Climbing The Ranks With Manny Ramirez

Johnny (Johnny's Trading Spot) has been culling through his collection and shortening the list of players he collects. He's been generously sending out those cards to other collectors. Back in March, he sent me a whole bunch of cards featuring J.D. Martinez. This time around, I received a package of cards primarily featuring former Red Sox legend Manny Ramirez.

 

As I mentioned before, I'm not specifically a player collector, but I do appreciate some players more than others. Ramirez is a former player I can look back at fondly, but only if I compartmentalize his off the field issues away from the many highlight reel moments he had during games. He should be a Hall of Famer, but too many bad decisions on his part have keep him out. 

 

Just like I did with Martinez, I thought it would be fun to look at my Manny collection before/after. According to the TCDB, I had 72 Manny Ramirez cards prior to this gift. 

 

 

Those 72 cards are close to the same starting point I had with Martinez (70). However, Manny was a mega-star and has over 8,000 more cards than Martinez does. That means my meager 72 cards was only good for 439th place on the TCDB list of collectors. I jumped 101 places after entering in all those J.D. Martinez cards. Will I see a similar jump with Ramirez? Let's find out!  

 

 Group 1

 

Favorite card from this group: 2002 Fleer Focus Jersey Edition #190 Manny Ramirez

New cards to my collection: 8

Total Manny Ramirez cards: 80 

 

OK, a 55 place gain with only 8 new cards! As for my favorite of the bunch, you'll soon see there aren't many cards of Manny fielding a ball. It was not his strongest skill set...

 

Group 2

 

Favorite card from this group: 2003 Bazooka - Comics

New cards to my collection: 10

Total Manny Ramirez cards: 90

 

 

Exactly 55 more places gained! For a player with over 14,000 cards, it's interesting to see how tightly grouped collectors are. I only added 18 new Ramirez cards so far, and I've moved 110 places. It doesn't take much!

 

Group 3

Favorite card from this group: 2003 Ultra

New cards to my collection: 10

Total Manny Ramirez cards: 100

 

Exactly 100 Manny Ramirez cards! If I were a player collector, that sounds like a good arbitrary stopping point. (OK, maybe 99 if I was going to put them all in a binder...)

 

Group 4

Favorite card from this group: 2005 Merrick Mint Colorized Statehood Quarters

New cards to my collection: 7

Total Manny Ramirez cards: 107

 

This batch includes a couple of cards celebrating the Red Sox 2004 postseason run. I bet a lot of  non-Red Sox fans forgot Manny was the MVP of that curse-breaking World Series.

 

Group 5

Favorite card from this group: 2008 Upper Deck

New cards to my collection: 8

Total Manny Ramirez cards: 115

 

 

I received 58 Manny cards, and 43 of them were new to my collection! Those 43 cards allowed me to jump an impressive 206 places. Despite the volatility of  these lists, I doubt I'll crack the Top 100 anytime soon - I'd need another 100 cards to reach the level where the big boys play!

Thanks again Johnny! You're awesome!

Hall of Fame Top 5: Andruw Jones

On July 26th, the Hall of Fame will officially recognize 3 new members. As I have done in years past, I will be honoring these great ball players in my own way throughout the month. Today we look at the career of Andruw Jones, whose historic peak in his 20's eventually won over a staggering decline in his 30's. In tribute to his extraordinary career, I humbly present my 5 favorite cards of his that I own: 

 

1997 Collector's Choice

#1 Andruw Jones (RCL)

 

Jones became a national star at the age of 19. In Game 1 of the 1996 World Series, under the bright lights of  Yankee Stadium, he became the youngest player ever to hit home run in a World Series game. He also homered in his second at-bat in that game, becoming the second player ever to hit two bombs in his first two World Series at-bats.

