Blast From The Past: Nationals 2005 Inaugural Season Pocket Schedule

Here is a blast from the past. I stumbled upon these while looking for something to blog about this month. Well today the last day of the month. Once again I am cutting things a little short.

Since the schedule for this particular season has been royally messed up by the virus thing I decided to show the pocket schedule for the Nationals 2005 Inaugural Season that was distributed by McDonald's.

I got two of these I think from Ebay for like five bucks. They fold up to about the size of a standard trading card and unfold to 6 panels that are approx. 12 and 3/4 inches so it didn't quite fit my 12" x 9" flatbed scanner. UGH. Here are all the panels as the scanned parts the first 5 panels of a side followed by the final panel. As you can see the "front" with the Nats logo is the first panel followed by the "back" McDonald's logo panel.

I then quickly "combined" the sixth panel to the other five to give the illusion of how it looks in hand. I didn't bother matching them up perfectly mostly because I didn't have the time to do that since this was a quick "OH I can blog about this" decision. Hey you might have gotten some 2018 Topps Now card of Bryce Harper. Here is the mock "in hand" images.

Pretty Neat Huh? OK Phillies fans maybe next month I'll get around to the Harpers I haven't shown yet. Don't be disappointed if I don't.

Senators Singles: 1955 Bowman Style

1955 Bowman Bob Porterfield

Some readers may have already seen this card when I showed it on my regular card blog for reference while showing some retro Rams football cards that used the 1966 Topps Football design which in turn is an homage to the original 1955 Bowman Baseball design. I'm not sure why I chose this particular card for that other post when I really should have reserved it here were it belongs.

1955 Bowman Baseball: 304 Bob Porterfield

Upon studying this card the blurb on the back is awesome. It reads: 

MY BIGGEST THRILL IN BASEBALL

by Bob Porterfield

Baseball is a game of many thrills, but my own came on May 5, 1953. You know how they always say a pitcher remembers his hits, well, this was the day I hit a home run, and with the bases loaded. Not only was it a thrill hitting my first homer, but there was also the added thrill of having it a grand slam. I'll never forget it.

Wow! Awesome achievement for any player, but remember Bob was a pitcher in the AL years before the designated hitter position was created. Extra awesome.

By the way, I was going to scan and show a completely different card for this Senators Singles post. Oddly enough it was another Bob. In searching my scanned baseball cards folder looking for the other Bob card to see if I had scanned it (I had not) I came across the '55 Porterfield. I then checked my blogs to see if I had posted that card already, or if it was a waiting to be blogged scan. It had been posted already on my regular card blog, but not here.  

The Chief And Church Are Wooden Sort Of

2005 Bowman Heritage 17 Chad Cordero and 97 Ryan Church

Base and Mahogany editions.

Oh I do love me some Heritage. Be it Bowman or Topps. Bowman started the concept, well Topps Mother company actually, but technicalities we'll leave in the basement. Anyway for the Nats inaugural season 2005 both Topps and Bowman had a Heritage set. Topps used their 1956 design, while Bowman used their 1951 design for Heritage. I will only concentrate on the two Bowman cards well four Bowman cards really in this post and the two variants and the two players shown.

First up lets talk about the base about the base no treble. As mentioned above the 2005 Bowman Heritage set reproduces the 1951 Bowman design very faithfully using the modern players. I love when the Heritage sets get things right. First up numerically, but not alphabetically is Chad "The Chief" Cordero. The Nationals first closer who ranks up there as one of their best in their 12 plus year history.

2005 Bowman Heritage 17 Chad Cordero Nationals

Checkout how faithful they were to the 1951 design on this back. They even have 1951 for the copyright date, well for the design copyright date, the actual card copyright date they have in the smaller more detailed copyright info that they do now-days.

Now for Ryan Church  who played outfield for the Nats for a few years and when he was traded away to the Mets with Brian Schneider for Lastings Milledge I was quite upset. At the time November 2007 I didn't have a trading card blog so on my regular blog I made a rant post about the trade. Amazingly it was exactly 10 years ago today I posted that. Ryan had become one of my fave Nats during those early years along with Schneider and Cordero.

