A College Kid And His Famous Cousin

Listen, friends.  I have had this post drafted for a while and really like the cards that I share at the end of the post.  I am well aware of what happened to the NC State baseball team last week.  More than happy to discuss the team itself, their play during the regular and postseason, but I am not getting into a debate about COVID or vaccines.  

I have always enjoyed collecting cards of players on the NC State baseball team.  It still amazes me that there are baseball cards of kids in college and high school.  In the past, I have dabbled with cards of Trea Turner....

Carlos Rodon 

and Will Wilson, just to name a few.  

After much searching, I have found that there is only one player on this year's team that has a baseball card.  I was a little surprised that none of them appeared in the USA Baseball U-18 sets, or more didn't make it into a Perfect Game set, which is where I found the card for this post.  

This is the team's catcher, Luca Tresh.  He led the team in home runs this season and is currently listed as the 84th best prospect who can enter the MLB Draft this year.  I am sure he will get selected, but there are a ton of college catchers in this year's draft.  I did a quick count, but there are at least 3 other catchers from just ACC schools rated ahead of him.  NC State has had a good run of catchers in the Draft lately with Andrew Knizner (Cardinals) and Patrick Bailey (Giants).  

Hopefully, he lands somewhere good and gets a few baseball cards.  

On to the Yankees connection.  Luca Tresh's cousin was a player on the 1960s Yankees teams, Tom Tresh. The first time I heard this fact, I had to go dig through my 1960s commons.  I knew the name but knew nothing about him as a player.  

Here is my 1968 Topps Tom Tresh card.  

Not the best condition even with a generous crop job on the corners, but he's actually a pretty interesting player and person.  He's a much better player than I realized.  Here is my quick rundown on Tom Tresh in the form of a bulleted list.  

+Tresh won the 1962 American League Rookie of the Year

+Played almost 1,200 games, almost all with the Yankees hit more than 20 home runs 4 times during his career.  

+Tom Tresh and Derek Jeter were the only 2 modern shortstops to start as rookies for the Yankees on Opening Day.  

+Hit a go-ahead home run against the Giants in Game 5 of the 1962 World Series.  

+Tresh made the American League All-Star teams in 1962 and 1963 

+He won a Gold Glove in 1965 

Tresh retired before the 1970 season.  He ended up working an administrative job at Central Michigan University where he also made an important invention to help out the school's baseball and softball teams.  Tresh called it the "Slide-Rite".  

You've seen these before.  

 

This is the second baseball player/inventor I have posted this year.  

Anyway, I was happy to add a card of a current NC State player and I enjoyed learning about Tom Tresh for this post. 

The Mayor Of Kings Mountain

There are only about 10,000 people in Kings Mountain, North Carolina, so I am going to give a few little facts about the town.  A quick map shows where it is in comparison to the cities you may know in central North Carolina.....

It's really not all that far from Charlotte.  When I first heard of the town, I assumed it was somewhere out in the western parts of the state.  I assumed that nobody really lived in the town.  Not really accurate.  

The town is also really important to our country's history.  It was the location of a battle during the Revolutionary War.  The British had won most of the battles in the southern colonies before the Battle of Kings Mountain.  The fight ended up being a win for the colonists.  

President Theodore Roosevelt actually mentioned The Battle of Kings Mountain in his book The Winning of The West: 

"This brilliant victory marked the turning point of the American Revolution" 

There are also a few baseball players from the small town of Kings Mountain.  Otto Briggs played in the Negro Leagues during the teens, twenties, and thirties.  Jake Early, a catcher for the Senators and Browns during the 1930s and 1940s also hailed from Kings Mountain.  He was one of the best defensive catchers from his era.  

No more major war turning battles have taken place in Kings Mountain in recent years.  People wise, there has been a country singer, I don't listen to country music, and an actress from some daytime soap opera.  There is also another pretty good baseball player, who is currently starring for the NC State baseball team.....

Will Wilson is the team's current shortstop and one of the better players in the ACC.  He was named the All-ACC First Team shortstop for this season and made the Collegiate Baseball's All-American Second Team.  

Wilson's success in Raleigh has earned him the nickname "The Mayor of Kings Mountain" 

The Mayor of Kings Mountain, Will Wilson, singles as the UNC LF misreads the ball. Run scores. Bases loaded with no outs in T5. Pack, 3-0.

— Pack Pride (@PackPride) April 16, 2017

 

This tweet from the NC State fan site Pack Pride is the first time I have found him mentioned as "The Mayor of Kings Mountain".  All the of tweets and social media posts prior to the one embedded above appear to be about the actual mayor of Kings Mountain.  

