Catching Me Up With 2012 Angels

Night Owl is always good to send me Angels cards, and he did well to get me caught up in my 2012, and then some, binder.

Two Bowman Platinums including this Gold version Jered Weaver.

I liked the 2012 design so well that I'm collecting not only Angels but the whole base set.

Another design I like this year over the previous years is Bowman.

There were five 2012 Bowman I needed for my team sets.

Again, another 2012 design that in my opinion is one of the better in recent years, Allen & Ginters.

This mini A&G back Santana card came with 4 of his Angels brothers of the base variety like the Trumbo below.

Four more sweet All-Time Fan Favorites.

I still need to find a checklist for the Angels in the set.

I sigh every time I get a Nick Adenhart card.

This 2008 Bowman Chrome Refractor is a beaut.

More Trumbos!

And a sweet little old-school 1982 Topps Sticker of a grinning moustachioed Rick Burleson. 

There was also a little stack of random Angels in the bag.

All good stuff.

Al Spangler Return

Al Spangler signed 2 cards for me in 65 days from his home in Huffman, Texas.

The top card is from the 1978 TCMA The 1960's set, and the second is a 1965 Topps.

Bible Card Sunday - Sal Fasano

Sal Fasano stuck it out in the bigs for 11 seasons, from 1996-2008.  He was primarily a back-up catcher.  He topped out in games played in 2007 with 78, and that was split between the Phillies and the Yankees.  Sal played for the Angels in 2002, but appeared in only 2 games for the eventual World Champions.

Sal added Psalm 37:4

"Take delight in the Lord,

    and he will give you the desires of your heart."

Ten Cards For A Buck

Stopped at the Half-Priced Books close to my work the other day at lunch, searching for more Sports Illustrated For Kids magazines, and discovered three 5000 count boxes of cards marked 10 for a buck.

The boxes were about 90% 80's and 90's baseball, 9% football, and 1% basketball (does that add up to 100%?).  So these were full of junk for the most part.

But the best part about being a team collector, is the random junk you might find your team logo, or a random player on.

I dug in.

I like to think that I'm pretty familiar with my team collection, so as I'm going through the cards I can often pass many up, knowing for sure that I already have it.  But once in a while I'd come across one that doesn't seem familiar to me, like this is the first time I'd seen it.

That's what happened when I saw this 1989 Topps Jack Lazorko card.

Except I found out when I got home that I already had not only it but a handful of dupes.

How could I possibly believe that within the epitome of junk wax there was an Angels card I was lacking.

Not so.

Now this one, it turns out, I was lacking.  Something just didn't click about a horizontal Lance Parrish card.

One great thing about team collecting is checklist cards.  There are a bunch out there that have the cards broken out by teams.  If you look close enough you'll find them.

This 1991 Topps example has the Angels on the back.

Angels on the back of this 1989 Fleer too.

Ah c'mon!  On the back again?

I did acquire a nice stack of ten different 1987 Fleer regular and Update cards I needed for the team set.

This 1994 Donruss checklist featured the Angels Mark Langston.

See?  You gotta look closely when blasting through commons.

I always grab Topps All-Star cards when I find them, and this one was new to me.  I didn't know any of the sets included a team photo.  I imagine there's an American League team card as well?

In all that Digging I found only 1 Tim Salmon, and actually I found two of this same card.

Silver version of the 1998 Collectors Choice.

I also grabbed a nice stack of 1953 Topps Archives cards.  I was hoping that some of these guys were still living, in hopes of getting their autographs.  Unfortunately none are.

So run out and check your local HPB, baseball junk may be awaiting.

Did You See It?

Did you see the latest issue of Sports Illustrated?

I've been hoping for this.

Screw the jinx, this guys for real.

There I said it.

I was so excited, I told my wife to not touch it.

Its going straight into a Ziploc.

I'll buy a second hand copy at Half Price Books in a couple weeks to actually read the article.

I dont want any fingerprints on it.

I'm obsessive compulsive.

Paul Reuschel Return

Probably about a year ago, on a business trip to Kansas City, I had some spare time to hit the Baseball Card Store on my way back to the airport.

As I was digging through 1977 Topps looking for Angels I came across this Paul Reuschel card:

You've all seen this card before picturing Reuschel in his (what we used to call in the Air Force) birth control glasses.

I saw it, loved it, and knowing that he was a good mail signer snagged it and another one from the 1978 set to send in for an autograph.

Took a while, but 138 days later I got them back.

Cool.

Bobby Locke Return

Bobby Locke signed my stained 1965 Topps and an IC in 60 days from his home in Dunbar, PA.

CJ Wilson SI For Kids Card

I was going through some Sports Illustrated magazines at my local Half Priced Books and came across an SI For Kids. I know that SI For Kids still has a sheet of sports cards inside, so I checked it out.

I was pleased to see an Angel in there, CJ Wilson at the top middle spot, so I grabbed it for a buck-fifty.

I have a bunch of these from the late 80's when SI For Kids first came out.

There he his, high leg kick and all.

Card number 155.

Does that numbering system start over each year?

Interesting that the card itself doesn't have the year marked on it.

I like to keep these as a sheet, so into a page protector he goes.

Bible Card Sunday - Jerry Don Gleaton

Jerry Don Gleaton is one of only a handful of ballplayers to use both his first and middle names.

He had a 12 year career but never made the postseason. 

Jerry added John 3:16

"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life."

2012 Bowman Platinum Want List

BASE SET NEEDS (pending trade):

11, 12, 17, 19, 25, 37, 44, 87, 90 

OTHER ANGELS NEEDS:

All color versions: 

CJ Wilson E/R

Albert Pujols G/E/R

Jered Weaver E/R

Mike Trout E/R

BPP21 Taylor Lindsey base, purple, and refractor

BPP43 Alexi Amarista base, purple

BPP65 Jean Segura base, purple, and refractor

BPP87 John Hellweg purple

TP-JS Jean Segura Top Prospects

CES-AP Albert Pujols Cutting Edge Stars

CES-MT Mark Trumbo Cutting Edge Stars

OTHER NEEDS:

#29 Mike Napoli, Ruby

Platinum Highlights For Trade - Updated

All these are for trade.  

Looking only for any kind of Angels, Mike Napoli, or stuff off my wantlists.
I have base cards for trade too, send your wantlist.

CJ Cron Return

Sent this card of CJ Cron to the Inland Empire 66ers, an Angels farm team.  

Got it back in about 30 days.

Took a bit of a beating in the mail.

Matt Met My Needs (By Checking Out My Wantlist)

Matt of Heartbreaking Cards is the first to knock a card off my Top Ten Want List, and not only one but TWO cards!

This 1963 Dean Chance Rookie Cup was high on the list.  This one Matt sent me is in really good shape too.  Nice coloring and centering and sharp corners.  It's a beauty.  It probably is the best card in my 1963 team set.

This 1971 Angels Great Bobby Grich card is one I needed for my Topps Bobby Grich Cards effort.

Another beauty of a card.

Matt also included a bunch of newer Angels like these 2012 Ginters minis.  The Weaver card is an Allen&Ginters back.  Sweet.

I like Mike, and Matt knew that (bustin out the rhymes).

Nap appeared as both an Angel (preferred) and a Ranger in the 2011 Topps Diamond series.

I got these 1993 Topps Angels Gold cards because Matt was busting a box looking for Jeter Rookies.  I wonder if he got what he was looking for?

I'll gladly take the Angels surplus from that effort.

And look at this!  An awesome 2008 Topps Sterling #150. 

This one is numbered 110/250.

These two cards are a LOT bigger than you think!

See the normal size Napoli on there?

Jumbolicious.