SLU Showcase #8 - O Canada, Where Art Thou?

As a Starting Lineup fan and collector since childhood, I've always been intrigued by what figures Kenner didn't produce. Dave Krieg has a beard on his 1988 figure because Dan Fouts was pulled from the set upon his retirement and repurposed as the Seahawks' signal-caller.

Staying in Seattle, Steve Largent was listed on the backer checklist for both the 1988 and 1989 releases but his figure was never released. I had an SLU connection as a teen and asked the guy the find one for me. He informed me it was never made, and the Kenner Kid concurred. It's still unclear as to why Largent was excluded - perhaps it was his decision not to be immortalized in plastic?

There's also the curious case of the 1989 Starting Lineup basketball set - which I mentioned on this blog before. There are 77 figures listed on this backer checklist - but only four (and one unlisted Larry Nance) were actually produced?!?


It's much easier to explain why there were no Starting Lineup hockey figures from 1988 to 1992. Kenner had little faith in the Canadian market, and hockey wasn't popular in much of the US. Which is why I filled in the “lost years” with checklists of my own. [If you missed those posts, I linked them here.]

As a result, the two Canadian-based baseball teams got the minimum amount of representation in early SLU sets. Here is the only Expos player in the 1988 edition:

And here is the lone Blue Jay in the '88 set.

This trend continued through Toronto's first championship season of 1992:

Montreal was limited to one figure per set in nearly every release up to and including their World Series winning 1994 season.

So let's presume that Kenner viewed these two franchises like any other at the time, and fill in the players who should have been included - particularly in the large sets of '88 and '89. My picks for the '88 Expos are:

• Tim Burke
• Andres Galarraga
• Dennis Martinez
• Tim Raines
• Bryn Smith
• Tim Wallach

Let's add a couple more to account for the expanded set in 1989:

• *Hubie Brooks
• Andres Galarraga
• Dennis Martinez
• *Otis Nixon
• *Pascual Perez
• Tim Raines
• Bryn Smith
• Tim Wallach

I'm on the fence about Otis Nixon - he stole 46 bases for the Expos (in just 90 games) but was a below average player overall, and the outfielder-in-a-sliding-pose slot is already filled by Tim Raines.

Now for the Toronto Blue Jays. Here's the '88 mock-team set:

• Jesse Barfield
• George Bell
• Jim Clancy
• Tony Fernandez
• Tom Henke
• Jimmy Key
• Lloyd Moseby
• Rance Mulliniks

 

And 1989, when the Jays were A.L. East champions for the second time:

• George Bell
• Tony Fernandez
• *Kelly Gruber
• Tom Henke
• Jimmy Key
• *Fred McGriff
• Rance Mulliniks
• *Dave Stieb
• *Ernie Whitt

 

 *=new figure added


Stieb and Fernandez never appeared in a Starting Lineup set*, which leads me to wonder... who are some of the best baseball players not to have an action figure? A post idea for another day.

*except this one

The Starting Lineup Gallery tab is now open, starting with my figures from American League teams.

Thanks for reading!



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Toronto Blue Jays All-Time Team

Greetings, eh? The Collector's All-Time teams series wraps up the American League East with a stop across the border. Let's visit the Rogers Centre in cosmopolitan Toronto, Ontario for a look at the Blue Jays All-Time roster.

The Blue Jays won back-to-back World Series titles three decades ago, in 1992 and 1993.

Cito Gaston was the first (and second) African-American manager to win a World Series. Here's his lineup for the All-Time Jays.

Three first basemen in a row? Not exactly; Delgado is Toronto's DH and Encarnacion will play third base.

These players are all safe - for now. How about Gaston's bench bats?

Gregg Zaun had some competition as the backup catcher.

