Workin' In Shifts: Tribecards Pack 4

There are probably some of you who are wondering why I call these card review posts "Workin' In Shifts". Well, I'll try to make sense of it for you.

I'm an idiot and I very seldom have a point.

Now that' I've cleared that up let's see what I got in my next Random Packs Of Kindness package.

Officer H.T. Loki - 21 Jump Street

I have never seen a single episode of 21 Jump Street (that I can recall). The sum total of my knowledge of that show is that Johnny Depp was on it. Now I know something else. There was also a guy named Officer H.T.Loki. Does this make me more inclined to go back and see what I was missing?

No. No, it does not.

Steve Kemp 1979 Topps

A Tiger from the vintage era. The back of this card informs us that Steve was a College All-American at USC. I knew there was something about this guy that I didn't like.

Nitty Gritty Dirt Band

I know very little about these guys other than they were reportedly nitty, and almost certainly gritty. They played dirt.

The best thing about this card is the trivia question on the back.

Not that it's a terribly interesting trivia question. The interesting part is that apparently the producers of these cards thought that people would be forced to complete the set in order to get the answers to the trivia questions. It didn't work on me. I'm not any more likely to track down card #96 than I was 2 minutes ago. On the other hand, I'm set should I run across card #46.

For the record, my guess is (B) The 70's.

- I'm not %100 sure what the matching boots might look like, but "Hot pants" has to be 70's. Doesn't it?

Jon Garland Sticker

Jon is one of those Jons that spells his name without the 'h'. I'm not sure how I feel about that, to tell you the truth.

The back of the sticker (Actually, I just realized it's an incredibly thin card) has a helpful tip for young ballers:

"When you throw, make sure the ball faces away from you so your fingers stay behind the baseball." Also, it makes it much less likely that you will throw the ball straight into your own face.

That's a good tip, dudes. Be sure to pass it on.

Junior Herndon - 1999 Baseball America

You'd think a guy legitimately named Junior would be a can't miss. In 1999 he was the #52 prospect in America (allegedly). By 2004-2006 he had been signed and released by the Royals...twice. When the 2004-2006 Royals have no use for you, I guess it's time for a little self reflection.

The back of the card notes that: "A ski instructor in the off-season, Herndon is extremely poised on the mound." I'm not sure if this is implying that the later can be directly attributed to the former. If they are, I'd like to see the evidence to back that up.

Junior played for the Rancho Cucamongo Quakes. You have no idea how happy it makes me that there is an actual place called Rancho Cucamongo.

Devon White 1989 Topps somethin'-er-other

This is one of those annoying cards that's just a little bigger than regular cards for no particular reason whatsoever. I'll probably trim this one down to the correct size.

The back says that Devon collected 4 hits against the Indians on 7-1-87. The question becomes, since this normally impressive feat came against the '87 Indians, should it still count? I guess it would depend on the pitcher in this case.

Steve Carlton

Yeah, it counts. Even if Steve was probably 57 years old by then.

By the way, the attendence was 5,005 that day. Yikes.

Billy Bean 1988 Topps

If he's such a genius how come he got drafted by the Tigers, huh?

Dean Palmer 1997 Skybox

Another one with a quote on the front. "We have been unified as a team...People are not playing for stats. They care about winning first."

We're just taking it one game at a time. I'm just trying to do my best for the club. Blah, blah , blah.

Who thought this stuff was interesting enough that it had to go on the front of the card?

David Howard 1992 Score

This guy played for the Royals and Cardinals from '91 - '99, and I've never heard of him. Career OPS+ of 57...I guess that explains it. Come to think of it, he'd fit right in there with this years Royals.

Anthony Telford 1991 Stadium Club

I don't know much about Telford. What I do know is that for this 1991 card there was "insufficient Major League data available for an accurate analysis of pitch selection."

If you ask me, the Topps statasticians took the coward's way out.

