Tonys and Trevors and Bips, Oh My!

Not gonna lie, sometimes it's hard to make myself write about getting cards of players I collect. I mean, after the first couple hundred Tony Gwynn cards, it gets repetitive. The two above are cards that I had back in the day and just got new copies of. Gee, never written that before.

 "I already have a copy of this one but it was part of a lot so I'll put it in the doubles stack and somebody will want it" or something to that effect comes up a lot too.

Hey, a break from the same old, same old. Shame kiddo had to follow in his Uncle Chris's footsteps and be a Dodger. I'm nerdy when it comes to numbers so I think it's cool that Li'l Tony played 19 games for the AAA Albuquerque Isotopes last year and hit exactly .338. Double-daddish!

Trevor cards fall into the same rut as Tony's. These two fall into the same category as the first two Gwynns in this post.

Cue up that line about the doubles stack.

Krukky! This is the part where I allude to him being from West Virginia or something.

That SportFlics is pretty rad, though. I tried to capture each of the three angles but his face was hard to catch.

Oh, and for added predictability, here are some Bips. Pretty sure it's a card-blog rule to show some Bips any time you have an excuse to, even if you already had copies of all of them.

Alright, I seriously need to get out of this rut. No more cataloging what I got just because I feel like I have to. Maybe get back to my card-blogging roots and mix it up a bit. Something, because this stuff I've been churning out the past few months is garbage.

Recent Arrivals, Part II (The Finale)

If you missed Part I, there's not too much to explain; these are a bunch of cards I've gotten recently that I'm getting around to organizing. Solid premise, huh?

The card above is autographed by the original Adam Eaton, not to be confused with Arizona outfield prospect Adam Eaton. I read some thing last year that said the younger one frequently gets sent the older one's cards to sign. This one, however, was sent to the right Adam Eaton.

These Tony Gwynns were paired together; the first one is gonna bring it on down to doublesville and the second one seems familiar too. I think I had it at one point but I put a bid in for them since I didn't see it when I made a quick check. If it turns out I already have one in some completely random spot it doesn't belong, as tends to happen from time to time, that won't be the end of the world.

Here's Tony with his brother Chris, back when Chris was playing for a team not to be mentioned. I didn't really want the Ripken brothers card but they came together and I imagine someone might want it.

I had a copy of this but it was kind of ragged. This one was on Listia for next to nothing so I upgraded.

Reggie Sanders and Greg Maddux were teammates with the Braves for a bit after the former's season in San Diego. Unrelated, I'm fortunate to be able to say I saw Greg Maddux pitch in person. And with the Padres, no less.

One of Maddux's rotation-mates during his time with the Padres was Chris Young, who everyone is obligated to point out played basketball for Princeton. Now fighting for a job as a non-roster invitee at Nationals camp, Young was an All-Star in 2007. He was one of the "final vote" candidates and I voted for him literally thousands of times.

I remember having all three of these Collector's Choice cards when I was a kid but they're new again to me now. That checklist of "The" trade has always been a favorite and I'm now a bigger fan of Luis Lopez than I was a week ago. I guess he's also a Joey Cora fan because he retweeted something I said on Twitter about Joey. That was pretty neat to me.

Fleer showed up to 1996 with the complete opposite of their 1995 set. These are the antithesis of busy and feature crisp, defined photography. The Klesko is some sort of insert in a set of 20 and is glossy with silver foil as opposed to matte with gold like the base Bergman. Also, it has to be pointed out that Sean Bergman is exhibiting some terrible bunting form.

I fortified my Scott Radinsky collection with these two, obtained separately. His Upper Deck rookie card is especially fascinating because of the text on the back.

I don't know of any other Scott Rad cards that allude to his other job. In fact, the only other baseball card I can think of that mentions any punk rock band is Jim Walewander's 1988 Score which name-checks The Dead Milkmen. Around the time this Radinsky card came out, Scared Straight changed their name to Ten Foot Pole. He was pushed out of the band a few years later because the rest of the band got sick of not being able to tour at least seven months out of every year. That's the point when he formed Pulley and they've been together, in some form or another, for nearly twenty years.

Radinsky's 1992 Pinnacle was one of a 12-card lot. I didn't want any of the other cards but I got them all for what I would have paid for just the one, so all is well.

I end up doing a lot of that on Listia. I'll want one card that's part of a group and end up with a bunch to cram in an apathy box.

This doesn't just apply to cards, I guess. I now have some old Jays, Orioles, and Twins stickers thanks to wanting a lone outdated Padres sticker. "Play Downtown" was their slogan during Petco Park's inaugural season of 2004 and thankfully they don't still use that shampoo bottle logo.

