Greg Moore on baseball cards

Greg Moore pitched in the Angels and Rockies organizations from 1999 to 2002. In 74 games he went 9-11 with a 5.69 ERA. His now a 911 paramedic, professional photographer, and contributor to Rockies fan blog Rox Pile and Denver weather blog Weather 5280. He kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"I don’t know that I have any 'stories' per se about any of my baseball cards. Pretty cut and dry every year with how they do them.

My favorite card growing up was the Mark McGwire Topps rookie card. One of the first valuable cards I had.

I have thousands upon thousands of cards at my fathers house in California. I’ll probably bring them to my house in Denver at some point. It’s a bummer baseball cards have lost some popularity."

Thanks! His card is on the bottom left in the picture below.

Wallet Card at Yankee Stadium

Wallet Card came out to Yankee Stadium last night and brought CC Sabathia some more good luck. This season CC is 2-0 with Wallet Card in attendance and 2-8 without it. CC pitched decently, Mark Teixeira hit two home runs, and Stephen Drew hit an insurance run in the eighth to make it 5-2, which ended up being crucial as Andrew Miller made it exciting by giving up a two run home run. Then Gregorio Petit made it too exciting by throwing away what should have been the last out, setting up the tying run on second base. Fortunately Petit redeemed himself as the next batter also hit it to him and this time he got the final out.

I usually go to day games, this was only my sixth night game ever. The Yankees had lost the previous five I had attended.

I took this photo before the game. All the ballplayers in white uniforms by the Yankee dugout are actually the US women's baseball team (not softball, baseball). They are ranked second in the world and are playing in the Pan Am Games soon. They got to stand on the field with the players during the national anthem.

Zack Parker on Baseball Cards

Zack Parker pitched professionally from 2001 to 2011, mostly in the Rockies organization. His best season was 2002, when he went 16-7 with a 4.01 ERA at Asheville. Now Assistant to the Head of TV at Parkes+MacDonald Productions in Santa Monica, CA, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"My favorite card of mine is my Asheville Tourists card from my first full season. I had just gotten braces and all the guys were trying to make me laugh so you could see my braces in the card. I have a weird grin because I was trying not to smile but all the guys were hooting and hollering.

[see middle right card below]

My favorite card of all time is probably the '90 Score card of Bo Jackson with the bat and the football pads. I remember buying it for $7 at a card show. Thought that was so cool and different than anything else I was seeing at the time. 

It's funny you noticed that S on my jersey. [I had asked him about the 2005 Bowman card I pulled the other day.] I can't remember whose it was but they had 3 or 4 of us step out of camp for the photo shoot and we were wearing black jerseys for that day's game. They wanted the pin stripes so we all wore the same one. I was surprised no one caught that."

 

Thanks!
Looking at the 2005 Bowman Rockies checklist, the only Rockies rookie whose name ends in S is Franklin Morales, so that is probably the jersey he is wearing on that card.

Cullen Hartzog on baseball cards

Cullen Hartzog pitched five years of professional baseball, mostly in the Yankees organization. His best season was 1989, when he went 7-7 with a 3.38 ERA for Fort Lauderdale. Now the owner of Cullen Hartzog Construction in Panama City, FL, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"The only story I have about a card is from Hoyt Wilhelm, 'you can take your card and a quarter to get a cup of coffee.' I don't have a favorite or collect baseball cards."

Thanks!

Player Profile: Tony Brewer

I have one card of Tony Brewer, from 1985 Donruss.

Playing career: Outfielder Tony Brewer played for the Dodgers in 1984. In 24 games he hit .108 with 1 HR and 4 RBI.

Interesting facts: His brother Mike Brewer played for the Royals in 1986.

Where he is now: Baseball and wrestling coach at Palo Alto High School.

My memories: Only know him from his card.

Google Autocomplete results: He is sixth when you type Tony Bre, between Tony Breault Oregon, Senior Real Estate Investment Officer for the state, and Tony Bruschi, referring to former Patriots star Tedy Bruschi. The first entry when you google Tony Brewer is not the ballplayer but an event planner in Atlanta.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Jamie Brewington.

