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.