Completed Angels Team Set - 2005 ValleyCrest Playing Cards

Nice 52-card deck give-away item at a game in 2005.  

There are sets like this for many different years, this one sponsored by ValleyCrest Landscaping Companies.

Just showing you one of the four suits, all the other suits have the same player/same pictures.

They threw the Rally Monkey in there probably to get the kids more involved.

Better the Rally Monkey than John Lackey though.

Since these playing card sets are pretty generic, they're not something I actively pursue.

I'll be glad for them as I get them though.

This one was given to me.

My Dad Was There

My Dad (and probably my Mom) were at a semi-historical game in Angels history back in 1993.  

I know this because I have the two ticket stubs my dad wrote on.  

Angels great Chuck Finley reached a milestone for pitchers in notching his 1000th career strikeout.

Finley had 8 K's in this game, would pitch another 6 years for the Angels and go on to be number 2 on the Angels All-Time Strikeout list with 2,151.

  

Reading the box on retrosheet my folks witnessed Finley pitch a complete game against the Orioles, but ended up losing 4-3.

After giving up a two-run home run to Mike Devereaux in the top of the first and one strikeout, Finley settled in for 7 more K's but gave up two more runs in the fourth.

The Angels mounted a comeback in the 6th but fell a run short, and didn't pose a threat again.

Tim Salmon hit his 30th HR of his Rookie of the Year season.

Finley finished giving up a massive 13 hits, but the Orioles ended up stranding 12 runners, so the outcome could have been much worse.  Sounds like it would have been an exciting game to be at.

 

My folks both passed several years ago, so it's nice to picture them sitting in the Big A taking in this Chuck Finley milestone. And pretty cool to have this keepsake from it.

 

 

One Page Of Frank Bolick

This series will highlight "one page" at a time from my binder of correspondence and autographs from former Angels players.

  Frank Bolick 1B, 3B, DH Anaheim Angels 1998

Another Minor League Set To Collect

1991 Classic Best Minor Leagues

On a recent trip to the LCS I came across a box of these cards.  I pulled the Angels cards out of the box and went on my merry way.  Couple days later I had a thought, "Why not just buy the whole box and complete the whole set?".

I knew I already had a stack of about 250ish and the box at the LCS probably had about 300-350 (knowing there would be a ton of dupes in there).  So I went back and got the LCS box for $5.  

After sorting here's what I need:

1,6,9,14,16,19,23,31,39,41,42,45,55,56,58,62,63,64,68,74,93,

102,104,107,112,126,136,147,148,152,157,162,165190,191,197,

203,209,210,211,218,219,224,225,226,230,231,235,236,239,244,

247,249,258,259,260,263,264,266,267,269,270,271,287,293,296,

310,319,322,324,325,326,329,330,332,333,336,339,343,344,346,

347,349,350,351,352,356,358,360,361,366,370,371,372,377,378,

382,392,397,400,401,402,403,405,407,409,410,412,414,416,419,

423,424,425,426,429,431,435,437,438,439,443,445,446,447,449.

Traders welcome!

Angels On Cards Observations

Trade post from Cards On Cards

1989 Topps Hills Team MVPs

Yet another one of those "Don't think I've seen this set before" cards.

Love the design.

2003 Topps Gold Casey Kotchman 1858/2003

2013 Bowman Blue Grant Green 045/500

2015 Topps Gold Josh Hamilton 1823/2015

2015 Topps Heritage Josh Hamilton SP

Observations:

1. Kotchman playing first base in a neighborhood park somewhere.

2. Grant Green pivots on the Big A.

3. Josh Hamilton gets fingerprinted.

4. Josh Hamilton talks with Arty Moreno (off camera).

2005 Upper Deck Sweet Threads #ST-BC

Not too concerned that Bartolo is missing his lower half.

The pinstrip on the "Angels" uniform is a little concerning though.

The Angels stopped wearing the blue pinstriped uniforms in 2002.

Bartolo played for the Angels from 2004-2007.

Hmmmm....

1997-2001

1990 Panini Stickers

I under-appreciated Panini stickers for a long time.

Then I grew to love them.

A few yesrs ago I finished (I think) finally getting all the Angels logo/uniform stickers that they put out.

Soon I hope to get a list together of all the Panini player stickers I need.

2006 Bowman Heritage

#132 Lackey, BHP21 Bobby Wilson, 75 Mini Vladdy.

Nice spread.

And a select nine from the large stack of Angels cards that remained.

Claim Some If You Want Some

I have the following 1998 Pinnacle Mint Collection cards available for trade.
Three types if you're unfamiliar with this issue:
1. Gold are actual metal inserted coins
2. Blanks, same card but lacking the coin insert
3. Copper are embossed on the card

Would like anything off my want lists in return.  Or nothing in return, I'm easy.

LCS Pickups For You To Peruse

1991 Classic Best

I opened a bunch of these packs in the late 90's found on a discount shelf in the old Toy City in Fountain Valley, California.

Never pulled many Angels out of all those packs though.

2008 SPx

Nice little Jered Weaver card.

