I thought I bought the Blue Jays in the group break

I participated recently in a great group break by Chris over at the Nachos Grande blog.  I was excited late last week to receive a big envelope full of cards, many of which I didn't own already (a good thing).

While I struck out on any "hits", I did get some interesting cards.  Four of these cards actually picture Jays players in other team's uniforms, something I know that a lot of people don't particularly care for.

At least the first player, Raul Mondesi, is wearing a uniform that has the same colors as the Jays.

Mondesi spent 2.5 seasons in Toronto, fairing reasonably well with 66 HRs.  It was interesting to go through his career stats and see that he had stops in Anaheim (8 games) and Atlanta (41 games) to finish up his career.   I still think that the Dodgers got the better end of the deal (Shawn Green) that sent Mondesi to the Jays.

These two cards represent two players that were at different points of their career.  Ted Lilly came to the Jays in a deal with the Oakland A's for outfielder Bobby Kielty (another player I don't remember as a Jay).  Lilly had 3 decent seasons in Toronto, winning 37 games with a combined ERA of 4.52.  Pat Hentgen was at the end of his career when he returned to Toronto in 2004, and the numbers showed it.  Pat's ERA was almost 7 in 16 starts that year, and with only 2 wins by July 15th, Pat didn't pitch another game after that.  There are rumors floating that Hentgen may become the Jays pitching coach some time in the near future. 

This last card I need a little bit of help with...

This 2002 Fleer Maximum card features Carlos Delgado in a vintage uniform that I don't recognize.  I'm guessing that they wore these uniforms sometime during 2001, but I can't find anything that describes what they represent.  Raul Mondesi also sported this type of uniform on his 2002 Fleer Maximum card.  If anyone has any information about these retro duds, please feel free to comment.  I would love to know what era they are from.


These 4 cards are just a small part of a great stack of Blue Jays that will be added to the collection.   Thanks for the group break Chris!

thanks for reading, Robert

Reading for comprehension helps

One thing that I have no problem doing is poking fun at myself.  I enjoy finding humor in some of the stupid things that I do.

This is one of those times.

On Monday night, I was feeling a little bit low, and not having spent a lot of money on cards since the show at the beginning of the month, I decided to hit eBay and try and find the final few cards to finish off the '75 Topps set.

Some pretty notable names on my list of remaining cards.  Joe Morgan, Carlton Fisk, the Mantle/Newcombe '56 MVP card, and this card below...

A pretty fair specimen of card #260, probably the best catcher that I'll see in my lifetime, Johnny Bench.

Just so you can see what I saw in the auction listing, take a look at it for yourself here.  I will say that the seller described the card very accurately, the centering and the corner were described correctly.

Anyone figure out what I missed?  If not, here's the one line description...

1975 Topps mini #260 Johnny bench.

It would have helped if I had looked at that one particular word.   I know why I missed it though.

After 2+ years in the blogosphere, I have come to understand the word is actually spelled

MMMMMMMMMMMMIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNNNNNNNNNNIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII

See that my friends?  I do pay attention.  Sometimes to a fault....

Oh well, I guess I'll have to see if there are any bloggers out there putting together a '75 Topps mini set that are in need of a Johnny Bench. 

At least the seller accepted my offer price.  LOL

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Insanity cards 991-995

Getting close to the 1000 card mark for the SNI set.  That card will be shown this weekend. 

Meanwhile, enjoy the next 5...

Card 991:  Brian Fuentes

Serial Number:  501
38th card out of 50 for the Cardinals

Ahhh, the life of a reliever.  Over a 12 year major league career, Fuentes had a grand total of 1 AB.  Brian went 0 for 1 against a fellow named Nate Bump.  Yea, I never heard of Nate either.  At least Fuentes didn't strike out...

Card # 992:  Chris Perez

Serial Number:  894
33rd card out of 50 for the Indians

Gee, what a coincidence, Perez also only has 1 AB in his career.  Anyone remember Joe Nelson?   I'm sure Perez does, because he struck out against Joe...

Card # 993:  Endy Chavez

Serial Number:  1138
28th card out of 50 for the Mariners

Endy's had more than 1 AB in his career, so that story line is out of the question.  Endy had some success north of the border. Not for the Jays, but in Montreal during the last 3 years of the Expos existence.  By the way, helluva grab by Chavez in this photo.

Card # 994:  Carlos Santana

Serial Number:  1093
34th card out of 50 for the Indians

Great looking card of Carlos in full catchers gear.  Is it just me, or does it seem that Carlos has been around longer than 4 seasons.  I've mentioned this before when posting about Santana, but the Indians are doing right by him and using him in other spots to rest his legs.  Carlos had his best fielding pct of his career in 2013, with a combined .995 at catcher and 1B. 

Card # 995:  Chris Narveson

Serial Number:  942 (as you can plainly see)
28th card out of 50 for the Brewers

It has been quite a while since I've shown a card back for a SNI post.  Since I have shown Narveson before on the blog, I don't feel so guilty.  Take a look at the ride that Narveson took before finally hitting the Brewers in 2009.    The card has eighteen lines of stats on it before his debut with the Brewers in 2009, and only one line was with a MLB team (Cards in 2006).  God  bless him for that amount of dedication.

Thanks for reading, Robert

ImPrizmed

I avoided Panini Prizm baseball like it had the plague.  I prefer fully licensed products, and with Panini lacking a MLB license, the logo less cards looked less than desirable to me.

