2026 trade package #13: Baseball Cards Come to Life

How about some late evening Independence Day posting to catch up a bit?

One of my favorite combo bloggers/TCDbers is Bo of Baseball Cards Come to Life. I especially enjoy his posts on the '85 Wendy's/Coke and '88 Domino's Tigers cards, for obvious reasons. Well, after I sent him a '67 Topps Poster he asked about after I made it and others available in a show recap, in June he was nice enough to surprise me with a PWE of needs that just so happens to include one of those Wendy's cards, plus others I was excited to get. Check 'em out:

I seriously can never have too many Grandersons, and when one of my next few TCDb trades arrives, I'll hit the 300-card mark, which is pretty cool. For that I can thank many kind traders like Bo, who sent me the 2008 UD StarQuest insert you see above. Next, Mr. Padre is from the 1989 Score 100 Superstars boxed set, one of many such fun items from that decade. And then we have the aforementioned Wendy's/Coke card, which stars Tigers OF and '84 champ Chet Lemon. That's just my second from the 22-card set (to go with the header/checklist), and there are 12 more cards of players I actively collect among the 20 I'm missing if I don't decide to chase the set.

HOF P Greg Maddux gets the second row to himself thanks to a very nice trio. I was a very active collector in the mid-to-late 90s so I'm very familiar with the designs of the first two sets: 1997 Leaf and Score. While I don't own complete sets of either, I have quite a few cards from both, and I really appreciate their designs, Leaf in particular. And then the third card is Mad Dog's entry in 2002 Fleer Hot Prospects, a product that I believe ran from its debut that year until 2004's Draft Edition. It's another design that I'm cool with, but that's pretty typical for me when it comes to Fleer from that era.

Speaking of Fleer and HOFers, the last baseball item is a gorgeous Ripken from 2003 Flair Greats. This is another flat-out beautiful design in my eyes, plus I love the 80s photo of young Cal surrounded by a very classy look.

Bo didn't stop at baseball and instead included a Michigan Football pair. Hailing from 2020 Leaf Draft's Red parallel are QB Shea Patterson and one of his best WRs, Donovan Peoples-Jones. The enshittified current Leaf iteration has its faults, but I do love seeing my college's football team represented on cards (even if they have to Photoshop the uniforms) and adding new items to my collection, so I really appreciate Bo including these as well.

Bo, thanks again for this fun surprise envelope of some PC needs! Please keep up the great Domino's and "Burgers or Gum?" series as well as the rest of your excellent blog writing, and I'll keep working on finding stuff you can use in your own collections.

Next up should be the other trade package I received in June, one that was a bit bigger but at least required zero postage for the person who gave it to me.

2022 Sportlots purchases: Tigers World Series heroes and HOFers

The Detroit Tigers are an old MLB franchise, starting off their history in 1901. Six years later they'd participate in their first of three straight World Series, losing a pair to the Cubs in '07 and '08 and then game 7 to the Pirates in '09. It took another 25 seasons for Detroit to return to the Fall Classic, again losing in seven games, this time to the '34 Cardinals. The following season saw Mickey Cochrane's squad avenge those first two pennant teams and win it all against the 1935 Cubs, the first of the franchise's four titles. Though they'd fall in seven again to the 1940 Reds in a 2-1 game 7 loss, Hank Greenberg's '45 Tigers would nab the Tigers' second trophy in a decade.

It would be another 23 years until the '68 team of Kaline, Horton, McLain, and Lolich would hoist the trophy, and then16 more until the wire-to-wire '84 team ate 'em up on the way to Detroit's most recent Series win. They did earn a surprise pennant in Jim Leyland's managerial debut in Motown, 2006, though the Cardinals quickly subdued that squad. And then a very talented 2012 roster brought the franchise back to the brink six years later, only to be swept by one of the three straight even-years Giants teams. Those Tigers managed two more playoff appearances the following couple seasons but have been awful since.

That means their first World Series championship drought from their inception lasted 34 years. It took just 10 to win ring number two, and 23 for the third, followed by a 16-year wait for the most recent. If 34 years sounds bad, just imagine how Tigers fans feel about next season being the 40th anniversary of their last Series victory!

