2021 Sportlots purchases part 5: Lucky Tiger Seven

Previously: Quick summary and set wants; Big and small we have them all!; Better off Ted; A Tettle-ton of Froot Loops

Since my last post was a Michigan player and the Sportlots one before that focused on a solo collection I thought it would be fun to highlight a group for tonight's. Not that there aren't any Wolverines in this post, mind you, but the theme here is Tigers greats of the past. Also, if you're wondering why you don't see certain Tigers you're sure would fit in that category, rest assured there's another team post coming at some point! (Also also, if you're a fan of the movie tonight's title vaguely references, you're extra cool in my book!)

So here's seven of Detroit's finest, from the recent past to way before I was born:

This first scan covers four players alone, since I picked up just a few cards of each. Player number one is the Bird, one of the Franchise's most colorful and recognizable guys, and I was geeked to end up with his 2010 Topps Triple Threads base (#d /1350) for cheap. It's my 24th card from his fairly small oeuvre of around 200 issues (according to TCDB), and I'd love to add more, whether they're recent high-end base like this or some of his earlier items.

Fidrych's amazing 1976 ROY campaign coincided with catcher Bill Freehan's sunset season with the team, and they'd form a battery just once that year for the pitcher's second start. It looks like Bruce Kimm caught every other Bird start, maybe as a personal catcher sort of situation? Anyway, Freehan, who's a favorite of mine as well of John's, of course, can be seen here on a textbook Action Packed issue, in this case 1993's All-Star Gallery. As you would expect it's raised and embossed, plus the shot of the '68 champ in the dugout with his chest protector and bat is quite cool. It's not easy for me to track down new Freehans that I need, especially cheaper ones, so I was happy with this deal.

Bookending another '68 champ we'll get to in a minute is another Wolverine/Tiger, Charlie Gehringer. Up top is a Burgundy version of one of his two appearances in Conlon's 1994 set (which continues numbering from the previous one). He got an "In Memorium" banner because he'd passed away the previous January, a few months shy of 90. It's a nice card that's even improved a bit with a royal kind of border. At the end of the scan is an even older issue from TCMA's 1980 All Time Detroit Tigers set. The only horizontal card in a set of 12 (and why not? Fielding shots look great on this axis!), he's in great company with obvious choices like Cobb, Greenberg, Kaline, Newhouser, Cochrane, and more. I might have to try to track down the rest!

And then there's the last player in the scan we haven't covered yet. Even though he's pictured with three of the five other franchises for whom he played, there's no way you can leave out Willie Horton when you're talking about past Tigers greats! After 14 excellent years in Motown, the pinnacle of which was that '68 season, Horton played one game for the Tigers before being sent to Texas. His stay was short as before the '78 season he was flipped to Cleveland, which started a very nomadic summer that saw him get released, picked up by Oakland, and traded to Toronto. In January of '79 the Mariners signed him, and he'd spend his final two MLB seasons in Seattle (though he'd eventually get traded to Texas again, released, and signed by the Pirates). At least some portions of that journey are captured on the three Topps cards above from 1978-80, giving me a nice run in his collection from 1970-80.

And next we have TOO MANY GRANDERSONS OUT OF NOWHERE! I was pretty picky about what I bought this time of one of my favorite recent Tigers, but the price was right to grab all seven of his appearances in Topps 2008 team gift set. I don't anticipate finding a deal on the complete set of 55 anytime soon, so I'm happy to just pick up singles of guys like Curtis and JV. Besides a solo card, Grandy gets paired up with 2007 All-Star Carlos Guillen, who was terrific in Detroit, and lauded for a few accomplishments. The biggest was his 20-20-20-20 season in which he accumulated 20 each of doubles, triples, homers, and steals, one of four players to achieve that feat. Besides that, in 2007 he was named AL Player of the Week in July, led the sport in triples (naturally!), and was among the team leaders in hits and batting average. That year was by far his best in terms of bWAR, and given his overall numbers that makes total sense. Believe it or not it ended up being his career best, even after some of those big seasons he had in the Bronx! By the way, I'm nearing 200 many Grandersons, so he's now on milestone watch.

Even though I mostly scanned these in alphabetical fashion they get increasingly homogenous as we continue; including this scan the last three cover just two other players. No complaints from me, though, since I get to own and you get to gawk at a whole bunch of Kalines! I treated myself to 19 new cards of Mr. Tiger, which is one short of his age when he won the 1955 AL batting title. There's nothing vintage or anything, but it was fun to give his collection that much of a boost in numbers, not to mention some very cool cards. 

The oldest is from a 1995 Upper Deck food issue produced for Eagle snacks, and he's part of an excellent nine-card checklist. UD is represented again with the always excellent SP Legendary Cuts (2006). Fleer makes the cut twice with one of its cool Sports Illustrated products, 1998's Then and Now, plus 2003 Fall Classics. Donruss' lone entry is 2004's World Series product's Blue parallel. And Topps claims the rest thanks to 2000 Stars, 2010 flagship's Turkey Red insert and 206 base card, and 2011 GQ. There's lots of classic vintage photography and images to admire here, something I don't get to appreciate as much as I should because most of my PCs are modern players. All the more reason to chase some Kalines! 

So here's some more Kalines I chased! These are from the Toppsopoly era so they're blander than they could be design-wise, but there's still some nice images to enjoy. Though I don't believe I own any of the much older "test issue" versions of Topps' cloth stickers, I grabbed the insert version from 2011 Lineage, which is pretty cool. It looks like 2013 GQ (Framed White) and Heritage's Flashbacks insert opted for the same image, kind of like the Turkey Red and GQ cards above. A 2014 Triple Threads base is definitely the highest-end card here, though that year's set wasn't numbered, and if you wanted the same photo on a different design you could go with 2020 A&G below. I think my favorite photo/image in this bunch is the one featured on 2017 flagship's Salute insert, which shows a very young future HOFer.

Since 19 doesn't go into two nicely when it comes to scans I decided to place Al's last pair of cards at the top of this one. On the left is the 2004 version of Heritage's Flashbacks insert, and I give Topps credit for going horizontal with a great shot celebrating young Kaline winning that batting title at 20. Did you know that the previous youngest batting champ at that point was one Ty Cobb? Anyway, Al's run ends with a simple 2020 Archives base that has a strange portrait photo but a cool batting action image.

And tonight we end on another HOFer, granted one that was a relative short-timer for the franchise compared to most of the rest of these players. George Kell came to Detroit from the Philadelphia A's in 1946 and spent the best years of his career with the Tigers until being sent to the Red Sox in a nine-player deal in 1952. That means he missed out on the '45 championship team plus he was traded just a year before Kaline debuted. At least they got to form an all-time great broadcasting pair.

His first two cards here--1991 Topps Archives (reprint of his '53 base) and 2001 Fleer Boston Red Sox--depict him with his third team, but fortunately the others are all about the Olde English "D". The first is from the gorgeous 2003 Topps Gallery Hall of Fame product, and the one I have here is the variation with a white "D" on his hat, while I already owned the orange letter version. The other two are Archives issues from 2019 and 2020, and in my opinion the '19 card, done in the style of the cool '75 set, is executed better, but both are quite cool.

Though I only came away with five cards of Kell, they were enough to get me over the 50-card mark to 53, so that's worth a little celebration.

I'm curious to see what people think of these items in the comments, but regardless I know I had a blast picking up some cool items of some of the best players in the team's storied history! Next time I'll probably be back with another single-player post, but first you can expect another surprise PWE trade post.