With Friends Like Mark, Who Needs Heritage

Recently Mark from This Way to the Clubhouse reached out to me out of the blue.  I've been enjoying his blog for at least a year or two now so I was happy to hear from him, and I was even happier to hear that he had some Red Sox cards looking for a good home.

2014 Topps Heritage has consumed the blogosphere in recent days.  I haven't looked around for any, not sure if I might pick up a pack or two down the line just to see the cards in person.  In the meantime, I got my '65 Topps retro fix in the form of this fantastic 2003 Upper Deck Vintage No-mah.  This beauty was staring right at me from the top of one of two team set bags chock full of Sox that spilled out of the bubble mailer.

Even the back is very well done.  This is my first card from this set and it sure makes me want to grab the other Red Sox to complete my team set.

This package hit on a whole bunch of team sets that were in sore need of help.  When it comes to '80s and '90s junk wax I do have a lot of the Red Sox cards, but there are always more.  I'm getting to the point with some of those sets where I have more than I don't, so sending me cards from this era can be risky.  Mark took the time to look at my collection on Zistle before sending his package though, and as a result I needed every single card in this first team set bag save two.

Early '90s Finest is the best.  I've got a complete '93 set, which I really should get around to scanning and posting one of these days, but did not have this '94 Sele.

Here's one I needed from Upper Deck's last-ditch baseball effort.  A wise photo choice that really masks the lack of logos well.

Whoops, John got separated from his '88 Score counterparts in the scanning and cropping process!

This Roger Clemens Mini Leaders was on my want list, as it was the final of the four Red Sox cards I needed from this set.  Team set complete.

I really haven't bought much in the way of new product the past couple of years, but Mark was kind enough to get me right up to speed on a number of sets.

With last year's Archives set, I picked up the four Red Sox autographs and that was it.  Now I have some base cards to join them.

Any new Ted Williams card is a good card, period.

Speaking of firsts, my first 1997 Topps card featuring some guy named Pavano.

A great card from what is easily one of the best sets Upper Deck churned out during its time with a baseball license.

Here's one from a less memorable Upper Deck flagship set, my first card from the 2003 release.

This guy was basically a giant bust in Boston, although to be fair injury played a large part in that.  He'll be in pinstripes this coming season.

Traded to Arizona in the summer of 2012.  Has since played with the Indians and is back with Houston, the team with which he began his MLB career, for 2014.

Dealt to the Rockies (where he also began his MLB career) this past off-season.

I'm not sure what it says about the Red Sox that none of the four players on the 2012 Topps cards I received in this package are still with the team.  I guess that's just 21st century baseball.

One of the best names in Red Sox history, Gar Finnvold.  Sadly Gar played just a handful of games early in 1994 before injury, then the player's strike, ended his season and his career.

Another set I had none of (other than the three cards I claimed in Thorzul's 'Trade Me Anything') is 2013 Topps Update Series.  Mark was kind enough to send me my first three...

This guy's an example of how not to handle free agency.  I'm hearing the Tigers now.  First Iglesias and now Drew, Detroit sure likes our former shortstops.

Hey, a guy who's still with the team!

Aside from the Garciaparra that I led off the post with, this might be my favorite card from this portion of the package.  Bradley is one of three younger guys (Middlebrooks, Bogaerts) that the team is expecting big things from if they're going to succeed in 2014.

In closing, some Heritage.  Mark was kind enough to send all these cards (and more which I'll be featuring later) without asking for anything in return.  As you know, that's not how we operate in this hobby so I've already got a return package started that I hope to have in the mail before the weekend.

Mark, keep up the great work, I thoroughly enjoy reading all of your posts, and thank you for the awesome Red Sox cards!