2019 Sportlots purchases: They Call Me. MISTER Tiger

The subject of today's series finale needs no introduction, but here's one anyway:

A Baltimore native who'll be turning 85 in just a few weeks, he's spent his entire career in Detroit.  This OF won the AL batting crown in just his second full season and piled up 3007 hits over 22 years.  One of just four Tigers to smash 300+ homers with the franchise, he owns the team lead with 399.  He went to 18 All-Star games, won 10 Gold Gloves, and was worth 92.8 bWAR, with a JAWS score that places him 7th among RFs.  In the seven-game 1968 World Series triumph over St. Louis he hit .379 with 2 HR and 8 RBI.  And finally, he took his rightful place in Cooperstown in 1980.

So who else could it be but Mr. Tiger, Al Kaline?  Al's one of the most recognizable Tigers and has appeared on a ton of cardboard in his lifetime, which gives collectors like me lots of options.  This purchase took one of my rich Tigers PCs and made it richer in a big way.

Please enjoy six scans worth of Mr. Tiger!

'83 Donruss HOF Heroes is as old as it gets today, but there's nothing wrong with a card made the year I was born, highlighting a guy who'd just joined the Hall three years earlier.  '86 Sportflics Decades Greats is back one last time here with the "Best '60s Outfielders" including Kaline, Tony Oliva, and Billy Williams--nice choices!  Four more sets also return:  '88 Pacific Legends, '92 Action Packed ASG, '93 Ted Williams, and '94 UD All-Time Heroes.  The 3000 Hit Club member is a natural choice for 2000 UD Hitter's Club's Why3K? subset.  And we get a couple great looks at Al's stance in 2001's SP Legendary Cuts and Topps American Pie.

Speaking of 2001, how about a pair from Upper Deck Decade 70s, a design that I consider superior to American Pie (though Retro is probably my favorite of the three).  2002 brings a flawless Diamond Kings design, plus Fleer Fall Classics, SP Legendary Cuts, and one of my favorite Sweet Spot Classics looks.  Then we get to 2003 with two of three variants of Al's Bowman Heritage card you'll see today.  The base is on the left while the other is the "knothole" version.  Also from that year is Donruss' Team Heroes, a product that was kind of fun but somewhat forgettable in its three-year run.

All right, who here likes black & white photography?  There's plenty of it here in the form of some sweet vintage shots of a young Kaline on some classic designs.  We continue 2003 with Fleer's Rookies & Greats, a nice enough looking set that probably wasn't necessary given the plethora of choices at the time; SP Legendary Cuts in one of its best versions; and the gorgeous Topps Gallery HOF, which is a variation that includes stripes on his jersey.  2004's contributions include a stellar Greats of the Game design (with a classic pose) and a solid offering from SP Legendary Cuts.  After those, 2005 gets into a few more products that look nice but were a little excessive:  while Sweet Spot Classics was usually worthwhile, Donruss Greats, Topps Turkey Red (as a standalone product, not the insert), and Upper Deck's All-Star Classics were a bit much.

Card #1 here, 2005's Upper Deck Classics (not to be confused with the above All-Star Classics), kind of falls in that decent-but-unnecessary club from above, but at least Al's card #1!  I still have plenty of appreciation for SP Legendary Cuts, of course, including the 2007 version above.  A somewhat austere 2008 Donruss Threads base ends that decade, and then we're finally on to this one.  The middle is a Topps trio including 2010 flagship's Cards Your Mom Threw Out (the regular back), which is a reprint of Al's RC I wish I owned; a National Chicle base, also from 2010; and a second consecutive flagship reprint insert, 2011's 60 Years of Topps (reprint of his '66 base).  The bottom three are a bit more in my wheelhouse:  a 2012 Panini trio of Cooperstown, Golden Age, and Prizm.

Here's where we end the run of vertical cards, starting with another Panini pair:  2013 Golden Age and 2014 Classics.  The former is too similar to Gypsy Queen for my tastes but the price was right to add it to a collection I've been wanting to grow.  Next is another card #1 in a set, Leaf's 2015 Heroes of Baseball, a product sold in blasters that guaranteed some pretty controversial Stan Musial autos.  The bottom gets us back to some classic products with 2015 Topps Archives, 2017 Diamond Kings' Heritage Collection insert, and finally, a towering Kaline adorning his 2019 Stadium Club appearance.  Once in a while it's fun to see old greats like Mr. Tiger in Stadium Club, though given how great the product was without them in the 90s I don't think it needs to be a yearly thing.

Let's end a post chock full of fun cardboard with five horizontal issues.  Up first is Al's second appearance from 1994 Upper Deck All-Time Heroes, a set we also covered when I posted some Mark Fidrych cards.  It looks terrific and I may see about chasing the rest of the Tigers that can be found.  Second is the dual image variation of Al from 2003 Bowman Heritage, the third and final piece of that puzzle.  Speaking of that product, how about the 2004 version, which reprinted Kaline's '55 Bowman card in all its vintage TV glory?  Heading back to modern looks there's 2005 Donruss Champions, a design that left a lot of room for relics and stickers.  And last up is one final SP Legendary Cuts appearance, this one also from 2005, on a design that wouldn't look out of place in Cooperstown.

