Aspirations

A co-worker gave me a factory set of 1991 Classic Best minor league cards a while ago.  It's a 450 card set that comes in a custom box with each block of 100 cards wrapped in cellophane.  This set had sort of a defect in that two of the blocks were of the 200 numbers, so I was missing the 100's.  I put them on the Trading Card database and they've come rolling in.

There are many players who went on to have significant major league careers.  Like these two:

But some of the others who didn't quite make it have similar names to those that did.  Though not all of the successful people made it in Major League Baseball.  

Cristobal Colon only played 14 games for the Texas Rangers.

He could have been Bartolo Colon!

Steve Rolen never made it beyond A+ ball. 

Scott Rolen has been on the HOF ballot.

Fred Russell was "straight outta Compton" but only had a few years at A level.

Bill Russell was a staple for the 70's and 80's Dodgers.

Oscar Munoz pitched ten games for the Twins in 1995, going 2-1.  

If he was Anthony Munoz, he would be a Hall of Fame lineman.

Jeff Jackson played from 1989 to 1998, but didn't go higher than AA.

Everyone knows what Bo did in two sports.

Some guys just weren't meant to be athletes.  Paul here actually appeared in 18 games for the Orioles in '93, with a .213 batting average.

As Harry Caray, he would have had a long career in the broadcast booth.  (Not to mention tributes by Will Ferrell.)

Freddie Davis, Jr. went five seasons in various levels up to AA with a total record of 12-11.

Sammie Davis, Jr. has been called the greatest entertainer in the world.  He started in Vaudeville at age three, was part of the Rat Pack with Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and was in show business until his passing at age 64.

Rod Bolton was called up a couple times for the White Sox in '93 and '95, but only amassed a record of 2-8 in 156 innings.

Michael Bolton started as a hard rock singer in 1975, but switched to adult contemporary in the 90's and had nine #1 hits among 24 albums.

Kelly Lifgren was 28-44 from 1988 to 1993 with a 5.13 ERA.

Nils Lofgren (left) has been a musician since the late 60's and is a member of Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band as well as Neil Young & Crazy Horse.

Donovan Osborne actually played nine years in the majors, but over a 13 year span.  He did not play in 1994, 2000, 2001, and 2003.   His career ERA is a respectable 4.03 with 558 strikeouts.

But he's not the Prince Of Darkness!

Oh, what could have been!

What's The Story With This Guy?

I finally finished entering all my recent baseball extras into the TCDB.  (Ok, full disclosure, I still have a couple piles of recently processed dupes that I have to sort yet, but the majority is DONE!)

Do you ever notice that the same guy keeps popping up either when you open packs or buy bulk lots or sort out your monster boxes of extra stuff?  (What? doesn't everyone have multiple monster boxes of trade bait? 😀)

While entering my last box - 2017 thru 2021, this guy kept showing up.  Not only on base cards, which wouldn't be anything special, (since a major percentage of my extras are Topps flagship base,) but in parallels, and even a relic.

This is the Database image, but mine is identical.

I looked up the list of all the Story's I have entered, and here it is:

2016 Topps Heritage - Black Borders (High Numbers) #THC-707 SP
2017 Topps #42
2017 Topps Bunt #49
2018 Stadium Club #299
2018 Stadium Club - Black Foil #299
2018 Topps #230
2018 Topps Big League - Gold #46
2018 Topps Holiday #HMW128
2019 Topps Chrome #183
2019 Topps Update - Gold #US44 AS, SN2019
2020 Topps Heritage - Clubhouse Collection Relics (High Number) CCR-TS
2021 Topps Big League - Souvenirs #13
2021 Topps Heritage #600
2023 Topps Big League #249 SP

Two short prints, two black parallels, and an insert.  And a diverse set list as well, but that's pretty easy to do for anyone with decent talent.

I wish Heritage would stick to colored borders instead of shiny.  It makes so much more sense for a vintage tribute product.

OK, these are actually the base and black foil parallel, but of course, foil comes out black on a scanner. 

Gold parallel

Abominable Snowman encounter?

 

 

And the only 2023 cards I have anywhere in my collection come from two packs of Big League that my buddy Stuart sent randomly.  Which year did he get traded / move to the Sawx?  I don't pay attention any more...

 

So anyway, if you're a Story or Rockies fan and need any of these, hit me up.  Trades are active again on TCDB, or email at the link in the upper right.  I've got a lot of other Rockies available as well.

