Tony Reagins Resigns as Angels GM

I knew Scioscia wasn't going anywhere.

Autographs in the Mail

Made a trade on SCN to get these two cards.

The 1974 Topps Tommy Davis I need for my All-Time Angels autograph collection. Davis' autograph that is, not the card.  He's a very sporadic signer now and charges $10 for his autograph, so this trade worked out well for me.

I already have several Andy Hassler autographs but didn't have one on a 1981 Donruss.  Hassler is a very good TTM signer but I figured it was easy enough to trade for him so I made the trade.

I sent these rather beat up cards to Billy McCool at his home address in Florida. He signed them in 9 days, but didn't return any answers to by questions. I even noted on the letter that I was sorry the cards were so beat up. I dig the 1965 Topps card though: old-school Reds sleeveless uniform, Topps All-Star Rookie Cup, Reds banner, light blue border, sweet.

Orioles Project Postseason Bracket

Play here!

Angel Killer

But I love him.

Dans Other World

Completed a trade with Dan from his Other World blog for some Angels. I was able to take care of a bunch of cards from his wantlist.

He has some well organized wantlists, so go check them out and fill a bunch of his needs. I selected a few of the cards he sent me here.

2007 Topps Allen & Ginter Dick Perez Sketch Card #14 Gary Matthews Jr.  Gary was only with a Angels a brief but excruciatingly painful time.  I didn't even realize he was a part of this set.

A 2008 A&G #86 Kelvim Escobar A&G back, and a 2010 A&G #257 Ervin Santana black.  Sweet little cards.

Todd Greene again!  This time on a really nice looking 1997 Flair Showcase Wave of the Future  #1 of 25.  I missed a lot of collecting in the 90's so it's exciting to be surprised by so many cards and subsets that I had never seen before.

2004 Bowman Thick Stock (I don't know what else to call these) #307 Warner Madrigal gold.  This one shows Warner as a hitting outfielder before he was converted to a pitcher.  I saw him a couple years ago with the Rangers but now I don't know what became of him.  Ran into him about the same time at the Walmart near the stadium.  Gave him a head nod, he acknowledged it.  We're buds now.

And rounding it out with a nice trio of Tim Salmon goodness.  The first card is a 1996 Upper Deck SP Marquee.......(flip the card over) Madness #MM5.  I guess that there is a matching card for the other side.  But of who?  If anyone sends me the matching card I'll send you something nice in return.

The second is a 1993 Upper Deck Platinum Power #PP16, and the last is a 2003 Bowman Thick Stock #27 Gold.

Thanks Dan, hopefully we can trade again soon.

I didn't do it!

Well, maybe I did a little bit; help this back cover get torn off the book that is.

But it was about to fall off anyway.

Actually I didn't know that Alex "Only Angel To Win A Batting Title" Johnson (.329) was even inside the back cover.

Someone gave me this book a while ago. It's a 1971 issue of Who's Who in Baseball, softcover, in pretty bad shape. I've been purging a bit lately so I pulled this book to dispose of, or give away, or maybe sell. I was flipping through it and found Johnson inside the back cover.

I didn't want the book but I wanted the Johnson, so I helped the back cover get torn off. But it was about to fall off anyway, I promise!

Mas Trumbos

Added two more.

Trumbos in my Trumbo Collection:
2005 Just Minors Justifiable #81 Orem Owlz
2006 Bowman #B14
2006 Bowman Sterling Prospect #BSP-MT
2011 Bowman #193
2011 Bowman Platinum #21
2011 Bowman Platinum Gold #21
2011 Topps #57
2011 Topps Diamond Sparkly #57
2011 Topps Gold #57 0086/2011
2011 Topps Allen & Ginters #263
2011 Topps Heritage #404

Card Waste - Jermaine Dye

Jermaine! Jermaine! Hold up a minute!


Hey.

Hi, I'm Jim a photographer for the Topps Company.  I'm here to take your picture for the 2005 set.

Got some ID?

Yeah right here.

Ah.

Can I get a picture of you?



Sure I was just heading out to the practice field.

No, no I mean right here.  This is a good spot.



Here?



Yeah, it'll be great.  This is a great spot.  I mean I know that you're a ten year veteran and all..



But theres no grass...



Who needs grass, lets do something different it'll be great.  Besides, all those other guys get their pictures on the field, it's probably crowded...and that's so, so two-thousand and LATE!




Um, did you just say "Two-thousand and....



Show me your batting pose, c'mon like your about to hit a big salami, you know, a tater!


Like this?



Yes, thats awesome....DANG!  You blinked.  Lets try another one.




Hey why dont we go out to the practice field and you can get me hitting BP homers over the outfield fence?



No, no this is great right here, it says "I'm a ballplayer, I dont need grass and a field, I'm an individual, a Super-Star!"  Besides, I'm an official Topps photographer, I know what I'm doing.




