The Beginning of the Bryzzo Brexit

I have been dreading July 30th since April. The Cubs' brass has made little secret of their desire to cut costs and start a rebuild of the team. This stings a bit because the core of the team that has been designated as too expensive to keep just happens to be the core that brought home the Cubbies' only championship in the lifetime of virtually any person currently on earth. When they won the championship, I was elated, but also surprised. It seemed that the squad of youngsters had arrived ahead of schedule. Kyle Schwarber, Kris Bryant, Addison Russell, Jorge Soler, Javier Baez, and Willson Contreras were all rookies or second-year players when they won it all. It seemed like that core would only grow stronger as they matured and I expected more future success as they hit their primes. Now here we are, five years later and those players have hit their primes and their contract years. They have been good enough to win a few division titles, but with no more postseason success. They have also been good enough to all get paid, and the sad reality is that the Cubs couldn't--or wouldn't--pay them all. So the decision was made to blow it up and move on. I've been less than excited about the prospect of saying goodbye to some of the most special players in the history of my fandom, but it's happening.

None of these guys are Cubs anymore.

I know it wasn't the first trade the Cubs made this season. And I know that some of the aforementioned youngsters left the team before this year. But the departure of Anthony Rizzo the day before the deadline marked the beginning of the Cub-pocalypse that I was expecting. 

 

Cub-pocalypse it was, as they seemed determined to raze the thing down to the final brick. Just consider this: they let Kyle Schwarber walk in free agency this winter, replaced him with Joc Pederson (who is essentially the same player), then traded Schwarber's replacement this month. In a strange twist of fate, both Schwarber-style players were traded by their respective employers. A similar situation happened with Jon Lester and Trevor Williams, though they aren't as similar as Schwarber and Pederson. This team was never meant to stay together in any way, shape, or form. I knew that. I was expecting that. It was still shocking to see them give up on retaining the entire trio of Rizzo, Baez, and Bryant.

Rizzo was the shocker to me. He's been with the team the longest and I didn't expect him to be dealt first. Perhaps as a coping mechanism in the aftermath of the trades, I took to scanning my collection of these players to share. This will be scan-heavy with little commentary beyond mentioning a few cards. I don't have any mega-hits in my collection. This is just my tribute to say, "Thank you," to the players whose achievements have meant the most to me as a fan.

My favorite card here is the rookie. It showcases Rizzo's somewhat awkward straight-up batting stance.

I think my favorites on this page are the 1990-style Archives and playful Rizzo at the Home Run Derby.

2019 Topps Tribute wins here, as I have so few Tribute cards.

I'm going with the great stadium shot on Stadium Club here.

I like the simple A&G pose here.

Now we start to get into non-base cards. My favorite here is the Heritage Chrome.

I like the 5-Tool card in this group, though Rizzo has never been a five-tool player.

In the last group, my favorite is a toss-up between the Fire En Fuego and the DK Aficionado.

Thursday's Rizzo trade marked the end of Bryzzo, the most fun baseball duo this side of Adrian Beltre and Elvis Andrus. We'll miss you in Wrigleyville, Anthony!

Rookie of the Year Spotlight: Albie Pearson

Some of the collections I have been working on over the years are starting to get filled out and my goals are being reached. As a result, I'm starting to slow down a little when it comes to acquiring many cards for some of my mini-collections. Now that the collection is filling more and more complete, I wanted to start showcasing the cards I have, player by player.

 

One such collection is my Rookie of the Year collection. I love collecting players who have won the award as the top newcomer in each league. This wasn't born of hot rookie hype and the desire to prospect. Rather, I became fascinated thinking about the careers of guys like Eric Karros, Jerome Walton, and Tim Salmon, who experienced varying degrees of success but may not have become superstars. I thought it would be fun to have a collection that chronicles the individual career journeys of rookie stars--whether they burned bright and flamed out quickly, regressed to the mean, or wended their way to Cooperstown.

 

My goal has been to fill a binder page for each player who won the award in my lifetime and to fill a row for older players. I may expand that later as I expand my vintage collection. The ultimate goal of my binder is to show a card from every different uniform the player wore, from fresh-faced rookie to grizzled vet. This series is to commemorate each Rookie of the Year's career and show my collection of their cards. I placed all of the past winners into random.org and got my order. The next player up is:

 

Albie Pearson

So the first two top rookies called up by the randomizer are winners from the 1950s who I've never seen play. Albie Pearson won the award in 1958 while with the Washington Senators. He batted .275 in his freshman season, knocking 25 doubles and three home runs. He hit 33 RBI, walked 64 times, and struck out 31 times. As the team's regular centerfielder, he finished his rookie season second in the league in outfield putouts.

