Singles in the PC part 3

 Part 1

Part 2

My "Keepers" collection is organized by player.  For some players, like Pete Rose, Rod Carew, Cal Ripken and many others, there are a lot of cards in the collection.  But for a select few players, I have only a single card.  There are many reasons that could be the case. 

I figured that there would only be around 20 or so of these "single Keepers".  But I was off by quite a bit!  Turns out there were 79.  So that's too many for one post.  I will be showing about 20 per post until I get through them.  Alphabetically!

Here are the third group of 20 players in my Keepers that I have a single card of:

Reason I only have one: No other cards of Kent's have caught my eye.  This is, in my opinion, the best looking of his RCs.  And polarizing as he may be, one good RC of the career HR leader among 2b is a worthwhile keep.

Reason I only have one: Well, I feel like I am saying a lot of the same things here. Kruk was a part of the game in the 80s and 90s that I don't want to forget.  But I don't need tons of his cards.  I would consider others though, if the opportunity presented itself.  My favorite Kruk moment, obviously, was him against Randy Johnson in the 1993 All Star game. Probably shortened Kruk's life by a few months!

Reason I only have one: Because I don't have his RC.  Actually, Lopes is a guy I respect a lot.  He was a really smart player, and was an amazing baserunner. Underappreciated.

Reason I only have one: As I have said before, relic cards of retired non HOFers are just cool.

Reason I only have one: Well, if I found more of his cards like this one, I would definitely grab them.  But seriously, I might need to look into finding some more of the Mad Dawg.  I enjoyed Fuji and Elliptical Mans writeups that had Madlock as the best black 3B in MLB history.  Hadn't thought about that, but might be true!

Reason I only have one: Stars from the early part of the 1900s are tough to find vintage of.  So I'm happy to have this 1961 Fleer.  As I scanned this, it struck me that it is in pretty excellent condition for that old of a card.  Not a big money card at all, but might be worth grading someday.

Reason I only have one: I would love more Maz vintage!  But the reason I have this card is two-fold.  One, the same old thing I keep saying about relic cards of non-HOFers.  And two, he's a sweet part of baseball history, which is one of the main reasons I collect.

Reason I only have one: Really, McRae was a very good player.  I've read several posts mentioning that McRae was super solid, or one of their old favorites.  I only remember him as a Royal, so this Reds non-RC is weird, but I really like it. His real RC is from the 68 set and I would love to get my hands on one.  A nice Royals relic card would fit into the collection too.

Reason I only have one: See Sparky Lyle above...

Reason I only have one: Because I haven't found a cheap copy of his 1969 RC.  This 71 is a nice looking card though!

Reason I only have one: Vintage Newks are tough to find!  Heck, 51 Bowman in general aren't growing on trees.  The card is hammered, but I really like it.

Reason I only have one: I don't collect Ohtani, really don't have a connection to him.  So this is the only RC of his that has fallen into my hands.  If I get a better one, or he goes on a tear, I might add more.

Reason I only have one: Yay, another relic from a 60s/70s guy!! No real connection to Parker though.  I do like the look of the card.  Give him some longer sideburns, and that photo on the right kind of looks like Clayton Kershaw.  What do you think?

Reason I only have one: Technically, I do have another card of Parrish, but it is sorted with the Dale Murphys.  If I ever get another copy of that RC, I will put it with this sweet uncirculated auto though!

Reason I only have one: Another vintage guy here.  And a quality ballplayer, even though he is known more for his antics than his skills.  He once said "Probably the best thing that ever happened to me was going nuts. Who ever heard of Jimmy Piersall until that happened?".

Reason I only have one: Here we have another vintage card of a quality, but not HOF level talent.  I'd take any other Podres cards from his playing days, just gotta find them at the right price.

Reason I only have one: I really should have more of JR.  I'm sure there are some nice looking cards of him in those crazy Astros uniforms. Not a lot of effort put into the airbrushing here...

Reason I only have one: See Don Newcombe above... Nice Rizzuto right?

Reason I only have one: Because Aurelio Rodriguez was not much of a memorable player.  But the batboy who posed for this card instead of the real Aurelio certainly makes this card memorable!

Reason I only have one: I don't know really.  A nice early refractor of Jimmy would probably fit the bill. But he's another guy who, while he was really good, never grabbed my attention and held on.

-So who in this list should I definitely have more Keepers of??  

-What's your favorite of these 'singles'?

-Which of these 'singles' should I demote from the Keepers collection?

Bonus question:  Who will be the last player shown in the next post???  Remember, I am showing these alphabetically.  One guess per poster, first to get it get's a 9 card PWE of your team or player(s)! No promises on the quality because I have limited stock.

Next time, #'s 61-79! 

Mail batch

 Time to catch up on recent mailings!  These fall into 3 categories, Blogger Kindness, Contest Winnings and Trades.

Blogger kindness - Tom from The Angels in Order noticed an Angels card he had on my 'Top Nine Most Wanted' list that he sent me out of the kindness of his heart.  You might wonder why I even wanted it, unless you have seen it previously.  But just look at that glorious card back!