Uh..



Take another swing.  This time, um, think back to when you were really excited to play baseball, uh like in Little League, Yeah, think back to when you were excited about picture day in Little league, thats it.

You don't mean like.....

CLICK !

PERFECT!!

There Goes the West

How close can you get?

Down by one, bottom of the eigth, facing elimination because they know the Rangers already won, and the Angels do this:  Strikeout, walk, walk, groundout, walk, (so bases are LOADED with two outs) pop foul on a full count, end of inning.  Oakland tacks on another in the top of the ninth making it 3-1.

Flyout, popout, flyout ends the ninth and ends any chance of winning the West.  Thats nice.

Breaks and Trades

I participated in Cardboard Collections August group break of a box of 1996 Fleer and a box of 1997 Fleer. I had less than a handful of Angels from either of these sets, so I was happy to get whatever I could from the break.

1996 Fleer Prospect #6 of 10 Todd Greene.  I swear there's more Todd Green cards than any other Angel during this period.

1996 Fleer Rookie Sensation #1 of 15 Garret Anderson.  Hard to see in the scan but the right side of the card is shiney rainbowey foil.  Nice card.

From the 1996 set I also got 40 Jim Abbott, 41 Brian Anderson, 42 Garret Anderson, 43 Chili Davis, 45 Damion Easley, 50 Mike James, 53 Orlando Palmeiro, 55 Troy Percival, 56 Tony Phillips, 58 Lee Smith, and 59 JT Snow glossy.

I chose this #50 Tim Salmon to represent the cards I received from the 1997 set. 

I also got 35 George Arias, 37 Chili Davis, 40 Jim Edmonds, 41 Darin Erstad, and 48 Mark Langston.

The second team I had for the break was the Montreal Expos.  I got a good selection of them from both boxes, but since this is an Angels blog I'll refrain from showing them.

Colbey also threw in (I think.  I don't recall any other agreement we had) this 2004 Donruss Studio Big League Challenge BLC-8 Troy Glaus #136/499.  When I first glanced at this card I thought it was from a senior league.  Glaus kinda looks like an old guy in a softball uniform.

Nice 2007 Topps Chrome Generation Now #GN211 Mike Napoli.  Mike, as you well know, is my favorite ex-Angel playing for their rival Texas Rangers.

And an awesome looking 2011 Bowman Platinum Prospects #BPP82 Garrett Richards, Purple.  Oh how I love Bowman Platinum Angels.

Much thanks go out to Play at the Plate and The Daily Dimwit for sending me a combined 45 cards towards my 2008 Baseball Heroes base set.  That leaves me with a much more manageable number to obtain for the set.

Next up was a big 45 card stack of Angels from The Night Owl who never disappoints.  I sent Greg a similar stack of Dodgers off his wantlist, and within the cards he sent me where these beauties:

There's that Todd Greene again, this time on a 1996 Bowmans Best #BPP18 Atomic Refractor.  Seriously though, Atomic Refractor has got to be the best subset name in the history of subsets.

Two Timbo Salmon cards to add to the collection.  First a 1998 Pacific Collection #15 which says on the back that Tim's position is jardinero and that he led the team in cuadrangulares.  Bueno Tim!

The second card is that from the 1994 Ted Williams card set and is numbered 161.  Its a nice Rookie of the Year tribute card from that set.

Another card that I needed for a set I'm working on, also turns out to be an Angel.  This is a 2008 Upper Deck X Xponential #X3-TH Torii Hunter.  Torii is probably watching his home run off Papelbon fly over the green monster to win the game.

Green backgrounds on baseball cards are very pleasing to the eye, and this on doesn't disappoint.  2011 Gypsie Queen Home Run Heroes #HH15 Troy Glaus.

Toppsium Chromium Kohn.  See the green background?  See what I mean?  Pleases your eyes doesn't it?  2011 Topps Chrome #208 Michael Kohn.

Oooh, Angels mini's.  I know for a lot of you set collectors these minis are very hard to part with.  I hope these were dupes Greg, if not, then thank you for your sacrifice.  These are beautiful.

Trades are fun and this community is awesome.  Thanks.

Found 'Em

While digging for cards to send in a couple of trades I have in the works, I came across what must have been the only pack of 1993 Panini stickers that I bought when I purchased the album in the post below.

There were 9 stickers I found, and they were all together in one spot, not spread out in different boxes.  I don't recall how many stickers come to a pack, I suppose I could look it up, but I don't feel like it. However, seeing the Deion Sanders glittery sticker gave me a "Hmmm, wait a minute..." moment, "that looks familiar".

So I went to the 1993 section of one of my Angels albums and found this:

the only 1993 Panini Angels sticker I've had for a long time (I recently picked up a bunch of team logo stickers on Sportlots).

