An Olympian, A Setter, And A Bullpen Catcher (I wont add Walk Into A Bar)

The Olympian is Chris Roberts who played for Team USA in the 1991 Pan Am Games, and then for the USA Olympic baseball team in Barcelona, Spain, in 1992.

Chris is now the Pitching Coach at Stetson University.

He signed these cards in 37 days from Stetson U.

Dave Gassner is the Setter, in that I needed him for this 2006 Fleer Tradition set I'm working on.

Dave signed this card and graciously answered a few questions for me in 10 days from his home in Greenville, Wisconsin.

Mick Billmeyer was the Angels Bullpen Catcher in the 90's, and played in their organization prior to that.  

I remember seeing him often on the field at the Big A.  

Mick has been the Bullpen Coach for the Phillies since 2000.

He signed this card and ticket stub in 10 days care of the Phillies.

That would be an interesting new autograph collection...Angels Bullpen Catchers.

David Segui Return

David Segui signed these cards in 14 days from his home in Kansas City, Kansas.

David is an excellent TTM signer and will sign 6 cards if you sent him 6 cards.

Never could understand those guys that send more than 3 at a time.

Maybe they're collecting 4 to 6 different sets, I dunno.

Maybe they like to trade the extras.

Hopefully they're not trying to make a buck.

In my defense, two of these are set cards and the 1990 Fleer goes in the trade box.

David had the Angels Chuck Finleys number as he batted a career .286 (8 for 28) with 9 walks against him.

First Trade with LV Another TTMer

Made a first trade with LV's TTM Autographs and Baseball Cards although we didn't trade any through-the-mail autographs.

I follow LVs blog regularly to see what new TTMs have been obtained.  Seems like everyday she's posting one or two different players returing signed cards.  Often times I'll piggy-back on those success and send some cards of my own out.  Especially if its someone I need for one of my set collections.

Anyhow, I reached out for a trade of non-signed cards and they responded with a nice lot of Angels and cards from my set want lists.

I needed this purple version of John Hellweg.

Are there even more color versions in this years Platinum?

I think so.

Sure makes teams sets extremely difficult to obtain.

Some other 2012 Platinums I needed for the base set.

I think I have the base set done, now working on the Prospects and Top Prospects.

Not doing the color versions on these though thank goodness!

Two more down on the 2008 Upper Deck Timeline set.

Another large and popular set I'm trying to complete.

Woohoo!

A new Salmon not already in the binder, the 1994 King B Quality Meat Snacks disk.

They did a great job airbrushing the A off the helmet, almost looks like there never even was a logo there.

What is a quality meat snack by the way?

Jerky?

I wanted to show this 1982 Fleer Andy Hassler card solo because I was baffled by the centering of the picture.

Why did the editor decide he liked the expansive sky background over Mr Hasslers feet?

Was Hassler barefoot?

Wearing flip-flops?

I don't get it.

Rounding out the package with a potpourri of Angels cards of all shapes and sizes.

Nice trade LV.

Rhodes vs Berenguer

Couple of autograph returns this past week.  

I usually wait for todays (Saturdays) mail to see if there may be another, but I figured I better grab the PC before the wifey or kiddoes get to it.

Now batting, Karl Rhodes.

Rhodes played from 1990-1995, mostly in the National League.

Juan Berenguer played from 1978 to 1992 mostly in the American League.

Their paths crossed however in...

Oh well, I just went to Retrosheet to see the pitcher-batter matchup and apparently they never faced each other.

There goes the great idea for that post!

Tuffy Rhodes signed these cards from his home in Texas after just 13 days.

Berenguer signed these two set cards for me in 77 days from his home in Minnesota.

Angeltastic Platnumicious

I love Bowman Platinum.

I'd love to be able to throw down a twenty a couple times a week and rip through blasters. 

Per chance to dream.

Gotta find a job to feed the kids first.

Dang priorities.