Luckily, we are also living in a day and age where high school kids have baseball cards.  Will Wilson managed to get into two different sets.  I am still trying to find a copy of his USA Baseball card, which was in a Panini set, but I have been able to find his Perfect Game card.....

I am not a huge fan of Leaf cards, but this is one of their nicer products.  I believe these are their only baseball cards that do not have all of the logos airbrushed off the pictures.  The base cards are really nice too, I will have to try to find one of Wilson.  

Wilson will likely also end up on the USA Baseball College National team this summer.  Hopefully.  That should net him a few more Panini autographs and maybe a few other nice cards until he ends up in the Major League Draft.  Wherever Wilson ends up as a professional, hopefully his nickname will stick with him.  

Wolfpack are red. Blue Devils are blue. Tar Heels wear blue too.

Picked up a few new cards of some local players in the past week.  It just so happens that I managed to add one card from each of the local ACC baseball squads.  It was not my original intention to add a card of a player from each of these schools, it just worked out that way.  So, let's start with my beloved Wolfpack.....

This is the best card in this post for obvious reason.  First, it's an NC State player.  Second, it's an NC State player in an NC State uniform.  Third, it's a really nice looking card.

I have added a few Trea Turner Panini cards over the years.  A few of them have been from the USA Baseball sets, while the more recent ones have featured him in the red and white digs from his time in playing for the Wolfpack.  He was drafted in the first round of the 2014 draft by the Padres, behind teammate Carlos Rodon, who was viewed as the better at the time.  Turner was an excellent player during his college career.

The Padres traded him to the Nationals while he was a Minor Leaguer.  Still a little confused by that trade in so many ways.

My cool Trea Turner story: Five years ago, while Trea Turner was still in college, he actually favorited one of my tweets where I posted his average and slugging percentage from his summer play with USA Baseball.....

Hopefully, that tweet was liked out of some sort of motivation.  

Let's move on to the Duke card.  I am actually looking to add a few more cards of some of the players who are currently playing for the Blue Devils.  Griffin Conine is probably the biggest name, Jeff's son, but his cards are a little difficult to find.  Currently, Duke is a top ten team, and they have some really talented players on their roster.  That means that they have baseball cards from their days in high school.  

I recently posted about high school kids having their own baseball cards.  I do not get it, but here is the card......

I have seen Herron a few times over the past few years.  I usually make it to at least one Duke baseball game every year, so I have now seen Herron play a few times.  Pretty impressive player who should probably go in the first few rounds of the Major League Draft.  Not an exciting video, but......

                                        

he's got a nice swing, just a little short in the power department.  Herron has only hit 2 home runs this year, but he also had an on base percentage of .424 entering this weekend's series against NC State.  That has some value to someone, somewhere.  Hello, Billy Beane.  He also is an outstanding defender in the outfield.  

which brings me to the Tar Heel in my post.  There are few redeeming qualities about the school in Chapel Hill.  Fake classes, tailgating at football games with preppy clothes and martinis, that fake folksy vibe that Roy Williams tries to give off......

How do you feel about UNC, Roy?  

There is no wiggle room for UNC basketball players after they leave school, but there is one former Tar Heel baseball player that I have made some peace with since he entered the pros.  He's a good player, whom I enjoy watching, and has a little personality too.  

Tar Heels card.....

is of Mariners third baseman Kyle Seager.  While Seager is not quite as popular as his brother, Corey from the Dodgers, he still has had a good career so for in Seattle.  He's entering his eighth season, seventh full, and has hit more than 20 home runs in 6 of those seasons.  In 2014, Seager made the All-Star team and won the American League Gold Glove at third base.  

Again, overlooked all of the time.  I liked his Player's Weekend jersey last year, which made fun of the fact that......

his brother is very popular with baseball fans.  I would agree with Corey being a better player, plus he was never on the UNC baseball team, but Corey is still a very good player in his own right.  I have a few other Kyle Seager autographs in my collection already, so I did not necessarily have to have this card, but when something is a really good deal, and it from a set that I really like, it's hard to pass up.  

How Do High School Kids Have Baseball Cards?

A few years back I started collecting USA Baseball autographs.  The first set of exclusive USA Baseball products that I added to my collection were in the 2004 Upper Deck USA Baseball product.  The cards featured professional players who had played with the USA Baseball program at some point, either on a college team, or an Olympic team.  The boxes and packs were cheap, the autographs were a little bit cheaper than some of the products with the same players.  I have a big stack of these cards and enjoyed finding these cards many years ago....

