Mini Card Show Goodness - Part 2/2

Check out yesterday's Part 1, if you haven't already.

Much more goodies to show today, including my favorite card of the haul...

2006 Bowman Chrome Futures Game Pre-Rookie Refractor. Such a nice card, and only a buck.

A couple smaller-time, but still awesome, refractors from 2013 Bowman Chrome: Shin-Soo Choo and Homer Bailey.

Billy Hamilton from 2013 Bowman Chrome Prospects and 2012 Bowman Chrome Franchise All-Stars with Joey Votto. Hamilton has huge appeal among non-Reds collectors, which makes his cards tough to get a hold of cheaply. My collection is scant in the Billy Hamilton department.

Four needed Johnny Bench snags: 2013 Topps Archives Stickers with three lesser catchers, 2001 Topps American Pie, 2001 Fleer Greats of the Game, 2004 UD Legends Timeless Teams Memorable Moments.

More veteran goodness: 1986 Big League Chew (!) Frank Robinson, 1986 Topps Pete Rose Set, and a 20-sided 2013 Topps Cut to the Chase Insert Joe Morgan.

2013 Allen & Ginter's Relic Scott Rolen. Ever since I swore off relic cards, I keep finding them too cheaply to pass up.

Three much-needed Tony Cingranis. 2013 Pinnacle, 2013 Topps Making Their Mark Insert (a set I like more than most of you), and 2013 Finest.

And we'll close out strongly with a 2007 Upper Deck Elements Josh Hamilton RC #'d/550. I'll always love Josh Hamilton.

Go Reds.

TAKE MY CARDS, PEOPLE

You see this?...

And this?...

You know what these are? These are filthy, rotten, disgusting non-Reds baseball cards. They are all that remain in my house of non-Reds (other than vintage goodness). I'm tired of looking at them. They sicken me. They represent me buying blasters and repacks from retail stores. In other words, shelling out my money for cards that aren't Reds. Well I'm done with that. Not one more penny will be spent on the purchase of cards that aren't of my team.

So what does this mean for you? It means you may have them. They're bundled by team. If you wish to claim a team, comment here, or comment in the page for which I made a tab up top. What do I want in return? Not much. I figure it'll cost around $3 to ship each team in a bubbler (I think. Postage has gone up recently). So if you wanna send me a PWE of a card or two you think I wouldn't mind spending $3 on, that'd be great. Or, if you just want to take (you selfish bastard!), that, mayhaps. can be arranged too.

Some of the team piles are kinda weak. Some are kinda strong. They're all equally reviled in this House of Ohio.

So, please, TAKE MY DAMN CARDS. Pass this along to others as well.

Below are the team bundles remaining.

Angels - CLAIMED by Angels in Order

Astros

Athletics

Blue Jays - CLAIMED by Dan Jennings

Braves

Brewers

Cardinals - CLAIMED by madding

Cubs - CLAIMED by Nick

Diamondbacks

Dodgers- CLAIMED by Petethan

Giants

Indians (2-card PWE)

Mariners

Marlins

Mets - CLAIMED by John Hazen

Nationals

Orioles- CLAIMED by Ryan H

Phillies

Pirates - CLAIMED by MARK

Rangers

Rays

Reds (x50)

Rockies

Royals

Tigers - CLAIMED by John Hazen

Twins

White Sox

Yankees (x2) - CLAIMED by Dan Jennings and Petethan

Go Reds.

Completely Red: 1979 Topps

The year 1979 was the last year the Reds would make the playoffs before their iconic underdog championship season of 1990. The Reds had a tremendous roster, having previously added Tom Seaver to The Machine to balance to exceptional hitting. The Reds would lose to the Pirates in the NLCS, then would fluctuate between good-not-great and awful in the 80's. But '79 being such a good year, and '79 Topps being such a good set, we get a nice 30-card team set of the Redlegs.

Topps reduced the Rookie multi-cards from four players to three, which is an improvement, and the cards featured only one team of rookies, which is much better than by position, but I don't understand the inexplicable black-and-white. Again, the All-Star designation is on the player's base card, robbing us of an extra few dozen cards, and in particular, four extra Reds cards. But we have a nice pair of George Foster League Leader cards and a Pete Rose Record Breaker card. Unlike the previous year's Topps set, we have a bunch of action shots, which I always prefer. Also, someone needs to explain to me why Pedro Borbon's text is blue and everyone else's is green.

