Blog Bat Around, Part I: The Non-Brewers

I've been incredibly busy this past month away from the blog. I've been working a lot -- getting into the office early and staying late in an effort both to stay on top of my work and in trying to catch up on my billable hours that suffered early in 2018 thanks to Georgia football. Plus, I've been lacking in inspiration again. It happens.

Then, I saw Kenny's idea for a Blog Bat Around: creating an all-autograph lineup from cards in his collection.

The idea is this: build a lineup out of the players from whom you have autographs. Kenny put together a list of 13 total positions to fill -- a Card Gen lineup -- including two relievers, a closer, a starter, a DH/PH, and then the 8 position players. 

I looked at my autographs and realized I could drag this one out into two posts -- one based off non-Brewers (today's post) and one based off Brewers (which hopefully will be tomorrow's post). So, without further introduction, let's get started.

Catcher: Gary Carter, Montreal Expos & New York Mets

In the early 1980s, it was well known among autograph collectors that Gary Carter was one of the good guys who would sign pretty much anything you sent his way. Around 1983 or so, he started asking for a donation for a cancer charity or foundation of some kind in exchange for signing baseball cards issued after that date. I was poor and didn't have a checking account, so I kept loading up on cards from earlier times. In all, I have 18 total cards autographed by Gary Carter.

Honorable Mention: Larry Haney, Johnny Oates, Joe Ferguson, Terry Kennedy, Jim Sundberg, Sal Butera, Lance Parrish, Tim Laudner, Don Slaught, Mike Stanley, Rick Dempsey, Rick Farrell, Geno Petralli, Dwight Lowry

First Base: Steve Garvey, Los Angeles Dodgers

Yeah, it's not the best or most striking autograph you'll find of Garvey. But, it's still mine. I got this one through the mail in the early 1980s as well. Garvey was both a favorite and a villain to me as a kid. He was a good player, no doubt, but he was such an attention seeker. It may seem contradictory to love Gary Carter, whose love of the flashbulbs was well known, but not to like Garvey. I played catcher, though, so Carter was forgiven where Garvey was excoriated.

Honorable Mention: Mike Squires, Terry Francona, Kurt Bevacqua, Andres Galarraga, Darrell Evans, Dave Bergman, Kent Hrbek

Second Base: Lou Whitaker, Detroit Tigers

By the late 1980s, Lou Whitaker had been called a "temperamental" signer. He might sign and return your cards, he might not. He might sign it with just "Lou Whitaker" or with "Louis R. Whitaker" or, as here, "Louis Rodman Whitaker II." Or, you might never see your cards again. So, I guess I got a bit lucky in getting this oddball and a 1987 Topps card back from him in about 1987 or 1988. Whitaker deserves to be in the Hall of Fame, as he was almost certainly the best second baseman in the American League in the 1980s (eclipsed maybe by Ryne Sandberg in the National League).

Honorable Mention: Tom Herr, Steve Sax (probably fake), Jerry Browne, Rex Hudler, Jim Walewander

Shortstop: Alan Trammell, Detroit Tigers

An easy choice with his well-deserved election to the Hall of Fame this year, Trammell was a great guy to get autographs from in the 1980s whether in person or through the mail. This 1987 Topps was an in-person autograph, but I have another 3 or 4 that I got by sending cards to Tiger Stadium. Weirdly, Trammell got into the Hall before Whitaker though Trammell was at best the third-best shortstop in the American League in the 1980s behind Robin Yount and Cal Ripken.

Honorable Mention: Rob Picciolo, Bill Russell, Greg Gagne, Ozzie Guillen

Third Base: Mike Schmidt, Philadelphia Phillies

Despite his fame and the accompanying mail loads that must have produced, Schmidt was always good for signing at least one card in mail sent to him in care of the Phillies. I'm not sure why I sent a 1988 Topps Big card to him to sign, but, well, I must have. 

