Trades Part 2

So I received another package in the mail today from CrazieJoe. I'm glad it came in before Canada Post's workers holds everyone hostage in a tired ploy to get more money..

Anyway, in my last post, Joe mentioned he sent in two envelopes. I had received one at that point. I got the other today.

Two more 1987s off the list! 

Some of you may remember seeing the McCaskill card recently. While I did receive it prior to this one, I now have one for the set and one for my Canadian MLB players collection. 

We have some 1983 OPC cards and two 1979 cards. One Topps and one OPC. That Ed Herrmann is actually my first 1979 OPC card!

Thank you again, Joe!

Tomorrow I'm going to do something a little different. Maybe borrow from Tony at Off Hiatus for a day, if he doesn't mind. 

Trades And Other Things

Well, the day has come: I am on summer vacation. On one hand, it'll be nice to not have to get up at 5 am to go drive a 46 000 KG vehicle, but on the other hand, I will miss seeing the kids.. And the money lol..

But that's not what this is about today.. No today I want to show off the cards I received from CrazieJoe who is a fellow Canadian and blogger. We've made a few trades now and recently I went through his want list on Trading Card Database to see what I had that he wanted and sent off a package for "future considerations"

Well, those came in yesterday (I was too tired to even think about them yesterday so here I am today)

So two more knocked off the 1987 list! An Expos Scott Sanderson is nice. The rest are O Pee Chee cards that I forgot I had listed on my want lists. Of course, seeing that Fergie Jenkins puts me in a difficult spot: Do I put it in the set, or do I put it in my Canadians binder? I don't know.. 

The other thing I've been thinking about is taking part in the whole wallet card thing.. 

The problem is though.. I don't know what I want to carry in my wallet. I've been thinking about this one:

Partially because I like the photo. It's also a card from the year I was born: 1978. The third reason I've been thinking about this one: I have 6 extras. Plus the one I'm thinking about using... Plus the one in my collection. 

However, my over-thinking kicks in and tells me I shouldn't use this one because 1978 card. 

The other one I've been thinking about is this one:

The reasons:

I really got interested in baseball in 1992. 

The Montreal Expos don't exist anymore 

Scott Ruskin was probably the more forgettable player.

So of the two, what would you choose? I know neither one is a superstar player. 

1987 Topps and Some Other Stuff Part 2

As promised, here's the second part of what I received.

It's odd seeing Vida Blue in a different uniform than Oakland. Gary Pettis was a favourite player for me to use on Tony LaRussa baseball on the Genesis when I was younger. I always loved the slap/speed hitters. 

The Team Leaders cards were always interesting.. 

A couple players I remember here.. Mike Scott, while I never saw him play, I remember hearing about his no hitter in 1986. Fred Lynn in an Orioles uniform looks odd.. Candy Maldonado was a member of the 1992 champion Blue Jays. 

Maldonado is one of those odd ones for me.. I'm not really a fan of his. 

Will Clark! Tom Seaver! Eric Davis! Ron Guidry! Joe Orsulak? One of these things is not like the others.. lol 

Joe Orsulak I remember more as an Oriole. He also spent his final major league season with the Expos. 

Billy Jo Robidoux I only remember by name. I never saw him play, and from what I've seen on baseball reference, he wasn't an every day player to begin. 

Dave Lopes in an Astros uniform... Another of those "Wrong" uniform pictures. He's a Dodger to me. 

Mitch Webster I remember from nearer the end of his career. By the time I really became interested in Baseball, he was a Dodger, well past his time as a Jay or Expo. 

Jim Rice makes an appearance here as well. 

Some good ones here too: Willie Randolph. Dan Quisenberry, Brett Butler and Bill Madlock. Mike Moore I knew more as a member of the A's. 

I love the Beach Blanket uniforms the White Sox had. 

Dale Murphy! Bryn Smith I knew more as a member of the Cardinals. "Earnie" Riles. I knew Ernie more as a Giant. 

The Post-Tequila Sunrise Astros uniforms.. I still like them, but not as much as the previous. 

That's a rather interesting pitching motion by Larry McWilliams. It almost looks like he's about to go sidearm, but I may be mistaken. 

Dann Bilardello as an Expo. Fun fact: In 1994, he was a member of the Winnipeg Goldeyes of the Northern League. 

Spike Owen as an Red Sox. All Star cards! Joel Skinner as a Yankee. I only really remember him as an Indian.

We also have a young Tom Kelly here. 

Rafael Palmeiro! Phil Niekro. Gerald Perry! Ron Hassey.. 

Some other nice ones here.. Kirk Gibson, Tom Brunansky, Mike Witt, Bob Ojeda..

Bob Ojeda was a decent player who was unfortunate enough to be part of the accident that claimed the lives of Tim Crews and Steve Olin. 

I also received a number of cards from another person who e-mailed me. A lot of the cards ended up being duplicates (both had the idea of cutting my 1987 want list down) but there were some I didn't receive previously or received cards that were upgrades in condition. 

Some Jays as well!! We also have Bob Rodgers from when he managed the Expos. 

Finally, another set I'm trying to complete: 1992 Donruss.. 

Thanks again to both Peter and Bo! I have cards to send back in return. 

