More Tucson Jones Photo Fun! (1996 Toros)

Recently, a Tucson-based eBay seller of all kinds of random items posted a large lot of Tucson Sidewinders memorabilia.  The lot consisted of several programs (mostly with at least one player autograph within), a 1999 MultiAd Sidewinders team set, but also an assortment of the Jones Photo "Player Cards".  The photos were mostly obscured, but I could make out several players that I'd seen before, but there were just so many I had to grab it to see who might be lurking under that pile.

The pile of stuff was sent priority, so it was here in two days, and after it was on its way, the seller told me they'd found some other Tucson Toros items and threw those in.  So I'll start with those gems.

I'd seen that Jones Photo had issued some larger player photos, sold in white "Collector's Edition" holders, and I lucked out and received this beauty:

Jones Photo issued these 5"x7" Collector's Edition photos across a few years.  Not always the most obvious players, either (Ed Vosberg in 1990?).  I don't think they issued these for every player, given I've only found a few over the years.  I have to assume they were sold at the souvenir shop at the ballpark.

The other group of Toros items were two envelopes of six photos from 1996, and these also included a little insert that gave the dates of all the photo giveaways.  

These were particularly welcome as I had found evidence of the 1996 set, but had never seen any reference to actual players.  The photos were still in the envelope, along with the note about the photo night dates, but curiously there were 6 photos per envelope, ratiher than 5.  

As there were 6 giveaway nights, I'm not sure if that means there are actually 36 photos.  That would be the most of any of these sets.  The checklist so far:

Eric Bell
Jay Davis
Jerry Goff
Michael Groppuso
John Johnstone
Doug Mlicki
Eddie Pye
Ken Ramos
Tim Tolman
Charley Taylor
Billy Wagner
Donnie Wall

As usual, there is a smattering of silly photos mixed in with the usual standing around poses.

1998 Tucson Sidewinders Jones Photo - Hensley Meulens

***UPDATES AT BOTTOM***

 

     Pursuing a player collection of a lesser known, yet widely traveled slugger can be a challenge.  What makes that pursuit all the more satisfying is when something like this turns up out of the blue.  Not only was I not looking for this photo, I had no idea it even existed as none of the main hobby resources have any record of this set.  A little research reveals that in 1998 (and presumably all the other years these were produced), these photos were given away at Sidewinders games, at Hi Corbett Field in Tucson, in packs of five photos.  The photos I received came in these envelopes:

     Given that there are sixteen photos here , I'm going to assume there are at least four more to the set, possibly eight (previous sets contained 24-25 photos).  These are the photos from the lot I received:

Bryan Corey
Nelson Figueroa
Tim Florez
Ben Ford
Hanley Frias
Karim Garcia
Ron Hartman
Danny Klassen
Peter Kolb (Trainer)
Garry Maddox
Barry Manuel
Hensley Meulens
Chris Michalak
Vladimir Nunez
Stephen Randolph
Mike Robertson
Rob Ryan
Jeff Suppan
Ephrain Valdez
Neil Weber
Bob Wolcott

     The same seller also had another lot of Tucson Toros photos.  After receiving everything, based on when the various players coincided on Toros rosters, there were 17 photos from 1993 (another undocumented set) and 5 from 1997.  The 2000 (and final) edition of the Standard Catalog of Minor League Baseball Cards only listed 5 photos from the 1997 set (presumably a single game's giveaway), so those, plus the photos in this lot make at least 10 in the set.  Here are the players in each:

1993		1997
Mike Brumley Jim Bruske Mike Capel Steve Carter Fred Costello Ed Dixon Dave Engle Tony Eusebio John Hudek Jim Lindeman Terry Mathews Joe Mikulik James Moulton Luis Quinones Jeff Robinson Donne Wall Bruce Walton Rodney Windes		Joel Adamson Brian Banks Ron Belliard Jarvis Brown Mark Davis Matt Grott Greg Hansell Jeff Huber Bobby Hughes Geoff Jenkins Frank Kellner Travis Lee Norm Montoya Tony Phillips Al Reyes Sig Roberson Tim Unroe Jack Voigt Al Williamson Doni O'Bryan & Peter Kolb

     I've added checklists for all three to the SportsCardForum.com Inventory Manager (updates are only being posted to TCDB unless someone else is adding them to SCF, these days).  The photos are unnumbered, so I alphabetized and numbered based on that, so if I find more photos in the future, the "card numbers" will be adjusted.  As usual, these are all available for trade or sale, except for the Karim Garcia which has already been claimed.  All photos have now been sold.