	Blue Jays stats	WAR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
	*Gregg Zaun	10.8	0.255	0.354	0.399	0.753	98
	Darrin Fletcher	4.9	0.276	0.318	0.434	0.752	92
	Russell Martin	8.3	0.225	0.336	0.399	0.735	99

Meanwhile Lyle Overbay, Willie Upshaw, and Josh Donaldson were brought in to compete with Adam Lind and Rance Mulliniks for a corner infield spot. In the end, Cito decided to stick with the status quo.

Did he do the same for Shannon Stewart, who had some fresh competition as the fifth outfielder?

	Blue Jays stats	WAR	BA	OBP	SLG	OPS	OPS+
	*Shannon Stewart	18.7	0.298	0.365	0.440	0.790	106
	Lloyd Moseby	26.0	0.257	0.333	0.415	0.748	103
	Teoscar Hernandez	10.5	0.263	0.320	0.503	0.823	122

Stewart's underrated bat gives him the slight edge. Hernandez won't be adding to his Toronto totals; he was traded to Seattle this past off-season.

There were two battles brewing in the pitching rotation - one at the top and one at the bottom.

Does Dave Stieb belong in the Hall of Fame? Jon Bois says he does. Does the Blue Jays' all-time leader in WAR belong at the top of Toronto's rotation ahead of Hall of Famer Roy Halladay?

	Blue Jays stats	WAR	ERA	ERA+	K/BB	WHIP
	*Roy Halladay	48.4	3.43	133	3.29	1.198
	*Dave Stieb	56.9	3.42	123	1.63	1.241

No change neccesary. How about the fifth starter battle?

	Blue Jays stats	WAR	ERA	ERA+	K/BB	WHIP
	*David Wells	15.0	4.06	110	2.67	1.275
	Jim Clancy	24.8	4.10	103	1.52	1.360
	Marcus Stroman	12.5	3.76	114	2.87	1.278

Boomer never seemed like a Blue Jay to me, but Stroman wasn't in the Six long enough. Wells wins the job.

The Toronto roster is chalk so far. However Gaston did attempt to overhaul the Blue Jays bullpen.

Jason Frasor, Scott Downs, and Casey Janssen were thrown into an eight-man mix that included Barnstomers reliever Mike Timlin.

	Blue Jays stats	SV	ERA	ERA+	K/BB	WHIP
	Casey Janssen	90	3.52	122	3.04	1.219
	Jason Frasor	36	3.73	119	2.22	1.310
	Scott Downs	16	3.13	141	2.40	1.231
	Mike Timlin	52	3.62	125	1.98	1.363
	Paul Quantrill	15	3.67	131	2.32	1.441
	Roberto Osuna	104	2.87	150	6.33	0.919
	Aaron Loup	6	3.47	120	3.03	1.271
	Roy Lee Jackson	30	3.50	122	1.59	1.291

Roberto Osuna did a lot of damage in a short amount of time. He'll take Frasor's spot as a set-up man to "Terminator" Tom Henke. Jannsen and Downs keep their roster spots, while Timlin and Quantrill get a second chance in the Barnstormers bullpen.

Looking ahead, the Blue Jays have loads of young stars that could force a shakeup on the All-Time roster. Alek Manoah, Jordan Romano, and Alejando Kirk are on the right track. And then there's these two:

Both Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Bo Bichette are technically eligible now. Bichette is close to pushing for a bench spot, while Vlad has a 1st base/DH logjam to break though. The future looks very bright for the Blue Jays.

TL; DR: One change from the original roster. Frasor out, Osuna in.

We'll stay along the Atlantic this week with a look at the National League's eastern teams. Come back Thursday for the Atlanta Braves All-Time roster.


Thanks for reading!

