2015 trade package #28: (blue) Brie Bros 4 Life!

As I said on TMV tonight, it's been far too long since I traded with Greg Z. of Plaschke, Thy Sweater is Argyle.  Fortunately for both of us we didn't let another year tick away without swapping cards.  And I just happen to be showing off cards from my partner in admiration of actress Alison Brie on the beauty's birthday!  That's enough excuse to post pictures of her associated with the color blue:

Ok, so onto the cards relevant to the blog you're reading right now:

We'll start with seven cards of PC pitcher Jim Abbott.  The last six all capture him during some part of his pitching motion while the first, his '89 Topps RC, didn't get the memo, but it's cool since it's a Michigan uni card.  Retired 2B Chris Getz joins in the fun with an excellent pair of double play shots that probably could have been even better if done horizontally.

With Hall of Fame voting to be announced very soon (hopefully with Ken Griffey Jr. earning 100% of the vote), here's a shoutout to a guy that's already been enshrined, SS Barry Larkin, highlighted by his '87 Fleer RC.

One basketball and football player made it into the package--Juwan Howard and former #1 overall pick Jake Long (hey, I have three autographed versions of that Long!).

Now here's where the contents really took off.  Mr. Z was able to hit two of my favorite older player collections with some really, really interesting stuff.

First up:  Bill Freehan:

The set from whence this card came may be recognizable to some of you, especially those who at least dabble in vintage and/or oddball.  Before Sportflix (and Sportflics) there was 1970 Kellogg's, a very cool looking hologram-type set.

Next, from the same year, is Bill's 1970 Topps Booklet.  I'm not going to get to it today, but I'll likely scan each page to show off in a future post.

And my biggest addition, literally, is Freehan's 1964 Topps Giants card.  Oversize is the name of the game here, and this is just an amazing piece.  I also made sure to scan the back, which is done in a newspaper story style instead of your standard card back:

These three make excellent additions to one of my oldest PCs and are much, much appreciated.

Staying with vintage but changing sports we move on to Red Berenson:

Either Greg guessed or he consulted my checklist, but either way I definitely needed Red's 1968-69 Topps base card, which is now the oldest of the old man's cards in my collection.  What a great photo of Berenson as a much younger man paired up with a cool background.

As with Freehan I also got an interesting oversized oddball.  I hadn't seen this set before so I had to do a quick bit of digging, but I found out this English/French issue comes from 1970-71 Dad's Cookies.  Red had just scored 33 goals on the heels of a career-high 35-goal effort the year before ('68-'69), and he never actually cracked 30 again in his career.

These are some amazing cards for both players, and I'm curious, Greg--did you find those at your LCS?

Anyway, thanks for another great trade, and let's get some more going in 2016, BB4L!

2015 trade package #13: My Sports Obsession enables my PC obsession

I'm behind on posting, which means I'm even more behind on trade packages!

Here's a great one from fellow TMMer Jeff of My Sports Obsession.  Jeff let me know he was gonna send me some stuff for my PCs, and he sure wasn't kidding about that!  Check these out:

Barry Larkin 2003 MLB Showdown

I had just one other MLB Showdown card of Larkin before Jeff sent this one my way, and now I've doubled my collection thanks to this base from 2003.  It's my 276th different Larkin card, which is awesome.

Hal Morris 1990 Albany Yankees All Decade Best

Moving on to Larkin's old Reds teammate Hal Morris, here's a cool oddball/minor league card, #105 in his collection.  Hal's another pretty good Yankees prospect that got away, likely to the chagrin of Frank Costanza.

Michael O'Neill 2014 Bowman Chrome Mini Factory Set, 2014 Bowman Chrome Prospects Series 2 Green Refractor (#40/75), Purple Refractor (#112/150), and Refractor (#393/500)

Here's where a lot of the PC help came in handy:  Jeff sent my four Michael O'Neill cards from 2014 Bowman Chrome products.  The first hails from the Mini Factory Set while the others are all rainbow Refractors from the "regular" version.  O'Neill has a crazy count of 42 cards between the various products and I now have six...oof that's a long way to go!  Thanks to Mr. Laws, though, I'm now over 25% of O'Neill's current run at 22/83.

J.J. Putz 2001 Royal Rookies Futures auto (#1967/6995)

J.J. Putz 2007 Topps Co-Signers Bronze (with Felix) (#023/275)

J.J. Putz 2014 Topps Target Red Border

Today's other multi-card player is pitcher J.J. Putz, who retired last year.  First, Jeff flipped me a Royal Rookies auto I was surprised I didn't have until I realized the one I own is from 2000 instead, plus I have the base version of the card.  I can't believe Putz had to sign almost 7000 of those!  That's my 16th Putz hit and 11th auto as well.

Next is another parallel from the '07 Topps Co-Signers set along with Felix Hernandez.  Of the 12 versions I now own a third of them, and I'll probably add more if the prices ever come back to reality since some of them aren't that hard to find.

Finally, speaking of Topps and its parallel-happy nature, here's the retail-exclusive Target Red card from last year's flagship set.  My progress on the flagship/Mini rainbow now stands at 8/18.

As for J.J.'s overall count, I have 189/327 of his regular run, four 1/1s, and five "others" (including the Royal Rookies cards referenced above) for a grand total of 198.  It's almost milestone time!

Brian Simmons 1999 Bowman Chrome Gold

Finally, Jeff added on to one of my more obscure PCs, former White Sox prospect Brian Simmons.  Since Jeff's a fan of the lame South Siders I do appreciate that he sent this my way.  I'm not quite sure why Topps decided to produce this parallel that year since the only difference is the signature appearing in gold, but that's Topps for you.  More importantly it bumps up my Simmons tally to 21/35 or exactly 60%!

Thanks again for all the useful cards, Jeff, and it's always fun trading with you!  Readers, please follow Jeff's collecting exploits at the following locations (besides occasionally on this here blog):

• My Sports Obsession
• My Personal Collections
• My Baseball Card Obsession

Charlie and George were among the Greatest Hitters

I realize I've gone without posting for nearly two weeks, but I've been busy putting together my spring cleaning contest for the other blog (which I hope to have ready by today), and more importantly, enjoying the fantastic spring/summer weather that's been long overdue!

While I have plenty to show off in the form of trades and pickups from Sportlots, COMC, eBay, and more, today I have a pair of cards I dug out while flipping through things to get rid of:

Charlie Gehringer and George Sisler 1982 TCMA Baseball's Greatest Hitters

TCMA cards, and this set in particular, may be familiar to many of you.  This version came out a year before I was born, but my parents must have bought them for my brother and I at some point, and I've had them for a long, long time.  It's chock full of legends, including these two, which are among my player collections.

Both Gehringer and Sisler are in the Hall of Fame, of course, and for each that was the case especially thanks to their hitting prowess.  Gehringer, the "Mechanical Man," finished with a career average of .320 and more than 2800 hits.  Sisler was even more renown for his skills with the bat, tallying a .340 career mark and owning the single-season hits mark of 257, broken many years later by Ichiro.

These cards mark my 17th Gehringer and 33rd of Sisler, and I think they were perfect for a lazy Sunday kind of post, which will hopefully get me back in the habit!

To see more of this classic set, hit up this link to the Trading Card Database.