The Heart Of Baltimore...

I don't have a lot to say about the passing of Baltimore Orioles legend Brooks Robinson that isn't going to be said in all the tributes. 

As I've mentioned before, this autographed photo was obtained at a signing at a sponsor gas station in my home town.

These are the Brooks cards I have in my star binder.  It's an assortment of HOF'ers and other name players that I don't keep with the sets.  There's really no rhyme or reason on which ones go in there or which ones go in the set binder...

The Marquee and the Triple Threads are ones I had sitting around that didn't have a home otherwise.  Thick cards like that aren't the best in sheets...

Shucks, I meant to straighten these scans out before I posted.  Oh well.  The certificate goes with the Front Row set...

Like I said, I have other Brooks cards in their sets - '59, '64, even '68 (no idea why since the combo is here), '72, '77.  But you'll see those on other blogs, etc. too.

The guy was an amazing player with an incredible range on the field, but his heart was much bigger than that. 

Bruce Sutter Closes His Longest Game

Bruce Sutter is one of only a few Hall Of Famers that I collect out of 50+ baseball players.  So it's a definite must-post on the occasion of his passing.  Wrigley Wax posted all he had of Sutter, which were all Cubs, but there were several that I don't have.  (Jealous.)

Get ready, my binder had 16 pages, and then there are the odd size or shape and autos and gamers after that....

I'm pretty sure I upgraded my '77 rookie card at one point.  The first one I had was not the best condition.  

A couple notes on the arrangement of things to make it easier to identify certain cards.  Up through 1980, I put Topps first and O-Pee-Chee beside them and then put anything else next.  Hence Kellogg's and Hostess follow OPC.  After 1980, I put all sets in alphabetical order.

So there are the OPC, Topps and Burger King in the first row, then Kellogg's.  Love those '81 Fleer stickers.  How is that '81 Kellogg's so O/C??

Then we move into the Cardinals cards.  OPC in slot 1 (love it when they advance the team), then Perma-Graphics (credit) card, '81 regular, Coke and Traded...

Works out well to line up the '82 OPC & Topps and still have the Perma- in the right spot.

1983 ends with the Rub-Off.  I put any with my player guys on them with that player facing up.

These are a bit out of order now that I look at them.  The center slot is a Tiffany, so I might have been in the middle of deciding whether to line up the player cards and the Active Leaders or put all three player cards together.

Yeah, the glossy is out of sequence, as is the OPC, but grouping the pictures takes priority.  These are the OCD debates you have with collections in binders...sometimes it's just whatever looks better.

And now the Braves years.  I really don't remember him on the Braves.  Not sure how much baseball I watched in the late 80's as it was right after I graduated high school.  The two SportFlics have the same photo of Bruce among the three on each card.

Another Tiffany.  The spaces are just me making room in case there's something else from '88.

The Tiffany trifecta completed with the '89.  And with the Upper Deck, here endeth the active career cards.  Post-career section starts with the McDonalds.  Sorry Bo, I didn't have a second one for you.

Almost every great retired star set of the time here...

Still need the bronze Fleer Greats.  They sure like that Cubs pose of his.  The Tribute barely fits in the page slot, much like the Triple Threads below.

Now we get to some really pretty cards.  And some serial numbers.  The 2010 is a Topps Update legend variations.  The '77 reprint is from 2011 Topps 60 Years.  The cracked ice looking Coopy doesn't come through on the scan very well.

I only have one of the Wrigley Field giveaway cards (the '63 design).  I was there for one batch, but haven't found the others and didn't know there were stamped ones for the season ticket holders until I saw WWax's post.  That's a cool '73 flavor Archive, isn't it?