I recently started trying to build the 1993 Upper Deck set pretty much from scratch. I had only a few other than the Padres I had but I've started chipping away, very little by very little. These three were packaged together and I have to say I would have bid on this lot even if I didn't need them for a set. I probably would have ended up sending all three to Dime Box Nick eventually because they're all up his alley. He's a fan of batting cage shots, as shown on the DiSarcina and the one with Hard Hittin' Mark Whiten rocking his batting helmet backward is just classic. John Burkett's is even better because it's a twofer- Burkett is signing an autograph while wearing a 1939 throwback uniform. Ehh, I figure he has 'em already anyway. If not, I'll probably get doubles of some of them because that's how set-building goes.

Anyway, as great as the fronts of those cards are, the back of Gary DiSarcina's is even better.

I believe I'll just let that speak for itself.

Last of all, just to bring us full circle, here's the other autographed Fleer Tradition card I've gotten in the past couple weeks, this one of former infielder Damian Jackson. I must say, he looks like somebody just said the dumbest thing ever to him.

Well, that's all for now. I'd like to say I won't let a backlog like that build up again but it seems fairly probable. For now I'll work on trying to produce shorter, more frequent posts. See you tomorrow?

Cards from Marcus, Volume Like 138 or Something

I recently got a PWE in the mail from Marcus from all the way to the backstop... I believe it was Monday but I wouldn't swear to it. It took me a few days to get to posting the contents since I needed to first do writeups on some Coras I got from COMC and the 2013s from ECDG. I'm starting to get caught up; after this post I have a few weeks worth of Listia pickups to do a megapost of and then I can get to that Gwynnventory I've been meaning to do or a post about '93 Upper Deck since I'm trying to build that set. But more likely I'll just get more stuff in the mail and procrastinate those even longer, so let's focus on the here and now.

Above are two 2012 Topps parallels I didn't have. I love the photography on both of them; the Blanks base is on the short list of my all-time favorite cards. I really like how the Target Red border looks on Q's card; I prefer it to the WalMart Blue; it just pops.

Next up was an awesome A&G of Tony Gwynn. Anthony Keith Gwynn, Sr. to be more precise. And, as it asks, what's in that name? Maybe the back will shed some light.

...and it does. Imagine that.

Craig Breslow may very well be the smartest man to ever play the game. The lefty was called "the smartest man in baseball" by the Wall Street Journal in 2009 and named the smartest athlete in all of pro sports by The Sporting News the following year. After graduating from Yale with degrees in molecular biophysics and biochemistry, he was accepted to the prestigious NYU School of Medicine but decided to put it on the back burner and pursue pitching. He has since pitched 358 games in the majors, including 14 with the Padres in his rookie season of 2005. From there he spent time with the Red Sox, Indians, Twins, A's, and D-Bags; now he's back with Boston.

Poor Mark Prior. His comeback attempt with the Padres didn't work out, nor did subsequent tries with the Rangers, Yankees, and Red Sox. In fact, he hasn't pitched in the majors since making nine ugly starts for the Cubs in 2006. He's in camp with the Reds, signing a minor league deal earlier this month. Like always, I'll be rooting for him to make it back successfully. As for the card itself, I already had a copy so this one will go on my recently-deplenished doubles stack.

As always, I saved the best for last. Also as always, you know what that means:

Another Joey Cora card! His 1988 Score, number 420, to be specific. Like all of his cards, it's a thing of beauty. It will have a good home here, right between some other cards just like itself. Only a couple hundred thousand more copies of this one and I'll be set. Marcus has been a major contributor to my Cora collection; he always seems to include at least one in every envelope and for that I am forever grateful.

So, thanks again to Marcus! I'll have to get some cards headed his way before too long. As it stands now, there's at least one bubble mailer hanging out at his house waiting for him to get home from vacation. I actually mailed it the day before he wrote his post about getting ready to go on vacation, so it's been there for a while. It doesn't contain cards, so if he's reading this I'll just let him twist in the wind trying to guess what it does contain. Hint: You aren't going to guess it. Ever.

Tuesday Tony Gwynns

I get new Tony Gwynn cards on a pretty frequent basis and it's been a while since I organized the ever-growing stack of recently acquired ones in where they belong in the grand scheme of things. Just like I do with my Coras, I keep my Gwynns in chronological order. Maybe I should put each year's card in alphabetical order when I get around to straightening them out in the next day or two. Another thing I'm going to do while I'm at it is create a Gwynnventory page here to keep track of which ones I have.

