Juan Two Three Four...

Now I've never been a massive fan of Juan Gonzalez, but I have to respect what he accomplished in the Major Leagues. And I'll Blog about him because that's the pile of cards I'm currently viewing!

I always seemed to get his cards whenever I bought packs during his playing days. Enough of them, in fact, to land me 206 of Juan's cards.

Included in the above (blurry, sorry) photo, is a 2006 Upper Deck Diamond Collection card, which is the only 2006 card I have of Juan's. He didn't even make it into the 1250-card main set that year, which is odd. That card, visibly or not, is actually numbered 106/699, so I must have a 'Gold' or 'Bronze' variation.

The following 2 cards are from my 2 favorite sets this century : Topps Total (2004) and Upper Deck 40 Man (2002). It doesn't look like we'll ever see either of these sets again, so I'll just have to live in the past.

Lastly, the Gold-Bordered card is from the 2001 Topps Traded set, and is also numbered 0052/2001. Juan came back in a big way in 2001 after a disappointing year in Detroit. He hit .289/22/67 in 2000, then mashed .325/35/140 for the Tribe in '01.

The card at the top left is from the 2000 Topps Traded set (#97) and depicts Juan during his previously discussed 'down' year in Detroit.

The second card looks a lot like the original 1989 Upper Deck release, but it's been given the typical late-90's facelift, complete with shiny foil surface and shiny foil stamping. I never noticed until just now, but that card is also numbered 0186/4000. Just so you know, it's from the insert set called '10th Anniversary Team', which perfectly explains the 1989 design.

There's yet another very '90's-looking' card at the bottom left, from 1997 Upper Deck. It's a one-per-box insert, from memory, and is actually pretty impressive to look at when it's in your hand.

I chose to include that 1997 Donruss card because I'm a sucker for throw-back uniforms. Also, it's card #1 in that set.

We arrive at the year 1995, and, man... what a colorful year that was for cards! At least, the top 2 cards here are from 1995.

There's a 'Rising Star' insert from 1995 Ultra, and a 'Ring Leader' insert from 1995 Stadium Club. I always thought Topps tried too hard with their inserts, but I actually like the way this card refracts when you move it.

The card at the bottom left is from 1994 Stadium Club, and I think it was from a 3rd series pack. They're called 'Finest Inserts', a wildly imaginative title for the set.

I love Fleer Pro Visions. And this one, takes the prize of my favorite of all time. So much color. The coolest brand of bat ever, and the yellow brick road with horses near it. Just cool!

I threw in the last card there because it's from 1993 Upper Deck, and it shows Juan being kind to some kids. Good fellow, he is.

Finally, we reach some early Juan cards from 1992 down to 1990.




The first card is from the 1992 Upper Deck Ted Williams Best Hitters insert set. On the back, Williams predicts Gonzalez to be a 'Sure MVP'. Teddy Ballgame wasn't wrong...

The 1991 Ultra card is from the formerly-over-valued Update set. I think, according to Beckett, this card was worth around $20 in the middle of the 1990's. Glad I waited until 2011 before buying the set for around $5.

I love the Mirror-image Rookie Card that Donruss produced in 1990. The cynic in me says it was a deliberate error. The cynic is probably right, too. I'm just glad I found the error version in some random shop on the Big Island of Hawaii about 20 years ago. Despite being a tad faded, it still remains one of my favorite cards of Juan's.

Well, thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed our quick look back at the card career of one the 1990's greatest sluggers, Juan Gonzalez.

Nick J

Multi-Tasking Pitchers

Like most other bloggers out there, I love cards that depict pitchers doing stuff that aint pitching.

Upper Deck seemed to catch Charles Nagy a few times either hitting (1992 & 1993) or running the bases (1998 Collectors Choice).

For the record, Nagy strode to the plate 20 times over his 14-year career, and managed to get 2 hits, for a .105 average. He also somehow managed to score 3 runs.

