Mail from Off Hiatus

I got a wonderful package in the mail today from Tony from Off Hiatus Baseball. I'm going to have to break it into two posts to cover the wonderfulness of this package. (Incidentally, your package is in the mail, as are for the rest of people I have trades with.. Again, sorry for the delays.. :( )

1978 and 1980 Jays team photos. I love these cards, especially from the earlier sets. 

Some 1979 Topps here. I always found the differing sizes of the Jays hat logos in some of the older cards interesting. In the 1977 set, every single one was a different size. Here we see a tiny one on Don Kirkwood's hat. It honestly looks like the whole uniform is airbrushed.. I don't know why though.

Incidentally, that Cruz/Kelly/Whitt is considered a Rookie Card, even though Whitt is also in the 1978 Rookie Catchers Card, also considered his Rookie.. Weird.. 

Here are some 1981 Topps I needed. 

1982 Topps.. Danny Ainge up there. As a baseball player, he's a very good basketball player. Also, Boomer Wells, but not the one everyone recognizes.. Greg Boomer Wells was a 1st baseman who didn't last long in MLB, but won a Triple Crown in Japan. 

The Jorge Bell is not a typo, by the way.. When he first made the majors, he had his name like that. After a few years, he Anglicized it to George. 

Some nice cards here. Most of these guys are Jays mainstays, but I have to keep reminding myself that Jorge Orta spent a year with the Jays. I just remember him as a Royal. Jim Gott was in the start of his career here, actually in the last season with the Jays in 1984.. 

Randy Moffitt spent the final year of his career with the Jays.. 

Some more 1984 Topps goodness. 

1986 Topps.. I'm only collecting the Jays and Expos from this set. Not a fan of this set at all.. 

Thanks again Tony for the wonderful cards. I hope you enjoy the ones you get in return.. 

Part 2 comes tomorrow.. 

Mail Days are Here Again

So yesterday I received a package in the mail from Richard at Toronto Blue Jays Collection. He's sent some items to me previously, and this time around, I got some gems.

Here we have an Upper Deck Grand Slam card from Denny's. Rather fitting, since they have their own Grand Slams... 

 

Now a couple Jose Canseco cards from when he was a Jay. He spent one season as a blue bird before turning into a Ray.. It's odd seeing Canseco with a number other than 33 though. 

Just doing a quick look on baseball-reference, it seems as though Canseco wore three numbers in his one season with the Jays.. 00, 33, and 44.. Interesting.. 

Some World Series Heroes! Hall of Famer Robbie Alomar and Pat Hengten. I know it's the design of the card, but I think not having two American Flags on these cards would work better.. 

I find the name hard to read in the scan. It's easier in hand.

 

Here's a parallel card of Roger Clemens that I had to do some searching for to figure out what it was. Basically it's the base UD card but foiled up and given a different number. Again, it looks better in hand. From my scan you can barely read the name. 

Just to break up the wall O' Jays, Here's Two Tim Wallach cards. Both showing the road uniforms from different eras. I still love that powder blue though.

Two Pacific Crown Royale cards. It's interesting what they can do with cards these days.. Here we have Carlos Delgado and Raul Mondesi in the uniforms worn between 1997-2002. I think these were my third favourite of the Jays' uniforms. I consider the one off 2003 uniforms the same as these, since the only difference was the "T with Flexing Muscle Jay" 

I had to enlarge this one just to show off the detail.. It does make it hard to read though.

A 1984 Fire Safety Jays card.. It's funny in a way. This is the first year the cards were put out. For the next few years, the design was exactly the same for the cards. The only difference being a different picture. It can make for tough cataloging.

Now some 1986 Donruss.. I think I should be pretty close to having them all now.. I'll have to look. 

Some 1987 Donruss.. Again, I think I'm close.. Will need to check.. 

And the last, but certainly not least card. I admit, I never get anything like these from packs. The closest thing I got was a Robin Yount silver border reproduction rookie card a couple years ago. 

Here again we have Mr. Carter wearing the 1997-2002 uniforms. So this would have to be from his final year in Toronto, 1997. 

Thank you again, Richard for the wonderful cards. I will have some 1994 Collector's Choice coming to you on Monday!

Canadians In the Majors: Larry Walker

I've been debating for a while if I want to cover more recent players and I came to the conclusion that there are certain players that no discussion of Canadians in the Majors would be complete without.. I'm covering one of those tonight: Larry Walker. 

Larry Walker was born in Maple Ridge BC and spent his youth playing hockey and baseball. 

Here is Maple Ridge 

And Maple Ridge based on where it is to Vancouver. 

