Out With A Bang

Relax guys, I’m not about to retire from blogging. Ken Johnson’s reassuring look here should tell you the supposed rumors are far from true. But, I am going out with a bang, as the title says.

Out of what, you ask? Well, with this epic post I am going to finally put to rest all my cardboard acquisitions from 2017. Yes, it’s taken me this long. I’m a terribly tardy blogger. Strap on in if you so desire – it’s gonna be a long one, and quite picture-heavy, so you’ve been warned. There’s some fun stuff in here though, so I hope you’ll at least give it a quick scroll.

This one was actually one of the first Twitter trades I completed. There have been a few more since then, but this mega-trade was really the first I’ve ever dealt with someone solely through Twitter. I managed to run into a fellow Astros fan, Charles, whose handle is @SWLVguy.

Charles is another team collector, and when I pulled up his want list, my heart jumped for joy. Here was someone whom I could burden, er bless, with over 400 of my Astros dupes – and he wanted them! Charles promised to take a look at my lists as well and send over a stack, although I assured him he didn’t need to attempt to match the pile I was sending his way. In the end, he sent back a good 300 cards, almost all of which I needed. So this was quite the trade. There was shiny, there were Bagwells and Biggios, there were crazy inserts, miscellaneous filler, oddballs, and even some sweet, sweet vintage. Just take a look at that 1962 Ken Johnson up there. Ol’ Kenny threw the second no-hitter in franchise history for the Colt .45s in 1964 – and he lost! Yup. He tossed a 9-inning no-hitter against the Reds on April 23, 1964, and lost 1-0. The only run happened when Pete Rose reached in the top of the 9th on an error by Johnson, advanced to third on a ground out, and then scored on an error by Nellie Fox. Joe Nuxhall pitched a clean ninth, and Johnson became the first and only pitcher to lose an official no-hitter. (Official being the key word, as the official definition involves pitching at least 9 no-hit innings). Well that’s some excellent vintage to start off with, so let’s just keep it rolling!

Charles sent over a well-worn 1968 Topps of one of the early franchise icons, Bob “Aspro the Astro” Aspromonte. Well hey, I’m no stickler for condition, so this slid right into the binder. Perhaps I’ll update it someday, but for a 50 year-old card I certainly don’t mind some creases. I already had the Yellen card – only with a little extra ink added to it! This one helped fill my team set needs, seeing as I had my other copy signed by Larry.

I’ve already got two signed copies of this card – one by Bochy and one by Fischlin – but this one put to rest my 1979 Topps needs.

Here’s a pair of ’81s that also helped kill off a couple team sets. Actually, I think I still need the error variation of the ’81 Donruss Alan Ashby. But, I should have all the ’81 Fleer now that I have the checklist in hand.

Oh man. We’re into the late 80’s. It’s prime box set and secondary set time for all those card makers. Here’s a nice pair of Mike Scott cards I needed.

Another Fleer box set card of Kevin Bass and a glossy All-Star of Mike Scott.

More cards of Baseball’s Hottest Stars thanks to Fleer. I’m not sure if Dave Smith actually had that kind of buzz going on – I know he was a quality closer, but were people outside Houston talking about him? Someone 5-10 years older than me please fill me in.

MOAR FLEER BOX SET CARDS. Simple, red bordered, hitting and pitching studs. This haul really did a number on my late 80s Fleer box set needs.

Casey at the Bat! Complete with the tongue hanging out. I’m pretty sure I already had the Ultra, perhaps not the Leaf. At any rate, these slotted into my Crazy Casey PC.

Here’s another Servais card – this one showcases what happens when the 1994 Flair nameplate more or less works. 1995 is when parallels went crazy, so it was only fitting that I was able to add a Silver Signature John Hudek from the Collector’s Choice SE set.

1995 Leaf is an absolutely beautiful set. FIGHT ME. I’ll probably build it some day. I rather like the ’95 Pinnacle set as well, and this shot of Gonzo ripping down the wall while making a catch is great.

Ah, Pinnacle Aficionado: for the cultured, sophisticated baseball card collector. I was still missing some of these. It’s also fun to see early cards of Hidalgo, given that he didn’t really explode onto the scene for a few more years.

A couple short-term names from the late 90’s that I remember. Thomas Howard was a 4th outfielder for a hot minute. Halama had some nice stuff, and this 1998 Bowman chrome refractor is nice too, but he was shipped off in the Randy Johnson trade.

Outfielders running the bases! The numbering on this Topps Gallery set has always bugged me. That tiny number underneath Derek’s name is the card number, and if I recall right, it doesn’t appear on the back at all. 1998 brought us the first installment of Opening Day, and the bloated blight has persisted ever since. I needed this Gonzo, though.

Say what you will about this man, but watching him pitch here in Houston was really something else. Sure, maybe it was ‘roids or HGH or something altogether different, like the simple rest of not having to pitch on the road and only being at the ballpark on his throwing days, but a 40 year-old dude was dominating like crazy. I am officially on team “Put ’em in the Hall” when it comes to these guys.

Speaking of Carlos, his 2004 Upper Deck isn’t too shabby either! Not that you can read the foil nameplate in the dark background. Adam Everett is trying to pull off his best Carlos Beltran impression here. Everett actually looks pretty spiffy in the Sunday alternate red uni and his eye black.

Hey, it’s our friend Morgan playing Superman! I’m not real big on most Topps past 2003, but I do love how they made the player icon mimic the photos in 2004. It makes this particular card extra fun.

I think I’ve come to the conclusion that the 2009 design is actually pretty nice. Certainly better than ’05 through ’08. Pence may have been my last base card need, and Carlos started chipping away at the Chrome needs. You may have noticed that this is the first appearance of those absolutely godawful pinstriped Astros uniforms in this post. That’s not entirely by accident; I wish I could strike them from the history books altogether.

Ugh, it’s the final Upper Deck baseball set. UD needs a comeback far more than Donruss does. And there’s another thing we don’t see on cards anymore – an Astros pitcher batting!

Prospects that have moved on to happier homes. J.D. is mashing, and Villar found a pretty nice fit in Milwaukee.

You want the shiny? Well we got all kinds of faceted shiny up in here! 2011 Topps is a nice design as well. I was pretty happy picking up these Diamond Anniversary and Cognac parallels.

More Pence! That’s a Kimball’s Champions mini on the left. Those are really neat. Wait – is that the same Pence photo we saw earlier, with a wider crop? *Scrolls up.* Yup, it sure is.

And not only did this trade allow me to pick them up, but also it provided me with the Purple Refractors as well! Thanks Charles!

Yup, Charles was able to do a nice little number on my parallel needs.

Brian Bogusevic even got in on the shiny foil parade two years in a row. 2013 is the better card design, but 2012 clearly got the better photo here.

Another couple of guys who made it to the big league club for a hot minute. I think I’m getting pretty close on the 2013 red parallels. I don’t target minor league cards on my want list really, but I am always happy to give them a home.

Sweet! this Stassi/De Leon rookie put to bed my 2014 Heritage needs. I’ve got a copy signed by Jorge, now I just need to get Max to sign one.

Speaking of 2014 Heritage, Charles was able to help me out with the High Numbers that I was missing! That’s a nice, stylish McHugh there. The ‘Stros finally let my boy Jon Homerton go. I was still holding out a sliver of hope that he was going to put it all together, because it was really fun to watch him hit right field bombs.

Charles managed to knock off all my high number needs for the set, with these two handsome outfielders closing out the bunch. Yeah, I said it – handsome fellas. You gonna disagree with me?