Let Your Brain Eat Some More Angels

When you're at the dessert bar in a restraunt, a little bit of everything is much better than a whole lot of the same thing.  Such is the case here where some fine Angels cards sent to me from the baseball card bar at Sportscards Ate My Brain.

Let's see what a little bit of everything looks like, shall we?

1. Certified Autograph

2004 Topps Autograph Casey Kotchman TA-CK

The colors on this card are vibrant and Kotchman really stands out. I can do without the futuristic design, but the lighter ghosty area for the autograph works well.  Much better than a blank rectangle.

2. Numbered Inserts

2005 Donruss Playoff.

Never seen these before until I found them on the SCAMB trade list.

Crazy numbering system I assume has something to do with playing the game, but numbered none-the-less.

And check out the backs:

That's old-school Man, I love it.

I think it's the Polo Grounds.

 3. Jersey Swatch

2003 Topps 205 Garret Anderson Mini Jersey RelicTR-GA

There's that red uniform/blue background combination that I like so much on Angels cards.

And whoever came up with the minis floating inside a bigger framed card is a genius.

That stripe is perfectly centered isn't it?

4. Bat Relic

2001 Upper Deck Don Baylor Heroes of Baseball Bat Relic B-DB

The tongue-shaped bat shaving is interesting.  Don's not a tongue wagger like Michael Jordan.

Or is it a fingernail shaped piece?

A happy face?

The polls are open.

5.  Short Prints

Two SPs from 2007 and one from 2010 Topps Heritage.

Man all the SPs are hard to keep track of these days.

So there you have it, a little taste of everything from the dessert bar.

Thanks!

Junior Has Me Seeing Greene

Todd Greene.

Included in those bricks of Angels cards from The Junior Junkie was a nice short stack of Todd Greene cards (I'm an unofficially a Todd Greene collector too).

My favorite in the lot is this 1996 Collectors Choice Rookie Class.

The flag background along with the Angels uniform just screams Patriotic!

Therefore Todd must be and I like that.

Todd played in the Arizona Fall League as indicated on these 1996 Collectors Choice cards.

He was nice enough to add his silver signature to the second card.

Is that background supposed to represent Arizona,

all cracked and dried up?

Looks like Todd played for the Rafters in the Fall League.  Must be a lot of building contractors sponsoring teams out there in Arizona (I know it's really the Rapters folks).

Greene glorious Greene.

He Sent A Brick......House

I receive a Priority Mail Flat Rate box recently from The Junior Junkie (I knew it was from Junior due to his cool logo on the bottom of the box).  And when I say flat rate I mean that Junior packed this puppy full up.  It seriously weighed as much as a brick.  And when I opened it up guess what fell out....

Four more little, individually wrapped bricks!

You guys have to see these to believe them.  These dudes were so carefully and neatly wrapped I think that Junior has a side job as a Christmas Gift Wrapper.  Scotch tape, brown paper, professional job.

Look at em!

And then inside each individual brick was a team bag stuffed to the gills with Angels!

That's a ton (almost literally) of cards!

Way to many to show them all, so I picked out some of my favorites.

He must have checked my wantlist because I needed this Torii Hunter for the 2008 Timeline set.

Bo Jackson in an Angels uniform, nice.

You know, I don't remember seeing Jackson play for the Angels in person.  I was busy working, going to school and raising a family when he was with the team.  But I'll have to go back and look through my old scorebooks to see.

Love the old box set cards of Wally Joyner.

This one didn't look familiar to me.

It's from the 1986 Fleer "Limited Edition" Record Setters box.

Great card of Doug Rader from the 1989 Update set.  This was just one from what I think was the whole set that was included in the package.  I believe the 1989 team set is now completely complete.

This was the first card I saw when I opened up the first brick.

This, Friends, is a 2006 Upper Deck Silver Spectrum version numbered 11/99.

Holy guacamole!  Sweet card!

And another awesome little nugget of a card is this 1993 Leaf Triple Play Action Baseball game card.

Man I dig game cards!

And this one is new to me.  

Lets see what's inside...

Oh yeah, not scratched!

Topped off with Salmon up the Wazoo!

Great package to tear through Junior, thanks.