 

 

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All-Time Teams: Blue Jays

Our last two franchises called Canada home for over 35 years. Today's team is still going strong in "the six". Here’s the All-Time roster for the Toronto Blue Jays:

Manager: Cito Gaston

Home:  SkyDome (Rogers Centre)

Leading off for the Blue Jays.. the Second Baseman.. Roberto Alomar

Roberto Alomar played for seven teams in his seventeen year career. An All-Star every season from 1990-2001, Alomar earned ten Gold Gloves, four Silver Sluggers, ALCS MVP honors, and two World Series rings in that span. The first player with a Blue Jay on his Hall of Fame plaque and the first player to have his number retired by the team, Robbie ranks second in franchise history with a .307 batting average and second with 206 stolen bases. His 474 career steals are the fifth-most all-time among second basemen.

Batting second for Toronto.. the First Baseman.. John Olerud

John Olerud has the highest career on-base percentage in Blue Jays history, posting a .395 mark over his eight seasons with the club. The three-time Gold Glove recipient finished third in AL MVP voting in 1993, chasing .400 into August and ending with a league-high .363 average to go with major league-leading totals of 54 doubles and a .473 on-base mark. His career WAR of 58.1 is 21st all-time among first basemen and ranks ahead of Hall of Famers Hank Greenberg and George Sisler.



Batting third.. the Designated Hitter.. Carlos Delgado

The all-time leader in home runs by a Puerto Rican-born player, Carlos Delgado ranks 14th among all first basemen in history with 473 round-trippers. He's the Blue Jays career leader in home runs, runs batted in, runs scored, runs created, slugging, OPS, doubles, and total bases. Delgado received just two All-Star nods - in 2000, when he led the league with 57 doubles and 378 total bases, and in 2003, when he led the majors with 145 RBI and paced the AL with a 1.019 OPS. He finished runner-up to Alex Rodriguez in MVP voting and won his third Silver Slugger award after the '03 season.





Batting fourth.. the Third Baseman.. Edwin Encarnacion

Edwin Encarnacion became a breakout star for Toronto in 2012, blasting 42 home runs and beginning an eight-season streak of 30 or more. The three-time All-Star posted six seasons of 100+ RBI in that span, powering the Blue Jays to ALCS appearances in 2015 and 2016. Edwin took "Edwing" for a walk 239 times as a Blue Jay, the third-highest home run total in team history. His .522 slugging percentage is the fourth-highest ever for the franchise, and his .878 OPS is tied for fourth with the next player in this lineup.






Batting fifth.. the Right Fielder.. Jose Bautista

Jose Bautista was once discarded by five teams in the span of eight months. He arrived in Toronto in 2008 and became a superstar two years later, earning the first of six consecutive All-Star appearances and the first of three Silver Slugger awards with a breakout season for the ages. "Joey Bats" led the majors in home runs in 2010 and 2011, finishing top-4 in MVP voting both times. Over ten seasons in Toronto he accumulated 38.2 WAR - the highest total of any Blue Jays position player - and his 288 hone runs for the franchise are second only to Carlos Delgado.






Batting sixth.. the Left Fielder.. George Bell

Toronto's first league MVP award winner, George Bell also earned his third consecutive Silver Slugger award in 1987 after leading the majors with 369 total bases and smacking a career-high 47 home runs. Bell posted seven more seasons of 20 or more long balls, finishing fourth in MVP voting in 1986 and 1989. He ranks fourth on the Blue Jays' career list in total bases and RBI, fifth in hits and doubles, and sixth in home runs and runs scored. After signing with the Cubs before the 1991 season Bell was shipped to the White Sox in a 1992 trade that sent Sammy Sosa to the Cubs.





Batting seventh.. the Center Fielder.. Vernon Wells

The fifth overall pick in the 1997 draft, Vernon Wells posted the fifth-highest career WAR of his draft class and the fifth-highest among Blue Jays position players. A three-time All-Star and three-time Gold Glove winner, Wells hit 30 or more home runs three times, collected 100 or more RBI three times, and batted .300 or better three times. In 2003 Wells led the AL with 49 doubles and 373 total bases, and his 215 hits led the majors. He ended his 15-year career with the Yankees in 2013 without participating in a single postseason game.

