Another Raleigh-Durham Post

Second 1975 Topps Mini post of the week.  I feel like I have been regaining some momentum in my writing life over the past two weeks.  So, when I last left you earlier in the week, I had a total of 11 out of the 23 players in the 75 Mini set who appeared on the Durham Bulls at some point during their career.  I have a few more cards to post today, plus a few more this weekend or early next week. 

Four new cards for today.  First up is a former Raleigh-Durham Triangle.  There weren't any Minor League teams named the Sod Poodles or Trash Pandas during the 1970s, but the Triangles team name was some attempt to make the Durham Bulls sound like one of those odd nicknamed teams.  

Just a quick review, but Durham is a city in North Carolina.  Raleigh is another city in North Carolina.  Raleigh-Durham is an airport located in between Raleigh and Durham.  

This is quality picture of Raleigh-Durham. 

The words Raleigh-Durham also appear on the back of Cliff Johnson's 1975 Topps Mini card, but he never played a game at the airport.  Only a few different stadiums around the Carolina League.  

The top of the card is not bent, or creased, it just has some weird discoloration along the top.  We will make it a place holder for the moment and consider a replacement at a later date.  It's not like this is a very expensive card.  Cliff's career is usually remembered for all of his pinch-hit home runs, but he was an everyday player for the Astros early in his career.

Here is the Raleigh-Durham stat line.  Cliff did very well playing for the "Bulls", or Triangles.  The .332 batting average was the best in the Carolina League of anyone you might have heard of, 6 points ahead of Rennie Stennet.  The 27 home runs and 91 RBIs were more than anyone else in the league.  

Moving along.  

Ken Singleton is up next.  He was on the 1968 Raleigh-Durham Mets, which had a solid group of future Major Leaguers including Jim Bibby, Jon Matlack, and Ed Figueroa.  I like the powder blue Expos uniform on this card, and Singleton's big hard and sideburns.  

The edge of the card is cut a little weird.  Whatever card was printed next to this one is missing a little bit of paper.  Considering making this a place holder too, but for the moment I am happy to be filling in the checklist.  

Next.  

The "Red Rooster" was towards the end of his career at this point.  His first year in professional baseball was spent with the Bulls in 1965, but he was not in the Minors for very long.  Good career, think he would have been a bigger name if he hadn't spent his career with the Astros and Padres  I had cards of him as a kid since he managed the Rangers and Angels, but had no idea about him as a player.  

It's too bad the Astros weren't wearing the rainbow uniforms at this point, they would have been quite the combo with the colorful borders on these cards.  

Last one. 

You don't get much cross over between the Cardinals and Durham Bulls during the 1960s and 1970s, but here is one of the few players who appeared for both: 

Folkers appeared on the 1967 Durham Bulls while he was in the Mets organization.  It was the last year before the team name was changed to Raleigh-Durham Mets.  Folkers Minor League career was interrupted after he did a stint with the Army in Vietnam.  When he reached the Majors, Folkers was a spot starter and long reliever for most of his career.  His final season with the Cardinals in 1974 was the best of his career, with a 6-2 record and an ERA of 3.  

He would end up on the Padres later in his career where announcer Jerry Coleman was told his audience one evening that Folkers was "throwing up in the bullpen", rather than warming up.  Given his numbers for the Padres, it's always been debatable whether or not this was on purpose.  

Alright.  Let's check out the updated checklist.  

#44 - Pat Dobson

#89 - Jim Ray 

#90 - Rusty Staub 

#98 - Rich Folkers 

#125 - Ken Singleton 

#143 - Cliff Johnson 

#155 - Jim Bibby 

#165 - Doug Rader 

#180 - Joe Morgan 

#245 - Mickey Lolich 

#282 - Jerry Morales 

#286 - Mike Jorgensen 

#290 - Jon Matlack 

#342 - Leroy Stanton 

#343 - Danny Frisella 

#351 - Bob Boone 

#371 - Gates Brown 

#441 - Bob Heise 

#476 - Ed Figueroa 

#615 - Pat Darcy 

#621 - Rawley Eastwick 

#630 - Greg Luzinski 

#637 - Ted Martinez 

One more groups of cards to post this weekend, or early next week, but I am now down to just 8 cards to complete the set.  Feels pretty good.  

2020 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 7

I am a little disappointed in the direction that Topps has taken the Triple Threads product over the past few years, but they are still some solid autographs on the checklist, right?  At least there is Blake Snell.  The design on the front of the Triple Threads cards was always enjoyed the cards with the attribute or a phrase describing the player featured on the front of the card.  