 

2001 Fleer Genuine

#75 Andruw Jones

 

Andruw's 12 seasons in Atlanta were nothing short of superstar-level. He was a 5-time All-Star. He eclipsed the 30-HR mark 7 times, and drove in over 100 RBI 5 times, including 2005 when he led the league in both categories (51,125) on his way to MVP runner-up. 

 

2008 Upper Deck First Edition

#41 Andruw Jones

 

Not just a premier hitter, Jones was one of the greatest fielding outfielders in modern day history. He won 10 straight Gold Gloves, just the 5th outfielder ever with that many. No outfielder in history has a better career defensive WAR (24.4).

 

2008 Upper Deck First Edition

#385 Andruw Jones

Jones unfortunately is widely remembered for his incredible decline in his 30's. He signed with the Dodgers before the 2008 season and reported to camp out of shape and overweight. Numerous injuries contributed to his worst season ever, hitting just .158 with 3 home runs. The Dodgers released him from the second year of his contract, and over the next 4 years he bounced from the Rangers to the White Sox to the Yankees. He was barely a replacement level player for any of those teams and his career was over by age 35.

 

2022 Stadium Club

#201 Andruw Jones

 

Those last 5 years of his career were so pedestrian that many people believed they overshadowed what he did in Atlanta. He went from a no-doubt Hall of Famer to someone many questioned should even belong. In the end his decade of dominance was enough to get him in. He was an amazing blend of power and defence. Jone is just one of three outfielders with over 400 home runs and at least 10 Gold Gloves, the others being Willie Mays and Ken Griffey Jr.

 

Congrats Andruw Jones! Welcome to the Hall! 

Confessions: I *Heart* NY!

So there has been this blog bat around that's been circulating the past few weeks. It basically a challenge to show a team you hate some cardboard appreciation. As a Red Sox fan, it's pretty obvious which team falls in the "Most hated" category. Those Yankees aren't the "Evil Empire" for nothing you know!

 

As shocking as it may be, the truth is the Yankees are very much ingrained into who I am as a person and as a collector. It's time for some confessions!

 

Confession #1: I was once a Yankee fan!

 

It's true! Granted, I was only 5 or 6 at the time. Still somewhere out there are pictures of me wearing a Yankees cap. My first ever "favorite player" was a Yankee too! I was apparently a Reggie Jackson fan, although I don't remember why.  It's also probably no small coincidence that my interest in baseball waned around the time Reggie left for the Angels...

 

Confession #2: A Yankee was the reason my dad became a Braves fan.

 

My dad was never a hardcore baseball fan, but he did enjoy the sport. The Braves were his team, although he never wore a braves hat or owned anything to express this fandom. I always thought it was just because they were frequently on TV, thanks to TBS regularly showing their games. Those games were probably how I became reintroduced to the sport and reigniting my own fandom. What I learned years later was that my dad started following the Braves because a Yankee player he liked joined Atlanta. He couldn't even remember the name of the guy, but I was able to figure out it was Chris Chambliss. 

 

Confession #3: Even a Red Sox fan like me was excited to pull a Yankee out of packs.

 

When you collect cards, you learn who the big names are. In the late 80's, Don Mattingly was one of the biggest names around. It didn't matter what your team allegiance was, if you opened a pack of cards and found a "Donny Baseball", it was a good pack!

 

Confession #4: The #1 card in my collection features a Yankee legend.

 

This is the big one. I've mentioned this before, but my parents took me to a card show in Niagara Falls as a gift for one of my birthdays. It was there that I got to stand in line to meet one of baseball's all time greats. The autographed card is a reminder of one of the greatest moments in my life as a collector and baseball fan. It's the one card I treasure above all others.

 

Confession #5: I married a Yankees fan!

 

Love can make you do crazy things. My wife is a Yankees fan, thanks in no small part to her father, who was born in Brooklyn. Despite being on opposite sides of the field, our marriage is going 20 plus years strong! Like every other female Yankee fan, she liked Derek Jeter, and I must say there is a small ego boost knowing that I rank above him now (I hope...)

