1980s Airbrushing: 1988

Last time I went over some bad airbrushes and interesting photos in 1987 Topps.. 

Today I want to give the same treatment to 1988. 

Tewksbury went from the Yankees to the Cubs, so pinstripes stay the same, though the collar and hat were brushed. 

That "C" looks like it's not really part of the hat. 

Dravecky went from the Padres to the Giants through 1987. 

The SF logo looks fine.. Just the uniform colour and hat colouring you can tell they were brushed on. 

In a way, the hat almost looks like it was completely airbrushed in.. But that's just me. 

LaPoint went from the Cardinals to the White Sox. 

The hat almost looks right.. Though the logo looks lopsided. The uniform gives it away this time. 

Rasmussen went from the Yankees to the Reds in 1987. 

Honestly, this one looks almost like it was taken as a member of the Reds. It very well could have been.. 

Dickie Noles has a "Now With Tigers" note on here. Rare for Topps to add those in, though in 1987 they did it with Darryl Motley. 

Bit of a tangent, but Baseball Reference doesn't have the transactions for Motley. Most of them are unknown.. I find that interesting.. 

Anyway, Noles!

It's interesting.. He was with the Cubs and Tigers in 1987.. By 1988, he was an Oriole. 

The Tigers portion of his 1987 season was a loan. He was returned to the Cubs after the season. 

Baylor spent time with Boston and Minnesota. 

By 1988 he was in Oakland. 

Again, the giveaway is the hat.. Though the only way this card would work is if this was from his days as a Yankee. 

Jeff Robinson split 1987 between San Francisco and Pittsburgh. 

I think the uniform is the main culprit here for the airbushing. The hat looks very close. 

Candelaria split 1987 between the Angels and Mets. 

I think what drew me to this card was the hat... Looks almost like it's too small for his head.. 

Mitchell spent 1987 between the Padres and Giants. 

This one is a full airbrush.. More painting than photo with the hat and uniform.. 

I just have this one here because it's probably one of my favourite names in baseball. 

Honeycutt split 1987 between the Dodgers and the A's. 

Again a full airbrush with the uniform and the hat. 

Reuschel split 1987 between the Pirates and the Giants. 

Either this is a really good airbrush job, or this was a late season photo..

Landrum split 1987 between the Cardinals and Dodgers.

Again, a full airbrush. The hat gives away a lot too, with the logo looking very thin in places. 

This one I'm not sure of.. The hat looks touched, but it could be a minor league photo they touched to give the Pittsburgh logo. 

These were the ones I found. 

Airbrush and Other Things

It's been an odd week or so.. 

I've finally started reorganizing my collection.. But I feel like a bunch of cards are missing.. I won't know until I'm done, but it's a nagging feeling.. 

Of course, that nagging feeling has been bothering me in general most of the week.. Either I'm forgetting something, or something's not right and I can't put my finger on it.. 

Speaking of not quite right... 

I was looking through my 1987 Topps cards as part of the re-sort. 

Found some glaring airbrushing, and a couple cards that I just found interesting.. 

I don't know if it's just me, but the colour of the turf almost makes it look like Foley is blending into it.. 

Speaking of Montreal.. This card has bothered me since I first saw it.. The colouring in it almost looks like an airbrush, but Newman had been with the Expos for 1985 and 1986.. 

Maybe it's just the shadows in the stadium.. I don't know.. 

The "shine" on the hat logo kind of gives it away.. Though again, he spent 1985 and 1986 with the Reds. It could be a minor league photo that Topps touched into a Reds uniform. Or it could be an old photo.. I don't know. 

Darwin spent 1986 split between Milwaukee and Houston. 

Looks like Topps went for the dark alternate airbrush here. 

Bit of a throwback here with some funky looking Blue Jays logo.. 

Ward spent time split between the majors and AAA with both Atlanta and Toronto in 1986. 

Lynch was with the Mets.. 

You can see the airbrushing on the hat. 

The whole Mike Laga card looks off.. 

This Ron Davis looks very fake as well.. 

Davis spent 1986 split between the Twins and the Cubs. 

I found some instances in 1988, 1989, and 1990 as well that I'll likely take a look at later.

I just hope to be in a place where I can write more soon.. 

Enjoy the World Series!

Canadiana

Recently I had a little extra money, so I bit the bullet and bought this: 

I don't know what I was expecting when I bought it, but I guess I was expecting more than this:

The "pack" is a small card holder containing 6 cards, 1 Autograph card and 1 Memorabilia card

I guess I lucked out with two Autographs. 

That said, the box is nice.. 

All sorts of red and white.. Almost slapping you in the face with its Canadianism.. 

So I guess the big thing is.. Cards.. What cards did I get??

Karen Kain is a retired ballet dancer and is currently the Artistic Director of the National Ballet of Canada.

Chantal Kreviazuk is a singer/songwriter. 

Scott Niedermayer was in the NHL mainly for New Jersey.

Raymond Burr was an actor, best known for Perry Mason.

Northern Dancer was a racehorse. 

Harry Jerome was a track star. He set 7 world records over his career.

Fergie Jenkins.. I don't think I need to say who he is. 

Terry Sawchuk was a member of the Detroit Red Wings, playing Goalie, winning four Stanley Cups. 

Jaques Villeneuve is a race car driver. According to the card shown, he's also a singer. 

And that was that..

I was a little disappointed that I spent $90 CDN on what amounted to 9 cards. That said, I've seen the full set available online for $80. Not sure if it was CDN or US though. 

A Surprise Mail Day

I came home from work this evening and saw some stuff in between the doors. Figuring it was most likely junk mail, I wasn't really thinking too much of it.. I checked and in the pile of junk was a nice yellow envelope. 