Batting eighth.. the Shortstop.. Tony Fernandez

Tony Fernandez was one of the top shortstops of the late 1980s, earning three All-Star appearances and four consecutive Gold Gloves from 1986-1989. Fernandez helped the Blue Jays win two division titles before being shipped to San Diego in a blockbuster trade. He returned in time to help Toronto repeat as World Champions in 1993. In all, Fernandez played twelve seasons in four separate stints with the team. His final full season at age 37 may have been his best, posting a .328/.427/.449 slash line with a career-high 75 RBI for the Jays in 1999. Tony has the highest defensive WAR and the second-highest total WAR of any position player in franchise history.

Batting ninth.. the Catcher.. Ernie Whitt

Ernie Whitt is sixth in Blue Jays' history with 1,218 games played - squatting behind the plate for all but eight of those contests. At the plate Whitt hit 131 home runs for Toronto, the tenth-highest total in team history. He smacked ten or more home runs each year from 1982-1989, including two seasons of 19 long balls. Whitt played a career-high 139 games in 1985, earning an All-Star selection and helping the Blue Jays reach the postseason for the first time in franchise history. 

The Starting Pitcher for the Blue Jays.. Roy Halladay

An exceptionally durable ace throughout his Hall of Fame career, Roy Halladay led the league in innings pitched four times and complete games seven times. "Doc" won Cy Young awards in both leagues, finished top-5 in voting five other times, and made eight All-Star squads. Halladay is second among Blue Jays in WAR, wins, shutouts, strikeouts, strikeout-to-walk ratio, and ERA+. In 2010 he pitched a no-hitter for the Phillies in his first playoff start, only the second such game in postseason history.

 Now let's take a look at the Blue Jays' bench and bullpen:

Catcher - Gregg Zaun

1st Base - Adam Lind

Infield - Rance Mulliniks

Outfield - Shannon Stewart

Outfield - Jesse Barfield

Zaun played 212 fewer games for Toronto than Pat Borders did, but his on-base percentage for the team is 64 points higher and hit nearly as many home runs. Lind won a Silver Slugger in 2009 after hitting 35 of his 146 home runs for the Jays. Mulliniks batted .300 or better three times; if Josh Donaldson had played one more season in T.O. the spot would have been his. Mulliniks and Stewart are tied for ninth on the Jays' career on-base percentage list. Stewart's .298 batting average ranks fourth for the franchise. Barfield has the second-highest defensive WAR and the fourth-highest overall WAR among Blue Jay position players.

#2 Starter - Dave Stieb

#3 Starter - Jimmy Key

#4 Starter - Pat Hentgen

#5 Starter - David Wells

Stieb made seven All-Star teams, led the league in ERA+ twice, and holds Blue Jays records for starts, wins, innings pitched, and strikeouts. His career WAR total is the highest of any player in franchise history. Key finished top-4 in Cy Young voting three times and his 1.196 WHIP is the lowest of any Toronto starter. Hentgen won 20 games and the Cy Young Award in 1996. Wells began his career in the Blue Jays' bullpen, then returned to Toronto in the Roger Clemens trade. "Boomer" finished third in AL Cy Young voting in 1998 and 2000. His longevity and low walk rate were enough to earn the fifth starter spot over Jim Clancy.
 

RH Reliever - Mark Eichhorn
RH Reliever - Jason Frasor

LH Reliever - Scott Downs

RH Reliever - Casey Janssen

RH Reliever - Duane Ward

RH Reliever - Tom Henke

Eichhorn finished sixth in AL Cy Young voting as a rookie long reliever in 1986, then led the league with 89 appearances in 1987. Frasor's 505 relief appearances are the most in Blue Jays history. Downs paced the AL with 81 relief appearances in 2007 and posted a 3.13 ERA over six seasons in Toronto. Janssen has the fifth-most saves and appearances in Jays' annals. Ward is second in both categories and earned a league-leading 45 saves for the World Champions in 1993. Henke is the Blue Jays' career leader in saves, WHIP, ERA, and strikeouts per 9 innings. He led the AL in saves and appearances in 1987.




