5 more boxes. I'm coming to get you Bernie...

This can't end well....

---

 Box 1 (8 total) Results

Regular sets

Set 1
163/165 (missing 66, 142)

Set 2
115/165

Set 3
8/165

Set 4
1/165

1 Jose Lima #143 wrong back error

Diamond Star sets

Set 1
35/165 (including a Tony Pena with a damaged Lime Rock stamp)

Set 2
1/165


NO BERNIE BRITO DIAMOND STAR!

---

Box 2 (9 total) Results

    Collation in this box seems a bit different.  In several packs, I've run across consecutively numbered cards next to each other.

Set 1
159/165 (missing 27, 51, 79, 109, 142, 161)

Set 2
108/165

Set 3
7/165

Set 4
2/165

2 Jose Lima #143 wrong back errors

Diamond Star sets

Set 1
34/165

1 Jose Lima #143 wrong back error

NO BERNIE BRITO DIAMOND STAR!

---

Box 3 (10 total) Results

Set 1
164/165 (missing 142)

Set 2
118/165

Set 3
5/165

2 Jose Lima #143 wrong back errors

Set 1
35/165 (including a Jose Cano with a damaged Lime Rock stamp)

Set 2
1/165

NO BERNIE BRITO DIAMOND STAR!

---

Box 4 (10 total) Results

      Eleven packs into box #4 (11 total) and we have Bernie!  To add insult to injury, not only did it take me some 4+ years, and 10 1/2 boxes, to find this card after I started searching for it, when I finally get one, not only is it off center, but after scanning and attempting to crop and straighten the image, I find that it's even slightly diamond cut!  Is that some sort of cruel irony?

     My more modern scanners just don't scan reflective surfaces well, so I had to go old school and do a bit of deep closet archaeology.  To capture the glory and the sheer, devastating awesomeness that is this card, I actually had to find all the cables, download antiquated drivers and software to hook up this museum display of equipment:

    That is a UMAX Vista S-12, complete with PCMCIA SCSI adapter, next to an IBM ThinkPad iSeries 1500, running Windows 98 (not even Second Edition, just plain old Win98).  The scanner is probably from 1997-98 and the laptop is from 1999 or so. 

---

    These cards fall one per pack.  There are 36 packs per box.  I had to go through 371 packs to find this card.  Holy crap!  Actually seeing the number is the slightest bit disturbing.  At 9 cards per pack, that's 3339 total 1993 Lime Rock Dominican Winter Baseball cards I've waded through and 371 Diamond Stars (potentially two complete sets, if not for duplicates).  I've only managed to sell 403 of these in the past 4 years, and trade a handful more.  Discarding the cards that were found damaged, that leaves me with some 2900 or so cards left, plus one unopened box (though the shrink wrap is gone and the Lime Rock seal is no longer intact) and 15 stray packs.

     Overall, pack collation was pretty good for this set.  I never got the same card twice in a pack.  I never got two identical packs.  Being fairly glossy cards, on both front and back, there is a tendency for cards to stick together.  A little flexing and crackling and they do come apart.  Rarely is there any paper loss due to the sticking.  Unfortunately, the cards were not very evenly cut, so there is a tendancy for bent corners on cards that, being stuck to the cards around them, might protrude a little beyond the end of the stack.  As the cards are black all the way to the edges, there is also a tendacy for a little white to show whenever there is a ding or the occasional peeled corner.  So if anyone was ever to grade any of these, there would be very little chance of ever getting a perfect PSA 10 or SCG 100.  The three most difficult cards in these boxes seem to be the corrected version of #142, the Raul Mondesi rookie prospect card, the Diamond Star version of #142 and the Diamond Star Bernie Brito.

    At least my search is over.  Never again will I be tempted to buy another box, open another pack.  I'm left with only one remaining card to complete the Bernardo Brito Baseball Card Experience...assuming that card even exists.  

---

     Each pack contains an offer card between the last card and the rest of the cards.  For some reason, despite these not being part of the set, Beckett list the offer card in their system.  These are the two offer cards, one for magazine subscriptions and one for a 1994 Raiderettes calendar and video:

Oh Bernie, Where Art Thou? (update)

My three new boxes of 1993 Lime Rock Winter Baseball arrived today, so I rushed home at lunch to rip into a box. Wouldn't you know it? I'm now 0 for 4 on picking up that Bernie Brito Diamond Star!

