The Munchkins in Oz are Celebrating !!

Bye Bye !!

Ding dong the manager's gone.
And now it's time,
For a brand new song.
Ding dong let's start all over again !


We got young talent ready to go.
Some can hit it far,
Some can fly right home.

Ding dong let's see some hit 'n run !

Ding dong, bunt the ball,

Move 'em around,

Do not stall.

Ding dong just wait until next year !

These Tribers are for the Birds

More specifically, Oriole birds. Even more specifically, Beardy's Orioles.

I had yet to make any deals or trades with "The Bearded One" but thanks to him, I now have my first Obak Indians.

These cards are very interesting with the little tidbits of information on the back.

Like, I did not know (or forgot - good possibility at my age !), that Herb Score was both, the 1954 MiLB Player of the Year and American Association MVP !

Al Rosen was the 1947 Texas League MVP.

Then there is Carlos Santana, who was named the 2009 Eastern League MVP, playing for the Eastern League Champion Akron Aeros. ( That part wasn't on the card because it just happened : http://www.akronaeros.com/cgi-bin/dist/news.cgi?id=1252084236 ).

Beardy also sent two shiny, chrome Tribesmen.

Well, 1 Triber and 1 ex-Triber. Lee's an Indian on the card though, so that's OK.

How about Sandy Alomar for manager ?!!

Thank you Beardy, for the great Tribe cards and some Orioles will be flying your way soon!!

If I build it, will you come?

When is a baseball card a football card ?

I recently purchased some loose 9-card pages, full of cards, at a local flea market. I glanced at this one,not recognizing the design, thinking is that a young Ken Griffey Jr.? Then I noticed that it was football card ! Flipping it over filled me in on the information I needed to know.

A baseball card is a football card when it is a young Ronnie Lott, who envisioned himself as Brooks Robinson !

If I build it ,will you come?

Cleveland and the Minor Leagues Part I

Minor League Baseball of the Cleveland Indians

Where did Minor League baseball start? When did it start? If you have never looked into the answers to those questions you may be surprised! I'm not going into a lot of general details but you can can get more info here:http://web.minorleaguebaseball.com/milb/history/ and here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minor_League_Baseball .

This post is concerned with the teams, over the years, that have been affiliated with the Cleveland Indians.

The following is a list of those teams through 1939

A rough comparison to today's classification would go like this:

Open = AAA

A,A1,A,A- = AA / A

B,C,D,E, = Rookie Leagues

YEAR / CLASS / LEAGUE / CITY-TEAM NAME

1929

D Blue Ridge League ( PA-MD-WV ) * Frederick Warriors

1930

D Blue Ridge League ( PA-MD-WV ) * Frederick Warriors

1931

1932

B Central League* Ft. Wayne Chiefs

B Illinois-Iowa-Indiana League * Quincy Indians

B New York-Pennsylvania League * Williamsport Grays

D Mississippi Valley League * Burlington Bees

1933

A1 Southern Association * New Oleans Pelicans

C Middle Atlantic League * Zanesville Grays

1934

A1 Southern Association * New Oleans Pelicans

C Middle Atlantic League * Zanesville Grays

D Northern League * Fargo-Moorhead Twins

D Pennsylvania State Association * Monessen Indians

1935

AA American Association * Minneapolis Millers

A1 Southern Association * New Oleans Pelicans

C Middle Atlantic League * Zanesville Grays

D Evangeline League * Opelousas Indians

D Northern League * Fargo-Moorhead Twins

D Pennsylvania State Association * Butler Indians

1936

AA American Association * Minneapolis Millers

A1 Southern Association * New Oleans Pelicans

C Cotton States League * Clarksdale Ginners

C Middle Atlantic League * Zanesville Grays

D Evangeline League * Opelousas Indians

D Northern League * Fargo-Moorhead Twins

D Northern League * Wausau Timberjacks

D Ohio State League *Mansfield Tigers

D Pennsylvania State Association * Monessen Indians

1937

AA American Association * Milwaukee Brewers

A1 Southern Association * New Oleans Pelicans

B Southeastern League * Montgomery Bombers

C Canadian-American League * Oswego Netherlands

C Middle Atlantic League * Springfield Indians

D Evangeline League * Opelousas Indians

D Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League * Hopkinsville Hoppers

D Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League * Owensburg Oilers

D North Carolina State League * Newton-Conover Twins

D Northern League * Fargo-Moorhead Twins

D Northern League * Wausau Timberjacks

1938

AA American Association * Milwaukee Brewers

A1 Southern Association * New Oleans Pelicans

C Canadian-American League * Oswego Netherlands

C Middle Atlantic League * Springfield Indians

B South Atlantic League * Spartanburg Spartans

D Florida State League * Gainesville G-Men

D Georgia-Florida League * Tallahassee Capitals

D Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League * Hopkinsville Hoppers

D Kentucky-Illinois-Tennessee League * Owensburg Oilers

D Northern League * Fargo-Moorhead Twins

1939

AA International Buffalo Bisons

A1 Southern Association * New Oleans Pelicans

A Eastern Wilkes- Barre Barons

A- Penn-Ontario-NY (PONY) Niagara Falls Rainbows

B Illinois-Iowa-Indiana League * Cedar Rapids Raiders

B Piedmont League * Winston-Salem Twins

B South Atlantic League * Spartanburg Spartans

C East Texas League * Tyler Trojans

C Middle Atlantic League * Springfield Indians

D Alabama-Florida League * Troy Trojans

D Bi-State League ( NC-VA ) * Leaksville-Draper-Spray Triplets

D Evangeline League * Opelousas Indians

D Mountain State League * Logan Indians

D Northern League * Fargo-Moorhead Twins

D Ohio State League * Mansfield Braves

Obviously there were many more leagues and teams in the early days.

Baseball was THE sport during the late 19th and early to mid 20th centuries. That's when it was a game. Today all sports are more business than pleasure, just as many bloggers have noted the changes in the card companies and collecting habits.Card collecting is still a hobby and a lot of fun to me and probably to most of you who are reading this. If only we could get more young kids interested again. I've tried and tried but it's hard to compete with computers and video games.

If I build it,will you come?

A Flea Market Tale

Yesterday, weather wise, was just about a perfect day around here. Warm and sunny with a breeze blowing and for the first time in four weeks I didn't have to work. I still get up early every morning, about 6-6:30, and find something quiet to do until everyone else is awake. My wife came onto the den around 9:00, she had been up about 1 hour, and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the flea market.She mentioned we hadn't done anything spontaneous for fun lately and it was a nice day to get out. Well, everyone else had the same idea! We had never seen as many outside vendors as there were yesterday. There are also large buildings with permanent, inside spaces.Things started out well, as we pulled into the parking lot and saw about 200 yards worth of cars in front of us waiting to get to the rear parking areas, when a car in the front lot was leaving early and we were the only ones able to get to that spot! That actually worried me a little as I wondered if the rest of the day would turn out really crappy since we had such good luck parking. My fears were abandoned though, as we started to look around. The following are some of my "finds" of the day.

These books actually came from two different Goodwill stores we stopped at on the way home.

Yeah,yeah,I know Derek Jeter is a Yankee! I am a big fan of baseball history and he will be a big part of that. My baseball book collection easily fills a full size bookshelf and covers many topics and authors.

Now to the flea market!

The first baseball related items I saw turned out to be starting line-ups. One seller had a table covered with them.The first one that caught my eye was a 1996 Hideo Nomo. Now, there's a well known blogger out there who usually reads my work and loves Nomo. He was the first person I thought of. I don't know if he has this or is even interested but the seller wanted $15.00. I just kept walking! Good thing. About 8-10 tables down the line, another vendor had a whole box full of SLU's including the two above. The same Nomo and a Frank Thomas. The box was marked $3.00 each or 2/ $5. It sure pays to look around!

This Albert Belle came from another table. No, that's not Jacob's Field Albert is standing on. It's old Veteran's Stadium, sight of the 1996 All-Star game. There were several different players in this series, " Stadium Stars ". This box was actually still factory sealed but I'm not one to keep items, I intend to keep, in their original packaging. Albert will be out on display with the rest of his SLU friends!



