I've been on collection hiatus for a little while. Some of that is self-imposed--I resolved not to buy any cards in the month of February and I've turned off trading on TCDB to save some postage money and to fix up my tradelists. That doesn't explain my absence of blogging, however. That's due to outside factors. I've been focused on many other things that are pushing blogging aside. It's not the lack of new cards that has me lacking for content; on the contrary, I'm backlogged for material. Blogging just hasn't been a priority.
Before this hiatus, the last cards I received came on Super Bowl Sunday. I came home from church to a big envelope on the front porch. I knew in my bones that it contained cards for me, but I had no idea where a package that size was coming from.
As it turns out, the package was from Kerry at Cards on Cards and it contained my winnings for his annual college football bowl pick 'em. Let me just take a moment and proudly proclaim that I am the Cards on Cards Pigskin Prognosticator Extraordinaire! I swept the prizes this year by correctly predicting the Belk Bowl winner (Virginia) and being least awful in predicting the final score, and by scoring the most points in the pick 'em. (Thank you Clemson, for justifying my faith in you.) I'm not meaning to brag here, but you'll have to excuse me while I revel in this victory for a moment. This kind of glory doesn't come my way often.
The prize for the Belk Bowl was a jumbo pack of 2019 Flagship and the prize for the pick 'em was a blaster of the same. Kerry also threw in a stack of Cubs for me. And so it was, on the biggest football-based holiday of the year in America, I opened up a package full of baseball cards.
I've never bought A&G. I think I've only seen it in stores once. That doesn't mean I don't like the base card designs, because I typically do. I especially like the rolled parchment look from last year.
In 2017, I completed the base set of Topps Heritage, but I didn't do anything with High Numbers. The burlap you see here are all High Number Cubs that I didn't have yet. Last year's Heritage has plenty of holes for me, and Brandon Morrow filled one here.
Some cool inserts here. I really like the refractor look of the 1983 inserts in last year's Chrome
And speaking of refractors, here are some that Kerry threw in. I really like the Derrek Lee and Willson Contreras cards. I do have to say, though, that I think I preferred it when the pink refractors had only a pink border and not a pink everything. Logoless Yu Darvish proves that to me here in Donruss Optic.
And now, for my first 2019 cards, starting with the jumbo pack.
Ronald Acuna became my first 2019 card. That's a pretty good pull to kick off the year, and it slides right into my ROY binder.
There were a few more keepers in this pack. Masked, flying superhero Albert Almora makes a great shot on his card. Jacob deGrom is in my collection, but this is the first time I've seen him on a card without his billowy hair.
I pulled one insert and a parallel from the jumbo pack. The Mikolas might go right back to Kerry, if he wants it. I really am not a fan of the 150 years stamp on the cards, but here is one.
The blaster yielded some more Cubbies. Javier Baez is my current favorite Cub, and this card is an early frontrunner for my favorite card of the year.
The picture turned out really blurry, but here are some more keeper cards from the blaster. I like the idea of Spring Training themed inserts, but this particluar Grapefruit League Greats sets comes off kind of flat to me. As for the other insert, I'm normally kind of lukewarm toward players sharing cards, but how great is the combination of Mike Trout and Ronald Acuna! I don't know what kind of career Acuna will have when it's all said and done, but he will always have a spot in my collection, along with Trout.
Here are some other cards I liked for one reason or another. I think my favorite here is Didi Gregrorius sliding through the border, right off the cardboard, and into your face.
More cards I like, this time in horizontal form. I love that the photographer just caught the ball from Zack Godley's pitch right before it slipped out of the frame.
Here are the rest of the inserts. Most of these are up for trade, although I think I'll hold on to the Clemente and play the Home Run Challenge with Matt Carpenter. What date should I choose? Definitely not one against the Cubs. I could never root for that. I already mentioned that I don't care for the 150 Year stamp, but I do like Jose Altuve. I'll admit that the stamp does seem to add a little to the card in this case.