-----UPDATE (14 December 2011)-----

     I have now found references to Toros sets from 1995 and 1996 (given away to the first 500 lucky fans) and a second Sidewinders set from 1999.  This helps lend a little credence to sets having been issued each year from 1987 to 1999.  Now I just need to find evidence of sets from the missing years and begin the extremely slow process of building checklists.

-----UPDATE (19 January 2017)-----

     According to the 28 July 1998 Arizona Daily Star, at the Sidewinders game that night, the first 500 fans would receive photos of Edwin Diaz, Tim Florez, Danny Klassen, Neil Weber and Bob Wolcott, which combined with the list above brings the set total to 21.

-----UPDATE (21 October 2017)-----

     Another batch of Sidewinders hit eBay recently, confirming the previously reported five names to the checklist: Chris Michalak, Neil Weber, Bob Wolcott, Tim Florez and Danny Klassen.

-----UPDATE (2 March 2023)-----

 

     Four more photos turned up on eBay this week; Tim Unroe, Jarvis Brown, Antone Williamson and Al Reyes.

-----UPDATE (19 July 2023)-----

    

     A lot of items from the 1997 Toros hit eBay today, including the following new additions to the checklist: Joel Adamson, Greg Hansell, Geoff Jenkins, Norm Montoya, Tony Phillips (the pitcher) and trainers Doni O'Bryan and Peter Kolb sharing a photo.  There were some larger photos, including Travis Lee (with facsimile autograph) and a team photo.  Also included was a large photo of Ed Vosberg, labeled as from 1990, though he only played for the team in 1989.  Currently I have found no evidence of a 1990 set, or at least no actual photos have surfaced.

Hobby Archaelogy: 1994 Ingles Atlanta Braves stickers

 A fairly recent posting on eBay, followed by a question over at the Trading Card Database has turned up yet another previously undocumented set including Roberto Kelly.  This time, they are Atlanta Braves stickers from the Ingles chain of grocery stories in the Southeast.

Here is the full page advertiement posted in the 15 July 1994 Asheville Citizen-Times, from Asheville, North Carolina:

Braves Posters & Sticker Cards 15 Jul 1994, Fri Asheville Citizen-Times (Asheville, North Carolina) Newspapers.com

Over the course of 6 weeks, from July 15th to August 26th, you could purchase the week's strip of 3 Braves stickers for 99 cents, along with a special poster to stick them to, also for 99 cents.  The reverse of each strip included a coupon for something in the store, an entry form for a contest to win a VIP package at a Braves game or limited edition (only 174!) Braves lithograph, and the complete rules of the contest.  

The checklist is as follows:

Week 1 - Tom Glavine / Ryan Klesko / Kent Mercker

Week 2 - Fred McGriff / Jeff Blauser / Bill Pecota

Week 3 - Steve Avery / Mark Wohlers / Javier Lopez

Week 4 - Mark Lemke / Greg Maddux / Tony Tarasco

Week 5 - John Smoltz / David Justice / Mike Stanton

Week 6 - Roberto Kelly / Terry Pendleton / Greg McMichael

The individual stickers are unnumbered.

I'm really surprised they haven't crossed my radar before. During the brief research I did on these, I found Ingles ads for these in the major newspapers in Atlanta; Anderson, South Carolina; Greenville, South Carolina; Asheville, North Carolina; Knoxville, Tennessee.  So these were definitely out there, yet they were missed by both Beckett and the Standard Catalog.

The checklist has been added, both as singles and panels, at TCDB:

https://www.tcdb.com/ViewSet.cfm/sid/337498/1994-Ingles-Atlanta-Braves-Stickers

Clyde's Stale News - 2022 TCDB edition

Just wanted to let everyone know that I have worked out a system that will allow for adding Japanese checklists to Trading Card Databse (https://www.tcdb.com), much more rapidly.  This weekend I managed to add:

2022 BBM 1st Version inserts & parallels

2022 BBM 2nd Version base, inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Chiba Lotte Marines base, inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Chunichi Dragons base, inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Fukuoka SoftBank Hawks base, inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Hawks History 1938-2022 base, inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Genesis base, inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Hanshin Tigers base

