Orioles Stack from the Commish

Within a few days of starting by blog back in August, Bob from The Five Tool Collector was the first to welcome me to the blogosphere. I enjoy reading Bob's daily posts on the Orioles and the impressive collection he's built. The other day I received a package from Bob and I knew it would be filled with some neat Orioles, and I was right.

Eddie Murray, one of my favorite all-time Orioles, made up the majority of the package, which I was thrilled about since I have very few Murray cards in my collection. All of these are great Topps designs. Hard to pick a favorite as there are parts of each card that I like. I think the 85 Topps design on the right is my favorite, mainly because I can't see enough of that Orioles logo.

Here we have Murray cards from 1982 Fleer and Topps. I'd say the Topps card wins this battle. Appreciate seeing an action shot of Murray at the plate. First thing I noticed about the Fleer card was the difference in surface texture from the Topps cards I received. Basically all of these cards reinforce Murray's nickname, Steady Eddie, as all of them are solid.

Up next, a few cards of Oriole great Brooks Robinson. Interesting fact I didn't know about Brooks until recently, he's a natural left-hander but threw and batted righty. Being left handed myself I should take offense to this, but who am I to argue with 16 gold gloves, 18 all-star appearances, 2 world series championships, MVP awards of all kinds (World Series, Regular Season, All-Star), and Hall of Fame Membership?

Both of these Topps designs are great. What I'm getting at is I don't have a bad thing to say about any of the older Topps designs. I can't get enough of any year. Which means I will probably end up adding some of the 70s and 80s Orioles and Braves team sets to my wantlist. Really like the color from the 1976 version.

Finishing out the package, we've got an early Cal card and an Opening Day Andruw Jones, both cards new to me. 

Great stuff, Bob. Thanks again for the welcome and for the stack of cards! 

Pulled Over for Too Fast a Fastball

Was going through a stack of Braves when I found this card from 1996 Score of one of my favorite Braves relievers, Mark Wohlers. As with any Braves player who moved through the minor league system, I must mention his time in Richmond from 1991-93. He pitched for 24 saves over those seasons, making 75 appearances. In 91 he had an ERA of 1.03 in 23 appearances and in 93 an ERA of 1.84 in 25 appearances.

This card looks like it wants to be a die-cut, if you notice the edge of the photo, next to the name on the right side. A radar rating is the perfect subset for Wohlers, who has the 3rd fastest recorded pitch in baseball history at 103 mph.

Look at that hair! No surprise that one of the common search terms on google under 'm' for Wohlers is 'Mark Wohlers mullet'. Also 'meltdown', but we'll ignore that one.

Wohlers spent several years as a set-up man for the Braves until 1995, when he became the closer. He has 119 saves for his career, including 39 in his only All-Star season in 1996.

Additionally Wohlers appeared on a Saturday Night Live episode in 1997 with 13 other MLB players for a skit called 'Baseball Dreams'. If anyone can find a video of this, I would love to watch it. Helen Hunt hosted the episode and Hanson was the musical guest, singing 'MMMBop'. 

Chipper Stack

My second largest player collection behind Ryan Klesko so far is likely Chipper Jones. I have a large stack of cards of his from the late 90s, early 2000s. He won the NL MVP in 1999, so I guess it makes sense that a lot of the cards I have of Chipper are from that time. It's rare to see a player stick with one team through his whole career these days, and Chipper was able to do that for 19 seasons with the Braves. 

Here are some of my favorites from the stack.

I appreciate this Vintage '61 from 1999 Fleer Tradition, made to look like 1961 Fleer. And honestly before seeing this card I didn't know that Fleer made sets that early on. Pretty good design for that early on. From reading, the original 1961 set featured players from baseball's history, from the 1800s to current players from that time. Would be neat to own a card from the original set.

I can check off the Chipper Jones from my 1999 Fleer Ultra team set wantlist. While the action shot of Chipper doesn't make the Andruw, it's still a nice looking card.

The backgrounds of these Ionix cards from Upper Deck just don't scan well, but I thought it did well enough to post here. A nice shot of Chipper's post swing.

