I received an unexpected package from Zippy Zappy himself. I was completely shocked by what I found when I opened it:
It is one thing to find some prospect cards or other base cards, even the Sega Card-Gen cards when I open these. This is a whole different level. I am extremely thankful for Zippy sending me this T206 of Frank Arellanes. That is an incredibly generous package.
Arellanes spent three seasons in the Majors, all with Boston. He had a 1.82 ERA in 79 innings (eleven games) in 1908 then followed that up with his best season in 1909. That year, he went 16-12 with a 2.18 ERA in 45 games (28 starts) and 230.2 innings pitched. He led the league in games finished (15) and retroactively in saves (eight). He notched 82 strikeouts and 43 walks. The next season, his ERA increased to 2.88 in 18 games (100 innings). He had some conditioning issues which led to a falling-out with the team and he never made it back to the Majors. He died at just 36 years old in 1918 of pneumonia complications from influenza.
The package also included two other cards:
Craig Breslow did a couple of tours of duty with the Red Sox and was an important lefty out of the bullpen for the 2013 World Champions, though he struggled in the postseason. He is currently the Red Sox Chief of Baseball Operations for the Red Sox and is undertaking a program for the team to develop its own pitchers. He has so far organized trades of Chris Sale and Alex Verdugo for a slew of pitching prospects and infielder Vaughn Grissom and signed Lucas Giolito.
This Kaleb Ort card is from his minor league days in the Yankees organization, though the Trenton Thunder were once a Red Sox affiliate (I have cards of Nomar with them). Ort was picked up in the minor league phase of the Rule 5 Draft in 2021 (same draft that brought Garrett Whitlock). Ort spent parts of three seasons in Boston and has a record of 2-4 with a 6.27 ERA. He throws hard so teams are willing to take a chance on him.
Thank you so much Zippy. I will try to get something out to you soon.
Felt a little surreal to send my first Zapping to someone with a T206 in it in nearly a decade but from the day I got that for "cheap" and saw it was Boston, Amer, I kinda knew it was going to you at some point.
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