Random things I’ve found on cards Part 2

 Since I got a lot of good feedback on the first post, I thought I would do a continuation. This post will feature mainly stuff I’ve found on the backs of cards, as well as a number of selections from 1995 Topps, but I hope it will still be fun. 

CIGAR- 2005 Topps #278 Jack McKeon

Jack was notoriously famous for having a victory cigar after a big win, and after winning the 2004 World Series, Topps decided to use a photo of him with a cigar for his 2005 issue. I also want to note that while Jeff Torborg got fired in the beginning of the 2004 season, he might have been able to turn the Marlins around like McKeon did, so I think he still deserves a little credit (and a ring, if he didn’t get one). Makes you wonder how many teams have fired a coach or manager and won a title in the same season. 

PIECE OF A HUMAN BONE- 1996 Stadium Club #406 John Hudek

I have been a Hudek fan since his rookie season in 1994. He made big news for becoming an All-Star even though he was winless. It was even bigger news as he started the season in the minors. He kind of fizzled out after that, but I’ll always remember him being a flash in the pan closer and his cards being hot in 1994 for a few months. 

As big of a Hudek fan that I am, I had never seen his ‘96 Stadium Club card or heard the story that it mentions. Apparently he had rib surgery and decided to have part of the rib that they took out made into a necklace, which you can really see on the front. I believe a few of his cards in 1996 have the necklace shown on it as well. 

This card is one of just 2 that I know of (1991 Score #65 Jim Leyritz) that mention the photo on the front of the card. 

Now I will show you some interesting stuff I’ve found on backs of cards. Prepare to start digging your 1995 Topps cards out of boxes. 

STABBING- 1990 Donruss #538 Joey Cora

Let’s just get this one out of the way…Joey was stabbed by a fan after a game in 1986 and it is mentioned on his 1990 Donruss card in one of the final sentences.

SOAP OPERAS- 1995 Topps #81 Charlie Hayes

This card just mentions soap operas and not a specific one. I’m sure there was little time for soap operas in 3 years as the Hayes family would have their hands full with little Ke’Bryan. 

SPECIFIC SOAP OPERA (THE YOUNG & THE RESTLESS)- 2001 Topps #16 Brian Jordan

My wife got me hooked on this show about 12 years ago, and I wish I would’ve caught Brian’s episode. At least he has good (or bad) tastes in shows. 

RATTLE- 1998 Topps #462 Quinton McCracken

The card mentions how McCracken was given a large rattle as an infant and accidentally knocked himself out with it. ‘90’s Topps card backs are really fun as you will soon learn. 

SHAVING CREAM- 1995 Topps #181 Jeff Reed

The back of this one mentions that Jeff would oil his gloves with shaving cream. I knew a guy who met Jeff and got season passes to Elizabethton Twins games from Jeff when he was coaching them. I should’ve tried to tag along to a game with him so I could ask Mr. Reed about his shaving cream theory. 

SNAKE OIL- 1995 Topps #529 Jose Rijo

I’ve already posted about Rijo’s amazing card photos, but if you think the fun stops there, look at the backs. His ‘95 Topps gem mentions that he puts 5 drops of snake oil on anything that hurts. 

DONKEYS- 1994 Topps #85 Tony Pena

There could be an earlier mention, but Tony Peña’s 1994 Topps issue mentions Tony being taken to childhood games by 4 donkeys. 

SLEEPING- 2020 Topps Heritage #112 Nick Ahmed

The newest of these fun cards, Nick’s 2020 Heritage card mentions how he often gets 11 hours of sleep each night. If I were truthful, that’s about how much I need to be running at 100%.  Now I usually get 5-6 per night, but on days off, I get more, and a few times a year I get the magical 11 like Nick does. 

SQUASH (THE SPORT)- 1995 Topps #130 Jeff Conine

Jeff played raquetball (his ‘96 Stadium club shows him holding a raquet), and the back of his ‘95 Topps issue mentions he played squash as well. I assume he still plays, but when I came across a page of current squash players, he wasn’t listed, so I assume he is sticking with his baseball front office/coaching job rather than joining the pro squash circuit. 