This huge haul destroyed the century mark milestone for Kaline in my collection, jumping him all the way to 136 items.  That's a healthy total that I'm excited to build on, be it more affordable stuff from Sportlots or maybe some nicer pieces down the line.

I hope you all enjoyed this look at a ton of Kaline cardboard, not to mention this series as a whole.  These Sportlots purchases tend to take me a while to scan and post but I really like how productive they are for my collections, and maybe they give a few of you some ideas of what you might chase there.

With this series all done I temporarily find myself lacking any new in-hand purchases but I expect that to change very soon with a show this coming weekend and a bunch of quality COMC loot soon to be on its way, a lot of which could be heading to readers like you.  Happy December to all, and get ready for Christmas cards from TMV!

2019 Sportlots purchases: the Core of the Roar in '84

It's been more than 35 years since the '84 Tigers went wire to wire and won it all, and while I was still in diapers when that happened, I love that team and many of its players to this day.  That made me think of a fun way to show off another group of Sportlots pickups featuring some of my favorite Tigers PCs.

No, I didn't grab these from Sportlots--they've all been in my collection for years.  But a great way to kick things off today is to point out how successful some of Detroit's drafts were in the 70s, with choices that gave the Tigers many of the key players that starred for them the following decade.  1978 Topps just happens to have highlighted most of these guys on its multiplayer prospect cards!  Let's take a quick look at some of those drafts before we get to the cards:

1974:  Detroit takes future catcher and slugger Lance Parrish at #16 overall.  Lance hit more than 200 homers for the Tigers and made six All-Star teams before leaving as a free agent.  In '84 he posted a career-best 33 homers, won  Gold Glove and Silver Slugger awards, and chipped in two homers and five RBI in the postseason.  By the way, the 10th round of this draft saw the Tigers select a high school pitcher named Mark Fidrych.

1975:  OF Jason Thompson was Detroit's 4th-rounder and he went on to a decent career, though he was gone before '84.  A guy who did stick around, for 19 seasons, was 2B Lou Whitaker, selected one round later.  The should-be HOFer formed an iconic double play pairing with SS Alan Trammell, won the 1978 AL ROY, and was an All-Star from 1983-87.  In 1984 he matched Parrish's feat, winning his second Gold Glove and Silver Slugger, and in the playoffs he accounted for nine runs, six of them in the World Series, serving as a reliable table-setter.

1976:  Detroit's most successful draft included a second round SS from San Diego named Alan Trammell, whose 20 years in Detroit were finally recognized by HOF voters.  Six All-Star appearances, four Gold Gloves, three Silver Sluggers, and the left half of one of the best double play pairs of all time will do that.  So will posting one of your career best regular seasons before going off in the playoffs for 13 hits, 3 HR, 7 R, and 9 RBI on your way to being named MVP of the World Series.

A couple rounds later the Tigers selected another high school pitcher from California, righty Dan Petry, who'd be a reliable part of the '84 rotation along with the ace they took next, BYU righty Jack Morris.  Morris won nearly 200 games for Detroit, and in 1984 he went off for 19 victories, including a memorable no-hitter, then won all three of his postseason starts, including two complete games in the main event.  He padded his HOF resume with rings in '91 and '92, with the former being considered one of the greatest performances in the history of the game.

Oh yeah, and two rounds later Detroit selected another SS (its third of four in eight rounds) out of Cal-Poly named Ozzie Smith.  He wouldn't sign and was instead chosen by the Padres in the fourth round the next year.  I wonder whatever happened to him?

1978:  The final piece of the puzzle wasn't pictured with the guys above because he was drafted the same year those cards were made.  Detroit used the 12th overall pick this year on Michigan State baseball/football star Kirk Gibson, and he rewarded the team with some outstanding play in the mid-80s, with 1984 the start of a nice five-year run that culminated in one of the greatest World Series homers ever.  But first he would be named MVP of the '84 ALCS against the Royals, then pop a pair of long balls ("He don't wanna walk you!  He don't wanna walk you!") in the game 5 clincher.

So as you can see, four drafts in a five year span in the 70s were the key to Detroit winning it all 35 years ago.  Now let's look at some new cards of that talented core:

These three players only had one or two cards each so we'll get to them first.  Both Gibby items are of him as a Dodger, but that's cool given how iconic his '88 game 1 homer was.  Up top is the gorgeous 2002 Topps Tribute (a base card, if you can believe it) while a 2002 Fleer Fall Classics insert called Series of Champions sits below.  I definitely need more of the older Topps Tribute in my life.

I repeated the vertical/horizontal pairing with Tram.  Both hail from 2005 Donruss brands with the top being a Donruss Greats Souvenirs insert and the bottom being the first of his two base appearances in Donruss Champions (#204).  I'm not sure why they made non-relic versions of the Souvenirs card since the name makes less sense without one, but whatever.

