2022 trade package #22: Scribbled Ink

I was set to show off my pickups from last weekend's show yesterday or today but then I got a special delivery from buddy of the blog Paul of Scribbled Ink (and way more often lately, Twitter). That was great timing since I needed something to do while waiting forever for Michigan's 8pm (moved to 9pm thanks to lightning delays) game against Hawaii.

After the great envelope he sent in May, this time Paul did a stellar job sending me cards of the players I PC and out of this bunch somehow included only two doubles despite the fact that he didn't even check to see if I had them! (Spoiler alert, I often don't either when sending blind packages to my fellow bloggers.) Impressive. Flipping through them and logging them into TCDB kept me busy for a while, which I definitely appreciated.

Here's all the cool stuff he sent in this package:

Former Wolverines really do look the best in Blue like Blomgren's Prizm parallel. I'm always happy to see Cronenworth cards I need in deals like this, and the Rated Rookie logo is a site for sore eyes. I also really appreciate Paul sending me Jake's Topps Living Set card since that's something I'd never buy myself.

Junior's a Royal Blue parallel from Topps Update and the photo is a great throwback to his sweet swing. I already completed the insert set starring the Gwynn above but do like that Paul remembered I collect him. Hajjar is another recent former Wolverine (a 2021 2nd round choice by the Twins, he was just sent to Cincy in a four-player deal that brought righty Tyler Mahle to Minnesota) and thanks to Paul I'm up to five of his cards with these two college uni beauties from Panini's Prizm.

And just like JC's card above, you wouldn't catch me ponying up for any Topps Now cards, but Paul was generous enough to include the one you see above of my favorite PC guy, Rich Hill!

Another former Wolverine leads off the second scan and it's a very nice duo of Barry Larkin, with the first being a Fleer Box Score base numbered /2950 and the second a retail version of a Panini Absolute insert.

The Trio of 2017 Topps High Tek Maddux cards was all new as well and I have to admit they took me a bit to ID because of the bevy of patterns available and general lack of images on TCDB so far. I believe I've correctly labeled them as Blackout (much more noticeable on the back), Pattern 2A/2B (Braids / Chainlink Hexagon), and Pattern  4A/4B (Hexagons and Circles/ Spiral Dots), respectively. Hope I got those right!

Fellow big four PC guy Ripken is next and his pair included an '86 Drake's Big Hitters food issue and Cal's appearance from Classic's 1992 version of its well known game. Sweet Lou (today's other dupe) is also the subject of a fun oddball from True Value's 1986 set. I was kind of surprised to find that I already had that because I didn't remember collecting it, but either way this was also very thoughtful of Paul since what I still need of Whitaker largely falls into the category of odd and harder-to-find stuff.

And last up today is the first autograph in yet another one of my collections of recent Michigan Baseball alumni: Jeff Criswell. I now have seven cards of the righty who was an Oakland second round choice a couple years ago (and who headed up 96 to Lansing in '21 and '22 for pro ball) and my first hit (making him the 32nd member of the baseball hits collection). This one hails from one of Leaf's many amateur-oriented sets, 2020 Valiant, and the one Paul sent me is the Green parallel of the New Dawn autographs set, numbered on the back 80/99. I hope to see Criswell move up the ladder more next year while I hopefully accumulate more of his cards, but in the meantime this first signature of his to add to my collection is much appreciated.

Paul, thanks for always finding great stuff to send my way including the contents of this package, all of which was perfectly targeted at some of my favorite PCs. I'm thrilled that the timing worked out so you also got my latest New Hampshire-bound salvo around the same time, which is awesome!

With this package covered I think next time you'll see my show recap but you never know what tomorrow's mail will bring.

12/4/2021 card show report: "Sweet" Christmas!

To say that Saturday, December 4 was an exciting day for me earlier this month would be an understatement. A week prior Michigan overcame years of futility to punch Ohio State in the mouth and beat them handily, earning them their first trip to the conference title game. The Wolverines ended my Saturday on a high note by demolishing Iowa 42-3 in a game filled with highlight reel plays and left the fans delirious with joy over their upcoming playoff appearance. Yep, it was a pretty good day.

And the start of it was just as awesome for me too. I headed east to Taylor as I do monthly for my usual card show, though I went that day instead of my usual Friday excursion for a special reason. The show had hosted the occasional interesting autograph guest in the past, but nobody in my experience elicited as much excitement as that day's signer: Lou Whitaker.