The World Champion Washington Nationals will close out this All-Time Teams series. 


Thanks for reading!



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Sports Card Tour 2018 - Toronto

Oh, Canada! The final leg of our tour features three stops in the great white north. Today we're in Toronto. This is going to be one of the longest SCT posts as I have a lot of personal stories to share. Soarie aboot that. ;-P

Toronto is home to four pro sports teams - and the Hockey Hall of Fame. The Maple Leafs have won 13 Stanley Cups, more than any NHL club except their hated arch-rivals the Montreal Canadiens. However they have not even reached the final since the league was comprised of only six teams.

I have a few Leafs legends in my collection, including defenseman (and donut magnate) Tim Horton, Borje Salming and Darryl Sittler. I flipped over the Frank Mahovilich because I've never seen card text refer to a player as "handsome" before. I'm not disagreeing with Topps, I just found it interesting.

Bill Barilko won four Stanley Cups in five seasons with the Leafs. His overtime game-winner clinched the Cup for Toronto in 1951..and he disappeared that summer. Barilko's story was the subject of a Pro Set hockey card and a Tragically Hip song.

The only slabbed single you will see in this post is this Jacques Plante O-Pee-Chee card.

I had been watching a graded copy on COMC but the price wasn't right, so I searched for ungraded copies and snagged this one for $10.05..then sent it in to PSA. Plante won six Stanley Cups-all with the Canadiens. He was 42 years old when this card was released and played pro hockey until he was 46. 

The Leafs left their historic home arena Maple Leaf Gardens during the 1998-99 season. I happened to be dating an Ontario girl at the time and spent nearly the entire first half of '99 in the Greater Toronto Area.  

She took me to a couple card shops (we might have attended the Toronto Expo but the admission price scared her off), the Hockey Hall of Fame, Wayne Gretzky's restaurant, and a Blue Jays game at SkyDome (I'll get to that.)

She even managed to score tickets to a Leafs-Flyers playoff game at their new home, Air Canada Centre. The game was 1-1 early, and then nothing happened for a while. I remember feeling like the fans were oddly quiet and tense, until Toronto scored in overtime and sent everyone home happy. We exited through a mall or something, and there was a young kid working as a greeter outside a restaurant. He spotted us and asked "Did we win?" Fionna told him "we" did and he pumped his fist in celebration. 

I was actually a little bit of a Leafs fan before I met her. Felix Potvin and Doug Gilmour were two of my favorite players in 1993, when the Leafs reached the Western Conference Finals (you read that right.) I even bought a shark tooth-style Maple Leafs hat (I'm wearing it in the Maple Leaf Gardens picture) in a Bradlees and wore it throughout the playoffs. I sold it a few years ago and the guy who bought it tried to file a claim against me with eBay - even though I clearly stated the had was old and had been worn frequently. Feebay ruled against him because he admitted to altering the item.

Toronto would lose the 1994 Conference Final to the next team on our tour, Vancouver. That prompted the Leafs to shake up their roster by trading popular captain Wendel Clark to Quebec for Mats Sundin.

My ex was a huge Sundin fan and so I became one, too. One of the very first items I bought on eBay was an autographed 8 x 10 of Mats - when he was with the Nordiques. The photo was smudged up pretty bad, but I was too much of a noob to complain. At one point I had a Sundin PC with over 100 cards, a "Suntouchable" poster, and a McFarlane figure. After Fionna and I broke up I pared down the Sundin card collection to a more manageable amount. It now stands at 33 Leafs cards, and probably about 40 overall.

Longtime Leaf Ron Ellis was a member of their last Cup-winning team in 1967. Fionna told me Ellis was her gym teacher (in high school I assume) so I bought two of his cards and gave her one. (I also bought her that Leafs jersey she's wearing in that very dark picture we took at MLG.)

