Curly W Cards: Ryan Church

Showing posts with label Ryan Church. Show all posts

30 November 2017

The Chief And Church Are Wooden Sort Of

2005 Bowman Heritage 17 Chad Cordero and 97 Ryan Church

Base and Mahogany editions.

Oh I do love me some Heritage. Be it Bowman or Topps. Bowman started the concept, well Topps Mother company actually, but technicalities we'll leave in the basement. Anyway for the Nats inaugural season 2005 both Topps and Bowman had a Heritage set. Topps used their 1956 design, while Bowman used their 1951 design for Heritage. I will only concentrate on the two Bowman cards well four Bowman cards really in this post and the two variants and the two players shown.

First up lets talk about the base about the base no treble. As mentioned above the 2005 Bowman Heritage set reproduces the 1951 Bowman design very faithfully using the modern players. I love when the Heritage sets get things right. First up numerically, but not alphabetically is Chad "The Chief" Cordero. The Nationals first closer who ranks up there as one of their best in their 12 plus year history.

2005 Bowman Heritage 17 Chad Cordero Nationals

Checkout how faithful they were to the 1951 design on this back. They even have 1951 for the copyright date, well for the design copyright date, the actual card copyright date they have in the smaller more detailed copyright info that they do now-days.

Now for Ryan Church who played outfield for the Nats for a few years and when he was traded away to the Mets with Brian Schneider for Lastings Milledge I was quite upset. At the time November 2007 I didn't have a trading card blog so on my regular blog I made a rant post about the trade. Amazingly it was exactly 10 years ago today I posted that. Ryan had become one of my fave Nats during those early years along with Schneider and Cordero.

2005 Bowman Heritage 97 Ryan Church Nationals

Aright well since this is a quick and dirty end of the month post, and I am working on the draft very late on the next to the last day, well very early on the final day actually. Trying to finish before it is time to get up for work. I need to remind my self to stop this end of the month procrastinating. I tell myself time and again all throughout the month that I need to make some posts, and often I start a draft or two on something. Well right now I do have a bunch of drafts in my posting queue. I had a couple of other posts I started drafting. I intended to post one or two of them in time for November, but I have no cards for them yet. I had recently gotten some of these Heritage cards from Sportlots Stores. I may have duplicates of the base, not sure. The Next Cordero at one time I had watched on Ebay and COMC but eventually got a better price on a Sportlots Store search. I had even purchased the Cordero Mahogany card from Sportlots about a month prior but the seller couldn't find their copy and gave me a refund. So the one I got was from a completely different seller.

Oops I spoiled the surprise of these next cards in the previous paragraph, as well as at the beginning of this whole post so there Pfffftthhhhpppt. (however you spell the sound of a raspberry.)

I didn't have time to check the spelling. I did have an image of Bill The Cat saved on a USB Thumb drive. Dang it I thought it was one where he was saying "Pfffffffhhhpppttthhtt"

I don't know the why or the reasons they decided on this particular variant, but for some reason when they first came out I liked them and thought the concept was pretty cool. I am talking about the Mahogany edition of these cards. The front image is put directly on the raw surface of the cardboard without a clean whitewashed background as a result these card look a bit darker than the regular base edition.

So here are the Mahogany Editions:

2005 Bowman Heritage: Mahogany: 17 Chad Cordero Nationals

2005 Bowman Heritage: Mahogany: 97 Ryan Church Nationals

I'm not sure why, but I noticed both my Mahogany cards have slight creases on them. Maybe it is part of the design. I'll have to look into that and try to find my other Mahogany cards I got. I have the Brian Schneider and possibly one or two others.

Here are some side by side comparisons just for fun. First up the backs of the Chad cards. The regular base is on the left and the Mahogany is on the right. You can see slight surface creasing. Hmm upon further checking (and on the front) the creasing is more like veins especially on the fronts so I think it is intended.

2005 Bowman Heritage: 17 Chad Cordero Nationals

Regular Base Edition on left, Mahogany Edition on right.

2005 Bowman Heritage 17 Chad Cordero Nationals

Base on left, Mahogany on right.

Hmm I didn't make a separate side-by-side for the Ryan Church so here is the opening image repeated.

