Wandering.

Last week the Rays sent Wander Franco to their Minor League camp, meaning he is likely going to spend a big chunk of his summer playing for the Durham Bulls.  How many times have the Durham Bulls had the top prospect entering a season?  

It's been a few.  

I am really excited to see him play, which would normally mean that I would be searching Ebay and Facebook groups for a few of his cards.  How many have I bought this spring?  

Well, there is this one....

 

That's it.  

I felt well prepared knowing that there is a healthy market for Wander Franco cards, but have you seen the price of his cards?  His autographs are all around/over $100.  Some of base cards and serial numbered cards are kind of pricy for a player with less than 200 games in the Minors. So, after looking at my baseball card budget and weighing whether or not to spend some money on the upcoming Durham Bulls players, I have decided that I am going to skip the entire team over at the moment.  

That's right.  A blog with a heavy slant on collecting Durham Bulls cards is not collecting Durham Bulls cards for the moment.  I am sure that I will find a few players on the team later on this summer.  Surely, someone will be more in the Michael Brosseau price range at some point.  In the meantime, I decided to redirect my Durham Bulls budget for this spring into a single card.  

I know it's a bold move, but I stand by the decision.  

I have a copy of this card, but this one is nicer than the one in my collection and it's Stan Musial.  Do you really need a reason to buy a Stan Musial card?  I cannot think of one, especially considering this autographed card is cheaper than a Wander Franco autograph.  

Project Durham Bulls #44 - Doug Rader

1965 Durham Bulls 

Background-
I do enjoy finding cards of the Durham Bulls players that I have watched over the past ten years plus that I have lived around Durham and Raleigh.  However, the Durham Bulls are one of the longest running Minor League teams around and have a long history with many great players.  I love finding some of the older players, especially the ones that I do not know a lot about, and taking time to find out more about their careers.  While I was growing up in the 1980s and early 1990s, I knew Doug Rader as a manager, but I did not know a thing about him as a player until I moved to North Carolina.
The Astros signed Doug Rader as an amateur free agent out of Illinois Wesleyan University in 1965.  He was sent to start his professional baseball career with the team's Carolina League affiliate in Durham.  Rader ended up playing 112 games for the Bulls and hit .209/.307/.385 with 14 home runs, 14 doubles, and 38 RBIs.  Not a great line, but he still ended up getting promoted to Double A the following season.  Rader made his Major League debut in 1967.  He played 11 years, mainly with the Astros, but he also appeared in games for the Padres and Blue Jays.  In all, Rader had 1,300 hits, 155 home runs, more than 700 RBIs, and an impressive 5 Gold Gloves.

After retiring, Doug Rader went into coaching and managing.  He managed the Rangers during the 1983, 1984, and part of the 1985 season.  In 1986, the White Sox used him to manage the team for two games after management fired Tony LaRussa in the middle of the season.  Rader also managed the Angels for three seasons in the early 1990s.  He worked as a hitting coach with the Marlins for the franchise's first two seasons, but retired after the 1994 season.  To the best of my knowledge, he has not worked in baseball since that job.

Card- 
I am really happy with this card.  Like really happy.  The Greats of the Games autographs have always been one of the great products of the late 1990s and early 2000s.  By the time that the mid 2000s rolled around, I am not sure that the many collectors would describe the product as great.  I still think it was a nice set, definitely a step back though.  This Rader card is a far cry from the 1999 or 2000 sets, but there is still plenty to like.

First, the Nickname cards were always a staple in the Donruss Signature set.  Fleer never used nickname cards even though the products were rivals of sorts.  Fleer went with the nicknames in this set.  Yes, they are sticker autographs, but Fleer also picked some unique players.  Besides, the Donruss Signature Set had also turned to sticker autographs too.  I have another one of these cards of Tom Henke "The Terminator", who never appeared in any other autograph product.  Rader also only appears in this set as a signer.  Really unique cards to own.

Rader was a redhead and earned the nickname "Red Rooster" based on the way that his hair stuck out of his hat.  In some ways, I wish that I had a simple card with a regular Doug Rader signature.  However, if you only have one choice of card for a player, this is a pretty sweet card and a really good addition to my collection of Durham Bulls cards.  

