2018 Sportlots purchases: A-toZ PCs

Before I cover the last two single-player posts I'm going to use this one to show off the rest of the PC guys for whom I mostly just picked up a handful of cards (or even just one!).  They didn't fit the Tigers/Reds theme from a couple posts ago but they do share one thing in common:  all are former Wolverines, which isn't a surprise since the vast majority of my PCs are Michigan guys.

So here's a bunch of different players, some of whom I hope you recognize:

Jim Abbott is surely one of the most well known guys in this post and it didn't take much luck to turn up eight new cards of the one-handed wonder.  There's a nice mix of oddball--'90 Topps Magazine and '96 Angels Mother's--base, including a cool pairing with Nolan Ryan from '92 Pinnacle, and parallels, especially '96 Pinnacle Starburst.  I now count 259 cards in his collection.

Previously I didn't have enough cards of former Yankees OF prospect Casey Close to warrant an album, but thanks to these four I went ahead and made one, adding to a couple Michigan-specific items I already had.  Close is now known as a superagent who represented Derek Jeter, among many others, but in the 80s he was toiling in the minors for New York and Seattle after a terrific college career.  These four minors products, two each from '88 and '90, capture him with the Columbus Clippers (Yankees, AAA) and Calgary Cannons (Mariners, AAA).

If you've read at least a few posts on this here blog you know my favorite supercollection is that of current Dodgers lefty Rich Hill.  While putting together this massive Sportlots card I was fortunate to find a couple new cards for my assault on his checklist, this pair of Topps All-Star Game Silver cards from the special stamped sets the manufacturer made for the occasion.  In knocking off a couple more cards for those rainbows I also got closer to the 300 mark and am just five short!

I'm still lacking one freaking card ('94 Stadium Club Team First Day Issue) for my collection of late pitcher Steve Howe, but I did find this interesting pair to bolster it.  He's the third of four players I grabbed from the 1990 Dodgers Target set, and the second of another quartet, this time from Line Drive's 1991 AAA product.  You already saw Ross Powell's card a couple posts ago and you'll see the other two shortly.

One of those guys is former Brewers pitcher Mike Ignasiak.  I completed his 15-card collection a while ago but I'm always on the lookout for new stuff like this Minor League trio with cards from 1990-92.  The brands represented are Grand Slam, Line Drive, and Skybox, and the teams are the El Paso Diablos (AA) and Denver Zephyrs (AAA).

The other is pitcher Scott Kamieniecki, a pitcher mostly know for his stints with the Yankees and Orioles.  To his nearly-completed run I also added a trio of Minor League issues with the '91 Line Drive card book-ended by '90 Best and 1991-92 ProCards Tomorrow's Heroes (and its little foil diamonds).  Albany was the Yanks' AA squad while Columbus was their top affiliate until 2007.

Former Brewers/Giants/Cardinals catcher (and manager for the latter) Mike Matheny is one of the more well-known guys among my PCs, and I managed to track down new checklist needs from three of his four clubs (the Blue Jays aren't represented since no cards of him with the team appear to exist).  Those are, in order, a '98 Pacific Online Red parallel and base cards from 2005 Donruss Team Heroes and 2016 Topps Heritage.  I'm getting reasonably close to 100 unique cards for his collection not to mention 50% of what I've checklisted so it's nice to have productive days like this.

Former QB/current pitcher Clayton Richard is a few years into his return to San Diego, and while he hasn't been terribly effective he's at least been able to eat some innings for them.  As you can see here I finally nabbed his 2017 Topps Update base and got the Rainbow Foil parallel to go with it as my first examples of his issues from that product.  I still have lots of his stuff to track down, especially cards released over the last couple years, but I'm at just about 60%, and hopefully future posts will see more bunches of his cards.

The last of the multi-card players for today is former pitcher (and Michigan Baseball manager) Geoff Zahn.  As with Ignasiak I completed his run a while ago but was glad to find other stuff to add, like this oddball pairing.  On the left is the third and final Kellogg's issue I added through this series, in this case from 1979.  It's not exactly mint--the scan doesn't show how much the card's cracked--but it's not like I especially care as I'm just happy to have another fun lenticular food issue.  And as promised I can show off the last of the '90 Target Dodgers.  Zahn was with L.A. for the first two-plus seasons of his career so he too was part of that very cool perforated set.

