Stumbled Across Pack-Pulled Mike Trout & Bryce Harper Pre-Rookies

 

I decided to cheat a little bit on the $50 challenge. I decided to go through the books of cards I've gotten in the last few years to put together a modern shipment for Comc. In my minor league book, I just so happened to run across a couple really interesting cards.

These 4 cards are the big hits from some packs of 2018 Panini Stars & Stripes and 2011 Topps Heritage minor leagues. During the 2010's I would just grab some cheap packs of cards at Target just to scratch the "I want to open cards" itch.

Out of the 2018 Stars & Stripes cards, I hit a bunch of autos and relics. The Masyn Winn is listing at about $40.  I also pulled a Logan Forsythe & Petey Halpin auto that I haven't found a price on. But the Halpin is a x/10, so I think there might be some money in there.

Now, the Heritage was awesome. Looking back, there are a couple of nice cards in there. A Mike Fltynewicz relic, Christian Yelich and Nolan Arenado base. And a couple of the Baseball America cards.  But 4 really jumped out at me.  This Jesus Montero black border and a Matt Harvey Baseball America base both are $10 cards. But the Bryce, which is crisp as hospital sheets I think could be a BGS 9 and rate at about $30.

The $50 Collection Challenge

 I was inspired by a YouTube video series that I stumbled into the other day. The series featured a person's quest to build an "impressive" video game collection with just $10. The idea is that you start with $10, flip for profits until you can afford to keep some of your favorites, and continue to buy & flip with the fund you originally funded with the tenner.

I mean, yeah, a lot of people have done it. Why in my 42 years traversing the solar system I never considered doing it myself is a mystery that will be unsolved.

I decided to give myself a $50 challenge.  I have some cards sitting around, I bought a bunch of packs of random goodies over the last three years, and my mom saved a very random assortment of cards from my youth (I found a 1989 Star Vancouver Canadians card in the 50ct box as I remember). 

Last night I started the challenge. I'm going to be working pretty exclusively through eBay for the time being to stock my collection, and using Comc for the sales.  Eventually, I would like to build enough of a collection and reputation within the community to start sales & fulfillment myself.  If only to give myself a reason to build a website.

Now, let's take a look at what we're starting with...

2020 Phillies Team Set (1971 Style)

MLB Look Back: San Francisco Giants' Greatest Hits

 

The third team in our "Best of the Bigs" uniform series is the San Francisco Giants. The Giants are one of the few teams in baseball to not feel the need to have blue or red as part of their imaging (Oakland moved away from blue & red when they left Shibe and moved west to Kansas City). Orange and black are one of my favorite uniform color combinations, and the Giants have done it very well for a very long time.

MLB Look Book: D-Backs Hot Take Ahead

 We're spending this off season looking at some of my favorite MLB uniforms. Maybe we will get back to non-MLB looks, but right now, we're sticking to the bigs. I started a couple days ago with my favorite Phillies' uniform, the 1989 roadies.

Today we're going out on another limb, and talk about what I like about the current Arizona Diamondbacks set.

Dipping into Sabermetrics: Cape Cod League

Major League Baseball has created their own summer college leagues. Which I'm afraid will be incredibly detrimental to the established summer college leagues, three of which operate up here in New England (the Cape Cod League, Futures League & New England League). The Cape being the most storied & gloried of all leagues. 

That made me curious how these new MLB-sponsored leagues will effect leagues like the Cape Cod League, and how the Cape Cod League has effected Major League Baseball. But let's narrow that down. We all know that a measurable percentage of Major League alums have spent time on the Cape. I still regard my two CCBL sets as pearls in my card collection. But let's look at more recent Capers. And, let's use this opportunity to learn some sabermetrics. What say, eh?

MLB Look Book: Philadelphia Phillies 1989

Taking on non-MLB/MiLB team uniforms is just a crazy task. The nice, universal graphic styles aren't there like football. So yeah. We're going to switch it up. Let's take a look at my favorite Major League Baseball uniforms & logo sets.

It's no secret that I grew up as a Philadelphia Phillies fan. So let's start with the Phillies. The 80's powder blue road set is kind of everyone's favorite Phillies' look. But there was a short period of time between the powder blues and the current incarnation of the Phillies' look that I think is wildly overlooked.

In 1989 the Phillies started a shift from the glory days of the 80's to their one-shot World Series run in 1993. The shift started with the team dropping the powder blue roads and moving to the light grays they've worn since. Then 42 games into the season, Mike Schmidt announced his immediate retirement. Without going to retrosheet, if memory serves, the Phillies were in San Francisco. The day after the announcement, Rick Schu went out to play third. Charlie Hayes moved into the everyday slot on the left side (and made his mark by costing Terry Mulholland a perfect game, but then saving the no-hitter). 

