The Ruben Amaro project

 As a team collector my collection has had several revisions and evolutions over the years.  As a kid I would just buy any card if it was a Cleveland Indians card.  Later as a teenager I decided I was going to simplify my collection by going after all Topps flagship cards (base & traded/update).  A few years ago realizing there were many players who weren't represented in the Topps sets, I expanded to include the other big card makers (Bowman, Donruss, Fleer, Upper Deck). Still not completely satisfied, over the past year I've come to include other sets as well (Score, Pinnacle, Leaf, Pacific, Stadium Club, Ultra, & Collector's Choice).  What I came to the realization of is what was truly driving my collection wasn't just collecting Cleveland Indians cards, but was the players themselves. 

the 90's Indians teams were my introduction to the Fandom.  I remember getting caught up in the wave of excitement of the first pennant race in forty years.  As a nine year old I had to memorize all the players names, especially those that made the postseason roster.  As a little leaguer I loved the game, but was not very good myself and so I always gravitated towards the role players & utility players.  I ofcourse loved  Jim Thome and Manny Ramirez, but I always had a fondness for Alvaro Espinoza, Wayne Kirby, and Ruben Amaro. Both Espinoza and Kirby were regulars in previous seasons and therefore had baseball cards depicted in Cleveland uniform for me to collect, but it was always frustrating for me as a kid (and I'll admit young adult) that I could not find a baseball card of Ruben Amaro in a Cleveland uniform.  

Fast forward to last year when I discovered TCDB and began cataloging my existing collection. While exploring the site, I discovered that Ruben Amaro did indeed have a card issued in a Cleveland uniform, 1995 Pacific.

 

It was with this discovery that I started to put a plan together and I'm finally ready to embark on a new collection journey.  I want to collect as many different players as possible who have suited up for the Cleveland Indians/Guardians.  To help narrow down, I have utilized both Baseball Reference and TCDB to help come up with a list.  I have initially chosen to include only players who have played since 1950 to present and who actually played in a game for the Indians/Guardians during that span.  

Some ground rules for what I'm looking for in this collection:

    -Primary consideration will go to cards of players depicted in a Cleveland Indians/Guardians uniform.

    -Secondly cards of players in another team uniform but the card still have the player listed as playing for Cleveland (currently). 

    -Lastly, if neither of these criteria are met, I will then look for minor league cards of said players playing for teams within the Cleveland organization with priority to the highest possible level (AAA over AA, AA over A, etc). 

Aprox. 1,381 Cleveland players meet the dates criteria mentioned above, of those players 1,118 have had cards issued meeting the other criteria above.  Of those, I already have 904 thanks to the sets I have collected.  That leaves 214 players from 1950-present that have cards issued that I can still collect.  I have put together a list of said players, the years they played, and the cards that were issued.  Some of the players have multiple potential cards I could collect and for the most part I am only interested in one and will remove the player from my want list after obtaining one of them.  

I have posted the wantlist for this project here. I will update the list regularly and post about the incoming cards.