Gaggle of Great Graphs

I had posted a Scott Rolen autograph a few days back.  I had actually ended up with that Topps Heritage autograph through a fellow collector who was also trying to get rid of a few old Fleer Greats of the Game autographs.  I really enjoyed collecting those sets way back in the day, liked the autographs that were in the lot, so I decided to jump at the chance to pick up these cards.  I ended up with five in all.  Here's a look at the cards, all from the 2001 Great of the Game set...

I have a bunch of Enos Slaughter autographs, but I had never picked this one before now.  Slaughter had a really nice autograph and this one is generally his roughest signature on a certified card.  At the time this set came out the Roxboro, North Carolina native was fighting Lymphoma.  While it's not his best signature, it's one of his last.  I like the black and white photo on the card too.  These were the simplest design of the Greats of the Game set, but I think the simplicity works well. 

So this is where I am a little bit lost on the design of this set.  The Mazeroski autograph above has a color picture.  The card still looks really nice.  I thought perhaps the color/black and white pictures were based on when they played, but Orlando Cepeda's career lined up almost exactly with Mazeroski and he had a bacl and white photo.  Same with Killebrew at the bottom.  Let's just enjoy the autographs.  Prior to this card, I did not have a Mazeroski autograph.  His signatures are never expensive, nor hard to find, just never got around to picking one up.  

I have other Cepeda autographs, with the Cardinals, but I liked the look of this card.  Obviously a younger version of Cha Cha at the beginning of his career with the Giants.  

This is my only duplicate out of the lot.  Roger Craig is a Durham native, so I have picked up a few of his autographs over the years.  I remember Roger Craig best as the manager of the Giants when I was a kid, but as I have gotten older I have run into him as sort of local sports legend around central North Carolina.  I am pretty sure that three different high school's in Durham try to claim him, he went to NC State, and every baseball fan I have ever met from North Carolina over the age of 65 saw him pitch locally in the minor leagues.  

Not my first autograph of the Twins Hall of Famer, but Harmon always has a nice autograph.  Great looking card.  

Buy Local Part 2: Dick Groat

A little Duke flavor for my second Buy Local post features the greatest Duke basketball player to appear in a Major League Baseball game.  I understand that the average sports fan in this country cannot stand Duke and they are one of those teams that attracts all sorts of fair weather fans and all kinds of hate.  Locally, there are plenty of alumni around North Carolina and as a school with billions of dollars in endowment money, they do a lot of good around the community.

As a graduate of the red North Carolina school, Duke is about ten times better than the other blue Carolina school which has problems with agents working as assistant coaches on the football team, football players plagiarizing papers, fake classes, parking tickets,Tyler Hansbrough reading like a third grader, and I could provide four links for P.J. Hairston.  Poke fun at Duke and Coach K all you want, they run a clean program.  If you don't like Duke, click here, and skip the video below.  If you like Duke basketball, click below and enjoy. 

Before the current run of the Coach K lead Duke Blue Devils, the team still had some really good players and some really good NCAA tournament runs.  One of their really good players during the early fifties was Dick Groat.  

Groat was an All-American for the Blue Devils in 1951 and 1952 and his jersey hangs in the rafters of Cameron Indoor Stadium.  He also played a little bit in the NBA for the Fort Wayne Pistons after they used the third overall selection in the 1952 NBA draft to select the guard.  Of course, many people know Groat like this...

1954 Topps Dick Groat

Groat was one of the first North Carolina I took an interest in collecting when I moved here in 2006.  Sure, he's not really from North Carolina, but the connection to Duke makes him quite popular locally.  Basketball fans love him and baseball fans too.  While Groat was a very good baseball player his cards are quite affordable.  Most of his early cards can be pricy if you are looking for great condition, but otherwise they are quite reasonable for 1950s Topps cards.

Groat spent the majority of his career with the Pirates where he made three All-Star teams and won the 1960 National League MVP, but also appeared for the Cardinals and Phillies during the second half of his career.  Of course, I try to pick up the Cardinals cards, which are all under $5 on Ebay, but still really love to dabble in the 50s Pirates cards.  

2000 Fleer Greats of the Game Dick Groat Autograph

Groat has also been a very good signer, especially for some of the early Greats of the Game and Archives releases.  He has a nice signature and the prices of his autographs are quite reasonable.  Groat also signs while he is at work broadcasting basketball games for the University of Pittsburgh.  While I have several baseball autographs of Groat as a Cardinal and Pirate, I do not own a copy of a Duke Blue Devils autograph.  I am hoping to remedy that missing piece of my collection soon. 

