rack 'em up

This past weekend I made it out to a local card show for the first time. This show takes place in a church/high school gymnasium, and is actually easier for me to get to compared to the monthly club show I usually attend. Jim from cards as i see them asked me if I was going to this one, and I probably would have missed it if not for his e-mail. I always just assumed that it was farther away than it actually is! The added bonus was that Jim had a stack of cards waiting for me when I arrived.

I am looking to find a team photo (card) for each year the Twins have been in existence. Didn't have this one from 1999 yet!

There were some fun parallels in the stack, including these green Bowmans.

Still building the bat rack frankenset - I don't know if there are enough bat rack cards to get to numbers #204, 393, or 421, but it's fun to be optimistic! Even if I never fill the gaps between these three cards, they are all more than welcome in the mini collection.

Some more parallels - hoping that Luis Arraez has a strong 2nd season! The first big signing this off-season for the Twins was giving Odorizzi the Qualifying Offer, so they will have him in the rotation for at least one more season.

It was an odd phrase to promote the 2018 season, but "THIS IS HOW WE BASEBALL" makes for a dramatic photo!

Saint Paul, MN represent! Also, I bought 2 boxes of Stadium Club and didn't get the Killebrew card, so I am very happy to not have to buy the single on COMC!

Jim was part of a couple box breaks earlier this year and had the Twins, and I am the lucky recipient of the sick hits! The Twins would have been in a very rough place the last two years if Jake Cave hadn't been there to fill in for all of the injured outfielders.

This card is super thick - like, Maximum thickness. You can tell it's a big card when the jersey swatches are out of focus on the scanner!

Jim, great as always to chat baseball and swap some cardboard. I am hoping my Dodger luck never fades!

Chipping Away;- OR, A Hale and Hearty Collection

In addition to buying some cards at Saturday's card show, I also met up with Jim from cards as i see them at one the vintage vendor's tables. He'd already been at the show for over an hour, so it was short but sweet, and as an added bonus, he left me with a stack of Twins!

Why share a 1990 Topps card? Well, it was a Topps Tiffany Chip Hale. Rarest of the rare 1990 Topps cards.

There were parallels galore - Twins might be missing Dozier's bat if Jonathan Schoop doesn't have that bounceback year they are hoping for.

Some 2019 guys - Tyler Austin is already out the door, designated for assignment after a disastrous short start necessitated calling up another pitcher. Austin ended up being traded to the Giants in exchange for Malique Ziegler, a minor league outfielder, just 22 years old. Adding C.J. Cron and Nelson Cruz made Austin's right handed bat less useful in the Twins' future plans. Mitch Garver finds himself in a rotation of three catchers on the Twins' bench. *But hey, he just now hit a homer off DeGrom!*

Byron Buxton is back in the starting lineup after a back injury that limited his appearances in the Philly series. Odorizzi had that bad start I mentioned earlier getting just two batters out on a cold and rainy night at Citizen's Bank Park. Good to see Torii showing up on some cards post retirement, too!

My favorite Twins pitching prospect is Fernando Romero - I was at the game on the left, at least I'm pretty sure that was his MLB debut against the Blue Jays. Both of those Donruss cards are Card # 207, though they are obviously different - the backs have different info on them as well. Donruss is strange.

On to the sick hits! They only made 500 of this card.

They only made 50 of this one! And it's a Twins-Friendly 34/50. eBay Puckett one of one!

Topps probably made half a million of this card, but Willians Astudillo is one of a kind. Thanks for the cards, Jim! I will try to regain that magic and pull some great Dodger cards to send you real soon.

Getting Choked up Right now a Little

Not to worry, nothing to be sad about, but Bud Harrelson is a little choked up right now. This was part of a surprise package from Jim AKA gcrl from cards as i see them.

It was a formidable stack of cards, including 2018 issues like the Felix Jorge refractor rookie you see above.

A big selection of Jacque Jones cards! Jones was an essential part of the early 2000 Twins teams, often serving as Minnesota's Right Fielder and Leadoff man.

Torii Hunter was the heir apparent to Kirby Puckett in Center Field, and he filled in admirably. He played several seasons away from MN once he became a free agent, but he returned in 2015 for one last season with the team that drafted him, playing for his old teammate Paul Molitor.

Some vintage and nearly vintage Twins made the trip as well.

Maximum Jacksons represented in this mailer.

There was even a pair of hits! Hometown Hero and longtime closer Glen Perkins,

and Rule V find Ryan Pressly, who has been featured on precious few cards over the years.

Thanks very much Jim, this is excellent karma for the Dodgers! Good luck in the Series.

