Showing posts with label Shawn Abner. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shawn Abner. Show all posts

Saturday, October 4, 2014

Autograph Extravaganza

About a week ago, I got a bubble mailer from my pal Marcus of All The Way To The Backstop. It was a pleasant surprise before I even opened it. I was expecting a copy of Jedd Gyorko's 2014 Bowman card because he mentioned on his blog that he was sending one, but this was clearly much more than just that. Inside were two team bags, and one of them contained 27 autographed cards.

Twenty-seven autographed cards.

Yeah, seriously. I was taken aback. The vast majority were Padres players, but there were a few non-Friars in the mix. One was the 1985 Topps of former American League MVP Jeff Burroughs, father of Little League hero and Padres [bust is such a harsh word] Sean Burroughs.

I tweeted out a lot of the cards soon after opening the package, so in the interest of my laziness, I'm going to embed those instead of scanning the ones I haven't scanned.
My math was off. As I said in the lede, there were 27 cards. Somehow I didn't notice the Heath Bell one until the next day. That was a really cool bonus surprise. Speaking of that Bell card, I wrote about it and the one of Craig Lefferts that was also part of this package, earlier this week on their shared birthday.
Sadly, Sean Drinkwater never took his awesome name to the majors.
That offer still stands, by the way.
...as does that one.
...as does that one. It's only right, uh, right?
Here's another great minor league card. Unlike Drinkwater, Nelson made it to the majors; he was up with the Padres on-and-off briefly toward the end of the '80s.
I really like this custom card, even though Cantu's tenure was short and rocky.
Childers never reached the majors. Also, I misspoke. I don't have a Beaumont card of Cora. Yet.
In case you don't know (and why should you, really?), Craig Italiano was acquired by the Padres from the A's along with Sean Gallagher and Ryan Webb in July, 2009, in exchange for Scott Hairston. The Padres reacquired Hairston after the season, but that's a whole different post. Oh, and as for Italiano, he never reached the majors.
The card I referred and linked to is Thompson's famed Collector's Choice surfboard shot.
The matte finish is essential to this card. It wouldn't be as quarter as cool if it were glossy. It just lends to the painterly feel.
Keagle eventually reached the majors, but not with the Padres and not for very long.
Since I started with an MVP, a Cy Young Award winner seems like a good stopping point. That was just a little over half of the autographed cards he sent, so I'll get the other ones scanned and posted, hopefully sooner than later. And I haven't even mentioned the non-autographed cards he included. Those definitely deserve a post of their own; he knocked off some player collection needs, and then some.
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Tuesday, June 19, 2012

Be Proud To Keep The Faith

The number one question I get when people find out I'm a Padres fan is "Why did you move here?" They get really confused when I tell them I was born and raised right here in good ol' West By God Virginia. Their reaction says a lot of things. One, that it's common knowledge that San Diego is utopia and that the Ohio Valley is a cesspool devoid of any redeeming qualities. The thought never crosses their mind that someone might move here to further their career because everybody knows there aren't real jobs here and even if they were it wouldn't be worth actually living here to get one. Secondly, and more telling, it just blows their mind that someone would voluntarily be a Padres fan without growing up there and having it thrust upon them against their will. I like that. It brings me pride- and I'm not one of those people who throws that word around. I'm not proud to be an American or a West Virginian and I certainly don't have white pride because all of those things are out of my control. It's not that I chose to be a Padres fan; it's that I chose to be stay a Padres fan. This is something I can rightfully be proud of; I like to think it speaks for my character. Most Friar fans I'm familiar with are people of strong moral fiber. We get tested more and more each year and it only emboldens us. Only the weakest of trash finds a mistress when his marriage hits a rough spot. Us true fans invest ourselves even deeper into the relationship because we have faith and know that our love will not be in vain.
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Friday, June 15, 2012

Tell Me What To Write About

I have really been slacking on this blog the past few days. I didn't write anything yesterday or Tuesday and Wednesday's was about as close to nothing as you can get. I'm not sure why I just haven't been having any good ideas lately. Some might say "Lately?" and to them I offer an unblinkingly poker-faced, monotone "Ha". It's not general writer's block or just not feeling like it because I haven't had any problem churning out Padres Minor League Recap & Top Performers posts the past week. That's probably because with those I know going into it what I'll be writing about. So, help a guy out and tell me in the comments who or what I should write about and I will if I have a card that goes along with it. Lay 'em on me; I need all the help I can get!
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Friday, March 2, 2012

21 Cards From '91 (Happy Birthday!)

Today is TMBGOTFOTE's 21st birthday, so I thought it'd make sense to post 21 cards from 1991. Not that she cares about the Padres or baseball at all but, hey, it's what's happening. Most of the pictures and scans are from when I was going to do this last year but forgot about it while doing actual birthday stuff that matters. On a side note, I think she's the only other person I've known who couldn't care less about their 21st birthday being their 21st. It doesn't matter to her because she doesn't drink; it didn't matter to me when I turned 21 because I'd had a fake I.D. for about three years...
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Thursday, May 20, 2010

This Thursday's Guest: Steve from White Sox Cards on Shawn Abner

This Thursday's Guest is Steve from the phenomenal White Sox Cards blog. I was really looking forward to this and was still blown away; I hope you enjoy reading it half as much as I did.










