One Out Away

Topps Mourns the Loss of Gary Carter ...by profiting from his death

2012-02-17T14:47:00.001-05:00

From the Topps Facebook page:

Topps mourns the loss of beloved player and consistent slugger, Gary Carter and express our condolences to his family, friends and fans.

We’ve dug up some one-of-a-kind items from the Topps Vault. 10% of all proceeds will be donated to the Gary Carter Foundation. Click to see more.

And then there's a link to the Topps Online store, which I won't include here because I will not be directing any traffic their way.

10%... really? Seriously Topps, if you don't want to look like a repulsive vulture of a company, donate all the proceeds to his charity. I find the whole "profit off the death of a celebrity" thing abhorrent, and really did not expect this from Topps. Being the monopoly they are, I guess this is what they've become.

Commentors are starting to rip them, and my favorite was the suggestion "Why not just buy the tumor that killed him and put it in the next Allen & Ginter product". I don't really know what else to say here, I'm just disgusted.

Hello Again - Another '74

2011-07-21T22:43:00.000-04:00

Hello again, nice to be back. You may remember I was having some issues with the scanner and software awhile back. The frustrating thing about that is I work in IT, and I deal with that stuff all the time, and the last thing I feel like doing at home is tackling computer issues. I still have to manually crop card scans or else the borders get get off, so really nothing has changed, as far as my setup, which is ok I guess, because I really don't like scanning cards. At this point you may be thinking, "Hey, this is a baseball card blog, scanning cards is part of the deal." And you're right, but there's no rule that says I have to scan every card that enters my collection. So, here's another card from the 74 cent lot of '74 Topps I picked up off the Bay awhile back.

This is actually one of my favorite cards from this set. I know postseason cards aren't worth near what a base card is, especially when they're in this kind of shape. But still, look at this card. A sunny fall day in Baltimore at the old Memorial Stadium, Reggie at the plate, that swing, and those awesome Oakland unis. It doesn't look like the ball made it to the catcher's mitt, so I'm thinking Reggie got a hold of this one. Well, I was thinking he got hold of one, until I looked up the box scores on Baseball Reference.com. Games 1 & 2 were in Baltimore, and Reggie was 1 for 9 in those 2 games, managing just a single in the game 1 shutout loss. So it would appear Topps gave us a really nice card of Reggie popping up. For me that's better any day than seeing Reggie in pinstripes.

Buried Treasure - 3000 Hit Edition

2011-07-09T21:42:00.000-04:00

Like many other collectors, I quit buying cards as a teenager, which for me was in the mid-80s. However, I managed to jump back into the hobby for a few years as a young adult in the early 90's. Those were the big card collecting boom years, and from '91-'93 I was buying cards too fast to really keep track of what I had. When I stopped, very early in '94,I packed the cards into boxes and stored them in mom and dad's basement.

Last Fall, mom and dad brought those boxes from Ohio to Maryland. My reasoning for wanting them was "I have a son on the way. I want him to have these." And that's true, but it's more than that, since he's just now three months old and I'm in full-blown collector mode, blog and all. So I was going through the cards, and there were boxes and boxes of them. Some of them were reasonably organized, with cards sorted by year and set, although nothing was in numerical order, so I really don't know what I need to complete any given set. Then there were boxes where stuff was just thrown in. These were mostly from sets that I only grabbed a handful of packs from. Sets like Pinnacle, Leaf, Ultra. Those I remembered, somewhat, and it was one of the things that had sort of turned me off of collecting back in '94, all those companies, each one making all those sets. Then there were some cards from a set I'd forgotten all about. Upper Deck SP. I had to Google SP, I couldn't remember that it stood for Super Premium. Judging from the number of SP cards in the box I found, I bought only 3 packs. I'm thinking they were probably expensive, like Flair (a set I know I only bought 3 packs of, as I've still got those fancy boxes they came in). I'm looking at these SP cards, that I don't remember at all, and I see, loose in the box without even a penny sleeve covering it, this:

You can't really tell from the scan, but there's a little crease on the lower right corner. Pissed me off once I realized what I have. Especially considering I remember having Kevin freaking Maas rookie cards in penny sleeves at one time. Anybody remember him, the next great Yankee slugger? Anyway, when I pulled this, as a 23-year-old, I had no idea who Jeter was, and even less idea who he'd become. 3,000 (errr, 3003) hits later, we all have a pretty good idea who he is. I've always been a Yankee hater, but Jeter I admire and respect for the way he plays the game and the way he handles himself. Congratulations on number 3,000 Derek.