On a trip to the 'Mart on the weekend, I spied on the shelves a three pack of Panini Prizm hockey.  Seeing as I hadn't purchased any packs of cards in a few weeks, and wanting to sample something new (the store didn't have any Update), I figured what the heck.

I like them.  I know that I'm not going to chase this set, with the price point being similar to Topps Chrome (the 3 pack of Prizm cost $9.99), it's a little too much if you ask me.  Yes, that coming from the guy who is chasing down a '64 Topps set...call me whatever you like...

I did pull one base rookie out of the 3 packs, it wasn't a Galchenyuk, Huberdeau or Yakupov, but having the last name of Staal isn't too bad in today's NHL.

The pack also came with a mini pack of three blue pulsar cards.  Nice looking sure, but just another colorful temptation that I need to avoid...

If price wasn't an object, yes I would chase this set.  But a 4 pack of cards costs a little over $3, and with a 300 card set which includes 100 rookie cards, I think for sanity's sake that I'll have to pass.  I'm sure that the Maple Leaf blue parallels are something that I would really enjoy having though, so I may have to keep an eye out for them.  Only two and half weeks more until the Expo, maybe they'll have one or two of them there..

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Insanity cards 986-990

A little different take on the serial insanity set in this post. 

It consists of 5 team cards.  No players, just 5 team group shots from the 2011 Topps set.  No blurbs underneath each card.   Just a quick post for you to look over the cards.

One quick note, the Baltimore Orioles team card in this post makes them the last team to hit the 20 card mark.  I need Orioles!!! (never thought I would hear myself type that...)

Enjoy.

Card #986:  New York Mets

Serial Number:  1330
40th card out of 50 for the Mets

Card # 987:  Los Angeles Angels

Serial Number:  1096
42nd card out of 50 for the Angels

Card #988:  San Diego Padres

Serial Number:  1411
39th card out of 50 for the Padres

Card # 989:  Baltimore Orioles

Serial Number:  1167
20th card out of 50 for the O's

Card #990:  Chicago White Sox

Serial Number:  614
29th card out of 50 for the Pale Hose

thanks for looking, Robert

The joy of a completed SNI page, part 12

I prefer to do 2 or 3 posts worth of insanity cards before putting them into the binders/pages.  I decided to do the latest batch this afternoon. I put the last card in and what did I discover,another complete page!!

Here is page #14 in the set, cards numbered 118-126:

Unlike some of the pages that I've posted recently for the insanity set, barely half of this page was due to the generosity of the blogosphere.

Card 118:  Johnny Cueto from Dennis at Too Many Verlanders
Card 119:  Mark Teahen
Card 120:  Tony Armas Jr. from Dennis at Too Many Verlanders
Card 121:  Max Sapp from Max at Starting Nine
Card 122:  Angelys Nina
Card 123:  Jayson Werth was an eBay purchase
Card 124:  Troy Tulowitzki from Max at Starting Nine
Card 125:  Dan Uggla/Hanley Ramirez
Card 126:  Brian Schmitt from reader Brandon L.

Thank you to those who contributed to this page, and a big thank you to everyone out there who continues to hunt and feed my insane tendencies. 

Thanks for reading, Robert

Some PC from the DK

You have to love the emails you get that ask for your address and say "I've got free cards for you".

Free is good.  I know this because I've received free stuff in the past. 

This envelope I received yesterday from Kevin at The Diamond King blog was a great one to see.  Kevin sent me a very nice lot of cards for the SNI project. 17 of them as a matter of fact, and lots of serial numbered cards that size that fit the project have been few and far between.  That's to be expected because as the want list dwindles down, the groups will be smaller.   It'll be even more fun to find the cards as some of the teams start to fill up and get crossed off the list.  There's a few teams that are close to that threshold now, so keep an eye out for that.

The other part of the envelope contained the PC cards that entitled this post.  The Jim Thome PC jumped by 10 yesterday!

Lots of shiny stuff as well...

I especially like the '97 Score card on the bottom, I thought I might have to do a little digging to find out what kind of parallel it is, but the scripted writing on the back states that it is a "Showcase Series" card.  Score may not have been the greatest brand of cards in the 90's, but for parallel nuts such as myself, they sure made it easy to figure out what parallel you owned, because they usually identified it on the back.  The Metal card on the upper right didn't scan too well, but it's a great card when held to the light.

Die cuts?  Yes, a couple of them are in there as well, including one that I'd never seen anywhere before...

The Cheap Seat Treats insert on the left is a very interesting concept,.  You actually have to fold the seat down in order to see the entire picture of Thome (or whatever player you may have).  Not sure if I would have liked this concept when it came out in the 90's,   The Platinum Power card on the right got me thinking, mostly about the color of Platinum.  I never thought that platinum had a brownish tinge.  I guess the right color for this card would have made it more striking (for lack of a better word).  None the less, still a great card to have in the collection.

 How about a Star Rookie card of Thome holding a couple of bats and tossing a baseball.  Yes please!
The New Age performers insert card reminds me of the Big Bang Theory show with the spinning atoms.  The Team 2000 cards I remembered from Score hockey in the early 90's, and it appears that the concept worked quite well with baseball as well (at least in this case).

A fantastic envelope of cards, totally out of the blue.   Thank you very much Kevin, the cards are greatly appreciated!!

Blogger generosity strikes again...

Thanks for reading, Robert