Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Some players I don't much care for

Did a big street trade with Al, with about 40 cards going each way. Probably my last one with him for a while unless he sells his last card of somebody. I was picking through his big box of star players that is organized by individual. I'd picked through this a few times so was pretty much down to guys I had passed over before because I didn't care for them - either players I disliked or ones that I respected but were big Yankee killers.

I never liked Cal Ripken, a far inferior player breaking Lou Gehrig's record. Still, I'd never had an Etch-A-Sketch card and I do love anything unusual. I took a few Ripkens because Al was trying to get rid of him, I guess he's a player that just doesn't sell.
I disliked the Braves even before they ended up playing the Yankees in a couple of World Series. I guess it is because of TBS they used to have all of their games on TV, and familiarity breeds contempt. In fact some of the rare times I rooted for the Mets was when they played the Braves in the World Series. Nothing really against Glavine, just a guy associated strongly with those teams.
 I actually like Ken Griffey quite a bit but 20+ years later I still can't look at replays of the end of the 1995 ALDS. Al was trying to convince me that this was a "very rare" card because of the gold foil.
 Chipper Jones is another Brave I always disliked. I am a sucker for shiny cards though. Had to photograph at an odd angle to get it to shine which is why this card looks weird - it's not actually twisted.
 Haha, a lot of Braves here. I lost all respect for Maddux when he took a smaller offer from the Braves than the one the Yankees gave him because he was afraid to pitch in New York.
 I don't actually dislike Randy Johnson at all, but between the 1995 ALDS, the 2001 World Series, and his own mediocre Yankees stint I've got quite a few negative baseball memories of him.
 I don't dislike Manny Ramirez either, but he is probably the single most prolific Yankee killer in my thirty years of watching baseball.
There were also plenty of guys I had passed over not because I had any negative impression of them but just because they weren't terribly interesting - Gwynn, Sandberg, Bonds etc - a lot of NL guys I guess.

And I did find a couple of Yankees cards I had missed previously. Fun to find mid-80s Yankee cards I still needed.

Nice 1987 Topps Rickey Henderson All-Star.
 I had just thought this was a Fernando Valenzuela card - turns out it was one of those three-player cards. From this angle you can see Dave Righetti, Rick Sutcliffe and Fernando's legs all at once.


5 comments:

  1. like em all collect em all. btw, that mcdonalds set is not rare. they all have gold foil.

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  2. I really need to find an Etch A Sketch card for my Sox box. And now that Glavine is added to my bunting watch list.

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  3. This is first time I've ever heard any Cal Ripken or Chipper hate. Or Griffey, for that matter. Oddly enough, every single one of those cards fits somewhere in my collection, even though I'm not a huge fan of some of the players.

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  4. Etch a Sketch is awesome. Griffey is the man and thats from a yanks fan

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