Life, the Universe, and Everything

It's been rather busy lately here in Peterborough. While I'm currently looking for work, appointments and other things tend to eat up my time. I've been sitting on this for a couple days now, and today I finally have time to write anything..

A wonderful stack of 1987 Topps found its way to my mailbox from the wonderful Night Owl . It was completely unexpected. I had sent him a card not too long ago from a 1992 Canadian cereal set, but I did not expect the flood of cards that came in return.. 

There were these, a small group of 1992 Donruss, a couple 1980s Jays, and a Stadium Club Justin Morneau. 

I would have pictures but the program I use to scan is acting up right now.. (grrr) 

So it's a one card post tonight. Huge thank you to Night Owl!! 

(EDIT)

I was able to get a scan of some of the others I got..

I have to say now that I've seen the Stadium Club in hand they are a nice card. 

Trade from the Land of 10 000 Lakes

When I was growing up one of the places people liked to go was Duluth, Minnesota. My mom made the trip a couple times with friends. I drove through/past Duluth a few times. There was even a time my dad and I went to Minneapolis to see a Jays/Twins series. The reason I mention Minnesota today is the package I received in the mail from Adam at Addiction As Therapy.

Now, while I currently live about an hour and a half from Toronto, I was born and raised in a small northern town called Terrace Bay.

Here is a handy map (Thank you Google!!) The point on Lake Superior is Terrace Bay. At the western tip of Lake Superior is Duluth. Further south is Minneapolis. 

Anyway, this is about the trade, not a Geography lesson.. Let's get to it.. 

Some miscellaneous Donruss Diamond Kings. I've always loved these cards. The Steve Rogers in the middle is interesting as Donruss spelled his name incorrectly on the back, spelling it Rodgers. 

Speaking of Donruss, we have some 1995 Expos. I never saw this design when it came out. For the most part until I moved to Peterborough the extent of my collecting was 1990-1993 product. Love the front of these cards. 

Some Topps Expos and a couple Canadian Rockies. I actually forgot Cormier pitched for the Expos. It's odd seeing Larry Walker in anything but the Bleu, Blanc, et Rouge but there he is.. Some real good young players in that middle row, if you think about it.. Cliff Floyd, Vladimir Guerrero, and Pedro Martinez. I don't mind these ones, though I don't like how the first names are just an outline.

We have some more Expos and a Daniel Norris. Rojas started and ended his career as an Expo. He is also the nephew of Felipe Alou. 

Ugueth Urbina is an interesting one.. He's the only player to have had "UU" initials in the Majors. His career also ended rather abruptly as a result of an attempted murder charge that he ended up spending 7 years in prison for. 

Some more Topps.. 

Henry Rodriguez was a bit of a cult figure in Montreal. In 1996 he gave the fans who decided to show up after the strike something to cheer about at the Big O. Fans started throwing Oh Henry! chocolate bars onto the field whenever he hit a Home Run, and gave him the nickname Oh Henry! He went to the Cubs in 1998, played part of a season in Florida in 2000, wore pinstripes for a week's worth of games in 2001 before returning to the Expos in 2002.. He was released in May of 2002. 

Darrin Fletcher and David Segui each spent time on both Canadian teams. Here they are Expos. Finally we have some draft pick cards. 

Homer Bush spent some time with the Jays after going to the Yankees. Felipe Crespo was a bench player for the Jays for a few years before moving on.. I honestly thought his career lasted longer than the 5 years Baseball Reference has it.. 

Billy Koch, who, after the Jays released him in Spring Training in 2004 decided to sit on the sidelines and collect his salary ended his career. The second game of the season he showed up at Tropicana Field and heckled the Jays. His Cardmate, Kris Benson, was a fairly decent pitcher, but is likely known more for his ex-wife Anna. 

Joe Lawrence who is best known for not being the Actor Joey Lawrence, played 55 games in the Majors with Toronto in 2002 and was done as a player by 2004. I never heard of Pete Tucci. 

 

A nice foursome of cards here. Of the three prospect cards, the best known is Dustin McGowan. Vito never made it out of Double A before being released and playing on the Indies.. 

Bill Bray ended up showing in Washington before going to Cincinnati. 

Finally, a Topps sticker logo card. This one gave me a little grief trying to find on the Trading Card Database. The copyright on it is 2001.. Topps Produced stickers in the 2001 Opening Day set, but this isn't part of it.. The same stickers, minus the Opening Day logo, were part of the 2002 set.. ARGH!!

Speaking of Stickers and Opening Day,.. Here are two Expos stickers from 1988 and an Opening Day Jose Reyes insert. I like the back of the Fleer sticker cards here since they have the same style back as the cards. 

Some more stickers and some miscellaneous. Another Diamond King this time for 1991. 

