A Collection Nearly Completed

As I sit here after midnight writing this, silently cursing the September Plague that comes with being around small children, I wanted to do a little update on a post I did last year.

*furiously checking the blog history to find the post* Well, it turns out it was the first real post on here.

In the big trade with sandyrusty I got a bunch of the 1992 Nabisco cards I needed..

I have a small booklet for cards that I'm using to house this set. 

So there is 34 of the 36 card set. The two I am missing are Damaso Garcia (Which I found on COMC.. Just have to wait till I have money) and Tony Perez.

1988-1989 O Pee Chee

Featuring some more of the cards I got in the sandyrusty trade. This time it's 1988 and 1989 O Pee Chee..

Nate Minchey and Delino DeShields draft pick cards, plus Casey Candaele as an Expo. I have to say I remember him mainly as an Astro, and as the Astros infielders' pet peeve from the 1993 Studio set. 

For Jays we have Juan Beniquez, Jim Clancy and Ernie Whitt. Beniquez was in the final stages of his career with the Jays. I did not realise he played since 1971. 

John Cerutti became a broadcaster after his playing days finished, announcing Blue Jays broadcasts for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) then Rogers Sportsnet.

Jesse Barfield actually did some broadcasting as well for the CBC in the brief time they returned to broadcasting Jays games. I don't remember the Play-by-Play man for those years but Barfield and Rance Mulliniks were colour.. 

Alex Sanchez draft pick card to go along with a mix of Jays and Expos. Pascual Perez makes an appearance. 

Derek Bell draft pick and Vance Law in Expos colours but a Cub. 

Many of the same faces make up the 1989 batch. Perez, Burke, Liriano, Wallach, and Hesketh all show up again. Otis Nixon appears, as does Floyd Youmans, though I believe the blurb beside his elbow is that he is now a Phillie. 

Basically the only new face in this batch is Rob Ducey. Parrett is a Phillie by time this card was released. 

Neal Heaton has a very high leg kick in this photo. 

Jim Clancy went to the Astros before this card was released. Dopson and Rivera were Red Sox before the cards were released. 

Tracy Jones and Wil Tejada found their way to the Giants before the cards were printed. The only non-Canadian team player is a Canadian-born player: Kirk McCaskill. 

I have one final post for the sandyrusty cards. I covered some of the cards before, but now I get to say I'm two cards from having the full set. 

Adventures in Bus Driving, Plus a an Unexpected Find

Saturday was a rare work day for me. I had a charter from the college in town to the Warsaw Caves in Warsaw, Ontario. 

(As an aside, in Canada College and University are not interchangeable. Colleges tend to me more hands-on trades oriented, while University tends to be more theory based.. Plus University is more expensive..) 

So since I had time to kill while I was out there, I figured I'd take a walk around and get some pictures. 

First I'll show the ones where that pesky 1991 OPC Scott Ruskin finds its way into the photo. 

This is the information board at the parking lot inside the caves. Basically, the area is limestone and when the glaciers were melting, the water rushing by ate at the rock creating the caves system. 

They mention the temperature difference inside the caves, noting that some have ice year round. One cave is always around 0-2 Celsius, or 32-36 Fahrenheit. 

This is the beach and picnic area at the Caves along the Indian River. The river itself is fairly fast flowing but also fairly shallow in spots. 

This is a look down the other side of the beach. Over where the small island is the water is fairly shallow, maybe only a couple inches deep. 

As always I also took pictures of the area without the card. 

This was closer to that island I mentioned earlier. You can see how shallow it is here. 

People leaving little rock pile sculptures on the river. 

I had to get my hair cut and get some groceries, so I figured the best place to do all this was Walmart. To my surprise, they had a few of these sitting on the shelf. I'm almost amazed since they also had blaster boxes for Series 1, Series 2, Bunt, and Donruss. I think they may have even had a couple stray 2015s there.. SHOCKED... 

I had to buy one to see what I'd get... 

It had a package of the Leaf Babe Ruth Collection cards and a pack of 2015 Series 1 and a larger (I guess retail) pack of Series 2. 

The Lester and Benoit are parallels.. The Benoit is one of those shinies.. 

The Ferguson Jenkins Highlight of the Year card is actually a double for me. Really like the Tony Gwynn card but not the A-Rod as much.. If only because Alex Rodriguez. 

There were some nice cards though no Jays at all in this group. 

Really the only other two things are autograph and the memorabilia cards

Gary Sheffield Allen and Ginter is not a bad card. It's even from his time with the Marlins. 

And the Autograph card??

A dual Auto Mike Jacobs/Josh Willingham card. Amazingly enough, another Marlins card!

Though, I do know there's a Willingham collector out there.. 

Also, there's the obligatory message about Jose Fernandez.. 

I didn't get to see much of him being in Canada and Marlins never being shown here, but any time a young person is killed it's a horrible thing. 

Adventures in Bus Driving: School Route Edition

As my normal duties as a school bus driver, I have a regular route that goes out of a village named Douro. 

In Douro was a General Store. PG Towns and Sons General Store had been in business for 124 years. It closed Labour Day weekend. 

I had gone in a few times before my afternoon runs in May and June and enjoyed the experience.

This is the exterior. Under the Canadian flag is a sign saying "Welcome to Douro"

(If you want to read more about this store, a link is here.

To tie this into a baseball card blog, the obligatory wallet card 

This is the church across the street from the store and across another street from the school I drive out of. 

The plaque for the church. 

I really don't know how interesting these are for anyone else, but I want to show off a bit of Peterborough city and county in my own way. 

O Pee Chee and a Surprise Mail Day

Going to cover more of the sandyrusty cards today. 

