Hot Dog ! A new found Thome card !

I started back into collecting Indian cards about 20 years ago. I started to specialize in Jim Thome a couple years later and still do today. I pretty much only collect his cards as an Indian though. If I come upon his cards from another team, I save them, but don't actively collect them. I thought I knew about all of his early cards but I didn't know this 1992 issue existed !

This all starts with an item I found on ebay. 1992 Kahn's Weiners Indian team set.

This looks like it could have been a stadium give-a-way but I'm not really sure. Catalogs list some Kahn's as such, but I haven't found a listing on the Indian set. Sometimes they are not classified as "baseball cards" because they are actually playing cards. I still want them in my Indian collection no matter what they are.

 

 

 

 

The backs of the cards are based on a motif similar to the box design. There is a Kahn's Wiener Mascot wild card and two Slider joker cards.

 

This set differs from most playing card sets I've seen in that there are different cards in different suits.Usually there are only 13 different players portrayed on each of four playing card suits. All four suits are different in this deck. When there is a duplication of a player, it's a different pose.

 

 

 

The Spades

 

 

 

 

As you can see, the three and seven are both Carlos Baerga, but totally different views.

 

 

 

The Diamonds

 

 

And there he is !

#6

Jim Thome

In 1992, still a diamond in the rough, but he polished up pretty well over the years.

 

 

 

The Clubs

 

 

 

And last but not least,

 

The Hearts

 

 

 

Well, that was a quick 55 count addition to my Tribe collection.

One of these days I'm going to have to do a running count and see what the total is now.

Someday !

 

 



Gaylord Perry bobble and a Subway "Club"

August 12, 2012.

A date I will not soon forget.

 

My son and I went to Cleveland Sunday to watch our beloved Tribe. The final of a 4 game home stand with Boston. We had won two of three so we had at least a split. And that's what we got.

We sat in the right field bleachers and this guy was really bored.

We lost 14-1. That's all I'm going to say.

There was an ulterior motive to be there though.



Bobble head day !

Saturday night, Gaylord Perry was inducted into the Cleveland Indians HOF.

In case you're wondering about the 75 years on the front, the give-a-way was sponsored by "The Jake's" sponsor, Progressive Insurance. It's their 75th anniversary. We actually have their insurance on our home and cars.

In the fall of 1971, Cleveland traded Sam McDowell to San Francisco, for Perry and Frank Duffy. Can you imagine being traded away from teammates Willy Mays, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey and Olando Cepeda and wind up in Cleveland where they lost 102 games the previous year !!

Undaunted, in 1972, Gaylord went 24-16, 1.92 with 29 complete games and won the first Cy Young Award for Cleveland.

One other high note. Before the game, Josh and I were wandering around the concourse below the bleachers. We came upon a gentleman sitting with his family ( I assume !), a woman and two older children. They were Boston fans and, completely out the blue, offered three of their four bobble heads to us ! I politely said "No thanks" and walked away.  NOT !!!  Of course we'll take them !

Are you hungry for Subway ?

I am a man of habit. Not necessarily always good ! I do have a routine I follow almost every day of the year. I get up about 6am. Get ready for work,or the week-end. Go to the local Marathon for a cup of coffee on my way to work or coffee and a breakfast sandwich on Sunday. The Marathon has a Subway franchise inside. The owners, Randy and Karen, are local folks and I've known them forever.They both know I'm a die-hard baseball and Tribe fan.Last week I walked in one day and Karen handed me this :

Cool !!

A deck of Subway Cleveland Indian playing cards !

They got them at a convention a few years ago.

They took them away from their 18 month old grandson.

I just cringed !!  "You did what !?"

"He just liked putting them in the box and taking them back out and then we thought you might like them, and we afraid they would get all bent up."

Well, I went home and found a 2012 Topps value pack box with the nice little pocket inside and filled it half way with a stack of misc. Indian baseball cards and gave it to Karen to replace the playing cards. "Don't worry if they get bent !!".

Randy and Karen are really very nice people and run a terrific and very popular business !

Here are the cards :

Who else but Slider would be on the "joker" cards ?

The same pictures were on each suit so I'll just show the hearts.

Counting down from 10 is Mgr. Eric Wedge.