Turned it over and it's a surprise mail day from everyone's favourite Night Owl.. 

Let's see what wonderfulness came up today..

The first time I flipped through the cards, I missed that Fergie Kellogg's one.

I think there have to be more than one variation of the George Bell sticker. The one on the Trading Card Database lists it as "George Bell" but on the back has Alan Trammell. The one I have has Dwight Evans on the back.. 

Some 1990 Fleer I needed as well. Getting ever closer to finishing that set. 

Some early Expos as well. 1971 team card, 1972 Boots Day (I keep having to do a double take on it.. The step behind him makes it look like the bat is the full length of the photo. 

Finally, a Bill Gullickson Fleer Rookie. 

Now some modern cards. 2013 and 2014 Jays with a couple 2016 Heritage cards. 

Of those players shown, only Happ and Estrada are still with the team. Even then, Happ is a return. 

I'm interested to see where Hutchison ends up now that he's been non-tendered by the Pirates. 

I also received something else in the mail today, but I'll cover that tomorrow... 

I'll just leave it with this purchase... 

Thank you for the cards!!

Jays Uniform Project: 2

Another Sunday where I could have started my sorting.. Another Sunday I didn't. But today was more of a sick day than anything. I finally feel more like myself now that I'm close to going to bed for the night . Go figure.. 

Anyway.. Today is another chapter in the Jays Uniform Project. This time, Number 2.

Steve Staggs wore 2 in 1977. 

He wore it for one season, as in 1978 he was in Oakland. 

The next time 2 was in use was 1979. 

Ainge wore 2 from 1979-1981 before deciding baseball wasn't his sport. 

Incidentally, the background on the 1981 card shown above is a nice one of Yankee Stadium. Just think, in 8 years, there would have been an uproar in another company for a cigarette banner. 

Fred Manrique wore 2 from 1981-1984, though he didn't spend time in the Majors in 1982 and 1983. 

Fred didn't have a major release with him in a Jays uniform, so I had to show a AAA card.. I do not own this one. 

The number laid unused in 1985 and 1986.

Nelson Liriano wore 2 from 1987-1990 

He ended up wearing 2 for Minnesota and Kansas City as well. 

After wearing uniform number 4 from 1985-1991, Manuel Lee wore 2 in 1992. 

It was his final year in Toronto, as he went to Texas in 1993. 

1993 saw Luis Sojo wear 2. It's the second number he wore that season, as he started with 13. He played 19 games for Toronto in 1993, so multiple numbers in that short a span is interesting.. 

Rob Butler ended up being the bread of a Sojo sandwich for the number. 

He played part of 1993 in Toronto and was back up in 1994. 

Looking at the game logs for both and Sojo overlapped Butler in June. So I believe from April to June, Sojo wore 2. When Butler came up, he switched to 13. 

Otis Nixon wore the number next from 1996-1997.

Toronto was the third place he wore #2. Boston, Texas, and then Toronto. 

1998 brought Craig Grebeck. 

He was a Jay from 1998-2000, but wore 2 only in 1998. The rest of the time he wore 4. 

Tom Evans also wore 2 in 1998. When he came up in September, I guess Grebeck switched over to 4. 

I do not own this card. 

1999 had Jacob Brumfield return to the Jays after spending part of 1999 in Los Angeles. 

There wasn't a major release in 1999 showing Brumfield as a Jay. 

I do not own this card

2001 brought Cesar Izturis. 

I do not own this card..

Dave Berg wore 2 for the Jays from 2002-2004

He bridged the gap from one of the better Jays uniforms to the Angry Birds Jays.

Aaron Hill wore the number from 2005-2011.

He's easily the longest tenured player with this number.

After Aaron Hill was traded, Kelly Johnson took over 2.

He wore it for the rest of 2011 and 2012. 

I do not own this card

Finally, we have a Tulo sighting. 

2015-Present. 

Tulo helped the Jays make the playoffs two seasons in a row in 2015 and 2016. He spent a fair bit of this season injured. 

So of the players who wore #2, most were middle infielders. 

I think the best of the group would be Hill, though a couple more years it might be Tulo. 

First Row Cards

I recently made a purchase from First Row Collectibles. 

I've really enjoyed dealing with the owner of the website. I've bought mystery bags before and really enjoyed them, so I went and bought some single cards this time around. 

Included was another note from Curtis, the owner of the site, thanking me for my order and in appreciation, threw in a couple extra cards. 

As an aside, in my order I made, I had wanted two copies of one card. He had only one available, so he let me choose a card to replace the second copy with. The correspondence was quick and friendly. 

Now, before this turns into a huge shill for https://www.firstrow.ca/ I'll show the cards I received..

Some Fergie Jenkins cards I didn't have. 1973, and two 1983. 

I'm working on the 1978 Topps set since it's my birth year. 

Dennis Martinez as an Oriole. Art Howe.. One of my least favourite announcers in Rance Mulliniks. (It's his rookie card too) and Jack Morris.. 

The Raines Kelloggs card is the replacement for the card he didn't have a second copy of.. 

Stubby Clapp! I finally have a card of his in my collection..

The Robin Yount I picked up because it's an oddity that I know a couple people might like.. 

The rest of these are extras that were sent in appreciation. That Lindros might go into the Canadians binder as a "*" 

The card I wanted two copies of was that Larry Walker Diamond Kings card. I was happy to get one though.. 

That Molitor is another food issue oddball. Part of a set by Metz Baking Company. 

That Alomar is an Appreciation Card as well. It's a Hostess food issue. 

I had to get a couple Pedros as an Expo. Just had to... No choice.. 

That Carter is a Donruss Leather and Lumber card, serial numbered to 2499. 

So that was my order. Another amazing package received. Check him out sometime. 

https://www.firstrow.ca/