The Eras Post

Heat waves suck.  Blog Bat-Arounds rule.

Yesterday Mother Nature turned up the heat in my area and doesn't plan to cool things off for at least the next four or five days.  My happy place is in the mid 50's to mid 60's.  I can tolerate temps into the mid 70's, but anything in the 80's becomes miserable.  Today the temperature will peak in the high 90's.  Not cool (both literally and figuratively).

But what is really cool is when bloggers support each other's Blog Bat-Arounds.  It's been awesome reading everyone's contributions to Kenny's which asked people to write about their proudest collecting achievements.

On Friday, Matt over at Cards Over Coffee started another one.

Taylor Swift had The Eras Tour.  Bloggers have The Eras BBA.

The challenge if you choose to accept it is to discuss your favorite era of card collecting and show off any recent additions to these collections.  I chose the word "challenge", because it was way too hard to pick a single era for my response.  On any given day, my favorite card collecting era will likely come from one of these three...

A.  The 80's

I'm going to start off with the decade where I officially dove into card collecting.  I absolutely loved opening packs and looking for rookie cards of guys like Ron Kittle, Vince Coleman, and Mike Greenwell.  When I was a kid, they were easily my favorite thing to collect.  These days you can add in regional issues like 7-11 discs, Granny Goose A's, and Mother's Cookies SGA sets into the mix.  Yup.  I love the 80's.

I couldn't think of any 80's regional issues that I've purchased recently, but here's a Roger Clemens rookie card I purchased on eBay back in April:

1985 Donruss #273

You may (or may not) remember the 1985 Donruss factory set I picked up at a flea market back in January for $15.  Unfortunately, it was missing the Clemens.  It took a few months, but I finally completed the set for $6.81 ($4.99 + $1.82 shipping/tax).

B.  The 90's

As Matt pointed out in his post, the most innovative cards were produced during this decade.  It was card companies competing against each other at its finest.  Thanks to the 90's we have cards made out of acetate, metal, wood, and leather.  The shiniest parallels came out of that decade.  And that was the decade that introduced pack pulled autographs and game-used memorabilia.  Plus there were things like holograms, die-cuts, embossed cardboard, Dufex technology, etched foil, tree ornaments, and a bunch of other things I'm forgetting in the moment.  Yup.  90's cards were innovative and awesome.

Unfortunately a lot of these cool 90's cards are skyrocketing in popularity and prices, so I haven't purchased any from eBay or at any card shows.  Luckily, I started reorganizing my collection over the summer and I came across hundreds of cool inserts that were hidden in boxes.  Here are three that I figured Matt might appreciate and fit this segment of the post:

1999-00 Topps Gallery of Heroes #GH6

1997-98 Skybox Z-Force Zensations #18ZN

1997 Fleer Metal Universe Marvel Metal #1

I did find some cool baseball inserts too, but I like to showcase some basketball and football every now and then.

C.  The 70's

One of my favorite things to collect are 70's lenticular Kellogg's cards.  I feel like my dream flea market find involves stumbling across a collection of non-cracked Kellogg's cards at a reasonable price.  It's not likely to happen, but this collector can dream.  Those cards alone make this era a personal favorite.

But I also love collecting 70's cards of athletes I grew up hearing about on television and reading about in magazines.  My two binders dedicated to 70's baseball are arguably the ones that I flip through the most on a regular basis.  I just love staring at classic designs like 1972 and 1975 Topps and flipping through pages filled with The Swingin' A's.  Yup.  The 70's rocked.

I rarely add any 70's Kellogg's cards to my collection these days.  Like 90's stuff... they're too expensive for my budget.  It's even less common for me to share a card I purchased at a flea market before I feature it in a Flea Market Find post.  However I picked up this lovely lenticular at the De Anza Flea Market yesterday:

1976 Kellogg's #19

I have a few Flea Market Find posts that I need to hammer out.  But the next one I publish will feature this weekend's haul since you've gotten a sneak peek.

Thank you Matt for starting another round of Blog Bat-Arounds!  I hope others will join in on the fun.  The more, the merrier.  Reading your responses will make this heat wave I'm suffering through more bearable.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

A Few Goodbyes and a Pair of Set Completions

I'm an A's and Padres fan.  You know that.  And there are times when the San Francisco Giants are my least favorite franchise in baseball.  This isn't one of those times, but they're definitely in the bottom five.

