Not Another Baseball Card Blog: Cards... Glorious Cards...

I've been corresponding with Richard from Toronto Blue Jays Collection by e-mail. He sent a bunch of cards and I got them today... It may take me a couple days to get through all of it, but I intend on getting through it!

So first post I think will deal with the cards from the 70s and the pile of 87 Topps that were sent.

So without further ado:

The first scan is a 1978 Topps of the first manager the Jays had, Roy Hartsfield, as well as the start of the 1979 group. Jerry Garvin and Joe Coleman.

Garvin was around for six years in a Jays uniform. Coleman was around for 31 games.

Here we have Tim Johnson, Jim Clancy, and Otto Velez.

Jim Clancy was a Jay since 1977 and was on the team until the end of 1988. He ended his playing career with the Atlanta Braves in 1991.

Otto Velez, nicknamed "Otto The Swatto" was a Jay from 1977 until 1982. As a Jay, he hit 72 of his 78 Home Runs.

Ahhh Tim Johnson.. Here he was a simple ball player. 1979 was his final year in the league until he came back as a manager in 1998.

I left him for last in this little grouping because his managerial career was much more interesting than his playing career. As motivation for the players, he'd tell stories about the Vietnam War and the things he saw over there. One minor problem though... He was a reservist. He also told people he was offered a basketball scholarship to UCLA. Of course.. Lies... All Lies.. He was gone in Spring Training in 1999.

Tom Murphy was a Blue Jay from part of 1977 on until he retired after 1979.

Dave McKay is better known as Tony LaRussa's third base coach. Again, he played for the Jays from 1977 until 1979. He's also Canadian.

Mike Willis played for the Jays from 1977 until 1981. There's not really much to say about him. Again a typical expansion draft pickup..

Balor Moore played for the Jays from 1978-1980. Injuries cut his career short.

Bob Bailor was the first pick in the Expansion Draft by the Jays. He was in Blue from 1977-1980.

Something interesting about Bailor: He went 51 at bats without a strikeout to start the season in 1977. He was eventually replaced in the outfield by Lloyd Moseby.

Rick Bosetti played for the Jays from 1978-1981. An interesting fact about Bosetti: On the four teams he played for (Philadelphia, St. Louis, Toronto, and Oakland) he was a teammate of Tom Underwood each time. He also had a stated goal of urinating in every outfield in the Majors.

Now the final 1979 card: Bump Wills.. One thing that's always fascinating is Error Cards. This little baby is an error card. Mr. Wills never played for the Jays, nor was he even acquired by them at any point. Topps printed the wrong team on the card. They did end up putting out a corrected version, shown below thanks to the wonderful Trading Card Database