Nations mini-collection - a visual guide

With leftover plastic pages, I wanted to display some of my favorite and/or priority mini-collections in a sampler of sorts - I want to have a binder to flip through featuring my mini-collections.

When I get the urge to get a new box of plastic pages - maybe the plan is to have at least one sampler page for just about all my mini-collections.

For my nations collection, I grabbed one card [in some cases the only card I currently have] from each nation represented - for me this collecting topic subset is about celebrating the relative diversity of professional baseball.

I’m not sure if this sampler display captures the spirit of my collection - but it’s kind of a look to show one of my interests.

There are mini-collections where the image isn't the dominant quality for inclusion in the mini-collection - so I have to be more specific in noting a player's card and its relevance.

First row: Albert Cartwright - Bahamas, Tony Solaita - American Samoa, Jason Bay - Canada
Second row: Tao Bu - China, Tony Batista - Dominican Republic, Steve Jeltz - France
Third row: John Hattig - Guam, Dinesh Patel - India, Luca Panerati - Italy

I prefer cards of players who played professionally with an affiliated MLB team, particularly in the major leagues - but if I end up with a mainstream card of someone who ended up doing neither [Tao Bu], they are added to the collection as a novelty of sorts.

I don't think I can ever account for everyone, especially the countless foreign born minor leaguers who may never make it past a certain level - when presumably the only card (s) they may have is a minor league team set issue, I won't seek them out unless I stumble upon them somewhere.

First row: Jose Pett - Brazil, Chito Martinez - Belize, Graeme Lloyd - Australia
Second row: Donald Lutz - Germany, Orlando Cabrera - Colombia, Jose Canseco - Cuba
Third row: Gerald Young - Honduras, Manuel Hernandez - Guatemala, Danny Cox - England

First row: Rod Carew - Panama, Ichiro - Japan, Robin Jennings - Singapore
Second row: Chen Chin-Feng - Taiwan, Vinny Castilla - Mexico, Scott Campbell - New Zealand
Third row: Danny Graves - Vietnam, Wladimir Balentien - Netherlands / Curacao, Ivan Calderon - Puerto Rico

First row: Marvin Benard - Nicaragua, Chili Davis - Jamaica
Second row: Hee-seop Choi - South Korea, Jose Abreu - Venezuela
Third row: Jerry Browne - U.S. Virgin Islands

For what it's worth, I'm not really sure how to classify a territory of another country in a factual way - but certain players' cards are represented within the collection 'as is,' even if the territory may not be considered a stand-alone nation.

Old school adds for my nations collections

I was flipping through a stash of cards at my LCS and I found at least four guys who I assumed where born in different places other than the United States - I don't particularly know who they are, but I saw their cards as finds to help me work towards towards my goal of 100 old-school / vintage adds to my 25-30 mini-collections.

I want as many subjects represented from nations that have spawned professional baseball players - though I wonder if really care to have every player, past, present and future [do I have the resources to have and/or grab their cards]?

I'm probably never going to get everyone's card and it's not like I have a link to one particular nation - maybe it feels weird to be hunting for cards of guys whose language I do not speak, whose culture and life experiences differ from mine and at times seem really worlds apart besides me seeing them as professional baseball players.

As a baseball fan, I do realize players born in different nations continue to make a significant impact in pro baseball - in my own little way, I want to chronicle the contributions of players from all over the world, particularly players who have reached the big leagues to have a card made of them.

1970 Topps Hector Torres #272 - Mexico

1974 Topps Pedro Garcia #142 - Puerto Rico

1975 Topps Ramon Hernandez #224 - Puerto Rico

1975 Topps Eduardo Rodriguez #582 - Puerto Rico

Collecting topics - nations

2007 Bowman’s Best Masumi Kuwata #67 - serial #’d 391/799; he had a very good career in Japan but he seemed too old to do anything in his lone season with the Pittsburgh Pirates in 2007.

2008 Bowman Chrome Kazuo Fukumori #214 - refractor

Fukumori was a veteran reliever coming over to try and pitch in Major League Baseball, but couldn't get his career going with the Texas Rangers - however I can check out what he did in his pro career and look him up on YouTube making an old-timers game appearance and whatnot.

I randomly picked these cards [along with two random Hideo Nomo cards] up just to add variety to my Japan section of my nations collection - so my collection representing players from Japan seems a little deeper.

Assorted vintage / old school pick-ups

I picked up a handful of assorted vg-ex cards and spent about an hour or so trying to create a post late Saturday night - adding pictures and commentary.

I thought I saved it and figured to set up another post - but I guess I wasn't paying attention and [perhaps I had a duplicate tab open for whatever reason] probably cut and paste whatever that was going onto a subsequent post into the one I felt I'd put all my effort into.

I'm not happy, but perhaps losing a post only means there is an opportunity to put together a new one - with the original serving as sort of a rough draft.

Maybe the main point of the original post was I'm looking to build up a little more cardboard diversity in my mini-collections - besides just rounding up cards printed from the last 30 years.

If I was really more organized, I'd have a formal, detailed wantlist so I'd know what to grab - as is, I was mostly looking for cards of players from different nations, particularly Latin America.

1970 Topps Roberto Pena #44 - Dominican Republic
1970 Topps Gill Garrido #48 - Panama
1970 Topps Juan Rios #89 - Puerto Rico
1970 Topps Jerry Morales / Jim Williams #262 - Puerto Rico

1971 Topps Duane Josephson #56 - tools of ignorance
1972 Topps Jim Nettles #131 - bloodlines; brother of Graig

1973 Topps Ed Kirkpatrick #233 - tools of ignorance

1973 Topps Ivan Murrell #409 - Panama

1974 Topps Paul Casanova #272 - Cuba

1974 Topps Steve Mingori #537 - facial hair
1975 Topps Carmen Fanzone #363 - had a second career as a musician; goes into my cult players / cult feats mini-collection.

1976 Topps Pepe Mangual #164 - Puerto Rico
1976 Topps Willie Montanez #181 - Puerto Rico
1976 Topps Luis Melendez #399 - Puerto Rico
1976 Topps Ted Martinez #356 - Dominican Republic

1978 Topps Oscar Zamora #91 - Cuba
1980 Topps Fernando Gonzalez #171 - Puerto Rico

1980 Topps Mark Lee #557 - facial hair
1984 Fleer Roy Lee Jackson #158 - featured on the Dime Boxes blog, I stumbled upon the card while leafing through a loose stack of 1984 Fleer.
1984 Fleer Luis DeLeon #297 - Puerto Rico
1984 Fleer Mario Ramirez #309 - Puerto Rico