You Get What You Need

Ever since I wrote my Juan Marichal post about a month ago I've been trying to find a nice Johnny Roseboro card as Juan and Johnny are forever intertwined in baseball history. Instead I found this corner clipped and roughed up copy for 50 cents. You get what you need as The Stones said.

1967 Topps #365 John Roseboro

Juan gone wild:

Error #2

Previously on Error...

Today we rely on the card companies to make graphic design errors to fulfill our error card needs but way back in the 80's all you had to do was get your younger brother to sit in for your photo and nobody asked any questions.

1985 Topps #497 Gary Pettis

Bat Barrel

Don't you have to wonder a little bit about the person that collected 29 separate copies of the "Fuck Face" Billy Ripken card? They can all be yours for $600.

Cards That Never Were Request

Editor's note: Steve and I had a nice little exchange about this on Twitter but I thought I would share it with everyone else to see if they have some nice scans of 1976 Japanese baseball cards.

Dear Steve of White Sox Cards,

I really enjoy your Cards That Never Were series and, if I could, I'd like to make a request for one. As I was researching something to write about this card:

1970 Topps #291 Leo Durocher

I came upon the fact that Leo coached in Japan during the 1976 season. He coached for something called the Taiheiyo Club Lions for just the one season. I can't find any cards related to this through my internet searches and think it would be a great idea for a "card that never was."

Sincerely,

Matt F.

The Cobra Collection: 13 Games With The Blue Jays

Previously, on The Cobra Collection: The Pirates Years, The Red Years, The Brewers Year, The Angels 3/4 Year and tonight's episode: 13 Games With The Blue Jays

Let's put an end to this series with a sad little post about Dave's last career stop, 13 games with the Blue Jays. After Dave was released from the Angels he was signed by the Blue Jays for their playoff push. The Jays ended up losing to my beloved Twins in the ALCS and Dave retired after being released by the Jays at the end of the season.

My one and only card of Dave as a Blue Jay:

1992 Upper Deck #522 Dave Parker

And here is a jersey card I forgot to show during The Pirates Years post. It's a card highlighting his Minor League experience at AAA Charleston. It's a little unclear if the jersey is from a Pirates game or if it is from his games with Charleston.

2001 Upper Deck Centennial #J-DP Dave Parker Jersey

The Cobra Collection: The Angels 3/4 Of A Year

Previously, on The Cobra Collection: The Pirates Years, The Red Years, The Brewers Year, and tonight's episode: The Angels 3/4 Year

Dave didn't quite get a whole season in with the Angels before being released and signed with his last team, the Blue Jays.

What can I say, the man looks good in windbreaker.

1990 Topps Traded #89T Dave Parker

1991 Bowman #199 Dave Parker

1991 Fleer Update #U-10 Dave Parker

1991 Leaf #334 Dave Parker x 2

Next week on The Cobra Collection: The Shocking Conclusion!...plus some cards I missed the first time through.

Tug & Casey

Tug's first season with the Mets in 1965 was Casey Stengel last season as manager. Nearly two decades later when Tug retired in 1984 he was the last player still playing that had been coached by The Old Professor.

1966 Topps #124 Tug McGraw

1985 Topps #157 Tug McGraw

The Continuing Saga: 1971 Topps

Night Owl landed one of the big cards of this set and so my latest additions look minuscule in comparison.

I love this card. Love the horizontal alignment. Love the photo. Especially love the signature.

1971 Topps #318 Rudy May

God knows where Mike is standing but it sure isn't near 1st base. And speaking of great signatures, that "H" in Hegan has a mind of its own.

1971 Topps #415 Mike Hegan

Jeremy Brown Auto

I don't usually make a habit out of collecting autographs for players that played a total of five games in the major leagues but I make an exception for Jeremy Brown. This is my 2nd autograph from one of the stars of Moneyball and, in total, he has only 7 different autographs [according to Beckett]. So I'm already 29% there on the master set!

2007 Upper Deck MLB Artifacts #AU-BR Jeremy Brown Autograph

Is it too late to include Jeremy in the worst/laziest autograph contest?

1st Hank Aaron

As I was filing this card away into my "Hank Aaron" section of the PC [sorry Willie and Lee, this card is all about Hank] I noticed that this was my first Hank Aaron card that was actually from when he was a player. I have a ton of more recent cards and am working on the Hank Aaron Baseball Heroes insert set but never actually grabbed one from when he was a player. This seems to hurt my baseball card blogging cred a little I think.

1972 Topps #89 National League Home Run Leaders Willie Stargell/Hank Aaron/Lee May

In the '71 season Stargell had 48 home runs, Aaron had 47, and May hit 39.

And The Winner Is...

I can't find my video cable anywhere so we are moving on to Plan B.

In total we had 106 people enter the contest as being a follower of the blog. I have usernames for 105 of those people as apparently someone follows the blog anonymously.

So I went to random.org and had them list 105 numbers.

I randomized those numbers three times and used the first number that was listed as the winner.

1st Randomization

2nd Randomization

3rd Randomization

So the winner is #81. So we now go to my list of followers and #81 on the list is:


Spastikmooss...Congrats!

Heartbreakingly Great Names #14: Moose Haas

1983 Topps #503 Moose Haas

Real Name: Bryan Edmund Haas

The DK Front

It was my birthday last Sunday and so I took a little trip into Kansas City to visit Vintage Stock which is the epicenter of nerdery in the KC area. They sometimes have some great deals on lots they buy from collectors for probably pennies on the book value price.

They had a 500 count box labeled "1986 Donruss" for $5 and I picked it up for the chance of getting some Diamond Kings I didn't have yet. Plus, it seemed like Donruss just wasn't around Eau Claire, WI in the mid-80's so I never really collected them until about 1988.

Overall, I think I did pretty well on the DK front:

1986 Donruss #7 Cecil Cooper Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #17 Bob Boone Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #22 Phil Bradley Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #10 Bill Doran Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #25 Andre Dawson Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #26 Dwight Gooden Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #20 Gary Ward Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #23 Jerry Koosman Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #19 Gary Ward Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #3 Willie McGee Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #4 George Bell Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #24 Tom Brunansky Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #13 Harold Baines Diamond Kings

1986 Donruss #21 Rick Mahler Diamond Kings

The Cobra Collection: The Brewers Year

Dave signed with the Brewers as a free agent late in 1989 and he would only play one season with the Brew Crew until being traded to Angels for Dante Bichette. But it was that one season with the Brewers that coincided with the growing baseball card fascination put Dave squarely in my collecting sights.

Plus, Dave is usually smiling in his Brewers cards so that's a nice touch.

1990 Topps Traded #86T Dave Parker

1990 Leaf #190 Dave Parker

1990 Upper Deck #766 Dave Parker

1991 Donruss #390 Dave Parker MVP

1991 Donruss #142 Dave Parker

1991 Topps Woolworth Baseball Highlights #16 Dave Parker

1991 Score #484 Dave Parker

1991 Bowman #375 Dave Parker x 3

Next Time On The Cobra Collection: The Angels Years

1996 Leaf

A few posts ago I highlighted the 2006 Fleer Greats of the Game set as a good set to get not so common certified autographs with inscriptions of low to mid level stars. If you are an autograph hound, another great set for inexpensive autos is the 1996 Leaf set. These autos were probably mass produced with thousands of copies but with great quantity comes low prices...and they are all on-card! Checkoutmycards.com has many under a $1.00.

These are three of my favorites that I've picked up from the set:

1996 Leaf Chuck McElroy Autograph

1996 Leaf Paul Assenmacher Autograph

1996 Leaf Joe Magrane Autograph