Hall of Fame Michigan Man

Oddly enough, today's random post is a Michigan grad but I don't really include him in my Tier 2 Michigan players, he's in the Tier 2 because I liked him before I knew he went to Michigan. The Tier 2 Michigan players started awhile back of players who went on to the pros after watching them at Michigan. I never watched him at Michigan because for one, the Big Ten Network wasn't around so I never watched any baseball because it wasn't on anywhere. It's not like now-a-days where you don't have to watch a game to follow a team. There are news reports, blogs, gamecasts, ect. that to keep track of any sport.

Anyways, let's get to the former Wolverine, current Hall of Famer.

A couple of good action shots up there. That top right is a Panini Sticker from 1994 and if you're wondering how I didn't have the 1991 Topps already, I do. That's the O-Pee-Chee version. I wasn't aware they had versions that still listed them as Topps on the front.

As you can see on the back there is a little bit of French and the color is a little lighter.

The top left in this photo is also a O-Pee-Chee but that one obviously didn't copy the Topps card from the same year. That's a lot of Larkin's for $.20/each at the baseballcardstore.ca. Everything shown above came from there.

Dennis of "Too Many Verlanders" also sent me these 7 of Barry in his package to me last month. It's one of our mutual player collections. I don't have to tell which is my favorite of all of these. I love anything with the Block M on it. Although I do like the Archives too because, you know, it looks vintage.

These 17 cards put my Larkin collection at 230 cards which makes it my 4th highest player collection.

Love him or hate him

If you remember, my last 3 posts (minus the random post) were all of players from the 05 World Champion team. I mentioned that I had one more player's post to do that was also part of the 05 team. I went and randomed for today's post, I have 10 different posts listed and you'll never guess what came up.

Like Joe Crede, AJ also spent some time with the Twinkies, although it was before the Sox for him. The 9 cards above all came from Sportlots. I separated the pics by manufacturers. I apparently need a lot of his Fleer cards as that is what the top 7 cards are of. I combined the Leaf and the Bowman in one. The Bowman is the international version.

You thought I was going to be done with the Twins cards didn't you? These 5 cards came from the baseballcardstore.ca.

I also picked up a couple of other teams that AJ played with from baseballcardstore.ca. The Giants were the team he played with right before the Sox and the Rangers was after.

I did get a few White Sox cards of him as you can see. These also came from the baseballcardstore.ca. I have the team collection of the card on the left so this Update was familiar. As was the 2009 Chrome because I have that card, only in a refractor. Bottom card is the mini so that card also is familiar as I have a couple of the colored versions and the base.

The title of this post comes from the fact that he was voted most hated player in MLB at least for one year and there a lot, I mean a lot of people that don't. I feel he's one of those guys that you love because he plays for you and hate him when he doesn't. That's how us Sox fans feel but from what I hear, the Twins and Giants fans don't feel that way. I think he was just probably misunderstood or he truly did change when he came to the Sox. Either way, I loved him. He always gave 110% and got mad at himself when he failed. How can you hate him for that?

These 19 cards bump the AJ Collection up to 114 cards so this got me over the century mark as well. I had a very productive month in June.

Favorite Sox 3rd Basemen

So, let me explain how I do the random for this blog. I have a list of the players and how many cards. I combine them into posts. If I have a few cards each of Michigan alumn, I combine them. Same with Sox players. If I have a bunch of cards, that player will get their own post. I have them listed out, I copy and paste them into random.org and randomize it 3 times.

I explain this because the last 2 players that came up were Paul Konerko and Mark Buehrle, both of the 2005 White Sox Champions. Todays random is adding a 3rd in a row from that team. I do have 1 more, I wonder if he will come up next. You'll see why today's player got his own post.

 

These 3 cards came from my baseballcardstore.ca purchase so they were $.20/each.

From the 2 cards above all the way to the bottom all came from Card Barrel. The 2 above I paid $.16 for the base and $.40 for the red framed.

A couple of horizontal cards.

As you can see, I got quite a few from his early days with the Sox.

I showed the 2007 back because it's a red back version. I didn't even know that was a thing until this card popped up.