1987 Topps and Some Other Stuff

The last week has been very busy at work.. Near the end of the school year there's trips like crazy. Coupled with my normal run, I've been zombie-Mike. Today marks one week to the end of the school year. It also marks the end of my income (pretty much) till September. Should be fun :)

Anyway.. Going back to my title.. I received a couple e-mails regarding 1987 Topps. A reader sent me a message about a sizeable chunk of my wantlist. Another worked out a trade (I'm getting them out this weekend, I promise!)

So let's see what I have

We start with a group of pitchers. Lee Smith, Jose Rijo, and Dave Righetti were decent-to-very good pitchers. Lee Smith, for a stretch of 12 seasons, was actually the career saves leader, finishing with 478. Of course, Trevor Hoffman, then Mariano Rivera obliterated that record. 

Righetti had a brief, forgettable stint with the Jays in 1994. Bobby Thigpen held the single season saves record for years until he was removed by Francisco Rodriguez. Thigpen seemed to fall off the face of the planet after his record setting season. 

More pitchers, plus Steve Garvey and Jim Leyland. Now... What's that on Darryl Motley's card??

Topps actually produced a card with the "Now With..." printed on the front. Apparently they couldn't let O-Pee-Chee have all the fun. 

More Pitchers! Honestly, Ray Fontenot looks more like a science teacher or a musician than a baseball player in that picture. 

Roy Lee Jackson was a Blue Jay in the earlier portion of the 1980s. He also was on the opening credits to the edutainment show 3-2-1 Contact. 

Some nice ones here.. Lou Piniella looks like an umpire made a call he didn't like.. 

I've talked about McCaskill before. I love the Astros uniforms from the 70s to the 90s.. 

Mark Langston as a Mariner. He was traded to the Expos for a tall left-handed pitcher a few of you may have heard of.. Randy Johnson. Langston sputtered for the time he was an Expo and left for California.. We all know what Johnson did after leaving Montreal. 

Randy Myers as a Met! I forgot he was a member of the Mets. It's odd.. I always associate him as a Red or a Padre. He spent a combined 4 seasons with them.. He spent more time with the Mets, Cubs, and Orioles. He also spent a forgettable brief moment with Toronto. 

Well, I think I'm going to have to make this a multiple part post. Stay tuned for Part 2!

Canadians in the Majors: Nigel Wilson

In previous editions, I've covered players such as Dave McKay, Kirk McCaskill, Kevin Reimer, and Larry Walker. Today I'm going to discuss someone who didn't have the career that the others I mentioned did.. Today's is going to talk about Nigel Wilson.

Nigel is from the town of Ajax, Ontario, close to Toronto.

Here's a Google Map showing Ajax in relation to Toronto. 

Nigel Wilson was signed as an undrafted free agent by the Blue Jays in 1987. In the Jays system he got as high as Double A Knoxville before the Florida Marlins took him second overall in the 1992 Expansion Draft, behind David Nied. 

 

Here is his 1993 Donruss card showing him as both a Blue Jay and a Marlin. In 1993 he spent most of the season in Edmonton as a member of the Trappers. He did, however, get into 7 games at the major league level for the Marlins that season. In 16 at-bats, he struck out 11 times and did not register a hit or a walk.

1994 was spent in Edmonton again, hitting a line of:

.309/.369/.506 97/314 H/AB 12HR 62RBI. 

 

In 1995, he was taken by the Cincinnati Reds off waivers. I did not know he spent time with the Reds. It's interesting since he was selected by the Reds April 22. April 23 he was released and April 25 he was resigned by the Reds.

In 1995 he spent the majority of the season in Indianapolis, the Triple A team for the Reds. His line in 1995 was similar to the 1994 line in Edmonton, except for a few more homers, fewer walks, and more strikeouts. 

He also spent 5 games in Cincinnati. In 7 plate appearances he stuck out 4 times and again did not record a hit or a walk. 

In 1996 he was selected off waivers by the Cleveland Indians. Again, I did not know he played for the Indians until I started doing the research for this post. 

Again he spent most of the year in Triple A, this time Buffalo. 

In 128 games in Buffalo, he hit .299/.374/.588 hit 30 HR, and drove in 95 RBI.

He also had 10 games in Cleveland. In 12 ABs he had 3 hits! Of those three hits, two were homers. 

After the 1996 season, he went to Japan where he played until 2002. Three years he hit over 30 Home Runs.

So for his time in the Major Leagues, he hit a total of 

.086/.111/.257 2 HR, 5 RBI 1 BB, 21 K. 

After finishing his career he moved back to Ajax and opened a training academy called Competitive Edge. 

The last card above is the team checklist for the Marlins. It may be a little odd that Wilson was chosen for the checklist card. Taking a look at the list I could think of a couple people that may have been better suited, but we have a Nigel Wilson portrait as well.. 

Here is the 1993 Marlins checklist. 

Trade from Figgman

So I made a trade with the Trading Card Database member Figgman.

I'd like to show off the haul. :)

Expos! Lots of Expos! Mixed in there is Kevin Reimer and Kirk McCaskill. 

More Expos along with some 1989 Donruss. I've always loved the Diamond Kings cards. 

More Diamond Kings. The John Dopson is interesting too.. Looks like either a Spring Training site or maybe LA..

The last four are from the 1991 Pro Set hockey sets. One is French, the other three are English. The reason I got these is I've always liked the look of them. 

Hopefully with the school year coming to an end at the end of this month I'll have a little more energy and time to put into writing again.