Forgotten Sons of El Cajon (a big Guys From Granite update)

Lots of updates to my collection of pro ballplayers who went to my high school to get to in this post. But first off, a new name to add to the list. Congrats to Jordan Verdon on being selected in the recent MLB draft by the Detroit Tigers out of San Diego State. A third baseman, he was taken in the 23rd round as the 675th overall player selected. The Granite Hills alum was previously drafted out of high school in 2015 in the 25th round by the Mets (719th overall), but chose to attend SDSU instead. While his collegiate career started kinda slowly, things really came together in 2018, finishing his Junior season with 27 doubles and 40 extra-base hits, both the most by an Aztec since 1984. Hopefully his success continues into the minors and he makes his way up to Detroit before long. Looking forward to Jordan getting some cards on the market that I can go after.


Long ago I made a post of what I thought was a comprehensive list of all the guys from my high school that played minor league baseball. My source for the list was baseball-reference, which I thought was infallible. And while I still love good ol' B-R, turns out the site kinda sucks in some regards. Especially since the "upgrade" they did a year or two ago so now you have to click in the search box before you start typing a player's name.. so annoying. And how you now have to click boxes to reveal a lot of the info instead of it just being there in the player profile pages.. hate that! And how they took out the nice little "bullpen" (or whatever they were called) bio section they used to have and instead now link to (if available) the SABR bios, which are like frucking novels about each player and I'm sorry but I don't have all day to read that when all I want is some quick basic background info on the guy and some notable moments from his career. And why can't the search be smart enough to figure out simple typos and offer suggestions? You better be sure you can spell "Saltalamacchia" right, because even one letter off will give you a "zero results" dead end. Really annoying. [/ranting about baseball-reference]

But a lesser known stat site that actually might be a better resource sometimes is The Baseball Cube. Where B-R betrayed me when it came to searching for players from my high school, TBC pointed me to a few players I wasn't aware of. I was eventually able to track down some cards of these guys.

Man, I love old minor league cards! Tim Doerr was an infielder originally drafted out of Granite Hills by the Cubs in the 4th round of the 1970 draft, but chose to attend UCLA instead. The Reds picked him up in the 18th round in 1974, and he spent his pro career in their system putting up decent numbers before hanging it up after 1978 with AA Nashville. This card is from 1976 TCMA. Tim's also got a 1974 Seattle Rainiers card out there I'd like to track down someday, but I think it's pretty scarce. Not sure if Tim is any relation to HOFer Bobby Doerr.. anybody know?

As for Charles Renneau, he was drafted by the Reds in the 12th round of the 1974 draft. A righty who spent a couple years in Cincinnati's system, he called it quits after a year in the Twins organization. Though always a pitcher, seems Charles wasn't a bad hitter, putting up a .333 average in 31 professional plate appearances. This 1977 TCMA card from his final year as a pro seems to be his only card on the market. (Wooo... completed player collection!)

Since these cards don't pop up on the blogs very often, thought I'd show the backs too. That's an incredible Clinton Pilots logo! And lol at the "Olcajon" typo on the Visalia Oaks card.

Here's another 1977 TCMA card and the more-familiar 1981 TCMA design. Kenny Barton is a guy who wasn't on my radar until just recently. He signed as an undrafted free agent with the Giants in 1976 out of Grossmont College, the local J.C. He played all over the field, but mainly second base. After spending the late 70s in the Giants chain, he then played with the Indians organization for a couple years, topping out at AAA for his last year in 1981. He's also got a 1976 card out there I need to complete his trio of cards.

Now here are a couple guys I actually went to school with, though not in the same class. Brian Smith was ahead of me and Mike Wilson was behind.

Brian J. Smith was a late draft pick by the Mariners in '95, but only lasted a couple years splitting time between second base and the outfield in their system before winding up on an independent team, and was done playing by 2002. I think my PC of him is now 50% complete, as he seems to only have a couple baseball cards out there. In addition to this 1997 Everett AquaSox card, he's also got one from 1999 Newark Bears I need to track down someday.

