2023 trade package #24: My Sports Obsession

Well I don't know how quickly I'll get to everything else that needs to be posted but at least I'm back tonight with another blogger trade that deserves recognition.

This one came to me back in September from buddy of the blog Jeff who writes as My Sports Obsession (and also handles PR for Sluggo's Sports Cards). Jeff continues to have access to some really nice stuff while selling cards with his cousin, and that includes buying from some other friendly dealers at shows. He's certainly been super generous sharing those benefits with me, I'll say that much!

Here's the greatness he sent this time:

Is there any chance Javy can regain enough of his batting eye to stop swinging at balls closer to the on-deck circle than the plate? I don't know, but I guess we'll find out next season!

And of course I'm going to miss Miggy. While it's good he's no longer out there playing as a shell of his former self, I'm going to miss him and all that he did over his 16 seasons in Motown. He was a major force right off the bat, and his run from 2008-2016 was one of the best the franchise has ever seen. All the dude did was hit .325/.405/.573 and average 34 HR and 114 RBI per season while earning consecutive MVPs and leading his team to a World Series berth. Cabrera stayed around with the team the Marlins traded him to and rewarded fans with 500 HR and 3000 hit milestones. He'll forever be a team legend and it's impossible to overstate how important he was to the success the Tigers enjoyed over about a decade in the 2000s and 2010s.

Speaking of big numbers there's a whole second PAGE that's just the future HOFer here. Definitely some classy looking stuff and pretty much everything is new to me. TCDb tells me I have more than 450 cards of him, and that ranks him in the top 10 of players of any sport in my PC. Thank you for all the new additions, Jeff!

Here's where we get a bit of variety. Cisnero is shiny, and the Greenberg is too, in a way, as a Chrome Ginter card. Greene may have finished last season hurt but was a spark plug for the offense and a guy I'm hoping to see a full season of health from in 2024. If he can manage that, watch out!

Next is a quartet that starts a huge run of Griffeys, which would be cool enough, but lots of these are total oddballs I've never seen before. Classic is of course familiar to me but I can't claim to have ever seen the others.

If Cabrera gets a page-plus, why not Junior? This one features even more oddness, with none more unorthodox than the one right down the middle. And the ones I do recognize are fun, especially food issues like Jimmy Dean and Post.

Somehow Jeff managed to locate enough Griffey cards for one MORE page plus the beginning of the next scan too. Gobs of Griffeys! Two more food issues, also from Jimmy Dean, kick this one off, and notable 90s UD product Fun Packs makes an appearance too. A few more from within a decade of those give way to a trio of newer items, two of which bookend the bottom row with shots of Ken's beautiful follow-through.

Listen, guys, we're done with Junior when Jeff says we're done with Junior, ok? The remaining quartet here also feature cool designs, but that's not a surprise when Diamond Kings, Stadium Club, and Archives are in the mix. With this many new Griffeys it's no wonder he's #2 in my PC with over 1100 cards, though still more than 100 behind leader Cal Ripken Jr.

Next we have the second of my big four non-Tigers/Wolverines PC guys, Tony Gwynn. Mr. Padre may not appear in the volume that his fellow HOF OF did, but these are no less appreciated. Besides a needed '87 Leaf, the other five are from Topps brands, and I believe they were all new to me. Thanks to these and some others I've since acquired I count almost 900 cards in his collection.

After the final Gwynn, this group starts with a much-needed new Rich Hill card, which reminds me, I wonder where he'll be pitching next season if he comes back for a 20th campaign (and possible 14th team)?

If you include Mr. Padre, why not Mr. Tiger? These are some classy looking Kalines and I think I give a small edge to the Stadium Club, but it's always better when you don't have to choose.

Meanwhile, Larkin's a PC guy we share so I understand Jeff not having more than a couple to send my way, and I'm glad that he did. I'm now fewer than 50 away from Barry joining my 1000-card PC club!

Maddux, who starts this scan, makes big four PC guy #3, and a lone oddball Ripken at the bottom is a spoiler that confirms Jeff hit all four. Mad Dog gets a nice trio worth of designs here picturing him with his two most well known franchises. I put Mize before former Tiger Austin Meadows (best wishes to him, of course!) because I'm dumb and didn't notice this mistake until I was posting this. And Black Jack makes a token appearance as a Blue Jay.

