More 1977 Padres Schedule Cards

Way back in January, I wrote about the 1977 San Diego Padres Schedule cards and the 47-cards I picked up from E-Bay. The cards, I believe, were either a stadium give-away, or were included by ones or twos, in the envelope when you purchased your tickets. To me, this is one of the Padres' truly oddball sets.

Recently, I was able to find another 25 cards from this set, with only four copies in the group.

Now, I'm within 20 cards of completing the set, but some of the ones I need, such as Marine Lieutenant Jim "Tuba Man" Eakle, may be quite a bit harder to find. At least, I have all the blank back cards already in my possession.

 

 

The majority of the cards have a listing of San Diego's Special Events for 1977 on the back, as well as a nice sepia-tone colored picture on the front, in this case, Jerry Turner.

 

Listing the cards somewhat alphabetically (except for the fact, I scanned them all in reverse order), I'll begin with San Diego's very first draft pick, Ollie Brown, followed by the duo of Steve Arlin cards (one featuring his glove close to his chest and the other showing his follow-through) and Matty Alou.

 

Here's Glenn Beckert, Clay Kirby, Nate Colbert (and friend) and Jerry Coleman. Due to his untimely death this past winter, the Coleman card was one I particularly wanted in this set. The Colbert card was the second I needed of his four-card series, which also shows him from the waist up and full-figured with a blank back and with Enzo Hernandez).

 

The next group highlights George Hendrick, Johnny Grubb, Clarence "Cito" Gaston, and Dave Campbell. What's funny, is Dave Campbell is also the club manager for our local VFW. Trust me, the two aren't even closely related.

 

 

This series shows Dave Marshall, Clay Kirby, Fred Kendall and Mike Ivie.

 

 

The final group includes Bobby Tolan, Ed Spezio, Fred Norman, and coach Bob Miller

The only cards I have left to track down are Bill Almon/Kneeling; Bill Barton; Dave Campbell/Kneeling, Capless; Nate Colbert/Shown waist up; Willie Davis; Tuba Man; Rollie Fingers/Shown waist-up/both hands in glove, in front of body; Cito Gaston/Bat on shoulder/Padres on jersey; Enzo Hernandez and Enzo Hernandez and Nate Colbert; Fred Kendall/Batting Pose; Willie McCovey/With mustache/Bat on shoulder; John McNamara MG/Looking to his right; John Mcnamara MG/Looking straight ahead/Smiling; Fred Norman/Short hair/kneeling; Gene Richards/Shown from thighs up; Ballard Smith GM; Derrell Thomas/Head shot.wearing glasses; Derrell Thomas/Kneeling/Not wearing glasses; Bobby Tolan/Kneeling/Holding cleats in hand; and Dave Winfield/Batting pose/Waist up/Field in background.

Relays week and 1988 - 1991 pack busting

One of the many things I find interesting in my life, is serving as a track and field official. When the last full week of April comes, that usually mean's it's the holy grail of the Iowa track season - the Drake Relays. 

 

While I usually concentrate on throwing events (the shot put, discus, hammer throw, and javelin), I crossed over to other events this year, to help out as needed. That included everything from the Pole Vault at the Mall (an actual event at one of our local malls), to serving as a marshall. It's definitely a hoot, but by the time the four-day event is over, I'm more than ready to go home.

That's me in the second row, third from the left.

 

On the way home from the Relays, I felt I deserved a treat, so I picked up a few cards at one of my local card stores. After adding a few slabs of cardboard for my Padres collection, I also picked up the following packs for 25 cents each, just for the fun of it.

 

After spending $1.50 more, I went home with two packs of 1990 Upper Deck, a pack of 1989 Topps, a pack of 1991 Bowman and two packs of 1988 Topps Minis.

I always thought these cards were kind of cool, and was just a little disappointed I didn't receive any Padres cards. Included in the 1988 Topps Mini Leaders - 1st Row - Dale Murphy, Jimmy key, Kevin Seitzer and Willie McGee. 2nd Row - Todd Worrell, Teddy Higuera, Jack Clark and Darrell Evans. 3rd Row - Mike Scott, Ozzie Smith, Lou Whitaker and Bob Welch. I also had a "Blackjack" Morris card. 

Among the two packs of 1990 Upper Deck, I received Padres cards of Joey Cora and Darrin Jackson. As you can see from the back of the Jackson card, they include a great photo with the stats as well.
Other 1990 Upper Deck cards included David West (#15), Mickey Tettleton CL (60B), Andre Dawson CL (73), Julio Franco CL (82), Kevin Mitchell (117), Devon White (129), Pat Tabler (142)Billy Ripken (184), Bob Ojeda (204), Stan Javier (209), Keith Hernandez (222), Jose DeJesus (255), Roy Smith (284), Alfredo Griffin (338), German Gonzalez (352), Tom Gordon (365), Otis Nixon (379), Shane Rawley (438), Rob Ducey (464), Pascal Perez (487), Steve Lake (491), Mark Portugal (502), Kirk McCaskill (506), Dale Murphy (533), Steve Searcy (575), Steve Bedrosian (618), Eric King (651) and Lance Parish (674).

