Sunday, June 30, 2013

Blue Chips from Big Chips

Chris over at Nachos Grande is a fellow Redlegger (check his url), fellow Larkin-lover, and fellow card addict. A perfect storm for a swap. Some quality Red goodness came my way, and a big ol' stack of Barrys went his. Shall we?

I was missing two cards from the 2011 Gypsy Queen Reds set. The Chapman RC and the Bruce short print. Was. Boom.


A sweet insert from 2011 Topps Lineage, a throwback to 1964 Topps Stand-Ups.  Must...not...punch...out..


2001 Topps HD came and went pretty quickly. They're still nice photos, thick stock, and big names. And any Griffey is a good Griffey, of course.

A couple sweet parallels. Tom Terrific 2011 Lineage Refractor. Drew Stubbs 2012 Allen & Ginter Mini.


We'll close it up with simultaneously my favorite card of the lot and the most frustrating. 2012 Allen & Ginter N43 Johnny Bench. A sweet throwback to an Allen & Ginter release of 1888. All the way down to the size: 4" x 3". Very cool, but won't fit in my pages. Life is just so hard sometimes.

Great stuff, Chris. Go Reds.

Saturday, June 29, 2013

Wiener Week! - Day 7

Kahn's is a meat processing and distribution company, famous for their hot dogs, founded and based in Cincinnati. They started making baseball cards in 1955 and continued into the late 1960's, focusing mostly on the Reds. In 1987 they re-introduced a Cincinnati Reds team set and have been producing a Reds set every year since. In honor of Kahn's, the Reds, and wieners, I proudly present an entire week dedicated to most phallic of foods and its Freudian presence in my collection.

Day 7 - 1991, 1993, 1996

The conclusion of Wiener Week at Red Cardboard. I hope my wieners have satisfied you this week (yes, I am an immature man-child). I'm hittin ya with the remaining three Kahn's sets from my collection, all from the 90's. First, 1991.

The 1991 Schottzie warranted its own post in the early days of this site. It's still hideous. Also, way too much white in this card design.

1993...
The pinstripe design is a nice homage to the unis at the time. Red Cardboard approves.

1996...
I'm actually okay with this Schottzie card. I don't know why. Maybe all these wieners have made me crazy. I do know that Jeff Brantley needs to calm down.


We will close out Wiener Week with the one and only baseball card of equipment manager Bernie Stowe. Batboy in 1947. Equipment manager 1968-1996, ceding the duties to his sons in 1997. He was honored by Kahn's with a baseball card. Pretty cool.

Time to grill some weenies. Go Reds.

Friday, June 28, 2013

Wiener Week! - Day 6

Kahn's is a meat processing and distribution company, famous for their hot dogs, founded and based in Cincinnati. They started making baseball cards in 1955 and continued into the late 1960's, focusing mostly on the Reds. In 1987 they re-introduced a Cincinnati Reds team set and have been producing a Reds set every year since. In honor of Kahn's, the Reds, and wieners, I proudly present an entire week dedicated to most phallic of foods and its Freudian presence in my collection.

Day 6 - 1994

I'm getting a strong flashback to 1992 Score with these cards. Big, faded color, vertical bar. Yep. And the framing of a lot of these shots bothers me. Chopped-off hands and elbows. Not Kahn's's's strongest release. 


As you can see, the Reds had a pretty vanilla roster in 1994, but they still managed to be in first place by the time the strike rolled around. Oh, what could have been.


Jose Rijo is looking mighty fine there, clearly about to fan some poor bastard.


Another frigging card of that dog. And another excellent coaches card. Boone and Knight would go on to become Managers of the Reds. Schottzkie would not.

Go Reds.

Thursday, June 27, 2013

Wiener Week! - Day 5

Kahn's is a meat processing and distribution company, famous for their hot dogs, founded and based in Cincinnati. They started making baseball cards in 1955 and continued into the late 1960's, focusing mostly on the Reds. In 1987 they re-introduced a Cincinnati Reds team set and have been producing a Reds set every year since. In honor of Kahn's, the Reds, and wieners, I proudly present an entire week dedicated to most phallic of foods and its Freudian presence in my collection.