Cal is another of our shared player collections and as I mentioned earlier he's my number 1 at over 1200 cards and counting. The playing card oddballs are quite cool aside from the eyeball-twitch-inducing spelling error, and the Stadium Club Chrome/Gallery duo at the end of the group looks mighty fine.

Three of four new Torks end this scan, and I'm glad to be in possession of more of his cards. While I think Riley Greene is likely to be the more exciting player for the Tigers, Torkelson's power potential could have a huge impact on an offensive that's been short on big hitters. I just looked it up and the Tigers haven't been out of the bottom 10 in homers since 2016! The former top overall pick put 31 over the wall last season and a perennial total in that neighborhood would be huge.

One more Tork gives way to a classy looking Tram. Then we get to the namesake of this here blog and top Tigers-related player in my collection: Justin Verlander. And boy is he well represented in this package!

Everything here of JV is from the past few years so there's no Tigers cards, but to be fair he left Detroit in 2017. There's still a lot to like whether it's classic base, shiny, or Chrome-style. Stadium Club and Gallery continue to be winners as usual.

Of my 600+ Verlanders (STILL not too many!), I own three of him pictured during his brief tenure with the Mets, and they're all in this one post.

And now we get to the best part of tonight's post: the hits! Jeff delivered bigtime here with six big-hitters I flipped through one after the other with my jaw continuing to drop. First is an autograph of one more shared PC of ours, Jake Cronenworth. It's a Ginter framed card and those always look great, plus of course I love new signatures. I own just three JC autos now so this one was a very nice surprise.

Next, I was even more surprised to see a new relic card of Gibby because they often aren't easy to find at reasonable prices. Of course it's a huge plus that he's pictured with the Tigers on that UD Classics card because many fans know him better for his big moment with the Dodgers. Not me, though--I'll always associate him with his 1984 Series performance. It appears to be my 11th hit of Gibson, comprising eight relics and three autos.

Now we'll temporarily jump back to the present (and hopefully future) of the team with pitcher Matt Manning. The #9 overall pick in 2016 has appeared in just 45 games for Detroit over the past few seasons but has been trending in the right direction. It feels great having a nice hit of his before a potential blow-up, in this case a 2020 Bowman purple auto numbered /250.

Let's go back to another champ, '68 star Mickey Lolich. He's seen here on a jersey card from 2004 SP Legendary Cuts, and that represents just my third hit (and second relic, also from an '04 UD brand) of the Series hero. Very cool!

And why not one more Tiger with a ring for good measure, '84 slugging catcher Lance Parrish. He joins Gibby and Lolich as guys I definitely didn't expect to be talking about in this portion meaning they were all more than just pleasant surprises. The Big Wheel was fantastic in the 80s and I wish the cheapskate owners didn't cause him to leave before I was old enough to appreciate his game. At least I can enjoy a brand new signature of his from 2015 Donruss. It's a great looking piece that goes well with the one other auto I have of Lance.

We'll finish up the hits with one more appearance by a guy with a couple rings of his own (just not with Detroit) in Verlander. JV hit #31 for me is a 2019 Topps relic card that uses the Topps design from the last time the Tigers won the Series, 1984. He may be an Astro now but he'll always be a Tiger!

We're not quite done, though, because there's a couple sports left to go over. On the basketball side of things we have three guys both Jeff and I collect: Poole, Franz Wagner, and Webber. The latter is a more recent addition to his player collections as he tends to collect players closer to the beginning of his fandom. All are happily welcomed here in Ann Arbor!

And I'm happy to close out a post filled with cards from a fellow Michigan fan who saw the Wolverines vanquish the Buckeyes for the third straight year(!) in-person, then joined the school's fans celebrating a third consecutive conference championship, with a 100% Michigan uni scan! The guys represented in the first five cards all went out in style in '21 with the firsts of those recent accomplishments. And Streets and Tuman accounted for all three Michigan TDs in the '98 Rose Bowl victory that resulted in the Wolverines' most recent national title. Oddly enough, their cards are supposed to be autographed and even have congratulatory messages on the back saying as much, but maybe they were replacements that found their way out of Press Pass by non-standard means. I still need an actual signed card for Streets but do possess the Tuman, so it's fun having both in his case.

That was a ridiculous amount of quality stuff to recap and appreciate and I have nothing but thanks once again for Jeff's generosity. I recently sent him a Christmas cards package that I'm betting he'll show off reasonably soon since he's much better about posting than I am. Thanks, Jeff, and I hope we get a belated present on January 1, 2024 in the Rose Bowl!