31 May 2014

Check Out My Curly W Cards Mailday

On Thursday 01 May 2014: I received a small bubble envelope of cards. At first I thought it was some Dodgers cards I was expecting from a Sportlots auction which I eventually got around mid May I guess the dealer was a little lazy or another huge procrastinator. I was pleasantly surprised it was an All Curly W Cards order I from COMC (Check Out My Cards, Comics & Collectibles formerly Check Out My Cards). I used some of my store credit and I think I was double charged for shipping. The shipping was $3 since the order was too small to qualify for Free Shipping. You need to order $25 or more I think for that. I delayed marking the cards "ready to ship" and actually bought then at a couple of different times within a day or two of each other, then I requested shipping about a week later that is why I think I was charged twice for the shipping. Anyway the breakdown is 4 "cards", well 3 cards and 1 coin, 2 are vintage 2 are 2000s, 2 are Senators and 2 Nationals, 1 card is an on-sticker auto and there are only 3 different players (2 Senators and 1 National). The individual prices range from $1 to $4.25.

Onward to the Curly W Goodies:

2008 Upper Deck: Inkredible On Sticker Auto INK-RC Ryan Church Nationals blue sharpie. The most expensive card of the lot at $4.25

2008 Upper Deck Baseball: Inkredible INK-RC Ryan Church Nationals

On-Sticker Auto Blue Sharpie

(Front and Back)

2006 Bowman Chrome Blue Refractor 71 Ryan Church Nationals 020/150 $1.00

2006 Bowman Chrome Baseball 71 Ryan Church Nationals

Blue Refractor 020/150

(Front and Back)

1950 Bowman 160 Mickey Harris Senators $2.05

1950 Bowman Baseball 160 Mickey Harris Senators

(Front and Back)

The Non-Card:
1971 Topps Coin 46 Ed Brinkman Senators $1.25

1971 Topps Baseball Coin 46 Ed Brinkman Senators

(Front and Back)

22 June 2013

The Amazing Schneider-Man: Brian Schneider

BRIAN SCHNEIDER - (39) 23

Expos to Nationals transition catcher
Expos 2000 - 2004 / Nationals 2005 - 2007

photo by Getty Images - 29 April 2004 Expos in San Diego.

I'm trying to get this semi-regular player scheme going again. The biggest problem I've had with it is deciding which 5 (or 6 maybe) cards of an individual SeNator to feature, make sure I have the backs scanned (I didn't use to scan card backs for the longest time) and to hunt for photos to decide which if any to show along with the cards, and then to plan who will be featured next. The basic criteria for me to feature a player is for me to hopefully have more than just one or two of a player's cards; the player must have been on one of the DC Club incarnations so guys like Gary Carter and Vladimir Guerrero will not be mentioned in this series. I may blog about them from time to time since they were Expos, but neither actually played in DC on the home team. The closest Vlad got was playing in Baltimore for the Orioles.

OK so onto this post's Curly W Player Brian "Schneider-man" Schneider. Brian was the Expos main catcher when the team moved over to DC to become The Nationals. He caught the inaugural first pitch President Bush tossed in 2005. At the time he was my fave currently playing catcher. During his tenure as a National, Brian was an Amazing catcher (at least to me) and had a pretty decent arm for catching base stealers. He was one of the "take the lead" team mentors for younger players and worked well with the pitchers as their "quarterback".

Photo by Getty Images?

During the off season in the winter of 2007 News of him being traded to the New York Mets along with Outfielder Ryan Church (another fave Nat) for Lastings Milledge really ticked me. Probably because it was the first trade I recall that involved some of my faves that I heard about when it happened. I blogged my Gut Reaction to it on my regular blog in a post titled Nats + Mets Trade = UH OH. At the time I didn't have a card blog yet so all my card posts and sports-news posts were made there. It took me a couple of years to get over the trade, by that time Lastings Milledge was traded to the Pirates and Brian was still with the Mets about to move to the Phillies. Brian's last playing season was 2012 with the Phillies he announced his retirement on 29 January 2013 a day after, fellow Expo to National, Nick Johnson (last with the Orioles) announced his retirement.

Lookie what I found. "Final?" Play at the Plate between Ex-Teammates.

Photo via Associated Press from 09 June 2012 Game Phillies at Baltimore

Baseball Historian fans may recall that Brian was the Catcher at the plate in the 2007 "Chasing the Record" Circus game vs. The Giants in San Fran. where Barry Bonds hit homer number 756 off of Mike Bacsik - freezing the game for an hour or two.

photo via Getty Images - 7 August 2007 Bonds his #756 at home vs. Nationals.

