Sorry for the Delay in Posts and a Big Thank You

Last week I received a nice-sized box of cards from Adam over at Thoughts and Sox.  It was my first blog trade and it was a great one.  I am just sad I don't have a scanner right now to show off some of the pickups.  Adam must have spent a long time pouring over my Have List to come up with well over 200 cards I did not have.  I don't even know where to start with the highlights, there are some great ones in here.  So in no particular order here are some of my favorites:

-2009 Topps 206 and 2009 UD Goodwin Champions Jason Varitek.  There are not a lot of Varitek cards out there I do not have.  Just look at the list on the right, but Adam found a couple.

-2008 Topps Heritage T205 Clay Buchholz.  I loved the Topps 205 set from 2003, so I was excited to see this further throwback to the early set.

-2010 Topps Ring of Honor Inserts:  I only had Varitek and Manny Ramirez previously, but now have Curt Schilling, Jonathan Papelbon, and Jacoby Ellsbury.

-2008 Masterpieces Cards:  I always liked this set, but for some reason never bought much of it.

-Vintage Cards:  Lots of vintage goodies, including cards of Diego Segui, Danny Cater, Rick Burleson and Mike Nagy from the 70's, Mike Fornieles and Mike Higgins from the 60's, and a very interesting Dave Sisler from the 50's.

All great stuff, thanks a lot.

Baseball Card Spotlight: 2001 Fleer Red Sox 100th Anniversary

Of course I was going to cover this set eventually on this blog. The set featured 100 cards and there were a series of inserts, game-used, and autograph cards as well.

BASE SET
The base set featured 100 cards with a couple of subsets. Players included such Hall of Famers as Ted Williams, Carl Yastrzemski, Bobby Doerr, stars like Nomar Garciaparra, Pedro Martinez, and Mo Vaughn, and regional favorites like Pumpsie Green, Gene Conley, and Bill Lee.

Cards 78-92 were a subset entitled Beantown's Best and included All Stars and favorites.

YAWKEY'S HEROES
The first insert set was Yawkey's Heroes, which featured some of the favorite players in Boston since Yawkey took over the team. It features players like Ted Williams, Tony Armas, Dennis Eckersley, Tony Pena, Johnny Pesky, and more.

SPLENDID SPLINTERS
The other insert set was named after Ted Williams's nickname and featured some of the best hitters in Red Sox history. There was also a game-used parallel featuring game-used bat pieces of most of these cards, including Ted Williams and Babe Ruth. I have Wade Boggs and Jim Rice.

RED SOX THREADS
The jersey card insert set featuring players like Pedro Martinez, Carl Yastrzemski, Roger Clemens, and others. I have Dwight Evans and Don Zimmer.

BOSOX SIGS
The autograph set featuring a number of tough signers like Carl Yastrzemski, Roger Clemens, and Nomar Garciaparra. I have Bernie Carbo, Jim Lonborg, and Rico Petrocelli.

Obviously, this is my favorite set of all time, but I wish they would have had a larger base set and more players. Or at least updated it later on. I bought the set itself and a few retail boxes. I bought the set to get all of the base cards and the retail boxes to get some of the inserts and hopefully a relic or autograph. It was only after I started on ebay that I was able to compile the relics and autos I own, as well as finish off the insert sets. Great cards. Wish there were more.

Search for BoSox Pt. 4: Topps Million Card Giveaway

Topps Million Card Giveaway is a promotion that has been going for on for this year in which the company inserts promo cards with a code to redeem for an original Topps card. I have not been buying too many packs this year, so I only had two of these redemption cards. Several months ago I redeemed them and these were the cards that I won:

As you can see, nothing terribly interesting.

Rod Gaspar was a Mets outfielder who played 118 games in 1969 at all three outfield positions. He was not a terribly good hitter and was mostly just a backup option. He never played close to as often again. I had never heard of Gaspar before.

Pete Rose Jr. is famous for being Pete Rose's son. He had 16 at bats in the Major Leagues with the Reds and was never heard from again. Despite this, he still managed to get into some legal trouble for steroid use.

