Showing Some A-PWE-ciation

Hope everyone is having a safe and wonderful start to their holiday season! I was the recipient of a pair of plain white envelopes (or PWEs) this past week, thanks to Tom from Waiting 'Til Next Year and Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life.  Tom sent 3 cards,  I was surprised to find a Ryne Harper in the envelope! Tom has a formidable Sandberg player collection, I thought the new generation of "Rynes" might make it into his collection as well.

Harper and this Nelson Cruz insert were both featured in 2019 Topps Update and came in a ZZ Pack War post.

Also in that pack war was this promo card of former Twin Tsuyoshi Nishioka! The reverse side has a promo of a jersey swatch for Kyuji Fujikawa, former Cubs hurler. I might need to start a Chiba Lotte Marines collection between Nishioka and of course the great Kennys Vargas. I indirectly owe a thank you to ZZ as well for this cool card! Thanks for the PWE, Tom, I hope we aren't Waiting 'til Next Year to read a new post on your blog now that you are shifting your focus a bit. Best of luck with that wood-working project, sounds like fun!

Bo's PWE was laser focused on a pair of my collections - The Alou family, and the bat rack.

Moises' proud papa, Felipe featured here from his playing days.

A quartet of Manageri-alous! 

To round it out, Bo included this bat rack bunch. Thanks very much, Bo, these hit the spot!

1995 Topps All-Star Rookie First Baseman John Mabry

Though he was an outfielder coming up to the big leagues, John Mabry was named the Topps All-Star Rookie First Baseman for the 1995 season. This versatility would become a trademark of Mabry's career - playing all outfield positions, both corner infield positions, and even 2 MLB appearances on the pitching rubber. He would finish 4th in the NL Rookie of the Year balloting.

Mabry hit over .300 for his rookie season, which would be a career high mark. The lanky lefty did not provide much on the bases, but apart from that he filled up the stat sheet with doubles and a very strong throwing arm.

Mabry was drafted by the Cardinals in the 6th Round in the 1991 draft, coming out of West Chester University of Pennsylvania. He was born in Wilmington, Delaware and attended Bohemia Manor High School in Chesapeake City, MD. Mabry's outfield arm was considered among the strongest in the Cardinals' system, and his swing was compared to David Justice early on by Joe Torre. Mabry jumped up the minor league ranks quickly, having already played 3 years of college ball. He flashed some power in 1993 and 1994, and earned a call up at the end of that season.

Mabry would play for many different MLB teams in his career, but the Cardinals were always home. He had three different stints in St. Louis, and his post-playing days have also been spent in the St. Louis area. His most prolific MLB season came in his sophomore season. In 1996, he was the Cardinals' primary first baseman, and led the team in base hits. He was 4th in the NL in fielding pct among first baseman, and played 13 errorless games in the outfield. He even hit for the cycle against the Rockies in May of that season. The arrival of Mark McGwire in 1998 allowed Mabry to return to his original position in the outfield. He would go on to become a super utility guy and pinch hitting specialist.

In addition to Saint Louis, Mabry played for Seattle, Philadelphia, San Diego, Oakland, the Cubs, and the Rockies. He would finish his career with the 4th most hits in MLB history for Delaware-born players. He still ranks 3rd all-time in Doubles from Delaware, behind Delino Deshields and Paul Goldschmidt. Mabry would join Mike Matheny's coaching staff in St. Louis, and was the team's hitting coach throughout Matheny's tenure.

Got any fun John Mabry stories?  I'd love to hear 'em!

A Not-So-Arbitrary Arbitrary Collection - 1990s

the journey so far . . .

1950s

1960s

1970s

1980s

My first round of collecting ended before the decade of the 90s came to a close. I did have the first 5 years accounted for already, and thanks to a more recent purchase of a box of 1998 Topps Series 1, I still had a Kurt Abbott card laying around. The rest I had to find online. Despite the sheer quantity of these cards in existence, the local shows tend to favor either the latest releases or vintage cards with very little available past 1976 or so.  I think the only card that Topps made a conscious effort to plan in advance for this entire set so far was the 1996 Cal Ripken Jr entry. Obviously, Ripken's passing of Lou Gehrig on the all-time consecutive games played list was a watershed moment in sports. At a time when baseball was hanging on by their collective fingernails to the game, this event was a rare sweet spot in a bitter era.

I also think that Topps purposely chose a Marlin for card #98 as the team won the 1997 World Series, but that also could have been a coincidence. They didn't repeat the pattern in any of their other 90s selections. Do you have a favorite 90s Topps set? 1991 has always been a favorite of mine - Topps stuck to their guns for one more year with the old cardstock, but took a big step into the present with the careful curation of the photos selected for the cards. 1996 seems to me to be fairly universally disliked, but if you are a fan, I'd love to hear someone defend it.

ready . . . set . . . Build!

With some big ticket items still missing I am going to fall short of completing the 1959 Topps set this year, but I am going to get pretty close! Over the last month, I attended a couple card shows in the area and was able to shrink my list down to roughly 50 cards to go in this massive 572 card marathon.

The "high number" series for this set starts in the low 500s and includes an All-Star subset to close out the set. Ruben Gomez is one of them!

Each Team Card has a portion of the set checklist on the back, finding a Phillies card with minimal marking on the back (It has the low number cards on the back) can be tough. This one was creased in two corners, but otherwise looked pretty good.

The set is peppered with these team themed cards - I like how they look together. I have been going back and forth about putting these cards together at the front of the binder, or keeping them with their respective teams.

Not Hall of Fame guys, but these were some players that had some big games and big seasons in the 1950s.

But since you asked, there were some Hall of Fame guys in the latest haul. George is better known as Sparky Anderson, the Reds and Tigers World Series winning manager.

I was able to add Hank for just $20 - the vendor had 3 in the case and this was the one in the worst condition. I am just one card away from finishing the AL All-Stars (the Mantle, of course).

The big cards left on my checklist include the Mantle All-Star card, the Bob Gibson rookie, and Al Kaline's base card. I finally added the Roy Campanella special card (Card #550) after passing on it many times. I ended up finding a much more affordable copy at the next card show, but that is the Murphy's law of collecting. 

Ken Fifty, Jr