Cards from #SuperTrader Play at the Plate

I'm a bit behind on seemingly just about everything these days in collecting. I have packages that arrived over two weeks ago that I have not posted. I have at least two packages to put together that I should have gotten to several weeks ago. It's not a fun feeling.  Of course, I feel like I'm always behind when it comes to sending out packages thanks to the generosity so many people have shown toward me. 

Today, I'll be highlighting an envelope I received from veteran Rangers blogger Brian at Play At The Plate. Brian is one of the members of the SuperTrader group, and it had been way too long since he and I had swapped cards. 

Just as my "nom de plume" is either Tony L. or "Off Hiatus", Brian is the Play at the Plate Dude or, on Twitter, @patpdude. So, let's look at the cards that Brian sent my way through the lens of nicknames!

Jenks 

Starting things off unimaginatively, this Phillies website says that Geoff Jenkins's nickname is either "Jenks" or "Brett Favre." I've talked about how he may have been more popular in Milwaukee than he perhaps should have been due to his uncanny likeness, so I'm happy to see that I'm not the only one to think that. I needed this Fleer Authentix card for my PC.  

Also, while I know it's been done before, an insert set with actual ticket stubs (not reprints) that go along with a particularly impressive/important day in a player's career would be quite cool, I think.

Uncle Phil

 

I'm guessing that Prince Fielder got this nickname thanks to his own resemblance of James Avery, who played Uncle Phil on "The Fresh Prince of Bel Air." Do you see it?

Maybe...other than the whole bald-head thing. James Avery died a little over two years ago at the age of 68. So if there ever is a Fresh Prince reboot starring Will Smith's son Jayden, perhaps Prince will take up the reigns as Uncle Phil.

Yankee Super Prospect

Jackson Melian was an incredibly overhyped prospect when he was a part of the Yankees Minor League system in the late 1990s. Before playing a single game and at the age of 17, he was rated the #40 prospect in baseball (all rankings by Baseball America). 

In fairness, he did play acceptably in the Gulf Coast League in 1997 at age 17 (.263/.323/.376), but his ranking then dropped to #98. He moved up to the Southern League in 1998 and hit .255/.322/.353 with a poor stolen base rate (15 steals in 27 attempts). That year saw his stock rise according to BA, with Melian moving up to #72. He moved to Tampa for his age 19 season in the Florida State League, and he showed a more patient batting eye there -- .283/.358/.413. Despite that, he stayed as the #72 prospect. 

The Yankees then shipped him to the Cincinnati Reds for Denny Neagle in what the New York Times called "sticker price" as the Reds gave up Drew Henson, Melian, Ed Yarnell, and Brian Reith. As soon as Melian was traded, he dropped off the prospect charts, never to be seen again there.

Oddly, the folks at Fleer gave Melian a Brewers-logoed card showing him in a Reds uniform -- likely from 2002 spring training. He only played 56 games in the Milwaukee system at Double-A Huntsville in 2002. I had no idea that that was even the case.

The Brewers traded him to the Cubs for a minor-league catcher. Melian never reached the majors, though he played in the Winter League in his home country of Venezuela as recently as 2015.

Junior

I just gave Weeks this nickname today. He doesn't have one listed for him anywhere that I can find. But, perhaps in an effort to sound younger than his 33 years (and, ostensibly, because he had a son that he and his wife named Rickie so he wanted to "keep [the name] alive"), he added the "Junior" to his name this past offseason.  

It's good that there aren't any other famous people nicknamed "Junior," right?

The Professor

This is another made-up nickname, but it fits for reasons I'll describe below. I feel like I've talked about Khalid Ballouli before here, but I guess not. Now I will.

Ballouli was the Brewers 6th round pick in 2002 out of Texas A&M. He pitched in five seasons in the minor leagues for the Brewers but never got higher than Double-A -- and for good reason. His results simply did not show that he should advance. Ballouli continued working on his degree at A&M in the meantime, and he graduated from there the same year he was released by the Brewers -- 2006. He earned his master's degree in 2008 and his Ph.D in 2011 -- all from A&M. 

Currently, and as the link above shows, he is an Assistant Professor in Sport and Entertainment Management at the University of South Carolina. He teaches "Sport and Entertainment Marketing," "Sport Media in Live Entertainment and Sport," and "Research Methods and Applied Statistics." I have to admit that his field of study is really interesting to me, though I've never taken a single business class in my life. Maybe that's why it's interesting.

The Kid


The highlight of the envelope from Brian came with the inclusion of the "Ultimate Star Materials" relic card of Robin Yount. I needed it for my Robin Yount collection, so that was an excellent addition.

But, I have to take issue a bit with Baseball Reference saying that Yount's nickname was "The Kid." Yes, he was called that from time to time. But those of us in Milwaukee in the late 1970s/early 1980s really did not call him that. To us, he was "Rockin' Robin," complete with that 1958 song from Bobby Day of the same name.

None of that Michael Jackson remake for us. We want that old-school stuff.

Brian/PATPDude, thank you very much for the great cards, for #SuperTrading, and especially for the Yount Relic!

