Baseball Cards, Spring 1981, Issue #1, Volume 1, No. 1
Cover: Honus Wagner, 1952 Topps Mickey Mantle, 1974 Topps Dave Winfield
Articles:
"Errors Discovered in '81 Fleer"by Larry Fritsch, p14. Detailing the errors/corrections in the 1981 Fleer set.
"In'the Beginning..." by Vivian Barning, p18. Collecting strategies to fit a budget.
"Is PVC Destroying Your Cards?" by Bob Lemke, pp28-30, 79. A detailed explanation about the dangers of storing cards in PVC pages.
"Players in Plastic" by Bob Parker, pp32, 64. Hartland Statues from the 1940s-1960s.
"An Investor's View of Baseball Cards" by Tony Galovich, pp37-40, 80-83. An in-depth look at the finer points of various factors to account for when viewing baseball cards as investments.
"Collecting Your Favorite Team" by Doug Watson, pp42-48, 84-85. St. Louis Cardinals collectibles.
"Before the Surgeon General's Report" by Lew Lipset, pp52-57, 78. 19th Century tobacco cards.
"The Cards That Go 'Clink' " by Jim Nicewander, pp58-63. Baseball coins by Armour, Salada, Topps, Old London and Citgo.
For the first time ever, Panini is FINALLY issuing a baseball sticker set for a country other than the US or Venezuela. Panini will be producing a sticker set and album for Liga de Beisbol Dominicano (LIDOM) this season.
In a major score, a seller on eBay recently posted a ton of old team photos, and luckily for me, those included four previously unknown (to me) that included one Bernardo Brito! The 1981 and 1983 photos are all folded three ways which leads me to believe they were mailed out on request, rather than handed out out at the ball park, the 1983 photo even having a Batavia business card attached.
Bernie played the better part of four seasons in Batavia, New York, with the Trojans, who were the low A affiliate of the Cleveland Indians at the time. In this first picture, we have Bernie in his first professional season, standing on the left end of the back row. Bernie didn't have a very structured introduction to baseball in the Dominican Republic, so 1981 would have been a major adjustment for him, speaking little to no English and really only knowing how to crush a baseball against teenage pitching. That he is even in this photo at all is something of a surprise as he only played 12 games for Batavia in 1981.
Despite his unimpressive initial showing, Bernardo returned to Batavia for the 1982 season, this time appearing in 41 of the team's 75 games that season. He improved a bit, showed some of that pop he was signed for with four home runs, and actually stole a base, which is impressive as he only stole 24 in his entire minor league career. Here, Bernie is in the third row, four down from the man in the suit. I had to adjust the exposure on the scan as a black & white photo of all of those dark jerseys didn't make for a very good photo. In any case, looks like Mr. Brito blinked at exactly the wrong time.
1983 saw Bernardo Brito returning for his third season in Batavia. This time around, he appeared in 60 games, and had improved enough that he was promoted to High A Waterloo for part of the season. He didn't stick, though, his batting average dropping 40 points with the change of scenery and he was back in Batavia for the 1984 season. Another case of the photographer apparently not using a fill light. Had to adjust the levels again just to make out Bernardo's face. This time he's on the back row, third from the right.
The sellers that listed these apparently did not have a 1984 photo of either Waterloo or Batavia, but I did land this 1985 Waterloo Indians photo. In 1984, Brito finally started to put the pieces together in his hitting game and finished with 19 home runs and a .300 batting average. That was enough to earn him a promotion (again) to Waterloo for the '85 season. This time around he did not disappoint and racked up 29 home runs, to lead the Midwest League. Accordingly, Bernie would not spend another season in A ball and would be play the 1986 season with the Indians AA affiliate Waterbury Indians.
After five years in A ball, Bernie finally made the jump to AA, in 1986, to play with the Waterbury Indians, and it took a bit of adjustment. I've heard it said that the jump from A to AA is almost the same difference in level of competition as the jump from AA to the majors. His average and power numbers dropped a bit, but not an an alarming amount. He would recover all of that when the team moved to Williamsport in 1987.
Skipping ahead to 1987, Bernardo made what at first glance appears to be a lateral move, but in fact was just him repeating a grade. After the 1986 season, Cleveland moved their AA Eastern League affiliate from Waterbury to re-establish baseball in Williamsport, Pennsylvania (which had been without baseball since the Williamsport Tomahawks closed up shop in 1976) with the creation of the Williamsport Bills. Bernie put up another good year at AA, batting .277 and clobbering 24 home runs, tops in the Eastern League. 1987 would be the final year for Brito in the Indians organization as he would be released the following spring, to be signed as a free agent by the Twins the following week.
