Card show pickups - mini-collections

Mini collections are probably the foundation of my loose card finds - maybe it just gets to be a little silly and I worry about not catching them all, but it's all fun and games.

I'm good about making keepers out of the ones I do learn about and / or stumble on - rather than be on this impossible mission to make every collecting topics subset card mine.

During a dig out of the quarter boxes, I was able to find a 1999 Upper Deck Vladimir Guerrero card which I may have picked up anyway - but a closer look shows an extra element where he is breaking his bat.

I was able to a football card of Shane Buechele, the son of former MLB player Steve - it maybe a nothingburger card of an undrafted quarterback already waived, but the bloodlines aspect is always fun to tie together.

I was happy to find base cards for Kyler Murray - another bloodlines guy [nephew of former MLB player Calvin] and also a multi-sport athlete who has literally shown flashes of stardom as a quarterback.

Just about all Bowman cards have no real personality - but I found a 'hats-off' card of Bo Bichette showing off his flow.

A facial hair card of Eddie Murray is a nice find - I default to making cards of notable players primarily binder material, but it's not like I'm playing with anything but a card I paid a quarter for.

Maybe it's not in your face, but I found a card of Yu Darvish, pictured with a pitching grip visible - that's a keeper though probably based on name value than card type.

It's not ideal but images on the reverse are keepers just the same - have to make sure to check images on the back of cards that have them, where at times there is a image like on the 1998 Upper Deck Cal Ripken Jr. card where he is doing some fan service.

A sweet Grant Hill basketball card featuring a Shaq cameo is something I want more of for my mini-collections - where this particular card goes into my 'star on star' cameo collection.

My mini-collections are designed to repurpose rank and file commons into something besides my A-Z archives - but maybe it's a stretch to make certain cards keepers out of cards like the Jurickson Profar [because he has shades on] or a most random Pittsburgh Pirate named Jacob Stallings [it's a bit more obvious where the Stallings is a catching card].

The 2020 Topps Update Silver Pack Rhys Hoskins wearing a Philadelphia Phillies retro uniform pops with a refractor finish - so the card made it into the final take home pile.

I'm not the expert in collecting them - but gum cards are certainly fun to find for myself.

I grabbed a pair of Mark McGwire cards where he is presumably making a nice diving stab at the ball and taking a curtain call - because of all the PEDs and how his career unfolded, I don't want to salvage any more McGwire cards than I have to, but have done so, might continue to do so and two more cards were needs for my mini-collections.

I don't think about manager cards all that much, but the 1992 Topps Tommy Lasorda is a classic - it probably ends up in my 'men at work' collection.

I don't know if I like the circumstances of the image used on the 2008 Upper Deck Manny Ramirez [another PED guy] card all that much - but I guess it's a great image regardless.

I grabbed the Alex Rodriguez [one more PED guy] because it's kind of a nice, horizontal image - where he goes up in the air to try and complete the double play.

Sammy Sosa is a PED pariah, even more so than a McGwire, Manny or A-Rod - but I like the card of Sosa diving back to the bag on a pickoff attempt, so that goes into my baserunning collection.

The Sam Hilliard [no it wasn't $5] probably ends up as a 'dirt fetish' card in my collection, while the Tony Gwynn ends up as a baserunning card - the David Ortiz [okay, so one more PED guy] ends up being a celebration card, so that's a keeper.

Maybe Mr. Irrelevant here is a 2008 Upper Deck Masterpieces card of Y.A. Tittle - the image used is one of the most iconic in NFL history, something I had to look up.

TTM autographs received: Rafael Palmeiro

The former big leaguer signed my two 500 home run 8x10 photos in exactly a week - I mailed my request off to Palmeiro on a Monday and by Friday, I checked the tracking status on my self-addressed photo mailer and it was already out of Palmeiro's hands.

I was anticipating my results and hoping there were not any complications - because it’s a couple of 8x10s I sent and not just loose cards for his current TTM fee of $20.

The afternoon my photo mailer was to arrive, I hoped to meet the mail man as he drove by to deliver the mail [these COVID-19 pandemic adventures are getting too crazy] - but maybe it was too hot and I was thinking of something else in the small window of time when the mail man had stopped by.

