Happy spring, y'all! I've got a couple really nice trade packages to share but haven't logged and scanned them yet, and I didn't want that to hold up getting at least something posted. So tonight you're getting my three personal eBay purchases from the first couple months of 2023.
Tonight's post, as is sometimes the case, is all about (new Pirates pitcher) Rich Hill.
It's going to take a bit for me to get used to seeing Dick Mountain in a Pirates uniform, but I'm just happy to see him back for his 19th(!) MLB season. In that time his Baseball Reference transaction section has gotten so long you'd have to print it on a CVS receipt. Since being drafted and signed by the Cubs in 2002 he's pitched for them (2005-08), the Orioles (2009), Red Sox (2010-12), Indians (2013), Angels and Yankees (2014), Red Sox #2 (2015), A's (2016), Dodgers (2016-19), Twins (2020), Rays and Mets (2021), and Red Sox #3 (2022). And that doesn't include his stint with the indy ball Long Island Ducks in 2015 that led to his return to Boston!
Pittsburgh will be the 12th team Hill's pitched for (he never reached the Majors with the Cardinals and Nats), tying him for third all time with Mike Morgan and Matt Stairs. Former Tiger Edwin Jackson holds the record with 14 teams, and another former Tiger (the odds were good, obviously) Octavio Dotel took the bump with 13.
Anyway, that's a long preamble to introduce this evening's cards. Here's the three big items I bought of Hill in January and February:
I've mentioned that I don't touch Topps "on-demand" stuff too often but my favorite seller on the site,
markaguirre22, had this 2020 Topps Mini Silver 1/1 up for grabs in late January and I scored it for the minimum $10 bid plus tax (and free shipping). It's a Twins card and he doesn't have a ton of those so that's cool.
I know I've also mentioned the numerous occasions when this seller generously threw in extras and he did that this time as well. Both of these 2013 A&G Minis were new to me which was a very nice bonus, and I make sure to thank him in my feedback every time he sends me something like this.
Less than a week later I got in a bit of a bidding war for this 2006 Flair Showcase plate used to make Rich's card in the Showcase Signatures set. The Cubs-appropriate Cyan card set me back a bit under $18, but I didn't mind too much because I don't have to go that high very often, and anything up to around $20 is reasonable enough for me. It's my first of the four from that plate set so that's one reason I fought a bit harder to win it. Here's the card that resulted from this plate and its brethren:
Pretty cool, no? Flair Showcase had a wide variety of looks during its existence and I like the design of this insert set for sure.
Finally, a bit more than a month ago I won the most recently produced 1/1 I've added to Hill's PC, a 2022 Topps Chrome yellow plate. My winning bid was only $9 but tax and shipping pushed that cost up close to $15, which is just kind of the reality of buying on the site these days. Anyway, it represents Rich's third stint in Boston, and who's to say he won't return later this year in a deadline deal or as a free agent in the offseason in search of his 20th year at the game's highest level? By the way, with yellow not being a staple of the Red Sox's team colors, I 100% need to get a plate in that color of him with the Pirates!
These additions continue Hill's dominance of my baseball PC with 149 hits, of which 35 are 1/1s. My TCDb-leading 349 items, 35 of which are of the rarest variety, allow me to confidently continue calling myself the king of Dick Mountain!
