Sox For Sox

The past couple of months have been quite good to me in regards to increasing my collection of oddball cards. Reader Mark Hoyle (who I would guess is the most popular non-blogger here) requested a few of the duplicate Red Sox oddballs I had accumulated.

He sent me a PWE of very sweet (and much appreciated) Red Sox cards in return.

Cards like this get my attention immediately. It's a 1980 Kellogg's 3-D card and it's Carlton Fisk. It doesn't get much better than that...

...unless it's the 1980 Kellogg's Jim Rice card. My favorite player of all time.

This is a cool oddball. This Wade Boggs is from the 1990 Sports Collectors Digest set. Inserting uncut panels of two or three cards based on an older design (in this case 1957 Topps) in baseball card magazines was very popular in the early 1990's.

I never bought any issues of Sports Collectors Digest. I generally bought issues of Baseball Cards, Beckett, and if I really wanted to think my cards were worth more that they really were, Tuff Stuff.

And as far as the comment at the bottom of the card stating that his rookie card would never be cheaper than thirty-five bucks? The latest issue of Beckett lists it as fifteen.

1970 Topps Gerry Moses. I don't have a clue as to who he is because my knowledge of pre-1975 backup catchers is woefully inadequate.

After a quick search on Wikpiedia it turns out he wasn't the backup catcher, but the starting catcher for the 1970 Red Sox and made the All-Star team that year (well, that was embarrassing). He also was traded with Tony Conigliaro and Ray Jarvis after the season to the California Angels (which I also should have known).

He played in four games in 1965 hitting one home run and making him at eighteen years old the youngest Red Sox player to hit a home run.

I definitely should have known who this player was.

Here's a player that I do know. Rico Petrocelli as shown on his 1975 Topps mini. 1975 would be his last full year with the Red Sox (injuries made him miss a lot of the 1976 season, his last).

He also was the host along with Bob Gamere of Candelpins for Cash in the early 80's, which I used to watch religiously (although I don't remember him hosting it. I only remember Bob Gamere).

(Thinking about it more now, I used to watch it in the late 70's when only Gamere was the host.)

1990 U.S. Playing Card All-Stars Baseball Ellis Burks. My second favorite player of all-time, and a card I don't have.

(If anybody has any relics or autos of Ellis, I would be interested in trading for them, regardless of what team he is with.)

I remember all the anticipation for the debut of Aaron Sele back in the early 90's. The Red Sox really sucked then. He never did turn into the ace that he was projected to be (even though he was the Red Sox Rookie of the Year in 1993) and was traded in 1997 to Texas with Mark Brandenburg and Bill Haselman for Damon Buford and Jim Leyritz.

That should tell you how far his stock had fallen with the Red Sox.

Well look who we have here! Ray Jarvis! He actually never pitched for the Angels after the trade as his last game in the majors was in September of 1970.

1972 Kellogg's Sonny Siebert. Another cool oddball card. I was one of those kids that would pester his mom to buy the cereal these cards were in and then never eat the cereal. Did my mom really think that I was going to eat those boxes of Raisin Bran?

1983 O-Pee-Chee Bob Stanley. I have the completed 1983 Topps set, but only about a half-dozen of the O-Pee-Chee version.

Why was it so easy to get the O-Pee-Chee version of the hockey sets but not baseball?

You're going to have to help me with this one, Mark. I figured out it was from the 1983 Boston Herald Sox Stamp set (which I was unaware of until just now). I'm assuming you could get certain stamps each week with the paper? Or did you have to get a fill-up at a gas station or something? I checked eBay and found a complete set of these for forty bucks.

There are two major papers in Boston, the Boston Herald and the Boston Globe. I always preferred the Boston Herald because I liked the sports section better. The only time I bought the Globe was when they had the team pictures of the Red Sox or Patriots in the Sunday paper.

1983 Boston Herald Sox Stamp Dick Radatz. This is from the same set as the above stamp.

Mark, I'm still putting something together in addition to the cards you wanted to (hopefully, but probably not) match the very cool trade package you sent my way. I'll get it out to you this week today!