Back soon with more trades that deserve some screen time.

TCDb trade roundup: vrooomed

Here's a great way to get another big staff of stuff off of my desk! Over the past few months I've made a few deals and received a couple PIFs from Dan (a.k.a. vrooomed), one of hardest working members of TCDb and one of my earliest friends there. I received so many cards from him that it made sense to just devote one post to what he sent in March, June, and whenever he sent other envelopes.

Check out all these great additions to my collections:

Lots and lots of Tigers today. Miggy and Pudge will feature quite a bit but it's fun seeing others too like  Heilmann and V-Mart. 

This isn't nearly what I was referring to with the Rodriguez cards, by the way. You'll see! Sweet Lou and the Iron Man are always welcome sites in trade packages. Did anyone ever refer to Cal as "the Ripper" at any point?

Lots of inserts/shiny/both here with a bit of numbering too. Funkhouser's from the higher-end Sapphire set. Seeing Cabrera being applauded by fans is always fun, especially in Refractor form. And Pudge's Ultra insert makes me miss Fleer once again.

Though Dan lives in New York he's got some pretty nice Red Wings PCs and I was glad to grab some of his dupes for my way-too-small Yzerman collection (currently just 66 cards). It's fun seeing this group of various years and designs from his long and storied career.

The next bunch of scans (including this one) represent my own haul of a large deal we made after Dan got a massive amount of extras added to his trade list from the 70s-90s. I grabbed a huge chunk of stuff to help Jeff with his 80s set wants plus some White Sox and other PCs as well. But I also filled in some PC and team gaps of my own. Northrup and Cochrane were fun vintage adds, and I also picked up the remaining '81 Topps Coke Tigers I needed to finish up that set (except for Alan Trammell, who I still need to find).

A couple of playing days cards of Evans get me near the century mark for his PC, just two shy. You'll find more of Fielder below as well to go with this pair, the highlight being a '96 Fleer Update base. It's not always easy finding Kirk Gibsons I need but it's no surprise when he pops up on an '88 World Series-related item. Talented player and broadcaster Curtis Granderson is another guy you'll see a bit more of as you scroll down, and this pair of inserts looks great. Speaking of chase cards, how about big four PC guy Griffey and his sweet swing?

After seeing the Juniors Ripken and Griffey already, we get a quartet of big four guy Mr. Padre, with that top row being 100% inserts. View to a Thrill combined a very cool name and design back when card manufacturers that cared about such things still existed. Herndon and Hernandez (out of order which I realized after scanning, as usual!) are two more key '84 Tigers you'll see here, and both get pre-Detroit additions to their PCs. Thanks again for the Hernandez deal, Phillies! (Oops, I shouldn't play that up too much, that's Dan's team!)

Lemon and Morris were of course teammates of those two guys in '84, and Lemon joins the group that gets pre-Tigers adds to their piles. There's more Morris goodness in a bit. Late 80s slugging catcher sensation Matt Nokes came along for the ride with a Sportflics base being a favorite of mine.

The catcher he took over for was the "Big Wheel" Lance Parrish, who was certainly a Diamond King, and then a cheap-ass owner caused him to leave for Philadelphia in '87 (and he was then traded to the Angels the following year). Peaches was a great #2 on that '84 squad, and he's actually signing at my monthly show next weekend, but I don't know if I'll make the extra trip out to get him on Saturday. Local boy Pat Sheridan (born in Ann Arbor, went to Eastern Michigan in nearby Ypsilanti) joined the Tigers in '86, too late to win a ring with a bunch of the guys I've mentioned today, but he did get his own with the Royals in '85.

A couple more Sheridans, Detroit-style, give way to a fun group of Frank Tanana, a well-travelled guy who had pitched in California, Boston, and Texas before heading to Detroit. The Angels aren't represented here because the earliest card is from '81 but I do have a few of him with California, plus all of his other teams besides the Yankees. Something like three different options exist for those and I'm sure I'll snag at least one at some point.

Here we have some horizontal stuff and a few odd-sized items. I'd say Big Daddy (RC) enjoyed a better career than fellow prospect Cory Snyder, who started out hot and fizzled out quickly. If I have to see Grandy with a NY team I'd rather it be with the Mets. Griffey's paired up on that Stadium Club insert with Darryl Strawberry, a cool combo at the time. Morris' sticker is a fun one, and if you like those you're going to love a particular pair of scans coming up shortly. And Kinsler and Maddux are from the 2010s Topps insert size of die-cut minis that replicate the '89 Topps look.

