How the Original Donruss Rated Rookies Turned Out

Just came across my Twitter feed and thought I'd pass along this blog write up from mental_floss' Scott Allen.

In 1984, Donruss released what some collectors consider one of the greatest baseball card sets of all time. In addition to 26 Diamond Kings—a subset of cards depicting a star player from every team—the 660-card set included 20 Rated Rookies, a new subset that highlighted a crop of promising young players selected by New York Daily News writer Bill Madden. The Rated Rookie would become a staple of the Donruss brand for years to come. (more)

One on my non-Topps favorite sets growing up as a kid. Have a factory set that I need to put into sheets and binder some day.

Got Ginter MInis To Trade Me?

Just uploaded me 2011 Allen & Ginter minis want list. So if you've got minis and you don't want 'em, I'll trade for them. Have some base cards left. If anyone is collecting the 2009 set, I have a number of base cards and short prints. Drop me an email and I'm sure I can find something to trade ya.

Happy to have finally purchased a hobby box but no big hits. Did see a guy at LSC hit on a pack ... Fielder/Howard patch book. Sweeeeeeeet looking card!!

Scanned my box for the Gint-a-Cuffs, just have to figure write up and scoring.

Trolling the 'bay

So in my ongoing effort to put some sense into my collection and to keep it fresh, I have been looking for cheap, off-condition vintage for my All-Decades Team Project. It is a project that will encompass Topps cards from 1960 to the present day. I hope to get some wants lists up in the next week as well as get some of the "team pages" scanned and posted.

One thing I have come across in my researching this project and trying to determine who ends up in my "starting lineup" and who rides the pine.

Take my 1970's California Angels for example. First base wasn't the best of positions for the Halos during this stretch ... Jim Spencer, Bob Oliver, Mike Epstein, Tony Solaita, Bruce Botche, Ron Fairly, and finally Rod Carew. So right off the bat I know it's going to come down to Spencer and Carew. Spencer had two solid years for the Angels and even won a Gold Glove in 1970. Carew had just been traded before Spring Training in 1979 and had a solid year for California. He was an All-Star but failed to be in the top 10 for hitting and his lone stat achievement was ranking 5th in on-base percentage. Right now Spencer is my starter, Carew, on the bench, and don't worry you Solaita fans, where he appears to have been a useful player for several seasons with the Angels, he too lives on for this team in a bench role.

And with that little tidbit out of the way, onto some good, off-condition, vintage finds I have recently acquired on the 'bay (I apologize for not scanning the backs, it was late and I had a number of other scans to do) ...

a little bit of everything in this first scan. Speaking of Angels, one of the originals, Eddie Yost. He was drafted off the Tigers roster as the 25th pick. Yost resides the pine on my 1960s Angels team on a "They-Used-to-Be-Great" page. A nice shot of a 1961 Topps Tito Francona, who was a pretty good ballplayer during his day. I love this 1965 high number Boog Powell. I'm a sucker for the old school O's look, especially the script and bird logo on the wool uniform. And lastly, a 1966 Topps Tom Tresh, who was a pretty damn good player for those power house Yankee teams of the early 1960's.

Second scan, five cards, five Hall of Famers, all of them cheap!! Got me self a nice Hank Aaron and being an All-Star card and a great pose, helps me not break the bank in looking for some of the superstars of the 1960s. One of the original New York Mets, Richie Ashburn, also his last card too. Not sure why Topps had to butcher the "NY" painting job in the circle photo when they clearly had actual photos of Richie in a real Mets cap. Next up, Mr. Cub, Let's Play Two ... your starting FIRST baseman for the 1960s Chicago Cubs ... ERNIE BANKS. Moving on, Whitey Ford's last Topps card and what a way to go out on the classic 1967 design. I wish Topps would bring back the multiple, series of releases only so we could revive these in-season "TRADED" cards. I once had this 1972 Frank Roby but I sent to Night Owl a couple maybe a year and a half ago. Welcome home Frank.

And with that, I wait one more day to rip my hobby box of Ginter.

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HELP ME!!!! With the 2011 Ginter now LIVE, I will be attempting to collect the mini set and any mini inserts from this new edition. I do have a hobby box with me name on it for Wednesday, so that will get me a little bit of a head start. As for the base cards, SPs, hits, and any other cards in that come out of that box, they will be available for trade. If you can help, please, please drop me a line. For those of you still looking for 2011 Topps sparklies, I have a few from series 2, maybe I can grab a couple of minis for these??? Will also be posting some trade bait on Friday to help entice people to send mini Ginters my way as well.

Anyhow, drop me a line if you're not into the minis, and I'm sure I can find something to trade you.

Nothing beats cheap vintage—Part Three

Made another run to the Target at lunch and still no Ginter. Made a call to a LSC near work I haven't been to in quite a while (they sell mostly packs, boxes, team clothing) and they won't have Ginter till tomorrow afternoon. Looks like from reading the forums on Blowout Cards, that any retail Ginter was released in the Midwest (Illinois, Missouri) or Mid-Atlantic (NJ, Delaware) states before the rest of the country.

So in the meantime, might as well catch up on another round of cheap vintage I picked up a couple of weeks ago at my LSC. Same story, on this batch—cheap as in would you rather have these cards or a 3-pack blister of 2011 Heritage.