Well, I was not terribly happy with these pickups and did not do much with them. I left the website alone for a long time.

Last week though, I decided to look closer at the site and I realized that I could trade my cards for something else. So, I went through the process and identified several cards I would have liked and offered trades. Most of them were fairly preposterous, and were rejected right away.

I turned down a trade offer for a 1988 Topps George Brett and I ended up trading the Gaspar for this:
Gerry Moses was a Red Sox catcher who played in the All Star Game in 1970. Expect a post about him, as this was definitely a questionable choice. Still, trading a Mets card of a player I have never heard of for a vintage Red Sox card is pretty good for me.

I ended up trading the Rose for this:
I honestly did not think I would get anything for this one, and just offered it up for virtually anything I could. Ripley only pitched in 31 games for the Red Sox in two years, going 5-6 with a 5.36 ERA, 60 strikeouts in 137.2 innings with one save. Not terribly impressive. But again, getting it for a Pete Rose Jr. card from 1998 made me pretty happy.

In hindsight, I was pretty lucky to get anything before 1987, when card production got pretty out of control. I was very lucky to trade the Rose for anything at all. I did have the cards shipped to me, so I could include them in my collection. I am looking forward to getting some more of these redemptions. I have some cards I would really like to try for.

Open for Trades

If anyone would like to trade cards with me, please let me know. I collect Red Sox cards exclusively and have a list of the cards I own on the right side of the page. I have thousands of cards of other teams and even lots of Red Sox duplicates available. Just let me know.

Game-Used/Autograph Pack Pulls

I might as well go ahead and get this out of the way now. Over the years, I have only gotten seven game-used or autograph Red Sox cards in packs. Probably not the least of any team, certainly not the most. I do not have any real way of keeping track since I have sold or traded most of my other ones. I do know that only one of my Red Sox cards holds a candle to some of the other stuff I have pulled. I have gotten Barry Bonds and two Derek Jeter autograph cards. So here's a picture. If you click it, you can see a larger picture:1. TED WILLIAMS: 2002 FLEER CLASSIC CUTS (BAT) This was the very first game-used Red Sox card I pulled, and it's a great one. I bought a hobby box of 2002 Fleer at the local hobby shop, thinking it was inexpensive and I would probably get something decent out of it. I had no idea it would be a Ted Williams game-used bat card. I had not gotten a Williams game-used before because they were more expensive than I was willing to pay. This is my all-time favorite pull. 2. JIM RICE: 2003 FLAIR GREATS HOME TEAM CUTS (BAT) This one I kind of saw coming. I picked up one of the special Red Sox boxes of 2003 Flair Greats with the additional pack of all Red Sox. I knew I would be getting something. Jim Rice is a recent Hall of Famer, although he was not at the time I got this. The Home Team box was a great idea that I wish they would have done more with. 3. MANNY RAMIREZ: 2003 FLEER AUTHENTIX HOME TOWN HEROES (JERSEY) See above. Fleer Authentix did the same thing. This time, the players were currently active and I got Manny Ramirez. 4. GEORGE SCOTT: 2004 TOPPS ALL TIME FAN FAVORITES AUTOGRAPH (AUTOGRAPH) Fan Favorites is one of my favorite sets. After compiling the 2003 team set through retail blasters, I decided with the smaller team set in 2004 to just buy one hobby box. I also wanted a better shot at autographs. There was one autograph card each year that I really wanted for the Red Sox. In 2004 my pick was George Scott, I was shocked when I actually pulled it in a pack. 5. CARL YASTRZEMSKI: 2005 ARTIFACTS AL ARTIFACTS (JERSEY) I bought a hobby box of 2005 Artifacts. This was one of the big pulls, though not the biggest. With this Yaz jersey, I completed the trifecta of the major Red Sox left-fielders. 6. DAVID ORTIZ: 2005 FLEER CLASSIC CLIPPINGS GAME WORN JERSEY COLLECTION (JERSEY) This one was taken from a retail blaster. Each blaster had one in it, I was lucky to get a Red Sox in mine. 7. KRIS JOHNSON: 2006 BOWMAN STERLING (AUTOGRAPH) One day I decided to spring for a pack of 2006 Bowman Sterling. Incredibly expensive packs had something like two autos and a game-used. One of my autos was this 2006 draft pick. Johnson is doing reasonably well in the minors and may make it to Boston in late 2011.

