Bad Wax

You may have seen these on eBay or maybe it was from the current issue of Beckett media. Well, I would like to welcome them to Bad Wax. I will keep a permanent link of them on the about part of my site. Please don’t forget to use BWX as a checkout code when placing your order. It will allow me to know just how many people come and go from this webiste onto other links.

I am a autograph hound as many of you know and when I find something that immediately helps in obtaining autographs either in person at the ball park or when I try to get them through the mail, I have to let my readers know about a good thing and this is indeed a good thing. First off, I usually send the cards from the products through the mail, but when you don’t have cards of certain players it’s hard to do. So I used to make cards for them to sign. Nothing too crazy, their picture, team, position and year that it was. It was OK but when I saw these cards, I just knew this was going to be a home run!

First off, the autographs won’t smear. You may not think that is a big deal, but trust me I have had a lot of cards that got ruined because of the smear. So I started to rub the gloss off with an eraser, so the signature wouldn’t smudge, but that can just ruin the card as well.  So basically I just stopped my through the mail hobby, that is until I stumbled across these cards.

I was going to scan the card and put it on my website, but I don’t want to give someone the oportunity to steal the picture and start making their own cards, so I implore you to go and visit the Autograph Card Website.  There are many types of cards to choose from and not only do they have baseball, but also football, basketball, hockey, wrestling, and boxing.

As an added bonus to the first 10 people who order cards from the site (using BWX as the checkout code), I will mail you some bad wax.  I have a ton of 50 card set’s I’d like to give away.  So this will be the first opportunity for me to do it.  The cost is 10 dollars for 25 cards, plus 4 dollars shipping.  If you do through the mail autographs, you will love these and will probably keep ordering from him.  At about 50 cents a card you couldn’t even do it at home for that price.

First off it was sweltering yesterday in the Triangle as the heat index soared to 103 by 4 O’ Clock. Being a fair skinned white boy, I get sun burned very easily, sometimes I feel like the kid from Powder. I Hunter was brave though and drove the 10 minutes (in traffic) to get to downtown Durham and go to the Team USA game versus the Chinese Tai-Pei team. I got there at about 5:45 (gates opened at 6) and already the autograph hounds were waiting. One guy had a box full of 08 UD USA cards, others had pictures and balls to get signed. Me, after a long day of trying to locate a wooden Rawlings Big Stick bat on the cheap (KMart for $17.99), I had a nice 34 oz wooden bat for the to sign. So here is a breakdown of what happened, Good, Bad and Ugly style.

Good:

Got the following players to sign:

Starters:

Ryan Jackson - SS - Miami (Fl)

Christian Colon - 2B - Cal St. Fullerton

Josh Fellhauer - RF - Cal. St. Fullerton

Hunter Morris - 1B - Auburn

Matt den Dekker - CF - Florida

Andrew Oliver - P - Oklahoma St.

Micah Gibbs - C - LSU

Reserves:

Mike Minor - P - Vanderbilt

Tyler Lyons - P - Oklahoma State

Kevine Rhoderick - P - Oregon St.

Kyle Gibson - P - Missouri

AJ Griffin - P - San Diego

Blake Smith - OF - California

13 total autographs out of 20 players. Also I got to park right next to the stadium (for free) since I got there early and I drive a Saturn (Saturn is the main sponsor).

Bad:

Players that didn’t sign:

Kentrail Davis - This sucks since he might be the best player on the team. Was in the middle of an interview the whole worm up time.

Mike Leak - Again not good since he might be a top 5 guy next draft.

Derek Dietrich - SUCKS! The main guy I wanted to get. Ran out of the dugout too fast and didn’t sign.

Kendal Volz - Just didn’t sign for anyone.

Chris Hernandez - Came out of lockeroom late.

Stephen Strasburg - Ditto

Ryan Lipkin - Bullpen catcher who was warming up pitcher.

Ugly:

It started to rain at 5:50pm let up at 6pm just in time for gates opening, I got down to the dugout and got 2 players right off the bat and then the rain just came down in sheets. This went on for about a half an hour, ten I went back down to the dugout to get some more autos. I really thought that getting autographs was going to be a wash since BP was not going to happen. I got very lucky though.

Next:

I’m going to go to the game versus team Canada in the beginning of August to see if I can get the remaining guys and guys that were on either Georgia or Fresno St. (Since they were in the college WS, they were left off the roster). So let’s see how that shapes up.

Picture of the bat:

I actually wanted to mention his name weeks ago, but I forgot and now seems like a good time to bring up the fact that his autographs are going for cheap on eBay. The story behind Gavin is a tale all too common in the major leagues. I actually met him in 2002, the season after he was drafted 4th overall to the Philadelphia Phillies. He was a hard throwing high schooler and when I met him, the first time, he almost fell down a flight of stairs while trying to autograph a bat for me. He was definitely one of the nicest guys to get an autograph from.