That being said... I wanted to kick off this post by honoring Mike Krukow with a proper sayonara salute as he officially retires from the Giants broadcasting booth after dedicating over four decades to the franchise.  

1983 Mother's Cookies Giants #12

1983 Mother's Cookies Giants #11

He's a Bay Area legend who will be remembered for being half of the Kruk & Kuip duo.  This week... Duane Kuiper announced to his fans that he has been diagnosed with throat cancer and started treatment.  Not sure what the future holds for him, but he assured fans that he would be there to support his close friend on his special day.

2013 Panini Hometown Heroes Signatures #HSMK

Enjoy retirement Mr. Krukow!  And here's to a speedy and full recovery Mr. Kuiper.

Now let's check out a pair of PWE's from John (@ Johnny's Trading Spot) and Bo (@ Baseball Cards Come to Life!).

I'll start with three cards for two set/project builds...

1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars #5

1986 Topps Glossy All-Stars #5

2023 Topps #330

John sent me the Robin Yount which gets me one step closer to completing the 1984 Topps Glossy All-Stars set.  The Ripken and Rodriguez cards were from Bo and complete both of those sets.

Here are a few bonus cards from John:

I'm guessing I won another Maddux Monday giveaway.  I'll have to see how many of these I need for my collection.

Bo included these:

I needed the Matsui in the middle!

Thank you John and Bo for helping me with my set builds!

Hope all of you are enjoying your final weekend of baseball.  I'm feeling much better today and should be back in the classroom tomorrow.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

Extra Innings

Here are a pair of bonus sayonara salutes...

2014 Topps Chrome Refractor #140

I'm sure everyone watched Verlander being greeted by his daughter yesterday as he stepped off the mound for the final time in his MLB career.  What a touching moment.  Congratulations on your retirement Mr. Verlander!  See you in Cooperstown in a few years.

The sports world also lost a legend earlier in the week:

1994-95 Action Packed Basketball HOF Autographs #27

Bob Pettit played before my time, but I knew he was one of the NBA legends from the 50's and 60's.  However... Bulldog (@ Nothing If Not Random) wrote a nice tribute that truly opened my eyes to his greatness.

Rest in peace Mr. Pettit.

Accidentally Left Out

Friday's post celebrated The Collector's 10th Anniversary.  I didn't have time to open up the 1986 Topps rack pack he included in the care package.  Today we resolve that issue.  However before I show off the highlights from that pack, let's check out three lefties that were also part of the care package:

While organizing and sorting Chris's care package... I set these three cards to the side and accidentally left them out.  Then I read Jim's post about International Lefthanders Day and was reminded of the two lefties Chris had sent my way.  As a fellow lefty, I decided a few years ago to collect left-handed athletes.  Randy and Clayton are two of the greatest from my lifetime.  

2026 Topps #22

I was especially excited to see Kershaw's 2026 Topps card, because it shows off statistics from his entire MLB career.  Topps drops the ball a lot these days, but kudos to them for giving him and his fans a proper sunset card.

Okay, let's take a look at the contents of that 1986 Topps rack pack...

I'm pretty sure Chris chose this specific rack pack for me, because I need this Garvey for my set build:

1986 Topps Glossy All-Star #13

One card down.  One card to go:

When it comes to collecting, 1986 Topps holds a lot of nostalgic value to me.  One one hand it reminds me of stolen cards and the end of a childhood friendship.  But it also reminds me of a time when I'd open up packs of cards, look them over, and sort them in a variety of ways.

Sometimes I'd sit down and try to build the best team out of the cards pulled in my pack.  

Here's my starting nine:

Since this was a rack pack with forty-nine cards, I decided to only use regular base cards (no subsets) to build my squad.  If you're wondering why I used Jose Cruz in center when he spent most of his career patrolling left... it's because Oglivie had dibs on that position.

1986 Topps #583

I considered putting Al Bumbry in centerfield, but ultimately I'd rather have Cruz out there playing out of position.

However like Kershaw... Bumbry gets to be in the spotlight today, because his 1986 Topps card is his sunset card.  Here's a look at his career stats:

Bumbry is a huge fan favorite among Baltimore Orioles fans, but this card captures his lone season in San Diego.