It was the best of boxes. It was the worst of boxes.

I am going to discuss one of my worst boxes ever.  However, I am sure you could find a collector who opened the same box of cards and had the complete opposite reaction.  I am positive, so our story begins:

It was the best of boxes, it was the worst of boxes, it was an age of wax abundance, it was an age of overproduction...I'll stop.  In 1999 Fleer released the highly anticipated Greats of the Game set.  The boxes of cards had twelve packs and guaranteed one autograph per pack.  The checklist of Hall of Famers was incredible.  People were excited.  At twenty dollars a pack, or $220ish for a box, I ventured into a card shop in west Saint Louis county which longer is open.  I paid for box, sat down at a stool, and started opening.  Some of my highlights:

1999 Fleer Greats of the Game Al Hrabosky Autograph 

1999 Fleer Greats of the Game Bob Horner Autograph

I used the word highlight loosely above.  These cards are only highlights because they have connections to the Cardinals and they can go towards my Cardinals autograph collection.  Although, Hraboksy is the most annoying announcer the Cardinals have ever employed.  Bob Horner was old, fat, and horrible as a Cardinal.  The other ten autographs were even worse than these.  Bo Belinsky, Mickey Rivers, and Rico Petrocilli aren't the names you want to see when you are busting high end wax.  I think the card shop owner felt really bad for me.  In true old man fashion I was then told "The Legend of Greats of the Game"  It went something like this:

"I had a case of these boxes last week.  Had a customer open a box and he got terrible autographs.  I set out the next box, guy comes in and buys one pack.  Pulls a Nolan Ryan autograph.  Leaves the store.  I open the rest of the box and swear that Lou Brock was the worst autograph I pulled.  All short prints, all high end autographs"  

I took this speech with a grain of salt and left the store.  The next weekend I stopped by another card store in south St. Louis county.  I was picking up some cheap singles and didn't have a lot of money with me.  Another customer in the store bought a pack of Greats of the Game and pulled a Yaz autograph.  Naturally the man was pumped up paid for his pack and left the store.  The owner asked me if I was going to buy a pack.  I told him I didn't have much money and was just filling holes.  He then told me the following story: 

"I had a case of these boxes last week.  Had a customer open a box and he got terrible autographs.  I set out the next box, guy comes in and buys one pack.  Pulls a Stan Musial autograph.  Leaves the store.  I open the rest of the box and swear that Steve Carlton was the worst autograph I pulled.  All short prints, all high end autographs"  

The man walked back to the back room of his store returned with a six pack of Natty Lights opened the rest of box.  I swear the worst card the man got was a Buck O'Neill autograph.  The autographs included a Willie Mays, a Banks, and a Killebrew.  

A Case Break, A Trade, and A Purchase

I have four pretty sweet cards to show off tonight.  I am going to start with a case break of Topps Museum Collection that I bought into while I was out of town the past few days.  I got my beloved Cardinals and Rays and ended up with a good array of base cards, but more importantly, I got two Cardinals hits.  The first is a Jon Jay Signature Swatches.  The card has two pieces of Jay's uni and an autograph.  There is a print run of 250 cards, which is giant by today's standards, but still a good card.  My second card is a Matt Holliday Primary Patches quad relic with a red and blue patch.  It's a nice addition to my Holliday collection and definitely my good card from this case break.  I know that Holliday has an autograph in Museum collection that I will be on the look out for along with an Allen Craig autograph.

2012 Topps Museum Collection Jon Jay Signature Swatches Autograph 13/250

 2012 Topps Museum Collection Matt Holliday Primary Pieces Matt Holliday Quad Jersey/Patch 81/99

My next card came to me in a trade and I was really excited to land this card.  This card is from the 2000 Fleer Greats of the Game set.  The first two years of this set, 1999 and 2000, were the best two years in my opinion with the 2000 being slightly better.  The 1999 cards featured a picture of an SI cover with a small white rectangle in the bottom corner where the player signed on the card.  I like the 2000 version better because of the empty space.  Good, clean pictures with a simple frame and the autograph.  Great looking cards.  This one features Al Kaline.  Great card, great 'graph, and a definite keeper.  

Last card tonight is a purchase.  I will always try trading for a card before I buy, but I found a good value on this card from the 2011 Topps Update set.  The card is a Cliff Lee autographed patch card numbered 22/25.  I am sure that it will bring me something good back.