First up, Mark opted to exhibit extreme restraint and in an effort to keep me from "getting into trouble with the wife," he sent a handful of Tribers:
David Justice leads things off followed by two horizontal numbers. I wonder if Martinez was ticked off that his card featured three of his buddies. Then again, Upper Deck could have used this card four times for the single photographer's fee. Those guys are followed up by none other than a couple Sandy Alomar, Jr cards. The MVP card is a cool Alex Escobar card. This is followed by a 1988 ProCards Mark Huismann AAA All-Star Game card. I don't think I've ever seen one of these. Very cool! The '86 Fleer Update Niekro is awesome! I don't know why he's all washed out in the scan, but the card is very nice! Finishing up the stack is Enrique Wilson caught in the midst, presumably, of making a double play.
These are great additions to my Tribe collection! Thanks a bunch to Mark for the cards and for thinking of my well-being.
Speaking of that, though, I may have been a bit brash about my wife's feelings on cards. I don't want my readers out there thinking I live with Hilda the Henchman or anything! She knows I will always continue to get cards and she understands (and as much as she can) supports my habit, er hobby. It was just that when I had all these 5000-count boxes rolling in, she had reached a point in which her rationality helped me see things in a clearer light. You will all be happy to know that I am down to one and a half 5000-count boxes and a half-full "large priority shipping" box of cards. :-) I am still making giveaway packages, so if you've requested one, please know that I am still putting them together. They'll be "out soon probably" (to borrow a quote I read recently).
And now that we're done with that brief detour, Madding sent over a cool stack of Minor League Tribers! Against my own 'rules,' I am not going to post all of them. Instead, I've scanned in a representative smattering to talk about:
There are 1989 Star rookies that included one of Tribe's favorite sons: Charles Nagy. He was the Tribe's 2nd #1 draft pick and the year before had been on the US Olympic team. There's also Beau Allred, Mark Lewis, and several others in the set Madding sent to me. The orange John Farrell card is from a 1991 Collegiate collection that I know I have never seen (well, okay, I don't BELIEVE that I have seen it). It's interesting to see how much photography has changed over the years. Not just the image, but rather the quality etc. Of course, there are arguments that the pictures in some cases are no better. Next, we have some 1990 CMC cards. I just noticed the home plate in the lower corner on these... Hmmm, wonder if Topps got their idea from these or from UD... Rick Adair, Alan Cockrell, Mike Walker and Luis Medina are shown here and there are others in the stack. Jeff Bittiger appears in an Impel LineDrive 1991 Pre-Rookie series. Pre-Rookie? I guess these are the 'before they were before they were' cards...
Doug Robertson appears on a ProCards 1990 series card, and there were a couple of these thrown in for good measure. Perhaps the (pardon the pun) best known of the Classic Best series are the 1991's. There were several in the stack, including the pictured Pat Bryant. And finally, we have more ProCards, this time from the 1990 variety in which ProCards decided Topps was doing cool things with wooden-themed backgrounds and sorta copied the idea. These are made to look something not quite unlike wooden plaques with 'gold' name plates. An interesting take on the idea.
I saved three of three cards for last:
Brian Giles, Charles Nagy, and Manny Ramirez, each before they were anybody known outside of their families and farm teams.
A huge thank you to both Kerry and Mark for some great Indians cards!!
Holy Crap !! As Frank used to say , God rest his soul.What a nice assortment of cards ! There ARE a few that don't look familiar.Have FUN with those !
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