Another learning experience: '64 Topps Minnie Minoso

I've said it a few times recently, card collecting has really helped me learn more about some of the greats, and no so greats of the sports I love.

At the monthly card show this past weekend, I picked up some more '64 Topps cards, including one of the high-number cards (of which I need many), Minnie Minoso.

I remember Minnie from the mid 70's when the White Sox brought him back to pinch hit at the age of 50, and then again 4 years later in 1980.  While I remembered those events fairly well, picking up this card made me realize I didn't know a lot about Minnie's career back in the 50's & 60's.

If Minnie hadn't come back to play in the 70's, this '64 Topps card would have been his farewell card The only other "mainstream" card after this was a '67 Topps Venezuelan release.   Minoso is still signing cards for Topps, and if you click on this eBay auction you'll see that he has a really great 'graph (imo). 

Being the stats geek that I am, I decided to look up his career stats, and found some interesting tidbits.

Minnie led the league in HBP an amazing 10 times, with two of those seasons seeing him get plunked more than 20 times.  Minoso led the league in steals 3x, while also leading in caught stealing 6 times.  The Cuban Comet (great nickname btw) also led the AL in games played in LF 7 times, led the AL in WAR in 1954 with a 8.3 rating, and was in the top 10 for OPS 8 times, despite only having as high as 24 HR in a season once. 

Minnie finished 2nd in the ROY voting in 1951, despite having what I believe to be much better statistics than the winner, Gil McDougald of the Yankees.   The funny thing is even though Minoso finished 2nd in ROY voting, he finished ahead of McDougald in the MVP race.  Figure that one out!!  The NL winner for ROY in '51 was some guy named Mays, you might have heard of him.  Minoso finished 4th in MVP voting 4 different times during his career as well.

Minnie also played quite a few positions early in his career.  When not patrolling left field, he played third, short, and the other two outfield spots also.  His career hit total fell just short of 2000, and his Hall of Fame aspirations never came to pass as he only hit 20% of the ballots twice during his 15 year eligibility period. 

And here I only knew him for his plate appearances after the age of 50....

Thanks for reading, Robert

So long Roy

I was and I wasn't surprised by the decision of Roy Halladay to retire today.  I thought he might give it another go, maybe later in 2014 after taking some time to heal. 

With his 37th birthday coming in May, I'm sure that Halladay was probably tired of the grind.  Ready to spend some time with his family.  Ready to get on with his life after the last 2 contracts that should have him set up comfortably for the remainder of his life.

I remember being upset when Roy wanted out of Toronto; in hindsight I can't say that I blame him.  The Jays really weren't going anywhere with the roster that they had, and Halladay was ready to be on a contender.  The trade in late 2009 was Halladay to the Phillies for 3 prospects.  Travis D'Arnaud is now part of the Mets organization.   Kyle Drabek had his 2nd Tommy John surgery in 2012 and is still yet to fulfill his promise.  The 3rd player was Michael Taylor, who was traded to the A's, and eventually through other trades turned into Anthony Gose, a speedster who at just 23 has time to develop hopefully into the leadoff hitter that the Jays need.

So 16 years, 3 20 win seasons and 2 Cy Young awards later, Halladay retires a Blue Jay, via a 1 day contract.  Classy move by the player and by the club, and Roy will likely be honored on the Level of Excellence sometime in the next couple of years (I hope).  When he does earn that honor, he will become the 7th Jays player to be so honored (Bell, Stieb, Carter, Alomar, Fernandez and Delgado). 

While having no World Series ring and "just" 203 career wins will probably not get him into the hall of fame, Roy is a member of two very limited clubs.  He is one of 21 pitchers to throw a perfect game, and only one of 2 pitchers to throw a no-hitter in the post season.  7 straight opening day starts for the Blue Jays is probably a record that will stand for quite a long time as well.

Roy, I hope you enjoy your retirement, and I look forward to watching the ceremony honoring your place in Jays history on the LoE.

Thanks for reading, Robert

The blue tape special

Dozens of times before I've gushed about the envelopes that other bloggers send me.   This card was great, that card fit my collection perfectly, etc. etc. etc.

I received an envelope today from many time trading partner Brian at the great PATP blog, and it was just a great as all the others.  It also provided me with a good laugh.

I don't know how this got started, but in one of the previous envelopes that Brian sent me, he lamented the fact that he didn't have any blue tape to secure the cards inside.  I don't ever recall having said one way or the other my preference on the blue tape debate, but I'm pretty sure that I've never bitched about how other bloggers have packed cards.

Beggars can't be choosers, right?

The note inside the envelope did give me a good chuckle though....

There certainly was blue tape!!  As always, the cards were both well protected, and fantastic additions to my collection. 

How about some blue Blue Jays to start?

One of these days I'm going to have to start getting the blue/red/green parallels together from this year's Topps set.  The want lists for each color are on my baseball want list page if you may have any that you're looking to unload...

I know very little about the UD A Piece of History set from 2009, other than that the base set was small (200 cards).  What I didn't know is that there were multiple colors of parallels.  This red Vernon Wells is the first parallel that I own for the Jays from that set..

The multiple parallels are probably overkill, but for me, this red for some reason works.

Brian has a nice healthy "obsession" with the SNI set, and as always a few serial numbered cards came my way.   You will see them as part of the next SNI post.

The piece de resistance, were two more autographs to add to the Jays auto/jersey collection.

let's start with a former first round pick, Kevin Witt

This 1999 SP Signature Edition auto is now the 2nd oldest "hit" I own of a Jays player.  Witt never had a real chance to prove himself with the Jays, and the only decent amount of time he ever saw in the majors was with the Tigers in 2003.  10 homers in 273 ABs with a .263 was not bad, but not enough to earn him a permanent job.

