In Recognition of the Hall of Fame Vote Today...

I wanted to look back at the only season that Sandy Alomar Jr. was on the ballot.  For some reason I did not do a Hall of Fame post that year.  It was 2013.  I am not going to argue that Alomar should have been elected.  I am not even going to argue that he should have received more support than he did.  Frankly, I am surprised he received as much support as he did.  He may have been one of my favorite players, but I am realistic.  His career was not good enough to merit much Hall of Fame support, if any.  Shockingly, he received 2.8% of the vote.  That is 16 votes.  16 people believed Sandy Alomar Jr. was a Hall of Famer.

2013 was kind of a strange year for the Hall of Fame.  Nobody was elected that year, with Craig Biggio coming the closest.  A number of the PED guys appeared on the ballot for the first time and a lot of voters were determined to make a statement.  Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Mike Piazza, and Sammy Sosa all appeared for the first time, none of whom did very well.

Among all this chaos, Alomar received 16 votes.  Did he deserve them?  Probably not.  Alomar's career lasted 20 years, but he only played in more than 100 games four times.  He won the 1990 Rookie of the Year and Gold Glove, and the 1997 All Star Game MVP.  He was an All Star six times, but really only deserved it twice.  He was never among the league leaders in any offensive category.  1997 was a terrific season for him, but it is definitely a fluke compared to his other seasons.  Unfortunately, injuries simply wrecked his career.  But nothing can change that.  If he had been healthy, maybe is career would have been different.

So I was curious how the voting shook out in 2013.  Luckily we have the handy HOF Tracker to help.  With this, we can look at voters who made their vote public and follow their reasoning.  Unfortunately not every voter makes their ballots public.  And in this case, only one ballot for Alomar was public.  So 15 voters who voted for Alomar did not make their vote public.

So who was the one voter we know of who voted for Sandy Alomar Jr.?  Pierre Ladouceur of La Presse, a Canadian newspaper.  How he got a vote, I am not sure.  I can't find much information on him.  But he voted for Alomar, among other players.  His article was in French so I had to use a translation program to read it.  Unfortunately he did not explain why he voted for Alomar, just that he did.  So after all that, I am not any clearer on why Alomar received any votes than when I started.

I am left with conjecture.  Alomar was seemingly clean, there were not whispers of PED usage surrounding him that I ever heard.  I have no idea about that.  He was a very well-respected leader and handler of pitching staffs.  And he was a big factor on two World Series teams.  So maybe some Cleveland Indians writers voted for him.  I really have no idea what happened.  I am not surprised that he dropped off the ballot after just one year.  I am more surprised that he got as much consideration as he did.

Die-Cut Pickup

I actually picked this up in a separate package yesterday, but the Special F/X Blue was definitely the high point:

This is the Fractal Materials leather parallel, but with a twist.  The card is serial-numbered to 1,000, but the first 100 were die-cut.  I have the non-die-cut version and now added this one.  The fact that the card has a leathery texture is that much better.  It is a cool card, an interesting gimmick that Donruss attempted in their last year with a Major League license for a couple of years.

Card #161: 1995 Leaf #121

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Leaf
SET: Leaf
NUMBER: 121
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I actually always liked this design for Leaf.  The full-bleed photo, the little inset headshot, the team name.  I think this was kind of an underrated design.  There is not much to say about the choice of photography in this card, other than the colors are vibrant, and it is a decent action shot. 

Dodger Blue

This is pretty big.  I just received my first card from my Top 10 Most Wanted for the year, one of five slots I wanted to knock off this year.  This was #7 on my list, as well as the Most Wanted Dodger card:

2006 Upper Deck Special F/X Blue.  The research I have done on these seems to lead to the conclusion that the Blues are exceptionally rare, possibly only 20 of each card.  I bought this for a buck for an incredible steal I think.  There are not many Dodger cards of Alomar out there, pretty much just variations of the 2006 Upper Deck card as Alomar only played part of the 2006 season with LA.  The blue background looks great with this card. 

Card #160: 1995 Topps #522

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Topps
SET: Topps
NUMBER: 522
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

This card possibly looks familiar because I did the Cyberstats version for Card #142.  Because there was so little background, the technology used to distinguish the parallel from the base is kind of lost.  I still love this shot though, with the intense look in Alomar's eyes and the extreme closeup.  It is a little bit of an unusual shot.

First New Cards of 2015

I received a COMC order on Friday, my first new cards in either collection.  Unfortunately this was supposed to be a six card order:

1.  1998 Leaf Fractal Materials Sample.  This card has a big, bold, black "Sample" stamped on the back.  The texture is leather, which is kind of cool.