Following up his Rookie of the Year performance, Pearson dropped off a bit. He was traded to Baltimore halfway through his second season. After hitting .264 in 128 games for the Orioles, Pearson was taken with the fourth pick in the 1960 expansion draft, joining the Angels for their inaugural season.

He played the best seasons of his career in California. In six seasons, he compiled a 13.1 WAR and made one All-Star appearance, in 1963. In his All-Star season, he batted a career-high .304, good for third in the league. The same year, he finished second in putouts as an outfielder. He also led the league in runs scored the year before.

After the 1966 season, his career came to an end. In all, he played 988 games over nine seasons for three teams. The 1961 Topps card above is my only Pearson card. I still need one each representing the Senators and the Orioles.

Paying It Forward Again

A couple of weeks ago, I made a post expressing my gratitude for the benevolence found among card bloggers and the TCDB community. I put up what I had hoped to be the first of several card giveaways. Thank you to all who claimed some! (Sidebar: John Sharp, if you're reading, I still need your address to send you your claim.) Afterward, the card community showed what they were all about once again.

Reader Randy claimed some cards from my post. About a week later I received a RAK from him, out of the blue. He sent a note saying he had found these cards on my TCDB wantlist.

We have Rookie of the Year Pat Zachry, All-Star Frankenset filler Dan Petry, and former BYU Cougar Wally Ritchie. Thanks, Randy!

Then one of my TCDB trades came in last week. Among other cards were these three awesome college cards.

 

 

The trade was packaged in a 9-pocket page in PWE. The bottom row of the page had a sticky note saying these cards were extras from my wantlist. The note ended with "PIF."

 

So I'm going to keep paying it forward. The same deal as last time: make a claim in the comments and make sure I have your mailing address.

 

We'll start with some football.

 

Group 1

Group 2

Group 3

Group 4

 

Group 5

And we'll end with some baseball.

Group 6

Group 7

Group 8

Group 9

Group 10

Also, any unclaimed cards from the last giveaway are still available. Just let me know if you want anything. If I don't have your current address, please email it to me at tntcardsstg at gmail. Hope you find something you like!

Baseball at Its Best

Last night was a beautiful night for baseball in the Mountain West. In the middle of an unprecedented heat wave, yesterday was overcast and cooler. The smoke drifting over from Oregon and California, while tragic, actually helped set the atmosphere. The smoke-filled skies helped cool things down and made for some beautiful colors as the sun set. Against this backdrop, baseball's best met at Coor's Field in the annual All-Star Game. The Midsummer Classic has been a tradition for me since I was a kid, and the reason behind one of my biggest collection focuses, All-Star Game MVPs. The All-Star Game is the single biggest MLB game of the year to me.

Except last night, for the third straight All-Star Game, I wasn't watching.

Since my boys got to be old enough to play Little League, their state tournaments have coincided with the All-Star Game every year. So while the MLB All-Stars played, I was watching this game, also played in the Rocky Mountains.

 

Didn't I tell you it was a perfect night for baseball? This is my second son, Gavin, who singled, scored, lined out to third, and grounded out to shortstop on the night. His team advanced to the semi-finals, so they have two games tonight to play for the Utah Mustang League (3rd & 4th grade) state title. I may have missed the All-Star Game, but there was nowhere I would have rather been.

But congrats to Vladimir Guerrero, Jr., who took home MVP honors and joined my list of PC players. He hit a solo home run and an RBI ground out to help the AL win (again).

Unfortunately for me, I haven't held on to every Vlad Jr. I've pulled, so these three cards are all I have outside of set builds to start my ASG MVP PC. But welcome to the club, Vlad!

Meanwhile tonight, while the professional baseball world remains quiet, I'll be cheering on the Salem Mets. It doesn't get any better than that.

Rookie of the Year Spotlight: Harvey Kuenn

Some of the collections I have been working on over the years are starting to get filled out and my goals are being reached. As a result, I'm starting to slow down a little when it comes to acquiring many cards for some of my mini-collections. Now that the collection is filling more and more complete, I wanted to start showcasing the cards I have, player by player.

