Million Cubs trade

A while back, I contacted Beau at Million Cubs Project and got a trade going. It took me a while, but I sent him a box full of Cubs for his collection, and he came through and sent me a nice box full of Rays/Devil Rays. Here is what I received.

This is the box I received. There were so many cards from sets that I never busted packs from. I think I finished a number of Rays Upper Deck sets, and I got a good selection of Topps and Bowman cards I needed. 

There were so many cool cards, and I chose to highlight some cards of my favorite players and a card I hoped to receive. I got a card of Joey Gathright, Elliot Johnson, 2 Justin Ruggiano’s, and 2 Ben Zobrist’s for my Favorite Player binder. I can’t wait to organize that binder in a month or so. The very last card is a Million Cubs custom. I saw one of those on a blog, and was really hoping to get one. Now I have one, and it will go in my Cubs binder.

I am working on organizing my Tigers binder, and I think in a month or so, I will start my Rays binder. My birthday is coming up, and I may get a gift card or some baseball cards, and that could easily turn into some new Rays cards. There is also a contest going on at the Padrographs blog , and I claimed the Rays, so I’m excited to hopefully add some more to my Rays box to put in binders. All of the bloggers out there are really a great group of selfless people who go out of their way to hook up other collectors with cards that would enjoy, and I hope to do the same for the community and be a positive representative of Rays collectors and guys who do customs in general.
Thanks for the great trade, Beau, and thank you for checking out my latest post.
Jeremy

RIP, Billy B.

I read that Bill Buckner passed away 2 days ago, and I decided to do a post with all of the customs I have of him. Bill was a great hitter, who amassed over 2,700 hits. He also was a great fielder, who battled ankle problems towards the end of his career. If not for injuries, he could be a Hall of Fame candidate, and with the stupid 15-person panels voting anyone in, I really hope that they decide to give him a better look. Bill wasn't missing too many Topps cards during his career, just an '87 Topps Traded, '88 Topps Traded, '89 Topps, '89 Topps Traded, '90 Topps, and a '91 Topps sunset card. I finished his '89 Topps, and '91 Topps cards, leaving only the '87 Traded, '89 Traded, and '90 Topps cards missing.

1989 Topps custom

1991 Topps sunset card

Because of his photo in the play, I guess this would count as a Bill Buckner custom as well, although I choose to label it as a Mookie Wilson custom, and remember Bill as a great hitter, who was pretty solid with the glove as well, before the injuries to his knees. 

1987 Topps Mookie Wilson World Series Highlights

 

I have an index card that is technically signed by Mr. Buckner in one of my random binders, as well. I wrote to him requesting an autograph, and he sent a note back letting me know that he charged for his signature, but then he signed his initials, which is kind of funny. I think I might put it in my binder next to one of his Red Sox cards. 

It's sad that he died so young. Enjoy these ballplayers while they are still here. RIP, Mr. Buckner. You will always be a Hall of Famer and a World Series champ with me.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.

-Jeremy

Some surprise Bowman packs

I got home from work today, and came home to some bags of groceries from Target on our kitchen table. My wife had went to Target, and although I didn’t need any new packs of cards, she was nice enough to get me a hanging pack of ‘19 Bowman. Here is what I got.

The rookie cards. Perhaps these will be worth something in 10 years. 

The Camo parallels. Gavin, if you want the Padres and the Lux card, they are yours. 

Finally, a Castellanos for my Tigers binder, a deGrom for my Favorite Player binder, and a Refractor for the shiny binder. A fun 3 packs to open. I’m kind of hoping she gets me some Bog League packs next time. My birthday is coming up in about 2 weeks, so we’ll see.
Regardless of whether or not I get more packs, I do have a package from the Million Cubs Project coming soon, and that should be full of Rays for their binder. I don’t know why there aren’t more Rays in card sets. Nobody cares about Rays cards that they pull from packs, and from what I can tell, nobody really blogs about Rays. Give them some respect. They are a Major League franchise, there hole stadium is a cool place. Don’t knock it until you’ve attended a game there. Most people think domes are weird, but after going to the Trop so much, it’s almost weird for me to see a baseball game in a non-dome stadium. Sure, it’s in a bad location, but if the team was moved to the Orlando or Tampa area (in the right spot), it would thrive. They have built up a decent franchise, and are usually playoff contenders. They need more cards, and I will take any Rays cards I can get. Give them to me instead of throwing them out or in a junk box. I have plenty of Yankees in my junk box to trade. To anyone who has traded me Rays, thank you so much. What is one mans junk is another mans treasure, they say.
I started working on organizing my Tigers binder, and once I get that Rays package, I will get my Rays binder done, then the Favorite Player binder. I’ll update the Favorite Player pages for each player, so if you are interested in looking at those, stay tuned.
Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

Trade with P-Town Tom

A few weeks ago, I reached out to P-Town Tom from Waiting 'til Next Year and we got a trade going. I had a few cards that would help him finish some sets, a custom or two, and a lineup card for his friend and co-worker who played in the minors. I sent everything out, and shortly after got some cool cards in the mail from Tom.