I know I'm way late to the game here, as everybody has already shown off their Flagship and is moving on to Heritage, but here is my thought. I like the design. I think it will one that I will be able to immediately recognize in the future. I think I liked 2018 waterslide/tidal wave a little more, but this one is certainly good to me.
Thanks to Kerry for the contest and the generous prize. In case you're wondering, these are still the last cards I have obtained, way back from the beginning of February. I am hitting a card show next Saturday, though. I haven't been to one in about a year, so I'm really looking forward to it. Maybe someday I'll even get around to posting what I pick up there.
Since I've gotten back into the hobby, I've made it a tradition to break something on the last day of school. I figure that if I'm going to break something, it is probably best for me to break some boxes of cards. This year, I used some Target gift cards to pick up a blaster each of 2018 Topps Heritage and 2018 Score football.
The blaster of Heritage came with a coupon for a free pack of Topps, so I picked up my first flagship of the year. Yes, it is May and I'm barely breaking into flagship this year.
I really like flagship this year, so that's not the reason I haven't gotten into it. Here is most of the free pack. Ozzie Albies seems to popping up in everything I open lately. I'll gladly take the Judge insert for my ROY collection.
Three horizontal heroes in the pack. Maybe I'll have Walker Buehler in my ROY collection by the end of the year, too? He sure looks impressive so far, and Dodgers always seem to win Rookie of the Year.
Now, on to Heritage.
A good homage to the great 1969 design. Here are a few of my favorite base cards from the box. I really like the Brantley with the blurred out Pirate? in the background. It's a nice change of pace from the posed shots, but doesn't seem to break the '69 mold too much. Darvish is now struggling with the Cubs, so I like having the card documenting his short-term stop with the Dodgers.
Only two Cubs in the box, but two good ones to pull.
All the cards I pulled in the box that fit into my various player collections were of the ROY type. Both Jose Abreus came from the same pack. I didn't notice until I was typing this that the photo used in both cards was the same. I think my favorite card of the entire box is the Carlos Correa. It looks like it should be some kind of SP or photo variation.
I already showed two All-Star subsets, but here are the other three I pulled. I really like these cards. They look really sharp and the black and white action shot in the background is a nice touch. I might just hang on to these, whether I collect the player or not.
Rookies from the box. Another Albies jumps out at me, but I think the biggest name may be Miguel Andujar. He's one of the many exciting young Yankees that is making it harder for me to dislike them anymore.
As per the odds, I expected 2-3 SPs, and that is what I got. Not the biggest names, but this year's SPs aren't all the big names, unlike some years past. I have to admit, however, that I have no clue who Vince Velasquez is.
Finally, here are the inserts from the box. I don't really like the 1969 Collectors Cards, but Scherzer isn't a bad guy to pull. I love the deckle edge cards, but the star of this show is obviously Harper. In all, I don't feel that I hit it big with SPs or inserts, but this box brought me a lot of good new cards for my collections. I might pick up some more Heritage later, but right now I'm not planning on getting too much into it this year, even though I like the '69 design. Next post will feature the second half of my End of School Celebratory Break.
It's well-documented on this blog that I'm a Cubs fan. I'm not an impartial observer, so when I say that last year's World Series was one of the best ever, you can take that with a grain of salt. But last year we saw lead changes, both in games and in the series, and an epic extra innings Game 7. Of course, the outcome was the best I could ever hope for, so it was extra sweet and exciting.
This year was something else, though. Sure there were lead changes galore. The series went the distance again. But this one felt weird, not necessarily great. The late game lead changes felt like wild and crazy, one-off occurrences. Then they happened again. But the craziest thing happened tonight. Lance McCullers's stat line was a microcosm of the strangeness of this World Series. Lance McCullers HIT more batters than he struck out, but still left the game with a 5-run lead, and wasn't awarded the win. That's insane.
I was pulling a little for the Dodgers, but I'm still okay with a Houston win. As of the writing of this post, the MVP award has yet to be awarded, but my money is on George Springer. A few years ago, I thought I would be collecting Springer as a Rookie of the Year, but he didn't make quite the splash I expected. I still think he's one heck of an exciting player. I'll show a couple of my favorite Springer cards as I give my congratulations to the Houston Astros and their fans.
