Set Completion Carousel

I wanted to jog through a couple sets that I've recently completed, as well as a couple other sets I've started with help from near-complete starters.

Joy of a Completed Set: 1988 Fleer

It was way back during that innocent summer of 2019 that I got a partial set of 1988 Fleer from my buddy (Padrographs) Rod. Took me a few years piecing together the couple dozen or so missing cards, but I've now finally made that partial set into a complete set. (#188 Denny Martinez was the final card thanks to an accounting mistake on my part.) That gives me a 3-year run of Fleer, 1986 through 1988. I've also got '84, '90, and '92 complete. So I'm in the market for complete or near-complete sets of Fleer from '81, '82, '83, '85, '89, '91, and '93, working towards a goal Fleer Baseball run of '81 through '93 (when I stopped collecting as a kid). And I think the only Fleer Update set I've got is 1987, but I'd like to get more of those complementary sets, too.

I should salute '88 Fleer at least a little here, but what more can you say about '88 Fleer? I do like the set, especially for the checklist more than the design. You get some key rookie cards that some other companies missed out on, such as Edgar Martinez and Ron Gant, and the rookie duos with Mark Grace, and deeper cuts like Jeff King and John Burkett. Also endearing is the Reggie Jackson final tribute, his only real base card that year. While they printed a ton of the stuff, '88 Fleer still seems relatively scarce compared to the other mainstream baseball cards of 1988. Like, I'm not sure it's the best set from that year, but it at least feels less junky than Topps and Donruss, right?

Coincidentally, here's another set from 1988 that I've been trying to finish since I was at my old place (which is how I keep track of things these days-- And this month marks 5 years in the new house, so it's been a while)...

Joy of a (2nd) Completed Set: 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse

I overpaid a bit for this oversized card the other day, but it was the final card I needed to complete a second master set of 1988 Topps Pee-Wee's Playhouse several years in the making. The story there is I ended up buying 3 boxes of the stuff (well, one was a partial box) to build my first master set and I ended up with enough dupes that it made sense to go ahead and take that second set to the finish line. Man, such a frustrating set to build! If you're thinking of going after the set, I'd warn you the boxes have horrible collation. Particular singles can be hard to find and tricky to search for. You're better off buying a completed set on eBay. Or hey, I don't intend to hang on to my second master set, so if anybody wants to trade, let me know. Master sets (159 cards including variations) seem to be going for around $150 on eBay. Along those lines, I also have a second near-master set of 1991 MusiCards available with all the variations and most of the promos that I should try to sell or trade one of these days.

New partial set to work on: Will's Cigarettes 1926 Wonders of The Past

I saw this neat tobacco mini set in a post by Nick Vossbrink back in 2020 and then set an ebay search for a cheap set. Finally a near-complete set (46/50) popped up and I scored it for just under $8 shipped. Really beautiful images on these century-old cards. I've seen at least one of these wonders in person thanks to my trip to Greece a couple years ago. Hopefully shouldn't be too hard to track down the 4 missing cards. Looking forward to paging these up.

1926 Wills Wonders of the Past needs:

14 Easter Island

42 The Colosseum

43 Trajan's Forum, Rome

44 Tombs by the Appian Way

New partial set to work on: 2004 Topps All-Time Fan Favorites

I haven't been documenting my progress on the blog much, but these past few years I've been building all 3 refractor parallel sets to the Topps All-Time Fan Favorites trilogy (just 14 needs remaining). A bulk lot on ebay included one refractor I needed plus a partial 2004 base set, and I ended up with it for a solid price. While I'm mainly interested in the refractors, hey, the base cards are cool too. Might as well work on completing that.

2004 ATFF needs:

31 Ralph Kiner

35 Willie McGee

47 Bret Saberhagen

61 Mike Scott

93 Darren Daulton

94 Harold Reynolds

96 Pete Incaviglia

105 Cal Ripken Jr.

Only the Ripken might be relatively-pricey out of those names, so that's not bad.

