2018 trade package #21: Night Owl

Highly decorated and prolific blogger Greg, whom everyone knows better as Night Owl, was nice enough to send me a great little package after I completed a few of his wants a couple months ago.  Getting a Night Owl package is lots of fun because I never have any idea of what I might get.  Oh sure, Tigers will likely be part of the equation, but in what form?

There's no reason for me to keep you in suspense, check them out!:

Mini Miggy, Donruss Miggy, Topps Miggy, Blue Miggy.  Sounds like something you might hear on The Big Bang Theory followed by "Bazinga!" ::laugh track for 10 minutes straight::  That blue Donruss parallel is perfect and I love the throwback to the '84 set.  And no, I don't remember flipping the Topps and Donruss base cards while scanning these.

Recuperating starter Michael Fulmer looks good on the plan-but-solid '18 Donruss design, as does Mr. Tiger on a name variation.  There's also a Topps Rookie History reprint of Kaline that's another reminder that I need to knock that original card off of my collecting bucket list before it gets reprinted 20 more times.

Greg also fired the McCannon a couple times with a pair of inserts.  Naturally I'm especially attracted to the Refractor from 2015 Chrome but the Big League card from this year is no slouch.

Of course I was excited to see two Verlanders among the goodies, especially since one is a true RC:  his 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads base in which he looks every bit of the 13 years younger that he is as pictured.  I say true RC as opposed to the ridiculous "(RC)" designation that lingered for a few years.  Anyway, that's a great card, not to mention generous on Greg's part since JV escaped Detroit's poor coaching and reestablished himself as a top pitcher!

Joining that is a Topps team card from 2015 which is very cool since those don't tend to be easy to track down, at least without having to purchase the whole set.  They're also easy to miss since the photo up front is identical, but the large numbering on the back beginning with "DT-" is very helpful.

I tossed the rest of the modern Tigers in this same scan, and those include another 2015 Chrome Refractor, this time swingman Buck Farmer, a couple base examples of 2018 Big League in the form of Dixon Machado and Jordan Zimmermann, a 2015 flagship Snow Camo ("SNOW CAMO?!") parallel of short time closer Joe Nathan, and a 2018 Opening Day insert of fan favorite mascot Paws.

I said "modern" Tigers above because here's where things got especially interesting.  An '84 Fleer base of Chet Lemon, a guy who was an All-Star that year on a fantastic team, is about as mainstream as it gets.  That's followed by a fun new addition for me, a '94 Ted Williams base of Mark Fidrych.  I neither have many cards of that brand or player, so it's definitely a cool throw-in for me.

Next is a five-spot of old, olllld Tigers from 1992 Conlon, giving me a great opportunity to learn about more players from that era:

• Shea was with the Tigers from 1927-29 and again in '39.  The backup catcher's career spanned parts of 11 seasons and six teams, and his claim to fame appears to be when he was sent to the Browns by Boston for future HOF catcher Rick Ferrell.
• Sorrell pitched his entire ten-year career (1928-37) in Detroit and put up decent numbers, including a 92-101 record and 17.0 bWAR.  Unfortunately for him, by the time the 1935 World Series team rolled around he wasn't on the mound much, and sometimes out of the 'pen when he was.
• In Stoner's case somehow a rapper of the same name did not impede my search results.  The pitcher came from a huge family where pretty much all of the kids seem to have been named after famous people--Ulysses S. Grant in this case--and there's also a story about how he came to have an oddly bent index finger on his pitching hand on his SABR page.  He spent most of his nine year career in Detroit, in 1922 and 1924-29, and went 50-57.
• Tavener was nicknamed "Rabbit", and why not back then (1921 and 1925-28, plus a year in Cleveland).  The SS was small even for his era at 5-5, small enough that Ty Cobb didn't want him, but he put up a few solid seasons in Motown.  So I guess now we know what it would be like if someone my size played in the Majors in the 20s!
• Finally, Joyner Clifford "Jo-Jo" White was lucky enough to earn a cool nickname and get a ring with the '35 Tigers.  The OF was with Detroit from 1932-1938, and while it doesn't look like he lit up box scores, he was apparently a solid enough option off the bench to appear in both the '34 and '35 Series.