Since 2004, I have been surprised at the places that baseball cards of amateur players have gone.  For example, I started following the USA Baseball College Team shortly after the 2004 Upper Deck set came out, and I had moved to North Carolina, and was surprised to see some of these players start to show up in baseball card products with autographs.  

I saw Tanner Houck throw a no-hitter against the Cuban National Team a few summers ago.  He has spent the last few years pitching for the University of Missouri.  You know, as an amateur, non-paid student athlete.  Yet, he's had dozens of baseball cards made over the years.  I know that the players likely do not get paid, and that's what makes it an okay thing to do, but still I am just surprised.  

Which brings me to the high school kids with baseball cards.  I enjoy following the college baseball scene here in North Carolina and I am always appreciative of the fact that I get to see a fair number of Major League players before I see them for a second time as Minor Leaguers, or when they eventually reach a Major League team.  

I first found the whole high school card thing a few years back with NC State pitcher Tommy DeJuneas.  He was a nice college pitcher, got drafted by the Cleveland Indians, but also had a baseball card as a high school in the Leaf Perfect Game set.  

The first time I saw these cards a few years back I had to sort of do a double take.  College cards, I kind of see it for players in the USA Baseball program.  High School kids?  I know they are really good high school kids, but still we are talking about high school kids.  

So, here we are in 2018, and my alma mater NC State is having a great year on the baseball diamond.  They are ranked in the top 10 in every major poll and have a ton of talent on the roster.  So, I am out here trying to find baseball cards of college kids from back when they were in high school.  One of my favorite current Wolfpack players, and leading home run hitters in the NCAA, is Brett Kinneman.  He's not super high on draft lists like Clemson's Seth Beer, but he's got some serious pop in his bat.  

BRETT KINNEMAN OH MY GOODNESS pic.twitter.com/OO1RKQqtL9

— Michael Lananna (@mlananna) March 25, 2018

 

So, I checked Ebay, and sure enough, Brett Kinneman is a high school kid with a baseball card.  

Pride of West York High School in York, Pennsylvania.  Something still feels really weird about buying cards of players who are not being paid, and who were 17-18 at the time that their cards were produced.  Weird enough, I have actually found a few other NC State players with cards in these Perfect Game sets, as well as a few different Duke and UNC players too.  While I would prefer to own a nice Minor League, or Major League card of these players, they are not at that level yet.  Further, these Perfect Game cards are also fairly cheap.  

Perfect Wolfpack Card

We have evolved to the point where high school kids are now getting baseball cards.  To some degree I understand some of them, like the USA Baseball cards.  We now also have AFLAC cards in Bowman and Leaf's Perfect Game product.  Some of the players in these sets end up in the MLB Draft and there is not much distance between there appearance in the high school card products and their first MLB cards in Bowman products.  

As a college baseball fan I am always curious to see if any players from NC State end up in these sets either as a college or high school player.  Last year I picked up a few cards of Xavier LeGrant from Panini's USA Baseball set who is now a member of their baseball team.  Of course, more well known instances of NC State players appearing in these products happened a few years back when the team was led by Trea Turner and Carlos Rodon.  

Both players were featured prominently in the USA Baseball sets.  

State still has a good baseball team even though the average fan may not know the names as well as they did when Rodon and Turner were starring on the diamond for the Wolfpack.  One of my favorite players is infielder Joe Dunand.  Incidentally, he was featured in Leaf's Perfect Game set a few year's back.  While I have generally stuck with the USA Baseball cards in the past for my amateur baseball fix, I do branch out every once in awhile.  

Having a Dunand card made my week.  Here is the card.  

Last year Dunand hit seven home runs, 12 doubles, and drove in 40 runs.  At the end of the season he participated in the College Home Run Derby in Omaha at the College World Series.  Made for a good year and made me happy to own this nice card featuring his signature with a nice piece of green jersey swatch.  I have actually seen a few copies of this card with white patch pieces, but they have been a little out of my price range.  

Besides being a really good college baseball player Dunand also has a little bit of good baseball blood running through his veins.  He is actually the nephew of one Alex Rodriguez.  If you follow ARod on social media Dunand actually occasionally makes an appearance or two.  A few weeks back Dunand and ARod showed up at the NC State/Miami football game where the baseball team was recognized on the field in between quarters.  

I heard ARod is a pretty big fan of the U.  Probably good he went neutral.  

NC State vs the U #gocanes @canesfootball #arodcorp #josemore @joedunand #joedunandsr pic.twitter.com/GbjN9BXap2

— Alex Rodriguez (@AROD) November 19, 2016