50/50 Trade

Chris over at The Collector recently offered a trade opportunity where he would send 50 mystery cards of your favorite team in exchange for 50 of your mystery cards.  My 50 cards arrived the other day and it was quite a haul.  There were many many Red Sox cards that I didn't have yet.  Here are some of my favorites.

Thanks a lot, Chris!  Your Red Sox will be on the way soon.  For those of you who aren't following The Collector blog, I highly recommend you do.

Card Show Today

There was a card show in town today.  I can't remember the last time I went to a show.  It was probably over ten years ago.  There were about 12 vendors present.  The traffic seemed very steady the whole hour and a half I was there, but I heard a vendor saying that sales hadn't been that great.  Twins and Vikings dominated the tabletops.  Most of the dealers were "older" so there was a lot of stuff from the 50's, 60's, and 70's.  There was very little from the 80's and 90's, but more from the 2000's.  Here are the cards I picked up.

He never played a major league game for the Red Sox, but Anthony Rizzo has become a star for the Cubs.  This was the only card I found today from my want list.

My Topps complete sets go back to 1976.  So any time I can find a card prior to that of a player that interests me, I buy it.  Frank Robinson appears to be wearing a heavily airbrushed Dodgers jersey in this picture.

So that's it.  Four cards for $6.00.  I was ready to spend more, but there weren't any deals to be had today.  I found several more cards that interested me, but the asking price was far above what I knew I could get them for on COMC or Beckett.  While I want to give the local yokels my business, I also need to maximize my dollars.  I heard there will be another show in October, but it'll be the same guys with I assume the same cards for sale.  I'm not sure I'll go at this point.

Oh and another thing I noticed is that there aren't many kids looking at cards!  It was 90+% guys over 40 years old I would say.  That doesn't say a lot for the future of the hobby.  Are others seeing the same thing at your local card shows?

1941 Play Ball

The 1941 Play Ball team set of the Boston Red Sox contains cards of the players that personified the resurrection of the team's fortunes.  After 1918 the team went through a number of years of futility.  But the gradual addition of the following players in the 1930's brought them to relevance and competitiveness again in the 1940's.

Joe Cronin came to the Red Sox from the Washington Senators in 1935.  He was an established all-star and brought leadership to the team.  He played with Boston until 1945, managing the team at the same time every one of those years.  He also managed the Red Sox in the 1946 World Series.

 

Jimmie Foxx came to the Red Sox in 1936 after some incredible seasons with the Philadelphia A's.  He would do more of the same in Boston, staying with the team until 1942.  At age 59 he had an untimely death due to choking on food during a meal with his brother.  Unlike Goudey, Play Ball was able to spell his name right.

Bobby Doerr was a rookie in 1937 and played with the Red Sox his entire career, until 1951.  He's still alive at age 99.  He's the oldest living major league player and last to play in the 1930's.  I hear he's a good TTM signer, although my experience wasn't successful.

Ted Williams, the best hitter of all-time, was the biggest single reason for the Red Sox resurgence in the 1940's.  He was a rookie in 1939 and played with them until 1960.  His time spent in military service, most of five seasons during his prime, leave us wondering what his lifetime stats could have been.

Dom DiMaggio joined the Red Sox in 1940 and stayed with them until his retirement in 1953.  Some say he has a case for the Hall of Fame, but I'm not of that opinion.

One more player that certainly fits the story is Johnny Pesky.  He played with the Red Sox from 1942 through 1952, but wasn't in this Play Ball set.

Some of my Favorite Cards - Jimmie Foxx

I love baseball stats and the 1920's and 1930's really get my attention. There were lots of big stats in those decades. One of the best was Jimmie Foxx. He played for the Red Sox 6+ seasons, putting up huge numbers. He was an All Star all 6 full seasons. He led the league in home runs, runs batted in, and batting average while playing for Boston. 

Here are a couple of my Jimmie Foxx cards from his playing days. 

1938 Goudey.  My very favorite! Goudey had some classic designs for sure.

1939 Goudey Premiums. Foxx wasn't in the 1939 Play Ball set, so I had to get him this way. The card was in great shape when I received it. Unfortunately, I ripped the bottom corner off when removing it from its holder. The stock is very thin. The scan doesn't show it, but its size is about 4 by 6.

Did you catch it? Both cards spell his first name incorrectly. Or do they? If that's supposed to be his signature he should know the spelling, right?

