PCPCs part 3: Tom Grieve

Previously:  Jim Paciorek, Gary Wayne

Today's promptly completed (but not posted) PC player is OF Tom Grieve.  As I mentioned briefly in my introductory post, Grieve, the father of Oakland ROY Ben, did attend Michigan (to avoid the draft--the military one, not the baseball one!) though he didn't play ball for the Wolverines.  Still, Michigan Baseball can imply a guy that played his college ball in Ann Arbor, or a guy that went to school here before going on to the Majors, so he counts!

Tom has 16 total cards spanning 1971-1979, and that encompasses most of his career as he was in the bigs in 1970, then from 1972-79, first with the Senators/Rangers, then briefly with the Mets and Cards late in his tenure.  The 1966 #6 overall pick was worth less than 2.0 career WAR, but at least he carved out a decent career for himself, and then his son went on to be an even higher first-rounder!

I had none of those cards previously, so for the first time on this blog, here are all 16 cards in Grieve's PC:

Tom Grieve 1971 O-Pee-Chee RC and Topps RC

Add "Tommy" Grieve to the list of Wolverine baseball players I've acquired from 1971.  That list includes Dave Campbell, Bill Freehan, Elliot Maddox, and Ted Sizemore; I have both OPC and Topps cards for all except Freehan's, whose OPC might be costly in the way Sizemore's was.  By the way, it's more a quirk of scanning that these look as good as they do--in reality they have the usual vintage wear, which is totally fine by me!

1972 Topps

The '72 O-Pee-Chee set was about 250 cards smaller than the Topps version and Grieve only made the cut for the latter set.  That's not entirely unreasonable since Tom spent all of the previous year in the minors before coming up for good.  Still, that makes him the only player out of the group above not to appear in both sets that year.  And more importantly, what the hell is he looking at?

1973 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

Now that's more like it!  The groovy Rangers uni and cool position logo make this a fun card, even if it looks like the photographer posed him staring into the sun or something.

1974 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

These cards along with the '72 Topps above all note on the back that Grieve received a $60k contract from the Senators back in 1966.  I think Alex Rodriguez just made that much staring at himself in the mirror for 10 seconds....

1975 O-Pee-Chee, Topps, and Topps Mini

Ah, one of my favorites:  the 1975 trio.  As you can see, my O-Pee-Chee card is a tad off-centered (or should that be off-centred?) but that doesn't worry me.  I love the phrasing of the trivia question/cartoon on the back:  "Do they play baseball in Alaska?"  (A:  "Yes, semi-pro baseball.")  Who's "they," Topps?  Who's "they?"

1976 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

These are nice to have as they feature Grieve's stats from his career-best season to that point:  118 games, a .276 average, 14 HR, and 61 RBI.  It doesn't appear to be a coincidence that he performed better after getting the most significant playing time in his career.

1977 Topps

Well, here's to consistency, anyway:  none of my PC guys appear in the extremely slimmed-down (and Canadian team-heavy) '77 O-Pee-Chee set.  But Tom--not "Tommy" anymore--got a well-deserved card in the Topps release after his true career year:  149 games, 20 HR, and 81 RBI, all career highs.  1975 and '76 were truly the apex of his playing days because he never even sniffed 100 games after that and averaged under 75 in his nine seasons.

1978 Topps

Sizemore is my only baseball PC guy that made it into '78's O-Pee-Chee set, so Grieve had just one final card picturing him with the Rangers.  He was part of a crazy four-team deal in 1977 that sent him to the Mets, and it involved Atlanta and Pittsburgh and included Bert Blyleven (heading to the Pirates) and Al Oliver (to the Rangers).

1979 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

Tom played 54 games for the '78 Mets and appeared with that team in Topps' '79 product.  Late in '78 he was flipped to St. Louis, for whom he'd play his final nine Major League games, and O-Pee-Chee reflected the change in team while using the same photo (as they did back then).  By the way, these cards also mention Grieve's $60k signing bonus, which might have seemed quaint even then.

And there we have completed PC #11.  Just two more players to go, plus a nice bunch of Larkins, so stay tuned!

2014 eBay purchases: [unifying theme not found]

Nothing special here, just six new PC cards from two recent eBay purchases.  Let's get right down to it.  Everything you see today except the Murray below came from eBayer burbanksportscards.  Although their prices are often head-scratchers, once in a while I find a few things I need for a not unreasonable total, and hey, free shipping helps.  I spent around $10, which I think was also my total the last time I bought from them.