Custom mini, big series for George Springer. He certainly took his opportunity to shine. Enjoy it, Houston! No city needs something like this more.
I love this time of year. The weather is beautiful--cool, but still not chilly. The leaves are turning. School is starting, which is one of the best parts of the year for a teacher. Fall is football, crisp days at the stadium. And it is postseason baseball. I suppose you could add in the beginning of basketball season, which is only important to me because my boys are into it. But right now I'm enjoying mid-season form in football and the excitement of the World Series. In honor of this smorgasbord of sportitude, I have some cards to show off from both football and baseball.
I honestly have no idea where these cards came from. I've had them in my Google Photos album for months. I imagine that they came from some Trading Card Database trade, but I can't find any of my past trades that include these cards. They are a mystery to me. So if you sent me these cards and are now reading these, step up and take credit so I can give you a proper thank you!
Just for the heck of it, let's switch between the sports here. I'll start with an addition of Cubbies. I love the eX insert of Gracie at the top. It's a beautiful card. I also love the Pacific legends set and I would love to complete the set, but I know I will probably never chase it.
Two of my favorite brands in the mid-90s were Pinnacle and Collector's Choice. As a kid, I could always afford Collector's Choice. I could rarely buy Pinnacle. Here I add some legends from that decade in those two products.
Or how about some double whammies? These players are both Cubs and ROYs. Where do they go in my collection? Well, since my ROY pages of Nomah and Walton are full already, they will find a home in my Cubs binders.
The Cubs have been represented, so now the Packers want in. And what a Reggie White promo card wants, a Reggie White promo card gets. This is one of my new favorite Reggies. I never had a clue it existed until I obtained it. A Lambeau Leap is also always welcome.
Baseball comes back with some additions to my All-Star MVP collection. I
like to collect these players in the uniforms for the teams the played
for at the time of their MVP award. For Crawford and Soriano, this is
a more difficult task for me because the decade of 2000-2010 I collected
absolutely nothing.
These are my first cards of McAda and Mealey, neither of whom stuck around too long. In fact, I now own 1/3 of all Ronnie McAda cards ever produced. But my favorite here is the Bubba Franks rookie. Here's why:
Bubba Franks just became a guy for me to target on cardboard because he himself "has an extensive baseball card collection." I love hearing about players who collect. I wonder if Franks still collects or just has a collection leftover from childhood? Either way, it was important enough to be included in the back of his rookie card and I appreciate it.
On that note, I'll send you off with some baseball cards that, who knows?, Bubba Franks might just have in his extensive baseball card collection.
Yes, it's a good season to be a sports fan. I hope you all enjoy Halloween, the rest of fall, and Game 6 tonight!
Yesterday I wrote about my propensity to take my library books back late. I'm going to keep myself from being too late today by writing up my National Baseball Card Day haul before it becomes a distant memory. I missed NBCD last year due to complete ignorance. I had no idea that you could go to a card shop and get some special cards last year. Thanks to Bo for his alert, I knew about it this year. However, I didn't know whether or not I was going to participate. I was scheduled to attend a family reunion that day in a city that was the opposite direction from the LCS. My wife wouldn't have been thrilled to have me travel 20 miles south, just to come back and head north to the reunion just to get some free cards. As it just so happens, a last-minute invitation to take my sons camping with some friends solved the problem. I packed up the gear and went camping on Friday night, knowing that I would have to leave the site early enough on Saturday to get cleaned up and go to the reunion. While on the road, a realization came to me that the LCS was only about two miles from the mouth of the canyon. So Saturday morning, as we came down off the mountain, I told my boys about National Baseball Card Day, and they were excited. We pulled into the parking lot about 5 minutes after they opened, and we each picked out an item to purchase. We made it home in time enough to get unpacked and bathed and were only late to the reunion by about 10 minutes. Not bad, eh?
As for our actual purchases, my oldest boy took a grab bag of basketball cards. My youngest boy chose a pack of Pokemon cards. I opted for a grab bag of football cards, knowing that this shop owner puts a filler hit and a few unopened packs into each grab bag. So on National Baseball Card Day, I got some football to bust.