One bonus tale of closure to go out on. Maybe you remember back in February I got a bunch more cool stuff from Rod including a near-complete minor league teams set of 1986 ProCards Phoenix Firebirds. The trainer card (Cliff Shidawara) got pulled for Fuji's consideration, but no worries as I was able to land a replacement on COMC for a buck. So now I've got that full team set to enter as overkill for my Chris D. Jones supercollection that already included the single.

Thanks for swinging by, folks. Hope you're enjoying playoff baseball. I've got the deciding Cubs/Brewers game on as I type. With the Padres out, I'm rooting for whoever's gone the longest without winning (so, not the Dodgers). I'd love to see a first-time champ this year.

A whale of a set (1988 San Diego State Aztecs 50th Anniversary)

My previous post was kind of a downer, with me coming to terms that a card I'd been after for years isn't actually out there.

But in happier hobby happenings for me, another card high on my most wanted list that I had never actually seen anywhere in my several years of searching was finally spotted and secured earlier this month.

I won a listing for the rare 1988 San Diego State Aztecs All-Time Greats 50th Anniversary 22-card set, with this particular set being special because a few of the cards are autographed. Says the seller: "I got this set from the dinner back then which those players were there to sign the cards." Seems to check out and the signatures give no reason to doubt their authenticity. I'd love to someday search the San Diego Union-Tribune archives or something to see if I can find more details of that dinner event.

Funny enough, this Gwynn wasn't the whale I was after, though it becomes a jewel in the crown of my biggest player collection. Mr. Padre's SDSU cards are a subcollection I love adding to, and this one is kicked up heartily by the big, blue autograph. Weirdly sentimental to me, with Tony's signature of the era reminding me of my oldest auto of his, a signed 1989 Score card I traded for from my best friend Doug back in the day. By the time pack-certified autographs were a thing, Tony's signature had devolved a bit. I think the late 80s were the glory days for Tony's john hancock.

Chris Gwynn is also present with a signed solo card plus a combo card with big bro Tony. (Too bad that one didn't get dual signed!)

The backs are solid, with the player's SDSU stats and a bio. No card numbers, tho.

Here are the rest of the signed cards. Mark Grace is cool to see in an Aztec uniform. The late Dave Smith was a prominent closer in the 80s with the Astros (and a teammate of Grace on the Cubs for a couple years in the early 90s), though he's more familiar to me from his stint as the Padres pitching coach. Mark Williamson had some success pitching for the Orioles, 1987-1994.

Bud Black, Al Newman, and Bobby Meacham are familiar names who each got 2 cards for some reason. The respective backs are identical (Again, none of the cards are numbered). I suppose college baseball didn't get much coverage back then compared to today, no doubt limiting the resources available to whoever was tasked with creating the set. All the photos are in black & white, but at least there are some neat shots mixed in there.

Graig Nettles is another appreciated PC addition-- and likely my first time seeing him in an SDSU uniform. Besides the Nettles Brothers, I'm not very familiar with the rest of these guys. I got my degree from SDSU, but don't blanket-collect cards of all ballplayers who went to the same college as me. Guys who went to the same high school as me? Now that's a different story.. and the white whale in question...

Chris Jones is a tricky guy to collect because of all the other players with the same common name. Like myself, he went from Granite Hills High to Grossmont Community College to San Diego State. Our paths differ from there with him getting drafted to play professional baseball and me getting asked to help out at the computer shop my friend was working at. Pictured here with the header/checklist, this is a card that's been among the few cards I search for way more often that is probably healthy, so it's great to finally score it, and I didn't mind at all the fact that the Gwynn Bros autos and other goodies helped elevate the asking price of the set.

I don't want to repeat myself on the blog too much, but my big Chris Jones post was back in 2015. He took center stage on the blog again in 2019 with a terrific TTM return, one of my favorite hobby experiences ever, honestly.

My PC of the second Guy From Granite to crack the bigs is nearly complete. What's left to track down? The big one missing is his entry in the 1985 Astros Postcards set (and/or its 1987 re-release). It's the only card-like-thing documenting his brief major league career (besides modern customs). If any of you readers know any bigtime Astros collectors who might have the '85 Astros postcard set (I've already asked Bru), I'd be appreciative of any help locating it-- ideally scoring one for myself, but really even just seeing a picture of Chris Jones' postcard would be nice. Nolan Ryan is the only player from the set that ever pops up anywhere.