Vintage Values - 1974

2011-06-23T22:55:00.000-04:00

As I've mentioned before, I truly started collecting as a 7-year-old in 1977. Prior to getting back into the hobby last year, I had only about a hundred cards total that were older than this. Since my return to collecting, and thanks in large part to eBay, that has changed. Last year I took big chunks out of the '75 and '76 sets, and lately I've been scooping up cheap lots of early '70s cards from the bay. Typically these aren't in the greatest condition, but hey, that's why they're cheap, and the looks of the cards matches that of the rest of my '70s collection.

Probably the best deal I got was on a 131 card lot of 1974s that I picked up for a whopping 74 cents. I bought 3 other lots from that seller, so I think I ended up paying about $3 per lot shipping. Now, take a look at the picture that was with the listing:

The listing title was: "1974 Topps Lot of 131 Different with Stars". There was no mention of who these "stars" were. As you can see, Tony Perez and Juan Beniquez were the cards the seller chose to feature in the picture. The natural assumption, and the one I made, was this lot would contain Tony Perez and 130 commons. Boy did I assume wrong!

Hall of Fame pitcher Jim Palmer. I had this card already, but this one is actually in a little better shape.

I remember seeing most of the Hall of Famer cards in the '74 set at one time or another. If I didn't already own them, I've seen them in card shops, or more likely, on one of the great blogs devoted to collecting. So I was somewhat stunned seeing this card. I love the old A's unis, and this is just a great action shot of Rollie. This was actually the first HOF I saw when I opened the lot, and I would have paid what I did for the lot just for this card.

Newly elected HOF pitcher Bert Blyleven. I for some reason forget that he started his career in Minnesota. When I think of the younger Blyleven I think of him as a Pirate. And with a beard, throwing that monster curveball.

Niekro doesn't exactly look young here, but he would go on to pitch another 13 years thanks to the wonders of the knuckleball.

Before getting this lot I had only 2 original Gibson's. The first one was from one of the greatest seasons a pitcher's ever had, 1968. The other one was the '74, which I now have 2 of. Anybody interested? (and no, the card's not trimmed; I changed scanner software because I was sick of cropping every scan, but now it's cropping some white borders on cards. If anybody has any suggestions for good, free software you can scan into, I'm all ears)

An Indian! And he's a pitcher, and a Hall of Famer! I'm sensing a pattern here.

This was probably the card I was most excited about in the box. Aside from the '60 years of cards your mom threw out' reprint things, I didn't have a single Marichal card. And what a beauty this one is. I love that they got the picture showing that great high leg kick of his, and the Giants were one of the teams where Topps actually chose some sensible trim colors in the design that year, making this just a great looking card overall.

7 Hall of Fame pitchers in a 74 cent lot of '74s. Tomorrow night - position players.

A Second Helping of Nachos

2011-06-20T20:52:00.000-04:00

As mentioned last night, I bought into way too many teams in last months group break over at Nachos Grande. I did manage to come away with some nice cards of non-Indians though, and here are some of the highlights.

Two more Josh Hamiltons for the collection. In addition to being made of plastic, the Tek set also had an odd checklist. There were 40 players in the base set, but each had 20 different image or background variations, so the card numbers for these Hamiltons are 38-6 and 38-15. These being cards from 2000, and Hamilton not making it into a Major League game until 2007, makes these pre-rookies I guess. Incidentally, the actual rookie cards in this set were short-printed, and were cards 41 to 45, each also with 20 variations, and each variation serial-numbered to 2000. The rookies I got: John Sneed, Josh Girdley, and Ruben Salazar, and I got two of each. That's about like buying Bowman for me.

I did get some good veterans in the Tek set, including Randy Johnson.

The 2002 Stadium Club had parallels that looked just like the base cards, but thick like a modern relic. Another Randy, and a pre-bloody-sock Schilling. I didn't expect to get much from having the D-backs, and they were packaged with another team in the break. All the Randy Johnsons were a pleasant surprise.

A couple Vlads - anybody collect him?

Launchers - the best looking inserts in the break. I hate to use the cliche, but the scans really don't do these cards justice. Oh, and another Vlad.