Not the MLB 1: Gary SouthShore RailCats

 Last September I did the Not the NFL series, where I put together a football league based on dope uniforms and cool helmets. So, with not much else going on, at least until the NHL thinks they get underway in January, let's revisit that idea for baseball.

We'll be looking at my personal favorite non-Major League (and probably non-MiLB teams) uniforms. I don't know how many we'll look at. But we'll keep it fun.

TTM Success #32 & 33 - The Voice of Bonnie Swanson, Jennifer TIlley, and former Phillie Bill Campbell

Sorry, but no photos.  As I mentioned on Sunday, my current computer is slowly going the way of the buffalo.  So instead of trying to wrestle any sort of performance out of this thing, I'm just going to report very simply that I did receive two TTM returns today.

I also now have about 80% of the parts I need for my new computer.  But of course I'm waiting for the most important parts (you know, useless stuff, like a motherboard, memory kit, hard drive and power supply).

Regardless.  Today's returns came back from voice actress and poker player Jennifer Tilley as well a former Phillies pitcher Bill Campbell.

Campbell had a 57 game shot with the Phillies in 1984, the beginning of the tail end of what had been a workhorse bullpen career.  Campbell twice lead his league in games or games finished and in 1977 lead the American League in saves (31) grabbing his only All-Star Game nod as well as some MVP and Cy Young votes.  Impressive feat for the 70's when relievers were the punters of the the sport.  In 1983 Campbell pitched in exactly half the regular season games the Chicago Cubs played.  But his ERA ballooned to four and a half, and after the '83 season he began a 4 team in 4 season tour that would lead into the end of his career.  His only post season glory came as a rostered pitcher for Whitey Herzog's Cardinals in 1985, striking out 5 in 4 innings against the Kansas City Royals.

Campbell returned 2 Phillies TTM Frankenset customs in 15 days (give or take, since I think my partner left the envelopes in her handbag for a few days...)

Jennifer Tilley first shot into my consciousness about 20 years ago.  I was (am?) a massive fan of the first Matrix movie, and was told that the Wachovski Brothers had made a move called Bound as a demo tape to Warner Brothers before the studio would trust them with a very large boat load of money to make the greatest cyberpunk film ever.

Bound was a very different movie, and was a three-hander starring Tilley and Gina Gershon as the protagonists and Joe Pantaliano as Tilley's gangster husband bad guy.  Tilley's character falls for Gershon (and I mean, who wouldn't), and pulls Gershon's character - fresh out of a 5 year bid - into a Tarantino meets Thelma and Louise spiral.

The movie is incredibly well done.  There are hints at the pioneering cinematography that we would see in the Matrix series, but the handling of a very small story as well as a really unique take on a love triangle make Bound a great stand alone watch. 

After Bound, Tilley stayed in my ear as a voice actress, handling the microphone as Bonnie Swanson, the perma-pregnant wife of Joe in Family Guy.  More recently, Tilley found herself in a relationship with poker's Unabomber, Irish player Phil Laak.  Laak introduced her to the game, and she found a fantastically lucrative second career in card rooms.  She is one of a handful of women to win bracelets at the World Series of Poker and for the last few years has been a mainstay at the top of "Best Female Players" lists.

Tilley returned in about 3 weeks via an email request sent to an address that is widely available.  If you can't find it, feel free to leave a comment below, and I'll dig through my outbox to accommodate.

New computer is being built tomorrow night.  Thursday, fingers crossed, I will be doing some NHL 20 streaming on twitch.tv/revdonkbonkers.  And then from there, it should be back to a more consistent posting schedule.

Hope your mailboxes are full of autographs and light on bills.

TTM Return # 31 - Former Phillies' Outfielder & Coach, Milt Thompson || Fan Pack Return #19 Da Bears

Player: Milt Thompson
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 9/21/19 (77 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Cincinnati Reds' Stadium listed on SCF.


Team: Chicago Bears
Sent: 9/13/19
Return: 9/21/19 (8 days)
Items: 2 stickers, 2 2019 pocket schedules
Address Source: email from SCF.
See all Fan Pack Returns Here

Nice way to end the week, getting two returns in a day.  That's pretty uncommon here, considering the low volume of requests I actually send out.  But it was nice to get Milt Thompson back after almost two months (77 days).  And an 8 day turn around to get a couple of Chicago Bears schedules is really good, too.

TTM Success #30: Fourth Phillies' Manager Return - Pat Corrales

Player: Pat Corrales 
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 9/7/19 (63 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Atlanta, GA address listed on SCF.

Most of us have probably moved into fantasy football mode (I'm currently up 92-74 with an 83% win probability).  So I'll keep this short.

TTM Success #29: 1963 Gold Glove Winner Bobby Wine

Player: Bobby Wine
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 8/2/19 (44 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Norristown, PA address listed on SCF.

This is the longest I've waited for a return at 111 days. But for an 80 year old, Bobby Wine is still returning autographs for fans and still has a great, fluid, sharp signature.

