Cards!

Even more teams added to my trade bait page, now including Padres and A’s; looking to trade for Twins cards from my wantlists. You can easily get to the list just under “BASEBALL CARDS” in the dropdown at the top of each page.

I contacted madding at Cards on Cards after his “30 Teams in 30 Posts” featured the Twins – but not quick enough to beat PatP contacting him – and we worked out a small Cards-for-Twins trade.

clockwise, from top left: 1994 Topps Stadium Club 1^st Day Issue #561 Matt Walbeck; 2011 Bowman Chrome Futures Die Cut #18 Miguel Sano; 2010 Topps Chrome Xfractor #50 Joe Mauer; 2009 Bowman Gold #78 Glen Perkins

Thanks again, madding, and hopefully the Cards get back to being a little more consistent with their winning!

CSI: Philadelphia [2002 Fleer Ultra]

Time for another investigative baseball card post. This card arrived in a recent trade, and the presence of an action shot with a throwback uniform made me think that we could probably nail down the actual play in the photo:

2002 Fleer Ultra #197 Corey Koskie

What do we see initially? Well,
1) Corey Koskie has made a headfirst slide into second base
2) It’s a day game, and it’s not in the Metrodome
3) That’s a White Sox player in a throwback uniform

What did the Citizens of WGOM determine this time?
- the uniform is the 1917 Throwback, which the White Sox wore at home on Sundays that season
- the Twins only played one Sunday game (3PM) at New Comisky, on April 22^nd
- Koskie only reached second twice; the first was when he walked, and then Ortiz walked right after him, but in the 8^th inning he hit a line drive double to deep right field. He then scored on the next at bat when David Ortiz hit his 5^th HR of the year. The White Sox player looks to be shortstop Royce Clayton, who would correctly be covering the bag on that play.

The Twins went on to win the game 4-2, and the two runs scoring on the HR turned out to be the difference in the game. As was pointed out in the discussion at WGOM, Koskie had only one game in the 19 that year against the White Sox in which he didn’t reach base: July 4^th. He was a likable and under appreciated ballplayer — in his 2001 season, he was a 20/20 man that was 25^th in the MVP voting.

A Couple Of Giant Trades (And More Trade Bait)

Well, one of the trades was for San Francisco Giants cards, but I pretty much consider all trades a giant trade

I approached arpsmith at Arpsmith’s Sportscard Obsession about a trade, knowing he collected Giants, of which I had several at my trade bait page (I’ve recently added Dodgers, Mets, and White Sox cards — check ‘em out). He took a good chunk of the Giants trade bait list, and in exchange he plowed through my wantlists and sent some nice stuff.

clockwise, from top left: 2011 Panini Playoff Contenders Award Winners Alex Wimmers [063/149] (auto); 2007 Topps Heritage Clubhouse Collection #CC-FL Francisco Liriano (jersey); 2003 Topps Update Gold #T171 Lew Ford [1820/2003]; 2009 Upper Deck A Piece of History Franchise Members Triple Blue #FM3-12 Joe Mauer/Justin Morneau/Joe Nathan [24/25]

There were several minis, some 2012 Topps Stickers, a few serial #’d cards…a really nice variety.

clockwise, from top left: 2010 Topps Pro Debut Blue #367 Eddie Rosario [168/369]; 2005 Upper Deck Sweet Spot Classic #52 Kirby Puckett; 2001 Fleer Platinum Parallel #88 Doug Mientkiewicz [008/201]; 2005 Donruss #48 Joe Mauer

The second trade was with William at foul bunt. William had a sweet looking 2011 Topps Marquee card that I asked about, and we worked out a trade for it. It really is a beautiful card, in spite of being numbered to 199.

2011 Topps Marquee Game Time Mementos #GMQR-16 Johan Santana [165/199] (quad jersey)

Thanks guys!

Aaron, Mantle, Mays … This Trade Features Several Mays Cards

…Joe Mays, that is. He was the standard “pitch okay but have great numbers and get a multi-year contract only to get injured and then not do much of anything” pitcher for the turn-of-the-century Twins.

I contacted Nick from Dime Boxes — The Low-End Baseball Card Collector’s Journey after seeing an uncirculated Glen Perkins card in his trade bait webpage, and Nick then hit my trade bait page and wantlists and the base was set for a nice trade. Nick had cards from several different sets, and this was a great first trade between us.

clockwise, from top right: 2003 Upper Deck Sweet Spot #69 Joe Mays; 2002 Upper Deck Victory #195 Joe Mays; 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter mini black border #223 Jason Kubel; 2005 Topps Pristine Bronze Uncirculated #130 Glen Perkins [297/375]; 2002 Donruss Fan Club #51 Joe Mays

And hopefully this isn’t the last trade between us — thanks a lot, Nick!