And now I'm going to borrow one of Night Owl's cooler features (I mean he's got so many), one I don't think he's even used in a while:

For me the best card in the package was definitely the last card you see in that scan, card #61 in a set produced by local paper The Detroit News in 1981 that celebrated 100 years of the Tigers (one that I definitely need to track down now!).  This one honors the World Series champion 1945 squad, and the back helpfully lists who appears:

The biggest names here are Newhouser, who put up a ridiculous 12.1 bWAR that year, longtime Tiger Dizzy Trout, and Rudy York.  Hank Greenberg, returning from three years away due to WWII, isn't pictured for some reason, but he was a big contributor in the win over the Cubs, so I'll at least mention him here.

And then we have the final card in the package, and the only one that doesn't fit the Tigers theme.  It's a 2017 Topps Update base of PC guy Ken Griffey Jr.--a very young Junior Griffey, in fact, working a camera at Comiskey Park.  There's never a bad time to include Griffey in a package of cards heading my way!

Thanks once again for surprising me with all of this great stuff, Greg!  I know we don't trade often but I promise I'll send some more wantlist help and Dodgers so we can do it again!

2017 Sportlots purchases: RIP and PCs

An amazing World Series has given way to a rough last few weeks for Major League Baseball after the tragic deaths of retired Blue Jays and Phillies ace Roy Halladay (plan crash) and top Red Sox prospect Daniel Flores (cancer), who was just 17.  Unfortunately, another former player passed unexpectedly a couple weeks ago as well, and this time it affected the Michigan Baseball family and one of my player collections.

Former Wolverines pitcher Ross Powell and his dad were found dead from carbon monoxide poisoning in a van they were using for their recently-opened lawn care company.  Ross was just 49 and his dad was 72.  Their tragic passing was on my mind as the baseball world mourned an all-time great in Halladay and a potential future star in Flores.  Needless to say I extend my condolences to the families of each and hope MLB honors each of their contributions to the game.

While I already showed off my Powell pickups from Sportlots in my last post (along with those of another too-soon deceased player in Steve Howe), I do have some items today representing a couple former Wolverine baseballers and PC guys that have long since passed:  Charlie Gehringer (1993) and George Sisler (1973).  I had a great time tracking down a good bunch of cards of each, many of which skew more towards the oddball side, making it even more fun to add them to those collections.  So enjoy these new cards of a couple Hall-of-Famers:

Let's start with the Mechanical Man.  Gehringer's haul begins with a 1980s trio, with a 1983 Donruss HOF Heroes leading off.  Those Dick Perez works of art were just becoming a Donruss staple back then.  Next is a 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats, another fun example of 80s holograms.  That's followed by the very recognizable 1987 Hygrade All-Time Greats, with a great casual shot of ol' Charlie.

The next four hail from the large multi-year Conlon product of the early 90s, with the first two coming out of the 1992 version, the third from '93, and the last from '94.  I love that the second '92 card goes with Charlie's awesome nickname right up front.

Last up is Gehringer's base card from the excellent 1999 Upper Deck Century Legends set.  This product paired classic photos with a beautiful design--so basically, a typical Upper Deck issue.

I also found a couple cards of non-standard size.  On the left is a 2003 Upper Deck Play Ball 1941 Reprint, which is probably as close as I'll get to that card, at least for a while.  The smaller card on the right is a 2011 TRISTAR Obak T212 Mini, and like the Conlon earlier it also has the "Mechanical Man" nickname.

My Gehringer collection remains small, but this ten-spot at least bumps it up to 44.

Now we'll move over to "Gorgeous" George Sisler (don't worry, none of these cards feature that nickname).  Like Gehringer, his first scan begins with three cards from the 1980s.  First is George's card from the 1977-84 Galasso Glossy Greats set (with Sisler's card hailing from the 1980 version focusing on the '20s), an issue that made me look into the name and find out that it was a TCMA product given out to folks that bought complete sets from early dealer Renata Galasso.  Very cool!  That's followed by a Pacific Legends card from the same year, one that features a grinning Sisler in a photo we'll see twice more in this post.  The last of the trio is from a 1985 Woolworth's Topps boxed set that focused on all-time records, in this case George's then-lead in hits in a season (257).

As was also the case with Gehringer, I found four of Sisler's Conlon TSN issues, with these hailing from 1991, 1992, and a pair from '93.  The quartet manages to depict him with two of his three career teams:  St. Louis and Boston (Braves).

