Fred Sox

Today, I'm going to show off the cards that I get from Fred, whom I work with. Every few days or so he brings me a couple of cards. He's going through all his cards from 30 years ago and when he comes across Sox cards, he brings them in to me. I scan them when I get them so that's how the pics will be. He actually brought me in a couple yesterday but I haven't gotten around to doing them yet so you'll see those in the next round.

I didn't realize how often he gives me cards until I was uploading all the scans.

I had this Jason Bere from 1994 Upper Deck but I didn't have the Electric Diamond parallel and a Magglio rookie from Fleer.

When he started bringing the cards in and I saw all those 90's, I figured I'd have most of them. I had some but he gave me a lot more than I thought I would need. This is my 3rd card of Clemons and my 32nd of Roberto Hernandez.

These 2 were studs in the 90's for the Sox, Black Jack McDowell and Rockin' Robin.

As you can tell, he had some that weren't 90's. I think he'd pick up cheap cards at the LCS or card shows for me as well. This is my 13th card of Danish.

He gave me my first 2021 Topps awhile ago and he gave me these as well. They only get shown because I received them before the box breaks cards that I had won. That is my 1st card of Heuer, my 146th of the current MVP and my 10th of Leury.

Back to the 90's with this trio of Ventura cards. Again, I though I had all 3 of these but nope.

An assortment of early to mid 90's. Another Blackjack along with a Bo Jackson, I wasn't a huge fan of his, didn't hate him or anything, but wasn't really into him. I did like Ray Durham though. That is my 9th of Parque, my 26th of Bo and my 74th of Durham.

I do like getting Mike Caruso cards. I know you're thinking who? Back in the day, the White Sox had a minor league team right here in South Bend (they are the Cubs now) and he's one of the few names I remember seeing play here. Jason Bere is another one of those guys but I remember him more from his pro career. This is my 25th of Caruso, my 48th of Belle and my 37th card of Bere.

We've seen all 3 of these guys already. I thought I had both of those Award Winners. Makes me wonder how many cards I fly by flipping through dime boxes thinking I already had them. The Fernandez at the bottom is the silver signature version and is my 46th of him.

I remember buying a box of these Collector's Choice back in the day. I think my cousin (Sluggo) and I split it. That was back when cards were cheap. It is my 3rd of Fabregas and my 5th of Valdez.

Another Maggs, with a rookie cup and another McDowell. The above Ordonez's give me 161 of him and my 55th of Jack McDowell.

Another trio, this time of 1998 Upper Deck's. This Cameron makes my 20th, my 6th of Norberto and my 12th of Navarro.

He also picked up some packs of Heritage and gave me this Keuchel. It's only my 5th of Keuchel.

A couple more for the late 90's. I told you he sent a bunch of cards in the last couple of months. This is my 5th of Scott Eyre and my 15th of Abbott.

Lastly, he picked this up at a card show for me. I think he said he only paid a couple of bucks for it and he bought it for me. This is my 6th card of Thompson and my first auto of his.

I feel bad that I never give him any cards but the one time, but that one time was an 800 count box about 3/4 full of Cubs cards so it's not like he's even close to giving me what I gave him (for the record, he doesn't have to give me anything) I just feel bad because a couple times a week he gives me cards and I just keep taking. I have to remind myself that I already gave him a box.

5 card Tuesday

I got 2 envelopes today with 5 cards total. 4 of them in 1 envelope which probably won't excite too many of you as they are White Sox collection cards. The last is a player collection.

Let's get to it.

I picked up this Belle card and was surprised it was my 32nd card of his. I didn't realize I had that many.

I grabbed this Bere card and it makes 31 cards of his. I remember him being a young stud at one point but I don't remember him lasting real long.

This is only my 19th card of Baldwin and like Bere, he was a young stud at one point but he lasted awhile longer than Bere did.

Last but not least (as far as the first envelope), I picked up this Gavin Floyd and it's my 34th card of his. I picked up all 4 of the above cards for $.37/shipped/each. They all actually seem like cards I already have, and I may even, if I do they are in the box that I haven't logged yet. It'll probably be awhile before I get to those though.

This is my 3rd of his from Gypsy Queen but the 1st of the base variety, the other 2 are an insert and a parallel. This is also the 119th card of his in the collection and I picked it up for $.33/shipped.

Contest win

Matthew of “Number 5 Type Collection” had sort of a contest.  It was awhile ago, like the post with Ted, I’ve had them scanned and hadn’t taken the time to write the post.  I’m not sure I remember exactly what happened as far as the contest.  You just told him your top 3 (?) teams, and he sent you one of them.  I took the White Sox (obviously) then I think the Reds and Mets (in hopes of some Tom Seaver love.)  But Matthew selected me for the White Sox.  This is just a few of the stack he sent me.

