untitled post for November 1st, 2019

I wanted an on-card Padres auto from Dave Winfield and ended up scoring this one. It's pretty cool.

Goose Gossage has a lot of similarities with Dave Winfield:

- Spent the lion's share of their careers with the Yankees.
- Put in some time quality in San Diego.
- Won a World Championship once.
- Bounced around with a few different teams near the end of their careers.
- Formidable facial hair.
- Hall of Famer

Goose here is my 50th 2003 Topps Retired auto. There are 70 left in the set for me to track down. Snatched this one up recently for a fair price. It's not a refractor, but still.

Tough times at Baseball Card Breakdown HQ as our official mascot and licensed card-sniffer Annie Lou is currently at the emergency vet and in rough shape. Please send her some good vibes.

My best deal of the card show

It seems that I've been lucky enough at the past few shows to score a card or two from the sub-dollar bins that's worth exponentially more than what I paid for it.. which is always nice. Let's see, there's been a Trout SP, Lucroy color swap, Bryce SP. Once again upon returning home from the show, I looked up a few of the cards I wasn't all that familiar with, and once again I was pleasantly surprised to have landed a clear winner for my best deal of the show.

I saw this card for a quarter and my thoughts were a) Cool vintage oddball! b) I've got a few Dodger trading buddies so no harm throwing another somewhat-obscure Dodger card onto my stack even though this isn't really something I collect.
Turns out it's a 1961 Morrell Meats Maury Wills. There are 6 copies of it on eBay right now, with the cheapest being $25. My copy might be in slightly better condition, as there don't seem to be any creases. Edge chipping is common on these borderless beauties, as is toning on the back, originally packaged with hot dogs, I believe.

This card is from the days when Maury Wills only had oddballs, having not signed a contract with Topps. His first mainstream card was in 1963 Fleer, often referred to as his rookie card. He wouldn't have a Topps card until 1967. So not only is this an obscure meat oddball, it's also a kinda-rookie card of one of the 60s' biggest stars. This was definitely 25¢ well spent! I'll probably hang onto it for now, but if any of my Dodger buddies have a comparable card that would fit better in my collection, feel free to get in touch with a trade offer.

While I've got ya here, let's look at a few more cards I picked up at the show.

Keeping with the Dodgers theme, here's a trio of #'d Kemps, plus a Sheffield /300, and a Jackie Robinson. While I've got the utmost respect and admiration for Jackie, I've never collected him much. He seems like a frustrating guy to collect, with his vintage cards being super expensive, and his modern cards using the same few photos over and over. But this 2014 Stadium Club card just looks fantastic with the autograph-signing photo.

I typically stick to either older cards or more modern cards while shopping, with the overproduced cardboard wasteland of the 80s and early 90s not having a lot I need that interests me too much.. or maybe I should say I usually let incoming trade packages cover my fix from these years. But here's a group of 80s cards I made an exception for. Multi-player rookies of Tim Raines and Chili Davis are a couple cards I've always kinda wanted but had just been waiting till the day I could pick them up for 25¢ or less.. and that day finally arrived.

I ripped a lot of 1982 Topps in my early days of collecting, but don't recall ever seeing that Home Run Leaders card with the AL 4-way tie crammed in.

I think I picked up 3 different Tom Seaver cards at the show. Kind of a sleeper PC for me that'll probably hit the 100-card mark one of these days. This one is from 1984 Topps Traded.

And on the end we've got a less-iconic 1989 Upper Deck RC of a Mariners top prospect. Omar Vizquel surely won't generate as much HOF push as his former teammate, but he definitely deserves some votes, and it'd be nice to see him get in thanks to a resume that includes a whopping 11 Gold Gloves. But if Alan Trammell isn't in, I don't have high hopes for Vizquel.

Pads in the Hall are hard for me to pass up when I come across serial numbered cards for a quarter. Funny to see the modern Padres logo on that Gaylord Perry card that clearly uses a photo from his early days with the Giants. But whatever. I think it's #'d /100 on the back.

