Goose Joak Originals: Corky Miller

See the full set here.

Goose Joak Originals: Wilson Betemit

Check out the full set here.

Card Spotlight: 4-10-09

1993 Toys 'R' Us #58 - Robin Ventura

While most of us were trying to move away from the stereotype that baseball cards were for kids, Toys 'R' Us was continuing its tradition of producing a baseball card set. They produced a rookie set from 1987 until 1991. In 1993, they produced their last sets featuring stars instead of rookies.

I like this card of Robin Ventura. It features an innocence that only a card sold at a kids' store could feature. It isn't overly kiddish, but it has just the right touches. It almost reminds me of a McDonald's issue from the early nineties.

It's nice to see Robin Ventura in a set. Usually, it was Frank Thomas dominating the card sets. Frank pops up in this set too, but Ventura pops up first.

The way the text is set up on the front of the card, it reminds me of I.R. Baboon from the I.M. Weasel cartoon. Young Star "R" Robin Ventura. Sure it's a stretch, but that's what first popped into my head, when I saw that.

Nick Adenhart 1986-2009

I slept in late today, mostly because my back was still a little tender. I missed the flurry of reports about the death of Nick Adenhart. While most articles will give you details about the car crash that took his young life, I hope to take you down memory lane.

Nick made his MLB debut on May 1, 2008 against the A's. He had his first win on May 12, 2008 against the White Sox. My game summary can be found here. It makes no mention of Nick Adenhart. The summary focused on Mark Buehrle.

If Buehrle wasn't so awful in that game, maybe Nick wouldn't have won his first game against the White Sox. Then again, maybe Nick just pitched that well. Adenhart always appeared to be a tough luck pitcher. He would pitch well enough to get a no decision, as he did in last night's game.

In a strange way, I feel honored that Nick got his one win against the White Sox. I feel sad that he will never get the chance to win his second game. Nick left behind a 1-0 lifetime record. We'll never get to see Nick blossom into the pitcher that he was destined to be. May he rest in peace. He'll be playing for the real Angels now.

WSC Birth Years: Jermaine Dye

Card #5 - Jermaine Dye

Born: January 28, 1974

Since last week's card was obviously an April Fool's joke, Jermaine Dye has the actual fifth card in the set.

Jermaine seems to be getting better with age. Dye has made more sliding catches in the outfield in 2008, than I can remember at any other time in his career. His bat continues to be a lethal weapon at the plate. Not bad for someone who was supposed to be in his declining years, four years ago.

Jermaine is the only member of the current White Sox team that can claim to be a World Series MVP. Add into that equation that he claims that distinction with his current team, and you've got a special type of player.

The Year Of Rookie Overkill

There has always been a certain fascination with the rookie card. Players who become commons can still find their rookie cards to be slightly higher than other cards in their careers, unless they fall victim to the short print card.

Throughout the eighties, there was a slow buildup of the rookie card. Dwight Gooden, Roger Clemens, Cal Ripken Jr., Jose Canseco, Bo Jackson and many others contributed to that craze. The card companies caught on quickly and soon the market would be flooded with rookie cards.

In many instances, minor stars or common players were left out of a release to make room for a single A player that would never climb out of the minors. Couple this with star players getting multiple cards in the same set, for no other reason than greed, and there was very little space for the common player to settle in.

1990 brought the rookie card of Frank Thomas, which only a handful of companies decided to showcase. In one of the biggest blunders of that year, only Score and Topps had regular issue cards of Big Frank ready for early release. Leaf, which came out mid-season, had a very popular Frank Thomas card, but it wasn't the first. Fleer waited until their update set before adding Frank. Not a peep from Upper Deck and Donruss seemed to be satisfied with just the Leaf card.

Most of the fuss was on Kevin Maas and Ben McDonald in 1990. Ben McDonald was a decent pitcher, but is largely forgotten outside the Baltimore Orioles fan base. Kevin Maas is largely forgotten except for die hard Yankee fans. The trends in 1990 were gimmicky. Todd Van Poppel was destined for greatness and Pete Rose Jr. was going to break his old man's record. None of it came to pass.

Pitch men on home shopping networks were pushing Classic cards, er, I mean games. All four players were in these sets and Frank Thomas too. Fans went ape for the sets and the card companies took notice.

In 1991, Bowman started it's transformation into the "Home of the Rookie Card". Every major set had players that would never sniff a Major League game. Score littered their set with rookies. Donruss saturated the set with Rated Rookies. You couldn't open a pack of Topps without hitting a Future Star or a draft pick card. Even Upper Deck seemed to get caught up in rookie fever.