For example, this was one of the Snell autographs from the 2018 Triple Threads set.  

I miss this design.  

Low innings pitched?  Like pulled in the 6th inning of a 2 hitter in an elimination game during the World Series? 

It's actually a reference to the fact that Rays limited his innings early in his career.  Not that uncommon.  I saw a few games where they used Dylan Floro, Dodgers World Series winner and non-innings restricted pitcher, piggy back behind Snell on starts in the Minors.  21 wins also seems pretty good.  

Somewhere around here, Topps dropped the number of cards in Triple Threads that had messages on the front of the card.  I am not saying the don't exist, but they used to be the norm rather than the exception.  

Here is my newest Snell autograph.  

Again, I like the card, but it feels a lot like the Museum Collection and Tribute cards.  Topps has sort of merged all these different products together in style and design over the last few years.  The is a huge departure in design from the card up top.  Generic blue jersey swatch, sticker autograph, and a blasé gray background. 

I swear, I like the card, even if the post is coming across as hypercritical.   

Back of the card.  

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!!!!!!

JUMBO RELIC CARD!!!!!!!!!!

I guess there is only so much you can do with a card back.  

Old Style

As sure as the sun rises this morning, we can always count on Topps rehashing a bunch of previously used styles of cards from its past, or sometimes borrowed from other companies.  They love their old styles and designs a little too much at times.  I spent part of last week looking for a few non-autographed Snell's, and came up with a few cards with designs that were borrowed from long ago.

Three cards in all, here is the first.  

This is from the Living Set, or the set that just won't end.  Topps has been making these cards for a few years now.  Roughly two cards per week, so I am not sure how many different cards are now in the set.  The never-ending set borrows its design from 1953 Topps.  I have a bunch of the Cardinals and former Durham Bulls, including a Bob Gibson card that I posed in the last two weeks. 

The hat logo on the side of the cap puts a date on the card, even if the set transcends years.  It's the Rays 20th Anniversary, which was in 2018.  

It's a good thing that Topps noted Snell pitched 6 2/3 innings in the game mentioned on the highlight, otherwise I would have assumed that those 11 strikeouts would have gotten him pulled in the fifth inning.  I will let it go one of those days/years.  

Next up are two different Snell cards from the latest Topps re-hash of the T206 tobacco cards.  They brought these back again this summer.  I liked these last decade, or whenever they last appeared.  I have two different variations of this Snell card.  The first is the base variation, which does not have a tobacco advertisement on the back.  

The other card is the Polar Bear back.  

The Polar Bear backs have a print run of 83 copies, although they are not serial numbered for some reason.  There are a few other different back variations that I might try to add over the next few months.  These are not only great cards because they feature Snell, but the tobacco ads on the back are all products from the American Tobacco Company, which was in Durham.   

In fact, there old factory is across the street from the Durham Bulls Athletic Park.  

The giant Lucky Strikes Water tower and smoke stack are still at the factory, but all the space is now taken up by various businesses.

The Bulls actually produced a series of videos a few years back showing how the different players prepared before the game.  Blake Snell actually walked to the ballpark before his starts.  Starting at the water fountain, until he reaches the ballpark, are all apart of the American Tobacco Factory.  

The Arrival-Blake Snell from Walmer Medina on Vimeo.

More Blake Snell cards later in the week.  

More Of Your Favorite 1970s Durham Bulls

I got another stack of 1975 Topps Minis that I am going to split into two different posts.  

I am going with four cards for this post, a few more at some point during the next week.  There are a total of 23 former Durham Bulls players with cards in the 1975 Topps Mini set.  Out of the 23, I had 7 of the cards when I last gave an update in October.  These four will jump me up to 11, roughly half way.  With another stack on my desk, I am going to hopefully wrap up this project before the end of the year.  

Let's get into the cards.  

First up, I am going with the player I consider the greatest Durham Bulls player ever.  I guess you could make an argument for Chipper Jones, but I would still take this guy.  I cannot find a stand alone clip, but Morgan actually mentioned his time as a Durham Bulls during his Hall of Fame speech.  

Specifically, he talked about the influence Bill Goodman, the manager of the Bulls at the time Morgan played there, had on his career.  Goodman was also the Red Sox starting third baseman for much of the 1950s, and won the 1950 American League batting title.  

