Too Many Awesome Cards!

My good buddy Dennis (Too Many Verlanders) hit me with a blockbuster trade package right before Christmas. I went back and looked and this marks the 14th time I've received cards from the Michigan/Tigers fanatic. That amount probably puts him on the Mount Rushmore of Bob Walk trade partners. 

As usual Dennis mixed in a combination of Pirates and Mountaineers in the package. 

I've had a nice run adding manager cards this month. The only sad thing about this card is that Kluszewski isn't showing enough of the guns.

Dennis knows I'm a sucker for the original Frank Thomas!

For as long as the Pirates have been around they really don't have a great history when it comes to star pitchers. Most of the recent Hall of Fame pitchers that played for the Pirates either had a short stay or were at the end of their careers.  Probably the most notable pitcher in modern times was Bert Blyleven, but he only had 3 seasons with the Bucs and he left on bad terms.

With that being said the Pirates do have some great names in history like Vern Law and Roy Face. What a cool looking card of what appears to be spring training. It appears that Vern Law has to poop from the grimace.

A very young Al Oliver. If he could have had a couple more big seasons he would have made it to 3000 hits and the hall of fame.

A very small stamp of the Cobra!

56 Topps Dale Long

These are the kind of manu-relics that I can tolerate. Very nice Pops!

I was glad to see Archives finally add some cool Pirates to the Fan Favorites autos. The set is always one of my favorites every year, but they were rehashing guys like Al Oliver and Dave Parker over and over again. Having guys like Kendall was a welcomed change.

Cutch is like Tekulve, he doesn't have bad cardboard.

It was a stretch to call Bream a fan favorite since he scored the run to win the NLCS as the member of the Braves. He is from the Pittsburgh area so I guess there's that, but I think if you ask most Pirate fans to give you a top ten fan favorites he wouldn't crack it.

Personally I thought it was a cool card and the bible verse makes it unique.


WVU time!

I was really pulling for Sims to get more playing time with the Bucs this year since Doug Martin sucked so bad last year. Unfortunately for Sims, Martin balanced back.

Bulger is probably the most notable Mountaineer to make a big impact in the NFL in the last 15 years.

One of the cool things about collecting Sims cards is that their is a lot of color in the jersey cards. I've been trying to get some of the patches that feature the full Buccaneer, but they still bring in a good bit of money.

Now for my two favorite cards of the bunch. Geno has had a tough go as a pro, but that doesn't stop me from collecting the ex Mountaineer. He holds just about every passing record in school history so he still holds a soft place in my heart. This is an awesome plate from Bowman Sterling.

I chose this card as my favorite because of the great WVU uniform patch. Ultimate Collection is the go to set if you like players featured in their NCAA uniforms. What a great looking card.

Holy smokes that was a ton of great cards. I could ramble on about them forever. Thanks so much Dennis. Look forward to keeping the pace in 2016. I'll be hitting you back with a few more cards here soon since my last package was a little light.

Thanks for reading.