Sweet Lou is one of my supercollections, so I was glad to notice at some point that his 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats appearance wasn't on my checklist.

I was able to fix that and pick up the card, which he shares with Cal Ripken Jr. and Robin Yount in the infielders group of "Best of the '80s."  What a fun set!  A smiling Yount is the easiest to see in my scan but you can also make out Lou in the field, but not a sleepy Cal in the dugout.

While those three guys have player collections and albums here, I haven't done the same for the other two because I don't chase them as much, so it was easier tracking down new stuff I was interested in.  One of those players was Morris, whom I managed to get over the century mark (107 cards) thanks to this purchase.

You know I love me some Sportflics--I think I scored 12 total this time--so I was thrilled to find four cards starring Jack:  two from '86 and one each from the following two years.  Nolan Ryan graces the second card which highlights three players with no-hitters:  Morris' from '84, Ryan's four up to that point, and Dave Righetti's from 1983.

With the stuff made during his career out of the way the rest are a nice mix of sets that focus on or include retired players:  2001 Topps American Pie, 2003 and 2004 Donruss Team Heroes, 2004 Absolute Memorabilia (the rainbow foil hobby version, numbered to 1349), and 2004 Fleer Greats of the Game.  Go ahead, pick your favorite Fleer Greats/Greats of the Game design, there's no wrong answer!

The rest of the Morris stuff includes four cards from 2005 Diamond Kings:  base, Black and White parallel, Gallery of Stars, and Heritage Collection.  Like Fleer Greats you'd be hard pressed to find a bad DK design!  Speaking of Greats, I found Morris' card from my favorite version--the 2000 product that was the first "Fleer Greats of the Game" after the name was used in a Sports Illustrated set in '99.  The last base card is the only one today of Jack with a different team, 2005 UD Classics.  And the other two you see here are from Panini's 2013 Pinnacle Awaiting the Call insert--regular and Die-Cut--which I appreciate more now that Morris and Tram are no longer "awaiting" anything!

Last up today is Parrish, whose five new cards are a mix of big and small.  On the larger end are Donruss Action All-Stars jumbos from 1983 and '85, skirting the year I'm highlighting today.  Then again, they present stats from the previous year and earlier, so it ends up working out quite nicely.  Lance made the AL All-Star team in 1980 and '82-'86, and in '84 he joined Whitaker, Chet Lemon, Tram, Morris, and Guillermo Hernandez in repping the Tigers.

The other trio brings back Sportflics one more time, one from 1986 and two that were made the following year.  The second from the latter is a "Best in Baseball" subset offering that highlights catchers in the AL, which also includes Don Slaught (with the Rangers at the time, though I remember him more with the Pirates) and the Red Sox's Rich Gedman.  I could have added one or two more Sportflics cards of Parrish but stuck with the ones of him as a Tiger, at least for now.

That's it for the '84 Tigers this time, but I still have four more posts left that'll celebrate some more Tigers favorites!

2019 Sportlots purchases: Thanking Hank Thursday

As promised in my last post, today's is much more manageable at just 19 cards of a single player, a guy who certainly deserves his own post.  That would be one Henry Benjamin Greenberg.

The "Hebrew Hammer" and original "Hammerin' Hank" (though Mr. Aaron rightfully gets that nickname now), Greenberg plied his trade in Detroit for "12" of his "13" Major League seasons.  Quotation marks are definitely required here as he got all of 1 AB in 1930, and that season plus 1936, '41, and '45 added up to a measly 110 games split between four seasons.

But when he was on, boy was he on!  He piled up 150 or more RBI three times in his career, socked 58 homers in 1938--and piled up 331 dingers in just 1394 games--won MVPs in '35 and '40, and helped bring Motown its first two World Series titled in '35 and '45.  Oh yeah, and he missed large chunks or the entirety of 1941-45 due to military service.  Yeah, I'd say he was Hall-worthy.

Here's the nice selection of his cards I found on Sportlots to add to my small collection of one of the team's all-time greats:

Here's a mix of the usual suspects you've seen so far plus some new ones, some of which may pop up again in this series.  Hank was indeed an honorary captain for the '84 All-Star Game, played a couple years before his death, and that was a good sign for the team that went on to win it all that year.  Sportflics Decades Greats is back and Greenberg's run in the 30s is honored here.  You'll see a few more from Pacific Legends soon and maybe the raised surface of Action Packed a bit more, plus the always fun Conlon, besides what you see here.

Card #6 in this scan, honoring Hank's military service (one of two of those today) is from UD's Baseball:  the American Epic set made in '94.  Then there's a trio that's a sight for my sore eyes:  the comfortingly familiar 2002 Greats of the Game and Sweet Spot Classics and '03 Flair Greats.  I sure wish we still had products that looked like these, but at least I can enjoy going back and chasing what does exist, especially as it builds up some of my Tigers collections.

