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.
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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.

Cards Of All 13 Of The 30s In Padres History

Thirteen different players have worn number 30 as a member of the San Diego Padres. For the first time in FoC history, I'm going to include cards of all of the players- the first time, that is, unless you count number 19 and I don't because that was only Gene Richards and Tony. Anyway, enough with the preliminaries; here they are: Mike Corkins led off, from 1969 through '71; Derrel Thomas was next, from '72 through '74 and again in '78. Hector Torres wore it in '75 and '76 and Tim Flannery had it for his rookie season in '79. Dave Cash donned it in '80, followed by Danny Boone in '81 and '82. Eric Show kept it from '82 through '90, succeeded by Kevin Ward in '91 and '92. Phil Clark rocked 30 in '93 through '95, as did Ryan Klesko from 2000 through '06. Heath Bell is credited by BR as wearing 30 in '07 in addition to 21. However, Greg Maddux was on the roster all of '07 and was back in '08. Eliezer Alfonzo had it last, for the '09 "We Ruin Everything" Padres.

Friday Flannery

One thing I didn't know about Flan was that he retired voluntarily. In fact, he announced a month beforehand that he would be playing his last game on September 29, 1989, his 32nd birthday. "It's a decision I've been thinking about for the last year," said Flan at the time. "If I wasn't going to play for this club, I wasn't going to play for any other club. I've always been a San Diego Padre, and I will retire a San Diego Padre."