Closing out this group is a huge chunk of Pudge cards. Looks like I soared past 300 to 351 cards of him thanks in large part to this deal. Most of what you see is Texas stuff, which is to be expected, but there's a couple other teams mixed in there. As is the case whenever I get a bunch like this, I really enjoy looking through the various designs and getting a sense of what the style was each year. There's some pretty solid inserts mixed in there too! See if you can spot any you're a fan of.

The latest envelope was headlined by these two items: a Silver Slate parallel of Granderson and a Denny's Grand Slam hologram of Cal that I somehow didn't have.

At some point after he got everything else updated in terms of his trade list, Dan added a bunch of 80s Topps and OPC stickers, and he was nice enough to send me all that I needed, which amounted to a Ripken and a whole bunch of '84 Tigers, including a few Series-related stickers.

And here's the rest of them, all of which feature your 1984 champions.

Many thanks to Dan for our formal and blind trades/PIFs that have been lots of fun to keep going. A lot of these items were ones I was glad to get but wouldn't have wanted to pay for, especially the 80s stuff, so it was a perfect way for me to acquire them to fill in some gaps. And here's to our next deal, whenever that is!

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.

2023 trade package #2: a Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts

Jon of a Penny Sleeve For Your Thoughts was the sender of my second trade package of 2023, and I'd say the contents are worth coining the phrase "small things come in good packages." Check out all the cool stuff, some of which is of diminutive stature, in this envelope:

I teased the tiny stuff but I'm starting with standard sized cards. Gwynn is a Refractory Chrome insert from 2019. Mr. Tiger's shiny parallel was inserted into Topps' solid 2011 Lineage product. His longtime teammate Mickey Lolich's item in spot #3 is from 2001 Topps Archives Reserve, a beautiful Chrome Refractor version of the excellent base set.

Below those are a pair of 2014 Panini Golden Age sticker cards, each with four players. The first is awesome since it includes Kaline and another '68 teammate, Willie Horton, who's gotten a bit of love in some of these throwback sets (plus the excellent Catfish Hunter and Yaz). The big draw for me on the second is Michigan Heisman-winner Tom Harmon, but Detroit boxer Joe Louis is a huge plus. Naturally I'm happy to see The Man as the third subject, and the youngest DiMaggio is no slouch either. Ty Cobb (who won a car for splitting the batting average crown with Nap Lajoie, sort of) wraps up the baseball content in the scan.

The last regular sized card in the bunch is a rookie year insert of Charles Woodson out of 1998 Skybox Premium. The reigning Heisman winner made the D'Stroyers set by obliterating offenses with his ball-hawking ways first in college, then the pros. As a reminder, he accumulated 65 INTs (with 11 leading to TDs) and forced 33 fumbles (and returned a couple of those for scores as well).

Ah yes, the much-hyped small stuff! Let's start with a nice stack of Minis. The first three are 1999 Pacific Private Stock PS-206 cards featuring PC guys Tony Gwynn, Greg Maddux, and Dean Palmer. Yes, that's a funny combination, but I have lots of player collections! These look nice though I tend to think of the 2001 set more often.

The others are from Panini Golden Age products. Gehringer is from 2012 and is the Red Candy back. Fellow Wolverine and to a lesser degree ex-president Gerry Ford is from the 2013 set's Carolina Brights backs. Also from the UM football team we have Elroy "Crazy Legs" Hirsch and a double-dose of the previously-seen Harmon from 2014. Hirsch and the first Harmon are Hindu backs while the other Harmon is a Mono back.

And all by himself from 2014 Ginter's Black Bordered set is Sparky Anderson. It sure is fun adding stuff of him since managers don't appear on nearly as many cards as their players do, understandably. I love the image of the pensive skipper, probably wondering if he should live up to his nickname of "Captain Hook" or leave Jack Morris in.

Everything else in this scan and the next one is a sticker, and boy is there some great variety here! The first two you see, Chet Lemon and Larry Herndon, hail from 1981 Topps Stickers, and those of course are pre-Tigers items but still 100% welcome for me. Everything else with the exception of the 1983 Ripken seen in the final image is from the '82 set, and there you see Lance Parrish, Herndon again, Jack Morris, Darrell Evans, Lemon again, and Morris along with Denny Martinez/Steve McCatty/Pete Vuckovich. The rookie-year sticker of Cal is very cool, and it's one of his two appearances in that set.