I tend to think of my Tony Gwynn collection as "finished" at this point, as there's just an infinite number of his cards out there and I'm pretty much satisfied with my well-rounded Mr. Padre PC as it stands. Sometimes I feel a little bad when thumbing past Gwynns I don't have, but I just can't let myself slip into "COLLECT ALL THE GWYNNS!" mode. But sure, I'll occasionally cave and put a Gwynn card on my stack if it catches my eye, such as these three.

That's all for this post. Still have some more keepers from this show to post about, plus a lot of trade bait, so stay tuned. And I'm overdue for a trade-roundup which I'll need to fit in this week.
Thanks for stopping by!

The Rocket rages and Big Dog becomes a pup (More Auto Overlays)

Last week, I showed off custom auto overlays I made for cards of Adam Jones and Dave Winfield. Here are a couple more I've whipped up since then.

Ha, this is a good one! I'd be kinda surprised to see a real card manufacturer come out with a Roger Clemens card featuring that notorious incident chucking the piece of Mike Piazza's broken bat in Game 2 of the 2000 World Series. But thanks to some creative custom-making, I've got myself a nice unique auto with an image from that perplexing moment.

That's the original card on the left. Not a horrible card exactly, but not very interesting.

Looks good in action!

Next up...
Another instance of me wanting to have an autographed Padres card of a well-known player who doesn't seem to have any autograph cards featuring a photo from his time in San Diego.

Yep, Tony Pérez starred for the PCL Padres before being called up by the Reds to begin his HOF career.
This overlay represents my first ever attempt at photo colorization. Definitely won't be fooling anyone, but I'm happy enough with it.

The original photo. I think this is some super-rare minor league food issue oddball. Would love to score an original someday. It's the only photo I've ever come across of Perez on the Padres.

The original card. #'d 21/25. Didn't cost me much. Again, not a horrible card, but pictures of retired players in street clothes are just about always yawners. You'll notice I also turned the boring square swatch into a "PCL" cutout.

Fits right in among my other HOF Padres autos!

A Hall of Famer TTM success

[Here's the prequel to that custom cut autos post from last week.]

Bobby Doerr is the patron saint of through-the-mail autographs. The man is 97 years old and still a reliable signer. A Hall of Fame second baseman for the Red Sox, he's got a lot of fans out there. He's always been very generous with his time when it comes to signing autographs, no fee required.

In recent months, I've dipped my toe in the TTM waters with lesser-known minor leaguers. Now I figured I'd ease myself down into the shallow end by going after some bigger-name, yet dependable signers. Really what inspired me is I ended up with a Bobby Doerr card-- probably from a dime box I bought awhile back-- that just seemed to be screaming out for a signature. So I prepared a TTM with it and dropped it in the mail 9/14/15. Mr. Doerr lives just 2 or 3 hours south of me, incidentally, so that might shave a couple days off the return time.

Oh wow, I just realized Bobby Doerr fits in my Pads in the Hall minicollection! That's anybody who ever suited up for the Padres who ended up inducted in Cooperstown. Doerr played for the PCL Padres in 1936, the team's inaugural season, along with Ted Williams before the both of them ended up in Boston. Now this TTM request is even better because it's not just a random baseball great, but one that lines up with a main collecting focus of mine. Nice! I didn't realize I should have been collecting Bobby Doerr this whole time. Let's use this post to symbolically enshrine him! He's in the PCL wing of the Pads in the Hall imaginary building, along with Ted Williams and Tony Perez. Welcome, Bobby! Now I kinda want to try finding a card of him in a Padres uniform, or if there isn't one, perhaps at least find a photo and make a custom.

