Return of the Bullpen Cart

OK this is ancient news since it happened back in 2018. For some baseball fans it isn't anything special to write about, but to some old-timers like myself it reaches back to our childhoods. I'm talking about the bullpen carts, modified golf carts designed to look like a motorized batting helmet. Back in the late 1960s and early 1970s the MLB had bullpen carts to escort relief pitchers onto the field. Actually now-days they drive around the warning track. They probably did that back then as well, my recollection of them are more vivid because of the plastic toys of the time. More so the NFL helmet carts which were the carts they drive onto the field to take severely injured players off the field. The football carts of course had that full football helmet design. Back in the day the baseball carts were more shaped like a baseball cap and the carts for both sports looked a bit bulky.

So for the 2018 baseball season the bullpen cart returned. The design uses a batting helmet for the main body and the support bars are shaped like bats. The Arizona Diamondbacks were the team to debut the new wave of bullpen carts. If memory serves it was the Washington Nationals then closer Sean Doolittle who was the first pitcher to use it. Maybe he was the first visiting pitcher.

Long story short Topps made a Topps Now card to celebrate the event (there is even an Allen & Ginter card that I plan on getting) I eventually got it. I waited way too long to get it at the original under ten dollars prices. I even went through a period of it not being available on Ebay for a few months. When it finally did come back the prices were super high, higher than I like to pay. Anyway I eventually paid $15 for a copy. I almost had to go up to $20 or more. Also of interest with this card is the seller sent the Topps Now packet "case" the cards come in when you get them directly from Topps and not from some dealer who has already opened the pack to scan the card for their listings.

So here is the card:
Front:

Back:

and the packet/envelope front:

2012 Opening Day Macots Set

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots Set

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-2 The Bird Baltimore Orioles

I originally started drafting this post ages ago. Like a ton of other posts on this blog. Yeah I have more than a few dusty posts in my drafting queue here and on my other two blogs. A very long while back (around 2013 something) from Ebay I got the 2012 Topps Baseball Opening Day Mascots insert set (numbered M1-M25). Got it for $22.99 + $3.50 shipping. Not a steal or a deal but I have seen them for way more.

The Opening Day set is almost identical to the flagship set with the exception of the "Opening Day" logo with the red, white, and blue bunting on the front. For players they usually use the same photo from the flagship set, but not always. The Mascots are not part of the regular flagship set they are the only picture in most cases of the mascot for that year. Some of them make cameo appearances on player cards or their team cards. I recall some years they have had variant picture cards for some of the players interacting with the mascots for special short prints. The backs of the cards are like the flagship backs not much different. The card numbers for the mascot cards for 2012 use the "M - #" format. There are 25 cards in the set. I used to mistakenly call it a "sub-set", but the numbering indicates it is a separate insert set.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-2 The Bird Baltimore Orioles Back

Most of the 30 MLB teams have mascots, the Angels, Dodgers and Yankees are the only teams without an official, or unofficial mascot. Years ago the Yankees had a mascot from 1979-1981 named Dandy he was a strange looking beast. I couldn't decide which picture to post from my searching so I didn't. You'll have to Google, or Bing or Yahoo search to see what the fella looked like. I'm not sure if I'll get around to featuring him at all since I don't think he is officially on a card, even though the blog? Baseball Think Factory dot org has a mock-up 2011 Topps Opening Day card showing him. The Cubs used to be mascotless but in 2014 they announced Clark the Cub as their official mascot, their first official mascot in ages. In 2012 for this set Clark was not yet discovered. The only other team mascot NOT in this set is Lou Seal of the Giants, for some reason he was left out of this set, yet he is in others. In some cases a team has more than one mascot, but only the official mascot or the most popular one is shown in this set. I hate when they leave some of these guys out.