For whatever reason, I became infatuated with Shawn Abner for a brief period in 1985. I was a sucker for the subsets in the Topps set that year and to me Shawn was the epitome of coolness, however misguided or misplaced that was at the time.

All I knew was that Abner was the number one pick in the draft and that impressed me enough that summer to hold Shawn’s Topps card with great admiration. In fact, that card still brings a smile to my face when I see it.

It probably helped that Shawn was part of the Mets system back then. My friends were abuzz about Strawberry and Gooden. I can’t say I blame them. They were two young players with bright futures and the skills to back them up, so when I saw that Shawn was going to be part of that and he was the number one pick, I was convinced that it would prove to be a winning combination.

While my friends were coveting cards of Clemens, Puckett, Eric Davis, Sandberg, Boggs and other stars of the day, I held on to Shawn Abner. Not only was he the high draft pick, but he had a kind face.

A few seasons had passed and I looked for Shawn on the Mets, but he was nowhere to be found. Unknown to me at the time, Abner had been traded to the Padres and never would see MLB playing time with the Mets.

I fell out of collecting, but I still watched games. Unfortunately, in the eighties there wasn’t interleague play yet and the team that I rooted for was in the American League. My path would not cross Shawn Abner’s again until I got back into card collecting.

By 1990, I had all but forgotten about Shawn. Then as I started buying packs again, I ran across his cards. It was a revelation to see that he was on the Padres! I had heard about the exciting young crop of players that San Diego was putting out on the field the past few years. Names like John Kruk, Joey Cora, Benito Santiago and the Alomar brothers immediately jump to mind.

Plus, there were names I was very familiar with, like Eric Show, Jack Clark and, of course, Tony Gwynn. Those were names that shaped my childhood, but I never knew that Shawn was among those names until I started collecting again.

I had a habit of latching on to players, as a child, for reasons that only made sense to me. I think in Shawn’s case, the deciding factor was his kind face. I can’t say that I remember watching Abner too much as a Padre, but I do recall thinking that good things happen when he’s involved.

1990 was smack dab in the middle of the overproduction period of baseball cards. As quickly as I found Shawn again, it seemed that he was popping up everywhere. This only made me happier. I found out that Abner was a light hitter, but he was a scrappy player that gave it his all. That only led to more admiration from my end.

I was a little disappointed and a little excited when Shawn moved to the Angels. I would get to see him more often. I did get to see him play six games against the White Sox in September 1991. Four hits in six games didn’t make much of an impression, but it was enough to sustain. All of Abner’s hits came in Angel victories against the Pale Hose. That only exaggerated the legend of Shawn Abner as a good luck charm, in my book.

After a Spring Training where I was still lamenting the late cut of John Cangelosi from the previous year, imagine my surprise when the White Sox signed the legendary Shawn Abner! The Sox opened against the team that cut him just a few weeks prior. The Sox swept the Angels to open the season and my stance of Abner as a good luck charm was cemented.

Shawn responded by having arguably his best season in the majors! He hit .279 and replaced Ozzie Guillen’s usual one homer per season with one of his own. Ozzie was out most of the year with a devastating injury when he collided with Tim Raines trying to catch a late inning pop up by the Yankee’s Mel Hall early in the season.

Abner finished up his career with the Sox, but out of mostly bad luck. Injuries kept him in the minors until his retirement.

When I think of Shawn Abner, I first think of the Padres. Then it quickly turns to the White Sox. Some people have labeled Shawn as the biggest bust of the entire draft process. I think that’s a bit harsh. Did he have a Hall of Fame career? Hardly. He did play in the majors from 1987 until 1992. Some number one draft choices never make it to the majors at all.

I’ll always smile when I think of Shawn Abner. He gave it everything he had and managed to have a little success in the majors, along with some great memories. Whether you’re a San Diego Padres fan or a Chicago White Sox fan, those two teams were better off for having Shawn Abner there as a player.
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Saturday, January 31, 2009

Simple Math

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