Blog Bat Around: Who Do You Think Of First? MLB Edition

Night Owl came up with another great post idea.  Which player in a team's history do you think of first when that team is mentioned?  A few lists have already been created.  I keep looking at them and then trying to write my own.  But to do it right, you have to clear your mind and let the choices come naturally without influence.

It's hard to come up with genuine answers for Who I Think Of First.  To do it as properly as possible, I avoided reading anyone else's contributions for a couple days.  I spread out the logos above and printed out a sheet of them and then tried to fill in each team as quickly as possible. 

It occurred to me that when I would try to fill out quizzes on say, every player who posted a certain stat or something, I would eventually have to go through a list of all the teams to remember a lot more players.  Most of the time, the lists would be limited to either pitchers or hitters, not both.  So it might be fun to try this again with a choice limited to one of those categories.

The real struggle is when I think of a certain team, the immediate choice is very vanilla, so I refuse it and then go to my next choice, but then I've thought about it too much and I'm actively selecting who I like better at that point.  I've noted this in a few places.

OK, so here is the list I came up with (finally):

Chipper Jones.

Mostly because I hear his name in that announcer's voice.  Chipperrrrrr Jones.  No idea what that is from.

Ernie Banks.

I immediately think of Bryant and Rizzo, but that's too generic these days.  So I have to rewind and go with

Johnny Bench.

Gotta go old school on this one.  KG is probably a lot of people's first choice, but I default to the Big Red Machine.

Sam McDowell.

Always have to think about this one.  I didn't watch much ball on tv during their run with Manny, Thome & Co, so I have to go way back to Sudden Sam.

Todd Helton.

There are only two guys that come into my head when you say Rockies.  Helton and Larry Walker.  If I take a minute I can come up with Arenado, but that's way too late.

Mark Buerhle.

Didn't see that one coming, did you?  I remember watching him make this amazing fielding play one time.  Stuck with me.

Paul Goldschmidt.

There's only one guy on this list.  And now he's somewhere else and I couldn't tell you another D-Back without looking it up.

Miguel Cabrera.

Very vanilla answer, but Miggy has been the main guy in Motor City for a long time.  Might have said Willie Horton otherwise.

Craig Biggio.

Have to default to one of the killer B's.  And Craig is the best of them.


This one got muddy quickly.  I'd probably say Jeter by default, but that's boring though true.  The next guy that popped into my head was Pettitte of all people.  There are too many other better Yankees than him.  By now, I've thought too long and will end up with Ron Guidry or Sparky Lyle from my player collections.  So it's a mess.

Josh Hamilton.

Takes me a while to think of Rangers too.  Best I'd do otherwise is Toby Harrah or Jim Mason from the cards.

Rod Carew.

Had to go Carew here, otherwise, I'm down to Kent Hrbek and Roy Smalley.  Twins were last in my team sorting for a long time.  Puckett was during my non-viewing time too.

Jim Palmer.

He beat out Adam Jones and Rick Dempsey (who does a lot of their tv these days).  Their my favorite team, so it only takes a second to come up with a long list of favorite guys.

George Brett.

I almost let myself say Fred Patek, but that's too much influence from my PCs.  Brett is Mr. Royal.  I see him and Perry sitting in the dugout on that Fleer card.

Giancarlo Stanton.

Like the Diamondbacks, I can't name another Marlin off the top of my head.  Second choice was manager Ozzie Guillen.

Willie Stargell.

Pops showed up quicker than Clemente, Parker, or Cutch in my head.  My favorites are Sanguillen and Chad Kuhl.

Evan Longoria.

Yet again, another team I'd have to look up current stars.
Ho Hum....

Wil Myers.

This one's even weirder.  I always go to current-ish on the Padres even though there are quality guys like Gwynn, Garvey, Winfield and Tito Fuentes.  Must be because I used to get Myers cards all the time.

Cecil Cooper.

Yeah, I know.  I try not to think about the modern BoSox teams.  Papi is fun, but most of the rest of them are kinda fratboy annoying, esp. to an Orioles fan.

Nolan Ryan.

And I think of him as a little more of an Astro most of the time.

Prince Fielder.

Still love his #1 card from 2010 flagship.  He's a lot more fun than that Braun guy too.

Ken Griffey, Jr. (or both).

Came to me faster than Ichiro or any of the guys on the '81 Donruss team set - half of which makes up all the '81 Donruss dupes in my trade box.

Ryan Howard.

One of those guys I think of for the big hitter quizzes.  He goes with Jimmy Rollins automatically.  And to a lesser extent, Chase Utley.

Matt Cain.

Yeah, I don't know either.  I think I pulled a rare parallel of his a few years back and that's where my mind went first.  Plus he's probably nicer than Bonds and MadBum.

Stan Musial.

One of the oldest franchises, so one of it's oldest and best players.  Everybody else is a level down.

 Ron Cey.