The first card in this row is an insert from 2007 insert called Flashback Fridays. Maybe I should have saved talking about this set till a Friday, because I also have the Rafael Furcal from this set. From what I can find online, it looks like there were blasters of 2007 Topps that included 5 cards from this set as a 'starter'. Maybe someone who remembers can fill me in. This card really does have a flashback feel, as the back mentions this is part of a series on famous ballplayers, and each card has a tip on inside baseball. Sounds like something written on an older card to me.

This 2000 Topps Finest is one of my favorite Chipper cards, but it just didn't scan well. The background is supposed to be light blue and it of course is chrome-y. The background also has 1999 NL MVP written all over it, which you can't really tell in the scan. I had to include a card that mentions Chipper's MVP award. 

This card from 2003 Upper Deck Vintage might be my favorite in this stack. I always enjoy seeing the Braves throwback uniforms, and this card looks pretty close to the design of 2014 Topps Heritage, which I've already ranked #1 on my list of 2014 set releases, and of course looks like 1965 Topps. Interesting how Upper Deck was able to produce cards that look like an old Topps set. I am assuming there was some kind of deal made there, right?

Finally, a card with one of my all-time favorite Braves and my current favorite Brave, Freddie Freeman! Pretty cool to see them featured on the same card, this one from 2010 Bowman. The card points out how Chipper hit at least 20 home runs each season from 1995 through 2008. Pretty impressive.

2010 was the year Freeman made his major league debut. More hype surrounded Jason Heyward at the time than Freeman, but Freeman also looked very promising. I'm hoping Freeman will model Chipper in staying on with the Braves for his whole career.

More Sizmore

I mentioned in an earlier post how Grady Sizemore has landed on my wantlist. Since I am just getting into the baseball card hobby after a long absence, many of the cards I end up searching for and picking up are ones from sets I've seen on other blogs.

Recently I've seen others in the blogosphere post cards in a mini relic set from 2011 Topps Lineage. I think these relics look sharp and so I looked at the checklist to see if any of my guys show up in the set. Several of them do, and there are some impressive names on the checklist, including both current and retired players. The most affordable out of the guys I collect seems to be Mr. Sizemore, which I picked up on ebay recently.

This set, made to look like 1975 Topps, is gigantic with 99 different players included. Would be impressive to see this set put together. I'll settle with picking up a few of my favorites, starting with Sizemore.

His batting average since I last posted about him has sadly dropped to .248, and he is no longer starting in the outfield every day. More like every 3rd or 4th game. After solid months in July and August, Sizemore is hitting just .075 in September. Hopefully he gets out of the slump before the season ends. Really I just hope this isn't the end of Sizmore's major league career. Surely a team will take a chance on him to start next season.

Wall of Fame

In modern card sets most of us are pretty accustomed to seeing relics, and while they are fun to pull, they aren't nearly as scarce as they used to be.

One of the most unique cards in my collection has to be this Wall of Fame insert from 2001 Fleer E-X. How many sets in the history of baseball cards have a piece of an actual ballpark wall? This is the only one I'm aware of.

Definitely looks like an E-X design. The die-cut seems unnecessary but it makes it seem like puzzle-piece, which is kinda cool. I like the headshot and action shot on the same card. I am thinking though a picture of Jones fielding the ball in the outfield would have been more fitting. These are minor complaints though as this is an awesome set and card.

Something interesting I noticed when I pulled this card out to scan was the 'Game Dated' stamp on the back of this card. These appear to be the stats for Andruw Jones on the date listed, an 11-2 win for the Braves over the Brewers. Looking up the box score on baseball reference, Jones did indeed go 4 for 5 with 3 runs scored and an RBI. His RBI came in the top of the 3rd inning off of Brewers pitcher Jimmy Haynes. What I'm wondering about this Game Dated stamp is- was the piece of wall taken on this day? I would assume that it was. If not, what is the significance of this date?

Pretty neat card. I know there's a Cal on the checklist. Pulling this Andruw Jones out now has me on the lookout for the Ripken. What's the most interesting relic card in your collection?

A Backstop Stack, Part 2

Last time I started showing off a stack of cards that Marcus from All the Way to the Backstop. I hit some of my favorites from the older sets, and this time I'll look at some of the more recent cards.

A nice start to a Mike Minor collection, with this year's Bowman, a Topps Chrome Refractor (yes!!) and a Blue parallel. Mike has rebounded somewhat from a miserable start to the season, putting together a string of quality starts from mid-August to mid-September. Overall though a season to forget for Mike. Hopefully 2015 will be better!