Honorable Mention: Ron Cey, Bill Madlock, Wade Boggs, Roy Howell, Buddy Bell, Tom Brookens, Tom O'Malley, Tim Wallach, Steve Buechele, Larry Parrish, Doug DeCinces

Left Field: Jim Rice, Boston Red Sox

I had heard bad things about Rice returning mail, so I didn't exactly send him the best-conditioned cards to sign. I'm still not sure if it is real, either. One of the other bad things I heard about Rice was that he employed either an Autopen or a clubhouse man to sign his mail for him. I've posted this autograph on Twitter in the past, and people have told me that it looked good to them. If it is legitimate, it's cool to have another Hall of Fame member.

By the way, for the outfield, I'll do honorable mention at the end.

Center Field: Chet Lemon, Detroit Tigers

The outfield on my autograph team is decent, but it's not awesome. Chet Lemon is a member of the hall of the very good, certainly, but he was never an all-time great. Still, JAWS rates him as the 20th best center fielder of all-time, so he's not *that* bad. He was drafted in the first round in 1972 by Oakland, and was part of a trade in 1975 that sent him to the White Sox for Stan Bahnsen. He was a major league regular with the White Sox at the age of 21 in 1976. The White Sox then traded him to the Tigers after the the 1981 season for Steve Kemp. I got this autograph after a Brewers v. Tigers game in 1987. Looking through my collection, I can say unequivocally that the Tigers of the 1980s were some of the best signers in the American League.

Right Field:  Tom Brunansky, Minnesota Twins

Bruno is undoubtedly the worst player on this team. This spot would have been filled by Tony Oliva, whose autograph I got on a Twins sticker at the same game I got this autograph, but I sent that Oliva autograph away to a Twins collector. Brunansky was known for his rifle arm and his power bat. He was absolutely helped by the Metrodome, which made him into a 30-homer guy on two occasions. The Twins got him from the Angels for Doug Corbett and Rob Wilfong, but then got rid of him in 1988 in exchange for Tom Herr from the Cardinals. The Cardinals traded him to Boston in 1990 for Lee Smith. Boston let him leave for Milwaukee as a free agent after the 1992 season, and the Brewers traded him back to Boston in June of 1994 for Dave Valle. 

Outfield Honorable Mention: Rick Manning, Steve Henderson, Jay Johnstone, Manny Mota, Paul Householder, Bob Clark, Reid Nichols, Gary Matthews, Dusty Baker (probably fake), John Moses, Ron Kittle, Oddibe McDowell, Pat Sheridan, Mike Kingery, Bobby Brower

Designated Hitter/Pinch Hitter: Wade Boggs, Boston Red Sox

He's the best autograph in my collection not playing in the starting lineup, and he was never better than Mike Schmidt. So, Boggs gets put here. If I recall correctly, this one was a TTM. It compares well to autographs from that period, though his later signatures got pointier on the "W" than this one. I think it's good, but I'm not going to get it certified by anyone because I don't care about that.

Honorable Mention: Probably Andres Galarraga.

Starting Pitcher: Bert Blyleven, Pittsburgh Pirates/Cleveland Indians

Like Alan Trammell, Blyleven is another Hall of Famer who was an incredibly fan-friendly guy to fans in the 1980s and who would sign through the mail or in person. I got the Indians one in person, and the Pirates one through the mail. Man, he grew one hell of a beard and mustache between 1981 and 1982, though, didn't he?

Honorable Mention: Don Sutton, Mark Fidrych, Len Barker, Pat Dobson, Dave Goltz, Joe Niekro, Charlie Lea, Danny Darwin, Dave Stieb, Fernando Valenzuela, Storm Davis, John Tudor, Bruce Hurst, Rick Sutcliffe, Frank Viola, Eric King, Frank Tanana, Jose Guzman, John Cerutti, Steve Trout, Ray Peters, Jim Bouton

Right Handed Relief Pitcher: Dan Quisenberry, Kansas City Royals

Another of the really good guys in the 1980s. Memories of Quisenberry have faded over the years as closers began piling up crazy save numbers through use in the single-inning role that predominated starting in the late 1980s. Quisenberry did not make it to the majors until age 26 thanks to ditching an over-the-top delivery for an extreme submariner approach. He then led the AL in saves five times, was an all-star three times, finished in the top 5 in the Cy Young Award five times, and finished in the Top 11 for the MVP 5 times. He lost his exclusive closer role in 1986, as Bud Black and Steve Farr ate into his opportunities, and the Royals cut him mid-year in 1988. He had a late career reinvigoration with the Cardinals in 1989, then finished up with 5 nondescript appearances for the Giants in 1990. He died just 8 years later from brain cancer.