One from the Stan Musial set Heroes, a rather generic Panini, and a Cooperstown induction that I just randomly found somewhere.  Most of these recent parallels and rare ones I just find in dollar boxes etc. 
I don't aggressively seek out Sutter stuff as much as several of my other guys, but he's around second-tier as far as my priorities go.  (There are probably about five tiers - 1) the few guys I want EVERYTHING of, 2) players with good careers who have a decent number of offbrand and post-career cards, 3) guys with the basics and a few others, 4) guys with a minimum of cards that I still like, and 5) players I could take out of my PCs if I had to.)

That DK Heritage card looked really distorted when I scanned it.  Then I took it out of the page and figured out why...

That texture must have blown the scanner's mind a little bit...

Last page in my binder.  Top three are Archives.  Last two probably have six parallels, but I won't chase them too hard. (Not that I'll turn them down if they're cheap).

These are pulled from my binder of odd sized issues, which is arranged by size and not year, so these are all over the place.  The 7-11 coins are from '84 (1), '85 (2), and '86 (4).  There are two more that I haven't found yet.  He has a ton of them.  To figure out the scale, the Squirt card is regulation 2½" x 3½".  The white disc is a Colgan's Chip from 2013 Cooperstown, the little rectangular one is a 1981 All-Star Game Program insert - one of those wacky things that has a ton of my PC guys in it, but I'd never have fathomed that I'd ever actually have some.

Here's Bruce on the 7-11's since Quisenberry showed on the scan.

The backs of the coins plus an '89 LJN Baseball Talk record card thingy that can be put on a player like a phonograph.  (You young'uns look that up).  And a piece of a Fold-Out from the late 80's too.

'80 & '85 Supers

And finally, the coolest ones.  I'm lucky to have found most of these that are numbered so low. (at least to me).  That "...Lineage" one has the obligatory space for an auto that you didn't get, but it's nice anyway.  I wish they'd have swapped the photos on the dual Gagne piece and the Memorable Moments auto so the swatch would match the jersey.  But it was probably less than $10 or 15, so I'm not complaining.

I can't really go on for long about all the details of Sutter's career and say that I'm deeply affected by his passing.  I can say that watching his dominance for the Cardinals was the inspiration for this collection, so there is at least some nostalgic attachment.  I was a fan of the Cardinals when I was young, and he was one of my favorites.  I enjoyed watching when he and his new HOF friends got together on tv specials as well.

"I mean, he won all these awards and all this stuff and they weren't even hung out in the house because all he cared about was winning and being respected by the other players and being a good teammate. That was his whole motivation," [son] Chad Sutter told the AP....

A Cheap Load Of Bull

Been digging through the closets and drawers this weekend, mostly looking for the other journal book - it is still eluding me - but I found a few things that need better homes.

Picked up a few minor league items from a friend of mine several years ago.  I keep packing them away and then I have to go digging for them when I think about them later.  There are actually two copies of this particular program, with manager Bob Skinner on the cover.   Each of them has a roster sheet for that days game.

The first one is from August 15, 1992 against the Albequerque Dukes and also includes the Toros' promotional schedule for August and September.  The second is for September 1 against the Colorado Springs Sky Sox and also includes a bonus sheet - a wedding invitation for outfielder Karl "Tuffy" Rhodes that was held at the ballpark.  Both books are intact for the most part except for the untidy removal of a food coupon from one of the ad pages.

The third Toros' program is from just a couple years later, after they repeated as PCL champions.  This one was also sold at a game vs. the Sky Sox - this time somewhere between July 25 and 28, according to the roster sheet.

The scoresheet sections of all three programs are clean.

I have another program from around the same era, though this one is for a major league team.

Colorado Rockies Inaugural Spring Training program from 1993.  Includes a ticket stub for a game against the Angels on March 14.  There is an article on manager Don Baylor that almost makes me want to keep the book for my player collection, but it's a little too far outside the scope of reasonable storage and practicality.  So my discipline leads to your benefit.

The bonus with this one is a limited edition baseball from the year after.  Only 1000 of these were made for Spring Training in 1994.

And it's signed!  After some brief research,...