Card Front - not bad...

Card back - glorious!

Thanks Tom, someday soon I will get something headed your way!

Blogger kindness 2 - free friday at Card Hemorrhage!  Jay was kind enough to put this beauty up for grabs and I sniped it.  I'm down to 28 cards needed in the 2001 Archives Reserve set.  It's been a looooonnng haul with this one, but I'm slowly getting there.  Thanks Jay!

Contest winnings - Somehow, I have been winning a decent number of contests lately.  A big one was finishing 2nd in Rod from Padrographs recent big ol contest.  Finishing 2nd got me three choices off of Rods amazing prize page, and I ended up with these three Project 2020 cards.  Trouts are always welcome, new and cool Goodens are definitely on my radar, and the cool, smooth orange of that Clemente caught my eye as well.  Thanks a bunch Rod!

Trade - hiflew of Cards from the Quarry recently returned to active blogging, check him out!  And as what looks like a regular feature, he is doing Sunday Trade Bait postings.  I claimed a couple of cards and worked out a quick and easy trade.  Hiflew threw in this cool, numbered Mack Calvin on top!

And here are the 2 cards I claimed, refractors of stars!!!

A beautiful Beltre.  I have continued to have my appreciation of Beltre grow over the last couple of years.  His Mariners years were not his best, but this is still a sweet card.

And most exciting, this excellent orange refractor of Mookie Betts!  Other than no team logos, I like everything about this card. In the scan it looks more pink than orange, but in hand, it has a soft orange glow that has more depth than a lot of cards I have seen. It's numbered /199 to boot.

Thanks to all of you, Tom, Jay, Rod and Johnny!

Roiding with Big Mac

 In a previous post, I mentioned that I am going to try to complete my Steroids Project, and I am going to be spotlighting the players on that list one by one.  Today it is Markus Q MacGuire!! 

For those of you who don't know how I am doing this, I will be attempting to get:

-the entire Topps base run (flagship) from each players playing career.
-a relic or autograph of each player
-4 nine pocket sheets of the 'coolest' cards I can find of each player.  Think refractors, die-cuts and colorful stuff.  Rare and serial numbered could make the cut too!

Here is what I need for McGwire:

Topps Base Needs:

2002 Topps #600

Yep, down to one card. One stinkin card!

Relic or Auto card - Need one! I actually have several McGwire relic cards, but I can't bring myself to take them out of the keeper collection.

Sheets of Coolness: Below is what I have so far for Mark. Since I am a McGwire collector, you might think I would have a pretty good set of Big Macs for this project from my dupes.  And you would be right!  But could they get better???  Of course.  Can you beat any of these?  Then let's talk trade! 

Pretty good start.  Nothing on this page screams 'replace me!'  Heavy on the green from all the A's cards, looks good.  What do you think?  Least favorites, maybe the top left, just because it doesn't pop off the page like most of the others.  It is serial numbered out of 7000 though.

All Cardinals cards here.  I really love the Fleer Brilliants set, looks better in person than in this scan.  The Finest Aaron/Mcgwire and the semi-see through Eyes of the Game cards are my favorites here. Least favorites are the right side of the bottom row.  Both are actually good looking cards, but I had to pick something.

Now we are talking!  So much color and shine here! All Cardinals again, but those late 90s cards are right up my alley.  Favorites are the Quick Strike die cut and the Meteoric Rise. The BioRythm is pretty sweet in hand too. Least favorite might be the Shockwave, it's just kind of busy.

Last page!  Three of my favorites out of all 4 pages are here, the High Praise in the center is awesome to hold.  And the Lords of the Diamond refractor and the Prospectors Dream cards are wonderful too!  The Prospectors Dream isn't quite that 'bright' in hand, but it has more depth.  Hars to pick a least favorite here.

If you have cooler McGwires than these, that you are willing to trade, let me know!

What do Dodgers and Mariners have in common?

To all my legions of loyal readers, I apologize for the long stretch between posts.  Real life intervened, like it always does.  This time, most of the delays have been due to my last grandparent passing away, and the associated family times that go with that.  

It was a good experience.  He lived a good life, exactly how he wanted to.  And he was ready to go.  Many of his 28 (!!) grandchildren were able to attend the funeral, and there was a common conversation among us that this funeral, while not a party, lacked the level of sadness of many other funerals we had attended. It was kind of what I hope my funeral will be like someday, a fond remembering with tempered feelings of loss.

It was also a little weird because of covid.  We were required to distance far more than us usual at funerals.  But we just moved to a new phase here in Washington, so at least everyone was allowed to come.  If he had passed a week or two earlier, we might have had to turn away people from the event.

Anyway, grandpa was a lifelong Dodgers fan, but late in life he became a Mariners fan, mostly due to being able to watch their games every day on local channels.  He rarely missed a game over the last 5 years since grandma passed.  In honor of him, below are some randomly pulled Dodgers and Mariners cards that I own.  

To some, pairing Dodgers and Mariners might approach sacrilege, but at least you know there is a reason.

Thanks for reading and I am looking forward to reading your stuff I have missed and hopefully getting some late comments in there!