My Favorite Pack Pulls: Non Game-Used/Autograph Edition

I wanted to start with this one. There is nothing quite like the feeling of finding an elusive Red Sox card in a pack, well at least when it comes to this hobby anyway. There are definitely better feelings out there in the world, but not within this hobby. Anyway, I'm rambling and hopefully my fiancee is not fuming mad right now.The feeling is even better when the card is an insert or a parallel. Those are often my favorite pulls. I have pulled a handful of game-used or autograph cards of the Red Sox, but not nearly as many as inserts and parallels. The game-used and autograph cards will get their own post at a later date. We are here today to talk about the inserts and parallels. Here, in chronological order, are my ten favorite inserts and parallels I have gotten in packs:

1. WADE BOGGS: 1992 DONRUSS DIAMOND KINGS
I have previously mentioned my affinity for Diamond Kings. This was the first year the Diamond Kings were an insert set, and not a part of the base set. This was the very first insert card I ever pulled. It was also in my first pack of 1992 Donruss. I also got the base card of Boggs in the same pack. THAT is a good pack.

2. NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: 1999 HOLOGRFX STARVIEW
This is just a cool looking card. It was also one of the first decently valuable Red Sox cards I had pulled from a pack. The pack only had three cards in it.

3. SANG-HOON LEE/TOMO OHKA: 2000 ULTRA GOLD MEDALLION
I remember being initially disappointed with this. I saw the back first after buying this pack at the same time that I bought a bunch of Red Sox singles, including the Lee/Ohka base card. I thought I was going to pull a double. It turns out this was the parallel version of the card I previously bought. Sigh of relief. The Red Sox efforts at scouting in Asian countries will be a topic soon, I promise.

4. PEDRO MARTINEZ/NOMAR GARCIAPARRA/TROY O'LEARY: 2000 PACIFIC DIAMOND LEADERS
Do I really need to discuss why this card was so cool to pull from a pack?

5. RICH GARCES: 1998 INVINCIBLE GEMS OF THE DIAMOND
I bought packs and packs and one box of this stuff looking for this card in particular. I was a big fan of Rich Garces during his time with the Sox. Look for a post on that too. Anyway, I finally pulled it in the retail box. Oddly, the Gems of the Diamond came four to a pack while the base cards only fell one to a pack.

6. ANASTACIO MARTINEZ: 2002 TOPPS CHROME TRADED REFRACTOR
To date, this is the only Red Sox refractor I have ever pulled from a pack.

7. JOHNNY DAMON: 2003 TOPPS 205 SOVEREIGN GREEN
I really like the Topp 205 sets, particularly the minis. I have pulled several decent minis. This is my favorite because it is a parallel to a parallel.

8. NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: 2004 LEAF SECOND EDITION EXHIBITS 1939-1946 BEST WISHES RIGHT
These were odd cards. There were about 60 variations on this. Still, this is a pretty cool card, and it came from a retail blaster.

9. JAMIE BROWN: 2004 UPPER DECK ETCHINGS FUTURE ETCHINGS
Not really an insert or a parallel. This one gets mentioned because it is the only rookie serial-numbered short print I have pulled in a pack. It was also from an expensive pack that I only bought one of. Getting a good Red Sox pull usually means I do not continue to try my luck.

10. CARL YASTRZEMSKI: 2005 STUDIO THROWBACK THREADS SEPIA
Similar to #8 above. There were lots of variations in this. I pulled it from a hobby box. It is also the lowest serial-numbered Red Sox card I have ever pulled from a pack.