RMS Carpathia 2008 Mayo

This is the boat that came to the rescue of the Titanic in the 1997 movie. In the sequel, 6 years later, she was torpedoed by a german sub.

Germans man...what a bunch of A-holes.

Jovanny Cedano Auto

In 4 seasons with in the Ranger's farm system, Jovanny never made it past A ball. That's not what I find unusual. Hey, the guy just wasn't good enough. No shame in that.

What I find unusual is that there were 4,950 of these autographed cards made and hand numbered. I have no idea if this happens all over the minors. Maybe it does. I just thought that was overkill for a dude in the minors.

In 2009 he was baseball americas #9 prospect in the Ranger's organization. Another good call by those guys. I think he's selling cars with Junior Herndon now.

Another post in the books for the Random Packs of Kindness.

Thanks again David.

Still more to come. Stay tuned.

Are you guys getting tired of these yet? (Both of you that read them?) Because I'm not.

Update on Seitzer from Tribecards

One of David's favorite things to do is give away baseball cards. This works out perfectly because one of my favorite things to do is to get free baseball cards. Synergism.

Another one of my favorite things to do is to give some of my cards to my son Grady to see what he does.

One of Grady's favorite things to do is to see how much of the card he can fit into his mouth. Never very much at first, but the kid is nothing if not tenacious.

2 of the cards I received in the last pack made their way to Grady and he treated them accordingly. I'd link to the post, but it's right there man. Just look down.

Here is the first one. He got Seitzer because I figured I still had over 3,000 to spare. As you will see, the book value is shot. This card would no longer rate any higher than VG-EX.



The other card is this 1988 Score Jeffrey Leonard. This one wasn't chosen for the post, but it's a fine card none-the-less.

I'm not sure what Grady's attraction to it is. It could be Jeff's perfect form on the swing. It could be the sweet way the Jeff wears his stirrups. It could be that Jeff shares a birthday with his old man (me, I'm pretty sure). Most likely Grady just mistook it for a slice of cheese. I've done that many times myself.

What isn't up for debate is the sure fact that we got our money's worth from these cards.

I thank you David.

And Grady thanks you too.

Workin' In Shifts: Tribecards Random Pack 3

Here is another pack of the Workin' In Shifts feature for the random packs of kindness that David sent from his Tribecards Workshop down in Arkansas. In my head it's kind of like Santa's Workshop, only it's in Arkansas, and Bill Clinton drops by occasionally to have a few beers, eat a Big Mac and talk about Gilmore Girls.

36 cards in this pack. Here are 10 for your viewing pleasure:


Kevin Seitzer 1990 Donruss

It's great to see this card as I'm trying to collect all of them. Not the 1990 Donruss set. Not the Kevin Seitzer player set either. No I'm trying to collect all of the 1990 Donruss Kevin Seitzer cards. I have gotten one in every single pack of 1990 Donruss that I have ever opened. This card brings the collection to about 3,786 Seitzers.

This is not a bad thing. I've always like Seitzer. He was kind of the poor man's Gregg jefferies in the late 80's, only it turned out that he was pretty good. Also, he had a nice stint with the Tribe.

Seth Smith 2008 UD Timeline SP Prospect somthin' er other

Don't know this guy. Cool card though, with the top notched out and everything. I'm not sure if that makes this a "die cut" or not. I thought die cuts were done with lasers or something. I doubt they'd waste the laser maching when they can just ship them over to Mrs. Seabeck's 3rd grade classroom for the tops to be trimmed.

Hey, I just looked this guy up. He's pretty damn good. Shows what I know. I need to pay more attention to the NL.

Luke Richardson Hockey Card

I know nothing about hockey. I can stare at the back of this card all day and have no idea if the numbers add up to good things or bad things.

What I do know is that Luke here played for the Petersborough Petes. That is until he was promoted to the Toronto Tors before being shipped off to the Edmonton Eds.

(Look, I know that wasn't funny. Cut me some slack. I'm sleep deprived.)

