Smed Lobs A Tactical Nuke Into My Wantlists

Before I start here, I need to mention that once more I was the winner in Monday’s trivia question on the Twins radio broadcast. That’s three now this year — almost as many as the Twins have wins this season. Q: Prior to Cuddyer and Kubel in 2009, when did the Twins have two players hit for the cycle in the same season? A: Larry Hisle and Lyman Bostock in 1976.

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Forget “shotgun trades” — as part of his Spring Cleaning project, Smed from Smed’s Baseball Card Blog threw a nuke at my wantlists, with hits all over the place — a good 2″+ stack of Twins that I needed, and a whole bunch more that I’ll try bundle into team sets or pass along to my nephews. In exchange, all he asked for was reimbursement for the shipping, and an effort to tackle his wantlists.

Here’s a representation of what he sent me. I’m going to do this in reverse order; first, some singles from my 1980’s/1990’s wantlists:

clockwise, from top left: 1993 Score Select #314 Willie Banks; 1995 Topps Stadium Club Members Only #26 Chuck Knoblauch; 1985 O-Pee-Chee #282 Mike Stenhouse; 1985 O-Pee-Chee #199 Dave Engle

Next bunch: GOLD! There’s gold in them thar hills that thar box!

clockwise, from top left: 2010 Topps Updates Gold #US-109 Luke Hughes [0905/2010]; 2005 Topps Bazooka Gold Chunk #92 Lew Ford; 2010 Topps Gold #519 Alexi Casilla [1147/2010]; 2011 Topps Gold #21 Michael Cuddyer [0542/2011]; 2002 Fleer Ultra Gold Medallion #270 Adam Johnson [/100]; 2010 Topps Gold #22 Anthony Swarzak [1197/2010]

And lastly, some real cool stuff — a couple relics, a refractor, and of course, Harmon:

clockwise, from top left: 2009 Upper Deck Icons Immortal Letterman [“K”] #IL-KH Kent Hrbek (manupatch); 2009 Upper Deck Signature Stars USA Baseball USA Flashback Fabrics #UFF-JM Joe Mauer (dual jersey); 2008 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor #C284 Alexi Casilla [533/559], “Castilla”? way to go, Topps; 2008 Upper Deck Goudey Mini blue lettering #215 Harmon Killebrew; 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Bronze Frame #31 Joe Mauer [916/999]; 2000 Pacific Prism Holographic Gold #85 Brad Radke [182/480]

Dude, “the check is in the mail” and I’m making your 1974 Topps wantlist my personal mission. Thanks again for some sweet card-sorting time. And you’ll be hearing from me…