Winning!

Before I get to honoring the prize package, I wanted to list a couple recent trades. First, one more swap with BobFranklin from SCA, Phillies-for-Twins:

2005 Donruss Zenith #ZB-40 Jacque Jones (jersey); 2005 Topps Opening Day Target Exclusive #44 Shannon Stewart (jersey)

Second, a quick little exchange with Matt at Cardboard Conundrum, Cubs-for-Twins:

2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Straight Cut mini #119 Justin Morneau; 2003 Donruss Playoff Piece of the Game #POG-44 J.C. Romero (auto/jersey)

Lastly, I want to express my appreciation to Brian of 30-Year Old Cardboard who held a contest celebrating his 500,000^th(!) hit. I was randomly selected for the top prize, this beauty:

2002 Fleer Greats Authentic Autograph Andre Dawson

And Brian already has 8,000 hits since then! I gotta get me one of those kind of counters. Thanks again for the great prize; The Hawk was a quality player.

These Cards Are Uncalled For!

FYI, a couple more teams have been added to my trade bait page in hopes of turning them into Twins cards from my wantlists.

Lately, I’ve been scrambling to come up with cards to send back as part of PTBNL trade packagess, and here are the most recent two:

First, hiflew of Cards from the Quarry sent me cards from JABO’s break; he had the Twins, and besides some Bazooka singles and a Mauer refractor, he ended up with a beautiful Scott Baker By The Letter manupatch/auto. I went through my Rockies trade bait and hopefully put together an appropriate response package. Yes, UD Doc cards were included!

Then, Night Owl from Night Owl Cards sent me a little package of Twins. I hear his whining about never coming up with any Twins to trade to me, and yet he had a goodly amount of this year’s Heritage base, a Topps Gold card, and even a couple UD Doc Gold singles that I needed. Again, I hope my return package aptly rewards that effort.

clockwise, from top left: 2006 Topps Gold #489 Jason Bartlett [1615/2006]; 2008 Upper Deck Documentary Gold #3680 Joe Mauer; 2012 Topps Opening Day Mascots #M-19 TC; 2012 Topps Heritage mini sticker #35 Joe Mauer

Thanks guys — check your mail in the next few days!

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One last thing: I came up with another card collecting term that I think has been much needed. You know those unfortunate cards (usually relics) picturing a ballplayer in one uniform, but listing the player on a different team? What to call it? A cross-dresser card

Shiny Goodness

I contacted Laurens from Card Buzz about a Mauer Tribute card he posted at his blog, and he made use of my new trade bait page to pick up some Angels cards in exchange for the Twins cards he was trading to me. Among those Twins cards were three different refractors, a nice manu-patch with my childhood idol, an early Koskie AU card, and my first Polo Grounds insert from the Donruss Throwback Threads set — a nice variety of bling.

clockwise, from top left: 1999 Upper Deck HoloGrFX UD Authentics Corey Koskie (auto); 2010 Topps Manufactured Commemorative Patch #MCP54 Rod Carew (manu-patch); 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads Polo Grounds #PG-44 Justin Morneau [30/40]; 2003 Topps Chrome Gold Refractor #360 J.C. Romero [032/449]; 2012 Topps Tribute #51 Joe Mauer; 2011 Topps Heritage Chrome Refractor #C83 Joe Mauer/Justin Morneau [418/562]

Thanks for the swap, Laurens!

Four Sheets To The Dodgers Infield

Another blind package from Garvey Cey Russell Lopes — what’s gcrl been drinking?! In the package were a couple of real nice AU cards, several vintage (ones from my wantlist, too), and – sweet! – pocket schedules! Not only the 2012 Twins schedule, but the Spanish one as well. Very nice.

clockwise, from top left: 2007 Topps Allen & Ginter #AGA-LF Lew Ford (auto); 2004 Donruss Playoff Absolute Memorabilia #210 Jason Bartlett [439/500] (auto); 1963 Topps #293 Bill Pleis; 2012 Twins Schedule; 2012 Twins Spanish Schedule; 1965 Topps #421 Gary Dotter/Jay Ward

Well, time to round up another interesting cadre of Dodgers cards to send northward — thanks again, gcrl!