Interestingly, there are a couple of errors I've now seen repeated in the set. Of course, there's card #3 of Victor Silverio which is actually a photo of Miguel Batista, but there is also at least one consistent wrong-back error with Jose Lima on front and Raul Mondesi on the back. In this box, I actually got the Diamond Star version of that same misprint! I think there's at least one more wrong-back, which may also be Mondesi/Lima, but I'll have to double check. I also encountered one Diamond Star with what appears to be a sort of inverse version of the Lime Rock logo with the gold in the exact opposite of how it was normally applied to the card. I'll get a scan up later.


In any case, expect to see my stock of these cards replenished on Sportlots this evening.

---------UPDATE---------

Ok, make that 0 for 5! (but I picked up three more of those Lima/Mondesi errors and even another Diamond Star of the same error! AAARRRHHHHH!!)

********UPDATE - 2*********

The way these packs are collated, from the bottom, there is a base card, the offer card (there are offers for magazine subscriptions for Inside Sports, Card Collector's Price Guide, Sports Card Trader and Baseball Digest or the a 1994 Raiderettes calendar) and then the Diamond Star insert. Just to add insult to injury, every so often, that last card (the one I see first as I rip open the foil pack from the seam on the back) is a base card of Bernie Brito. Mocking me. Because you KNOW, if I get a base card of Brito, I won't be getting a Diamond Star of Brito in the same pack. These Lime Rock monsters were diabolical.

/////////UPDATE - 3\\\\\\\\\\

Found yet another misprint....a Diamond Star with no gold foil at all. The impression of the logo is clearly visible where it was stamped, there's just no foil over it. Halfway through box 6. Still no Golden Bernie.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\ UPDATE 4 /\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

Well, as it turns out, there are two version of the box:

However, all the packs and cards are still the same.

But, as is my curse, box #7 refused to yield  the much sought after Bernie Brito Diamond Star. In the next week or so, if all goes well, I should have another 5 boxes arriving. The adventure continues!

Do not abandon home!  The Bernie Hunt continues in Part 3: I'm Coming to Get You Bernie

Winfield in the Round (Part 1) - [Insert Brand] Discs

     While you don't see them so often anymore, in the past 40 years, there have been a great many sets of the rounded persuasion issued by a multitide of companies.  Rather than stretch these out over a dozen posts, I thought I'd just tackle all of the circular cards currently collated in my collection, from oldest to most recent.  Since there are so many, this will be a multi-part post.

1974 McDonalds Discs

     Given that the Padres were owned by Ray Kroc,  it should come as no surprise that he should use his newly acquired baseball team as a way to cross promote with McDonalds.  What is more surprising is how little actual McDonalds/Padres branded merchandise was actually produced.  I suppose Kroc was more interested in having others pay him for sponsorships than effectively paying himself between the Padres and McDonalds.  In any case, in the year Kroc purchased the San Diego Padres, local McDonalds released a set set of 13 player discs, along with this nifty baseball-shaped holder to store them in. 

1977 Burger Chef

     Burger Chef, which according to Wikipedia, by the early 1980s was second only to McDonalds in the number of franchises across the United States, issued a set of 216 baseball player discs attached to the packaging of their Fun Meals (an idea McDonalds later stole for the Happy Meal...lawsuits soon followed).  The Fun Meal boxes were organized by team, so I ended up picking up a whole set of the Padres complete with original boxes to snag this Winfield.  The discs are standard Michael Schechter & Associates fare, with MLBPA, but without MLB licensing.  AS a result, they looked exactly like a dozen other disc issues from 1975-1980.  The backs of the discs all feature characters of the Burger Chef franchise (Burgerini, Count Fangburger, Burgerilla, etc).  For a franchise that was so large, I honestly don't remember ever seeing one in my life.  The chain was eventually bought by Hardees and most of the locations were either converted, or sans new franchise deal, converted into local restaurants or just shuttered.

