A New Addition

Hello Friends!

It's halfway through the month and while I'm struggling personally, the Jays are doing pretty decent this season so far. I know it's early, so we'll see.. 

I wanted to show a card I received in the mail from the wonderful Kevin Glew, who does Cooperstown in Canada on Twitter and BlueSky. If you're interested in Canadian baseball and other connections, check him out online. BlueSky Twitter

Now, I don't know if I've mentioned it here or not, but one of my ambitions is to get autographed cards of as many Canadian born players as possible. 

While the market has been flooded for a few guys in recent years like Vlad Jr, Joey Votto, Larry Walker, etc, the prices are still too high for my affordability.

Other guys, like Andy Stewart, Stubby Clapp, Ryan Z Braun, Rob Ducey, and Steve Wilson, I feel will be more difficult to get. Others, like Ted Bowsfield, I know I need to send sooner than later due to age, but being in Canada and sending a SASE to the States, I don't know if it'll work. 

Anyway, that long winded ramble is there because one of the difficult ones I felt would be Rob Butler. He's been on and off Twitter a few times, runs a baseball academy in Toronto area, and is the manager of the Intercounty Maple Leafs. I reached out a couple times asking if it would be ok to send and I got no response. Kevin saw my note and sent me this card below. 

The funny thing is.. If I had received the ok from Rob, this would have been the card I sent. 

I guess two other white whales for me for this auto project would be Nigel Wilson and Scott Richmond. Though I could get a signed one on ebay for $20 I guess.. Unsure about Wilson.. 

Anyway. Thank you Kevin! You're awesome!

 

The Blue Jays Are In Flight

 Hello Friends!

Earlier this month I wrote about 1984 Fleer and one of the comments was from Derek who mentioned they would be able to get me a copy of the Roy Lee Jackson anthem card. 

Well, today I got the mail and to my pleasant surprise, there was an envelope with that and some other Blue Jays cards. 

The star of the show, obviously. I can't recall if it's been revealed where he sang the anthem. I'm wondering if it was a day he wasn't pitching. I somehow imagine so because it would be quite the disruption right before needing to compete.. 

Now, the other cards that were included are from the 1989 Fire Safety set. The earlier sets were usually sponsored by the province, A&P, Dominion, and Oh Henry!.

I believe once Dominion went bankrupt, Becker's/Mac's took over sponsoring. 

What's an 80s team set without Jesse Barfield? 

The interesting thing about the set is the "On the Move" tagline. It could refer to running the basepaths, moving in the standings, or, as the case was in mid 1989, the move from Exhibition Stadium into the SkyDome. 

Sil Campusano was seen as a star of the future that just didn't pan out. After the 1989 season he was taken by the Phillies in the Rule 5 draft. 

After his playing days, Cerutti did commentary for the Jays on CBC. He was found dead in his hotel room before a game 

CanCon alert! Always enjoy seeing Rob Ducey in the Jays uniforms. 

Mike Flanagan as a Jay is a jarring sight. Kind of like how Jack Morris as a Jay was in 1992. By time I was a fan of the game I believe he had transitioned from the field to the front office or the broadcast booth. 

Terminator!

In a way, it's kind of interesting that a couple closers from the 80s had that nickname. Jeff Reardon and Tom Henke both had that nickname. Of course, Henke had a song written about him (The Ballad of Tom Henke) 

Liriano was one of those in the void between Damaso Garcia and Roberto Alomar. He spent a little time in Toronto before going to Minnesota and Colorado. I just took a look at his stats and I didn't realize he spent two years with the Pirates

The Spring Training team shot.. 

There are a few cards I'm missing from the set. Obviously the big names like Stieb and McGriff, but also Borders, Myers, Wells, Whitt, Key.. I have some ideas. 

Thank you for the cards! He's also on TCDB as CollecterTBNL

Blog Bat Around: Number Matching Birthday Edition

 Hello Friends!

Blog Bat arounds are generally fun to do, plus they're really easy for content ;)

Today, since it's a week since my birthday (April 1) I figured I'd take part. Finding the cards for this one was a slog. They didn't have a filter/search on TCDB for the particular way I wanted to search. (Collection, sort by number or filter to show only card number 401) 

All told, in my collection, there are 32 cards numbered at 401. (April 1, 04/01)

So let's pick out my favourite 10 and show them, shall we?

1973 Topps Clyde Mashore

The first one is also the earliest 401 in my collection. Fitting it's an Expo. I will admit, it does look rather plain, but it has a charm to it. 

My question is: Spring Training photo or Jarry Park photo?

1978 Topps Sparky Anderson

It's kind of fitting that I would have a card of a guy who played and managed a fair bit in the International League for teams in Canada. 

1990 Topps Kevin Mitchell AS

The All Star cards this year were a little better than the previous couple years where it was basically a disembodied head on a background. 

1991 Donruss MVP Danny Darwin

I liked these cards for some reason. 

1992 Score Bobby Thigpen AS

The caricature cards were fun. 