And here we have the final six stickers, once again with a mostly Tigers lean broken up by another Ripken cameo, which happens to be the second '83 sticker I just mentioned. That's because these are all also from that very set. Evans makes his second Giants appearance, Herndon makes his first as a Tiger, and Dan "Peaches" Petry joins in the fun. After the Ripken we have a pair of Lance Parrishes that form a full image of the apparently disinterested subject.

This was a very fun and diverse group of new additions to my collections and I have to thank Jon for all the effort he put into identifying and sending cards I could use, especially mini and sticker types that I often don't tend to buy for myself for various reasons. I also appreciate when folks like him go the extra mile to send items of, say, Tigers players in different uniforms, and especially Wolverines of any type. So this was a fantastic second package that kept up the momentum from the first one I showed off earlier.

I'm happy to report that Jon has already been handsomely rewarded for this bounty with a fat stack of cards of some of his own player collections that I had fun rounding up on Sportlots, and I look forward to his reaction to those when he has time!

As for me, I'll likely try to recap this month's show before January is over, both because not doing so would be pretty lazy, plus the February one is right around the corner. Until then, go check out Jon at http://pennysleevethoughts.blogspot.com!

TCDB trade roundup: four trades and three PIFs!

It's New Year's Eve Eve and this will probably be my final post of 2022 unless I'm feeling especially celebratory tomorrow for events related to the gridiron and not the end of the year. I'm sending off this year in collecting with the latest batch of cards that hit my mailbox thanks to TCDB. That amounts to four trades plus three PIFs (pay it forwards), the latter of which were perfectly timed with the season of giving.

Here's how those transactions went:

Deal #1 was my first with Bo of Baseball Cards Come to Life, though it was through his TCDB ID of borosny that we were able to connect for this swap. He matched me for nearly 20 cards on my wantlist--man, does using that site ever make trading easier!--and I came up with more than 42 cards for him off his baseball set wants on his site. Those came from '95 and '96 Score plus '96 Donruss and Leaf. Here's what I got in return:

As I often do when it comes to trades there I picked out a wide variety of items to hit my many collections. You'll see '84 Tigers like Bergman and Brookens again in this post. Three more Grandersons add nicely to my quest for "too many." Ex-closer Mike Henneman pops up twice in this deal (see the next scan). AJax is another ex-Tiger I've come to appreciate in the years since he's been gone. Matheny and Hal Morris are two of the four Michigan alumni to be found here, and that Morris minors card is pretty cool.

HOFer Jack joins the Morris and '84 Tigers parties with an early 90s duo. Former Wolverine Leon Roberts indeed managed Detroit's AAA squad, the Toledo Mud Hens, at one point. The Maddux/Ward/Cora trio completed or nearly finished their three respective sets--'94 Ultra Series II, '95 Donruss Series I, and '96 Donruss. And lastly we have a fun trio of late 80s Topps Stickers Super Star Backs. Barry's from the '89 set while Tram and Lou are rightfully seen together out of the previous year's product.

Bo was awesome to work with and I look forward to making more deals with him, plus I'll continue to follow his excellent blog.

Next up is a smaller deal with bravefan1, my third with him since I joined the community. Naturally I gave up a few Braves cards, including a couple low-end autos, and in addition to a solid relic I'll be including in a belated Christmas package, I nabbed these three for myself:

These three are right up my alley! First up is a 2004 Absolute Memorabilia base of Tigers HOFer George Kell. It offers a beautiful, shiny rainbow foil design and is numbered (/1349) so it's right in my wheelhouse. Mad Dog's 2000 UD Faces of the Game Insert isn't quite from the 90s but it's close enough, and this is another one of those chase sets I fondly remember from back when it was actually fun and affordable to open boxes. Finally, I managed to sneak in a 2022 Topps Gallery RC of #1 overall pick Spencer Torkelson, who hopefully got his sophomore slump out of the way with his tough freshman campaign. That's my first RC of his, and I look forward to seeing how he bounces back in '23 on what will mostly otherwise be a pretty uninteresting tanking squad.