I was surprised when I opened my grab bag. Instead of a lot of loose cards with a hit and a pack, there were only a few loose cards with three unopened packs. These mid-90s cards of mid-level players are pretty representative of the cards in the grab bag.
The three packs were 2 packs of 2016 Score and one of this year's Donruss. Let's take a look.
The first Score pack featured a couple of Ohio State rookies and a great grab by Jaelen Strong. I think Strong is the only keeper in this pack, and it will go in my miscellaneous cool cards binder. The rest will be relegated to the trade bait box.
The inserts in this pack were better, with two parallels of inserts and and two inserts featuring two of the greatest QBs of all-time. Not too shabby here.
Pack #2 contained another Ohio State rookie along with a hometown hero in Devontae Booker. However, Booker played for the wrong hometown team and I'll be looking for a Ute fan who wants this card ASAP.
The inserts in this pack also included two parallels. Was that the standard insertion rate for a Hobby packs? After seeing Tom Terrific and Peyton fall out of the same pack, these players don't create too much excitement, though they are great players in their own rights. I guess it was just a tough act to follow.
The last pack was my first look at 2017 Donruss. I like the base cards more than I thought I would. The backs without full stats drive me crazy, the fronts look pretty clean. One thing that has puzzled me for the last two years is the two different rookie card designs, which you can see on the bottom. Please, Panini, either make them all Rated Rookies or make them all base cards, but please don't do both. Personally, I would do them all as Rated Rookies so they were set apart.
This pack contained two inserts. I've never heard of Carlos Henderson, but I like the Mariota a lot. He's an exciting young player and I hope he continues to improve.
My hit for the grab bag was a J.P. Losman patch. I know that the player isn't great, and nobody collects the Bills, but that's still a cool patch with some nice stitching showing. It's numbered to 50, so it's not at all bad.
Enough of the football. It's National Baseball Card Day, right? All three of us got our free packs. I have to say, my kids had much better luck. My oldest ended up with a pack consisting of Bryce Harper, Kris Bryant, Corey Seager, Giancarlo Stanton, and Brandon Crawford. Pretty good lineup, eh? My younger son got Paul Goldschmidt, Bryce Harper, Chris Sale, Yoan Moncada, and Joey Votto. Considering my kids love 4 players:--Bryce Harper, Paul Goldschmidt, Anthony Rizzo, and Kris Bryant-- and they got 3 of those 4, I was happy for them. I think they fared better than I.
I collect Seager and I got the Trout, but otherwise, I don't have much interest in these other players. Of course, I won't look a gift horse in the mouth and free cards are free cards, so I'm good. But if you are collecting the set and could use any except for Seager and Trout, let me know.
A few weeks ago, I posted my (secondary) all-time favorite baseball players. Now it is time to reveal a team of my favorite baseball players of all-time. I had two rules for myself as I made this list: first, they had to have played during my lifetime. Second, they had to be non-Cubs. By this, I mean that they did not make their name or will not be remembered as a Cub. Some of them may have spent some time on the roster, but they were not primarily Cubs. I plan to make a Cubs team at a later date.
Well, enough of that. This is it. On to the team . . .
Catcher: Jason Kendall
Why don't we start out with a bit of a surprise? Jason Kendall is one of the guys who once played for the Cubs, but he was not primarily a Cub. Kendall became a favorite of mine for one main reason: he was a catcher who could run. For three straight years, from 1998-2000, Kendall stole over 20 bases. My second team catcher, recent HOF inductee Pudge Rodriguez, stole over 20 bases once in his career. In fact, if you remove all players who started their careers before 1920, Jason Kendall stole more bases than any other catcher. His 189 steals beats the closest competitor, Carlton Fisk, by 62. And Fisk played in almost 500 more games than Kendall! While his running ability caught my eye, Kendall was no slouch behind the plate, either. He ranks 2nd all-time (behind Pudge) in putouts by a catcher. After he left Pittsburgh at the age of 30, though, he started to fall off, as catchers are wont to do. Still, I think for a guy who spent 15 years in the Majors, he doesn't get enough credit for being the great player he was.
