1990 Topps Minis #12: Bobby Thigpen

Resuming our series of detailing the entire 1990 Topps Mini League Leaders set, today we have Chicago (AL) closer Bobby Thigpen.

#12, Bobby Thigpen.

Thigpen was a premier closer of the time, winning the 1990 AL Rolaids Relief Man award, leading the AL in saves with 57 and compiling a 4-6 record (the Rolaids award was based on both the number of saves and the win-loss record).  If you're familiar with the 1987 Topps set, you know that Dave Righetti set the major league saves record in 1986 with 46, so those 57 saves by Thigpen in 1990 set a new record, which stood for a while but was eclipsed in 2008 by Francisco Rodriguez of the Angels.  His last good season seems to be 1992, when he put up 22 saves with a 1-2 record.  He reportedly was having back problems after 1990.

Card back.

This set chronicles the players' successes in 1989, and in 1989, Thigpen placed second in the AL in saves with 34.  The card back also mentions, in smaller type because (I think) this kind of stat wouldn't get you into the set on its own, that he finished tied for fourth in games finished with 56.

Next, we move on to Cleveland, with card #13 Joe Carter.  Thanks for reading!

Recent Acquisition: Sam Jethroe

I just bought this 1951 Bowman Sam Jethroe, graded PSA 7, for the PSA-graded portion of my collection.  My goal is to get about 60 PSA-graded cards to fill the box that I bought for them, and I'm at around 25 so far.

1951 Bowman Sam Jethroe, graded PSA 7.

Sam Jethroe was the 12th black MLB player, debuting with the Boston Braves on April 18, 1950, which was opening day for the 1950 season.  Jethroe debuted in 1938 with the Indianapolis ABCs, of the Negro American League.  He then played with Cincinnati and Cleveland of the Negro American League through 1948, before moving to Montreal of the International League (AAA-level minor league ball).  Montreal was famously affiliated with the Dodgers, and the Dodgers sold Jethroe's contract to the Boston Braves after the 1949 season. 

In 1950, he won the NL Rookie of the Year, hitting .273 and leading the NL with 35 steals.  He again led the NL in steals in 1951, again with 35.  He slumped in 1952, and was then sent back to the minors.  He returned briefly to the majors, playing 2 games with the Pirates in 1954, and then played several more years in the minors.

Card back.

The card back comments on his speed, his 1950 season, and his strong record at Montreal.  There's some kind of stain near the top, and a similar one at the bottom; I don't know how the old Bowman cards were packaged, but one would guess they are wax stains from the wrapper.

This card adds to my collection of early black MLB players, to my collection of PSA cards, and to my collection of NL base-stealing champs.  Thanks for reading!

Recent Acquisitions: Some 1971 Topps Supers

Some time ago, another cardblogger showed some old Topps Supers (sorry, I don't remember who).  They looked good to me, and I made a note to try to pick some up.  I have some 1981 Topps Supers that I've shown already, but I wasn't familiar with the circa-1970 variety.  The other day I ordered a lot of five of the 1971 Topps Supers from eBay, featuring Roberto Clemente as the main draw.

The Great One, Roberto Clemente.

I was surprised to see how thick these are.  I would describe them as more like cardboard coasters than baseball cards.  The condition of the ones I bought isn't awesome, but I think it's fine.  They all have a bit of curvature to them, and given their thickness and age, I don't see how that could be corrected.  In any case, I'm extremely happy to have another great Clemente card.  I have a hangup on Clemente cards, that I don't want any that call him "Bob," at least on the front of the card.  This card features his signature on the front, which works for me.

Roberto Clemente card back.

The text and stats on the back of the card are the same as his regular 1971 Topps card, but the picture is different.  I love the 1971 design, both the front and back, and already had his regular 1971 Topps card.  Having another version of the 1971 back for Clemente is another plus for me.

Amos Otis.

Alex Johnson.