That was in 2002, since then it’s been tough times for Gavin. In 2002 he went 11-10/2.77/1.10 for the Blueclaws. He moved up to Clearwater (A+) for the 2003 season, where he went 7-8/3.00/1.28 for the whole season. Definitely having trouble staying with A+ hitters. In 2004 he moved up to Reading then Scranton and finally Philadelphia. He was a mere 21 years old. The Phillies knew he had control issues. They knew he wasn’t ready for the majors and brought him up anyway. He didn’t do to bad. In 4 starts he went 2-0/3.49/1.45, he was then sent back down to the minors when his teamates began coming back from injuries.

Over the next two seasons, he split his time between the minors and the majors. Finally the Phillies got fed up with him and dealt him as part of the Freddy Garcia deal in 2007. Personally I think they gave up too soon on him. High schoolers sometimes take longer to mature than college players and looking at his stats from this season so far I think that I am right. To date he is 8-4/3.39/1.12 and on track to possibly win 15+ games. Watching him pitch now he is much more relaxed, he doesn’t press as much as he used to. His game has matured quite a bit since his days in Lakewood, NJ.

His game used and autograph cards have been going consistently around the $2-$3 region and that is a steal. I think that he is legit. I think he finally learned how to relax when pitching. At some point in his career he is going to put up some Cy Young type numbers. If you get a chance, what him pitch, he seems so much more relaxed now and he just throws darts. Here are some examples of his cards. Now go to the bargain bin and find yourself some undiscovered gold.

This isn’t mine, I found it while looking for some cool videos.  Ever wonder what it’s like to bust a $300 box of Upper Deck Ultimate Football?  16 cards is all you get, but just image finding what these guys found.  I think they at least covered the cost of the box in this one.  I’m not a huge football card fan, but I have quite a few.  Just always wanted to break a box and find something like this:

Slowly but surely the box of 1986 Topps is coming to a close.  We are only 11 days away from starting 1987 Topps and I really do believe that we are going to get a lot more readers for that one because I think more collectors remember the 1987 set than they do the 1986 set.  I don’t know about you, but I am really starting to get sick over the black and white tile cards.  I have to update the current stats but I believe we are in the 170s now as far as cards remaining.

1. Terry Francona - 1B/OF - Expos - 374 - I always find it interesting to see player cards of current managers.  Francona was never a viable fantasty baseball option, but you could tell by the way he handled himself on the field that he was going to manage.  I don’t know why I thought that, but I just did.  His stat line for 1986 was 0.250/2/8 in 164 at bats for the Cubs.

2. Tito Landrum - OF - Cardinals - 498 - Tito was another back up.  He generally was good for about 200 at bats in any given year and not really one to hit over 0.240.  In 1986 he was with the Cardinals and went 0.210/2/17 and that is about average for his career.

3. Dan Quisenberry - AL All Star - 722 - Dan was always one of my favorite personalities in the mid 80s.  But I noticed something when researching this.  He wasn’t on the 1985 All Star team.  They loaded up on hitters and ran a shell of a pitching staff that year (8 pitchers).  On the back of his card it lists Saves leaders in which he was first.

4. Eddie Whitson - P - Yankees - 15 - I have nothing but disdain for Whitson.  Of all the players on the Yankees in the mid to late 80s there was no one more I hated than Whitson.  In 1986 he went 6-9/6.23/1.78 and was thankfully traded and demoted to the bullpen where he spent the rest of his career (except for some spot starting).

5. Tony Fernandez - SS - Blue Jays - 241 - People were goo goo for his rookie cards, especially the 1984 Donruss rated rookie card.  I am not sure why, because all he brought to the table was modest speed and a decent batting average.  In 1986 he went 0.310/10/65/25 and made his first All Star appearance.  He wasn’t a terrible player, but he just wasn’t offensively spectacular.

6. Brad Komminsk - OF - Braves - 698 - When he first came up, Atlanta really wanted to make him a full time outfielder.  They gave him 2 seasons and let him have 300 at bats in each.  He didn;t perform too well and he spent almost all of 1986 in the minors.  His stat line for the Braves in 1986 was 0.400/0/1 in 5 at bats (2 hits).

7. Tom Lasorda - MGR - Dodgers - 291 - Tommy was one of those managers, you just have to write about.  This is before his Slim Fast days, when he was a jolly old manager.  Once he lost the weight he became such a sour puss.  In 1986 he went 73-89 and took 5th place in the division and I remember this was one of those seasons where the media started giving him a hard time for his performance.

8. Bob Gibson - P - Brewers - 499 - I didn’t know that Hall of Famer Bob Gibson was still playing in 1986 . . . Oh wait, wrong Bob Gibson.  This one was pitching for the Brewers in 1986 and went 1-2/4.73/1.73 in just 11 appearances, all in middle relief.

9. Dale Murphy - NL All Star - 705 - Dale actually did play in the All Star game in 1985.  He had a pretty good season going 0.300/37/100/11 and was 7th in MVP voting.  On the back of the card has the hit leaders and he was 5th.

