2021 trade package #22: Scribbled Ink

When it comes to buddy of the blog Paul at Scribbled Ink (also @scribble4me), I can paraphrase Forrest Gump: "Trade packages are like a repack box: you never know what you're gonna get. Except it won't be full of junk and disappointment." Paul tends to acquire stuff from sources that aren't really up my alley like antique and resale stores, garage sales, and the like. Maybe I would if I had better luck myself at those types of places. But I don't really need to because he has good luck himself and sends me all kinds of off-the-wall stuff to go with the usual trade fodder.

That was the case a week or two ago when I dug a large-ish BWMT out of my mailbox. Here are the contents I found after tearing that open:

I-didn't-expect-that item #1 is a foldable water bottle that was wrapping up the two smaller envelopes you see to its right. It looks like it was made around 2012 as a promotional item for Topps and it features a very cool throwback image that appears to be what the '68 Topps football packs looked like, albeit with red and blue being inverted. This is a crazy cool item that I'll keep with my oddball stuff, and I heartily thank Paul for generously spending a quarter on it to send it my way!

And then we have everything else. Almost all of the items in this image could be found in the first of the two envelopes seen above. Paul treated me to a pair of 2021 Stadium Club Griffey cards: a Stadium Club Greats insert that's a reprint of his base from the '92 product (big time nostalgia feels!) plus this year's base, which has a photo I don't think I remember seeing on one of Junior's cards before.

A Tony Gwynn Sepia parallel from the same product looks as classy as the player pictured and will be a nice addition to his collection. His fellow HOFer Barry Larkin, one of my favorite Michigan Baseball PC guys, joins him here in the form of a 2017 Topps Update SP that was on my TCDB wantlist, though not anymore! His card is the short-printed version of #US205 in the set, with the base version being another Cincy All-Star SS in Zack Cozart.

And a 2020 Topps Update base of Verlander rounds out the baseball cards. This one noted Verlander's place as MLB's active leader in strikeouts, having reached the 3000 mark, with former Tigers teammate Max Scherzer behind by around 300. Max, of course, hit the 3K milestone this year and has overtaken Verlander, who's still on the shelf. It's pretty cool that some recent Tigers rotations starred a pair of future 3K strikeout pitchers!

Sewing up the cards portion is a Tom Brady Crown Royale card from 2013 that I believe is a parallel, probably the Bronze version (base cards feature silver foil and this one, to my untrained eye, is bronze). It's a nice looking Brady and gets me one card closer to the 300 mark with under 20 to go.

If I'm remember things correctly then the pocket schedule for the AA Sea Dogs of Portland (Maine) was packaged with those cards. No-longer-recent New Hampshire-ite Paul isn't all that far from where this team plays so I'm not shocked that he took advantage of being able to check out another Minor League park, which is always a blast. The team was part of Florida's system from its 1994 inception to 2002, and since 2003 it's been home to some of Boston's up-and-coming stars, which makes sense given the location. This reminds me that I haven't gone to a Minor League game in quite a while and need to correct that.

Finally we have one of my favorite items in the whole envelope: a button made by Nike promoting the face of the MLB for president in 1996. This is something I definitely hadn't seen before so I was grateful that Paul sent it my way after his brother found it at a garage sale back here in Michigan. Junior, of course, continued to put up otherworldly stats that year, setting then-career marks in HR (49) and RBI (140), numbers he'd improve on in his follow-up MVP campaign. Ken's homer count roughly corresponded to presidential election winner Bill Clinton's percentage of that year's popular vote, by the way.

Paul, thanks again for this really cool assortment of stuff that I wasn't remotely expecting. Please continue keeping me on my toes as I work on finishing up a fun envelope to send back at you!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

2018 Sportlots purchases: a mountain of Maddux

It's about time I put this series to bed so I can get to the three(!) trade packages that are waiting for well-deserved screen time.  Please enjoy today's post:  the big finish starring Mr. Greg Maddux!