With ownership giving folks nothing to cheer for over almost a decade besides Miguel Cabrera's accomplishments, at least we can look back on some of the teams of the past, including the players who earned their place in the Hall of Fame and/or were part of the four winners mentioned above. And that's exactly what we'll do this evening as represented on cards from my recent-ish Sportlots purchase:

Statistically, Cochrane is represented with the Athletics more than as a Tiger, having been part of just four Detroit teams at the end of his career. But they were certainly fruitful, as the '34 AL MVP and first-year manager led the team to the AL Pennant. The HOF catcher was no stranger to the Series, having won two in a three-year span with Philadelphia. While he wasn't victorious in try #3 in '31, nor his Detroit debut of 1934, his team would finish the job in '35 thanks to a star-studded roster that included fellow Hall members Charlie Gehringer, Goose Goslin, and Hank Greenberg. The HOF came calling after an outstanding 13-year playing career.

Speaking of Hammerin' Hank, Greenberg's second shot at October glory didn't go as well for him number-wise as the previous year, but the 1935 AL MVP posted then-career highs of 36 HR and 168 RBI, which were enough to set the table for Detroit's fall victory. Two seasons later he'd put up a ridiculous 184 RBI, followed by 58 HR in '38. Big numbers once again would earn him the AL MVP in 1940, but after a shortened '41 campaign he'd be away for three seasons due to his service in the Air Force during WWII. Remarkably he returned in 1945 having hardly missed a beat and tasted victory once again with ace Hal Newhouser earning game 5 and 7 wins over the Cubs. He'd appear for just two more seasons with a sunset appearance in Pittsburgh, but what he accomplished over parts of 13 seasons earned him a plaque in Cooperstown.

Our next player is one who missed out on postseason glory as his career--1914 and 1916-29 in Detroit--never included a Series appearance in the years before the playoffs expanded. But Harry Heilmann did win four batting titles (in a seven-year span), including a .403 mark in 1923, and he spent a good part of the '20s as the Tigers' best player on the way to a HOF nod. That makes him one of 24 former Detroit players in the Hall, and one of just 10 who spent most if not all of their career as a Tiger.

One such player who indeed spent his whole career with Detroit is, no surprise, "Mr. Tiger" Al Kaline. Kaline was on the latter half of his career as a 33-year-old in 1968, and he ceded a decent amount of playing time to OFs Willie Horton, Mickey Stanley, and Jim Northrup, plus 1B Norm Cash (in the days before the DH, of course), but he still appeared in over 100 games that season. Better yet, he hit .379 with 2 HR and 8 RBI in the seven-game Series victory over the Cards, making his first playoffs appearance count. Although his '72 team lost to Oakland, Al finished up a great career as a player and earned glory in Cooperstown.

Al's TV teammate Kell never overlapped with Mr. Tiger during their playing careers as the Philly Athletic joined Detroit in '46 and was then flipped to Boston in '52, the year before Kaline debuted. That means the 10-time All-Star 3B from Arkansas missed out on the '45 champs by a couple seasons, and in fact he never played October baseball over his 15 seasons with five total teams. His Detroit years were largely his best, though, and his seven-year run in Motown was his longest stint with any team. That's why you can find the 1983 HOF-elected Kell (hey, that's the year I was born!) wearing the Olde English "D" on his plaque.

Lemon is one of three players in this post representing the most recent title team from 1984. The CF for the team that went on an amazing run, his 6.2 bWAR was second only to Alan Trammell's 6.8. A 1972 first-round pick for Oakland, he was sent to the White Sox in 1975, and then Detroit acquired him after the 1981 season for Steve Kemp. The Tigers easily won that deal and got nine valuable seasons out of Chester. Though he contributed just a run on no hits in the ALCS against the Royals, he'd be more useful in the Fall Classic itself. Though he's no HOF, he put up a sneaky good 55.6 bWAR and will go down in history as a World Series champ.

Should we talk about the next two guys together? Why not? McLain and Lolich were the aces of the '68 team with 31 and 17 wins, respectively. Denny was in his 6th of eight seasons with Detroit, then he'd finish up his career with Washington, Oakland, and Atlanta. Mickey was a few years older but also in his 6th season as a Tiger, and he'd play seven more with that team before his career ended with the Mets and Padres.