First on the docket, some vintage BoSox including "The Monster," Dick Radatz. This guy was absolutely dominating over the coarse of 3-4 years but sadly his career puttered out after over use. His last team was Montreal in 1969. Radatz cards always seem to be in demand in these parts of New England, he was a very personable guy and prior to his passing years ago, was a pretty good sports talk show co-host for WEEI. Love the Schilling card, such a great pose that is missing in today's cards and gotta loved the striped socks!!! Luis' last card was this 1974 Topps example. He had a couple of good years for the Sox in the early seventies and while most people remember Carlton Fisk's waived-homer, it was Bernie's bomb that tied the game up so that Fisk could reaped the praise.

Next to bat, a couple of 1964 Topps. Nellie's second to last card as he appears in the '65 set with an airbrush hat since the Colt 45's became the Astros. His 1965 Topps also carried the designation of "2B-Coach." Nice shot of Bill Freehan with the hulking old Yankee Stadium in the background. Nice clean photo. And while most people know that AL Downing gave up Hank Aaron's 715th home run, he was a pretty decent pitcher during the 1960's.

And speaking of Yankees, Elston Howard's last card in pinstripes. On August 3, 1967, he was traded by New York to the Boston Red Sox for a player to be named later and Pete Magrini. The Sox sent Ron Klimkowski (August 8, 1967) to the Yanks to complete the trade. That '68 Jenkins is a beautiful card. Corners are sharp as is the color but there is a tiny little wrinkle along the right edge of the card, just above the orange circle. This one only cost one buck!

And to close out this round of cheap vintage, we have three Hall of Famers: Kaline, Killebrew, and Wilhelm. Kaline's career was nearing a close as was Hoyt's while Killebrew went on to have his last big year in '71. He would league the AL in RBI and walks. And doesn't the "Toy Cannon" looked thrilled to have his mug taken in the 1974 Topps Traded.

All of these cards, now reside in my ongoing, All-Decades Team project, which I hope to start writing about later this month.

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HELP ME!!!! With the 2011 Ginter now LIVE, I will be attempting to collect the mini set and any mini inserts from this new edition. I do have a hobby box with me name on it for Wednesday, so that will get me a little bit of a head start. As for the base cards, SPs, hits, and any other cards in that come out of that box, they will be available for trade. If you can help, please, please drop me a line. For those of you still looking for 2011 Topps sparklies, I have a few from series 2, maybe I can grab a couple of minis for these???

Anyhow, drop me a line if you're not into the minis, and I'm sure I can find something to trade you.

I want this Ginter Relic!!!

This is why I love Allen & Ginter!!!

A piece of travel wear ... the Rays BRayser!!!  I must have it!

Trading with the Enemy

Turns out that AJ from The Lost Collector, aside from being a Yankees fan, is a really cool trader. This trade started back a couple of months but between work and life, the trade took longer to wrap up. He saw one of my Ginter posts and had some minis and a jersey relic to offer up.
 
Going to the Big Apple was a bunch a Yanks cards from 80's oddballs to present day items. The key card in the batch was an 2007 UD Elements Posada dual jersey relic that had pinstripes in each jersey cut.

Coming back was this batch of Allen & Ginters ...

Now clearly the Posada dual jersey trumps the Marcus Giles relic, but I did not have a relic from the 2007 A&G edition so I didn't mind. Also in this batch of minis is a '11 Gypsy Queen hobby box variation of Johnny Mize. AJ pointed out that even though Mize is pictured in pinstripes, the back of the card carries the St. Louis Cardinals logo. Eventually need to put a GQ list together but it's kind of on the back burner for the moment.

Next up, some Red Sox favorites that I'm sure AJ was eager to part ways with ...

And to round out the trade, some vintage Red Sox and Yankees for my All-Decade teams project.

Love the '78 ALCS card with Frank White trying to evade a sliding Mickey Rivers.

Thanks again for the trade AJ and look forward to trading with you again!

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HELP ME!!!! With the 2011 Ginter release just days away, I will be attempting to collect the mini set and any mini inserts from this new edition. I do have a hobby box with me name on it for Wednesday, so that will get me a little bit of a head start. As for the base cards, SPs, hits, and any other cards in that come out of that box, they will be available for trade. If you can help, please, please drop me a line. For those of you still looking for 2011 Topps sparklies, I have a few from series 2, maybe I can grab a couple of minis for these???

Anyhow, drop me a line if you're not into the minis, and I'm sure I can find something to trade you.

No Ginter yet, but did find a handy tool

After hearing some Targets had Allen & Ginter retail, I decided to check at the one nearby during my lunch break ... no luck on the North Shore (MA).  Anyone out there come across any retail yet?

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Speaking Allen & Ginter, Adam over at the My Cardboard Mistress has created a fantastic tool for those on the Gint-A-Cuffs this year. It's dubbed the "The A&G Boxbreaker Tool."  Adam put together a MS Excel workbook to help him with his Allen and Ginter boxes.  

"I got tired of typing every card number, name and type. Add on to that having to do Gint-A-Cuffs scoring, and you can lose a lot of time logging every single card." 

Here's a screenshot of the sheet:

 

I downloaded it and tested it myself and it works great! Best of all, it's FREE. 

He says "It's one of those things that started as a useful thing for myself, so if it is useful to others, I'm more than happy for them to use it."

Thanks Adam!