A College Kid And His Famous Cousin

Listen, friends.  I have had this post drafted for a while and really like the cards that I share at the end of the post.  I am well aware of what happened to the NC State baseball team last week.  More than happy to discuss the team itself, their play during the regular and postseason, but I am not getting into a debate about COVID or vaccines.  

I have always enjoyed collecting cards of players on the NC State baseball team.  It still amazes me that there are baseball cards of kids in college and high school.  In the past, I have dabbled with cards of Trea Turner....

Carlos Rodon 

and Will Wilson, just to name a few.  

After much searching, I have found that there is only one player on this year's team that has a baseball card.  I was a little surprised that none of them appeared in the USA Baseball U-18 sets, or more didn't make it into a Perfect Game set, which is where I found the card for this post.  

This is the team's catcher, Luca Tresh.  He led the team in home runs this season and is currently listed as the 84th best prospect who can enter the MLB Draft this year.  I am sure he will get selected, but there are a ton of college catchers in this year's draft.  I did a quick count, but there are at least 3 other catchers from just ACC schools rated ahead of him.  NC State has had a good run of catchers in the Draft lately with Andrew Knizner (Cardinals) and Patrick Bailey (Giants).  

Hopefully, he lands somewhere good and gets a few baseball cards.  

On to the Yankees connection.  Luca Tresh's cousin was a player on the 1960s Yankees teams, Tom Tresh. The first time I heard this fact, I had to go dig through my 1960s commons.  I knew the name but knew nothing about him as a player.  

Here is my 1968 Topps Tom Tresh card.  

Not the best condition even with a generous crop job on the corners, but he's actually a pretty interesting player and person.  He's a much better player than I realized.  Here is my quick rundown on Tom Tresh in the form of a bulleted list.  

+Tresh won the 1962 American League Rookie of the Year

+Played almost 1,200 games, almost all with the Yankees hit more than 20 home runs 4 times during his career.  

+Tom Tresh and Derek Jeter were the only 2 modern shortstops to start as rookies for the Yankees on Opening Day.  

+Hit a go-ahead home run against the Giants in Game 5 of the 1962 World Series.  

+Tresh made the American League All-Star teams in 1962 and 1963 

+He won a Gold Glove in 1965 

Tresh retired before the 1970 season.  He ended up working an administrative job at Central Michigan University where he also made an important invention to help out the school's baseball and softball teams.  Tresh called it the "Slide-Rite".  

You've seen these before.  

 

This is the second baseball player/inventor I have posted this year.  

Anyway, I was happy to add a card of a current NC State player and I enjoyed learning about Tom Tresh for this post. 

A Random Ray - 1995 Topps

 

I am a big fan of this card.  Well, the front of the card.  

First, I love the Cardinals road uniforms with the blue hats/helmets.  The team has abandoned this look in recent years, which is really a shame.  It's one of the better road uniforms in baseball when combined with that blue hat.  The red hats just don't cut it for me.  I am also fairly certain the Cardinals have lightened the gray used on the road uniforms, I like this darker hue better.  

The picture on this card was taken during the 1994 season.  You should be able to assume that a 1995 Topps card would have a picture from 1994, but we all know how Topps recycles old photographs.  The giveaway is the patch on Lankford's right sleeve, which was to commemorate the 125th Anniversary of Major League Baseball.  

Here is a closer look at the patch.  

Naturally, Major League Baseball rolls the Cincinnati Reds out in the Season Opener.  They played the Cardinals in that game.  Ray Lankford had a little less power at that point in his career and a little more speed.  The Cardinals used him as their lead-off hitter.  

Ray was the first batter of the 1994 season.  What did he do?

Yard.  

Back of the card.  

The home run above gets a mention on the back of his 1995 Topps card.  The design of the back has always been my lone fault with this card.  Topps squished the stats to the left of the card in order to fit the color player pictures on the right side.  All of the photos on the cards are the MLB stock photos that teams use for scoreboards and the whatnot.  I am sure I saw this on the Busch Stadium scoreboard a few times during the summer of 1994.  Not very exciting.  I am more interested in the action photo below, but they made it so small.  

I vote no photo or only action photo.  

Wander-Ful Cards

It's been a while.  

I really wanted to make a post last weekend when Wander Franco got called up to the Rays, but I was sitting here typing up my report cards for the end of the school.  The last day of school was Monday.  Throw in a couple of workdays and a few more days to rest and recover, and I have a full month of vacation. 

Better late than never.  

I actually had a chance to see Wander a few weeks back while he was still with the Bulls. 