And now we'll take a quick look at the guys for whom I picked up just one new item:

• Brett Adcock, a 2016 4th round selection of the Astros out of Michigan, is my latest brand new player collection.  The lefty isn't high on the team's list of prospects for now but you never know!  The first card for his debut is his 2016 Bowman Draft base and I currently have 16 of his cards to track down.
• Like Howe above I need just one card to complete Jake Fox's PC, though the quad auto I'm hunting will be much, much harder to find.  In the meantime I added my first non-checklist card thanks to this shiny 2006 TriStar Prospects Plus base from his time as a slugging Cubs catching prospect.
• Former White Sox IF and current front office guy for the same franchise Chris Getz has a larger checklist for me to chase, but I likewise added a Minor League issue, this one from the 2008 Just Autographs product from which I already own an autograph.
• That's right, it's a run on Minor League cards!  Injured pitcher Zach Putnam completes the trio with another TRISTAR-branded offering, 2009's Projections.  Zach was a member of the Indians organization at the time and this card includes a shot of him with his pro debut club, the Mahoning Valley Scrappers, a low-A affiliate in the NY-Penn league.  The Niles, Ohio-based team is still affiliated with Cleveland today.
• Vintage legend George Sisler is the lone HOF PC guy in this post (though Nolan Ryan does make that cameo!) and while I usually can find more new items of his at a time I was happy to add this SSPC HOF card from the product's 1980-87 run.  There's no date on the back so I'm not exactly sure when it was made, but I do like that it shows him as a member of the 10-person 1939 Hall of Fame class that was the fourth ever inducted and also included Lou Gehrig (thanks to a special election due to his health).  It represents my 83rd card of the one-time single-season hit king.
• Last up is a final SSPC offering, once again from 1975, of former Cardinals (among other teams) IF Ted Sizemore.  I'm adding it to his completed collection along with another non-checklist card as a fun vintage oddball item. 

Two more large single-player posts await, so stay tuned!

2018 trade package #10: the Collector

It's been long enough--about 13 months--since Chris of the Collector and I had swapped cards that he now has a cool banner image.  I've been doing this for seven-plus years and still can't make that claim--I totally need to get on that!

Anyway, Chris recently promised me that he was sending one of my most wanted cards (as seen in the upper-right corner of this here blog) soon.  That ended up being part of a very productive PWE of cards he grabbed from COMC and then sent my way immediately instead of waiting for package filler.  Boy am I glad he did!

Here's the contents:

We'll start with a 2016 Bowman card of Tigers OF JaCoby Jones which is not a RC, but that's fine since he has cards in 2013 Elite Extra Edition and those don't count either.  The guy the Tigers got from the Pirates for a few months of Joakim Soria in 2015 hasn't done a lot of damage at the plate yet but could be an adequate guy on a rebuilding team.

Now we move on to the star of the show and one of my former most wanted:  Jake Fox's 2007 Bowman Sterling Black Refractor (#13/25).  The final card I needed for the slugger's three-card "rainbow" from that product was one of just two I needed to track down for Fox's small collection.  Believe me when I say it's got plenty of Refractor power even if the scan makes the "black" part look more prevalent.  Here's that trio, by the way:

Not bad at all!

The last card I'm chasing is gonna be much, much tougher to track down, though:  a 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars Signature Quads auto that stars Fox along with teammates Geovany Soto, Derrek Lee, and Micah Hoffpauir.  Just 15 copies were made and I've never seen one, so if you've got a lead on one for sale please let me know!

The other two cards were also PC needs:  a couple 1995 parallels of Hal Morris.  While I was a bit surprised to find that I didn't already have card #2, an Ultra Gold Medallion, the Stadium Club First Day Issue to its left was a no-doubter for me.  Both of these feature nice action shots in the field on excellent borderless designs, but you just can't beat Morris catching the First Day stamp in his glove.  Based on other cards I could find from the set it seems that stamp moved around quite a bit so this very well could have been intentional on Topps' part, which would be awesome.

In any case this pair was very helpful towards my collection as I now sit at 102 cards shy of the 359 I've checklisted for the former Red.