I have a few of the O-Pee-Chee blacks, I really like them.  But I didn’t have those 2.  The black border always goes great with Sox cards.  I didn’t have any Denny’s cards so that was definitely a first for me.

Lots of Allen & Ginter’s love.  Which is great because I never buy packs of that set.  Too many non-baseball cards for my liking.  I don’t love the mini’s like everybody else does.  Too much of a pain to store.  I haven’t gotten any mini card pages yet so they are just annoying.  But I do need them for the White Sox collection so there you go.  I feel like I’m OCD because I can’t say no even though I don’t like them.

And of course, getting White Sox cards mean I get some Paul Konerko’s for the player collection.  Both these are new to that.  Like I said above, I love the black bordered O-Pee-Chee’s and the UD Supreme card is pretty awesome as well.

Thanks Matthew, don’t let the timeliness of this post fool you, these cards were greatly appreciated.  Check out Matthew’s blog over at “Number 5 Type Collection”.

Today’s 9–Jason Bere

I keep my White Sox collection by players last name. When that player reaches 9 cards (a page), they get a post in the Today’s 9 series. I just recently moved all my cards into alphabetical order so most of these posts are just catching up and making sure everybody get’s their due.

JASON  BERE

Cards (L-R) – (top row) 1992 Classic Best, 1993 Upper Deck (inside the numbers), 1994 Fleer Ultra

(middle row) 1994 Score, 1994 Topps, 1994 Upper Deck (the future is now)

(bottom row) 1994 Upper Deck, 1994 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice, 1995 Bazooka

Played with the Sox from 1993-1998

Was 2nd in Rookie of the Year voting in 1993.

Made the All-Star game in 1994.

Card back info –

“When Jason Bere was a senior at Wilmington High School, he was 165 pounds and a non-prospect.   The White Sox took a chance on him, and Chicago thinkis it may have a future ace in the 21-year-old.  Bere has a live fastball that has been clocked in the 90’s, a slider, and what GM Ron Schueler thinks may be his best pitch, a changeup that gives his fastball an extra yard or two.  Last year, Bere started in Sarasota, blew through Class-AA and ended up in Vancouver.  It won’t be surprising if his Hollywood ascent takes him to Comiskey Park this season.” – 1993 Upper Deck (inside the numbers)

“It came as no surprise to most ovservers that Jason was the top rookie pitcher in the major leagues in ‘93 and a second-place finisher in the AL Rookie of the Year voting.  After all, he was the No. 1 White Sox prospect at the start of the season and was considered one of the game’s best righthanded pitching prospects.  After being recalled from Nashville in late May, Jason split his first 10 decisions, then really took off to end the year with seen victories in a row.  He throws an explosive 90-plus fastball, which he mixes with a nasty slider and a strong changeup.” – 1994 Score

“When pitching 8 scoreless, 2-hit innings, Jason broke an 83-year-old team rookie record when he K’d 13 Red Sox, 9-8-93.” – 1994 Topps

“When the White Sox summoned Jason Bere from Class-AAA Nashville on May 25, he joined a staff that included the 1993 Cy Young Award winner (Jack McDowell), the pitcher with the leagues fifth-best ERA (Alex Fernandez), and the pitcher with the league’s seventh-best opposition average (Wilson Alvarez).  Bere made his mark on the AL West champs as well.  He won his final seven decisions of the season, tying the franchise mark for strikeouts by a rookie (13) in one of those triumphs.  The 22-year-old also led Major League rookies in wins and paced AL rookies in strikeouts.” – 1994 Upper Deck (the future is now)

“Bere played a huge role in Chicago’s drive to the American League west title, compiling a perfect 7-0 mark in his last seven decisions of the year.  His 12 victories led all Major League rookies, helping him finish second to the Angels’ Tim Salmon in AL Rookie of the Year balloting.  Bere allowed only 270 hits in his 370 minor league innings prior to 1993, and he remained stingy in the majors, posting a .210 opponent batting average.” – 1994 Upper Deck

“Bere capped his outstanding rookie season by winning his final seven decisions as the White Sox drove to the AL west title.  Included in that stretch was a September 8 outing in which he matched the franchise rookie record with 13 K’s in eight shutout innings.” – 1994 Upper Deck Collector’s Choice

Cards in Sox uniform that I own currently – 13

Autos/Relics from player above that I currently own - 0

Bere was a great starter for a few years, then became average for awhile.  What stood out most about looking at his stats was he played until 2003.  I was not aware of that, now granted I quit watching baseball from 1994-1999, but still, I was oblivious to it.