 

I was even a little bit of a Leafs fan after she and I had gone our separate ways. In 2002 the Maple Leafs (rightfully realinged to the NHL's Eastern Conference) had advanced to the conference semi-finals along with two other Canadian teams..and Carolina. Surely a Canadian team would win the East and advance to the Stanley Cup Final..right? Wrong. Toronto beat Ottawa in the second round, then lost to the Canes in the Conference Final. 

The Leafs were dead to me after that.

 

I stopped collecting Upper Deck hockey sets in 2016-and the Maple Leafs are to blame. The Young Guns subset in '16-17 was loaded with Leafs, and I didn't have any interest (or money) to compete with that crazy collector base over $200 Auston Matthews RCs. As a result, these are my only cards of Matthews-and Mitch Marner, who is also part of that rookie class.  

John Tavares became the latest marquee player to sign a free agent contract with his boyhood team. Returning home has been a trend in hockey for a long time - from Tavares, James van Riemsdyk*, and Patrick Maroon this year to Kevin Shattenkirk, Zach Parise, and Ilya Kovalchuk in years past. Auston Matthews is from Arizona. I'm just saying...

 *at least that's how he tells it. The Devils are his hometown team, not Philly. 

The last two Toronto titles belong to the Blue Jays. American League East champions in 1985, the Jays were knocking on the door in the late '80s..and burst it open after moving in to the state-of-the-art SkyDome. Attendance soared, reaching record totals of over 4 million fans per year. The added revenue allowed the team to build a back-to back World Series winner..in the two seasons preceding the strike.

The World Series truly became a World Series when the Blue Jays beat the Braves for the 1992 title. In 1993, John Olerud was chasing .400 well into the summer. (All of my collecting friends were trying to get our hands on his Leaf RC.) He finished the year at .363 and won the batting title. Toronto teammates Paul Molitor and Roberto Alomar finished second and third that year.

Joe Carter's home run off Phillies' closer Mitch Williams was only the second World Series-clinching homer in history. Carter and Alomar arrived from San Diego in a 1990 trade that involved four high-profile players.

I don't have nearly as many Carter cards as I should (probably traded 'em all to Mike or Robert) so I added some other Jays faves to this scan - including Edwin Encarnacion taking Edwing for a walk, Eric Lindros taking BP with the Jays (he ended up with his hometown Leafs eventually) and one of my favorite Clemens cards.

Alex Rios, Guillermo Quiroz, and Dustin McGowan played for the New Haven Ravens when they were a Toronto affiliate; the franchise moved closer to its parent club, in New Hampshire, after the 2003 season. I went to the Ravens' last game with a couple friends. The fans were allowed to go onto the field and run the bases. All the memorabilia had been picked clean; we couldn't even find a foul ball.

So..about that Blue Jays game I attended in the spring of 1999. I can't remember who they were playing - thought it was the Devil Rays because I remember Jose Canseco hitting a long home run - and so I checked my stack of ticket stubs. Apparently I went to two Jays games that year. 

There was a promotion going on involving back-to-back home runs or two home runs in the same inning which the Jays didn't do against Tampa, so this much have been the Tigers game. If the home team homered twice, everyone in our section would get a free Blue Jays hat. Toronto hit back-to-back home runs twice in that game, so I don't even remember the inning. I just remember we were going to get a free hat.

How did we acquire said hats? They were not handed to each one of us as we left our seats. They were tossed at us by some dumb college girl (sorry..university girl) in between innings. I reached up for mine at the same time as the man sitting in front of me. Figured I'd be polite and let him have that one (I was in Canada, after all.) He somehow grabbed another one for his little boy..and then the girl ran out of hats to throw at us. An instant later, the man and his boy left the game. Yeah, take off hoser.

