I got a card from PapaG321 with some cards in it..
I was surprised because I know at one point he had sent me a transaction request, but that was during the time I wasn't active in any way shape or form..
So let's take a look and see what he sent!
There are some nice ones here. Some old Expos from 1969 and 1971.
It is a shame they didn't use Coco on Laboy's card.. The nickname did end up on a card though.. In 1992..
Speaking of 1992, we have some Donruss Jays, a Score Nabholz, and an OPC Fitzgerald..
Thanks for the cards PapaG321! Once I get my act together on the TCDB, I'd definitely like to trade!
Something that's been talked about on blogs and on Twitter recently is a word association style game..
For each team, who is the first name you associate with that team?
Well.. I'm going to go through that exercise today..
It'll be divided up by division. I will also give a reason for each.
AMERICAN LEAGUE
AL EAST
BAL: Cal Ripken Jr
This one is a no-brainer.
BOS: Roger Clemens
Clemens is one of those names I associate with the Red Sox. Really, others I could have named in the same amount of time are Ted Williams or David Ortiz.
NYY: Reggie Jackson
While there are certainly other names that would fit better here.. Ruth, Berra, DiMaggio, Mantle, Gehrig, Rivera.....
Reggie Jackson is the one here simply because of the attitude.. His attitude is perfect for the Yankees. Both the team and the player have had a lot of success and aren't afraid to brag about it, to the point where you wish they'd just shut up about it already..
TOR: Dave Stieb
Well, as a Jays fan, there are certainly many names I could have thrown here.. Alomar, Carter, Halladay.. But Stieb is the first real big game pitcher the Jays had, and he developed through the system. By time the Jays were champions though, he was on the way out. He did get one in 92 though.
TB: Evan Longoria
The Rays have been through so many rebuilds and have gone through so many players it's hard to really have a "Franchise" style player for them..
The closest the Rays have had is Longoria.. He was the cover athlete for one of the last MLB 2K games before they decided they couldn't make baseball anymore.
AL CENTRAL
CLE: Albert Belle
I don't know why Belle is the first name I think of with the Indians. But he is.. There are certainly better players I could have chosen.. Manny, Jim Thome..
CWS: Frank Thomas
This one was fairly automatic for me.. Really about the only other name I could think of was Jack McDowell..
DET: Lou Whitaker
Lou is one of those names I think of for the Tigers. Obviously, there are others I could use like Ty Cobb, Alan Trammell, Jack Morris, Cecil Fielder... Justin Verlander...
Whitaker of course, was a mainstay for the Tigers in the 80s through the rivalry with the Jays.
KC: George Brett
Is there a name more synonymous with the Royals than Brett??
MIN: Kirby Puckett
Kirby is another one of those players who is synonymous with the team..
About the only other player I think of with the Twins is Brad Radke..
But this is the reason why..
AL WEST
SEA: Ken Griffey Jr
There are a few names that could go here. Griffey, Randy Johnson, Jay Buhner.. Edgar Martinez..
Griffey is easily the most memorable for me..
No offense to the new HOFer Martinez, but I keep forgetting he played as long as he did..
LAA: Mike Trout
There are a few players I can think of aside from Trout.. Chuck Finley, Mark Langston..
However, Trout is one of those generational players people don't easily forget.
OAK: Rickey Henderson
There's really no other name I can think of here. I mean, I guess I could pick Canseco, or McGwire, or Stewart..
But Come on... Rickey Henderson played four separate stints for the A's.. He was the swagger they had in the late 80s and early 90s.. He brought that swagger to Toronto in 93.
HOU: Jeff Bagwell
This one was fairly easy.. Bagwell was one of the Killer B's.
TEX: Nolan Ryan
Back when the Texas Texases were the Rangers, easily the most recognizable name for them was Nolan. Someone else mentioned it's basically Nolan and Juan Gonzalez with this team.. About the only other name I think of is Julio Franco.