As I haven't sold much on eCrater this year, I've decided to move a bunch of that inventory over to a relatively new site from Canada, Kronozio.com. You may have started seeing their ads popping up on sites like SportsCardForum.com or TradingCardDB.com. They are based in Montreal, and are all native French speakers, so if some of the English on the site seems a bit wonky, it is because of automatic translations. They have begun entering into partnerships with various hobby sites around the world, so the site language should clear up fairly soon.
Another reason I'm doing this is that for new listings, Kronozio's Kronocard software makes adding new cards to their site so much faster than manually inputting a card at a time to eCrater. Kronozio's software also offers an eBay connector for cross-listing cards to eBay.
When I first started listing cards on Kronozio, I actually sold a few right away, which surprised me, but then didn't sell much after that for awhile. Mostly that is due to my lack of promotion of my listings, and the limited nature of the listings themselves. Now with the eBay connector, I'm trying to take advantage of my monthly free eBay listings. Posting cards for sale on eBay is just as easy as posting to my Kronozio store. Once all the card details have been entered, it's just a drop down option as to whether I want to list it as an auction (with or without a Buy It Now) or a fixed price listing. Click here to see how the listings look on eBay.
Within a couple of hours of posting a certain MLB Showdown card of Ichiro, it had already sold. Yesterday I listed all of the cards from some Bandai Owners League boxes I'd recently bought and overnight the Dae Ho Lee card sold on eBay. I know, those two are likely special cases, and none of the other 30+ eBay listings have received a bid yet, but I'm happy to have so quickly unloaded two cards.
They make a big deal about how quickly you can scan and post cards for sale using their software. While they may overstate it a bit for people who don't have an automatic feed scanner, I can attest that they easily have the fastest system I have seen. Not having to scan and handle all of the images separately from the listing process is a huge time saver. They also have a service for identifying your cards for you, where you just scan them and post them to your account, and for a small service fee, they will handle all of the card identification for you. I guess that would be most useful if you had thousands upon thousands of cards to post. Doing batches of 50 or so at a time, I don't see the need, and considering how eclectic my listings tend to be, I'll just handle the card ID myself.
The scanning is very accurate with regard to finding the edges of the cards, and adds some buffer to make the edges easier to see. Anytime the scan is a bit crooked, it is very easy to adjust using little bull's-eyes to show Kronocard where the card's corners are. Here is are some sample scans:
The process is very simple. You place the cards face down on the scanner, and Kronocard makes a single sweep and picks out the cards. Flip the cards over and it makes another sweep and it catches the backs. The software also does a great job of matching the fronts and backs based on where the cards sit on the scanner platen. So basically always make sure when you flip the cards over that you leave them in the same place. Depending on the coloring of the cards I'm scanning, I will use a different backdrop or leave the scanner lid open so there is more contrast for the software to work with. Picking out white bordered cards against a white scanner lid background isn't easy for any image recognition software, and though Kronocard does a great job of it, why make the software work harder than necessary?
There are options as to what kind of scanner you are using, how you want to orient the cards on the scanner, how large the scanner area is, how you want to organize the scans for each session, as well as a way organize your cards by box, row and section, if you so choose. I really need to do that as my organizational skills are atrocious. The software scans everything at 300dpi, which is not configurable. If you are scanning lots of cards from a single set, you can even establish those details before you start scanning, and that information will be automatically tied to the cards you scan in that session, reducing identification time. Once you have your scans, you move on to the individual card identification process (setting card numbers, player names, team names, etc.), which ends with listing the cards in your Kronozio store.
Here is a video from their YouTube channel about the scanning and listing process:
They have also recently added an option to let you use your own scans if you already have a library of images, and don't want to re-scan everything. Kronocard Photo Import. To be perfectly honest, even if you chose not to list cards on the site, Kronocard is a fantastic bulk scanning tool. All of the images are stored locally in your C:\ProgramData\kronozio\Metacard\Images folder. The file naming scheme automatically pairs up fronts/backs, so if you sort the folder by name, everything lines up nicely, though all the images have names like 0b9a3411-473c-4340-bbca-cdcd5eca972ar.jpg.
When you get right down to it, I would say they fall somewhere between Sportlots.com and COMC.com. Like Sportlots, you still have to handle all the shipping and inventory management, but you get the visual benefits of COMC's interface with all the card details and front and back scans for every card. If I ever generate enough sales to actually provide some numbers, I'll do another post comparing the fee structures between the three sites. Kronozio takes a flat 10% of your sales, simple as that. Listing is free. Any eBay listing fees are between you and eBay. Kronozio imposes no extra fees on eBay sales.
For now, I'd definitely say go check them about and give the site a try. If you happened to try them last year, but didn't really get the hang of it, give them another look as they have made some substantial improvements to their Kronocard software since they launched. They offer a lot more options than what I have covered here. Check them out on Facebook, Twitter, and on their Kronozio Blog.