I really bought the lot for the Clemente, but there were four other players included.  The only one I had heard of was Royals great Amos Otis.  He's young here, having made his MLB debut with the Mets in 1967.  He didn't start playing everyday, though, until moving to the Royals in 1970.  Otis was a 5-time All-Star and 3-time Gold Glove winner, and won the AL pennant with the Royals in 1980.  Unfortunately his career was over by the time the Royals won the World Series in 1985.

I don't recall ever having heard of Alex Johnson, but I like the card for the old Angels helmet.  When this card was made, Johnson had just won the 1970 AL batting title, hitting .329, finishing a fraction of a point ahead of Carl Yastrzemski.

Carl Morton.

Jim Northrup.

Carl Morton pitched with the Expos from 1969 through 1972, and then with the Braves from 1973 through 1976.  He was 1970 NL Rookie of the Year, going 18-11 with a 3.60 ERA and 154 strikeouts.  He didn't do as well with Montreal again after that, but had a couple of similarly strong years with the Braves.  Unfortunately he died young, having a heart attack in 1983.

Outfielder Jim Northrup was in the majors from 1964 through 1975, mostly with the Tigers, but also with Montreal and Baltimore.  He had good power, hitting 25 home runs in 1969, and another 24 in 1970.  He was a key element of the Tigers championship team in 1968, leading Detroit in hits and RBI.  This card is miscut a little, as the picture shows, and seeing pictures of other circa-1970 Topps Supers, it looks like it tends to be a common problem.

I plan to pick up a few more of these; I already have a 1970 Topps Super of Willie McCovey in my COMC account, and I'll be getting a couple more from 1970 and 1971 soon.  Thanks for reading!

One odd card + blog note

My posting has become infrequent; this started when I was sick for a couple of weeks, but now that I'm feeling much better, I haven't picked the pace back up.  That's in part just because I've lost momentum, but is also because I'm facing an intensely busy time at work for the next 3 months.  Until mid-July, I will be trying to push out as much work as I can, hosting any number of visitors, and traveling a fair bit myself.  So, I think posts will happen when they happen for the time being.  I actually thought about putting the blog on hiatus, but I think I can still get a post out here and there inbetween other obligations.

So, on to something about cards.  The following card is one of the oddest I have, I think.

Sports Cards: Tom Glavine.

The card is from 1991, which also happens to be the year Tom Glavine won his first of two Cy Young awards.  He had three straight 20-win seasons starting in 1991, going 20-11, then 20-8 in 1992, and 22-6 in 1993.   This was of course all part of the Braves gearing up to win the 1995 World Series, of which Glavine was the MVP.

I'm not sure why you would put "SPORTS CARDS" at the top of a sports card, although the back gives a hint.

Card back.

"SPORTS CARDS" is again in big letters on the card back, but this time there's some additional context.  It says at the top, Allan Kaye's Sports Cards News & Price Guides, and at the bottom the copyright includes "Sports Cards News."  There must have been a publication whose short title was "SPORTS CARDS" and whose longer title included the name of the guy behind it, Allan Kaye.  Never heard of it otherwise.  No idea in the world where I picked the card up, but I suppose this card, which is #32 from the set, may have been a promotion handed out in a show, or maybe even inserted in a publication I did read (like Baseball Cards magazine).

So, thanks for reading, even as my posts become a bit more irregular.  I do certainly enjoy cards and writing about cards, so I will try to keep up with the blog throughout this busy period.

1990 Topps Minis #11: Ivan Calderon

In our mission to explore the entire 1990 Topps Mini League Leaders set, so far we've seen the Baltimore Orioles, Boston Red Sox, and California Angels.  Moving through the AL in alphabetical order by geographic signifier, our next team is the Chicago White Sox.  We're at card #11, Ivan Calderon.

#11, Ivan Calderon.

Calderon played in the majors from 1984 through 1993, largely mirroring my period of intense interest in baseball.  In those years he started out with Seattle, played several years with the White Sox, spent some time in Montreal, had half a season in Boston, and ended his career with a brief return to the White Sox.  He hit 104 home runs in his career, with a high of 28 in 1987.  He had 444 career RBI, with a high of 87 in 1989.  Calderon made the All-Star team once, in 1991 with Montreal.