Heavy Hitters From The Rockies

The Toddfather send a package over and as I flipped through the cards I immediately noticed a little theme within the half dozen or so cards he sent.  I saw a bunch of the Angels heavy hitters in the late 90's early 00's.  "Hey," I thought, "there's an idea for a quick post."

I also noticed that the cards were all of the foil variety, which I love, but hate when it comes to having to scan them.  They never show up like they are in real life.

Tim Salmon 1997 Collectors Choice The Big Show, World Headquarters Edition.

The gold foil stamped edition was a 1:35 insert.

Another gimmick.

Salmon hit 299 HRs in 14 seasons with the Angels.

Mo Vaughn 1995 Upper Deck Stat[itude].

Well, that's creative.

Vaughn hit 69 HRs in just two seasons with the Angels.  Not as bad as I had thought.

For some reason I always think he was a bust for the Angels.  Maybe financially but he put up some good numbers for a couple years.

Troy Glaus 2002 Topps Total 2001 Award Winner.

The stripes in the header match the stripes on the uniform.  Cool.

In 7 seasons with Anaheim he hit 172 HRs, and had his highest career total (47) with them as well.

 

 

Jim Edmonds 1999 Skybox Metal Universe.

I hate my scanner.

Before Jimmy went on to hit 241 dingers for the Cardinals he hit 121 in seven seasons with the Angels.

I'll never forgive him.

Bible Card Sunday - Mark Langston

Mark Langston had a 16 year career, most of which with the Angels.  He was an AL All-Star four times, a Gold Glove winner seven times, and led the league in strikeouts three times. He combined with Mike Witt to throw a no-hitter against his old team the Mariners in 1990.

Marl added Phillipians 4:13

"I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me."

Sometimes You Think You Don't Know What You Got

I have a large Angels collection: 12 binders worth and a couple large boxes. But even with that I think I have a pretty good handle on the cards that I have, and conversely, the cards that I need.

I've been using Listia a lot to pick up cards I need for the collection. I'll blow through listing after listing knowing I already have that particular card.  Once in a while though I'll come across a card that I think I have, but something in the back of my mind says "you better check, you better check".

Such was the case with this Mike Napoli card.

2006 Bowman Draft Picks BDP3

I went past this one several times sure that I already had it, especially since I have a binder for Mike Napoli.

I mean, why would I NOT already have this one, right?

After several passes I finally decided I had better go check and sure enough I did not have it.

So I put a bid in and I won.

Lesson learned: go with your gut, and it doesn't hurt to double check.

It May Have Been Difficult For Nomo

Received a PWE trade package from Nomo with a handful of Angels goodies inside.

But I was surprised to see this card in there as well:

It's a card I needed for the 2008 Upper Deck Timeline set, but since Nomo is a Dodgers and a Clayton Kershaw collector, and especially since it's his rookie card I thought it must have been hard to give this one up.  Even though it might be a dupe for him, I would find it hard to give up a duplicate Trout card for example.

I'm glad he did though and I appreciate it.

I'm pecking away at that set one card at a time.

Along with several other Angels was this Troy Glaus card that I had a hard time trying to figure out.

I know it's a 2004 Fleer, but is it a Draft Edition?  Draft Rewind?  To add to the confusion it's numbered 9 of 30 DW, not DE, or DR.  So what does DW represent?

Oh, and to show how thankful I am to get these cards, this is what the envelope looked like when I pulled it out of my mail box.  Dodged a bullet there.

There's Salmon on the Schedule

These sweet Angels pocket schedules, Tim Salmon and other Angels cards come courtesy of Zenus (GREAT name by the way) of The Prowling Cat blog.  I sent Zenus a little stack of his wants and he in turn sent me Angels goodies, particularly POCKET SCHEDULES!

Zenus lives in Oregon so I'm not sure how he came about these Angels schedules, but I really don't need to know.  I'm just glad he was willing to give them up.

2012 version V1 (see it in the upper left?)  That means there's different versions of this schedule, and they typically have a different sponsor on the back.  This one is a Budweiser back.

This one looks the same as the last.  Anyone spot the difference?  Yep, this one's in Spanish!

Same Budweiser back but instead it says Orgulloso Patroncinador Angels Beisbol.

Gotta love it!

This is a version 3 of the 2010 schedule that I didn't have.  It has a Wienerschnitzel back.

