A few more cards from my recent COMC shipment to show off today.
Nickname cards are always fun (--or, usually fun. If the dude's last name is Carpenter and his nickname is "Carp".. that's not really very fun.) I think I saw these 2019 Donruss inserts on another blog, and then targeted a couple guys I collect among the cheapest examples available at COMC, settling on Baez and Goldschmidt. The crazy shine is cool, and it's kinda neat how they're made to look like action figures in packaging (or decals, I guess).
The shine continues with this pair of cards harkening back to the street-clothes draft pick cards in '92 Bowman. I'm glad stuff like this isn't super common to see in the hobby, but having a couple sprinkled in your collection makes for some variety. And, like with the Player's Weekend stuff, it's nice to get a bit of players' personality out there. These are from 2017 Bowman Chrome, I believe.
And this is a 2016 Bowman Draft - Chrome Draft History Refractor. Reggie Jackson was my top guy to collect as a kid. When I returned to the hobby as an adult, I was overwhelmed at all the Reggie cards flooding the market every year, and knew I couldn't focus on collecting him. But a couple small subgenres of Reggie cards that still call to me are cards where he's pictured as a Baltimore Oriole, and cards like this one where he's in a KC cap. As far as the theme of this post, Reggie obviously has one of the best known nicknames in baseball with Mr. October, but he didn't pick that up until 1977, right? I wonder if he had a nickname back in his early days with the A's.
I'm in the process of figuring out what I have/need with my Guys From Granite collection, and picked up a pair of Tom Fordham cards here towards the cause. I'm not sure if he had a nickname back when he was pitching, but I'd suggest "Bronco Bacon".
John Barnes is another Guy From Granite of whom I'm trying to "finish" my player collection, or at least get it as complete as possible. Buyback cards popping up like the two on the bottom make it tough to feel like a PC is ever truly finished, even for little known players who didn't stick around long. Another funny thing to note is that the photos on his '98 and '97 Bowman cards are the same except he's flashing some teeth on '97.
Rounded up a few missing minor league cards of him too, a guy I went to school with. Again, I'm not sure about a nickname for him, but his middle name is Delbert. I'd be afraid to call him that! That's asking for a beat down.
Let's call it good for today with this Bert Blyleven. His nickname is the Frying Dutchman.
2016 Topps Legacies of Baseball was a one-and-done high-end set that didn't catch on, but I dig these Vault Metals cards. Can barely call this a "card" though... Bert here is a solid chunk of metal. In one of my all-time best pulls, I landed the Mike Trout 1/1 Vault Metal black logo parallel out of a box I got for my birthday a couple years back, so I suppose I have a soft spot for these. Took a look on COMC for low-cost ones I could grab and ended up with Blyleven.
That's it for now. Have a great weekend, everybody.
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.
Padres fans such as myself are still basking in the afterglow from the recent announcement that Trevor Hoffman will be enshrined in the Hall of Fame. I don't need to tell you that it's a nice feeling to have one of your city's sports stars make the Hall of Fame.
It'll probably be a long time till the Padres have another one. Maybe if Adrian Gonzalez recaptures his form with the Mets and has a few more good seasons, he might have a shot, but I wouldn't bet on it. And while not thought of as a Padre, there's Anthony Rizzo who briefly played for San Diego before being traded to the Cubs. If he keeps it up for another decade, he'll have built a good case for himself. And I'm still holding out hope that Garvey and McGriff claw their way in someday. Gary Sheffield might eventually get in if/when voters lighten up about PED-tainted numbers.
I was thinking about my Kevin Baconesque degrees of separation from the Hall of Fame thanks to going to school with Marcus Giles. (I'm sure longtime readers of my blog are sick of me bringing this up, so please forgive me. Hey, my spellcheck is telling me Baconesque is a real word.. wow.)
I'm the kid whose pumpkin is wearing a cowboy hat and big, bushy mustache. Marcus is the kid in vertical stripes. You probably can't tell, but I'm wearing a Padres shirt. Surprisingly, I still remember most of these kids' names. My best bud in the photo was Dave Paxton, the kid with the double-decker pumpkin. I've got great memories of slumber parties at his house.. playing NES, watching cheesy action movies, and getting into mischeif outside at night.