I also found a Padres card within the Bowman pack, 1B Dave Staton, as well as a gold-stamped MVP card of Juan Gonzalez. The stamping is okay, I guess, if you like marketing ploys that try to help prop up a set that didn't have much promise to begin with. The other Bowman cards were Eric King (#63), Carlos Baerga (69), Joe Orsulak (84), Danny Darwin (111), Mark Davis (306). Todd Ritchie (332), Bobby Thigpen (342), Felix Jose (401), Wally Whitehurst (470), Xavier Hernandez (545), Charlie Leibrandt (573), and Terry Kennedy (631).

As for the 1989 Topps, there's not much to speak of, or to scan for that matter. Cards included Jim Snyder (44), Mark Cler (63), Geno Petralli (137), Dave Stewart (145), Sil Campusano (191), Rob Ducey (203), Jim Leyland (284) complete with wax-stain, Orioles (381), Joe Carter (420), Bo Diz, (422), Buddy Bell (461), Luis Salazar (553), Jimy Williams (594), Robin Yount (615), Bob Brower (754).

Now that was good therapy, after a hard work of Relays. Of course, all the cards, except for the Padres, are up for whoever wants/needs them.

 

 

 

2014 Gypsy Queen Charity Case Break

Recently, Chris over at Crackin Wax held a 2014 Gypsy Queen Charity Case Break. Initial buy-in for the break was $20 per team, with $5 of the purchase going to charity. Since it took Topps forever to release its checklist, Chris wasn't able to figure out what the final buy-in price was until the final week. At least for my San Diego Padres cards, the buy-in remained at the initial $20.

 

Each case of 2014 Gypsy Queen contains 10 hobby boxes. Each hobby box has 24 packs with approximately 10 cards per pack, one 10-card mini box, two autograph cards, and two relic cards. That’s an approximate total of 2,500 cards—100 of which are minis and 40 of which are hits!

 

Over the course of three hours (all documented on video), Chris pulled 46 hits, plus two reverse photo short prints. The big winners were the Blue Jays and Tampa Bay, with five "hits" each. The A's, Astros, Cubs, Indians, Nationals, Pirates, Rangers and Twins all went "hitless."

 

From the proceeds, $150 went to the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

 

I received multiple copies of all the regular base cards of the San Diego Padres, including Yasmandi Grandal (6), Ian Kennedy (6), Chase Headley (5), Jedd Gyorko (5), Tony Gwynn (6) and Andrew Cashner (7). The Tony Gwynn card is also supposed to have one of those SP,  reverse negative photos.

I also received three minis - Yasmani Grandal (2) and Jedd Gyorko. I was very happy to see the Padres ink Gyorko to a long-term contract. I would efinitely love to see him in Padres colors for a long, long time.

 

I did receive one hit in the break - a Chase Headley Certified Relic card, complete with a white jersey piece.

 He also threw in these three 2014 Topps Heritage Padres cards as well - Kyle Blanks, Will Venable and Chase Headley.

All in all, I don't feel I did too bad in the case break. The money went to a very good charity, I got a load of new, fresh-smelling Padres cards (including a nice Headley jersey card) and enough to share with my other Friar friends (yes, look for a PWE to come in the mail - I'll draw lots to see who gets the extra Grandal mini).

My first COMC purchase

Recently, I discovered the joys of COMC for the first time. As they were preparing to transition to their new catalog, they were looking for assistance in inventorying the cards they had in their system. Over a four-day period, for every 1,000 points earned through their challenges, they offered $1 in COMC cash.

By the time the smoke had cleared (and my keyboard had stopped smoldering), I had earned $26 in COMC cash for 26,000+ points. Never having spent much time on COMC, I decided to do some searching and found some interesting cards.

I ended up getting a couple of San Diego Padres cards and a couple of Chicago Blackhawks hockey cards, including a 1952-53 Gus Mortson card and still had change left over.

The two Padres cards I picked up were a 2013 Topps Triple Threads Unity Relics Emerald Alonso S/N 8/18 ($4.99) and a 1988 Kenner Starting Lineup Unissued Goose Gossage (55 cents). The Alonso card has a nice piece of bat embedded, it's emerald, and it's always cool to have a piece numbered to only 18.

