The Trading Post #48: A Cracked Bat

As the holidays draw ever nearer (or in the case of Hanukkah, slowly recede into the past), several of my fellow bloggers have sent in Christmas cards with a card or two inside. Julie of A Cracked Bat was one of them, sending an awesome Michigan-themed card, appropriate for her new home state.

I'm actually doing some of these trade posts out of order - Julie actually sent me a shipment around Thanksgiving, and I've yet to write it up. But for Christmas, she took an extra-close look at my Eight Men Out list, and inside that holiday card included not one, but two baseball cards from my list!

1993 Leaf #234 Eric Karros

I'll be honest, I am more of a factory set kind of guy. Perhaps it's not in the true spirit of collecting, just bypassing the whole packs/boxes/trading thing and getting the entire set in one fell swoop, but it is much more convenient and certainly cheaper.

That said, there are a handful of sets I've built by hand, starting with a box or two of packs, adding a few from eBay or card shows here and there, then finally nailing down the last few. I built 1993 Fleer this way, as well as Series 2 of 1991 Stadium Club, and 1992 Fleer Ultra Series 1.

That Eric Karros card above puts me a single card away from completing Series 2 of 1993 Leaf, a set that stepped the brand way up from the drab gray sets of the prior two years. I'm not a Dodgers fan, but having grown up a Rockies fan, guys like Karros in the NL West regularly wrought havoc on the poor Rockies.

Karros kicked off the Dodgers' run of five consecutive Rookie of the Year awards starting in 1992, but in doing fact-checking on that, I discovered that they had a run of four in 1979 through 1982, starting with Rick Sutcliffe and ending with Steve Sax.

Anyway, that's one card off the list, with a nice Dodger Stadium commemorative patch on Karros' left sleeve, but the second card really surprised me.

1987 Donruss All-Star Box #PUZ Roberto Clemente (Puzzle Card)

Night Owl did a post about the Donruss puzzle pieces that we've all seen (which make quite a shower of paper bits when you take them out of the perforation), but the Donruss Rookies mini-sets included a complete puzzle as well, totally separate from the main 8.5"x11" puzzle that you find pieces for in standard packs.

I can't recall if I got the 1987 Donruss Rookies puzzle set from a card show or an online vendor, but the 15-piece puzzle was missing from the supposedly complete set. It was one of the earlier additions to the list, and I thought it would be the longest of long shots for this one to turn up, but Julie really came through!

And yes, this card does mention Clemente's 3,000 hits, three thousand right on the nose. It also says that he won 5 Outfield Assist Titles. I never knew there was such a thing.

There's really always something new to find in this hobby, even on a card from 1987.