1st Base: Todd Helton
Now we get to the infield, where every player would probably be a Cub if I hadn't restricted myself. Barring Cubs, Todd Helton is my favorite first baseman of all-time. I have a soft spot for the Rockies, as they were the closest team to my town as soon as they entered the league. Put that together with the fact that Helton played college football, and you have a player that I will likely follow. Helton had two of the qualities I like to see in a first baseman, power and contact. Helton may have hit a lot of home runs, but he was also a good contact hitter. He posted 12 seasons with an average over .300, and even flirted with .400 in 2000 while leading the league with a .372 average. Once again, I think I gravitate toward players that I feel are a bit underrated.
2nd Base: Chase Utley
As I mentioned in my 2nd-Team post, this position was difficult for me. In the end, I decided on Utley because I have always admired his grit and tenacity while playing at a high level. I know that this will be a controversial decision due to Utley's reputation as a dirty player, but I think he plays hard more than he plays dirty. I know the blogs lit up a couple of years ago over Utley and his takeout slide on Ruben Tejada, and I know of some bloggers who defended him and some who took great personal offense over his actions. Let me just say that yes, I believe Utley crossed a line on that play. The slide was late and hard, and he caused a serious injury. I don't believe his intent was to injure, but he was absolutely in the wrong. That said, 13 years of scrappiness and 6 All-Star appearances before that play had already solidified Utley in my mind as a great player.
3rd Base: Chipper Jones
Chipper was kind of a no-brainer here for me. This position could change in time, given the tremendous amount of talent at 3rd base right now, but Chipper is a big part of my adolescence. I remember I had a friend in junior high who was obsessed with Chipper and the Braves. I never became a Braves fan, but he piqued my interest in the player and I always respected the way he played the game. There was no flash and fanfare--just a consistent "do your job" mentality. He finished his career with a .303 average and just shy of 500 homers. He should be a first-ballot Hall of Famer in a few years.
Shortstop: Cal Ripken, Jr.
Cal Ripken had the persona that was everything good about baseball to me. As a kid, I admired his consistency and his great play. I remember magazine articles about how he would spend more time than anybody else signing for kids before and after games, and he was always so nice about it. I don't have any firsthand experience with this, unfortunately, but I do remember the impact it made on me to read it. He is one of the main reasons the All-Star Game became a tradition in my family and that I decided to collect All-Star MVPs. We were watching when he won the MVP in 1991, and it has more or less stuck since. When Cal was elected to the Hall of Fame in 2007, he received 98.5% of the vote, the third-highest percentage ever received.
Left Field: Rickey Henderson
Purely coincidentally, my top three outfielders just happen to make up a pretty good outfield without playing out of position. Rickey will take left field for me. I remember distinctly when I first started to learn who some baseball players were, and Rickey Henderson was one of the first that I really liked. One of my favorite mental images from my childhood is that of Rickey Henderson holding up the bag after breaking the stolen base record. And though I've always admired guys who look like they're just out there having fun, Rickey seemed to me like he was all business. I admire that too.
Center Field: Mike Trout
Trout is the youngest player on this team, and one of only a handful of active players that I considered. My honorable mention list is filled with active players, but most of them haven't overtaken the older guys yet. I have a couple of thoughts on why this would be. My first thought is that they haven't proven themselves yet. They are talented, but I don't know if I've seen enough of them to call them all-time favorites. The second thought is that it's hard to beat nostalgia. Whether I'm considering a player who I remember fondly from those days when baseball players were more than people or from the days of my early adulthood when I started understanding the nuances of the game better than I had before, I think those players have a leg up on the guys who are younger than I and play similarly to anybody else I've ever seen. Mike Trout transcends all those thought processes. I grew up hearing about how there were just a special few players in history who could do everything and do it well. Ty Cobb was one. Willie Mays may have been the best. From all I've seen of Mike Trout in his relatively short career thus far, I believe that he could be the best ever. He does it all, and better than most that I've seen. Coming in after some of the haze of the Steroid Era, and after so many of its players had left, Trout represents a new generation to me, and I'm even more impressed that he is not under suspicion for using the PEDs that helped so many players of my childhood accomplish more. Plus, he's just having fun, doggone it. He is currently my favorite player, apologies to all my fellow Cubbie faithful and my boys in blue.