Now comes the decision. Do I permanently attach these stickers in the "mint" album?
Or maybe throw them in team trades?

Except for the Easley of course, he goes back in the 1993 section of one of my Angels binders.

I Knew I Had One

An old Panini album.

With the release of the awesome Topps stickers and corresponding album, and with all the talk about Panini obtaining an MLB license, it made me wonder if I still had it.

It took some digging, but I found it. My 1993 Panini Baseball Sticker Album. I knew I wouldn't have gotten rid of it, but I'm kinda puzzled why I ever got it to begin with. Especially since there is not a single sticker inside, much less in any of my boxes of commons. I've picked up some Panini Angels team sets and logo cards since then, but other than that I don't recall ever having any.  I guess I just wanted a keepsake from 1993 and that I wanted to keep it "mint".

I opened the album up to the Angels section. Unlike Topps, Panini included the location that the Angels were from, California. I noticed also that the sticker size was much larger than the current Topps. I also liked that Panini allowed a full two-page spread per team.  I tried to cut and paste a couple scans to show you.

While perusing the Angels section I noticed a fatal flaw that any Angel die-hard would have noticed.

There's no Tom Fortugno in Angels history, but there is a TIM Fortugno.

Tsk tsk Panini.

Catching Up With Some Massive Trades

First up, Darren from Indianaland (awesome blog name by-the-way) and I made a couple different trades in the last month or so.

Darren will be able to knock off some 70's era, and 1981 Topps from his wantlists, and I in return got a big stack of Angels. Many of which I can check off my wantlists. Here's a few of the gems.

I really like Angels minor league cards. Since I collect Angels autographs its always a bit more of a challenge to locate these old minor leaguers, especially the ones that didn't make it to the bigs (although Swingle did for 9 games in 1993).

Nolan Ryan in an Angels uni on any card is fine by me. This one is a 2010 Topps Cards Your Momma Threw Out CMT-27, 1978 #400 original back.

A nice 2009 Bowman Gold Joe Saunders #186. I always liked Joe. Glad to see he's probably headed to the postseason with the Diamondbacks.

Next up was a gargantuan stack of Angels castoffs from Jon at Community Gum. This one was a three-bagger and 7 top-loader stuffed padded envelope.

These 2003 Fleer Avant are just beautiful, especially the framing around the photos. The red background with white framing on the Garret Anderson really pops out, and the Reggie Jackson card is flat out awesome. It's numbered 528/799. I didn't have any of these in my collection. Until now.

Another bitchen card Jon sent is this 2007 Moments and Milestones # 41 Vladimir Guerrero 06/29. I think of all my numbered cards this #06 has got to be the lowest.

And rounding this post out is very mirrory 2009 Upper Deck Spectrum #48 Torii Hunter. These Spectrums are growing on me. I'll have to look into the Angels team set.

Thanks guys for some awesome Angels cards.

Recent TTM Returns

Hisanori Takahashi signed my custom in 65 days.  He also signed the index card, which is almost unheard of with todays ballplayers.  I had heard somewhere that players are actually told to not sign blank areas so they're signature can't be copied.

Scotty Downs also signed my custom in 48 days.  I had sent to Scott at Spring training as a test case to determine if creating a custom was worth the effort.  He returned those cards signed which gave me the green light to send the custom.

Russell Branyan also has signed for me TTM in the past, so I was fairly confident he would sign my custom.  This was returned after 60 days.

I sent a couple cards to Mickey Rivers at a Miami address in 2006.  Earlier this year (yes about 5 years later) I got those cards back unsigned, and with a pricelist.  I was excited to see that Mickey was only charging 3 bucks a card, so I sent him these three.  About a month later I got them back signed.

This card was sent to Aaron Rakers at a Trenton IL address.  After 180 days he sent it back to me.  One of my collection goals is a signed set of  2006 Fleer Tradition.

One interesting note is that none of the above players answered the brief questionaire I always enclose.

Completed Team Set 1961 Topps

Added the final piece of my 1961 Topps Angels team set, this #464 Leroy Thomas rookie card. The last several cards I recently picked up were from the high numbers: #527 Gene Leek, and # 547 Leon Wagner, typically more pricey than the lower numbers.

This is the first team set in Angels history and I'm glad to finally get this goal finally out of the way.

Autographed cards (15): Eli Grba, Ken Aspromonte, Jerry Casale, Ken McBride, Ted Bowsfield, Bill Rigney, Ken Hamlin, Tex Clevenger, Julio Bequer, Ned Garver, Earl Averill, Eddie Yost, Johnny James, Ron Moeller, Rockey Bridges.

I'm not sure when in 1961 these cards came out, but since these were for the Angels first season, most players are not pictured in Angels uniforms. Some other observations follow.

Hatless: 18
Airbrushed Hats: 2
Wrong Hats: 3
Pictured in Yankee Uniforms: 4