Lots of fun equipment cards in this set.
Don McMahon wore #47, as noted by the previous owner of this card. His glove is #35, which belonged to fellow reliever Frank Linzy.
The back: Those five pinch-homers included a record three in a row in May.
The player: In his twenties, Lacy was primarily a utility player, pinch hitter and backup second baseman for the Dodgers. In his thirties, Lacy was primarily a semi-regular and regular outfielder for the Pirates and Orioles. Overall, in 1,523 games over 16 seasons, Lacy hit .286 with 91 HR and 458 RBI.
The man: Lacy was one of many players implicated in the Pittsburgh cocaine trials in the 1980s. Since that time he has apparently lived as a model citizen. He owns Asberry Services, an aviation parts procurement business in California, and has been active in public relations for the Dodgers for over 30 years.
My collection: I have 41 of his cards, from 1973 to 1988. I would be interested in trading for 1982 Fleer Stamps #80.
The player, in brief: Elias Sosa was a journeyman reliever who pitched for eight teams in a 12-year major league career. His best seasons were with the 1973 Giants and 1979 Expos, saving 18 games each time. In 601 regular season games, he went 59-51 with 83 saves and a 3.32 ERA. He struggled in the postseason, going 0-1 with a 7.56 ERA in 7 games, most notably giving up the second of Reggie Jackson's three home runs in Game 6 of the 1977 World Series.
Post-career, in brief: Sosa spent 15 years as the Latin America Coordinator for Major League Baseball before retiring in 2016. He now lives in North Carolina.
My collection: I have 20 of his cards, from 1974 to 1984. I would be interested in trading for 1982 Topps Traded #112.
Last time the bubblegum card squeezed by with a 5-4 victory. Who comes out on top this time?
Mr. Patek - either Fred or Freddie - has two fairly similar cards. Both are at spring training, quite possibly taken at the same time, though the backgrounds are different enough it is hard to tell. Maybe someone who is an expert at 1970s spring training venues could confirm whether it is the same ballpark or not.
The smallest player of his era, "The Flea" was best known for his speed and defense. Interestingly, Hostess calls him "infield" and not "shortstop", but he hadn't played a game at a position other than short since his rookie year of 1968. A three-time all-star, Patek led the AL in triples in 1971 and steals in 1977. Overall in 1,650 games, mostly with KC, he hit .242 with .216 2B, 55 3B, 41 HR, 490 RBI and 385 SB. After his career he was a youth baseball coach for over 30 years. He is now retired and living in Missouri.
Last time 1962 cruised to an 8-2 victory. Will it win again here?
Hal Reniff looks glum as he stares somewhere to the left of the photographer. A batting cage and the Yankee Stadium bleachers are blurrily visible in the background. A precursor to the likes of David Wells and CC Sabathia, Reniff's nickname was "Porky", and even Topps on his 1967 card called him "chunky". Despite his ample size, Reniff put together several fine seasons in the Yankees bullpen, starting with his rookie year of 1961. He struggled in 1967 and the Yankees sold him across town to the Mets, where he ended his career. His best season was 1963, when he went 4-3 with 18 saves and a 2.62 ERA. Overall, in 276 appearances, all in relief, Reniff was 21-23 with 45 saves and a 3.27 ERA. After his career he returned to his hometown of Ontario, CA, where he died of cancer in 2004.
Ed Olwine was a 28-year-old rookie for the Braves in 1986. Lots of fans visible behind him in this photo, which I think was taken in Pittsburgh. Olwine pitched in 80 games, all in relief, for the Braves from 1986 to 1988. He was 0-1 with 3 saves and a 4.52 ERA. He is currently a realtor in the Atlanta area.
I got another great PWE from Johnny's Trading Spot's daily contests. Lots of shiny Yankees this time.
I think my favorites are the very shiny blue cards (I don't know the technical name). Though it's hard not to pick a new Mattingly as a favorite. These cards all look so good in person.