Brook Jacoby 1992 Stadium Club

"Brook Jacoby" goes into the pantheon of great baseball names right next to Wally Joyner. I'm not sure why Brook (kind of a girls name) goes so well with Jacoby, but it does. It just sounds like a ballplayer.

Brook lives (or lived) in Oxnard. Oxnard is one of my absolute favorite places to say out loud. Oxnard.

Tom Goodwin 1997 Skybox

Pretty pink card featuring a quote from Tom:

"You just try to be the best defensive player you can be. Hey, [if] you put me back there at catcher, [then] I've got to throw out Kenny Lofton. That would be my job."

Look, I could spend the rest of the post just talking about that quote and it's appearance on the front of this card. But I won't.

I'll only say that I HAVE to get more of these cards. Expect a post dedicated to this set at some point in the future...meaning the next few years. Probably.

Bret Saberhagen 1993 Topps

there's nothing particularly interesting about this card, other than the fact that Saberhagen was awesome and we don't talk about him enough.

Pat Tabler 1991 Score

Pat was Cleveland's All Star representative in 1987, the year that the Tribe was supposed to be awesome...but was not. This is opposed to the years in the 80's that the Tribe was supposed to suck...and did.

Looking at Pat's stats, he WAS pretty good. It's just not rosey thinking from from a young Tribe fan. He wasn't George Brett or anything, but I knew that at the time...I think.

Quilvio Veras 1996 Upper Deck

I don't know this guy either. I just like this card because of all the pretty shiney orange/gold foil at the bottom. Also Quilvio looks like he might be all of 5 feet tall. the back of the card says 5'9". So does Baseball Reference. I'm not buying it. Not for a second.

Quilvio was 3rd in ROY voting in 95. Probably on the strength of 56 stolen bases. But he was caught 21 times. That, my friends, kind of sucks.

Here is the back of the Quilvio card that I mistakenly scanned. I figured since I scanned it I might as well show it to you.

Patrick Roy Hockey Card.

This is my only card of Patrick Waahh. I know he is good because I have heard of him.

Pat was a great goaltender who would stop a puck by any means necessary. On this card we have Larry Odelein retrieving the puck after one of Patrick's incredible sphincter saves. No wonder the guy was an all star.

Gregg Jefferies 1992 Studio

I've been very clear what I think of this Studio set. To put it mildly, I'm for it.

I guess by following my earlier logic, Gregg Jefferies is the rich man's Kevin Seitzer. I still haven't given up hope of buying a Trans Am using my Gregg Jefferies rookie card. This one isn't a rookie, but it might get me the floor mats.

Let's see what good stuff we learn about ol' Gregg from the back, shall we?

Named the minor League player of the decade in 1989. This is not to be confused with Robin Ventura being named the amateur player of the decade. Also, Gregg didn't get his face punched in by an old man.

Gregg likes Chevy Chase (very reasonable in 92), The Hustler (reasonable for any time) and David Letterman (ibid, your honor). He also says his favorite book is "Of Mice and Men". Yeah...right.

Well, that's all for this installment. Thank you once again David. There is still much more to come.

Random Packs Of Kindness Vintage Edition

Here is the Vintage Edition of the RPOK review. For the purposes of this post "vintage" will be defined strictly as cards from the 1985 set or older, even though 1985 cards aren't vintage (unless you are selling them for way too much money on Craigslist). It is amazing that vintage is being defined in this way for this post because, as luck would have it, one of the cards is from the 1985 Topps set. It's funny how things turn out sometimes.


Len Barker - 1982 Fleer

Len Barker is the otherwise ordinary pitcher who on May 15, 1981, pitched a perfect game. This is the greatest thing that happened to the Indians since 10 cent beer night. Even though attendance was a little over 7,000 that night, just about everyone in Cleveland was there.