Card back.

Calderon earned his way into the 1990 Topps League Leaders set by tying for fourth in the AL in triples with 9.  The card back goes on to say that he was 8th in at-bats with 622 and 10th in doubles with 34.  In each of 1987 and in 1990, he placed 3rd in the AL in doubles, with 38 and 44, respectively.

Thanks for reading!  The next installment in this series will be card #12, Bobby Thigpen, also of the Chicago White Sox.

As I Enter into the Trading Card Database

I've been working on entering my cards into the Trading Card Database; in one sense I'm about halfway done, since it shows I've entered about 15,000 cards, and I believe that I own about 30,000 cards.  But the majority of what I've done is low-hanging fruit, entering the complete sets that I own, such as the 1989 and 1990 Bowman factory sets, the 1990 Fleer factory set, 1988, 1990, and 1991 Donruss factory sets, a 1984 Topps hand-collated set, and a bunch more.  The longer work of going through all my boxes of cards has only just begun.  But, I have entered a few of these boxes, and I've unearthed a few cards of players that I've featured before, that I wanted to show.

(Note: this post originally published accidentally prematurely, without any text.  Sorry!)

1984 Fleer Oscar Gamble.

As you can detect from the cards I'm featuring here, I have recently entered a box of my 1980s Fleer cards into the database.  When Oscar Gamble died, I made two posts about him.  First, I showed the cards I could dig out of my collection on short notice, especially his 1979 Topps card from my complete set, but also his 1985 Fleer Update, and his Pacific Senior League card.  Then I purchased his iconic 1976 Topps Traded card, by purchasing a 1976 Topps Traded Yankees team set.  This 1984 Fleer was also in my collection but I wasn't aware; I see how having an electronic record of your cards can be helpful for putting together posts like this.  I've always liked the clean design of the 1984 Fleer set, and this is a nice shot of Gamble (and his smile) towards the end of his career.

1985 Fleer Dickie Thon.

I posted about Dickie Thon once before.  He had a promising early career, before being seriously beaned by Mike Torrez in 1984.  It was years until he played everyday again after that, but he did get a chance to be the starting shortstop for the Phillies for a few years circa 1990.  This 1985 Fleer card reflects the season in which he was beaned; the picturemust be from before the incident.

1982 Fleer Lance Parrish.

1986 Fleer Lance Parrish.

And then we have Lance Parrish.  I've featured him many, many times in the months that I've been writing this blog, although it never seems to be on purpose.  Parrish was, of course, an All-Star catcher with the Tigers before joining the Phillies.  There were very high expectations in Philly and he didn't exactly perform at the expected level, so he was routinely booed by the Philly sports fans.  Lance Parrish didn't like that, for some reason.  He moved back to the AL after two seasons with the Phillies and did better, making the All-Star team again and winning another Silver Slugger with the Angels.  These cards show him in his happier times with Detroit.  It's funny to me how you can see him grow up in the two cards, four years apart -- he looks much more younger in the 1982 card.

My posting for the past week or two has been almost nonexistent, as I've struggled to get over some small illness.  Having finally gone to the doctor, though, I am now feeling much better, and I think I can get the blog back on track.  Thanks for reading!

1990 Topps Minis #10: Devon White

We continue with our display of the 1990 Topps Mini League Leaders set, today with #10, Devon White.

#10, Devon White.

White was one of many rookies in the 1987 Topps set.  As such, his rookie card is seared into my brain, since I spent so much time with 1987 Topps.  White played through the end of the 2001 season, winning three World Series, two with Toronto and one with Miami.  He put up career numbers of 1934 hits and 208 home runs.

Card back.

White made his way into the league leader set by coming in second in the AL triples with 13, and third in stolen bases with 44.  Despite a solid career, it looks like he never led the league in a single category, but he did place in the top 10 from time to time.

We'll continue this series next Monday with card #11, Ivan Calderon of the Chicago White Sox.  I'm hoping to get back to more regular posting soon, but am still feeling somewhat under the weather.