Right Field: Tony Gwynn
When I was in 7th grade, I gave up baseball. I wish now that I had kept playing, but at the time I was super frustrated after having played 8 years from T-ball and up and having the same problem: I couldn't hit the ball! I was a decent fielder. I was tall for my age, so my reach gave me some advantage at first base, especially with all the errant throws of little league. But I struggled to make contact consistently at the plate. I was tired of batting 8th or 9th every game, and I "retired" with exactly zero home runs. Why do I mention this? Because it adds to the mystique of Tony Gwynn in my mind. How could somebody make contact almost every single time? He was the master hitter of my childhood. He hardly ever struck out, it seemed. Seriously, the man spent 20 years in the Majors and only struck out 434 times. That doesn't even put him in the Top 1000 of career strikeouts. After two decades! To add some perspective, the newest member of the 3000 Hit Club, Adrian Beltre, reached Tony Gwynn's career strikeout total midway through his sixth season, almost 15 years ago. I'm not saying anything against Beltre here; rather, I'm using his stature as a pretty good hitter himself to show just how rare it was to put Gwynn out on strikes. The card above sums up feelings for Tony Gwynn completely: RESPECT.
Right-Handed Pitcher: Nolan Ryan
By the time I started to gain an interest in baseball, Nolan Ryan's career was winding down. He was over 40 years old, but that didn't stop him from throwing a baseball harder than just about anyone and even pitching a no-hitter. Plus, I had a card of him wearing a cowboy hat and working a ranch. Now, I come from a rodeo family; my mother's brothers and sons were all professional bronc and bull riders at some point. The point of familiarity with Ryan's lifestyle solidified my fandom. In recent years, it has been re-fortified by the documentary Fastball. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend checking it out on Netflix. Nolan Ryan's longevity, durability, and toughness are mind-blowing. As the documentary points out, Ryan was pretty much his own reliever. For decades. The man is almost super-human.
Left-Handed Pitcher: Randy Johnson
I love two things about Randy Johnson. First, I love the fact that he battled control problems early in his career and overcame them. I like success stories like that. Second, the bird. Man, I don't know how many times I watched the video of The Big Unit just smoking that poor bird in one of the most bizarre cosmic coincidences I've ever seen occur on the baseball diamond. By that time, I already recognized him as one of the top pitchers of my era, but a memory like that will stick in the mind of an adolescent boy.
Relief Pitcher: Dennis Eckersley
Eckersley was a Cub, but I never knew him as a Cub. I don't think the Cubs are the first team many people think of when they think of Eckersley. He was also a good starter. But that was before I knew Dennis Eckersley. When I first became aware of Eck, he was a dominant closer for the A's. I loved watching him pitch. He had that intimidating "don't mess with me" glare and a distinctive throwing motion that I really liked. For me, he was the first closer that I knew, and he was good one to know.
Designated Hitter: Jim Thome
I mentioned before that I'm a National League guy. I don't care much for the DH. But, just as I decided to use it on this team so I could fit Frank Thomas on the team, I couldn't leave off one of the players that I respect the most. Jim Thome was a model of consistency and quiet greatness. For years he just did his thing and never garnered the accolades he probably deserved. I remember in 2011 win he hit his 600th home run, and I couldn't believe that he had hit that many. His final total of 612 currently sits at 7th all-time. All the while, I would have never guessed that Jim Thome would have ended up in the top 10 by the end of his career. Quiet greatness is an attribute I greatly admire.
So, there you have it. The All Bump and Run Baseball 1st Team. These may not be the best players ever, but they are all guys that I have seen play in my lifetime and admired for some reason or another. Now it's your turn. Who are your favorite players from your lifetime?