I couldn't tell you the last time he signed around here, and I'm not even sure the last time I paid for an in-person autograph--maybe Red Berenson at the old Gibraltar Trade Center years ago? So this was a Big Deal, and for once I had no problem ponying up $50 for the experience, which ended up being very positive!

For as many people as there were in front of me the line never felt interminable, and after maybe 30-45 minutes I was in front of Sweet Lou himself with a large framed poster I'd grabbed probably more than 20 years ago at the Ann Arbor Art Fair. I'd always planned on having him sign it someday if I could get to a signing so that's exactly what I brought with me. He asked me where I'd like him to sign and I told him it was up to him. He ended up placing a huge, super legible signature right around his butt, and I'm very happy with the result:

Here it is hanging in my office/card room on a wall along with another Tigers signature (albeit one I bought second-hand), that of Bill Freehan.

Long story short, getting to meet Whitaker and get his signature was a big moment for me and one that I'll remember forever, so it was easily worth the $50 and my time. It'll be even more enjoyable once the committee voters get their heads out of their asses and elect him to the Hall.

So while I was there I paid my usual visit to my favorite seller, though a somewhat shorter one thanks to standing in line for the autograph. He actually noted that I was one of the very few people he noticed that came for the signing and stuck around to look at cards as well, which is kind of sad since I want to see this show continue for obvious reasons.

Anyway, I made pretty good use of my time by snagging 15 quarter cards that were 5/$1, 15 dollar cards, 18 that were $2 each, and even six that were $5 apiece. He called the total $80 and then I was heading home with lots of stuff that ended up in Christmas Card packages (some of which remain to be seen!) and a few things for myself too:

The available trade bait portion is just two cards because I was able to target almost everything to the packages I was going to send out. The pair includes an '08 Sweet Spot auto /150 of former Rangers P Scott Feldman plus an "S" letter manupatch/auto of Oklahoma WR Jalen Saunders out of '14 Upper Deck. (By the way, I'm rooting heavily against the Sooners in favor of Kerry's Ducks tonight, so go Oregon!) These are the kinds of cards I like to grab from the $2 boxes from time to time to beef up my FS/FT stuff on TCDB, but as always they're available here as well, so please shout if you're interested in either.

And the "for me" pile is relatively small too but still really, really good. First, I doubled my collection of former UM SS/Rockies draftee (2020 5th round) Jack Blomgren in scoring an autograph of his out of 2020 Elite Extra Edition for just $2. He's the 30th different player in my Michigan Baseball PC and I'd love to see him replicate some of the success that another sort-of recent Michigan guy, Jake Cronenworth, has had in the game.

Next I added to my collection of former blog namesake Curtis Granderson's hits with a 2016 A&G jersey. He may be shown there with the Mets but will forever be a Tigers favorite in my book. I now count 14 hits of him: nine relics, a manurelic, two autos, and auto/relic, and a plate. You can never have too many, I say!

Getting back to the Michigan stuff the most expensive card I picked up for myself was in the $5 box: a 2020 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor auto (# /150) of another Rockies draftee (2019, #77 overall), pitcher Karl Kauffmann. It's only my fifth card of his so I knew it would be a need and didn't mind ponying up $5 instead of waiting to find it slightly cheaper elsewhere. The color kind of sold me on it too. I actually have more hits (three autos and a plate) than base cards (one) of the potential future Rockie.

We happen to be alternating between hit types and teams though not by design--as usual I'm going alphabetically. Ian Kinsler closes out the baseball group with a 2010 UD Game Jersey. I know these are among the lowest end of hits these days but I think I only paid $1 and as I always say when I mention him, I enjoyed his time in Detroit, not the least because he produced well and was part of the deal to get rid of Prince Fielder's dead weight. This is my third relic of his and all show him with his original team, the Rangers, but maybe I'll land a Tigers card at some point.

And then for the 2021 Big Ten Champion Wolverines we begin appropriately with a Michigan uni card, a 2021 SAGE Premier Draft of WR Nico Collins, a guy who had the shitty luck of being drafted by the Texans. At least he finally caught his first NFL TD the other day in a rare win against the Chargers. Speaking of California teams, transfer RB Justin Fargas played his entire career for Oakland, and I was glad to find a 2008 Select Young Stars insert (# /999) of his in the quarter box. And our final player today, like Collins, is active in the league, though out for the year with an Achilles tear. Brandon Graham has recorded 59.0 sacks and 19 forced fumbles over parts of 12 seasons with the Eagles and I'm always happy to show this defensive standout some hobby love when I can, like his 2021 Donruss Red Press Proof parallel above.