Mike J. Wilson signed with the Phillies in the 1998 draft. He was a RHP who put up solid numbers for a few years, but couldn't get past AA, wrapping up his career in 2003 with a couple games in the Giants' chain. Similar to Brian Smith, his very common name makes it hard to search for his cards. (He is not the same Mike Wilson who appears in some 2002 Bowman and Topps products and 2011 Bowman, an outfielder with Seattle.) I think I've now completed this PC. I already had his 1999 Batavia Muckdogs card, and now this 2001 Batavia Muckdogs card checks off both cards of his I know about.

Brian Graham was drafted by Oakland in the 4th round of the 1982 draft out of UCLA. He had some decent stints, but couldn't get out of AA, eventually finishing his career in 1986 split between the AA teams of Detroit and Milwaukee. I think he has a few cards out there, but yet again, he has a somewhat common name and there are other baseball players from the era with the same name, making it confusing to search (not only players, but also trainers and managers named Brain Graham with cards.. not sure if this Brian went into coaching or if that's a different guy). This Madison Muskies card is from 1983.

Johnny Coit, on the other hand has a distinctive name and seems to be a one-card-wonder, meaning the PC is complete now with just this 2004 Alaska Goldpanner card. Nice. He was actually attending Cal State Northridge at the time. The Alaska Goldpanners of Fairbanks are a collegiate summer team. Coit went undrafted and played independent ball in 2007 and 2008.

Mark McRoberts was a few years behind me. Looks like he had 3 cards produced and I've knocked them off. Sweet! Another completed PC! Mark signed with the Phillies in the 14th round of the 2000 draft. A catcher-turned-outfielder, he had trouble keeping his offense consistent. The Padres picked him up in the minor league 2003 Rule V draft, but he was done by the end of the 2004 season.

Chris Dunwell is another guy I wasn't aware of until just recently (no thanks to b-r). Drafted by Oakland in the 15th round of the 2002 draft out of SDSU, he scuffed in the minors for 4 years and that was it. 325 strikeouts vs 108 walks doesn't seem too bad, but wasn't good enough to stick around very long. Looks like he's got six cards out there and I'm just missing one to complete the PC (2001 Alaska Goldpanners).

Johnny Omahen is no stranger to my blog. I got a TTM return from him a while back (among my first times attempting through-the-mail autograph collecting), and nearly completed a Bowman auto rainbow, only missing the 1/1. Nice to add another minor league card of his. He made it up to AAA a couple years ago, but couldn't quite break thru to the bigs. Looks like he's now doing private instructional work on pitching back home in Alpine, a neighboring city of El Cajon in East County San Diego.

Sean Bischofberger is a cool one to add to my collection. This corner infielder was a 22nd round pick by the Braves in 1998, but didn't sign with them, instead attending Cal State Fullerton. He later played independent ball, with his career lasting from 2002 until 2005. His best year was probably 2002, hitting .290 with 12 homers in 65 games. This is his only baseball card that I know of (2004 San Angelo Colts). Another completed PC! I went to school with him, though he was a couple years behind me.

Scott Shoemaker, another pitcher who topped out at AAA, got a Bowman card, so I've already got some representation of him in my collection, but this quartet of minor league cards is pretty nice. I think the only minor league card of his I'm missing now is 2005 Greenville Bombers.

Casey Craig also got a Bowman card in the early 00s. I think these 6 might be all his minor league cards, leaving only some low-numbered Bowman parallels left for me to chase.

Apparently there were a couple different guys named Brandon Decker in the early 2000s. The first card (Crushers) is my guy, attending Granite Hills then SDSU before a couple years of independent ball. The other guy with the same name (Kernals and Owlz) is from Florida and got drafted by the Angels but didn't last long. I probably should had researched better before buying these cards. LOL. Oh well.

Frank Carey was active in that overproduction sweet spot of 1989-1991, so he's got lots of minor league cards. Here are six of them. After Granite, he attended Stanford and was later drafted by the SF Giants. He was a decent contact hitter but didn't stick around as a pro for long, finishing his career with just 5 games in AA (though that was good enough to get him a couple cards with the Shreveport Captains).

Now here's an active guy. Travis Taijeron made the majors with the Mets in 2017. He signed with the Dodgers in the offseason and has been playing ok in OKC (AAA) so far this season. I'm a little bummed he hasn't gotten any MLB cards other than one Topps Now card last year (at least there was that, though). He has plenty of minor league cards, however, and I've added four more of them here.