The other auto was of another player who never had a chance in Toronto, Randy Wells.

Just goes to show you that all you need to get on a card is appear in 1 game for a club.  That's all that Wells ever played in Toronto, a 12 pitch 9th inning against the Red Sox on April 5, 2008.  Wells was actually a rule 5 draftee by the Jays, and 11 days after his only appearance in a Jays uniform, he was returned to the Cubs.  Wells retired from the Rangers organization last April.

I know I'm kind of showing my age by playing off the "blue plate special" in this post's title, but receiving great cards for my collection never gets old.

Thank you Brian!!  Much appreciated...

Thanks for reading, Robert

Serial Insanity cards 1036-1040

I actually had to wait for cards to come in so I could have a post of 5 for you.  This keeping up with the set is new for me, it feels kind of weird....

Anyhow, enjoy the next 5

Card # 1036:  Derrek Lee

Serial Number:  785
38th card out of 50 for the Braves

I honestly thought after the month he had with Pittsburgh at the end of the 2011 season that the Pirates, or someone else, would surely sign him.  Instead, he fell off the face of the earth (or so to speak).   Anyone know where D-Lee is now?

Card # 1037:  Henry Blanco

Serial Number:  775
46th card out of 50 for the Mets

Only 19 teams left for Henry....Dodgers, Rockies, Brewers, Braves, Twins, Cubs, Padres, Mets, Diamondbacks, Mariners, Blue Jays are all franchises that Henry has called home at one point in his career.  I would love to know if there is anyone else that has served 15+ major league seasons but doesn't have 1000 games played to their credit.  

Card # 1038:  Domonic Brown

Serial Number:  1089
32nd card out of 50 for the Phillies

I heard a rumor not too long ago of a potential swap...Domonic Brown for Jose Bautista.  If you are the Phillies GM, do you really make that trade?  I am a fan of Joey Bats, but if you're the Phillies do you trade a guy who had his coming out party last year for a guy 8 years older with a history of wrist troubles.  For a team that needs to get younger, my opinion would be to keep Brown and take your chances...

Card # 1039:  Andrew Carignan

Serial Number:  1229
44th card out of 50 for the Athletics

Like I've said in the past, this SNI set has been great for me to learn about ball players that I may never have heard of.  Andrew Carignan is one such player.  I was curious because his last stats show him pitching in 2012, but nothing at all in 2013.  A little research showed Tommy John surgery cost him the latter part of 2012 and all of 2013.  He's a free agent now, so we'll have to see if he makes it back to the bigs sometime in '14

Card # 1070:  Brendan Ryan

Serial Number:  981
29th card out of 50 for the Mariners

Brendan didn't get Ellsbury $$$, but he recently signed a 3 year deal to stay with the Bronx Bombers.  Jeter has to retire someday, right??

Thanks for reading, Robert

I'm glad I waited

Impulse purchases.  They are probably the bane of my card collecting existence. 

New and shiny.

Retro.  Vintage.

You put a special word on the pack, or tell me that it's new, and chances are over the past 20 years that you had me instantly hooked.

I can gladly say that watching, reading, and sometimes listening to what fellow bloggers have posted has paid off for me.

I've developed a bit of patience when it comes to card collecting.  Maybe part of that is because I'm 46 years old now.  Maybe part of it is that I'm married to a woman who has taught me that thinking is a good thing.  I don't know why it is, but patience has crept into my vocabulary.

Case in point.  The semi-annual Hockey Card Expo was in Toronto almost a month ago.  It took place the weekend after Upper Deck released their annual base set (Series 1).  In the past, with the amount of money that I had for the show, the $85 price tag for a box of new and shiny wouldn't have bothered me.  Instead, this year I broke it down, and figured out that the $85 worked out to about $3.50 a pack.

For a base brand.

Believe it or not, I passed.  I'm glad I waited.  I purchased two rack packs of Series 1 this past weekend at the big blue box, and there was no wow factor for me.   Nothing.

Don't get me wrong.  I love Upper Deck hockey products.  Always have.  But paying the price for shiny and new has stopped, and for that I'm happy. 

The 2 rack packs yielded nothing major; the only "inserts" were a couple of canvas parallels.  I do like the canvas cards, and have been tempted to work on completing a set of them one day, but with all the other sets/projects I have going on, I really don't have the time or the money to put a set together.

Love the look and feel of the canvas...

I did find 4 cards that I wanted to share with everyone, 4 cards that showcase some of the great photography and photo choices that UD is famous for.

I've stated on posts in the past how I enjoy photos of players signing autographs for the fans, and this Ryan Smyth card just reinforces that love...

This next photo might show a bit of bias since I'm a Leafs fan, but this photo of Dion Phaneuf is for some crazy reason really cool to me...

I would love to know how they managed to get Phaneuf himself exposed properly, and the rest of the picture blurry.  It is a weird effect, but very cool.

Anyone running a card of the year contest?  I'd like to add this next card in as my pick.  Look out for James Neal....

Holy net cam shot!!  Just incredible.  If you check out the scoreboard above James, you can see him falling into the net at another angle. 

I do have one more card to show here.  Let me preface all this by saying, I am neither a Boston Bruin, or a Brad Marchand fan.  But this card just speaks volumes...

I do not make it a point to post about tragedies or anything else going on in the world, because we have enough in our lives to deal with without having to read about it on someone's blog (especially my long winded drivel).

I will say this, the Boston Marathon bombing was a disgusting act, and how it galvanized Boston and this country reinforced my faith in humanity.

Upper Deck got that card right....

But back to my original point.   I can now say I was disappointed in the very high price of boxes at the Expo, and in my opinion was just a shameful cash grab by everyone.  Yes, it is their right to sell the product for what they deem is fair, but I'm glad I waited.

Thanks for reading, Robert