I doubt anybody wants to see 1993 Upper Deck base cards, so I'll just show the Home Run Hero inserts. What's funny to me is when I saw the Hamiltons above I thought, "Man, he looks so young." I see Barry Bonds in this card and I think "Man, his head looks so small."

Rookie cards, from the division rivals. Mauer's back, and its only a matter of time before he's hitting again, and Cabrera, well, all he does is hit, especiall against the Indians. He just seems to kill us. Makes me really not like him. That, and the fact that he doesn't seem to especially care about anything other than hitting.

Finally, easily the best card I got in the break: a Fleer Mystique serial numbered Roy Halladay rookie. That is a sweet card, and I'm thinking I may keep this one.

Nachos Grande, Aged

2011-06-19T22:47:00.000-04:00

Chris, aka Nachos Grande, just finished a great group break that included Topps Reserve, Fleer Showcase, Topps 205, and one of my favorites, Topps Gallery. These cards are not from that break. They're from his LAST break, so I'm about a month late with this post. Anyway, the break from May featrured 2000 Topps Tek, 1999 Fleer Mystique, 1999 UD Hologrfx, '92 UD, and 2002 Stadium Club. The Stadium Club was a bonus box he threw in for getting all the slots filled. A big reason all the slots were filled: I bought a BUNCH of teams. I'm not really sure why either. It started out as just the Indians, then I added a couple teams, then it got close to break time and I made a deal with Chris to scoop up the rest of the available teams. I really, really need to not do that, as now I have a much larger 'for trade' box that I can't seem to get posted. Tonight's post features the Indians, since that's the reason I jumped into this thing in the first place. Onto the cards.

Didn't do too well getting Indians in the Mystique box. These 2 were it, but they're nice looking, shiny cards with that distinct late '90s look .

Topps Tek is a strange set that I hadn't heard of before this break. The cards are plastic. Just out of curiosity, I tried to break one of the 3 Mo Vaughn cards I got. Couldn't do it. I'm not sure what this stuff is. I made prescription eyeglasses for 15 years, and we made a lot of lenses out of some stuff called polycarbonate. It was used in safety glasses and sports goggles, and a 3mm lens could take a .22 bullet and not break. The material these cards are made of remind me of that stuff, but not as thick (they're about half the thickness of a CD, which is also made of polycarbonate). Now that todays lesson in plastics is complete, let's move on.

That is a Kenny Lofton AuSOME parallel, next to the Kenny Lofton base card. When the light hits it, it's a little more yellow, and it says AuSOME. Not sure of the reasoning behind the alternate spellings (ausome, hologrfx), but it was the 90s, and people thought that was cool.

When I left the hobby in the early '90s, Stadium Club was all the rage. There ended up being a lot of Stadium Club sets that I missed, and it looks like Topps kept the set looking sharp for the most part. Beautiful photography, clean design. Kind of wish they still made these.

Speaking of early '90s. I always liked this set, I think I've got it about halfway complete. Upper Deck's '90-'92 designs borrowed heavily from their inaugural set, so 1993 was really their first original design in 4 years, and in my opinion was the best looking non-premium set from '93. I like the throwback uni Nagy's got on. UD could always be counted on to get what at the time were unorthodox or unusual photos on their cards, like Mark Lewis sitting on a bucket for no apparent reason. UD was also a forerunner of the modern insert set with and included HR Heroes (isn't that the name of a GQ insert this year?). Albert also managed to get his picture on the "Youthful Tribe" card. Seems like the Tribe is always youthful. I love the first line on the back of the card: "The Indians have suffered much in their long history...". Yeah, that about sums it up.

Great break, Senor Nacho, and I'll hopefully post some cards from the other teams I had tomorrow night.

Contest Pimpage

2011-06-19T21:30:00.000-04:00

Thanks to the Dimwit, I just discovered a contest over at Number 5 Type Collection. For some reason I wasn't following, but that's been fixed. The contest is here. Easy to enter, just comment on who your favorite team is, and win cards from that team.

Recent Trades

2011-06-18T20:31:00.000-04:00

So I'm learning that it pays to actually get my stuff organized once in awhile and get wantlists and trade bait posted, as my recent GQ post prompted 3 trades with some fellow bloggers. I'm just going to touch on some of the highlights here, as a lot of the trades were composed of base GQ, which as a set builder I need, and some inserts, and most of you have seen or posted these same cards already. There were a few additions thrown into a couple of the trades though, so I'll be sure to highlight those as well.