10. Brent Gaff - P - Mets - 18 - Double, first reviewed in pack 52.

11. Billy Martin - MGR - Yankees - 651 - Double, first reviewed in pack 52.

12. Mike Davis - OF - A’s - 165 - Double, first reviewed in pack 1.

13. Larry Sorensen - P - Cubs - 744 - Double, first reviewed in pack 11.

14. Reggie Jackson - OF - Angels - 700 - Double, first reviewed in pack 31.

15. Harry Spilman - 1B - Astros - 352 - Double, first reviewed in pack 28.

This one wasn’t too bad, we got 9 new cards out of this one.  Anytime I can get that this late in the game, I’ll take it.  As far as the pack is concerned, it was mediocre.  A lot of old and new managers, a late year Jackson card, some All Star cards but over all it was pretty bland.  So I gave it a 2.0 star rating. Not bad for a pack that had little or no value.  Of course that could be said for the set too.  I do really think we are going to be under that 85 mark, but we shall see.

13 packs left, 195 cards and I am over 200 down. So now it’s just how short will I come from completing the set. I’m just hoping to get under the 100 card mark. As for what’s going on in my life right now, we got a card from Beckett and I am trying to figure out which way I want to go. Do I want the sports card monthly or do I want Baseball only? Does anyone know why there are only 10 issues in a year for the Sports Card Monthly magazine? Well I am leaning towards the sports card monthly, but I seem to have focused my collection on two areas. Game used cards (specifically jerseys) and mid 80s cards. So that’s why I would want to go with Baseball, and really I don’t care about Hockey / Basketball cards at all. Oh well, let’s peak at pack 59.

1. Tigers Leaders - 36 - The Dean of the Tigers is Lance Parrish. The offensive leaders were Sweet Lou Whitaker and Darell Evans, while the pitching leaders were Jack Morris and Willie Hernandez.

2. John Butcher - P - Twins - 638 - John had been in the league since 1980, but didn’t get cooking until 1984, his first year on the Twins. Then he started putting up 10+ wins back to back. The 1986 came around and he put up a 1-8/6.56/1.70 stinker and was never heard from again.

3. Keith Hernandez - NL All Star – 701 – Keith and Gary Carter were the two anchors on that 1986 Mets team. In 1985 he put up 0.309/10/91 and that’s why he was voted onto the All Star team. I guess it helped that he was very popular and played in the New York area.

4. Ed Lynch - P - Mets - 68 – Ed was a not so integral part of that 1986 team. In fact only one game into the season he was traded to the Cubs. Again on the how bad am I scale, it’s just moderate since he was traded in league and not division. Of course it was to the Cubs and that’s like trading him to another league since they weren’t a real threat that year. He went 7-5/3.73/1.26 that year.

5. Jeff Leonard - OF - Giants - 490 – Jeff was my come out of nowhere guy in 1983. He was a backup for so long in the league that when he finally became a starter, no one noticed or cared. Then in 1983 he went 0.279/21/87/26 and people cared. By 1986 he was a routine starter for the Giants and hit in the meaty part of their lineup. He went 0.279/6/42/16 in what would be the first of a few sliding years.

6. David Green - 1B - Giants - 727 – He was a back up player for the Giants in 1985 but missed the entire 1986 season due to being stuck in the minors. He played one more year in 1987 but that was mediocre as well.

7. Bobby Cox - MGR - Blue Jays - 471 – In 1985 he won the AL East with the Blue Jays, but lost to the Royals in the NLCS. He decided to take a break from being a manager and sat on the sidelines for the next 5 years until he ended up with the Braves in 1990, I guess the rest is history. While with the Jays, he went from 6th to 4th to 2nd to 1^st, getting them better every year. I guess that’s what made him so appealing to the Braves.

8. Reid Nichols - OF - White Sox - 364 – Another back up outfielder for the White Sox, haven’t we seen a ton of these already? Reid hit 0.228/2/18/3 in 136 at bats for the White Sox. They released him after the season.

9. Tom Seaver - Turn Back the Clock - 402 – He had 9 top ten Cy Young finishes and 3 wins. In 1985 he broke the 300 win mark and this card celebrates one of his best seasons. On the front of the card we see what is his 1976 card. Seaver was big news in 1986 as it was to be his last season. He went 7-13/4.03/1.34 between the White Sox and the Red Sox.

10. Sammy Stewart - P - Orioles - 597 – Sammy was a half decent middle reliever who pitched in the early to mid eighties. He was decent until the 1986 season which was spent in Boston and he went 4-1/4.38/1.76. He got one more shot in 1987 but the numbers would be about the same and he would end his career on that note.

11. Steve Lyons - 3B/OF - Red Sox - 233 – Pyscho! Who didn’t love this guy. He did and said the strangest things. It wasn’t as if he was a great player. Actually he was moderately bad at best, but a good announcer. At least he does something good. In 1986 he started with Boston then got traded to the White Sox. He hit a combined 0.227/1/20/4 in what would be one of his better years.