I actually already have a Bobby Doerr autograph. I bought a signed index card thrown in cheap with free combined shipping along with some other signed index cards I got from an eBay seller back when I was on a kick of taking such index cards and creating a sketch card "around" it. I made a few but then my enthusiasm for the idea waned, leaving me with a dozen or so cheap autographed index cards sitting around. I should revive that project (or think up a new idea) one of these days and do something with those index cards. Hey! Maybe I'll use that Doerr auto and make it into a custom Padres card somehow. (editor's note: yep, I did.)

Anyways, I'll admit that I'm excitedly drafting up this post on 9/14/15 while the request sits in my work's outgoing mail box. Hopefully I'm not jinxing myself and it ends up getting lost in the mail or something! Well, I'll save this draft here and revisit it once the return arrives.

-   - - - -------

It returned 9/23! Nine days.. pretty good! Thank you, Mr. Doerr!

Ideally the signature would be a bit bigger and better placed, but again, the man is 97 years old! I think it's wonderful and will cherish this card always.

Awesome!

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Speaking of beloved old-timers, gotta pay my respects to Yogi Berra. What a great life he lived.

Love it when the refractor shine gives a "sunset" effect.

Cut Signature Customs!

Last December I went on a spree of buying cheap autographed index cards to make into auto sketch cards (see this post). But then my enthusiasm for the project waned for no reason in particular, and I found myself with about a dozen boring signed index cards just sitting around.

Then the other day I was rejuvenated to use some of the index cards to create something neat (what you're reading now is actually a sequel to another post that's still a draft). And so, that's what I did! I decided not to go the sketchcard route this time, and instead whip up designs in Photoshop to print out and make into cut-autograph customs.

I have a love/hate relationship with physical customs. It sure is fun to create a "card that never was" and hold it in your hand or slide it into an empty slot in a page. On the other hand, I believe customs (and evil twin: counterfeits) will destroy the hobby within the next decade or so. Every time you print out a card yourself, you're hurting the hobby as we know it. I've already given my Chicken Little spiel before, but yeah, when I think about it too much, it definitely makes me want to sell off the big-money cards in my collection while I still can get something for them. 3D printers will be spitting out authentic-looking Ty Cobb bat knobs before you know it! Don't waste your money on a 1/1 today that some kid will be able to create an infinite supply of perfect copies of in a few years. Topps is smart to be diving into the "digital cards" market and try to build something there, because real cards are facing serious danger.

Ok, this post has taken a turn for the dystopian-- let's get back to fun baseball cards! Whee!

The 3 cards I made that I'll be featuring in this post are guys who are well-known to baseball fans. The quirky catch is that they all quietly spent a forgotten year on the Padres. As a lifelong Friar fan, I got a kick out of creating autograph cards featuring them in their San Diego duds, as there's little chance a real card manufacturer ever would.

Bobby Doerr

Bobby Doerr began his professional career playing for the Hollywood Stars of the Pacific Coast League in 1934 and 1935. He was still with the team in 1936 when they moved to San Diego and changed their name to the Padres. Also on that inaugural SDP team was Ted Williams, with whom Doerr would be close friends for many years. The two were signed by the Red Sox in 1937. As with Williams, Doerr would spend his entire major league career with Boston. Dependable at the plate and in the field at second base, he was a 9-time All-Star. Doerr missed the 1945 season while serving in the Army during World War II. A spinal problem later cut his career short at 33 years old, but his legacy was impressive enough to warrant induction to the Hall of Fame by the Veteran's Committee in 1986. The Red Sox would go on to retire his number, 1. Playing during Boston's notorious dry spell, Doerr never won a World Championship, though he did bat .409 in his only postseason action, the 1946 World Series loss to St. Louis. He returned to the Fall Classic in 1967, this time as first base coach with the Red Sox, and is also credited with tutoring Carl Yastrzemski as unofficial batting instructor during his triple crown season. Doerr went on to live a very long life, beloved by baseball fans for his generous, approachable nature.

As for the card, this team photo was all I could find from Bobby's year in San Diego. Still, I think the card turned out pretty good! BTW, there's a nice documentary called The First Padres about the PCL Padres that I just watched last night, inspired by researching for this card.



