Bruce Bochy PC

Blogger Mario A. has never been one to bite his tongue calling out hobby fails, and a few weeks back he tweeted out a Bruce Bochy buyback auto as an example of a deflating card one might pull from the pricey, one-card-per-box Archives Signature product from Topps.

He made his point, and honestly if Topps should really exit the baseball card landscape in the coming years, giving a rest to the steady flow of Topps buybacks is something I'll be happy about.

But it so happens I'm in the minority who was excited to see Bruce Bochy have an influx of certified autographs on the market. He helmed the Padres through the height of my fandom of the team, back when I'd do my best to catch the broadcast of nearly every game. (Been a long time since I've watched through an entire Padres game, stretching back to well before cancelling my mlb.tv subscription.)

But yeah, Boch has a sentimental place in my heart, and when he departed for San Francisco I didn't hold it against him, as San Diego's front office seemed to be pushing him out the door. Those ensuing years that the damn Giants were loitering in the World Series, I could at least be happy that Boch was having success, though I wished he could've worked that magic during his time in So Cal.

He'll probably get into the Hall soon. More losses (2029) than wins (2003) doesn't look good, but I don't think you can name another manager with 3 World Series titles who isn't enshrined in Cooperstown, right?

Before this year, Bruce didn't have many autos on the market. There's an Archives "Fan Favorites" auto from a while back that I had on my radar, but he's pictured as a Giant, so I was kinda begrudgingly keeping an eye out for a good price on one and think I bid unsuccessfully on a couple. So his popping up in Archives Signature this year is a rare time that I'm thankful Topps loves buying back their cards, modifying them, then putting them back out there. Otherwise I might be waiting a long time for a decent certified Bochy auto in a Padres uniform.

Anyways, after seeing Mario's tweet, I took to eBay and was excited to find a Christmas Card of Boch in a Padres uniform with a low opening bid that I was able to secure for the collection. 

It's just what I was looking for and crowns my PC nicely. Figured I'd document the rest of my Bruce Bochy cards here.

This slabbed, signed rookie card was my placeholder for a certified autograph the past few years. Not much to like here, but it was cheap and scratched the itch. If he does get The Call, perhaps this card will see a bump in value, since I know "signed HOF rookie cards" is a somewhat common avenue for collectors to go down. Not that this specimen would grade very highly, a bit off-center and with a noticeable edge nick on the bottom.

Still need a raw, unsigned '79 for the PC (though I've got one in my '79 set). He didn't have Topps cards in '81-'83, so this is otherwise a complete run of his Topps flagship as a player.

And then some manager cards, including an unbought-back copy of the 2001 card from earlier. Sorting out my cards for this post, I was surprised to find that the Heritage here is my only card of him as a Giant.

Only Donruss card I'm missing is 1986 Donruss #551.

I expected to need a few Fleer cards, but no, he only made it into these two Fleer sets. That's being a backup catcher for you, I guess.

Oddball goodness here. Mothers, Keeblers, Carl's Jr, SGA.

Closing out with a few glorious minor league cards, including another signed card I picked up along the line. I sometimes forget Boch spent a couple years as catching depth for the Mets. (These two Tides cards seem to be the only cardboard representation from the stint; Despite playing 17 games in New York in '82, he never got a card as a Met.. [ok, eventually one: 1991 WIZ Mets. Nobody beats the Wiz.])

And dig the "C/CH" position on the 1988 card as he transitioned from behind the plate to the dugout. It's too bad the Las Vegas Stars changed their uniforms to keep in sync with the parent club. They should have kept rocking those mustard-explosion uniforms forever! "Gold star", ya know? Totally fits the name.

I'd be happy to add any Bruce Bochy cards not pictured in this post, so feel free to get in touch about a trade if you've got any to spare.

Thanks for reading and enjoy the holiday weekend, everybody.

The Nickening

Looks like I'll have a string of trade recap posts this week. Yesterday was Zippy, today is Dimebox Nick, and waiting in the wings are packages from Angus and Wes that just showed up. With all these great incoming cards, it's easy to ignore the release of 2019 Topps Series One today. I feel like my interest in current flagship couldn't be lower, though I don't hate the design this year and am glad to see the return of full stats on the back.

Here's a nice one to kick off with. McCovey is a big PC guy for me, plus I'm thinking I'd like to make a run for Kellogg's sets at some point in the coming years.

A little deja vu from yesterday's Japanese girlie cards, another one of those boxes with a bunch of swimsuit cards of one particular young lady. Jun Amaki here is quite lovely. Perhaps this was re-traded by way of Zippy? Hey, I'll happily take any unwanted girlie cards (and probably pass off any I don't want to Billy.)