Before that, they were a big reason for the success of the 1968 team. McLain's 31-6 record (with 28 CG) earned him the AL MVP/Cy Young duo, and though he lost World Series games 1 and 10 (both to Bob Gibson), his game 6 victory brought the series back even after St. Louis took a 3-1 lead. Meanwhile, Lolich won all three of his starts, games 2, 5, and 7, and he even hit a homer to help his own cause in game 2! He was the obvious choice for Series MVP after going 3-0 with 3 CG and just five earned runs allowed. Neither did much of note after leaving Detroit, but their combined '68 season will forever be a part of franchise lore.

Jack Morris is '84 Tiger #2 in this post, and his first two World Series appearances were tales for the ages. He threw an early-season no-hitter in 1984 as his team stormed to a Fall Classic matchup with the Padres. All Black Jack did was throw two complete games in games 1 and 4, both wins, giving up a paltry 4 ER in his 18.0 IP. If that wasn't enough for his legacy, he went 4-0 in five postseason starts with the Twins in '91, allowing a ridiculous 3 ER in three Series starts against Atlanta, two of which were wins, including his legendary 10-inning 1-0 shutout in game 7. You'd better believe he was the MVP of that one. Toronto picked him up for the '93 season and he was back on the biggest stage in October, though this time he went 0-3 in the ALCS and World Series, though he snagged a ring with the Jays anyway. His body of work, especially his postseason success, finally earned him entry into Cooperstown in 2018.

A few decades earlier, Detroit-born ace Hal Newhouser was the one dominating things from the mound. While he went just 34-52 his first five seasons, he ripped off a 151-80 run over the next seven, beginning in 1944, and those years included consecutive MVP nods in '44 and '45 and a second place finish in '46. Though he didn't pitch in the 1940 Series loss to the Reds, things would be different in 1945 as he went 2-1 with game 5 and 7 victories over the Cubs. Prince Hal spent parts of 15 seasons in Detroit, winning exactly 200 games plus the accolades listed above. He then signed with Cleveland where he played his last two Major League seasons (1954-55). With the Indians he allowed a run out of the 'pen in the four game sweep at the hands of the Giants. Like Morris, he was elected to the HOF as a Tiger, not to mention one who won a ring in Motown.

And tonight's last player is the Big Wheel, Lance Parrish. Embodying the '84 team's strength up the middle, the 1974 first-round catcher socked a career-high 33 homers in his third of five straight All-Star appearances (out of eight total) while winning his fourth (of six) Silver Slugger award and second of three straight Gold Gloves. When you have a catcher playing like that, you're going places! And that's exactly what this team did thanks to his two homers and five RBI in the playoffs. One of those bombs went against Goose Gossage in the 7th inning of game 5 of the World Series, an inning before Gossage refused to walk Kirk Gibson and allowed his second jack of the game, putting a bow on the Series for the Tigers. Lance spent parts of 10 quality seasons with Detroit before ownership got cheap and let him walk after 1986. He'd then spend the remaining nine seasons of his career with six other teams, most notably the Phillies for two years and the Angels for four. A Hall of Famer he wasn't, but the Big Wheel formed a formidable 80s battery with fellow stalwart Jack Morris.

Since I covered everyone in this scan, please enjoy some interesting items of a few players that were already discussed. A sweet Kaline insert, a Donruss issue of Hal with Cleveland, and a Lance Parrish parallel were the lone horizontal cards in this group. Parrish pops up a few more times on some fun oddballs including an oversized Donruss piece, Topps Scratch Off, Kellogg's hologram, and 7-11 coin. '84 OF Chet Lemon joins the Kellogg's fun with a pre-Tigers issue as well.

I put a lot more time and effort into this post while deciding to focus on the careers of the players instead of discussing the cards, and I hope that work shows! For my part, while I don't usually like to take this long putting together posts, it was lots of fun looking back at some of the HOFers and World Series heroes of my favorite MLB team. What do you all think? Any favorite players or sets here?

I'll be back with one more post in this series but I have a ton of other stuff to cover so I'm not quite sure when you'll get the finale. Either way, you can count on seeing LOTS more cardboard here soon.

TCDB trade roundup: Hebron Reds Fan, LakeShow, Awesomo1389, and bravefan1

This evening I have the results of four smaller TCDB deals from earlier this year. There's lots of cards to look at so let's get right into it!

