Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
The Card: 1978 TCMA Knoxville Knox Sox #0025 Harold Baines Is this really his first card? Yup! What is his rookie card? Baine’s real rookie cards would come in 1981: 1981 Fleer #346, 1981 O-Pee-Chee #347, and 1981 Topps #347. When was he in Cleveland? Baine was traded to Cleveland[…]
I love outfielder Ryan Ludwick. One of my all-time favorite players.
Every now and again I get infatuated with a prospect and go crazy trying to stock up on their autograph. Tyler Krieger was one of those players. This was back in 2016 when he had a fantastic season between Low-A and High-A, hitting .299/.377/.417.
From 2002-2012, while playing for the Saitama Seibu Lions, infielder Hiroyuki Nakajima was one of Japan’s best ballplayers. He was selected to eight All-Star teams, won three Gold Gloves, had had a career .302 batting average with 162 homers. Plenty of Major League Baseball clubs were interested in him, and[…]
Keith Foulke had a great career in the majors, but I will also love him for his time, be it brief, with Oakland.
Willie Mays was a pretty good baseball player. After 23 seasons in the big leagues, he retired with 660 HR and a line of .301/.384/.557, good for a 155 OPS+. Mays was selected to 24 All-Star teams, 12 Gold Gloves, two MVP awards, the 1951 Rookie of the Year Award,[…]
Card: 2021 Onyx Vintage Extended Kevin Parada Georgia Tech catcher Kevin Parada had a very nice 2022 season, hitting .361/.453/.709 with 26 HR. He is easily one of the best catchers in the country, and a top 10 draft prospect for the upcoming draft. There are some questions if he[…]
The Card: 1972 Topps Jim “Mudcat” Grant Being a fan of both the Cleveland and Oakland organizations, it’s nice when a player plays for both franchises at some point. It’s even better when that player was good, and Mudcat Grant was certainly that too. Mudcat Grant made the majors in[…]
Luis Arraez was never ranked as one of the Twin’s Top 10 prospects as he was moving up through the system. This is insane when you consider what he has accomplished at the major league level.
I really liked Texas Rangers-era Mark Teixeira. During his rookie season, he was on a Rangers team that was filled with players that are some of my all-time favorites, including Einar Diaz, Alex Rodriguez, Hank Blalock, Ryan Christenson, Juan Gonzalez, and Ryan Ludwick. That was a fun team.