NATIONAL LEAGUE
NL EAST
ATL: Rafael Belliard
There are so many names I could say here.. Any of the Four Aces they had.. Chipper Jones, Dale Murphy.. But Rafael Belliard comes to mind because when I watched Braves games (hoping they'd lose) in the 90s, Belliard would be batting and the announcers would be talking about how overdue Belliard was to hit a home run..
PHI: John Kruk
The Philthies had Kruk as their ring leader. They lost to the Jays in 1993.. And of course, there's the fact that Peter at Baseball Every Night collects him.
MIA: Jeff Conine
The Marlins are another team that have so many players come and go it's hard to pin a "franchise" style player to them..
So I inevitably think of Mr. Marlin, Jeff Conine.
NYM: Tom Seaver
Tom Seaver is one of those names you think of when you think Mets.. There really aren't many others..
WSH: Bryce Harper
Washington is one of those teams I rather forget about. But Harper is the first name I think of..
NL CENTRAL
CIN: Pete Rose
While there are probably better names I could use.. Or more to the point, less controversial names... Pete Rose is the first name I think of when I think of the Reds..
STL: Ozzie Smith
The Wizard of Oz is the first name I think of..
He was widely considered the best defensive shortstop of his era.
PIT: Barry Bonds
Bonds really can be considered for here and for San Francisco. However, aside from Honus Wagner, my mind becomes blank..
MIL: Robin Yount
Yount is in the same boat as Brett and Whitaker above. Mind you, I could have picked Molitor here and had no issue.
CHC: Ryne Sandberg
Sandberg came to mind first, but I could have just as easily threw Fergie Jenkins here.
NL WEST
ARI: Luis Gonzalez
The Diamondbacks are a tough team to find a memorable player.. So I'll pick the player who provided the most memorable moment..
COL: Dante Bichette
I could have just as easily thought Todd Helton or Troy Tulowitzki, but I have a soft spot for the Colorado Bomb Club.. Bichette, Galarraga, Castilla..
SD: Tony Gwynn
Is there any other choice? Really? Maybe Eric Show...
LAD: Tommy Lasorda
This is a bit of a cheat... But Lasorda IS the name I think of when I hear "Dodgers"
SF: Will Clark
I could have just as easily said Bonds here, as he was his most Homer Happy in SF... But I didn't want to have him twice.
Will Clark is a close second..
As an added bonus...
MONTREAL EXPOS
Larry Walker.
Because the Nationals are NOT the Expos.... I'm throwing the Expos here as an added bonus one.
Walker and Vadimir Guerrero are probably the first two names anyone thinks of when you say Expos.
Of course, there are others like Raines, Gary Carter, and Andre Dawson..
I want to show a couple packages I received in the mail.
First is from Billy from the Team Collectors Forum and @AstrosAtoZ on Twitter.
Shane Benson never got higher than the New York Penn League in the Toronto organization. He also played a year in the Australian League.
Jose Bautista was a little more established.
A Honus Bonus card here. Obviously, the number on the uniform has been changed.
The other one I'm covering today is from Tom from Angels In Order
Classic 91 cards here.
The Alomar Fleer in the middle is one of the 7-11/Citgo cards. Never had them here.
Ahh.. How nice it is to see a mascot card with the mascot's name on it.. BJ Birdy was the Jays original mascot.
I remember when the Baseball Heroes were inserts in Upper Deck.. I always liked the cards, but never bought enough packs to try to collect them..
Toys R Us Young Stars. Another batch of cards I've never seen.. There was never a Toys R Us in Northwestern Ontario growing up.
I had never seen or heard of the Cliff Johnson card here.. I'm interested to find out more about it.
Roy Halladay was definitely untouchable some nights as a Jay. And it looks like he may make it into the Hall this year..
Poor Kendrys has a red spike through his head here..
Remember earlier, my comments on BJ Birdy?
Well... Now we have a picture of Ace, but he's just known as "Toronto Blue Jays Mascot" in Toppsland. This annoys me to no end. I imagine it's a licensing issue, but still.. If you're going to create a card/sticker/whatever.... Get the naming rights for the character as well or don't do it at all..