First up was a PWE deal with Hebron Reds Fan. No surprise here--he wanted a few of my Reds, mostly some dupes that came from the big collection I bought on Facebook. In return I got these:

As you can tell I took advantage of trading on the site to fill in some 1984 Tigers PCs, especially their earlier 80s issues, some of which show them as members of other teams. The two Sportflics cards in the first scan star Tony Gwynn (on a best NL RF trio card with Dave Parker and Kevin Bass) and Willie Hernandez. Morris and Lemon feature on items of vastly different sizes. The Reds at the bottom of the second scan weren't in the greatest shape but HRF made that clear in our communication and I didn't give up much anyway so I was pretty happy with this deal.

Next was another PWE deal, this time with member LakeShow. He requested just four of my cards, two of which were basketball and of zero interest to me. His offer of nine items was good enough that I didn't even need to send a counter:

Up top we have a pair of 1985 Topps Stickers including a foil of leading PC guy Cal Ripken Jr. plus an 80s Donruss offering and two 90s pieces of the Iron Man. If I don't have 'em I need 'em to bulk up his collection so I'll take whatever! I do like the National Packtime card from '95 quite a bit.

The other group helped me knock a couple '96 Ultra Gold Medallions (the only year they were all gold foil like that) off my wantlists for PC guys Hal Morris and Tony Phillips. The envelope also included the first of a good few #CroneZone cards you'll see this evening, this one from 2021 Topps Heritage, and the first of two UD Comic Ball cards, this one a new addition to my Jim Abbott PC.

Overall once again I was happy with the deal and everything involved when it came to this member, no surprise since he has almost 350 positive feedback comments to his name.

Awesomeo1389, a.k.a. Aaron from Grand Blanc, Michigan, is next. It turned out that I could help feed his Jim Abbott and John Smoltz PCs with a good number of dupes I had on hand, and it was nice being in a position to aid a fellow player collector like that. I sent him some 29 cards of the two star pitchers from the state we call home, and in return I got some baseball and hockey (plus one each of basketball and football):

When I said I loaded up on some '84 Tigers I wasn't lyin'! Bergman and Lemon appear on pre-Tigers cards while Parrish is seen with one of his post-Detroit teams, the Angels, but Brookens and Herndon rep the team that won it all in '84 on Fleer cards from the year before they went wire-to-wire.

Everson and Finken look somewhat out of place here on their 1991 Line Drive issues but they're actually new additions to my Michigan Baseball PCs. Everson was a pitcher from my hometown of Livonia and signed with the Tigers as a UDFA but never made it above AAA. Finken, an IF drafted by the Dodgers in '88, also never made the bigs after five seasons in the minors, but like Everson, was able to appear on a handful of minor league issues. It's great to welcome two new members to the collection!

There's not much comparing two Gwynn cards made literally 30 years apart! The "Printer Proof" stamp on Ripken's Topps Gallery insert still means something to a 90s kid like me. On a related note I thought the photo on Fryman's '94 UD subset card looked awesome. And Griffey the elder and younger share a goofy UD Comic Ball card with Yosemite Sam.

I tend to check for just about everything I collect when I'm trading with someone so I added these non-baseball items. Rose and Harbaugh represent Michigan from their sports while hockey saw me add four of legendary Wings D-man Nick Lidstrom to go with three former UM icers. The gold Tim Hortons card of Connor is particularly nice given the success he's had this year.

Given my positive experience here, Awesomo1389 is another trader I can recommend on the site!

Last up tonight is my first of two deals with Scott from Ohio who calls himself bravefan1 on the site. His feedback is over 1400 so he's both prolific and great to work with, plus you know exactly what you need to have on hand to make a deal with him. In return for some '96 Flair dupes and a few nice inserts from the decade I got the cards in the below scans, which offered a nice boost to two up and coming stars of the game:

My collection of rule 5 phenom Baddoo is paltry so I thought it would be fun to add him here. Chalk up two more Larkins to my collection of the Michigan/Reds SS thanks to this pair from 2021 Gallery. Tigers P Mize, who's temporarily on hiatus but likely not for too much longer, was one of the two big winners here, and I'm certainly glad to add cards of him cheaply via trade instead of overpaying for them. The Panini-branded cards were of special interest to me. Ripken's from the super ultra thick 2021 Chronicles base set and his card makes the stack look bigger than it is!