He played hockey as a goalie, playing on the same team as Cam Neely. He played baseball on the Canadian National Junior Team when he was discovered by the Montreal Expos and signed in 1984. 

 

1990 was Walker's first full season. He finished 7th in Rookie of the Year voting that year, tied with teammate Marquis Grissom, and behind teammate Delino DeShields, all behind winner David Justice of the Atlanta Braves.

He improved over his rookie year in 1991 and in 1992, he played in his first All Star game and won his first Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards.



The Upper Deck card has Walker, Grissom, and DeShields in the old road blue uniforms.

1993 Upper Deck had teammates cards. Here we have the Rookie Threats from 1990 Upper Deck plus Dennis Martinez. These guys were the nucleus of the team that finished second in 1993. 

1994 everyone but Dennis were members of the team, and we all know how that went. They were in first place until the strike that ended the season. 

 

I had to include this card simply because of the pinstripe uniform. Well, that and I love these Home Field Advantage cards. This was from Walker's final season as an Expo. 

He played first base most of the 1994 season due to a shoulder injury, but played well enough to have consideration for the MVP vote, though he ended up 11th. 

1995 Walker signed with the Colorado Rockies, continuing to amass numbers heading toward stardom. 

In 1997, he won the MVP award, hitting .366, a league leading 49 homers, and 130 RBIs. He also was an All Star, Gold Glover, and Silver Slugger.

In 1998, he did something that hasn't been done by a Canadian in over 100 years: He won the batting title with a .363 average. Previously to Walker, the last Canadian to win was Tip O'Neill in 1887.

In 1999 he won his second consecutive batting title. 

In 2000 he had elbow problems that cost him most of the season. In 2001 he rebounded, winning his third batting title and getting selected to his final All Star Game. 

In 2004, Walker was traded to the Cardinals for Luis Martinez, Chris Narveson, and Jason Burch. 

2005 was his final season, After retirement, he continued to be involved, becoming a coach for Canada in the World Baseball Classic.. 

All told for his career, he was 

1-time MVP

5-time All Star

7-time Gold Glove winner

3-time Silver Slugger

9-time Tip O'Neill award winner 

1 Lou Marsh Trophy

1 ESPY for Best Baseball Player

Walker is also the leader for players born in Canada for Hits 2160, Doubles 471, Home Runs 383, RBIs 1311, and Stolen Bases 230. 

He was elected to Canada's Sports Hall of Fame in 2007 and Canada's Baseball Hall of Fame in 2009.  

  

Little Bit of Everything

Well, this has been a great time for mail. Another group of cards to highlight tonight

 

Some 1988 Topps All Star cards. Ozzie Smith and Tony Gwynn. Two I needed. 

 

Some 1989 Topps.. Both of Ozzie Smith. 

 

Two Studio 1991. Joe Carter and Tom Candiotti. The funny thing is Candiotti is shown in his Indians uniform. Of course, Candiotti was traded by the Indians to the Jays for the playoff push.. Obviously, The Twins won the 1991 series. 

 

Two Canadians. Kevin Reimer and Kirk McCaskill. I love these Fleer Ultra. It may be one I collect sometime. 

An Upper Deck Homefield Advantage card. I just find these interesting. As I mentioned, one thing I love is stadium cards. I also have a couple books on MLB stadiums. 

Tavo Alvarez. He ended up playing in two seasons for Montreal. He played in organized ball till 1998 before playing in Mexico. 

2008 Heritage Gary Carter. Great card, great player. 

Expos logo from 1991. I love the way this scanned.. Looks almost like it was in space or a snowstorm.. 

Now I have a few packages to send out to people, but I will not be able to until the 29th when I have money again. I apologize for the delay everyone. 

Incidentally, Defgav over at Baseball Card Breakdown is holding a contest.. Check it out! 

Mail Days Are Fun Days

I received a fair bit of cards through the mail last week from a couple sources. Today I'm looking at some cards sent by Crazie Joe, a regular trader of mine. 

In this batch, I got a couple 1989 Topps I needed for the set.

Some Expos. I know at one time I had that Alou, but a lot of my collection seemed to have gone away. I like that Ruskin card as well. 

Now we have some minor league Jays! Chris Carpenter had a nice MLB career, Pett didn't. 

Some more minor leaguer cards. I like the Gose, Guzman and Hentgen ones best. The Green is nice as well. I never saw minor league cards until I moved to where I am now, aside from the Independent Northern League Whiskey Jacks, 

Greg O'Halloran fits into two categories: Jay and Canadian. He's also the only player who hit the Majors. 

Finally we have a coach card. Honestly never heard of them, but I got a card of them!