2005 Bowman Heritage 97 Ryan Church Nationals

Aright well since this is a quick and dirty end of the month post, and I am working on the draft very late on the next to the last day, well very early on the final day actually. Trying to finish before it is time to get up for work. I need to remind my self to stop this end of the month procrastinating. I tell myself time and again all throughout the month that I need to make some posts, and often I start a draft or two on something. Well right now I do have a bunch of drafts in my posting queue. I had a couple of other posts I started drafting. I intended to post one or two of them in time for November, but I have no cards for them yet. I had recently gotten some of these Heritage cards from Sportlots Stores. I may have duplicates of the base, not sure.  The Next Cordero at one time I had watched on Ebay and COMC but eventually got a better price on a Sportlots Store search. I had even purchased the Cordero Mahogany card from Sportlots about a month prior but the seller couldn't find their copy and gave me a refund. So the one I got was from a completely different seller.

Oops I spoiled the surprise of these next cards in the previous paragraph, as well as at the beginning of this whole post so there Pfffftthhhhpppt. (however you spell the sound of a raspberry.)

I didn't have time to check the spelling. I did have an image of Bill The Cat saved on a USB Thumb drive. Dang it I thought it was one where he was saying "Pfffffffhhhpppttthhtt"

I don't know the why or the reasons they decided on this particular variant, but for some reason when they first came out I liked them and thought the concept was pretty cool. I am talking about the Mahogany edition of these cards. The front image is put directly on the raw surface of the cardboard without a clean whitewashed background as a result these card look a bit darker than the regular base edition.

So here are the Mahogany Editions:

 2005 Bowman Heritage: Mahogany: 17 Chad Cordero Nationals

 2005 Bowman Heritage: Mahogany: 97 Ryan Church Nationals

I'm not sure why, but I noticed both my Mahogany cards have slight creases on them. Maybe it is part of the design. I'll have to look into that and try to find my other Mahogany cards I got. I have the Brian Schneider and possibly one or two others.

Here are some side by side comparisons just for fun. First up the backs of the Chad cards. The regular base is on the left and the Mahogany is on the right. You can see slight surface creasing. Hmm upon further checking (and on the front) the creasing is more like veins especially on the fronts so I think it is intended.

2005 Bowman Heritage: 17 Chad Cordero Nationals

Regular Base Edition on left, Mahogany Edition on right.

2005 Bowman Heritage 17 Chad Cordero Nationals

Base on left, Mahogany on right.

Hmm I didn't make a separate side-by-side for the Ryan Church so here is the opening image repeated.

I'm Seeing Purple

OK so last post (Frankly Friday: Brightening A Rainbow) I mentioned that I had gotten another card with it for $7.99 and I would show the card sometime later. Well it's Later!

I got this card for several reasons, obviously because of the team and it should be obvious because of the player. I'll mention another reason or two after showing it:

2005 Upper Deck Reflections Baseball: Future Reflections

223 Ryan Zimmerman Nationals Purple Parallel #d 67/99

(Front and Back)

Ain't this a sweet looking card? First believe me that the front is the same purple color as on the back. The scan makes it look blue I think it may be a combination of my scanner settings and just the way these flashy shinny chromie cards naturally scan. Now the other reasons I got this card I thought it was real cool. It is serial numbered, although I wish the number was more meaningful to me. 67 isn't much of a meaningful number to me. Also check out Ryan's jersey number. Yep it's 25 his Rookie Year Jersey number. After his rookie season Ryan took number 11.

Frankly Friday: A Great Hall O Fame Souvenir

2005 Donruss Greats Frank Robinson HOF Souvenir

OK so what can be said? I'll let the card do all the talkin'.

