2016 trade package #16: ILHMOCS is a blast from the past

To say that Daniel from It's Like Having My Own Card Shop and I haven't traded very often over the course of our blogs is a bit of an understatement--our only other deal took place in December...of 2012.  It's been so long that one of the players included in that package, Cameron Maybin, has actually returned to the team!

Fortunately for us, though, time between trades doesn't matter because we were able to pick right back up from where we left off.  I sent him some D-Backs I'd accumulated, including a couple nicer cards from shows, and in return he sent me another envelope full of Tigers goodness and more:

Tigers current (Cabrera) and erstwhile (Fielder, Fryman, and Guillen).  This is actually kind of a fun quartet since Miggy and Big Daddy are/were slugging 1Bs and Guillen and Fryman put up some nice offense from the left side of the infield.  I'm really digging the '94 Pinnacle photo of Fryman turning two, and based on the helmet number I believe the Red Sox player he's doubling up is OF Billy Hatcher.

And this scan makes me a bit sad since every player, including catcher Matt Nokes who somehow defied my alphabetical sorting, is a former Tiger, including the three active players:  AJax, Porcello, and Scherzer.  As for Pudge, I'd forgotten that he went on to play for four more teams after his tenure in Detroit:  the Yankees (2008 mid-season trade), Astros (free agency), Rangers (late-season trade in 2009) and Nationals (FA).  Though he may be gone from Motown I'm happy to see Porcello turn his fortunes around in Boston.

This scan includes four of my main Tiger PCs, with three of them hailing from the '84 champs, not to mention the Tiger teams of my youth:  Gibby, Tram, and Sweet Lou.  I was surprised that I didn't already have the Tatooine-like '95 UD base of Trammell making the tag on...maybe a Milwaukee Brewer?  It's hard for me to tell by the uniform and number, but I'm sure one of you will let me know who that is in the comments.

Five many Verlanders!  Justin gets his own scan because he was tied with Tram with five cards and I like to keep the latter together with his legendary double-play partner.  JV's bounced back pretty nicely this year, and given his results against the Royals on Friday I'm definitely wishing I went to that game instead of the slog of a loss on Saturday evening.  (Worse yet, I was too late for my J.D. Martinez bobblehead!)  Hopefully Mr. Kate Upton keeps it up...ton.

I said "Tigers and more" earlier because Daniel included a healthy stack of 15 Griffeys he hoped I needed, and I'm happy to report that the vast majority of these were new to me.  This bunch includes cards from 1990 Fleer, 1992 UD, 1994 Collector's Choice, 1996 Bowman, 1998 Skybox Dugout Axcess, 1999 UD MVP Power Surge, 2000 UD MVP, 2002 E-X, and 2002 Fleer Tradition Update.

Moving on we have another example from 2002 Fleer Update, then 2004 Bazooka, SP Authentic, and Topps, 2005 Skybox Autographics, and 2008 UD National Baseball Card Day.  Though this scan has fewer cards, it gives a bit more variety than the first nine, almost all of which are cards of Junior at the plate.  The '04 Topps features a beautiful shot of the former Gold Glove CF making a great catch at the wall while the Bazooka card gives a nice look at my absolute favorite swing in the history of the game.  Definitely a nice bunch to add to one of my favorite PCs.

Daniel, I'm glad we were able to send some cards flying across the country once more, and next time I hope we get back to it a bit sooner.  In the meantime thanks for this great bounty of Tigers and Griffeys!