Wally Moon

Wally Moon came up with the Cardinals and was the National League Rookie of the Year in 1954, easily beating out fellow rookies Ernie Banks and Hank Aaron. He batted .295 or better for his first 4 years in the league, but after a down year, was traded to the Dodgers before the 1959 season. After adjusting to the dimensions of Los Angeles Coliseum thanks to his friend Stan Musial, Wally became known for his "Moon shots" over the high left field screen. He won a Gold Glove in the outfield in 1960, was twice an All-Star, and a part of three World Series Champion teams (1959, 1963 & 1965). In 1969, he was a batting coach for the San Diego Padres during their first year in the NL. He's still popular among baseball fans today, with his impressive unibrow giving flavor to photos and baseball cards of the 50s and 60s.

As for the card, it's not my best design, I'll admit. I was a little disappointed with the only photo I could find from his year as a coach in San Diego since it's pretty small and low resolution. But I'm glad I didn't have to resort to photoshop trickery, and at least you can make out his trademark unibrow!



Johnny Podres

Johnny Podres was a Dodgers great who helped the team win World Series championships in 1955, 1959, 1963 and 1965. The pinnacle of his career was Game 7 of the 1955 World Series, shutting out the Yankees to give Brooklyn their first (and only) title before the team moved to Los Angeles. Though often overshadowed by the likes of Sandy Koufax, he led the National League in ERA in 1957 and winning percentage in 1961. Near the end of his career, he spent a couple season with Detroit. After a year out of the game, Podres came out of retirement to pitch for the fittingly homonymic Padres during their inaugural season in the NL. While his 5-6 record in 1969 might not seem impressive at first, it was one of the highest winning percentages on a team that lost 110 games. After his playing days came to an end, Podres was a respected pitching coach for many years, helping shape the careers of such players as Frank Viola and Curt Schilling.

As for the card, it came out pretty well. Johnny's signature takes up a lot of space, and I had to chop off the "Authentic Cut Signature" bit to get it to fit. Never would I "pull a Topps" and make a cut auto that chops or obscures any part of the autograph! I also needed to hand-number the "1/1" part due to expanding the signature window. I know the numbering is silly, but I like it. Now, don't any of your counterfeiters out there copy these! LOL

So there you have it, my latest batch of customs. I'm pretty happy with them! What do you think, sirs?

Greg Maddux 100x

Greg Maddux is now off my wantlist and into my Hundred Card Club! I did some sorting over the weekend, and discovered that thanks in part to Junior Junkie sending me a stack of cards a couple weeks ago, I've reached the magic number of 100 unique cards of Mad Dog.

Are you ready to look at 100 Greg Maddux cards? Let's do it!

My collection seems to be sparse in the years 2001-2003.

2008 is my biggest year for Maddux cards, including the only 2 relics I've got of him.

Here's my best Maddux: an auto /25. And yes, I realize counting a scratched-off redemption card as a "card of a guy" is a stretch.

By my count, that makes an even 100. If you're a purist who doesn't think I should count the redeemed redemption as a real card, well, here's one more card to make up for it..

(It currently resides in the Christmas Cards minicollection, not the Maddux PC, hence it not being included in the above 2008 photo.)

Greg Maddux is a guy I liked/collected even back in my early days of collecting (1990-1993), and in fact, much of these early (87-92) cards in my PC were salvaged from the part of my original card collection that wasn't jettisoned when I moved out of state. While it wasn't exactly "prospecting", it was pretty cool when he went on to win a bunch of Cy's and craft a HOF career. He further endeared himself to me with his late-career stint in San Diego.

Per my current Hundred Card Club method of player-collecting, I'm no longer actively collecting Greg Maddux, technically speaking. But I definitely won't reject any of his cards I don't have that I may get in trades or pull from packs.

Thanks for swinging by.