Joe More Mr. Nice Guy

 

Congrats to Joe Mauer, Hall of Famer. 

Wallet Card 2020

It's a New Year, which I love because it is a highly subjective and completely arbitrary unit of time. That means that it's time for another new wallet card  1988 Topps Carlton Fisk was my 2019 Wallet Card. Here's what all of my Wallet cards look like now:

                                                                 Say hello to Wallet Card 2020!

I briefly thought about a player wearing eyeglasses, but 20/20 vision means you don't need to wear them. It's about time to have another Twin and few Twins had better vision at the plate than Joe.

NOW You're Just Being Ridiculous

This card is one that I debated spending money on - the main reason I decided to get was that I attended this game in person. I don't know if I would have pulled trigger otherwise. I mean, the Twins have been on a lot of Topps NOW cards this season, especially in July / early August:

Is this what it feels like to collect Yankees?

I branched out a little bit from the Twins, adding the Steve Wilkerson Save game, and I picked one of the many Aristedes Aquino cards. I went with the throwback 70s Reds jersey card. The Vlad Jr card is a Throwback Thursday offering using the Stadium Club insert "Crystal Ball" design.

Also, shout out to Nelson Cruz, who had never hit 3 HRs in a game in his entire career - then did it twice in ten games!! The Opening Day set I bought from Topps once again resulted in bonus cards.

Last but not least, Throwback Thursday paid tribute to 2 sport stars like Bo Jackson, Deion Sanders, and... Joe Mauer?!? The #1 Overall Pick was also recruited by Florida State to play Quarterback and was the #1 rated high school QB his Senior Year. Who knows, the kid still has all 4 years of eligibility left! (He's, uh, not going to play College Football).

Kyler Murray had a less than stellar debut - and has picked it up in the 4th quarter. Should he have stayed with baseball, or will he flourish in Arizona?

Wes is More

That's right! Wes is up to his old tricks again, passing out the goods to any and all collectors out there. I was the lucky recipient of a stack of serial numbered Twins!

A Gold Guzman!

A Snowy Santana /99 !

The Proof is in the Sano, 19/25!

A mini Mauer!

Just 3/25 From Allen & Ginter & Wes!

Cuddyer signed this card before getting a lecture from Harmon Killebrew about the importance of a legible autograph. If you see some of his later cards, you'll notice the difference!

Thanks very much Wes! I have a return package in the mail to you.

Worth The Wait?

2019 Topps Heritage was released on February 27th - but the first day I saw any for sale was during a trip to Target this afternoon,

When I saw the Mookie Betts preview card for the set, I was concerned that Topps had made the photo smaller and made the grey border much wider. I was happy to see that was not the case, at least not to the scale of the Betts card. The 1970 version had plenty of centering issues, but so far so good for me on the 2019 heritage version.

The Sporting News is back for the All-Star squad- and they even pulled the same headlines in 2019 as they had in 1970! "Forfeit O----er Champs Plan." Another plus is that it seems like the new heritage set made an effort to emulate some of the poses from 1970. Let's look at some of the backs.

Both A's pitchers had card #41, that was cool. The Coloring would probably be closer if I had higher grade vintage cards, but the ones I have are pretty faded on the back. Weird grammar thing on the All-Star cards. In 1970, they made a complete sentence starting with the player's name- "Willie McCovey . . was named the N.L. Player of the Year in 1969!" But in 2019, there's the player name, then another sentence. I like the 1970 version better, as repeating the player name just seems like a waste of real estate on the back of the card, which is already scrunched by all the legal disclaimer language that crowd card backs now.

Hey, they forgot to include the bat rack cards!!

Good News - Pat Neshek has a card that is almost identical to Lowell Palmer's from 1970.
Bad News - I didn't pull that card.

Good News - the 1970 Harmon Killebrew 1970 Topps Card is one of my favorite cards of all time.
Bad News - Topps didn't make a Joe Mauer card to mirror it.  Rats.

I hope the back of the Neshek card shares that his hobby is collecting cards!

I did pull one interesting insert item - this is a Target exclusive insert, a faux candy lid. Topps made some candy packages in 1970 and 1973 with a baseball player under the lid- there were 24 in the 1970  set.

Scenes from the last Card Show of 2018

There was an oversaturation of card shows in the Twin Cities, this month - with shows on each of the first three weekends. I planned ahead for this craziness, and I went to just one show. My birthday is in December, so I had some extra cash to spend. Even though I only went to one show, I've split the trip into three parts. This is the odds and ends entry!

Joe Mauer is featured here in a card from 2002, printed up not long after his rookie league season had ended. The front has a picture from his high school days with Saint Paul's Cretin-Durham Hall Raiders - where he was the #1 ranked player in both Baseball and Football. He passed on a scholarship to play Quarterback for Bobby Bowden at Florida State so he could catch for his hometown team. The $5.15 Million dollar signing bonus from the Twins helped too. The back calmly explains that Mauer is probably going to be one of the best players in baseball for the next decade plus. The back was not wrong.