I got stuck avoiding the obvious choices, and still connected the obvious blogger choice (Night Owl) and his favorite guy.  Next in line was Pedro Guerrero.  Or six or seven of my PC guys.

David Wright.

He's on a lot of my insert want lists for some reason.  A lot of players come and go to the Mets, but Wright stayed loyal.

Dave Stieb.

Did not want to say Bautista.  Read somewhere recently that Stieb is very underrated.

Joe Rudi.

Of the six or eight names that pop into my head on the '70s dynasty team, Rudi is the first.  Then Sal Bando.  Then my PC guys, Campy and Tenace.  Can't tell you many current A's.

Ryan Zimmerman.

Not the obvious choice, but the longest tenured Nat, and the face of the franchise without the wacky hair.




I'll probably try an NFL version, because I think I'll feel better about those choices.  I watch a lot more NFL than baseball, especially this year, so my football choices will probably be a lot more current.  Although, I have been looking at the 1970 and '71 Topps sets a lot in the last couple days.

Mini Haul From Monthly Show

I've been doing so much buying lately that I almost felt guilty going to my local monthly show last Sunday.  Almost.  At least I only spent like $30.

Snagged these from a vendor I wasn't familiar with.  They were in rows marked $2 and $1 each.  Figured I might as well get Judge when I can.  The Fisk is a SP parallel (I have no idea how to tell) for my PC.

The bulk of what I got came from my favorite insert vendor.  He didn't have everything with him that he takes to the big shows, but I found a bunch that I needed.  Some Bo's for PC, and a couple Rookie Historys and a Coming Attraction for Stuart.  I wanted to start the Postseason Preeminences, but hadn't pulled any from packs.  Dove in the deep end since he had a big pile.  But not as big as the stacks of Storybook Endings and Don't Blinks.  Killed my wants in both of those (sorry Julie I didn't know!) and tacked on my first three blue parallel Hawpas.  Down to four PostPre's - 5 OSmith  7 BrooksR  11 Ruth  15 Koufax. 

And then it was Mini Mania!

Found one to kill the A&G Into The Unknown set from 2014, and then went wacky with 2018 A&Gs.  He had a big box of miscellaneous minis from several different years, and said there was a bigger box that he didn't bring.  I hope there are more of the retail inserts in there.  Looking forward to sifting through that later!  Also added to the Bo stack with the regular and A&G back versions.  Still need six Indigenous Heroes even after all those!

A couple hours after I got there, most of the dealers were packing up and I hit the road.

It IS Next Year, And Tom Keeps On Killin' 'Em!

Seems like every couple months I'm having to revise half of my prime want list because Tom at Waiting For Next Year sends me several targets.  Let me tell you, it's a good problem to have.

This go-round brought these singles home to their families (the rest of the cards in the set - at least in most cases.)

First one is Adam Jones at the All-Star Game in 2014.  It doesn't actually kill the whole Update set, since I still need a bunch of those World Series Heroes inserts, but it was the sole survivor of everything else.  A lot of non-Oriole orange going on here.

I figured this one was a long shot.  One of the most rare retail inserts in the decade.  2012 Archives had these 1982 In Action inserts.  Funny that Josh Hamilton was my last one and not Ichiro, Cal Ripken, or Clemente.  So glad to get this one either way.

This one isn't actually a set killer, but is the last of many of my player collections to appear in 2003 Yankee Signature Series by Upper Deck .  There are a whole other set of the actual autographs, of which I have a couple, but one of my top guys ended up being the most elusive in this case, until now.

Capping it off are the two (American) football WAGs from ProLine in the 90's.  Rohn Stark and Herschel Walker's respective love interests graced the final slot in my priority page.  Now they'll be replaced with someone much less aesthetically pleasing for sure.

This completes the assault on my wants ~ again.  It's like the third time in just over a year or so that Tom has tackled some major targets.  Kudos to you sir, for being such an awesome trader and hunting these down!

Image Editing Déjà Vu

Just a quick midweek post on a pickup that was sort of part of a larger batch. 

Got this at my nearest local card shop, Primetime Sports, for a few dollars.  I don't actually have a regular set, but am almost done the red back version.  Never chased this thing actively, but since it was sitting there, I figured I might as well snag it.

I thought it was a bit ironic that I was scanning and cropping a card for this post that had already been photoshopped when it was created.  It's kinda like double editing.

It was a throw-in with the two empty monster boxes I showed up to get, plus (another!) batch of vintage baseball and football.  A larger volume of the type of thing I showed in the previous post, only a lot more football than baseball.  That post is coming soon.

Also in transit are several auction wins, running the gamut from astronauts, to Star Wars, to Bryce Harper, Redskins jerseys & autos, and a huge SportLots order with hockey and a lot of list hits.

Stay Tuned.  This is going to be the Loot Channel for a little while....

Need A Haircut? How 'Bout Some Hall Of Famers?