Following a 1987 design that resembled 1986 Donruss, Best Cards patterned the fronts of their 1988 team sets after the 1986 Topps set. I think I actually like Best's approach a little better, though the "Orlando '88" is perhaps a bit reduntant, due to the inclusion of the team logo. Best Cards' back designs didn't change much for the entire 1987-1990 length of their existence, and were always a bit spartan.
After seven seasons in the Indians organization, 1988 found Bernardo Brito still murdering the ball, but also still stuck at the AA level. In early March, the Cleveland Plain Dealer had a good feature on Brito that helped explain his seeming lack of progress. Bernardo was from the hills of San Cristobal, not the bigger cities of Santo Domingo or San Pedro de Macoris, and didn't grow up in quite the same baseball saturated environment as most young Dominican prospects.
"He's still got a long way to go," [Luis] Isaac said. "He never had any coaching when he was a kid. He never heard of a cutoff man or a bunt play until he got here. Usually it takes Latin players about three or four years longer to reach their maximum."
Isaac was the scout who heard about Brito and drove into the mountains of the Dominican Republic to find and, ultimately, sign him. The article goes on to say that Brito would most likely only succeed as a designated hitter, but then explained how most such players were usually experienced veterans, and that it would be difficult for a rookie to break into the majors in the DH role. To me that was, perhaps, a perfect description of Major League baseball's perpetual resistance to the entire concept of the DH. Basically until Edgar Martinez came along, it was somehow foreign to just put a good hitter with limited fielding ability in the DH role and take full advantage of that. Most designated hitters were either aging veterans who no longer had the mobility to play in the field, or utility-type guys who were perhaps too good to leave in the minors, but little more than average bats in the Majors.
Despite the praise and high hopes by March 25th the Indians decided he was a no longer a prospect and released Bernardo Brito. Five days later, Brito was signed by the Minnesota Twins and sent to Orlando, their AA affiliate in the Southern League. By June 15th, Brito was leading the Southern League in home runs for the Twins with 15. By July 5th, Brito had been named to the Southern League All-Star team and was leading the league with 19 HR and 57 RBI. Not bad for a non-prospect!
I was excited when some of the players I collect started having bobble heads issued, and couldn't wait to add them to my collection. I try to stay under $25 if at all possible, and have been fairly successful with that approach, but at least one will likely remain out of reach. Dave Henderson was issued a bobble head by the Yakima Bears in 2009. No clue why they did it, as Hendu never played for Yakima, and they were not an Oakland afilliate, but when they surface, they usually sell for over $250. It is, however, one of the better likenesses I've seen on a bobble head.
Prior to becoming a coach for the Giants, Roberto Kelly managed their Single-A affiliate in the South Atlantic League from 2005-2007. He led the Greenjackets to 1st place finishes in 2006 and 2007, and won SAL Manager of the Year honors in 2006. Kelly's very first bobble head was given away by the Augusta Greenjackets on July 30, 2016.
Dave Winfield is now represented in bobble head form by 4 of the 6 teams for which he played over his 20+ years in the Majors. The Padres have now issued three bobble heads for Big Dave. The one shown here was given away at Petco Park on June 15th, 2003. There is also a more rare version featuring Dave in a brown jersey. It tends to be much pricier than the more common white jersey version. Winfield got one more bobble head from the Padres, a mini, that was limited to 2000 and given away at the 2016 All-Star Fan Fest. It looks to be 4-5" tall. I'll probably pick one up after the prices settle down a bit.
The Yankees bobble head was not a stadium give away (the Yankees still don't seem to care much for Winfield, even all these years later), but rather is an exclusive from Man of Action Figures, a Miami, Florida based action figure store. They have a large presence online and on eBay. I am grateful for them as they produced Winfield's only Yankees figure of the man since his retirement. According to the eBay listing, it is limited to 288 pieces, but can be had for a very reasonable $14.99 + $13.99 shipping (which might seem steep, but it arrived quickly and fully intact). The Yankees bobble actually reminds me more of Walt "No Neck" Williams than Dave Winfield.
Toronto honored Winfield with a Blue Jay bobble head on April 7th, 2002.
Two bobble heads have been issued by the Minnesota Twins for the home town favorite. The one with the green base was issued on July 22, 2001, in honor of Winfield's Hall of Fame induction. Given the serial numbers on the laminated card that came with the statue, I suspect upwards of 10,000 of these were given out at the stadium. The second, with the red base, was given out to Twins season ticket holders for the 2002 season, and is supposedly limited to about 2500 pieces. As he played for the Angels for a season and a half, I'm hoping to one day see an Angels bobble head issued for Winfield, but I'm not holding my breath for anything from Cleveland.