Stadium Club Pack

I was at Target today and made a tangent over to the baseball card aisle. An employee was stationed at a little demo table, blocking the aisle. I didn't look closely, but the promo was something about $5 off your purchase and Allegra allergy tablets.

"Where should we set up the promotional display today, boss?"

"Put it in front of the baseball card aisle. Nobody ever goes there. Just be sure to leave a little space in case a little kid wants through there."

I politely squeezed my way by and picked up a pack of Stadium Club. I was hoping for Donruss because I still need Moncada and Benintendi, but they only had Optic.

Here's what was in the pack.

Russell is going to P-Town Tom, but Bryce and the rest are available for trade!

Rewarded for Being Last

A little over a week ago, I entered a contest that Daniel at It's like having my own card shop was having.  He got 52 entrees, did a random number generated winning list, and I got dead last at #52.  But lucky for me he decided to give those of us at the bottom a consolation prize.  I received mine in the mail today.  Here's what last place got me.

2014 Bowman Chrome Refractor Michael Chavis.  I love refractors!  I still need to put some time into figuring out what exactly I want to collect from Bowman and it's sub-sets the past 20 years.  It seems like there are variations comprising of the word Bowman followed by various combinations of the words "draft", "chrome", "prospect", and "refractor".  But when I do figure it out, I know this card will be one I'm very glad to have.

2004 Topps Gold Red Sox team card.  It's serial numbered to 2004.  Topps serial numbered their gold set to the year several times back then.

2009 Upper Deck Michael Bowden.  This one is right off my want list!  I'm now down to five left from this big team set.

1993 Fleer Major League Prospects Scott Taylor.  Some day when I have my Red Sox flagship team sets complete, I'll expand into the updates and rookie prospects.  This card gives me a head start.

2016 Topps Allen & Ginter Xander Bogaerts.  Gotta love the X-Man!

Thanks much, Daniel!

LCS Visit

Just before lunch today a couple of work buddies stopped by and asked if I wanted to run to the comic store with them.  What they call the comic book store I call the local card shop.  We've made this trip on occasion before.  So of course I said sure!  When we got there, they went to the comic book side of the store and I headed to the sportscards side.  This is South Dakota's very first card shop, which I've written about before.  They have shelves and shelves of binders with commons from all major brands spanning 50 years.  I was able to knock a bunch of Red Sox cards off my want lists.

I didn't have any 1998 Upper Deck Red Sox before today.  They had them all except Nomar Garciaparra.  Here's Mo Vaughn covering a lot of ground <tic> and a good close-up of Tim Wakefield's knuckleball grip.

I love these very early Red Sox cards of Jason Varitek and Pedro Martinez.

They had nine of the 1997 Fleers that I needed.  This set is one of the worst I've ever seen.  The card stock is thin and the print quality looks like something my computer's printer could do.  This Mike Greenwell is the most exciting of the bunch.  This 2000 Fleer Tradition of Jeff Fassero, in Texas Rangers uniform no less, completes that team set for me.

This 1999 Fleer Tradition of Jose Offerman completes that team set as well.  He's a Kansas City Royal in the picture.  And finally I found three more 2007 Upper Deck cards, including this Jonathan Papelbon, to help chip away at that monster team set a bit more.

On the way out of the shop, I saw some fliers for a card show in town next weekend!  I can't remember the last one we've had here.  I hope there's a good showing of dealers.  I plan to attend and will tell you all about it.

In Today's Mail - Pawtucket Red Sox

In addition to the Boston Red Sox, I collect the team sets for their minor league teams as well.  In 2017 that's the Pawtucket Red Sox at AAA, the Portland Sea Dogs at AA, the Salem Red Sox at advanced A, the Greenville Drive at A, and the Lowell Spinners at short-season A.  The Red Sox farm system has been rich with future major league talent the past 10-12 years, so collecting them has been fun!  I still have a few team sets from past years here and there that I'm after.  See my minor league want list.  Today in the mail I received the 2005 Pawtucket Red Sox team set.  There weren't a lot of players who became major league regulars on that team.

Mr. Kevin Youkilis was by far the most successful.  He won a gold glove, played in three All-Star games, played in four post seasons, and won one World Series championship in 2007.  He played in the ALDS in another championship season, 2004, but didn't play in the ALCS or World Series.  He finished as high as third in the MVP balloting and finished 6th another time.