I needed a break from "networking" today so I stopped at the LCS.  

"Hey young man, how's it going?" Says the Thursday-Friday guy who I always go see.

"Meh, I got laid off in June.  I need me some baseball card therapy" I replied.

"Sorry to hear that" he says, then "Yeah I provide therapy to lots of folks: I got lawyers, police officers, even got a brain surgeon that works 30 hours straight and comes here straight from work, doesn't go home first, comes straight to me for therapy.  So you don't worry, I'll help you out."

I perused the quarter cards for about an hour, knowing I have only several bucks to spend.  Pulled some 2013 Angels mixed stuff and then he offered a box of Platinum go through.  I knew immediately I wanted just about the whole box, not just the Angels, but I controlled myself and picked out some Angels cards.

He had some really good stuff in that box too, and was only asking a quarter a card.  Again self control.

I set my stack of cards on the counter, told him I had about six bucks worth, and reached for my wallet when he replied, "Don't worry about it, this is therapy."

I almost cried as I left him.  

God bless that card store man (his name is Bill BTW).

So here's some of the Platinum I pulled.

I'm so out of it this card collecting season that I don't even know what these subsets are called.

"Diecut" I imagine.

"Blue Refractor" numbered 100/199.

Had some rough spots on it but I don't mind.

"Top Prospects" Kaleb Cowart.

"Blue Sparkly Glassy"

"Base Cards"

Lots of text for those cards I know.

I just ran out of steam.

The Six Million Dollar (Sal)Mon

Sports Cards From The Dollar Store sent an envelope down from up North that included this Tim Salmon card, a Salmon I did not already have.

I took one look at the 2013 Goodwin Champions and immediately was thrown back to my youth as I zoomed in on Salmons head.

Good Gosh!

That's the Six Million Dollar Man!

We tuned in each week to watch Lee Majors and his superhuman mechanical powers save us all from evil doers of every variety.

I don't think he ever flew with the Blue Angels though.

I can hear the yat-yat-yat-yat even now.

Dude could seriously throw a football too!

Are you ready for some FOOTBALL!

This Week In Baseball (Mail)

John Russell 20 days care of the Baltimore Orioles.

Looks like different pens on each.  

I wonder if he has a stack of presigned cards he just swaps out.

Bill Long ballpoint-penned me!

A bit hard to see but it counts as a success for my 1991 Upper Deck collection.

19 days from his home in Cincy, OH.

Umpire Vic Voltaggio was on the crew of the Langston/Witt no-hitter in 1990.

He ballpointed me but in a good way...boldly in a light, blank space.

He also answered questions...did you know he's had 9 knee and 2 back surgery as a result of umpiring?

Brutal profession.

61 days from Spring Hill, FL.

Dustin Hermanson said his nickname was Hermdog and was known for his facial hair.

59 days from Scottsdale, AZ.

Ed Vosberg swapped out the 1991 Line Drive AAA card I sent with these 4 cards.

4 for 1 is not bad, but I kinda would rather have my one Line Drive back.

Did anyone else happen to get it?

59 days from Tucson, AZ.

Bengie Molina Is a Big Dude With a Puny....

...chest protector!

Get your minds out of the gutter people.

 

I was thumbing through my Sort Tray the other day and came across this Bengie Molina card.

Did the guy forget his gear and have to borrow a chest protector from the Anaheim Little League?

Look how small that thing is!

It's not even protecting his man-boobs, the left one is sticking out.

It's so small it's all crumpled up around his neck.

 

Is he just so massive that he doesn't fit into ordinary clothing?

Did Mens Wearhouse run out of his size?

I don't understand.

 

I went searching for other cards of Bengies neck protector....

 

 

Hey!

Now wait just a minute!

Did I just see what I thought I saw?

 

Gawwwwww!

Same picture 1 millisecond apart.

 

Does anyone hate that as much as I do?

That speaks to laziness in a way that just burns me up.

