From The Dugout P1

I wanted to do something a little different today.. Originally this was going to be a Sunday thing, but it didn't happen that way..

Back in 1994-1995 there was a magazine out called Dugout. It was produced here in Canada and published bimonthly. 

I wanted to show what a typical magazine held.. 

This is the front cover of the one I grabbed to scan.. 

There was a multi-issue feature on the 25th anniversary of the Expos. This one has the first one.. 

The inside cover had an ad for a Paul Molitor book. 

Table of Contents showing the content.. 

Softball 

The first article on the Expos.. 

I find it interesting, the ad for the Jays cruise. At different times in the 1990s different groups would hold cruises like that.. I remember the Jays holding them and, oddly enough... WCW had some.. Nowadays, the only ones I've heard of are the ones the Barenaked Ladies put on, Ships and Dip.. 

A short article on baseball in Oneonta New York.. 

An article on Baseball in British Columbia.. 

They show a picture of the 1959 Vancouver Mounties in here. Mentioned is one of the floating heads being Brooks Robinson. 

A small fiction piece on horse diving and Babe Ruth's first Home Run on Hanlon's Point in Toronto. 

Back in the day, Hanlon's Point had a ball diamond that the Toronto Maple Leafs played in. (Yes, the minor league team was named the Maple Leafs.. There is currently a semi-pro team with the same name in the Intercounty Baseball League)

The Minor League Marketplace generally pedaled the goods of minor league teams either in Canada, or tied to the Canadian Major League teams.. 

The Welland Pirates were a Pittsburgh affiliate in Welland, Ontario.

Harrisburg still has the Senators.. Just not tied to Montreal now, as they don't exist.

St. Catharine's had a NYP league team for a while before they were moved to Queens for a season, then became the Brooklyn Cyclones for the Mets. 

Now.. I fully admit.. If I had money at the time, I would have sent in to get the cards and likely other stuff as well.. 

Baseball in Japan... Generally interesting information including North American players who went to Japan and the Japanese players who had come to America by that point. 

Books and Movies.. It's weird.. In this age of instant information, I miss periodicals like this.. 

An article on Curtis Pride. 

A profile on Bucky Harris. 

Little interesting tidbits here, including more "What to Read" 

The thing with Charlie Hough is a note that he ended off the season with a batting average lower than his age. 

All Name Team.. Back when nicknames were nicknames and not something akin to Hockey names.. 

(naming someone Sanchy for example)

The bottom note is a little misleading in title.. 

Basically, the Colorado Silver Bullets Female Baseball team had a player on there that was waiting on gender reassignment surgery, so while they said they were female, (and theoretically soon-to-be) they were, for all intents and purposes, male.. 

The other portion of it talks about the team getting clobbered by the Northern League All Star Team 19-0. 

The back inside cover shows ads for the Canada's Baseball Legends book I got from my parents for Christmas one year and an ad for back issues of the magazine.. I think I missed the first three issues of the magazine.. Searches online for "Dugout magazine" nets me a college-focused magazine from Texas. 

I would like to get the rest of the magazines because I really enjoyed them.. Part of why I've kept them this long.. 

I think if people want to see more of them I'll post them. most likely on Sundays.. 

Another Sunday, Another Bout of Usual Suspects

It may be Wednesday now, but on Sunday I did another charter where I brought people from the Berry Farms into town to get some shopping done.. As what seems to be a tradition now, I bought a Repack box because aside from Optic, it was Series 1 and 2... 

So in one pack of 2014, I got the blue parallel and the base of Jon Lester.. 

That of course is broken up by Joe Mauer... 

Well played indeed.. 

We also have inserts I'm not really caring about and Jonathan Schoop.. 

Stars and Stripes in the Great White North... So wrong... So very wrong.. I almost hope that I could find someone wanting to collect these things so they don't meet the same fate as Triple Play.. 

Draft Picks.. What a Surprise! 