Day 5 - 1997


Another card of that damn dog. This time, a regal, posed shot, instead of a candid. I enjoy any team set with the Boone brothers. They played together in '97 and '98. 


Mike Morgan, who I had to research because I didn't remember him, evidently had a 25 year playing career, in which he played for 12 major league teams. His first pitch was in 1978 (age 18) for the A's and his last pitch was in 2002 (age 42) for the Diamondbacks. Amazing. He even played for 10 different minor league teams peppered throughout his career. That's 22 teams. Damn. Oh, and nice Barry.


Go Reds.

Wednesday, June 26, 2013

Wiener Week! - Day 4

Kahn's is a meat processing and distribution company, famous for their hot dogs, founded and based in Cincinnati. They started making baseball cards in 1955 and continued into the late 1960's, focusing mostly on the Reds. In 1987 they re-introduced a Cincinnati Reds team set and have been producing a Reds set every year since. In honor of Kahn's, the Reds, and wieners, I proudly present an entire week dedicated to most phallic of foods and its Freudian presence in my collection.

Day 4 - 2009

As you can see, this year The Weenie Conglomerate decided to try a photoshoppy blur/fade to simulate movement. Check out the bursting-through-the-card athleticism of Dusty Baker. He's like a young Mickey Mantle.


Geez this was only four years ago and I have virtually no memory of a lot of these guys.


Sweet Votto, the only redeeming card of this set, I think. Oh, and the Adam Rosales. Totally. 

Go Reds.


Tuesday, June 25, 2013

Wiener Week! - Day 3

Kahn's is a meat processing and distribution company, famous for their hot dogs, founded and based in Cincinnati. They started making baseball cards in 1955 and continued into the late 1960's, focusing mostly on the Reds. In 1987 they re-introduced a Cincinnati Reds team set and have been producing a Reds set every year since. In honor of Kahn's, the Reds, and wieners, I proudly present an entire week dedicated to most phallic of foods and its Freudian presence in my collection.
 
Day 3 -2004
 
A little better design on this issue than the first two I posted. The previous "designs" were just RED. I'm partial to black and red as a design as it was my grade school/high school colors. Speaking of, I had a job in my youth in my hometown at a car wash frequented by Danny Graves. Also, nice Griffey.

Tim Hummel racked up 194 at bats for the Reds, garnering very few cards. Kahn's was quick to give some love to a lot of minor players on the roster. Like that Larkin dude in the middle.

Holy crap. Todd Van Poppel. Man, he was supposed to be the next Nolan Ryan back in the day. Pretty stoked to have THE ONLY Reds card of him. Oh yeah.

 
And to close 'er out, Kahn's, in a bold move, went with TWO coaches cards. Check out the star power. Randy Whisler. Mark Mann. Definite investment potential.

Great wieners. Go Reds.

Monday, June 24, 2013

Wiener Week! - Day 2

Kahn's is a meat processing and distribution company, famous for their hot dogs, founded and based in Cincinnati. They started making baseball cards in 1955 and continued into the late 1960's, focusing mostly on the Reds. In 1987 they re-introduced a Cincinnati Reds team set and have been producing a Reds set every year since. In honor of Kahn's, the Reds, and wieners, I proudly present an entire week dedicated to most phallic of foods and its Freudian presence in my collection.
 
Day 2 - 1992
Featured prominently is the second year card of Schottzie, the Reds' officially unofficial mascot under the inimitable owner/curmudgeon/questionable-memorabilia-collector Marge Schott. Quality card. Barry Larkin stands out as the only player card on the page not at the plate.

Excellent pitching deliveries from Scott Bankhead and Jose Rijo. And a nice Dime Box-approved Darnell Coles.