Round 2 brings a few more familiar looks:  2003 Fleer Fall Classics--a great reminder that Greenberg played in four World Series--plus 2004 SP Legendary Cuts and Sweet Spot Classics, with different designs using the same photo.  The newcomers here start with a 2003 Topps Record Breakers insert that highlights that 58-bomb campaign in '38, making him one of just nine players to reach that mark.  Also from 2003 is an Upper Deck Play Ball 1941 Reprint, which is probably as close as I'll ever get to owning the original.  And then there's one last vintage/modern mashup:  a 2010 Triple Threads base that has a newer design but a super cool old-school photo of the legend.

These last four hail from Panini brands so some of you have probably gone off to read something else, but for those have stayed, check out some pretty cool stuff!  Up first is another card that gives due credit to Hank's military service:  2012 Cooperstown With Honors.  The back does a great job of explaining just how much of his career he gave up for his country:

A rare non-player card is next in the form of a 2013 Cooperstown Museum Pieces insert.  Panini did a great job of showcasing some of the Hall's most interesting artifacts, such as Hank's 300th home run ball.  Given a fuller career of something like 15-18 full seasons, he likely would have been a member of the 500 club.  A pair of 2014 Classics cards capture that:  the base plus an insert called, yep, Home Run Heroes.  The back of the latter notes that Hank was just the fourth player to get to 58 round-trippers, and he still leads the franchise 80+ years later, with Cecil Fielder's 51 in 1990 (hit over the course of four extra games) getting the closest.

I hope you all enjoyed some cardboard of another Tigers legend.  I have a few more players to feature here and would love to get them all done in plenty of time to show off what's sure to be lots of COMC Black Friday/Cyber Monday loot when it arrives next month.

2019 Sportlots purchases: Happy Halloween from Prince Hal!

Happy Halloween, everybody!  In the spirit of the holiday--no tricks, just treats--I thought I'd show off some cards of a scary good former Tigers pitcher:  Hal BOOhouser!  ::spooky Halloween laugh::

Newhouser spent 15 of his 17 MLB seasons with Detroit, winning exactly 200 games and the 1944 and '45 AL MVP awards on his way to the Hall.  From 1944-50 he averaged 22 wins, and in '45 he led the Tigers to a seven-game World Series victory over the Cubs, just the franchise's second, with a 2-1 record, including the pivotal game 7 decision.

Hal hasn't been a big part of my Tigers collection to this point but I'd be happy to change that with purchases like this one, which added a season-appropriate 13 new cards to his PC!  Check 'em out here:

Well hey there, bunch of brands that I like!  80s Sportflics is a great place to start, in this case 1986 Sportflics Decade Greats, the card you see in its full animated glory up top.  I already mentioned some of Hal's best stats above so by now you should understand why he's part of the group "Best of the 40s."  Don't be surprised to be seeing a bunch of old friends throughout this series like the rest of the sets represented here.  From 2003 we have Flair Greats, Fleer Fall Classics, SP Legendary Cuts, and Sweet Spot Classics, while SPLC comes back for '04.  Everything looks great and I'm happy to have Newhouser as one of the Tigers I can collect among these great designs.

Some backs, because why not scan them when there's only 13 cards to show off today.  Wait, I did some extra work?  Spooky!

Moving on to somewhat more recent sets, but keeping things classy and vintage, we get one more SP Legendary Cuts appearance, this one from 2007, and then there's a fun 2012 Panini pair:  Golden Age and the horizontal Cooperstown.  The latter is a great use of the X-axis design!  The middle row takes us into 2013 with Panini Cooperstown once again, then an SP from A&G.  The Topps card stars a cool look at an old Detroit uni, and I don't think I even paid a premium for the short-printed issue.  Lastly, I came up with a pair of Topps Archives base offerings from 2016 and '18, each on a classic Topps design.

More backs, for those of you that care about that kind of thing.

The lucky 13 cards above give me a new total of 25 Newhousers, a pretty solid number.  You won't see me booing the chance for adding more as soon as I can, either.

I hope everyone has a great Halloween!  Hopefully I'll be back tomorrow with something extra special that I've been keeping under wraps for a while.

2018 Sportlots purchases: Tons of Tony

It's time for the penultimate post in this Sportlots series and today I'm #gwynning.  It's all Mr. Padre today for you Tony Gwynn fans, so enjoy some cardboard (and other material) spanning 1986-2017!

This is a scan only a certain tertiary adjunct of unimatrix 01 could appreciate /VOYAGER'd.  Yep, seven of nine cards you see here are Sportflics, with #s 1, 2, 6, and 9 representing solo shots hailing from 1986, '87, '88, and '94, respectively.  #2 and 3 are from '87 and include Dave Parker and Kevin Bass (best NL RF) and Wade Boggs/George Brett/Hubie Brooks/Tim Raines/Ryne Sandberg ("The Players Poll").  The Padres card is also from '87, in this case a Team Preview set, and that one co-stars 11 other players, three in each corner.  '93 cards from SP and Studio round out this group.  By the way, the back of the SP card helpfully states, "Gwynn confused onlookers by donning Padres pitcher Scott Sanders' jersey for a spring training game."

