TTM Success 2019-01 - Matt Mieske

My first TTM request of 2019 is, probably not coincidentally, also my first return. To begin my MLB Born in Michigan collection, I sent out this Matt Mieske 1997 Topps #168 on February 2nd to his home address. On Valentine’s Day I received the card back with a brief note written on my original letter. How cool is that!

Born in Midland, Matt was a stand-out player at Bay City Western high school (three-time all-state) before playing ball for the Western Michigan Broncos, where he earned All-American honors three times and set 11 school records (a handful of which stand to this day!).

He was selected by Oakland in the 20th round of the 1989 draft, but chose not to sign and was chosen a year later by the Padres in the 17th round. Matt toiled at the Single-A level in the Padres system until being traded (along with Ricky Bones and Jose Valentin) to Milwaukee in 1992 for Geoff Kellogg and Gary Sheffield. A year later, Matt broke into the Bigs and spent the next four years with the Brewers.

From there came stints with the Cubs, Seattle, Houston and Arizona before Matt hung up his cleats following the 2000 season. In his 8-year, 663-game career, Mieske played exclusively as an outfielder and hit .262/.318/.434 with 56 home runs and 226 RBI.

In an interview a few years ago, Matt recalled his most memorable moment – which occurred during his one season in Chicago. At the end of the 1998 season, the Cubs found themselves tied with the Giants for the final playoff spot. In the sixth inning of the tie-breaking game, with the bases loaded, Matt came in to pinch-hit for Henry Rodriguez. He came through with a two-run single, putting the Cubs ahead 4-0, and that hit would ultimately be the deciding factor in sending the Cubs to the playoffs because the Giants fought back to score three runs in the top of the ninth.

Although never a Tiger, Matt is nevertheless one of Michigan’s baseball heroes. Thanks for signing, Matt!

Sent: 2 February 2019
Received: 14 February 2019
Time: 12 days

2019 TTM Stats
Sent: 3
Received: 1
Success Rate: 33%

My Second Zistle Trade

Not long after completing my first ever trade on the card collecting website/community Zistle, I received another trade proposal from north of the border (Ontario, to be specific). Similar in scope to the previous exchange, for a handful of baseball cards I received a a few hockey singles to plug some gaps in my Wings / Jackets collections.

First up was this nice action shot of Nick Lidstrom on 2007-08 Upper Deck #1.

The design of this set, and for that matter many of the UD main sets, isn't necessarily mind-blowing but they do have a penchant for some great photography.

Even less appealing, aesthetically, are the Victory main sets. This Dominik Hasek #122 from the 2008-09 set illustrates this blah-ness perfectly. Being a budget card, the lack of bells & whistles is more than understandable.

Same goes for this #48 Rick Nash from the 2010-11 set.

Again with a great action shot, this time featuring both of my teams on the ice, is this 2009-10 Upper Deck #115 R.J. Umberger. Awesome photo.

From the 2008-09 Upper Deck set comes this #16 Rookie Class card of Adam Pineault. Of course, by the time this card was issued Adam was no longer a Blue Jacket but was instead in the Blackhawk's farm system. Taken by the Jackets in the 2nd round of the 2004 draft, the Massachusetts native would ultimately appear in only three NHL games - all with Columbus, including his debut against the Wings - before toiling away in the minors and Europe until retirement beckoned after the 2013-14 season.

And finally we have this Steve Yzerman #24 from the 1997-98 Pinnacle Inside set. Does anyone remember this set? The "first-ever hockey cards in a can" set? What a gimmick. I believe this particular card is the only one that I have ever owned from this set. They're cheap, so completing the Wings shouldn't be too much of a burden - so why not?

And there you have it - my second trade on Zistle. I can't say enough how easy trading has been, so far, on this site. If you're not a part of it yet, get on there and let's get trading!