1981-1982 FBI Discs
      The 1982 set of discs, issued on the bottoms of bottles of Fanta's Bantam flavored fizzy drinks, are fairly well documented and nearly impossible to find for anything less than $50 each.

     In recent years, an even more rare, and thus hugely more expensive, 1981 set has been uncovered and slowly documented.  The 1981 will likely be forever on my Dave Winfield Want List.

1983 Roy Rogers Discs/Lids

     In 1983, the Roy Rogers chain of fast food restaurants in New York issued a set of 12 Yankees discs as drink cup lids.  Measuring about 3.5" in diameter, they can be found either with the red plastic rim attached, or like this one, with the rim removed.  The lids all had perforations just about where the player signature starts for inserting a drinking straw.  Finding lids with both intact rims and unpunched straw holes can be a challenge.  I finally picked this one up in a lot of discs (Griffey, Nettles and Randolph) on eBay for about $7.  This was a long search that I am glad to have finally concluded.


    For the definitive guide to these next items, have a look at Eric Swartz's 7-11 Slurpee Coin Web Site. 


1984 7-Eleven Super Star Sports Coins

     After a limited test release in 1983, 7-Eleven issued three regional 24-player sets of these lenticular 1.75" diameter discs, free with purchase of a large Slurpee.  The numbering on these sets never made any sense to me, but Winfield was in the Eastern region's set.

1985 7-Eleven Super Star Sports Coins

      With the apparently great success of the 1984 discs, as a follow up, 7-Eleven issued a whopping six sets in 1985, five regional and one for the World Champion Detroit Tigers.  While no players appeared in all six sets, Dave Winfield was in five of them.  Again, the only way to tell them apart is by the color on the reverse.

Southeast was blue with the letters "DT" at the bottom.

 East was black with the letters "JH" on the bottom.

Southwest was purple with the letters "PJ" on the bottom.

I actually found this one in the middle of the street in Texas back in 1985 before I even collected cards.  Not really sure why I kept it.

West was green with the letters "DH" at the bottom.

The Great Lakes region was an auburn color with the letters "AC" on the bottom.










     In 1985, there were also promos issued.  Dave Winfield had two.  One that was 2.25" in diameter with a black border on the reverse and the letters "DH" at the bottom.  The other is much larger, approximately 5" in diameter, featuring the same photo as the other 1985 coins, but with nothing on the reverse.

1986 7-Eleven Triple Stars

      7-Eleven went a slightly different direction in 1986, picking groups of three players for each coin.  Again there were multiple regional issues, but Winfield only appeared in the East set, pictured above.

1987 7-Eleven Super Star Sports Coins

     In 1987 7-Eleven returned to the original formula of regional sets of individual players for each coin.  Dave Winfield appeared only in the East set, which had a greenish back and the letters "CM" at the bottom on.

...to be continued...

Bravos de Margarita's New 2012-13 Manager: Hensley Meulens

 Hensley Meulens ratificado como mánager de Bravos de Margarita

      While it's a bit late, congratulations are in order for Hensley Meulens.  After being the fill-in manager for the end of the past two seasons for the last place Bravos de Margarita of the Venezuelan Winter League (after the initial managers were dismissed), Meulens has been announced as the full-time manager of the team for next season.  Hopefully he will have better luck with the team, starting at the beginning, rather than being handed the task of pulling them out of the cellar with one month left to play.

     Sadly, Meulens has no Venezuelan cards, so I have nothing to accompany this post.  Hopefully that will change if he is successful guiding the Bravos to the playoffs next season.  It's not easy finding checklists for the sets Lineup produces, so I'm not sure if they even have cards for their managers, but here's hoping.  I really wish there was a more consistent trade between the US and Venezuela, because paying upwards of $5 per card when ordering from the one or two Venezuelan sellers on eBay is hard on the wallet.

