MEMORIES OF MR. TIGER

                       

                Yesterday September 24th was the 50th Anniversary of the legendary career of Albert William Kaline otherwise known as Al Kaline for he got his 3000th career hit of Dave McNally in his Hometown of Baltimore a double. Born the day after another legendary Tiger Ty Cobb. It's a funny thing how history sometimes does things like that the only other times I can think of something like that occurring the first is Hank Aaron was born the day after Babe Ruth. The other was Mickey Mantle was born after teammate Whitey Ford.

                This card shown on the top of the post is very special to me in many ways. As I mentioned before talking about building my 1967 Topps set I told the tale of back in 1985 in Royal Oak Michigan I was attending a baseball card/comic show with my older brother David & my mother. Now David was into comic books so he was in his glory as for me I was relatively trying to get myself an old Pete Rose card. I ended up getting the 1966 Topps Card even though my mother balked at paying over $25 for it until the dealer showed her the price guide from the September 1985 Issue.

 

Not a bad selection if you ask me.

The first ever Beckett Magazine I ever saw as well funny thing about that issue it was #11 it was September 11, 1985 the date that Pete Rose surpassed Ty Cobb to become the All-Time Hits Leader for a career #4192. 

                Now my mother pulled me to the side told me to look into the trash can. I looked into the trash can only to see a couple of cards & was like MEH!!! not interested. My mother was on a mission to save what she could with those in the trashcan. So I walked away when she started pulling them out. I was 10 years old so I didn't want to be seen with a trash digging mother so I quickly walked away leaving her to do what she thought was the right thing.  Eventually I went through the cards & lo behold besides a bunch of the `67s that later became my starter lot of the set I came across this beauty after quickly seeing how much it was booking for at the time so I was especially happy that I didn't pay anything for the card. 

               My Memories of Mr. Tiger besides getting his 1957 card from the trashcan was meeting up with him on 3 different occasions each time getting his autograph. The first time was on my 8th birthday(June 1983)  I was whisked away to cut a bunch of people in line to get his autograph so I could make it to my party at Chuck-E-Cheeses on time. The second time was in December of 2004 in time for Al's 70th Birthday he was signing at 1 of my local shops at the time. So I brought with me 3 cards for Al 2 for him to sign the other was a birthday card saying thanks for my 8th birthday gift he was shocked that a fan got brought him a card for his birthday he was grateful. The last time was at the National Sports Card Convention in 2014 in Cleveland,Ohio. I was getting Al's Autograph for a friend of mine who asked me to get it for him since he couldn't take the time to attend the show so he asked me & he paid me for it.  The weird thing is he wanted me to get a customized signature don't get me wrong I don't mind doing that but the way he wanted done didn't quite go well with Al instead of his name he wanted his business from Al. Lucky for me Al understood the situation & he knew my friend from other business venues he signed it to his company but gave me a lecture after getting it Al told me "Tell Mike that I don't mind signing this for him for his business but if he ever passes away or sells the business that you get it him to give you back this autograph." When I told my friend Mike this information he agreed to the terms that Al proposed to us. 

                  Like I mentioned that was the last time I was in his presence Al passed away in 2020. He was a great man now with the Tigers in the hunt to reach the playoffs other than his 1957 card I cherish this last card in his career its part of my 1975 O-Pee-Chee set others may scoff at it but since its my set I think it fits so you let me know what you think. 

       

No I didn't pay $10.00 for the card. 

               Now my avid readers normally I usually have my Rogers Hornsby quote to end my blog post so I am going to change it up by saying that I will let you decide since my last giveaway post was unsuccessful I am going to run another giveaway post. Again the prize will be the 1990 Topps Major League Debut 1989 set. The contest can be either "Crack the Code" or "Last Card Standing".  I will give more details on the contest based on whichever of the 2 contest wins in voting. The contest will start on October 1st just after the 1st pitch of the American League Wild Card game between the 2 American League Wild card Entries. Hopefully I get more entries the second time around compared to the 1st time 

100+ & COUNTING PART III

                                          In my last 2 posts I've shown you my baseball & football collection so far now today I will be focusing on my basketball sets. 