Sean Ross is a bit of a mystery to me. He was drafted by the Blue Jays in the 40th round of the 2017 draft out of high school but didn't sign and apparently didn't play at all for the rest of the year (injured? took a "gap year"?). Looks like he eventually started playing at SDSU in 2018 and did well in limited action (.333, 6 hits in 18 at-bats), so I'm hoping he keeps it up and eventually goes pro. Scored this Leaf Perfect Game #'d 1/5 auto a little while back for a few bucks.

Brian Giles has had the best MLB career out of any guy from Granite Hills. While he has way too many cards out there to try supercollecting, I can at least attempt to round up all his minor league issues, and this is a nice lot I've recently picked up. The two Skybox cards looks like dupes from the front, but have different numbers on the back. And speaking of backs..

I really like this red 1990 Star Watertown Indians card. Not only is Watertown, NY sacred ground in the cardsphere (Night Owl's home), but I think this is Brian's earliest card. Plus it gives a shout-out to Granite Hills, albeit with a slight typo.

Dang it, when blindly rounding up Brian (Stephen) Giles cards, you're liable to accidentally buy cards of Brian (Jeffrey) Giles, as I did with this pair. Doh! Maybe I should just start collecting him too.

At least there's only one Marcus Giles in baseball. Snagged a few more cards of my former classmate here. I wonder what he's up to these days. Hope he's doing well. I have little interest in any high school reunions, though if you told me Marcus was gonna be there, I might think about it.

Let's close out this long post with the original Guy From Granite, the late Mike Reinbach. Scored this Japanese card on eBay recently. Really like it because it seems nearly all of his cards show him batting, so it's nice to finally get a card of him in the field.

Go Granite Hills Eagles! See you next time.

Guys From Granite 2017 Recap

I'm a bit overdue for this, but let's take a look at how pro ballplayers who went to my high school did in 2017.

Travis Taijeron

Taijeron (pronounced Tyrone) was the big news here, as he became the first Granite Hills High School grad since Brian Giles to play Major League Baseball when the Mets called him up in late August. While his overall performance could have been better (.173 in 59 plate appearances), he had a couple nice highlights including his first home run, and a game-winning base-knock that to my delight earned him a Topps Now card, his first mainstream card since 2012. Taijeron's Topps Now card had a print run of 348, one of which was yoinked by me off eBay.

As a collector, I'm very curious to see if he gets included in 2018 checklists. Would love to see some "RC" rookie cards of his to add to my collection. After the season, he signed with the Dodgers as a free agent, hoping to earn a bench spot. So if he does get a card in any early 2018 products, he'll likely be 'shopped into a Dodgers uniform.

Congrats again, Travis, and best of luck to you in LA!


Trenton Brooks

Brooks, an outfielder since going pro, played for a couple of A ball teams in the Indians organization in 2017, batting a combined .202 with 1 tater. Also worth noting is that he pitched one scoreless inning and picked up a save in a lone pitching appearance. I wonder if they'll look at him more on the mound in 2018, or if that game was a one-time thing.


Andrew Brown

Brown pitched at A-Williamsport in the Phillies chain in 2017 and performed well. In 13 games (10 starts), he went 4-4 with a 3.11 ERA, striking out 47 and walking 19. The 20-year-old should quickly make his way up the chain if he keeps that up.


Jayson Rose

Drafted by the Brewers in the 8th round of the 2017 draft, Jayson pitched in 10 rookie league games (6 starts), with 37 strikeouts and 9 walks in 31.2 innings. But he did give up 34 hits and 21 earned runs. I'm looking forward to seeing how he does in 2018. Would love to see him get new cards on the market soon, since looks like all he's got now are from 2013 Leaf Perfect Game back in his high school days.


No-longer-active Guys From Granite
Now for the melancholy farewells to those guys who played in the minors recently, but weren't able to make it into that very small sliver of the population that cracks the big leagues. I tip my cap and wish them best of luck in whatever new direction life takes them.


Brian Carroll

Brian Carroll played one season of pro ball (2015), and although he hit .306, he battled injuries, specifically a problem knee, and was cut loose by the Rockies in early 2016. Doesn't look like he got picked up by any team in 2017, ending his pro career. Sorry to see he didn't make it, but I'm glad I was able to get his autograph when I did. That was a fun day at the ballpark.


