Congrats to the Cooperstown Class of 2018

The Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum held their annual induction ceremony today and inducted 6 players. Jim Thome was a long time rival, and a short term hero for Twins fans. His 612 career home runs rank 8th All-Time, and he had 17 more in Postseason play. His 1,699 Runs batted in ranks just ahead of Cal Ripken and just behind Reggie Jackson. His tape measure homers and gee whiz personality drew comparisons to Twins' legend Harmon Killebrew, which Thome would certainly say was special! He had the most Walk-Off home runs in MLB history.

Jack Morris had the most wins by a pitcher during the 1980s, and played on World Series Championship Teams in 1984, 1991, 1992, and 1993. The 5-time All-Star was best known for pitching a 10-inning Complete Game Shutout in Game 7 of the 1991 World Series, winning the Series for the Twins over the Atlanta Braves.

Chipper Jones was a Superstar beginning with his first full season in 1995. He was the NL MVP in 1999, and an 8-time All-Star. In his first decade with Atlanta, Chipper made the playoffs every season. He had 97 post-season hits in his career to go along with 2,726 in the regular season, which is 5th all-time among 3rd Basemen. The 1995 World Series Champion is also 3rd all time in Homers hit by a 3rd Baseman.

The 1984 WS MVP spent his entire career with the Detroit Tigers. The 4X Gold Glove winner is one of the best fielding Short Stops of all time, and also was a prolific power hitter for a position that had traditionally not produced many big boppers. He, along with Cal Ripken, redefined what should be expected of the middle infielder. He's one of just three Tigers to play 20 Seasons for the team.

Trevor Hoffman is known for being the other guy with 600 career saves. He was very efficient getting to those saves, converting 89% of his opportunities throughout his career. He led the league in Saves twice - his 53 saves in 1998 helped lead the San Diego Padres to the post season. He converted 3 more saves in the NLDS and NLCS, taking the team to the World Series for the second time in franchise history. While the World Series didn't go the Padres way that year, much of their success can be traced to Hoffman's arm.

Perhaps the greatest bad-ball hitter of all time, Vladimir Guerrero heads to the Hall representing the Montreal Expos, likely the last member of the original franchise to be inducted. His 449 Homers are the most by any player from the Dominican Republic. He was known for his tremendous throwing arm as well, and registered double digit assists in 7 of his first 8 seasons. The 2004 AL MVP only appeared in one World Series, in 2010 with the Texas Rangers. Before injuries limited his mobility, he was a true 5-tool player. In 2002 with Montreal he had 39 homers and 40 stolen bases, and amassed 181 steals in his career.

Congrats to all the new inductees!

More Fun From the Card Shop

So this past weekend I found a new(-ish, to me.) Card Shop, where I picked up a couple packs of Update and a random mix of other things:

I have to monitor my tone of voice when I say "Show me All your Kennys Vargas!" so I don't sound like a crazy person / stick up artist. This was the only one they had that I didn't.

The shop had a table full of random sets from the 80s and early 90s - if you want that hard to forget 1991 Donruss set or a 1988 Topps, they've got you covered. I was drawn to the oddball sets, and Revco was exactly what the doctor ordered.

There were some monster boxes (5 column long box style) of Twins and Twins related players, this was the one card that caught my eye.

I am really skeptical of the autographs I found in this box, these two seemed close enough to legit, and I have no plans to re-sell them. There was a Steve Garvey that I picked up as well, it doesn't look remotely right to me at all, but I will probably ask for GCRL's expert opinion on it at some point.

Back to some oddballs - The Twins teamed up with local law enforcement to release this set several years in a row (maybe they still do?). I found it, uh, interesting that each player has a different crime prevention tip, and for Delmon Young they just were like... "You know what? Better just put the T.V. schedule on that card"

Best of all, they had some oddball supplies as well! Finally I can put these minis in a binder! I will definitely be making a return trip to the shop, there was a big display case of vintage cards that I completely avoided this time around.

COM(P)C

I've taken to hitting up COMC every few months or so and scraping the bottom of the barrel for some affordable cards from all over the map - in the past I focused on Twins, and this time I extended it to all Player Collection guys:

We still start with a Minnesota Twin, in this case Fan Favorite Kent Hrbek. Yesterday was the 25th anniversary of Kent's audition for the WWF, Braves fans avert your eyes:

sorrynotsorry

Moving along... Here's another guy I collect, the future Hall of Famer Adrian Beltre.

Beltre's first homer was against the Rangers!

Another Lock for Cooperstown, the Pride of Peoria, IL, Jim Thome!

I've always thought that Eddie Murray was the #1 Bad-Ass of the 80s.

Big Bart wasn't always so big, and did you recall his stint on the South Side? Rickey remembers when Rickey played in San Diego, even if he couldn't remember playing with John Olerud (*that's a fun, if not entirely true, story) .

Pedro's been all over both leagues.

And we finish where we started -  with two franchise Center Fielders for the Twins. Nothing on this post cost me more than a buck, most of them were under 50 cents!

Trading IRL with GCRL

Well, I intended to post this last week, but life got in the way. Jim from GCRL and Franken Dodger and Cards As I See Them lives in the same metro area, and every once in a while we manage to run into one another and make a trade. Above are some mid 80s postcards issued by the Twins, fan favorites in a rough patch in the standings, not too different from the current incarnation.