My First Zistle Trade

For those collectors who are in the know, Zistle is a gem of an online collection manager / trading forum. Zistle isn't exactly new to me (I've been a member for nearly 4 years) but until very recently I didn't use for much more than cataloging my collection. Over the past couple of months I've made a conscious effort to get my extraneous singles/inserts posted to my trade list while doing what I could to flesh out my want list. The result - a trade offer from the one and only Captain Canuck (his blogs Waxaholic and Just A Bit Offside are on hiatus, but make sure to keep tabs on 'em). The lesson - make sure your want list is just as fully populated as your trade list! So on to the goods...

Very much a common to get the post going is this 2014-15 Upper Deck David Savard...

A couple of 2014-15 O-Pee-Chee commons to fill in the Wings gaps...

And from the same set, this Mitch Callahan Marquee Rookie...

Besides one NHL game (against the Jackets), Mitch has been a career AHL-er since being drafted in 2009. His physical play attracted the Wings' attention, but over time he's settled in to be more of a goal scorer than tough guy. Unfortunately he's likely to remain a fixture in Grand Rapids unless he moves organizations.

And the prize of the lot... a 2014-15 OPC Rainbow Foil Jack Johnson...

So yeah, this was by no means a blockbuster trade. BUT, it marks my first foray into the trading beauty of Zistle that I am hopeful will continue to bring needed cards to my collection. Now, if only everyone had their trade lists populated!

Random Snipes From Beckett

In my last post I mentioned the three new additions to my 1970-71 Topps Red Wings set that I recently picked up from Beckett Marketplace. Well, in order to ensure that the cost of shipping did not eclipse the cost of the cards, I added a couple of quarter-bin cards to round out the purchase.

2006-07 Upper Deck No. 73 Chris Osgood

Yeah, not a whole lot special about this card. Ozzie had returned to the Wings for the 2005-06 season after a couple of seasons away with the Islanders and Blues, but an injury early on sidelined him for most of the year. Even still, he posted a 20-6-0 record.

1990-91 Topps No. 34 Daniel Shank RC

Daniel who? Yeah, pretty much. A promising winger, Shank scored 11 goals for the Adirondack Red Wings in the 1989 Calder Cup playoffs to earn a spot with the parent club for the 1989-90 campaign. He had a decent run - 11-13-24 in 57 games - but, after just 7 games with the Wings in the 1990-91 season, Daniel was traded off to the Whalers for Chris Tancill. After one season in Hartford, Shank would spend the reast of his career in the minor leagues. Have a look at the blurb on the back of his card. Man, somebody didn't have a very high opinion of this guy.

2001-02 Upper Deck No. 54 Rostislav Klesla

I actually kinda dig the design of this set. The colors work well, with just enough contrast, and a lot of space is devoted to the front photo and back text. It would have been nice for the back photo to be more than just a cropped headshot of the front, but whatever. A nice card of Rusty early in his career.

More '70s Topps Goodness

And so I returned to the Beckett Marketplace the other day to continue work on my 1970 Red Wings team sets. How I would love to head down to my LCS to find these gems, but the state of hockey card collecting in the state that I live in is, well, literally non-existent. There are a grand total of two brick-and-mortar card shops within 50 miles of me, and neither stock hockey cards. At all. No packs. No singles. It's tragic. Thus, cherry-picking sites like Beckett is, by necessity, my only means of feeding this addiction.

So on to the cards...

1970-71 Topps No. 21 - Roy Edwards

Ontario native Roy Edwards made the leap from the minors to the Red Wings in the 1967-68 season, where he amassed a 15-15-8 record in 41 games. He had a solid year in 1969-70, posting 24-15-6, but by the 1970-71 campaign Roy's time in net had dwindled a bit and he finished the year at 11-19-7. After spending the following season with the Penguins, Roy would be back with the Wings for two more years before hanging up his skates for good.

