Fan Of Game-Used Dirt

Twenty years ago relic cards were pretty popular.  Half-inch swatches of swatches of bats and jerseys that may or may not have been worn or used by a player during a game.  At some point there was a huge scandal with these cards, which I am not going to rehash in this space, and they have slowly disappeared over the last few years. 

I have boxes full of these bat and jersey cards.  I am not sure what to do with the relic cards at this point, other than to pull them out and look through them.  I don't think they are worth anything and I do not know anyone who collects them at this point. 

Still, there are some of these relic cards that are still really fun and unique. 

One of my favorite all-time relic sets was the Stadium Club game-used dirt inserts, which were in the 2000 set.  Still pretty popular cards, so I understand why Topps has recreated these cards and put them into Opening Day the past two or three years.  

I don't do much with Opening Day, but I really like the dirt relics.  

The player choice was a no doubter, although Jack Flaherty also has a game-used dirt card.  That might be a card that I had to my watch list.  

I am 100% that this game-used dirt was likely never touched by Blake Snell or even his cleats.  I am basing that statement on the disclaimer on the back of the card.  

I am just going to ignore that statement.  I am a fan of the game-used dirt.  

Old Bulls On New Cards

I am always on the lookout for new cards of Durham Bulls players.  There are plenty of easy and obvious targets out there, but every once in a while there is a name on a checklist that surprises me.  When the 2021 Topps Heritage set was released, I was really happy to see Jake Cronenworth had an autograph in the set.  Unfortunately, that card is also selling for a ton of money at the moment.  Luckily, there was also a surprising name in the mix on the Topps Heritage checklist.  

This guy.  

Phil Regan was a starting pitcher for the 1957 Durham Bulls.  It was a great year for the team.  Future Tigers outfielder Bubba Morton broke the color barrier for the Bulls franchise, and the team won the Carolina League championship defeating the High Point Hi-Toms led by Dallas Green.  It's hard to believe 64 years later, players on the team are still appearing on baseball cards. 

Sure, Regan played on some good teams with the Tigers, Dodgers, and Cubs, but look at the second line of the stats.....

This card is exactly the same as the actual 1972 Topps Phil Regan card.  I never realized that this set had Minor League playing stats for veteran players.  A bit of a rarity, but I checked out a few other former Durham Bulls players and they also had their Minor League stats listed.  Might have to go find the former Durham Bulls in this set at some point.  

The Wizard of Art

Topps has a new art set this year.  I saw the promotional stuff for the Project 70 cards and swore that I was not going to buy a single one.  There are several early cards in the set, which reaffirmed my decision not to spend much time or money of art cards this year.  However, there are a few that have caught my eye along the way.  

You know how these things usually go, so I am going back down this path again this year.  Here is my first card out of the Project 70 set.  

The packaging is similar to the Project 2020 cards.  

This Ozzie Smith was really hard to pass up, great looking card based on the 1990 Topps set.  I love that the picture shows Ozzie doing a flip, which is one of his trademarks, but I do not think it has appeared on many cards.  He had a Stadium Club card a few years back that showed him doing a flip in front of the Hall of Fame.  Is that it?  Maybe.  

Back of the card.  

Same set up as the Project 2020 cards.  Efdot, the artist on this card, was also involved in the Project 2020 cards and I am glad to see him back.  He made several of my favorite cards in that set, probably my favorite artist overall.  I started following him last year on social media and really enjoy his artwork, not just the work he does with baseball cards.  

His work last year had a lot of "Easter Eggs" within the design.  The Jackie Robinson card might be the best example with the Army uniform collar, the sports he played at UCLA in the bottom right corner,  the date he played his first game on the bottom left border, and the Kansas City Monarchs logo on the name plate.  

I am probably missed one or two.  

The Ozzie card does not have the small details included in many of the Efdot cards, like the Jackie Robinson card, but I do love the fact that you can flip the card either direction and it looks right side up.  

Really well done.  

I am sure that there will be a few more Cardinals included in the Project 70 set, so maybe a few more will show up here during the summer.  

Baseball Player, Civil Engineer, Leading Exotic Bird Vet.....

The 2021 Topps Heritage set came out this week and I have bought zero packs, along with zero single cards.  Instead, I spent some time and money buying interesting cards from other Topps Heritage sets.  There were a few former Durham Bulls and Cardinals cards I was missing.  They seemed like a better use of my money at the moment.  I have a few of these types of cards to post over the next few weeks.  

First up is Cubs, Cardinals, and Expos pitcher Rich Nye.  