One inside vendor had a special going on. He had 3-4 3200 ct. boxes full of cards priced at 2 cents each. There were no Indians, but a lot of nice cards. Hopefully for trading or helping someone with want lists. I may have to go back as there were a lot of late 1970's -early 1980's Topps. Mostly commons but very good condition.




Back to the fresh air sellers. One of the regulars was also having a sale. Team bags filled with a wide variety of cards. The best part was, he would let you open them to see all the cards. He was very confident that you would like what you found. The older gentleman was right. Above you can see Michael Jordan, Derek Jeter, Pete Rose and others. There were also pretty good cards inside. Price: $.50 a pack. 15-20 cards each.

The same guy had these packs for $.25 each. The 1995 Donruss Team Sets pack is the Boston Red Sox. I only bought one but may be able to get more if anyone is interested.

Moving on down the line, I came upon a woman with an old revolving, table-top comic book rack.It was full of these binder pages full of various cards. Again, mostly commons, but some stars. She was asking $.25 a page. 30 in all and would have been $7.50. She also had two of the three albums shown below, plus a 1992 white album like the red one.The white one (not shown), the red one and the 2005 were all stadium give-a -ways and measure 6x8" with 10 four-pocket pages. The larger green album measures 9x12" and has 10 nine-pocket pages.None of the albums were full but all had some cards.She sold it all to me for $8.00. Just the loose pages were worth $3.00.

The final sports card item came from the older gentleman again. 1994 Post cereal , 30 card set. Unopened-- $.50 on sale !

Even though there is nothing really earth shattering here to most people , I was thrilled with what I got for what I paid as I'm on a pretty tight budget!

One last inside item. Those of you who saw my Baseball Christmas decor last year will see something new ! My wife and I were together when I ran across this. I was debating, but my wife "made" me buy it.If I didn't, she was going to !!

In case anyone wondered about the back drop for my photos today,this was it.

A week ago yesterday, the Tribe won their last game. We were there. Yea !!!!

This fleece, depicting all the Indian logos, was the give-a-way. It is pretty large. It's shown on our full size, double recliner sofa and almost covers it all. That ,on top of the win,made the game very enjoyable!

If I build it, will you come?

Should I start trading football for baseball ?

Little known facts : I have approximately 5000 football cards, 2000 basketball cards and a smattering of hockey and other non-sport cards lying around taking up space.I don't actually collect any of those items, they just seem to accumulate over time.

A couple weeks ago Big D, over at Hey that's mine, was looking for a Lester Hayes football card he had owned as a young collector and was trying to find another copy. The majority of my football cards are from the late 80's and early 90's along with some newer and some older ones. I thought I just may have the card he was looking for so I dug out my boxes and started searching.Well, I did find two Hayes cards, but not the specific one he was searching for. He was interested in them anyway so I sent them on their way to a new, happier home. I wasn't expecting or asking for anything in return as they were just two meaningless cards to me. Plus, if he was collecting football, he probably wouldn't have much I was interested in anyway. However, I discovered Big D also collects baseball cards and today I received a nice package from him.When I saw the return address, I remembered the name, but for the life of me I could not remember what trade it was! When I opened it and saw his note, it all came back. "Thanks for the Lester Hayes cards. Big D".

This was one of my favorites in the stack : Omar doing one of his patented, acrobatic double plays.

I liked those uniforms too. Very sharp and clean looking.

Big D also included all these cards, several of which I do need.

Thank you very much for the great cards.

I'll have to check your want lists!

If I build it, will you come?

Chris is OK

The Jake at night.

A couple weeks ago I received an email from Chris OK,who had noticed a comment I left on another blog. He said he had some Tribe cards he thought I would enjoy more than him and wanted to send them to me. It didn't take long for me to send him my address !! I'm always up for receiving Indian cards and I always have something in return.

Chris' package started out with some 2007 Upper Deck base cards.

Marte, Shoppach and Peralta.

I needed the Jhonny P.

Then things got a little more interesting !

