There Is Still Mail

I have not worked this week, and probably have several more weeks at home ahead of me between cancelled school days and "track out" time.  I work on a year round schedule, so the "track out" time is three to five weeks in between the quarters.  I do not mind doing work at home, but it feels odd not being able to go far away from my house.  My son was sick last month with an autoimmune virus he developed after having strep, so we are really trying to stay home. 

I have been across the street for a carton of milk.  My kids have been to the end of the street on their bikes.  So far, we are doing well.  A little stir crazy, but not too bad. 

Luckily there was mail today. 

I am seriously not going to collect every Blake Snell autograph under the sun this year.  I am going to collect more of his parallels and inserts.  I also plan on trying to add a few more Jack Flaherty cards, as my current Cardinal of choice.  I have also decided to narrow my former Durham Bull focus on Brandon Lowe. 

He plays second base, and sometimes the outfield if you are not familiar with the Rays.  I think they have also played him at first base too, but he's not the same thing as a player like Ben Zobrist. 

In the grand scheme of things, his cards were probably a little high when he was first called up in 2018, but that did not really stop my from adding a few of his cards.  My favorite card of the Rays second baseman in my collection before my mail this afternoon was probably his Stadium Club autograph from last year. 

My newest Brandon Lowe might be better.  Ask me next week.  I don't want to rush to judgement. 

I did not take the card out of the top loader to scan the card.  All the little scratches and marks are on the plastic, not on the card.  Outstanding card.  Really like the look of this card a lot.  

Back of the card.  

Great looking card. 

A 1980s Card Part 35 - 1982 Fleer Silvio Martinez

I had a really good collection of 1982 Cardinals cards as a kid.  The first team set I ever owned was a 1982 Topps Cardinals set that my father bought me from a flea market in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania.  I had other 1982 Cardinals beyond that Topps set.  I also had a handful of cards from the Fleer and Donruss sets. 

The 1982 Fleer Cardinals team set had roughly half the card photos taken in Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia, with the other half being taken in Dodger Stadium.  Most of the cards are halfway decent.  A pretty good mixture of portrait and action shots.  Then there is Silvio Martinez who card is not halfway decent. 

Silvio's card photo was taken in Dodger Stadium, but it looks more like a bad Olan Mills backdrop of Dodger Stadium.  It's rather blurry in the background, but then so is the picture of Silvio in the foreground. 

This is easily one of the most out of focus portrait style cards around.

Was his hat photoshopped onto his head?  There is something off with this hat and hair on the left side of the card.

Surprisingly, there are quite a few portrait style cards of Silvio Martinez from his four years with the Cardinals.  They are pretty good looking cards.

This is a nice looking card.  I like the shadows on the card, adds a little something to the card.  

Not bad either on the 1980s Topps card.  

It feels like Fleer did not even make an attempt to give us a good Silvio Martinez card in their 1982 set.  It feels similar to pictures I sometimes get when I try to take pictures of my own kids when they are running around on holidays.  This is an adult who is agreeing to sit in front of your camera.  Mind boggling that the quality could be this low.    

Back of the card.  

Silvio was a decent pitcher.  He had a really good year in 1979 with the 15 wins, and an ERA of 3.26.  Most importantly, the Cardinals were able to trade him to the Indians as part of a three team trade which landed them left fielder Lonnie Smith from the Phillies.  

Who ended up being a pretty important player on the 1982 World Series winner.  

2020 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 1

I went back to see how many Snell autographs I had at this point in 2019.  The answer was surprisingly only 1.  I picked up my second Snell autograph on the 14th, and ended the month at 3.  

 How did I get to 30 again?  

Seriously, I am not even making an attempt.  I picked this up on the cheap off of Ebay.  The Postseason cards used to be pretty tough pulls, but not anymore.  The are also pretty cheap.  The card stock on this card is really thin, and the autograph is on a sticker.  

I like the design of the card.  Something about the photo feels off.  The blue on the Rays jersey looks too dark.  The purple border and rainbowed Postseason logo look nice together.  

Back of the card.  

Serial numbered out of 50 copies.  Nice card overall.  My first of very few Blake Snell autographs.  

A Missing Ray

I have a nice collection of Ray Lankford cards.  I do not have printing plates, but I have a healthy number of low print run cards.  Over the last few years, I have tried to add new Lankford cards, but the cards I do not own rarely come up on Ebay or COMC.  Unfortunately, there are also times when I do see Ray Lankford cards come up to auction, but they are way past what I am willing to spend for the card. 

This one still kind of hurts. 

Although, I would have been in hot water with my other half for spending $172.50 on a Ray Lankford baseball card.  Probably good I did not go after this card. 

Last week, I found a Ray Lankford card that I did not have in my collection.  I put it on my watchlist on Ebay half expecting it to be $100, or more, after the first day. 

Nobody bid on it. 

In fact, it had a pretty high starting price, and I ended up being the only person who bid on the card.  I am sure that I probably could have let it relist to try and get it cheaper.  There are just so few though, so I was not going to let it pass me by.  It's a great looking card. 