But yeah, Marcus played on the 2007 San Diego team that not only included Trevor Hoffman, but also Greg Maddux.
I recently won an eBay auction from the Topps Vault for this baseball card contract. I get a kick out of Marcus including a jersey number inscription ("22") even on a legal document like this. I guess it probably becomes a reflex after signing so many autographs.
Marcus also got to play with many great players during his years with the Braves. Maddux, Smoltz, Glavine in the rotation. Chipper Jones at 3rd. Andruw Jones in center. Gary Sheffield in right. Julio Franco on the bench. Fun to think I'm just "one degree of separation" from those guys, whatever that really means.
I picked up some new John Barnes cards in my recent Burbank Sportscards order. Gotta figure I'm not too far from completing this PC, as he doesn't have a ton of cardboard out there, but can't believe I didn't own any of his 1998 Topps rookie card. Here I've not only grabbed the flagship base, but also the Chrome and the inaugural season variations for the Devil Rays and Diamondbacks.
John Barnes played on the 2000/2001 Twins alongside presumptive future HOFer David Ortiz. Barnes was a senior at Granite Hills when I was a freshman, so that means (by meaningless guidelines) I've got one degree of separation from Big Papi.. cool!
Found a couple Shane Spencer needs from Burbank as well. Shane played for the turn-of-the-millennium dynasty Yankees, so there are a lot of great players to link him to. I think Tim Raines is the only current Hall of Famer, but you've also got Jeter, Mussina, Mariano, Clemens, plus guys like Strawberry, Canseco, Giambi, Posada, Pettitte, Bernie, Tino, etc. Lots of household names there. Spencer, who graduated a couple years before I started high school, finished his MLB career on the 2004 Mets alongside Mike Piazza and Tom Glavine.
Casey Craig, who attended Granite a few years after me, never made the majors, but in the minors he was on the same teams as Adam Jones and Jeff Cirillo, each multiple-time MLB All-Stars. I was surprised I didn't already own this Bowman Chrome base card, as I've got some parallels of it.
Tom Fordham graduated from Granite Hills a year or two before I started going there, so there's an added degree of separation there, but he played on the 1997/1998 White Sox teams that featured HOFer Frank Thomas, not to mention other notable names such as Ozzie Guillen, Albert Belle, and Harold Baines.
Added some Tommy Vardell cards to the PC recently, too. Touchdown Tommy played on the 49ers with HOFers Jerry Rice and Steve Young, as well as on the Lions alongside Barry Sanders. Some big names there! He was a few years before my time at Granite, but not too many degrees of separation from me.
I was just about to say Vardell is the only Guy From Granite to ever play in the NFL, but then I just now discovered a guy named Joe Cardona currently with the Patriots and has been since 2015. Oh man, my mind is blown. Does this mean I have to root for New England now?! As a long snapper, he doesn't have many cards out there, but looks like he has a "Salute to Service" insert in 2017 Donruss (he played for Navy after high school). Anybody happen to have that card for trade? I'll need to track one down. Cardona went to Granite long after me, so I'm sure it's a long list of degrees of separation, but pretty cool that a guy from my high school played on the Brady/Belichick dynasty Patriots.
While I don't have any more new cardboard additions to feature, to continue in the theme of this post regarding legendary players that guys from my high school shared a locker room with:
Chris Jones (white guy from the 80s) played on the '85 Astros with Nolan Ryan. He was also briefly with the '86 Giants, but I'm not sure he was on the roster at the same time Steve Carlton was making a short-term stop there near the end of his career (I think they just missed crossing paths by a couple weeks).
Brian Giles played with Jim Thome, Eddie Murray, and Dave Winfield on the Indians in the mid 90s. With the Padres, he suited up with Piazza, Maddux, and Hoffman.
And Mike Reinbach played on the 1974 Orioles with Jim Palmer.
I think that wraps it up.