12. Dave Palmer - P - Expos - 421 – Dave was a good, not great pitcher for the Expos since 1978. Basically he was good enough to be the 4^th or 5^th pitcher in the rotation. In 1986 he went 11-10/3.65/1.35 and that is a very good example of what he did year in and year out for the Expos.

13. Dave Dravecky - P - Padres - 735 – Double, first reviewed in pack 17.

14. Jeff Dedmon - P - Braves - 129 – Double, first reviewed in pack 1.

15. Ron Oester - 2B - Reds - 627 – Double, first reviewed in pack 5.

Overall I would rate this pack pretty good as far as non doubles. But big name guys, other than Seaver and possibly Leonard, it was pretty thin. Let’s give this one a 1.5 star rating based on the fact it generated 12 new cards for me. Anyone have any predictions as to how many cards I’ll be short yet? I’d be curious to get your guesses. Maybe I could set up a contest on this one. I have to think about that.

Ah a new day, yesterday we saw a pack with 7 new ones and 8 doubles. Maybe today we will see the same (at least I hope)! I know what I wanted to discuss today. Has anyone picked up the MLB 2k8 game for the x360 or the PS3? Well I’ve been playing around with it for the last few days and I can’t tell you how disappointed I am with it. First off, I’ve only been able to complete 3 games, because of the bugs, usually sometime in the 5th or 6th inning, the entire team comes to the mound and the game just sits there. Other than that, in the 5 games I’ve played, I’ve had 5 rain outs. I’ve had 15 errors (and I’m watching the games, not playing them). I tried to play them, but they took away the ability to use buttons to pitch and hit. All I wan to do is press A to swing and pitch. They took a fantastic game in 2k7 and killed it. I am curious how many of my readers feel the same way about the game? Let’s move on to pack 58.

1. Dusty Baker - OF/1B - A’s - 645 - When you see the slash on a player it usually means that he is a young guy trying to make the team and plays as many positions as possible to get the most playing time. In Dusty’s case it means, he is past his date of freshness and he was finding positions he could play and not be worried with how old he was. 1986 was his last season he went 0.240/4/19 in order for him to just play one more season.

2. Padres Leaders - 306 - Dean of the Padres is Terry Kennedy. The offensive leaders were Tony Gwynn and Steve Garvey. The Pitching leaders were LaMarr Hoyt and Andy Hawkins.

3. Gorman Thoms - DH - Mariners - 750 - Many people don’t know who Gorman is, but let me assure you he was one of the hardest hitting guys of his era. Think Rob Deer but with a slightly higher average. He was from Wisconson so you know his loved playing with the Brewers. In 1986 he was with the Mariners, then Brewers and hit 0.187/16/36. It’s fine when you slug 35 homers and hit 0.240 but when you hit 0.187, it’s not so good. This is why 1986 would be his last year in baseball.

4. Dennis Boyd - P - Red Sox - 605 - Oil Can as he was known was in his 5th year in 1986. He was still with the Red Sox and coming off a 15-13 season. In 1986 he went 16-10/3.78/1.25 and was a key factor in leading his team to the World Series.

5. Daryl Boston - OF - White Sox - 139 - I remember Boston, but really just because of his last name. He was never really a starter, but he was a very serviceable back up. In 1986 he went 0.266/5/22 and slowly worked his way up to more at bats.

6. Roger Clemens - P - Red Sox - 661 - I was wondering when this card was going to surface. A hell of a pack so far and this is the cherry on top. He was dominating the minor leagues when he came up in 1984 and went 9-4. Then in 1985 he went 7-5, and we knew we were going to be in for a treat in 1986. That year he went 24-4/2.48/0.97 and won the MVP and Cy Young award.

7. Jorge Bell - AL All Star - 718 - On the back of this one we have the 1985 AL Home Run leaders. Of which Mr. Bell is not a top 10 member of. He hit 28 that year which would have put him tied for 11th. So not too far away from the top 10.

8. Pedro Guerrero - OF - Dodgers - 145 - Man, this pack is rocking. I can’t believe how many great players I have come across already and we are just past the half way mark. Pedro was another big time slugger. Fresh off a top 10 MVP season he went 0.320/33/87/12. In 1986 he had a tough season because he missed almost the entire season due to injury.

9. Jim Morrison - 3B/2B - Pirates - 553 - This is not the Doors singer. But I guess you already knew that. Looking at his stats, I am thoroughly confused about why he was never a starter. When he did start, he always did well. Take for example his 1986 season.0.274/23/88. But you’d never guess he’d be able to do it from his 1985 season when he went 0.254/4/22. Like I said, when he got the reps, he did well, when he didn’t he sucked. A real head scratcher as to why no one saw this.

10. Tony Bernazard - 2B - Indians - 354 - Here is another head scratcher and I tried to figure out what happened. In 1986 he was with Cleveland and was only 29 years old. His numbers were 0.301/17/71/17. Very nice numbers indeed. After the 1987 season he disappeared for 7 seasons and returned in 1994. Anyone know what happened?