It was a typical day at work, I was working the help desk phones, but it wasn't too busy.  Then my cell phone rang.  Mom again.  I figured she probably wants to go to dinner or needs something done at the house.

She was actually at her hairdresser's shop which is actually in a house right around the corner from mine.  Her stylist got on the phone and said that her neighbor was cleaning out the possessions of their recently deceased relative and that there was a batch of baseball cards.  She would give them to Mom to drop off at the house and I could check them out and give them a few bucks if they are worth anything, but if not, it's no big deal.

When this happens, I get excited, but then come back down to earth since most of the time any stash of cards ends up being junk wax.  I pictured a stack of '87s and 1990 Topps or something.

To my delight, I was wrong!

Here's what I got, minus the quart size sandwich bag.

This looks promising!

I sifted through the stack and was pleasantly surprised that it all fell within a year range of 1969 through 1977.

Sorting them by sport...baseball first.

The '72 Kelloggs are the best ones in the whole batch.  Might be a set starter for me.  Though when I looked 'em up, there are 21 variations out of 54 cards, making a total set of 75.

Just look at all that vintagey goodness!

Then the rest...

Not nearly as much football, but a couple gems.  Yes, that's actually a '71 Johnny U.  And it's available.  A couple big names in the hockey stack too.  Can't get much better than Stan Mikita!  That mock magazine cover sticker was a stowaway.

So let's break 'em down.  Basketball first.

I've only got like three basketball sets.  '79-80 and a couple from the early 90's.  I really kinda like these though.  These are apparently '73-'74s.  Interestingly, they have a copyright date of 1969 on the backs.  If no one needs these to kill their set, I might go after them later.  Colonels and Squires? Oh my!

I recognize a few names on these '74-'75 Topps.  I know this set design a little better since it's the first one to contain Washington Capitals.  These will probably stay with me.  I don't really have a central place for vintage hockey though.  Will have to figure out where to put them.  Might have to be in one sheet with my other near complete sets of that era.

1969 Football, including a couple good quarterbacks.  A lot of pink backgrounds.  The Csonka game card is available, not sure about the others.  One day I'll build this set.  Will probably try the '68s first though.  Make me a decent trade and I'll let 'em go.

These actually are available.  So fire away!  I'm down to the higher numbers for my '71 set.  Mitchell and the '74s are kinda rough, and will go to my dupes stash too.

On to baseball.

Some Hall of Famers sprinkled in with the other fan favorites and team cards.  Unfortunately, just about all the team cards are lightly marked.

Curiously, there was nothing from 1976, except this:

Ticket stube from Memorial Stadium.  Orioles vs. the Tigers in the summer of '75, and then Milwaukee twice, in '75 and '76.

Night Owl's (and others') beloved '75s!  A few League Leaders, MVPs, and a Bench All-Star.  And Oscar Gamble with his epic 'fro.  These are pretty decent overall...

... with a couple exceptions.  Somebody likes vintage miscuts.  Who is it?

Another nice batch from '74 with Senior, Joe, Fergie, & Dave.  Two of the commons look like they had smeary magic marker notations at one point.  Can't really make it out.

The biggest stack of a sorted year.  Nice lot of '73s with Stargell, Carlton, Carew, Seaver, and Hunter boyhood photo.  There's Oscar again.  There are several duplicates including double Grabarkewitzes.  (Sounds like a wrestling move ~ "he got 'em with the double Grabarkewitz").  I remember sending the Frank Duffy card to Dinged Corners back in the day.  She had a midair players collection going, I believe.

Just a couple '72s, but decent choices.  Will have to check for upgrades since my set is middle of the road, and will also compare the one in Baylor's PC binder.  Then, have at 'em.

A few '70s.  These are a bit rough.  Trade fodder.  The concentration of Indians is notable, but there really was a balance of all the teams in this lot.  The initial stack was sorted by franchise, and then by nothing else.  The cards were jumbled otherwise.  Could have been just because they were handled a lot recently.

A really great selection of 1969 Topps.  A few of my favorite guys (and PCs) - Blair, Campy, Manny.  The Bench AS and Perry were nice inclusions, but the Seaver made me say "Wow!" out loud when I saw it.  I'll check my set for upgrades, and then these are on the block.

And finally, the oddballs.  These are the sprinkles on top of this cardboard sundae.  Have to check my player binders to see if I actually have all the complete pairs of variations.  I should, but you never know.  Then I'll have to print a list with all the notations to keep these straight.
The Palmer isn't bad, but it appears someone bent (or bit) the top right corner.  The Hostess are definitely tradeable.  They're from '75 and aren't cut the greatest, but are both intact and flat otherwise.

What a great surprise!  Not quite the monster box of mint '52s on the side of the road I dream about, but a fun find nonetheless.  Let me know if you want in on any of them that I mentioned are up for trade.

I think I'll give them a little more than a few bucks....