And here we go back to the #CronZone with an excellent seven new items! Honestly his checklist has gotten out of hand like any young star in the current era of collecting, but I can't complain too much when I can add this many cards in a trade without having to give up anything I'll miss. The Panini Black out of Chronicles that you see up top is very cool though I was especially pleased to land the 2021 Topps Gallery Blue parallel on the right as it's numbered to just 75. Hopefully I can keep building my collection of him through deals like this one!

I added fellow Michigan guys Tommy Henry and George Sisler to this scan because they worked well as a theme. Henry, the pride of Portage, Michigan, appears 2021 Bowman Platinum Ice Foil parallel, and Gorgeous George makes a cameo by way of 2021 Diamond Kings on a very classy base card.

Once again I can highly recommend trading with this member as a ton of other TCDB traders have done so to their satisfaction, and now I can add myself to that number.

I'll be back with more soon as I continue trying to clear my card desk of TCDB trades!

2021 Cardbarrel purchase: a barrel of fun, or an Easter feast!

Happy Easter, y'all! I decided to spring into action today, the third day of Detroit's season (hey, 2-1's not bad!) and show off my first purchase from Cardbarrel since they switched over from the JustCommons name. Aside from the title of the site everything seems to be the same, including lots of reasonable prices and shipping, nice selection, and t he usual minor issue that seems to accompany all my orders there, though as usual I was taken care of by their excellent customer service. Two of the cards I'd ordered weren't included in the original shipment but they PWEd them to me eventually.

I managed to score more than 150 cards for just a cent over their $25 minimum purchase to achieve free shipping and managed to coordinate what I bought here with another Sportlots Box buy (coming soon!) so I could take advantage of Cardbarrel's lower minimum prices, with some cards as cheap as $0.12 (Sportlots sets the floor at $0.18), and free shipping. In the end I grabbed cards for 11 different player collections and a couple base sets I'm working on as well.

Here's a look at everything I ended up with:

Here's the first of three scans of the smaller groups. Card #1 shows the benefit of using TCDB over Beckett: while the latter labels it as "checklist", the database made me aware that it's a new Abbott for my collection! I thought it would be fun to grab a few early 80s cards of Evans (and would love to add more at lower prices or via trade) plus I couldn't resist grabbing a couple Sportflics issues I needed too. Kaline and Kell form a nice pair in 2010s retro-themed sets. And that Lemon is one of a few Kellogg's cards you'll see in this space in the near future, including two more in this very post.

Morris and Parrish formed the battery that powered much of the 84 Tigers' success and I went after some 80s needs of them as well, including another Sportflics item, even if it shows Lance after he left Detroit. Speaking of catchers, Simmons was a pretty good one, and I had a good time adding some of his needs, eight in total, including what you see to lead off the next scan. It's nice to collect a number of guys from his era because many of their cards are plentiful and easy to come by.

As promised seconds ago, here you see the rest of the Simmons cards, this time from the mid-80s, and yes I'm happy to see yet another Sportflics card I needed. The other items here are from 1990 Pacific Legends and '93 Pinnacle Series 1 to go toward my set builds of each. Both sets will be complete once my Sportlots package arrives, possibly as soon as tomorrow. I was able to complete the Pacific set at a pretty low price after being gifted a great starter lot by Fuji, and the Pinnacles came from the larger of my two pre-pandemic Facebook purchases last year. I had to get a bit creative to fit the latter here, but in case you care the other players are Andujar Cedeno, Jay Buhner, and Rob Deer.

Dean-o is the first of three guys for whom I added enough cards to their PCs to pick nine of my favorites for a regular scan and then show off the rest in a photo. Palmer was the big winner of this package as I made a nice dent in his checklist to the tune of around 55 cards, getting him over the 200-mark. My highlights here include a pair of Pinnacle Starburst parallels, '96 SP, two different Topps Gallery base, Fleer's Sports Illustrated, UD's Ultimate Victory and SPx, and an awesome Stadium Club design with the huge bonus of a great photo. Lots of beauties for sure.