An odd thing about this set is the card for Homer The Brave of the Atlanta Braves is the only card that is landscape (horizontal) oriented. The rest are the standard portrait (normal vertical) orientation.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-8 Homer Atlanta Braves

Front and Back

M-1 Bernie Brewer Brewers
M-2 The Oriole Bird Baltimore Orioles
M-3 Ace The Blue Jays
M-4 Baxter The Bob Cat Diamondbacks
M-5 Fredbird Cardinals
M-6 Raymond Rays
M-7 Mr. Met Mets
M-8 Homer The Brave Braves
M-9 Rangers Captain Rangers

M-10 Pirate Parrot Pirates
M-11 Billy The Marlin Marlins
M-12 Paws Tigers
M-13 Dinger Rockies
M-14 Phillie Phanatic Phillies
M-15 Slugger Royals
M-16 Wally The Green Monster Red Sox
M-17 Gapper Reds
M-18 Slider Indians

M-19 TC Bear Twins
M-20 Swinging Friar Padres
M-21 Southpaw White Sox
M-22 Screech Nationals
M-23 Mariner Moose Mariners
M-24 Stomper Athletics
M-25 Junction Jack Astros

Today (Monday 03 April, 2017) is Home Opening Day for my Homies the Washington Nationals they kick things off at home with the Marlins. Screech will be there cheering on the Nats.

2012 Topps Opening Day Baseball: Mascots: M-22 Screech Washington Nationals
Front and Back

Look for my weekly occasional feature on this blog "Mascot Monday".

Collect The Mascots 2006 Upper Deck

I mentioned this particular set when I presented one of the cards from it for my Mascot Mondays post on Mr. Met. It was produced by Upper Deck in 2006 and is a mini-set of just three cards. Designed for kids and part of some online card giveaway or contest. They apparently were inserts to the regular 2006 Upper Deck Baseball set. So here are the three cards from:

2006 Upper Deck Collect The Mascots Set

This set features three of the most popular MLB Mascots at the time it was produced; Wally The Green Monster (Red Sox), The Phillie Phanatic (Phillies) and Mr. Met (Mets). The backs are all the same telling how the giveaway works. The only differences on the backs are the actual card number in the upper left corner and the website card entry code for that card at the bottom. Everything else is the same.

2006 Upper Deck Baseball - Collect The Mascots

MLB-1 Wally The Green Monster - Red Sox

(Front and Back)

 2006 Upper Deck Baseball - Collect The Mascots

MLB-2 Phillie Phanatic - Phillies

(Front and Back)

 2006 Upper Deck Baseball - Collect The Mascots

MLB-3 Mr. Met - Mets

(Front and Back)

Mascot Monday: BJ Birdy

BJ BIRDY

Toronto Blue Jays Mascot 1979 -1999

(Portrayed by Kevin Shanahan)

OK so in 1977 MLB started up two expansion teams the Seattle Mariners and the Toronto Blue Jays. The Blue Jays became the second team from Canada in the league. Since the Montreal Expos left the country to become the Washington Nationals in 2005 the Blue Jays are now the ONLY Canadian team in baseball's Major League. In 1979 University of Toronto student Kevin Shanahan made his debut as BJ Birdy The Toronto Blue Jays mascot on 11 September. For a full bio/history see The Wikipedia page for the Blue Jays Mascots.

For this installment of Mascot Monday I have decided to show BJ's card from the 1993 Upper Deck Mascot Madness mini-set a five card set of popular MLB Mascots. The big "WOW Factor" of the set is the holographic picture on the front. I will show off that set on this blog sometime in the future.

 1993 Upper Deck Mascot Madness 4 BJ Birdy

(Front and Back)

On the front image that white spot on the hologram in the center is unfortunately a spot where the silvery material for the holographic image has flaked off. The design of the set has the mascots in front of a star filled background I guess to help with the holographic effect.


I am always on the lookout for Mascot cards. I also accept Mascot Postcards and team issued promo cards/photos of mascots.

To see previous Mascot Monday posts click here.

2004 MLB Showdown Card Game 11 pack

A while Back  (WOW back on 20 May) I had gotten some packs of cards from Target that I mentioned in this post Target Fairfield Value Pack Box This package consisted of 4 packs of baseball cards, 100 random baseball cards and a bonus of an additional pack of cards. I already mentioned the cards I got, but I decided I would show some of them. The few from the packs anyway, the 100 card deck I might only show a few choice ones. I haven't decided on that yet. I like getting these boxes/packages from time to time but I had forgotten that they "super" glue (it's not really the super-glue brand but the glue is really tough) the packs on the box supporting cardboard, making it nearly impossible to pull the packs off totally intact for those collectors who like to keep the pack wrappers.