First up, Sam from the Daily Dimwit put a claim on a few bronze parallels, the Fielder relic, and the Feliz auto. The package from him included this sweet Tris Speaker.

One less HR Hero that I need now, though Glaus' inclusion in this subset is questionable.

Also knocked one off my Future Stars wantlist

A Cory Snyder Bazooka bat relic

And a sweet Artifacts Cliff Lee auto. I liked the looks of the Artifacts so much I had to go on the bay and pick up this:

Its seems like the Sizemore collection has been growing rapidly of late.

Next up was a trade with Mike from BA Benny's Baseball Card Buffet. Mike being a NY fan wanted the Wright relic as well as some of the GQ inserts and minis and a few other NY inserts/hits/paralles I had laying around. Benny sent some nice stuff my way, including a few things he didn't mention in the email that was a really nice surprise.

He had a lot of needs for my GQ base set, as well as a few inserts

A couple of Tribe minis

A Hafner jersey relic. This is somebody else I seem to be getting a lot of cards of lately.

And a nice Josh Tomlin auto. Some of the statistics on these Topps 60 cards make me laugh. Tomlin's statistical achievement: "2010 Indians winning percentage at home (3+ decisions)". The next 3 on the list were all relievers, so it seems to be a completely meaningless stat, but I guess they had his autograph, and needed to put it somewhere. Anyway, I happen to really like Tomlin, and was really happy to get this card.

And the surprise in the package, some 2009 Chrome refractor goodness. The Hafner and Carmona are xfractors, and I didn't have any of these. Excellent.

The last GQ exchange occurred with Charlie from the awesome Lifetime Topps Project. I sent him some GQ base and inserts, some 2010 inserts, and some needs from his '88 and '89 Topps wantlist. I was trying to find some other stuff he needed, as he had a non-GQ card I was wanting, so I ended up sorting about 2500 '88-'89 cards. Just about all my cards need put in order, to figure out what exactly I need, so at least I got a couple sets knocked out, and Charlie's a bit closer to completing a couple sets.

What do these cards have in common? They're among the 16 short prints Charlie sent my way, which was great. I hate short prints, and trying to trade for them seems to be harder than trading for the inserts, so it was nice to knock a decent chunk of them out.

Here's a Cy mini. Was kind of hoping he'd be in Cleveland uni, but that's ok since they've got Speaker with the Tribe. Old Cy played 12 and a half years in Cleveland, but the first 9 were with the old National League Spiders before going to St. Louis, Boston, and then to the AL Cleveland team, known as the Naps at the time.

He also sent me some Kimballs from the wantlist

This was the card that prompted me to sort all that late '80s Topps - a Heritage Clubhouse Collection Josh Johnson.

Finally, Cliff at Capewood's Collections had a post featuring the Hafner below, asking if anybody was interested. I was, and had an Utley to trade, so we had a nice simple 1 for 1 trade.

Thanks again to Sam, Mike, Charlie, and Cliff for the trades, for reading the blog, and for doing such great work with your own blogs.

Indians from the Quarry - pt 2

2011-06-15T21:23:00.000-04:00

Here's the rest of the cards from Johnny's May group break at Cards from the Quarry.

2004 Bazooka

Back in '04, Gerut and Blake looked to be a big part of the Indians' plan for the future. Gerut was coming off a great rookie year, where he hit .279 with 22HR and 75 RBI, while Blake was solid with 17HR and a .257 BA. Problem was, that was the high point of Gerut's career, and he would be traded to Chicago in 2005. I didn't realize it at the time, but Blake was no youngster by the time he broke through with the Tribe. He'd only played in 49 MLB games prior to becoming a 30-year-old regular for the Tribe in '03. Blake had his career year in 2004, with highs of 28 HR and 88 RBI. He's had a solid career, but bottom line is he's a 20HR 70 RBI guy, which is, I guess, solid, but not spectacular. While looking impressive at the time for a rebuilding Indians team, these were both guys with low ceilings. Cleveland eventually got a nice return on Blake when they traded him to the Dodgers for Carlos Santana (assuming Santana remembers how to hit sometime soon).