His career All-Star Game average? 1.000! He led off the 8th inning of the 1992 ASG,  and singled off Doug Jones. Perhaps that hit is depicted on the 1993 Upper Deck card, since A.L. pitchers pretty much never batted in those days.

Denny Neagle.

Now here's a guy who, for a pitcher, was certainly a useful bat at the bottom of the order.

For his career, he batted at a .164 clip over 628 plate appearances, with 5 homers and 44 RBI.

I love that 2002 Upper Deck card - everyone remembers Denny as a fun-loving and goofy kind of guy, and I think he may have been impersonating Larry Walker's (in)famous All-Star Game at-bat from a few years earlier.

I may have a few more cards of Pitchers-doing-stuff-they-don't-often-do elsewhere, but they may have to wait for another day.

That day could well be tomorrow, if I find them this afternoon!

Thanks for reading,

Nick J

A Dave Winfield Cardboard Tribute... (Part 1 of 2)

(Part 2 Here)

G'day folks,

 I've finally arranged my entire baseball card collection in alphabetical order, and even managed to store them in adequate housing. So now, I have a little bit of time to post about some of my favorite players of all time.

Firstly, I must apologize for the lack of clarity (focus) in some of the photos. The whole scanner situation still hasn't improved. Maybe I'm never supposed to own a fully functioning scanner? I don't know...

Over the next couple of posts, I'll be focusing on the great Dave Winfield. He of the 3110 hits, 465 HR's and 1833 RBI. Considering he also stole 223 bases, and was a highly-ranked pitcher in College, his numbers suggest he was an incredibly gifted athlete. We will count down all of the Winfield cards I own from his playing days, since they're the ones I consider 'actual' Winfield cards. It's still nice to get some reprints, or tribute cards from 1997 - 2013, but to me, they're just not the same.

The top photo contains all of my 'Sunset' (Thanks, Nick!) cards of Winfield, and my favorite one would have to be the Collectors Choice issue, at the middle of the bottom row. FULL career stats, the gold 'Tribute' logo and those great 1995 Blue Indians uniforms are outstanding. Best photo would have to be the Score card on the bottom right. Great follow-through of the great man in his last season. Score will always be one of my favorite brands of all time. Heaps of stats on the back, and most years included a color photo as well. 1988 Score was ahead of it's time!

This is the photo I really should have taken again. In fact, I should have taken it a third time, because this was Take 2. The lack of scanner strikes again!

All of these cards are from 1995, and although some show Winfield in Twins garb, each card lists him as being with the Indians. He was traded to the Indians in late August 1994, but wouldn't appear for them until 1995 because of that damned... well, we all know why! Topps did extremely well in late '94 or early '95 - they managed to track Winfield down at his own house, dressed him up in a Cleveland Uniform, and snapped a few photos of him. That's the unusual story behind his Topps card at the bottom on the right. Who needs airbrushing or Photoshop??? Surely the best card for Winfield in 1995 was the Stadium Club card. I love the fact Topps got him to show bunt. How often would he ever have been asked to do that in an actual game? I'm guessing never!

Change of scenery for this photo. Better lighting. Hope it worked out OK!

1994 was probably the year I bought more packs than any other year. There were just so many different sets out that year, and most of them were available in a large number of shops here in Australia. My favorite design for 1994 would have to be Leaf. I love the team-color-coded, marbleized, curved bar at the bottom of each card. I love the backs even more. More team-color-coded madness! The ticket stub. The team logo itself. PLUS : the holographic team logo in the top right corner. Almost a perfectly designed set in my opinion. One single problem : not enough stats! That Pinnacle card (2nd row, card 3) is my newest addition to the Winfield pile. I got it in a box of Pinnacle that I bought in Hawaii a couple months ago. Paula @ Paula's Sportscards, I tip my cap to you!

Man I love me some 1993 sets. I think everyone's pick of the bunch is the Upper Deck set, and I'd probably have to agree. Some incredible photos in that set, both on the front and the back of the cards. I also loved the Score set, primarily because it is probably the most team-color-oriented set I've ever seen. The backs sum it up perfectly. I should have taken a pic of one...

