Saturday, May 18, 2024

Trading to Completion: Part 2

 

So, after a couple of months, how is this project going? Eh, like most of the projects around these here parts, slowly (still haven't finished any of my Heritage sets!). There have been a couple of nice flurries of trades, but I often get distracted with other cards and forget that I'm trying to finish off this set as priority number one.

I did manage to pick up one more card in my most recent Trading Card Database trade. Mr. Kremer was the 117th 2024 Topps card that I've picked up this year which brings us to 33.4% completion. 




The card, and some 1993 Topps, came from user Yankee1952 and cost me just some Topps dupes that have been sitting in a box for the better part of 30 years. Kremer is the 7th Oriole from the set that I've picked up, leaving just a few more to go. Yes, they do have preference when I'm searching through other folks' want lists when I'm putting a deal together. 

As I mentioned a few paragraphs ago, I tend to get distracted when putting trades together and sometimes forget to add 2024 cards to the transaction. There are also times when I receive a deal that has a card in it that I didn't know existed, or know that I needed. 

User RyanFrueh thew a trade my way that had some 2024 Topps along with a bunch of Orioles. Heading up the list was this gem - a 1996 Leaf Signature Series - Extended Series Autograph of Jeff Huson. 



Sweet card with a good-looking autograph of a sometimes forgotten Orioles.

Huson, initially drafted by the Montreal Expos (RIP) signed with the Orioles in December of 1994 after a stint in Texas. He would spend parts of two seasons in the Charm City accumulating 210 at-bats over 80 games with a slash line of .259/.317/.640 with 1 home run. 

The lone home run of his Oriole tenure came in a 9-3 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers on September 24, 1995. It was his first home run in more than three years. The "unlikeliest" of home run hitters, as The Baltimore Sun put it, joined Raphael Palmeiro, Harold Baines, and Chris Hoiles in putting the ball over the wall as the Orioles won their fourth in a row. Sadly, it was also the day they were officially eliminated from the playoff race.

That home run came a couple of weeks after Huson stood at third base on the night that Cal Ripken, Jr. tied Lou Gehrig's record for consecutive games. Huson went 0-for-4 on that historic night while Ripken homered off of Shawn Boskie.

The utility player (he suited up at shortstop, third base, second base, DH, and one game in right field for all of you Immaculate Grid players)  would play 17 games in 1996 for the Orioles before they released him in August. He wasn't out of work for long as the Colorado Rockies signed him to a deal. He never played for the Rockies, but did bounce around with Milwaukee, Seattle, Anaheim, and the Cubs before retiring in 2000. Currently he is working color commentary for the Rockies TV crew.

 It's a really good looking card and I'm happy to have it in my collection. Thank you Ryan. And thank you Yankee1952. The quest continues!