Back to baseball, here are some minis. Always love adding a new Hoyt.

These old Baseball Card Magazine pseudo-customs are fun. I had been debating whether or not to cut the sheet I recently got featuring the Kevin Maas card, but thanks to this already-cut one from Nick, I can leave the other intact.

And more various cards of  guys I collect.

Solid selection of Padres from this decade. Looks like I needed all 3 of those 2011 Topps parallels for my frankenset, so that makes me happy.

Trea Turner is a guy I recently bumped off my wantlist and retired the PC into the Hundred Card Club. That didn't take me long.. feels like he was just recently a rookie, fleeced from San Diego's org. Hopefully Tatis Jr at shortstop takes the sting out of that transaction soon. Anyways, nice lot here.

Nick and I are both Rod Beck collectors, and he's good about throwing his dupes my way.

And of course Mr. Padre. Dig the cartoon fly with backwards hat.

Impressive lot of George Springer cards.

Bunch of Brian Giles.

And little bro, Marcus.

More Pads of the Past. Some nice ones here. Note the minor league Bochy with "C/CH" position. That was his last stand as a player.

The package wraps up with some vintage cards from Nick's dad, buttering me up for another batch of music customs on the horizon.

The '64 Topps needs are much appreciated. Inching toward ¾ complete with this set.

The highlights here are legendary manager Walt Alston and a combo card featuring Yaz. (Not sure how Chuck Schilling squeezed onto this "Sox Sockers" card; the guy hit a total of 23 homers in his entire career.)

Big thanks, Nick! (and Nick's dad!) I don't think I've got much left set aside for you right now, but I'll keep an eye out. And just let me know when your dad wants to get that custom project going.

Nice Boys (Guns N' Randoms)

Some more random pickups I've been meaning to show off.

Scored another Hoyt Wilhelm hit with this neat old-timey jersey relic #/50. Grabbed it for a few bucks in the same big order that landed me the Yaz rookie (most of the cards in this post are from that order).

And some minor league oddball Hoyts! Not from his playing days, of course, but there's one paying tribute to greats from the history of the Minneapolis Millers (1978 Halsey Hall Recalls), and a couple cards from his coaching career. That middle card (1979 West Haven Yankees TCMA)... wow, what a bizarre photo. Did Elmer Fudd just blast his beak off? Not sure what's going on there. I checked, and it seems all copies of the card are like this. The card with the group shot (1982 Nashville Sounds Team Issue) also features Johnny Oates (his first managerial card) and Eddie Napoleon.

Included a shot of the backs in case anyone's interested. I wonder if any of those Arby's Tennessee locations are still in business.

Minor league cards of a couple notable Padres of the past, Bruce Bochy and Nate Colbert.

I also gave a big boost to my Eric Owens PC, throwing a bunch of draft pick and minor league cards into my cart.

The last 2 in this batch are especially neat because they're imported cards from his stints playing winter ball in Venezuela.

I believe the Mud Hens issue is Eric's "sunset card" as that was his last hurrah in affiliated ball. He played a little in Mexico the following year before going into coaching. He made it back to the big leagues as assistant hitting coach for the Blue Jays in 2015 and 2016.

We close today with a cool assortment of Garry Templeton oddballs. Love the 1981 Perma-Graphic Credit Card. While I generally shy away from oversized cards, I was happy to score one of those original Sportscaster cards. When I was a kid, I had some similar cards, but I think they were of planes and ships. Nice to take me back to my carefree boyhood days.

Thanks for stopping by my blog.

Bandwagon jumping (Go Royals and Giants!)

I don't like the Giants, but I like them slightly more than the Cardinals, so I'm glad the lesser of two evils prevailed there. At least the Giants have Padres ties, with both Bochy and Peavy representing San Diego very well for several years till the suits upstairs pushed them out.

But that said, there's no question I'm rooting for the Royals to win it. Gotta love a Cinderella story.

I got on the bandwagon and picked up an Alex Gordon certified auto the other day.

This seems to be his cheapest available auto out there, setting me back an even $10 shipped. Sticker auto. No sign of MLB properties. Bottom of the certified auto barrel, sure, but I like it. Gordon has been a real good player for a while now, and seems to me he's the heart of the team (though again, I'm just a bandwagon jumper and don't know much about them.)

I don't specifically collect anybody currently on the Royals, though I did pull a couple nice numbered Yordano Ventura cards from the 2014 Donruss Series 2 box I won, so I'll be hoping he pitches well. As far as all-time Royals I like, names springing to mind include Dan Quisenberry and Al Hrabosky (I had misspelt both those guys' last names; kudos to Google Chrome's spellcheck for having them in the dictionary; ironically it's saying spellcheck isn't a word. Well, screw them.) Let's see, who else? Vida Blue and Gaylord Perry are a couple guys I collect who spent a little time in KC. Oh yeah, my boy Bip bipped there briefly, too. As did Reggie Sanders. And of course you gotta love Mr. Royal, George Brett.