 

Did Victory not know what MVP was doing?

I think not.

They both work for the same company.

All Mixed Up And Ready To Go

My in box turned out to be a mixed up box.  The last couple months I've been ripping packages, pulling out the eye-catching cards, sorting the rest to either the duplicate box or the team set binders.  The eye catchers however got all mixed in together without proper identification.  Fortunately as the packages came in I noted on a piece of scrap paper at least who this stack of cards came from, though which exactly come from who I dunno.

But a shout-out goes to scottcrawfordoncards, cardboardcollections, thediamondking, alltradebait, baseballdad, and of course nightowlcards. (Those are the names I had on the scrap paper!)

Any card with Nolan Ryan in an Angels uniform is fine by me.  Although I am pretty worn on the Pacific cards from the 90's.  This is a nice tribute card from the 1993 Pinnacle set...although, he was still pitching in 1993.  Kinda unusual there Pinnacle.

Cool 2001 Donruss 20th Anniversary card for Rod Carew, commemorating his 1982 Donruss Diamond King card.  This one is numbered 1812/1982.

Shiney cards of the refractor variety.  The back of the Weaver card makes sure you know this is a refractor...it states it twice along the top of the back.  The artwork on the 2005 Topps Gallery Vladdy card is really nice.  Reminds me a bit of Leroy Niemans artwork like this Sinatra

Nice.

Very glad to get this blank back 1983 Topps of Reggie Jackson.  Bet most of you haven't seen this card before.  That's because it came on a 1983 Topps promo sheet (which I have).

It's great to have an individual copy now too.  Also too bad Topps didn't stick with the multi-player design like this for the 1983 set.  I think it works really well.

Two more of the newer designs in the gold Mark Trumbo and the especially cool Gypsy Queen Framed White CJ Wilson.  This thing should be numbered its so sweet.

2003 Upper Deck National Pride Matt Campbell jersey.

Matt never made it to the Majors, bummer.

Pretty nifty Team USA card though.

Let's get ready to SALMOOONNNNNNNNNN!

Glory Be!

And more of Todd Greene is the icing on the Salmon cake.

This card combines two of my favorite things:

Angels logo cards, and Angels checklist cards.

Pacific almost got it right.

Swap Edmonds for Salmon or Green and this would be the perfecto card.

Real mini of the vintage type.

If you look closely, the Lockwood and Bochte cards have been cropped.  See how they're a tad shorter than the Rivers card?  Why someone would need to crop a mini EVEN MINIER is beyond me.

Autograph Katsup

Autograph catch up...get it?

Hee-hee.

Matt Beaumont played 7 seasons in the Angels minors from 1994-2000 after playing for Team USA while attending Ohio State.  Matt signed these cards in 24 days via a private contact.

Current Mariner employee Jaime Navarro signed these in 108 days.

Navarro is the Mariners bullpen coach.

Gary Ward signed these 3 set cards for me in 57 days via the Birmingham Barons.

Angels Owner Arte Moreno graciously signed a business card for me and answered a couple questions in 43 days sent to the Angels front office.

I'm liking collecting signed Angels business cards.

Umpire Rick Reed took 9 days to sign these set checklist cards from his home in Rochester, MI.

This was the second time I sent these.  I had to explain that it wasn't a mistake and that I actually wanted him to sign them.

Umpire Terry Cooney was on the crew for Ryans 3rd no-hitter (a game my Dad was at) and signed these in 9 days from his home in Clovis, CA.

Another Ryan no-hitter umpire was Don Denkinger who signed these in 36 days from his home in Waterloo, Iowa.

Umpire Bill Haller kept my checklist cards but included this signed photocard in 7 days from his home in Brownstown, IL.  Oh well.

You never know what you'll get back.

Umpire Jim Evans was a part of 3 no-hitters for Angels or former Angels.

He decided to sign the BACK of these cards.

Oh well again.

9 days from his Umpiring Academy.