When it comes to generosity in the blogging world, I have found that it is quite difficult to compare with Johnny of Johnny's Trading Spot.
When I went to get the mail two weeks ago, I was more than surprised to see two envelopes from him amongst the rest of the usual potpourri.
I wasted little time in opening them up, and there were lots of goodies for me to share.
We start out with a handful of 2025 Topps chrome Rangers. The photographers came up with some good action shots for these cards. It's always great to add more deGrom, Seager and Semien to the collection.
More shiny! I wasn't very familiar with Anthony Gutierrez. However, a quick look at Baseball Reference reveals that the 20-year old speedster is currently in High-A with the Rangers. This season he slashed .258/.333/.320 with 48 steals in 89 games for the Hub City Spartanburgers (what a name!).
We have two A&G cards next, the first being 2021 Allen & Ginter X (had to look that up) Sam Huff, and the second being a 2024 A&G chrome card of Owen White. I always enjoy a good Allen & Ginter card. White is with the White Sox right now, and Huff with the Giants.
Three more Semiens added in. I've said this once before, but I'm a fan of Bowman's design this year. I'm also a big fan of this particular card. The amount of Marcus Semien cards in my collection that came from John is kinda insane.
I had forgotten Leody is with the Mariners now.
I like this card a lot. After all, what can be more fun than 'Flashback Fridays?' Young is currently in the Rangers organization as a special assistant to the general manager. Fun Fact: he has a cousin who is a former boxing champion. Who knew?
Larry Parrish played with the Rangers from 1982-1988. His drop-off from 1987 to 1988 is really sad. He went from Star Sticker (32 HR, 100 RBI in '87) to .190 in 68 games with Texas before he was released in 1988. His career as a whole was a solid one though -- .263 batting average and 256 home runs in 15 seasons.
As much as I love my current Rangers, this card has got to be the main highlight of an amazing couple of PWEs. I like the dual-colored stripes coming up the left side of the card. But the autograph is what catches my eye, of course. And not the facsimile one.
Mickey Rivers played an impressive 15-year career which ended with five and a half seasons (though they weren't complete years) with the Rangers. All in all, Rivers batted .295 with 1,660 hits and 60 home runs. He also stole 267 bases.
We're not through yet. There was one other item included in the PWEs.
The 1991 Rangers finished the season third in the AL West with a record of 85-77, 10 games behind the World Series winning Twins. The playoffs were so much simpler then. These days it's hard to think only four total teams made the playoffs.
Along with holding the team's schedule (of course), the pocket schedule contained a list of promotions they did in 1991, and order slip for the tickets you would purchase, and a diagram showing ticket prices.
Would you believe tickets behind home plate were only $13?!?! Or that a group of 25 tickets were just a dollar each? If you went to a ballgame in 1991, maybe you do. I'm a little too young to know prices that good 😂
That does it for the surprise from Johhny's Trading Spot. Thank you so much for your remarkable generosity and for the amazing new additions to my collection. I truly appreciate it.
Y'all have an amazing weekend, and happy collecting!