 

Confession #6: Yankee Stadium is a pretty awesome place to watch a game.

 

Yes, I wore my Red Sox shirt, and yes, Yankee fans were quick to throw some not so nice words in my direction. Despite that, I enjoyed atmosphere and the game. Having the entire stadium erupt when "Enter Sandman" played gave me goosebumps. 

 

Confession #7: Yankee history is baseball history, and I can appreciate that.

 

Maybe it's easier to appreciate now that the Yankees aren't winning the World Series every year, but I can appreciate Yankee players and what they've done in their career. I was too young to remember Ron Guidry's peak years as a Cy Yong winner and one of the greatest pitchers in baseball, but I was no less appreciative to get his autograph on a baseball. Watching Aaron Judge is must see TV, and I can't help but think watching him feels like watching guys like Reggie and Mantle in their primes. I may not root for the Yankees to win, but I root for a good baseball game and the Yankees consistently provide that.

 

OK, that's enough Yankee appreciation for one day! Go Red Sox! 

TCDB Trade Recap: Cards From Aurora, CO

Nothing like getting hit with another round of Covid right after one's birthday. April Fools on me! Fortunately, this was a mild one with no fever or symptoms outside of a cough. Still, it did make it so I didn't feel like doing much, including post. I'm back now, and hopefully I can finish up all the posts I had intended to have published already.

 

This is a nice small trade with a TCDB member named Chris. He's always looking to complete some sets and I was able to help him a little bit in exchange for some Red Sox needs:

 

Favorite Card: I just adore that high leg kick on Crochet! 

 

Thanks for the trade Chris! 

Climbing The Ranks With JD Martinez

In February 2018, J.D. Martinez signed a 5-year, $110 million contract with the Boston Red Sox.  A month later, I was able to get his autograph at a Spring Training game in Sarasota, Florida:

 

He became a personal favorite of mine that day, and that contract became one of the best free agent signings in Red Sox history. That first season alone, Martinez hit 43 home runs with a league leading 130 RBI. He was the starting Designated Hitter for the AL All-Star team, won Player of the Month for the month of August, finished 4th in MVP voting, and became the first player in history to win 2 Silver Slugger Awards in one year (OF and DH). Oh, and the Red Sox won the World Series that year too. Needless to say, he was awesome.

 

I'm not a player collector, but I do enjoy the cardboard of some more than others. J.D. Martinez is one of those players. So of course, I was over the moon thrilled to receive a bunch of cards from Johnny (Johnny's Trading Spot) that contained an incredible amount of J.D. Martinez cards.

 

I thought it would be fun to look at my J.D. Martinez collection before/after. According to the TCDB, I had exactly 70 J.D. Martinez cards prior to this gift. 

 

 

Actually, I'm in a 8-way tie for 130th place. (Johnny, if anyone is curious, is listed in 10th place!) I'm only 7 cards away from cracking the Top 100, which I'll do easily enough, but with what Johnny sent I'll be making quite a leap! I decided to show these off in groups of 15.

 

 Group 1

 

Favorite card from this group: 2021 Topps - 1952 Topps Redux 

New cards to my collection: 10

Total J.D. Martinez cards: 80 

 

Just like that, I've moved into a 6-way tie for 87th place with 80 cards. If the other groups have a 2/3 success rate as new cards to my collection, I'll be making some impressive gains!

 

Group 2

 

Favorite card from this group: 2020 Stadium Club

New cards to my collection: 12

Total J.D. Martinez cards: 92

 

 

I'm not even half way through the cards Johnny sent, and I've already leaped 70 spots from 130th to a 3-way tie for 60th. You will notice some of the cards are the same within each group. I didn't bother sorting the cards prior to entering them in. I just took the first 15, put them into the database and moved to the next group. It led to quite a few deja vu moments!