FOOSBALL- 1995 Topps #140 Dante Bichette

This one just casually mentions Dante winning the Tucson Arizona Foosball championship in 1994. I wonder if the event is still going on?  I actually got to meet Dante in 1999, and he signed this card for me, and I’m kicking myself for not asking him about the event. 

CONTACT LENSES/HOT CHILI PEPPERS- 1995 Topps #44 Bret Barberie

So many questions about this story. Bret eats some chili peppers. They cause his eyes to water. He rubs them. The chili juice gets in his contacts and he can’t wear them and misses a game.  While I stay away from hot foods and don’t know what pepper juice can do to a contact lens, this just seems fishy. Couldn’t he just spray them with solution to get the juice out?  Didn’t he have another pair?  Was his vision really that bad that he couldn’t have just played without them?  I think the peppers really just messed with his tummy and he was on the porcelain throne all night and the contacts were fine. 

ROLLING STONE MAGAZINE- 1994 Topps #343 Mo Sanford

While it is rare that you will hear me talk about a former Aleebammer Criminal Tide athlete on this Auburn Tiger-supporting blog, I had to mention this one just because it reminds me how most of their athletes are over-hyped, appear on national magazines, and then fizzle out. I mean, really.  If you weren’t a Rockies fan who is older than 40 or hadn’t went through your 1994 Topps binder card-by-card yesterday, would you even know who Mo Sanford is? And if you somehow did, would you even know he was a former Bammer?  Exactly. Just like how no current Yankee fan can tell you who Shane Spencer or Kevin Maas is. 

CEMETERY-1996 Topps #197 Roger Clemens

I kind of wonder the story behind this one. Was it at Arlington National Cemetery and Topps just forgot the ‘National’ part, or was it a random one in Arlington, TX?  Was Clemens just sightseeing on an off day, or visiting the burial site of a loved one?  What was Slick Willie doing there?  Was Lewinsky with him? Who were the other 2 presidents Roger has met?  Why does Topps put these stories on the back of cards without giving us all of the information?!!

ANSWERING MACHINE- 1995 Topps #200 Tim Salmon

For all of you millennials, an answering machine is the same as voicemail. When people had phones with a cord in their house, they didn’t have voicemail. Eventually someone invented a box that had a tape recorder that could be attached to the phone, and you could leave a voicemail on the answering machine. Google it sometime. I don’t really see the thrill of being related to Holly Hunter. I’ve heard of her maybe once or twice in the ‘90’s, and that had to have been during the prime of her career. I’m sure she came out on the better end of the deal being able to tell people she was related to Tim Salmon. I still think it’s a crime that he was never elected to an All-Star team. Who from the Angels was getting picked to represent the team instead of Tim?  Chili Davis? Jim Edmonds? Chad Curtis? Troy Percival? 

And the final random thing I’ve found on a card:

AMBULANCE/TOLL/PARALYSIS- 1995 Topps #183 Jim Edmonds

Speaking of Edmonds, another gem of a story uncovered by the guys that make the backs for the 1995 Topps set. Jim was hit by a pitch, paralyzed, taken to a hospital by ambulance, the driver didn’t have 3 bucks for a toll, got to the hospital late, Jim recovers, makes one of the best catches ever in 1998, and wins a World Series title in 2006. Does that mean the ambulance took a highway with a toll road?  Do they really bother making ambulance drivers pay tolls?  Why wouldn’t you let a vehicle with flashing lights and sirens go through?  All for 3 bucks that the toll collector won’t be seeing anyways. If people were payed by volume sold or number of customers served, you would see productivity go up.  Or just hire guys like the toll collector who wouldn’t let an ambulance go through a toll lane because they didn’t have 3 bucks and almost paralyzed borderline Hall of Famer Jimmy Edmonds. 