Usually, the rookies that the companies selected to be in each set had a legitimate shot at making the parent club sometime soon. Sometimes the rookies already had a taste of the big show. In 1991, Cesar Bernhardt had a card in the Bowman set. It would be his only stand alone MLB card. He made an appearance on a 1992 Topps prospect card with three other players. He never made it to the majors.

Unwittingly, I have become a Cesar Bernhardt player collector and didn't even know it. I have both of his Major League cards. I know I have at least one of his minor league cards. Did I seek these specifically out? Nope. They just happen to be in the team sets that I collect.

The next time that you look through your collection and find a bunch of no name washed up rookies, curse 1991. This was the year of rookie overkill. As with anything, there were events leading up to this happening. Every action is a reaction to the action that preceded it. There was no stopping the rookie invasion and unfortunately, the no name, never amount to anything rookie card dominates the landscape today.

Goose Joak Originals: Mike MacDougal

Check out the full set here.

Predictions

I feel well enough to play Carnac for the 2009 MLB season.

"A roper, a doper and a soaper".

"A roper! A doper! And a soaper"!

:::Carnac gives annoying sidekick a glare:::


Carnac opens the envelope and blows into it, revealing a slip of paper inside.

"What you get when a critic and Barry Bonds both visit Ozzie Guillen".

Yes, I know that was bad. It prepares you for what lies ahead.

MLB Predictions 2009!

AL East
1. Red Sox
2. Rays
3. Yankees
4. Orioles
5. Blue Jays

I think that the Red Sox will win by default. The arms race in the AL East will cause the teams in that division to beat up on each other. The key will be in who does better away from the division. The Rays will be good enough for second place. The Yankees run a close third. The Orioles will improve their record, but not be able to slip past the Yankees. The Blue Jays will collapse this year.

AL Central
1. White Sox
2. Royals
3. Twins
4. Indians
5. Tigers

The White Sox will repeat as the AL Central winners. The Royals talent finally cashes the checks they've been trying to write. The Twins start slow, but come on strong near the end. The Indians will be close enough to first to taste it, but will settle for fourth in a close race. The Tigers will be a mess this year, with flashes of brilliance.

AL West
1. Athletics
2. Rangers
3. Angels
4. Mariners

The Athletics found the right combination of talent and youth to win the division. The Rangers live up to their reputation at the plate, but the pitching will fail them into second. The Angels have lost too much. The Mariners cannot be helped by aging hipsters.

AL Wild Card
Royals

The Royals will surprise people this year. They will win just enough to make the Wild Card.

NL East
1. Braves
2. Marlins
3. Phillies
4. Mets
5. Nationals

The Braves will be back to their winning ways. The Marlins will surprise people this year. The Phillies will unfortunately slip a bit in the standings, but make a good run. The Mets will start strong, but fade towards the end. The Nationals will try.

NL Central
1. Reds
2. Cubs
3. Cardinals
4. Pirates
5. Brewers
6. Astros

The Reds will have the right combination of youth and talent to win again. The veterans that were holding them back are gone. The Cubs won't have enough left in the tank to win. Blame Fukudome and Soriano. The Cardinals will almost catch the Cubs. The Pirates will make great strides this season. The Brewers will be going down the slide into cheese heaven. The Astros won't be piecing it together this season.

NL West
1. Dodgers
2. Diamondbacks
3. Giants
4. Rockies
5. Padres

The Dodgers will run away with the NL West. The D'Backs will start slow and finish strong. The Giants will find their rhythm after the All-Star break. The Rockies will follow the Tigers route. The Padres will play this season.

NL Wild Card
Marlins

The Marlins will edge out the Cubs by one game for the Wild Card.

There will be no predictions for the postseason. Once a team reaches that point, throw the rule book out the window. It will do you no good.

For those of you scratching your head over the Carnac answer. Richard Roeper (who is a die hard White Sox fan) was Roger Ebert's partner as a movie critic. Barry Bonds is self explanatory. Some people believe that Ozzie Guillen's mouth should be washed out with soap.

Sidelined!

I now have something in common with Bo Jackson, Robin Ventura, Joe Crede, Frank Thomas and Cal Eldred. I am now officially on the DL.

Well, if I were actually playing baseball somewhere instead of just writing about it, I'd be on the disabled list.

Early Saturday morning, out of nowhere, my lower back gave out. Ever the trooper, I still went out to breakfast with Tracey. I drew the line at walking around Super K-Mart, opting to wait out the duration of the shopping in the car with the seat reclined all the way back.

