Some of you readers might remember my Vagabond Binder collecting project, yeah? Been a few years since I've done one of these, but to refresh your memory: I like to fill a 9-pocket page with cards of a guy featured on 9 different teams. It's really just players that mean something to me that I go out of my way to complete a page for. So like, I don't go adding Octavio Dotel cards to my Sportlots orders, but I'll set them aside if they fall in my lap. My blog's Vagabond Binder label includes past posts for Rickey, Benito, Canseco, and Goose.
Today's man of the hour is Kevin Mitchell. I drafted most of this post a week or two ago but held off posting to sync up with his birthday today, January 13th. Happy Birthday, big guy!
Unlike past Vagabond Binder inductees up to this point, I never fully PCed him, at least not too heavily, but I remember him terrorizing my Padres while in his prime with the Giants. In recent years I've gotten a kick out of seeing non-Giants cards of Kevin Mitchell, with random pickups here and there. And I just recently acquired my ninth different team, so hey, time to dust off the Vagabond Binder and get a post out of it.
There's the full page. Now we take a closer look at the cards..
Like myself, Kevin Mitchell was born in raised in San Diego, though he's from the rougher side of town. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Mets and made his Major League debut with a cup of coffee in 1984, though got left out of the national baseball card sets of 1985 and spent that next year in Triple A. But he was a versatile part of New York's championship season of 1986, playing six positions for the Mets that year. They rewarded him by shipping him out to San Diego in a big "Kevin M" swap that saw Kevin McReynolds heading to Shea. The Padres flipped him to San Francisco after just a few months and at least got a Cy Young season from Mark Davis to show for it.
As for the cards, the Mets are represented by what I refer to as a "Birchwood Edition" modified 1987 Topps.. call it "cardart" or "a custom" or "altered junk" or whatever. I gotta admit I thought these things would make more of a splash, but the lack of social media response and my eBay sales tell me that nobody else really gives much of a shit about bleached borders on 1987 Topps. Hey, more for me; I love 'em! This one got a little sloppy on the left side of the name box, but still a pleasing "color match" DIY parallel of what was already a fun card with the huge dust cloud.
The Padres card is 1987 Bohemian Hearth Bread Padres. I've completed that set-- still looking to upgrade my Gwynn and Kruk-- and had a dupe Mitchell to go towards this. If these weren't so tough, I'd be tempted to bleach the borders, too, a la my '91 Fleer tweaks. Not many other options for Mitchell Padres cards, though he does have a 1987 Donruss Opening Day card where he's suited up for San Diego. And there's the nutty '87 Fleer Update that features two photos splitting the card: one as a Padre and one as a Giant.
Kevin had a monster 1989, leading the Giants to the pennant and winning NL MVP. I had an extra 2002 Archives Reserve paying tribute to that season available for the page.
San Francisco traded Mitchell to Seattle for the 1992 season after he put on some pounds. The Mariners then shipped him to Cincinnati before the 1993 season. I've got both stops represented here by Bowman cards. The guy was known for being kind of an asshole, with multiple allegations of violence on his rap sheet, so that might help explain why ballclubs often treated him like a hot potato.
He played for the Fukuoka Daiei Hawks in 1995. Like his other mid 90s seasons, he performed well at the plate when healthy, but was out hurt a lot. This is a Japanese card from a 2022 retro set that apparently features several retired players, all with autographs in the product too.
Kevin returned stateside in 1996, signing with the Red Sox. Boston traded him midseason back to Cincinnati, giving him a second stint with the Reds. That was his last year with much success at the plate, but he stuck around a bit longer.
Kevin made it into 20 games with Cleveland in 1997 and 51 games with Oakland in 1998. He has a few Indians cards to choose from, but his only other A's card other than parallels of this Pacific Online eyesore is a Mother's Cookie card from a stadium giveaway. That'd make for a nice upgrade, but this project has already gotten costly enough, what with the imported Japanese card that wasn't cheap, plus that Tidewater Tides minor league card from a few posts back that I ended up not having to use in this page thanks to the Japanese card.
But anyways, then Kevin played a few games in Mexico in '99 before kicking around Independent ball to wrap up his playing days in 2001. No cards seem to exist from those post-MLB stints. Theoretically, it might be fun to slot in one of those and then use the '87 Fleer Update card for both his Padres and Giants stops, thereby squeezing 10 teams onto one page. I suppose I could to that with the Tides card, but that's kind of a cheat since it's still the Mets organization, so I'd prefer sticking with my current configuration.
And there you have a page of Kevin Mitchell cards, each featuring him with a different team.
This has been another installment of the Vagabond Binder. Safe travels till we meet again.