Another Studio base is the second and final '94 representative, then 1995 kicks off with a Leaf Limited trio that includes the Bat Patrol insert plus a Gold parallel, which actually uses a different photo.  After a Score parallel (one of a couple you'll see today) is an Upper Deck trio comprising SP and both of Tony's SP Championship bases.  For as many of my PC guys that are in the latter I'm probably a decent way towards completing it!  One of Gwynn's Stadium Club subset issues ends this scan.

A base card from the solid '95 UD design is the end of that year's stuff, then 1996 starts out with the excellent fourth-year version of Finest, another Score parallel, and one of my favorite Studio designs of all time.  You really couldn't go wrong from '96 on, in my opinion.  After that is a nice Topps trio of the Classic Confrontations insert, Gallery, and Laser.  The Laser experiment didn't work, but kudos to Topps for trying something different--and at least Gallery didn't get tossed into the cardboard scrap heap!  And in case you're curious, the insert covers Gwynn's stats against "aces" like John Smoltz (.468 AVG, 2 each of 2B/3B/HR, 9 RBI) and John Smiley (.200 AVG).  Then we get a look at the first two of a trio of base cards from one of my favorite UD flagship sets I don't own (with '97 being the other).  The "Young at Heart" subset is especially fun.

Tony's regular base appearance--and a supremely cool one at that--is the last of the '96 items, and then we get a brief look at 1997.  I remember first seeing Bowman Chrome's debut at a mall show and still like the design today.  That year's Studio look is another winner as is the second year of Topps Gallery.  And there's an example of the greatness of '97 UD and its cool commemorative stamps, plus the fun die-cut Star Attractions insert.

Moving on to '98, Bowman Chrome still featured a pretty nice look, plus I grabbed the base product's International parallel with it.  And one of that year's highlights was the mind-bending E-X2001 design, half of which was a weird foil pattern with the rest being acetate, all on a super thick card!

This is a fun scan that begins and ends with the same brand.  The '98 version of Fleer's Flair Showcase (Row 3) leads off, and that's followed by a couple more cards from that manufacturer's partnership with Sports Illustrated.  '98 closes with a stunning SP Authentic base plus excellent cards from Topps Gallery and Gold Label (Class 1).  A little 1999 run includes Bowman's Best plus returning brands Finest and Showcase.  As usual with some of these Finest cards I'm often torn between peeling them and leaving them, with the best option probably getting a second copy to peel!

There's plenty more of my favorite brands to see here including more of Sports Illustrated, Topps Gallery, and Topps Gold Label.  Each of those had a design I liked at least to some degree every time they were produced.  They're joined by two final 1999 UD offerings:  another top set for me in Century Legends plus Ultimate Victory.

Then the entirety of my 2000 haul was mostly a Topps affair with a Pacific base interrupting a run of Finest, Gallery, and HD.  The Gallery card is the fifth of Gwynn's five-card run from '96-2000, and I'm fortunate to own his 2003 card as well.  HD was also a very, very nice looking product though definitely not worth the high wax price.

Bowman Chrome and Donruss Classics make a nice pair of cards to open up a multi-scan run on 2001 that then goes into a Fleerstravaganza of brands from that year:  E-X, Focus, Genuine, Premium, and Showcase, with Focus and Showcase owning the best designs in my opinion.  Mid-end products Leaf Limited and SP Authentic are a nice way to close out the scan but we're not quite done with 2001 yet...

...because first we need to cover cards from another of Studio's best designs plus a very nice look for Ultra.  It's possible '96 is my favorite overall Studio base design but this one is very high on the list as well.

At this point we start getting into cards produced after Gwynn retired so there's a bit more jumping around.  2002 is represented by an Ultra design I don't care for quite as much paired with a great photo, plus a base from one of UD's cooler one-and-dones, World Series Heroes.  After that we get lots of appearances in sets that tend to focus on retired legends:  '03 Sweet Spot Classics, '04 Greats of the Game and SP Legendary Cuts, and '05 Leaf Century and UD Past Time Pennants.  I've always been partial to the Sweet Spot and Legendary Cuts brands but for my money nothing tops the base offerings from Greats of the Game.  As you can see Fleer was on top of their game with this framed design and vintage photo!

One last card, UD's Sweet Spot Classic, fits in well with the stuff above, then we jump into the current decade with four Panini items and one from Topps.  2015 Archives is the example of the latter while the former is responsible for 2012 Cooperstown, 2015 Diamond Kings, 2017 Diamond Kings' DK Originals insert, and Donruss flagship from the same year.  The recent iterations of DK prove that the brand doesn't have to be low-end just because they lack the MLB license, and I continually appreciate that they offer some solid alternatives to Topps' mailed-in efforts of late.

Here's one more scan that starts and ends with the same brand, this time in horizontal form!  The first column is all Stadium Club with cards from '92 Dome, '96, and 2015.  The other two hail from 1995 Leaf's Checklists insert and Sports Illustrated's World Series Fever set from 1998.