Nye played 5 years in the Majors, mostly with the Cubs.  His stints with the Cardinals and Expos lasted a combined total of 14 games.  Yet, for some reason, Topps gave him a baseball card in the 2019 Topps Heritage set.  Seemed odd.  What's so great about Rich Nye?  

Here is the card. 

 

Well, Rich was a smart guy.  He went to Cal-Berkley, played baseball, and earned a degree in civil engineering.  After his baseball career flamed out......

Career #1  - Civil Engineer

Rich used his civil engineering degree to help build the Sears Tower. 

 

Career #2 - Commodities Trader

Rich switched careers and decided that he would become a commodities trader.  

 

Back To College

Commodities trader was not very "inspirational", so Nye went back to college at the University of Illinois to attend Vet School.  

 

Career #3 - Veterinarian

Rich started working as a vet specializing in exotic birds in Niles, Illinois.  

 

Charter Member and President of the AAV

Apparently there was no professional organization for vets working with birds, so Rich started one.  He also ran the organization as its President.  If you work with birds, it's apparently a big deal. 

 

Career #4 - Commodities Trader

Not really a career switch, just earning money to start a large vet practice that will be the leading facility for exotic birds in the United States.  

 

Career #5 - Veterinarian

Nye started the Midwest Bird and Exotic Animal Hospital in Westchester, Illinois.  The practice was the leading research group on exotic birds in the United States.  

 

Career #6 -Textbook Author

Nye wrote several textbooks on avian medicine.  

 

Retirement

Just kidding.  

 

Career #7 -Nye Wood Turning 

Rich started his own wood turning business and makes rings and wooden bowels. 

A Kinder, Gentler Post About Panini Cards

Let's talk about Jake Cronenworth.  One of my favorite players to recently appear on the Durham Bulls, I don't talk about him enough on here, but there is a good reason.  

Cronenworth was on the Bulls in 2019 and had a great year.  He hit for average, got on base, showed a little pop in his bat, and even pitched a few innings as a reliever.  Cronenworth had pitched while he was at the University of Michigan, but the Rays settled on making him a position player.  The great 2019 meant that the Durham Bulls made a baseball card of Cronenworth and put it in the team set.  

 

There are not actually many cards of Jake Cronenworth.  He had a card in the 2015 Bowman Draft set, but outside of that, there are only a few Minor League team issued cards.  Cronenworth got traded to the Padres after the 2019 season and had a great 60 games last season.  No baseball cards during the 2020 season, but Topps put him on their Topps All-Rookie team.  I figured that he was going to get a card at some point.  

He was not in the base Topps set, but has appeared in both the Inception and Topps Heritage sets.  I have spent time looking at his cards, thinking about buying one.  Just one problem.  

This is where I get annoyed.

 

EIGHTY DOLLARS.  

I should buy another Stan Musial autograph.  

I didn't, because I really wanted a Jake Cronenworth card, but I created a list of reasons why people should not spend $80 or more on a card of the Padres infielder.  

1. He's a 27 year old rookie.

2. He's played less than 60 games in his career.  

3. He hit .183 with a .268 slugging percentage during the last month of the 2020 season.  That's half of his career. 

4. He went to the University of Michigan.  

Seriously, I hope Jake Cronenworth has a great year in 2021.  I would love to see him and Blake Snell get a shot at winning a World Series with the Padres.  I also hope the Padres let him pitch a few innings this year. 

Frustrated at his card prices, I went a bit of a different direction to add one of his cards to my collection.  If you are a long time reader, you know that I am not a big fan of Panini.  Buying a Panini card is usually a last resort.  I love team logos and cards that are actually autographed by the player.  I love when the card says, "Cardinals" or "Padres" and not "St. Louis" or "San Diego".  

Welp.  Here is my Jake Cronenworth card from the Donruss set with no logos and an autographed sticker. 

 

I did not spend $80 for this card.  

Not even close.  

Hopefully, the prices of some of the other Cronenworth cards come down significantly and maybe one will find its way into my collection.  In the meantime, I wanted to post one more former Bulls player who also appeared in this year's 2020 Donruss set.  

This is where I say nice things about Panini.  

While I pick often pick on Panini, I will say that the company does a good job of getting some different players to sign autographs for their sets.  Topps always seemingly has the same 3 or 4 players for every team in every set.  Panini sometimes branches out and throws in an unexpected player.  

Like this one. 

Who is Josh Fleming?  

Why should you care about Josh Fleming?  