2.  1994 Pinnacle Artist's Proof.  I am not sure what the point of the Artist's Proofs are.  Other than the gold foil stamp, there is nothing to distinguish this from the base card.

3.  1998 Pacific Invincible Platinum Blue.  This is the rarest of the three colors from this set.  I picked up a number of packs from this set as well as a hobby box and had a couple of blue cards, but nothing like this Alomar.  Definitely my favorite card from the order.

4.  1997 Leaf Limited.  I had the Exposure parallel of this card from long ago.  These cards featured two players.  Dan Wilson of the Mariners is on the other side.

As I alluded to, there was a problem with this order.  I ordered two additional cards:

1.  1997 Pacific Crown Collection Prism Platinum. 

2.  1999 Topps Gold Label Black.

Both cards were clearly pictured and clearly described, but the cards that I received were not the ones I ordered.  Both were cards I already had.  I contacted COMC customer support, but at this point it is not clear where the mistake was.  The only thing I know is that I need to return the wrong cards.  I am trying to figure out whether COMC had the cards I was supposed to get or whether the cards were mislabeled entirely.  Unfortunately this means that I have no idea if I am getting those cards or not.  My biggest pet peeve in collecting is not getting cards that I count on getting.  It drives me crazy.  I am not sure where to find those two cards if they are not available.  They are not for sale on any other site I am aware of and I can't seem to find anyone else that has them available.  I may have to wait awhile and see if they show up somewhere unless someone out there reading this has them.  Then please contact me.  Also, if you have any of the other cards I need.

Card #159: 1995 Ultra #35

YEAR: 1995
BRAND: Fleer
SET: Ultra
NUMBER: 35
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

I actually really liked 1995 Ultra despite the fact that almost all of the players with new teams still had their old uniforms.  Obviously that is not a problem with the Alomar collection.  This is a decent shot, though it is pretty clear that not much is happening.  It looks like the inning is over or he is walking out to start the game.  At any rate, it is an interesting photo.

Does anyone have 1999 Topps Gold Label Class 1 Black Label #58 Sandy Alomar Jr.?

I thought I was getting this card today but the seller sent the wrong one and now I cannot find another copy of it. Please help me out in finding this card. I can buy or trade.

Thank you.

2015: Looking Ahead

As I said over on my other blog, I don't typically make goals for my collection, but just for the hell of it, let's do a few easy ones.

1.  Knock five items off of my current Top 10.  Obviously I move new cards in every time I knock one off, so I want five off of the current list, which is as follows:

• 1. 1998 Topps Tek #27 (I still need these patterns: 6, 8, 10, 11, 13, 14, 15, 20, 21, 27, 34, 40, 51, 54, 55, 66, 70, 71, 78, 83, 84, 86, 87, 88)
• 2. 1997 Flair Showcase Masterpiece #115 (any version)
• 3. 1999 Prism Red #41
• 4. 1997 Topps Stars '97 All Stars #AS20
• 5. 1997 Pacific Baerga Softball #4
• 6. 1989 BYN Puerto Rico #105
• 7. 2006 Upper Deck Special FX Blue #677
• 8. 1998 Donruss Crusade Red #20
• 9. 2002 Topps Chrome Traded Black Refractor #T68
• 10. 2005 Topps Rookie Cup Blue #75

In order for the Tek cards to count, I would need all of the remaining cards.  I would think 4 would be the easiest to find.  I would absolutely love to knock off the remaining Tek cards, but let's be realistic.

2.  Get to 1,000 different cards.  I have 883 now, so this is certainly possible, though it will be challenging.

3.  Get a signed 8x10 of Alomar with the Mets.  I want photographic evidence of Alomar with the Mets, since there will likely never be a card of him.

4.  Get the elusive bobblehead that I see on Ebay frequently.

Hopefully this will be the year that Alomar finally gets his managerial position.  There should be a few positions opening up over the course of the year.  It would also be nice if he started to get some new cards in new sets this year.  Archives is always a possibility.

So that's it.  I will check back on this post by the end of the year.  Hopefully I will have accomplished a bunch of this stuff.

Card #158: 1996 Upper Deck #313

YEAR: 1996
BRAND: Upper Deck
SET: Upper Deck
NUMBER: 313
SUBSET: NA
TEAM: Cleveland Indians

Upper Deck got rid of the white borders in 1994 and thus never quite seemed the same to me.  But they kept the great photography as evidenced by this card.  Alomar is reacting to a foul ball and has already thrown off his mask.  Just a terrific action shot here.