And still we're not quite done yet because there's one oddball item left to look at:

As in the Griffey post last week I have another Collect-a-Books to show off!  This is the 1990 version, and of course it's worth seeing all it has to offer:

As you can see this purchase treated Gwynn's collection very nicely, adding more than 80 new items to give him a milestone-breaking total of 567, good enough for fourth place behind Ripken, Griffey, and Larkin...at least for now!  One player remains in this series and it's the one who got the most cards added to his collection.  The big finish will be posted soon, and have you figured out who it is?  Stay tuned!

2018 Sportlots purchases: my Cal Sunday

I'm back with more Sportlots content and since I already showed off a big pile of additions of a certain NY Giants WR over on TMM this evening I thought I'd pick a player for here that came with fewer scans (and therefore less work!).  Don't worry that you'll feel cheated though, since that player is Cal Ripken Jr.:

We open on 1986 and Cal's fifth full season (sixth overall).  Because of my love for hologram cards I picked up three that include Ripken from that year's debut of Sportflics, with each card showing off its technology by including two other players.  Card #1's theme, according to the back, is "American League MVPs", and it includes Don Baylor (1979) and Reggie Jackson (1973), with Mr. October featured prominently in the scan; Ripken was the '83 AL MVP, of course.  The second is a trio of '85 Orioles teammates that were all Rookies of the Year, and Cal's 1982 award was preceded by Fred Lynn in '75 and Eddie Murray in '77.  Last up is "Run Scorers", touting Willie Wilson (133 in 1980), Paul Molitor (136, 1982) and Ripken (121, 1983) as leaders in that category.

Card #4 hails from the following year's product but this time Ripken gets solo billing.  That's followed by a group of cards that includes Stadium Club issues from the 1991 debut (Members Only) through '93, with Upper Deck's 1993 SP debut mixed in as well.  Sportflics' temporary return in '94 after a three-year layoff closes this scan...

...but Ripken's "Starflics" subset card from the same set opens this one.  Pinnacle somewhat rebooted the brand the following year as Sportflix, though that too was short-lived.  That wasn't the case for Donruss' Studio, which would enjoy a few more appearances after the "locker" set of 1994.

From there we get a good look at three different 1995 products.  I managed to dig up three more of Cal's cards from Flair's Ripken-centric insert, leaving me chasing numbers 1, 3, 5, and 8.  The family shot in the second example is pretty cool, no?

Next I have all three of the Iron Man's base cards in Upper Deck's SP Championship, a set that ran during the '95 season only.  I already had the die-cut versions of the first and third card you see there, so one more of those plus a special 2131-themed insert stand between me and completion.

Closing this scan is card #1 in Stadium Club's 1995 product, a great shot of the Orioles legend doffing his cap during a legendary season.  Speaking of that set...

...this scan leads off with his second of four appearances in that iteration, the fun "Best Seat in the House" subset.  That's not it for the brand here, either, as the subsequent card hails from 1996 and the sixth in this group from the excellent 2000 offering.  Before we get there we have a nice trio from the improved second year of Topps Gallery, a personal favorite in Sports Illustrated (1999), and a sliding Cal from '99's Ultra.

The final trio keeps on moving forward starting with Upper Deck's higher end parallel version of its value brand Victory, 2000's Ultimate Victory.  Nice choice on the blue borders, UD!  That's followed by a base from the second and final version of Fleer's Fall Classics, made in 1993.  Personally I think the design took a step back with those weird green (or whatever) borders.  A 2006 A&G base that I think was a throw-in from a seller who took a long time to ship finishes up this group.

This scan combines the remaining vertical cards with a trio of horizontals.  The former portion starts with 2007 SP Legendary Cuts, and while that particular design isn't one of my favorites it remains a brand I'll always chase.  I then knocked off another 2007 Ultra Iron Man insert at a very cheap price, though I have lots more of those to nab (please check out my wantlist here!).  Base cards from 2016 Topps Archives and 2017 Donruss (another throw-in, I think) close out that group.

The horizontals are led by a 1986 Fleer base you already saw in the Trammell post from this series, and I'm happy to show it again given that they're now HOF SS colleagues.  Next is a "Cause & Effect" subset card that's the third example of 1995 Stadium Club in this post, and you'll be happy to know I already had the "Extreme Corps" subset issue to complete the quartet.  And we'll end the post with a surprisingly nice insert from Upper Deck's low-end '97 Collector's Choice called Big Shots.  It's a great look at the legend waiting on-deck at Camden Yards.

With these additions I now get to celebrate another milestone down as Cal's the first of my baseball PCs to hit the 800-card mark (832, to be specific).  Again that's 100x his jersey number and more than 100 better than the runner-up, Barry Larkin.  I look forward to Ripken (or anyone else, honestly) to be the first to eclipse 1000.

Stay tuned for more quality Sportlots content soon!

