Trades From the Past: Off the Wall and O No Another Orioles Blog

I am finally posting trades that have accumulated from the dark winter months. By the way, happy autumnal equinox tomorrow. So this means that I'm only three seasons behind now. I think I should catch up shortly. You see the pictures from the previous post? All that is cleaned up and cataloged (more or less). It's nice not to sift through hundreds of cards to find the couple I knew I possibly had. Unfortunately, this means trade stacks weren't as separated as they should be. Welcome to a double dosing of probably two of the best packages I have ever received.   So thank you Ryan from O No!!! Another Orioles Blog and Shane from Off the Wall.  The awesomeness of these cards is now officially acknowledged in the cyberspace realm.

Jim Thome 2004 Leaf Jersey card: Remember when Jim Thome was a great home run hitter for the Phillies?  Remember when he hit his 600th home run?  Still, a great home run hitter.  Also, I really like the size of the jersey piece on this card.

Ryan Howard 2011 Topps Wrapper Redemption: Here is the heir apparent to Jim Thome, who is now 2nd all-time on the Phillies home run list (with 286) barely half of the total of the leader.

Mike Schmidt 1985 Opeechee: which is this guy with 548 HRs.  It's always a nice surprise to see a familiar card with the Canadian logo.

Roy Halladay 2011 Topps Wrapper Redemption: The intimidating visage of the ace of aces overshadowing the black diamond effects.

Roy Halladay 2010 Finest: Finest is a brand I can never find nor find it in my wallet to purchase a box of.  Is there a red refractor in 2010 Finest because it would look luminescent.

Chase Utley 2007 Turkey Red:  This card commerorates the 35 game hitting streak from 2006.  This has been the last streak of 35 or more games in baseball.

Roy Oswalt 2011 Topps Wrapper Redemption: These cards are excellent, too bad they can only be found in the mail.  Oswalt needs to be the pitcher of last year and overcome his back problems.

Steve Carlton 1984 Opeechee: "Lefty"'s transcendant 1972 season is being mentioned again in connection with Justin Verlander's top-notch season.   

Chase Utley 2005 Bowman Heritage:  This line didn't quite take off like Topps Heritage did.  I guess it didn't help that there were two non-color sets (1948, 1953) and a really ugly set (1949).  1992 is retro now, as evidenced by the inserts in 2010 Bowman, so maybe it would be best to skip the 1989-1991 designs as templates in the future.

Pat Burrell 2000 Fleer Tradition Fresh Ink: Pat the Bat....he signed it on the card!

Randy Wolf TTM Signature: Bring back the wolfpack! Except if the Phillies meet the Brewers in the playoffs.

Barry Bonds 1992 Bowman foil:  I have only opened one pack of 1992 Bowman in my life.  These foils fell one per pack.  This now makes me 684 cards from the complete set.

Bob Abreu 1995 Bowman: A Bobby Abreu rookie is very exciting.  I always thought I had this card, but it turned out it was actually a Bartolo Colon from the same set.  1996 me did not have a very good image:name remembrance ratio.

Lance Berkman 1997 Bowman, Magglio Ordonez 1998 Bowman, Aaron Rowand 2000 Bowman: Here are more rookies of memorable players from the Aughts....Berkman is posing with the Astrodome in the background, which is pretty cool.  Magglio was my favorite fantasy player to draft in 2002-2005, no matter how he did...and Rowand had one great catch (against the Mets in 2006) and one great Phillies season (2007).

Jim Eisenreich 1996 Leaf Signature Auto: He was always a favorite when he was on the Phillies.  It helped that he hit .300 in every season while there.  But seriously, he was an upstanding individual in the community.  Also, check out his slash line for his 1996 season (.361/.413/.476)...impresionante.

Ryan Howard 2008 Topps Jersey: And we end the gallery with a Ryan Howard card because he is the linchpin of the Phillies. Though he is not the most valuable statistically, they need him to provide the presence in the middle of the lineup to advance through the playoffs.

There were many more cards....but I can only scan so many.

Thanks for the trades gentlemen, it was a brilliant set of cards you sent me.