STATS:

Cards - 30

RC's - 4 (Junior Kennedy, Mike LaCoss/Ron Oester/Harry Spillman)

All Stars - 10 (George Foster x3, Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench, Pete Rose x2, Tom Hume, Ray Knight, Ken Griffey, Dave Concepcion, Mike LaCoss)

Hall of Famers - 4 (Joe Morgan, Tom Seaver, Johnny Bench, Sparky Anderson)

Reds Hall of Famers - 10 (Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Sparky Anderson, Dave Concepcion, George Foster, Ken Griffey, Tom Seaver, Cesar Geronimo, Pedro Borbon, Dan Driessen)

George Foster Sideburns - 3 (All left)

Action Shot Camera Lens Aperture - Too wide

Checklist:

2 Leaders George Foster - Jim Rice
3 Leaders George Foster - Jim Rice
20 Joe Morgan
47 Fred Norman
73 Ken Henderson
100 Tom Seaver
126 Doug Bair
149 Manny sarmiento
174 Rick Auerbach
200 Johnny Bench
204 Pete Rose RB
220 Cesar Geronimo
259 Sparky Anderson
281 Vic Correll
301 Tom Hume
326 Pedro Borbon
354 Bill Bonham
377 Paul Moskau
401 Ray Knight
420 Ken Griffey
450 Dave Concepcion
475 Dan Driessen
501 Junior Kennedy
516 Champ Summers
556 Mike Lum
600 George Foster
622 Dave Collins
650 Pete Rose
674 Dave Tomlin
717 Mike LaCoss - Ron Oester - Harry Spilman

Go Reds.

The Ridiculous Finals, Six Months in the Making, Are Here

Oh man. With two walk-overs in the semis, we're finally at the end of The Red Cardboard Ridiculous Card Tournament. The first group of 16 was posted way back on July 25th. After much, much ridiculousness, 510 of the 512 cards have been excised. We have but two left standing:

The overall number one seed, 1973 Topps Johnny Bench...

...versus the 22 seed, 1957 Topps Ted Kluszewski.

The '73 Bench is one of the best cards from the 70's, showing a rare action shot of Bench snagging a Giants pop foul. The '57 Klu is one of the most iconic cards of all-time, showcasing Big Klu's custom jersey, which, of course, allowed the pythons to breathe.

Bench has had no problems advancing in any stage, easily coasting through its Round 1 and 2 groups and winning its bracket match-ups 14-0, 9-3, 8-3, 7-5, and 16-4. Kluszewski, hampered by its condition, wasn't very strong in Rounds 1 and 2, earning a mere 22 seed, but once it hit the brackets, it saw huge victories of 11-1, 11-4, 9-6, 10-2, and 15-4, upsetting the 11, 6, and 3 seeds along the way.

So, for the last time, let's get our votes in on the sidebar to crown The Red Cardboard Ridiculous Card Tournament Champion.

Voting closes Monday at noon eastern.

Go Reds.

1952 Topps #29 Ted Kluszewski

I made an atypically expensive purchase recently. Expensive for a single card, that is. Normally I prefer a stack of commons over a single star, which explains some glaring holes in the collection. I'm missing a bunch of Pete Rose vintage. I'm missing a bunch of Ken Griffey Jr. cards from the early 2000s. I'm missing a bunch of Billy Hamiltons from recent sets. Quantity over quality.

But after a Sportlots debacle from a seller who has very clearly given up the business but is still accepting purchases from his inventory and giving out fake tracking numbers (user berk0523), I found myself with a few bucks sitting in my paypal account. I wasn't in the mood to sift through anyone's inventory, so I splurged on the titular card of this post. I like it so much, that it gets its own post.

As you can see, there's a nice mouse-bite on the top right corner. And some creasing. None of this is a big deal. This card is niiiiiiice. Very regal pose. This is by far the toughest '52 from the Reds team set that's not part of that ridiculous high number series, so I got that going for me. I have now 9 of the 28 card team set. Not terribly impressive, but that will be remedied.

The back is printed a bit awry. Also not a big deal. Does anyone wish that fielding stats were more prevalent on card backs today? With all the modern analysis, fielding is making a comeback as a point of pride, like it clearly used to be.