And to those I added this huge haul. These pretty much span Palmer's entire career, hailing from 1991-2003, and there's plenty of nice ones that could have made the cut above. That's no surprise since in my eyes the hobby will never reproduce the glory of 90s designs. No problem--there's still lots for me to collect from that decade! And still plenty of Palmer cards too, though he'll be one of a few players getting huge boosts to their PCs from Sportlots shortly.

The criminally underappreciated Tony Phillips is next, though I sure appreciated these nine out of his pile. This group actually only captures three of the five times with whom he appears on cards I purchased, but you'll see the other two shortly. I chose a few of these because I liked the brand or the design, but there's some excellent photos to enjoy as well. Look at him catching air during a twin-killing in a throwback uni up top, getting captured smiling in a portrait and warming up, or flying into a base. His positional versatility is on full display here as well.

And the rest, with some 80s thrown in for good measure. The first few and last cards bookending the rest show Tony with two of his other clubs, the A's (with whom I associate him the most besides the Tigers) and the Mets. You can see a few different positions listed again, as well as the fact that Tony was a switch hitter. I now own more than 150 of his cards with a nice bunch coming from Sportlots, and there's a good change he'll overcome Curtis Granderson in my collection before long--Too Many Tonys!

And the last PC guy with his own scans today is old Fruit Loops. The top three photos are all great for different reasons, and really, how often did you see Mick bunting? I love Dufex cards like Pinnacle's '94 Museum Collection (though nothing beats '95). Gallery and UD flagship ('96 and 96-97) had some great years during the decade. '97 is probably my favorite set that I don't own, and I love the game-dated photos.

Tettleton's haul was less than Palmer's--closer to 35--but it was still very productive, jumping him over the 150 mark as well. There's just a few Tigers cards here but that's ok since there's plenty of 90s goodness for me.

We can't call it a day until we get to this last image, though, filled with odd sized items and stickers. I collect Phillips' stuff big and small, like the storage-challenged Fleer Extra Bases cards and Topps Minis (which also star Palmer and Tettleton). You saw a 1981 Kellogg's Lemon earlier and it was joined by this '82 version, which is a bit smaller in both dimensions. Next to him is a Parrish from the even slimmer '80 set, which might be my favorite, though I'd like to see more sets for comparison. Evans' early 80s cards are joined by Topps (1981) and Fleer (1984) Stickers from the same era, and fellow '84 champs Morris and Parrish hail from the same '81 Topps Sticker product.

As with Baseballcardstore.ca I definitely feel like I got my money's worth here while stocking up on some new items to bolster some of the PCs I'm most interested in lately, so I'm very happy with this purchase and will surely go back to the well at some point.

Speaking of new pickups, the aforementioned Sportlots haul may be the subject of my next post, pending delivery of that (and any surprise deliveries) so stay tuned. Until then, happy Easter and MLB season!

TCDB trade: randylaw, part 1: Roar of '84

All the way back in April I completed what was just my third TCDB deal that wasn't with Paul, and it ended up being my largest until a couple months later. This awesome trader was Randy (randylaw), a fellow Michigander who hails from Lapeer, a city northeast of me starting to approach the thumb area of the state.

Over the course of three transactions (it was easier to create new ones when adding more cards to the deal), I ended up with almost 450 cards in exchange for about 750. The best part was that a large majority of what I sent Randy came out of the ridiculously cheap $10 Facebook lot I'd grabbed the previous month. Since I was pretty much playing with house money I didn't mind throwing in more cards since I could help him with his set wants and clear out some piles of stuff from those boxes.

Before I get to the cards I wanted to say that Randy was great to deal with and I'd highly recommend doing so yourself if you have the opportunity. He mentioned some health issues that might slow things down but I have zero complaints about how our deal went. We had an easy back-and-forth getting things added to the transactions, shipping went just fine, and I got everything I was expecting safely. What more can you ask for?

So I'm breaking this deal down into three posts since I'm inclined to show everything I scored for myself (I believe I picked up some trade bait as well). While I'm not usually the type to split things up like this I think it'll be worth it overall.

Still, the volume of cards means I went with photos instead of scans (I hope they're good enough to show off what I got), and that I'll probably be less wordy than usual in hopes that these posts don't take forever to finish.

Today's theme is the 1984 Tigers. The last of the franchise's squads to win it all (just a year after I was born!), it featured lots of players I enjoy collecting, and in this case it would appear that I landed at least one of each subject except Alan Trammell, since Randy didn't have any I needed.

