2020 trade package #10: Cards on Cards

With a bunch of stuff due to show up this coming week maybe I can put a little effort into what I haven't posted yet!

A couple weeks ago I was checking my Informed Delivery and noticed that I had a package on the way from Oregon. That pretty much meant a coin flip between the two guys I trade with most often out there, and as it turns out, this time it was from Kerry of Cards on Cards. As I probably say every time I cover an envelope from him, he's easy for me to trade with since he also collects an MLB team plus a college.

Today's bubble mailer included my local MLB squad, plus a few of my player collections to boot:

We'll start with those Tigers, and it was largely a 2013 Pinnacle affair this time (including another card you'll see below). Somehow these are my first from that base set to go into my collection despite my predilection for the brand name. Though the design doesn't bring to mind the product's glory years in the 90s, I'm glad Panini brought it back, including some of the inserts. Dufex rules, and you can see that feature on the Fielder Slugfest and Garcia Museum parallel.

Miggy's the only guy from the Pinnacle group still with the team--no surprise as we're almost 10 years on from the release--and he also popped up in the package on a 2020 Heritage Chrome parallel (#d /999), a perennial insert that still looks terrific. His young teammate, catcher Jake Rogers, is the other guy here, on a 2020 Topps Stickers card he shares with the Reds' Joey Votto.

When I tweeted out a thanks to Kerry for these when they showed up I teased that he sent me too many Grandersons, and four is certainly enough to warrant that! Curtis' Mets quartet includes 2015 Stadium Club and Opening Day, plus 2016-17 Bunt. I do love me some Stadium Club, and I'm glad to have more cards of Grandy, especially of the non-Yankee variety.

Then it's time for the Juniors, Griffey and Ripken. George Kenneth's appearance comes from 2019 Topps Chrome Update's Family Business Refractor-y insert. I guess you could say a son following in the footsteps of his dad's excellent career with a HOF run of his own that included the pair going back-to-back could be called "the Family Business."

Next you'll see four of the six Iron Man items Kerry sent. The very cool outlier is an oddball for sure out of 1988 Donruss Pop-Ups. I know I have various items similar to this from that decade, but this is my first from the '88 set as Cal's the only guy on the checklist I PC. Similar to the Griffey above is a 150 Years of Pro Baseball insert highlighting Ripken's most famous accomplishment. And then we have a couple 2020 Donruss parallels: a Baby Shark border of his variation photo plus a Holo Pink, the later of which scanned closer to its true color than pink cards usually do!

Now we go from too many Grandersons to slightly fewer Verlanders. JV was the other representative from '13 Pinnacle, and Kerry sent both his base and Museum Collection cards, which is awesome. Maybe I'll try to track down his Artist Proof as well! Those are joined by Topps' most famous parallel, a Refractor out of '15 Chrome. It feels like it's rare at this point for me to get multiple JVs in a package and all of them are Detroit cards.

Before we get to the biggest surprises of this package there's another fun, oddball-ish Ripken to show off: his '98 Sports Illustrated Mini Poster. These were a great combination of useful, informative, and fun--the kind of thing I could see kids wanting to collect at the time.

And then we have the items I really didn't see coming: 2020 Topps RC Logo Medallions of Cal and the recently passed Albert William Kaline. If you somehow hadn't seen these yet, they're super thick reprints that include a chunky little "RC" logo medallion embedded in them. Kaline's is a reprint of his true RC while Topps opted for Cal's '82 Topps Traded issue, his first solo appearance but second card from the brand overall (the RC logo rears its ugly head again!). I'm glad to add these to each player's collection, and it's especially nice to have something new of Kaline in light of his recent death.

Kerry, thanks again for the fun surprise envelope that contained a bunch of great stuff for my collections! I actually have a good quantity of stuff to send back to you pretty soon, so be on the lookout for a mailer headed out west before too much longer.