Should he be listed at closer? Perhaps. 

Honorable Mention (middle relievers only): Dwight Bernard, Jim Kern, Don Aase, Nate Snell, Pete Ladd, Mark Clear, Tom Tellmann

Left Handed Relief Pitcher: Tug McGraw, New York Mets/Philadelphia Phillies

Sure, the Tugger was more of a closer than middle reliever. But, lefty relievers are tough to find in my collection. I apparently engaged in the type of discrimination common in baseball even up to the 1970s -- viewing relievers as "lesser" pitchers. And I sure was not going to list Steve Howe here. Anyway, McGraw was an excellent TTM signer, so I have many of his cards autographed. 

I wonder if Tim is as good of a signer as his dad was, or if Tug was as good of a singer as Tim is.

Honorable Mention: Rick Waits, Steve Howe

Closer: John Smoltz, Atlanta Braves

This autograph came in the great Christmas collection haul of 2015. My in-laws bought a collection from a friend whose husband had passed away, and it gave me months of sorting fun and cool finds. None of the finds got much better than finding a John Smoltz autograph on a 1989 Score. 

Honorable Mention (the Closers): Dan Quisenberry, Tug McGraw, Mitch Williams, Jeff Reardon, Steve Bedrosian, Michael Jackson, Doug Jones, Bob Stanley, Jeff Russell

BONUS: Manager: Tom Kelly, Minnesota Twins

I have no recollection of getting this one myself, nor do I recall having found it in that Christmas Collection. I'm thinking my younger brother might have picked it up at some point in the early 1990s at a game in Milwaukee.

But, I chose Kelly here because my other options were Bob "Buck" Rodgers on his 1987 Topps card and Rene Lachemann on his 1982 Donruss card. If you know about Buck's involvement with the Milwaukee organization, you know Buck wasn't a bad manager. Lachemann, on the other hand, never displayed any great skill as a manager -- whether in Seattle (total record of 140-180), Milwaukee (1 year at 67-94), Florida (221-285 from 1993 to 1996) or the Cubs (0-1 in 2002 as interim manager).

Neither are anywhere near as good as Kelly. Also, I was not going to choose any one not listed as a manager or acting as manager at the time of their autograph. So, sorry Terry Francona -- you'll probably get to the Hall as a manager, but not as a player. 

This was fun, definitely. We'll see how the "Brewers only" lineup goes. 

Late December Card Show Post, Part I

Last night, I was working on my Bowman parallel want list for 2014 -- bindering up what I have, putting in markers in sheets for what I don't have, and generally muttering under my breath at the multiplicity of parallels -- and I started getting bored of my musical selections. So, I reached out to the Twitter world and asked for recommendations. 

In response, I now have well over 50 recommendations for songs, albums, and artists to try out and see what I think. My thanks go out to Crackin' Wax, Zippy Zappy, Dayf, and Mark Hoyle for their suggestions. Thanks to them, this post and the next one will feature music I'm listening to for the first time.

So, what's this post about? On December 30, my local card show popped up on a Saturday to avoid New Year's Eve and hit the after-Christmas pocketbooks. Thanks to my in-laws, I had some extra money in my pocket for Christmas and my birthday (December 27...y'all missed out on a great barbecue lunch in Columbus, Georgia). I had not gone to a show in a while for multiple reasons -- time being the biggest one. 

This trip yielded some great cards, as always. I did not scan all the cards I got -- largely because I simply lost track of which ones I got at the show as they got mixed into other stacks. For instance, I did not scan the 2016 Heritage Mini (serial numbered to 100) of Ryan Braun that I found in a quarter box. Oops. Should have done that.

