Happy American Thanksgiving, friends! As always, I'm thankful for all of you who follow, read, and comment here, trade with me, and post your own content.
And I specified the "American" part above to highlight the sender of tonight's trade package. Doug of Sports Cards From the Dollar Store recently celebrated Canada's version of the event, and now thanks to him I have a ridiculous smorgasbord of cards to feast on! Here's a quick run through them because there's just so many and I know I'll need a nap afterwards:
Part 1 of baseball opens with a Wolverine in Abbott, but the rest are Tigers. Lopez's card is from the '81 Tigers Coke team set, and Skubal's Topps Holiday card is perfectly timed for the season.
Part 2 of baseball offers a Verlander (can't have enough of those!) and a good chunk of the OPC cards in the package (along with a note hoping I liked/didn't mind getting a bunch of that brand. I did indeed like them!). Sparky, Bergman, and Lemon were all '84 Tigers of course so those were my favorites.
HOFer Jack Morris joins that '84 group from above to form a nice quartet from the Canadian brand.
Then we have some cool hits to flip through! Zack Semler was a Michigan IF back in the late 2010s and he joins the collection courtesy of a Leaf Perfect Game signature. Thank you to Doug for going the extra mile and finding a new Wolverine once again!
As for the Tigers, Dylan Smith is a pitcher who made his debut this year and earned a win over 7 solid relief appearances. The 2021 3rd-rounder is here by way of Donruss Elite Extra Edition. Walker ('23 Topps Chrome) was a White Sox 2018 2nd-rounder who bounced to Texas (with whom he enjoyed his only MLB action), San Francisco, then Detroit, and it looks like he's been out of affiliated ball since the Tigers released him in 2023.
Ziomek (2013 Bowman Sterling Orange Refractor auto /75) was also a second-rounder, taken by Detroit in 2013, and he never advanced above the high-A level of the minors. Manning, though, is no stranger to my collection even though the 2016 #9 overall pick was sent to Philly at this year's deadline and is now a free agent after failing to pan out like his rotation-mate Casey Mize did. His Diamond Kings Rookie Expression jersey is one I'm glad to add to Manning's collection even though a return to Detroit is unlikely for now.
Doug went above and beyond again when it came to basketball because not only did he send me the usual excellent selection of players that are generally mainstays, but he also included three newbies in the form of women's hoops alumni Leigha Brown, Naz Hillmon, and Stacey Thomas! Brown transferred from Nebraska and spent three seasons in Ann Arbor, then played a bit for the 2023 Connecticut Sun. Hillmon was a big deal in her four seasons with the Wolverines, being named their first All-American among many other honors. She's now in her fourth season with the Atlanta Dream. Thomas put up four productive college seasons of her own and then spent 2000-05 in the WNBA, winning it all with the 2003 Detroit Shock, the motor city's previous pro team. Many thanks to Doug for this outstanding trio!
As for some of the stalwarts of past envelopes, Howard and Rice are always appreciated. And given the way Michigan Basketball has opened this season, I hope they're celebrating at the end of the season as Rice once did.
Taylor, Vaught, and Webber are also common names to find in these packages and are just as welcome. So are '91-'92 Panini Stickers of the previously seen Rice as well as Gary Grant!
Basketball got its own hit parade as well, opening with my third auto of Calbe Houstan (not "Houston," UD) out of Goodwin Champions. Juwan's kid Jett is up next with his hit collection debut out of '23-'24 Topps Chrome, and he's in his third season with the Orlando Michiganders, who also roster Mo and Franz Wagner plus Colin Castleton. And speaking of Mo, Doug treated me to my first signature of the older Wagner bro, this one thanks to 2019-20 Prizm. As with Houstan, his signature is, uh, not the most detailed, but about par for the course given the stupid amount of cards/stickers these guys have to sign these days.
Numbered inserts of Steve Breaston, Devin Funchess, and Karan Higdon are a great way to segue into the football content just a couple days before The Game. Steve's card is the rarest, numbered to just 25 on the back, while Funch goes for 194 and Higdon's is rarer at 50. Shoe Carnival is an apt sponsor for a card starring Lewan since the nicest thing I can say about him is that he's a clown. CB Ambry Thomas joins the numbers game with a blue Prizm parallel ("No-Huddle" to be specific) that's SN79 on the back. And the hit here is a good omen for Saturday's Ohio State tilt as I fondly Buckeye-killer Hassan Haskins piling up FIVE rushing TDs to lead Michigan over OSU in 2021. That Absolute jersey card above has a swatch just about nice enough to be a patch (or "prime" as they're sometimes calls) and it looks excellent as hit #5 (hey, there's that number again!) in his collection.
On the ice, the Wings have had their ups and downs this year, but generally seem to be better than last year so far. Guys like Chiasson and slightly more recently Franzen and Holmstrom take me back to the joy of watching the team succeed starting in the 90s for a good couple decades.
