Some Holiday Candy

Here he is everyone. That last little bit of candy in that orange jack-o-lantern pumpkin with the black plastic handle. The mustachioed hero of the minor leagues, while still residing in Puerto Rico. It's Riverside, he's Candy . . . its cavities.

Take that Wilson!

The next one, while he does look happy on the front. I mean that smile will just suck you in. It is what is on the back that really makes this spectacular. Two Words.

Carl's.
Jr.

That happy little star promising delicious hamburger devilry. Few and far between, here in the midwest, Chicago. A special treat when discovered on the highway, going to some far away place, off in the west.

Riverside, one day. One day I shall sup with temporal proximity where Candy once tread. Or perhaps Ulises, as this card reads on the back. Because who needs candy when you have . . .

The Double Bacon Western Cheeseburger.

This certainly qualifies as a doubly food card. Sweet.

Woo Hoo!!!

Absolutely amazing. Silly amazing.

Game 7 here we come.

This also means that Royals week continues. This last installment is brought by my first "trade".

Tom at angelsinorder.blogspot.com sent me some awesome Cards and Royals, several Ozzies, and several types of cards I didn't have yet. Totally fun, and you will probably read atleast one more post on it. I say "trade" because he sent me these cards with only the promise of me sending any Angels cards I might have. One caveat, he had more then enough 80's and early 90's cards. Lol. I don't blame him. After just recently starting to collect, I can certainly see how someone would have a copious amount of, and more then enough of those cards.

I did luck into some sweet Angels cards through a group break, and can't wait to send them out to complete my "trade".

Back to Royals Week. With a Card for good luck.

Probably unbenknowsnt to Tom, he sent me my 2nd and 3rd card of literal foodstuff. I hadn't thought about it before, but they both feature a food that is probably in a great number of baseball photos.

Chewing Gum.

If I could be Bo, would I be Bo? Something about the sentence begs for a "would a wood chuck" treatment.

The second and bonus Card is something I collect exactly.

An Ozzie Smith Food Card!
Never even imagined one would exist.

18th year in the bigs here. And still just a sweet day in the sun chewin' gum.

Thanks for my new favorite Ozzie.

Carpenter will pitch, I guarantee it!!!

That Country Candy

Here he is again.

Nashville was a team in the folds of the Reds farm system at the time. Poor Candy landed on the team during a horrible year. They were in last place and had gone through five managers in two weeks.

Things looked bleak.

Until they got some Candy.

I like the card alot. The team logo in the bottom left is great and well rendered. A very clean minor league card design.

Why is the Pitcher holding a bat? Candy went to bat four times in the big leagues. He had four strikeouts.

Why is he holding a bat?

This is a new subset I may collect. Pitchers with Bats.

"Phenom"-enal Candy

Another piece of candy. Sweet, sweet candy.

There are 9 cards of this candy flavor. My expo has told me that I should look into Candy Muldonado, I have, and that is a flavor for the future. For now, we stick with Sierra.

Sweet, Emmanuel Lewis ("Webster") look alike Candy Sierra.

If you are too young to have seen the show, Google the actor. Wikipedia the show. Stare in awe at the sweet Greek foster-father. Appreciate that Webster grew up, changed his name, and became a major league pitcher for 16 games.

Again the Reds uniform. Paying attention to the back of the card below, shows us what the Fleer card did as well. It shows that Candy played 15 games in the bigs for the Padres and one for the Reds. Yet again, Topps caught him in the Reds uni.

This card is so much nicer to look at  than the Fleer version, Topps win.. Here we also show that after his one game with the Reds, they shipped him to Nashville. He had a short career there and then a year with Riverside. The newspaper articles I have found on him will be for a future post. I can tell you though, that he is almost always mentioned as a Padre, it was hard to find a mention of his time with the Reds.

What I didn't notice on the Fleer version was that Candy's first year pitching pro was '83. Looking at the top of his card, seeing he was born in '67 . . . some math . . . and holy cow!!!! He was pitching pro when he was 16. And the next year, at 17 years of age, he has his best year. Most games, IP, and his lowest ERA in '84.

At 17!!!

Sweet Phenom Candy.