I’m sure there are some I’ve missed. I know there’s one of Robert Fick that mentions a stray cat, a 2016 Topps First Pitch insert that mentions a pageant Queen throwing a pitch in heels and a tiara, and a Daryl Boston one that mentions him doing a Stevie Wonder impression (another 1995 Topps, I believe). Check those backs, people. You’ll find some interesting stories. Especially on those ‘95 Topps cards. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy

Catching up the past 2 months

 It’s been probably close to 2 months since my last post if I were to guess. It seems like one thing after another has just come upon my plate. That doesn’t mean I haven’t been doing card things.

A few months ago, I finished uploading all of my cards to TCDB.  I was hoping to make some trades after that, but the process of putting cards on my trade list was a little daunting.  After all, how do I input my whole collection on it, but take away any Topps card, any Rays card, and Tigers card, as well as 50+ guys that I collect? Shortly before all of the uploading was finished, I made a post about Heritage SPs that I had and was willing to trade, and it had been widely ignored for a month or two.  About a month ago, someone messaged me about trading for some of the SPs, I figured out how to put my Heritage cards only on my trade list, and that has opened the floodgates.  I’ve made about 12 trades and have 3 or 4 pending approval, and another 5 or so in the in between stages. Every other day or so I get an offer for something. It is kind of overwhelming, but I have been able to pull it off, and have been able to add missing Topps cards to my lists. The 1981 (13), 1982 (29), 1983 (32), 1984 (79), and 1985 (28) Topps sets are all within striking distance of completing soon, with 1980 (201) lagging a tad behind but totally doable. 1982 (23) and 1984 Traded (Gooden RC) are also close to getting finished. One set I did complete was 1996 Topps, and that gives me a complete run of Topps sets (including Traded) from 1986-1999.  The ‘85 set would give me a run from ‘85 since I have that Traded set complete. Traded sets like 2000, 2001, and 2002 will give me some problems, as I don’t have many from ‘00 including the Cabrera, the ‘01 cards have some rookies I am missing (I do have the 2 Pujols cards though), and 2002 has the veterans all are SPs. 

Besides the trading, I have been doing a ton of creating. The biggest thing has been a HUGE custom project that I have been trying to find the right time to work on. It is over halfway done now, almost 75% of the way done, actually. Just a few more batches of cards to make, and it should be finished, I’m hoping 2-3 weeks, but you know how life gets. Once it is finished, I’m going to let the recipient give me word, but I’ll have a cool announcement to make regarding the set, as well as something to go with it that you might want to pick up. It is definitely very cool and something I will be proud to add to my resume. 

I’ve been writing music with my Brother-in-Law JT since 2005, and while we haven’t recorded too much, we’ve formed a comedy band called ‘The Younger Griffin’, and a serious more Christian-themed band called ‘Resiliency from Obscurity.  I am more of the music writer, and JT does more of the lyric writing and singing. With the recent AI craze, JT has taken some lyrics that the both of us have written for the Younger Griffin and put it to AI music, and cobbled an album together. While I am a little disappointed to not have recorded my own chord progressions or melodies and riffs to the lyrics, the AI music is definitely more polished than anything I could ever record by myself. We should have some Younger Griffin social media pages up soon, as well as an 11 song first album that is 20 years in the making. Songs that I’ve written majority of the lyrics for include ones called ‘Liberate the Penguins’, ‘Soccer is Death’, and ‘Credit Misery’. They are different than what I have envisioned musically, but again, AI got us a legit album that probably wouldn’t have came together organically for another 5-15 years. Stay tuned to get some links to our pages and bring money. 

I’m just treading water right now at the house. Living with Karens mom is an enduring struggle, and Karen is just cold or colder health wise with more of the barely going a few feet and getting out of breath. In 8 days she finally gets to go to Mayo for an appointment with pulmonary, and hopefully they will decide to do a broncoscophy and clear her out, as well as try a new type of stent to try to keep her lungs from collapsing so much. Those things could help her just kind of get back to normal, maybe even better like living like a normal person who can just breathe. Then maybe we can fry bigger fish like the shunt stuff. 

