Obak's Revisionist History

A few weeks ago, when Tristar's 2010 Obak set was released, I was pleased to see a checklist that included more than one Detroit Tiger. Austin Jackson? Good. Hank Greenberg? Gooood. Denny McLain?

Well, cool! Dayf from Cardboard Junkie pulled this little gem in the box he opened a couple weeks ago. I was immediately excited to see a veteran play that wasn't the of the standard Cobb/Greenberg/Kaline/Kell variety. And an autograph no less! A nice card indeed, hampered only by the blank empty stare of a hat without an Old English D.

As someone who likes to familiarize himself with Minor League Baseball and farm systems, I was also really interested by McLain's affiliation. Harlan, in the Appalachian League. Hmmm. How come I haven't heard of Harlan in the rich history of Detroit Tigers lore? Maybe because...

Year Team League Level Aff.
1962 Harlan APPY D- CHW,NYY

Harlan was never an affiliate of the Tigers. It certainly wasn't in 1962, when an 18 year old Denny McLain pitched all of two games for the Harlan Smokies. Two. And is on a baseball card for the Harlan Smokies.

After taking a moment to pick of the pieces of my head that had asploded and putting them back together, I realized that this was fine. That's what funky, old school, mini-heavy, off-brand minor league centric sets are supposed to do. You want a Denny McLain card? Well we'll give you the most freaking obscure Denny McLain card we can! You know what? I dig it. This here is the fun stuff. And, since this is a minor league set, you can do that. McLain pitched for the Harlan Smokies. This is a Harlan Smokies card. This is...

Oof. This 1/1(!) variation was pulled by JD's Wild Cardz, and I'll just let the irony "speak for themselves."

That's one big, bold "DETROIT" you've got there. It also happens to be a really cool story. He threw a no-hitter in Harlan? In his first professional start? No wonder he was promoted to Clinton (MDW) shortly thereafter. Clinton just so happens to have been a White Sox affiliate, which I guess makes sense, since the 18 year old McLain was property of the White Sox.

And if Obak hadn't tried to get all fancy and hadn't accidentally spit in the face of baseball history, I never would have known all of that.  So there you go.  That 18 year old pitcher, who threw a no-hitter for the Harlan Smokies back in 1962 was released by the Chicago White Sox the next year. And he would go on to be the Detroit Tigers' own...Denny McLain, the last 30-game winner in the Major Leagues.  And now you know the rest of the story.

Obaks and Throwbacks

This isn't a checklist in the way many of the other Tiger galleries are, but this 2009 Obak Fu-Te Ni is the only Tiger card in the Obak set. Since I wrote about it below, I didn't feel like there was a reason to write another gallery about it.

Things are a little bit busy on my end, but I thought I would show off some cards that came in recently that don't normally fit into my "main" collections, but have been very well received.

The first card is the only Obak card that I cared about:

2009 Tristar Obak #7 Fu-Te Ni

Mr. Ni, shown here as a Toledo Mud Hen, is the only Tiger in the whole Obak set. This card came courtesy of the generous Beardy in exchange for me asking politely for it. Maybe he did it because we live in the same city, but I'm guessing that its just because he's a good guy. Thanks Beardy!

The rest of the cards came from Thorzul's Greats of the Game group break. First, the "hit"

2006 Fleer Greats Of The Game #DET-KG Kirk Gibson Jersey

Gibby Game Used? Yes, please.

I had never really seen any cards from this set, so when I opened the package I was pleasantly surprised. Some of my favorites include:

2006 Fleer Greats Of The Game #2 Alan Trammell

Wow, Tram is number two in this set? And number one is who?

2006 Fleer Greats of the Game #1 Al Kaline

Nice!

The Gibby base card features a great photo:

2006 Fleer Greats Of The Game #57 Kirk Gibson

And I can't leave out a couple of Birds:

2006 Fleer Greats Of The Game #63 Mark Fidrych

2006 Fleer Greats Of The Game #DET-MF Mark Fidrych

He played four years with the Tigers and is prominently featured in the set. Four years! I don't know that any other baseball player has ever had that much cultural impact in such a limited amount of time (and even less productive time). Truly an incredible Tiger.

Rounding out my haul were:
#6 Bill Freehan
#44 George Kell
#49 Jack Morris
#DET-DM Denny McLain "Tiger Greats"
#DET-TC Ty Cobb "Tiger Greats"

Excellent stuff across the board! (and yes, I realize that those aren't technically throwbacks, but I don't have any new "throwbacks" so give me a break.)

I'm still playing my perpetual game of catch up, but I assure you that there will be more cards uploaded and checklists updated by the end of the week! (I need to sink my teeth into Ticket to Stardom and Ballpark Collection and just can't bear to, and there are more releases already out or around the corner.)