2019 Sportlots purchases: the Mick x2 (not that Mick)

Part two of my Sportlots haul centers on a couple guys named Mickey, neither of which played for a team that won't be winning a World Series for the tenth straight season, the Yankees.

First up is Gordon Stanley Cochrane, better known by his nickname "Mickey," though he was also called "Black Mike."  This, of course, is the guy for whom Mantle was named.  The HOF catcher/manager spent his first nine seasons with the Philly A's, winning a pair of rings with them in 1929 and '30, plus an MVP in '28.  After being dealt to Detroit late in 1933, he was a player/manager for the Tigers from '34-'37 (and just a manager in 1938), capturing another MVP award in his first season.  Oh yeah, he also led the team to consecutive pennants in '34 and '35, winning it all in his second season and bringing Detroit its first crown in the sport.  He was pretty good, you might say.

To my previously paltry Cochrane collection I added 13 cards, starting with this nine spot.  I don't think anything here is obscure to anyone--Hygrade, Pacific Legends, Conlon, Swell Baseball Greats, and a trio of fun Fleer products that focused on classic players.  The 2003 Fall Classics base that ends the scan is one of two today that depicts Mickey with the A's, which is totally fine by me since it looks great.

The other four continued in a similar vein:  2003 SP Legendary cuts (just beautiful!), '04 Greats of the Game (ditto!) and Sweet Spot Classics (can't go wrong!) and 2013 Panini Cooperstown.  The back of the Sweet Spot Classics base (A's again) notes that Cochrane struck out a ridiculous 217 times in 13 seasons.  That's less than or equal to four players' single-season totals, including Mark Reynolds' 223 in 2009!

I feel great about adding some nice stuff of a Tigers legend, and this has me motivated to track down more on subsequent Sportlots runs.

So Cochrane's nickname beget Mantle's own name, and the next guy was christened after the Yankees legend and fellow Oklahoman:  Mickey Tettleton.

The guy they called "Fruit Loops" (they gave him his prodigious strength!) was drafted by the Oakland iteration of Cochrane's original team, then had stints in Baltimore and Texas that bookended his four seasons in Detroit, 191-94.  It was a very productive stretch for him that resulted in 112 HR and 14.8 bWAR, or around half of both career numbers.  He had an awesome batting stance as a switch-hitter and was often seen with a huge wad of chew in his cheek, something I loved when I was younger (but hate now that I'm aware of its effects).

This Mickey is much more prominent in my Detroit collection as I've made more of an effort to collect Tettleton as one of my favorite recent-ish Tigers.  The 15 cards you'll see here get him up to 87, and this first scan is mostly one of my favorite brands, Stadium Club.  Here you see Mick's cards from 1991-95, plus 2015.  That's a rare good decision by Topps these days!  I really like the 50/50 split of catching/hitting these offer, plus the mix of designs is fun to look at.

Also included is his oversized base card from the oddball-ish 1994 Fleer Extra Bases, which you'll see a couple more times in this series.

Oh hi, "90s inserts rule" tag, how have you been?  I'm not at all surprised to see you here thanks to this bevy of fun chase cards, plus some great base products as well.  Up top we have an early version of Fleer's Lumber Company name, plus Leaf's "should have just made these the base set" Black Gold, both from '92.  You're damn right that Mickey made the cut for the iconic debut of Finest--gotta get me that Refractor!--in 1993, and that's joined by the beautiful (and maybe early Dufex?) Pinnacle Home Run Club and another high-end debut, Upper Deck's SP.  

1994's lone entrant is the last lenticular brand to use the "Sportflics" name before Pinnacle switched it to "Sportflix" for its final two years.  And speaking of Score/Pinnacle, our final two cards, both from '95, are fun parallels from those brands:  Museum Collection and Gold Rush.  I've said it a ton and I'll say it again:  1995 Pinnacle is my absolute favorite version of that product, and the Museum Collection cards are flat-out beautiful.  That's why I didn't mind grabbing another card of Tettleton as a Ranger.

