Luis Terrero on baseball cards

Outfield Luis Terrero played five seasons in the major leagues, for the Diamondbacks, Orioles and White Sox. In 243 games he hit .234 with 14 HR and 52 RBI. Now the hitting coach for the Greeneville Reds minor league team, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"I was a baseball & basketball card collector as a young kid growing up.

To be signed as a professional baseball player was a big & proud step for me & my family, but to be signed by Arizona DBacks scout (Junior Noboa) who was one of the stars in my collection of cards when i was a little kid without any intention to become a professional baseball player, was very shocking. But getting the opportunity to have my own baseball card was a huge thing for me because I was able to show them that I was representing them & that they can have something to show up - feel proud of our relationship. To see them talking & showing my baseball card to everybody all around the town. Until this day 20 years after there is people that has keep it as one of their more priceless gifts. An amazing feeling when i could it give away my baseball card to my childhood friends, classmates, baseball teammates as well my family to their friends."

Thanks!

Chilly street trade

It's tough work being a street vendor, for a lot of reasons. One of them is to be outside in all weather. I was really cold looking through some boxes in 30 degree weather. After a while my hands were starting to freeze and I was having a hard time sorting through cards. So I kind of rushed through it - fortunately I did a pretty good job and only pulled one card I had already (the '98 Bowman Sexson).

Brayan Pena on baseball cards

Catcher Brayan Pena played twelve seasons in the major leagues for the Braves, Royals, Tigers, Reds and Cardinals. In 638 games he hit .259 with 23 HR and 164 RBI. Now the manager of the Tigers' Gulf Coast League team, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"My first baseball big league card was one of the proudest moments in my career, because I was thinking about showing it to my kids one day. Both of them are collecting cards and they have my cards in there. MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

I'm not a big collector but I love to see my kids' card collections, they trade cards with their friends and I love that they have Chapman, Judge and Stanton cards."

Thanks!

1981 Topps Steve Dillard

The front: The palm tree in the back indicates that this is spring training.

 

The back: Dillard scored at least one run in the 1972 College World Series. Ole Miss’s new coach was former Yankee Jake Gibbs, the start of Gibbs’s 19-year tenure there.

The player: Dillard was a second baseman for four teams over eight seasons, hitting .243 with 13 HR and 102 RBI in 438 games.

 

The man: Dillard recently retired from his role as Director of Parks & Recreation for the city of Saltillo, MS. His son, Tim Dillard, is a pitcher for the Brewers.

 

My collection: I have ten of his cards, from 1977 to 1982. I would be interested in trading for 1982 TCMA Edmonton Trappers #4.

More street trading

Swapped a few more cards with Al this week.

I had to grab an Edgar after the Hall of Fame announcement. Found a Tino I needed too. (You can tell what part of the alphabet I was in.) The Oswalt was the only dupe out of the lot.

Late but still great

After laying forgotten on the floor of the Tallahassee postal facility for a few weeks, Johnny's trade package finally arrived in New York yesterday. At the time he sent it, I needed all of the cards. A few of them I since picked up in my recent lot purchases, but they would have been dupes then anyway. All but one of the cards was a part of one of Johnny's more obscure mini-collections.

The 1958 Vada Pinson is the one that doesn't fit. Just a rookie card of a guy with 2750+ hits, 250+ HR and 300+ SB. Extremely cool. I know a lot of people like to rag on yellow baseball cards, but yellow '58s are some of my favorite vintage cards. The '66 Eddie Fisher fits the minicollection though. That year he reached #2 on the charts with "Games That Lovers Play".

 Five from 1970, including Fisher again. In 1970 he was laying low after his divorce with Connie Stevens the previous year. In 1970 Tony Gonzalez had not yet been born; that year Atlanta's tight end was Jim Mitchell, who had a solid 11-year career. Chuck Taylor the basketball shoe guy had died the previous year. Bob Reed was in his first season starring as Mike Brady on The Brady Bunch, while Lee May had his second straight 30-HR season in Cincinnati.
Gonzalez and Taylor are available for trade if anyone wants them.

 Frank Baker is probably here for Hall-of-Famer Home Run Baker, but he isn't even the only Frank Baker in the '71 set (there was also Yankees shortstop Frank Baker). In 1972 The Jimmy Stewart Show was cancelled after one season. Boog Powell was born twenty years after this card was produced, and made his big league debut with Seattle in 2017. He is now with the Padres. Yankees legend Bernie Williams was a five-year-old in Puerto Rico in 1973. Reggae singer Jackie Brown's record Bearded Babylon came out in 1976.
Stewart (a high number!) and Powell are available for trade.