Here was the future for the Tribe in '04. I love the Sizemore card - if it wasn't for the Indians hat I might think this picture was taken at the Little League WS. Lee kind of looks to me like he'd rather be fishing than getting his picture taken. Look at the background - it looks like practice is over, the vets have all had their pictures taken, everybody's gone, but Cliff's stuck here getting photographed.

A sheet of 4 stamp sized stickers with V-Mart. Not sure, was there an album for these?

Sometime late last year, back when Wal-Mart still had discount blasters in stock, I picked up a blaster of the UD Documentary set. I liked it, and although I liked it, I realized the impossibility of putting a complete set of this together. I thought it would be a nice challenge for a masochist, but maybe for me I'd just pick up the Indian. Despite the Indians having a terribly disappointing season in 2008, it was still an interesting set. At the time, I thought it curious that the picture on the card didn't necessarily match the description of the game. The highlight may mention the staff ace getting a win, but show a picture of a hitter. No big deal though, I thought. Fast forward to me receiving these. Take a look at the game numbers on these cards. I'm beginning to see where some of the venom out in the blogosphere directed at Upper Deck comes from. Look, I understand it may not be feasible to get a picture from the actual game for all the nearly 5000 cards necessary to document each team's season. But of the 20 cards I received from this set, 10 of them have another card with the same picture. It just seems shoddy, cheap, and lazy on Upper Deck's part to do this, especially when claiming to 'document the entire 2008 season'. Yeah, technically they're documenting it with the short description on the back, but the recycling of pictures was just amateur. I'd rather have seen fewer cards, maybe 50 select games per team, with unique pictures for each card. Anyway, crap like this is probably why they no longer have an MLB license, but it's kind of hard for me to believe this is from the same company that produced Masterpieces (one of my top 3 favorite sets of the 2000s).

Now that I'm done ranting about Upper Deck, here's another Sizemore for the collection. Nice All-Star game card. I don't see him getting onto the All-Star team this year due to the amount of time he was on the DL, but it would be nice to see him back there next year, since it will probably be his last in Cleveland. Not to be a pessimist or anything, just facing the reality of the Indians' payroll.

These were from some bonus packs Johnny busted. License or no license, there are some quality photos in that last UD set. Great picture of Sizemore laying himself out and making the catch - look closely and there's the ball in his glove. I have to say though, UD was really pushing the envelope with not using logos. I see a lot of the 'Indians' on Sizemore's jersey, and most of the 'C' on his hat. It's no wonder there was no series 2.

More stickers! I loved getting these in Fleer's wax packs, much better than Topps' cardboard flavored bubble gum or Donruss' puzzle pieces. I've got a big stack of these somewhere, but the Indians stickers were long ago stuck onto various boxes and binders.

Thanks again, Johnny, for a nice break. I'm looking forward to June's break this weekend.

Indians from the Quarry

2011-06-14T22:39:00.000-04:00

Johnny at Cards from the Quarry held his first group break about a month ago, and I'm finally getting around to showing off some of my take. It was a nice break, with some '03 and '04 Bazooka, '98 Bowman Series 1 and 2, '08 UD Documentary, and a couple bonus packs as well. His June group break is starting Saturday, and about half the teams are still available - click here to get in on it. Onto the cards.

The '03 Bazooka box was low on Indians - Mr. Burks was the only base card pulled. He's one of those guys I always forget played in Cleveland. He was there 2 and a half years, and got to experience first-hand their descent into mediocrity. He was traded away in 2003, after everyone else who could hit above the AAA level had been traded or left via free agency.

Brandon Phillips extra thick grey parallel

For all the praise that was heaped on Cleveland's management team for some of the smaller trades they made to form the current team (Eduardo Perez and Ben Broussard to Seattle for Asdrubal Cabrera and Shin-Soo Choo in seperate deals, Mark DeRosa to St. Louis for Chris Perez, etc.), they really blew it in their handling of Phillips. They acquired him in what is probably their best trade ever - Bartolo Colon and Tim Lewis (who?) for Grady Sizemore, Clifton Phifer Lee, Phillips, and Lee Stevens. At the time, Stevens was the only one with major league experience, and I can remember Cleveland's haul being reported as "Lee Stevens and three prospects". Stevens finished the year with Cleveland and would never play in the majors again. Getting back to Phillips, the Indians needed a second baseman, badly, and just brought the kid up too soon. As a 22-year-old in 2003 he played most of the year for the Indians, hitting only .208, and not yet displaying the defensive wizardry he is becoming known for now. He spent most of the next 3 seasons in AAA, getting callups and playing a few big league games here and there, and by the beginning of the 2006 season was out of options and traded to Cincinnati for a player to be named later (Jeff Stevens, who would later be packaged with 2 other minor leaguers in a trade for the aforementioned Mark DeRosa). They really screwed up twice with Phillips: first by burning up his options, secondly by giving up on him. They knew if they kept him, they were stuck with him, no sending him back to the minors, so they dumped him. They went with (sigh) Ronnie Belliard. I won't mention his fielding, other than to say it wasn't quite the same as seeing Robbie Alomar out there. In 2006, as the Reds' full time second baseman, Phillips had an OPS of .751. Belliard's was .757. Some upgrade. But hey, at least we've got Orlando Cabrera playing out of position and putting up Yuniesky Betancourt type offensive numbers for us at second now.