Tuffy Rhodes received three bobble heads, all in fairly quick succession, during his time playing with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes. I previously posted about the double bobble with Nakamura. Each of the individual bobble heads was supposed to come with a Buffaloes lanyard (typically for carrying your game tickets), but all I received was the figures. I haven't been able to track the exact release information, but I suspect these were released (from left to right) in 2001, 2002 and 2003. I have seen a small figure of Tuffy in his Orix uniform, but I think it is just a statue and not a bobble head.
I have yet to post anything about my collections of players who share my last name (or derivations thereof), but thus far it seems only one of them has a bobble head to his name. That would be Josh Pressley. He was a decent hitting first baseman who bounced around a lot from 1998-2006 before finally hitting the independent circuit where he would spend the rest of his career. His one statue comes from the Somerset Patriots of the Atlantic League, where he played for 5 seasons.
Another area that is perhaps a bit neglected in the sports memorabilia hobby would be the various round, pin-backed badges produced by a variety of parties and issued though a multitude of avenues. While some sets are very well documented, others just seem to coast along in an odd state of limbo. One such set that is both very well known, yet very poorly documented would be the "1978" Sports Photo Associates pins. I put 1978 in quotes because, while almost all of the pins issued feature a 1978 copyright notice along the outer edge, the set clearly extended well beyond 1978.
In addition to the set being extended across several years, there are also multiple sets that seem to overlap in that time period. I will try to break them down as well as I can, with the relatively limited information I have, and try to put some order to the chaos.
In 1978, "Sports Photo Associates" began issuing two sets of numbered pins, three inches in diameter, full color, and based on uncut sheets found on eBay, they two sets were printed together for at least part of the run. One set featured contemporary players and managers, mostly featuring the individuals name, a facsimile signature and a small number. The other set had "Baseball Hall of Fame" arching across the top, in a sort of gothic calligraphy, and featured the players name and a number beginning with 'HF' and showed a copyright of either 1978 or 1981. The Hall of Fame set seems to have included 40 players as follows:
HF1
Babe Ruth (1978)
HF2
Lou Gehrig (1978)
HF3
Jackie Robinson (1978)
HF4
Hank Greenberg (1978)
HF5
Lou Bourdeau (1978)
HF6
Al Kaline (1978)
HF7
Hank Aaron (1978)
HF8
Yogi Berra (1978)
HF9
Ernie Banks (1978)
HF10
Eddie Mathews (1978)
HF11
Whitey Ford (1978)
HF12
Bob Feller (1978)
HF13
Monte Irvin (1978)
HF14
Roy Campanella (1978)
HF15
Roberto Clemente (1978)
HF16
Bob Lemon (1978)
HF17
Sandy Koufax (1978)
HF18
Willie Mays
HF19
Bob Gibson (1981)
HF20
Duke Snider
HF21
Robin Roberts
HF22
Joe DiMaggio (1981)
HF23
Ted Williams
HF24
Mickey Mantle (1981)
HF25
Brooks Robinson
HF26
Frank Robinson
HF27
HF28
Juan Marichal
HF29
HF30
HF31
Jack Brickhouse
HF32
Harmon Killebrew
HF33
HF34
Luis Aparicio
HF35
HF36
HF37
Enos Slaughter
HF38
John Mize
HF39
HF40
Lou Brock
The other main set was numbered from '1' to at least '363'. The last two pins I've seen were of Pete Rose, and the second highest numbered was '344' and featured him in his Montreal Expos uniform (these can be seen over at 4192cards.com). Several players were included multiple times. In some cases, as with Dave Winfield and Pete Rose, with different teams. In other cases, players were included on multiple pins for the same team, including Reggie Jackson, Fred Lynn, George Brett and Johnny Bench. The Fleer Sticker Project features an interesting post about this set as the pins were available as part of a promotion on 1981 Fleer wax wrappers. The Sports Photo Associates also seems to have beena resource for photos for Fleer for their inaugural sets.