I had this Fred McGriff Donruss rookie card when I was a young collector. It was one of those cards I mysteriously lost, like my 1984 Donruss Nolan Ryan and my SI for Kids Kim Zmeskal card. The Crime Dog is back in my collection but the Ryan isn't. I don't have any key rookies from 1984 Fleer Update like Clemens, Puckett, or even Dwight Gooden - but I do have the Jimmy Key. Does anyone remember that SportsCenter commercial where they rushed the young anchor up to the big show before he was ready? Jimmy Key..what's he, like..45? I could hit him!

The best of my Blue Jays hits, including some color-matching refractors. Joey Bats was my dude for a while-but his attitude went south at the same time as his ability. I liked Tulo, too, but the guy is made of glass so I had to demote his base cards back to the binders. Who's ready for Vlad Jr. to debut? I'm not-I only have two of his Bowman prospect cards.

Sorry, guys. I'm keeping those Vlad cards. This is the only Argos card in my collection - Dollar Store Doug sent me one of every CFL team. [Are you guys cool with my short-hand nicknames for bloggers such as "Dollar Store Doug", "Shoebox Shane",  "Dime Box Nick" ..and so on?]

The Raptors made a blockbuster trade last week, sending DeMar DeRozan to San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard. Both players were unhappy with the trade - Leonard didn't want to go to Toronto and DeRozan didn't want to leave. I'm no NBA expert, but it seems awfully risky trading a franchise stalwart for an equal-to-slightly better player who is coming off a major injury and will be a free agent at the end of the year. 

The franchise has only advanced to the conference final once (in 2016) and now that LeBron James has signed with the Lakers, the East is wide open. It could be a small window though - Kawhi will likely leave and Kyle Lowry will be 33 at the end of the season. This Immaculate base card sat on my COMC watch list for a while. I finally bought it for $1.15 in February.

Many of my newest Toronto cards are Raptors; this DeMarre Carroll dual patch came home in my latest COMC order. It only cost $1.75 due to 'top left corner wear.'

This Vince Carter Black Diamond RC was one of the hundred or so basketball cards I saved when I purged most of my collection. When I worked at a card shop there was another guy who came into the store a lot, and one day he grabbed a bunch of packs and started opening them. He was a cop, so I assumed he was going to pay for them all (maybe he had a 'tab' with the owner?) I joined in on the fun and pulled this Carter card. I would have been annoyed if I hadn't, the guy told me to pay for my packs - even though I was the employee!

Vince Carter was the first star I remember who actually embraced playing on a non-US team. "Air Canada" nearly got the Raps to the conference final in 2001-but he missed the final shot  in Game 7.

How long has Carter been an active NBA player? His cousin (and onetime Toronto teammate) Tracy McGrady is younger than him...and he's already in the Hall of Fame.

I don't have any McGrady Raptors cards, but I did buy his Finest RC at a card-and-coin shop back in the day. The proprietors were older gentlemen who didn't follow sports all that much. I found the T-Mac RC in a dime box and couldn't believe my eyes. Not sure what it's worth now but at the time it was $10.

The rest of my Raptors hits, including a Chris Bosh Chrome RC. The Serge Ibaka Certified cost $1.18 on COMC; I probably could have saved a few cents if I waited a while but I didn't want to risk losing or forgetting about it.

I only have 18 Raptors cards in my commons binder. (not including Bosh-he's a star player.) That's the least I have of any NBA team - partially because they're one of the newest NBA franchises (half of my basketball commons are from 1990-93) but also because other bloggers often get dibs on the Raptors cards. 

Favorite Maple Leafs player (current): it might be John Tavares
Favorite Maple Leafs player (all-time): Mats Sundin and Felix Potvin
Favorite Blue Jays player (current): I kind of like Stroman, Granderson, Tulo, and Donaldson..but not enough to have a clear fave
Favorite Blue Jays player (all-time): Jose Bautista
Favorite Raptors player (current): Kyle Lowry or Serge Ibaka
Favorite Raptors player (all-time): Vince Carter..Chris Bosh a close second

Next tour stop: Vancouver


Thanks for reading!


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