Kocur, Lidstrom, and McCarty were also key contributors on some of those Cup-winning teams, and I'm happy to see them in any group of cards someone sends me. Larson and Micalef are fun vintage-adjacent throwbacks to before I was old enough to follow hockey.
Seider's a star defenseman for the current team but guys like Zetterberg, Draper, Hull, and Shanahan all realized Cup glory with the Wings. The OPC stickers of Ivan Boldirev (1983), Reed Larson, and Paul Woods (1982) were a fun surprise.
And to close out the Hockeytown content we've got a bevy of hits! There's a nice jersey of Cholowski, one of many failed 2010s first-rounders, though he's still in the NHL (New Jersey) and has an excellent first name. Allure provides a colorful autograph of C Robby Fabbri, who was with Detroit for five seasons and put up decent numbers. Howard was an above-average goalie that was with Detroit for his entire career, and that's a beautiful red jersey swatch above to celebrate an All-Star nod in his penultimate season. And my favorite of the bunch is an SP Game Used jersey of Tomas Holmstrom, the enemy of goalies everywhere as he set up camp in front of the crease and was a pest, often putting back rebounds when not making netminders' lives a living hell otherwise.
A jersey of "Double A" begins the horizontal trio, made during his five-season stint with Detroit to open his career. That's joined by white and red jerseys, respectively, of winger Taro Hirose and D-man Gustav Lindstrom.
The Wings may be looking better than last year but they're nowhere near as hot as the NCAA's current #1 team, Michigan Hockey! They're 13-3-0 with 83 goals (good for 5+ per game!) and absolutely cooking right now. So why not look at some cards of past Michigan icers?
There are some absolute beauties in this first scan, especially thanks to UD brands like Allure and Synergy. The latter remind me a bit of Pacific's Invincible thanks to the circular inset photo. I'm also a big fan of Hyman's Canvas insert thanks to its great design and cool throwback jersey.
This scan includes a couple hockey Mikes, relatively recent G Jack LaFontain (Synergy again!), WolverWing Dylan Larkin, and hey, what's more thanksgiving than John Madden? Ok, it's not the turducken guy, but did the Raiders coach win three Cups like this guy did? I don't think so!
In this scan the Norris and Power (SN699!) cards are great, but I'm choosing to highlight the collection debut of Cristoval "Boo" Nieves. Boo played at Michigan from 2012-13 to 2015-16, and I remember seeing the C with the cool nickname play live a few times. TCDb lists just 34 cards for him and a good chunk of those are 1/1s or local/minor league issues. Therefore I'm grateful to get an NHL uni card of him, and even more thrilled that it's on the great looking Upper Deck Ice design (and numbered /1299 to boot). Cool!
And we'll end tonight's post with a few of the best cards in the whole package. Werenski also gets in on the Synergy fun, but the Pacioretty has even that cool set beat. The former player who joined the coaching staff this year as a special assistant features on a Black Diamond Diamond Might insert that's basically a thin acetate layer sandwiched between four thick cardboard pieces that are held together on each side by the action image. The overall effect is extremely cool and I love having something to enjoy that's an insert and not a hit. Also it's numbered /99 on the back. A winner in every way!
Last up we have two more hits, and more very nice ones at that. First up is a 2023-24 Upper Deck MVP Cyan Plate of WolverWing Andrew Copp where he's even pictured as a member of the Original Six team! That's my first 1/1 of his out of five total hits, and I believe 21st subject in the hockey collection to appear on such a card, plus it's obviously the best card I have of him so far.
He's joined by just my second autograph of D-man Christ Tamer, who was drafted by the Penguins and also suited up for the Rangers briefly, then Atlanta (as pictured above) for his final five seasons. His fairly legible signature and bonus jersey number inscription appear on a 2020-21 SP Signature Legends Gold Spectrum insert, one that has a very nice design.
Oh wait, I'm not actually done because Doug included these surprises as well! Canadian soccer player Shelina Zadorsky is indeed a Michigan alum, having played for the Wolverines from 2010-13, including acting as captain her senior year.
says she won bronze (2016) and gold (2020) medals with the Canadian Olympic team, and now I'll have to do some research to see which other Wolverines earned Olympic medals in sports I don't tend to follow.
Thankfully my Canadian friend was aware of Zadorsky's alma mater and sent me this 2018 Goodwin Champions base and auto pair. She's the fifth member of my "other" Michigan sports category collection, and represents IMO the most legitimate "sport" of the bunch (two pro wrestlers, a boxing writer, and an auto racer). What a cool find!
Before I close things out, I also want to note that thanks in part to the cards in this post, I now have more than 2700 Michigan sports hits, so I'll once again express thanks to all who've contributed to that collection. Here's to the run to 3000 and more!
Doug, thanks once again for this feast of cards from August that I'm finally enjoying on Thanksgiving. I appreciate it as always and as is also usually the case, I'm looking forward to returning fire before Christmas.
Next, I'll see what I feel like getting to this weekend depending on how I feel before and after The Game. GO BLUE!