Cue the music:

Mark Hoyle recommended that I check out Storyville (among about 35 other bands!). This song is from an Austin City Limits taping from 1998.  Storyville was an active band for about 6 or 7 years starting in 1994. According to Wikipedia, the band formed out of the remnants of Arc Angels (another Hoyle recommendation) and Stevie Ray Vaughan's rhythm section.

It should not be a big surprise that this is an Austin, Texas band. Austin calls itself the Live Music Capital of the World. I've been to Austin a few times now (my brother-in-law and sister-in-law live there and I have been to two ABA conferences there as well), and the times I have seen live music there, it has been excellent and inexpensive. As this list shows, Austin's music is diverse too: everything from Storyville to the Dixie Chicks to Willie Nelson to Butthole Surfers to Fastball to Janis Joplin to Spoon all came out of Austin. 

Let's start with a few vintage Milwaukee Braves cards that I picked up -- appropriately for music suggested by the vintage king Mark. I think these probably cost more than nearly all the rest of the cards I bought due to age and/or Hall of Fame status being involved. Of the three, I think the Mathews actually cost the least -- likely due to the creases -- and the Logan was the most expensive with it being something of a high-number in 1961. 

Another Mark Hoyle recommendation -- one seconded by Matthew Scott of Bob Walk the Plank -- is Joe Bonamassa. I think you can see from these two recommendations alone what kind of music Mark really likes: southern rock/blues. There are times when I get in the mood for music like this. To me, this type of music is best seen and heard live rather than through music videos, so finding shows on YouTube is a great way to experience this.

The rest of the Braves that I bought at the card show. I got the two Aaron career retrospective cards at the same time as I got the other three older cards above. The Warren Spahn card at the bottom is my first card from the 1983 ASA Warren Spahn set. Now, I just need to find the other 12 cards in the set -- including another two copies of card 6 (featuring Warren with Fred Haney, Bobby Thomson, and Lew Burdette) and finding one of the autographed card 1 -- and the red border variation of the entire set. So, then, that'll be fun.

NPR has a ton of these "Tiny Desk Concert" videos on YouTube. Susan Tedeschi and Derek Trucks are a married couple whose musical talent individually is incredible and together is just awesome. I've heard of them before Mark suggested taking a listen. 

As I said before, listening to bands like this live is the best way to take them in. If you are a fan of Tedeschi Trucks, hopefully you have discovered the ridiculous library of live shows freely available on Archive.org -- there are 478 results for Tedeschi Trucks on Archive, though of course not all of them are actually them. But if you like the band, you owe it to yourself to give a listen there.

I was lucky to find three Gary Carter cards to add to my collection at the show, including two from the 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads set. The 2016 Archives card, though, just looks wrong to me. Why? The 1991 set did not use the M logo for Montreal -- just the Expos name. I'm sure that's been mentioned elsewhere before, but it still bugs me.

Okay, let's change gears here a little bit and go to a couple of musical recommendations from Dayf from Card Junk.

Dave recommended albums rather than bands. One of the albums he recommended was The North Borders by Bonobo. It's very different from the blues that Mark Hoyle favors, of course, but I'm digging this too. The first song, "First Fires," is soothing -- perfect for me to listen to on a Sunday morning while typing up a blog post. This one is going to get added to my listening library for sure. 

Out of a quarter or dime box -- not sure which -- came these three mid-90s Molitors, including that Pinnacle die-cut insert. My Molitor collection is one I'm still a bit up in the air about. Every time I see cards like these of Molitor not on the Brewers, it kind of pisses me off all over again about his free agency in the early 1990s. It's easy to second guess and say, "yeah, of course the Brewers should have known that Molitor would play another 6 years." 

It would have been easier to take if Molitor went to Minnesota first and stayed there. That would have been much more understandable -- after all, the Brewers did try hard to bring him back after his Toronto contract ended, but the lure of playing at home in front of his hometown fans won out.