Surprise PWE from Johnny's Trading Spot

Back in early December Johnny and I had another vintage trade. My package made it through all right but his got caught in postal purgatory. Good thing it wasn't a Christmas present! Johnny pushed through a "find request" last week (I didn't know about those) and that seemed to get things going. Supposedly it will be delivered today.

Even though it was not at all his fault, Johnny generously sent a surprise PWE to apologize for the delay. Some great stuff inside:
One card each from seven different vintage sets. Perez is one of the last big names I need for '75. Jake Gibbs rookie card is great. On Charley Smith's card I learned that he was the Yankees' return for trading Roger Maris to the Cardinals. And that Bob Locker is one of the weirdest airbrush cards ever. I learned from the Hall of Fame's baseball card blog that the "Cubs centerfielder" was Reggie Jackson.

Trade with Remember the Astrodome

Remember The Astrodome sent a bunch of vintage cards to me recently in a trade, representing three different years.

Some great '64 rookie cards. I love how Dave Bakenhaster's name was so long, they had to put it in lowercase.

 A bunch of '72s. The Elliott Maddox is my favorite, a lot more personality than you usually see in a simple headshot.

 Four more as I close in on '74. I love vintage team cards!

1981 Topps Mike Barlow

The front: Barlow looks wistful, maybe even sad. Looks like Tiger Stadium.

 

The back: In addition to baseball, Barlow also starred in basketball as a youth, earning a scholarship to Syracuse University.

The player: Barlow was a middle reliever for four teams over seven seasons, going 10-6 with 6 saves and a 4.63 ERA in 133 games.

 

The man: Barlow was a youth baseball coach for many years and is now retired.

 

My collection: I have three of his cards, from 1978 to 1981. I would be interested in trading for 1976 SSPC #298.

1981 Topps Mario Mendoza

The front: Looks like Topps caught him talking to someone at Tiger Stadium.

 

The back: That inside-the-park home run was Mendoza’s only home run in 1979.

The player: Few players are as renowned for bad hitting as Mario Mendoza. The “Mendoza line” is a .200 batting average. Anyone below the Mendoza line was a really bad hitter (at least in 1980, standards are a little different today). Mendoza’s teammates Tom Paciorek and Bruce Bochte came up with the term to tease him. This was overhead by George Brett, who mentioned it in an interview in 1980, and the term quickly caught on throughout baseball. Mendoza did have a reputation as an excellent fielder.

 

The man: Mendoza has had a long career coaching in the Mexican League. He was elected into that league’s Hall of Fame in 2000.

 

My collection: I have 11 of his cards, from 1975 to 1982. I would be interested in trading for 1976 SSPC #606.

1981 Topps Reggie Smith

The front: Nice in-game photo at what I believe is Veterans Stadium.

The back: It’s understandable that with a fifteen-year career there wasn’t enough room for a blurb, but they could at least have made the font bigger.

The player: Outfielder Reggie Smith played seventeen seasons in the majors for the Red Sox, Cardinals, Dodgers and Giants. A seven-time All-Star, he hit .287 with 314 HR and 1,092 RBI. He hit six career World Series home runs, all for teams that lost the Series (’67 Red Sox, ’77-’78 Dodgers). He finally won a World Series ring in 1981, but did not homer in that series.

The man: Smith has taught youth baseball for many years and now owns the Reggie Smith Baseball Centers in Encino, CA.

My collection: I have 22 of his cards, from 1968 to 1983. I would be interested in trading for 1967 Topps #314, 1969 Topps #660 and 1972 Topps #565.

1981 Topps Mike Hargrove

The front: Not sure what ballpark would have had a red wall in right field. Looks too big to be a spring training field.

The back: Hargrove made out in his only All-Star at-bat, a long flyout to right field off of Don Sutton.

The player: Hargrove is one of the few men to play over 1500 major league games and then manage over 1500 major league games. He won two pennants as a manager and is in the top 75 all time in on-base percentage.

The man: After a long managing and coaching career, he is now an Indians senior advisor. He shared his thoughts on baseball cards with this blog in 2009.

My collection: I have 27 of his cards, from 1975 to 1986. I would be interested in trading for 1976 Topps #485.