I had totally forgot requesting some cards from David of Tribe Cards when he did his 12 Days of Christmas giveaway.  I got an email from him a few weeks ago and yesterday got a huge box full of cards. Probably 500-700 cards worth. 

Just a ton of cards. The usual Tigers and Rays from all kinds of different eras and sets. 

The favorites out of the batch included a ‘24 Bowman Curtis Mead rookie. I had totally forgot about the 2022 Topps 3D set, and I scored almost the whole Rays team set. 2 rookies of (I’m sad to say) former Ray Randy Arozarena and current Ray Junior Caminiero were nice additions to the package that David could have easily kept for himself and hoped for the values to go up, but he sent them to DeLand. There were some cool 2020 Donruss Hilo Red parallels, including a Hunter Renfroe, and a 2024 Topps series 2 card of Jose Siri.  I spent 3 or 4 seasons getting autographs at Lakeland Tigers games in the early 2000’s, and Joe Coleman was the teams pitching coach. I don’t believe that card is his photo, but I never had it back then, so I couldn’t show it to him and ask. He was a generally quiet guy, but I asked him about golf one time and if he hit a hole in one. He said he did, and I asked him what it felt like, and he replied ‘exhilarating’. Maybe I can pick up golf when I retire and go to enough par 3 courses that I’ll get that exhilarating feeling. The Torkelson is a ‘24 Big League SP, and the Verlander is a blue refractor from ‘12 Topps Chrome. While most people wouldn’t consider a mascot autograph a ‘hit’, I’m thrilled to add this Paws autograph to my collection. Kyler and I are trying to get mascot autographs at different stadiums, and sometimes it’s even more difficult than getting actual players. We struck out on Paws at Comerica, and Raymond is the only one we’ve gotten in fact, out of the 6 parks we’ve see in person. The ‘19 Verlander relic made me do a double take as I was seeing Verlander Astro cards in 2018, so I’m glad they still made Tiger cards of him even after he left them. The 1960 Topps Ray Semproch was easily the oldest card of the batch, and I cut off a 1976 Topps record breaker of Mickey Lolich. In the last week I found out Lolich had almost 3,000 Ks from an article online as well as this card. With guys like Kaat, Jack Morris, and others getting in the Hall, Mickey Lolich needs to get a good, hard look. The ‘68 postseason and career numbers are worth double checking. 

I got this ‘23 Jason Adam card from the Rays team set in 2023, and got it signed in June when I went and saw the Rays play the Cubs. A few weeks ago, I got an email on TCDB from a Rays employee who wanted to know where I got the card.  I told them the team set and that there might be one at the team store. Apparently the set is nowhere to be found online and is sold out at the Trop. I offered to just send them the card since they seemed like they would enjoy it more than me, and I sent it out a few weeks ago. It turns out they work in the scouting department analyzing video and sorting it by pitch type and then sending a report with tendencies directly to manager Kevin Cash. As much as I don’t care for Cash’s overanalyzing and the love of spin rate, it is definitely interesting. In return for the Adam card, they offered me tickets to a Rays game next year, which I plan to pick out when they release the 2025 schedule. 

One last note and I’ll put you out of your misery. My pineapple plant started turning yellow 2 days ago, and I decided to try and twist it off the plant today. 

It came off, but didn’t come off too easy, and I was expecting it to be sweet like the one I had 3 or 4 years ago. Unfortunately, I should’ve probably let it go a few more days, because it had very little sweet flavor to it. On the bright side, there are 6 or 7 more pineapple plants around the house, and one of them is bound to bloom next spring. 

That was the one I picked 4 or 5 years ago, and you can see it was probably a few days more ripe. 

I think that was about all of the important things worth noting since my last post. I picked up a blaster of ‘24 Donruss, was impressed with the foil and thought it was funny how each pack had cards in order numerically (like 20-30 or 42-52). Haven’t found Topps Chrome in the wild, but the complete set will be out in about 2 weeks, so that will have to do. 

Stay tuned for custom project news as well as shameless Younger Griffin plugs and more trading. 

Thanks for checking out my latest post. 

-Jeremy