Cinquante

I've been down in S. Florida now for a little over 2 years, and I've grown quite accustomed to the amount of Spanish I hear.  I'm slowly learning numbers and a few words here and there that help me with my work (paquete=package for example).  But for this post, I decided to go back to my Canadian roots and throw the French word cinquante at you, which means the number 50.

I decided to look up the #50 on baseball reference dot com to see which Blue Jay wore that number the longest.   I had a notion of who it might be, and the site confirmed my guess:

The Terminator, Tom Henke wore the number in Toronto from 1985 through 1992, the longest period of any Jay.  I chose the 1992 Donruss card to show because the other day was the 25th anniversary of the Blue Jays first World Series title.  Interestingly, it wasn't Henke that closed out the series, it was Mike Timlin on the mound when Otis Nixon made the final out.

Speaking of flame throwers who wore the number fifty, here's another one whose career was ended too early...

J.R. Richard was well on his way to having a great career when a blood clot in his neck caused a stroke in 1980 and unfortunately ended his major league career.  He won 74 games over a 4 year period between 1976-1979, struck out 300 batters twice and led the NL in ERA once.  It surprised me to read that he still holds the Astros single season strikeout record with 313; I thought that maybe Nolan Ryan or Mike Scott may have surpassed that over time.

I tried to think of a Maple Leaf player who wore the #50 (it isn't as common in hockey), and could only think of one, Jonas Gustavsson who was the Leafs back up goalie for 3 seasons early in this decade.  Instead, I found another goalie who has had a great career so far while wearing #50, Corey Crawford.

It surprised me that this is already Corey's 8th season as the starting goalie in Chicago; I wouldn't have thought it was more than 5.  Corey also has had some great mask designs while in Chitown, I must try and find some for my goalie frankenset.

I also thought of one card in my collection with the #50 on the back that was worthy...

Why all this obsession with the number 50?

Today is my 50th birthday.  I guess I'm going to have to change the header on my blog, as I'm no longer a 40-something collector.

Merci d'avoir lu, Robert

A six pack of six packs

I figured that the post title may just entice a few beer drinkers to stop by, even though there is no beer to be found at all.  (If you're wondering, Yuengling is my beer of choice...)

I took time a couple of weeks ago to go "want list hunting".  That is, I scoured the blogosphere's various want lists to see if I could come up with a potential trade partner.  I came across Kyle and the Nolan's Dugout blog and his comprehensive want list.  I found about 40 inserts to send him (gladly) and asked him to send back what he thought was fair.

Kyle's envelope came today, and as the last trade was a couple of years ago, this was full of Blue Jays.  Going through them initially, I saw a lot of cards from the 91-93 era, and I thought to myself "don't I have a lot of these already??"

Nope.  Just like last trade with Kyle, every card in the envelope was something that could be marked off the want list.  It doesn't get any better than that.

So now you're probably wondering why the six packs.  Well, last night's post contained the number 5, so I figured let's go one higher tonight.  So here's 36 cards from the envelope that I was able to mark off the Blue Jays list.

1992 Pinnacle and Bowman.  Now there were more of these inside, but these were the 3 from each set I picked.  I especially like the Juan Guzman card showing him waiting for the baseball while holding up his trademark blue glove.  I still remember all the hype there was in Toronto that Eddie Zosky was going to be the heir apparent to Tony Fernandez at short.  Ten years and 50 major league ABs later, it just wasn't meant to be. 

I put these two together just because there were 4 Leaf cards and 2 Studio.  Sometimes a puzzle just puts itself together.  For some reason, I couldn't get the cards to sit right on the scanner bed, which is the reason for this lousy looking scan.   Patience wasn't a virtue for me this evening.

1993 Score.  There were 8 cards from this set in the envelope, and I was intrigued by the World Series Highlights cards, thinking that they were inserts.   Surprise to me, they were part of the base set.  I knocked off these cards and still need 10 more to complete the team set.   Just how damn big was '93 Score?

1993 SP!!  Now the 8 cards from this set almost emptied this want list, which is down to just 2.  I found it interesting that in the 6 photos, there is only one that doesn't feature a player looking up or at the baseball.  Come on Pat, throw the ball already so you can start focusing on it...

1993 Score Select.  That's a lot of green, and a lot of geometry going on in the borders as well.  One of these days, I'm going to go through all of Devon White's cards as a Jay and figure out how many of them feature flying bats, helmets, etc.  There's a few of them to be sure.

The last picture features the 4 sets that Kyle managed to finish off, mercifully.  How did I not have all of the '91 UD, '92 Score or Donruss cards.  Weren't there like a billion printed of each to be distributed?  The George Bell DK is from 1986, and the drawing for me represents how I always thought of George.  That intense stare, the competitive fire that made him the heart of the Jays batting order during the mid to late 80's.  I did not know that he was traded from the North side of Chicago to the South side for Sammy Sosa.  George had one OK season with the Sox, but I would say that the Cubbies got the better of that deal.

Kyle, thank you very much for the trade, the cards are great and much appreciated!!

Now if you'll excuse me I have to go lay down.  This is my 13th post this month, the most since March.  I'm getting dizzy....

thanks for reading, Robert

A new trade partner hits quite a few want lists

I received an email from a blog reader about 10 days ago, requesting a trade.  Charles wished to have all the Cleveland Indians cards off of my trade list (a devoted fan, no doubt), and in return he had a specific list of cards to send my way.

I took one look at the list and quickly agreed, and a new trade partner emerged.

Charles became the first person to knock a card off my 30 most wanted list , and it was a great card for my Jim Thome PC.

It's good to finally get the Thome Bowman RC into my collection.  That was number one on the list.

Most of the cards that are on the 30 most wanted lists are just base cards, so I'm hoping that I can get through them rather swiftly and grow the PC's a little.