So to recap, that day I

• Met Lou Whitaker and got his autograph
• Picked up some great cards while at the show
• Enjoyed Michigan trouncing Iowa and winning the Big Ten conference title game

I think Luke Cage would have to agree that was a great Saturday a few weeks before a sweet Christmas!

With this stuff covered I believe my next few posts will be recapping trades but you never know. Either way they're going to drag into 2022 but I'd rather take my time instead of stressing myself writing up posts. I'm always glad to give people who send me stuff the effort they deserve as thanks, so I promise I'll start getting to those soon!

2021 Sportlots purchases part 8: more Michigan? Marvelous!

Previously: Quick summary and set wants; Big and small we have them all!; Better off Ted; A Tettle-ton of Froot Loops; Lucky Tiger Seven; Dizzying Deans, Sportlots has been Barry, Barry good to me

Just two posts left after this one! Tonight's will be another group post instead of a single player like the last one, though we're sticking with Michigan Baseball as the theme. I believe I counted 17 different players in the scans below, enough that I originally considered splitting them up, but I'm feeling motivated to finish these up. Therefore, it's more Michigan mania!

We'll start with this group since I found a lone new card for all nine players. Up top are three of the older Wolverines you'll see today: 1976 SSPCs of P Jim Burton and OF Tom Grieve, plus a '78 TCMA of 1B/OF (and UM football player as well) John Herrnstein. Burton's '78 SSPC card will sew up his four-card run whenever I can find it. Herrnstein's collection will be tougher to complete because, as a reminder, he shares '60s rookie star cards with Willie Stargell and Dick Allen.

The next four are some of the latest Michigan alumni to make their pro debuts. Blomgren, Criswell, and Franklin (2020 Bowman Draft) were all selected in the first five rounds of the '20 draft, while Brewer (2020 Topps Heritage Minors) was a Houston 3rd rounder the year before. They're all pretty good prospects, and these items represent my first for each player except Criswell (my 4th).

A couple "S" players close out the scan. First is a 2011 Triple Threads Sepia parallel (#d /625) of HOFer George Sisler, giving me 99 different items of "Gorgeous" George. The other continues the run of oddballs, especially of the food issue variety (foodballs?) in this series: an '81 Topps Coca-Cola St. Louis Cardinals issue of P Lary Sorensen. Aside from the obvious Coke logo up front and different numbering on the back, these are very similar to the base cards, but still fun pickups for your everyday player or oddball collector.

Jim Abbott got the biggest boost in numbers to his collection of the players you'll see today, and this group of nine isn't even all of them. The scan is bookended by food issues from Topps/Bazooka's 1990 partnership plus 1993 Kraft, a pop-up I won't be popping up myself. Also from 1990, starring a poorly chosen photo emblematic of the junk wax era, is Donruss' Learning Series, a 55-card set geared towards elementary- and middle-schoolers.

Then things get Canuckified with 1990 Fleer Canadian and O-Pee-Chee, a couple issues from our friendly neighbors to the north. That Fleer photo was another bad choice, to be sure. A pair of Classic cards produced in 1991 and '92 look much better to me since action shots almost always trump portraits in my opinion, plus it's always really cool to see portions of Jim's one-armed delivery. Last up here is a pair of '93 Upper Deck Gold Hologram cards, which are annoying to have to track down as a player-collector, but then I suppose they do give me a reason to collect a second version of a card where Abbott's wearing a Michigan shirt! You'll see one more of these below since he was all over that '93 set.

One last Abbott (for now) gives way to a few slightly more recent guys. I found a new pair of cards of Portage, Michigan native and 2019 Arizona draftee Tommy Henry: his Bowman Draft and Draft Chrome Refractor issues. It's always nice when I can track down stuff with backs that mention Michigan in one form or another, such as these that include his college stats.

Drew Henson is a player whose cards I get to chase in two sports, and here I have four of the five from this purchase. The first couple are from 1999 team sets for New York's Tampa affiliate, with the second apparently hailing from an "update" set that's almost identical. The '02 Hot Prospects insert he shares with another guy that had some hype behind him, Xavier Nady, is pretty cool thanks to a pair of rounded corners. And to those I added a four-player 2003 Bazooka sticker whose players happen to appear in the order of best MLB career to worst!