9,8,7,

Jody Gerut

Coco Crisp

Matt Lawton

6,5,4,

Omar Vizquel

Casey Blake

John McDonald

3 Ben Broussard

2 Victor Martinez

1 Cliff Lee

Thanks so much for another very cool addition to my Indians memorabilia !!



My First Look ! Bowman Platinum and Panini Triple Play

I had to work until noon today and then stopped at Target on my way home, just to see what I could find, not knowing two new baseball products were waiting for us!

First up, Panini Triple Play.

Seven cards per pack and only 99 cents !

These are obviously aimed the younger set, however, they have that distinctively different quality that should entrance most of more experienced collectors.

I purchased 3 packs and these were the base cards I pulled. There are several different styles but they all have the same basic artsy look. Some have rather unusual expressions and cropping also. Stanton looks like he's ready for some serious brawling and the beard is definitely the focal point on Wilson's card. But what else would be !

The back of the base card features a cropped version of the front picture, a trivia question and a short story covering some of the player's highlights and accomplishments. The typical personal stats and one line of career playing stats finishes the reverse side.

Focus, card #235, appears to be a subset but this time the front of the card has the cropped image.

The flip side has the bigger picture and once again, a trivia question and a short story.

What appears to be, and hopefully is, another subset should be very popular. The arty look has given way to a more painted, portrait style.This series should be sweet !

The no-nonsense back is short and to the point.

Puzzles !

The puzzle cards have regular numbers. The six I got range from # 96 to # 231. Each piece is also individually numbered "X" of 9 so there must be 9 cards of each player featured in the puzzle series...

...as the backs seem to make a larger version of the picture on the front. This is the flip side of the A-Rod and Puhols cards.

Next come the tattoos.

Then the stickers !

And like Topps, Panini now offers collector albums, as advertised on the sticker backs.

And last but not least,  drum roll please, ta,ta,ta,ta,ta,ta,ta.ta,ta,

Real memorabilia cards !!

Wow, who would have thought.

A baseball bat card !

Maybe, maybe not game-used.

Maybe, maybe not professional.

But definitely an authentic wooden, baseball bat chip !

Not a metal chip because, according to the back of the card, aluminum bats don't break.

If you are still with me, you will now see the break down on 1individual pack and 1 value pack of Bowman Platinum.

The individual pack was a slightly darker color on chrome, vinyl? foil.

The three wrappers in the value pack were white vinyl.

The lone Tribe card I got today was this Ubaldo base card.

They are very sharp looking cards.

Typical base card backs with three stat lines.

Career best

2011

Career totals

I do like these, I NEED your Tribe cards !!

These are the remainder of the base cards in the four packs.

I figured I'd show all the base cards as I probably won't be buying any more packs with only four cards each.

 

There was one base prospect refractor.

And three purple prospect refractors in the value pack.

The refractor cards aren't designated as such, but are slightly thicker with a partial plain border on the front and a glossy back.

There were three base prospect cards.

And two Top Prospect cards to finish off the three packs.

Well, that's my two-cents worth for today !

Most all of these are for trade except Ubaldo and the bat card.

Plus a teaser for Indian and odd ball fans in my next post ! 





Behind the lens with Trevor Hoffman

Trevor : Mr. Benny, you know that fictitious interview you presented on your blog?

B.A. : Yeah, I made it clear it was just in fun for a contest over at Nachos Grande.

Trevor : Well, Baseball Dad was pretty upset. He said his mind just went blank on this one. You 

              know, when you get as old as him, things like that happen !

B.A. : I suppose you're right, but what can do to make him feel better ?

Trevor : As you can see from the card above, back in 1997-98 I took a lot of pictures. I have some

              scoreboard photos that shows the Indians really were a pretty good team at one time.

B.A. :  I know about your photography skills, we discussed that in my interview with you. Do you

            have any photos of Cy Young ? BB Dad would probably like those !

Trevor : Hey !! Just how old do you think I am ?  And didn't you say that interview was just " fake, made up, full of it, imaginary, phony, fictional, and all my creation with no input from anybody else including Trevor Hoffman." ?

B.A. :  Well, I ...err,  you know.

Trevor :  Security !!

Thanks for the inspiration B. A.! 

Great post, I think I can concede this round to you !

( My mind really did draw a blank ! )