I like the jersey and the logo stickers, but I think the one I have to like the most is the one on the left.. And that's because of this.....

I've mentioned before that I love stadium cards. It's something that I'm not actively trying to collect though, since I know it's tough to find when there's different ways they can show up.. However, this grouping, with the stadiums on one side and the stickers on the other, I absolutely love.. I was fighting myself on whether this goes with my stadium cards or if it goes with my Expos cards because of the sticker.. 

Thank you again Adam for the wonderful cards. I hope we are able to trade again sometime!

And Now Something Completely Different

As baseball fans, we find ways of supporting our favourite teams or players, ranging from collecting cards to buying hats, to getting jerseys with our favourite player's name on the back.

One other way, if you're able to afford it/live close enough to it, is go to games. While looking for something else, I found a couple things I want to share today..

Tickets for a few games, back before printing the tickets was the big thing to do.. You'll notice all the games I have the tickets for were attended in April. Most of these were birthday presents from my now ex-wife. Because of my birthday being when it is, the season is rarely underway. This is not true for the first one though: I got to go to the second game of the season, since my birthday was Opening Day that year...

I just realized I have two tickets from the same game.. Oops.. lol 

The other two were different events.. The second to last one is from a WWE (WWF at the time) wrestling event held at Fort William Gardens in Thunder Bay. The last ticket was my first Barenaked Ladies concert held in Oshawa at the General Motors Centre. I think this was a birthday gift as well, but I can't remember. 

Since then the Barenaked Ladies have played Oshawa and my current home of Peterborough. Of course having no employment meant I couldn't get a ticket for it.. 

Here are a couple envelopes I saved.. The first one was from the wrestling event at Fort William Gardens. My dad and I went to the matches. I love the little things on that envelope like the 100th anniversary of the Parks and Recreation department in Thunder Bay. Of course, Thunder Bay befrore 1970 was known as Fort William and Port Arthur. 

The bottom envelope was from the birthday game. I guess that part is obvious from the "Happy Birthday Mike" in the name section. This one I find a little plain, with just the Rogers Centre and Angry Birds Jays logos on there, but I guess the envelopes don't really need to be interesting. 

So yeah, I wanted to showcase something different today.. I have some cards to go over next post. 

And Away They Go!!

Well, the packages have been mailed out.. I apologize again for the delays.. Being on a limited income things like food and shelter kind of come first.. :) But I do have things out there now..

Speaking of Out there.... I have more from that wonderful package from Tony at Off Hiatus Baseball, whose wonderful Blog can be found Here.

Without further ado, here's Part 2!!

Some 1981 Fleer. The Jefferson is the "Pirates on back" version. 

1983 Fleer! I now have the full team set of these. Actually, I got the whole thing from Tony.. Interesting thing of note: Roy Lee Jackson was in the opening sequence for the 1980s kids edutainment show 3-2-1 Contact. He was the pitcher throwing the ball. 

Some known names here.. Hosken Powell played 2 seasons for the Jays. Wayne Nordhagen is an interesting case.. 

Nordhagen essentially was traded for himself through another team. The Lines from Baseball Almanac:

04-02-1982	Traded by Chicago White Sox to Toronto Blue Jays in exchange for Aurelio Rodriguez (April 2, 1982).
06-15-1982	Traded by Toronto Blue Jays to Philadelphia Phillies in exchange for Dick Davis (June 15, 1982).
06-15-1982	Traded by Philadelphia Phillies to Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for Bill Robinson (June 15, 1982).
06-25-1982	Traded by Pittsburgh Pirates to Toronto Blue Jays (June 25, 1982) completing trade in which Toronto Blue Jays traded Dick Davis to Pittsburgh Pirates in exchange for a player to be named later (June 22, 1982).

The final two of the 1983 Fleer are Al Woods and Ernie Whitt.. I'm not sure where the Whitt was taken but I like it.. The Woods photo looks like it could have been taken in one of a few places.. 

Ahh Spring Training photos.. Doesn't the Jimmy Key photo look like it could have been taken down at the local ball diamond?? The scary thing here is... I wasn't trying to get he lines to match up.. lol 

One Fleer Ultra: Rance Mulliniks.. I once asked a Facebook group I'm in, and I think I did so on the Trading Card Database as well: Who do you collect, or have in your collection that you hate? For me, I don't like Rance Mulliniks.. I collect him because Jays.. I'm glad he hasn't been in front of a microphone lately.. 

It's funny to look back on some older players and see their origins.. I started into collecting and following baseball when Fielder had gone to and returned from Japan. For that reason, I see him as a Tiger. Yet, he started as a Jay, after the Jays traded Leon Roberts for him. 

It's funny though: Three of the 6 in this grouping have ties to the Tigers for their careers.. Cecil Fielder and Lloyd Moseby both played for the Tigers after the Jays, and Rick Leach started out with the Tigers.