Brian Humphries

Humphries made it up to AA with the Rockies in 2014 before being released in 2015 spring training. He then had a couple impressive seasons with independent teams, but despite that, couldn't latch on with another affiliated team. He didn't play in 2017, so I gotta assume he hung them up. I really appreciate how he was generous with my TTM requests. Great guy.


Johnny Omahen

John made it up to AAA in 2016, but was released by the Diamondbacks at the end of spring training in 2017. Doesn't look like he caught on with another club. Bummer.



In Memorial

On December 11th, Granite Hills student Will Burton was killed in a car accident. He was an incredible athlete who excelled on the school football and baseball teams. By all accounts, he was a terrific kid, full of positivity. Such a tragic loss.

December 2017 was quite a sad time for the Granite Hills Baseball community. Former coach Gordy Thompson died on December 31 at the age of 76. He managed the school team for many years, including helping shape brothers Brian and Marcus Giles into the major league all-stars they became. He led the Eagles to 8 Grossmont Conference titles, and CIF titles in '77, '94, '98. There's a nice article at the San Diego Union-Tribune.

Rest in peace, Will and Gordy.

Laundry Day on Sentimental Sundays

Time for another trip down memory lane.

Here're some treasured cards from my childhood collection in the early 90s, three players with their '87 Donruss and Topps cards paired up. I was especially proud of the Bo cards back then. They sure were hot for a while. I never had much '87 Fleer back then, as it seemed to command a premium. Poor Rafael Palmeiro really shat away an excellent career right at the end there with the PED stuff. Funny how Barry Larkin wasn't bestowed with the fancy Rated Rookie or Future Stars logos, yet he's the only one out of them that Cooperstown came calling for when all was said and done.

More Bo. I've featured this old Bo Jackson shirt on my blog before. (Looking it up, wow, it was just my 6th post ever, back in 2013, and it's a downer of a post for me now because it also talks about hiking in Punchbowl Falls, which was decimated by a fire started by a punk-ass teen this past summer.) I've had the shirt since middle school in the early 90s and still wore it several times a year (as a sleep shirt). Alas, that ever-expanding big ol' rip across the chest means this isn't viable as clothing anymore. Just wanted to take a last pic for posterity before it officially crosses over to being a rag for the twilight of its life. Pretty sure it holds the longevity record for anything in my wardrobe, as far as things that I wore with any regularity, at least.

More old clothing. These shorts are from high school, circa 1994, and I still wear them (as PJ bottoms in the summertime). That rip by the elastic keeps getting bigger, but it's probably got another year or two left in it. The origins of this go back to when I briefly tried out for the Granite Hills football team. I was among the fastest sprinters on the track team, so the football coach talked me into giving football a try. I think I lasted 2 tryout practices before giving up. I just didn't have the size, endurance, and hands for it. Oh well, at least I gave it a shot, and I've gotten my money's worth out of these shorts that were mandatory for attending football practice.

Jumping to toys, here's a little dragon clip thing. I named this guy "Googlebobber" as a kid; this was years before Google was a thing. Just a dumb little clip toy, but man, I loved that thing!

And I also really loved these Wacky Wall Walkers! I got these as prizes in cereal back in the 80s. It was like pulling a gold nugget out of the box! Just so awesome to a kid back then. For anybody who isn't familiar with these little octopus-like guys, they're made out of semi-sticky plastic, and you're supposed to throw them against a wall and marvel as they slowly crawl down to the floor.

Wait, they glow in the dark?! Even better! I had forgotten that detail over the years, but that was probably another reason I loved these things so much, since I've always been nuts for glow-in-the-dark stuff.

Let's see if they still wackily walk down walls...

Welp, not so much. Haha.

That's all for today. Thanks for swinging by.

picking up local guys.. um, their cards, I mean

Nothing like collecting cards of guys who walked the same halls between classes as you. I personally like focusing on guys from my high school who went pro, but sometimes dabble with cards from guys who attended the same university and community college. Here's an update of some of my recent pickups.