What will I show off next?  I dunno.  I'm not even sure when I'll be posting next, but I've got lots more cards to scan and share with you and I'm looking forward to seeing what you readers think.

2019 COMC purchases: falling for football inserts

Well, I wanted a win and a win is what I got!  The offense stalled--for both teams, really--but Michigan's defense came up huge time after time in a vintage performance.  The team's detractors, many of whom think of themselves as fans somehow, will have to move the goalposts elsewhere, which I don't think they'll have a problem doing.  As for me, I'll enjoy another big win and celebrate with some cards.

Today's gonna be another short one before a big finish.  I picked up a small number of football inserts, and I think a decent number of you will enjoy these as much as I do since some were made during the height of cardboard creativity.

That's not me booing over here, I'm yelling "Duuuuuuuuuuuufex!"  Pinnacle's signature insert effect is on full display when it comes to this '95 Zenith Rookie Roll Call of former #1 WR Derrick Alexander.  It sure is nice to look at, and don't think I didn't catch that little "NO MORE THAN 1,200 SETS PRODUCED" notice on the bottom.  That's 42 cards of Alexander, almost as many as his 48 receptions that indeed led rookie wideouts in '94, as the back mentions.

Sticking with Pinnacle, we'll jump forward one year to the '96 version's Die Cut Jerseys insert.  This one, starring PC guy Tim Biakabutuka, isn't Dufexed, but the jersey-shaped die-cutting is very cool and instantly caught my eye while I was browsing his cards on COMC.  Bonus points for the back serving as a reminder for the way he demolished Ohio State's defense in 1995!

Now let's go with a more recent player, one that keeps up the theme of offense and brings a Michigan uni photo to the table as well.  What you see here is Devin Funchess' 2015 Prestige Extra Points Gold parallel (#16/50) of his RC from that product.  This was yet another design that I enjoyed from Prestige, with the front offering a nice bonus of showing Funch's draft position and the back providing some stats in a non-traditional format.  Add in some gold and serial-numbering and I'm on board!

By most measures, Jeff Garcia had a better career than former Michigan QB Elvis Grbac, but that doesn't quite Settle the Score, like this insert of the same name from 2001 Select (#437/550).  Elvis did leave the building in 1994 with a Super Bowl ring after getting a bit of playing time during his rookie season with the Niners, who'd go on to win it all.  Sure, it amounted to all of 50 pass attempts, including an incompletion plus a fumble (which he didn't lose) on a rush in the big game in garbage time, but that's more than Garcia can say!

Speaking of former QBs, Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh has been a lightning rod for criticism for many reasons, often due to his X's and O's.  I hope he and OC Josh Gattis figure things out because despite the way he's come up short in his four-plus seasons, I still root for him and want to see him succeed, if only to shut up the media and fans that build him up so they can call him overrated.  He definitely needs to improve, but fans should be getting behind him and the team.  Consider this shiny 1999 Playoff Momentum SSD X's insert (#182/300) a show of support from TMV.

Everybody else in today's post played offense but given the Iowa game's result, the defense has more than earned the honor of closing things out, just as they did against the Hawkeyes.  Tackling machine David Harris was one of my favorite Michigan defenders, and he carried over that performance to the NFL, making the program proud once again.  He must have been a great pro because it's relatively rare to see defenders on cardboard, such as this 2017 Donruss Jersey Number parallel (#28/52).  I count myself as a fan of parallels like this and the Stat Line cards which are numbered to something specific instead of a generic 100, 1000, etc.  Speaking of that other insert, Harris does indeed have a season Stat Line parallel in the 2017 product which offers his sunset cards.

With one more post in this series I'll try to get the last one--which, again, is a doozy--up soon so I can move on to a trade package, eBay loot, and another big-ass Sportlots haul.  Until then, GO BLUE!