Well there ya go. Go over to the sidebar and vote on the Ridiculous Card Tournament semi-finals if you haven't already.

Go Reds.

TTM Goodness - More from the 80's

These TTM's all came back to me in June. That's how far backed up I am. So here's a big ol' post of five 1980's Reds generous enough to bust out a sharpie.

Skeeter Barnes was born in Cincinnati, played college ball for the University of Cincinnati, was drafted by the Cincinnati Reds in 1978, and made his debut for Cincinnati in 1983. He played in 353 major league games in nine seasons and played in a whopping 1633 minor league games in 15 seasons. For the Reds, he hit in 52 games over three seasons. Signed is a 1985 Donruss #530.

Charlie Puleo pitched in 180 games in his 8 year career. He was traded to the Reds in 1983 for Tom Seaver, sending the Hall of Famer back to the Mets. Puleo garnered 7 wins for the Reds in 28 appearances in 1983 and 1984. Signed is a 1983 Topps #549.

Brad Gulden played for 6 teams in his 7 year career, including 107 games for the Reds in 1984. Gulden was traded from the Yankees to the Mariners for Larry Milbourne and a 'player to be named later'. One year later that 'player to be named later' turned out to be Brad Gulden, making him one of four players in history to be traded for himself. Sweet. Signed is a 1985 Topps #251.

Sheldon Burnside pitched in 19 career games over three seasons, the first two with Detroit, and his final year with the Reds. In 4.2 innings of work in 7 games for the Reds in 1980, Burnside gave up only one earned run and went 1-0. Signed is a 1981 Fleer #221.

Pat Pacillo was drafted by the Reds in 1984 and debuted with them in 1987. His entire two-year career would be with Cincinnati, pitching in 18 games in '87 and '88, going 4-3. Pacillo was also on the 1984 USA Olympic Team with future major league teammate Barry Larkin. Signed is a 1987 Topps Traded #93T.

Go Reds.

One and Done: 1958-1959

This is the tenth part of my running theme, unimaginatively dubbed 'One and Done'. Here, I focus on cards of Reds players who, whether it be their only year in the bigs or their only year with the club, found themselves on the Cincinnati roster for only one season, yet long enough to sneak onto a card donning the Cincinnati red. That was a very convoluted sentence that I am choosing not to edit.

Today we're looking at 1958-1959. These two years saw a massive 22 one-and-doners (12 and 10, respectively) in these two years, building up to their World Series appearance in 1961. I have a solid 12 of these in my collection.

Harvey "The Kitten" Haddix. 14 year career with 5 teams, 3x All Star, 3x Gold Glove, winning pitcher in Bill Mazeroski's walk-off World Series home run game, pitched 12 perfect innings in a game that would be lost in the 13th.

With the Reds: 1958, 184 IP in 29 games including 26 starts, 110 K's, 3.62 ERA, 8-7 record, Gold Glove.

Bill "Lefty" Wight. 12 year career with 8 teams, 2x league leader in HR/9.

With the Reds: 1958, 6.2 IP in 7 relief appearances, 5 K's, 4.05 ERA, 0-1 record.

Dee Fondy. 8 year career with 3 teams, Last player to bat at Ebbets Field, traded to the Reds for Ted Kluszewski, straight up.

With the Reds: 1958, 131 PA in 89 games, 1 HR, 11 RBI, .218 BA in his final major league year.

Steve Bilko. 10 year career with 6 teams, namesake of Phil Silvers' Sgt. Bilko.

With the Reds: 1958, 100 PA in 31 games, 4 HR, 17 RBI, .264 BA.

Eddie Miksis. 14 year career with 5 teams, debuted in the majors at 17.

With the Reds: 1958, 59 PA in 69 games (plus pinch-running duties), 4 RBI, .140 BA.

Chuck Coles. 1 year in the majores, with the Reds, 1959.

Career stat line: 13 PA in 5 games, 1 single, 1 double, 2 RBI, .182 BA.

Frank "The Big Donkey" Thomas. 16 year career with 7 teams, 3x All Star, SI Cover in 1958.

With the Reds: 1959, 412 PA in 108 games, 12 HR, 47 RBI, .225 BA.

John Powers. 6 year career with 4 teams, 298 minor league home runs.

With the Reds: 1959, 47 PA in 43 games, 2 HR, 4 RBI, .256 BA.