Fantastic Plastic Machine is another Dave suggestion. This video was an easy one to pick out from the list of potential videos to show for obvious reasons. To be fair, this song is not on the album that Dave suggested I listen to (which was FPM's first album) but come on -- isn't this better to have as the video?

When the music on this one started, I thought, "this kind of reminds me of some of the Japanese music that Zippy Zappy was listening to." Then, I found out that FPM is a Japanese musician named Tomoyuki Tanaka. I guess sometimes you can figure out things about a musician just by listening to their music?

These are the last cards for today's post -- the Upper Deck cards I picked up. I know almost all of these were in a 6 for $1 box. It is always good when I can add a Ryan Braun serial-numbered card for less than 20 cents. Those "A Piece of History" cards leave me chasing only a couple of cards for the 2009 set. 

Of course, I still haven't gotten around to cataloging what Upper Deck inserts I need, so I haven't got a clue where I stand on the "Cut from the Same Cloth" or the season biography cards. 

Thanks for stopping by today. You'll be hearing a bit more of the musical suggestions as the week goes on -- so thank you to those four gentlemen for the help!

Finishing Off Last Week's Card Show: Gary and the Braves

Some days, blogging comes easily. Ideas for posts or themes pop into my head quickly, a few Google searches fleshes them out, and bang! Blog post done. 

Other times, it's not as easy. There are times that, even when the cards are cool and can speak volumes themselves, the post doesn't come together well. The writing process becomes slogging through a morass rather than having words flowing smoothly.

Indeed, today is one of the more difficult days to get words flowing. I've started and stopped, typed and deleted, surfed the web rather than write, played a quiz on Sporcle, and generally stalled while trying to come up with something interesting.

Nothing came to me. Instead, I'm going with a list. Just a list. Maybe some video content. Maybe.  Well, actually, definitely at least one video.

Let's start with item 1 on the list:

1. Gary Carter Cards

Before the Gary Carter cards, it's time for video content.




Yes, it's a video of Gary Carter's last career hit -- a double on September 27, 1992. 

The team brought him in for 1992 as a final tribute season and, probably, to serve as something of a mentor to Darrin Fletcher (who, at age 25, was already in his fourth year in the league) and youngster Tim Laker, who had risen to the major leagues after being a 6th round pick in 1988 out of high school in Simi Valley. Carter had started out that year fairly strongly at the plate. As the year wore on, his hitting faded. 

Because the team was in a pennant race for much of the year, however, Carter started seeing less playing time. It was clear that his tank was empty, and a team which stood tied for first place as late as July 30 (and finished in 2nd place, 9 games behind division winning Pittsburgh) couldn't afford to carry his bat much longer.

In the end, Laker ended up pinch-running for Carter after that double. Perhaps out of sentimentality and the rousing ovation he received, the Expos did not play Carter during the final week of the season since the Expos finished the year on the road.

I found the Carter insert from last year in a dime box. The same goes for the 1992 Upper Deck high number card (which I had in a discolored form previously) and the 1992 O-Pee-Chee Tribute (of which I still need four other cards from that Tribute -- the other four showing him in his various previous stops in the major leagues). Finally, that Historic Swatches of Carter was a $3 card. Not bad for a Hall of Famer's card serial numbered 250 out of 350 from 13 years ago. 

These four cards bring my Gary Carter collection up to 258 different cards. It's nice to have one collection where I don't have to think about getting extra cards for my team collection too. Maybe I should think about another non-Brewer collection. Maybe.

2. Original Mid-1950s Cards

I paid $1 for each of these cards. 

Of these cards, two really stick out to me. First, the Pafko is off center but has a couple of sharp corners. If I were a grading type, I'd totally get this graded. 

Second, the 1954 Topps card of Roy Smalley is one I feel like I have had in my collection forever yet never really did. That's because in both 1976 and again in 1985 for the Father-Son cards, Topps used that same card for Smalley to represent him. This was done despite the fact that Smalley appeared on Topps cards in 1951, 1952, and 1957 in addition to 1954.

