The Angels, In Order freebies

An opportunity to pick out some cards for free is always fun- even cards that are mostly forgotten, like stuff from the junk wax era.

Tom, at The Angels, In Order had a free card giveaway and I chose five random cards - just to anticipate getting something in the mail.

2-1 2005 Upper Deck Classics Ray Dandridge #79 - picked a card of a Negro Leaguer who never got to the big leagues because of segregation and institutionalized racism, but was good enough to eventually get to the Hall of Fame.

3-8 1992 Topps Stadium Club Jose Canseco #370 - not the most notable, but a card that may take me back to my peak collecting years of the early 1990s, even for a moment.

3-5 1993 Fleer Ultra All-Stars Gary Sheffield #5 of 20 - not the most notable, but a card that may take me back to my peak collecting years of the early 1990s, even for a moment.

5-4 1988 Fleer Baseball MVP Dave Winfield #43 - while junk wax era boxed sets are still way too common to ever be worth anything, I liked the different looking cards to compare to the flagship set design released within the same year.

5-9 1993 Donruss Diamond Kings Pat Listach #DK-29 - I was surprised when this showed up because I thought I'd selected another card, but I goofed on listing the correct slot number.

Listach wasn’t built to last though he was American League Rookie of the Year in 1992 - I still may have my original copy of the insert somewhere, where I got it signed in-person back in 1996.

Autograph request through the mail received: Danny Tartabull

Danny Tartabull c/o home address - signed my cards in black Sharpie and kept one [1989 Sportsflics] in about a week.

Tartabull was never quite a 'superstar' for the teams he played for but was quite a productive player in his prime years - I haven't really been keeping up with mailing any autograph requests to players since the beginning of the year, but seeing recent Tartabull successes posted on message boards / forums / Web sites piqued my interest.

Featured cards: 1992 Topps Stadium Club

Topps' sophomore effort may have as impressive and/or better images than their first release in 1991 - the problem for me was Topps turned Stadium Club into a bloated 900 card set, issued in three series of 300 cards. It was the first Stadium Club product I remember picking up with some sort of regularity, but it also became this monster, clusterF of a set littered with unproven players and players who'd be the 25th man on a roster. It should have remained a 600 card set like the initial release in 1991, but Topps thought they could capitalize on the initial popularity of the 1991 set.

The Van Slyke [card #232] features a very nice horizontal shot of Van Slyke diving with a head first slide at third base - you can see Pittsburgh Pirates' then third base coach Gene Lamont kneeling to see what will happen as third baseman Tim Wallach of the Montreal Expos presumably awaits the throw from the cutoff man. The only reservation is the photographer is able to catch Lamont and Wallach's butts lined up with the image of Van Slyke's impending slide.

The Hoiles [card #161] features a play at the play - we don't know if the runner is safe or out as he crashes home, kicking up dirt as Hoiles is looking for the baseball.

Surhoff [card #117] looks like he is making the throw on a pickoff as Ken Griffey Jr. tries to get out of the way - I can eat up 'bonus babies' or common cards featuring cameos by stars all day long.