The final two cards in this scan are a bit more modern.  The first hails from 2001's version of one of my all-time favorite products, SP Legendary Cuts.  There's that Sisler grin again!  Boy would I love to have a cut signature of this all-time great.  That's joined by one of his two issues in 2010 Topps' Legends of the Games insert set.  This one, showing him as a St. Louis Brown, is from the flagship product while the other, which I don't have yet, came out of 2010 Update and includes a Braves photo instead.

Finishing off 2010, the first card we have here is one of Sisler's two appearances in that year's Topps National Chicle base set; I currently lack the St. Louis Cardinals SP version that can also be found.  Also, that smile looks mighty familiar....  Next is a base card from Panini's excellent 2012 Cooperstown product--a card I surprisingly lacked despite owning two of the very cool colored parallels.  Speaking of 2010s Panini, we'll finish up the regular sized cards with Sisler's base from 2014 Classics, featuring a slightly altered repeat photo from the previous card.

Opting for small ball, we'll end today's post on a pair of 2011 Topps-branded minis.  On the left is one of his four appearances in that year's Gypsy Queen Minis set--he also has a Browns issue, and each of those has an SP version with a different photo.  To its right is the very vintagey looking Kimball Champions insert that was somewhat oddly included in 2011 flagship.

14 new Sislers put his collection at a nice even 80.

I'll be back with more stuff from my huge Sportlots haul soon, but first it's time to show off some new trade packages, so watch out for those soon!

2015 trade package #15: All Tigers Bait All the Time from ATBAtT!

A week or two ago I received my first trade package from Stealing Home who runs All Trade Bait All the Time.  He'd contacted me to let me know a PWE was on my way (pending getting my address), and a few days later I was happy to find the following in my mailbox:

Hey, Tigers--I collect those!  Aside from Dirks (who at least gets a fantastic photo on his insert) this is a top-notch group of Tigers.  I was especially happy to see cards of a couple PC guys in Gibby and Verlander alongside favorites like Miggy, Cobb, Morris, and Magglio.  Also, I may not have liked Prince much after his Tigers tenure but he's back to being a beast at the plate, on and off the field I'm sure.

So those were plenty interesting, but then I pulled out these four:

The first three are from the ubiquitous Conlon sets of the early 90s while the fourth hails from 1975 SSPC.  Here's some quick notes about each subject:

• Bridges pitched his entire career for the Tigers from 1930-46 (with a year off for military service in '44).  He won nearly 200 games in that span and was on Detroit's first two World Series winners in '35 and '45; he won games 2 and 6, the clincher in 1935.
• Fothergill was an OF for Detroit for the first nine of his 12 seasons (1922-1933) before playing for both Sox.  There doesn't seem to be too much about him that's terribly interesting to someone like me, but his high (for the time) weight led to the nickname "fats" and he was a pretty good PH that finished with a nice career average of .325.
• Walker (whose first name was Gerald) also played OF for Detroit, in his case for the first seven years of his 15-year career (1931-45).  That means he was part of Bridges' squad that won the Tigers' first ring in '35.  While in Detroit he hit at a nice clip and was pretty good at stealing bases.  Later he made stops with the White Sox, Sens, Indians, and Reds.
• Ralph Houk is the unnamed person on the SSPC card.  He appeared in 91 career games as a catcher in eight seasons for the Yankees (1947-54).  Houk managed the Bombers from 1961-63 and won the pennant all three years and rings the first two.  He then moved up to the GM position when Yogi Berra took the reins in '64.  Berra was fired after one season, as was his replacement, Johnny Keane, and Houk returned to the dugout for eight uninteresting seasons (1966-73).  His next stop the following year was with the Tigers, whom he managed for five seasons through 1978 before "retiring" (since he returned for four more campaigns with the Red Sox, 1981-84).

It was fun looking up each of these guys and learning more about them!

There was also a hit among the other cards:

Out of 1996 Leaf Signature (Bronze) came an autograph of OF Curtis Pride, who spent 1996 and part of '97 in Detroit.  Known for making it to the big leagues despite being deaf, Pride managed to appear in parts of 11 seasons, which was pretty impressive.  He has a great signature here on one of the hobby's most well-known autographed sets!

Oh yeah, there was one more card in the package as well:

And it just so happened to be a RC of HOFer and Michigan Man Barry Larkin!  A very nice choice to close out the package indeed.

Thanks a ton for a fun PWE, Mr. Stealing Home, and I'll try to respond in kind with some Dodgers and/or vintage soon!