Very nice All-Star design fitting the Angels halo around the star.

Red is such a happy color isn't it?

Ah yes, there it is.  The World Championship trophy won by the Angels in 2002.

The theme for 2003 was "The Halos Are back For More."

Except that they went 77-85, 18 games behind the division winner.

Back for more lasagna maybe.

Always looking to trade for Angels pocket schedules, I have lots of different teams, including extra Angels.

And here's the Salmon.  First a 1994 Upper Deck.  This design has been slowly growing on me.

I have only a handful of these and even less of the Angels in the set.  But the more I see them the more I'm liking them.  The second Salmon is from The Future is Now subset from the same year.

Ooh, and a still wrapped 1994 Mothers Cookies Tim Salmon card.

Hopefully this came out of my favorites, the chocolate chip cookies.

I pulled a lot of Nolan Ryan cards out of those bags.

Timmy will stay under wraps.

2006 Topps Opening Day Blue Joe Saunders rookie card.

Too much going on in this design for me, but Joe Millionaire is looking sharp.

Where is Joe these days?

You know, seems like I don't see many 1992 Leaf Gold Edition cards around.

Nice looking card design, simple, and the black serves it well.

There were a few other Angels in the stack as well.

I'm happy with the trade Zenus, thanks!

Love Me Some Panini Logo Stickers

One of the best things about Sportlots is that you can find stuff you can't really find anywhere else. A lot of base cards you can trade for, relics you can find on ebay, but the oddball stuff like Panini logo stickers are best found on Sportlots, and usually for less than a quarter each.

I picked a bunch up a while back to finish out my Panini team logo sticker collection.  Or at least I think I finished it out.  It's hard to get a checklist of these foiley little guys.

1988

Simple Angels logo on gold foil surrounded by silver foil.

The only problem with these little guys is that they get scratched up easily.

The 1988 set also included a team uniform sticker...great idea!

This one shows the home and away uniforms down to the socks and stirrups!

There's even a warmup jacket shown.

Not sure whats going on with the hats, looks like one has a shorter brim.

1990

The 1990 design got beefed up a little with a blue-gray plaque background and a pair of crossed bats and balls.  Pretty snazzy, but I prefer the simpler designs.

Too bad they didn't color the bats brown, that would have been sharp.

Ah, but this second sticker from 1990 is completely awesome.

Same white bat and ball, but this time the ball is streaking towards the bat and trailing the team name.

And check out that sweet batting helmet!

The shading on it almost makes it look 3D.

1991

Back to the simple silver foil for 1991, and smaller in size as well.

About the size on an A&G mini.

Sharp looking though because the foil has a sort of aluminum look to it.

And the team name in all caps is a nice little touch.

Take a mini and split it lengthwise and you get the second sticker for the 1991 set, a team logo pennant.

I would have added the team name to it though, too much empty area.

I used to collect full-sized Angels pennants but they started to take up too much space.

These little stickers are just right.

1995

Jump to 1995 and it looks like Panini ditched the foil.

Still an attractive little logo sticker though.

1996

Whoops spoke too soon, the foil came back in 1996.

Don't mess with a good thing Panini.

Bible Card Sunday - Rick Luecken

Rick Luecken played 2 seasons in the Majors for the Royals, Braves, and Blue Jays.

He was drafted by the Seattle Mariners in the 27th round of the 1983 amateur draft.

Rick added Matthew 1:21

"And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name Jesus: for he shall save his people from their sins."

Still Catching Up With My TTMs

Reggie Cleveland signed this 1970 Topps (recently signed by Sal Campisi) and 1979 Topps Rangers card in  21 days from his home in Anna, Texas.

Santiago Guzman is an impossible autograph to get so this card wont ever get completed.

Love the old blue Rangers uniforms.

 

Another fairly recent pickup was this 1972 Topps Charlie Hough rookie.

I got it because I knew he was such a good TTMer.

46 days from his home in Brea, CA.

 

I was hoping I had Joes 1983 Topps Update card but alas I didn't.

That's OK though because I'm working the 1984 set as well.

10 days from Auburn, Alabama.

 

Long wait for this Brandon Wood autograph.

Sent to the Rockies 2012 Spring Training Site 342 days ago.