1992 Liga Mexicana de Béisbol (Mexican League) Estampas de Fotos Checklist

      I have been in contact with the gentleman who started the fledgling blog 1992 Mexican Leauge Baseball Cards.  He posted a link to some photos of cards and unopened boxes he still has from the set.  In my previous post about this set, I posted close-up scans of the logos on the backs of the cards:

     From my email conversation of past weeks, TCI means Trading Cards International, Inc., the short-lived company from Lockport, Louisiana, who most likely designed the set.  EDM stands for Estampas Deportivas de Mexico SA de CV (possibly the actual printers of the cards) and the back of the box reads Lomeli Trade Center SA de CV Guadalajara Jalisco (the import/export company that distributed the set).  Apparently he was friends with someone who knew someone that worked for TCI, and helped distribute the cards around the Mission, Texas/Reynosa area, and also recalls the cards being heavily distributed in Monterrey and Guadalajara.

        He also sent me about a dozen cards I didn't have, so I have been able to expand the checklist a bit.  This is only 46 cards now, of a total 150, so I've asked if he wouldn't mind filling in the gaps so this set can get the recognition it deserves in the hobby as the first major modern Mexican League set.   All sixteen Mexican League teams from the 1992 season are accounted for in the checklist so far.

      In keeping with all of the other checklist posts on the blog, I have reformatted this post to highlight the gaps in the checklist in hopes that someone might be willing to help fill them.

Card #	Player Name	Team
1
2	Francisco Javier Arce	Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz
3
4	Luis Alberto Peña	Industriales de Monterrey
5	Ricardo Osuna	Cafeteros de Córdoba
6
7	Jesus Abrego
8
9	Manuel Carazin	Petroleros de Minatitlán
10	Raul Martinez	Algodoneros de Union Laguna
11
12
13	Eliseo Garzon	Olmecas de Tabasco
14	Aurelio Cantañeda	Charros de Jalisco
15
16	Braulio Neri	Rieleros de Aguascalietes
17	Pablo Machiria	Tigres de México
18	Alejandro Ortiz	Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos
19	Florentino Morales	Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz
20	Alfonso (Alonso) Tellez	Industriales de Monterrey
21	Ruben Navarro	Cafeteros de Córdoba
22	Armando Valenzuela	Sultanes de Monterrey
23	Martin Antunez	Leones de Yucatán
24	Alejandro Carza	Sultanes de Monterrey
25	Terry Blocker	Petroleros de Minatitlán
26
27	Roy Johnson	Piratas de Campeche
28	Leo Valenzuela	Acereros de Monclova
29
30	Manuel Samaniego	Charros de Jalisco
31
32
33	Adulfo Camacho	Tigres Capitalinos
34
35	Carlos Gastelum	Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz
36
37	Emigdio Lopez	Cafeteros de Córdoba
38	Eduardo Torres	Saraperos de Saltillo
39
40	Francisco Rodriguez	Sultanes de Monterrey
41	Horacio Valenzuela	Petroleros de Minatitlán
42
43	Hediberto Vargas	Piratas de Campeche
44
45	Jose Julian Quiroz	Olmecas de Tabasco
46
47	Hector Estrada	Diablos Rojos del México
48	Salvador Lopez	Rieleros de Aguascalietes
49	Hector Alvarez	Tigres Capitalinos
50	Luis Trinidad Castillo	Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos
51	Raul Lopez	Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz
52	Roberto Herrera	Industriales de Monterrey
53	Lazaro Tiquet	Cafeteros de Córdoba
54	Alfonso Pulido	Sultanes de Monterrey
55
56	Jaime Orozco	Sultanes de Monterrey
57	Eddie Castro	Petroleros de Minatitlán
58	Luis Alfonso Cruz	Algodoneros de Union Laguna
59	Alejandro Gomez	Piratas de Campeche
60	Isidro Morales	Acereros de Monclova
61	Jesus Antonio Barrera	Olmecas de Tabasco
62
63	Vicente Verdugo	Diablos Rojos del México
64	Ali Uzcanga	Rieleros de Aguascalietes
65
66	Gerardo Sanchez	Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos
67	David Dominguez	Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz
68	Roberto Vizcarra	Industriales de Monterrey
69
70
71	Francisco Montaño	Leones de Yucatan
72
73
74	Jose Angel Villegas	Leones de Yucatan
75
76
77	Manuel Baca	Olmecas de Tabasco
78	Jesus Sommers	Charros de Jalisco
79	Daniel Fernandez	Diablos Rojos del México
80	Enrique Aguilar	Rieleros de Aguascalietes
81	Barbaro Garbey	Tigres Capitalinos
82	Pedró Mere
83
84	Isaac Jiminez	Industriales de Monterrey
85	Ricardo Herrera	Charros de Jalisco
86	Alejandro Sanchez	Acereros de Monclova
87
88	German Rivera	Sultanes de Monterrey
89	Luis de Leon	Petroleros de Minatitlán
90
91	Felipe Gutierrez Delfin	Alacranes de Campeche
92	Rodolfo Valdes	Acereros de Monclova
93	Andres Sanchez	Olmecas de Tabasco
94
95	Luis F. Martinez
96	Larry See	Rieleros de Aguascalietes
97	Eric Mahdi	Tigres Capitalinos
98	Ernesto Barraza	Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos
99	Carlos Miguel Garcia	Alacranes de Campeche
100	Scott Medvin	Industriales de Monterrey
101
102
103
104
105
106	David Sinohui	Petroleros de Minatitlán
107
108	Martin Garcia	Acereros de Monclova
109
110
111	Salome Barojas	Diablos Rojos del México
112	German Jiminez	Rieleros de Aguascalietes
113
114	Ruben Estrada	Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos
115	Miguel Munoz	Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz
116	Porfirio Ochoa	Industriales de Monterrey
117	Abraham Macias	Cafeteros de Córdoba
118	Jesus Moreno	Saraperos de Saltillo
119	Juan Jose Pacho	Leones de Yucatán
120
121
122	Ramon Esquer	Algodoneros de Union Laguna
123	Herminio Dominguez	Alacranes de Campeche
124
125	Martin Morones	Olmecas de Tabasco
126	Ricardo Almodobar	Charros de Jalisco
127	Leobardo Moreno	Diablos Rojos del México
128	Juan Manuel Garcia	Rieleros de Aguascalietes
129
130	Enrique Ramirez	Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos
131
132
133	David Villagomez	Cafeteros de Córdoba
134	Raul Rodriguez	Saraperos de Saltillo
135	Jose J. Bellazetin	Tigres de México
136	Leo Perez	Sultanes de Monterrey
137
138	Jesus Valdez	Algodoneros de Union Laguna
139	Luis E. Huerta	Alacranes de Campeche
140	Raul Perez Tovar	Rojos del Aguila de Veracruz
141	Rusty Tillman	Olmecas de Tabasco
142	Ricardo Renteria	Charros de Jalisco
143
144	Jose Luis Valenzuela	Rieleros de Aguascalietes
145	Gerardo Gutierrez	Tigres Capitalinos
146	Marco Antonio Cruz	Tecolotes de los Dos Laredos
147	Ramon Sambo	Aguila de Veracruz
148	Ramon Abril	Industriales de Monterrey
149
150	Hector Osuna	Saraperos de Saltillo

