It's time for another CheckOutMyCards
quasi-blaster. Flush with some PayPal funds and the need to polish
off the 1983 Topps set I fired up the browser and went searching for
some more cards to make the shipping worth it. Since you'll see
pictures of the front, let's also highlight some notes on the back.
1983 Topps George Brett All Star
The back of the card recounts the 1935
All-Star Game held in Cleveland. Jimmy Foxx drove in 3 of the AL's
runs in the 4-1 win. Lefty Gomez picked up the win by pitching 6
innings. Imagine a starter in the All Star game going six innings
nowadays? The internet would lose its collective mind. Also, we
need more people named “Arky” in pro sports. Arky (given name
Joseph Floyd) Vaughn scored the lone National League run.
1983 Topps Rickey Henderson
Hey, Rickey was born in Chicago!
Didn't know that. Also, through the 1982 season, his 4th
in the majors, he already had successfully stolen 319 bases. The
current active stolen bases leader in the majors right now is Ichiro
with 500. However, it took the Japanese superstar 16 seasons to get
there. Which means he should tie Henderson's record of 1,406
sometime around 2045.
1983 Topps Pete Rose Super Veteran
In '83, Rose had 20 years of service
time in the major leagues. Right now the only active players to
eclipse that mark are Alex Rodriguez (22 years) and David Ortiz (20
years). Ortiz is planning on retiring after this year and Rodriguez
after next. Who knows if anyone else will get close to that number
anytime soon?
1983 Topps Randy Jones
In 1974 Jones lost 22 games for the San
Diego Padres. The next two years he won a combined 42 and pitched
600 innings and won the Cy Young award in 1976. That workload took a
toll on his arm and he never recovered from a nerve injury he
suffered in the last start of that year. In fact, he never posted a
winning record in his remaining 6 seasons and finished with an
overall losing record of 100-123.
2012 Topps Heritage James Shields
Shields had 11 complete games in 2011.
He is still the franchise leader for the Rays with a total of 19
(also with 8 shutouts). The closest current Ray is Chris Archer with
3. Shields is currently tied with Clayton Kershaw for 4th
among active leaders with 22. If you're looking for records that are
never going to be broken Cy Young's 749 complete games has to be
number one.
2015-16 Nikita Kucherov O-Pee-Chee
Retro Variant
The information is a little sparse on
the back of this one despite the fact that everything is in English
and French. Kucherov is listed as being born in Maikop,Russia. It
appears to be a small typo as a quick search lists the town name as
“Maykop”. The name translates to “Valley of apple trees”.
That's nice.
1983 Topps Ozzie Smith
Woo-hoo! Set complete! Ozzie is shown
in a Cardinals uniform as he was picked up from the Padres in a trade
on 2-11-1982. The trade was Smith, Steve Mura, Luis DeLeon to the
Padres for Sixto Lezcano, Gary Templeton and Al Olmsted. According
to The Sporting News the trade almost fell apart due to Smith's
demand for a higher salary. The negotiations led to a great quote
from then St. Louis manager Whitey Herzog, “Ozzie is a great
fielder and baserunner. I'd like to have him. But if he doesn't want
to come to St. Louis, I don't want him. No .220 hitter is worth what
he's asking [$750,000]”. Restrosimba has a great post on the
troubled trade.
(ed note
– Upon further review. The set is not complete. Apparently I
still need a Robin Yount. Damn my fading memory.)
2012 Topps Heritage Eric Hosmer
Hosmer played two seasons in the
Carolina League for the Wilmington Blue Rocks. My parents live in
Wilmington, North Carolina. It's a nice little city just a hop, skip
and a jump from Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Another awesome fact –
it was where Dawson's Creek was filmed.
2013-14 Panini Contenders NHL Link
Ondrej Palat Autograph
A poorly worded anecdote on the back:
Palat was on a road trip with his AHL
club in Hershey, Pa., when he received a call on March 3, 2013
telling him he'd be playing WITH the Penguins that night. His team
had a casual dress code, so Palat had to run to a store in Hershey to
buy a suit before jumping in a car for the three-plus-hour drive.
OK. So there are two issues with that
description. The glaringly obvious one being that Palat played
against the Penguins not with them. Also, the game was played on the
4th, not the 3rd. Tighten your fact checking
game, Panini.
In case you were wondering, Palat
picked up an assist on a Tom Pyatt goal in the 4-3 loss to the
Penguins.
2014-15 Upper Deck Premier Rinks of Honor Autographed Booklets #RH-JD
Not a bad card for less than a lunch in
the city. I didn't realize it was an autograph until I read the back
of the card. Drouin signed it in gold ink and it looks really,
really nice. It doesn't show up on the scan, but in person it's quite nice. Now I just have to figure out if I want to display it
or just throw it in the Lightning box. I'm going to say that depends
on what happens in the offseason with young Mr. Drouin.
According to the back of the card the
official seating capacity of the Amalie Arena is 19,204. Upper Deck
did check it's facts as the official Amalie Arena website confirms
that number. For the 2015-16 season the Lightning averaged 19,092
fans for their home games, good enough for 8th in the
league. And they said hockey wouldn't work in Florida.....
1983 Topps Pete Rose Super Veteran
Wait, what? Yup. I managed to order
the same card twice in one order from COMC. Looks like it was left in
my cart from a previous visit to the site. Make sure to check your
orders, kids. That's $.60 I could have spent on another card.
So that's another quasi-blaster break
from our friends at Check Out My Cards. Seriously, check them out
and buy something.
1 comment:
Great cards all around but ESPECIALLY that Drouin!
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