Hassey and Barker - 1983 Fleer - Last Perfect Game

See, I told you he pitched a perfect game. And, that other guy caught it. He even has a sweet beard. I'm not making it up, the Indians had a few good things happen to them in the 80's.

Judging by the background here, this picture was probably taken during the 3rd inning of a game in progress.


Joe Charboneau - 1982 Topps

Super Joe Charboneau. Another one of those good things to happen to Cleveland in the 80's, even if it wasn't a good thing anymore by the time this card was made. I love this card for the photo of Joe. He just looks like a ballplayer there. I guess that isn't really much of a revelation considering...you know...Joe was a ballplayer. But, you guys know what I mean.

Bert Blyleven - 1985 Topps

Here is the newest vintage card for the purposes of this post. Way back in 1985. That makes this card VERY rare indeed. People forget that Bert pitched part of his (should be) HOF career. in Cleveland. Maybe if more people thought about this maybe he would be forgiven for falling 13 wins short of 300 (as if wins mean much anyway). You don't think Bert would have gotten there if he didn't spend 4 1/2 seasons playing for Dave Garcia, Mike Ferraro, and Pat Corrales?

Ridiculous that he isn't in the hall. Especially when you consider his beard.




Wayne Garland - 1982 Fleer

This card is interesting because...I like this card and um....The back of the card has a...Wayne Garland once...uhh...

I just like this card OK? Get off my back.

Rick Waits - 1981 Donruss

You want to know why this card is awesome, besides the fabulous lighting? Rick Waits made his home in Willoughby Ohio. You want to know what other famous personage is from Willoughby (besides Tom Anderson)? That's right. None other than Motherscratcher.



Larvell Blanks - 1979 Topps

This card reminds me of the greatest blog post ever made. I love the red uniforms. When they have one of those throwback uni nights how come they never pull out this monstrosity? I would absolutely love to see a game against the old A's yellow unis. People might go blind.

1982 Fleer - 1981 All Star Game
can you believe that they had an all star game at that stadium? And, not too long after the Cuyahoga caught fire. it's unbelievable to me. How many players do you think faked injuries that year to get out of the game?

I love the card, though. Municipal Stadium getting it's own card. Nice


Sid Monge - 1979 Topps

My favorite thing about Sid Monge, by far, is that his name is Sid Monge. Sid is vastly underused as it is. When you team Sid up with Monge, well, I'm sure you'll agree that it's glorious. Just magical.

And look at Sid. the excitement just radiates off of him. He's looking very dapper in his collared shirt underneath his uniform. I get the feeling that he's just praying that the other kids at home in Mexico don't ever see this card of him in the Indians jersey. He'll never live it down.

Johnny Romano - 1961 Topps

My first ever 1961 card. I have only a hand full of cards older than this one. I was very excited to see it and learn a few things about a Triber who I've never heard of.

Turns out that Johnny was an All Star the year of this card He hit 91 HRs for the Tribe in the 5 seasons that he spent with them. His home is Hoboken, his nickname is Honey, and (according to the back of the card) he spends his spare time constructing things out of wood.

Can you believe it? That's what it says. I guess they figured there was no need to be more specific than that. Just things out of wood.

That's the best thing about old cards on these blogs. Before this I probably would have glanced right past this card and not taken the time to learn something about Johnny. And, Johnny deserves that I know something about him. Don't you think so?



Charlie Spikes - 1977 Topps

Fantastic card. I'll never get tired of those red uniforms. And how great are Leslie's burns (his name is Leslie Charlie Spikes). Looking for something nice to write about Leslie, Topps came up with this tidbit on the back of the card: "Voted as Tribe's Most Outstanding Player in 1973 Training Camp by news media."

Can you get a load of that? Most outstanding in training camp? Can you believe that there is such a thing? That is too fantastic.

Congrats Chuck. Now you can sit your grand kids on your knee and tell them about the 1973 training camp. Just hope they don't ask you what you hit during the real season (.237).

To be fair to Charlie, he did hit 23 hr that season. Not too shabby. Not shabby at all.