Some Rays for my about-to-be-organized Rays binder.

Tom was nice enough to look through my Top 12 List on the sidebar and pick off some sunset cards I had on there.

He also got some guys off of my Favorite Player Collection, again hitting some cards from the Top 12 list. I have been wanting the regular '95 Topps Rafael Bournigal for some time, and that card completes all of his (published) Topps cards, with a few customs still needing to be made. I had also meant to put the John Hudek and Andy McGaffigan rookies in my COMC cart during my last order, but forgot. All is well, because they are now crossed off. 

Thanks for the great trade, Tom. Hope to do one again soon.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy

1995 Replacement Boston Red Sox

I've worked my way through the first team, and have made cards for as many players as I could for the Boston Red Sox. Before I show the cards, I wanted to go through all of the tools I have been using to figure this project out.

I have a main list of the position players from the 1995 STATS Replacement Player Handbook, which I started with first.

That is was what I had for the Red Sox. I went through each player, googling their name plus 'Red Sox', and if that didn't work, I would add 'baseball'. That would in most cases give me a photo of a minor league baseball card, or an actual picture. I would try to use COMC in most cases, just because Trading Card DB doesn't have pictures that you can zoom in on.  If one of the card sites didn't have a picture to use, I would search the other one. Off of this first list, the only name I couldn't find ANYTHING on was Jeff Hammond, an outfielder. Maybe because it said he probably wouldn't see any time because he went home or maybe he got injured?

After that, I went to the page listing 4 starters and a closer for each team.

I got all of the Red Sox for this page.

The last page from the book was one listing players they didn't have any (statistical) information for. You will notice that some of the players from the first page are listed on this page as well, so that leads me to believe that they just had their names and bio, and maybe not career stats. Boy, have we come a long way with the internet becoming mainstream.

I had a 2 players whom I couldn't find info for on these pages. Erik Lovedahl (found a guy named Erik Lovdahl who runs a pitching camp, but no useable pictures) and Lance Rathmell (found that he played in the minors for 2 seasons, no cards or picture). 

The last thing I did was check a file I saved for any names that weren't from the book. About 4 years ago, I was searching for replacement player names, and compiled a list of guys from every team that I got from scouring the internet. Since the book didn't list every single pitcher, I know some guys will be on the file who aren't on the book. For a few teams (Pirates, Twins, Indians), I have found various resources like old team photos, game programs and such, that I will have to research too. Here is a picture of the file I made. 

Since Ron Mahay was already on the first list, he is covered, so that means that I have the most complete 1995 Topps replacement player set for the Boston Red Sox. Here it is with notes.

 This was the only photo I could find of Huebner, and it just happened to be a game photo. Too bad it is blurry.

 Current Red Sox pitching coach and 2004, 2013, and 2018 World Series winning coach Dana Levangie.

 This team had some nice nicknames. Besides Pork Chop, there is also a guy named 'Pookie' Bernstine. They both have minor league cards if you want to start player collecting.

 Cesar appeared on a few Topps and Bowman cards in the early '90's.

 Lou played in MLB after the strike.

 Scott Wade was in the 1990 Topps TV Red Sox set. Let's hope the Topps people found him and gave him his $7,500.00 check.

 Andy Abad played in MLB after the strike.

 Pookie!  He was out of baseball since 1989.

 Ron Mahay was an outfielder, converted to pitcher, and was the last replacement player to appear in MLB after the strike, finally hanging up his spikes in 2010. He gets the hero number for this.

Dan pitched in the Majors in 1991 for the Detroit Tigers.

 Mike was out of baseball since 1990, but in 2015, he was set to make a comeback in the independent leagues.

Eric was out of baseball since 1989.

There's my first team set. I don't know if the rest will go as fast, but hopefully I will have as high of a success rate in finding pictures as I have with this one.

Thanks for checking out my latest post.
-Jeremy