Louie Pineilla undoubtedly is bottling up some rage in the center. And we close it out with a sneaky Tony Perez coaches card. 

Nice wieners. Go Reds.

Sunday, June 23, 2013

Wiener Week! - Day 1

Kahn's is a meat processing and distribution company, famous for their hot dogs, founded and based in Cincinnati. They started making baseball cards in 1955 and continued into the late 1960's, focusing mostly on the Reds. In 1987 they re-introduced a Cincinnati Reds team set and have been producing a Reds set every year since. In honor of Kahn's, the Reds, and wieners, I proudly present an entire week dedicated to most phallic of foods and its Freudian presence in my collection.

Day 1 - 1988



We start with Jack Armstrong, the only rookie in the set and, hence, the only non-action shot of a player. The Davey Concepcion is a unique pose, and we can see the excellent posture of a young Eric Davis.

We can see a theme this year of batters at the plate and pitchers mid-pitch. The Franco, Jones, McClendon, McGriff, and Murphy are all excellent.

Here we see my favorite part of these sets: The coaches card. A nice smattering of Reds greats, assisting Pete Rose at the helm. It's nice they get some love, reminiscent of 1974 Topps. Also, the Ron Robinson is particularly good lookin', as is my boy Chris Sabo.

Well there ya have it. I'm guessing these will be new sets to most of you non-Redlegs, and maybe to a lot of you seasoned Cincinnati veterans. I hope you've enjoyed my wieners today.




Friday, June 21, 2013

1940 Play Ball #79 - Harry "Wildfire" Craft

I had a few of these to choose from. The price was low, but not so low I could justify multiple purchases. So I told myself to choose one. Why this one? DAT. NAME. Wildfire Craft sounds like you're describing someone's explosive pitching style: "Walter Johnson honed his volcanic pitching skills in the Kansas prairies, torching the local high school teams with his fastball. This wildfire craft carried him into the bigs where he set over 90 pitching records." Now, Harry Craft here, was not quite up to the level of The Big Train: Six years in the majors, all with Cincy as a center fielder. Spent some time as a manager, too.

The Play Ball sets of this era, as you can see, weren't exactly the most vibrant. But they did offer photos, which was novel. The following year, Play Ball went with color portraits. Personally, I'll take a drab photo over a colorful painting when it comes to super vintage. My card is pretty beat up around the edges, and there's some rips/creases. No big deal. I'm glad to add a 2nd 1940 Play Ball to the collection.

Thursday, June 20, 2013

TTM Goodness - Leo "Chico" Cardenas

Leo "Chico" Cardenas had a 16 year major league career as one of the best shortstops in the league. Brought up by the Reds, via Cuba, he spent his first nine years with Cincy, where he won a Gold Glove and garnered four All-Star bids. He would earn a fifth, later on, with the Twins. He held the Reds' club record for home runs in a season by a shortstop (20) until some okay player named Barry Larkin came around. "Mr. Automatic" was voted into the Reds Hall of Fame in 1981. Signed is a 1962 Topps #381. Sweet.

TTM Goodness - Jeff Reardon


Jeff Reardon, at one point the all-time saves leader, is currently 7th in the category. In 1993, the 15th of his 16 year career, he joined the Reds as a middle reliever, making 58 appearances. He suited up for, in order, the Mets, Expos, Twins, Red Sox, Braves, Reds, and Yankees, racking up 367 saves, 4 All-Star appearances, and a 3.16 career ERA in 880 relief appearances. Signed is a 1993 Fleer #370. Sweet.

Wednesday, June 19, 2013

New Babies - Part 2 of 2

Part 2 of the new additions post. Only the good stuff made the cut. Let's get rollin'...

2004 Diamond Kings Framed Bronze Sean Casey, Austin Kearns. Said it before; I really love the raised framing on cards. Gypsy Queen does it. DK did it better. Though, the art on the Casey is a little goofy. Still good stuff. I need more of these.