HONORABLE MENTIONS:
CARLOS QUINTANA: 1993 PACIFIC JUGADORES CALIENTES
Only an honorable mention because I got it in a blister pack and it was showing on the front of the packaging, so I knew I would be getting it. That takes out a little bit of the surprise.

PEDRO MARTINEZ: 2000 INVINCIBLE ACES OF THE DIAMOND
NOMAR GARCIAPARRA: 2000 INVINCIBLE KINGS OF THE DIAMOND
Two cards from the same pack. There was only one other card in the pack. THAT is a great pack.

Baseball Card Spotlight: Pacific Brands

Pacific lasted, as a major trading card company, about eight years from 1993 to 2001. The company had released sets since the 1960's, but only in the 1990's did it become a major brand. It was never one of the major companies, and, as such, had to do something in order to keep going. Pacific is one of the brands primarily responsible for multiple different parallel sets to make player and team collecting a bit more of a challenge.

Of course, the brand had its own niche market, and that is part of the reason I enjoyed it. Pacific focused on marketing to the Latin American community and featured Spanish language on its cards and printed cards of Latin players. Many of these players were not regulars and did not get cards in other sets. This was why I liked the cards. As a team collector, I enjoy getting cards of as many players as I possibly can. By the mid 90's, sets were not as large on average, so only a handful of players had cards. Pacific was a company that would put out cards of these lesser players.

Let's look at just some of the Red Sox players I would not own cards of, if not for Pacific:
Sergio Valdez (1995 Pacific Crown Collection)
Esteban Beltre (1997 Pacific Crown Collection)
Alex Delgado (1997 Pacific Crown Collection)
Mike Benjamin (1998 Invincible Gems of the Diamond)
Jesus Tavarez (1998 Invincible Gems of the Diamond)
Jim Corsi (1998 Online)
Butch Henry (1998 Online, 1998 Pacific Crown Collection Silver)Mark Lemke (1998 Online)
Brian Shouse (1998 Omega Rising Stars, 1998 Online)
Midre Cummings (2001 Pacific)

...and some other players who would be much rarer:
Jose Melendez (1993 Pacific, 1994-1995 Pacific Crown Collection)
Carlos Rodriguez (1995 Pacific Crown Collection, 1995 Pacific Prisms)
Rich Garces (1997-1998 Invincible Gems of the Diamond, 1998 Online)Bill Haselman (1997 Invincible Gems of the Diamond, 1998 Pacific Crown Collection)
Mike Maddux (1997 Invincible Gems of the Diamond)
Shane Mack (1998 Invincible Gems of the Diamond)
Damon Buford (1998 Online)
Pat Rapp (2000 Pacific, 2000 Pacific Gold)

Pacific also had some nice inserts, such as the In The Cage inserts.
And, of course the parallels, such as the 2000 Prism series.
So, I was a pretty big fan for awhile.

Unknown Heroes Pt. 2: Greg A. Harris

The first baseball card trade I ever made was for a Greg Harris card. My older brother and I had just started getting into baseball cards. It was the first time for me, but my brother had been into them previously and got back into them as I was. He and I used to walk to the Kwik Shop and buy a fountain drink and a pack of baseball cards. By this point, I had three 1991 Topps Red Sox cards to my name after two packs. I was going to buy my third pack. I remember being extremely disappointed that my pack did not contain a single Red Sox card, the first pack that that had happened. Hey, I was 10. Well my brother, in one of the nicest things he had ever done for me, offered to trade me his Greg Harris card that he got that day, in exchange for the checklist card I got in my pack. Not even another player, the checklist. I still remember that moment fondly.

Greg A. Harris, as he was referred to by some card companies due to a Greg Harris pitching for San Diego at the same time, was a right-handed pitcher for the Red Sox from 1989 through part of 1994. He was very durable and pitched in a variety of roles. In 1989, he was an effective middle reliever. In 1990, he won 13 games as a decent third starter. In 1991, he began as a starter and then was converted back to middle relief where he stayed for the rest of his time with Boston.