Today has been a very frustrating day.. Dealt with anxiety all day that I can't pinpoint. It wasn't bad, just one of those episodes that I don't like.. Stomach flipping, feeling like I'm going to throw up kind of deal.
Now that I'm home and have been able to relax a bit, I feel somewhat better, but still not the best..
Anyway...
I received a PWE in the mail from fellow Canadian Blogger CrazieJoe.
I was expecting a Cliffing (specifically the Ted Williams set Cliff Floyd he seems to get multiples of) but I didn't..
Instead, I got a nice little batch of Expos to add to the pile.
Of course we see a bunch of the early 90s here.
The Carmen Castillo.. I wonder if it's one I need for the 91 Fleer set.. Or if Joe just got blinded by the neon.. lol
We have a couple duplicates here, but that's to be expected. Got to like any time you get a Tim Raines card as an Expo.
Thank you for the Expos!
I need to get back to working on my spreadsheet of Expos to figure out where I am. I do have some other ideas as well..
Well, my close to two months away from this blog caused quite the backlog of cards received.
I honestly did absolutely nothing hobby wise during those two months, as I was dealing with mental and physical health issues.. And looking at the piles on my desk right now honestly give me anxiety. But that's a story for another day..
I wanted to combine two things I received this time around.
I'm part of a group on Twitter called the Team Collectors. Basically it's a group of collectors that send cards to each other, the aim being monthly. However, each member claims one team. I have the Blue Jays.
One of the members, who is on Twitter as AstrosAtoZ, sent me a small package at one point.
Expos aside from the Bichette and Stroman.
Any Larry Walker card is welcomed here, especially him as an Expo. I'm hoping he becomes the first Canadian born position player in Cooperstown.
The other package I want to go over is from the Brewers collector on the Team Collectors page, Matt. I've interacted with him before on Twitter including a trade or two, if I'm not mistaken.
Anyway, he sent me a nice bubble mailer that was certainly in the Christmas spirit.
A Big Batch of Blue Jays.
I know some of these I don't have.. Possibly most. As mentioned, I haven't even entered these into the Trading Card Database yet.
I really liked the Gold Rush cards done by Score the couple years they did them. I don't mind one or two parallels.. I just hate the 40 parallels put out by Topps now.. Especially when 5 or 6 are exactly the same.
Topps Gold.. Those were interesting when they did them.
Is that Koskie an autographed card? Certainly looks like it. I know he spent time with the Brewers after his stint with the Jays.. Was this an In Person, or Through the Mail?
Triple Play Action Baseball. It's a little booklet that has rub off spaces. I'm keeping it as is..
A Leaf Henke.
I loved the Team 2000 cards when they came out. I thought they were really cool.
Well, those Upper Deck cards were taken in Spring Training. Possibly in Dunedin..
Brad Wilkerson is a member of the Canadian Team Club. He started with the Expos and played for the Jays..
Mookie Wilson had a novelty song written about him in 1991, called Help Us Mookie. It was to the tune of Help Me Rhonda. The Toronto Variety Club released at least three albums in the early 90s. I have a couple of them. 1992, 1993, and a "Greatest Hits" deal.
Some Opening Day cards with my second favourite Jays uniform design. It even has a Canseco sighting here. He spent one year with the Jays, ended up wearing three uniform numbers while here.
Darnell Coles.. I keep forgetting he was part of the Jays. He was a Jay in 1993 and 1994. It also looks like there were two Greens in that pile.
Some really nice cards here, including a Gypsy Queen Happ.
Ahhh Sportflix.. How much of a pain are you to scan?
The top two are actually from the Topps 3D set. Or D3 set, whatever they called it..
I was surprised to see that OPC card in the package.
I'm starting to warm up to certain years of Chrome. I like the two here.
And the last batch of Gold cards..
There were also some minis in there that I didn't scan or even take out of the bag.. I'm not sure what they are as they are backless.. The top card was Al Leiter.
Thank you both for a wonderful package. I still have two packages to go through to call myself "Caught Up" in that respect.
