Red Sox Greats & an Old Navigator

Though he closed up shop a while back as far as his blog is concerned, my buddy Mark Kaz (formerly) of This Way to the Clubhouse has still kept up with our back-and-forth PWE venture that has been ongoing for years now. Just this past week I received another nice batch of 9 in fact...

Kicking this round off is this very aesthetically pleasing Jason Varitek from 2003 Fleer Double Header, which is actually smaller in proportion than a standard modern-day trading card.  Not quite as small as the tobacco-sized minis in Allen & Ginter though, but somewhere in between.  I realy like what Fleer did with these, and will be keeping an eye out for some others for sure.

Here's a nice, gaudy "Diamond Mine" Nomar insert from Fleer Ultra.  This is just about as much foil as you could possibly put on a card.  While I don't have it tallied up, I've been getting enough new Nomar cards in trade recently that I may have more Red Sox cards of Garciaparra than any other subject.

From one legendary Boston infielder to another, here's a Dustin Pedroia insert from 2009 Topps Heritage.  The cheapest available copy of this one on COMC at the moment is going for $2.75, which I find odd.

Here's a Bowman Draft Picks & Prospects card that came out during the years I was away from the hobby.  Jon Egan was a hot catching prospect coming out of high school, and many in the Boston organization felt he would be the eventual replacement for Jason Varitek.  Things kind of fell apart rapidly for him though, and he was done with his baseball career just a couple of seasons later.

A good portion of this PWE was made up of this 2002 Fleer Fall Classic set.  I don't recall ever having seen these before, but they are nice cards for sure.

I do wonder if perhaps Fleer had a better photo of Carlton Fisk on file though?  At the very least maybe one where his derriere was not so much the focal point.

Much better.

Not surprisingly, my favorite of the four Fleer Fall Classic cards I received was this fabulous Dom DiMaggio.  It's a rare opportunity when I get to add a new card of Joe's little bro to my collection.  I'm curious, does anyone know what that patch is on Don's sleeve?

I'll close the post out with my personal favorite from this PWE, a nice shiny refractor of Ramiro Mendoza from 2003 Topps Chrome Traded & Rookies. 

I'm sure some folks might find it strange that this would be my pick of the PWE, but I have somewhat of a personal tie to Mendoza.  A draft pick of the Yankees in the mid-'90s, he was a member of their AA affiliate at the time, the Norwich Navigators, who played their home games less than half an hour from where I lived.  For a couple of summers there I really enjoyed those minor league games, and to this day I'm still reminded of them when I get new cards of former Navigators like this.

Thanks as always for the cardboard Mark, I'll be returning fire by the weekend at latest!