Below is the checklist I have assembled so far (which will be updated as new pins are uncovered). Thus far, it covers 213 of the known 400+ pins in the set:
1
Ron Guidry (Yankees)
1
Ron Guidry (ASCCA advertisement)
2
Jim "Catfish" Hunter (Yankees)
3
Rich Gossage (Yankees)
4
Thurman Munson (Yankees)
5
Ed Figueroa (Yankees)
6
Willie Randolph (Yankees)
7
8
Billy Martin (Yankees)
9
Reggie Jackson (Yankees)
10
Lou Piniella (Yankees)
11
Graig Nettles (Yankees)
12
13
14
15
16
Bucky Dent (Yankees)
17
18
Greg Luzinski (Phillies)
19
20
21
Larry Christianson (Phillies)
22
Larry Bowa (Phillies)
23
24
Ron Reed (Phillies)
25
Steve Carlton (Phillies)
26
Tug McGraw (Phillies)
27
28
29
30
31
Mike Schmidt (Phillies)
32
33
34
35
36
Jim Rice (Red Sox)
37
38
39
Carlton Fisk (Red Sox)
44
Roy Smalley (Orioles)
45
Fred Lynn (Red Sox)
47
Carl Yastrzemski (Red Sox)
69
Dave Parker (Pirates)
71
Willie Stargell (Pirates)
81
Rich Gossage (Yankees)
83
George Brett (Royals)
84
Bob Lemon (Yankees)
85
Mike Flanagan (Orioles)
86
Jim Palmer (Orioles)
87
Eddie Murray (Orioles)
88
Ken Singleton (Orioles)
89
Frank Robinson (Orioles)
90
Andre Thornton (Indians)
92
Rick Manning (Indians)
93
Rick Waits (Indians)
94
Duane Kuiper (Indians)
96
Dennis Leonard (Royals)
97
Paul Splittorff (UER, Last Name Misspelled)
98
Darrell Porter (Royals)
99
Fred Patek (Royals)
100
Amos Otis (Royals)
101
102
Al Hrabosky (Royals)
103
Clint Hurdle (Royals)
104
Sparky Lyle (Rangers)
105
Jim Sundberg (Rangers)
106
Bert Campaneris (Rangers)
107
Richie Zisk (Rangers)
108
Al Oliver (Rangers)
109
Jim Kern (Rangers)
110
Buddy Bell (Rangers)
111
Chet Lemon (White Sox)
112
Don Kessinger (White Sox)
113
Lamar Johnson (White Sox)
114
Jorge Orta (White Sox)
115
116
Dwight Evans (Red Sox)
117
Dennis Eckersley (Red Sox)
118
Larry Hisle (Brewers)
119
Mike Caldwell (Brewers)
120
Robin Yount (Brewers)
121
Gorman Thomas (Brewers)
122
Sixto Lezcano (Brewers)
123
Ron LeFlore (Tigers)
124
Mark Fidrych (Tigers)
125
Jason Thompson (Tigers)
126
Dave Rozema (Tigers)
127
Rusty Staub (Tigers)
130
Rick Cerone (Blue Jays)
131
132
Nolan Ryan (Angels)
133
Frank Tanana (Angels)
134
Bobby Grich (Angels)
135
Don Baylor (Angels)
136
Joe Rudi (Angels)
137
Rod Carew (Angels)
138
Matt Keough (Athletics)
140
Dave Revering (Athletics)
142
Butch Wynegar (Twins)
143
Dave Goltz (Twins)
144
Roy Smalley (Twins)
145
Ruppert Jones UER (misspelled Ryppert, Mariners)
146
Leon Roberts (Mariners)
147
Bruce Bochte (Mariners)
148
Dan Meyer (Mariners)
149
Pete Rose (Phillies)
150
Dave Kingman (Cubs)
151
Bobby Murcer (Cubs)
153
Bruce Sutter (Cubs)
154
Ivan DeJesus (Cubs)
155
Ted Simmons (Cardinals)
156
Gary Templeton (Cardinals, no signature)
157
Lou Brock (Cardinals)
158
Bob Forsch (Cardinals)
159
Ron Cey (Dodgers)
160
Tom Lasorda (Dodgers)
162
Reggie Smith (Dodgers)
163
Don Sutton (Dodgers)
164
Tom Seaver (Reds)
165
Johnny Bench (Reds)
166
Joe Morgan (Reds)
167
Dave Concepcion (Reds)
168
George Foster (Reds)
169
Ken Griffey (Reds)
170
Phil Niekro (Braves)
171
Jeff Burroughs (Braves)
172
Gary Matthews (Braves)
173
Biff Pocoroba (Braves)
174
Bob Horner (Braves)
175
Ross Grimsley (Expos)
176
Gary Carter (Expos)
178
Ellis Valentine (Expos)
180
Vida Blue (Giants)
181
Willie McCovey (Giants)
182
Jack Clark (Giants)
183
Gary Lavelle (Giants)
185
Dave Winfield (Padres)
186
Gaylord Perry (Padres)
187
Rollie Fingers (Padres)
188
189
J.R. Richard (Astros)
190
Cesar Cedeno (Astros)
191
192
Enos Cabell (Astros)
193