The "S"s have it here, with Stadium Club, Studio, SP, Sportflics, and, uh, SPinnacle!, especially Topps' best brand.  The top row includes a card from each year of 1991-93, the second is entirely '93, and '94 claims the bottom row.  You can see that my concerted effort to fill in some holes in PCs from my favorite products really paid off.

More '94s--the first five cards here--plus some from 1995.  The top three are repeat brands but card #1 in the second row is an insert about which I was ignorant: a Topps Traded finest chase card.  Pretty cool!  '95 chips in, among other things, a Leaf Great Gloves insert and Sportflix with an "X"!

UD's flagship '95 product finishes off that year and is in the midst of my favorite run of the product, from 1994-98.  '96's editions of Bowman's Best, Stadium Club, Studio, and UD are again top tier.  And you probably recognize the Classic Confrontations insert from previous posts in this series.  Maddux is the only pitcher in that group so you get to see how he fared against some of the more notable hitters around then.  Check out the back for yourself but briefly, he had the most success against Andres Galarraga and David Justice, and hated facing Tony Gwynn and Barry Bonds.

Now we start getting into the "more variety era" where brands experimented with lots of different ideas, often to the benefit of collectors (hint HINT, MLBPA).  Multiple examples of Donruss Preferred and Fleer's collaboration with SI--especially those cover cards!--along with perennial great E-X go well with stalwarts like Stadium Club and Finest, even if the latter is one of the worst designs in the product's run, in my opinion.

Here 1998 finishes on a strong note with a typically outstanding Stadium Club design, the always exciting Topps Gold, and Fleer's beautiful Ultra Artistic Talents insert that I've mentioned in this space previously as a great value.  The next row is a 1999 trio of mid-end Topps products in Bowman Chrome and Best--again, my least favorite design--plus an improvement from finest.  The bottom continues my big run on Sports Illustrated cards in this series, including a Headliners insert which notes on the back that between 1995 and '97, Mad Dog had fewer walks allowed compared to the number of starts he made.  That's crazy!

One of my all-time favorites, Upper Deck's Century Legends, leads off this scan with double the fun in the form of one card each with both of his main teams.  Year 2000 highlights include Bowman's Best--a huge improvement over the previous year's version--Fleer Showcase, and yet another Stadium Club look that gets high marks from me.

Everything here (plus the Absolute Memorabilia card above) comes from 2001, and it was a very good year for Maddux cardboard.  There's plenty more designs to enjoy, especially Bowman's Best (another favorite), Donruss Classics, Fleer Focus and Showcase, and Topps Gallery (bring it back!  The right way!).  Mixed in is another insert I was happy to grab on the cheap:  Stadium Club Capture the Action.  It's kind of like an alternate design of the base set and I like it a lot.

Donruss out of nowhere!  A five-card run of that manufacturer here includes the always-great Diamond Kings and Classics, plus the Archives-like Originals.  I think I'm short one of Maddux's entries in this set but did nab the ones utilizing designs from 1982, '84, and '88.  A Fleer pair of Flair and Showcase plus Finest and another amazing Gallery look make this a contender for best scan of the post.

Here's a hodgepodge of 2002-03 stuff.  Favorites include UD's 40-Man and World Series Heroes, Fleer Showcase once again, and the unfortunately one-and-done Playoff Portraits.  Though the latter is kind of superfluous due to Diamond Kings it feels like it has its own thing going and I wish it would have lasted longer.

2003 concludes here with Prestige and Studio designs I can appreciate, plus Ultra and Upper Deck base looks that are similar enough that I keep confusing them!  Donruss and Fleer are a great way to kick off 2004 thanks to Diamond Kings (not as good as the '03 version) and another Braves/Cubs twofer out of Classics, along with Flair and a really cool Showcase design.  You couldn't ask for a better card if you were a Braves fan.

And he's back with the Cubs!  Just a couple in the last scan reflected his return in 2004, but almost everything here gets it right.  Studio's 2004 iteration opens things with a kickass design featuring Maddux looming over the Windy City, and another excellent version from 2005 sits a couple cards below.  Diamond Kings returns with the reverse twofer, and Mad Dog looks great on a Donruss Greats card as well, though it's clear Fleer was the top dog when it came to a set with that name.  Heritage makes one of several appearances here as well.