2008 Carmona OTG, I have this one, but it is a nice card.

2007 Hafner OTG, have it too.....wait a minute...Travis is facing the wrong way ! He has at least 2 cards in this set. I had the RBI card but Chris sent the HR leader card I didn't have!

2008 Topps Heritage Minnie Minoso, I remember watching him play on b&w tv when I was youngster. Definitely need this one.

2009 Topps TR 50 Tris Speaker - another keeper.

Grady,Grady,Grady,Grady,Grady and Grady !!

2008 Topps TCHC20 1948 Swell Gum Sport Thrills ,nice,very shiny!

2008 Topps Chrome TCCP22 , another beauty.

2007 Upper Deck Triple Play scratch - off x 2

2007 Topps AS

2008 Stadium Club

2009 Topps Heritage

What a nice selection of cards, thank you very much Chris !

Many of these went right into my albums.

If I build it,will you come?

Cartoon of the Day

If I build it, will you come?

Clunkers to and from Fan of Reds

A few weeks ago the innovating female minds over at Dinged Corners transferred the auto industries "Cash for Clunkers" into "Cards for Clunkers". At least that's where I first saw it. Since then, many bloggers have cashed in on the idea. And why not? It was a terrific plan ! Thanks for the idea.

One of the latest to jump in was Fan of Reds over at Nachos Grande. I just put a package for him in the mail today and received one from him also! The three cards above were among his clunkers and I staked a claim on them. Why, you ask, does a Tribe fan want Mantle cards? Well, first, they're all chrome and shiny! Second, I grew up in the sixties and "The Mick" was one of my heroes.

When the neighbor kids all got together to play ball, everyone wanted to be Mickey Mantle. Do kids still have that much imagination these days? I used to take a piece of chalk and draw a square on the side of our concrete block garage. That square would be the strike zone. I would be the Cleveland pitcher, maybe Jim "Mudcat" Grant. We would be in Cleveland playing the "hated " NY Yankees! Standing back a ways, I would try to throw a pitch into the square for a strike. Richardson, Howard, Boyer,Maris, none of those guys could hit me ! Even if I missed the square, they would swing and miss be out. But Mantle, that was different story. Of course, he never hit a HR off me unless we were so far ahead it didn't make any difference. But he did get some base hits. So that's why I save Mantle cards. I don't actively collect his cards but I save them when I run across or pull them out of packs.I don't have any originals. I had an orange 1960 Topps All-Star card as a kid, but it's long gone.That was the only Mantle card I ever had. Now, before I go " girly" and get all emotional, let's move on.

Fan of Reds other clunker is a Fausto Carmona x- fractor, another card with a lot of shine. He also sent the following Tribe cards along with the clunkers.

There are a couple or three more that I need in that group.

Thank you very much for the clunker trade. I hope you enjoy your cards as well !!

A Super Joe in the mail and one method to my madness.

Last week I received an envelope in the mail from someone I didn't know, had never made a trade with and never purchased anything from, yet I was expecting it ! Sound confusing ? It's not, really. My two terrific sons are always thinking of me. Andy knew I was looking for the base version "Nickname Greats" Super Joe card. I already had the autographed version.There were plenty of them on ebay but not the base card. He happened to see it online, bought it and had the sender mail it directly to me ! Thank you Andy for putting me one card closer to completing my Joe Charboneau card collection.

Now that the important part is done, on to my madness.

I sure someone out there is very organized and has every card in it's place and knows exactly where it is located. Actually, I try to be, but it just doesn't always work. However, I do have a method in place for my new Tribe cards. Whenever I get any new Indian cards, whether by trade, flea market, card show or out of packs , they all go here :

My "Indians to sort" box. The cards shown in the front of the box right now are the 300+ cards I received in a trade with First Day Issue .

Toward the back of the box I have divider cards labeled with years from 1983 to 2009. It starts with 1983 because I rarely get many cards older than that,but when I do I try to put them in my albums immediately. The next step is to sort the cards,which leaves the box looking like this :


The cards are now sorted by year and placed behind the corresponding divider card.

