TCMA kicked off their minor league sets with Cedar Rapids in 1972, so today's Creamsicle color combo marks the sixth straight year that fans from Iowa's second-largest city could take home local baseball heroes, starting with the players below.
- 1972 Cedar Rapids Cardinals - #5 Jethro Mills
- 1973 Cedar Rapids Astros - #5 Bob Dean
- 1974 Cedar Rapids Giants - #5 Tom Rima
- 1975 Cedar Rapids Giants - #5 German De Los Santos
- 1976 Cedar Rapids Giants - (unnumbered)
Minor league affiliations change rapidly, but Cedar Rapids kept its team alive, as they have since the Canaries took their positions in 1890; find more franchise history at Wikipedia. (This is the same city Rob Deer and John Rabb shared time on in 1979 and current LA phenom Mike Trout tore up in 2010.)
Two local McDonald's signed on as co-sponsors for TCMA's set, but are they still operating at 3916 First Ave N.E. and 2615 Williams Blvd S.W. in Cedar Rapids? The latter location is, despite that buzz-killing NO NOISE sign Google Street View spotted at its entrance.
1977's checklist includes 24 numbered players and one unnumbered, late-season addition (John Laubhan).
- Rich Murray
- Bob Brenly
- Dave Anderson
- John Sylvester
- Ken Feinburg
- Brian Moulton
- Phil Nastu
- Henry Macias
- Gary Ledbetter
- Ken Barton
- Jack Mull MGR
- Drew Nickerson
- Jim Pryor
- Mike Wardlow
- Dave Myers
- Bart Bass
- Steve Sherman
- Jon Harper
- Don "Bucky" Buchhiester GM
- Mark Kuecker
- Dan Hartwig
- Chris Bourjos
- Jeff Shourds
- Steve Pearce
Many online sellers call Laubhan's card "rare," but I'll believe something's hard-to-find when Google can't spit out online images on the first try.
Value: Fulls sets cost about $20 (with Laubhan's card adding a premium) and singles cost a few dollars.
Fakes / reprints: Haven't seen any in the marketplace. If Laubhan really is rare, it's likely someone tried to fake the card for the sake of scarcity.
No comments:
Post a Comment