Now we get into the weirdness of the one-plus seasons Maddux pitched with San Diego at the tail end of his career.  That's captured on five of these seven offerings, most of which came out from 2007-09, the best of which are 2008's Topps Heritage and UD Masterpieces.  An '09 Upper Deck base gets Greg once more with the Dodgers in his second LA stint, after which he retired.  Then we jump all the way ahead to 2016 and a nice throwback to Stadium Club, which throws it back to Maddux's heyday with the Braves.

When it comes to sports cards, goalies and pitchers are often the biggest beneficiaries of horizontal cards, so I'm happy to have a bunch to show off tonight.  There's plenty of variety, starting with Denny's Holograms from 1995 and '96, produced by UD and Pinnacle.  As always:  garbage food, great cards.  I snuck in another pair of inserts:  a '95 Leaf Checklists issue and '96 Fleer Smooth Leather.  Dude did pile up those Gold Gloves after all.  '96 base cards from Pinnacle Aficionado and Stadium Club sew up this group.

And we end this post (and the series) with a few more cards I really liked.  '97 Upper Deck remains my favorite set that I don't own, and I should rectify that at some point.  The '99 Topps Gallery base has one of my favorite photos in the entire series (not to mention one of the best designs):  a sliding Maddux with Pirates infielder Kevin Polcovich succumbing to gravity on an almost-Tatooine card.  And I grabbed that last insert, from 2003 Fleer Tradition Milestones, because I think his run of 15-win seasons is one of the cooler accomplishments of the game's recent history.

In a completely unintended twist of fate, this 100-plus bunch of Maddux cards bumps his PC to 567 items, or the exact same number in Tony Gwynn's.  Not bad at all.

This was a great run that once again proved the value of Sportlots and gave me plenty of post fodder, enough that I procrastinated heavily while finishing up showing off cards on both blogs.  But now it's done and I'll be moving on to some fun new trade posts soon!

2018 Sportlots purchases: Junior's Jargon

I may have asked this before, but did anyone else look forward to starting off their post-cartoon Saturday afternoons in the 90s with Fox's In the Zone--featuring the Junior's Jargon segment which had the title music above--along with the pregame show and Saturday game of the week?

On this late summer Saturday afternoon let's look at a big pile of Ken Griffey Jr. cardboard from Sportlots:

This first scan includes a nice bunch of early 90s Stadium Club with a pair of '92s, a '93 "Murphy" boxed set base, and a couple more from '94.  Lots of great looks at Kenny's sweet swing plus a home run derby victory there.  Besides those, down the middle is a fun '94 trio of Pinnacle and both of his Sportflics appearances that year.  Hooray, Sportflics!  Last up is a '95 Leaf Great Gloves insert, a reminder of his 10 straight Gold Glove Awards.

In the next scan we get another example of UD's 1995 SP Championship for this series, then a couple more Stadium Club issues from the same year.  1996 brings one of Bowman's Best's cooler designs, a typically strong Studio look, and a Topps Classic Confrontations insert, which shows how he'd performed against a mix of "aces" such as Mike Mussina (zero hits in 14 ABs) and Roger Clemens (17/36 with two homers).  The bottom row comprises 1997 cards from Donruss Signature, Studio once again, and the first of a bunch of excellent Topps Gallery appearances.

The first two cards here finish off '97 with an Ultra Checklist insert and Upper Deck Defensive Gems subset from the excellent base set that year.  Then '98 opens with the base version of Donruss Elite (as opposed to the iconic insert), then a pair of base cards from one of my favorite 90s brands, Fleer's Sports Illustrated (and its variants such as Then and Now).  Another fantastic Stadium Club issue joins the beautiful Topps Gold Label (Class 1) and card #1 from Ultra to finish up 1998.  That Ultra example is one of the best in the product's whole run, if you ask me, and Gold Label's debut couldn't have gone any better either.  Another Fleer SI card from 1999 gives us a very popular 90s duo with Junior joined by guy-who-hit-dingers Mark McGwire.