The '98 Indians had some guys that could hit the ball.

This being Bowman, here are some guys nobody's heard of.

I don't remember what people call these things - map parallels? Doesn't matter, I like them.

Finishing off the Bowman's, a shiny Minor League MVP insert. I got 2 of these, so if anybody wants one, let me know. I'll be back tomorrow with the '04 Bazookas, '08 Documentary, and bonus pack cards. One final note, O Cabrera, whose offense I was critical of above, broke up what would have been Justin Verlander's second no-hitter of the season with a single in the eighth. It wasn't nearly enough, as the Indians managed only one more hit getting shutout 4-0, losing first place to the Tigers in the process. That familiar feeling of disappointed resignation in Cleveland sports is returning, and should be in full effect by next week once the joy in seeing Lebron choke the finals away wears off.

No, Not that One

2011-06-08T21:37:00.000-04:00

(I've wanted to start this series for awhile, and I'm now finally getting around to it. When going through (mostly) older cards, I keep running across guys whose names are the same, or almost the same, as people much more famous than them. Mike Tyson of the Cardinals comes immediately to mind, and as soon as I run across a card of him again, I'll get a scan and add it to the series. I found tonight's subject while sorting some '89 Topps (needed for a trade - any excuse to get some of that stuff sorted). I've went back and forth between calling it "Mistaken Identity" or "No, not that One", and decided to go with the latter. Feel free to comment if you think one is any better than the other. Oh, and if somebody has already done or is doing a series like this, please let me know. I've been back in the hobby for less than a year, and am still a newbie in the blogosphere, so I really don't want to go stepping on anyone's toes. Thanks for reading.)

Somewhere in a Southern Florida retirement community, 2035:

Hi, I'm Cris Carpenter.

What did you do before you retired, Chris?

I was a pitcher for the Cardinals.

Oh, I remember you. You were their ace. I remember when you won the Cy Young, you won what, 21 games that year?

No, not that one. C-R-I-S Carpenter, no 'h'. I won 21 games there, but it took me 5 seasons to do it, and I was mostly a reliever.

Oh. So what was it like winning a World Series?

I dunno, that was Chris, with an 'h'. My teams never even made it to the playoffs.

Oh, well how 'bout the All-Star game? I know I've heard of you, you had to have been in a couple All-Star games?

Sorry, again, Chris with an 'h', he was the All-Star.

So, um, how were you, as a pitcher?

Well, I won more than I lost, my record was 27-22. And my ERA was under 4. I was on the first Marlins team, which is kind of cool, I guess, since they're like the home team here. I also played for the Rangers and Brewers.

Were you ever on a baseball card? That would be somethin', I guess, makin' it to the Show and gettin' yourself on a baseball card.

As a matter of fact, I was on a baseball card. Here's my rookie card...

Shameless Plugs

2011-06-08T20:07:00.000-04:00

2 Contests to get in on:
This Card is Cool has a contest with 4 prizes where you can win a nice bundle of cards. Entry is of the comment/follow/plug variety.
Buckeye State's Trading Post has a contest offering up some hits, with entries gained via comment/plug/add-to-blogroll.

When a Sparkle's not a Sparkle

2011-06-07T21:56:00.001-04:00

Update - I posted this, then looked at my reading list, and My Cardboard Mistress did a post on the same card, but published his just as I started writing mine. I'm a little slow sometimes I guess.