Actually what is a surprise is there's a Jay hidden in there.. 

There's been a few times where I've seen Justin Twine's name and thought it was Justin Thyme... I know... Very bad.... 

Of course there were Babe Ruth Story cards and 2007 Upper Deck.. About the only thing in the UD set was a Gregg Zaun Jays card.. 

I'm almost tempted to see if I could collect the Babe Ruth and the Draft Picks sets through the repacks. 

The only time I'm keeping any of the Triple Play cards anymore is in cases like the Jones or Molitor cards I got previously.. 

I'm looking at my desk and thinking that I might need to rethink how I did my reorganization.. The traders and keepers are fine.. It's just that I missed cards that I don't have anymore that weren't removed from my trade list... It's almost to the point where I'm thinking about blowing up the trade list and the have list and reentering everything to the Trading Card Database.. 

Just seems to be a massive undertaking....

And while I'm sitting here thinking about it.. I wonder If any of the firehalls still have the Jays team sets available.. 

A Small Batch of Happy..

As we get closer to the end of August and the beginning of the school year, I'm finding myself more and more tired.. I'm almost thinking I should get checked out, but that would mean needles and I don't like those evil instruments of Satan.. 

But that's another topic for another day...

I got an envelope from everyone's favourite Strawberry fan and "Fan" of 1995 Fleer, Peter.

A while back, he had a trade bait post up and I decided to check again to see if there was anything that was left that I wanted, but didn't take because I didn't want to be greedy the first time around... 

I found a couple cards.. 

He also put aside a Topps Bunt JA Happ for me and at another point mentioned he had 1987 Topps Box Bottom cards that he was looking to maybe rehome.. 

I figured since I'm almost done the complete 1987 (just need a couple variations) I'd mention I'd take the box bottom cards.. 

Today... They arrived.. 

I really liked those 100 Years of Wrigley cards.. For some reason, I feel the bottom one is another one featuring Fergie Jenkins, but I'm not 100% sure. 

The first of the three Box Bottom cards I got.. 

And the other two.. This puts me at 6 of 8.. I just need "A" and "B" which are Don Baylor and Steve Carlton. 

I'm likely going to cut these out so I can put them in my box with the rest of the set.. 

Thanks Peter! 

Fun Day Yesterday

Last night I went to the Jays game with a group from work. 

It was a fun experience for the most part. 

We were in the 200 Level Right Field Side. This was before the game started. The grounds crew were doing final touch-ups on the field after Batting Practice. 

I was actually sitting on a folding chair in the Accessible Seating area because I wasn't sure I'd fit in the seats in the section. 

 Still before game time. People still filing in. I was trying to get the lineups at this time, but nothing was showing until the game started. 

Just after the anthems, Jays taking the field.. You can see the seats have really filled up at this point. There were really only a few sections that I could see that weren't full. Some of the 500 Level near Left Field and the back portion of the left field line seats on the field level. 

In this one you can see the sections I described above. 

You can also see part of the Jays hype tag this year, #LetsRise. 

They do some unique things between innings as well.. At one point they had "The Roof Report with Josh Donaldson" 

It has Donaldson sitting at a news desk and he points up and says "It's Open" or "It's Closed"

They had a "selfie race through the 6" (I refuse to use whatever they actually use for it) where three fans take a selfie then send it to the team to use in the race. The winner gets more comfortable seating behind home plate. 

In the 7th Inning Stretch, a re-working of the song "OK Blue Jays" plays then "Take Me Out to the Ballgame"

Of course, just like the Cubs, they get everyone to replace "home team" with "Blue Jays"

Yes.. I keep score.. 

They really need to add one or two more boxes for the pitchers.. 

It was an enjoyable night until dealing with drunk people on the bus on the way home.. 

Of course, while I was there I needed to get myself something.. So I got a team set of cards..

As far as I know, the only difference is the numbering on these. 

And at this point of the season, Liriano, Grilli, and Upton are gone.. 