Now we're into the last of the Mariners cards for a bit with a few more '99s:  an SP Authentic insert called Home Run Chronicles, a high-flyin' Topps Gallery base (with a cameo by utility guy Charles Gipson), and a cross-manufacturer insert called Home Run Heroes, in this case from Upper Deck.  Then there's a quick look at early Reds cards from 2000 out of Fleer's E-X and Topps Gallery once gain.  A great shot of a backwards-hatted, laughing Kid on that Gallery card, no?  2001 opens with Donruss' classy, uh, Classics, and then there's a little run of Fleer in the form of E-X, Focus, and Genuine.  I'm not sure why I like that Focus design as much as I do, but anyway that's a cool snapshot of what I have to assume is the ivy at Wrigley.

Here's what I'm calling the "artistic" scan.  The top trio closes out 2001 with Fleer Premium, Topps Gallery, and Ultra.  That year is when Gallery went to a painting look instead of simple photos, and I'd describe what's going on in the Ultra photo as interpretive dance.  2002 then begins and opens with masterpieces from Diamond Kings and Topps Gallery (it really was a great brand back then!), with Donruss' Classics and an Originals base plus Flair in-between.  Flair's excellent design kind of fits the artsy theme as well!  This scan then finishes up with Griffey's Reds base from Donruss Team Heroes, and I need to see if I need the Mariners version as well.

2003 goes out quickly with Flair, Playoff's amazing one-and-done Portraits, and a Topps-branded Bazooka comic.  Even more art!  Portraits may have been a bit redundant with Diamond Kings around but looked fantastic in its own right.  The rest of the scan jumps a bit into the future with UD base from 2006-08 (including a cameo by some guy in a Giants hat, right, arpsmith?) plus Elite Extra, Leaf Certified, and Topps Gallery cards from 2004, '05, and '08, respectively.

The last of the vertical cards makes a stop in 1999 for the always excellent SP Legendary Cuts, SPx and a short-term stop with the White Sox (barf), and a pair of UD base cards, one of which captures Junior's return to Seattle.  Also having him rep Seattle are a 2016 Diamond Kings base and Topps Berger's Best insert.  Serious question:  if I hadn't told you which Topps reprint insert that was, would you have been able to guess?

The group of horizontal Griffeys was small this time, but fortunately I ended up with a few nice photos.  #1 is a second example from Fleer's Sports Illustrated Then and Now product from '98.  Second is an insert I've found for a few of my PC guys, Pacific's 1999 Invincible Sandlot Heroes.  2002's Ultra base features arguably the best image of the bunch.  2003 UD's design is nothing to write home about but I value the product enough to have included as many examples as I could find for some of my bigger PC guys.  And finally, 2017 Stadium Club brings us in its time machine back to very early in a future HOFer's career with a great shot of the Kid batting.

And yet we're not quite done.  First I have one of those fold-out posters that Fleer liked to insert back in the day, this one from 1998 SI Then and Now's Great Shots.  Griffey was one of those guys who actually showed joy in playing the game sometimes, but he could also be as focused as he needed to be.

And finally, once again I tracked down a Collect-a-Books oddball issue of one of my favorites, in this case from 1991.  These are fun to own and surprisingly cheap, though I don't suppose they're exceedingly rare.  As always I'm scanning every page for your reading enjoyment:

This gaggle of Griffeys was a blast to put together and show off, plus it was very productive toward his collection which now stands at 742 items and growing!

I now have three posts left in the series on this here blog (and four to get to on TMM), including two more solo projects and an ensemble cast as well.

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!

2017 trade package #18: Sport Card Collectors

While it would appear that the Yankees and Tigers had some difficulty getting along today,

fans of both of those teams have no such issues.  Take, for example, Sport Card Collectors, who sent me cards for the second time this year (previously:  back in January).  The collector of the Bombers, as well as the football Giants, Rodney Hampton, Ken Griffey Jr., and much more, was kind enough to grace my mailbox with more cardboard representing my hometown team:

Let's start with a six-pack of Miggy, one of the main attractions in today's free-for-all.  The future HOFer having a very down year is represented on 2017 cardboard from Archives (Retro Original), flagship ('87 Topps), Heritage, Opening Day, Stadium Club, and flagship again (Major League Milestones).  The Heritage is a very nice throwback, but I'll give the win to another well done iteration of Stadium Club.  Now that Topps knows I like it, let's see how they f&$k it up.

