Trade with TMM Part 1: ALL THE MIKE JAMES plus Dedunos

Dennis of Too Many Manninghams and I like to keep the trade train rolling, so recently another package from him came into my life.  It was filled with loads of PC needs of mine, including something like 15 Mikes James, so i chose to break it up into three posts to spread out the awesome.  

I'll start with the Mike James(es).  Not all of them, since there were a gazillion, but a good cross-section to give a slight hair style retrospective of Mike James the baseball player, as it changed a bit over the years.

In 1991, Mike James was a AA pitcher just trying to make his way in the world.  He had barely there side burns and a nifty little mustache:

A year later, he went with a very straight-laced look as he still was trying to make the majors as a starter:

The Angels must've seen that 1991 Line Drive card with his hair sculpting potential, because in 1993 they then traded Reggie Williams (an OF/PH with 88 games played over parts of four seasons) for James straight up.  And California immediately benefitted, not only statistically (as James was 3-0 with one save in 46 games in 1995 as a reliever) but also hairwise, as James started letting his flow grow in back:

He had identical records of 5-5 in 1996 and 1997, and though his ERA was better in 1996, his FIP (Fielding Independent Pitching) mark was better in 1997 at 3.49.  James was on the up and up, and his hair was at an all time best (as a bonus he's got a cup card here!):

Expectations were high for James in 1998 as a key member of the bullpen, and he started well with a 1.93 ERA in 11 games.  But injury knocked him out for the rest of the year, and out of the Angels plans forever the following September.  Which is a shame because his sideburns game was really on point at the time:

But fear not - the league would get to see James and his awesome hair a few more times.  The Cardinals picked up James in late 1999, and he had a nice little comeback in them in 2000.  2001 was less awesome, so the Cardinals cut him, but the Rockies picked him up and let him have one last season in 2002.  Which resulted in this last Topps Total card where James' sideburns are tired, but not beaten, like the man himself:

So there, in a nutshell, is the career of Mike James, MLB pitcher.  But Dennis threw a couple cards of Mike James, NFL RB, in as well, so you get to see those too.

The first is a Yellow Printing Plate from 2014 Score, which is AMAZING because I love plates:

It's also amazing because it's my second James plate from 2014 Score.  I bought the cyan on COMC after Dennis pointed it out many months ago, so now I have 2 of the 4 which is neat.

The other Mike James he sent is easily the most "valuable" card of this bunch.  It's a Crown Royale die cut autograph /20:

It's a nice crisp little card, and I love a good die cut these days after kicking them all out of my collection as a kid.  It's amazing how you can reconsider a card type when you gain the ability to take better card of your cards.

Last but not least - Dennis sent Dedunos!  YAY!  Since buying all but two (crazy overpriced) Dedunos on COMC, I feel like my mini-collection of his Bowman card has been kind of stagnant.  So it's awesome to up my total Dedunos to 40 with these newest additions!

He sent one new Bowman base, which brings my total there to 16:

And then he sent 4 Chrome Dedunos, which puts me at 11:

They are as awesome as ever, and I simply cannot get enough of this card.  Too amazing.

Stay tuned for the baseball goodies in a post on Tuesday!