Ah, minis. I'm finally embracing minis. I used to find them silly. They're like an eighth of a card. But as my collection grows, I can't just start turning down Red cardboard I don't have. So every time there's a dime box of minis, I find some goodness. Here we have a 2009 Allen & Ginter Brandon Phillips and a 2009 Goodwin Champions Aaron Harang.

Some sweet parallel goodness. 2011 Bowman Platinum Ruby Joey Votto, 2002 Topps Gold Scott Sullivan (serial #'d out of 2002), 2000 Black Diamond Rookie Edition Gold Dmitri Young (serial #'d out of 1000), 1996 Fleer Update Tiffany Curtis Goodwin. The Tiffany series is what the mid-90's Fleer series SHOULD have looked like. They tried some flimsy, rough, non-glossy design that just felt cheap. I had never seen the Tiffanys until a few months ago when I snagged about a dozen of 'em. Oh, and call the Bowman "Ruby" all you want to. It's pink.

2008 Upper Deck Star Quest Ken Griffey Jr., Adam Dunn. 2011 Topps Heritage Aroldis Chapman RC. The Chapman has been a hole in my Heritage sets for some time. I'd been lazy in hunting it down. I'm only missing short prints in the Heritage series from 2008 to now, I believe, which made it even more unforgivable that there was an empty page slot at #199.

2008 Donruss Sports Legends Pete Rose, 1986 Fleer Future Hall of Famers (ugh) Pete Rose. Modern Roses are few and far between, thanks to the ban that obviously needs lifted. Then the tag "Future Hall of Famer" on the '86 Fleer won't sting so much.

Closing up shop with some 2013 Bowman. Two of the 'Silver Ice' parallels, Shin-Soo Choo and Johnny Cueto and a Blue parallel serial #'d out of 500 Johnny Cueto. Lookin' good. I somehow had the Chrome versions of the prospects, but not the bases. Here we have Tanner Rahier, Jeff Gelalich, and Ismael Guillon. Clearly, they'll be the 2018 version of The Big Red Machine. Also nabbed a Gold Tony Cingrani RC. Sweet.

A most excellent menagerie of pickups. Go. Reds.

Tuesday, June 18, 2013

New Babies - Part 1 of 2

Whether through trades, ebay, sportlots, justcommons, or mugging children outside my local card shop, I've got a bunch of new babies to add to my crib. So much, in fact, I've decided to only show the cool stuff, and leave the fillers where they belong: adding girth to the albums. Also, let's break it into two posts. I wouldn't want to over-stimulate all you kiddies. Let's see what the angels of collecting have bestowed me this day...

2012 Bowman Chrome Xfractor Joey Votto, 2007 Topps Chrome Refractor Brandon Phillips. I'm still on board with all the goofy parallels out there. I know it's preposterous. But whatever. I enjoy it. And when I nab a nice parallel of a big time player, like Votto, I get happy. So if everyone else keeps hating on the Chrome Refractor/Xfractor/Orange/Purple/Green/Gold/Blue, that's just fine. Keep driving those prices down. More goodness for me. In fact...

Bam. Seven chrome refractors from 2005 Bowman. Four fledgling minor leaguers, Tyler Pelland, Javon Moran, Jesse Gutierrez, and Thomas Pauly, two guys who got called up to The Show, then promptly sent back, Craig Tatum, Drew Anderson, and a current starter in the Reds' rotation, Homer Bailey. Nice.

2011 Gypsy Queen Great Ones Johnny Bench. Good lookin' card. Bench cards always look good. And Topps is using a photo I haven't seen before, which is increasingly rare.

Three new autos. Donnie Joseph, Sean Watson, and Travis Chick, on-card. I like the old-school-ness of the Chick card.

And let's close it out with some new Griffeys. An Upper Deck Ovation, with some nice relief of the baseball stitching, and a Fleer Focus.

Good stuff so far. Check back tomorrow for more Mike Leake-esque dominance. Go Reds.