 

Group 3

Favorite card from this group: 2019 Topps High Tek

New cards to my collection: 8

Total J.D. Martinez cards: 100

 

A couple of Diamondback cards, but that's perfectly OK with me! Martinez started out in Houston before famously getting released and being picked up by the Tigers, where he made his first All-Star team. He was a trade deadline deal to Arizona in 2017 before signing with Red Sox that off season.

 

Group 4

Favorite card from this group: 2021 Bowman's Best - Heatwave Die Cut

New cards to my collection: 8

Total J.D. Martinez cards: 108

 

All it took was 8 new cards to find myself firmly within the Top 40! One more group to go:

 

Group 5

Favorite card from this group: 2019 Panini Leather & Lumber - Lumberjacks

New cards to my collection: 15

Total J.D. Martinez cards: 123

 

  

81 J.D. Martinez cards were sent my way, and 53 of them were new to my collection. (That's 65% if you wanted to know the math). Thanks to Johnny, my collection of this player jumped 101 places into a tie for 29th all-time on the TCDB. Not bad, not bad at all! Will I ever get higher up the ladder? Who knows! For now I'm just thankful for the journey! 

 

Thanks again Johnny! You're awesome!

 

Oh, he sent me more than just Martinez! That, however, will be a post for later! 

 

***EDIT: A Blog Revived With An Awesome Contest!***

After a big hiatus (a dozen years!) the blog Red Cardboard is back! To celebrate, he's looking for 100 shares of his post. If he reaches that goal, he'll do a drawing for a 1963 Topps AL batting leaders card! (Red Sox Pete Runnels is of course in the center, but some guy named Mantle also makes an appearance...) So check out the revived blog, give it a follow, and share that contest!

 

 

Time Crunch At The Card Show!

Apparently, the card collectibles hobby is thriving down here in the Shenandoah Valley. After attending my first card show since high school back in July, I had a chance to attend a second one last month. Unfortunately, I didn't have much time to spend there, only about an hour and a half or so. With over 80 tables, it was a race against the clock to find some cool card at good deals! How did I do? Well, I ended up making purchase at 5 tables.

 

Table #1

 

My primary goal was to hopefully find some cards to help me complete the 1977 Topps and 1971 Fleer World Series sets. Unfortunately I struck out on that end, but this one dealer had a lot of vintage cards, including a small box of 1956 Topps he had labeled 3 for $5. I went through and found three Red Sox I needed at least!

 

Table #2

 

This next table caught my eye not because of the cards, but because he had a bin of publications, with the one on top featuring the favorite team of  another blogger who I thought appreciate it. As for cards, he didn't have much but I did find a couple I could use.

 

 

He also had a few "team bags" including the Red Sox one. 

 

I already had the top card, but when I flipped it over I saw a card worthy of taking a shot:

 

The pack itself wasn't great, mostly 2024 base cards, but there were a few good cards I needed so no huge loss. I found it funny that after picking up the Ice Foilboard parallel of that J.D. Martinez card, the base was among the cards in the team pack.

 

  

Table #3

 

This table had what I am always looking for - cards 10/$1! Fortunately they were grouped by team too, making it easy to rummage through. Again, I found some cards for another blogger, but the rest were purely for me! Had I more time, I'm sure I would have spent half the day at this table.

 

 

 

Table #4 

 

My time was running short, so after a quick perimeter check I settled on this table. Ultimately, I'm very glad I did, but the dealer did leave a sour taste in my mouth. His setup was obviously geared to the high end guys, with most of his table space dedicated to graded cards. In a small section to my left, he had some boxes of ungraded cards, with a nice sign stating quite clearly that the penny-sleeved cards were 3/$1, while the ones in top loaders were $2. I concentrated on the penny-sleeved cards obviously, and found some cards from this year that otherwise bypassed my local retail store when they first came out.