Chris, thanks once again for packing lots of productivity into a Pedestrian (but not pedestrian) PWE!  I really appreciate you taking the time to find those needs on my checklists, especially as you sent a big-time want my way.  Enjoy your well-deserved big box of fun that I already know has arrived to you!

Another PC holy grail: crazy like a Fox edition

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And now, for the good stuff:

Former Michigan catcher Jake Fox is this subject of today's post.  I'd been after his 2003 UD Prospect Premieres auto/XRC for a while because it's one of his best cards, and it's not like the guy's been part of many autograph sets.  You might recall that I hit my other big goal of a Jake Long Lettermen card about a month ago, so now I need to come up with some more singles for my wantlist.

Fox is one of the few Michigan players in the Majors (or Minors, temporarily) that I got to see in-person while I was at Michigan because for whatever reason, I just didn't go to more than one baseball game while I was there.  Blame it on general disinterest in college baseball, timing (the schedule always seems weird because of the weather up here) or other interests, but the fact is, I made it to that one game.  I definitely do remember seeing Fox behind the plate with his awesome Michigan catcher's helmet, which looks like-a so ("Our helmet's got wings!").

As is typical anytime this happens, I was proud when Fox got drafted, by the Cubs in the 3rd round back in 2003.  I definitely thought it was pretty cool that for a bit, they had both Fox and Rich Hill (who makes up roughly half of my Michigan baseball hits PC, of course) and I even hoped they might eventually come up together.  That never happened, and Fox has barely played catcher in the Majors anyway--in fact, he's a bit of a slugger without a position, maybe along the lines of a Jack Cust.  Also, besides Hill leaving for the Orioles (so much for greener pastures) and then Boston, Fox was traded to Oakland, then eventually to Baltimore, where he's currently wasting away in the minors as far as I can tell.  Since the Cubs had two of my favorite recent Wolverines and dumped both of them (plus they released Bobby Scales back in June) I cursed them with a World Series draught (also, something about a goat).

All that being said, Fox is a guy for whom I didn't have a hit yet, and this was a card I was hot after.  The problem was that everybody was calling it an SP (maybe it was, I have no idea) and asking way too much for it, which they could do since there really weren't all that many copies up for grabs at the various haunts.  I finally found a price I was ok with on eBay of all places last week, and thus, today one of my more sought-after conquests arrived in my mailbox:

If it somehow looks familiar to you, you might recall my gallery of the 2003 UDPP base set.  While his scribbling of "Jake" is a bit suspect, I like how the "Fox" came out.  I do wish that UD had opted for clear stickers instead of covering a chunk of the player, but this is a good looker otherwise.

I couldn't find a Youtube clip of Homer saying "crazy like a fox" so here's what you get instead:

Sunday fun: 2003 UD Prospect Premieres complete set

Since it's Sunday and I've got nothing new, let's do that thing where I show off some of my completed sets.

Today's subject is 2003 UD Prospect Premieres baseball.  I acquired this set a few years back, I believe in a trade, because I like small prospect sets.  I decided to pull it out today to see how this particular group of prospects turned out.  Here's all 90 cards in their divisible-by-nine and therefore easy-to-scan glory:

Bryan Opdyke, Gabriel Sosa, Tila Reynolds, Aaron Hill, Aaron Marsden, Abe Alvarez, Adam Jones, Adam Miller, Andre Ethier

Hill's had a decent career, but Ethier's the clear star here.  Jones was also a nice get for the Orioles in the Bedard "deal" (nice job, idiots).

Anthony Gwynn Jr., Brad Snyder, Brad Sullivan, Brian Anderson, Brian Buscher, Brian Snyder, Carlos Quentin, Chad Billingsley, Fraser Dizard

Here's an interesting group:  Tony's son. a few flameouts, and then a great pair in Quentin and Billingsley.  

Chris Durbin, Chris Ray, Conor Jackson, Kory Casto, Craig Whitaker, Daniel Moore, Daric Barton, Darin Downs, David Murphy

Jackson is another prospect I'm sure Arizona wouldn't mind having back.  Casto actually signed with Detroit last year before heading to Arizona and then retiring, so so much for "prospect" when it comes to him.  Barton was thought to be a key piece in the Mulder-to-the-Cardinals deal, but sadly that hasn't worked out yet.  Murphy's had some success since heading to Texas (for Eric Gagne--how'd that work out for you, Boston?  Pretty well, apparently, you won the Series that year.).