Serve & Volley

Jim aka grcl from cards as i see them claimed a couple cards from my Allen & Ginter post last week, and he's already forwarded a return package! Larry Walker at the bat rack fills two mini collections at once!

Mitch Garver has been a busy guy recently - making headlines at the plate, behind the plate, and on the mound for the Twins. He pitched a clean 8th inning for the Twins in a blowout loss to Cleveland, then blasted a 3 run homer in the very next game. He's starting to get more regular playing time as the season has progressed.

Zack Granite, on the other hand, is now buried on the depth chart in AAA after some bad injury luck and some subpar play on the field. Very surprising to get this Jose Berrios auto, thanks so much for including that!

Speaking of Jose, this is my first look at the National Baseball Card Day issue - at first I thought "Is Jim some kind of Wizard? NBCD isn't until this coming Saturday." Jim explained that this was given away at a Twins game earlier in the month, which makes much more sense than my theory.

This is one of those stats that is impressive, but made less impressive if you think too hard about what it's actually saying. Berrios had a really hot start in 2017, won 7 games before the end of June.

Jim, thanks much for the great cards!

i see them in the mailbox

It's still cold, the Vikings laid an egg and then Mother Nature dumped a foot of snow on the Twin Cities, but that didn't stop Jim aka gcrl of cards as i see them from sending a wantlist filled mailer.

Vintage played a key role, hitting all the different moods of Craig Robinson. Darrell Evans is returning to his home planet, his people need him...

The card is a beaut - this was most likely in the spokes of some lucky kid's bike for a summer in the late 70s.

With a couple of new 80s stars being enshrined in the Hall of Fame this year, it brought back plenty of memories of guys already there like Steady Eddie.

Speaking of the new guys, here's a couple nice mid 80s cards of Jack Morris. I'm happy for him, even though I can honestly say there are lots of guys I would have voted for before him. O-Pee-Chee was still going strong in 1992, it was cool to see Mr. Yount there at the bat rack, just a season shy of 3,000 hits.

Thanks very much Jim!

a p w e update

Jim from cards as i see them lit a little fire in my mailbox this week with a plain white envelope.

The envelope was all Update from here, with a mix of parallels from 2015 and 2017.

Big fan of the Gatorade shower for Big Erv.  Thanks Jim!

A Card Show Connection (GCRL IRL)

Jim from cards as i see them e-mailed me ahead of the show and asked if I was going (he had heard that the vintage guy was in town as well). We exchanged some small talk about the playoffs, and some small stacks of cardboard! This Miguel Sano card looks even better in hand - I think I like it even more than the autograph I bought at the show from Gold Label!

Jim found this set and picked it up for the Garvey inside, I was the lucky recipient of Bert and the Killer.

Some all-time great PC guys!

Horizontal heroes as well!

Sal Butera's son Drew also played for the Twins - Drew is still chugging along, backing up Salvador Perez in KC. Nice gig if you can get it!

A pretty sweet Joe Mauer from Topps Tribute! As always, great stuff from Jim. Thanks again, and great to see you at the show!

A Honus Bonus PWE

Jim from cards as i see them aka gcrl slapped a stamp on an envelope and shipped it across town to me this week. A welcome addition to my Twins collection was this Jorge Polanco from Series 2

My first taste of Honus Bonus - these cards are high quality - thick cardstock with a glossy finish on the front - halfway between a standard card and heritage would be my guess.

In addition to Mighty Mouse (Escobar) there was Mighty Mauer, who's finally climbing above the .300 mark in hitting - it's a welcome return to form for the former MVP.

Jim also tossed in this Chrome Mauer. Thanks Jim!

gift chrome really liked

Jim of cards as i see them let me know in a comment that he had a Byron Buxton Stadium Club card for me, and the envelope arrive along with a few more great cards!

A trio of Chrome from last season, with Buxton leading off

I feel for Byung-ho, he's a free swinger that wasn't making solid contact in the big leagues, he's still got another year on his contract, but signs haven't been promising that he'll get too many more chances to prove he can hit in the show.

Berrios is still young, I'm curious to see how well he manages the work load down the stretch in his first full season for the Twins. With most rookies, I would be concerned about conditioning, but he might be the best conditioned player on the entire roster.

Here's the great Stadium Club base card that eluded me in the hobby box I bought. Jim set things right!

last but not least, Torii in a weird 2005 Donruss Studio parallel set. I probably have 4 different versions of this card, but this was still a new one to me!

In hindsight, it was easy to see how this card would have been hard to spot in the wild before now.