As usual, thanks to Arturo for helping fill in the gaps in the checklist from his collection.

2005 La Liga Mexicana de Beisbol set update

     The more I dig, the more I keep finding on the 2005 Beisbol Cards set for the Mexican League.   Just yesterday, Google coughed up a listing on a site called Ofertopia.com for 158 different cards from the set.  I can't quite make out what the purpose of Ofertopia may be as there never seems to be any contact or payment information in the listings.  I don't know of these are just historical listings from MercadoLibre or what.  But taking that list and eliminating all of the cards Arturo and I have, left me with a list of 93 more cards.  Unfortunately, there are no images that are large enough to make out details, so I don't have any way to accurately number the cards yet, but here is the list of 93 cards, sorted by team:

****ACEREROS DE MONCLOVA****
AC?? Edgar Vega
AC?? Leobardo Arauz
AC?? Lino Rivera

****DIABLOS ROJOS DE MEXICO***
DR?? Roberto Saucedo
DR?? Oscar Robles
DR?? Víctor Bojórquez
DR?? José Luis "Borrego" Sandoval
DR?? Manuel Velez
DR?? Daniel Fernandez
DR?? Roberto "Metralleta"  Ramirez
DR?? Ray Martinez

***GUERREROS DE OAXACA***
GU?? Francisco Madero
GU?? Josmir Romero
GU?? José de Jesús Jiménez
GU?? José Montenegro
GU?? Jose Isaias Avalos
GU?? Abraham Valencia
GU?? Angel Peña                   
GU?? Juan Carlos Pulido

***LANGOSTEROS DE CANCUN***
LA?? Ruben Quinones
LA?? Langostino y Chirchie  (Mascots)
LA?? Raul Sanchez
LA?? Juan Jose Pacho
LA?? Oscar Salazar
LA?? Hector Chavarria
LA?? Conrado Garza

**LEONES DE YUCATAN**
LE?? Luis Navarro
LE?? Hector Castaneda
LE?? Juan Carlos Canizales
LE?? Willie Romero
LE?? Luis "El Rayo" Arredondo
LE?? Scott Bullet
LE?? Juan Manuel Palafox
LE?? Raul Rodríguez
LE?? Eddy Diaz

**PERICOS DE PUEBLA***
PE?? José Juan Nuñez
PE?? Luis Carlos Martínez
PE?? Omar Espinoza
PE?? Darrel  Sherman
PE?? Cristian Alaniz
PE?? Manny Martinez
PE?? Pedro Iturbe
PE?? Julio Miguel Trapaga
PE?? Armando Valdez
PE?? Jesús Arredondo

**PIRATAS DE CAMPECHE**
PI?? Roque Sanchez
PI?? Francisco "Paquin" Estrada
PI?? Hector Paez
PI?? Francisco Campos
PI?? Juan Jesús Alvarez
PI?? Willis Roberts
PI?? Roberto Vizcarra

****POTROS DE TIJUANA****
PO?? Cesar Peña
PO?? Randall Simon

****AGUILAS DE VERAZRUZ****
RA?? Amaury Garcia
RA?? Leobardo Moreno
RA?? Manuel Casarin
RA?? Eloy Arano

***RIELEROS DE AGUASCALIENTES***
RI?? Ildefonso Lara
RI?? Lino Urdaneta
RI?? Alex Taveras
RI?? Eduardo Ríos
RI?? Rontrez Johnson
RI?? Alexander Delgado
RI?? Grimaldo Martinez
RI?? Francisco Rivera
RI?? Flavio Orea

***SULTANES DE MONTERREY***
SU?? Demond Smith
SU?? Rigoberto Loya
SU?? Miguel Flores
SU?? Mario Valdez
SU?? Charles "Bubba" Smith
SU?? Heber Gomez
SU?? Isaura Pineda
SU?? Sergio Mora

***TIGRES DE LA ANGELOPOLIS***
TI?? Adan Munoz Rodriguez
TI?? Matias Carrillo
TI?? Jorge Vazquez
TI?? Cecilio Garibaldi
TI?? Guillermo Vazquez
TI?? Jesús Guzman
TI?? Carlos "Chispa" Gastelum
TI?? Javier Robles

***TUNEROS DE SAN LUIS****
TU?? Pat O'Sullivan
TU?? Darryl Brinkley
TU?? Luis Bustillos
TU?? Edgar Leyva
TU?? Nestro Renovato
TU?? Enrique Martinez
TU?? Sharnol Adriana
TU?? Dave Doster

****VAQUEROS LAGUNA****
VA?? Ramón Espinosa
VA?? Cornelio García

      If you add those to the updated list from my previous post (click here to see the earlier post), we have a total of 180 cards.  Combining the two lists, the per team card totals look like this:

Acereros - 14
Diablos Rojos - 11
Guerreros - 18
Langosteros - 13
Leones - 13
Pericos- 15
Piratas - 15
Potros - 13
Rojos del Aguilas - 13
Rieleros - 11
Sultanes - 13
Tigres - 14
Tuneros - 14
Vaqueros - 3

    With only three cards representing the Vaqueros, I'm willing to bet the set is closer to 200 cards.  Odd that the Guerreros have so many more cards that the rest of the set so far.   As always, more information will be provided as it is uncovered.  I have to travel to San Diego in January, so I may see if I can find any local card shops that have some history behind them and ask if they know anything about cards from Mexico.

    More to come!