1970-71 Topps No. 23 - Ron Harris

After a couple of short call-ups with the Wings in the mid-'60s, defenseman Harris played his first full NHL season with the newly-minted Oakland Seals in the 1967-68 campaign. In one of hockey's most unfortunate moments, Ron was directly involved in a play that sent North Stars forward Bill Masterton hard to the ice, causing massive trauma and, not long after, death. Ron returned to the Wings the following season, where he would stay until being claimed by the Atlanta Flames in the 1972 expansion draft.

1970-71 Topps No. 26 - Gary Unger

Gary may be best known as "Iron Man" Unger, having set the record for most consecutive games played at 914 between 1968 and 1979 (a record long since surpassed). Hitting the big league with the Maple Leafs in 1967, the year in which he was traded to the WIngs, Gary scored a career high 42 goals during the 1969-70 season. His time in Detroit would be brief, however, as he would head to St. Louis late in the 1970-71 campaign.

So there you have 'em. I also picked up a few odds and ends in this same order, but those will have to wait for another post.

Hiatus Over. Maybe.

Sure, I've said it before. After disappearing from this blog, I've come roaring back with high hopes and good intentions. Only to disappear once again. And there are reasons for this, of course, not least of which is the generic "life" that so many of us cite as the cause of our absenteeism. In this most recent disappearing act, not only was "life" to blame but so too was still the lingering sting of a lockout coupled with a new hobby that became a passion - vinyl record collecting. Yeah, so I won't go much into that other than to say the vinyl collection continues to grow, weekly, but I've managed to find both the time and the resources to jump back in to the wonderful world of hockey card collecting.

So on to what you're here for. Instead of the random sniping of cards that was my last re-entry to the hobby, I decided to start again with a little more purpose this time. Heading to the Beckett Marketplace (while being sure to comparison shop on The Bay), I snagged the following 1970-71 Red Wings:

1970-71 Topps No. 27 - Bruce MacGregor

Yeah, I'm not a huge fan of the aesthetics of this series (and that of the mirror O-Pee-Chee set), but I wanted to get my Red Wings collection in order by starting with a significant year. Unfortunately, from a collecting standpoint, this particular line-up includes the likes of Gordie Howe and Alex Delvecchio. So starting at the opposite end of the price-point bench is forward Bruce MacGregor. Bruce was in his 11th and final season with the Wings in 1970-71, ultimately being traded to the Rangers with Larry Brown for Tom Miller, Arnie Brown, and Mike Robitaille.

1970-71 O-Pee-Chee No. 154 - Gary Bergman

Bergman was quietly one of the Wings' staunchest blue-liners throughout the '60s and early '70s. He wasn't necessarily known for "rough" play or offensive output, but he certainly held his own against opposing skaters. The 1970-71 season was the Ontario native's 7th campaign with the Red Wings.  We lost Gary in December of 2000.

1970-71 O-Pee-Chee No. 158 - Nick Libett

Nick Libett was a rising star in the Red Wings organization during the 1970-71 season, his 4th with the parent team. Having scored 20 goals and 40 points in the previous campaign, Libett's production dropped a bit to 16-13-29 but he would ramp it up to 31 goals during the following season. Nick would spend 12 seasons in Detroit before finishing up his career after two years in Pittsburgh.

TTM Success: Craig Smith

Sent: 21 February 2013
Received: 13 March 2013
Transit Time: 20 days

Here's a nice, relatively quick return from one of Nashville's youngsters. Centerman Craig Smith was drafted by the Predators in the 4th round of the 2009 draft and spent a couple of years with the University of Wisconsin Badgers before joining the NHL club last season. The Wisconsin native put together 36 points (14 goals and 22 assists) in the 72 games of his rookie season. This year has been a bit of a sophomore slump for Craig, however. I sent this 2012-13 OPC base card to the team address just after Craig scored his first goal of the season - against my beloved Red Wings, no less.

Current TTM Stats:

32 Sent; 13 Received; 20 Pending - 41% Success Rate