11. Neil Allen - P - Yankees - 663 - Neil moved around a lot in his big league career, but at least for one season he stayed with the same team all year and that was in 1986. He was with the White Sox and went 7-2/3.82/1.23, in what would be an average season for him. Not a great season by any stretch of the imagination, but not bad and overall he was a not bad kind of player.

12. Jose DeLeon - P - Pirates - 75 -In 1985, he went 2-19. They say only great players can lose 20 games in a season. Since he only lost 19 I guess he isn’t a great player. But I guess if you don”t know who he is, it goes without saying. In 1986 he went 5-8/3.87/1.31, not too awful, but definitely better than 1985.

13. Rod Carew - 1B - Angels - 400 - Double, first reviewed in pack 13.

14. Tom Brookens - 3B - Tigers - 643 - Double, first reviewed in pack 10.

15. Terry Kennedy - C - Padres - 230 - Double, first reviewed in pack 21.

Overall, what a pack! I think this one has to rate fairly high, like at the 5.0 star level. We got Clemens and Carew in the same pack. Also I liked the Boyd, Guerrero, and Thomas cards. This was a delight to review and it was definitely nice to be able to review more than 7 cards. This is definitely an aberration, but still a nice one. Please let me know, if you know what ever happened to Tony Bernazard.

I just tabulated the set so far and we are at 561 cards. We have 15 packs left of 15 cards. Which is 225 cards left. Now here is the heart breaker, we have 231 cards left in the set. Now comes the guessing game. We know that we aren’t going to finish the set with 2 boxes, so the question now becomes how many cards will we be short. My guess is our doubles rate is going to bump to 35%. My over under is 84 cards short. But with so many people willing to help finish the set, I don’t think it will be a problem. My migraine is finally gone, although last night’s sleep sucked because of it, but on a bonus side, this should be a goofy review. Let’s take a look at pack 57.

1. Johnny Grubb - DH/OF - Tigers - 243 - Johnny started out his career in 1972. He started for a couple of years early on in his career and then became a backup for the rest of it. A typical year for him was 0.270/5/35. As far as the era is concerned he was a pretty capable backup with is why his career lasted 16 seasons. In 1986 he was with the Tigers, batted 0.333/13/53 in what would be one of his best seasons. He did that in only 250 at bats.

2. Shawon Dunston - SS - Cubs - 72 - Is it just me or did everyone expect him to develop into a stud. He never actually did, his career in current terms would be like Corey Patterson. Expected to do big things but ended up doing jack. In 1986 he started at short stop and went 0.250/17/68/13. Not too shabby for a second year guy playing full time for the first time in his career. Expect he would end up with stats like those throughout his career.

3. Steve Ontiveros - P - A’s - 507 - He was another guy I expected big things from and never did get to see it happen. He was part of the youth movement by the A’s in 1986 and figured to be one of the bright pitchers on that staff. In 1986 he went 2-2/3.85/1.335 with 10 saves. Not a bad season for his second year either. In time though he would become an effective middle relief guy, but not before some failure as a starter.

4. Kevin Bass - OF - Astros - 458 - Bass was not a bad little player for the Astros in the mid 80s and 1986 was probably his best season in the bigs. He even finished 7th in MVP voting that year. He went 0.311/20/79/22 in what would be his only 20/20 season. He came close again next year but missed it by a homer.

5. Atlee Hammaker - P - Giants - 223 - What a funny name, who names their kid Atlee especailly with a last name of Hammaker. That’s just asking for beat downs in elementary school. Atlee himself, was not a bad pitcher at all. In 1986 he missed a full season due to arm injuries. In 1985 though he went 5-12/3.74/1.21 for a real bad Giants team.

6. Gerald Perry - 1B - Braves - 557 - He had a tough time staying in the majors, his first few seasons but after hitting just 0.214 is 1985, he spent almost all of 1986 in the minors. In just 70 at bats, he hit 0.271/3/11 in what was enough to get him a permanent job in the bigs.

7. Brewers Leaders - 426 - Slowly but surely we are finally getting all of these cards. The hitting leaders were Molitor and Cooper, while the pitching leaders were Higuera and Fingers. Just to stay consistent with the review of these, the Dean of the Brewers was Charlie Moore.

8. Dave Anderson - 3B/SS - Dodgers - 758 - Double first reviewed in pack 23.

9. Ricky Adams - 3B/SS - Giants - 153 - Double, first reviewed in pack 9.

10. George Bamberger - MGR - Brewers - 21 - Double, first reviewed in pack 15.

11. Jerry Royster 2B - Padres - 118 - Double, first reviewed in pack 24.

12. Ryne Sandberg - 2B - Cubs - 690 - Double, first reviewed in pack 23.

13. Mark Gubicza - P - Royals - 644 - Double, first reviewed in pack 42.

14. John Tudor - P - Cardinals - 474 - Double, first reviewed in pack 23.

15. Chris Codiroli - P - A’s - 433 - Double first reviewed in pack 6.

Kind of a who’s who of players that had bright starts but failed to continue. I liked the Tudor, Perry, Gubicza, and Bass cards. But if you had to give it a rating, it’s still less than average and that means a 2.0 star rating. Is it brutal? Not really since basically if Sandberg wasn’t in the pack, we wouldn’t even have made it to 2 stars. So chuck up 7 more for the set and 8 more to the land of doubles. If I were a betting man I would take the over right about now.

