Old Stuff New Stuff Owl Stuff Blue Stuff

Ok, I don't even know what the hell that title means other than the fact that I got a padded envelope from Night Owl and he included some 2016 Topps Series 2 that he had posted on his blog and that I mentioned I could use for my fantasy baseball binder. No need to post things he's already posted.

So I'll show off the bulk of the rest of what arrived in that envelope. All Orioles btw....and it seems like blog care packages and COMC are the only ways I ever pick up Orioles. I damn sure never get any in packs of current issues.

Anyway the card up top is, if you don't recognize it, a 1987 Kraft Home Plate Heroes featuring the always serious Eddie Murray. As was the case with so many 80s era food issue type sets these had the MLBPA blessing but not a MLB licence so they are logo-less. Murray was one of 48 cards which came two at a time on the backs of Kraft Mac & Cheese boxes.

The Murray below is paired with Nolan Ryan on an uncut card panel. Despite the long length of both of those Hall of Famers'careers they only faced each other 18 times in regular season games. Murray hit .438 in those at bats and hit one dinger off Ryan. It was the fourth career homer by the O's slugger and it came three weeks into his long big league tenure.

Here's a look at what the box looked like. Ryan is paired with Kent Hrbek here.

I love oddball Orioles cards and I'm kind of surprised that I didn't have this one. It now resides with my other Murrays in my Orioles stars binder.

From an old school Murray to one that came out this year. It's Murray and Cal Ripken Back To Back. I'm guessing this is a base set subset card. The back alludes to them hitting that way in the Orioles order and the three times they had B2B homers.

Here is Cal in a 2007 Fleer Ultra card. There is something printed along the bottom of the silver foil but I can't read it. My one time 20/15 eyesight is nowhere close to that now.

Here a beaut..a 1961 Post Cereal Billy Klaus. I have a lot of Orioles from the Post/Jello food sets but this Klaus was new. I love that it references his off season job at a bowling alley. Times change. Hard to envision walking into your local lanes some night this winter for league night and having Manny Machado ask you for your shoe size.

Speaking of shoes. AJ10 wore some cool Junior Griffey tribute footwear this past Sunday. I think I saw that a lot of Nike guys around the bigs did as well. Here he is in a die-cut Topps Chrome. I'll try to insert it into a page without dinging it.

AJ10 again. This time it's a 2012 faux 1972 minnnniiiii! Raise your hand if you remember Jones with the Mariners. That's what I thought.

O's coming off a bad string of losses to the Rockies and Chris Davis isn't contributing much to the cause. I need to see a celebration like this very very soon.

O-Pee-Chees of Brian Roberts and Rich Hill. I think they are pretty cool. I can see this design as one that was cribbed from Joe Shlabotbik's TSR sets. Joe, that's a compliment and I hope you take it as such.

Leo Gomez. In 1991 he finished 8th in AL Rookie of the Year balloting. He hit 16 homers which was one more than Jeff Bagwell who won the NL ROY award. That never happened again.

Finishing up with two cards that just scream The Nineties!!!!!


First a 1996 Pinnacle Jimmy Hayes. Lots of embossed gold foil.

And a 1993 Leaf Harold Reynolds. Gold seal, gold name. 

And oh those busy, busy backs. Yup, the 90s. I like the view of Baltimore Harbor and the USS Constellation on the Leaf. As many times as I've been to Harborplace and walked past her I've never gone onboard for a visit. I need to fix that next trip.

Neat stuff one and all. Thanks Night Owl!