 

Like football there's more than 1 set of basketball in the binders.

                      My oldest basketball set is the `88/`89 Fleer set which I was able to complete earlier this year. If I go for an older set I am still on the fence in making the `81/`82 Topps set. I just have to continue to get a dealer to get fed up of me asking for his 3200ct box to get my starter going he's asking way too much for this collector to purchase ($299.00 considering there's no stars only commons mainly of the Western teams & 1 row of the Eastern teams).

 

NO!!!!! Offence to Brian here but..... If you ask me nothing screams out NBA then his warm up outfit. Another reason why I am on the fence in making this set.

                                I have to point out a couple things that most of you my avid readers might like to know a behind the photo stories involving my basketball sets & things featured in the photo. The top shelf you will see the NBA Hoops binder as well the Skybox Premier Binder believe it or not but I was able to rescue these binders to be tossed to the side & ignored. The Hoops one I was able to purchase at 1 my local shops for the right price of $1 & it goes great for my `90/`91 Hoops set since it was originally offered as a wrapper exchange. As for the Skybox binder I was lucky to find this binder not hold the Premier Skybox set that it was advertising but a starter lot of the `94/`95 Upper Deck set. The best part of getting that binder along with that starter lot that I made back in `94/`95 that in 1 of the sleeves was this nice Little gem of a card.

Not too Shabby eh!!!!

So I added to my master set (Yes I have all the Varations) in the set & that's the only set that is featured in that binder. Now I can hear the rumblings in your heads bouncing like a basketball.......what's that I saved that for last for a very good reason. 

 

Being a Basketball Manager in High School for 4 years has perks.

                        What you're looking at is a signed basketball after my High School renamed the Gymnasium in honor of a player who I like saying was a bench-warmer of the Los Angeles Lakers during the `80`s. This player I don't think did much during his time in the NBA if you ask me he was a 5x NBA Champion (It could have been 6 if some guy named Michael Jordan didn't win in it 1991.) , 3X MVP of the League, 3x MVP of the NBA Finals, 12x All-Star, 2x All-Star MVP. He led our High School to the State Championship back in 1977 (Where he was on the First ever McDonald's All-American Team.) He was teammates with a future Detroit Tigers player named Bruce Fields on the hardwood. He also led Michigan State University to its first NCAA National Championship back in 1979. Then on November 7, 1991 (The Next day walking through the halls of school I was blinded by numerous camera crews from all over the globe getting us students take on the event taken place on the 7th) He announced his 1st retirement from the game of basketball a good 8 months prior to joining the 1992 Olympic Dream Team. During the 1993/1994 Season he coached the last 16 games of the season coaching the Lakers to a very dismal record of 5-11. Who am I talking about if you haven't figured it out yet #32 Earvin Johnson Jr.  I was lucky to get this autograph for being a manager for 4 years thanks to my former Basketball coach Johnny Jones cause I asked him if he could possibly ask Earvin to sign 2 basketballs that were going to be auctioned off during my mothers 40th Class Reunion (She graduated before him in 1966 & I was in the Class of 1993) my old coach would say he wasn't born yesterday he knew 1 of them would be auctioned off as the other well.......considered it as a belated by 3 years of a Graduation gift for me. Total cost for the autograph charge $0.00 like I said it paid to be a manager for 4 years & before you even ask me no I am not selling the ball I am under contract if I sell my ball that 99.99% of what I sell it for goes towards the High School Basketball team. 
                      Last night I had a friend of mine come into my employment place of work & he commented on my blog. He asked me the question about why my Football & Basketball lists are smaller than my other 2 sports. My response to his question was I only had a few sets so if I ever did have any kids they would have a good selection of Barry Sanders cards to enjoy before Barry's retirement if you asked me I think he should had broken Walter Payton's rushing record & not Emmitt Smith & the reason for the basketball sets to feature Michael Jordan even though I grew up watching the Bad Boys of the Detroit Pistons play their game. Watching a game earlier this year I couldn't believe how basketball has changed these days, they  get away with traveling alot or just run & shoot very seldom do you see players drive in to the basket thats one thing that if you were to drive in the lane during the Bad Boys era you might as well be ready to fight. 