Yogi Berra (Yankees)
194
Bill Buckner (Cubs)
196
Doug DeCinces (Orioles)
197
Tommy John (Yankees)
198
Steve Kemp (Tigers)
200
Thurman Munson (Yankees)
200
Thurman Munson (Yankees)
"The Captain 1947-1979"
201
Craig Reynolds (Astros)
202
Joe Niekro (Astros)
203
Paul Molitor (Brewers)
204
Scott Thompson
205
Jerry Martin (Cubs)
206
Ray Knight (Reds)
209
Keith Hernandez (Cardinals)
210
Earl Weaver (Orioles)
211
Brian Downing (Angels)
212
Alan Bannister (White Sox)
213
Ken Kravec (White Sox)
214
Lance Parrish (Tigers)
215
Willie Wilson (Royals)
218
Rick Bosetti (Blue Jays)
219
220
221
Lee Mazzilli (Mets)
222
Fred Lynn (Red Sox)
223
Carl Yastrzemski (Red Sox)
224
Bucky Dent (Yankees)
225
Rick Cerone (Yankees)
226
Bobby Murcer (Yankees)
227
Oscar Gamble (Yankees)
229
Dale Berra (Pirates)
229
Phil Garner (Pirates)
230
Bill Madlock (Pirates)
231
Omar Moreno (Pirates)
232
Dave Collins (Reds)
233
Johnny Bench (Reds)
234
Junior Kennedy (Reds)
235
Billy Martin (Athletics)
236
Nolan Ryan (Astros)
238
Cecil Cooper Brewers)
239
Ben Oglivie (Brewers)
240
George Brett (Royals)
241
Joe Lefebvre (Yankees)
242
Ruppert Jones (Yankees)
243
Bobby Brown (Yankees)
244
Jim Spencer (Yankees)
245
Bob Watson (Yankees)
246
Rudy May (Yankees)
247
Steve Stone (Orioles)
248
249
Al Bumbry (Orioles)
250
Rick Dempsey (Orioles)
251
Maury Wills (Mariners)
253
Mike Norris (A's)
254
Rickey Henderson (A's)
257
Jose Cruz (Astros)
258
Jeff Reardon (Mets)
259
Neil Allen (Mets)
260
Alex Trevino (Mets)
261
Len Barker (Indians)
265
Bob Stanley (Red Sox)
266
Dennis Eckersley (Red Sox)
267
Jim Rice (Red Sox)
269
Carlton Fisk (Red Sox)
270
Manny Trillo (Phillies)
271
Tug McGraw (Phillies)
273
Bob Boone (Phillies)
274
Larry Bowa (Phillies)
275
Bake McBride (Phillies)
276
Garry Maddox (Phillies)
277
Dave Winfield (Yankees)
278
Jerry Mumphrey (Yankees)
279
Dave Kingman (Mets)
280
281
Mookie Wilson (Mets)
282
Hubie Brooks (Mets)
285
Joel Youngblood (Mets)
287
Reggie Jackson (Yankees)
289
Dale Murphy (Braves)
291
Reggie Jackson (Angels)
295
Fernando Valenzuela (Dodgers)
295
Dave Righetti (Yankees)
296
Dave Winfield (Yankees)
297
298
299
300
301
Charlie Moore (Brewers)
302
303
304
Cal Ripken Jr. (Orioles)
305
306
Darryl Strawberry (Mets)
307
Jody Davis (Cubs)
307
Leon Durham (Cubs)
307
Wade Boggs (Wade Boggs)
308
Mel Hall (Cubs)
309
Ryne Sandberg (Cubs)
310
Fergie Jenkins (Cubs)
311
Ron Kittle (White Sox)
312
Ted Simmons (Brewers)
313
314
Greg Luzinski (White Sox)
315
Keith Moreland (Cubs)
316
Don Sutton (Brewers)
324
Bo Diaz (Phillies)
327
Gary Matthews (Phillies)
330
John Denny (Phillies)
331
332
333
334
335
Don Mattingly (Yankees)
344
Pete Rose (Expos)
355
Bob Dernier (Cub)
356
Scott Sanderson (Cubs)
357
Gary Matthews (Cubs)
362
Lee Smith (Cubs)
363
Pete Rose (Reds)
400
Ron Cey (Cubs)
818
Davey Lopws (Cubs)
824
Dennis Eckersley (Cubs)
To help confuse matters, unnumbered sets were issued for the Yankees, Red Sox, Mets, Pirates and Phillies. These often feature the same photograph, but merely lack the small number on the front. There were also a set of 4-inch pins issued for teams featuring multiple players.
SPA-1
New York Yankees (1979)
SPA-2
Los Angeles Dodgers (1979)
SPA-3
Philadelphia Phillies (1979)
SPA-4
Boston Red Sox (1979)
SPA-12
Philadelphia Phillies (1982)
SPA-22
Philadelphia Phillies (1983)
SPA-22
Chicago Cubs (1984)
---UPDATE---
Thanks to Cliff Bowman, from the Net54Baseball.com forum for the addition of the most recent 25 pins.
