TCDb Trade #2: tjhorak (or Party at Tribe Town)

My second completed trade on TCDb was with TJ.  He is a Cleveland Indians collector from Akron, OH, so naturally he requested a bunch on Cleveland Indians.

My favorite card I received from TJ is the 1998 Pacific Crown Royale Carlos Baerga.  Die-cut cards are nice, but sometimes they are a pain.  This one is nice because it doesn't have any sharp points that can easily be bent.  The curved edges is much appreciated from the handling side of collecting.  I also like the look of the 2003 Donruss Studios Prentice Redman with the Shea Stadium backdrop.

There have been 121 players to play for both the Mets and Indians.  I received cards from 4 of those players in this trade.  Carlos Baerga (above), Roberto Alomar (above), Julio Franco, and Rick Cerone.  TJ ended up getting 3 of those players.  Julio Franco, Sandy Alomar, Jr., and Matt Lawton.

The most recent Mets-Indians connection is the Mets new manager, Mickey Callaway.  He had been with the Indians system as pitching coach since 2010 and at the MLB level since 2013.  This will be his first time in the manager position.  Mickey's hiring seems to be embraced overall by Mets fans.  I think this is a great move by the Mets as it can bring in a new culture of thinking into the clubhouse.

Thanks for the trade, TJ!

Now, here is a cool performance by one of my favorite bands, The Black Keys. 

Zistle Trade #75: Ryans0625

This Zistle trade was with Ryan.  He reached out with a large trade request.  We both ran into some missing cards, but easily worked it out. 

By happenstance, four of the cards below depict the Mets playing the Cubs at Wrigley Field.  The Todd Hundley and Carlos Baerga cards look like they could be from the same game, but unlikely because those cards are from different release years.  It could be possible for the Baerga and Rey Ordonez cards to be the same game or even the same series.  I wonder if there is a way to find out these things?

I understand that photo shopping is sometimes necessary, but it really should not be used.  The Mo Vaughn card below is a good example of bad photo shopping.  There is nothing that I can think of that relates the Mets to mountains.  I recall Vaughn being a big guy, but something seems off about his body here.

Ryan also sent some nice shiny cards my way.  I dig the Jacob deGrom Future Stars chrome card.  It isn't grammatically correct since it features just one star, but I enjoyed the Future Star cards back in the day.  Sure, Topps was probably wrong more times than right with their choices, but it was a nice feature to the cards.

Topps started the Future Stars card back in the 80's when they would feature multiple players on the card.  Later in the 80's they changed it to just showcasing one player, but kept the plural tense on the cards.  I would think the 1987 Topps Bo Jackson card is the most recognized one.  Topps kept the tradition going, but would correct the cards to show the singular tense.

They changed the design over the years into the 90's and eventually stop it's use after 1996.  Topps eventually brought back the wrong tensed Future Stars in the 2014 flagship release.

Overall, this was an excellent trade.  Thanks for the cards, Ryan!