               Now my basketball lists & football lists are almost as equal to the baseball & hockey lists the reasoning behind that is 1 my local shops has 3200ct & 5000ct boxes of commons for sale at reasonable prices sure the store owner has taken out all the good cards (even though some still sneak there way in) & I find myself after doing the research on TCDB.com  to see if its a worthy of a set trying to make or not. Lot of people my age collected during the "Junk Wax Era" but once the mid & late `90`s occurred I tell people this collectors would get a box crack it open check to see if they got the hit from the box whether it was an autograph or Game Used piece or both as well the hottest rookies at the time. If they didn't luck out they would put the cards in the 3200ct or 5000ct boxes to only collect dust until someone like me discovered the box & tries to find the missing pieces of the set. I guess that's one of the reasons I like to find stuff like these boxes in hopes that maybe Ill luck out or just maybe if I go out of the area I can find a shop that might do something simular to this & have some of the missing pieces while the boxes I can get here in my area have their missing parts.
                    Unfortunately I haven't started on putting my hockey sets on the shelves yet but when I do be sure that I will do a piece on them & now you can see why I sometimes struggle in finding singles to complete my sets so hopefully now some of you can check your areas to see if ya can get my lists smaller.  So with that said I will leave you with a quote from Rogers Hornsby when it came to signing autographs for kids, " Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American, he's a Communist." 

100+ & COUNTING PART II

                           In my last post I discussed about my baseball sets well I wanted to showcase my football sets. Now currently I am working on getting the missing sets but, I am trying to get a complete set run from 1975 Topps to when they stopped in 2015. The missing sets I have yet to find for a reasonable trade offer or price are as follows 2001,2009,2013,2014,2015. The reason I didn't go crazy in football sets is back in prepandemic (2020) I kept my football & basketball sets (Stay tuned for Part III). Heres my 2 bookshelves of current complete sets as well those I am currently working on.

  
some of these binders have more than 1 set in them.

 
If you notice there's the second set of those books I mentioned on my blog back on August 12, 2024. 

                      Back in 1991 when I started my football card collection I thought I would put any past or future football sets in red binders so I wouldn't confuse them with the baseball & hockey sets. Sure I have some say now Football Album those are an exception reason cause I was able to locate red binders mainly at second hand stores cheaper ($.25 to .75) then the fancier ones. The reason I had very little football sets is I wanted to mainly focus on Barry Sanders career only then *explosion sound* 2020 occurred. I went crazy picking up sets when I could for little or nothing as well building them but I just wanted to mainly start in 1975 then I realized I had almost all the sets from the `80s & `90s. so I went to 1975 that's how old I'll go no matter if you try to persuade me I ain't going any further back. 

                      Everytime I say this will be my last football set I'll do but.....I keep adding to it what can I say I want that run of sets starting in 1975 to 2015 run. This will be a relatively short post so if you want to help me get the run & would like to give me one of the missing sets I need I won't complain or if you want to help me with my football needs just look for my lists within my blog With that said I am reminded of Rogers Hornsby talking about signing autographs for kids. "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for kids ain't an American, he's a Communist." Oh yeah if you do send me a set I need I'll be sure to mention ya in my blog in a future post as a special thank you post.  

100+ & COUNTING

                        Tonight after I got done with my second job I decided to count how many sets in my baseball wantlist am I currently working on. Well......short story I am over 100 sets that I am working on & that's just baseball. As a set builder of all 4 sports I know that its well over 150 of them.  I have talked about the struggles of being a set builder in the past on this blog.

 
My Current Oldest set I am not making anything older.