Woohoo, the weekend has arrived, and so has my 10,000th visitor. I want to thank the 3 people who emailed and remembered that free prizes were going out to the people who emailed me. Originally I was going to give out a big prize for first and a nice card for second. However, I got a third person to email me as well, so I am going to give out a third prize as well. I will post the winners names in a separate post, but the first person won a blaster box of bad wax. Winner number two will get two rookie cards (bad wax inspired, but they will be of star players). Winner number 3 will get 2 random packs of bad wax. Thanks so much to everyone who reads my blog. I enjoy reliving 1986 when I open these packs and think about what to say about each player. So with that, let’s cruise on to pack 28.

1. Rance Mulliniks -3B/SS - Blue Jays - 74 - Rance may have started his big league career in 1977 but he didn’t become a full time player until he was traded to the Blue Jays in 1982. Thats when he turned into a 0.300 hitter and could get you about 10 homers a season. In 1986 he had a lower batting average than normal (0.259) but still managed to hit 11 homers and drive in 45 runs.

2. Scott Sanderson - P - Cubs - 406 - These were some rough years for Scott. Who actually wasn’t a very bad pitcher, just had some bad defense behind him and no run support. Generally he had a very good WHIP (< 1.20) but his ERAs were always north of 3.50. The only thing that tells me is, if you got a hit off of him, it was probably for extra bases. Scott went 9-11/4.19/1.191 in 1986, so like I said, alot of extra base hits.

3. Harry Spilman - 1B - Astros - 352 - Here is the typical Harry situation, he would come in the game in the 9th when there was a 4+ run lead. Guess how many times he got up to bat? How about he averaged about 70 at bats a season in 40 games. Amazingly enough he would log 12 seasons of pro ball doing this.

4. Alvin Davis - 1B - Mariners - 440 - This is his second year card, as I have tons and tons of his first year card thinking he was going to be the next big thing. Do you blame me though? In 1984 (rookie season) he hit 0.284/27/116 and he was only 23. He followed it up with a 0.287/18/78 season in 1985 and in 1986 he hit 0.271/18/72. Three very solid seasons and he was only 25, while he carried that franchise on his back in the really bad years.

5. Ray Searage - P - Brewers - 642 - It took Ray 9 years to get to the bigs, once he got there, he stayed for a while becoming a very mediocre middle reliever who wouldn’t kill you when he went out there. In 1986 after having a rough season in Milwaukee, he was dealt to the White Sox where he went on to have an amazing second half to the season with an ERA of 0.62 and a WHIP of 1.17. I’m sure Steve knows all about him.

6. Steve Sax - 2B - Dodgers - 175 - I grew to hate Steve Sax because he signified the end of the Willie Randolph era in New York. Sure he had speed and he hit for average, but he didn’t have that leadership role in him that Willie had and in the end, it’s why Yankee fans grew to hate him. But I’m getting ahead of myself because in 1986 he was still with the Dodgers, putting up a 0.332/6/56/40 season. Of course I would have loved to have that happen in NY, but it didn’t. Maybe I would have been more of a Sax fan if it did though.

.

7. Tom Gorman - P - Mets - 414 - Another mediocre to bad middle reliever. Thankfully for Operation Topps though, he will only pitch in 14 more games in 1986 and 1987.

8. Mark Brown - P - Twins - 451 - This was Mark’s rookie card! They say that rookie cards are worth the most money of any card you will ever have. So take it to the bank Mark Brown. This is your rags to riches card! Unfortunately for Mark though, 1985 would be his last year in the majors after logging only 15 career games.

9. Gary Pettis - OF - Angels - 604 - At first I got confused and thought I already reviewed this card. But it turns out it was Gary Reddus. You can understand the confusion, bot named Gary and their last names rhymed. Pettus though was even more fo a speed threat. The problem was that it’s hard to be a lead off hitter wneyou can’t hit over 0.257. He may have had 100 SB potential, but you can’t do it striking out 125 times a season. In 1986 he stole50 bases but only hit 0.258 and struck out 132 times. He must have been maddening to manage.

10. Pete Ladd - P - Brewers - 163 - I will say one nice thing about Pete, he beat the odds. He was a 25th round draft pick in 1977. He made it to the majors in 1979, however he would play his last year in 1986. Not a bad season though 8-6/3.82/1.23, which makes me wonder why he never played again.

