Expos Extra: Showing My Dollar Tree Hand

Expos Extra: Extra Inaugural Edition

I got the idea for this feature while composing a post on my regular card blog. That post will be published simultaneously with this post. This new feature mostly for this blog is called Expos Extra. It will be for those older Expos cards of players that never called DC their home at least at first then I might start slipping and adding guys who transitioned onto the Nats in DC. I think now I can justify showing them off here at CWC. I know when I first started this blog I said some of those guys I wouldn't mention here, or show their cards. Well I will allow exceptions since they are all the Expos Franchise. I'm using the bloggers prerogative clause that states "My blog, My Rules... So there!"

On my regular blog in the last few days I mentioned the booty I got from a repack adventure at the Dollar Tree store near me (part 1, part 2). These are the Expos cards I got from the Repacks and well since the latest year of a card pulled was 2002 from the first pack NO Nationals just a few Expos.

This poker hand of cards are Expos ancestor cards of my Homie Team The Nationals. Since these guys never played in DC or called Washington their home I wasn't going to show the cards here at first. Finally I decided I would after coming up with the Expos Extra feature title. Plus it gives this blog some more potential which might help me post to it more often.

Now on to the cards:

1994 Pinacle 355 Ken Hill Expos

(Front and Back)

Pinnacle way back in the day made a very fine product. In recent years Panini (was Donruss) still makes a fine product including some in the Pinnacle name but without the official licensing from MLB so they can't use team logos or the team names. That means logos are airbrushed out, cropped out or covered up by card design.

1994 Upper Deck 274 Home Field Advantage Larry Walker Expos

(Front and Back)

It's all Upper Deck's fault. Yes there I said it, way back in 1989 they set a very high quality bar for the baseball card universe and now everything is in ruins but still very high quality. These Home Field Advantage cards are a sub-set within the main set. I have made a mental note to at least get all of them if not the complete main set.

1984 Topps 390 Tim Raines AS Expos

(Front and Back)

Mr. Raines was "The Rock" way before Mr. Johnson was, but both are cool. It is a shame that the Expos couldn't afford to keep the high salary high quality stars like Tim Raines on their roster. Had they been able to keep those guys in the early 2000s they would still be in Montreal and I wouldn't have a Homie team.

1997 Pinnacle 10 Jeff Fassero Mariners (Marked Mariners but in Expos Uni)

(Front and Back)

I have said before that I don't like this particular Pinnacle year's design because of the gold foil and being difficult to read the players names sometimes, especially when I first got one or two of these cards. When I first got this card I saw the Mariners name and logo and laughed a little. Then I studied the card a little more and discovered the weird picture border cropping they did to the profile picture on the back. I checked the other 1997 Pinnacle card I had gotten from that repack and it had the same weird "crop design". I don't like it. It doesn't do anything for the card.

1984 Topps 503 Elias Sosa Padres

(Front and Back)

The uninitiated are wondering why I have included this "riding into the sunset" (is that a Dimebox term?) Padres card on my Nationals blog in a post of Non Washington Expos? Well just check out who Mr. Sosa was playing for in 1979-1981. Yes Siree them Canadian Fellers up in Montreal.

Oh that's it I've shown my hand. Cash in your chips folks. The game is over.

FRANKly Friday: Dodging in 1960

[This is not the final logo just a fill-in while I work on a better one.]

I think I will try this new feature that will hopefully I'll do regularly every week. I am calling it "FRANKly Friday" it will prominently feature my all time fave SeNator Frank Howard (and occasionally Frank Robinson, and maybe a few other Franks* who have played ball, or managed in DC). It will mostly just be a regular showing off of cards and memorabilia like many of my posts here. It is an attempt to get motivated to do more posting around here. This is my least active blog of the three I do. Not sure how in depth I'll get with this feature.

So I'll start things off by Showing Mr. Howard's Rookie Card:

1960 Topps Baseball 132  1960 Rookie Star Frank Howard RC Dodgers

(Front and Back)

I also have a reprint in the chrome style:

 2001 Topps Archives Reserve 34 Frank Howard Dodgers

(Front and Back)

There seems to be a straight 2001 Topps Archives Reserve that is not chrome I need to find one of those.

*Not 100% sure how many Franks have appeared in a DC uniform. My DC Ballpark Franks list below gives the years they appeared in a DC uniform. I may have missed a Francis or two, if I have missed a DC Frank, Francis or variation of Frank please let me know so I can add him to this list. If anyone has cards of these guys, especially some of the earlier ones I'd like to acquire them if possible.

Senators/Nationals Named Frank:
Frank Barron 1914 (Played 1 game 19 August 1914)
Frank Bertaina 1967-1969
Frank Brower 1920-1922
Frank Campos 1951-1953
Frank Coggins 1967-1968
Frank Croucher 1942
Frank Ellerbe 1919-1921
Frank Hemphill 1909
Frank Howard 1965-1971
Frank Huelsman 1904-1905
Frank Kelliher 1919 (Played 1 game 19 September 1919)
Frank Kitson 1906-1907
Frank Kreutzer 1964-1966, 1969
Frank LaPorte 1912-1913
Frank Loftus 1926 (Played 1 game 26 September 1926)
Frank Mancuso 1947
Frank McGee 1925
Frank Oberlin 1907, 1909-1910
Frank O'Rourke 1920-1921
Frank Ragland 1932
Frank Robinson MGR 2005-2006
Frank Sacka 1951, 1953
Frank Shea 1952-1955
Frank Schulte 1918
Frank Trechock 1937
Frank Woodward 1921-1922