                   My oldest set that I made was the 1960 Fleer Baseball Greats. After completing it last summer thanks to a friend of mine whom I call Marvelous Marv after the Yankee/Mets first Baseman Marv Throneberry. He located an expensive Ruth card to complete my set. I am not even going to even bother to try for the Pepper Martin card #80 cause it would be hard to locate at reasonable price let alone I would have to try to locate all 3 different fronts of that card so I am happy with 79 of them & most people whom made the set also stopped in the same spot. Now Marv & his brother Jay have been great friends of mine through the last I like to say at least 7 years now.

 
Marv is in the orange shirt, Jay is in the plaid.

                   Both guys have great vintage stock & it was Marv who convinced me to do the 1960 Fleer set. He said it would look nice to go with my 1967 Topps set its easy to make. After completing it I figured I might as well try to do the 1961 set as well to go with it since I like some of the old time greats of the game & at the time I am posting this post I am down to 16 players from completing my set. Both guys are from Zeeland, Michigan which is the hometown of Hall of Fame Pitcher Jim Kaat. So if your from the west end of my home state you might have run into these guys at shows. Now Marv last summer surprised me after constantly trying to convince him to attend at National Sports Card Convention with me & Greg I was surprised to see Marv sitting at a table going through a binder of 1955 Bowman finding the missing cards he needed. Marv has top notch condition on all his cards plus he's never cheated on me in getting a great deal on the vintage I need after all he gave me 24 out of the 79 1960 Fleer for a great price. Plus I introduced Greg to Marv & well Marv has been his hook up for some of his vintage set needs. So if you like me to see if Marv would like more trading people on older stuff lmk in the comments & Ill check with him the next show I see him at which will be this Sunday in Livonia, Michigan at the VFW Hall.

                                Roy Campanella once said about the game of baseball "....You have to be a lot of little boy in you to play baseball for a living...." I guess both Marv & Jay like me have a lot of little boy in collecting cards of our heroes. I haven't got a clue what sets I want to make for baseball in the future other than flagship Topps like I mentioned before I got a complete run of 1971 to the present I have no means to make a 1970 set cause the Grey borders don't scream out to me another reason I didn't do the Heritage of that year when it was released cause the again it didn't call me to make. I might in 2 years try the Heritage design of the 1977 but that's way off in the future for me to decide on after all I am still trying to finish some of the other Heritage sets that I have made through the years only to maybe completed just the 2004 version. 

                     I can only hope that I can knock out 3 more sets of baseball before the year ends. Also hopefully that people that read my posts can help me out too. I know its a plea that seldom is asked but, I know my lists are outrageous weird like I just hope not to go another 5 years trying to complete a 2024 set of the Heritage Box toppers still. So with that as always I am reminded of the great Rogers Hornsby quote about signing for kids. "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign autographs for little kids ain't an American. He's a communist." 

LET'S ROLL

 

                      Back on August 15, 2001 I got a letter in the mail saying ".....We're looking forward to hearing from you for this internship before August 27th so we can get your flight ticket reserved for your arrival on September 7th & flight back home on September 11th from Logan International....".  Little did I know that I would've been on a flight from Logan International Airport heading home only possibly not returning ever again & my avid reader you wouldn't be reading this blog due to a change in plans. I was excited to check out the Boston area maybe go to Fenway for a tour as well check out the Bull & Finch pub (Made famous from a Television show that renamed the pub "Cheers") for a quick pint. The day I received the letter I got a call from the local school district that I was going into my 3rd year at the time working for to be asked if I was coming back to work & remind me that the first day of school was coming up on August 27th & that a school already requested for me to work on that day. So I had to decline the offer on the internship. Its funny how fate can change ones path in life.

                I worked those first couple of days at different buildings in the district but, then on September 7th I was asked if I could work the 11th at 1 of the local High Schools & to report in at 9:30 AM to get my paperwork done & where to report to do my job that day. So I woke up on the 11th to a phone call my mother reminding me to get up in time to catch the bus on time that was at 9:00 AM with the bus being there around 9:20 for a quick 10 minute commute so I told my mother I had been up already & was watching the Today Show seeing what I thought was a replay of the 1st plane hitting Tower #1. 

