Building The '93 Upper Deck Set

I decided a couple (few?) months ago to build the 1993 Upper Deck set from scratch. It really was from scratch because outside of the Padres in the set, I only had a dozen or so others and some of those are part of player collections (Joey Cora, John Kruk, Scott Radinsky, and Tom Henke come to mind) so I'd need to get duplicates of those too.

I have actually never built a set before so this is a new experience for me. As soon as I decided to do this one I started snagging up '93 UD loosies and lots on Listia. The Rickey above was paired up with his '94 Collector's Choice card, which features a near-mirror image of him sliding headfirst on a horizontal card.

Another Listia pickup was an unopened Marlins team set. I promptly freed the cards from their home for the last 20 years and something immediately caught my eye as I began leafing through them.

They're all stamped with a gold "First Season Marlins" gold leaf insignia. I guess they're technically parallels and probably shouldn't be used as legitimate set pieces but I put them in the mix nonetheless. Well, except for one. I had to set this one aside:

That card alone made the purchase worthwhile. The fact that I also got to knock out about 1/28 of the set at the same time was just icing.

Accidentally stumbling unto a Trevor Hoffman rookie-year card was just the beginning of my '93 UD related luck.  Around a month or so ago I commented on a post by Dime Box Nick that featured some '93 UDs. He mentioned how great they are and remarked that somebody should have a blog dedicated to the set. I said something about working on putting the set together and thought nothing more about it. Then a day or so later I got a Facebook message from a reader of his who had some to send my way. I gathered up every Yankees card and all of the Rickey Henderson cards I had and sent them his direction. What I got back far outweighed what I sent.

I didn't know what to expect but I definitely didn't picture what I ended up getting. He sent a huge box and knocked a few hundred cards off my wantlist in one fell swoop. He also included a couple hundred Padres cards, a great deal of which I didn't already have.

Last weekend I finally got around to putting them all in order and weeding out the doubles. I also made a needs list for the set, so if you have any of those I'd be glad to trade for them. I believe I have the majority of Series 2 but am rather lacking as far as Series 1 goes.

I thought about making a set blog but I barely post here so that probably wouldn't have taken off. I'm sure a lot of my posts on here in the future will be set-related, though.

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.

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.

Another Score Santiago

Another day, another card of Benito Santiago by Score that I got from Listia. This one is a 1988 issue and it commemorates Santiago's rookie record 34 game hitting streak. From the back: "He's a rookie catcher whose mind isn't on hitting all the time," said teammate Tony Gwynn. "He's got catching duties, he's calling pitches and he's trying to throw out runners. That's what makes it so amazing."

Dream Team

Here's another recent Listia pickup of a card I used to have but lost somewhere along the line; it's nice to welcome a new copy. Back when they came out, I thought all of the shots in the Dream Team sets were pretty awesome but this one was a personal favorite for obvious reasons.

On a side note, I'll try to start posting more frequently again- even if it is just a few sentences like this one.

Trade Post: All The Way To The Backstop

I haven't really felt like posting anything the last couple of days so, well, I haven't. The other night I was reading all the way to the backstop and saw my zip code among those he sent packages out to. I already had his cards packaged up but I hadn't made it to the Post Office yet. Yesterday as I was heading out to mail his cards and another batch for Dime Boxes, I checked the mailbox and the cards from Backstop were already here; that was quick! I chose the two cards for the top photo because they happen to be two cards I also sent him- hey, that's a pretty good success rate! There were a few cards I already have but most were new to me and will be finding their way here for some time to come.

At the top of the stack were six Joey Cora cards. Now here's a guy who's been paying attention! There was one of him with the Padres, one with the Mariners and four as a White Sock.

The cards spanned from 1987 until present and included both stars and unheard of players along with an array of fan favorites and historical footnotes. A great number of manufacturers were represented as were two languages (English and French). There were a few Benitos, a couple Adrians and one of each Alomar.

One of my favorite things about trading through the mail is the handwritten note. It's such a juxtaposition to everything you know about fellow bloggers; all I've seen before is the typed word and written words lend an extra element of humanity. His was no disappointment, complete with nifty lettering, an awesome illustration and words of encouragement all Padres fans must heed.

This was a blind trade so I had no idea what to expect. I'm very happy with what I got and hope he's as stoked when he gets his. I have a feeling he'll be pretty pleased.

Happy Birthday, Benito Santiago!

Today is Benito Santiago's birthday. I remember getting this card when it came out and thinking about how weird it would be to see him wearing a different uniform since he'd been a fixture with the Friars since my first full season as a fan. He would go on to wear many, many more uniforms before he finally hung up his syringe.
I think I mentioned this before in a Bip post but either way, man, I thought those portrait wristbands were the shiz back in the day. All the big stars and big egos had 'em and I definitely drew them when I made baseball cards of myself.

Randomness: Friars On Twitter, Finley, Santiago, 7Seconds Tattoo & An Admission Of Idiocy

Man, to think that a year ago Brian Wilson and C.J. Wilson were pretty much the only baseball players with a Twitter. Shiz blew up, yo; now it seems like everyone with a pair of spikes has one. Fins does, as does Antonelli. In fact, Gaslamp Ball has all former, current and future Friars with one listed for your convenience (sweet tattoo as the background, huh?). Steve's got a Facebook page, too; needless to say, I'm a "fan"...

Speaking of Matty A, I really shat the bed with that last post about him. In my haste and stoneditude, I failed to recall that bench coach Ted Simmons rocks the number nine. My bad!

... so, I got a new tattoo last week. It's my spray-painted-style rendition of the 7Seconds logo on my left wrist. That picture looks like shid, but you get the idea. I was going to use that pic for a post on Benito Santiago but since it turned out so crummy, I'm just tacking it on to this one...

Also, as always. Friars On Cardboard welcomes any and all suggestions and submissions. Thanks to everybody for reading, commenting and/ or following. 'Preciate it!