2005 Donruss Greats: Hall of Fame Souvenirs:

HOFS-15 Frank Robinson Orioles

(Front and Back)

Frankly Friday: Reflecting on a Rainbow or Joy of a Complete Rainbow

2005 UD Reflections Dual Sig Frank Howard and Nick Johnson RED

Wow its hard to believe that this card is almost 10 years old, and even still that it has been six or seven years since I got the "base" version of this card and before I managed to get this variant to complete this sort of mini-rainbow. So in 2005 Upper Deck released a sub-set of these Dual Signatures for the Reflections set. Some of them are two HOFers together and others like this one are an older time player and a modern player some of the combinations have no reasonable connection whatsoever. Maybe they connected players by position, but most of the combinations are head scratchers. This card is sort of the "same" team it is technically not the same team but the same City. The combination of Frank Howard Washington Senators and Nick Johnson Washington Nationals. In September of last year I mentioned my acquisition of the Blue variant. Two of my favorite Washington Players both retired now. Here is the final card from this three card mini-rainbow the serial numbered to 99 RED variant. I got it via Ebay (17 May 2014) for $14.99 + $2.25 shipping. The most I've paid for one of the trio. I've seen each one especially the Blue and Red ones for much much more.

 

2005 Upper Deck Reflections Dual Signature Series RED: 

FHNJ Frank Howard Senators and Nick Johnson Nationals

blue sharpie on sticker #d 12/99

Here are all three together via a mash-up collage. I had scanned each one previously but have never scanned them together so I had to do some "photoshopping" (I used MSPaint) to put the trio together. I think I made them a tiny bit too long lengthwise.

Frankly Friday: Dual Autos UD Reflections Style

2005 Upper Deck Dual Signatures Reflections

I think the first card I'm showing in this post was one of the first "dual autograph/signature" cards I ever got, or maybe not. It may have even been the first time I got an "on-sticker" auto card. I don't recall. It was almost certainly one of the first Frank Howard autograph cards I ever got. Anyway at the time I got the first one a few years back the National player featured was one of my top five Nats players, since then there have been a few more players who have come and gone so my top five looks much different and probably has more current players on it. 

So in 2005 one of the zillions of Upper Deck sets was called Reflections and an insert set consisted of dual autograph cards and some parallels of those dual auto cards. As with many autograph cards they are "on sticker" not on the card itself, I of course prefer the on card. Many of the pairs don't make sense to me anyway, but this pair is a pair of Washington Sluggers. Frank Howard and Nick Johnson. There are a few other combinations with both these players one is Frank with Dave Kingman of the Cubs and another combo is another Nats combo of Nick with Chad Cordero. I plan on getting those someday. 

The base card of this pairing I think I might have actually gotten from a group break, I don't really recall. The second card the Blue Parallel I got from Ebay for a decent price $10 or less. I don't have the patience to look up how much I got if for exactly even though it was only earlier this year or maybe late last year. So without further adieu here are the two cards.

2005 Upper Deck Dual Signature Reflections FHNJ

Frank Howard Senators and Nick Johnson Nationals

(Front and Back)

2005 Upper Deck Dual Signature Reflections FHNJ

Frank Howard Senators and Nick Johnson Nationals

Blue Parallel serial numbered 14/35 (Front and Back)

 

Franks, Senators and Nationals mentioned in this post:

Chad Cordero

Frank Howard

Nick Johnson

Update Edit: OK so I did look a little to see how much I paid for the Blue Parallel only $8.00 + $2.50 shipping (technically a little more than $10 that is because I had to outbid someone to win LOL). Oh and it was received 25 May this year.

The Chief Is Back: Only Not In DC

The Chief Returns from Retirement:

But Not as a Nat

2006 Upper Deck SP Authentic 99 Chad Cordero Nationals

Chad and Brian Schneider after a road win circa 2006 (Getty Images?)

Chad Cordero is returning from his brief way too soon retirement and making a comeback attempt with the Angels. Nationals fans will remember "The Chief" (as Chad was known) was the closer of the later years of the Expos and transitioned into the first few of years with the Nationals. After leaving the Nationals he was briefly with the Mariners. Chad missed some playing time due to injury and didn't really get back to his best. He "retired" on 20 June 2011, and most recently on 13 February 2013 he signed a Minor League Contract with the Angels. I wish him the best on his return and hope he can make his way back to the Majors.

Related Articles:
Angels sign reliever Chad Cordero to minor league deal
Chad Cordero making a comeback with the Angels
Chad Cordero making comeback from injury, tragedy
Cordero making inspirational comeback



Nationals Mentioned in this Post:
Chad Cordero
Brian Schneider