I've got plenty of baseball stuff to show off over here plus a good handful of Wolverine stuff over on TMM as well. The baseball stuff comes at a nice time since we're right in the midst of the World Series, with game 2 hopefully getting played as scheduled tonight (weather cooperating). I'm rooting for the Cubs to end their curse as I did Boston 12 years ago, but I could live with a very good Cleveland team ending their own drought.
Detroit's own lack of titles hasn't been nearly as bad, but it has been 32 years since the Tigers' Wire-to-Wire '84 season. Here's a few guys there were part of that championship run represented in cards Jeff gave me:
Sparky, seen here on an '83 Topps base, managed both the Reds and Tigers to titles. The next group (along with five cards in the next scan) all hail from '86 Topps. Evans turned out to be a solid free agent signing for '84, then put up nice numbers the next few seasons in Motown. Herndon was a valuable role-player and had a nice Series, hitting a two-run homer that proved to be the winner in game 1. Petry was a key cog in a rotation led by Jack Morris and went 18-8 in the regular season. Tanana's the only guy in this group who wasn't with Detroit in '84; the Tigers grabbed him from Texas the next year and he had a few good seasons with the team. And of course Trammell (seen here on 1980 and 1983 Topps issues) was the MVP of the Series thanks to a robust .450 average, 2 HR, and 6 RBI, all that after a nice ALCS.
The cards above are of guys I have sorted by player in my Tigers box while the next group includes cards that'll go into my "vintage" (pre-90s) Detroit collection:
Hebner, from '82 Donruss, was better known as an 11-year Pirate and was long gone before the '84 Series. Cabell, another '83 Topps example, spent a good number of his years with Houston and was in Detroit in 1982-83 only. Castillo was a backup C/3B and '84 was the apex of his five year career as he also contributed in the playoffs, including a game 3 homer. Garbey was briefly a rookie sensation in '84, his first of two years with Detroit (he'd enjoy one last season with the Rangers in '88) and also made the playoff roster. Lopez, a.k.a. Señor Smoke, was a very good RP who went a crazy 10-1 in '84 and picked up a win each in the ALCS and World Series. O'Neal went 2-1 in three starts as a Tigers rookie that year, then went on to a seven-year career with a total of four other teams. Finally, Simmons was a rookie OF that got a cup of coffee with the team and appeared in just 100 games over parts of three seasons with Detroit and Baltimore between '84 and '87.
Besides sending Tigers, Jeff included a pair of PC guys:
This Gwynn card from 1996 Pinnacle is very familiar to me as it hails from one of my favorite sets. However, it isn't actually the base card, but the Foil version instead, made as part of a retail-exclusive parallel of the Series 2 set. I really liked the ".300 Series" subset and the foil does a nice job of making the card pop, even if foil inherently makes scanning more difficult!
In keeping with the World Series theme, Gwynn made it to two of those--one in '84, which I've been discussing this whole post, and then against the earlier portion of the late 90s/early 2000s Yankees dynasty, in '98. He went on to hit nearly .400 with a homer in his nine Series games.
Jeff hit one of my other major PCs, a guy we both chase in Cal Ripken Jr.:
The Iron Man made his lone Series appearance in '83, his second full season and third overall. After the Fall Classic he'd be named AL MVP, and though he didn't contribute much to the five-game win over the Phillies, he did have a nice ALCS (against Jeff's White Sox!). The first card in this scan includes his stats from that year as it hails from '84 Topps. The others are from 1989 Topps Glossy All-Stars, 1992 Leaf, 1992 Pinnacle, 1993 Upper Deck, and 1994 Pinnacle (with a great photo).
Cal's Orioles did make it back to the playoffs in 1996 and '97, but they lost to the Yankees and Indians, respectively, and that was it for Ripken's playoff experience. Here he is on cards from '95 Score, '98 Donruss, '98 Topps, 2000 Impact Mighty Fine in '99, and 2015 Topps Update Rookie Sensations. Definitely a nice bunch for one of my favorite PCs!
Thanks for some great new cards, Jeff!
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