Bob Mabe. 3 year career with 3 teams. Totally not high.

With the Reds: 1959, 29.2 IP in 18 games including 1 start, 8 K's, 5.46 ERA, 4-2 record.

Buddy Gilbert. 1 year in the majors, with the Reds, 1959.

Career Stat line: 23 PA in 7 games, 2 HR, 2 RBI, .150 BA.

Del Ennis. 14 year career with 4 teams, 3x All Star, 1x league leader in RBI, 2nd to only Stan Musial in RBI during Ennis' prime years.

With the Reds: 1959, 14 PA in 5 games, 4 hits, 1 RBI, .333 BA.

Mike Cuellar. 15 year career with 5 teams. co-Cy Young Award winner with Denny McLain in 1969, 4x All Star, league leader in wins, starts, and complete games in 1970.

With the Reds: Debut year of 1959, 4 IP in 2 relief appearances, 5 K's, 0-0 record.
-----------------------------------

Missing from the collection:

1958
Jim Fridley
Fred Hatfield
Lefty Hayden
Alex Kellner
Turk Lown
Danny Morejon

1959
Luis Arroyo
Jim Bailey
Jim Pendleton
Don Rudolph

Go Reds.

Scan Dump: Dust Collector Edition

I've gotten into the habit of scanning every new card I come across, for posterity I suppose. This means I have a big ol' folder of un-posted goodness with no real purpose. It's turned into random, lazy scan dumpings, like this one here. Today's theme will be Chrome, aka, The Dust Collector Parallel. So much static. So many errant electrons. I've made pretty good progress in going back in time for older Chrome sets. Wait about 6-8 years and they drop down to base card prices. Let's roll.

We'll start off strong with some Chrome Rookie Refractor goodness of Johnny Cueto. Here's hoping he can stay healthy this year.

2005 Topps. Sure.

2005 Bowman. Yep.

1999 Topps. Mmm hmm.

2012 Prizm. Not technically Chrome, but it's totally Chrome.

200something Bowman. I'm bad with recognizing Bowman sets.

More 200something Bowman.

2002 Topps with some Traded. Traded is tough to find.

Got some Bowman International, not to be confused with Bowman Chrome International. Both collect an ample amount of dust.

Hey how bout some 200something Bowman again? Alright.

What's that? 200something Bowman? Yessir.

And closing it out with some Topps. It seems like there should be some script on that team card. I thought I found a printing error or something, but nope. Just a lack of lettering.

Well alrighty. Go Reds.

Completely Red: 1993 Ultra

Man, this set was sweet. Gold foil all over the place. Faux marble finishes. Full bleed photos. A friggin ball on fire. High end stuff, bro. I don't remember how much packs of this cost, but it must have been a lot, because I don't remember having too many as a kid. I still find these as good or better than most modern cards. Ultra definitely peaked with their third release here. 

We have 24 Reds, all lookin' pretty good. Fleer got a little loose with the 'Rookie' ribbon, as none of the four designated rookies are actually classified as an RC, and the only true RC, Tim Pugh, didn't get one. Such is life. The Dibble and the Samuel are my favorites of the set. Keep an eye out for a Bip sighting as well.

STATS:

Cards - 24

RC's - 1 (Tim Pugh)

All Stars - 12 (Barry Larkin, Bip Roberts, Chris Sabo, Reggie Sanders, Tom Browning, Rob Dibble, Roberto Kelly, Kevin Mitchell, Jeff Reardon, Juan Samuel, John Smiley, Dan Wilson)

Hall of Famers - 1 (Barry Larkin)

Reds Hall of Famers - 4 (Jose Rijo, Tom Browning, Barry Larkin, Chris Sabo)

Great Balls of Fire - 24

Checklist:

26 Tim Belcher
27 Jeff Branson
28 Bill Doran
29 Chris Hammond
30 Barry Larkin
31 Hal Morris
32 Joe Oliver
33 Jose Rijo
34 Bip Roberts
35 Chris Sabo
36 Reggie Sanders
325 Tom Browning
326 Tim Costo
327 Rob Dibble
328 Steve Foster
329 Roberto Kelly
330 Randy Milligan
331 Kevin Mitchell
332 Tim Pugh RC
333 Jeff Reardon
334 John Roper
335 Juan Samuel
336 John Smiley
337 Dan Wilson