Collecting Cleveland Indians Topps team sets from 1952-present, as well as post-war minor and major league autographs.
Part of my collection is acquiring the first card–generally, the first minor league issued–cards of prominent Cleveland Guardians players. I was happy to add these two over the weekend. Mostly happy.
Charles Nagy is one of the few players whose first card is a Topps base card (1988 Topps Traded #74T). So those were the only Nagy cards I had in my collection until I added these 1989 Star cards, which are his first minor league issues. And since my collection[…]
Filled another small gap in my Cleveland minor league card collection: 2000 Mult-Ad Akron Aeroes Danys Baez, his first issued card.
Unless you are one of the three people who read my blog, you might not know that one of my central collecting focuses on Cleveland Minor League baseball cards.
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[…]
Is this Sandy Alomar’s first card? Oh gosh no. Alomar’s first minor league card is 1984 Spokane Indians Newspaper #22. I have never even had a chance to buy this card. It’s a bummer. But this is his second minor league card, so it will have to suffice until I can get his Spokane card.
Every year the Joe Bauman Home Run Award to given to the minor league player with the most runs. You could not find a better person to name the award after, since Bauman is the minor league single-season home runs.
Milan Tolentino was Cleveland’s 4th-round pick in 2020 out of Santa Margarita Catholic in California. He opened the season in the back-half of the Guardian’s Top 30 prospect list but has been on fire in 2022 at Low-A Lynchburg, hitting .333/.436/.428 with one home run. Tolentino is quickly becoming another[…]
After being drafted in the 39th round of the 2002 draft–a draft position not known to make many majors leaguers, he would go on to spend parts of three seasons in the majors–to include an All-Star selection. And there is no denying he was a masher in the minors, highlighted by his 2011 campaign with the Cubs AAA affiliate when he hit .331/.405/.664 with 38 HR and was selected the Pacific Coast League MVP.
Relief pitcher Louis Head was drafted in the 18th round by the Cleveland Indians in 2012. He was a very good bullpen arm while moving up through the Cleveland organization, and seemed like he had the potential to make the big leagues at some point. But in 2018 he struggled[…]