Team Heroes & Tea Men

In lieu of Signature Sundays this week I've gotta start catching up on all the incoming trade packages that I'm dreadfully behind on.  In the lead-off spot is one of my more frequent trading partners, Joe of The Shlabotnik Report.

His latest PWE contained a quintet of Red Sox cards from the 2003 Donruss Team Heroes set.  Sort of a stretch to dub Josh Hancock, who played 3 career games with Boston, a "team hero" but I'll forgive Donruss.  Josh actually passed away as a result of a motor vehicle accident during the 2007 season.  He was speeding, not wearing a seatbelt, carrying weed and a pipe, texting, and drunk to nearly twice the legal limit when the accident happened.  Yikes.  Moving onto some more positive cardboard...

2002 was actually Carlos Baerga's lone season with Boston.  I can honestly say I have zero recollection of this guy with the Sox.  Again, certainly not a team hero.

John Burkett made the final 59 starts of his MLB career with the Red Sox between the 2002 and 2003 seasons.  He had a winning record both years despite a relatively high ERA.

The last two cards from this set are a little closer to what a Boston fan might classify as a team hero.  Tim Wakefield's knuckleball was good enough to land him 430 regular season starts in his 17 seasons with the team, plus more than 150 bullpen appearances.

Another new Nomah rounds out the Donruss Team Heroes portion of this particular PWE.  We've only scratched the surface though, Joe really outdid himself with this delivery...

Another '81 Fleer Sticker!  Unbelievably, as you'll see in a second, this was only the second coolest sticker in this envelope.

Here's a nice SP Authentic card of Johnny Damon laying down a bunt in his pre-caveman days.

Don't get me wrong, I appreciate all the cards Joe sent, but here's where the package really gets amazing.  Everyone knows that Fisk "changed his Sox" in the early '80s and went from Boston to Chicago, now I have a card representing that in my collection. 

I received another O-Pee-Chee card that was even better than that though...

Just awesome!  Most people get bills in the mail, I get a new Yaz (and one that's from his actual playing days to boot).  What a great, great card.  I've had the Topps version for years but never seen the O-Pee-Chee until now.

Today's penultimate card is this SSPC Bill Lee (which has a nice ring to it).  I will always gladly accept absolutely any card from this set that I don't have already, a Red Sox player even more so.  A perfect throw-in by Joe here.

This isn't the first time this has happened with Joe, but my favorite card in the package is actually a soccer card!  I have wanted one of these New England Tea Men stickers for years, but was never willing to pay the asking price on COMC.  When Joe found an entire box of this stuff for a steal I was green with envy.  Being the nice guy that he is, he sent me the extra Tea Men sticker that he pulled.

The Tea Men logo is beyond cool, I love the old wooden ship.  A perfect design for a franchise based in New England if you ask me.  This one is already sitting snugly in my miscellaneous/soccer binder.

Joe, thanks once again for your generosity!  I was a bit ashamed by the last PWE I sent you, especially in light of this amazing one.  Thankfully I was able to hit my local card show earlier today and I have a much better example that's headed your way in tomorrow's mail...