Tulo is on the 60 day DL, Sanchez has spent most of the year on the DL, and Devon Travis has spent most of the year there as well.. 

But, in the end... JAYS WIN! Judge struck out looking twice! Donaldson Homered Twice!

Just Another Trade Bait Post

Felt like showing off the stuff I have for trade.. 

If there's something you see you want.. Let me know! We can work something out..

The Stars and Stripes cards are a set I don't think I'd want, and really only get through repacks. 

I'm not sure how I got the Nied. 

Gant as a Cardinal.. I know there's a few Gant fans out there... 

The Draft Class are another one I don't think I'd get into aside from getting them in repacks. 

Eddie Murray Purina card.. I have to say every time I hear Purina, I think Dog Food... 

Julio Franco from 1983.. Just think.. He'd be active until 2008.. 

Some medallions and swatches.. 

A couple NFL things in there too.. 

I'm sure someone is a Verlander fan.. 

The one beside the Randy Johnson is a felt Arnoldis Chapman. 

Some random cards here including a Roberto Alomar bat relic and a Tulo Press Proof. 

A couple Josh Donaldson rookies, a Derek Jeter card and a Chris Davis shiny something or other.. 

Mike Trout minor league card.. 

Andy Pettitte 

Hideo Nomo

Arnoldis Chapman relic

Tom Glavine mini

AJ Reed auto..

Finally a few hockey..

Some are actual rookies, some are labelled as such. 

If you see something you want, let me know.. We should be able to work something out

A Couple Incoming..

I'm sure those that follow me on Twitter know I've been really stressed out lately. Things are getting better, but they'll be even better still once things pick up at work again.. 

The reason I mention this is I have something to the effect of 10 packages to send out, between cards owed to people and Trades. I'll be sending it all out on the 11th when I get paid next. 

Now, onto happier, cardier matters..

I recently made a trade with wackydog on the Database. His return is one of the many I need to send.. 

What I received was a nice little group of needs. 

It was a 9 for 9 trade.

I really like those Fleer at the top.

Jimmy Key almost looks like someone is interrupting his thoughts, or someone is on Third Base taking a big lead. 

I have the regular of those three Topps cards (and the OPC versions of all) but I didn't have the Gold Winner versions until now. Very nice. 

Jeff Ware pitched for the Jays in 1995 and 1996, didn't do that well then never returned to the Major Leagues. Really after 1994 he didn't do well at any level, even the Independents.. 

David Wells in his second tour with Toronto. The Jays sent Roger Clemens to the Yankees for Wells, Homer Bush, and Graeme Lloyd. In a couple years, the Jays turned around and sent Wells to the White Sox for Mike Sirotka and a couple other players. 

In conversation on Twitter, I had a user contact me about whether or not I wanted a couple cards. 

These were those cards. 

I have to say I love the photography on both of them, particularly the perspective on the Tulo Celebrations one. 

I want to thank both for the cards and apologize again for the delay on any returns I'm sending out. I really don't like having to do it. 

It's been to the point where I've wanted someone to berate me or leave negative feedback or something even though it's something that, as of right now, I can't really do much about. But you're not here to listen to my mental issues.. lol Have a great day until next time. 

Little Fun Game

I decided for fun to join in with Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life and the Little Fun Game he held. 

In the end I got a thing titled "Basketball Rookies"

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, since I have no clue about basketball.. 

The package came in the mail a couple days ago... I was surprised. 

A nice batch of Jays and Expos greeted me as well. 

I honestly don't remember the time the Jays wore those uniforms in the Raul Mondesi card. 

Diamond Kings. Even without the logos, I love these cards. 

Bowman is one that's generally not in the collection because I can't get past the numbering and parallels for it.. 

The final scan has a couple mini cards, a Charlie Simmer, and the rookies that I got from the Game... 

Kobe Bryant and Tim Duncan.. I've heard of these people!

Thank you Bo! I'll have something out for you on the 11th..