Josh Fleming was on the Rays last season, started a handful of games, before being sent to the bullpen for the playoffs.  He became a starring member of "The Stable", a group of younger, hard-throwing relief pitchers.  Fleming spent the end of the 2019 season with the Durham Bulls.  I was not really expecting Josh Fleming to appear on any baseball cards this year.  Happy to find this one.  Sometimes Panini does something right in my world. 

I actually got to see Fleming's Triple A debut.  If you read the scoreboard, you will see that he attended Webster University, which is in Webster Groves, Missouri.  I have spent a little bit of time running around Webster Groves, Missouri.  My parents worked in that town and I am pretty sure that a large percentage of my mid and late 1980s baseball cards came from the Ben Franklin store there.  I had an apartment in Webster for awhile as an adult.  Nice place to live and right down the street from Webster University. 

Josh Fleming at Webster University.  

Picture courtesy of Webster University Athletics

Sadly, after finding the Fleming card above, I actually found out that Panini made a card of him at the end of the 2020 season.  I should probably be a little nicer towards Panini and pay a little more attention to their cards.  On card autographs and logos aren't everything, right?   I will have to find a copy of the other Fleming card and post it. 

 

Set Appreciation Post #12 - 1988 Donruss

It has been a week.  I am doing a whole lot of nothing this weekend and it feels great.  Writing a blog post about the 1988 Donruss set seemed like a really huge time waster, so here I am.  Maybe I just hang out with the wrong people and follow the wrong accounts on social media, but the 1988 Donruss set seems wildly unpopular.  Is it just me, or does it often get lumped in with sets like 1991 Fleer?  

I am going to hold my opinion to the end of the post, but I will probably give away it's ranking somewhere around the top of the post.  

Special guest appearance by Aaron Boone via screen shots.  I learned this week that I attended his Major League debut.  He was ejected after being tagged out at home on a throw from right-fielder Brian Jordan.  

 

Actual screen shot of Aaron Boone after getting run from the game.  Deion Sanders homered off of Matt Morris.  The Reds won.  The Cardinals fans booed Deion Sanders and none of them could tell you why they booed him. 

Let's go.  

BASE CARD

 

Many of the cards in the post were actually opened by the 10 and 11 year old me.  Pack fresh.  You're going to find this hard to believe, but I have never gone back and worked on improving my 1988 Donruss set.  The first base card in the set is Mackey Sasser.  Actually, the first two dozen cards in Donruss sets were always the Diamond Kings cards.  I will get to those in a few minutes.  

The Rated Rookie cards were always great.  That little logo in the corner of the card is always a bonus in my book.  One of the great things that came out of 1980s baseball cards. 

Shall we talk about the border design? 

 

I never quite understood what was going on with the blue, red, and black lines.  I have looked at these cards from time to time over the last 33 years and I have no idea how this design was picked for a large baseball card set.  If this was the best design option at the time, what did it beat out?  

The back of the card. 

 There were always pros and cons to the card backs in the Donruss set.  The con was when you got a card of some player who had been around forever, but they only put five years worth of stats on the back of the card.  I like the highlight section better than Topps and I also like that they put down how the player was acquired.  You could find some really bad trades on the back of these cards. 

Diamond Kings 

I wanted to pick a Cardinals card for this spot, but the 1988 Donruss set had Jack Clark with a pink background.  I like the pink background, but 1988 was not a great year to be a Cardinals fan and see Jack Clark in a pack of cards. 

Why?  

I am going to slip in a screen shot of Mike Bush from NewsChannel 5. I think Mike is a news anchor now, or somebody serious.  Hopefully Zip Rzeppa is still doing sports in St. Louis. 

It also started the Bob Horner era in St. Louis.  

I decided to pick this Mark McGwire card instead.  Big Mac was coming off setting the Major League rookie home run record.  If you didn't know the year of the card, you can tell it's early in his career, because he looks to be a normal size in the picture.  I like the colored bars in the background too, very 1980s.  

Aaron Boone screen shot. 

There are probably better Diamond Kings cards in this set, but I am sticking with McGwire.  Solid design and he actually had a really good 1987.  

Cool Card of 1988 

I never got the whole idea of spending a ton of money on players with very little Major League experience.  Yes, it's been really bad the past two decades with Bowman, but it's not like that was the start of the trend.  Bowman just made it worse.  The 1988 Donruss set had one of those "hot" rookie cards way back in 1988.  

The 1988 Donruss Gregg Jefferies card was a really big deal back in the late 1980s.  People were pretty sure that he was going to be the next great hitter in the Majors, win a few batting titles, and be in the Hall of Very Good or the Hall of Fame.  

A lot of people spent a lot of money on this card. 

