Night Owl To The Rescue

I've really let this blog go to hell in a handbasket. I just haven't had much to blog about as I've been concentrating on chasing the 1958 Topps set. October was the best month of the year for card shows in Houston and I missed all of them. And the new stuff I've bought, a couple baseball and football packs, have been very uninspiring...lacking any Orioles or other cards of interest. 

So getting a nice fat manila envelope addressed from Western New York was a welcome sight the other day. Night Owl had filled it with a stack of fancy and not-so-fancy Orioles. Most from 2016 and many from sets I never have any interaction with. I mean I know Topps Chrome exists because I see people post it on their blogs but does it come in packs? Boxed sets? Semi-inquiring minds want to know. 

Up top Adam Jones strikes a serious "I'm a bad dude" pose. Usually he's grinning like a kid. I have a hard time telling this year's A&G cards from any previous year's A&G cards. But that's on me. I'm more than happy to add another Jones card to my current O's binder. 

Chris Davis watching another dinger fly out on a Topps Opening Day card. I actually found a pack of Opening Day last year but other than that I've never seen them outside blogs and the packs on card dealer tables at shows. 

Jones again, from Heritage. I bought some Heritage in packs...no Orioles. So this and the Macho Manny Machado card below are welcome.

And then there are these two Topps chrome cards. Not only are they shiny and a bit warped as all the best chrome cards are..they have pink elements! I love pink cards. 

Shiny Bowmans of Jomar Reyes and Dylan Bundy. Bundy was the 'eternal prospect'. And finally in 2016 he got a season in Baltimore. He didn't tear the league up but I thought he did OK. I don't know anything about Reyes. 

I think this Odrisamer Despaigne card is from an update set. I remember looking for one of him on the O's this summer for my fantasy player collection (yes, I had pitching issues for awhile) and only finding a Padres card. He's one of those guys who pulls his cap over to one side of his head. Seems to me to be a pitchers 'thing'. When I was playing (many) years ago I pulled my cap as low as I could over my eyes. I thought I was cool. 

Henry Urrutia. He's a Cuban guy who attempted to defect twice and was successful the second time. He's been in the O's organization since 2013 and had a couple of runs in the bigs.

I don't hate the '16 Topps design as much as most people. I tend to like cards that feature team color coordinated elements. Sue me.

Here's something you don't see every day...an Aurora card of Brady Anderson. I had no idea what Aurora cards were but at first glance it seemed like something Pacific would have put out and it turns out that I was correct. Here is the card:

And here is part of the 2011 Standard Catalog of Baseball Cards entry that popped up in a Google search:

Being from 1998 kind of explains why I had never heard of these things. I was away from baseball in the second half of that decade. The good news is that because of that I missed the Joe Carter Experience in Baltimore.

Finally take a peek at this:

It's just so randomly random. 1990 Star Company Wausau Timbers card of the coaching staff. Back in the day there were several competing companies pumping out minor league sets. Star, Classic, ProCards and Best are the ones that I remember. I think Larry Fritsch published sets as well although I can't recall seeing any of those  outside his catalogs.

So my question is "How does a 1990 Best Wausau Timbers Coaching Staff  card end up in Night Owl's collection?"  Beats me but I'm happy to add it to my small box of Orioles-related minor league cards.

And thanks to Night Owl for getting me out of my blogging doldrums. I actually found another envelope in my mail today which I'm betting contains some Orioles cardboard! Looks like I'll have another post soon.