Like Heinz Flavors, The Nice Classic Chevys, And The First Regulation Size Topps Set

Hopefully those hints were enough to tell you that I'm 57 today.

But you know, it's never really about me.  It's about those who are much more attractive and also celebrating today...

Kate Middleton is 42.

 

 

 

And Nina Dobrev is 35.

 

 

Additional Atypical Arrivals

Yep, more incoming cards.  Because this is all I do now.

I'm pretty sure this was one day's mail, and it's TCDB traders, plus my best trader buddy Stuart's latest contributions.

 
Starting on the left, two bonus packs of this year's Topps Big League.  All of which I put on my available list on the Database.  A couple Carlton Fisks and some other 70's player collection oddballs that I'll show better in a moment.  And a '75 mini upgrade for my completed set. All those came from Stuart.  The Upper Deck Updates are a TCDB trade that I didn't mark as received until the next week.  Oops.

Most of the rest is other Database trades, except for the UD XL & Fleer Team Action football from Stuart in the loose stack.  The Fisk Archives and the Priest Holmes parallels are player collection hits.  The rest is set hits except for Bruce Smith and Lavar Arrington, who go to my Washington football horde. Those GameDays are mostly inserts from '93.  The Gus Johnson was apparently still on my wantlist from when I picked it out from another trader who really didn't have anything I could use.  

Here are all of the Burger Chef Discs. 

And the backs....

Full view of the Golden Age Fisk box topper.

And the Fleer football.  I just love these sets.

And that small silvery bundle in the first picture is actually holograms from the Brockum Rock Cards from 1991.

Here's what they all look like.  Completed my set.  🎸

Thanks again to Stuart (he always likes to be mentioned on here) and the TCDB traders.

More Mixed Mailings

Ugh, I'm slackin' again.  It's just a lot right now...

Ideally, I'd be posting almost every Trading Card Database trade I make like a lot of other blogs, but there have been so many lately that by the time I get the incoming ones marked received, moved to the proper collections, then marked off my want list, and then pack up the half dozen new ones going out, it's close to bedtime.

And on top of that, this week I'm having another go-round with a kidney stone.  I think today I might have passed it, so hopefully that's over.  But Monday and Tuesday were kinda rough, although I packed up nine trades last night.

So anyway, I managed to take some pictures of a mailday from a couple weeks ago now.  I didn't get any blockbuster cards, but it's always fascinating (at least to me) the eclectic mix of stuff that TCDB trades bring in.

So four envelopes showed up.  Not sure if it was on a Monday or not - that's usually when I get the most at one time.

Open each to the first layer - two Christmas cards!  They were really just used as containers, and weren't signed or anything, but it's kinda cool.  

I'm thinking I'll have to turn trades off here soon, I haven't even scratched the surface of Christmas shopping etc. yet....

The first card revealed is a 2006 UD Rookie Debut insert of DeShaun Foster.  The trader - tinyzinterfere - listed his address as Israel.  But this envelope showed up with a return address in NYC.  I've seen that before.  Not sure how that works.  But hopefully he and his are not affected by the ugly stuff going on over there.

Opening the greeting cards and paper sleeve reveals the contents of the other packages.  

This is what trader AbeBauman sent me.  A Super Teams Kranepool, a "no hash marks" (the vertical lines in the lower blue band) 1990 Topps football LL card, and a Ginter mini insert.  He also contributed on of the Louis Oliver cards that you'll see in a bit.

CoachMoore sent me a Topps Micro Piniella, completing all the Micros for my player collections, a Gold Medallion Ultra Terry Allen, and a SI for Kids Liut for my casual Capitals collection.  He had a lot of those SI's but this was the only one I could use.  Was glad to get it in such nice condition.  Usually you see those crumpled in dime boxes since they're so flimsy.

A nice group of more Washington football in Pacific Paramount and Collector's Choice Player's Club from Nashino.

And finally, all three Louis Olivers for my co-worker's collection.  Oliver played for the Dolphins most of his career.  My co-worker said Oliver was his favorite Dolphin and off I went.  Messiers Bauman and Moore sent these, including the '94 Select, which is the goofiest photo I think I've seen on a football card.  Has to be pre-game workout.  

So there's another sample mailday from TCDB trades.  

Also shout out to Nachos Grande for a trade on there as well.  Not sure I'll pull off posting about it though...