Speaking of Stadium Club, player #2 in the scan is second-year star pitcher Michael Fulmer out of that very product.  It's an intense shot of a very talented pitcher I'm looking forward to watching for years in Motown.

Our third player is a recent former Tiger, OF J.D. Martinez, who went off to Arizona for a song.  Simply a fun guy to watch at the plate, I'll miss his bat in Detroit, but I've still put together a decent pile of his Tigers cardboard, and SCC chipped in this pair from 2017 Finest and Gypsy Queen ("Get Gypped by Topps year after year!™").

One Tiger who deserves some nice cardboard for his turnaround since the first half of last season is Justin Upton.  The RF's put up some nice numbers this year, furthering my hope that he'll opt out of his expensive contract so the Tigers can get on with rebuilding.  He's seen here on this post's second-to-last '17 Stadium Club piece as well as a Chrome Refractor parallel (#413/568) from this year's Heritage.

On the complete opposite of the spectrum we have Jordan Zimmermann, once again from Stadium Club.  While Upton eventually improved, the pitcher has been a tire fire from the start, with a 16-18 record (that seems like it's been worse) and 5.58 ERA to-date.

Joining J.D. from this year's Finest is JV, a.k.a. this here blog's namesake!  Verlander has been all over the place this year, but he still fits in well in a product called "Finest."  Not only did SCC toss me a base Verlander, the Refractor is there as well!  Yes, the greatest of all Topps inserts.

And to go 16/16 on 2017 cards, here's a pair of Diamond Collection jersey relics of another Tiger from this year, OF JaCoby Jones, plus an encore of J.D. Martinez.  These simple but solid swatches from one of my favorite brands are a nice way to tie a bow on this well-rounded package!

Thanks for a fun bunch of Tigers, SCC--I hope I can return the favor soon!

2015 eBay purchase: Sunday Sweet Lous

I was buying a couple things on eBay for Tim at GSNHoF a week or two ago when I noticed the seller had some stuff for a few of my player collections.  I grabbed a few cards I'm showing off on tonight's TMM post as well as this trio of Sweet Lous:

Lou Whitaker 1983 Donruss

Ah yes, the Donruss set produced the year I was born.  Whitaker gets a close-up portrait from what must be spring training in this early set from the product.  This card includes his 1982 stats, and that would be the year he really figured things out, hitting .286 with 15 HR and 11 steals while teasing even greater things to come.

Lou Whitaker 1984 Fleer

Fleer's 1984 set has a reasonably clean design that looks a bit dated more than 30 years after its release, but it's still solid as well.  His most recent stats here come from 1983, the first of his five straight All-Star seasons; he would win three consecutive Gold Gloves and Silver Slugger awards at the position while he was at it.  A .320 AVG, .380 OBP, 12 HR, 17 steals, and 206 hits for a (BBR) WAR of 6.7 (tied for his career high) earned him those accolades.

Lou Whitaker 1992 Stadium Club

I should just buy up every Stadium Club set I don't own because regardless of how many PC cards I find in them, there isn't a set I don't like to admire when I get the chance.  Though I don't always 100% approve of the designs, the photography is always worth the price of admission, like this great shot of Whitaker's 1992 card.  And Lou had reason to be pretty happy--he tied his career-best WAR of 6.7 from '83 by clubbing a second-best season total of 23 HR, knocking in 78 runs while scoring 94, and getting on base at a .391 clip.  That didn't earn him an All-Star nod--it was Roberto Alomar's position to lose--but it was still a nice season for him late in his career.

I still have a ton of Whitakers from Justcommons to scan and post, but for now his collection stands at 76/290.  When I have the others ready I look forward to showing them off, along with a couple other Tigers!