Let me preface this post by saying I could be totally wrong, because this certainly looks like one of Topps' sparkle variations:

I picked up one of the over-sized cereal box thingies tonight, and this was in it. When I saw this, my thought was "whoa, is that a sparkle?!". I didn't pull any in Series 1, so I've only seen them on the Internets. Then I looked a little more closely. I wasn't sure, but I thought it was a sparkle. Then I flipped it over. I remembered reading over at Crinkly Wrappers about the little product codes Topps puts on their products now. The code on Brown's card is 36211201. I looked at another card that definitely wasn't a sparkle.

Here's a good excuse to show an Indians card, though this particular Indian is injured and has yet to get himself onto the proverbial diamond this year.

No sparkle, and the code on the back of the injured Mr. Crowe's card is, you guessed it, 36211201. So I did a search on ebay for '2011 Topps Dominic Brown'. I cannot find this card without the little sparkle on the helmet. Only one of these doesn't refer to it as a sparkle, variation, or SP in the description. There's even a Wal-Mart black and Target Throwback parallel, and they're listing them as sparkle variations. The one ending soonest has 4 bids and is up to 20 bucks. It ends in about an hour. How pissed is somebody gonna be when they realize they've spent $20+ on a Series 2 common?

Anyway, somebody please correct me if I'm wrong about the codes. I would happily accept that I've got a true sparkle variation in my hands, but having seen some of the stuff certain sellers on ebay will try to pull, I'm not gonna take their word on it.

Get Well Soon

2011-06-06T12:00:00.008-04:00

Here's one more from Colbey's (Cardboard Collections) May group break.

The Indians have been shutout the last 2 games, were swept in a 4 game series AT HOME against Texas, and were outscored in that series 24-6. While the starting pitching the last couple weeks has been very shaky, the last couple games were winnable, had we only been able to get just a little bit of offense. Hafner's been out 2 weeks now, and while initial reports were for him to miss up to 4 weeks due to the oblique sprain he suffered, its likely he may not be back in an Indians uniform until the July 4 weekend due to some scheduling quirks (interleague road games in late June = no DH). Hafner, before the injury, was looking like his 2007 self, hitting .345, slugging .509, with an OPS of .958. The Indians' lead in the division has fallen to just 2.5 games. Travis, please get well soon, we need your bat.

Framed Paper, 1996 Style

2011-06-05T22:46:00.000-04:00

Colbey from Cardboard Collections had another nice affordable group break in May, and he's having yet another one right now with some teams still available. I filled a lot of Indians needs from the time when I wasn't collecting ('95 Topps, '97 UD, some cool Sportflics), and there were also a few more modern packs busted, like '09 Timeline. My favorites from the break, however, are below.

I'm a big fan of the 'framed paper' inserts in this year's Gypsy Queen, and the only other time I'd seen cards made like this were the UD Masterpieces framed parallels. I thought they were a fairly recent phenomenon. So I was pleasantly surprised when I opened the package from Colbey and saw the 1996 Fleer Emotion XL. You can't really tell from the scans (which are also crooked, scanner isn't being very cooperative this evening), but they're framed, and they're quite nice.

Great hitting, well-below-average defending 2B, just the opposite of what we've got now.

The current 1B coach, and likely a future manager somewhere.

Like Sandy above, a fan favorite. He was only in Cleveland 3 years, but it seemed longer. His final year with the Tribe was '96, and he appeared in only 20 games. The following year in Seattle he made only 9 starts, and the next year finished his career as a reliever in Atlanta, which I do not remember at all.

I always forget that he pitched for them, and maybe that's just as well. In his 2 seasons in Cleveland his ERA was 5.11 and 5.09.

What do Eddie Murray, Dave Winfield,Steve Carlton, and Phil Niekro have in common? All Hall of Famers that spent time in Cleveland after their prime. Cleveland used to be really good at picking up HOF'ers on the cheap and not getting anything out of them (see Winfield, Carlton). Murray, however, was solid; a stabilizing veteran presence on a team of young stars who could be counted on for about 20HR and 80 RBI. Cleveland fans had heard the stories about him not being much of a friendly guy, but he fit very well with what the city itself is about. With his workman's attitude, he just went out and did his job.

Probably my favorite player from the era. I think for a few years he was the best leadoff hitter in the game, and one of the premier defensive center fielders as well. He's eligible for the Hall of Fame in 2013, but realistically I don't see him getting in. I do not think he has the career numbers to make it, and if they haven't voted Tim Raines in yet (and it's ridiculous that he's not in yet), I don't see Kenny even getting close. I'm hoping he at least gets a little love from the voters and can hang around on the ballot a few years.