Marcus also set some sweet Craig Kimbrel cards. All of these are awesome, but my favorite is probably the Hometown parallel from this year's Bowman set. I need to pick up some more of these. Maybe a Braves hometown team set should be added to the wantlist. The Allen & Ginter is my first ever ripped card.

Next up an array of cards of some other current Braves. While I'm honestly not a fan of the inserts from this year's Topps, I'm glad to add any card of Freeman to my collection.

Bethancourt appears to be a promising catcher, great defensively. He's getting some playing time currently for the major league club with the Braves out of the playoff race and he is hitting pretty well.

And lastly a Heritage Blue parallel of one of my favorite pitchers, Julio Teheran. I've said on multiple posts that I really enjoy this heritage set, and why would a blue parallel be any different?

While Marcus included a good number of current Braves, he also included a couple of the recently retired Chipper Jones. I particularly enjoy the Stadium Club card from 1994 showing the date from his major league debut. The back of the card mentions his time in AAA Richmond. I enjoy seeing the references to Richmond.

Rounding out my favorites from the package are a few current Orioles. Even with Chris recently suspended, I'll still cheer for him when he comes back because of things like this.

Markakis has been one of my favorite Orioles for years. This season's he's in a leadoff role, and while it isn't his best season statistically, I'd say he's been a big part of the team's success this year.

Thanks again, Marcus! I've got a stack of cards ready to be sent off to you.

A Backstop Stack

One of the first blogs I started following when I caught the hobby bug earlier this summer was a Padres blog called All the Way to the Backstop. The other day Marcus was nice enough to mention my blog in a post about Ryan Klesko, whom I have written about here and here previously.

Marcus was nice enough to send me a large stack of Braves spanning several decades with a few Orioles thrown in as well. The stack was tall enough that it's going to take more than one post to go through them all.

First up, a nice start to a Dale Murphy collection, a player that I surprisingly had no cards of prior to this package.

Some awesome oddballs that are all new to me. First up a card from Kay-Bee Toys. It took me a minute to realize that it was in fact the toy store, as I was accustomed to seeing it as KB in my childhood. These sets were produced from 1986 to 1990. The Murphy is from 1989.

The Cap'n Crunch card is from a 1989 set as well. By this point Murphy was past the prime of his career. Interesting how the KayBee card shows a Braves logo while the Cap'n Crunch does not. Looks like they had a license from the MLBPA only.

The Quaker Chewy card is one of the few cards where I've seen the card number on the front of the card. I appreciate seeing the Quaker Man on the front of the card, as well.

Out of the three backs, I appreciate the Quaker Chewy back the most, particularly the Career Highlights section. Storing my cards in binders, I appreciate when I don't have to turn the binder to read the card backs.

More Murphy cards, the first cards from each of these sets for me. I actually quite like the O-Pee-Chee design from 1984. The card on the right has writing in both English and French. Having taken French in high school, I appreciated seeing both languages on the back to be able to refresh my memory on some French I've forgotten over the years.

Marcus also included what is likely a team set from 1990 Donruss. I chose to scan my three favorites from the group, featuring a young Glavine and Smoltz. Both had only been in the majors a few years at this point, and I appreciated seeing their minor league statistics in combination with their major league statistics on the back of these cards.

Lastly for this post, Marcus sent a card from 1989 Topps, as well as a 2014 Topps Die-Cut 89 Mini. Kinda neat to see them side by side. Acker played ten years in the majors primarily as a relief pitcher, spending time with the Blue Jays, Braves, and Mariners. He did start 32 games in his career and win 33 games with a 3.97 ERA.

Finally, the first card in my Braves collection of outfielder Justin Upton. Upton's had a solid season for Atlanta, hitting .271 with 27 home runs and a career high 97 RBIs, while primarily batting cleanup. Upton has one more year on his contract before he becomes a free-agent, it appears.  I've posted about these minis before, and I while I like the full size card from the original set, I can see what Topps was thinking when they made the die-cuts. Topps essentially eliminated the while space from the original card, which I'm in favor of. I guess you can say I've changed my tune somewhat on these.

Thanks, Marcus for the great group of cards! This was only a small portion of what was sent, and I'll share more in future posts!