BONUS PACK!

2004 MLB Showdown Card Game -
Trading Deadline Edition

(11 card pack)

I first became aware of this series/game when I got a Nick Johnson card (I've got to check that one out to see what his card says you are to do in the game, and to scan it someday). Anyway this is a CCG (Collectible Card Game) or TCG (Trading Card Game). I"m not sure how you play this game, or how long it takes, but I sure like these cards for some reason. I think I'll try to get the base set (how many hundreds of cards that is. I just researched and found they started making cards for this game in 2000 and ran the production each year until 2005 so six years worth. OK so make that 1,000s of cards). Anyway the set mixes in some game Legends and Vintage Hall of Fame players as well. It wasn't until I had scanned the pack wrapper and tried finding some of these cards on sportlots that I noticed I had the "Trading Deadline" Edition. Uh-oh that means it's more and more like Magic The Gathering as I feared. Maybe I won't go for a complete set, maybe just my fave teams, super stars and hall of famers.

There are two card backs since these cards are intended to be used for a game.  The base players backs are plain silver/gray while the "strategy" cards (The ones with the plays on them) are still silver/gray but with a red border.

2004 MLB Showdown Card Game - Player Card Back

 

2004 MLB Showdown Card Game - Play Strategy Card Back

010 Khalil Greene Padres

014 Brian Schneider Expos (Kool)

065 Randy Johnson D'Backs

066 John Burkett Red Sox

097 Jay Payton Padres

115 Roger Clemens Blue Jays
Chromy thing +5 Control card '97 Super Season

117 Luis Aparicio White Sox

(Cooperstown Collection)

118 Lou Brock Cards

(Cooperstown Collection)

S1 Dialed-in Offense Padres

S15 Great Reactions Defense Mets

S21 Feast Or Famine Utility Giants

Player Checklist 5/8

2004 MLB Showdown Game Instructions
(Back of Checklist Card)

2004 Upper Deck Power UP Baseball 9 pack

A while Back  (WOW back on 20 May) I had gotten some packs of cards from Target that I mentioned in this post Target Fairfield Value Pack Box This package consisted of 4 packs of baseball cards, 100 random baseball cards and a bonus of an additional pack of cards. I already mentioned the cards I got, but I decided I would show some of them. The few from the packs anyway, the 100 card deck I might only show a few choice ones. I haven't decided on that yet. I like getting these boxes/packages from time to time but I had forgotten that they "super" glue (it's not really the super-glue brand but the glue is really tough) the packs on the box supporting cardboard, making it nearly impossible to pull the packs off totally intact for those collectors who like to keep the pack wrappers.

2004 Upper Deck Power Up Baseball

(9 card pack)

This interesting series I didn't see until a couple of years ago when I got some Orioles cards from a trade or a box break, or team traders group. I got the Jay Gibbons card, and it seems I keep getting this card. I have at least 4 maybe 5 of this card now. Anyway these Power Up cards are part of some kind of online contest or game each card has a code on it and each card has some points that you get while playing this game or entering the contest. The player's heads are big out-of-proportion like the old Goudey "Heads Up" cards At first I thought these cards were stupid, but the big head caricatures of the players are fun. I'm not sure about the lime green color theme though.

The backs have a disembodied headshot and a few personal stats, plus points for the game, contest whatever the thing is. The font used for the card number and the player's name is too unusual. The numbers are sometimes a little hard to figure out, it took me some studying to figure out the 3 (was it a "3" or an "8"?) The chrome Shinning Through insert card(s) give more points and the backs look more like a standard card with the player's stats.

2004 Upper Deck Power Up - Sample Back

2004 Upper Deck Power Up Shining Through -
 Sample Insert Back

2 Rafael Furcal - Braves

3 Larry Walker - Rockies

15 Hank Blalock - Rangers

18 Garret Anderson - Angels

23 Orlando Cabrera - Expos

38 Jay Gibbons - Orioles

15 Phil Nevin - Padres

61 Sammy Sosa - Cubs

ST-66 Daren Erstad - Angels

2004 Upper Deck Power Up
Game Instructions - Front

2004 Upper Deck Power Up
Game Instructions - Back