I waited around and when I checked my mail, I found my photo mailer was crammed in the mail box - I had to fish my mailer out out delicately and while the thick cardboard envelope a little bent out of shape, my 8x10 photos survived enclosed a photo sleeve / backing board.

Rafael Palmeiro - 1987 Donruss #43

If Palmeiro can continue to suit up to play independent baseball for at least the next few years - it can show he's still plugging away with his timeless swing and isn't completely removed from professional baseball, even though a failed steroid test derailed his induction into the Hall of Fame.

Right now, he gets to be a teammate of his son Patrick and while his stint with a team called the Cleburn Railroaders probably doesn't lead anywhere - maybe the occasional highlight helps him get back in the news where the 53-year old gets a second look, even if it's for cheap thrills, a novelty.

On the topic of my infamous mini-collection

I picked up a 1975 Topps Mini John Milner #264 off the quarter bin scrap heap - it's kind of pretty looking, but an otherwise nondescript piece of cardboard of a rank and file ballplayer who made his MLB debut in the early 1970s and played through 1982.

Stumbling upon Milner on the internets, I learned he testified about his drug use in the Pittsburgh drug trials of the mid 1980s - Milner also threw some shade at icon Willie Mays for having amphetamines ["red juice'] at his disposal.

I didn't know much about Milner, but after everything was said and done, maybe Milner was more of a sympathetic figure who just got up in the times - but I had to add his card to my rather dubious mini-collections.

Maybe there hasn’t been as much emphasis to seek out cards of guys who’ve done some bonehead things [either on the field or off the field] - since I don’t want to glorify or endorse bad behavior, especially the more serious, morbid and fatal offenses like sexual harassment, rape and murder.

However, pro athletes are my ‘celebrities’ to 'gossip about' and this mini-collection was probably inspired by Jim Rome’s radio show [from the early 1990s through early 2000s] - when he’d mock all sorts of pro athletes [he loved to ridicule and pick apart the black eyes] who messed up.

With Twitter and other social media, everyone has to insert themselves into someone’s controversy / drama and it’s kind of depressing reading all the instantaneous hot takes - it’s all overkill and it’s not shocking anymore when professional athletes are arrested, sharing pizza in a hotel room, caught for a DUI, shoplifting, blackballed for a number of things, et al.

Cards of presumed offenders will still be added, but there is the caveat that it’s all negative and while I don’t want to sugarcoat things - having a card for ‘ha, ha’ value doesn’t really put my collection in a positive light or make it particularly better [even if it’s all kind of superficial at best].

Farewell A-Rod - is it the end of the line?

Because of his immense talent, the scrutiny over his accomplishments and his misdeeds, A-Rod will always be the car crash I'll rubbernecking to watch - in what was supposed to be a week where A-Rod is playing his last game with the New York Yankees, there was some controversy over how many games he'd get into.

After a bounce back year in 2015, reality caught up to the 41-year old - who really knows what is on his mind and what maybe his possible options if he isn't bent on hanging it up just yet.

If A-Rod doesn't play in a big league game again, it will be interesting where he ends up as far as Hall of Fame consideration goes - because of the players' PED ties, I think the baseball writers have resigned themselves to letting three of the greatest players in baseball in Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens and A-Rod sit in limbo as opposed to inducting them into the most exclusive club in any professional sport.

I think Bonds and Clemens have to get in first and that doesn't look like that is happening anytime soon - before they A-Rod gets any actual consideration.

R.I.P. Jenrry Mejia's MLB career

I've seen him a few random times in-person and I felt like he is a guy who would always come over to sign an autograph - so I feel like this third suspension for PEDs screws him over when he's kind of a 'bit player' taking the fall, being made an example of when there maybe guys with much more sophisticated means of taking their vitamins.

Maybe a lifetime ban would be easier to swallow if Mejia had been a long time veteran who did stick around too long - but the now former New York Met is still in his late 20s and while I care about the idea of having clean players, I feel like maybe Mejia is sick like the way fans want some of their fallen pro athletes to be, rather than simply be malicious in breaking the apparent law of their leagues.

I hope there is a loophole to allow him Mejia to pitch again because for his apparent mistakes - I don't want to see a guy in his prime losing means to make a better life for himself.

Rafael Palmeiro

When I found out Palmeiro was going to be playing baseball with his son Patrick for the Sugar Land Skeeters - I thought it was a pretty neat opportunity, even if it's only independent league baseball.