The six cards in this post showed up in my mailbox a few days ago; they were bundled together on Listia. I know for a fact I already have the last two and I suspect I may have one or both of the first two. All the more reason to make a Gwynnventory, I guess. I hate that last card so much. In fact, I hate that card so much that I wrote a post about it called I Hate This Card So Much over at Gaslamp Ball last October.

Okay, the producers are telling me that's all the time we have. Join us here again tomorrow when we take a look at, what else, a bunch of Joey Cora cards I got from COMC.

Rock over London; rock on, Chicago. Mitsubishi- the word is getting 'round!

Listia Lately

It's been a while since I've done a post of Listia finds and I have a stack here from the past few weeks that have yet to be organized so you see where this is going. Tony seems like a good starting point because, honestly, who doesn't like Tony Gwynn? I generally like Pacific cards but that Aurora issue is not one of their finest efforts. As for the one on the right, it's for some dice game I'll never play. But if I did play it, I'm sure I'd single my opponent to death with this card.

This 1975 Topps of Chris Cannizzaro is the most recent to show up. I "paid" 400 credits, which equates to about $1.33, but it was worth it to me to get a slab of vintage I didn't have yet. I'm nowhere near completing the '75 team set but, hey, baby steps.

The Tim Stauffer card was grouped with four other Bazooka cards which were of no interest to me but at 100 credits it was worthwhile just to get the Stauff. I'm glad he signed a minor league deal this offseason to stay with the organization. Stauffer is by far the longest tenured Padre and it would be strange to see him as anything else.

I think that gold sparkle parallel is the third version I have of that particular Logan Forsythe card but I'd have to double check to be sure and I'm comfortable right now. Cameron Maybin's poorly photoshopped 2011 Topps was part of a four card lot featuring the next two cards and a double of Cedric Hunter I've already passed along.

Matt Buschmann didn't pan out for the Padres but at least he's not Matt Bush, man.

Bip! It's really hard to come up with something to say about Bip Roberts that I haven't said before. Between five annual Bip Roberts Days and assorted other posts, I feel like I'm all Bipped out wordwise until next February 10. That 1990 Fleer was one of a ton from that set that particular user was getting rid of. I got this and two others for twenty-some credits apiece.

The Alex Cole card on the right was another of the aforementioned three 1990 Fleer cards I got for dirt cheap. I'm not an Alex Cole fan but I've always remembered his funky MC Hammer glasses. The reason I got this card was to send it to Dime Box Nick because it's a zero-year card. Not only is there this card of Cole as a Cardinal, I've since come to find out (or been reminded; it's hard to tell sometimes) there also exists a card of him as a member of the Padres despite the fact that he never played a regular season game for them either. That's getting in Canseco territory. Sadly, I don't have it. So, if you come across 1990 Upper Deck #751 I'd be glad to take it off your hands. In the meantime, I'll try to remember to mail this one to Nick.

I got that Finley with Backstop in mind but then I double checked his Finley list and there it was. So now I have another card of Steve Finley as an Astro that I don't really care about. Ehh, I'm sure I'll find somebody who will like it. For that matter, they might want the bunch of other cards of Finley with other teams which are just hanging out in what I just decided to call an apathy box.

It's odd that I don't collect cards of Steve Finley as an Astro but I do collect an Astro with no ties to the Padres. I don't try to understand the things I do. Anyway, if you read my last post you know I'm referring to Craig Biggio. If you didn't read it, sorry for ruining the surprise.

I forgot about Topps MBossed existing until I snagged this one up. I also forgot that they were, you know, embossed until it got here.

I generally don't collect much non-card stuff but sometimes you see such a good deal you can't say no.

Starting Lineup figurines aren't something I have ever collected but I was able to snap this Caminiti up for just over 1000 credits. That's only a little more than $3.00 in real world money so it wasn't much of a decision. The sweatbands should come in handy if I play softball again this summer. If I don't, having a pair of unused wristbands won't be the end of the world.

But what could be cooler than that?

Okay, I'm not even going to bother pretending to build suspense where there is none. By now you know if it's a long acquisition post there will be Joey Coras at the end.

And, sure as the sun dost shine, there's Little Joey. I have a few of each of these but nowhere near enough. I don't know that I'll ever approach a certain somebody's Tim Wallach collection but I am determined to accumulate the world's largest Joey Cora collection eventually. I have a loooooooong way to go before I even approach being in the discussion as such but these drops in the bucket help out. As always, if you have any copies of these or any other Joey Cora cards I'll trade you pretty much just about anything for them.

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.