Instead what I was watching was the 2nd plane hitting Tower #2 live while talking to my mother & explaining what I just witnessed she then told me to hang up & get my butt to that High School quicker then expected cause who knows what might happened next. So I did what I was told to do only to catch it earlier then expected there at the High School 15 minutes earlier. Upon arriving at the school I broke up a fight as soon I entered the building since the school security wasn't around to prevent it. After that quick scrum I was pointed to the office only to find the office staff watching TV talking about the planes that crashed in New York. 

              They were gasping at the sight of the tower collapsing to rubble wondering if anyone was alive after it fell & they stood there speechless they handed me my assignment. I did my job that day still in shock of what I witnessed & then I quickly headed over to the Michigan State University Campus to the Union building so I could check my email upon getting into my email I saw that I had an email from my friend in Austria. 

               In the email from Stefan (if you want his back story I suggest you read my August 6th post about him) in the email he stated ".......What The HELL is going on in the USA" I shot him an email back that I had no clue on what was going on since the news reports were covering the events as they unfold & they as well didn't have any explanation for what just occurred as well. 

                      I walked home that night after spending 5 hours at the Union watching as the news reports on the events. I had heard 1 of the flights took off from Logan International Airport & it was the flight I was supposed to be on for my flight back home. Shaking my head in disbelief how was it that I spared from being on that flight.

                    The next morning I was woken up with a call from overseas from Stefan who wanted to check on his American family in Michigan I told him check on your Uncle in New York not Michigan cause see if he was near the Towers after arguing with him he said he would check with them.  

                He called me back saying everyone was fine & they were still stunned by what happened on the 11th. I then told him about what might have been he told me I was lucky that my plans had changed cause he wouldn't forget about his American Brother.

                   As I type this post I have been listening to patriotic type music from Alan Jackson,Lee Greenwood to even the late Toby Keith to even taking a listen to the song "Angel Flight".  Also as you read this post I placed the subset from the 2001 Upper Deck Legends of New York United We Stand I did this in memory of those that lost their lives on that faithful date 23 years ago today. 

                         These images should never let us forget. I have friends that are firefighters as soon the call came out they wanted help clearing the rubble from the Towers they were on their way to help out. 1 of my friends back in 2011 the 10 year anniversary told me that it took them 7 hours to drive from Michigan to Ground Zero & after arriving even though they were sleep deprived they were up for the task of the labor of digging through the rubble in hopes that they could find any survivors. 

                Even though I haven't gone to see the memorial I have driven past the final destination of Flight 93 that crashed in Stoystown,Pa. on my way to see my friend Greg. I've sometimes find myself saying a little prayer to those that had the courage to take down the flight like they did that's why the title of this post is dedicated to Todd Beamer & the others who attacked the terrorists with the now famous words "Let's Roll".

2996 people never will we forget them on this day.

1649 out of 2753 victim remains have been positively identified.

           Normally I would quote Rogers Hornsby as I finish this post but in honor & respect I ask you at 9:01 AM EST.  

            Whatever faith your currently guided by let it remind you that we shall never forget those brave Americans. Thank you for taking the time to reflect on what September 11, 2001 means to this person.

STRUGGLES AS A SET-BUILDER

                   On Friday a rare day off for me from both my jobs cause of the holiday weekend I found myself going to one my usual shops to see what I might be able to locate from my never-ending lists of needs. I manage to only find 6 cards that were listed on my want lists & an additional 2 RCs that I already had but put within my Personal Collection. The 6 cards I located I was glad to locate cause it brought me a little closer in completing those sets I found for those few sets. However the 2 Rookie Cards I found the total amount was $4.00 which in some peoples view would say that's not too bad of a price of 2 cards costing $2.00 a piece sure I wish that I could only paid just about $2 only I didn't mind cause at one time those 2 cards were very sought after during those players hey-day.