Red Berenson 1970-71 Topps and 1974-75 Topps

As a quick reminder, I officially started collecting Berenson after Doug hooked me up with 10 of his vintage OPC issues, a great beginning to be sure.  I added a few more via various other transactions, then decided to fill a couple gaps with these two 70s Topps versions via BINs on eBay.  These mean I now own all of Red's regular issue OPC and Topps cards (not including stickers/stamps/etc.) from '69-70 to '78-'79 (including a '69-'70 Topps I'll show off in another post soon).  Much of what's left is tougher vintage stuff--including his RC--plus tough-in-a-different-way modern stuff.  I'm just a couple cards shy of 50% at 26/55 after adding these.

Scott Kamieniecki 1994 Pinnacle Artist's Proof

It's hard for me to believe I have fewer than 10 cards to track down before I can call Scott's PC complete.  This '94 Pinnacle Artist's Proof--man those were TOUGH pulls back in the day!--gets me another step closer to that goal.  It's a great horizontal card with a perfect photo--Kam's follow through and an out-of-focus Mike Stanley--plus the much-desired stamp signifying that this card is rare. You guys.  "Only" 1000 were made, but when you consider how overproduced this stuff used to be, it's easier to realize just how difficult these were to pull.  The rarity is my 83rd out of his 90 issues, with a few toughies left to locate.

Heath Murray 1997 Bowman Certified Blue Ink auto

My non-burbank pickup was this solid on-card autograph of pitcher Heath Murray, which I scored for just $3 (free shipping!).  Bowman made three versions of these signatures in '97, with the others being black and gold ink variations.  Personally, I'd argue that I got the best looking one up-front:  blue.  What's funny is that the photo on the card looks very similar to the one used the previous year, with a few small differences:  no glove on his right hand, looking directly at the camera.  The chain link fence in the background is a similarity, though, so it was probably a photo from the same shoot.  My sixth hit of Murray (five autos and a jersey) is my 23rd of his 30 issues I'm chasing.

Ted Sizemore 1972 and 1974 O-Pee-Chee

Last up is a pair of early 70s OPC cards of former Dodger/Cardinal/and more Ted Sizemore.  Some of those earlier OPC sets aren't as cheap as you might think, which I would have to assume is due to relative scarcity, though if you wanna talk expensive and relatively scarce, a good example is Ted's '71 OPC base, which I haven't seen reliably for under $50 in a while.  That's a shame because it's the last of Ted's cards that I need--yep, I own 22 of his 23-card run!  That joins Leon Roberts' (and Gary Carter's) 1975 OPC as tough-to-find-cheap last-cards-in-the-PC, so if any of you finds a nice deal on reasonable condition copies of either for under $20, please let me know!

I have at least one more card heading to me via eBay, plus some stuff from COMC, but my next post should feature a few Michigan PC guys I grabbed from Sportlots.

2014 COMC purchases: Dave and Don

After showing off some Steve Boros pickups on Friday I decided to go back to the vintage well today with two more guys:  Dave Campbell and Don Lund.  I introduced both guys in a post a couple months ago, and at that point all I had was Campbell's RC.  Luckily COMC proved to be an excellent source--as always--for adding to my PCs:

Dave Campbell 1970 Topps

As I said, my only previous Campbell card was his '69 Topps RC, but he'd appeared in three seasons for Detroit by then.  The following season he was a member of the Padres by virtue of a trade that brought pitcher Joe Niekro to the Tigers.  Here he is with San Diego on his second-year Topps issue; he wasn't included in that year's OPC set as it didn't include all the Topps high numbers.

Dave Campbell 1971 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

This is the first of three straight pairs of Campbell's OPC/Topps issues I picked up.  Fortunately they were very low numbers (#46) so I didn't have to pay through the nose for expensive high numbers!  The OPC version has a lot of French writing on the back which makes it much easier to distinguish the two.

Dave Campbell 1972 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

Dave's 1972 cards include stats from his 1970-71 campaigns with the Pads, and those were the only two seasons during his career in which he appeared in more than 100 games (154 and 108, respectively).  Don't be shocked, then, that they were his two best seasons.  Once again the OPC version has some French text on the back, plus the very helpful "printed in Canada" notation.

Dave Campbell 1973 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

The Padres are well represented in the Hall of Ugly-Ass Uniforms, and here's one great example courtesy of the 1973 sets.  '73 also turned out to be Dave's final season on the West Coast as he was traded to the Cardinals mid-season.  There's an interesting difference in this pair, by the way:  the cartoon on the back of the Topps' card has text that was drawn while the OPC card clearly used type instead.

Dave Campbell 1974 Topps

St. Louis wasn't Dave's final career stop as just two months after that deal in '73 he was flipped to the Astros for former ROY Tommie Agee, who played the final 26 games of his career with the Cards.  Campbell, meanwhile, got into nine games with the '73 Astros, then 35 more the following season before hanging 'em up.  I don't have the OPC card to go with this Topps version, but that's the last of Dave's run that I don't have!