I'll wrap things up with Al's manager in 1985 and a few other familiar names from the rack pack:

Thanks again Chris for this generous care package.  It was cool to see some sunsets.  And this rack pack took me back to my middle school days in more than one way.

Happy Sunday and sayonara!

A Whale of a Sort

Summer break is over.  Technically I don't need to report until Thursday, but I've been working in my classroom since early last week.  It takes me a few days to set up my classroom and prep the first three weeks of lessons.

Not teaching summer school forced me to dip into my savings.  Outside of that... it was pretty amazing.  I'll have a recap post posted by the time students arrive on the 17th.

Today's post is a continuation of the Sunday Sort.  Last weekend I opened up three packages from Rod over at Padrographs and sorted everything into categories.  Phase two (which is the focus of today's post) is to sort and integrate the Tony Gwynn cards he sent.

But before we get into that, here's a Gwynn I recently purchased on eBay:

1992 Fleer Ultra Commemorative Promo #NNO

I have been trying to add this card to my 1992 Fleer Ultra master set for years.  It was handed out at the 1992 Fleer stockholders meeting and features Fleer's CEO back in the day.

The back talks about Gwynn and how he signed over 2,000 cards which were inserted into packs of 1992 Fleer Ultra.

I thought this card completed my run of 1992 Fleer Ultra Gwynn cards:

Unfortunately... while looking up this Mullan/Gwynn promo, I discovered that Gwynn also has a 1992 pre-production sample as well.  There are actually nine other sample cards I need to find, but I'm up for the challenge.

Okay.  Let's get to the Gwynns from Rod's care packages.  He sent over 200 Gwynns.  Obviously I don't have the time to scan them all.  In honor of Mr. Padre's jersey number, here are 19 cards that were added to my Gwynn PC...

1984 Fleer #301

Technically, I already have a copy of this second year base card.  But completed sets get priority over player or team collections. 

1992 Padres Police #NNO

1992 Padres Police #NNO

1993 Stadium Club Members Only #538

1994 Donruss Commemorative Anniversary #10

While originally sorting through all of the Gwynns, I thought this was his 1984 base card.  But upon closer inspection, it's from an insert set celebrating their ten year anniversary.

1995 Leaf 300 Club #13

1995 SP Championship Die-Cut #90

1996 Bowman's Best Mirror Image #7

One of these guys is not like the others, but there was a time when I thought Ben Grieve would end up being a superstar.

1996 Leaf Statistical Standouts #2 (#'d 1939/2500)

1996 Pinnacle Aficionado Slick Picks #15

1996 Topps Master of the Game #MG12

1996 Topps Gallery #147

1999 Fleer Tradition Diamond Magic #5DM

1999 Pacific Invincible Sandlot Heroes #17

2000 Fleer Focus Pocus #2FP

2000 Topps #240a & #240d

Much like the commemorative promo card above, I have been trying to complete the five card subset of 2000 Topps Gwynns for a few years.  Split between the two series, Topps highlighted the careers of ten players with a Magic Moments subset.  Each player received five cards that were short printed, which is why set builders may or may not consider their set complete with one of these singles.

2001 Fleer Tradition Grass Roots #13

2003 Topps Record Breakers #RB-TGW

If you've ever wondered how long it takes me to integrate and scan a large stack of cards into my personal collection, this Gwynn sort will help paint a picture.

1994 Donruss Commemorative Anniversary #10

Obviously sorting a few hundred cards usually doesn't take too much time, but thanks to the 90's... I had a lot of trouble figuring out which year some of these Gwynns were produced.  A card might say 1993 in the copyright area, but actually be listed as a 1994 card.  This also forced me to move some cards around in my collection.

Another delay I encountered were late 80's Topps and Donruss variations.  Holy cow.  Why did I ever decide to collect these?  Anyways... looking for missing periods, apostrophes, or asterisks with a magnifying glass took longer than expected.

Toss in a few breaks here and there... and this Sunday Sort took close to five hours.  This is by no means a complaint.  It's just an observation.  There are still seventeen stacks of Gwynns that I still need to integrate into the collection, but I needed to wrap things up and write this post.

Unfortunately... I couldn't stay awake last night and ended up falling asleep before I could finish, so this edition of the Sunday Sort gets to be published on a Monday morning.

Thank you Rod for these awesome additions to the Gwynn collection.

Happy Monday and sayonara!