Here are the 12 subjects in today's post and their stacks, some of those larger than others. Minus Tram, this covers the manager, the starting lineup (if you swap utility infielder Brookens in for future Mets slugger Howard Johnson at 3B), the top two starters, and the AL Cy Young/MVP-winning closer. What a team!

Image #1 covers the two subjects with the fewest and most new items in this group, and they form the bookends, which is pretty cool. How can you go wrong with a smiling Sparky on a Studio checklist? I added a solid 11 cards to the late Bergman's collection, spanning most of his Tigers career. I'm glad he was around long enough to make it onto Stadium Club and Ultra cards after those products pulled the industry kicking and screaming from the boring 80s. The previously mentioned Brookens' stuff is all from that decade but at least there's a good mix of brands. And Evans was the big winner today, though you'll see why in the last scan of the post. Here you can see I started with Donruss' '81 debut and went all the way through to '89 with a super eclectic bunch that includes some of the many OPCs you'll see today, plus a Sportflics cameo!

The second group begins with of two Gibby items you'll see today, a 1993 Metz Baking oddball I definitely hadn't see before. Then it's on to smiling closer Guillermo "Willie" Hernandez, the bullpen ace who was a shrewd pickup (along with Bergman) from the Phillies just before the '84 season. Naturally I was thrilled to add a Sportflics card of him as well! We already covered Gibson, so why not add his outfield teammates Herndon and Lemon back-to-back? I tracked down some OPC of both along with some other 80s needs like Donruss, Fleer, and Score. Those are low-end enough that I wouldn't have bought them in the past and just hadn't had them show up in trade packages yet, which is fine since TCDB ended up being a great resource for them! Finally, there's HOFer Jack Morris on all four teams for which he pitched in the Majors, even Cleveland, not to mention a Reds photo that must have been Spring Training action since he never pitched for them. These span 1982 (Donruss!) to 1995 (Collector's Choice) with a couple fun oddballs in between. Morris' haul was second to Evans, tied with our next subject,

...slugging catcher Lance Parrish. The eight-time All-Star socked 200+ homers in his 10 years in Detroit before appearing for the Phillies, Angels, Mariners, Indians, Pirates, and finally, Blue Jays. I managed to get almost all of those teams here, and even better, got a lot of shots of him in action behind the plate. As with Morris his haul spanned a large percentage of his career, going from '82 Fleer up to '95 Stadium Club. Meanwhile, his battery mate from 1979-86 Dan Petry was the next biggest beneficiary. Due to his career mostly taking place in the 80s, most of his cards here are from that time, with some nice early appearances from '81 Donruss (pre-facial hair!) and its sophomore version, and going on up to '91 UD and his sunset season. He has a few cards from his brief tenures with the Angels and Red Sox (mostly found in complete sets I already own) and you won't see any of those here.

Last up today are the minis and stickers. Evans appears on a good chunk of these, adding to the cards you saw earlier to give him an easy lead with 23 items. There's even a sticker of him with the Giants, though the rest are with the Tigers, including a couple 1988 back variations in row 5. Gibby got one sticker from '85, making Sparky the lone Tiger with a single item, and the back notes that the Tigers were 1984 AL Champions. Yep, that too. Hernandez and Morris round out the Topps Mini Leaders cards. Whitaker's only appearances are seven different variations from 1988 where the stickers on the front are different in each case. Herndon and Parrish hail from the '84 Topps Stickers product, and Lemon and Petry each share multiplayer stickers from the same set.

That's it for today but I assure you I have lots more to share from the other two piles, so look for posts on those fairly soon!

2013 card show report #1: 1/27

Sorry for the extended absence--I didn't really have anything worth writing about until today.  Despite the fact that a couple fellow bloggers couldn't tag along (for very legitimate financial reasons!) I decided to make the trip since, at worst, I could grab some supplies I needed.

Since it was Sunday and I got there towards the middle of the afternoon, a lot of dealers were in pack-up mode so I didn't fare as well as I usually do, but then again, I didn't spend as much either!  $39 and two purchases latter, I came away with 12 cards:  two which will be trade bait, six which you'll see below, and four that can be found over on TMM in just a bit.