Maybe it's just a coincidence but as a baseball fan, I've been thinking about Palmeiro lately - it's been 10 years since he got popped for a failed steroid test, tried to come back after a 10-game suspension but finally just got told to go away by his team.

He wasn't a traditional superstar, but Palmeiro did those Viagra ads and was one of those guys who put metronomic numbers - as long as he put up the 'big' stats, there was always some interest in how he was doing, especially around the time he hit his 500th home run back in 2003.

1994 Fleer Update Alex Rodriguez #U86

A-Rod has always been a player to universally collect and I've found myself morbidly fascinated about how he did even when the luster has long since faded - I picked up his 1994 Fleer Update rookie card because it's a nice, clean looking card picturing a young A-Rod swinging through in presumably a spring training at-bat.

After being suspended by Major League Baseball in 2014, A-Rod has come back and actually put up some fine hitting numbers as a designated hitter - who knows if A-Rod will continue to put up the numbers, but he's had his share of hitting highlights, including passing Willie Mays on the all-time home run list, getting his 3,000th hit and hitting three home runs in one game.

A-Rod is a flawed, tained player who has stumbled in more ways than one - but by being able to play well again, his road to irrelevance has taken a little detour.

Featured autograph - Ryan Braun

I don't know what to think about Braun at the moment - without sounding irrational, I still don't trust the player, but it does look like he's having a bounce back season.

Who knows what he has or hasn't done or might look to be doing - but as long as I don't hear, watch or read any slobbering over him like he never did anything in the first place [post 65-game suspension and all that jazz with the PEDs], then maybe he becomes a star to watch again.

As a MLB fan in general, I'm a numbers guy and I'm entertained by the guys who tear it up - even though I don't play fantasy baseballs, I like players putting up gaudy numbers and I want to see if Braun can hit over .300 again and perhaps hit 30-35 home runs and/or drive in 100 or more runs.

If his stats tumble or he doesn't quite lead the Brewers back to the playoffs, then he's just another fallen star - but it maybe fascinating to see where his numbers will end up at the end of the season.

Featured autograph - Barry Bonds

Looks like Bonds is back in San Francisco Giants camp as a guest instructor and I dug this autograph card from an 'old' box of assorted autograph cards to show off - besides the card featured, I was able to get one other card signed in-person by Bonds and I'm pretty sure it was after the game where the Angels' Rally Monkey made its Major League debut back in 2000.

Another post about this guy

One of my favorite base cards of A-Roid early in his MLB career was his 1997 Upper Deck - part of me still likes the idea that this guy put up the numbers and was the best baseball player in the planet at one point, but then the other stuff is just too much.

Maybe a part of me wished he was A-Rod at some time in his life, but he's exposed himself as a sham and a bum - it's hard to consider anything positive without thinking about the supposedly unsavory things he's been involved with like performance enhancing drugs.

The sad thing is I'm probably looking forward to see if he has any juice left - see if he can prolong his career and past all the drama, can step up to the plate in an actual MLB game in 2015.

Trying to do something with my commons

When I can, I'm pulling cards out of my three 3,200 boxes representing my 'A-Z archive' of cards - I hope I'm not making more of a mess but I'm trying to see if there applicable cards to extract from the 'rank and file' cards I've hoarded over the years.

Inking it up - chasing for autographs at a baseball game is my other hobby besides collecting baseball cards, so it's nice to see moments where players signing for fans are captured.

PEDs - a backup, 'scrub' catcher in the mid 1990's found himself using steroids and years after his professional playing career was done, found himself in the Mitchell report.

Tools of ignorance - I've collected cards with catchers or other players [goofing off] pictured in catching equipment, though cards with catchers in game-action shots i.e. plays at the plate adds a little bit more exciting element to the collection.

Collecting A-Fraud

I sort of miss the mid 2000's when this guy was the best player in the game and trying to flag him down to get something signed meant all the world - even if he'd be rather oblivious when walking through the crowd of fans like he was some kind of deity, there was a few opportunities where he would sign at the ballpark.

Of course, A-Rod is still a big deal these days but for all the wrong reasons - I don't think anyone is shedding a tear because he might be on the brink on being suspended through his age 40 season.