And I've seen listed somewhere online a 1989 San Diego State All-Time Greats set that also includes a Chris Jones card, but I'm fairly confident that's just a mislabel of this 1988 set. (Why would they make a 51st Anniversary set a year later? Maybe they did a small run of reprints if anything?) Maybe something will show up in a saved eBay search notification someday, but I'm going to assume the '89 version is a "ghost whale" and won't stress it.

The only other hole in the PC on my radar is the glossy version of his 1984 Tucson Toros Cramer minor league card. I have the regular version, but apparently there's a rare a glossy parallel.. likely a team set handed out at one sparsely-attended Toros game back in '84. Again, I'll keep an eye out for that, but it doesn't interest me much apart from checking it off the list.

I'll close out with a cute pic of Ruby from Thanksgiving dinner yesterday. She was on her best behavior, relatively speaking, and had a huge amount of fun being the center of attention for a packed house. Hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving, too.

Mr. Jones and Me. Custom TTM success with an awesome note!

Oh man, this was a sweeeet TTM return for me.

I can't really explain it, but I was nervous about this one. It was way back in January when Padrographs Rod hooked me up with the elusive mailing address.. and it took me until the middle of August to finally get around to making the request, though it was high on my to-do list that whole time.

Chris Jones has been an enigmatic figure in my collection for a while now, sort of my personal Moonlight Graham. He was only the second person from my high school to play in the major leagues. And the first (Mike Reinbach) passed away many years ago, so Mr. Jones is by default the reigning patriarch of the Guys From Granite fraternity. The fact that "Chris Jones" is a very common name only further clouds the enigmatic nature of the situation, as searching for his cards is not easy, and googling him is pretty much a waste of time as 99% of the results will be for the other baseball player named Chris Jones (who debuted with the Reds in 1991), or maybe the other few guys with that name who've played in the minors over the past few years (or the football or soccer players who also have that name).

I just wanted it to be perfect. You never know how a TTM request will be received.. especially when customs are involved. I've heard about some old-timers who are like, "This is a FAKE CARD! I wasn't paid for the use of my likeness with this! Grumble grumble!" Worst case scenario is upsetting the guy.

Another concern of mine was the weather. Yeah, seems funny, but my customs are susceptible to the ink running when they get a little damp. I figured mid August would be safe, but lol, the day before this return came in, it rained. Thankfully it was dry the day the mailman dropped the return envelope off for me.

But enough lead-in, let's get to it!

Boom, if I may say so myself. Chris never got a real MLB card, so I made my own using the only photo I've ever seen of him not in a minor league uniform. I colorized the b&w pic and put it in a 1987 Donruss design (which might look familiar if you read my post from last month about 87D customs).

I sent 4 copies of this custom, and in my note I asked for one signed in return and said he could keep the extras, which he did. (I also sent a fine-tip red Sharpie for him to sign with [and keep].. an advanced TTM move I've only done once before.. for when you really want it to turn out well and not risk a crappy ballpoint pen or dried-out Sharpie ruining your request). I also mentioned how we both went to Granite Hills High School, and then Grossmont CC and SDSU (I nearly asked him which elementary school he went to, curious if our scholastic paths mirror back that far, though I resisted, thinking it might be creepy to do so).. and mentioned how collecting cards of players who went to my high school is a way I connect with my hometown after moving away a decade ago.

I think the back turned out pretty good, too! I take pride in my custom backs, gotta admit. Helps me stand out from other custom card makers who don't bother with the backs. But really it's just my OCD on the matter, as a blank-backed card feels incomplete to me. This is not only a rated rookie (that never was) but also a sunset card with full career stats. Turns out Chris read it and gave me props in a great note he included in his return...