1992 Pinnacle Rickey Henderson

Classic card

1994 Flair Jeff Fassero

This one is interesting. I just like it. 

1995 Score Gold Rush Cliff Floyd

After a couple blah efforts from Score, the 1995 set was a departure. I actually really like this set but I've never been able to get to a point where I feel comfortable collecting it. I also find it interesting how they really started using this design in the 1994 Traded set.

2013 Topps Ryan Dempster

Got to sneak a Canuck on here.. 

2015 Topps Chris Coghlan

A beautiful card.. Really that's it.. 

Overall, I found 32, as I mentioned. I'm glad I was able to find 10 I really liked out of those to show. 

Some Cards Being Shipped

 Hello Friends!

I decided that for my birthday I was going to use some of the money I got and request the shipment from COMC that's been sitting there for a while.. (I need to do the same to Sportlots, likely later this month) 

Since I *just* put the request in, I just wanted to show what's going to be coming my way.. 

Bo Naylor. He's one of three brothers in Professional Baseball. Josh was his teammate until he was moved. His younger brother was drafted this last draft.

A Tacoma Twins Dave McKay

A couple Dave Pagan cards. Both SSPC

Had to get an Expos auto. 

Joey Votto! I looked at some of his autos and they're insanely priced. 

Kevin Reimer. I found a couple Canadians in the Keebler Rangers set.. I might have missed one 

I'm down with OPC. 

A Shawn Hill auto. Dual purpose, as an Expo and a Canadian.

Ducey!!

Building the 1983 OPC set means I'd eventually need this card anyway. Got it for $12.. I still have the Topps version that I'm looking to trade if someone needs it. 

Finally a shiny Guerrero! Again, his autos are insane... 

So according to the timeline, I should get these mid May.. 

Fleer's Lookin' at You Kid

 Hello Friends!

I apologize for not writing that much so far this year. I'm honestly at a loss for ideas. I do have my projects like the Ballpark bios and that but I don't want to do so many in a row that I get tired of them and you get bored of them. 

So today I decided to look at a set that I need to get cards from. 

1984 Fleer. 

I do have some cards from that set, but there are a number of Jays I'm missing. I'm afraid to look at Expos or the few Canadians active at the time. (I think it might have only been Puhl by then)

Obviously I have this one. Fernandez rookie. I want to say it looks like a Spring Training photo based on the fence and background. 

Jim Gott, by time I got into baseball, was well gone from the team. I believe he was a Dodger then. 

Is it me, or does McLaughlin look like he would have been better cast as a teacher?

Shaker!

I'm trying to figure out where this and the Gott photo were.. It's just blurry enough to not give me much hint.. 

For some reasom that I can't explain, I've never liked Rance. It's a completely illogical thing and yeah... (This makes me curious actually... Does anyone else have a player from their favourite team that they just irrationally dislike or hate?)

Finally Dave Stieb.. 

The reason for this post actually comes from looking at Johnny's post on Johnny's Trading Spot

One of the cards he has showing is Roy Lee Jackson performing the Anthem. I almost want to say it's become kind of a grail card for me. I've seen photos of it.. I've really never seen it available.. And I want it.. (Mind you I want all the Jays from the set I'm missing. But that's another story)

That brings another question, dear reader.. Is there any inexpensive card that basically acts as a grail or white whale card for you? 

Blog Bat Around: Junk Wax Favourites

 Hello friends!

It seems with the ebb and flow the blogging community has, a proper Blog Bat Aound hasn't been done in a while. From what I saw on San Jose Fuji's page, this was started by Night Owl 20 months ago. 

It's taking a look at your favourite sets of the Junk Wax Era, defined by Night Owl as 1987-1993. 

I have seven choices. Some of my favourites aren't here because they might be less favoured than the ones listed.. 

#7 1988 Score. 

The first set put out by Score was a fine effort. I think after the 1990 set they went downhill fast. 

#6 1991 Stadium Club

Stadium Club was famous for the full bleed photos and the quirky photos in general. I loved the sets but always found them hard to collect, even now.. They also suffer from Same-ness.. Years blend together. 

#5 1992 Donruss

The first set I started collecting I think I finally have a way of describing it.. It's a sterile, almost industrial looking set.. A big departure from the previous efforts by Donruss, but just as frustrating to collect if doing the master set because of those variations.. 

#4 1987 O Pee Chee

The same design as Topps, but Canadian.. The OPC set was 396 cards instead of 792. 

#3 1989 O Pee Chee

I wasn't a fan of 1988 Topps/OPC design, but I did like 1989. And doesn't Kelly look a little like Dave Coulier here?

#2 1990 O Pee Chee

The 1990 and 1991 OPC were tougher to tell from the Topps counterpart because they had the Topps logo rather than the OPC. Once you flipped the card over, you saw the difference. 

#1 1993 O Pee Chee

This was the first time OPC made their own set rather than licensing Topps' design. I think it was very well done. 

A few honourable mentions:

1989 Score. 

1988 Donruss

1987 Leaf

1993 Upper Deck. 

What say you, dear reader?