1993 was the first year that I really started watching Harris. I was intrigued by his durability. Harris pitched in a league-leading and then-Red Sox record 80 games that year. He was effective too, with a 3.77 ERA and he pitched 112.1 innings, striking out 103. He won six games and saved eight. Harris was not a great player, but he was a very important part of the team.

The other thing that fascinated me about Greg Harris was that he was ambidextrous. Harris pitched right-handed but boasted that he could pitch reasonably well left-handed as well. Unfortunately, Red Sox management would not let him do so in a major league game, which always irritated me. It was not until just before the end of his career that he was allowed to pitch left-handed in a game. Of course by that point, he was out of Boston.

1993's work must have strained his arm. He was ineffective in 1994 with an 8.28 ERA and was released in June. Harris was 37 in 1993, so he may have been worked too hard. Harris landed with the Yankees to finish out the year and then pitched in Montreal in 1995, where he pitched well again and was finally able to achieve his goal. It's too bad Boston would not let him do it there.

Baseball Card Spotlight: Donruss Diamond Kings

One of my favorite subsets as a kid just getting into baseball cards was the Donruss Diamond Kings. I started collecting in 1991 which was the last year that the cards were a part of the main set. In 1992 they became inserts. The way the Diamond Kings worked was this: each team would have one player who had a good year the year before. Donruss apparently had some rule though that individual players should not be Diamond Kings too often or consecutively, which lead to some really bizarre picks sometimes. Boston was relatively lucky with this though and only had a couple of headscratchers.

Here's the complete list and brief analysis of Donruss Diamond Kings for the Red Sox, through 1996, when they became significantly more complicated.

1982 Dwight Evans. Evans had basically become the best player on the team by this point and lead the league in walks and total bases and tied for the league lead in home runs the year before. He was also an All Star, Silver Slugger, and won the Gold Glove.

1983 Carl Yastrzemski. This was more of a tribute to an aging superstar. Yaz was still pretty decent in 1982, even appearing in the All Star Game, but I believe this was more meant to pay tribute to the player. Not really a headscratcher when you consider that reason.

1984 Wade Boggs. In 1983, Boggs won the first of five batting titles and had the first of seven straight 200 hit seasons. He was certainly worthy.

1985 Jim Rice. Rice did not have a great season in 1984, but the star slugger still hit 28 home runs, drove in 122, and had a .280 batting average. Tony Armas probably should have gotten this one.

1986 Tony Armas. The first headscratcher. Yes, Armas should have been the 1985 Diamond King when he lead the league in home runs and runs batted in in 1984. But in 1985, Armas only played in 103 games with 23 home runs. I remember not knowing for a long time who was the 1986 Diamond King and trying to guess. My guesses were Rich Gedman, who had a great 1985 and Oil Can Boyd who won 15 games the year before. Either one would have been a better choice than Armas.

1987 Roger Clemens. Clearly deserving. Won the Cy Young Award and MVP the previous year.

1988 Dwight Evans. Apparently Donruss ran out of ideas, so they decided to repeat a player. Still, Evans was fantastic in 1987, one of his best seasons ever, as he hit .305 with 34 home runs, and 123 runs batted in, and lead the league in walks.

1989 Mike Greenwell. Seems odd now, but Greenwell was the runner-up in the AL MVP vote in 1988. He hit .325 with 22 home runs, and drove in 119. He also stole 16 bases and looked like a young superstar. Greenwell turned out to be a good, but seldom great player over the rest of his career.

1990 Ellis Burks. This is an odd one. Not that Burks never deserved to be a Diamond King, but he did not deserve it in 1990 for his 1989 season. He only played in 97 games with 12 home runs. But he did steal 21 bases and possibly could have had another 20/20 season if he stayed healthy. He also had a .303 batting average. He was good for the time that he played, but he did not play often enough. By Donruss's parameters of hardly repeating players, I would have picked Nick Esasky, who hit 30 home runs and drove in 108.

1991 Roger Clemens. Again, clearly deserving. He won 21 games, struck out 209 and lead the league in ERA with 1.93. He should have won the Cy Young, but voters were blinded by Bob Welch's 27 wins, even though his other stats were not nearly as impressive as Clemens's.

