A Moving Target

Not talking about the retail world, no, the moving target is my want list. Thanks to the generosity of several folks, I am finding it hard to keep track of all the new cards in my collection. Bo from the excellent Baseball Cards Come To Life! blog sent over a PWE of early 70s Topps, including the Bud Harrelson (with Nolan Ryan cameo) shown above.

Some 1970 Topps from Bo - I wish I knew the thought process behind using a player's full name or nickname - there's plenty of room there for "Blue Moon" Odom!

Ever since I started the series on which 70s set I wanted to build, my vintage want lists got a big boost. Just as quickly as I beefed the lists up, traders were coming out of the woodwork to knock them back down again.

Yep, these were all in the same envelope from Bo! Rick Monday was celebrating an anniversary recently - the day he was drafted #1 Overall in the first MLB entry draft! Thanks a bunch, Bo! 

Fellow MN resident blogger Jim from cards  as i see them also got a PWE through to me recently - It looks like I am still a few days behind on receiving mail (but my goodness, give the USPS a hearty round of applause for resuming mail delivery just 2 business days after losing 2 post offices!). 

Some great Twins Greats made it in the envelope - interesting to see Wrigley Field on that Paul Molitor card - he played only 2 games there in his career since he was a career American Leaguer, mostly pre-Interleague play. I am guessing all the cards in that subset have the same background.

This is me, cross-checking all my lists after the avalanche of new trades. Thanks Jim!

Blog reader Mark from Oregon has been dropping big mailers of vintage and 90s cards on me for the last month or so, and he sent over another doozy recently.

The main portion of this mailer was from 1976 Topps, which is easily a top 3 set for me from the decade. 

Getting all choked up by all this great stuff!

This doesn't really do it justice, but this is just a small representation of the variety in the latest mailer, attacking both vintage and modern wantlists with equal fervor. 

Thanks again Mark! Going to keep working on a decent return package for you. 

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!

Gopher Cards? Required Learning!

Here in MN, the Golden Gophers have been about as fierce as they sound during my lifetime in baseball and football. But there was a period of time in the 70s when the University saw several outstanding athletes. Jim from cards as i see them sent over a mailer highlighted by some Hall of Fame locals.

Morris went to Brigham Young, but just like Winfield and Molitor, he spent his high school career in Saint Paul, MN.

Jim sent along several more Twins, including a snazzy metallic blue Ozzie Arcia rookie, numbered to just 250.

Hoping for a healthy and productive season for phenom Byron Buxton, and on the other end of the spectrum, Rick Stelmaszek was a fixture on the Twins' bench for 32 years - the longest tenure of any Twins coach. He was briefly a MLB catcher (his only career homer cam against HOFer Don Sutton), but made his mark in coaching, serving as bullpen coach and bench for 5 different Twins skippers.

The toast of the town in 1987 and 1988? Frank Viola!

Thanks again, Jim - I've always got an eye out for Dodgers for ya.

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!