2017 trade package #4: The Angels In Order

My next trade package came from Texan Tom of the Angels in Order.  Please note that I'm saying that Tom lives in Texas and I'm not trying to give him an alliterative nickname.

Tom is great to trade with because it's relatively easy to find cards I know he'll want.  Do I have any Angels or Patriots?  Send them to Tom, boom, done.  It also doesn't hurt that he sends fantastic stuff back your way.

In this case he lamented the fact that he didn't have many Tigers to send me, as he wrote on a note inside this package filled with Tigers and more.  Check out the goods:

Three Tigers, all still on this year's team, which is a nice bonus.  I'm always happy to get more cards of Cabrera, but the other two players here are even more useful to me as I have very few of Kinsler, one of my recent Detroit favorites, as a Tiger, and few of Martinez overall.  These three combined for 12.8 total bWAR (4.9, 6.1, and 1.8, respectively) last season, and I hope that number's even higher in 2017, which will likely be the last season they play together.

Here's two more current Tigers and three that were with the team very recently.  It was fun having Maybin back last year but he's since been shipped to the Angels (hey, that's Tom's team!).  Salty couldn't hit his weight last year but did show a bit of pop.  And Soria was one of several recent closers that have since moved on.  Meanwhile, Norris and Rodriguez will have key roles in the rotation and bullpen, with the former showing plenty of promise and the latter owning a reputation of success (at a fairly reasonable price for a closer!).

Sticking with the Tigers but going the oddball route, here's a couple team-related giveaway/contest cards that came out of Post cereals in 1982 and 1983.  I've included front and back scans of both of these, which include the awesome old-school Tigers logo up front and a similar write-up inside.  In my long career of collecting Detroit stuff I'd never seen these, so thanks for sending them my way, Tom!

And now, the player collections section:

Here's the first of three scans worth of Barry Larkin.  Wait, that many cards of Larkin?  HELL YEAH!  This group includes Larkin's card from the 1990 Fleer League Leaders boxed set; one each from 1990 and '91 Score; 1992 cards from Donruss and Fleer; a '93 Panini sticker; and a Hometown Heroes subset from '93 Pinnacle.

This bunch continues from 1993 and gets us into '96:  first up is a '93 Upper Deck insert I don't remember called Clutch Performers; then we have three '95 Ultra inserts:  All-Star, the Gold Medallion parallel of that insert, and one from the main set as well.  Anybody else getting a case of the nostalgias after seeing that familiar gold foil stamp?  Moving on to '96 we start with an excellent horizontal photo of the '95 MVP who won his second of three straight Gold Gloves, as seen in that year's Collector's Choice product.  A Star Power subset issue from '96 Topps finishes up this group.

This last six-card scan spans 20 years!  First we go back to the Ultra brand with a '96 Ultra Stars subset.  Next is the Dan Patrick/Keith Olbermann-centered Big Show insert found in '97 Collector's Choice.  After that is a five-year jump to the beautifully artistic '02 Diamond Kings set.  A couple Upper Deck brands follow:  2002 World Series Heroes (Barry hit .353 with 3 runs scored as the Reds swept the A's in '90) and the 2003 base set that came out a year before his final season.  We finish off his pile with Topps' Bunt set from last year.  For cryin' out loud, dump that crap and bring back Total, you idiots!

This nice bunch gets me to 352 Larkins, a Barry nice total indeed!

The next PC guy Tom sent me was Greg Maddux, and I split his cards into two six-card bunches.  This group includes:  1990 Bowman; 1991 Donruss, Fleer, and Score; and 1992 Triple Play and Upper Deck.  Not sure what's going on in the UD photo....  As you can see, all six of these cards feature Maddux with the Cubs, his team for the first seven seasons of his career.

As luck would have it, the other six showcase Mad Dog with the Braves, the team with whom he enjoyed most of his success--194 wins, three Cy Youngs, and a World Series ring.  The cards you see come from 1995 Emotion; the extremely weird 1995 Topps Embossed; an instructional insert from '95 Ultra called Strikeout Kings; and a '96 Ultra Ultra Stars subset, '97 Collector's Choice Big Show insert, and 2016 Topps Bunt issue as we just saw with Larkin.  I think we should see cards like the Strikeout Kings example above more often as they could possibly get more kids into the game, not to mention collecting.  Don't hold your breath to pull one from Topps' next five-card, $200 product.

Tom's hard work here bumps me up to 269 cards of Maddux, and I have plenty more left to scan and post!

As if all that weren't enough, he also sent me two more scans worth of Cal Ripken Jr. stuff.  Larkin, Maddux, and Ripken?  How generous can you be?  What's great here is that any dupes of Larkin and Ripken I have can go right over to Jeff from My Sports Obsession, and some of these will!  Happily, though, I needed the vast majority of what Tom sent over.

In this scan you can see cards from 1987 Fleer Award Winners; 1992 Stadium Club Dome (the set sold in a tin in the shape of the Skydome); 1993 Leaf;  1994 Topps' Measures of Greatness subset;  a fantastic '94 Upper Deck base card in which he catches some air while turning two;  another subset card called Hitters Inc. from '95 Score; and a trio from 1996 including Leaf Preferred, Topps (celebrating his 2131st straight game played), and once more, Ultra Stars from that year's Ultra product.

This post's last scan includes three Ripkens from last century and three more that are a bit more modern.  First up is the first card in Upper Deck's multi-product '96 Ripken collection.  That's followed by Cal's base card from a set you don't hear much about 20 years later, 1997 Pinnacle X-Press.  To their right is another subset (a major theme for today) out of '98 Donruss called Fan Club.

The three more recent cards are from Topps brands, naturally.  First is Ripken's 2012 Archives issue, done up in the style of '54 Topps.  That's joined by a couple inserts:  a Holofoil parallel of one of his Chasing History inserts from 2013 flagship, and a 3000 Hits Club insert from last year's release.

Needless to say, I also very much appreciate the new stuff here as Tom got me over 400 cards to a new Ripken count of 403!

Once again, Tom, thanks a ton for your generosity in this trade package.  I loved the mix of Tigers and some of my other favorite player collections.  I'll happily pile up some more Los Angeles Angels of Los Angeles And Definitely Not Anaheim But Definitely Los Angeles, and some Patriots as well, so I can return the favor!