2014 Topps series 2 still sadly has a want list, but 4 more cards were removed via this trade.

Still 26 more to go.  Ugh.

Charles also put a dent in a few of the Blue Jays want lists.  He completed a couple team sets:

Pushed a trio of sets to the brink of completion:

How have I not finished Donruss 91 yet?

And knocked on the door of a few others...

The piece de resistance in this trade for me was 3 more '59 Topps cards

Great cards to add to the collection!  I'm already up to 155 so far, and even though I really didn't set a goal as to how much I wanted to have by the end of the year, the halfway point of 286 cards is a thought right now. 

This was definitely a great first trade Charles, thank you very much!   I hope to carry out some more trades in the future with you.

thanks for reading, Robert

The wise one whittled away at my want lists

I was fortunate enough to catch a tweet earlier in the week from Greg at the Night Owl Cards blog, offering up some of his massive stack of Dodgers doubles.  I inquired about the availability of the 78-80 Topps portion of the doubles box, and during our twitter dialogue he informed me that an envelope was headed my way.

That envelope arrived last Thursday, and all the cards hit the Blue Jays want list, except for one solitary Dodger which knocked another number off the SNI list.

Let's take a look, shall we?

One of the earliest sets that I completed while writing this blog is the 2006 Topps set.  This was in large part due to a large donation from Greg.  Now, he finishes off the Blue Jays 2006 team set with these two cards:

On the back of Burnett's card, Topps mentioned that A.J. had the highest average fastball in MLB during 2005.  The 95.6 average is quite impressive, although I'm not too sure that I can remember the 104mph pitch that the back of the card claims he threw during that season.   I'm sure we would have heard more about it over the years with all the flame throwers that dominate the closer position now...

Greg sent a small sample of Panini needs my way.  It's kind of disappointing that Panini isn't able to secure a MLB license, because cards like the Hometown Heroes Shawn Green on the right would have been so much better with the Jays logo. 

Staying with the modern issues, this quintet of recent releases were all knocked off the want list.   The A&G Melky Cabrera is one of the 2 Blue Jay SPs.  The 2 opening day cards cut that list in half.  Drew Hutchison has become a part of the Jays rotation this year, and has pitched OK so far with a 7-9 record and a 4.44 ERA.   The Jays need to let him hit more, he's 2 for 3 so far this season!

Knock one more card of the serial insanity set.   Jon Garland is serial #'d 715, and is the 33rd Dodger card out of 50 for the set.  Just 355 more serial #'s to go.

Greg's note inside the envelope said there was a reminder of the good ol' days.  Sure enough these three 1992 Donruss cards did just that.   Greg Myers was actually traded during the 1992 season, right before the July 31st trade deadline in a deal that saw Mark Eichhorn return to the Jays.  Both Duane Ward and Mike Timlin were integral parts of the teams that won the '92 and '93 World Series.

Speaking of the 1992 season, included in the package was something I hadn't seen in a very long time.

A pocket schedule from the '92 season, in perfect condition! 

The one thing I got a kick out of when I read it was the note on the middle panel.   All games on CJCL Radio 1430.  With the Blue Jays having success in the previous seasons leading up to 1992, CJCL in Toronto realized there was a big opportunity to increase its listener base, and thus became Canada's first all sports radio channel.   The station eventually migrated to AM 590, where it sits today as "The Fan 590", which I still listen to for Leafs broadcasts, and anytime I'm able to head home for visits with family and friends.

All in all, a great package, and very much appreciated.  Thank you Greg!!

thanks for reading, Robert

Cross 5 more off the want list

The one good thing about finally getting the want list up?  Being able to remove cards from the list.  I figured for tonight's post, I'd go through the remaining piles of Jays cards on my desk, find 5 that I was able to cross off the list, and show them off.

Nothing fancy here.

 

It wasn't that long ago that J.P. Arencibia was the next big thing behind the plate for the Blue Jays.  J.P. can't say that he didn't get a chance in Toronto, he was the #1 catcher for the past 3 seasons.  Even though the power was there, a .212 career average wasn't what the Jays were looking for out of their #1 backstop.  So they brought Dioner Navarro in.   I have a feeling that J.P. will do well in Texas...

With all the diamond parallels that came through my house in 2011, I was surprised that I didn't have this card.  Fingers crossed that he can stay healthy this year and join Edwin Encarnacion in the 40 homer club.

I'd forgotten about Jesse Litsch until I saw this card.  It turns out that he had some serious health issues and didn't pitch at all in 2012.  Jesse chose free agency over a AAA assignment to the Buffalo Bisons, and hasn't signed with a club since.  It looks as if he's trying to make a comeback though.  His twitter feed @JesseLitsch shows some pics of his new "arm slot". 

I remember buying what seemed to be a million of these cards, 1992 Donruss.  I guess there wasn't as many as I thought.  Tom was a rental for the '91 Blue Jays and pitched fairly well, going 6-7 with a 2.98 ERA.  He didn't fare as well during the postseason; his 2 starts were not great, with an ERA over 8.  The Jays lost to the eventual WS champion Minnesota in 5 games.

Another card that I was surprised to find I didn't have as part of the Jays collection.  I was always under the impression that Gruber was a Blue Jays draft pick, but I found out that he was actually a rule 5 draftee from the Cleveland Indians.  Kelly spent the entire 1984 season with the Jays, basically taking up a roster spot by playing only 15 games with the Jays.  It would be another two years before Gruber earned some regular playing time in Toronto.

There's a chance that I may be able to find enough time this weekend to get all the remaining Jays cards sorted through.  That would mean I would only have to update the want list with the 2013/2014 needs.

So you're saying there's a chance.....

Thanks for reading, Robert