Some nice photos here in the 1990 Score set. Though, I'm trying to decide if Lee Mazzilli popped the ball up, or if he swung well underneath the pitch.. 

Some Bowman here. Most of these look like Spring Training photos again, though I have to say Paul Kilgus looks like some guy who was able to sneak into the complex, throw on a uniform, and con the photographer into thinking he was a ballplayer lol. 

Now.. The cards that started the whole trade between Tony and myself.. 

Some Vladimir Guerrero. I find it odd that Pacific decided to make these variations.. Rather confusing.. But I still like them. 

Thanks again Tony for the wonderful cards!

Mail from Off Hiatus

I got a wonderful package in the mail today from Tony from Off Hiatus Baseball. I'm going to have to break it into two posts to cover the wonderfulness of this package. (Incidentally, your package is in the mail, as are for the rest of people I have trades with.. Again, sorry for the delays.. :( )

1978 and 1980 Jays team photos. I love these cards, especially from the earlier sets. 

Some 1979 Topps here. I always found the differing sizes of the Jays hat logos in some of the older cards interesting. In the 1977 set, every single one was a different size. Here we see a tiny one on Don Kirkwood's hat. It honestly looks like the whole uniform is airbrushed.. I don't know why though.

Incidentally, that Cruz/Kelly/Whitt is considered a Rookie Card, even though Whitt is also in the 1978 Rookie Catchers Card, also considered his Rookie.. Weird.. 

Here are some 1981 Topps I needed. 

1982 Topps.. Danny Ainge up there. As a baseball player, he's a very good basketball player. Also, Boomer Wells, but not the one everyone recognizes.. Greg Boomer Wells was a 1st baseman who didn't last long in MLB, but won a Triple Crown in Japan. 

The Jorge Bell is not a typo, by the way.. When he first made the majors, he had his name like that. After a few years, he Anglicized it to George. 

Some nice cards here. Most of these guys are Jays mainstays, but I have to keep reminding myself that Jorge Orta spent a year with the Jays. I just remember him as a Royal. Jim Gott was in the start of his career here, actually in the last season with the Jays in 1984.. 

Randy Moffitt spent the final year of his career with the Jays.. 

Some more 1984 Topps goodness. 

1986 Topps.. I'm only collecting the Jays and Expos from this set. Not a fan of this set at all.. 

Thanks again Tony for the wonderful cards. I hope you enjoy the ones you get in return.. 

Part 2 comes tomorrow.. 

Mail Days are Here Again

So yesterday I received a package in the mail from Richard at Toronto Blue Jays Collection. He's sent some items to me previously, and this time around, I got some gems.

Here we have an Upper Deck Grand Slam card from Denny's. Rather fitting, since they have their own Grand Slams... 

 

Now a couple Jose Canseco cards from when he was a Jay. He spent one season as a blue bird before turning into a Ray.. It's odd seeing Canseco with a number other than 33 though. 

Just doing a quick look on baseball-reference, it seems as though Canseco wore three numbers in his one season with the Jays.. 00, 33, and 44.. Interesting.. 

Some World Series Heroes! Hall of Famer Robbie Alomar and Pat Hengten. I know it's the design of the card, but I think not having two American Flags on these cards would work better.. 

I find the name hard to read in the scan. It's easier in hand.

 

Here's a parallel card of Roger Clemens that I had to do some searching for to figure out what it was. Basically it's the base UD card but foiled up and given a different number. Again, it looks better in hand. From my scan you can barely read the name. 

Just to break up the wall O' Jays, Here's Two Tim Wallach cards. Both showing the road uniforms from different eras. I still love that powder blue though.

Two Pacific Crown Royale cards. It's interesting what they can do with cards these days.. Here we have Carlos Delgado and Raul Mondesi in the uniforms worn between 1997-2002. I think these were my third favourite of the Jays' uniforms. I consider the one off 2003 uniforms the same as these, since the only difference was the "T with Flexing Muscle Jay" 

I had to enlarge this one just to show off the detail.. It does make it hard to read though.

A 1984 Fire Safety Jays card.. It's funny in a way. This is the first year the cards were put out. For the next few years, the design was exactly the same for the cards. The only difference being a different picture. It can make for tough cataloging.

Now some 1986 Donruss.. I think I should be pretty close to having them all now.. I'll have to look. 

Some 1987 Donruss.. Again, I think I'm close.. Will need to check.. 

And the last, but certainly not least card. I admit, I never get anything like these from packs. The closest thing I got was a Robin Yount silver border reproduction rookie card a couple years ago. 

Here again we have Mr. Carter wearing the 1997-2002 uniforms. So this would have to be from his final year in Toronto, 1997. 

Thank you again, Richard for the wonderful cards. I will have some 1994 Collector's Choice coming to you on Monday!