It turns out to be the signature of catcher and later Cleveland and Seattle manager Eric Wedge.  (Autographed card not included).  He is now managing at Wichita State University.

I will trade any or all of these for cards on my wantlist, or cash to cover postage.  I'm not in them for any significant cost, so don't hesitate to make an offer!

All-Star Adhesives Etc.

Got a stack of those 1980 Fleer Stickers with the Laughlin World Series art on the backs.  They came with a few extras that are trade bait.

The Keller was upgraded from my player collection before.  Sorry, no stickers on these.

These do, but are probably different years.  Don't remember those Brewer graphics at all.

 This one looks to be the same year as the Milwaukee one.  More interesting picture.

This one has a matching back.  Must be from 1983.

And finally, these All-Star game cards in no particular order.  The upgraded Keller card from the top has the same Padres stickers on the back as the '75 AS card here.  Interesting that some of the backs are oriented 180° from the others.

Let me know if you need any of these.

Collector's Log: Stardate 198210.05

It's October 1982, time for postseason baseball!

My buddy Mike had a nice workbench setup in his basement, and we did a lot of models there.  This particular one was for my stepfather at the time.  Not sure if this is the exact kit or not, but it looked something like this:

I remember the wheels distinctly.  This was when Knight Rider was popular, so it had something to do with that.  Don didn't end up owning the real thing.  He got one of the first year Fieros later, and stashed it away for a long time.  I might have painted the Trans Am black, with a little red tint on the middle between the headlights...

Here are the lineups for the Brewers Angels ALCS Game 1.  I left after the fourth inning, when it was 7-3 Angels.  They added a run in the 5th and that was it.

Tommy John pitched a complete game.  You don't see that in the postseason much any more.  Baseball Reference doesn't even mention the pitch counts.  Hadn't noticed the subtle difference between the photos in his '83 Topps cards until just now.

Both of these guys did the same thing the next day.  Angels win again.  Vuckovich pitched 8 in the loss.  Must be why he looks grumpy.

Over in the NL, the other Championship Series was starting after a rainout.

Bob Forsch, who looks a bit like Carlton Fisk in some of his cards, also pitched a complete game shutout with six strikeouts, and had two hits, a run, and an RBI.  These days, a pitcher would be out of the lineup the rest of the week after a performance like that.

I was apparently rooting for the Angels, which is no surprise, since Mike was an Angels fan full time.  Plus, they had Don Baylor, Doug DeCinces, and Bobby Grich, three of my player collection guys.

There's that guy in the Trans Am again...

Remington Steele was one of my favorite shows at the time.  You can see why Pierce Brosnan got the role of James Bond a little while after this.

A psychic moment on my part.  Pitch #136 went over the wall in center off the bat of my guy Baylor.

Gretchen was the German Shepherd that I grew up with.  She didn't have the typical color markings of an average shepherd.  She was light tan all over and just a streak of black on her tail (and the nose, of course).

This one's probably from about 1974 or so

We were both raised together from pups.  She was a great family dog.  I remember one time we couldn't find her until we heard her collar tags clinking against the bath faucet ~ she had climbed into the tub to hide from a thunderstorm.

I don't believe this was an instance in which we used ammo of any kind.  More like we ran around yelling "pew pew pew" and "bang bang".  I liked putting the gear on, but the game was never my favorite in any form.

Now we knew who was playing in the Series...

And it didn't start well for the Cardinals.  I was still rooting against Milwaukee.  I collect Cecil Cooper, but again, the Cards had more guys than that.  Keith Hernandez, Bruce Sutter, and Gene Tenace off the bench have their own sections in one of my binders here.

I still have a wooden sorting tray I made with 30 card-sized compartments and a hole for your finger to pull the stack from within each one.  But I don't recall what the "lineup tray" was except that I know I used to lay out the batting orders in cards when watching games at home back in the day.

Next time: Who wins the series? and Mom puts one over on me!