I revealed to one of the vendors that I was looking for cards with players on the phone. He gave this card to me for a quarter - close enough! Bud Grant was a unique multi-sport star as well. A three-sport star at the University of MN, he was on the 1950 NBA Champion Minneapolis Lakers team as a reserve, but he also played Defensive End and Wide Receiver for the Eagles. Unhappy with his NFL salary, Grant moved on to the Winnepeg Blue Bombers of the CFL, where he led the league in Receptions three times and receiving yards twice. He also set a CFL record by intercepting 5 passes in a playoff game. He went into coaching later on of course, first in the CFL winning 4 Grey Cup titles. He returned to the NFL, leading the Vikings to all four Super Bowl appearances in the team's history.

Speaking of Vikings greats, this was the only other card I picked up at the show more recent than the 1980s. Cris Carter was a tremendous talent at WR for the Vikings. He was an 8x Pro Bowl selection, and finished his career with over 1,100 Receptions, 13,000 yards, and 130 Touchdowns. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in his home state of Ohio in 2013

Speaking of Hall of Famers, here's College Football Hall of Famer Jim Plunkett. He was the 1970 Heisman Trophy winner, beating out Archie Manning and Joe Theismann for the honor. Drafted #1 overall by the Boston Patriots, the longtime Patriot and Raider was a 2-time Super Bowl Champion, including an MVP winning performance in Super Bowl XV.

What the heck are these? The vendor I purchased them from said he was "pretty sure" they were 1971 Bazooka cards, hand cut from a cardboard box. they have plain brown blank backs.

Say Hey! Not a bad pick up for less than $10 for the pair. Next up, I'll share the 60s and 70s vintage I found at the show. 

On Demand, Two Cards, Three Dimensions

Short post, just wanted to share the Twins in the recent 3D set that Topps sold in packs online from their site. I did not buy any from Topps directly, knowing that my chances of getting these cards were slim to none.

So, I waited for them to appear on eBay, and I ended up buying both cards from the same seller. Didn't get the thrill of the hunt, but still satisfied to find these guys.

Players Gonna Play

This year was the 2nd Annual Player's Weekend Celebration, where players can wear any socks they want.

Topps released a set again this year, picking a handful of players from each team - I was of course looking for the Twins' set.

La Makina is my favorite of this bunch. Apparently there were also special short printed cards (please don't die of shock) if a person purchased 5X or 10X sets. Well, that's kind of dumb. Enough re-sellers bit on that, so there are 14 Logan Forsythe short prints and 10 Tyler Austin short prints that I will never see in person.

I did, however, buy my set directly from Topps, which gave me the possibility of getting a bonus card later on... and boy it was a doozy:

It got dusty in this room all of a sudden... Joe dons the tools of ignorance one ... last ... time! Mauer's last game of 2018 just may be the last game of his career, and it was a memorable day, from his Twin daughters greeting him at first base before the game, to a opposite field double in his final at bat, and finally his brief stint behind the plate and long standing ovation from Minnesota fans.

This was nice surprise to add to the 5 card set - I'm hoping that next year will have a a Twins set that features a first place finish!

Ok, So NOW What?

By the time Mitch Garver hit this walk off double, the Twins were all bu eliminated from playoff contention. The trade deadline more or less sealed the team's fate in 2018, as they traded away Brian Dozier, Eduardo Escobar, Lance Lynn, Zach Duke, Ryan Pressly, and Fernando Rodney. 

If they could have, I'm sure they would have traded away Ervin Santana and Logan Morrison too, but injuries made that impossible. Even though their season would not extend into October, there was still plenty of baseball left to play.

I didn't listen to my own rules about sticking to just Twins NOW cards, I couldn't pass up this awesome bat flip from the wunderkind 19 year old of the Nats. Soto homered in 3 straight games, the first teenager to do that since 1898. Eighteen Ninety Eight!

On the other end of the spectrum, I knew ahead of time that this would be a card I would add, as long as Bartolo could make it happen. He's made 24 starts for Texas this season, and has stated he wants to pitch again in 2019. I hope someone signs him- he's now just three wins away from 250 for his career, which is a nice milestone.

It's the first Logan Forsythe card as a Twin! He started out with the team hitting everything, including this 5 hit game, but he's cooled off considerably. His numbers now are closer to his career rates, and he looks to finish out 2018 right at the 0.0 WAR replacement level. I have my fingers crossed that the Twins make a run at bringing back Eduardo Escobar in the off season, Dozier I am less enthusiastic about. Forsythe is better suited for a team looking for a veteran backup, rather than the Twins who need a starting 2B.

Mauer watch continues as he hasn't ruled out coming back for another season, nor has he said he'll play beyond 2018. He passed Carew in August, and the next time he reaches base, he'll pass Harmon Killebrew on the Twins' All-Time on base list. Right now he's up to 2,112 career hits, he'd probably need to play full time for another 5 seasons or part time 7 or 8 to reach 3,000. I don't see that happening, though he could pass Kirby Puckett if he plays one more great year, or two average seasons. Maaaaaybe?

One of the best stories of this "lost" season has been reserve catcher Willians Astudillo. He was called up earlier for a series in Chicago and appeared in Left and Center Field, 3rd and 2nd base, and even pitched in a blowout. He blasted this walk-off home run on a Sunday afternoon and has quickly become a fan favorite. This is his first card in an MLB uniform.

You can't spell Astudillo without "A Stud." I don't know how many more NOW moments the Twins will have in 2018, but I'm hoping for one tonight as I make my way back to Target Field to catch a few more Joe Mauer at bats if these are indeed his last.