Wednesday, April 29, 2015

Highly Subjective Angels

From the Group Trade, like five years ago or something like that.
I know, I'm slow.

2002 Topps Gallery

2002 Topps Gallery Nolan Ryan Baseball Bucks NNO
Okay this is really cool.



2002 Topps Stadium Club

And a Tim Salmon Gold Parallel.
Nice.



1996 Pinnacle 

And The Naturals inserts.



1999 Fleer Ultra



And a bunch of other Angels thrown in.

I like.

Oh, and I know that I think I still owe you some stuff in return.
That, I have not forgotten.


Saturday, April 25, 2015

One Page Of Ryan Hancock

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


Ryan Hancock RHP California Angels 1996



Thursday, April 23, 2015

All Shapes And Sizes

You guessed it.
More pocket schedules.
When the bug bites, it's tough to not scratch.

This lot represents many styles of the so called "pocket" schedule.
I got these via two trades on Skednet
.
I have a big box of traders that I use (all sorts of other teams and sports) that I've stored up over the years, and still pick them up whenever I can find them.

I think that the 1991 is my oldest Spanish version.  
It wasn't until recently that I realized they put out Spanish versions of schedules back into the 90's.  
I don't believe there are any from the 80's.
At least not any Angels schedules.


Barry's Tickets were putting out these credit card like schedules for a while.
I think they stopped doing that last year.


This one is called a "tear-off".
A pad of schedules would be hanging on or near a Budweiser display and you would simply pull a sheet off, fold it in half and put in your....wait for it....POCKET!


Ticket envelopes are pretty cool too.
Sometimes they have a schedule printed on one side.
Not this one.


Got caught up on my 2014 Angels schedules in one sh-bang.
One Spring training, one English, and one Spanish.
Keeping it simple.

Several years ago there were, if I recall correctly, like 6 different versions of Angels schedules for one season.
That's just crazy.



Sunday, April 19, 2015

Don't Look, It's Just More Pocket Schedules

Made a bigger trade on Skednet for more schedules that I needed.

These large schedule cards could often be found in local hotels in those brochure racks of local attractions.
That's where I picked most of mine up in the early 90's.


A bunch more Angels Minor League teams.
Only the Arkansas Travelers are still affiliated with the Angels.


I've been back-filling my Cactus League composite schedules.
I already have 2013 and 2015 because I went out to Arizona for Spring Training and picked them up in person.
Why collect Cactus League composite schedules you ask?

There's an Angels schedule inside of course.



Saturday, April 18, 2015

Traded For: 1961 Stan Williams

Stan Williams never played for the Angels.  
At least not for the American League Angels.
He did however play in the Angels farm system in 1965 for the AAA Seattle Angels and again in 1972 for the AAA Salt Lake City Angels.
And that's why I traded for him.


Traded away a 1991 Fleer Mark Grace autograph.
I'm happy.

Thursday, April 16, 2015

My New Oldest Pocket Schedule

Made my first Skednet trade in over a year last week hoping to get caught up with my Angels pocket schedules.
I had missed out on the second half of 2013 and all of the 2014 schedules.

I didn't net any 2014 skeds in this trade but I did score what is now my oldest Angels pocket schedule.

Angels 1972 Turning Two artwork/Busch back
Love it.
It's a little worn, but that's okay for a 1972.


Oh my.
Now that's some awesome seating chart artwork.
Totally old school.
Note that there's nothing in the outfield kiddies.
The entertainment WAS the baseball game.
Imagine that!

This is the stadium layout I was first introduced to.
And as a Junior Angel we often sat on the Club Level-First base Side.


So like I said, I didn't get any 2014s in this trade but I did get all these others I needed.
A few I have already but with different sponsor backs.

When you're an ate-up team collector you have to have all the different versions.


Tuesday, April 14, 2015

2015 Angels Pocket Schedules

Pujols V2
Trout Spanish V1
Spring Training
(apparently there is also a V1 of Pujols out there as well)

Nice design this year, kinda baseball card-ish.
I like all the red and the red tinted baseball in the background.
I like the happy headshots too.

Yeah, what the Spring Training schedule doesn't say is "...with the best record in baseball, swept in the first round by the Wild Card Royals."


I love baseball field seating charts.
There is no better artwork than a seating chart.


Sunday, April 12, 2015

One Page Of Ralph Garr

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



Ralph Garr Outfielder California Angels 1979-1980


Saturday, April 11, 2015

Too Big For The Grab Bags

Stopped at the LCS, a quick trip to pick up 6-pocket pages for my pocket schedule collection.
All paid for, I was getting ready to leave when my LCS guy handed me a binder he had stashed under his table for a long time, thought I might see something I liked in it.
It was a binder of autographed team-issued Rangers Alumni players postcards, which I have gotten often over the years at various Rangers events.
I thumbed through the album seeing that I already had just about all of them, except for two.
I didn't necessarily pick these two out just because I didn't already have them.

I picked out this Dick Egan signed card because Egan played for the Angels in 1966.  He also played for the Angels AAA team, the Hawaii Islanders in 1962.
I already had a signed card of his but I thought this would make a nice addition to the Angels autographs collection.



The reason I picked out this card is because, well, I just liked it.
David Clyde is kinda a local legend, you can look him up if you don't know his story.
I liked the bold blue autograph, and David's big grin.

My LCS guy said that I could take these, and just bring in a couple autographed regular-sized baseball cards next time I come in.  These big cards don't fit into the grab bags.
I got plenty of  autographed "traders" so that's no problem at all.



Friday, April 10, 2015

TTM Return From Patriot Rich Camarillo


Rich Camarillo was the Patriots kicker from 1981-1987.
He then went on to kick for the Rams, Cardinals, Oilers, and Raiders until 1996.
Pretty good career.

Rich signed these cards sent to his Phoenix home in 27 days.




Saturday, April 4, 2015

Fantastic Catch Minors Pickup

Picked up a nice selection of Angels Minor Leaguers recently from a Fantastic Catch break.

2008 TriStar Projections
I love these TriStar cards.
They're awesome for autographs.
Interesting that the Bachanov card has no team name or emblem.
Guess he hadn't been assigned to a team yet?


This Nick Adenhart parallel is called a "Reflective".
A little more subdued than a typical foil card.


And I scored a numbered card with this "Yellow" parallel numbered 09/25.


Here's Jordan Walden again as my only Angels pull from the 2011 Elite Extra Edition box.
More of the high shiney foil type card.
NOT good for autographs in my opinion.


And my only pull from the 2012 Elite Extra Edition box is this Eric Stamets card.
Stamets was at AA Arkansas and then the AFL last year.
He's getting ready now to start again with the Travs.





Wednesday, April 1, 2015

I Too Went To Spring Training

Three days in the Cactus League. 
Is this Heaven?
No, it's Arizona.

Here's some pics.

Tempe Diablo Stadium
CLE 3, LAA 4




Goodyear Ballpark
TEX 0, CIN 5



Salt River Fields at Talking Stick
SDP 3, ARI 3



 Surprise Stadium
COL 3, TEX 6
(This is my photo from 2013, I neglected to take one on this trip)



HoHoKam Park
TEX 6, OAK 7



NOT our flight home. 
We were on the red-eye.

I didn't try for any autographs.
I didn't photograph every aspect and detail of the ballparks.
I wanted to keep it real simple, basking in the sun, watching baseball day and night.
I did score the games however.

So after 2 trips to the Cactus League I'm down 7 stadiums, 3 more to go.