After Tony Gwynn, no San Diego State alum had a more distinguished MLB career than Mark Grace (ok, maybe Graig Nettles). I've never really bothered to collect Grace before, but with so many Cubs fans in my trading circle these days, I keep an eye out for good Cubbie trading fodder, and that's how I came into these 2 hits. But now I'm thinking I'll hang onto them for representation in my SDSU minicollection (unless of course a Cubs fan wants to make me a crazy trade offer I'd be stupid to refuse [Looking at you, Twitch, and the Corey Seager /10 auto you recently pulled.. lol].) The Diamond King dual relic is /25 and the Tools of the Trade auto/relic is #'d 3/5. Like Gwynn, Grace is originally from the LA area, but came down to San Diego to get his learn on. Of course he'd go on to several standout seasons with the Cubs, collecting the most hits (1,754) of any player in the 1990s. He capped off his career with 3 years on the Diamondbacks, helping them win it all in 2001 over the Yankees.

These three autos are from my latest COMC order. Even if I don't go full-on player collector on these guys, I figured I'd at least score an auto from each of them.

Sean O'Sullivan went to Valhalla High School, which is the arch rival of my high school, so maybe it's no surprise I haven't started collecting his cards before this one. But hey, he did also go to Grossmont College just a few years after me, so I suppose that earns him a small place in my collection (Plus, this Just Minors auto was only $1.37). He's spent his career bouncing between AAA and the majors for several teams, including a stint with our hometown Padres in 2013, and most recently with the Red Sox last year. Looks like he'll pitch in Korea in 2017, signing a one-year deal with the Nexen Heroes of the KBO League.

Joe Kennedy is a guy I mentioned in a previous post when I got a Christmas Eve Card of him, and discovering he was a local guy is what helped jumpstart my Guys From Grossmont minicollection. He went to El Cajon Valley High School, which is where my best friend graduated from, so it's ok in my book. He was at Grossmont during the same time as me.. Hmm, wonder if I had any classes with him. He went on to pitch in 222 major league games between 2001 and 2007 before dying suddenly from heart disease.

Quintin Berry completes this auto trio. Like the previous two guys, he's never made a huge impact in the game, but was good enough to bounce around on a few major league rosters. He went to Morse High School, which also boasts Adam Jones (his classmate and friend), Sam Horn, and Mark McLemore as alumni. Berry played one season at Grossmont before transferring to SDSU where he got to play under Tony Gwynn. In 2012, he played 94 games for the Tigers as a rookie, but hasn't had anywhere near that much playing time since, though he did get a ring with Boston the next year. Looks like he'll begin the 2017 season with the Twins' AAA club.

Here's a page worth of Mike Jacobs cards from my latest Just Commons order. Mike graduated from Hilltop High School in Chula Vista and spent one year at Grossmont College before being drafted by the Mets in 1999. I shared a story on the blog before about how I'm pretty sure I had a class with him at Grossmont. He had some solid major league seasons in the late '00s, and played in Mexico these past couple years. He retired after the 2016 season and took a job managing in the Marlins organization, the team with which he hit the majority of his 100 career home runs. Anyways, I already had 2 or 3 autos of the guy, but wanted to round out the PC with a few more base cards, and these were just about a buck all total.

Ok, now we're getting closer to home for me. Casey Craig was drafted by the Mariners in 2003 out of good ol' Granite Hills High School. He put up solid numbers in A-ball, but sputtered out in AA and was done after 6 years in the minors. Bowman included him in 2006, though he had no autograph card produced, whether with Bowman or anybody else, as far as I can tell. So I had to settle for uncertified to add his signature to my collection. Well, actually it did come with a Letter of Authenticity...

..but I don't think this really adds any value or anything so I'll just throw it away rather than try to store it in my collection somewhere.

This is the Marcus Giles 2008 UD Spectrum "Retrospectrum Swatches" yellow printing plate. Normally, unless I'm rainbowing a card, I don't go after printing plates that much.. especially yellow, since they're typically faint and don't look great. But I couldn't resist adding another 1/1 of my former classmate for under $8 shipped. Plus it's my first plate of a relic, which is kinda weird and something you don't see often.

