Woodbury, MN

An envelope from Woodbury, MN can only mean one thing, cards from Jim of GCR & Dodgers First Base Coach.  This is the 6th time Jim has sent cards, but I believe the first time he has taken the opportunity to show off his stamp collection.  Five colorful 10¢ stamps certainly make for a more interesting envelope than one Liberty Bell forever stamp.  This postage practice gets my "stamp" of approval.

The above assortment counts as four Wallach cards.  That awesome looking Stadium Club is actually a card of proud Utica-Rome area product Andy Van Slyke.  I'm pretty sure Van Slyke went to New Hartford, which is just a fancy way of saying "not Utica," like Illion, Herkimer, or Mowhawk.  When I was a kid in Cooperstown my parents subscribed to the Oneonta paper for daily delivery, but the Utica-Dispatch was bought a few times a week too.  It's sports section had a daily chart of all the local guys playing any level of professional ball, and what their current averages were.  Van Slyke was the headliner for years, with Mark Lemke and Archie Cianfracco being the other guys I recall.  I always planned on joining that list, until I discovered I had an issue with good pitching, as in, I couldn't hit it.  While I'm bragging about my local area's high school products, I'd be remiss not to mention that Dave Cash was also a Utica guy, and Philip Pohl is currently playing in the minors.  Pohl is the first Cooperstown High School alum to ever be drafted.

Thank you for the cards Jim, and how about that former Isotope Joc Pederson, pretty good so far.

Here are the updated totals:

1994 Collector's Choice: 23
1995 Collector's Choice: 14
1995 Collector's Choice SE x2: 25