Side note: The prices at my local show tend to be really good, as the $1 1956 Topps cards with sharp corners shows. At one table, a guy who sells at shows in other locations and on eBay pored through the nickel and dime boxes looking for cards to flip for anywhere from 25 cents to $5. He got so many cards that he ended up stroking a check for $120. Now THAT is a lot of dime cards...and I'm quite sure that he got more than the 1200 dime cards one would expect for that price.

Incidentally, you will all be pleased to know that the rest of this post is entirely oddballs.

3. One Original 1960s Oddball



There seem to be three things that I am known for in the blogging world. First, I'll take your Milwaukee Brewers off your hands. Second, I post a LOT of music on my blog. Finally, I love oddballs.

For the first time in my collecting career of nearly 40 years, though, I dipped my toe into the Armour coin collecting pool. I did so almost on the spur of the moment, in that I had not walked in to the show thinking, "You know what I need? A 1960 Hank Aaron Armour Coin. And I'm not leaving until I find it." 

That said, when presented with an opportunity, sometimes you just grab it. I ended up paying $25 total for this coin, the two 1971 Topps Coins from yesterday, and the 1973 and 1975 Kellogg's cards from yesterday. 

PSA has a great history of the Armour hot dogs coins. To be quite honest, I could see myself at some point in the future -- perhaps a future with more money in my pocket, I suppose -- trying to collect the full run as a set. If only because I love oddballs so much, that thought appeals to me.

Actually, the thought that really appeals to me is to start with 1946 and to try to make a type collection. That way, I'm not burying myself too much with unobtainable cards -- there are still plenty of those nearly unobtainable cards in that grouping -- but I can avoid trying to find some cabinet card from 1911 that shows up only at auctions at Sotheby's. 

Now, for the rest of the post, let me just say that it was a great day for oddballs and reprints.

4. 1978 TCC Milwaukee Braves Greats Set



This is a 15-card set that includes Hall of Famers Hank Aaron, Eddie Mathews, Warren Spahn, and Joe Torre. I think this may be my first baseball card of Bob Uecker, strangely enough. By no means was Uecker ever a baseball great, as most of you are aware, but even by 1978, Uecker had achieved national notoriety through his appearances on the Tonight Show that caused his inclusion in this set. 

5.  1983 Larry Fritsch Boston/Milwaukee Braves Collectors Set



This set was printed for noted Wisconsin card dealer Larry Fritsch Cards, LLC. Fritsch has been around for decades now -- since 1970, in fact.  Its namesake Larry passed away in 2007, though the family continues to run the operation in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. For a while in the 1980s, Fritsch printed sets of Midwest League cards and, in fact, hit a big coup for them when one of the guys in the 1983 set who played for the Madison Muskies turned into the hottest name in the hobby in 1987 -- Jose Canseco.

This set was printed to commemorate the Braves' move to Milwaukee in 1983. All the photos are black and white and feature the players in Boston Braves headwear, oddly enough. Still, it's a nice commemorative set even if I'd prefer a color version.

6. Jalfco Reprint Sets of 1953, 1954, and 1955 Johnston Cookies 





The same printing company whose name appears on the back of that reprint of the 1970 Flavor-Est Milk Milwaukee Brewers set in the same year -- 1988. 

All together, these three reprint sets, the TCC set, and the Fritsch set cost me $60 total. That's not a bad cost for these sets together to me since I got them in hand right away and they came in plastic sheets already -- meaning I also got about 15 sheets in that price too.

It's a strange thing to see the 1953 and 1955 cards to me. It seems that every single one of the original cards I've ever seen have been from the 1954 set -- the tall thin ones -- rather than the more normally sized 1953 or 1955 sets. When Jalfco reprinted the 1954 set, though, they shrunk the cards a bit so that they would fit in the normal 9-pocket sheet size without sticking out of the top of the sheet. That was pretty nice of them.

So, at least I have cards that look like the Johnston Cookies sets. The next goal is to get the originals. 

And to do more research on all these reprints.