You'll see more of both of the other guys in this scan in a minute, but interestingly enough they're both still involved with the game despite their ages. Old Rich Hill turned 41 a few months ago but is still pitching pretty well, though of course those efforts are now for the Rays instead of the Twins, with whom he appears on his 2020 Topps Heritage base. And former Cardinals C and manager Mike Matheny made the relatively short trip to Kansas City to helm the Royals after being let go by St. Louis, the team pictured on his 2004 Topps 1st Edition parallel above.

The other Matheny cards I found were both from 2005. The first is also a 1st Edition version of his Topps flagship base, and it offers and even better action photo than the previous year's. I wonder if an out resulted from that throw? The other is the Silver parallel from Total, which wasn't as good as the 2002-03 versions in my opinion, so I'm not really disappointed the brand disappeared until the bastardized cash grab online version resurrected the name in 2019.

The rest of this scan stars William Harold Morris, and almost everything I scored of Hal this time was of the oddball variety, but that worked for me as a fun way to beef up his PC a bit. Here you see a trio of Classic cards from 1989 and '91, a 1991 Baseball Cards Magazine issue done up in the style of '66 Topps, and Morris' three appearances in a Rembrandt/Ultra-Pro promo set put out in '92. The latter was a 20-card set featuring casual shots of some baseball stars (such as Bobby Bonilla and Jose Canseco), mainly focusing on their favorite pastimes, such as tennis for the guy above. The backs included Ultra Pro holograms and a message of the "limited" nature of the cards; the ones you see here received 125,000, 250,000, and 100,000 copies, respectively.

Two more Morris cards get me just a pair shy of 300 for his collection. The first is from the US Playing Card Company's 1992 Baseball Aces deck, and it's only natural that someone playing for the Reds should be assigned a suit of that color. The other is the only "mainstream" card in his bunch, his '95 Collector's Choice Silver Signature parallel, making him the fourth Wolverine I've found from that set (Steve Ontiveros, Steve Howe, and Scott Kamieniecki are the others).

Player #2 in this scan is Hal's former teammate Chris Sabo, and as with Morris I came away with '89 and '91 Classic issues of "Spuds". You can add him to the food issue club as well thanks to a '92 Jimmy Dean oddball from an 18-card set that also included Jim Abbott among its stars. Lastly, also from 1992 is a goofy design (and funny photo of Sabo utilizing a hitting training aid) from Topps Kids. If you care for whatever reason, the latter is the variation that has two asterisks in the trademark line instead of one.

It seems like a good idea to mention that this post will be published on Juneteenth as we look at the last player in the group of vertical cards. Moses Fleetwood "Fleet" Walker was a C for Toledo of the old American Association, considered a "major league", back in 1884, making him the first black player (or just "the first black in the majors" according to the cringe-y back of the 1986 Fritsch Negro League Baseball Stars card you see on the left) to break the color barrier. That makes Jackie Robinson's bravery in 1947 no less important, though, as he fought through the same kind of ignorance and hate that Walker did. While you won't find him on too many cards, unfortunately, another of his items can be found relatively easily: a base card from Upper Deck's 1994 product Baseball: the American Epic, which describes Fleet's history a bit more intelligently.

To finish things up today, here's a six-pack for your weekend. First up is the final Jim Abbott Gold Hologram from 1992 Upper Deck, a set that included lots of those artsy cards. My Tommy Henry collection grows by one more thanks to a cool 2020 Topps Pro Debut base that makes good use of the card's orientation. A multiplayer card including fellow Yankees prospects from the time Juan Rivera and Jackson Melian is Drew Henson's other appearance from the Minors team sets mentioned above. I got two cards closer to Rich Hill's 2020 Topps rainbow with his base card and Gold Star (factory set) parallel, not to mention two more cards from his year with the Twins. And lastly, Sabo joins Morris in needing just two more cards for a milestone (he's at 198) thanks to one last food issue: a 1992 French's card he shares with HOFer Wade Boggs. I've never been a mustard guy but that 19-card set full of All-Stars is fun and I may have to try to track down more of those.

Considering these additions combined with those from some of the earlier posts in this series, I got a lot of good work done on the checklists of some of the many former Wolverines I collect, and added some fun pieces.

Still to come in the final two posts are one more single-player feature plus a last one with a team theme that I think will please many of you!