Hensley Meulens spent parts of six seasons in the International League as a player, most notably 1988-1993 with the Columbus Clippers, and 1997 with the Ottawa Lynx. Once his playing days were over, he returned as a hitting coach for the Indianapolis Indians from 2005-2008. I don't take much time off work, but this week I made an exception and drove up to Columbus, Ohio, to witness the induction of Sir Hensley "Bam Bam" Meulens into the International League Hall of Fame. Below is my shaky cell phone video of the ceremony.
It was a beautiful evening for baseball at Huntington Park, with a season-high crowd of 11,373 turning out for the event. I guess some of them also showed up to see the Clippers face the Indians (not a good night for Ross Detwiler and the Clippers) or maybe for Sugardale Dime-A-Dog night (10 cent hot dogs!). In any event, in honor of Sir Bam Bam, the team was giving away these canvas printed plaques covering his career with the Clippers:
I had really hoped to get a chance to finally meet the man himself, but it just never happened, mostly because I got wrapped up in the game and didn't think to go hang out by the Hall of Fame plaque after the ceremony. However, he did notice me! I was sitting in the front row behind the plate, right by the Clippers dugout, wearing my Hensley Meulens San Francisco Giants 2010 World Series away jersey, and he saw me from the second level box where he was sitting with his family and sent this down to me:
He did smile and wave to me when he came through the dugout onto the field.
The I.L. Hall of Fame now occupies two of these plaques, so next year
they will need to start on a third. Out front of the stadium is a bronze statue of Harold Cooper, the business man who brought baseball back to Columbus after the Cardinals had moved the previous affiliate (the Columbus Red Birds) to Omaha following the 1954 season. Cooper bought the International League team in Ottawa and relocated them to Columbus, establishing the Columbus Jets. Fast Forward to 1970, and unable to work out a deal for improvements to their existing stadium the team was again sold and was moved to Charleston, West Virginia, and became the Charleston Charlies. The Clippers began in Columbus in 1977, in the same stadium, and in 1984 it was officially renamed "Cooper Stadium". Harold Cooper is in the upper left corner of the plaque below. Hensley Meulens is in the lower right.
1987 saw a ramping up by a variety of companies using baseball cards as an enticement for purchasing their product. Popcorn, breakfast cereal, iced tea and even the big mac & cheese lobby would get into the baseball card printing act. Three years after their "First Annual" card set, the Ralston Purina Company produced a new set of 15 cards, in packs of three, buried in specially marked boxes of regular and vanilla Cookie-Crisp, and the less well known test run of Honey Graham Chex.
Along with the cards was an instant win card for a "Win A Hero For A Day" contest. There were apparently separate contest for Cookie Crisp and for Honey Graham Chex as the prize enumerations are different on each box. From the Cookie Crisp rules, the grand prize being a visit from "a baseball hero" to your school or a Little League game. Other prizes were 500 Rawlings gloves; 1,000 personalized Louisville Slugger bats; 10,000 Rawlings baseballs and 100,000 complete uncut sheets of the card set. From the Honey Graham Chex rules, the grand prize being a visit from "a
baseball hero" to your school or a Little League game (meaning there were actually two chances at this). The other prizes
were 100 Rawlings gloves; 200 personalized Louisville Slugger bats; 500 Rawlings baseballs and 25,000 complete uncut sheets of the card
set.
As mentioned in an earlier post, lots of sets produced by Michael Schechter Associates (MSA) for various companies were also available in poster or sheet form as a mail-in offer. If you weren't lucky enough to win one of the 125,000 posters, you could purchase one by sending in two non-winning game cards and $1 to Ralston Purina. One has to wonder if the posters available for purchase came from the 125,000 instant win stash, or if there was a separate run of posters just for that. I have to think it was all the same print run as I can't imagine Ralston Purina really thinking they would have to redeem 125,000 posters and still have people ordering more.
1987 Honey Graham Chex Limited Edition Collectors' Sheet
As with all of the previous MSA uncut sheets, a variation of the card set was introduced as collectors began to chop up the sheets into individual cards. The actual cards were printed on gray cardstock, similar to that used for the cereal boxes. The posters were printed on a lighter, beige cardstock and were missing the "1987 COLLECTORS' EDITION" wording on the left side of the crossed bats on front. So, again, not a "RARE VARIATION", just a piece of a chopped-up poster.
An interesting bit of text on the side of the box partially reveals the print run for this set. The official rules for the promotion says of the prizes, "A total of 111,501 instant win prizes are available to be won in 3 million boxes of Cookie Crisp brand cereal." It then goes on to list the prizes, totals and odds of winning. As the cards were issued three per box, that means at least 9,000,000 cards were issued. Assuming all cards were issued in equal numbers, that puts each card at a print run of no less than 600,000 cards. The rules also mention that any unclaimed prizes would never be awarded, which invites the assumption that the unredeemed card sheets were eventually destroyed (assuming they didn't make it out the back door of the warehouse), so there are likely far fewer than the mentioned 100,000 sheets in circulation. And that's just including the cards issued with Cookie Crisp.
