I Love the 80s Frankenset : 1981 Minnesota Twins

Here we go - a new series on the old Arbitrary... I'll be creating a page per team per year from 1981 - 1989. These are my choices for my favorite cards of the 80s. You can tell me where I'm wrong in the comments! I'd like to hear about your favorite cards from each team / year as they come up.

First up are my hometown team, the Minnesota Twins. The 1981 squad finished 7th in the AL West, with a player's strike limiting the team to 109 Games. This was the start of a rebuilding period for the Twins, who finished in 3rd place in 1980 and had said goodbye to Rod Carew the season before. In 1980 the team was slow (last in the AL in stolen bases), not particularly powerful (the team leader in HR was 3B John Castino with 13).

 The backs:

Fleer #557 - Ron Jackson
Topps #219 - Ken Landreaux 
Fleer #569 - Rob Wilfong
Topps #256 - Bombo Rivera (one of the great names in Twins History)
Kellogg's  3D Superstars #30 - Ken Landreaux (a great tidbit on the back of this card- Landreaux had the longest hitting streak in baseball in 1980)
Donruss #494 Danny Goodwin (Donruss was HARSH in 1981, referencing Goodwin only managing 2 Game winning RBI in 1980)
Fleer #552 - Jerry Koosman 
Donruss #593 Bombo Rivera
Topps #569 Al Williams

I picked these 9 purely using my own personal taste - either the image on the front was interesting, or the player was notable for a particular reason that year.

The Joy Of A Completed Set - 1948 Bowman

Yesterday, I posted about finding Phil Rizzuto. He was one of the final three cards I needed to complete the 1948 Bowman set. Once I had the "big" guy out of the way, the last two cards seemed ripe for the taking.

 #11 - Johnny Lindell (I got what I thought was an amazing deal on this card - it was listed in VG-Ex condition on eBay, I figured out why later)

 #46 Herm "Wee" Wehmeier - funny for a 6'2" guy to be called "Wee" but it's all good.

 Now do you see why Johnny was such a great deal? Trimmed. Sad Trombone. It doesn't bother me too much though, as I already had two other trimmed cards in this set (the only way I could afford them, by the way...)


So, without further ado, here is my 1948 Bowman set, in all it's low conditioned glory:

 Hall of Famers Kiner, Feller, Berra, and Rizzuto.

 I will probably seek out an upgrade on Bob Elliott - card #1 in the older sets are often on the top of kid's stacks, so condition can be rough. I'd like a little cleaner front image than this one...

 Hall of Famers Spahn and Slaughter

 Check out the great story on Jack "Lucky" Lohrke.

 Hall of Famer Stan Musial

One of the reasons I built this set is for all the fantastic nicknames- Snuffy, Available Jones, Billy the Bull, The Antelope . . .

 Hall of Famer Red Schoendienst

This set jump started the modern era of cardboard - Bowman was joined in 1948 by Leaf, then Topps jumped on board a few years after that and the rest is history. At just 48 cards, this was an "easy" set to build. I had a lot of help from a vendor in the Twin Cities last year - Kurt - who is now in North Carolina. Most of the cards came from his table at shows. He helped me find Musial, Berra, and Spahn at prices I could afford and in condition I could enjoy. Johnny Lindell was the last card I needed. Rizzuto, Wehmeier and Lindell were all ordered within a few days of one another.

Thanks for reading!

Something Old and Something New (2016 Goal Achieved!)

Very exciting news this morning, as I have reached another goal on my list for 2016. I now have in my possession the last of the big rookies from the 1948 Bowman set, one Mr. Phil "Scooter" Rizzuto!

Sure, it's beat to Hell and has a serious crease through the middle, but that's exactly why I bid on it (fits in my price range beautifully!)

Here's the back:

In other news, the Minnesota Twins finally won a baseball game in 2016! I can finally breathe again. Hopefully it doesn't take too long for win #2. I was wrong about Topps not giving Kennys Vargas a card in 2016 - he's part of the Twins Mini Team Set:

He might end up being in Series Two for all I know, though he'll probably need to get called up from AAA for that to happen.

The Kennys Vargas Trio

 I had a bit of time on my hands last week, so I hopped on eBay and repeated a search I've done many times in the last several months - I was looking for that Kennys Vargas 2015 Topps Clear /10.

 Well, I didn't find it (surprise, surprise) - but there were a few new to me, and also numbered to 10.

A very strange die-cut from Panini- if you could read the whole word at the top, it would be "status." His current status is "languishing at AAA." Meanwhile Byung-Ho Park is not doing any better than Kennys was last year...

This was my favorite of the three - thanks in no small part to that "sick patch." Getting it now instead of this time last year means it was really affordable. All three combined came to under $30 including shipping from three different sellers.

Now, if I can just find that one Topps Clear....

2016 Twins Home Opener - Bummer.

High expectations and LOW temperatures - that's not Celsius, kids. 

Some local eats

A big pile of rib tips, fresh off the grill. Awesome. Also a reasonable buzz can be obtained from this stand with a shot of Knob Creek.

Those seem like a very long time ago ...

 I didn't take many shots of game action- nobody on either side struck the ball very firmly.

There were a pair of bald eagles at the game, they politely listened to the National Anthem while being super majestic.

One highlight of the day was Rod Carew throwing out the first pitch. He suffered a massive heart attack over the winter, and will likely need a heart transplant sooner than later. Joe Mauer is catching and Tony Oliva is standing just to Carew's left.

The game itself? Frustrating. Cold. The Twins are now 0-7. No team in MLB history  has ever made the playoffs after starting 0-7. If they somehow become the first, they are going to have to turn things around dramatically, and do it really soon.

The good news? It's going to be in 60s and 70s for the rest of the week. Also, it could have been worse:

Here's the Minneapolis Millers at their home opener April 25th, 1950.