Next, I made more headway on a couple set chases plus scored a nice PC pair in a deal with Mat9975. In return for a quartet of 1996 baseball base and a pair of '06 Bowman football RCs, I got these:

How sweet is that Barry Larkin '94 SP Holoview FX card? Upper Deck had already shown some hints of what they could do with holograms in previous years, but they really upped their game on this insert, that's for sure! The Long Ball Leaders card of PC guy Dean Palmer produced the same year by Donruss also looks very cool. I'm so grateful we didn't have to suffer through a Topps monopoly and instead got the greatest decade in card creativity in the 90s.

The two set wants I grabbed are from the same year, oddly enough. Larry Walker's Finest card puts another small dent in that one, and I'm down to just 17 that I need. And between the Kieschnick and the Maddux from above, my second set of '94 Ultra Series II that I was building after my Facebook collection purchase should now be done. Once I verify that I'll be happy to make it available for trade!

The last of my trades before we get to the PIFs came from pdmkam. He made a proposal aiming for 13 of my '95 Donruss baseball dupes, and after a quick counter from me, we had a deal. Here are the nine cards I ended up with:

I told you you'd see more '84 Tigers! There could have been even more in this transaction but I swapped a few of them out for a couple of the newer items you see above. The late Bergman appears on '82 and '84 Donruss cards when he had yet to be flipped to Detroit. Brookens joins him in the latter set that came out the same year the Tigers last won the Series, as does the Big Wheel, Lance Parrish, who also gets his '83 card from that manufacturer added to the pile. HOFer Ted Simmons joins the 80s party with his '81 Topps appearance.

As for the "newer" cards I referenced, those came in the form of Mr. Tiger's '84 Topps Archives reprint of his '54 RC, plus my latest Rich Hill add, his '22 Topps Update base. It took Topps until Update to include Hill despite the fact that he re-joined the Sox before 2021 even concluded, but that's Topps for you. How long will I need to wait for my first card of Dick Mountain with the Pirates?

I mentioned that I ended up with nine cards and this fun oddball of the Bird from Upper Deck's 1993 All-Time Heroes product was the last. UD did a great job picking images for the main panel and the left side, I must say. According to TCDB I just need Ty Cobb's solo appearance (#32) and one he shares with Honus Wagner (#145) to finish up the team set!

All of these deals went off without a hitch and marked the end of a great year on the site, which I'll briefly recap in a minute. But first, here's a quick look at the three PIFs that came my way in December:

#1 was from Bo who I guess appreciated the fact that I threw in a few extra Yankees when I sent his envelope. Back my way came this six pack:

Gwynn, Maddux, Ripken, and a (former) Tiger PC guy too? Yes please! All of these were on my wantlist and it was fun looking though them when the PWE showed up. The two food issues bookending everything are great, and I've always been a fan of the Triple Play and Score products representing Gwynn as well. Thanks again, Bo!

Next, Colorado native Jim, a.k.a. budler, went on his own Secret Santa spree, as evidenced by the many thank yous he received in the "Pay it forward" thread. I happened to be one of his lucky targets and enjoyed seeing these two:

There's that trademark Gwynn hairstyle from the late 80s! Once again, both of these were needs, and I appreciate Jim's Christmastime generosity.

Finally, while trying to PIF another member, one of my site buddies was able to get their address from Joe, a.k.a. ymmat, so to show my appreciation I sent Joe a bit of baseball set help from my dupes. Not long after he returned the favor with these:

Yeah, it was a Holly Padre Christmas in this three-pack of PIFs, and I'm absolutely fine with that! It was great adding so many new Gwynn cards to my collection, enough to get me over the 800 mark, as it turns out. Once again all of these were new to me as they came straight from my wantlist, including the oddball playing cards and Gold Topps Micro. My favorite by far, though, is the '97 Topps Hobby Masters insert. 1997 was the first year of what I consider modern Topps' best five-year run in terms of base design plus inserts after years of being very blah. That's a fantastic looking chase card of Mr. Padre and I'm happy to add it to his collection with everything else you see above.

Based on how much I talked about the site this year and all the trade recaps I did, you'd probably assume I had a great year on TCDB, and you'd be correct! Between 2019 and last year I'd completed only 18 total transactions there. Things got a bit better for me this year when I put more effort in:

Yep, I finished up 76 formal deals to go with a nice number of PIFs back and forth. I even managed to shed a net 10 cards, not including those that didn't get captured in the count due to PIFs or unofficial trades. Now that I'm approaching 100 completed transactions I'm looking forward to boosting that number even more in 2023!

Thank you again to all the members I traded with this year who made TCDB a site I'm happy to spend lots of time on. I'll be back better than ever in January.