2018 Sportlots purchases: Hall of Tram

Credit:  Detroit Free Press

Like all Tigers fans I was thrilled for Jack Morris and Alan Trammell as they joined four other very deserving players in entering the Hall of Fame this afternoon.  To celebrate Tram's admission here's a look at the 13 cards I added to his collection via Sportlots this time:

We'll begin way back in 1981 with a fun Kellogg's hologram food issue.  This one has stats from the previous year when Trammell earned the first of his six All-Star nods, plus it looks awesome.  That's followed by somewhat of a spiritual successor, 1989 Sportflics.  While the '88 season for both player and team didn't live up to the exciting 1987 run he was again an All-Star and also won a Silver Slugger Award.

The next bunch is from the latter years of Alan's career, starting with one of his two 1994 Fleer base appearances; he shares the other with double-play partner Lou Whitaker, who should have joined Trammell in Cooperstown today.  Then there's a quartet of 1995 parallels:  Score's Gold Rush, SP Championship's Die Cuts (again, one of two), Stadium Club's Virtual Reality, and Topps' Cyberstats.  The latter pair extrapolate some stats from the strike-shortened '94 campaign, coming up with 108 hits (78 in actual games), 10 homers (8), 51 RBI (28), and a .254 average (.267).

Sticking with 1995 we move on to Upper Deck's good looking if hard-to-scan Special Edition.  The back refers to Tram as "The linchpin of the Tigers offense and defense throughout the 1980s".  Got that right!  Then we have the first of three cards today that were produced after his retirement:  UD's 2002 Sweet Spot Classics.  That beautiful design does justice to a great player's career.

The second group finishes off the vertically oriented cards, moving on up to Donruss' Team Heroes product from 2005.  The back makes this one of several cards today to note Tram's 1984 World Series MVP nod, and it mentions that he was the first in franchise history to combine 150+ homers with 200+ steals.  As it turns out, Trammell is one of just five Tigers to pile up more than 200 stolen bases, and the next closest to the HR/SB feat were all PC guys:  Kirk Gibson (short by six steals), Charlie Gehringer (19), and Lou Whitaker (57).  That's good company!

Next is a 2013 Panini Product, Hometown Heroes, and its Homegrown Heroes insert.  This one actually justifies the "hometown" name somewhat as Trammell's MVP performance in the '84 Series led the Tigers over the Padres from San Diego, where he lived as a kid.  Hey, he was a hero for somebody, just not the home team San Diego hoped!

At least we get to a pair of horizontal cards.  The first--a 1986 Fleer base--was an obvious choice because it pairs Tram with the other great AL SS of the 80s, Cal Ripken Jr.  As a matter of fact the back states that they "have no challengers in the American League"!  I'd definitely agree with that assessment.

Last up today is a '96 Score Dugout Collection parallel, a card that was produced as Alan was playing his sunset season, the end to a career that saw him put up the following numbers and accomplishments:

• 1984 World Series title (MVP)
• Six All-Star selections
• Four Gold Gloves
• Three Silver Slugger awards
• .285/.352/.415 BA/OBP/SLG
• 2365 hits, 185 HR, 1003 RBI, 1231 runs, and 236 steals
• 70.7 career bWAR and 57.8 JAWS (currently 11th overall among SS)

A career Tiger who even came back to manage (if unsuccessfully), he rightfully enters the Hall today and will be further honored in August by seeing his #3 retired by the team.  Congratulations, Alan Trammell!

2017 Sportlots purchases: hey, Abbott!

I'm doing my best to take advantage of the holiday break off from work to get some card stuff done, and yes, that does include doing up at least a few posts!

Before I get to today's content I also wanted to make sure to give a shout out to Kin of I Feel Like a Collector Again for the PWE he sent me recently, the contents of which are posted on TMM this afternoon.  I'm not sure how many of you who read/follow this here blog venture over there as well so I'm at least giving you a heads up to credit Kin for his Christmastime generosity.

And now, the subject of tonight's post:  Jim Abbott.

Jim Abbott.

I had plenty of luck piling up some cards of Abbott as I was filling out my Sportlots cart, and that's no surprise since his career spanned part of the junk wax era into the 90s (remember when we still had choices of brands?), plus he was enough of a fan favorite to appear in some recent products too.

In the following scans you'll see a nice mix of base from the 80s to today, a few inserts, and plenty of oddball too!  Essentially if a seller with something in my cart had anything of Abbott for around $0.25 or under, in it went.

I hope you all enjoy this look at the history of Jim's cardboard!

This first scan starts way back in '88 when I was just five, and opens with Jim's Topps Traded base highlighting his Team USA membership.  I think that's been talked about a decent amount here (and elsewhere), but as a reminder he helped lead the US to the 1988 Olympic gold medal with baseball as a demonstration sport that year.

There's also plenty of boxed set/oddball-type stuff from Classic, Donruss, Score, and Topps, an early-ish Fleer insert, and an example from the previous incarnation of Sportflix (Sportflics in this case, and not "Sportsflics" as you see so often).  Dead center is Jim's 1990 Collect-a-Book, and I'll show that in more detail at the end of the post.