As for San Francisco, apart from the aforementioned Bruce Bochy and Jake Peavy, I don't really collect any current Giants. I ranted about all-time Giants I collect back when Peavy got traded in a post titled The damn Giants I'm forced to collect.

But ever the opportunist, I've attempted to try taking advantage of San Francisco's success to help me thin out the team's ample representation in my tradebox. I got 5 Listia auctions running, all ending Sunday. All five are lots, between 4 and 9 cards each. Excuse the self-serving plug, but you can check out the listings here on my Listia profile. I've got a Posey lot, Bumgarner lot, Cain lot, misc Giants lot, and a lot of my Peavy dupes. (I should put up a lot of Bochy dupes, too.)

Anyways, should be a fun Series. I'll be pulling for Kansas City to keep the magic going and bring home their first Championship since 1985, but won't be crushed in the event San Francisco comes out on top and further cements Bochy's HOF credentials.

Have a good weekend and stay safe! (At my work, there's one other guy besides me who regularly rides his bike to work. He just got hit by a car as he was leaving to go home today. Yikes! I think he's fine, but shaken up and they're taking him to the hospital to be safe. Needless to say, I'll be extra careful riding home today.)

The damn Giants I'm forced to collect

I always say I'm a baseball fan first, and then after that I'm a Padres fan and a fan of certain other players I like. I don't really hate any teams. When the playoffs roll around, I always seem to root for the underdog.. the team who's gone the longest without a championship. And I usually find myself rooting against the Yankees, Cardinals, and Giants (The Red Sox get a pass since they had such a legendary dry spell).

As a player collector, of course I've got a lot of cards from these teams in my collection. Yanks I love include Reggie and Mickey. With the Cardinals, there's Gibson and Musial.

More Yankees I collect.

But now let's talk about the Giants. A division rival of my Padres, they might be my least favorite team. I'm even cool with the Dodgers these days, perhaps a result of Stockholm Syndrome from reading so many LA card blogs.

But despite my dislike of the Giants, I find myself a player collector of an inordinate number of guys who spent quality time with San Francisco. It's almost silly!

The latest tragic turn involves Jake Peavy, cruelly sent cross-country by Boston in a sick joke of a trade. I've got a soft spot for Jake from his days as the last great Padres pitcher, before they cut him loose rather than pay him competitively. (His numbers haven't been quite so good since leaving San Diego, so I suppose in hindsight it wasn't necessarily a bad move by the front office.) I don't really build PCs for many active guys, but Peavy is one of the few.. Probably the biggest collection I've got of a current player, with 60 unique cards.

The only other current Giant I like these days is manager Bruce Bochy, again thanks to his Padres ties (Hey, he and Jake will be reunited; that's kinda cool.) I don't really have a PC going for Bochy, but I probably should start. One of my collecting focuses is Pads in the Hall, and Bochy will likely get in as a manager. Winning 2 World Series Championships seems to be the magic number for managers, much like 300 wins for a pitcher, or 500 home runs or 3000 hits for a batter. So he's pretty much punched his ticket, even if it might take a while to go through. So yeah, I'll likely be obligated to collect him eventually. That's cool. He seems to be a great guy by all accounts and I'm glad he's had some success.. I just wish he could have won it all down on the opposite end of California instead.

Speaking of other Giants I'm self-imposed "forced" into collecting, you've also got Willie McCovey and Gaylord Perry.. a couple Hall of Famers who spent many years in San Francisco, with relatively brief stints in sunny San Diego.

The cards in this post are all from an awesome PWE I just received from Dime Box Nick.

Bill Madlock is another favorite of mine. No Padre connection here. While most associated with his time on the Pirates, he spent 2 and a half years as a Giant. I've also got a sizable collection of Vida Blue cards, who played 6 years in San Francisco.

I'll post the rest of the cards Nick sent that I couldn't shoehorn into this post soon.

In recent months, I've started collecting a couple other former Giants: Rod Beck (Padre connection again) and Hoyt Wilhelm (they were still the New York Giants when he played with them, so I guess that sorta gives him a pass).

Donruss kindly omitted the Giants stats from Hoyt's career. Thanks for the great cards, Nick!

So that's a whopping eight guys I collect who were Giants. That might be the most for any team after the Padres.. Just so happen to be my least-favorite team. And of course I'd never turn down cool cards of Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, Orlando Cepeda, George Foster, and the like. Damn Giants.