Christmas Packs, Day 6

 Another day, another Non Sports Pack.  This one is from 1993 and features acts that performed (or lip synced) on American Bandstand.  Hosted by the eternal teenager Dick Clark.  He passed away at the age of eighty three in 2012, but you can watch Dick Clark's Rockin New Years Eve tonight on your local ABC station.  The pack featured seven performers and a Dick Clark through the years card.  Of the seven performers I had heard of six of them and listened to music by them.  Johnny Maestro, was the lead singer for Johnny Maestro and the Brooklyn Bridge, best known for their performance of Jimmy Webb's The Worst that Could Happen.  Nicolette Larson is best known for her cover of Neil Young's Lotta Love.  She became a country star and had several hits in that genre. 
Teddy Pendergrass, rose to fame as the lead singer of Harold Melvin & The Bluenotes before embarking on a solo career.  He was paralyzed in a near fatal car crash, but continued to record for several years. James Brown, The Hardest Working Man in Show Business and The Godfather of Soul had a storied career as a solo artist.  He recorded so many great songs, including I'm Black and I'm Proud.  Paul Revere, dropped his last name (Dick) when he became an entertainer.  He ran several restaurants in Idaho, when he went to pick up hamburger buns at the local bakery he met Mark Lindsay, who went on to become the lead singer of the Raiders.  B.J. Thomas, is probably best known for Raindrops Keep Fallin on My Head. from the Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.  He had a long Contemporary Christian Music Career.  Marie Osmond, the only Osmond sister, half of Donny and Marie.  Now best known as a weight loss spokesperson.  I had a crush on her for many years, (I may still).  Out of all the performers in this pack only two are still alive.  The seventy six year old B.J. Thomas and the fifty nine year old Marie Osmond. 

Christmas Pack, Day 5

I had picked up a box of 1988 Fleer baseball so I could see how many copies of the Tim Flannery surfboard.  I have opened the first pack.  I got three Hall of Famers, Ozzie Smith, Ryne Sandberg, and Kirby Puckett.  I really like the Kent Tekulve card. 

Christmas Cards, Day 4

 I took all the packs out of the boxes and put it in to this box.  The packs are all spread out throughout the box.  I bought a blaster of Gallery at Target before Christmas.  The first pack from the box is the four exclusive Artist Proof Parallels.  I wonder whom I will get in my pack.  Andrew McCutchen, Shohei Ohtani, Freddy Freeman and Aaron Nola.  I have at least heard of all of the players in the pack.  I will be using all the cards that I open a for a contest after they are all open.  Watch for details coming eventually.

Today's pack, ROCKCARDS

I picked up some cheap boxes from the 1990's before Christmas to give  myself.  One of them was ROCKCARDS from 1992.  It seems to be mostly hair bands from that time, although in this pack I noticed one older rockstar.  It is a 288 card set, with a art card and a contest entry card in each pack.  No chance of winning anything since the contest got over in 1992.  Onto the cards

The wrappers are holographic foil, so right away you know these are ROCKCARDS.
















Each pack has a contest entry card, the card also includes an offer for a poster and something else, one is a dollar and the other is three fifty.  This art card looks like something that was album art for a band with some kind of devil angle in it.

 These were the bands I had heard of and a few that I listened to at the time (and one I still do).  Bon Jovi, Poison, Winger, Megadeth, Winger.  This pack also has an elder statesman of rock in it, it features Rick Wright of Pink Floyd fame.















These were the bands I had not heard of, but after reading on Wikipedia here is what I know.

• Exodus, have been around since 1985 and last released an album in 2014.  They have been have multiple lineups and only have one member who has been on every album.
• The Sisters of Mercy took their name from an cut on Leonard Cohen's first album.  They have been around since 1980 and last produced an album in 1990.
• Testament has been around since 1983 and has shared a lead singer with Exodus.  They are a thrash metal band from Berkeley, California who are still making albums, with one released in 2016.
• Junkyard formed in Los Angeles in 1987 and is still making music having released an album in 2017 and will be performing tomorrow, December 29, here in Portland. 

 This is the back of one of the individual cards.  Chris Gates is one of the members of Junkyard.

One thing I like about this set is it is giving me the chance to expand my musical horizons.  I will be exploring some new music in the coming months.

No duplicates so far, hopefully I will be able to make a complete set.