 

Other people just pulled the card from a $0.35 pack of cards from Ben Franklin.  

While we are here.  It really bothers me when people label Gregg Jefferies as a "flop" or a "bust".  He was a really good player who just happened not to live up to very lofty expectations.  I saw him play for the Cardinals for two years in the 1990s, excellent player.  Great hitter. 

Best Non-Cardinal Card 

I am a sucker for flip-down sunglasses.  

Why don't players wear these types of sunglasses anymore?  

I don't wear glasses.

I don't wear sunglasses.  

If I did wear glasses, they would be flip downs.  

Thank you, Aaron Boone.  Yes, Eric Davis is also a really good hitter.  

Best Cardinals Card 

 

Wrigley makes a good backdrop for baseball cards.  The Ozzie Smith card is a Spring Training picture.  The Vince Coleman card was also taken in Wrigley, but he is bunting.  Easy choice here. 

 Thanks, Aaron. 

Best Durham Bulls Card 

Let's wrap up this post.  I thought about going Brad Komminsk on the Brewers, but I am going to fly under the radar a bit here and go with Milt Thompson.  Really, there were not that many great choices.  The Bulls produced a lot of Braves players during the 1980s, but none of them have great cards in this set. 

 

Milt Thompson, if you did not watch baseball in the 1980s or 1990s.  Good player for the Braves, Phillies, Cardinals, and back to the Phillies for a second time.  I think there might have been a few years with the Astros at the very end of his career.  Good hitter, good defender.  I like the portrait style photo, just wish the photographer had backed up a little bit.  Milt had a really unique batting stance, but I cannot find a good picture of it.  His bat is actually too high in this photo.  Normally it was behind his back shoulder, he stood deep in the box, but stuck his front leg out straight in front of him. 

 Yes.  

How Does It Compare?  

You're probably thinking that this set is going to end up being in the last spot, but that's not going to happen.  I have no problem putting the 1988 Donruss set ahead of the bottom 3 sets.  It's not better than the 2017 Topps Heritage Minors set, so I am really trying to decide whether to put it above or below the Emotion XL set.  

The major flaw with 1988 is its design.  If Aaron Boone had been a design manager at Donruss during the late 1980s, this might be a conversation he had with his team.

Aaron Boone was in high school in 1988. 

Emotion XL has a good design, but some of it's cards are really dumb.  Let's remember that Dante Bichette's "emotion" was "The Heat".  Still think that the Emotion cards are better overall set than Donruss, especially when the quality of the cards is taken into consideration. 

I am going to go ahead and put the 1988 Donruss set in 9th place in my Set Appreciation rankings. 

11. 2000 Pacific Paramount Update 

10. 2010 Topps USA Baseball  

9. 2000 UD Ionix  

9. 1988 Donruss 

8. 1995 Emotion XL 

7. 2017 Topps Heritage Minor League

6. 1998 Topps TEK 

5. 1986 Topps Mini League Leaders 

4. 2001 Fleer EX 

3. 1979 Kellogg's 

2. 2002 Topps Super Teams

1. 1983 Topps 

Sorry, I am out of Aaron Boone screenshots. 

Wandering.

Last week the Rays sent Wander Franco to their Minor League camp, meaning he is likely going to spend a big chunk of his summer playing for the Durham Bulls.  How many times have the Durham Bulls had the top prospect entering a season?  

It's been a few.  

I am really excited to see him play, which would normally mean that I would be searching Ebay and Facebook groups for a few of his cards.  How many have I bought this spring?  

Well, there is this one....

 

That's it.  

I felt well prepared knowing that there is a healthy market for Wander Franco cards, but have you seen the price of his cards?  His autographs are all around/over $100.  Some of base cards and serial numbered cards are kind of pricy for a player with less than 200 games in the Minors. So, after looking at my baseball card budget and weighing whether or not to spend some money on the upcoming Durham Bulls players, I have decided that I am going to skip the entire team over at the moment.  

That's right.  A blog with a heavy slant on collecting Durham Bulls cards is not collecting Durham Bulls cards for the moment.  I am sure that I will find a few players on the team later on this summer.  Surely, someone will be more in the Michael Brosseau price range at some point.  In the meantime, I decided to redirect my Durham Bulls budget for this spring into a single card.  

I know it's a bold move, but I stand by the decision.  

I have a copy of this card, but this one is nicer than the one in my collection and it's Stan Musial.  Do you really need a reason to buy a Stan Musial card?  I cannot think of one, especially considering this autographed card is cheaper than a Wander Franco autograph.