Not the best condition, but I will look for an upgrade later.  The edges of the card have some paper loss and chipping, and the corners are all soft.  I got the card for next to nothing, so I really cannot complain.

Next up we have Mike Jorgensen.  He actually played with the Raleigh-Durham Mets, but same thing as the Bulls.  He ended up making it all the way from the Carolina League, with the Bulls, to the Majors with the Mets in a single summer.  That's pretty impressive.

The Mets traded Jorgensen to the Expos for Rusty Staub.  Jorgensen ended up back on the Mets later on in his career.   He actually ended his career with the Cardinals when I was a kid.  Jorgensen was a left-handed bat off the bench and a back-up first baseman to Jack Clark.  He also ended up briefly managing the Cardinals during the 1995 season.  

Last two.  

Matlack was another Raleigh-Durham Mets player.  I have spent a lot of time on him in past posts, so you can search around and find Matlack cards.  Definitely an underrated player of the 1970s.  

Frisella was on the 1967 Durham Bulls, and had a great season while pitching in the Carolina League with the team.  He was a solid Major League player too, almost exclusively used as a reliever.  Sadly, he died in a dune buggy accident during the offseason in 1977.  

Let's check the updated checklist, remember the red highlighted cards are the ones I have already found.  

#44 - Pat Dobson

#89 - Jim Ray 

#90 - Rusty Staub 

#98 - Rich Folkers 

#125 - Ken Singleton 

#143 - Cliff Johnson 

#155 - Jim Bibby 

#165 - Doug Rader 

#180 - Joe Morgan 

#245 - Mickey Lolich 

#282 - Jerry Morales 

#286 - Mike Jorgensen 

#290 - Jon Matlack 

#342 - Leroy Stanton 

#343 - Danny Frisella 

#351 - Bob Boone 

#371 - Gates Brown 

#441 - Bob Heise 

#476 - Ed Figueroa 

#615 - Pat Darcy 

#621 - Rawley Eastwick 

#630 - Greg Luzinski 

#637 - Ted Martinez 

A few more later in the week.  Hopefully.  

2020 Blake Snell Autograph Count: 6

With two months left in 2020, I am actually going to put a number on my Blake Snell autographs for the year.  I think I can hit 10.  This is card #6, and I have two other Snell autographs that are currently in the mail.  That leaves me a month and a half to find two others.  I think I can do it.  

The newest Snell comes from the 2020 Allen & Ginter X.  It's like regular Allen & Ginter, but with darker card stock. Seems like Snell has signed for this set several years in a row now, might have to start lumping this into the annual autograph category.

Here is the front of the card: 

In the past, I believe these cards were numbered out of 25.  Now, they are numbered out of 50.  I think the gold foil on the black card is also new for this year.  Snell's autograph has changed slightly this year with the first and last name now being separated.  Although, the E at the end of Blake has gone back to being jumbled.  

I like that the regular Allen & Ginter autograph is nicer, but this is still a quality card.  Happy to have it in the collection.  

A Big Mac With Mayo

Pretty gross sounding combination.  Big Macs are bad enough with Thousand Island Dressing.  Luckily, I am not talking about hamburgers, but a few new baseball cards that came into the collection a few weeks back.  

First up, the Big Mac.  

I was not specifically going after this card, but it was being sold by the same seller as the other cards in this post and was dirt cheap.  I like that the wood border from the original 1987 Topps version of this card is minimized.  A lot go people are fans of that border.  Me?  Not so much.  The picture is a little busy, but like all Topps 2020 artists, this is the signature style of the artist.  Actually feel like I could zoom in on all the different sections of the card to show off all the little details.  

You can see the 1985 Topps Olympic card of Big Mac on his front jersey sleeve, the photo from his 1988 Topps card is behind him, and numerous other pictures all around the card.

Here is the back of the card.  

The artist's bio is on the back of the card.  Meh.  Not really my cup of tea, but everyone has there own likes and dislikes with art.  

Let's talk about Mayo.  

I've done a few Mayo Smith cards before in the past.  He was a career Minor Leaguer outside of a brief appearance with the Philadelphia A's in 1945.  Most of his Minor League career was spent with the Buffalo Bisons, but he was also player for the Durham Bulls during the 1936 season.  

After his playing career fizzled out, he went into managing, and eventually got a job with the Phillies during the 1950s managing the "Whiz Kids" Phillies teams.  He did not last long in Philadelphia, but did manage to appear on a few cards with the team.  