I've gotten so many trade proposals from TCDBers to knock out my recent Topps needs that I was reluctant to put my 2023 needs up there, as I didn't really want to get inundated with offers about a set that' lower in priority for me. Fortunately, I won't have to do that for Series I, as a big trade with GoliathCards netted me the 250 cards I still needed for the series. He is newer to TCDB, has a lot of cards from the last couple of years to trade, and is looking to complete a run of Topps Mariners and Pilots cards. I had plenty of those so we had a nice trade.
There's the haul, 250 2023s plus three 2022s.
I recently sent 216 cards to Canada in a trade with sandyrusty of TCDB. I've almost always avoided doing large trades with collectors in Canada due to the much higher cost of shipping packages there. But sandyrusty showed me a great way to do it that makes it not much more expensive than shipping the same amount of cards to the US.
Instead of mailing your cards in a package and paying package rates, you send the cards in a large envelope and pay the envelope rates. The 216 card number is not accidental - this was two envelopes with 108 cards each. Here is the step-by-step of how I packed it (all from sandyrusty's instructions).
1. Fill six nine-pocket pages with cards, two cards per pocket. (6 pages x 18 cards = 108 cards).
2. I used a 9 x 12 envelope for these purposes. (Manila with a clasp; I imagine other kinds are fine too.) The part of the card page with the three holes for binders makes the page too long, so I cut them off.
3. Tape some paper over the top of the pages so the cards don't slip out. Then cover the front and back of your six-page pile with cereal cardboard, taped on the top, bottom, left and right. (I am generally not a fan of TCDBers' love of cereal cardboard in PWEs, as I find it is more likely to rip paper envelopes than actually protect cards already in plastic. However, in this case, it was great to prevent the pages from flopping, without making them so rigid they could be considered a package.)
4. Slide the pages into the envelope, seal it up and address it.
5. At the post office, tell them you have a large envelope to mail to Canada. "Large envelope" is the correct USPS terminology, and sandyrusty said that sometimes people have had to go to more than one post office to find a clerk who understands this. I figured if I tell them it is a large envelope rather than just hand it to the clerk hand have them figure out what it is, I would be more successful. I don't know if that helped or not, but in my case the clerk was not fazed at all and immediately rung it up as a large envelope (in my case, two large envelopes).
6. For me, each envelope cost $7.33 to mail, as they came out to about 13-14 ounces each. If you can get it under 12 ounces, it would be $6.03. So my total cost to mail out 216 cards came out to $14.66. More expensive than sending a card box within the US but not a lot more so. By comparison, if I shipped the cards as a package, it would cost at least $23.40 if I could keep it under 32 ounces, which would be tough with the greater amount of packaging required. Over 32 ounces and it would be $34.65. And, a nice bonus - with large envelopes you don't have to fill out a customs form!
Sandyrusty has also posted on the TCDB forums about this, what he calls the USPS' Best Kept Secret. It's worth a read if you are thinking of mailing cards to Canada.
In addition to being an expert on the post office, sandyrusty is also a fantastic trader and sent me an absolutely fantastic package! (On the Canadian side, sending the cards by package is actually cheaper than sending by envelopes.)
Starting off with some vintage needs, highlighted by my first playing-days card of Billy Martin.
Outfielder Darrell Sherman played seven seasons in the Padres, Rockies and Mariners organizations, hitting .287 with 14 HR, 207 RBI and 268 SB. He made the major leagues with the Padres in 1993, hitting .222 with 0 HR, 2 RBI and 2 SB in 37 games. He is now a youth baseball coach and nutrition/physical wellness instructor in California. He kindly responded to my questions about baseball cards by sending several photos, including one he called "favorite card".
The photo in the image is from his 1993 Ultra card:
He sent a few more pictures as well:
I'd never owned a 1967 Dexter Press "card", but I do now, thanks to a quarter bid with free shipping on eBay that somehow managed to win. It's very nice, kind of like a color version of the Jay Publishing sets from earlier in the 60's. For scale, it's next to a standard sized card (dime eBay win).
Nice variety of set needs and interesting cards from Jaskau82. This was our first trade, and we're already on our second. My favorite just might be the Jimmy Hoffa card, with the various NYC radio and TV stations on the microphones. WNEW, WMCA, WOR, etc.