[UPDATE - 25 May 2016]
I finally found a Honey Graham Chex box and, as suspected, it had a smaller run than Cookie Crisp. The official rules for the promotion says of the prizes, "A total of 25,801 instant win prizes are available to be won in 1 million boxes of Honey Graham Chex brand cereal." It then goes on to list the prizes, totals
and odds of winning. As the cards were issued three per box, that
means at least 3,000,000 more cards were issued to cover the Chex production run. Assuming all cards were
issued in equal numbers, that puts each card at a print run of no less
than 200,000 cards each.
Combining the two products therefore gives us a total print run of actual cards as 800,000 per card and 125,000 posters.
Both sets and uncut sheets are still readily available for cheap on eBay, usually under $10. The checklist is as follows:
As I haven't really posted about these in while, I thought it was time to catch up with what the various MLB teams have been providing at the autograph lines at their annual fan fest events and in fan packs. The lists here will be works in progress as I am able to find more to add.
Houston Astros
2015
For 2015, the Astros produced a very nice, clean design for their photo cards featuring a mix of current and former players. Some cards have uniform numbers, some don't. The back is mostly black with a phone number to call for Astros game tickets.
0 L.J. Hoes
6 Jake Marsnick
9 Marwin Gonzalez
11 Evan Gattis
12 Max Stassi
19 Robbie Grossman
21 John Singleton
27 Jose Altuve
28 John Singleton
37 Pat Neshek
66 Kevin Chapman
NNO Mark Appel
NNO A.J. Hinch
NNO Art Howe
NNO John Hudek
NNO Colin Moran
NNO J.R. Richard
NNO Asher Wojciechowski
2016
The Astros marketing folks spiced up the cards a bit for 2016, putting the players' names in an orange banner across the bottom of the card.
6 Jake Marsnick
12 Max Stassi
27 Jose Altuve
31 Colin McHugh
43 Lance McCullers
53 Ken Giles
Philadelphia Phillies
2016
The Phillies have been producing these 4"x 6" cards for years, usually as complete sets as stadium giveaways or for purchase at the merchandise stand. As with most years, this set is fairly comprehensive, weighing in at 40 cards, including coaches.
2 Tyler Goeddel
3 David Lough
4 Andres Blanco
5 Steve Henderson (coach)
6 Ryan Howard
7 Maikel Franco
8 Juan Samuel (coach)
9 John McLaren (coach)
10 Larry Bowa (coach)
12 Mickey Morandini (coach)
13 Freddy Galvis
15 Emmanuel Burriss
16 Cesar Hernandez
17 Peter Bourjos
18 Darin Ruff
22 Bob McClure (coach)
24 Darnell Sweeney
25 Cody Asche
27 Aaron Nola
28 Vince Velasquez
29 Cameron Rupp
30 David Hernandez
33 Rick Kranitz (coach)
34 Brett Oberholtzer
37 Odubel Herrera
38 Andrew Bailey
39 Adam Morgan
40 James Russell
44 Edward Mujica
45 Pete Mackanin (manager)
46 Jeanmar Gomez
47 Charlie Morton
48 Jerad Eickhoff
51 Carlos Ruiz
53 Daniel Stumpf
57 Luis Garcia
58 Jeremy Hellickson
62 Bobby LaFramboise
94 Dalier Hinojosa
NNO Phillie Phanatic
Baltimore Orioles
2016
The Orioles also continue to issue a set of oversized 3.5"x 5" photo cards. The cards look nearly identical to the previous few years.
Once again, a chance eBay search strikes gold for one of my player collections. I had no idea this existed, but I am now the proud owner of a 1984 Greensboro Hornets team photo, likely a stadium giveaway, sponsored by Goodys, makers of what are purported to be fine headache powders. It measures 8"x 10" and is printed in color on thin, glossy paper.
In 1984, Greensboro was a Single-A affiliate of the New York Yankees in the South Atlantic League. Of course, I picked this beauty up because a very young Roberto Kelly is featured in the second row, but as it happens, he is sitting right next to a young Cuban pitching prospect, one Osvaldo Canseco.
There are a handful of other players in the photo that managed to reach the majors, to include Mitch Lyden, Brad Arnsberg, Bill Fulton and Mike Armstrong, and coach Bob Veale. Also pictured, in the fourth row is current, beleaguered manager of the Atlanta Braves, Fredi Gonzalez, and in the second row, peaking over Ozzie cap is none other than Steve George.
"Steve who," you say?
Steve George!
This guy, masquerading as Al Leiter on a 1988 Topps card:
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