OK it was only about 35-45 minutes but it seemed about an hour too long. Yes I know it was baseball history and it was a big thing at the time, but halting the game for more than 10 minutes was uncalled for. 15 minutes tops would be acceptable for anything of this nature.

Now lets get on with the Card Show:

2002 Fleer Baseball 84 Brian Schneider Expos

2004 MLB Showdown Card Game 014 Brian Schneider Expos

(Front and Back)

2005 Topps Total Baseball 17 (WAS7) Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

2006 Topps Heritage Baseball 357 Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

2007 Topps Heritage Baseball 114 Brian Schneider Nationals

(Front and Back)

2008 Topps Heritage Baseball 616 Brian Schneider Mets

(Front and Back)

Oddly Brian sort of bears a slight resemblance to this 1960s Senators Catcher. I noticed the resemblance when I first got this card from sportlots (I think).

1963 Topps Baseball 94 Bob Schmidt Senators

Senators/Nationals mentioned in this post:
Mike Bacsik
Ryan Church
Nick Johnson
Lastings Milledge
Bob Schmidt
Brian Schneider

Other Noteable "Franchise" players mentioned in this post:
Gary Carter
Vladimir Guerrero

Brian Schneider Baseball Reference

On Deck: Ed Brinkman - (2, 38) 11

In The Hole: Ryan Church - (38), 19

17 March 2012

Last of the Expos: Nick Johnson

NICK JOHNSON - 24

Last transitional Expo/Inaugural Nat to be traded away.

Expos 2004 / Nationals 2005 - 2009

Nick as a "Damn Yankee"

Nick Johnson started his Major League career with the New York Yankees. Post-Nationals he would return to the Yankees after his brief stint with the Florida Marlins, and due to the Yanks super-star roster be sent back down to the Minors). Nick was the last of the transitional Expos/Inaugural Nationals players to be traded away. He was traded for a Minor League pitcher Aaron Thompson plus some cash on the 31 July 2009 trade deadline. Thompson has yet to be brought up permanently from the Minors and has since been traded away. He had been put on waivers by the Nationals and picked up by the Pittsburgh Pirates he made his Major League debut with them. Last December he signed a minor league contract with the Minnesota Twins and was invited to their spring training.

Nick was traded to the Marlins for this guy Aaron Thompson who is still in the Minors

Aaron Thompson in Nationals uniform 2010 (photo via wikipedia)

I was really upset with that trade as I have been with all the trades that involved a fave player. This one like most of the others I feel were not really worth it and the player the Nats traded for has since moved to another team, usually within a year or two.

As for the Ex-Montreal coaching staff most of them were fired when the club cleaned house while getting rid of Manny Acta in September of 2008 pitching coach Randy St. Claire was the lone exception who would last until June 2009 the last of the old Expos Coaching Staff.

Nick may not have been the best first baseman but he was the current Nationals "First" 1st baseman. When the Nationals started up in 2005 he was one of my fast first favorites along with Brian Schneider, Ryan Church and Brad Wilkerson. Part of his charm is his old-school way of wearing the high socks over the shorter pants, all he needs are the stirrups and he is the retro king. His on base percentage I thought was exceptional. He would often get to a full count and then after 10 pitches or so either draw a walk or force the pitcher to get him out. So yeah he struck out a lot.

23 September 2006 Shea Stadium vs New York Mets - Aftermath of collision between Nick and Austin Kearns

Unfortunately Nick has had a string of injuries over his career and set-backs due to those injuries. He never had much speed, and after his big leg injury at Shea Stadium in 2006 vs the Mets (a result of a collision with Austin Kearns) he was never the same running the bases, but he was still a decent first baseman.

Nick Johnson slides home to score vs the Boston Red Sox during spring training game 06 March 2012 Tho Orioles lost 5-4. - Associated Press photo

Currently Nick is trying to reboot his career with the Baltimore Orioles. He signed a Minor League contract (on 08 February 2012) with them and has been at spring training with them. I'm hoping for good things for both the B'More team and Nick. Now onto the cards.

I love vintage and I love these Retro sets. Ironically when I first saw one of the first Topps Heritage card packs for sale at a 7-Eleven (Football I think) back in 2001 or so I thought it was a terrible idea. I now think it is because football doesn't retro as well as baseball does. Now I really enjoy them.