Suffice to say, I was never so happy to see home after that. We tried a new place (to us at least) for breakfast. It was crowded, overpriced and had small portions. The food was decent, but not worth the hassle. We were seated at a small table, in the middle of the floor, right by where everyone had to squeeze past us in a high traffic area. Not my idea of a good time while I'm hungry and in pain.

Instead of organizing my boxes of baseball cards, I spent the majority of the afternoon lying on my stomach teaching Tracey massage techniques to use on me. She didn't do too bad for her first lesson, but I suspect the Tiger Balm helped a lot.

I have no clue as to what caused the injury. Possibly my lower back has been plotting against me all week and Saturday morning was the perfect opportunity to strike. When your own body parts become sentient and evil, nothing good can ever come out of that.

Posting may be sporadic or it could be plentiful, depending on how long I can sit in a chair without excruciating pain. Hopefully, this will clear up by Monday. I have to meet someone about a possible job and, of course, it's Opening Day, unless that gets snowed out. My Canadian relatives must have brought the snow with them, when they flew in Saturday. Only in Chicago.

Ready For Opening Day

This is what I'm watching to get ready for the 2009 White Sox season.

Card Spotlight: 4-3-09

Absolute Memorabilia #34 - Keith Foulke

Even though the intricacies of the foil do not scan well, the basic idea is still displayed in this card. The card itself is speckled with green, blue and gold. It makes a semi-rainbow effect that is very pleasing to the eye.

Keith Foulke was the same way on the White Sox. His contributions looked nice enough, but it didn't translate on the field as much as the fans would have liked. I can still remember being very high on Keith Foulke. Ultimately, I was disappointed. I was still a little bitter when Keith was traded to the A's for Billy Koch. The prospect of Koch eased the sting though. I knew Keith's limitations, but was unaware that Billy was about to implode.

Foulke exploded when he left Chicago. Eventually, he would up on the 2004 World Champion Boston Red Sox and closed out the final game. Then the bottom fell out and Keith ended up resembling Billy Koch as a reliable closer.

It just goes to show that sometimes the grass isn't always greener on the other side. Everyone in Chicago thought the White Sox were trading a very good closer for a great one. It doesn't always work out the way it's envisioned.

As for the card, I feel that it sums up Foulke's time with the White Sox. It's shiny. It gives a lot of hope, but it's just window dressing when you realize how many more pitchers (or parallels) there are. And Absolute Memorabilia (more so parent company Donruss) was all about the parallels. For some strange reason this particular card only has two parallels.

Nice restraint, Donruss. Nice restraint.

From Padrographs To Pale Hose

I'll be the first to admit it. I've been off my game lately. I have packages in the gathering stage, that aren't quite ready to go out the door. A few packages have stalled because of real life intervening.

Imagine my surprise when a large bubble mailer appeared in my mailbox. It turned out to be from Rod of Padrographs. I need a better system of keeping track of trades because this package completely caught me by surprise. And yes, that's a good thing!

There were a bunch of cards that I already had, but the ones that I didn't have more than made up for that. Included in the package are a few cards that I hadn't had on my want list because I didn't have a reliable enough checklist.

Maybe I've been thinking too much about Brocktoon too much lately, but the most interesting cards have come out of the eighties and early nineties. Let's see what Rod sent over!