Transcribing for posterity, he says:

Hey Gavin
Thanks so much for the cards. You did your homework on the career highlights. I didn't even remember that Nolan R. was pitching the game of my debut. I do remember that being on the same team as he was my greatest memory in the ML. Such a great guy as well as HOF no brainer. Take care and thanks again.
Chris  --->
That picture was in spring training during an intersquad game on deck to face Vida Blue. Nice game face! I ended up punching out looking on a 3-2 slider. Nice!

Wow! I've received nice little notes with my custom TTM requests before (including from Vida Blue himself!) but this takes the cake. I couldn't have dreamt of a better reply. This epitomises the greatness of the hobby for me and what it's all about.

Chris even wrote "Go Eagles!" on the back on the return envelope, a reference to our shared Granite Hills heritage.

Oh man, I'm so very happy with this return! While I wouldn't expect it to have big value on the secondary market, this signed card is now easily in the inner circle of best cards in my collection, right up there with my Trout autos and vintage Mantles.

Again, huge thanks to Mr. Jones for making my day by taking the time to sign and return my card and write that wonderful return note. And big thanks also to Rod as well as Brian at ABC Unlimited, the autograph dealer who kindly supplied the address. Much appreciated!

taking it back to 1987 with a few customs

Most of the customs I've made lately are for others, but I took some time today to make one for me I had been wanting to make for a long time.

Ha no, it wasn't Kathy Ireland, but the card I wanted to make was in the design of 1987 Donruss. Once I spent some quality time making a template, I had some fun with it.

Kathy Ireland is looking great for the Mets here in a meaningless late September game. Sadly, she would be DFA'd at the end of the season after only batting .198 in 74 at-bats.
Nah, I'm just being silly; I don't know the actual origin of the photo.

Bruce Springsteen gets a mocked-up card too. Kinda fun. Glory days, well, they'll pass you by.. am I right?

I wasn't planning on printing these above two out, but maybe someday.

Ok, here's the card I set out to create. Chris D. Jones is a guy who went to my high school and had brief stints in The Show with the Astros (1985) and Giants (1986), but unfortunately never got a real MLB card. In fact, I've only ever seen one photo of him in a major league uniform, this one that Rod shared with me. It's originally in black and white, though I've made an attempt at colorization here. Eh, good enough! I still need to make the back, but I hope to print out a few of these soon and make a TTM autograph request.

This one was a request on Twitter. Mickey Mantle taking Paul Simon deep in the video for "Me and Julio Down By The Schoolyard". Neat!

It was Hoyt Wilhelm's birthday the other day and I wanted to Tweet about it, but couldn't find this gif I made last year. (I usually search my blog to find my old gifs if I don't have them otherwise handy.) Maybe I forgot to post about it here? Well, there it is for next time!

Another one by request a few days ago. Here's a gif card of 75-year-old Luke Appling hitting a homer at an Old Timers game in '82 off Warren Spahn. Gotta love it!

That's all for today. Thanks for reading!

A decade gone

Today marks 10 years since I moved up to Portland. So it's been a full decade since I packed up my things and left behind my hometown of El Cajon in East County San Diego. Let's see.. in that time, I've had 3 different jobs, a couple awesome dogs, gotten married, and most importantly as far as this blog is concerned: returned to the hobby of card collecting.

One way I like to "remember my roots" is by collecting cards of pro athletes who went to my high school-- "Guys From Granite", as I call that part of my collection.

One sidequest I had since the beginning was to acquire an autograph of every Guy From Granite who made the major leagues (currently totalling 8 players), and I'm pleased to announce I've just recently met that goal, finally. To celebrate, let's run down the list chronologically.

#1 Mike Reinbach
MLB debut: 1974

The original Guy From Granite, Mike got a cup of coffee with the Orioles in '74, then had greater success playing in Japan. A few years after his playing days, he was tragically killed in a car wreck. Maybe someday I'll find an autographed card, but for now I've got to make due with a pair of signed index cards.
See also: The Harrowing Tale of Mike Reinbach, Setting the Mike Reinbach story straight, and Mike Reinbach apocalypse.