The Gossage was listed as a 1988 Starting Lineup Talking Baseball San Diego Padres #28. However, there is no Beckett's listing by that name. In fact, Gossage wasn't included in the standard 1988 Starting Lineup set. The only 1988 Kenner Goose Gossage card I could find referenced was the 1988 Kenner Starting Lineup Unissued. It's a very nice card, regardless.

My other pick-up for the week is this Tony Gwynn card I found on E-Bay.

It's an Edward Vela sketch card of Tony Gwynn. Edward Vela is an artist primarily known for creating unique, hand painted, pieces of art. It's supposed to be a Giclée print, which is supposed to be fine art digital prints made on inkjet printers. There's been about three or four of these listed on E-Bay recently from the artist's website, so I was happy to get one.

All in all, a rather nice week of cards.

2014 - The Year of Great Padres Game Giveaways

As I’ve stated once before, my co-workers know better than to mention “SD” around our office. I’m always more than happy to talk to anyone who expresses an interest in “America’s Finest City.” In fact, anyone considering a trip to San Diego ends up at our office, asking me about things to see and do there.

While I'm considered the San Diego subject matter expert, I’m usually asked to do so out of earshot of my coworkers.

I change my screen saver at work at least once every-other-week to another image of San Diego, or Petco, of a harbor scene, or Ocean Beach, or...well, you get the idea.

Now that baseball season is here, not for the first time I wish I was back living in San Diego.

Besides having the best of all worlds – ocean, beach and mountains – San Diego has a lot to offer.

And speaking of a lot to offer (nice segue, eh?), the San Diego Padres also have a lot to offer this season. I’ve had a file sitting in my computer with the Padres 2014 promotional schedule, detailing most of this year’s giveaways.

What's on tap?

I'm glad you asked.

To begin with, the Padres are actually bringing back a ballpark tradition from the late 90's, designating Saturdays "Baseball Night in San Diego." Every Saturday home game will feature some sort of a giveaway for every fan in attendance.

Since this year marks the 30th anniversary of the Padres’ 1984 National League Championship, the Friars will wear replicas of their 1984 brown/orange jerseys during their May 22-25 series against – you guessed it – the Chicago Cubs. That Saturday, fans will receive a replica 1984 brown and orange jersey, the second of the Padres’ three throwback jersey giveaways.

The team will also be celebrating the 10th anniversary of Petco Park, May 9-11. Besides a special post-game fireworks show on May 9, fans will receive a 10th anniversary commemorative canvas art collectible the following night.

Here's the current list of San Diego fan giveaway goodies:

April 1 - Padres Padres Opening Day Hat (presented by Sycuan)

April 12 - Padres long-sleeve T-shirt (courtesy of State Farm and supported by The Mighty 1090).

April 19 - The first first of three Padres replica jersey giveaways – a Padres Replica Alternate Gyorko Jersey and pet bandanna (presented by Petco)

May 3 - Padres beach blanket (presented by Jerome’s Furniture)

May 10 - 10th Anniversary commemorative canvas art collectible (presented by Petco)

May 24 - The Padres second Replica Retro Jersey May 24 (presented by Fox Sports San Diego)

May 25 - San Diego Padres sunglasses presented by Knockaround

June 7 - Padres Navy blue beach towel (presented by Toyota)

June 21 - Padres “Beat LA” T-shirt

June 25 - Padres fedora (presented by Cox)

July 5 - Padres sports bag (presented by National University)

Aug. 2 - Padres floppy hat

Aug. 30 - Padres mesh hat

Sept. 20 - Padres Bobblehead

Oh, what a great time to be a San Diego Padres fan. I only wish I was there!

Total awesomeness, the Padrographs way, Redux!

Yesterday, I had posted about the uber-box I received from Rod, over at Padrographs: From Abner to Zimmer. It's been one of the sweetest packages I've received from a fellow blogger to date.

How sweet was it, you ask?

Sweet enough to carry it over a couple of posts. I want to show you a few of the other goodies included in this primo package from the Northwest.

Since I collect everything and anything Padres, Rod also included a Padres Blueprint, dated June 10 - 16, 2013. Love me some good Padres reading! He also included a pretty blue 27" x 37" Padres Petco Park flag (the logo is pictured below).

He also included a pretty, blue 27" x 37" Padres Petco Park flag (the logo is pictured above). If you ever get a chance to check out Petco Park, the downtown home of the San Diego Padres, I highly y recommend it, as it's one of the nicest parks you'll ever see.

Rod also included a packaged trio of 1993 Upper Deck Then and Now cards, which included (from top to bottom) Dave Winfield, Ozzie Smith and Tony Gwynn. The holographs on these cards look really sweet, once you have the light coming in at the right angle.