This is a 1998 Topps Gold Label Class 2 Red Ray Lankford.  The different Class cards in the original Gold Label were based on the background picture and the color of print on the front of the card.  The Class 2 cards had players running in the background and the player's name in silver print. 

The back of the card has the serial number, which is out of 50.  I have the Class 1 red card, which is out of 100.  I was missing this card, along with the Class 3 Red, which has just 25 copies.

It has been a long time since I have found a new Ray Lankford card.  It feels like I am only able to find one or two of these a year.  Wish there were a few more to find.  

2020 Blake Snell Count: 1-7

Last year I posted 30 different Blake Snell autographs on here.  That was a lot of autographs of one player.  I pledged not to buy 30 Blake Snell autographs this year.  I am not saying that the number of Blake Snell autographs is going to be 0 this year, but it will likely not cross more than 5. 

I still really like collecting Blake Snell cards, but I am just keeping things simple this year.  In finding those 30 Blake Snell autographs last year, there were a lot of base cards and inserts that I missed out on adding to my collection.  So, last month while I was making posts about cards that were already in my collection, I was also out looking for some new Blake Snell cards. 

I found seven.  Here they are:

Two 2020 Topps cards.  The first is the 1985 Topps insert.  The second is the black frame parallel, which is serial numbered out of 199. 

The Rays were not around in 1985, but I like the faux color scheme that Topps created for the team. 

The rest of the cards are all 2019 Topps cards from various brands.  

Two Gold Labels.  I still like the looks of these cards, even if Topps has gone really cheap with the card stock they are now using with this brand.  

A 1984 Topps style card from a Silver Pack from last year's Topps.  You get the silver packs from stores when you buy a boxes of Topps products.  Nice looking card. 

Last two cards.  One of these is a Topps TEK white card, the other is a Topps TEK base card that was scanned with a white background.  Which is which?  

No idea. 

and now for some 2020 cards.

There have been 2020 baseball cards out for roughly a month.  I have not touched them on my blog, but if you follow my Twitter I have done a little posting about both the Topps base set and the Topps Heritage set.  Here's what you missed: I went to Target and bought a few packs of each product.  I got some decent cards out of each set, but don't get too worked up.  I am not going to finish either set. 

I am all in on single cards this year. 

Not really feeling the sets.  I think I said that I would do a Heritage set.  Not feeling it.  Maybe I will change my mind.  I do really like the design of the Heritage cards, so there is that. 

My first three single cards of 2020 are all from the base set, and are all somehow connected to the Cardinals.  That's two Cardinals cards, with players pictured as Cardinals.  One non-Cardinal card with a former Cardinal player pictured. 

Here we go. 

Who remembers last year when I posted 30 different Blake Snell autographs?  If I repeated that same activity, it would be with Jack Flaherty.  I am not going to do that though.  That was a lot of effort for one player.  I am not a set collector at the moment, but I also do not think I can narrow my collection down to just a few players.  Thirty different Blake Snell autographs felt like I was just collecting one player.  Flaherty is a great young player.  His cards are starting to get pricy, but they are not bad yet. 

Next. 

Junior Fernandez has some cheap autographs, and there are seemingly a ton of them.  Hopefully Topps will not turn him into the next Henry Owens, who was seemingly in every Topps product at a rate of one autograph per box a few years back.  Junior has a good arm.  I am going to file this card away and revisit it in a few years.  Let's hope I am happy.   

I like the 1985 style cards.  That's part of the reason I went after the Fernandez.  Same with the McGwire below.  

Seems wrong that he is not in his USA Baseball uniform for a 1985 style card, but still very nice.  I am not going to put together this insert set this year, but I am going to work on the Cardinals and Rays players, along with maybe trying to find an autograph or two of players who were actually around the league in 1985. 

I have seen a Strawberry and a Dawson, but neither really piqued my interest. 

A 1980s Card Part 35 - 1982 Donruss "Phil" Roof

Phil Roof was a catcher for the Twins and A's during the 1960s and 1970s.  Almost his entire career was spent as a backup catcher, and had the sweet nickname of the "Duke of Paducah".  Phil also had a younger brother who played baseball.  There were almost 17 years difference between the two brothers.  Gene was born in 1958, and Phil made his Major League debut in 1960. 

I did not think I had a Phil Roof card, but after some digging I found him on a 1967 Topps card with the Kansas City A's.  Great card.  The catchers glove and Kansas City A's uniform are the main highlights in my book.  Likely the reason the card is in my collection. 

By the time Gene made his debut with the Cardinals in 1981, Phil was 40 and out of baseball.  Donruss managed to turn Gene's rookie card in their 1982 set, into a Phil Roof card. 

Remarkable considering that Donruss was not around while Phil Roof was playing.  There have been plenty of brother combos in the majors, along with fathers and sons, but I am not sure if I can think of any other cards where their names or pictures are switch around. 

Unless Juan LeBron and Carlos Beltran were brothers. 

Seems unlikely.