#2 Chris Jones
MLB debut: 1985

Chris D. Jones briefly appeared with the Astros in '85 and the Giants in '86. He was the last guy I needed an autograph from. His common name makes it hard to search for his cards/autographs (there are a lot of people named Chris Jones in the world), but thanks to Padrographs Rod and an autograph dealer buddy of his, I was finally able to track down a signed minor league card. I've also got his mailing address now and I plan to try a TTM attempt with a custom or two soon.
See also: Chris Jones, but not that Chris Jones


#3 Brian Giles
MLB debut: 1995

Brian Giles had the longest, most successful baseball career of the guys to come out of Granite Hills High, and so it's no surprise he easily had the most cards produced of the players on this list. He was still active after the next 4 guys on this list had come and gone.
See also: Brian Giles was a narc at my school and My Brian Giles PC

#4 Tom Fordham
MLB debut: 1997

Tom is currently the only pitcher to ever make it to the bigs out of Granite Hills. He got into 36 games (6 of them starts) with the White Sox in '97 and '98. He got some cardboard love back in the day, mainly from Bowman and Best.
See also: Tom Fordham went to my high school

#5 Shane Spencer
MLB debut: 1998

Brian Giles may have had the longest career of the guys on this list, but Shane had the good fortune of being a part of the turn-of-the-millenium Yankees dynasty and picked up 3 rings in his relatively short career, highlighted by some clutch home runs in the fall of 1998.
See also: Yankee hero Shane Spencer went to my high school


#6 John Barnes
MLB debut: 2000

Now we're entering my time at Granite. John was a big man on campus when I was a freshman/sophomore while he was a junior/senior. He came up through the Red Sox organization before being traded to the Twins where he got a few dozen MLB at-bats in 2000-2001. Later attempted a comeback as a pitcher, though didn't make it past AAA.
See also: I went to school with John Barnes and he played in the majors

#7 Marcus Giles
MLB debut: 2001

As I've mentioned several times in the past on this blog, I was in the same grade as Marcus, going to school with him from elementary school all the way up through community college. Sure was a thrill to watch him rise through the minors and become an NL All-Star in 2003.
See also: My classmate the All-Star

#8 Travis Taijeron
MLB debut: 2017

After an extended dry spell, it was great to see another Guy From Granite finally crack the majors near the end of the 2017 season. It looks like Travis recently signed a minor league deal with the Mets, returning to his original organization after a year on the Dodgers' Triple A squad. Wishing him the best of luck in the upcoming 2019 season.
See also: Better Call Up Taijeron! and Superfractor auto pickup!


That wraps it up. Here's to another 10 great years up here in the Pacific Northwest, though I'll always keep my hometown in my heart and in my collection.

Chris Jones, but not that Chris Jones (Guys from Granite)

There have been 7 graduates from my high school to play in the major leagues (Granite Hills High School in El Cajon, California representing!) I've managed to obtain at least a couple cards from them all. I'm tipping my cap to each of them in this recurring Guys From Granite series. We're counting them down in ascending order by career games played, working our way to the most successful GHHS Eagle. This is part 3 of 7.

CHRIS JONES

Chris Jones is a very popular name. There have been several guys named Chris Jones to make a name for themselves in the world, but the ballplayer who went to Granite Hills was a white guy who played in the 80s, not to be confused with the better-known Chris Jones who played in the 90s, or the minor leaguer currently pitching in the Orioles organization.

Christopher Dale Jones was born in 1957 in Los Angeles. He went from Granite Hills to Grossmont College (Community College) to San Diego State, a path I myself would follow a couple decades later (I wonder if he also went to my middle school and elementary school?) Grossmont College is often ranked among the best community colleges in the nation, if I recall, and much cheaper than a 4-year university (I can remember paying just $11 per credit in the 90s, though those days are long gone now), so it makes sense to knock out a few general courses there before moving on to the big time.

Anyways, Chris was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 25th round of the 1979 amateur draft. He had been drafted by the Orioles a couple years earlier, but didn't sign. Chris was a left-handed outfielder known for his defense. Speed was a big part of his game, swiping 40 stolen bases in 1980 (A ball) and 37 in 1981 (AA). Looks like he missed a lot of time in '82 and '83, likely to injuries, but bounced back for strong seasons in '84 and '85 with AAA Tucson.