 

I'm also going to display a few of the odds and ends he sent. Here's a 2006 Ovation Ben Johnson RC, a 2012 Sega Card-Gen Chris Denorfia and a 2011 Topps Wal Mart Black Border Yorvit Torrealba. The Sega card is pretty cool -- a large part of it's actually written in Japanese.

 

 And the final pièce de résistance, complete (or near-complete) San Diego Padres Topps team sets for 1976 - 1982 (Padres Traded team sets are included from this year, forward), team sets from 1984 - 1994, for 1995, and from 1997-2011.

 

Again, I don't know how to begin to thank Rod for this wonderful package. It was such a totally awesome unexpected gift. All I can say, is "Thank you, Rod."

Total awesomeness, the Padrographs way!

It's very seldom I actually get surprised. Once you spend enough time in the military (and public affairs) realm, you develop a strong sense of "situational awareness" about what's going on around you. You're prepared for anything, reacting instinctively, rather than having to stop and figure out what you're going to do.

 

But I have to admit, I was totally blown away when I got home this past Tuesday and found a box on my front doorstep, too big to fit into the mailbox.

 

It was from Portland, Ore.,  and another Padres blogger, Rod, from Padrographs: From Abner to Zimmer.

 

In the intro to his site, Rod state's hes "a Navy brat who went to 10 schools in 12 years in 4 different states. I have lived in 7 different states. I read two or 3 books a week. I manage a used bookstore for the county library system."

 

What Rod doesn't mention, is the fact his generosity is boundless. Rod is often spoken of with reverence among Padres bloggers, for his legendary gifts of Padres goodies. There's a running bet that he owns every Padres card that's ever been printed.

 

So, on Tuesday, it was my turn to be stunned by Rod's benevolence. By the time I was done going through everything in the box, I was totally overwhelmed by its awesomeness. If I can paraphrase Roy Scheider's line from the movie "Jaws," "I think I need a bigger blog."

 

There's no better place to start, than with this group of game-used and certified auto cards. They include a 2007 UD Masterpieces on Canvas Marcus Giles, 2007 Upper Deck Goudey Memorabilia, 2007 Ultra Dual Materials David Wells S/N 94/160, 2007 Bowman's Best Autograph Kevin Kouzmanoff, 2006 Bowman Draft Futures Game Prospects Relics George Kottaras, and a 2007 Sweet Spot Signatures Red Stitch Blue Ink Adrian Gonzalez S/N 28/350. While I have at least one, 1/1 printing plate in my Gonzalez collection, I haven't owned a single autograph card of this native San Diegan. But now, thanks to Rod, I finally have one. (And a rather sweet one at that - pun intended).

There were also a whole mess of minis, to include these: A 2009 Upper Deck Goodwin Champions Mini Adrain Gonzalez, 2012 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Straight Cut Jesus Guzman, 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Future Stars Mini Mat Latos, 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Dave Winfield #67A, and a 2011 Topps Gypsy Queen Mini Orlando Hudson.

Being how Rod collects Padres signatures, "From Abner to Zimmer," what were the chances he'd include a nice group of hand-jammed, in-person, Padres autographs like these? This is a very fine collection of Padres players, both past and present, using a variety of pen colors. There's a Mark Parent signature, as well as Garry Templeton, Craig Lefferts, relative newbie Tyson Ross, Andy Benes and relative newbie Robbie Erlin. Very nice!

Here's another group of cards smaller than your standard 2-1/2 x 3- 1/2 pieces of cardboard. Kevin Kouzmanoff leads the way with his 2007 Upper Deck Goudey and 2007 Upper Deck Goudey Red Backs, followed by a 2007 Upper Deck Goudey Red Backs Khalil Greene, 1990 Topps Mini Leaders Bruce Hurst, Eddie Whitson and Mark Davis, and 1979 Kellog's Billy Almon #53B.

 

I was just mentioning these Kellogs cards and the lenticular printing process used to create them in my last post. The cool thing about this Almon card, is there were two versions - #53A, which incorrectly listed his career doubles through 1978 as "31," and this #53B card, which has his doubles correctly listed as "41."

And then there was this nice stack of stickers, which I don't have very many of in my Padres collection. Now, thanks to Rod, I can boast of having a 2004 Topps Cracker Jack Mini Stickers SP Tim Stauffer, 1989 Topps/OPC Sticker Backs Tony Gwynn, 1990 Panini Stickers Benito Santiago, 1991 Panini Stickers Roberto Alomar, and a 2011 Topps Stickers of Will Venable and Jason Bartlett.

 

What can I say? I am truly humbled by Rod's generosity and I haven't the foggiest idea of what I have that can even compare to this awesome gift. All I can say is, "Thank you very, very, much Rod!"

 

However, there's still more to come. Like I said, "I'm going to need a bigger blog," just to show all the San Diego goodies Rod sent me.