 

One such collection is my Rookie of the Year collection. I love collecting players who have won the award as the top newcomer in each league. This wasn't born of hot rookie hype and the desire to prospect. Rather, I became fascinated thinking about the careers of guys like Eric Karros, Jerome Walton, and Tim Salmon, who experienced varying degrees of success but may not have become superstars. I thought it would be fun to have a collection that chronicles the individual career journeys of rookie stars--whether they burned bright and flamed out quickly, regressed to the mean, or wended their way to Cooperstown.

 

My goal has been to fill a binder page for each player who won the award in my lifetime and to fill a row for older players. I may expand that later as I expand my vintage collection. The ultimate goal of my binder is to show a card from every different uniform the player wore, from fresh-faced rookie to grizzled vet. This series is to commemorate each Rookie of the Year's career and show my collection of their cards. I placed all of the past winners into random.org and got my order. The first player up is:

Harvey Kuenn

Harvey Kuenn made his Major League debut in 1953, playing in 19 games for the Tigers. The next year, he became the club's regular shortstop. He made an immediate impact, leading the league in plate appearances and hits while batting .308. He made the first of eight consecutive All-Star games in his rookie season.

Kuenn ran away with the Rookie of the Year award. He received 23 of 24 votes; the lone vote for another player went to Boston outfielder Tom Umphlett.

For his career, Kuenn played 15 seasons for 5 teams. He spent his first 8 seasons with Detroit, making the All-Star team in every one of them except his 19-game cup of coffee in 1953. Before the 1960 season began, he was traded to the Indians for Rocky Colavito. He spent only one year in Cleveland, making another All-Star team while batting .308 again. The next year he was on the move again, this time being traded to San Francisco for Johnny Antonelli and Willie Kirkland. He appeared in 515 games over five seasons for the Giants before being shipped to the Cubs in a mid-season trade. By this time, his bat was in decline. At the time of his trade to Chicago, the career .304 (to that point) hitter was batting a measly .237. That season, he played fewer than 100 games for the first time in his career, and he would never reach that milestone again. The Phillies bought his contract in 1966, and he finished his career that season in Philadelphia. Kuenn led the league in hits four times, doubles three times, and batting average once (a .353 mark in 1959). Baseball Reference gives him a career WAR of 26.0.

After his playing career, Kuenn went on to manage the Brewers in 1982 and 1983, not counting one game as manager in 1975. He posted a career record of 160-118 and won the AL pennant in 1982.

The three cards above are not the only ones I have of Harvey Kuenn. His 1966 Topps card is in my Cubs binder. To fully chronicle his career in my ROY binder, I still need another Cubs card, along with the Indians, Giants, and Phillies.

I hope you enjoyed this post. I plan to highlight each Rookie of the Year winner through the course of this series.

Let Me Show My Appreciation (A Giveaway)

Last week, my father-in-law shared this screenshot to our family group text thread.

With it, he expressed his wish that more thoughtful acts of kindness like this one occurred in our world. He was impressed that somebody took the time to write a note to thank the eBay seller a letter of thanks. I, too, appreciate seeing the gesture and I echo the sentiment that the world would be a better place with more kindness, generosity, and graciousness. My thoughts immediately turned to the card collecting community that I know, and I see those random acts of kindness all the time. Bloggers frequently do giveaways; TCDB has a "Pay It Forward" thread on its forum that is constantly being updated; the blogs are full of posts that thank the senders of various cardboard goodies. My hobby world is filled with the acts of kindness my father-in-law wishes he could see more of.

Like this, for example:

I recently claimed these two cards from Jay at Card Hemorrhage during his latest Free Card Friday. Thanks, Jay!

To show my appreciation for all of the good in the Internet cardsphere, I'm going to be doing several giveaway posts. I feel a little self-conscious doing this type of thing because I feel like I never have any good trade bait that people would want. But if you see something you do like, claim it!

Group 1:

Group 2:

Group 3:

All of these are parallels of some type.

Group 4

Anybody ready to play with some Toys R Us?

Group 5

Or some old stickers?

Group 6

Some horizontals

Group 7

Any takers on everyone's favorite yellow set?

Group 8

Some non-sport and a Dave Winfield pin

Group 9

A bunch of 2013 Bowman football

Group 10

Or 2013 Bowman Black

 

There you have it. If there is anything you want, tell me in the comments. If I don't have your address, email me at tntcardsstg at gmail. I'll send your claims via PWE. My goal is to do several of these before summer is over, just to say, "Thank you," to all you great people out there who put so much goodness into the hobby.