 For some reason I gave myself a pack of football cards.  It started off with a card of my favorite quarterback Russell Wilson.  There are several names that I recognize from my youth. 

 I got a goodly number of packs for Christmas so I have decided to open one per day.  Today's pack is 1981 Fleer, the first year back for a brand from the sixties.  It was a pleasure to see that the first card was a Padre, Dennis Kinney.  Lots of very familiar names to a sixty one year old baseball fan.  This is a pack from before parallels, inserts and such.  It was from time when I was not actively in the hobby, this may be the first pack of 1981 Fleer I have ordered. 

Merry Cardmass

 I got a few boxes and packs for Christmas today.  I still have a few more coming in the mail.  I have a question for you all.  Should I rip them all at once or parcel them out over the year.   I will leave it up to you.  That box on the front right corner of the table is a box of 2018 Gallery.  There are packs I have never heard of and packs that I am looking forward to opening.  

Padrographs #1114 & #1115

I have been searching for cut autos of deceased Padres I need and then combining them with custom cards that I have made.  John Sipin from 1969 was the first one I did this with and recently I picked up a couple of more 1969 Padres.

#1114, Joe Niekro pitched in thirty seven games for the Padres in 1969.  He came to the Padres in a trade from the Cubs in April of 1969.  He spent the majority of the season with San Diego and after the season he was traded to the Tigers.  I bought a business card which Joe had signed and sandwiched it between a custom front and back that I made. 

#1115, Sonny Ruberto appeared at catcher in nineteen games for the Padres in 1969.  He had come to the Padres with John Sipin in a trade for Jerry DaVanon in May of 1969.  He hit .143 which must be while he spent 1970 in the Padres minor leagues before being traded to the Reds at the end of 1970.

New Padrographs

 Francisco Mejia, #1112.  Francisco Mejia came to the Padres in a trade involving Brad Hand.  He is the Padres catcher of the future and one of the top prospects in the game.
Alexei Ramirez, #988.  I have had this for awhile but I had never featured the card on the blog.  This is a custom card from a few years ago that I mailed him, he signed it and sent it back.
John Sipin, #1113.  Sipin played in 68 games for the Padres in 1969 and eventually played nine seasons in Japan.  I have sent him multiple copies of the card and he has never responded.  I found a signed index card on ebay and made this card.  I learned a lesson that I need to glue around the hole also, along with the edges.

Bip 1of 1 of 3

Recently Fuji scored three Bip Roberts signed index cards and asked Gavin over at BaseballcardBreakdown to make them into 1 of 1's.   This is the third of the trio.  Thanks Fuji and Gavin.  I really like this Bip card..

updated and new Padrograph

 Ralph Garcia is Padrograph #285 and previously was represented by a 1973 Topps multi player rookie card.  I found a photo of him online and made a 1974 style card and sent it to him.  I got it back in eight days. 









Adam Cimber, Padrograph #1111.  This is not the first custom of Adam I made, back in 2013 I made a card of him with the Eugene Emeralds, the Padres Rookie League team at the time.  I sent this to him in April during Spring Training and got it back after 210 days from his home in Seattle.  He pitched in 42 games for the Padres before he and Brad Hand got traded to Cleveland.  He pitched in 28 games for the Indians. 

Padrograph #1110

Joey Lucchesi, was the first pitcher from the 2016 major league draft to make his major league debut and just the second player from that draft to debut.  Joey was drafted by the Padres out of Southeast Missouri State.  He made his major league debut March 20, 2018 against the Brewers.  He started 26 games and pitched 130 innings going 8-9 with a 4.08 ERA.
I made a card and sent it to him, but I ended up picking this  up on eBay.  Joey is Padrograph #1110.

Padrograph #1109

Robert Stock, #1109, is a intelligent pitcher.  He enrolled at the University of Southern California at age 16.  He was drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals in the second round of the 2009 draft as a catcher.  In 2011 he was transitioned to pitcher. He was signed as a free agent by both the Astros and Pirates in 2015. In 2016 he played in a independent league and in 2017 he played in the Cincinnati Reds organization.  The Padres signed him in November 2017 and he made his major league debut June 24, 2018 against the San Francisco Giants.  This is a custom that I made and sent to him, it took ninety nine days to come back. 