Today I will cover 1985 and 1986 O Pee Chee.

So some of the same faces here as with the Topps but quite a few "Now with.." notifications.

Gary Lavelle was traded to the Blue Jays in January 1985 for Jim Gott and two minor leaguers. He did well in 1985, did not pitch in 1986 and got lit up in 1987. 

Vance Law was traded to the Montreal Expos on December 7, 1984 for Bob James. 

Jeff Burroughs was purchased by the Toronto Blue Jays.

Mike Fitzgerald was part of the trade that brought Hubie Brooks, Herm Winningham and Floyd Youmans to the Expos for the low, low price of future Hall of Famer Gary Carter.. 

More of the usual suspects here. Brooks shows up mentioning the trade as well. 

One interesting thing is on Jim Fanning's card. 

"Now Vice President Player Development and Scouting"

He had been with the Expos from the start, between front office positions and managing. He also did colour commentary on radio and TV broadcasts for the Expos before going to the Rockies then worked with Baseball Canada and the Blue Jays. 

He ended up getting his Canadian citizenship in 2012, 

Bill Caudill was traded to the Jays for Dave Collins, Alfredo Griffin and cash.

It's interesting that for the most part I remember him, Dennis Lamp, and Gary Lavelle as being not the best in Toronto, but looking at Caudill's numbers it was only 1986 he was horrid in Blue. 

I have the OPC version of Terry Puhl as well here. 

Bob "Buck" Rodgers took over as Manager for the Expos when Jim Fanning went back into the front office. 

Razor Shines has to be one of the best names out there, baseball or otherwise. 

For the most part it seems Topps and OPC used the same photos for both years when it came to the Jays and Expos. Sometimes it's nice to run into a different photo. 

So now the surprise:

In 2014 I pulled a redemption for an autographed Anibal Sanchez Playoff insert card. I got tired of waiting, so when Topps updated their site to include the ability to request a different card, I decided to go for it.. 

This is what they sent. They sent a second card due to the length of time I was waiting. Still a Blake Swihart auto 7/9 isn't too bad. If I collected the Red Sox, it'd be great lol..

That said, if there's anyone reading this that DOES collect Red Sox or Rangers, let me know.. We may be able to work something out. 

1984-1986 Topps

With school back in full swing, I've been trying to get back into the routine of getting up at 5am to go drive a bus.. I think I'm almost there, but for a little bit updates may be spotty. All depends on how tired I am.. 

Anyway, 1984-1986 Topps from sandyrusty!

Much Expos here. Some I knew were Expos, some I didn't know. Some I forgot existed. (oops) 

I almost feel if Steve Rogers pitched somewhere other than Montreal, he would have been given the nickname Captain America. But he spent the entirety of his career throwing for Les Expos. 

Tim Wallach in his younger days. I still find it odd when I see him in Dodger Blue or whatever colour the Angels decided for that... Oh wait.. that's the Rangers.. Angels it's city names.. Right... Anyway. 

I hadn't heard of Greg Bargar before I received this card. *looking into Baseball Reference*

Ahhh That would be why.. He played from 1983-1986, but barely spent time in the majors until 1986 when he pitched in 22 games for the Cardinals. 

Bryn Smith was an original Rockie. Chris Speier's son Justin pitched for the Jays for a couple seasons a few years back.. In the Dark Ages of Angry Birds. 

Terry Crowley finished his career with the Expos. He mainly played for Baltimore beforehand. Honestly Doug Flynn is one that I didn't know.. Just looking him up online it seems his best years were with the Mets. 

1985 Topps. I really like this design but not as much as the 1984. 

We have here a some of the Jays and Expos I needed plus some of the Father/Son cards from that year. 

I just find these interesting. The idea that multiple generations doing the same occupation is nothing new, but rarely does it show in a trading card. I think baseball and Pro Wrestling may be the only places where lineage is played up at all. 

Vance Law ended up being an Expo. Dick Schofield Jr ended up being a Jay for about 15 minutes in 1993 before breaking his arm, necessitating the return (first of many) of Tony Fernandez to the Jays.

Some more Father/Son cards. If it wasn't for the fact I already have a couple unattainable collecting goals, I might make a Fish-based collection. Players whose last name is a fish. 

Kevin Bass, Mike Trout, Steve Trout, Dizzy Trout, Tim Salmon. 

Argenis Salazar ended up also playing for the Royals and Cubs. We have another Rogers siting to go along with Doyle Alexander. Brian Little (Baseball Reference has his name as BRYAN...) played from 1982-1986 for Montreal, Chicago White Sox, and the Yankees. 

Dan Driessen spent what amounted to 142 games with the Expos between 1984-1985. He seemed to bounce around a bit after spending 1973-1984 with the Reds. 

More Expos with Willie Aikens. 

In a way I find it odd they used red for the colour where the player's name went, but red is a colour of the Expos. 

And Buck Martinez finished off the Jays I needed for the 1985 set. 

Jim Wohlford was nearing the end of his career in 1985. He played in 1986 and called it a career. 

Tony Scott started and ended his career with the Expos. 

Terry Puhl of Melville Saskatchewan fills out the 1985s. 

So we go from a set I like the look of to a set I hate looking at.. 1986.. 

Sal Butera ended up spending time with both Canadian teams, finishing his career with Toronto. In 1986, Butera was on the Reds. 

Hubie Brooks with the Expos. He played in Montreal from 1985-1989 before going to the Dodgers, Mets, Angels, and Royals. 

Two Wallach cards join Terry Puhl on the bottom of that scan. 

Vance Law makes an appearance as an Expo as well. 

I have some O Pee Chee to go over next time.