Last week's street box

I did pick up one $3 box last week. It was a pretty good one. Here are some highlights:

Always happy to get a major league card of a Yankee I did not have, even if he never actually pitched for the Yankees.

 Lots of fun getting a Broder card, even if it's pretty beat up.

 There have to have been at least a thousand 2007 Topps cards in these boxes already, no exaggeration. I notice this one actually is labeled "1st day edition". I didn't realize that was a variation. I'll probably have to sift through the 2007's I've gotten to see if there are any others like that. For my own collection, I generally consider front variations as legit and ignore back variations. What that means here is that I have a lot of the red-letter back '07's to trade if anyone needs them for their collection.

 An interesting miscut from 2003 Fleer Platinum. Notice the very bottom of the card with the blue and yellow stripes typical of most of the set, but not this "unsung heroes" subset.

 Here is what the blue and yellow striped cards look like. This one must be from a similar batch; notice the white line at the very top of the card.

 I'm not sure if this is actually Zach Parker or not but the name on the uniform definitely isn't Parker. Whoever this is, he's business on the front...

 ...and party on the back. The real Parker actually goes by Zack and now works in the TV industry. Fans of the show "Arrested Development" may be interested to know that he worked as a Fox office PA for that show.

Trade with Johnny's Trading Spot

Johnny of the Trading Spot hit a bunch of needs from 2012 Topps for me. Here are some highlights:

This card has a lot of personality for a game-action photo.

 Nice shadow here. When I got to live games I find it interesting to watch the shadows of the ballplayers. The uniforms and styles may be very modern but the silhouettes are always timeless, the same as baseball players from 50 or 100 years ago.

 Looks like a pop-up that the wind blew in a surprising direction. Nice photo.

Trade with GCRL

I have traded with GCRL several times over the years and his trade packages are always great. Here are some highlights from this particular package:

Awesome to get a Mattingly card I did not have from the year I started collecting.

 A much more modern card. It's called "Robbed in Center" though it looks like he's just catching a standard warning-track fly ball.

 Lots of hits to my want-list of recent Topps sets, including a bunch of double play cards that he no doubt had lots of extras of.

 

Finally, this one was a bit of a mystery to me, but after doing a little investigating I found out it was from a set called 1983 Topps Foldouts. This one has Griffey on one side and Willie Wilson on the back, and was part of what I guess was a poster-size card with about ten different players on it. This one was cut up but as you can see by comparison is still much larger than a typical card.

 

Kenny Faulk on Baseball Cards

Kenny Faulk pitched in the Tigers organization from 2009 to 2015. In 246 games he went 13-17 with 47 saves and a 3.55 ERA. Now an instructor at the ECB Baseball Academy in East Cobb, GA, he kindly answered my questions about baseball cards.

"When I was a teenager I had friends and we would trade cards every day! My favorite card was Ken Griffey Jr. He was my role model. I wore the same cleats and tried to swing the same as him. I collected cards while growing up. Being from Georgia any Braves pitcher especially Tom Glavine, or Greg Maddux I would have those cards! Collecting baseball cards kept me around the game and how rewarding baseball can be! "

Thanks!

Player Profile: Rod Brewer

I have eight cards of Rod Brewer. This one is from 1991 Classic Blue.

Playing career: First baseman Rod Brewer played for the Cardinals from 1990 to 1993. In 172 games he hit 278 with 2 HR and 33 RBI. A fuller account of his career can be found at The Greatest 21 Days.

Where he is now: He is Sports Tourney Recruitment Specialist for the city of Apopka, FL and co-owner of BCK Baseball in Orlando.

My memories: Only know him from his card.

Google Autocomplete results: He is fourth when type Rod Bre, between Rod Brent Tennis, a tennis pro, and Rod Brenneman, former CEO of Butterball. Another prominent Rod Brewer is a Legislative Advocate at Southern California Edison.

Coming up next: The next profile will be Tony Brewer.