The only other player from this Pawtucket set to go on and get 100 hits in a major league season was Dave Berg.  Berg just made it with 101 hits in 2002 for the Toronto Blue Jays while playing six positions.  Kelly Shoppach hit for good power for Cleveland in 2008.

Cla Meredith and Chris Narveson were the only pitchers to become regulars on major league pitching staffs.  Meredith was a big part of the San Diego Padres bullpen from 2006-2009.  Narveson won 12 and 11 games for the Milwaukee Brewers as a part of their starting rotation.

 

It's strange that only Youkilis would play in the post season for the Red Sox from this Pawtucket team.  Nobody from the team is still in the major leagues only 12 years later.

One Off the Want List

It's been a little while now since I added my top 10 want lists for football and basketball to the side of this blog page. I was finally able to knock one off those lists. Today in the mail arrived the basketball card sitting at #7 most wanted. It's the 1997-98 Finest Refractors Kobe Bryant, the bronze version.

Kobe's early refractors, back when he was still wearing #8, are sky high in price. I was glad this one slipped thru mostly unnoticed. He has a couple refractors from his rookie year of 1996-97, but I need my car too much to go after them.

Old Red Sox Cards - Collins McCarthy

I've been giving the 1917 Collins McCarthy set a closer look this year since it's exactly 100 years old.  Collins McCarthy was a candy company at 25 Beale Street in San Francisco back then.  The Pacific Service Credit Union is on that site today.  Their slogan was "Just a little better."  They made a card series called Zeenut of the Pacific Coast League for 28 years.  Here are five Collins McCarthy cards I received in the mail this week.

Del died at age 60 years and 80 days.

I gave details of Cady's life in my last post.  He died at age 60 years and 36 days old.

Leonard had a ridiculous ERA of 0.96 in 1914, the lowest all-time.  He died at age 60 years and 86 days.  What a weird coincidence that these last three guys all died within days of the same age.

Scott was baseball's iron man before Lou Gehrig.  He won three World Series championships with the Red Sox.  He lived to age 67.

Chick Shorten was the outfield backup to the hall of fame trio of Speaker, Lewis, and Hooper.  He was the old man of this group living to age 73.

Old Red Sox Card - Hick from For(r)est

A couple of days ago this showed up in the mail.  It's the 1915 Cracker Jack card of Hick Cady.  It's in poor condition, but hey, that's how I can afford it, and I don't expect much better for a card this old.

Hick Cady's story is interesting.  He was born as Forrest Berglund in a town with an equally interesting history.  His parents divorced when he was very young.  When his mom remarried, he took to her new husband enough to take his name of Cady.  Later in his youth, Forrest Cady received the nickname of Hollick, which was later shortened to Hick.  Hick Cady played for three World Series championship teams with the Red Sox.  He was a good fielding catcher but had a light bat.  He caught for Babe Ruth, Smoky Joe Wood, Carl Mays, and Dutch Leonard.  His reputation was that of being one of only a couple catchers who could throw out Ty Cobb stealing.  Unfortunately for him, his main competition for catching time was with the player-manager Bill Carrigan.  Cady umpired for 20 years after his playing days were over.  At age 60 he died in a hotel fire where he worked at the front desk and also lived.  The fire started in his room when he forgot to turn off a heater before going to bed.

A First from Peoria

I received a package in the mail early last week from P-Town Tom, and it was full of Red Sox goodies.  Tom's presence on the baseball card blogs is strong, but this was actually our first attempt at a trade.  There were too many to scan everything, so here are my favorites.

This one's my very favorite!  Did Big Papi do enough to surpass Yaz for second best Red Sox hitter ever?  I think so.

I had the refractor versions of Betts and Kimbrel, but not these base Finest versions.  Two great players here!

I don't think I truly appreciated Pedro's dominance when he was on the Red Sox.  I should see if youtube has any of his games from around the turn of the century.

Here's an oldie but a goodie in Ted Williams.  I have never had any from this Fleer series until now.  The original of this Babe Ruth reprint from 1916 Sporting News would be the ultimate card to have.  I think the reprint will have to do, probably forever.

Ironically, the package showed up either the day Rafael Devers was called up, or the day after.  That's a really cool card of a great young man who will hopefully be a star.  The Yaz 60 Years of Topps reprint is a great addition to my Yaz PC!

 

Thanks so much, Tom!!  I'm digging through my Cubs and other things on your want list.  Expect a return package soon.