2015 trade package #20: easy as A-B-GCRL

Everyone's favorite specific entire Dodgers infield collector Jim from GCRL was cool enough to shoot me over another fun trade package earlier this month so now I'm trying to be cool enough to do it justice by showing if off tonight!

Here's the first of seven(!) pages worth of cards in case you were dumb enough to think that Jim would be slacking here.  First up is a nice Heritage manager card of current skipper Brad Ausmus followed by a trio of shelf-ridden 1B Miguel Cabrera, aptly paired with Tigers great Al Kaline on the third card.  A pair of recent grand slam-hitter Nick Castellanos cards from the same Topps insert precedes a Heritage base of Rajai Davis, whom I saw hit a walk-off slam last year.  An artistic UD Cecil Fielder is the combo-breaker for current Tigers here.

That trend briefly continues with a trio of 3B Travis Fryman, but most of the rest of this scan comprises current Tigers in pitcher Shane Greene, who's been up and down this year, backup catcher Bryan Holaday, SS extraordinaire Jose Iglesias, and a pair of his double-play partner Ian Kinsler.  Those last two players bookend a Refractor (woohoo!) of current Mariner Austin Jackson.

I don't have many cards of out-of-nowhere slugger J.D. Martinez so this 2015 Topps base is much appreciated.  Going back to the 80s and early 90s we then have a quartet of should-be HOFer Jack Morris.  The Topps Gold of Maggs you see there is numbered 1162/2006.  Blog favorite Dean Palmer makes his second straight appearance in a GCRL trade even though he's pictured with the Royals (I'm happy to collect him with any team).  Seeing Porcello reminds me of how well the trade that brought Yoenis Cespedes to Detroit worked out!  And I'll enjoy David Price Tigers cards while I can since he may not be in Motown much longer.

Pudge's Fleer insert once again makes me long for the days before the Toppsopoly.  The rest of this scan is dominated by pitchers:  Dej-Anibal Vu from this year's flagship/Opening Day, Nats ace Max Scherzer, the enigmatic Alfredo Simon, current Ray Drew Smyly, ace closer Joakim Soria, and former top prospect Jacob Turner (who helped bring Sanchez to Detroit).  There's also a team card from this year's flagship set.

This scan includes some less common Tigers.  The first group is made up of rookies such as former solid closer for other teams Francisco Cordero, pitching prospect Kyle Lobstein, Jays first-rounder Todd Steverson, and interesting IF prospect Eugenio Suarez, who was traded to the Reds in the deal that brought Alfredo Simon to Detroit.  The next three cards are former Motown greats:  Sam "Wahoo" Crawford and manager Hughie "Ee-yah" Jennings (in one of baseball's more iconic photos) from TCMA along with Virgil "Fire" Trucks to close out the awesome nickname trio.  Jim also tossed in a couple early 80s cards of pitchers Juan Berenguer ('84 Donruss) and Dave Rozema ('81 Topps).

This last scan includes four of my PC guys:  Kirk Gibson, Curtis Granderson, Justin Verlander, and Lou Whitaker.  There's even a UD checklist that includes the former and current namesake of this here blog!

Bob Swift 1952 Bowman

Lastly, this was the biggest surprise of the package for me.  I mean, how often do you get to add cards to your collection that are sixty three years old in trades?  '52 Bowman also happens to be one of the hobby's most beautiful sets with its smaller-than-normal size and artsy "photos."

As I enjoy doing when I get a card of an old Tiger I don't know much about I did a few minutes of research on Swift, a catcher who spent the last 10 of his 14 MLB years in Detroit.  He spent his first two-plus seasons (1940-42) with the St. Louis Browns before heading to the Philadelphia A's for the remainder of '42 and '43.  If you didn't already feel the age of this card, the mere mention of those teams that changed homes long ago should help.  After the '43 season he was traded to Detroit, and there he averaged about 64 games over his final 10 seasons, exclusively as a catcher.  Oddly enough he was released by the team the year after this card was made.

Thanks for an amazing package that touched on Tigers old, very old, and new, Jim!  I'm happy to say that I have a few things set aside for you and after I find a few more I'll have an envelope headed your way!