I will give A-Rod all the credit in the world if he can play a full MLB season in 2014 or after when he serves an apparent suspension, how ever long that will be - I still want to see what he can still do as a player and see this latest mess he's put himself through as just one hurdle he has to get through with the world against him.

Over the last decade, I've picked up assorted base and cheap insert cards over the years featuring A-Rod - I've also got a couple of signed baseballs [one he signed in-person and one bought from eBay], his 1994 Upper Deck SP rookie card and a couple of certified autograph cards I paid some good money for.

I'm not going to go out and burn what I've picked up, though I have long stopped caring about actively collecting anything of his - since in a superficial way, it's all relatively worthless now.

When it comes to PEDs and suspicions

I'm more inclined to listen to the kooks and the guys who speak out about it in an unadulterated way - Jack Clark may have been talking out his ass and promtly got canned for it, but because he's been out of professional baseball and maybe bitter about his circumstance, he's not afraid to piss people off.

Does that mean what he is saying is true [?] - I have to sift through the details he is relaying for each player he sort of puts out there on the firing line to see if it's BS.

Clark probably went off on Justin Verlander's numbers taking a dip after getting his big contract - since Verlander is on his fantasy team and is wondering what happened to the ace pitcher of a couple of years ago hitting just about 100 MPH late into games.

I don't see as much harm into what Clark said about Verlander - however, Clark's story about a trainer building up a good but hardly well known amateur into this beast of a prospect through chemical engineering is more than a little compelling, especially when Albert Pujols turned out to be the best player of his generation.

My only question is why bring it up now [?] - I see where Pujols isn't always painted as the most accomodating or gracious but he seems like a different beast than the A-Roids or Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens of the world.

Maybe long after it all matters, Pujols is found to be on PEDs he was using for a prolonged period of time for parts of his baseball career - however, I'm tempted to say Clark must have some ulterior motive to out Pujols in a way that smears what he has been able to accomplish on and off the field.

As for Clark's innuendo about Shawn Green's apparent bacne due to possible PED use - it maybe one of those things that you can look at as far as Green's numbers [looked like a good player coming up, had some fine power numbers in his prime and then his power numbers just dipped] are concerned, but then after the fact, it is what it is.

The Braun Advantage

I pulled a card of Ryan Braun from a break recently and was going to include the following, though it's been about a year since his PED flap and people stumbling onto the blog might consider the comment uncouth, so I edited it out - it might be unfair but the only differences between clean PED free athletes and dirty ones is when they take their meds and whether their law firms can beat the rap if their test results are found suspect.

I was kind of shocked [or took some delight in the schadenfreude] when I heard Braun was caught up in another PED flap - but kind of pissed I took out my prescient jab just a day or so earlier.

Comparing Braun to A-Rod, at the very least the guy in his late 20's still had his MLB career ahead of him - unlike the guy in his mid 30's whose baggage has out for everyone to see and whose career is towards the bitter end.

Still, I find this whole thing sad for Braun and in the same boat - there is a part of me that is ambivalent towards apparent PED use, thinking fan sentiment is kind of stupid about guys suspect but are playing for their home team or are media, golden boy jocks.

However, past the supposed Steroids Era from the early 1990's to the early 2000's - it makes me feel some authenticity and transparency is still missing, that regardless of hardships in playing through a full 162-game season, I can't trust in MLB players in general as far as the numbers they put up and how they go about things.

A-Rod's road to irrelevance

With his latest hip surgery, I thought Alex Rodriguez's career was probably over - in a sense where he's not going to have anymore full seasons as a dominant player [this has probably been the case for the last three or four years] and even if he came back some time in 2013, it's going to take a long, painful process to get things going again just to have him playing well.

Then a new set of PED allegations came out this past week and it's ugly to read about and think A-Rod's career has been a sham - as an admitted frontrunner who 'rooted' for A-Rod since he was the best MLB player at points of his playing career, I don't know if he is someone to still believe in as a ballplayer.

Other players have been suspected of being PED cheats and others have failed tests but with his career winding down - it seems like A-Rod is more like Jose Canseco than an active or former player with PED baggage you can still judge on some sort of merit like a Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens.

Edit [2/1/13] - and the details keep getting ickier and ickier.

