Switching Allegiances

No, I'm not giving up on the Indians. Not yet, anyways. They still have a few games left of Spring Training, and they haven't started the regular season yet. Once they do, though, I'll give up on them winning anything this year. As the joke goes, "Well, baseball opening day is here, and the Indians have been mathematically eliminated from the playoffs!" Ugghhh!

Everyone knows I have been an Omar Vizquel super-collector-wannabe since I came back to the hobby, and I've done my best to collect as many Omar cards as I can. It just seems that there aren't that many out there. Especially the last few years, when some of the releases have seen fit to leave him out of their roster. Hall of Fame career, and he's hanging on, but so is Jim Thome, and he is still in almost every set and subset and insert set until this year. I guess that is what happens when you are a home run slugger instead of a historic-class shortstop.

Beckett list 2,225 Vizquel cards in their library, of which 136 are certified autograph cards and 282 are memorabilia cards. He has only 10 official cards this year, none of them being memorabilia or autograph cards. For 2009, there are only 36 official cards, only 5 of which are memorabilia cards, and no autographs. 2008, only 70 cards, with only 1 autograph. You get the point.

Jim Thome, who I am also a collector of, has a whopping 8,397 cards listed, with 1,661 memorabilia cards and 299 autograph cards. Granted, several thousand of those cards are the ridiculous Moments and Milestones cards from 2008 (2,032 to be exact), but even without those, there are still over 6,000 Thome cards listed! He may have only 21 cards listed for 2010, and no auto or relic cards, but for 2009, there are 285 cards, 26 of them autographed, and 92 relics. Not bad for someone who came into the league a full two seasons after Vizquel.

Which is not to say that either deserves more cards than the other at this point. It's just that there are so many more variations, SPs, inserts, autos, relics and myriad base cards for Thome than Vizquel. What is a supercollector to do?

In my case, I am switching to being a Jim Thome pseudo-super-collector. I already have almost 500 cards of his, despite starting well after I started collecting Omar cards. I am not finished collecting Omar cards, just readjusting my focus since there are so many more interesting Thome cards, and many more options to collect autographs and patches.

In fact, one intrepid ex-Jim Thome super-collector has been slowly auctioning off all of his Jim Thome cards, and I have purchased quite a few of them for reasonable prices. Most lately, I received 56 Thome cards from 2003, 30 of which I didn't have previously, for the whopping final bid of $6.25. This even included a 2003 Heritage "Old Log" variation of his, which has a book value of $8 itself. I shouldn't mention that I also bought, at the same time, the 2003 Nameplate patch card of his, for just over $20, but it is a sweet card that I've been coveting for a while now.

I have lots of doubles of his, and would love to trade them for some other Thome cards I don't have. If you have some that may fit the bill, please check the scans in my Thome collection, in the link on the right, to see if I have it already. In fact, you will have to check three Picasa folders, because one was getting too unwieldy for all the Thome cards in my collection. I split it up into a normal "bucket," a White Sox folder and a Phillies folder. Dodgers and Twins cards will go in the regular Indians folder.

As for poor Omar, I'm still working on getting a lot of his cards, but there are few auctions of such breadth, and fewer cards that have autographs and patches. There are a few nice bat cards of his, but I'm not willing to pay $295 for a bat barrel nameplate. (The Thome version is going for $895! That tells you all you need to know right there!)

My collecting Holy Grail

Without even knowing that it was out there, I hoped that there was a card that showcased both Omar Vizquel and Jim Thome together since they spent so much time on the same team (1995-2002). Those were exciting years, Alomar-to-Vizquel-to-Thome. (Not quite the nice ring of Tinker-to-Evers-to-Chance.)

So I was very surprised when I found this on the bay:

THIS is a GREAT CARD!

Crack-a-lackin some Vizquel

Thanks to Ryan from Trader Crack's Cards for sending out a bunch of Omar cards that I needed. They have been scanned and uploaded to the Vizquel collection in Picasa - click the link on the right for a gander - but here are a few to whet your whistle.

Dealings from Dallas

Dallas is my old stomping grounds. Well, not really "stomping," but more like shopping and working. My wife and I moved there after her residency, before kids, and stayed there for four years. We are Northerners at heart, though, or "Yanks" as they would say there, and we missed our families, so we moved back up North in 1999.

But I would never doubt the generosity of people from Dallas. It rubs off, whether you are really from there or are a transplant, like many of the people in Dallas these days. (If you want to find real Texans, go to Ft. Worth.) So I was not surprised at all when reader Brian sent me two big packages in short succession. They were jammed full of Indians cards that I needed. In fact, there were so many that I've forgotten which ones some of them are. I'm sorry, Brian. However, I did manage to label a few of the scans I got from him with his name, so I know those for sure, and a few others I'll guess at.

At the beginning of August, Brian sent me a bunch of Thomes, Vizquels, Sizemores and a few 07 Goudey mini redbacks, plus a few other assorted cards. The Thome Power Corps cards are interesting, though I don't understand the numbering on them, with a Technology, Set and Subset numbers. For instance, the gold card below has Technology RB54 Set 234 Subset PC84 on the back. What does all that mean? I guess I could look it up somewhere.

Have I mentioned ever how much I love Masterpieces? The Sandberg is a GREAT card! And the Finest Vizquel is a refractor numbered to 499!

Then at the end of August, when I came back from vacation, there was another package from Brian with a plethora of Goudey mini redbacks from 2007, plus a surprise Indians card:

A nice collection of Goudeys. I'm still trying to finish off this set!