1981 TCMA White Sox 1959
2 - Nellie Fox

1983 Donruss
39 - Jerry Koosman

1984 Ralston Purina
33 - Carlton Fisk

1986 Donruss Rookies
30 - Bobby Bonilla (autographed)
1986 Topps
254 - Ozzie Guillen

1986 Topps Stickers
162 - Carlton Fisk

1987 Fleer
490 - Steve Carlton
635 - Steve Carlton

1987 O-Pee-Chee
164 - Carlton Fisk

1987 Topps
718 - Steve Carlton
756 - Carlton Fisk

1988 Sportflics
43 - Carlton Fisk

1988 Topps
321 - White Sox Leaders

1989 Donruss
7 - Carlton Fisk DK

1990 Upper Deck
21 - Robin Ventura
367 - Carlton Fisk

1991 Bowman
358 - Robin Ventura
366 - Frank Thomas

1991 Donruss
103 - Dan Pasqua
215 - Donn Pall

1991 U.S. Playing Cards
2D - Carlton Fisk

1991 Upper Deck
744 - Bo Jackson

1992 Pinnacle
286 - Robin Ventura/Lou Gehrig (Idols)

1992 Score
361 - Bo Jackson

1992 Stadium Club
654 - Bo Jackson

1992 Studio
151 - George Bell
152 - Alex Fernandez
155 - Kirk McCaskill

1992 Topps
555 - Frank Thomas

1996 Pacific
279 - Robin Ventura

1998 UD3
49 - Albert Belle

1998 Upper Deck
246 - Magglio Ordonez

2000 USPC All-Century Team
KH - Carlton Fisk

2001 U.S. Playing Cards
QC - Comiskey Park

2008 Baseball Heroes
43 - Jermaine Dye
44 - Paul Konerko

2008 Bowman Chrome Draft Picks
BDPP81 - Chris Getz
BDPP102 - Clayton Richard

2008 Bowman Chrome Prospects
BCP46 - Javier Castillo

2008 Bowman Draft Picks
BDP43 - Clayton Richard

2008 Donruss Elite Extra Edition
42 - Jack Egbert

2008 Sp Authentic
61 - Nick Swisher

2008 Stadium Club
65 - Nick Swisher

2008 Topps Heritage Then & Now
2 - Nellie Fox/Alex Rodriguez
8 - Early Wynn/Alex Rodriguez

2008 Topps Updates & Highlights
UH160 - Orlando Cabrera

2008 UD Documentary
2461 (CWS81)
4009 (CWS134)

2008 UD Timeline
36 - Jim Thome

2009 Topps Toppstown
TTT19 - Carlos Quentin

Thanks, Rod! I never thought I'd be so excited to see a Bobby Bonilla autograph on a White Sox card! The Nellie Fox was a great sight. I had overlooked that set in my want list. The Carlton Fisk cards were great. I especially liked the king of hearts playing card.

I will be looking over your want list and pulling some things to send back.

1983 Kellogg's

With all the talk about 3-D right now, it's easy to forget that the technology has been introduced a few times. Most of the focus has been on the movies, but baseball cards have been in the thick of it too.

The first 3-D cards that I can come across are the 1968 test issues from Topps. When Generation X thinks of 3-D baseball cards, they think of Kellogg's. From 1970 until 1983, the cereal company produced a small set of baseball cards in 3-D.

Their forays into three dimensional technology on baseball cards would pop up sporadically after 1983, but this was their heyday. The last successive 3-D set that was produced was the 1983 series. In many ways, it looked similar to all those that came before it. This was a set that changed slightly each year, but wasn't usually noticeable to the casual observer.

The sets usually incorporated either blue or yellow in the color scheme. Sometimes both. They would be splashed across the card in a big splotch. The 1983 set was different. These cards had more of a Perma-Graphic set feel to them. It was almost as if Kellogg's decided to mature just a bit.

The White Sox have four cards in this set.

16 - Harold Baines
43 - Britt Burns
50 - Greg Luzinski
56 - Carlton Fisk

Everyone that you would expect to show up in an early 1983 White Sox set is here. The slugging young star. The young stud pitcher. The veteran slugger. The World Series hero/veteran. It's a good mix of players for a 60 card set.

Floyd Bannister is in the set and he is usually reported as being on the White Sox in this set. That is false information. Floyd Bannister is pictured in a Seattle Mariners uniform in this set. Don't be fooled!

This was a nice set to go out on for Kellogg's. A nice simple design. The unique 3-D cards. While they still produced baseball cards after 1983, they were nothing like the 14 year run ending in 1983.

Goose Joak Originals: Jerry Owens

See the full set here.

WSC Birth Years: Carlos Zambrano

Card #5 - Carlos Zambrano

Born: June 1, 1981

After a late Spring Training trade, "Big Z" has landed on the White Sox. Finally, Carlos realizes his dream of being on the team that he grew up loving. The trade is the best of both worlds for Zambrano. He gets to stay in Chicago, where he has a built in following and he gets to play for his childhood favorite.

The White Sox traded speedy outfielder Jerry Owens, hard throwing closer Mike MacDougal, and a second round draft pick for the big ace. With Bartolo Colon and Jose Contreras still slight question marks, Kenny Williams pulled off the trade to solidify his rotation.

Carlos will pitch third in the rotation, according to Ozzie Guillen.

"This kid is the real deal. We're going to pitch him third, between Floyd and Danks. We want to break up those two kids from going back to back. Buehrle is still my number one, my ace, but we gotta give everybody a different look out there".

Pitching coach Don Cooper had this to say about the surprising transaction.

"This guy is coming in and all I have to do is keep his temper under control. He gets the job done out there. I don't have to follow him around showing him the ropes. He knows what to do".

Mark Buehrle chimed in, in his own playful way.

"Anytime you get a guy with these credentials, it's a shot in the arm for your rotation. If you believe that we got this guy, then you're a big April fool. Maybe we'll get him down the line, but right now it's not in the cards. We got you good though, right? Yeah, we got you good".

So there you have it. Carlos Zambrano is now a member of the Chicago White Sox.