The very first red divider is marked "misc.". Behind that goes minor league cards, retro cards and player cards I collect that have their own albums. That would be Jim Thome (Cleveland cards only!), Super Joe and Steve Olin. I also collect Jim Abbott (any team) but his cards are kept in another box for sorting. So, the cards are now all sorted by year and it's time to check to see if I need them and if I do they go to their happy new home here :


The Indian album shelves. Actually there are two more that don't fit on the shelf. You may notice that the ID strips on the binders don't match. There are different colors, type and layout.The entire collection needs to be reorganized with more pages added and probably more binders as some are really stuffed! That's part of my winter project. I will decide which label I like best at that time and make them all match. The cards are all sorted by year ,brand and player. I grab the first binder, and the new cards that go in it, and work my way through inserting cards I need in the proper places and also looking for possible upgrades. The dupes go back into the front of the box until I'm finished. Then it looks like this :

The duplicates all in front and the dividers in the back waiting for the next batch of goodies. Then the duplicates are transferred to a larger 5000 ct. box.Unfortunately, those are not all sorted !

Now I get to start on the 1200 card trade !

Identical Packs From Motherscratcher - Pack Searcher?

Motherscratcher, just what have you been up to ? You sent me all these great,old packs but you know what's inside, don't you !?

The first thing you have to realize is, that this is all in fun ! (I hope)

This is what I found when I opened the first two packs of 1992 Fleer.

Every single card was the same and in the same order. And some people think collation is bad today.

This is what makes me think you're up to something ! 16 packs (not counting Comic Ball), 211 cards and I only get 6 Tribe cards !!
I've got you on this one. I know what you're up to.
You are an Indians fan and don't want to give up any more Tribe cards than you have to.
I know I have to be careful here. Knowing your profession,you probably do a lot of dental work for doctors, lawyers, FBI agents,NCIS, CSI and maybe even the President.
I'm pretty sure you probably had some of those high tech people (that Abby can do anything with computers!) fix up one your x-ray machines so you can see every card in each pack without opening it.You missed that Babe Ruth though didn't 'ya! Ha! That was probably the last pack you checked, the gold leaf probably took out your machine !!

Seriously, these old packs were a lot of fun. Back then nobody wanted Indian cards so they didn't have many !

There were a few ex or yet-to -be Tribe players too.
Brett Butler,Denny Martinez, Ron Hassey,Omar Vizquel,Jeff Kent,Dennis Eckersley

Cal, The Babe,Carlton and Chipper

The "BAGMAN" with his cool pop-ups, Kirby Puckett,HOF ' er Rickey Henderson and a Cyber Stats Paul Molitor.

Classic Randy Johnson and the real Roger Clemens

Nolan Ryan and Tweety x 2 ( how was the hologram on the x-ray?)

Jim Abbott is a player I collect outside of the Tribe.

And Reggie trying to out run the Road Runner!

Last but not least, Bob Tewksbury, which goes very well with my autographed ball !

Well that was fun!! Thanks so much for everything.I haven't checked all the wrappers yet but I did need the Turkey Red hobby version you threw in !!

Happy Labor Day ! More boxes arrive.

HAPPY LABOR DAY !!

I hope everyone is having a fun week-end.

I didn't get a full 3 days, as the car dealer I work for is open on Saturdays.

Parts and service is only open until noon though, so I did get 2 1/2 days.

When I got home on Saturday these two boxes were waiting for me.

Now that's the way to start a holiday !

This box was from just down the road a ways.
Well, actually about an hour down the road.
Motherscratcher, from Avon, is not far at all but we never have met.
We'll have to get together sometime.

He sent a very nice mixture of wax packs which I will be doing a post on later today.

These two boxes were taped together and came as one package.
These are the approx. 1200 cards that came from Mike. He's not a blogger, that I know of, but he lives in New Jersey and at least, at one time, collected cards.
He happened across my web page and thought I might like these Tribe cards so he sent them to me !! He didn't even want anything for them but I will have to repay him somehow ! Well, I will always take any baseball cards or any sports cards anyone wants to give away.I will find a good place for the ones that don't end up in my collection.(of course,that's a good place too).