Make it an exciting 9/10 in Dave's collection with the final piece due to arrive soon! 

Don Lund 1954 Bowman

I'm happy to finally have some cards to show off of Lund, yet ANOTHER Wolverine/Tiger.  While I haven't landed his '53 Topps RC yet--gotta find one that isn't so expensive--I did manage to start things off with this classic '54 Bowman.  It hails from the days of cards being a bit larger than today's standard of 2 1/2 x 3 1/2, and it looks great despite its age.

Don Lund 1954 Topps

Here's the former Michigan football star in his Topps issue from the same year.  I'd take this one over the Bowman since it has more going for it, including that terrifying Tigers logo!  Lund was actually signed as a free agent by Brooklyn in '45, and he was with them until the St. Louis Browns grabbed him off waivers in 1948.  The Tigers purchased him the following year, and he was with them for a few games in '49 and again in '52.  1953 was his best campaign as he appeared in a career-high 131 games, but it was back to normal in '54 with just 35 appearances, and then he retired.

Don Lund 1991 Topps Archives 1953

With two of Lund's three vintage issues secured I went after his modern cards.  First up is this reprint of his '53 RC out of the 1991 Topps Archives set--yep, they made that product that far back!  It's a bit annoying for me that I don't have the actual card to pair it with, yet, but I will as soon as I can.

Don Lund 1994 Topps Archives 1954

Here's another Archives issue from a few years later, and four decades after the original's release.  Obviously I do have the original '54 to go with this one, and the reprint does a pretty good job of capturing the vintage version, but I'd go with the latter and its true cardboard-ness any day!

This was a good start for my Lund collection as I now have four of his eight cards.  Besides the aforementioned RC, I'm lacking a gold parallel of the '94 Archives, then a couple autographs(!) out of 2003 Topps Heritage, and those should be fun to chase.

It was fun having more vintage stuff to show off, but I'll go back to modern cards in my next post to close out this latest purchase.

2014 Sportlots purchase #1: the old guys

With this weekend's show purchases covered I'm back to some recent internet pickups.  Earlier this month I hit up Sportlots to complete one baseball set plus a couple from football.  As usual, while I was at it I added some stuff for my player collections.  I decided to split that haul into two posts--today's covers three of my older PCs, and the other will include the rest.  So enjoy this look at 10 new cards added to my Maddox, Roberts, and Sizemore collections:

Elliott Maddox 1975 O-Pee-Chee

Maddox is the latest player whose '75 OPC/Topps/Mini run I've completed.  Here he is on a spring training card whose only proof of its O-Pee-Cheeness is the back.

Elliott Maddox 1981 O-Pee-Chee

Not only does the '81 OPC version include the brand on the front AND the position in French, this one is also different from the Topps by including a floating "Now with Yankees" message.

And, oh, look at that:  I have 23/23 Maddox cards, so that's another PC down!  He joins Rick Leach, Matt Miller, and Geoff Zahn in that exclusive club.  Check out his entire collection here if you're interested.  Hooray completed projects!

Leon Roberts 1981 Donruss

I still can't help but laugh when I see some of these older Mariners uniforms, but that's partly because I really do like some of the newer versions.  Once again this is a solid entry from Donruss' first set.

Leon Roberts 1981 Topps Traded

Besides Willie Horton, a couple other notable players were sent with Roberts from Seattle to Texas late in 1980:  21-year pitcher Rick Honeycutt (who I remember most from his Oakland days) and "guy that has an infamous benchmark named after him" Mario Mendoza.

Leon Roberts 1982 O-Pee-Chee

Just for fun, I looked up the meaning of "voltigeur," the French word OPC uses for "outfielder."  Merriam-Webster includes a pair of definitions:  "a member of any of various French organizations of light infantry; often :  a sharpshooter in the French army" and "leaper."  I think "sharpshooter" and "leaper" combine to capture the position pretty well!

Leon Roberts 1983 O-Pee-Chee

Again, the OPC version includes a note, "Now with Royals," that the Topps card doesn't, but then again, Topps actually produced a Roberts Royals card in that year's Traded set.  Not that I mind that there's no such thing as OPC Traded--I've got enough to collect as it is!

Leon Roberts 1984 Topps Tiffany

This is the second of Leon's pair of Tiffany cards, and I had already grabbed the '85 card, so I'm all set there.

Although I can't claim to have completed his collection yet, I now own 26/28 of his cards, good for about 93%, and I have one of the remaining two on the way, so it may not be much longer until he joins Maddox and the rest of the completed club.  Check out what I have here.