We close today with the grandfather of Guys From Granite, Mike Reinbach, the first grad from my high school to play in the majors thanks to a brief stint with Baltimore in 1974. The vast majority of his cards come from his time in Japan. The recent pickup here is the card on the right. When it popped up on eBay, it looked very familiar so I assumed I already had it. But before dismissing the auction as one I didn't need to bother with, I double-checked my PC, and sure enough, there was the familiar photo... but wait! White text on the bottom? Tighter crop? Yep, it's actually a different card. Different number on the back and everything. So I went after it and was able to score it at a decent price (the dinged corner probably helped keep the top bid down, but doesn't bother me much.)

So there's an update to my minicollection(s) of local dudes who went to at least one of the same schools as me. Thanks for reading!

Sentimental Sundays: McDonald's pioneered Superfractor technology in 1978

Once again, it's time to take step back in time to my childhood.

Here's my school pencil box from circa 2nd Grade...

Saw action in 1986 or 1987, probably. It currently stores a bunch of various crap from my youth. This treasure trove could probably keep me stocked on material for Sentimental Sundays posts through 2016 if I really stretched it!

Here's the inside of the lid. Lots of neat stickers: puffy Casper, "manufactured patch" penguin in a tux, scratch-n-sniff lilacs (?), Kool-Aid Man, etc.

Ed (up by puffy Hong Kong Phooey) is a popular name in my family, with 4 generations of Eds. If I ever had a son, I'd be tempted to make him Ed the Fifth to keep the line going, though I'm not an Ed so I'm not sure that's legal. I don't think my Cousin Eddie (The 4th) is going to sire children at this point, as he's pushing 50. At least he's out of prison and apparently doing fine now, though I haven't seen him in over a decade.

Check out that Ronald McDonald sticker (© 1978) where he's happily holding up a shiny refractor 2x4. It's the same "spinning wheels" effect that is the basis for superfractors, though without the gold tint. I thought it was funny to realize that whole thing was showing up as a free Kids Meal toy twenty years before superfractor cards were a thing. We were promised jetpacks.

Diving into the box.. For a brief period in my youth between "caring about baseball cards" and "caring about girls" was a "caring about comic books" phase. I guess this Superman pin from 1993 was in there. Truth be told, I never actually saw the kid. One of these days I'll do a post or two on the few comic books I still have.

My first job was working at Kmart,. Stuck around there for over a year (May 1995-June1996). It wasn't too bad.. straightening shelves and rounding up carts in the parking lot. The worst part was probably apologizing to people when the good stuff on sale that week was all sold out. The location has since closed down; I think it's now a KOHL'S last I checked. It's been nearly 20 years, but I've still got my old name tag. Those "Ask Me! I Can Help!" cards are good for a free coffee. Wonder if they'd still be honored at this point.

Here's proof of registration from my first car, a 1990 Mitsubishi Gallant. White. It was a decent car.. a hand-me-down from my mom. My 2nd card was also a Gallant, also from my mom, a 1994 Gallant. That car served me well, too.

I know I've bragged on the blog once or twice before that I was a sprinter track star back in high school. Ah, glory days! They'll pass you by in the wink of a young girl's eye. My school pencil box held a nice little pack of clippings with track meet results from the local newspaper. That afternoon verses Grossmont HS was a good one for me, winning both the 100 and 200, and I'm pretty sure I was on the victorious 440 relay team too. This was '94 or '95.
"Grossmont" is a confusing word because my HS district was called Grossmont Union High School District, and the JC I went to was called Grossmont College.. but Grossmont High School was a totally different thing. Also, my first girlfriend went to Grossmont HS. I remember hanging out on the vacant campus on the weekend with her and my bud Doug and his 1st GF Leevie.. good times. But by this time we had broken up, so I suppose that made the victory over them all the more sweet.
Looking it up right now, turns out Grossmont HS has had a few notable grads. Frank Zappa, for one. Wow, a musical legend! Also weed comedian Doug Benson and "Joe Isuzu" David Leisure. As far as baseball players, their best known guy is probably Barry Zito, but looks like he didn't graduate from Grossmont, just went there for a while then transferred. I remember them for having a pretty strong track team, so I'm sure to spank them so well was great for us.

Great song, with its message renewing itself far too often, such as in the wake of the recent tragedy in Paris.

That's all the nostalgia for today. Back with more next time. Thanks for being here!