1992 was an amazing year for the 40-year old Winfield. .290/26/108??? I don't know of any un-roided player who has reached that level of production at that age. Amazing...

You may have noticed that all of the Twins cards are at the top. My O.C.D. causes me to sort all of the 'traded' or 'update' cards above the other cards that picture a player with his previous team. I just can't explain why. If you look closely at the Pinnacle card in the 3rd row, you'll notice a small pic of Dave in a Padres uniform. That's a preview for what will make up a lot of my next post. ;-)

Aaahh... 1992. This is the year that takes up the most space in my collection. Nearly every card you see in this pic is from a complete set. Upper Deck (Gold Hologram), Ultra, Bowman, Leaf, Stadium Club, Pinnacle, Fleer (+Update), Score (+Update), Topps (+Traded), Topps Gold (+Traded Gold) & O Pee Chee. They're all there. They're all complete. I will never be able to lift my 1992 collection. Ever!

Dave played pretty well in 1991, for a guy who turned 40(!) later that year. .262/28/86 is great for a guy that age.

I have to say, there were no absolute stand-out designs that year. Although I do love the Triple Play set. Sadly, I only have about 50 cards from that set, and no Winfield's...

This was a shock to me. I only have 10 Winfield cards from 1991. Yes. Ten.

Pathetic, isn't it? This was the most over-produced over-production-era year of all-time! How can I only have TEN?

It's probably because Dave stayed with the same team from mid-1990 thru the end of 1991.He still hit .267/21/78 between the Yanks and the Angels, so it wasn't such a bad year that he only deserved 10 cards, though! I really love that Stadium Club set. I remember seeing it on the Bay about 3 years ago, for around $30, and I just had to pounce. I'm forever grateful that I did. Now, Studio is the only non-oddball 1991 set that I don't own, and I don't really care for Studio. Nor does anyone else, it seems!

Well, that just about does it for Part 1, I hope you enjoyed reading, but mostly, I hope you saw some cards that you didn't know existed, and now are on your wantlists! That's 100 of the 162 Dave Winfield cards in my PC down, and 62 to go.

Can't wait to unleash some vintage Winfield tomorrow!

Nick J

Edit : Here's Dave's Website : http://davewinfieldhof.com

Vintage Part 2 : Indians

Well it's taken a couple days longer than I anticipated, but I'm ready to roll with part 2 of my Vintage Series. Work has a bad habit of getting in the way of what I really want to do around here, as I'm sure most you you would understand.

Something about these old gems just gets me excited whenever I see one. A lot of people define 'Vintage' cards as being pre-1981,  and I'll probably have to go along with that. I'd class these cards as 'Extra-Vintage' because they're from the 50's & 60's. Whenever I see a 1958 Topps card depicting a Cleveland Indian, I expect to see that little packet of wieners in the background. Maybe I saw too many of those pictured in a Beckett magazine 15-20 years ago. The 1960 cards are nice, and I think a major influence of Fleer's 1995 Flair issue. Very similar fronts, albeit very different quality levels!

Man, I wish I was an Indians collector. The color scheme on these 1968 Topps cards meshes very well with the uniforms. These cards look a lot better in person, too.

I should have been paying more attention. Until that Buddy Bell card fell out of my Indians box, I had completely forgotten that it was in my collection. I cannot explain just how much I love those All Star Rookie Cups! Although most of you in the blogosphere would understand it completely.

 In the coming weeks, I may start blogging about some more obscure sets from the last 20 years. Surely there can't be too many people out there with bunches of 1998 Pacific Online cards, could there? Perhaps I'll show some Topps Total or Upper Deck 40-Man cards, as I know there's a lot of bloggers out there who would appreciate seeing them.

Since I haven't made up my mind yet, we'll all have to wait and see!

Cheers,

Nick J