Plenty of PC guys in the box from Jim, there's no shortage of Harmon Killebrew cards in new designs!

The cards came from all eras, including some 2016s like the Miguel Sano insert from this year's Heritage set.

The Jim Thome Dodger card is from a set called Topps Unique - it's the first time I've seen it before, it looks really sharp!

Jim also included these hits - I'm a big fan of framed minis, especially when they have  a well-designed frame like this one.

The Sportflics Team preview card was a highlight for me. Brought me back to a simpler time!

"On the verge of winning big" you say? Oh, Sportflics, how prescient! A pleasant surprise, indeed.

Thanks again Jim, much appreciated!

Card Show Finds

I found lots of fun things at last week's card show - including complete sets of 1996 Select Certified, 1996 Leaf Limited, and 1994 Fleer Update (minus the A-Rod rookie). All three had new to me Pucketts inside, and many of the cards will eventually find their way to new homes via trades - it's a win-win! If you know of cards in those three sets that you have been looking for, drop me a line.

the dimeboxes (here they tend to be quarter boxes or sometime 3 for $1 boxes) yielded plenty of PC guys like Jim Thome.

You would be forgiven for thinking I was a Cleveland fan based on some of the stack - it's a coincidence that some of my favorite players all passed through there at one point or another. The mid to late 90s had a lot of talent playing near the shores of Lake Erie, and not so many on the mighty Mississip...

See? Twins fan. Told ya so.

No vintage at this show, but I was able to find several old timers on new cardboard. Stadium Club again comes through with another great Clemente shot.

Want Lists Completed (For Now); let's make a deal!

It's Thursday February 12th!

That means (of course) Happy Birthday, Chet Lemon!

I've been working completing various want lists so that I can start making some trades with bloggers and blog readers - I read all these trade posts and it just looks like so much fun!

I've got a few player collections starting up:

Elmer Valo

Minnie Miñoso

I like vintage

And junk wax too

The main team I collect is the Twins - I have very little of any team from 1995-2005 or so.

I've added page links to the top of my blog with more details. I'll try to add some posts during the week of trade bait.



Cards I Wish Existed

There are so many cards out there, and the seemingly endless stream of new cards for retired players means we'll probably have every remotely baseball related image converted to cardboard at some point.

There are a few, though, that might not happen, and that's a shame. As a Twins fan, here are ones that are near and dear to my own subjective taste.

Bert Blyleven's First Love:

It's almost Valentine's Day, and with that in mind, I think a card commemorating the Hall of Famer's first love is appropriate. This is a classic Blyleven image, and it is pretty harmless in my opinion. I think adults and kids alike would love a card with this image.

 Is he about to pull his own finger?


Jim Thome and Delmon Young:

Jim Jam loves to mash taters, and we love him for it. This particular tater was mashed so hard, however, that Delmon may never be the same again. I'm thinking Sportflics could come back for this, or someone could figure out how to make these from Baseball Card Breakdown in real life. Check out one of the greatest reaction shots of all time:

Tom Brunansky winning the 1985 HR Derby:

Bruno was the Twins' representative for the 1985 Home Run Derby, and he managed to hit the winning home run to lead the AL to victory (at the time they played for a league victory instead of an individual winner). (Video) Would have loved to see a card commemorating that moment:

Welcome Home Rally for 1987 Twins 10/12/1987:

Here's a great article covering the event - The Twins had just won the AL pennant, and returned home from Detroit to get ready for the team's first World Series appearance since 1965. I think a Juan Berenguer Card would be pretty spiffy:

Twins Win Game 163 in the Metrodome 10/06/2009:

Tigers fans may want to look away at this one. The Twins win a dramatic 12 inning game at the Dome, the last regular season game ever played in the building.  Carlos Gomez scores the winning run - why wasn't this image the 2010 Topps Twins team card?

What are some great moments in baseball you wish were captured on a card?

Saturday = Card Show Day!

It's the weekend, and here in the Twin Cities, that means that there's a card show somewhere. This weekend is the smaller of the two regular shows, taking place in Mounds View.

The vintage guy I usually hemorrhage my paycheck to is out of town this weekend, so good news/bad news (!) I came home with a much larger stack of cardboard than usual, after hitting all the dime/quarter/dollar boxes filled with glorious nostalgic junk wax.

There was another vintage seller, and he always brings longboxes of commons. I was able to pick up a nice variety of singles from '57, '58, and '60. I've found that one of the best things about the shows is that you get to know the vendors and you can build a good relationship and start to get some nice deals.

Across the aisle from the vintage seller was a huge stack of dime cards that all produced a nice rush of nostalgia for me. These are Cards that I really wanted as a kid, but wasn't lucky enough to find them in packs or get them in trade with friends.

One of my favorite pick-ups was this Jim Thome Rookie that I bought for a quarter.

He looks so fresh faced! I think that as much animosity as there is between AL Central rivals, one thing that pretty much every fan can agree upon is that Jim Thome is awesome.

Before I leave the show, I always stop in the store and see if I can spend a little bit of $$ for the guy that is hosting the show. I decided to get a Stadium Club Mini-box (thanks in no small part to seeing these posts from View From the Skybox, and all the great photography), so I'll be busting that open this weekend.

I'll leave you with these awesome junk wax box bottom cards, always wanted to have some of these, never really wanted to pay them, but .10 cents is a steal!