SLU Showcase #4 - Baseball Haul

How about that Super Bowl, huh? That was the first time in my 30+ years of watching football that I really thought a player from the losing team would be named SB MVP. Jalen Hurts did it all for Philly. I wonder who won the pool at my now-former office. Hope it wasn't my ex-manager, lol.

Anyway... back to baseball. 

On the first of February I purchased a lot of eleven open Starting Lineup figures. And then a week later I picked up two sealed SLUs. I had hoped to make similar purchases once a month but that's kind of up in the air right now. So I'm going to spread these out over multiple posts. If I can't acquire any new ones before the season starts, I'll spotlight some sealed pieces.
 

Pitchers and catchers report to Spring Training this week. I don't have any catcher pieces, so here's a closer look at my bullpen.

Right-handed aces Nolan Ryan and Pedro Martinez have been in my collection for several years. Pedro is from the 1999 series, while Nolan Ryan is part of a Classic Doubles package with Walter Johnson. I honestly don't remember if I had the Johnson, or if I somehow acquired an open Nolan just for that sweet orange jersey.

Here's Pedro with fellow Red Sox Mo Vaughn and Roger Clemens. The Clemens figure was part of the lot I purchased on eBay a few weeks back. It's from the 1988 series, and being a New England kid I must have seen these hanging on shelves at least a dozen times.

I definitely never saw these guys at my local toy store. Here's Mark Langston and Mike Scott, two more from the lot of eleven. These cost just under $4 each after shipping and tax, and they are all in excellent shape. Scott's follow-through pose looks like he's bowling. Bret Saberhagen has the same pose, as you can see in the group photo at the top of this post. I'll return to that one next time.

Langston isn't the only lefty from the 1988 Starting Lineup set in my collection, but he is the only one with the pitcher's mound intact.

Here's my "well-loved" Fernando Valenzuela figure, which was rescued from the crawl space along with the Pete Incaviglia I showed in a prior post, and a Dave Righetti from the 1989 series:

Let's try to pose these southpaws together, shall we?

Not great, Bob. I definitely don't need another pitcher with this pose, but there is one that I have been wanting in my collection for over 20 years...

Here's the story with this Higuera figure. One summer before college I took a trip to Cooperstown with my girlfriend at the time. It was an amazing weekend. We stayed at a Bed & Breakfast in town, toured the museum, shopped, dined, saw all the historical stuff... the whole ten yards (an inside joke she and I shared.)

At the tail end of the trip she spotted a shop that sold used CDs, toys, and other ephemera. I was down to my last five dollars, and I was determined to spend it. Just as I picked up an old, out-of-market Starting Lineup figure I never could have owned as a kid... my girlfriend found me. She was holding a Duran Duran CD, and asked if I had any cash on me. 

Being a good boyfriend, I put the Higuera figure back and bought her the CD. And it wasn't even a good Duran album, either. It was frickin' Big Thing. 

We broke up a month later.

The Ted Higuera piece isn't worth big bucks or anything, but it's more valuable than a used copy of a forgettable Duran Duran album. and I'm determined to own it eventually.

I do need some catchers though. And maybe a job so I can pay for them, haha.

Thanks for reading!



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