John Lowenstein - 1977 Topps

Could there possibly be a better card to end on that Lowenstien's? Is this a great card or what. At the time of this card, John had spent his entire career, starting in 1970, with the Tribe. The tidbit that Topps came up with was: "A speedy baserunner, John has career total of 69 Stolen Bases for the Tribe."

Don't worry, I've done the math for you. John stole an average of just under 10 bases a season.

Blazing speed. I can just imagine that glorious hair billowing out behind Speedy John as he stretched a double into a triple. You know, one of the 8 triples this burner hit to this point in his career.

Thank you again David. I love getting your free cards. And, now I can sign up for another team!

Random Packs Of Kindness From Tribecards

Here's a long overdue post as I forego the Indians game so I can watch the US v Brazil soccer game. Like a typical American I watch a limited amount of soccer, about every 4 years. I used to play a lot of soccer and was actually quite good. That was back when I could run more than 50 yards without having a heart attack.

But apparently this would be a pretty big deal if we won. I've heard that Brazil has a decent team (JK). So I'm watching...

GOAALLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No Kidding! We just scored as I'm typing this. How about that! Good times.

However, since I have no soccer cards to talk about, I'll stick with what I do know (allegedly). Baseball cards. Or, specifically, free baseball cards from David.

This is my random pack of kindness Indians cards. David, as is so typical for him, has started giving out 10 packages of every freakin' team to whoever asks. I barely got in on the Indians. I've decided to not sign up for any more teams until I get my thank you posts up for this one. So I have to get this up quick so I can sign up for more stuff.

David rules. Here's part 1 of 2 posts detailing what I got:



Roberto Alomar 2002 Stars of 89 Game Used Jersey

Right off the bat I get a jersey card of Robby Alomar. Awesome. You can save your Tinkers to Evers to Chance. I'll take Vizquel to Alomar to Sorrento. Best DP combo that a lot of us have ever seen.

I don't know what set this is from, but Upper Deck was kind of lazy on this one. Here's Alomar, best remembered as an Oriole, in a Tribe uniform, on a card commemorating 1989 when he was apparently a Met (I have no recollection of Alomar on the Mets). Would it have been too difficult to actually get a picture of him in a Mets uni if that's what the card is? Just lazy.

Works out for me, though. If UD wasn't so lazy, I don't get a Game Used card of Alomar in my pack.



1992 Upper Deck Robby and Sandy Alomar - Bloodlines

I think that this is the only card I have with both Alomar brothers on it. I also have no recollection of Roberto on the Blue Jays. Jeez, I thought I was a baseball fan. This is getting depressing.

*There's some kind of buzzing sound coming from the stadium where the soccer game is being played. It sounds like it's made by some kind of kazoo on steroids and it's more annoying than the Tomahawk chop. I heard it at the begining and figured that it would stop once the game got under way. Soccer fans are weird. Can't they just do the wave or something?

1991 Score Sandy Alomar Jr - Rifleman

Look at score go, man. Cool looking card. This was probably absolutely astounding back in...

GGGOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

LANDON DONOVAN IN THE 26TH MINUTE! WE'RE OFFICIALY KICKING THEIR ASS!!!!!!

OK, where was I. Oh yeah, 1991 Score. From the back: "Believe it or not, some scouts rated Sandy's arm and all-round catcher's tool better than those of Benny Santiago."

I write that because I think most people forget just how good Benito used to be. Alomar too, for that matter. Except in Cleveland, where we love us some Sandy Alomar Jr.



Paul Sorrento - 1992 Leaf Studio

I LOVE Leaf Studio. They wrote the most ridiculous things on these cards. What do we have for Paul:

"Favorite singer is Robert Plant; actress is Kim Bassinger; movie is Goodfellas; book is Misery; talk show host is David Letterman."

Damn. That's pretty impressive. I would hope that my choices hold up so well after 17 years. I mean, I'm pretty sure Alex cole picked House Party 2 or something.