Chris was called up to action in Houston in the middle of the 1985 season, picking up 5 hits in 25 at-bats with the Astros. He was mostly used as a late-inning defensive replacement or pinch runner, as evidenced by his appearing in 31 games, yet with only 28 plate appearances to show for it. Nolan Ryan was the winning pitcher in Chris' debut. That must've been cool to have Nolan Ryan as a teammate.

The Astros cut him loose after the season, however, and he wound up with the Giants. He only got into 3 games with San Francisco in 1986, with a lone at-bat. In his final MLB game-- a win over his former team-- he pinch-ran for Bob Melvin and got his only stolen base in the bigs. So I guess that's ending on a high note, at least. He was at AAA Phoenix for most of 1986 (.291) and all of 1987 (.257) before calling it a career.

Not sure where life lead him after hanging up his cleats. Chris was a bit before my time and I wasn't familiar with him until researching guys from Granite, so I don't have any personal memories or anecdotes about him. But it's pretty cool he made the majors, even if his career was shortlived.

Cards

Despite his major league service, this Chris Jones never got a baseball card from one of the big 3 companies of the time. He does have a few minor league cards and a couple major league postcards, however. With so many different athletes named "Chris Jones" it's a pain to search for his cards. But I believe this to be a somewhat complete checklist:

x 1982 Tucson Toros TCMA #2 Chris Jones
x 1983 Tucson Toros TCMA #19 Chris Jones
x 1984 Tucson Toros Cramer #52 Chris Jones
o 1985 Astros Postcards #12 Chris Jones
x 1985 Tucson Toros Cramer #51 Chris Jones
x 1986 Phoenix Firebirds ProCards #12 Chris Jones
o 1987 Astros 1983-85 Postcard Rerelease #13 Chris Jones
x 1987 Phoenix Firebirds ProCards #78 Chris Jones
o 1988 San Diego State Aztecs All-Time Greats #10 Chris Jones
o 1989 San Diego State All-Time Greats #9 Chris Jones

Here are scans of the cards I have.

This one above is my favorite.. nice picture, good design, and ridiculous back, with the Budweiser ad, and the warning to not get caught in a pickle with your car.

[HT] Poor "Cris"(?) couldn't get out of Arizona.. going from Tucson to Phoenix. At least that's somewhat close to his home in San Diego. I made the trip from San Diego to Tucson a few times in the 80s, too. It's a long drive, but you can make it in a day. I was just a kid, but my mom's old college roommate lived there with her two sons who were just a bit younger than me and we'd visit them for a few days once every 2 or 3 years. Had some great times with Nick and Ben.. Super Mario 3, G.I. Joes, getting into trouble as boys do. The only baseball card I ever stole was from one of their friends, but that's a shameful story for another day (it wasn't that bad).

If you have any cards (or postcards) of this guy not pictured here, feel free to get in touch with me about a trade. Thanks!

Autograph

Nope.

Chris Jones is the only major leaguer from my high school I've yet to acquire an autograph from. Of course it's hard to search, since Chris Jones is a popular name and the search results are always for the other Chris Joneses. But I'll try to keep an eye out. If you can help me out with his auto, or perhaps have a line on a mailing address for former major leaguer Chris Dale Jones b. 1957 that I could try for a TTM, please let me know.

Fake cards

Hey, before we wrap up this post, let's go ahead and crudely photoshop up some Chris D. Jones cards that never were...

Ha, these are definitely not my best Photoshop work, but I was rushing to whip them up before work this morning. I couldn't find any pics of him in a major league uniform, so made due with butchering his minor league card photos.

Thanks for reading. Next time on "Guys from Granite" we'll take a look at the only Granite Hills Eagle to ever pitch in the bigs.

Guys From Granite countdown
8. Preface (minor leaguers)
7. Mike Reinbach
6. John Barnes
5. Chris Jones
4. (coming soon)
3. (coming soon)
2. (coming soon)
1. (coming soon)