The Topps Tek is a really interesting card, too. I love the design. It has a strange "7-9" embossed on the back. And the Vizquel Team Checklist card is a Press Proof numbered to 10! The 1998 Donruss Thome is a Silver Press Proof die-cut print-numbered as "1 of 1500." The 1996 Pacific is all predominately in Spanish, and is a special "Momentos del mes de Octobre" insert.

This was the surprise. A Kenny Lofton relic. I haven't had any Lofton relics or autos until this one, and my heart is still in the 90's with those powerful Indians team. I can still remember when my friend told me about some center fielder that the Indians traded for from the Astros who was going to be their CF for a long time. Some guy named Lofton who used to be the point guard at Arizona State. He was right.

Thanks for all the great cards, Brian.

Catching up with the Baseball Dad

Sorry, I've been lazy lately. I've actually become a bit worn out by collecting, and I'm not in the mood to post even every other day. I almost did a "Heartbreaking" post and begged off until later in the year. However, I feel I should at least keep up every now and then with trades.

In that vein, I need to thank Jack at All Tribe Baseball. He kept me in Thomes and Vizquels for quite a while, and while they are finally all logged into my Picasa catalogs, I have yet to return the favor. Plus, those cards were in addition to the plethora of cards that he sent from his OPC Old School break, in which I got the Twins. Some Maers, some Winfields, and a Puckett! Cool!

There are too many cards to list or show, so I will leave you with a few of my favorites. Thanks, Jack.

Junk Wax from Stale Gum

Chris at Stale Gum recently busted some wax boxes that he bought at the flea market, which he affectionately called the Jersey Shore Junkwaxapalooza. He was pulling so many Indians that I emailed him about how much I liked the Tribe cards he was pulling from the four boxes of wax. Totally Certified, Select and Aficionado. No E-X, though, unfortunately.

Not only did he send over the Indians cards from those boxes, but a horde of other cards, including Bowman, Bowman's Best and Attax. A couple of Omar's, a few Thome's, a Grady, some Albert and Sandy and Kenny, and even a Winfield. Thanks so much for the "junk," Chris!

My favorite of the cards Chris sent are easily the Pinnacle Totally Certified. These are the Platinum Red versions, and are numbered to 3999! A numbered card used to be something special in the mid-90's, but if a card with that number showed up in your pack today, you probably would throw it in with the commons.

Easily my least favorite are the Aficionado by Pinnacle. Who's bright idea was this? Speckled refractor profile image of the player's face?!?! It is awful. Wood nameplate over a sepia-toned image? I bet this is the guy who came up with Sterling!

The Bowman is pretty nice, but the colors just don't work for me. The checkerboard background is not the best, although it does hide imperfections very well, and the red "Bowman" was a mistake. I am pleasantly surprised by the Select, though. These are very nice cards, good colors, nice photography. My only beef is the one year of statistics on the back, though the cool B&W photos are a nice substitute.

You can see what I mean about the photography on these cards. Very nice. And, as promised, the Dave Winfield while on the Indians. Ah, those were the days, when the Indians were buyers instead of sellers come mid-summer and pennant race time.

Lastly, a few Bowman's Best of Bartolo Colon and Carlos Baerga. Two great players from the 90's who ate their way out of town. But it was quite a decade for the Indians.

Thanks, Chris.

Belated Thanks

To Greg, the Night Owl, who always has a few Indians for me, including a Trio of Thome,

a Gallery of 90's Tribe Stars,

Two Cy Young Indians,

and some more Cracker Jack, courtesy of a Phillie Thome.

And a gracious thanks to Jason from The Writer's Journey, who contacted me to see if I wanted the Victor Martinez "card" from the Indians Fan Package that he had sent to him. It is really not much more than a printed sheet of shiny paper, but is a welcome addition to the Victor collection. In addition, he sent me a large batch of Omar and Thome cards that I didn't have.

Easily my favorite of the bunch is the Hands of Gold die-cut card from 1999 Topps. I have one other, of Roberto Alomar, so it is cool to have both of them with the Indians, especially after my last post about them as a DP tandem. The Aurora has to be the worst photo I've seen of Omar on a card. The back photo is nice, though. It's understandable why they went away as a brand.

Next, we transition from Omar to Jim Thome with a pair of Topps Opening Day 2000 cards.

These are one of Topps better efforts from the late 90's and early 00's: great pictures, nice color schemes, inconspicuous borders. Check out the close-up of Omar. The ball is bouncing up, just over his left shoulder, going down the 3rd base line. That is an interesting and terrific in-action shot.

This Bazooka cartoon commemorates Thome coming within one game of tying the Major League record of homering in eight straight games. It also mentions that he, at the time, was fourth all-time by hitting a jack every 7.20 at-bats. Not bad for a big-ole country boy.

We finish off with a sextet of Thome cards I didn't have. As the last card says, "Retro Rules." It's no wonder I like the old-style cards better. Compare them to the monstrosity that is the Pacific Online card. They could have at least hid the URL on the backside of the card. Lousy design on that one. I also have to rag on Topps for the lousy picture on the Gallery card. Couldn't they find one where his glove wasn't in front of his face, like the Victory? Nice shot on the UD Collector's Choice, though. Typical Big Jim Big Swing. Now you know why, until this year, UD had a better reputation for photography than Topps. I'd have to say, though, that that is now changed.

Thanks Jason & Greg.