2022 BBM Roki Sasaki Perfect Game inserts

2022 Epoch NPB base, inserts and parallels

-- October 4 update

2022 BBM Hanshin Tigers inserts completed

2022 BBM Orix Buffaloes base, inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Hiroshima Toyo Carp inserts completed

2022 BBM Saitama Seibu Lions, base, inserts and parallels

2021 Epoch Hanshin Tigers Stars & Legends base, inserts and parallels

---October 5 update

2022 BBM Rookie Edition inserts completed

2022 BBM Tokyo Yakult Swallows inserts completed

2022 BBM Hanshin Tigers Premier Edition base, some inserts

---October 6 update

2022 BBM Yokohama DeNA BayStars base, inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Yomiuri Giants inserts and parallels

2022 BBM Tokyo Yakult Swallows History 1950-2022 base, inserts and parallels

---October 7 update

2019 BBM Rookie Edition missing inserts and parallels

---October 8 update

Rather than continue to detail sets here, you can see what all I've added recently at TCDB:

https://www.tcdb.com/RecentlyAdded.cfm?MODE=Checklist&sCategory=&Member=DaClyde

There may be a few cards missing here and there as those BBM checklist PDFs can sometimes be a challenge to decipher.  Once I clear the 2022 backlog I will start working backwards.  If anyone has any requests they would like to see jump the line, please let me know and I'll get to them sooner.

So for any set where I can find a checklist in Japanese, I can get them translated and entered in a few minutes instead of the hours of tedious looking up name-by-name it used to take.  Amazing what a spreadsheet and a VLOOKUP can accomplish!

2016-17 & 2018, 2019 San Francisco Giants Fan Fest photo cards

(Updates at the bottom)

     eBay saved search comes through again!  It appears that the Giants updated their Fan Fest photo card design a tad for the 2018 event, and I just picked up a lot of cards on eBay that included a previously unknown Hensley Meulens card.

     In this new design, the team logo is now in a square that fits within the edges of the name and team bars, the player name is slightly wider, and the team name and position are now italicized.

2018 design

For comparison, below is the design that was used from 2013-2015.

2013-2015 design

 

The other cards I have found with this new, square 2018 design are as follows:

Tyler Beede

Ty Blach

Matt Herges

Ryder Jones

Evan Longoria

Andrew McCutchen

Mark Melancon

Conner Menez

Hensley Meulens

Alyssa Nakken

Buster Posey

Pablo Sandoval

Rick Schu

Curt Young

I'll update the list as I find more.

--UPDATE-- 

     Slight update here, as I just dicovered that there was another design change that I missed.  Between the 2013 design and the 2018 design, there was subtle change that I am now calling 2016-2017.  Swiped from an eBay listing, the Ehire Adrianza features the newly discovered design, and the Jeremy Affeldt the earlier design.  The two differences being on the 2016-17 design the team/position banner features the larger, italicized text, and the banner does not extend beyond the end of the logo circle.

For this 2016-17 design, I have identified the following players, so far:

Ehire Adrianza

Ray Black

Brandon Crawford

Matt Duffy

Gorkys Hernandez

Chris Heston

Nick Hundley

Steven Okert

Hunter Pence

Buster Posey (crouching)

Buster Posey (throwing)

Jeff Samardzija

Chris Stratton

Albert Suarez

Mac Williamson

Ron Wotus

--UPDATE-- 

Another design has surfaces for the 2019 Fan Fest cards.  So far, this Dereck Rodriguez is the only card I have seen on eBay:

Now batting, #33, pinch hitter, Bernardo Brito

    On September 15, 1992, after twelve seasons in the minors, Bernardo Brito finally made his first trip to the plate in a Major League game, as the Minnesota Twins attempted to eek out a win against a very solid A's team.  Pinch hitting for Greg Gagne in the 8th inning, Bernie strode to the plate there at Oakland-Alameda County Stadium, stared down A's starter Ron Darling, worked a 1-2 count, and struck out swinging.

   It ended up being a tight 2-1 victory for 1st place Oakland, against the 2nd place Twins, with Eckersley locking down the 9th.  

To quote the September 16, 1992, Oakland Tribune:

...Bernardo Brito, who spent 12 years in the minors, made his major-league debut for Minnesota with a pinch-hitting performance in the eights inning.  He whiffed on four pitches...

     Brito would see action in 8 games over the remainder of the season, going 2 for 14 in mostly a late-inning, pinch hitting role.