Dustin Majewski, Edgardo Baez, Jake Fox, Jake Stevens, James D'antona, James Houser, Jarrod Saltalamacchia, Jason Hirsh, Javi Herrera

And here we have the #1 reason I like this set:  Jake Fox.  I'm really, really hoping I can grab his autograph (and maybe jersey) from this set, but they're obscenely expensive for a guy nobody wants to play despite his prodigious power and inherent Wolverine awesomeness.  Bedsides Rich Hill, Fox is a guy the Cubs dumped, and I therefore place a curse on them that they won't win a World Series until--oh wait, that's been done before.  Anyway, Salty's also still got some prospectness left in the tank if he can get over emulating the catcher from Major League II.

Jeff Allison, John Hudgins, Jo Jo Reyes, Justin James, Kurt Isenburg, Kyle Boyer, Lastings Milledge, Luis Atilano, Matt Murton

Here we have Jeff Allison, Lastings Milledge and seven other guys that DIDN'T engage in criminal behavior/drugs to waste a huge amount of talent and a shot at the big leagues.  Murton was highly thought of at the time as a first rounder that year, then got sent to Chicago with Nomar in the deal that netted the BoSox Orlando Cabrera and therefore allowed them to break some sort of curse that year.  Murton's done diddly since.

Matt Moses, Matt Harrison, Michael Bourn, Miguel Vega, Mitch Maier, Omar Quintanilla, Ryan Sweeney, Scott Baker, Sean Rodriguez

Let's see, here:  Harrison came to Texas from Atlanta in the Teixiera deal that also gave the Rangers Salty, Neftali Feliz and Elvis Andrus, so that worked out.  Maier hasn't done much but he's cool because he's from Petoskey, Michigan (which is known for these if you're not from the area).  Rodriguez went to Tampa in the Scott Kazmir deal that DIDN'T involve the Mets looking like dumbasses.

Steve Lerud, Thomas Pauly, Tom Gorzelanny, Tim Moss, Robbie Wooley, Trey Webb, Wes Littleton, Beau Vaughan, Willy Joe Ronda

Sheesh, I guess Gorzelanny's the best of the bunch here.  Oddly enough, Littleton and Vaughan were traded for each other in 2008.

Chris Lubanski, Ian Stewart, John Danks, Kyle Sleeth, Michael Aubrey, Kevin Kouzmanoff, Ryan Harvey, Tim Stauffer, Tony Richie

Sleeth is one of the Tigers' recent draft picks that hasn't worked out (due to injury, really), which has been more and more rare, fortunately.  To be fair, the first round of the '03 draft wasn't all that great, but we could have at least had a Markakis or Billingsley, if nothing else.  This group includes a couple sorta-OKs and not much else.

Brandon Wood, David Aardsma, David Shinskie, Dennis Dove, Eric Sultemeier, Jay Sborz, Jimmy Barthmaier, Josh Whitesell, Josh Anderson

I wish Sborz would have worked out for the Tigers, mainly because he was a Detroit prospect, but also because I had a Bowman Chrome auto/RC of him (priorities, man).  Wood hasn't lived up to his hype, but you never know.  Aardsma is another one of those castoffs that's become a closer.

Kenny Lewis, Mateo Miramontes, Nick Markakis, Paul Bacot, Peter Stonard, Reggie Willits, Shane Costa, Billy Sadler, Delmon Young

Not a bad group to tie things up.  Markakis is the kind of guy I'm glad the Orioles have, Willits at least made an impact with his speed for the Angels and Young, well, maybe he shouldn't have gone #1 but he's done some stuff (trite summary of complicated career FTW).

So there's another complete set in the books.  I had toyed with the idea of nabbing a couple boxes from Blowout recently when they had them for $29, but I already have a base set and I'd be better served putting that money toward the Jake Fox hits that I really want--the odds would be against me and the rest of the autographs in the set aren't awe-inspiring.  Regardless, if for nothing else than the Jake Fox and other quality prospects, this is a fun set to have.

As usual, I'll keep looking for interesting complete sets from my collection to post.