 

I wasn't going to thumb through the $2 cards, as it looked like they were all parallels of modern sets that don't really move the needle for me, but there did seem to a small section of older cards hidden in the box. I flipped through those, and found a very beat up but otherwise glorious vintage Red ox card i just had to have. That's where the sour taste comes in. As I handed him the cards I wanted to purchase, he looked at this vintage card and asked for $5! After seeing the look on my face, he held the card up again, inspected it closer, acknowledged the creasing on it and said "How about $4?". That's when I called him out on his sign. Top loaded cards $2. This wasn't a case of a card getting misplaced in the wrong section of the table. Penny-sleeves, top loaders, graded cards - that's all he had. I didn't want to walk away from the card, so I met him a little and offered $3, which he took begrudgingly, mumbling about how he didn't have time to check his cards before the show. Dude's looking for people to buy his $100 graded cards and he's trying to squeeze $3 from me. it doesn't matter anymore, because I now this beauty:

 

 

This is my second card from this set, one of the few affordable playing-era ted Williams cards out there!

 

Table #5 

 

OK, I'm down to about 5 minutes left, and I still haven't done the one thing I have always done at card shows since I was in grade school - find some packs to rip! Fortunately, I found a guy with some cheap $1 junk wax era packs for sale.

 

 

That'll scratch the itch for awhile! I'll have to do something fun with these like another pack war or something.

 

I only spent about $25 there, which is fine by me. It would have been nice to be there longer and really hunt for deals, but I had to pick up something special for the family:

 

 

Meet Cannoli, the latest addition to the family!

Top 5 Hall of Fame: Ichiro Suzuki

 

On July 27th, the Hall of Fame will officially recognize 5 new members. As I have done in years past, I will be honoring these great ball players in my own way throughout the week. Appropriately batting lead off is the Hall of Fame's first Asian member, the iconic Ichiro Suzuki. In tribute to his extraordinary career, I humbly present my 5 favorite cards of his that I own:

 

2001 Upper Deck Victory

#564 Ichiro Suzuki (ROO, RC)

 

I pretty much stopped collecting from 1993 - 2015, so the fact I have a Hall of Famer's rookie card from this gap in my hobby collection is pretty cool to me! Of course, people debate if a player coming over from the NPB are on the same level as traditional rookies. Ichiro sure didn't play like one, hitting .350 with 242 hits and 56 stolen bases in his first taste of MLB baseball. (Fun fact: The runner-up to Ichiro in the 2001 AL Rookie of the Year Award was none other than fellow 2025 inductee C.C. Sabathia!)

 

2010 Topps

#515 Seattle Mariners Franchise History (FH)

Of course, Ichiro didn't just win the Rookie of the Year Award in 2001, he also became just the 2nd player to win the MVP Award in his rookie year. He joined Ken Griffey Jr. as the only Seattle Mariners to win the award.

 

2012 Topps Opening Day

#50 Ichiro Suzuki

 

Ichiro wasn't just a great hitter. Starting (again) with his rookie season, Ichiro won 10 straight Gold Glove Awards for his fielding. Only Roberto Clemente and Willie Mays have won more as outfielders!

 

2018 Topps Update - Memorial Day Camo

#US153 Japan's Finest (VC, SN25)

 

As a collector, I'm not a big fan of the Camo parallels. But how could I not include this one? Being numbered to just 25 copies, it's a pretty rare card. (I'm the only member of the TCDB that owns one!) Ichiro's success helped pave the way for more Japanese players to play in North America, including this young Angels rookie that I heard was pretty good in his own right...

 

2024 Stadium Club

#244 Ichiro

 

It's truly amazing what Ichiro has accomplished in his big league career: Over 3,000 hits, including a single season record 262 in 2004. 10 Gold Gloves, 2 batting titles, 10 All-Star nods, 3 silver sluggers plus the ROY and MVP Awards. To think that he didn't even start in MLB until he was 27 years old!

 

Ichiro was an amazing player, and this honor is well deserved. Congrats, Ichiro!