11. Pirates Leaders - 756 - Rick Rhoden is on the front of this card.  An interesting thing about Rick is that he could play on the Senior PGA tour right now and be very competitive.  When ever they have a Pro-Am event and he plays in it, he usually wins it.  Johnny Ray was your big batting star for the Pirates that year and the Ricks (Rhoden and Reuchel) were the pitching leaders.

12. Lee Mazzilli - OF - Pirates - 578 - He was in the back up phase of his career here.  Long were the days of hitting 0.300/16/70, he was doing mop up and part time duty for the Pirates, still hitting 0.282 but only getting 117 at bats.  I do remember him as one of the better Mets in the early 80s but I don’t think that translates into much because those teams were so bad.

13. Dave Engle - C - Twins - 43 - Another part time player, in 1986 he was actually playing in Detroit.  Up to this point he had always had enough at bats, usually around 200 per season, but in 1986 that dropped to under 100 and it would never creep back up over 100 for the rest of his career.

14. Jim Rice - OF - Red Sox - 320 - Can someone please tell me why he isn’t in the Hall of Fame? OK here is the bad for Jim: 2452 hits and 382 home runs. But here are the goods: 8 time all star, 1 MVP, 3 time home run leader, 2 time silver slugger and a career 0.298 batting average.  He was the most dominant player from 1977-1980 and from 1983-1985.  In my opinion he had 6 HOF years in his 16 seasons and I think that that is enough to get in.

15. Bob Shirley - P - Yankees - 213 - By 1986 he was a spot starter but him numbers were awful.  The following season, which would be his last,  he would be released from the Yankees  and sign with the Royals, in what would be one of his worst seasons as a pro.

Overall this pack was very uninspiring.  There were too many middle relievers and part time players.  Very frustrating to do these reviews when you have so little to work on. The pictures weren’t even worth making fun of. Because of the Alvin Davis and the Jim Rice, I’ll give this one a 2.0 star rating. I really did love seeing those 2 cards so I guess it helped in the rating. But man what a dog of a pack of cards huh?  Truely some bad wax here.  The good news was . . . no doubles!!!  Don’t forget to check out badhits every day as well.

This set is moving right along. With a perfect pack today it will be reaching the 300 mark, which this early in the box would be outstanding. My friend brought up two great points on Sunday. What happens if the 2nd box is seated exactly like the first? Well it would mean I might have to get a third box, because I’m not going to beg for 400 cards. In fact I won’t even put my needs list up until I crack the 100 cards left mark. The second point he brought up was that the way Topps created it’s sets year after year was that if you played in the major leagues the previous year, you got a card and it would be of the team you were on as of the end of the season. Now this set is starting to make some sense. I know he’s right about that. I wonder when they stopped that practice. Or, if they stopped doing it that way. Of course they had to, after all at some point they put in rookies who weren’t in the majors the previous year. One to pack 24.

1. Cecil Fielder - 1B - Blue Jays - 386 - The gem of the set. At least one of them, what’s funny to see is that everyone was surprised when Fielder started knocking out homer after homer in 1990. They really shouldn’t have, he always had the power, even in the minors. He didn’t get a fair shot in the bigs until 1990, mainly because he wasn’t a very consistent hitter. Since we are only dealing with 1986, I should tell you his stats were terrible. He hit 0.157/4/13, but that was only with 83 at bats. He just showed nothing at the plate and couldn’t unseed Upshaw at first base. More on Cecil as the sets continue. By the way 6′3″ maybe 230 lbs umm no!

2. Mel Hall - OF - Indians - 647 - Mel was coming off an injury filled season in 1985 and was a junction in his career, either was was going to come back and bring the offense or he was going to have a quick career. Lucky for Mel, he brought the offense, hitting 0.296/18/77. A very productive player through his career, I remember him best as a Yankee. He was always super productive, but that didn’t happen until 1989 (so forget I said that until then).

3. Buddy Bell - 3B - Reds - 285 - 1986 would be one of his final two productive years. He hit 0.278/20/75 which you could say was his average numbers for the previous 14 seasons. He was a heck of a player but also a good manager. He has stepped into 2 impossible situations, where he had to replace legendary managers in Sparky Anderson (Detroit) and Jim Leyland (Colorado). Just for kicks, you know because his other jobs weren’t hard enough, he was coaching the Royals until last season. I’ll tell you what, he may not have the best managerial record, but he is a good coach and develops the younger guys for the next coach (in all of his situations).

4. Time Laudner - Twins - C - 164 - Tim was a career back-up catcher who may have been able to call a game but he sure as heck couldn’t call his shot. Never had a batting average over 0.255, he was known more for his power. He hit 77 home runs in very limited time (~2000 at bats over 9 seasons).

5. Steve Garvey - 1B - Padres - 660 - In 1986 the Padres had some great older guys on their team. Garvey was one of them (37), then you had Nettles (41) and Gossage(34), all had been former stars on their older teams. Garvey was perhaps one of the most famous baseball players in the 70’s. some even feel he belongs in the Hall of Fame. I don’t agree with that assessment as he lacks the homers and hits, I will make one concession, he was one of the most dominent players for about 7 years from 1974 to 1980. By 1986 he was way past his prime and it would turn out to be his last full time season.

