Kruk, Henke & Other Stuff

Along with the few Joey Cora cards and cards of guys from West Virginia that I got from Just Commons last week, I picked up a few Padres, including a neat autographed letter patch card I wrote up elsewhere, a handful of '93 Upper Decks for my set I'm building, and some cards for my player collections. The two John Kruk cards pictured above are ones I had in my younger days but haven't had copies of for years. Kruk also qualifies as a guy from West Virginia but he's the of them that I collect in earnest, as opposed to just being satisfied with having one random card of each of the other guys.

I especially like that throwback on the back of Krukky's '94 UD CC card.

These Kruks, like most I acquire these days, are also "new again". I did, however, get some Tom Henke cards that are completely new to me:

I didn't have too many Flair cards when they came out in '93- just the Kruk and the Tony Gwynn, if I recall correctly- but I thought they were the coolest thing in the world. I still think they're pretty great. I just started typing a bunch of adjectives about the cards from that set but I deleted all of them as I imagined someone reading them and saying "That's what she said".

That Pacific issue is my first card of Henke with the Cardinals. He pitched his final season for them in '95 and went out on top. Well, not like John Elway or whatever because the Cardinals didn't win squat that year, but he had a great personal season. His ERA was a blink and you'd miss it 1.82 in 54.1 innings over 52 appearances. Henke was named to his second All-Star game; I was going to get into the details of both of his appearances but I'll save that for its own post.

My Tom Henke collection is still fairly small since I only started collecting his cards last summer when I discovered that he made his MLB debut the day I was born.

Oh, and here are those '93 Upper Decks that I mentioned. Nothing too special; I just knocked a few cheap ones off my needs list.

Here we have some "Star Rookies" who didn't live up to the star part. Manny Alexander did end up letting a clubhouse attendant take the rap for some steroids he had in his car, so he's got that going for him.

Dan Plesac seems like a nice guy. A little overbearing sometimes, sure, but ultimately likable. I really enjoy that Community Heroes subset card of Dave Stewart. When I think of him I think of intimidation and intensity. This is neither of those.

Wow, I'm actually posting here fairly often lately. Good times. For me and hopefully also for each of the seven to twelve people who will read this.

Recent Arrivals, Part I

I've reached that point again where I have a few weeks of Listia arrivals forming two large, unorganized stacks on a bookshelf. That means it's time to show them off to my fellow nerds before I file them away in their rightful places. The Topps Rookie Stars card above will take its place next to my only other 1969 Padres card. Drop by drop, I will eventually carve out the Grand Canyon that is that team set.

Jerry DaVanon played 24 games of his rookie season with the inaugural Padres before being traded to St. Louis in May; he went on to play with five teams in parts of eight lackluster seasons. His son Jeff DaVanon also spent parts of eight seasons in the majors. The San Diego-born San Diego State alumnus nearly became a second-generation Padre when he was signed by the team in December of 2007 but he was cut before Opening Day.

Clay Kirby is best known for being removed by his manager from what could have been the Friars' first and only no-hitter. As for Frank Reberger, he's deserving of a post all to himself one of these days. Speaking of which, I have really gotten away from doing different types of posts here. The last few months it has been nothing but acquisition posts. There was a good reason for this at first but now it's just a rut. By the time I wrap up Part II or, God forbid, Part III of this, I'll get back to switching it up; revive some old themes and introduce some newness. Pinky swear.

It's faint, but that card is autographed by Brian Lawrence in blue ballpoint pen. Not the best penmanship or a guy I'm a huge fan of, but it's a nice addition to my fairly small autograph collection. I picked up two other autographed Padres cards recently but haven't gotten around to taking pictures of either of them so they'll have to wait until Part II.

As I am wont to do, I won a few different lots of 2010 Upper Deck just to get one card from each. Of the three players, only the awesome Luke Gregerson is still around. I still collect Edgar Gonzalez, but if you collect his brother I still have some cards of him I'd like rid of. I'm not down with Dodgers, especially two-faced, lying, duplicitous turncoats who refuse to accept responsibility for their actions or statements.

I mentioned in the post before my last one that I got a handful of 2013 Topps Padres on Listia before ECDG swooped in and dropped the full team set on me. It wasn't a pointless bid, though; I did get this 'Chasing The Dream' insert of Yonder Alonso as one of the four. As for Milton Bradley, he wasn't a Padre for long but made quite an impression. It's hard to believe that it's been going on six years since I was at Petco Park for his first game as a Friar.

2004 Topps is one of those sets that I pretty much forget exists. It came out during my sabbatical from the hobby and has a fairly forgettable face. I did have a different card of Jay Payton as a Padre but it got lost in a shuffle so this is my only one for now. Same goes for Ramon Hernandez, I believe, and countless others.

Another player making his first appearance in my collection is Dave Eiland. I have absolutely no feelings one way or the other toward Mr. Eiland but he's on a baseball card pictured as a San Diego Padre and that's all it takes to get me to bid. The McGriff was a mistake since I already have a copy but I'm sure somebody will take it off my hands one of these days. The '95 Upper Deck Collector's Choice Special Edition (!) is my favorite of the three. I really like cards of players interacting with fans; I also have a soft spot for Eddie Williams because he was a Padre for three separate stints.

These are two of the strangest cards I've seen and thought "Yeah, I want that." They're checklists from a '94 Topps Black Gold redemption set. These will go into my player collections of Craig Biggio and John Kruk, respectively. At some point I'll need to add their full-sized counterparts.

Here are a few more Kruks, ones I had back in the day but are new to my current collection. It's nowhere near as many as I had of him as a kid but I'm back up to about forty or fifty-some cards of The Krukker now. I'm enjoying the process; it's a nice combination of memories. I feel like I may have said basically the same thing in a previous post but that's bound to happen now and then after a few hundred posts, especially when you're a little drowsy from cold medicine. Don't worry, it's just a sore throat and some sniffles being stifled by a capful of some blue Tylenol Cold liquid; no Li'l Wayne shenanigans here. Topical!

I got this trio of Tom Henke cards on the cheap because, hey, how many of us Tom Henke collectors are there out there? Well, I take that back; I know of a few collectors off the top of my head who collect players with big glasses or just any glasses. As for me, I've been snagging up whatever cards of him I can find since I discovered last summer that he made his major league debut on the day I was born. Curt Kaufman and Larry Ray also debuted that day but are nowhere near as easy to collect. Kaufman only got into 7 games in 1982, 4 in '83, and 29 in '84, appearing only on 1985 issues by Topps, Fleer, and Donruss. Ray's career consisted of one hit in six at-bats over five games with the Astros and he never found his way onto a major league card. A quick GIS does reveal a Tucson Toros card, though.

Well, I'm getting fairly sleepy and you're probably tired of reading this by now anyway. I guess there's time for one more card. You know what that means so I'm just going to leave a picture of my latest Joey Cora card sans commentary and leave on a high note like George Costanza.