April Returns

April continues my returns of junk wax and players from my youth. Lots of players who my parents would sarcastically refer to as household names but every single one of them jogs one of those “oh yeah that guy” memories from my childhood. I kind of miss being able to remember every card I owned while I’m also quite glad that I’ve trained my mind to no longer have to hold on to that information.

The month started off with a 15-day return from catcher Chris Hoiles. He had a 10-year career with Baltimore, including an especially excellent 1993 season, catching a no hitter in 1991, and and hitting two grand slams in one game in 1998.

Bruce Benedict is another one-decade catcher who spent his entire career with the Braves. He stuck around as a good fielder who backed up maultipe catchers who the Braves hoped could provide good offense. He returned these cards in only 9 days.

A 31-day return from Dick Schofield prompted me to add a families tag to my database because his father played for the Giants in the 1960s. Schofield had a nice 14-year career, most of it with the Angels, in the majors.

Stewart Cliburn added another 1986 card to the collection in 12 days. In addition to being a set that I’m using a lot for TTMs, this specific card has his very good 1985 stat line on the back. Cliburn only played parts of a couple seasons but his 1985 line of 44 games and a 2.09 ERA is impressive.

A 22-day return from Scott Medvin added a pair of 1989 cards. Medvin is another guy who only played a few seasons in the majors. but he managed to time it with my peak fandom. Both of these 1989 cards are from sets that I like to get signed but which I usually don’t select due to other cards looking better.

This is a pull from my dentist haul instead of my childhood cards. There were a couple Paul Popovich cards in the pile so I decided to try sending one out. Seven days later it came back. Popovich is primarily a Cub who was known for being a bit of a “super sub.”

An 8-day return from Buddy Groom added a cool photo of Turn Back the Clock day in Cleveland. Took me a long time to figure out that that weird Detroit uniform was a throwback and Municipal Stadium has the same kind of pillars in the grandstand at Tiger Stadium for me momentarily think this photo was a home game. Something about all the textures in the dugout really makes this work as a card. I can’t imagine any modern park looking this beat up ever.

Okay this is a fun one. As a Giants fan, Jose Canseco wasn’t one of my guys when I was a kid. But that doesn’t mean that he wasn’t he wasn’t a big deal on the playground. My junior high self would’ve totally expected him to make it to the Hall of Fame and the fact that he played locally made him even a bigger deal.

I went with the 1989 card for 40/40 reasons since it lists that season on the back. It’s also just a nice clean photo and design featuring him at the peak of his powers. My teenage self would be very pleased by this. Heck, three decades later I was still excited to find that in my mailbox after 55 days.

The same day I got Canseco I also got a 10-day return from Rick Parker. While he’s not a childhood hero of sorts, his excellent (it’s possibly the best photograph in the set) 1991 Score card made this a return I enjoyed a lot as well. The fact that Parker was a bench player for the Giants made it relatively easy to track down the actual play depicted.

The bad news, Parker is out here. The good news, this is the end of a play where the Giants were down a run with two outs in bottom of the ninth inning and Will Clark doubled with runners on the corners to tie the game. Parker was thrown out to end the 9th but the Giants won it in 10 innings.

I recently read The Wax Pack by Brad Balukjian. It’s fun and touches on a lot of the things that all of us who collect cards feel when we look back on those cards from our youth. It’s a bit more about Brad than the cards and players but some of the vignettes wth each player are great. The Jaime Cocanower chapter is a good one. He’s one of those distinct names that’s memorable to a kid and which, as a result, is able to evoke an entire age.

While I didn’t mention the book to him, as someone who’s using this activity to reminisce a bit about the guys from his youth, I couldn’t help smile and enjoy some of the overlap between my project and the book. Not all the guys in the book are good signers but Cocanower returned his card in 27 days.

I had put off sending to a couple Stanford guys because I wanted to make customs for them. Unfortunately, finding photos of a number of them has proven to be quite elusive. So I decided it would make sense to send out index cards to a few of the players who I don’t have cards of. Former Angel and Stanford catcher Jim Hibbs set this pair back in only 11 days.

I sent two index cards because I’ve noticed that a lot of the Stanford guys like to write notes back due to the nature of my project and I like to give them something to write on. Hibbs instead signed bith cards and enclosed a nice note on his own stationery.

