The Secret is Out!

Let me start by saying that (Secret) Santa Claus is a Super cool dude. Jared of Cards My Mom Didn't Throw Out sent over these cards, stuffing the stocking to overflowing proportions! Jack Morris was just inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame, and Tony Oliva has not. No disrespect intended to Morris, but Tony O is overdue, and this big Topps card should remind everyone that it's Tony's turn.

Johan is on the ballot for the first (and quite likely the last), and that too seems like a mistake in judgement. Santana didn't have the lengthy careers of many of the all-time great lefties, and doesn't have the post season resumes of his contemporaries like Pedro and Schilling. What he does have is a stretch of 5 straight 200 K seasons, a pair of Cy Young awards, and a career ERA+ of 136. He easily could have won the Cy Young the year Colon won it, making it 3 straight, but it was not meant to be. He's destined for the Hall of Very Good, not the worst place a guy can end up. Would have enjoyed the debate on his candidacy to continue a few years longer, but it's an overcrowded ballot.

I love Bert Blyleven's expressions during his windup. These 4 cards were all parallels of one form or another, with Corey Koskie being numbered to just 99 copies.

Hrbek was still just watching wrestling in 1982 instead of executing his best moves in the 1991 World Series - Big Dave was still bringing the aggressive swing in 1994, 21 years into his MLB career.

Another Hall of Famer, this time with a sweet tooth!

A nice round of Pucketts, and one big surprise...

Probably should have used a camera instead of the scanner, but this is a very cool piece. The pin packaging has career stats on the back, almost like a baseball card, along with mentioning a few of Kirby's more notable career highlights through the 1991 season.

Thanks so much, Jared!

Lanceurs et Voltigeurs

Ceci n'est pas une pipe.

I've got to start with an apology - December has gotten the best of me and I haven't really been posting since the World Series ended. I guess it is the off-season for some of us after. Several folks have sent over cards, and I'll be sharing those over the next week - starting with Douglas from the blog Sportscards from the Dollar Store

O-Pee-Chee is notorious for ragged edges and centering issues, but these cards still look *pack fresh* ! I literally have only seen OPC cards this sharp come out of a sealed pack, and those were from 1978 and 1979.

My scanner cut even more harshly than the Canadians on this 1975 Steve Braun.

On the back, we learn some very personal info about Braun's offseason plans in 1973.

If that wasn't enough, Douglas also included a stack of Twins from more recent stock, including another one of those oddball Hobby game cards.

Last but not least a serial numbered Phil Hughes! This was right after the season Phil set a major league record for his ratio of strikeouts to walks. He fanned 186 batters and walked . . . 16. For the whole season! He's been sidelined following Thoracic Outlet Syndrome, but there's always hope in December that he'll return to pitch meaningful innings for the Twins in 2018.

Thanks so much Douglas! I've really been dogging it this month, but you're on my list for return packages in the new year. Happy Holidays everyone!

The Fine Art of Baseball

Reader and Tweeter of fine memorabilia Mark sent a trio of 8X10 Masterpieces.  Nicholas Volpe was well known as a portrait artist of Hollywood film stars, annually immortalizing the Best Actor and Best Actress Oscar winners. 

He made portraits of Frank Sinatra, including one featured as the cover of Sinatras' 1958 album Only The Lonely. Volpe won a Grammy for best Album Cover for his efforts.

The Los Angeles Dodgers commissioned Volpe to produce a dozen player portraits, and other teams like the Twins followed suit.

Western Oil and Fuel was founded in Minneapolis in the 1920s, and in the 1960s they commissioned Volpe to do two dozen Twins portraits, which were distributed at local Mileage and DS gas stations.

Thanks for this wonderful works of art, Mark! 

Julie's Extra Bases Hit!

Julie of A Cracked Bat was greatly missed during her blogging hiatus and it was a very welcome sight to see her posting again. One of the great things about Julie is her boundless generosity as a trading partner, and this most recent trade was no exception!

The 90's were something else, folks. Fleer made these bookmark sized TALL cards called Extra Bases for just one season, releasing them in 1994. Several Twins remained on the roster from their 1991 World Series victory.

Here's a couple more, and the back of that Puckett insert. Both Pucketts are new to me, as I missed out on Extra Bases the first time around, and haven't had the opportunity to pick any up in the wild.

As if that was not enough on its own, Julie included stacks and stacks of Twins from all over the years. I was pretty excited about the Topps Fire cards as I had finally exhibited a little willpower and resisted buying packs of the stuff at Target.

Joe! I think Twins fans are not going to fully appreciate Mauer until he's gone, which is a shame. He gets so much criticism for his contract, though I can't think of what Twins Fans would have done had he left Minnesota to play for someone else.

Rookies more your style? Julie has you covered there as well!

Parallels? You betcha! (That's Minnesotan for "Yes")

A Pair of Plouffe/Pinto Pint-sized Parallels! Perfect!

Framed Mini Relics? Oh Yeah.

Stadium Club signature? Sure.

Why not make it two? Park has decided to return his former team in Korea, rather than take another shot at the MLB roster in Minnesota in 2018. He was a two time league MVP and averaged 40 plus homers in Korea, but a combination of injury and adjusting to big league velocity and movement were tough to overcome. Park gave the Twins some mammoth homers, I wish him the best in 2018.

Julie, thanks so much for the trade, I was taken aback by all that you included, I look forward to returning the favor again!

A Quick Update

I went into Target this morning after VOTING (if you live in the United States, there's probably an election in your area today, so think about VOTING), and as is my way, I was drawn to the card aisle.

One Blaster of Topps Chrome Update was casually strewn atop the now dusty boxes of Topps Series 1 and 2 and the other sports like Racing, Football, and Basketball.

I was not a big fan of Topps Update this year, but who doesn't love Chrome! And I am a sucker for Topps Rookie All-Star inserts. Hey look, Yoan Moncada as a Red Sox infielder.

Both Rookie of the Year winners are represented, along with plenty more rookies from 2016 and 2017.

Ngeope had the best photo on the cards I pulled, and there was a decent percentage of cards I will actually keep.

Finally, this card means I will not buy another pack in 2017, because my luck has already hit its peak-

Neat! I will hold onto this one for a while.