Former New York Mets and New York Yankees minor leaguer Ryan Bicondoa won the first game in Blue Crabs history, defeating the Somerset Patriots 3-1 on April 27th. He would lead the team with 13 victories and pitch 196.1 innings in that first season.

Third baseman Patrick Osborn, now the team’s manager, led the Blue Crabs with a .326 batting average and 106 RBI. Second baseman Chris Maples, a veteran of the Detroit Tigers minor league system, led the Blue Crabs with 25 home runs in his final professional season.

Former major leaguers suiting up for the 2008 Southern Maryland Blue Crabs included Eric Crozier, Curtis Pride, John Halama, Dan Reichert, Adam Johnson, Jeff Farnsworth, and Jason Pearson.

The original 2008 Southern Maryland Blue Crabs team set included 24 cards plus an unnumbered checklist produced by Choice Sports cards. Later in the season, the team released a 12-card update set. It was originally somewhat rare, because the team did not initially offer it online and none of the minor league card dealers carried it. If I remember correctly, the first one to hit eBay sold for close to $100.  By 2009, the team was bundling the update set together with the original series and selling them online – neither set is especially expensive today.

Both sets share a common design, though the update cards are designated by a tiny banner in the upper left corner. The design and photo selection make most of the cards look very dark, and the photo quality in the first series leaves something to be desired. Night game shots are blurry, and it almost looks like low-resolution copies of the original image files were used by accident – many of the pictures appear grainy and even some look almost pixelated. The photo quality improves in the update cards.

Pitcher Jason Pearson has a card in both series; the photo on his card in the original set is not him. (At one point, I knew who actually was pictured on the card, but I no longer remember.)

Here are the checklists (both also include unnumbered checklist cards):

Original series:

1. Ryan Bicondoa
2. Jason Blanton
3. Eric Crozier
4. Derrick DePriest
5. Chad Ehrnsberger
6. Jeff Farnsworth
7. Chris Gale
8. John Halama
9. Clinton Johnston
10. Brandon Ketron
11. Chris Maples
12. Patrick Osborn
13. Jason Pearson
14. Curtis Pride
15. John Ramistella
16. Dan Reichert
17. George Sandel
18. Matt Schweitzer
19. Adam Shorsher
20. Travis Wade
21. Pinch
22. Andy Etchebarren
23. Butch Hobson
24. Andre Rabouin

Update series:

1. Jonathon Connolly
2. Joe Gannon
3. Michael Gibbs
4. Brain Jarosinski
5. Greg Jones
6. Bryan Morse
7. Jeremy Owens
8. Jason Pearson
9. Anthony Perry
10. Keith Ramsey
11. James Shanks

If you’re looking for the 2008 Southern Maryland Blue Crabs baseball card set, Lake Country Minor League Prospects lists it for $12.50. STB Sports has the update set for $8.95

It is that time again.  As a few of my current player collections come to an end, and with a few more close to becoming complete, it is time to add a few new names to the roster of players that I intend to start collecting.

So, that is exactly what I have done.

I have selected the players…

I have built the checklists….

I have made a few purchases to get me going….

And I have updated my ‘Player Collections’ page on this blog…

So, now there is just one more thing to do – UNVEIL THE PLAYERS!!!

Let’s do this!!!!

Johnny Bench - A favorite from ‘The Big Red Machine’.  My goal is to collect all of Bench’s major brand cards from his playing days.

Brooks Robinson – One of my favorite Orioles.  Time to pay tribute to one of the best defenders that this sport has ever seen.  My goal is to collect all major brand cards from his playing days.

George Foster – One of the unsung heroes of ‘The Big Red Machine’, Foster found himself in countless spots to shine while with the Reds.  And he did so, very frequently!!!  My goal is to collect all major brand cards from his playing days.

Lee Smith – Maybe my efforts will open some eyes as to the caliber of player that Lee Smith was – maybe it can get him one more Hall of Fame vote…    My goal is to collect all major brand cards from his time with the Cubs.

Rod Carew – Simply a fantastic hitter, one of the best ever.  I have heard countless stories from teammates and peers about how solid Carew was at the plate – I cannot wait to purchase baseball cards to illustrate that.  My goal is to collect all major brand cards from his playing days.

Jim Abbott – A personal favorite, with the most inspirational story.  I still get goosebumps thinking about watching him pitch in 1989.    My goal is to collect all major brand cards from his time with the Angels.

And there you have it – This is going to be really fun!!

Stay tuned.  And thanks for reading!!!

Many will probably say that the Ted Williams card that I bought was my best purchase of the day, and they could be right.

But for a ‘Super Collector’ there is no better feeling than scoring a new card of ‘your guy’.

So, when I saw this card of Fergie Jenkins in one of the dealer showcases, I was not going to let it escape me.  I may have paid more than what I would have liked to bring it home, but it is the only Fergie Jenkins card I found at the show that I did not already own.

Have a look:

This also means that I have scooped up all five of the cards of Fergie from the 2011 Topps Lineage set!

Amazingly, I found this card in the $1 bin.

And more amazing than that, this card is MINT!!!

I can proudly say that I have finally added a vintage Ted Williams baseball card to my collection – and the fact that I paid just one dollar for it and it is in superb condition leaves me a little short on words…

The latest, and one of the greatest, additions to my collection – and a player that I never thought I would be bringing home!!!

YES!!!

I paid $1 for each of these baseball cards, and they are instant ‘hits’ in my collections of both Rickey Henderson and Reggie Jackson.

Of the two cards, my favorite is the Henderson.  If you look closely, you can see that he is sporting the number 35 on his back.  That means that this picture was taken very early in his career – and I really like that!!!

I am digging the Kellogg’s cards from the 1970s and 1980s – I really wish that they had included Andre Dawson in a few of their releases!!!

This baseball card of Jim Palmer is the only one of Palmer that I encountered at the show.

Thankfully, it is one that I did not have prior so I eagerly set it in my stack.

If there were more, I would have bought more…

Yessir, three new cards for my 1968 Topps Game set!!

The same vintage dealer that always has the greatest selection of goodies, and resonably priced as well, had these cards in an ‘oddball’ box.

I paid $1 for each card, and they all look fantastic.  He had a few more that are on my ‘Need List’ but they were not in as good of condition as I want for this set so I passed on them.

I am very happy to have added these three!!!

Progress – 8/33

Prior to these two new additions, I only owned one card of Jo Morgan from the Topps Archives series.  And that one was the base card from the 2000 set that is a re-print of his 1976 Topps card.

I am happy that I was able to ‘stock up’ with these two new ones!

You are seeing the refractor version of that same card from the 2002 Archives set that I already owned, and the 2001 Archives card that shows Morgan in his vintage A’s uniform.

Remember how crazy people went over Mark McGwire‘s card when he was chasing Roger Maris‘ record? I wonder how a Barry Larkin card from the same subset would fare now that he is headed to Cooperstown. Other than Larkin, the other big names from the Olympic squad that were left out of the 1985 Topps set were Will Clark, B.J. Surhoff, and Tony Gwynn‘s brother Chris. But looking at the 1984 USA Baseball Team Media Guide, there were some other names on Team USA that went on to moments of greatness: the late Ken Caminiti, Nasty Boy Norm Charlton, and another former Red, Greg Swindell.