Overdue TCDB Roundup (Part 3 ) + Some eBay Cougars

I love collecting BYU football players. Over the past few years, it has been my favorite collection to grow. It feels like college connections are less common than pro fandoms among collectors, so barring the few NFL superstars that the school has produced, I usually have little competition in getting cards and many of my trading partners are probably happy to unload the common BYU cards I request in trades. But anybody who pays attention to football news probably realizes that this year, I will have competition for a certain young QB. Zach Wilson just became the highest NFL draft pick to ever come out of BYU, going #2 overall to the Jets. I anticipate that I'll have some trouble trying to pick up Zach Wilson cards at price points that I feel comfortable paying. But I have been at it already.

 

Leaf Draft dropped last month and I entered a player breaks, trying to score Wilson. I didn't win any breaks, but I was able to pick up both of his cards in the base set on eBay afterward. These two cards cost me just $2 shipped. Here's the crazy thing: I didn't read the listing carefully and I didn't realize that the All-American subset card was part of it. I thought I was only buying the one on the left. That was a nice surprise.

In the meantime, I bought another single of the All-American card. This was a surprise, too, because the seller sent me 3 copies. He included a note that said he sent all three because there was chipping along the left side on all three backs. But I wasn't too concerned about that. Now I just have three copies of this Wilson!

The one Leaf player break I did win was Matt Bushman, and I ended up getting lucky enough for auto. You know, BYU sent 12 players to the NFL this year, five drafted. At this time last year, I would have said only two players on the team were NFL-caliber: Bushman and Khyris Tonga. Then the team exploded into the national spotlight--and Bushman didn't even play. He suffered a season-ending injury on the first day of training camp last August. So for the hype surrounding the Cougs last season, Bushman missed it all, but still received a UDFA contract from the Raiders.

While searching for other Zach Wilson cards on the cheap, I came across these that are copyrighted by somebody called "Rookie Gems." Normally, I don't go for customs, but since I have seen other Rookie Gems on eBay, I figured they were probably decent quality. The artwork is pretty good, too, so I liked the look of them. Since I worry about finding any cards that I can afford, I decided to try these for the novelty of it.

Here are the backs. I have to say, these Rookie Gems cards, while well-designed, look much better in pictures on the computer screen than in-hand. The cardstock is awful and pretty much every custom I've ever received from you bloggers is higher quality. But at least they'll be somewhat unique in my collection.

Leaf brought back Pro Set this year, and I was happy to find this one in a Jets lot. For under $5, I picked this card up, along with some other Jets cards, including a Darrelle Revis rookie, a numbered relic of Revis, and a relic of Leonard Williams. How I was the only person to jump on this lot, I don't know.

My first cards that have all the licenses to include legitimate uniform photos came from Score. I was lucky enough to pick up this lot for around $3 per card. That happens to be more than I would like to spend, but it was reasonable to me, so I jumped on it. As more football releases have come out, the Zach Wilson cards I'm seeing are more expensive, so I'm glad I picked these up. My Wilson collection has a decent start now.

Chris Wilcox is another player I failed to win in a break. Luckily I found this lot for just a tad more than a dollar per card.

So I've been pretty busy on eBay, at least by my standards. But many of my TCDB trades this year have brought in some former Cougars. To finish my outstanding TCDB trade posts, we'll take a look at BYU players I've swapped some cards for.

Kyle Van Noy rookies. And I love that retro Bowman of all-time leading receiver, Cody Hoffman. For my money, I would have pegged John Beck to have a better NFL career than what I've seen from Zach Wilson, so I hope for Zach's sake I'm wrong. By the way, if you watched any BYU football games last year you probably heard about the Beck-Wilson connection, when Zach used his time off of campus during the pandemic to drive to California and train with Beck.

Taysom Hill. Will he beat out Jameis Winston to replace Drew Brees? If he didn't claim the job outright last year in his extended audition, I'm not sure it will happen. But Sean Payton seems to love him, so we'll see.

How about some Cougars with Super Bowl rings? McMahon, Gouveia, and Morris all have one. Vai Sikahema was the first Tongan to play in the NFL. Ronney Jenkins didn't finish his college career at BYU because he transferred to Northern Arizona, but he managed to score 29 total TDs in his two seasons with the Y.

Some baseball Cougars and a pair of football players who found themselves playing in Canada. Sweet CFL cards.

And we'll end with these former BYU baseball players. And speaking of baseball, I need to wrap this up to get my sons to their little league games tonight. Go Mets and White Sox (little league-wise, that is)!