New year, new PCs!

Collecting inspiration can come from the funniest places.  Case in point:  as I was flipping through my subscribed blogs last Friday I caught a fun post from Nick at Dime Boxes.  It's possible most of you that read this blog caught that post because he's a great blogger, but in case you didn't for some reason go check it out.  Basically he used cards to summarize a tough week that hopefully looked to be getting better.  Besides the neat premise I noticed one of the more interesting cards he included:

This is a '95 Stadium Club base card of former Brewers pitcher Mike Ignasiak.  While I'm sure most of you would look at this card and say to yourself, "Hey, that's hilarious!  He's wearing his jersey backwards!" (and of course I did too), my main thought was "Hey, I recognize that name, didn't he play for Michigan?  Sure enough, a trip to baseball-reference.com confirmed that very fact.  And that find led me to click on the "School" link that shows you all the players that attended a specific high school or college, because that gives you a fantastic list you can sort every which way from Sunday.

Though I had done something similar in the past and maybe come up with a new name or two, I'd apparently not put in as much effort as I could have because in addition to Mike up there I found four other guys I still wasn't collecting (plus Steve Howe, about whom I'm still on the fence).  Since it's a new year and I spent very little in January, plus cards for my other PCs have relatively dried up, I thought I'd go whole hog at those five players with the help of three of my favorite card sources:  COMC, Justcommons, and Sportlots.  One Super Bowl Sunday later I got a lot done, and you'll see the fruits of my labor when those various packages arrive in the next couple weeks.

In the meantime, why not introduce each player so you and I can learn about the careers these guys had and the cardboard on which they appeared?  Here, then, are six players you may or may not have been aware suited up for the Maize and Blue before plying their trade in the Majors:

1.  Tom Grieve (OF)

Playing career:  1970, 1972-79

Team(s):  Senators/Rangers, Mets, Cardinals

Interesting facts:  Drafted 6th overall in 1966 (the Reggie Jackson draft); Father of former MLBer Ben Grieve;  Attended Michigan for student deferment during Vietnam War; Part of four-team trade in 1977.

Number of cards:  16 (checklist)

Cards I own:  0

2.  Mike Ignasiak (RHP)

Playing career:  1991, 1993-95

Team(s):  Brewers

Interesting facts:  Drafted in the 8th round in 1988, 11 picks after Tim Wakefield;  Previously drafted by the Cardinals in 1987's 4th round;  That hilarious Stadium Club card above.

Number of cards:  15 (checklist)

Cards I own:  1, the '94 Topps above (album link)

3.  Jim Paciorek (1B/3B/LF)

Playing career:  1987

Team(s):  Brewers

Interesting facts:  Drafted in the 8th round in 1982;  Previously drafted by Cleveland in 1981's 14th round;  Brother of 18-year vet Tom Paciorek.

Number of cards:  2, 1987 Fleer Update and a Glossy parallel (checklist)

Cards I own:  0

4.  Lary Sorensen (RHP)

Playing career:  1977-85, 1987-88

Team(s):  Brewers, Cardinals, Indians, A's, Cubs, Expos, Giants

Interesting facts:  Drafted in the 8th round in 1976;  Part of deal that sent Rollie Fingers and Ted Simmons to Milwaukee;  1978 All-Star, went 18-12 with 17 CG

Number of cards:  36 (checklist)

Cards I own:  1, the above 1986 Topps (album link)

5.  Gary Wayne (LHP)

Playing career:  1989-94

Team(s):  Twins, Rockies Dodgers

Interesting facts:  Drafted in the 4th round in 1984, ahead of future Tiger Mike Henneman;  Previously drafted by Oakland in 1983's 23rd round, one pick before notable Pirate Jeff King;  1 career hit and 2 RBI in 2 career ABs.

Number of cards:  36 (checklist)

Cards I own:  4, all from 1990s sets, including the above '90 Score RC (album link)

As usual anything I own is by virtue of those cards falling within sets I've completed.  Stay tuned for more posts featuring these guys (and others from my baseball and hockey PCs) very soon.

And once again, a big thanks to Dime Box Nick for inspiring me to chase these PCs!