That's all for the White Sox portion. Joe spent his final season in Minnesota and I did grab a couple of those as well. I know he had all kinds of back problems so I wonder if that's why the Sox didn't sign him and he went to the Twins. I know he signed as a free agent and I don't remember there being any hard feelings but who knows, that was over 10 years ago and I'm old.

In all, I added 27 more cards of my favorite Sox 3rd baseman. I basically picked up every card that I didn't have from Card Barrel.

In the last 6 years I've picked up only 21 cards of Joe Crede. I'm currently at 37 for this year. This huge pick up helped me hit the century mark as well with 103 now.

Random Cards #73

It's a Sunday, so why not a random post.

Tier 1 Collections

Collections - Paul Konerko, White Sox

Card - 2005 Topps Total #560

Player - Paul Konerko

Team - Chicago White Sox

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $.20

From - Baseballcardstore.ca

When - June, 2020

Tier 2 Collections

Collection - Joe Crede

Card - 2009 Topps Update #UH85

Player - Joe Crede

Team - Minnesota Twins

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $.20

From - Card Barrel

When - May, 2020

Tier 2 Michigan Players Collection

Collections - Denard Robinson, Michigan

Card - 2013 Press Pass #38

Player - Denard Robinson

Team - Michigan Wolverines

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $.40

From - Ebay

When - December, 2014

Tier 3 Collections

Collection - Ryan Zimmerman

Card - 2017 Topps Holiday

Player - Ryan Zimmerman

Team - Washington Nationals

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $.23

From - Ebay

When - December, 2018

Michigan Collection

Collection - Michigan

Card - 2008 Press Pass Legends Saturday Signatures Red Ink #SS-MM

Player - Mario Manningham

Team - Michigan Wolverines

Acquired - Trade

From - Too Many Verlanders

When - May, 2012

Chicago White Sox Collection

Collection - White Sox

Card - 2019 Topps #264

Player - Avisail Garcia

Team - Chicago White Sox

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $.23

From - Ebay

When - June, 2019

Baseball Collection

Collection - Baseball

Card - 2019 Topps Stickers #155

Player - Scooter Gennett

Team - Cincinnati Reds

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $.25

From - Packs

When - August, 2019

Vintage Collection - 1950's

Collection - Vintage

Card - 1958 Topps #161

Player - Don Larsen

Team - New York Yankees

Acquired - Trade

From - Sluggo

When - April, 2020

Vintage Collection - 1960's

Collection - Vintage

Card - 1966 Topps #32

Player - Adolfo Phillips

Team - Philadelphia Phillies

Acquired - Purchased

Price - Unknown

From - Ebay

When - June, 2015

Vintage Collections - 1970's

Collection - Vintage

Card - 1979 Topps #141

Player - Tom Paciorek

Team - Seattle Mariners

Acquired - Trade

From - Too Many Verlanders

When - April, 2016

Vintage Collections - 1980's

Collection - Vintage

Card - 1986 Fleer #412

Player - Tim Birtsas

Team - Oakland Athletics

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $.05

From - Ebay

When - February, 2014

Relic

Collection - Barry Larkin

Card - 2017 Donruss Diamond Collection

Player - Barry Larkin

Team - Cincinnati Reds

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $2.99

From - Ebay

When - August, 2018

Autograph

Collection - Michigan

Card - 2007 Press Pass Autographs Bronze

Player - LaMarr Woodley

Team - Michigan Wolverines

Acquired - Purchased

Price - $3.57

From - Card Show

When - October, 2015

World Series Closer

As you should know, I random these posts, so it's purely random that after I posted one of the 2005 World Series, that you get another. I say hero because after throwing over 100 pitches in Game 2, he came back and got the save in Game 3 only 2 days later. He says he only had 3 beers before coming into the 14th inning to throw 3 pitches for the save.

These 6 cards of Buehrle came from the baseballcardstore.ca. I know I say this a lot but I could have sworn I had a few of those but apparently not.

These 4 came from Sportlots, all under $.50. The Heritage on the right is a black back version. All are from 2000-2001.

Last but not least, Fuji of the Chronicles of Fuji sent me a stack of White Sox cards. This was the lone player collection that was mixed in. He sent a couple of these SportsNut cards which I needed. You'll see the other cards when I post my White Sox pick ups.