                   

 

                  The 1st card was the 1985 Fleer Eric Davis #533 again why did I buy a copy of this card was it cause I wanted 3 of them not really even though I do own 3 now.  2 of them are within their spot featured after Reds legend Shortstop of the Big Red Machine Dave Conception & before Nick Esasky a scrappy 3rd-sacker that 4 years later was traded to Boston for Todd Benzinger cause I made 2 complete sets of the 1985 Fleer Set 1 to look through in a binder while the other is in its white box cause I had that many duplicates to make 2 sets worth at the time. As for this latest copy of the card going to my PC is simple I had already the Donruss RC & the Topps RC so I wanted to complete the trifecta cause Eric reminded me of my childhood growing up in the `80`s how he was considered to be the next Willie Mays. Plus back in 1990 he helped the Reds go Wire to Wire to win the World Series against the Athletics with his 1st ever at bat in Game 1 against Dave Stewart he went deep only to exit Game 4 early due to a lacerated kidney after trying to make a diving catch. Eric is 1 of the time of this blog is posted 176 players who played with the Detroit Tigers & Cincinnati Reds. Plus Eric is a cancer survivor which to me shows that anyone who has or had this terrible disease & is willing to fight to find a cure deserves props (Stay Tuned to the blog for a special post in October on what Stand Up to Cancer means to me).

                The 2nd card is of the 1990 Leaf Sammy Sosa #220. Why Sammy I own 2 the 1st is in the binder with his other 527 friends in the set & so the price was worth getting a 2nd copy of to remind me about hidden gems that were overlooked when 1st released. Think about it back in 1998 if you collected then the hottest 2 cards were the 1985 Topps #401 of Mark McGwire and this card even though the 1989 Donruss Baseball best and the 1990 Topps Major League Debut cards featured Slammin' Sammy with the team he broke into the Majors with the Texas Rangers before being traded to the White Sox as a throw in for Hall of Famer Harold Baines. Sure we later found out even if Sammy doesn't want to admit it but the PEDs he took to help him out that great season that he & McGwire battled to break Roger Maris record of 61 Home Runs in a season & yes I am also aware that McGwire also took PEDs as well.  

                  So after buying the few cards I came home put the 2 cards in their new spots of my PC box put the few for my set needs in their respective binders. That's when after viewing all 4 of the sports lists wondered will I ever find anyone that might be able to tackle on some of the needs.  I often look at all the sets I have made through the years as well those that I am currently trying to finish up before I get at an age where I can't remember what is in what album or box. I have a system that I currently use when I put my cards in the binder as you can see this is part of my baseball sets you can see in the picture there seems to be cards that are featured on the spines of the binders. That's so I can tell what set is what, I try to find either a team card that won the championship the year prior example if you look on top shelf 6 binders from the left is the mini 1975 Topps set followed by the regular sized 1975 set then the 1975 O Pee Chee then the 1975/1976 SSPC set depending how you view that year for that set then 1976 Topps I would go on & on but then the blog would take forever so I won't. 

              Now if I don't have a team card so if we look at the second shelf 5th binder from the left is my 1982 Fleer set so I used the MVP of the World Series of the 1981 World Series & since there was 3 of them I went with Mr. Night Owl's very favorite player Ron 'The Penguin' Cey's card if you ask me that's  why I like those binders with the little card pocket on the side so I can put a dupe from the set like that to assist me. I just hope that when people look at my needs that they can see why I struggle in finding my missing pieces. So I wonder if there are any of my readers that I haven't like Bo from Baseball Cards Come to Life!  or Tom from  The Angels, In Order as well Mr. Night Owl from Night Owl Cards or Jeremy from Topps Cards That Never Were that have traded with me in the past & have viewed my lists at one time or another. I never shy away from trading with unless they have some outrageous wants that I am not able to help out with so please if you have time look at my lists & lmk if you can help with any of my needs I like getting packages in the mail as well.  So with that said I am reminded of Rogers Hornsby once said about signing autographs for kids. "Any Ballplayer who doesn't sign for little kids ain't An American. He's a Communist."