Von Hayes doesn’t have the strongest stat line but his best years happen to correspond to my first years as a baseball fan. As a result, he’s one of those players who still stands out in my memory. Very nice to add another 1986 to the collection. This one took 12 days to come back.

A 66-day spring training return from Daniel Robertson caught me by surprise. This one came from Milwaukee where he’s playing this season. Always fun to add a signed custom and this is one which I think turned out really well. He did not keep one however.

Back to the 1986 cards. Dane Iorg came back in 13 days. Most of his career was with the Cardinals but his career highlight in many ways is his game-winning hit in the infamous Don Denkinger game in the 1985 World Series. This 1986 card sort of commemorates that World Series victory.

I bought this Brett Jodie card a year and a half ago because I was planning on trying to get it signed at Somerset. Sadly, the season got cancelled and Somerset affiliated with the Yankees and, as a result, Jodie got left without a job. He’s now the manager of the Lincoln Saltdogs and I sent my card out thanking him for his time a Somerset and wishing him luck in his new gig. He sent this back in 12 days.

Journeyman infielder Mike Fischlin was a quick 9 day return. He put together close to a decade in the majors but is probably most notable for being both one  of Scott Boras’s first clients as well as a member of the Boras organization.

Bryn Smith was also a 9 day return. He was on multiple National League teams so I know I probably got to watch him at some point. Unfortunately, I didn’t have a Rockies card since he has a notable place in Rockies history as having recorded the first win for the franchise.

Harvey Shank is like Jim Hibbs and represents a Stanford guy who has no cards nor any photos online that are high-enough resolution to make customs.  I’m not going to go down the index card rabbit hole but they have a place in the collection and I will eventually do something more with them than just having pages of index cards.

Shank’s return actually confused me a ton because it came back in a bubble mailer. I didn’t recognize the sender nor had I ordered anything. Only after I opened it up did I realize it was a TTM request coming back after 13 days. Inside were my two index cards, a very nice note, my unused SASE, and this book which is blurbed by John Ortberg (among other people). I’ve gotten tracts before but this one seems to be aimed at atheists rather than being a general “here’s my personal story” testament.

A 10-day return from Rich Thompson added another 1986 Topps card to the collection. I like the photo on this one quite a bit and favor photos like it for my custom cards.

Kevin Elster set a MLB record by playing in 88 straight games in 1988–1989 without making an error. He also hit 3 homers in the first game at Pac Bell Park. His card came back in 12 days.

While the first Series I ever watched was 1986, the first one I watched as a fan was 1987. Tom Lawless was an extremely light-hitting infielder—good glove and speed but his 1987 batting average was .080—who happened to surprise everyone with a home run (and bat flip) off of Frank Viola in that series. He sent these back in 57 days.

Willie Montañez had a dozen-year MLB career—even making the All Star team in 1977—but from 1975–1982 he managed to play for eight different teams including two different stints with the Phillies. His two-seasons with the GIants were actually pretty good and it’s nice to add him to the Giants album after only 10 days.

A 9-day return from Mark Wasinger added another two-year Giant. Wasinger though was only ever a bench guy even though his second game with the team involved him going 4 for 5 with a homer and scoring 3 runs. He stands out in my memory though as one of the Mothers Cookies cards I always needed.

Mike Easler was wrapping up his career when I was starting out as a fan but he was one of those names I just knew. His “Hitman” nickname certainly didn’t hurt here either and while it would’ve made sense to get his autograph on a Pirates card, these are the two I remember him from.

Easler in the midst of writing a book and included a business card soliciting donations for his project. It’s clear that a lot of other fans remember him fondly too.

Another short 10-day return and another short-term Giant. Alan Fowlkes only pitched for the team in one season but that got him cards in the 1983 sets. 1983 is one of my favorite Topps sets and designs too but for some reason I just don’t have many of them, signed or otherwise.

And i’ll finish the month off with a 20-day return from Justine Siegal. I made these customs way before she got a Ginter card last year but never sent them out. Siegal does great work with Baseball for All and, as a Little League coach who’s both coached girls and had to tell his players to knock it off when we played against girls, I very much support and believe in her mission.  I was a little surprised that she didn’t keep any of these customs.

And that’s it for the month. A good one with a few great returns and a lot of fun ones. Lots of pending stuff out there still so here’s hoping that next month is more of the same.