TTM Success #28: Dale Sveum & New SCF.com Site Seems to Be Rolling Out

Player: Dale Sveum
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 8/2/19 (44 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Scottsdale, AZ address listed on SCF.

Dale Sveum is definitely a first ballot Baseball Name Hall of Fame entry.  Sveum played for the Phillies in 1992.  Philly was the first stop on a seven team tour that started after he spent the first six years of his career in Milwaukee (way back when that meant playing in the American League.

Stadium Visit: McCoy Stadium (Pawtucket, RI) Red Sox vs Mudhens and the Greatest Fireworks Show Ever

The PawSox were hosting the Toledo Mudhens, which are Maxwell Klinger's favorite team (if you've never watched M*A*S*H, then we can't be friends).  So my partner and I met up with a couple of our friends to catch a game (my partner would like you all to know that the seats are too narrow and lead to many people invading her personal space, by the way).

Set Review: 1990 ProCards Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons

Grades
Quality: B
Design: B
Star Power: C
Collectiblity: B
Intangibles: B
Overall: C
Value: $5

This is the standard bearer set for peak-hobby minor league card design.  The 1990 ProCards set is full of stars and the design hints at some of the classic Topps designs (none the least of which being the '87 woodgrain set).

The full set is littered with stars, including Frank Thomas, Jeff Bagwell and Bernie Williams.  Of course, none of those big names called Lackawanna County Stadium home...

TTM Failure #2 & Ben Franklin Having a Heat Stroke at the All-Star Game

Writing about failures is a drag.  If you have any doubt, ask Bill Conklin.

On second thought, don't do that.

Either way, instead of dedicating a post to a TTM failure, I've decided to use failures as a chance to share some stories.

Today's story comes by way of a return to sender sticker that came on the request I sent out to former Phillies' manager John Felske.  I sent the request to Huntley, IL.  Looks like the postal service attempted to forward to Blue Eye, MO and the forward timer expired.

Now, on to a story about Ben Franklin, heat stroke, and the 2014 Single-A All-Star Game in Wilmington, DE.

TTM Success #27: Gary Varsho

Player: Gary Varsho
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 8/2/19 (27 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Chilli, WI address listed on SCF.

Gary Varsho had a short Major League career, spending his 8 years as corners outfielder playing mostly off the bench, and only twice playing in more than half a season's games twice.  He finished out his career with the Phillies in '95, he retired after the season.

TTM Success #26: Ron Roenicke

Player: Ron Roenicke
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 8/1/19 (26 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Fenway Park, listed on SCF.

Ron Roenicke made an impression on me as a member of the first Phillies team I was functionally aware of as a utility piece of the '86 & '87 teams.  I was eight and nine for those teams and that was when I was truly becoming aware as a sentient  person.  It was not a great time to be "coming of age" as a baseball fan in Philadelphia. 

The '86 Phils finished 2nd in the East a mere 21 some games out of the pennant, and the '87 team finished 2 games under .500 before the bottom fell out of the whole operation in '88.  But I can still name some of those cardboard legends that patrolled the thinly covered concrete of The Vet.  That era of the Phillies is a real "Who's Who?"

TTM Success #25: Philadelphia Athletics' Art Ditmar

Player: Art Ditmar
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 7/27/19 (21 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Myrtle Beach, SC address listed on SCF.

Between Art Ditmar and Bobby Shantz, I've managed to get two of the few remaining men who played for the Philadelphia Athletics.  I think it's vitally important to keep the memory of that team alive.  With the history the behind the team since the club moved to Oakland, it's easy to forget that the team not only had a stop over in Kansas City, but was there right at the beginning, in 1901 when the Western League moved east and decided to go toe-to-toe with the National League.  Connie Mack and Ben Shibe launched the Athletics to compete with the Phillies.  That team went on to stomp all over the newly minted American League, winning six pennants and three World Series titles in 15 years. 

TTM Success #24: Denny Doyle

Player: Denny Doyle
Sent: 7/6/19
Return: 7/26/19 (20 days)
Ratio: 2/2
Address Source: Oakland, FL address listed on SCF.

Denny Doyle came from the generation of Phillies that immediately preceded me.  He is also one of a dwindling number of players who spent part of their career at Connie Mack Stadium.  I feel drawn to that era and that stadium.  I've probably mentioned it before, but I'm obsessed with the idea of the Philadelphia Athletics.  What would the city's sports culture, and what would my sports fandom be like if the Athletics had never left for Kansas City?  How would my appreciation of baseball been different had the A's stayed in town and played in Connie Mack through the 80's and 90's?  It's likely that as a natural contrarist, and a traveler of the road not taken, that I would have been an A's fan.  Mostly because my grandfather was a Phillies' guy through and through, and being an A's fan probably would have gone right up his ass.