Ted Sizemore 1973 O-Pee-Chee

This ended up being an OPC kind of day for Ted, which makes sense since that's all I have left of his collection to nab.  The centering on this one is pretty terrible, but I've said a lot that I'm not that picky about it, especially since I wasn't interested in paying much for these.  Fortunately it wasn't one of the harder-to-get high-numbers from some of the other 70's OPC sets, which are gonna set me back a pretty penny.

Ted Sizemore 1979 O-Pee-Chee

Here's an interesting difference between the OPC and Topps cards:  the former has him pictured with the Phillies but notes his February '79 trade to the Cubs, and even labels him as a member of that team; the Topps version is 100% Phillies.  There's still no such thing as a card of Sizemore in a Cubs uni, though.

Ted Sizemore 1980 O-Pee-Chee

Ted was included in both Topps and OPC for his final issue with his last team, the Red Sox.  Unfortunately, the front doesn't provide any insight to OPC's choice for the French translation of "2nd baseman."

With these three additions I now have 20/23 cards in Sizemore's run, with the remainders being the rarer 1971, 1972, and 1974 O-Pee-Chee issues (plus he also has a 1/1 I've never seen).  I'm not sure how quickly I'll be able to find them at a price I like, but I still hope to have his collection finished by the end of the year.

One PC done and two above 85% was a nice way to end the day, but check out my second post from the series soon as that also touches on several newer collections!

2014 COMC pickups #8: your mom likes my Sizemore

Next up in the series is a bunch of new cards of newer PC player Ted Sizemore.  I previously showed off a few cards of him I picked up almost a month ago from Justcommons, and the ones I have today quadrupled his PC.  Here's what I've got for you today:

Ted Sizemore 1969 Topps RC (with Sudakis)

Woohoo!  Multiplayer rookie card!  This was actually the first Sizemore I picked up, a couple months ago, but I decided to hold off on posting my COMC pickups until recently so I'd have everything at once.  Sudakis, by the way, wasn't an awful player, and lasted in the league until 1975.

Ted Sizemore 1970 O-Pee-Chee and Topps

Ted earned the hit-or-miss Topps Rookie Cup for the 1970 sets, and that's likely due to the fact that he was the '69 NL Rookie of the Year.  If his competition and those stats don't look terribly imposing, keep in mind the era, which was famed for pitching dominance.  Third place finisher Al Oliver got the last laugh, though, as he had the best career of the bunch by far.

Ted Sizemore 1971 Topps

Here's Ted with the Cards after a 1970 trade that brought slugger Dick Allen to the Dodgers.  '71 Topps is a very nice looking set, and I'd love to have the O-Pee-Chee to go along with it, but it's from the tough-to-get high numbers, and I've yet to find a price for it that doesn't make me laugh out loud.

Ted Sizemore 1972 and 1973 Topps

Do you guys think Topps was trying to recreate the 1972 shot the following year?  These are pretty close in terms of the pose.  By the way, I also don't yet have the '72 O-Pee-Chee card for the same reason as the '71 above.

Ted Sizemore 1974 Topps

That's it, Sizemore, field that invisible ball for the camera!  This ends up being kind of a cool shot because of the way the lighting forms his shadow.  This is the last year where I still need one of his O-Pee-Chee cards.

Ted Sizemore 1975 O-Pee-Chee

Ted Sizemore 1975 Topps

Ted Sizemore 1975 Topps Mini

Sizemore is one of five players in my PCs to have the '75 OPC/Topps/Topps Mini trifecta included in his checklist.  The others are Bill Freehan, Elliott Maddox, Leon Roberts, and Geoff Zahn.  They're fun sets so I'm glad I collect that many guys that were included.

Ted Sizemore 1976 O-Pee-Chee

1975 was Sizemore's final season in St. Louis as he was traded in March the following year for Willie Crawford, a guy who went on to have a better career than he did.  Ted's new team was...

Ted Sizemore 1977 Topps

...his old, old team, the Dodgers.  He didn't do much in 84 games with the '76 L.A. team, but his stay there was brief anyway since he was flipped for future manager Johnny Oates in December, and again packed his bags, this time to...

Ted Sizemore 1978 O-Pee-Chee

Philadelphia, where he lasted for TWO seasons before stops with the Cubs and Red Sox.  Ted appeared with the Phillies in '78 and '79, then with the Sox in 1980, but not as a Cub, though he played more games with them than Boston.

Today's lucky 13 additions bring Ted's total up to a sparkling 17/23 as I near the end of another small collection, though those early OPC cards will be tough!  Check out everything I have of him right here while I see what I can do about the rest, then tune in this week for the final COMC pickup post for the first third of 2014.