Sunday, January 25, 2015

2015 trade package #3: Mark Hoyle is an oddball

I've traded back-and-forth with Mark Hoyle a few times now, and while I think many of us know him as a guy who's very generous in sending vintage stuff in trade packages, that's not entirely what he's all about as this post (and others I've seen this month) will prove.  This time Mark sent me one of the oddballiest packages I've ever received, and it was great!  See for yourself:

First up is all six Tigers cards from Donruss' 1986 All-Star oversized card set.  It highlights players who made the team in 1985, the year after the Tigers won the Series, so it's no surprise that six guys made it:
Sparky was the manager by virtue of representing the AL in the previous year's Series; Hernandez won the league's Cy Young and MVP awards and closed out two of the Series' games; Morris went 19-11, famously threw a no-hitter, and won both of his World Series starts; Petry went 18-11 and placed fifth in Cy Young voting, helping Detroit to its blazing start, and earning his lone All-Star nod.
Trammell had an excellent all-around season, then won WS MVP honors by hitting .450 with 2 HR and 6 RBI in the Fall Classic;  Whitaker won a Gold Glove and Silver Slugger award then went on to score 6 runs for the champs.

Herndon, meanwhile, is from Donruss' earlier 1983 Action All-Stars.  He wasn't actually an MLB All-Star at any point in his career, but did do well for Detroit in the '84 Series.

Finally, the tall Whitaker comes from another Donruss product, this one from 1985 called All-Star Standups.  I'm too much of a nerd to pop it up and display it--it wouldn't be in MINT CONDITION.

There was one last group of oddball things:
The Cochrane and Gehringer come from something called the Sport Hobbyist, and I really don't know much about them, so maybe someone in the know can clue me in.  The Gehringer photo is great with its sepia tone.  The Gibson, meanwhile, proved to be the oddest ball of them all:  it's a tag from a Gibson-model baseball glove produced by Wilson.  How cool is that?

Oh yeah, there was a small group of "regular" cards too:
The Kalines hail from UD's well-known 2008 Heroes set, and Bautista, probably better known for his time with the D-Backs, is a Gold Medallion from '95 Ultra (anybody else miss those?).  Finally, getting back on the oddball bandwagon, albeit at a normal size, is Dwayne Murphy from the 1989 Ames 20/20 Club set made by Topps.  Murphy is a bit of an obscure Tiger since he appeared in just 49 games in Detroit in his penultimate season, 1988, and he actually achieved the 20/20 mark with Oakland in 1982 (27/26).

Thanks again, Mark--you never cease to amaze me with what you send, so rest assured I'm looking forward to whatever you've got planned for next time.  In the meantime it's my turn, so I'll put together some more modern Red Sox for you!

4 comments:

  1. I love trading with Mark...great stuff !

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    1. Yessir, so much cool stuff I get comes from Mr. Hoyle!

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  2. The Sports Hobbyist was one of the earliest baseball card periodicals. It was around from the late 50's to mid 70's. I used to get it every month somewhere around 72-75. Every month they included some of there own cards that had advertising on the back. You can find them listed in some price guides. They also used to throw in extra regular issue cards also.
    The Gibson glove tag is from a glove my son used years ago. Still have the glove.

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    1. Thanks for the details and the history lesson! That's really cool that your son had a Gibson glove.

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