This next group is mostly mainstream stuff with base and inserts from '91 Stadium Club, and 1992 Bowman, Leaf, O-Pee-Chee Premier, and Pinnacle (a solid early insert effort), though it does include oddball stuff from Toys 'r Us/Topps and a Jimmy Dean food issue along with another boxed set item from Score.

We remain almost entirely in 1992 with this bunch, beginning with a Score boxed set card and an insert (and a very nice, if simple, one) from the same brand.  Studio's sophomore version follows, then a pair of the superfluous Topps Gold parallel along with the more interesting Gold Winner version.  An oddball-ish Topps Kids card and McDonald's/Topps pairing close out the year while another Classic Game card begins '93.

Now we stay in '93, the year I hit double-digits and Abbott started appearing on cards as a Yankee.  Again there's mostly mainstream stuff here with the exception being that second card from Duracell.  Jim's first Angels tenure ends with cards from Donruss, OPC Premier, and Topps Gold, then his New York career starts with Select, SP, Stadium Club, the Yankees Stadium Club team set, and Triple Play's Gallery of Stars, which was essentially Diamond Kings 2.0.  The trio in the middle is a nice look at how the quality of cards continued moving in the right direction.

Here we finish up with '93 and Jim's UD base plus a couple from the kid-oriented Fun Packs.  The start of 1994 includes Bowman, Collector's Choice, Donruss (Special Edition), Finest, Flair, and Leaf Limited.  I feel like Finest took a step back in its sophomore season before making a small improvement the following year and finally getting back on track in '96 (other than the protectors, which I could do without).  There's some nice pitching action shots here, and even a bonus background shot of Abbott hitting, a relative rarity before interleague play.

1994 continues with OPC, Pacific (and its old, terrible logo), a Score Gold Rush parallel, Sportflics, Stadium Club Team, and another food issue:  Tombstone Pizza.

That never gets old.  Meanwhile, 1995 opens with the second offering of Collector's Choice, that brand's probably unnecessary Special Edition (Silver Signature), and the slightly improved third year of Finest (boo protectors!).  The Collector's Choice SE card does have a great example of Pitching Face, though.

Now we get into the meat of '95, when Jim signed as a free agent with the White Sox.  That year's weird Fleer design along with Pacific's Crown Collection and Upper Deck Series I (and its Electric Diamond parallel) featured Abbott with his old team while Leaf (still one of my favorite designs of theirs), SP, Stadium Club Series II (Super Team World Series), UD Series II, and UD Special Edition depicted him with his new team.  One cool thing I noticed about this group:  no borders!

Jim returned to the Angels in a midsummer deal in '95, and all three '96 cards above--Emotion-XL, SP, and Summit (Foil parallel) capture that.  That SP design remains one of my favorites from the product's whole run.

The '99 Upper Deck Victory base in the second row hails from his final season, before which he'd signed with the Brewers.  Then we get a nice bunch of retrospective cards:  2002 Topps American Pie, 2004 UD Yankees Classics, 2005 Donruss Greats and Topps Rookie Cup, and 2013 USA Baseball Champions Highlights.  We're not quite done with his post-career cards, though.

Despite the stupidity of the Toppsopoly, at least they've thought to include him in various recent products.  The final three regular-sized vertical cards hail from 2013 Topps Gypsy Queen's No Hitters insert, 2014 Topps' Upper Class (with a great photo of a very young Jim in the old-school uni), and 2015 Topps Update's Pride and Perseverance, an actual good idea from Topps!

Then we're off to the beginning of the horizontal stuff.  Upper Deck celebrated a nice little milestone with its Fifth Anniversary insert that spruced up some of its cooler issues from the original '89 version, such as this multi-exposure that was Abbott's RC in that iconic set.  Sticking with UD but moving up a year, we have a 100% hologram card from that year's Denny's set (note that they weren't always completely holograms).  Also from '94 is a Fleer Golden Moments insert (one they'd use again, fortunately) that includes Abbott and two other pitchers:  Chris Bosio and the late Darryl Kile.  All three tossed no-hitters the previous year, though Kile's was not of the shutout variety as he allowed an unearned run on a wild pitch.

This scan finishes up the horizontal stuff, beginning with 1994 Stadium Club (the label-maker set!) and Upper Deck Electric Diamond.  1995 is represented by the pair of Flair and Studio (and its credit card design).  Three more cards for the following year:  Pinnacle's high-end (at the time) Aficionado--the set that taught us a new word for "fan"--Stadium Club, and its Silver parallel.  And finally, from 20 years later we have another example of Stadium Club, and a very nice one at that.

Last up is the stuff that came in weird sizes.  That includes Panini Stickers from 1990 and '92 (I should check to see if I have these in my albums), a 2010 TRISTAR Obak Mini, and tiny Topps Micro cards from 1991, 1992 (two of them) and '93.

And finally, here are the scans from the Collect-a-Book for those of you who were curious:

Back and front

Inside #1

Inside #2

Inside #3

I hope you all had fun poring over a crazy 92 cards of Abbott for his PC, giving me an excellent new total of 247!

I don't know who'll be up next, but stay tuned.