Well done, Paul.

Candy Maldonado - 1991 Fleer

Card Companys don't have enough balls anymore to put out a whole flagship set on bright yellow cardboard. I think that's why I like this set so much. It took guts. If I ever find out who was the guy who made that call I will nickname him Private Joker.

Why do I remember Candy as a power hitter? I'm looking at his stats on this card. He was not. He should have spent more time with Canseco.

* This Kaka guy makes me nervous. If you name your Brazillian kid Kaka you are pretty much assuring yourself that he will be a fantastic soccer player. It's a lot like if you name your newborn daughter Nikki. Yeah, you pretty much just pre-ordered her stripper heals and cocaine habit...estimated delivery date, 19 years.



Jose Mesa - 1996 Fleer

Turning Red....must look away....I will not cuss on this post....

Eric Plunk - 1994 Fleer Ultra

Love Fleer Ultra. I love Eric Plunk too. We could use him in the bullpen this year. It never mattered to be that he is the ugliest Indian in history not named Otis Nixon.

Or Julian Tavarez.

Actually, when you think of those guys, Plunk is quite handsome.



Kevin Seitzer 1997 Pinnacle

Pinnacle cards were great. I like this because it has a great shot of one of those ridiculous helmet flap extenders. What the heck were those about? Were there a lot of people getting hit in the chin? I could see if Jay Leno or Soda Popinski was stepping into the box. Those guys would need to take precautions. But Kevin Seitzer. His chin looks normal sized...to me, anyway.

Alex Cole - 1992 Donruss

Here's Mr. House Party 2. We got Alex from the Padres for Tom Lampkin. I'd do that again. Alex walked more than he struck out and stole a lot of bases. We would remember him more fondly in Cleveland if he wasn't immediately followed by Kenny Lofton.

He's probably the best player in Cleveland history to where giant goggles and 2 ear flaps. He will definately be a future member of the 2 Flap Syndicate.



Carlos Bearga - 1995 Sportflix

The back says "Always chattering and aleays hustling, Carlos is the heart and soul of the Indians". I'd have to agree with that. He was always a charismatic fan favorite. Cleveand was pissed when John Hart traded him. Hart turned out to be right, of course. Baerga crashed and burned soon after that. We of course got future Hall of Famer Jeff Kent. (I won't mention the fact that we immediatley traded Kent because we liked Jose Vizcaino a lot better).

Gaylord Perry - 1991 Sportflics Kellogg's Corn Flakes.

Another Sportflics card (before they became Sportflix, which is way more hip). Everyone remembers Gaylord. He has a shot at the Hall of Fame when he retires in a few years.



Ben Broussard - 2003 Topps

I liked Ben. I really did. I was always pulling for him. He always seemed more like a AAAA player to me, though. The best thing that he ever did for the Tribe was turn into Shin Soo Choo.

Reggie Jefferson - 1991 Upper Deck

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!

Brazil scored. 2-1 Good Guys

Reggie had some good years. Much like Broussard, Reggie made his biggest contibution for the Tribe when he morphed with Felix Fermin and turned into Omar Vizquel. Man, John Hart really made some fantastic trades. That deserves it's own post.

WHOA!!!!!!!! WHAT A SAVE. Still leading by 1.



Youthful Tribe - 1993 Upper Deck

I've never seem this card before...

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!! SON OF A.... 2-2. Dang.

This card has Belle, Alomar, Thome, Baerga, and Lofton. This is even before Ramirez arrived. How in the world did we not win a Series?

Kenny Lofton 1992 Pinnacle Sidelines

I'm not sure how many people know just how great an athlete Lofton was. He was a starting point guard at Arizona and could have probably played in the NBA. This is an awsome card.

Thanks David. More cardboard goodness to come.

Dang Brazil 3-2. Only a few minutes left. And we just blew a great chance. What a bunch of Kaka.