Congrats Craig Biggio - my thoughts on the Hall

With 68 percent of the vote in 2013 - you are probably getting into the National Baseball Hall of Fame in 2014 or 2015 at the latest.

The fact no one is getting into the Hall of Fame this year except these dead guys and/or ones honored as writers and broadcasters is disappointing but not surprising - the writers have finally taken a stand [at least for one year] and have refused [at least for one year] to let numbers [boo hoo stats guys] bully their judgement of guys who played in the Steroid Era.

It doesn't mean guys like Biggio, Jeff Bagwell, Mike Piazza, Barry Bonds or Roger Clemens won't eventually enshrined - but they aren't sailing in with the stats alone and even the guys fans / writers assume have done things the right way might be scrutinized because of the era they played in.

I think it's even sadder for guys like Rafael Palmeiro and Sammy Sosa - those two schmucks look like they'll never get any serious consideration despite 3,000 hits / 569 home runs for Palmeroids and 609 home runs for Sosa.

It might be unfair to the standouts of the mid 1990's through mid 2000's - but as much as I enjoyed watching Bonds personally and recognized others' excellence [even through suspected PEDs], it doesn't pain me to make any those guys wait.

Featured autograph - Ryan Braun, if he did it

The Man likes Ryan Braun, as do I, but for guys who find themselves in the news in dubious ways - I can't think of two other athletes in Major League Baseball who have been handled with such kid gloves like Braun and the one-time crackhead in Texas who had some sort of alcohol relapse Josh Hamilton.

What I really want to say is it pisses me off the media and fans are so fickle - they build up a Braun and a Hamilton, so even when they mess up, fans aren't as eager to turn on them, like they do with certain types of professional athletes.

Along the lines of how I see things, this author at this Texas Rangers SB Nation fan Web site talks about how Braun's case played out in the court of public opinion - the perception totally would be different if it was one of the 'black eyes' in the sport having successfully appealed his failed PED test on the grounds the sample wasn't handled correctly after it was secured.

Actually, that's not quite true. Braun is someone who is well-liked and well-regarded around the game, someone the mainstream media seemed more than willing to believe when he professed his innocence.

Could you imagine how different the reaction would be if this were, say, Manny Ramirez, who had gotten out of a suspension by challenging the test on chain-of-custody grounds? Or Alex Rodriguez? Or Hanley Ramirez? Or (when he was playing) Barry Bonds? Or some other player who is seen as a phony, or doesn't treat the press right, or is a jerk in the clubhouse, or doesn't play the right way, or otherwise doesn't fit the mold of what the mainstream baseball media believes a good and proper baseball player should be?

So yeah, it could be worse.

For better or for worse, Braun will probably get a standing ovation in his first at-bat in Miller Park this season - I guess I can't really hold anything against him except I think he did cheat, he was caught, got off on a technicality and now doesn't have to explain anything to anybody.

Ryan Braun - 2011 National League MVP busted for failed PED test

I liked Ryan Braun as much as I did any superstar in the MLB - sucks he apparently tested positive for PEDs, but now I'll have one less reason to collect his cards for practical purposes and it's off the Brauny bandwagon for me.

A quick apology and a probably 'one and only' presser regarding whatever he did or didn't do that set off his positive test - maybe the most likely course of action for Braun and the Milwaukee Brewers.

The worst thing would be to deny and challenge - he was entrenched as the Brewers 'face of the franchise' and he is still has a 'lifetime' contract with the organization.

If Braun lets it be and owns up to his supposed mistake, the 'white knights' of the media will have no choice but to bury his story - he can be back playing without much scrutiny after his 50-game suspension is over.

Manny Ramirez - don't let the door hit you on the way out

I think I was disappointed to hear about Manny Ramirez' abrupt retirement due to possibly failing another drug test - he was one of those most dominant sluggers of his time and was probably the most entertaining as far as cheap laughs were concerned.

However I think there comes a time, when the most irreverent of professional athletes lose their relevance - you know these guys are done when they are suddenly past their mid 30s, it takes longer and longer for them to produce like they have in their prime if they are still playing and it isn't fun watching when these players don't have the same impact on the games they play.

I want to turn the clock back five or 10 years when a guy like Manny would be hitting 35-40 home runs a year - but as much as you want to see one shot of glory from this flake of a superstar baseball player, the juice is gone and maybe it is time for an athlete like him to go out.