I'm honored that Paul Molitor is thought of as a Blue Jay

(As promised, here is the third post about the cards that were sent to me by Alex at Chavez Ravining)

I'm sure that everyone has that moment when they open an envelope from a fellow blogger.  The anticipation of looking inside and seeing what goodies that your fellow man (or woman) has sent your way.  The thrill is even more intensified when you don't know what exactly you're getting.

You then open the envelope, leaf through the cards, and you get that moment where one card hits you and BAM!!  Damn...that's a great card!!

Mind you, in the envelope that Alex sent me, there was some pretty good stuff.   The serial #'d cards that you saw last night were just the start.

Let's start with some '93 Donruss, a six pack if you please:

OK, maybe not the greatest set ever produced, but for me this six pack is great because I need 6 fewer cards from this set.  The '93 Donruss base set want list is one of the biggest I have, so knocking that many off is great.

Outside of Topps base set releases from the past handful of years, I don't have a lot of parallels on the want list.  So when I get a couple more of them out of the blue, it's always great.

The Jose Reyes Finest refractor really scanned nicely, while the Rasmus X-fractor looks kind of blah.  Either way, both are quite welcome here in western PA.

Finally, this is the card that jumped right out at me.

Now I know what you're saying.  "Robert, you've said before that you don't care for unlicensed products".   This is true.  But this Red Prizm card of Paul Molitor just jumped out of the envelope for me.  Red always stands out, because that's just how red is.

I don't know about everybody out there in blog land, but for me, Molitor will always be thought of as a Brewer.  I still remember, and will never forget, during the 1993 season when Molitor returned to Milwaukee for the first time after signing with Toronto as a free agent.  I remember that a fan in the crowd had a sign that referenced "Judas", though I don't remember exactly what it said.

Harsh?  You betcha.  But it shows the pride that Brewers fans had in their players, and Molitor leaving certainly had to sting. 

Molitor had 15 great years in Milwaukee, and he also had 3 seasons in his home state of Minnesota.  Molitor recorded his 3000th hit as a member of the Twins.   Molitor's claim to fame in T.O. was being part of the World Series team in 1993.   Panini could have easily chosen to make this card about his career in Milwaukee or Minnesota and it wouldn't have bothered me in the least. 

Yes, I feel honored that Panini released this card and mentioned him as part of the Toronto baseball club.   Not that I'm a representative of the ball club, but it just feels good as a Jays fan to know that his time in Toronto wasn't an afterthought on his Hall of Fame career.  

Of course, the sarcastic ass in me has to point out that Paul never wore the #4 in Toronto.  He wore 19, because Alfredo Griffin had the 4 in 1993, and then Dick Schofield wore it for the Jays in 1994. 

Still, a great addition to the Jays collection.   Thank you Alex!!

thanks for reading, Robert