Photo must have been taken by the catcher.

1992 Score '90's Impact Player

Another subset I pick up cards for whenever I come across them.

Some day I'll take inventory to see if I have the set yet.

Checkin It Off - 2007 Topps Turkey Red

Had to go to Sportlots to get the last couple of cards I needed to complete this checklist set.

Sweet 11-card checklist set featuring framed paintings of game action.

I pulled the Vladdy from my partial Angels team set so I'll need to replace that one at some point.

Probably pretty soon.

Sweet Surprise From GCRL

Pretty sure this was a random package.

Another example of an awesome blogger thinking of me.

Sampling of the Angels cards in the fat pack.

I got used to seeing Reggie as an Angel.

It's automatic.

Dave Winfield?

Still kinda sets me back a bit whenever I see him in an Angels uniform.

Here's an Angels uniformed player on another teams card.

Nice picture of the great Bryan Harvey who was chosen by the Marlins in the Expansion Draft.

Too bad, this would have made a sweet Angels card.

My first thought upon seeing this card is that it got into the wrong stack.  I didn't see the Angels logo in lower right corner at first.

Too much "Dodger" to airbrush out I guess.

Luke played in 18 games for the Angels in 1999.

Here's a sampling of the checklist cards included.

I have a gazillion checklists but it's tough to actually complete a set.

There's always that one card that you cant find.

One Page Of Ken Edenfield

This series will highlight "one page" at a time from my binder of correspondence and autographs from former Angels players.

 Ken Edenfield RHP California Angels 1995-1996

Even Card Collectors Trade Pocket Schedules

Came to find out that the Prowling Cat collects pockets schedules too.
I want to say that I already knew that from the distant past, but was pleased to re-find out again.

We hooked up for a trade which included another of our passions, baseball cards.

A handful of Angels that came in the package.

Possibly the first Opening Days cards I've gotten this year.

Forever getting caught up with Angels Minor League affiliates.

Been trying to figure out who that is on the 2000 Erie Sea Wolves schedule but can't find a roster with uniform numbers.

Anyone know of a website where I can find such information?

Card Buzz?  You know your Angel Minor Leaguers.

A little help?

The Last Photo Schedule I Think I Needed

Came from Canada.

In the 90's the Angels issued schedule cards along with pocket schedules.

These nifty schedules measure about 3x8 and could often be found in those brochure racks in local hotels.  That's where I found most of mine.

As far as I can tell, 1990 was the first issue in this series.

Sponsor was Ticketron, Sport Chalet, and Tower Records.

I would have to assume that you could find the photo schedules at those locations as well.

Nine bucks for field and club box seats.

Can you imagine.

This 1991 issue was the last one that I needed and I found it on ebay.

Based on the angle of Lance Parish's mitt and where Jose Canseco is looking, I think Chuck Finley just gave up a bomb.

Sounds like the Angels of the early 90's.

Field and club box seat prices increased by 2 bucks.  

Steep!

The next several in the series feature really nice player photos.

Ticketron became TicketMaster in 1991 hence the sponsor change in name only.

Big uniform and logo changes for the Halos between 1992-1993.

I'm sentimental towards the uniform of the late 70s into the 80's but I think these are my favorite.

Ah, Tim Salmon makes his appearance on this super-cool 1994 photo schedule.

Another $2 jump in ticket prices.

Chili Davis and his Awesome Power get promoted on the 1995 photo schedule.

Am I not seeing it right?

Why does the upper left calendar say "March/April" when there are no day numbers for March?

Whoa!

What happened to 1996?

Ruined a good thing, that's what happened.

The last of the photo schedule series (that I know of) was a drastic deviation.

You can barely see a ghosted JT Snow on the front and a washed out Mark Langston on the back.

It's cool in it's own way but doesn't really compare to the schedules that came before.

For all intents and purposes I think the photo schedule series ended in 1995.

This Has Now Gone To A Whole New Level

A skedder on skednet posted he had several different years of Kernels schedules to trade.

Not only years but many different sponsors as well.

I was lacking on Kernels schedules so I inquired about a trade.

I didn't have an equal amount of skeds to send his way, but he wanted to send what I needed anyhow.

That's generosity.

And much appreciated.

I had 1 schedule each from 2008, 2009, 2011, and 2012.

But I decided I didn't want just one representative for those years, that I needed the other sponsors as well.  I believe in completeness.

And this is where collecting Angels pocket schedules has just gone to new level for me.

2008

Here are the different sponsors I received:

9 different, and I'm not sure that's even all the sponsors available.

2009

11 sponsors, this is crazy.

2011

9 different, plus the one I already had, for Mike Trouts first appearance on a pocket schedule.

Does anyone have a master list?

2012

Another one with at least 11 different sponsor backs.

I already knew that schedules get made with different sponsor backs.

But before this trade, the most sponsors I had for one schedule was 4.

I honestly did not know that there would be a dozen different each year.

See how crazy this can get if I try to accumulate every different sponsor for every Angels related pocket schedule ever issued?