Here's what I picked up that's relevant to readers of this blog:

Before

After!

Cal Ripken Jr. 1995 Leaf Slide Show #4A

I don't normally chase inserts, especially 90s inserts, at shows anymore, but a pair of cool Ripkens caught my eye, and I decided it was about time that I added to that PC.  These two scans show one of Cal's two '95 Leaf Slideshow inserts, unpeeled, then peeled.  I didn't have any qualms about peeling that stupid "protective film" off, especially when I got the result you see above--the scanner really was able to make the colors pop on the slides!  This is just a great example of those creative sets we were fortunate enough to be privy to in the 1990s before Topps came and ruined everyone's fun.

Cal Ripken Jr. 1998 Topps Hallbound

Here's another set that takes me back to my younger collecting days.  I remember busting a couple boxes of the 1998 flagship set and really enjoying some of the inserts that year.  The Hallbound set was no exception thanks to a very cool die-cut design that featured baseball's most revered building in the background--one I'm very familiar with thanks to my four pilgrimages to MLB's version of Mecca.  Topps didn't exactly have to go out on a limb to place Ripken in this set, but I give them credit for the text on the back, which states that while his consecutive games played streak by itself would likely be enough, he was also statistically one of the game's great at his position.

Jim Rice 1975 Topps Mini RC

Next we move on to Cal's fellow Hall-of-Famer, Jim Rice.  I had already picked up Rice's regular RC from the famed '75 set, where it can be revered along with the rest of my baseball RCs, but up until today I didn't have the Mini.  Well, I can scratch that one off my list!  This one's a bit off-center, but I nabbed it for a great price and don't tend to care very much about condition on my vintage cards anyway.  Also, this is one of my favorite designs: the multi-player RC!  That's a winner for my PC all day.

Al Kaline 1969 Topps

And now we transition right into Detroit Tigers vintage mode!  My usual vintage guy unfortunately was without his 90% off boxes due to unforeseen circumstances, but I still got some value out of his 30% off box, which still had plenty of gems.  One was this '69 Kaline, my seventh vintage pickup of Mr. Tiger, and my fourth of him from that decade alone, as you can see in my baseball vintage PC.  I'm trying to make a concerted effort to pick up more of Kaline's regular issues from his career, and I may ultimately make a project out of it, keeping in mind that his RC will be a bit of a doozy.  I can certainly appreciate his more recent issues, though, like this one, which features a great posed shot of a slugger with arms that DON'T look like tree trunks.

Chet Lemon 1976 Topps RC

For a buck, my next pickup was a RC of '84 World Series champ Chet Lemon.  "Chester," as manager Sparky Anderson would often call him, was an Oakland first-rounder in 1972, but was sent to the White Sox in 1975, in plenty of time to be featured on this awesome multi-player RC while wearing Chicago's shitty red uniform.  He then made his way to the Tigers in 1981, and he spent the majority of his career (nine of 16 seasons) in Detroit as a starting OF.  One of his best seasons, 1984, coincided with the Tigers' most recent World Series title.  Lemon hit .287 with 20 HR and 76 RBI, earning an All-Star nod for his efforts.  He also hit .294 with a run knocked in and a pair of steals in the Fall Classic.  Chet's tenure in Detroit earned him a well-loved place in team history and he'll always be remembered fondly in the Motor City.

Mark Fidrych 1977 Topps RC

And today we'll close things out with one of the more iconic cards of the 1970s.  Mark "The Bird" Fidrych's exploits on the mound during his legendary 1976 season are common knowledge at this point, but his continuing popularity despite only one amazing season his brief career still makes him someone worth mentioning once in a while.  His 19-9 record and A.L. leading 2.34 ERA earned him the A.L. Rookie of the Year Award, second place in the Cy Young voting, and a start in the All-Star game in what would be a whirlwind season for the eccentric pitcher, though sadly, his only effective one.  Fidrych was the subject of further tragedy later in his life as he died in a farm accident in 2009 at age 54.  But THE story of baseball in 1976 lives on in the memories of fans who still laugh at his antics while breathlessly recounting his pitching prowess that year.  And it's about damned time I added his RC--especially one in such great shape!--to my collection!

Please check out TMM for a few Michigan-related pickups if that interests you at all.