1992 Wade Boggs. The first year the Diamond Kings were an insert. Boggs had a very good season in 1991, right in line with his previous years. He was starting to look like a lock for the Hall of Fame. He did not do anything extraordinary, but it was not a great year for Red Sox players.

1993 Roger Clemens. Since the cards were inserts now, Donruss abandoned its preference for not repeating winners, although they still preferred not to make them consecutive. Clemens was basically the only player to have a good enough year for the Red Sox, leading the league in ERA and shutouts, while winning 18 games for a terrible Boston team. This is the first Diamond King card I do not own.

1994 Mo Vaughn. The young slugger had a breakout year in 1993, leading the team in home runs and RBI while posting a good batting average and ability to take a walk. He was clearly the best player on the team.

1995 Scott Cooper. Headscratcher #3. Cooper had mostly pedestrian numbers, .282 batting average, 13 home runs, 53 RBI, and only 30 walks. Sure it was a strike-shortened season, and Cooper had been an All Star each of the previous two years, but he was hardly a good player. He was an All Star by default and not really deserving of the honor. It should have gone to John Valentin, Mo Vaughn, or Roger Clemens.

1996 Mo Vaughn. Won the AL MVP in 1995 while leading the league in home runs. Justified.

So there you have it. Three headscratchers, three borderline calls, and the rest are fine. Even among the headscratchers, Armas and Burks deserved the honor in other years, just not the year chosen. Cooper is the only outright surprise. If I was making the decisions, here is what my list would have looked like, following Donruss's perceived parameters:

1982 Dwight Evans
1983 Dennis Eckersley
1984 Wade Boggs
1985 Tony Armas
1986 Rich Gedman
1987 Roger Clemens
1988 Dwight Evans
1989 Mike Greenwell
1990 Nick Esasky
1991 Ellis Burks
1992 Jack Clark
1993 Roger Clemens
1994 Mo Vaughn
1995 John Valentin
1996 Mo Vaughn

Still, the Red Sox have had better luck than other teams. The following is a list of players who were Diamond Kings for inexplicable reasons:

Len Barker
Mike Norris
Roy Smalley
Richie Zisk
Floyd Bannister
Britt Burns
John Castino
Jim Clancy
Matt Young
Charlie Lea
Rich Dotson
Rick Mahler
Chris Brown
Greg Walker
Keith Moreland
Rick Rhoden
Glenn Hubbard
Scott Fletcher
Shane Rawley
Dave Schmidt
Gerald Perry
Jeff Robinson
Bryn Smith
Chris Bosio
Dan Gladden
Ed Whitson
Jim DeShaies
Mike Bielecki
Pete O'Brien
Kurt Stillwell
Scott Sanderson
Greg Swindell

How I Became a Red Sox Fan

This story is embarassing. But here it goes anyway. What I am about to tell you very few people knew before. But I was 10 years old, what do you expect?

Anyway. When I was 10, it was 1991 and we were on summer vacation. I had gone to a garage sale across the street the day before and bought two very cheap baseball cards. One was a 1990 Score Charles Nagy Indians card and the other was a 1990 Upper Deck Dave Johnson Orioles card. My older brother had collected baseball cards sporadically a couple years earlier but started to become more interested since I was now considering collecting. Well he and I walked to the Kwik Shop just a block away and each bought a pack of 1991 Topps. Back then, a pack of baseball cards cost $0.50 and you got 15 cards. Man, I sound old.

I don't remember exactly what was in the pack except for two cards. One was Dennis Lamp and the other was Tom Bolton. Both Red Sox cards, neither player was exactly a star, more like role players. Bolton had a decent year as the number four starter and Lamp was toward the end of his career. Well I wanted to decide on a favorite team. This is where things get embarassing. I usually tell people that it's because I got two Red Sox in my first pack that I became a Red Sox fan. That's only part of the story.

I played eenie meenie minie moe. That's right. I decided on the Red Sox because they were "it".

I was 10, what do you expect? Rationality?