A few centering and surface issues, but I always love finding vintage cards.  

Mayo Smith was probably better known for his time managing the Tigers.  He was in Detroit for roughly a decade, and helped the team take home the World Series crown in 1968.  I did not have any Tigers cards of Mayo Smith in my collection, so these are new cards.  

First up is the 1970 Topps.  Nice card, but I like the second card better.  

This is from a small set that the Detroit News put out in 1981.  There are two versions of this set, the red border, and another one with white borders.  Not sure about all the details, but seemed like it might be the only modernish card of Mayo Smith.  He has literally appeared in nothing since this card was made.  

Interesting that they put his playing stats on the back considering he was a manager for the Tigers, and his playing time was with another team.  Odd choice.  

Topps Salutes Mediocrity

The Topps Archives set came out awhile ago. It has always been one of my favorite places to find autographs every year.  It's nice to see some older players sign a few cards, and there are usually a fair amount of Cardinals included.  This year it seemed that they all came from the early 1990s Cardinals.  

The early 1990s Cardinals were young, many of the players never lived up to the hype, and they were a lock to finish in the middle of the division.  Never good enough to catch the Pirates or Phillies, never bad enough to hang out in last place.  

Really mediocre teams.  

I didn't think I would see the day when Topps would include a bunch of 1990s Cardinals on a modern set, outside of Mark McGwire.  I am posting the Cardinals in order from most surprising to least surprising in terms of appearance in a modern baseball card set.  

My jaw dropped when I saw this first name on the checklist.

The Cardinals got Felix Jose from the A's for renting Willie McGee at the end of the 1990 season.  He made the National League All-Star Team in 1991, and ended up spending two decent years with the Cardinals before he was traded to the Royals for Gregg Jefferies.  I best remember Felix Jose for not sitting near anybody on the bench during games. 

I couldn't find a picture of him in the dugout with the Cardinals, but here is one from later in his career with the Yankees.  

Felix Jose ended up spending a lot of time playing in Mexico and Korea, and only appeared in roughly 700 Major League games.  I am really surprised that he popped up in a baseball card set in 2020.  Decent signature and I love that they put him on a 1992 Topps card.  Always a plus in the Archives set when you can match-up the players era with the card style.  

Next.  Not as surprising as Felix Jose.  

The Cardinals have quietly had a good run of really good defensive catchers over the last 30 years.  There was a short window in the late 1990s where that wasn't true, but the team has filled the majority of those years with Tony Pena, Mike Matheny, Yadier Molina, and Tom Pagnozzi.  It took him a few years to latch on as a starter, he was actually the backup to Tony Pena at the beginning of his career starting in 1987. 

Pagnozzi won three National League Gold Gloves during the first half of the 1990s.  

I am not saying he is a complete unknown, but I am sure that if you did not watch baseball in the 1990s, there is probably no chance that you'd know the no-hit Gold Glove catcher on a third place team.  

This was one of my favorite plays he made.  The stairs at Busch Stadium II made foul balls near the dugout an adventure.  The steps were steep and there was no railing in front of the dugout until the mid to late 1990s.  

Again, I love that the card design matches the era of the player.  

The last two are not as surprising.  Love the picture on this card.  

Worrell is a name player from the 1980s and 1990s.  He won the National League Rookie of the Year closing out games for the Cardinals in 1986.  Very good player, had some arm injuries in the middle of his career, but came back to be a good closer during the late 1990s with the Dodgers.  Not surprising that he would be included in a modern baseball card set, but he hasn't really done anything with baseball cards or autographs since retiring.  

He is worthy of being on baseball cards, more surprising that he suddenly appeared after 20 years of nothing.  

The picture.  

The bullpens in Busch II were on the field in the corners.  The Cardinals were on the first base side, visitors were on the third base side.  This picture was clearly taken in the Cardinals bullpen with the right field foul pole over Worrell's shoulder.  

Last card, least surprising 1990s Cardinals player in the set, but also not pictured as a member of the Cardinals.  

Henke only pitched for the Cardinals for one season, which was his last one in the Majors.  He is from a small town outside of Jefferson City, and wanted to be closer to home.  Henke has other modern cards, but it seems like he has been popping up a little more frequently.  

No matter how much I might complain about the current Cardinals, some of the early 1990s Cardinals teams were worse.  You always had to look hard for the good.  Henke was definitely one of them.    

Throw in a few World Series titles with the Blue Jays in the early 1990s, and Henke is easily the best player in this post.