The Best Friends to Have

Some people live the right way and, as a result, good things happen to them. Others -- like me -- go to law school and end up with the karma that we deserve.  It's only fair.

Now, I don't know this for sure myself, but I'm pretty sure that Brian -- the Play at the Plate Dude (and I'll call him PATPdude, like his Twitter handle) -- is one of those people who must live right and reap the benefits. I mean, how great is it for him that he has a good friend who used to own a card store and still looks for good deals to purchase cards? 

A few months back, PATPdude bought up some 5000-count boxes from his LCS buddy. They were jammed full of cards from the 1990s, including a lot of Ultra, Fleer Tradition, and Upper Deck products. PATPdude decided to play Santa Claus and sent these out to folks who requested teams or players. He was kind enough to package up a huge stack of cards to me as well.

Because these cards came from the late 1990s, I'm calling it the Geoff-pocalypse. Geoff Jenkins cards of all kinds and varieties got added to my player and team collections. 

Of all of these, I have to admit that the 1971 Topps knockoffs that are Fleer Vintage are among my favorite cards of all.  It's probably for the fact that they are 1971 Topps knockoffs. I have to think that these Upper Deck Vintage sets from the early 2000s are part of the reason that Topps had done a lot of recycling of card designs lately -- if only to reinvigorate their copyrights over the intellectual property contained within the design.

See what I mean about lawyers.

Anyway, Jenkins was not the only PC that saw additions. I included only two cards here, but there were a few Jeff Cirillos as well.

Outside of those two guys -- and yes, there are more PC additions later in this post -- there were a lot of very random cards. It wasn't that they were random for being included, but more like they were random because the Brewers employed a ton of less-than stellar players in the late 1990s and early 2000s.  

It was like they felt the need to act like an expansion team in the wake of changing to the National League or something. Here are a few of those guys.

Henry Blanco became Greg Maddux's personal catcher later in Maddux's Atlanta career, and then did the same in Chicago when Maddux went back there. I personally did not realize that Blanco stuck around until 2013 with the Mariners and Blue Jays before he retired at the age of 42. He's older than me!

Jamey Wright looks like he should be a dominating strikeout pitcher at 6'6" tall and 240 pounds. In an other "I didn't realize" moment: I didn't realize that Jamey Wright pitched in 61 games for the Dodgers this year. It was his second time around with the Dodgers, which is disappointing because that means he's stuck on 10 teams in his 19-season career.

Milwaukee had tons of catching prospects roll through town, it seems. Cancel came up with the Brewers in 1999. He then appeared next in the major leagues in 2008 with the Mets. 

I always like Mike Myers for his side-winding pitching style that looked like Dan Quisenberry from the left side. He wasn't bad in Austin Powers, either. But damn, don't stop by his house on Halloween.

I'm always happy when a player pans out. Sanchez apparently just needed an opportunity with Arsenal.

That's what Google Images tells me, at least. Don't tell them that the Arsenal guy is Alexi.

Bob Wickman falls into the "local boy done good" category for the Brewers. Born in Green Bay and raised in Oconto Falls/Abrams, he played his college baseball at the University of Wisconsin-Whitewater (which is now an NCAA Division III football powerhouse, having won 5 of the past 7 championships and having appeared in 8 of the last 9). Wickman left for Cleveland when the Brewers traded him as part of the Richie Sexson deal. If only the Brewers had kept the PTBNL in that trade -- Marco Scutaro.

Speaking of Halloween.

That Scott Karl card -- did Fleer lose its license in mid-printing?

It was like there was a new rookie catcher every year in Milwaukee. And look -- it's Ronnie Belliard before he gained 60 pounds!

As I mentioned above, PATPdude also hit the other player collections that fell within that late 90s/early 2000s period, such as Ben Sheets. That Donruss Originals with the 1988 Donruss design looks super sharp. Or is that just me?

Any late 1990s Brewers sets would be incomplete without David Nilsson. I really like this Stadium Club card from 1999 (I think). It does look a lot like the current version that is out now, doesn't it?

Jose Valentin always gets the best photos.

I think Fleer intentionally used the same photos for its 1999 Fleer Vintage '61 insert set in the Fleer Tradition set. Otherwise, I would expect the retro-blogosphere to be up in arms about this Jeromy Burnitz pair.

Woo boy that's a lot of that chin.

I like how Ultra featured Cal Eldred on the mound pitching for the Brewers rather than rehabilitating in the minor leagues (unless they were photoshopping some minor league photos). Arguably, he did an equal amount of both during his Brewers years.

Finally, there was one unexpected addition to one of my "old" guys from the 1982 Brewers. This Cecil Cooper card was part of the 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game set. That set included cards for Paul Molitor, Gorman Thomas, Cooper, Robin Yount, and Ben Oglivie. So, it was much like the 1982 Brewers team -- all hitting!

PATPDude/Brian -- thank you very much for sending the massive stacks of cards to me. I featured only a few of them here because I didn't want to crash browsers every time I load up this post!

I promise you that I'll come up with some cards to send your way soon.