, sandwiched between time with the Yankees and the Padres. Like Boomer Wells, he ended up playing for both teams two separate times each. 

As for Sandy Alomar, Jr., did you know he played in the Majors through 2007? If I did know that, I forgot it. He only played seven games for the Mets that year. There's a lot about the tail-end of his career that I didn't realize before now. I knew he played for the White Sox but I had no idea he did three different times. He signed with Chicago before the 2001 season and again before the 2003 season after spending the second half of 2002 with the Rockies. He went on to spend time with the Rangers and Dodgers before returning to the windy city one last time in a July, 2006 trade.

How many pitching injuries did the Padres have to deal with in 2012? So many that they had to reanimate the corpses of Kip Wells and Jeff Suppan. Here's hoping that 2013 won't require the services of Freddy Garcia.

Whoops, I lied. A.J. Hinch isn't the only player in this post who never played for the Friars. Jerry Hairston gets a pass since two of his sons did, though. 

Tim Teufel went to San Diego in a one-for-one swap for Garry Templeton. So, in the big scheme of things, they essentially traded Ozzie Smith for Tim Teufel.

I believe this is my second card of Goose Gossage with the Rangers. I really should make more of an effort to collect all of his cards, not just ones of him in brown. I think I have two of him with the Cubs but I know I have one of him as a Mariner in his final season.

Okay, we're getting close to the finish line. The card on the left is one of my favorites of the package, right up there with the Ashby at the top and the last two that you have yet to see. Not to be confused with Billy Beane, the long-time general manager of the A's, Billy Bean spent two seasons and part of a third with the Padres, 1993-'95. Interestingly, Beane and Bean were teammates with the AAA Toledo Mud Hens in 1988. After retiring, Bean became the first man who had played Major League Baseball to publicly acknowledge that he is gay. I can definitely understand why he kept that information quiet until he retired with what we know about clubhouse culture and even society as a whole, especially back then. Hopefully his story can be of help to whoever the gay community's Jackie Robinson will be.

Mike Piazza, on the other hand, once had a press conference to clear up rumors that he was gay. Oddly enough, right as I started this paragraph MLB Tonight returned from commercial and now he's being interviewed. He has a new book out in which he states he never used PEDs, although he did use speed. I, for one, think it's ridiculous that he has to keep defending himself when there is absolutely no evidence that he did. The bit about him taking karate so he could fight Roger Clemens is pretty funny, though.

Alright, here it is. The grand finale. I'm not going to keep talking these two cards up because you probably already know who they are of...

YES! Another pair of Joey Cora cards for my never-ending quest to collect as many copies as I can of every card he's on. The picture on the front is of him singling on May 28, 1997 to extend his hitting streak to 23 games. As is noted on the back, it ended at 24 games which was then an American League record for switch hitters.

Wow, that took way longer than I thought it would (TWSS) and there were actually a few more cards- some Padres doubles from '88 Topps, a Steve Swisher I showed a couple posts ago, and a few players with no ties to the Padres that I'll post over at NotPadres. I finally got around to getting his cards out yesterday; I hope he enjoys them nearly as much as I like this batch. Thanks again!