like many of you, i was both surprised and excited to see an email from david at tribecards a few weeks ago. he let me know that my cards from his christmas 2020 giveaway were shipping! about a week later, i had a 660 count box in my mailbox!
now, i had forgotten about this giveaway, and so i went back to see what it was all about. after all, this was not the first time that david hosted a huge card giveaway. for this one, he had asked us to choose our top 3 teams and top 3 players. i didn't see any cards featuring the players that i most likely identified, but i recognized the three teams for sure.
the dodgers were team number one for me, of course, and while there weren't a lot of boys in blue, the best thing in the box related to them was this 1997 donruss vxp 1.0 mike piazza thing
that's the front of a booklet that contained this
i did not try the item out before putting it in my 1997 dodgers binder, so i don't know if it is windows 10 compatible or not. what a great oddball for my collection!
the other two teams i identified are represented by the oldest and newest cards in the box
and holy smokes i love getting 1978 topps cards in the mail!
there were a couple of outliers in my box, including a 1980 topps rusty staub card
from the dodger stack, this 1988 score mini great moments in baseball insert was new to me
i always knew drysdale's streak as 58 and two-thirds innings, but at some point, elias changed it to just 58 innings which is the number on the back of the card. i recall drysdale not being in favor of losing two outs from the streak (although that last out was a sac fly). it was all made moot when orel hershiser went 59 innings without allowing a run at the end of the 1988 season.
that made me do a double take. it's not blackless as it has the border around the photo and the facsimile signature, but the color is definitely not all there.
another printer anomaly was this 1991 topps mike scioscia
which had some printing plates off register - but not as badly as some that jon shared recently!
little d had flashes of dominance, but it just didn't work out in the end.
most of the cards i received (like last time) were twins cards. i've no issue with that, as these cards included some gems like this 1995 topps embossed golden idols kirby puckett card
for over 40 years, but there it was in the box i received and i immediately thought back to me and my friends wondering why an american league pitcher was holding a bat.
it's all about the end of don drysdale's scoreless innings streak
here's a 1982 topps derrel thomas card
another 1991 card david included was this jose gonzalez card
which really features a photo of billy bean. bean passed away recently, and will be remembered as a bit of a trailblazer in the sport.
not a dodger card, but here's the guy who was drafted immediately after alex rodriguez
i had probably not thought of or looked at darrell jackson's 1981 fleer card
the cards also reminded me that shane mack must have had a clause that his cards needed to show him sliding into third base
i don't think i had ever seen randy bush's 1989 fleer card before (i stopped set collecting fleer after 1987)
but his teammates were nicer to him than bill ripken's teammates were to ol' duckface. for what it's worth, i don't think that bush is holding his bat in the photo.
there were some recent twins cards, including these 2024 bowman inserts (paper and chrome)
of brooks lee. lee is from near where i grew up so he has potential to become my favorite non-dodger.
one more twins card - a 2021 topps allen & ginter ryan jeffers auto card
it's more like an initialed card, but it's still pretty sweet.
as for the blue jays, here's a roger clemens base card
from that donruss vxp 1.0 release.
i have a weird affinity for buybacks, and i received these two from 2017
i think this one actually is just initialed, but with a star added for effect. beltre is currently 20 years old and with the blue jays single-a affiliate in dunedin.
the 1999 topps jose cruz jr is a silver foil version, while the 1988 topps jose nunez is bronze. i remember being shocked when the mariners traded cruz to the blue jays during his rookie campaign as he was a highly touted prospect.
speaking of prospects, here's a 2023 bowman sterling prospect autograph of manuel beltre
my favorite blue jays card in the box was this black & white parallel
of vladimir guerrero jr's 2019 topps archives snapshots card.
by choosing the dodgers, twin, and blue jays, i was able to handle a lot of cards that i hadn't taken the time to look at for a long time. i was also able to do a comparison of ken landreaux cards from near-opposite ends of the 1980's
fun fact - for a brief time in 1987, the dodgers had half of the players that the angels sent to the twins for rod carew in landreaux and brad havens. i will always remember landreaux for the 1981 season and the fact that he caught the last out of the 1981 world series.
thank you david for your giveaway! your generosity is appreciated!