6. Steve Lake - C - Cubs - 588 - In 1986, Steve was a backup catcher for the Cubs the Cardinals. As we saw in a card yesterday, he had to be bad if they were willing to trade him to a competing team. Not really known for being much that a take a day off catcher, he did manage to carve out a nice little career for himself being a major leaguer for 11 years.

7. Tom Herr - 2B - Cardinals - 550 - As we saw in an earlier pack, Tom was an All Star in 1985. It would be his only All Star appearance. He had such a good season that the Cardinals were excited about the possiblity of back to back good years. Unfortunately that didn’t happen (does it ever?) He hit some 50 points lower, stole less bases and overall was you average aging speedster who can’t steal as many bases as he used to. The Cardinals must have seen that because they traded him not 2 full years later.

8. Jerry Royster - 2B - Padres - 118 - Yet another player on the Padres staff who had their best years behind them by 1986. When he was with the Braves he was a speedy outfielder who averaged somewhere between 0.257 and 0.275 batting average. He was no star, but a valuable asset in the field. By 1986 the speed was gone (3 SB), there was no power and no average. But because of his fielding versatility he managed to eek out a few more years. He played every position except catcher.

9. Denny Walling - 1B/OF - Astros - 504 - We were dealt another career back-up. Although for a change one that had a banner /career year in 1986. He hit 0.313/13/58, which let me tell you for a back up in 1986, that was some feet. Although I have to back track a bit he actually was the primary 3rd baseman for the Astros that year. So I apologize to Mr Walling for the term career backup. In any case, he wasn’t the best player the Astros had (or the worst either). So I think I’ll end his review there and be nice.

10. Mark Baily - C - Astros - 432 - It’s funny I look at his 1984 and 1985 stats and think to myself, here is a young guy who could end up being the Astros catcher for a while. Then I look at what he did in 1986 and I want to vomit. He hit 0.176/4/15 and just like that promising career ends. He never got more than 64 at bats in any season after that one. Although he did serve as a very part time backup.

11. Bert Blyleven - P -Twins - 445 - There was a time between the era of Clemens and Big Unit, that Blyleven was 3rd all time on the career strikeout list. When I look at the back of his card, his stats are so small you need a microscope to read them. The crazy part is usually when you see that on the back of the card, it means that his career is almost over, but he still threw in five more years after that! He entered the league when he was just 19 and left when he was 41. He was always kind of a 0.500 pitcher but he was definitely a K artist, just like Carlton and Ryan. I think if he got to 300 wins he would have made the Hall of Fame no problem. Here is one person’s view on why he should be a Hall of Famer:

Rich Lederer has a great series on why Bert Blyleven belongs in the Baseball Hall of Fame. In a few words, “Since 1900, Blyleven ranks fifth in career strikeouts, eighth in shutouts and 17th in wins.” Those numbers put him in some very select company; in fact, his immediate neighbors (with only a couple of exceptions) are all Hall of Fame members or are Roger Clemens.

Plus he has a great nickname as created by Chris Berman - Bert “Be Home” Blyleven (one of the first of his nicknames I believe).

12. Mike Hargrove - 1B - Indians - 136 - Well I was going to talk about Mike’s career here, but it ended in 1985, so let’s talk about his managing career. He was the Indians manager from 1991 - 1999 and from 1995-199 he won his division every year. In 2000, with hopes of resurrecting a dead franchise, Mike went to the Orioles but finished in 4th place every year he was there (hey he beat out the Devil Rays). In 2005 he went to Seattle and actually was doing well until in 2007 he walked away from the game suddenly. He has since stayed retired and I doubt he will be coming out of retirement.

13. Scott McGregor -P - Orioles - 110 - Baseball Reference names a comparable guy as Mike Hampton and I couldn’t agree more. Both had outstanding starts to their careers and both had horrible middle to ends of their career. There was quite some promise behind Scott for his first 6 seasons, then it just went south. Not a quick deterioration, one of those slides, where you’re like, maybe he’ll snap out of it soon, or maybe a change of scenery will help (does it ever?) In 1986 he was 11-14 4.52 ERA and a WHIP around 1.35. Maybe he’ll get better next year . . .

14. Johnnie LeMaster - SS - Pirates - 289 - Double, reviewed in pack 2.

15. Pat Clements - P - Pirates - 754 - Double, reviewed in pack 2.

There were 3 very good players in this bunch and two doubles. Seeing the Fielder card put a smile on my face, the other two I liked were two possible Hall of Famers in Steve Garvey and Bert Blyleven. Overall I’m going to rate this pack 3.5 stars. Not the worst pack I’ve seen, but not the best either. I am seeing the light though another 13 cards! Not quite enough to put us over the 300 mark, but damn close. Next pack should shoot us right over that mark! Be sure to visit my newest endeavor bad hits.