Padrographs 1106, 1107 and 1108

Larry Colton,#1106  played for the 1967 and 1968 Padres when they were a AAA affiliate of the Phillies.  He pitched 2 innings for the Phillies in 1968 and then got injured.  He pitched for the Portland Mavericks (The Battered Bastards of Baseball) in 1975.  He taught English in High School and has written several books on a variety of subjects.  According to Keith Olbermann he is the only major leaguer to  be nominated for a Pulitzer Prize.  He founded a book festival in Portland called Wordstock which ran for about 10 years.  Over the years we have become friends.  I made this custom from a 1968 team photo and had him sign it for me.

Kyle McGrath, #1107 was drafted by the Padres in 2014 and made his major league debut in 2017 and pitched in 4 games this year.  I picked this up on eBay last week. 









Brett Kennedy, #1108 was drafted by the Padres in 2015.  He made his major league debut in 2018. I made this card and sent it to him it took him  54 days to sign it and send it back. 

49 Padres

The Padres called up 4 players from AAA El Paso.  Three of them had played at San Diego previously this season.  The 49th Padre of the season is pitcher Brad Wieck.

Padrograph #1105

Dave Stegman never actually played for the Padres.  He played for the Tigers from 1978-1980.  After the 1980 season he was traded to the Padres for pitcher Dennis Kinney.  He started the 1981 season at AAA Hawaii, but just after 14 games he was traded to the Yankees for Byron Ballard.  He played 2 games for the Yankees in 1982 before being granted free agency and signing with the Chicago White Sox.  He finshed his career with the White Sox in 1983 and 1984.  I found this picture and liked it so I made a card and sent it to him. 

The 48th Padre

Tonight the Padres are expected to call up their newest prospect.  They obtained Francisco Meija for Brad Hand.  The already have AJ Ellis and Austin Hedges at catcher.  He has played all over the outfield and at third in the minors.  So who know where he will play when he  makes his first Padres appearance.

The 47th Padre

The Padres placed Kirby Yates on the Bereavement List and called up Rowan Wick.  He was selected off the Cardinals waiver wire back in February and started this season at San Antonio.  He started as a catcher in the Cardinals system but was transitioned to pitcher after a poor season with the bat.  He is the 47th player to appear with the Padres this year. 

Padrograph #1104

Eddy Rodriguez defected from Cuba with his family when he was just eight years old.  His father was a fisherman and they left on the boat, which nearly capsized.  They ran out of food and resorted to eating coffee beans.  He played college ball at the University of Miami and played a season of independent ball before signing a minor league contract with the Padres in 2011.  He was promoted to the Padres when the starting catcher was injured.  He played in just two games for San Diego in 2012.

the 46th Padre is MLB's #22 Prospect

The Padres today called up their 46th player, SS Luis Urias.  He will play mainly second base for the rest of this season.    He is currently ranked #22 in the Top 100 Major League Prospects and the #4 prospect for the Padres.  He is 21 years old and has been playing in the Padres system since 2014. 

45th Padre for the win

Last night the Padres called up their 45th player of the year, Jacob Nix.  He pitched six scoreless innings and picked up the win in his major league debut.  In the best farm system in the majors he was the number 14 prospect for the Padres.  He was drafted by the Padres in the 3rd round in 2015.

All the 2018 Padres so far

Stealing an idea from Wrigley Wax I made a compilation of everyone who has played for the Padres this year.  They are in alphabetical order, but from here on out the new guys will be added at the end.  Almost all the unsigned cards have been sent to the players to sign, except for Colten Brewer, which will go out this weekend.

Padrograph #1103

Jeff Fulchino, played in the majors from 2006 to 2011. He played for the Marlins, Royals, Astros and Padres.  He was never traded moving from team to team via the waiver wire.  He pitched in just three games for the Padres after being waived by Houston.  He had pitched in 36 games for Houston for coming to San Diego.  He finished his career with a 4.84 ERA.  I sent this custom card to Jeff via an autograph dealer I know. 

2018 Allen & Ginter

Padrograph #1102

Today one of the cards I sent out just over a month ago came back, it took thirty nine days.  It was postmarked Memphis, Tennessee which slightly confused me until I checked his Wikipedia page.  Tyler Webbb had been picked up by the Cardinals off the waiver wire on June 29, 2018.  He made his major league debut in June of 2017 with the Yankees, who traded him to the the Brewers for Garrett Cooper.  He appeared in four games for the Padres this year before being waived by the Padres. 

I also pulled a few other cards out of the pack.