Not the most competitive game.  

Always fun to see a really good prospect though, regardless of the score.  

In the last few weeks, I have picked up two new Wander Franco cards.  

This is a Bowman Scouts Top 100 insert showing Franco's top prospect rating.  Sort of wish he was in a Bulls uniform, but I understand they don't put those types of cards in Bowman sets.  A really nice-looking card that didn't cost me an arm and a leg.  

The reflective surface did not do great in the scanner, but this is a knock-off of the 1991 Bowman set.  

Beyond the Wander cards, I have also been working a little more on finding cards of Luis Patino.  He was on the prospects that the Rays got back from the Padres in exchange for Blake Snell.  He pitched at the Bulls game that I attend a few weeks back.  Really nice pitcher, I think I will continue collecting his cards.  

Both of these are from 2020 products.  

Not sure about the Sod Poodles name, but I like the looks of the card.  Love the dark border on the 1971 Topps design.  Great looking set.  

I also found a Bowman Chrome autograph of Patino.  I am surprised that any of these are affordable these days with all of the "prospecting" that goes on, especially since Patino is a top 100 prospect.  Nice first year autograph, love that he signed his Spring Training uniform number.  

One last Durham Bulls card for the week.....

I also picked up a card of Ripken The Bat Dog.  Ripken was supposed to start working for the Bulls last year, but did not with the season canceled.  I still have not seen Ripken this year.  

The Bulls Collection of Players Named Lowe.

A few years back the Durham Bulls, really the Rays, had two players with the last name Lowe.  

There was Nate Lowe.  

Who is now on the Rangers.  

There was also Brandon Lowe.  

Who is now the Rays starting second baseman.  

The Bulls did not field a team last year due to the pandemic, so they did not have a chance to put a player with the last name Lowe on the field.  Naturally, when the 2021 season started the name Lowe reappeared on the roster.  This time it's outfielder Jose Lowe.  

He is leading the International League in slugging.  I am not calling it Triple-A East, or whatever Rob Manfred renamed the league.  

He's been a good player and is way more affordable than Wander Franco or Vidal Brujan.  

So, here is the card.  

This is one of those cards that Topps rushed to produce.  Yes, it is clearly airbrushed, but the metal bleachers in the background are a clear giveaway that this is a picture from a high school baseball game of some sort.  I think it would actually be cooler if the parents/spectators in the background were in lawn chairs.  

Whoever is behind his left shoulder is not even watching the game.  

There are not many Josh Lowe cards out there.  Like many other prospects on the Rays, they get the first Bowman card and then they are ignored until they are suddenly playing well in the Majors.  It's the same thing that happened to the two other Lowes, although Nate was not a serious prospect.  

A Random Ray - 1997 Upper Deck

Yes, I know it's Tuesday, but it's one of those Monday-Tuesday types of weeks.  

I have used Monday posts for random old cards.

I have used Monday posts for 1990s Cardinals cards.  

I have used Monday posts for 1980s Cardinals cards.  

In an attempt to get back into some more regular posts, I am going to post some random Ray Lankford cards that are in my collection.  Nothing high-end, nothing serial numbered.  Just base cards of my favorite 1990s Cardinals player.  I have a giant 800 count box filled with duplicate Ray Lankford cards in my card closet.  A few weekends back I found it and started flipping through the cards.  Good times.  

Here is the first card.  

The Upper Deck base sets during the 1990s all had the same sort of vibe and feel.  Photography was always the highlight of this brand.  I like this action photo of Ray running and I also like that Upper Deck put a date and game on the picture.  

Looking a little deeper, 1996 was the first year that Busch Stadium had grass since the early days of the stadium.  It was unusual to see a home white Cardinals uniform with a grass playing field in the background. Also note the sleeve patch, which celebrated the 30th Anniversary of the Cardinals move to Busch Stadium.    

The back of the card has another action shot of Ray running to first base.  I am guessing that this photo is also from the June 29th game against the Pirates.  I found it interesting that the card was talking up a game against the Pirates at the end of June.  While the Cardinals won the National League Central in 1996 and the Pirates finished last, they were actually within four games of each other when this game was played.  

I usually like the card backs with Upper Deck, but in my opinion, this one has a few flaws.  The highlights in the corner seem like a bit of an afterthought.  Why not write more about the game against the Pirates rather than throwing out another highlight from a different game?  It's also squeezed into the corner.  

I am also not a huge fan of the gold background with the white print for the stats.  It's not terrible, but why not use the black background with the gold print that was used on the side for the highlight?  Seems to pop a little bit more.