I received one other card from this set, but it's of a goat, named Jose, and the longer Cleveland's championship drought goes, the less inclined I am to show his card.

A couple other cards I got from Colbey that were pretty cool, and I had never seen, were these Pacific Collection Invisibles. Again, you can't see the coolness from the scan, but the background of the little head shot in the lower right corner is clear, like a little window.

Thanks again, Colbey, for putting on a nice break, and I'm looking forward to seeing what gets busted this month.

I Forgot the Minis

2011-06-01T21:01:00.000-04:00

Somehow, I forgot all about the minis when I posted my GQ trade bait / want list. These should have been the first thing I listed for trade, because I don't want them. Almost all the minis I have are for trade, and the only ones I'm looking for are Indians a few guys I collect. Don't get me wrong, I like minis, but not in a one in every...single...pack kind of like. I don't care for parallels in general, especially when there's one in every...single...pack, like the Bowman gold (which is doubly bad, because those are some ugly cards). At heart I'm a set collector, and the parallels just seem like a waste of a card. Maybe seed them one in every 5 packs or something. Anyhow, here's what's for trade:

Black Minis:
Alex Gordon
Adrian Beltre

Red Gypsy Back:
11,72,110,115,169,179,187,187,192,
230,248,278,301,302,325,331,335

Base Mini:
3,4,13,20,22,24,24,36,43,59,65,67,69,86,90,97,98,
103,104,107,123,123,128,130,133,133,141,141,145,
157,158,160,163,165,165,166,168,172,176,186,186,
186,187,193,196,204,205,211,222,223,224,224,229,
232,244,244,246,247,255,258,259,269,269,271,276,
278,280,283,289,292,300,329,335

Wanted:
Black and Regular Mini (standard back or red; backs don't matter to me)
52 Carlos Santana
64 Josh Hamilton
74 Tom Seaver
100 Nolan Ryan
164 Cy Young
242 Fausto Carmona
243 Jim Thome (blk only)
297 Grady Sizemore
323 Shin-Soo Choo

Lots of GQ Trade Bait, Wants, and Needs

2011-05-31T20:57:00.001-04:00

6/1/2011 - 2:30 pm EST - Updated want and trade list below in response to a couple trades put together so far.

I know I'm a little late to the party here, but I FINALLY got something productive done and got my GQ stuff organized, and more importantly, documented. Below are what I've got for trade, and what I need. I forgot to include it in my wantlist but I'm always looking for any 'Josh' autos or relics - Tomlin, Hamilton, or Johnson.

And just a quick note to Topps: short-prints suck. That is all.

Does anybody that's bought more than 3 packs of this NOT have a DeJesus auto yet?

FOR TRADE:

Relic
FMRC-DU    Dan Uggla black mini framed jersey
FMRC-DW    David Wright black mini framed jersey

Auto
GQA-DD    d dejesus oak
GQA-NC    n cruz    tex

Framed Paper
23 j cueto    cin    750/999
51 arod    nyy    579/999
94 b posey    sf    455/999

Green Paper
(number in the far right column is how many I have for trade)
3    c hamels    phi
12    r howard    phi
19    j lester    bos
21    d wright    nym
31    j mauer        min
33    I kinsler    tex
35    pw reese    lad
45    cargo        col
47    j rollins    phi
51    arod        nyy    2
55    e longoria    tam    3
56    m latos        sd    2
59    d snider    lad
62    r schoendienst    stl
69    k youkilis    bos
71    cc sa-fatty-a    nyy
72    j morneau    min
76    f hernandez    sea
77    h pence        hou
81    n cruz        tex
82    s castro    chc
88    r cano        nyy
89    m mantle    nyy
94    b posey        sf
96    u jimenez    col

Future Stars
3    y alonso    cin
4    f freeman    atl
7    I davis        nym    5
9    s castro    chc    2
16    d price        tb
18    a chapman    cin
19    g beckham    cws
(Yes, somehow I ended up with 6 Ike Davis Future Stars)

HR Heroes
5    c pena        tb
11    a jones        atl
16    a dawson    chc    2
21    l gehrig    nyy
24    r hornsby    stl

Great Ones
4    b robinson    bal
5    c mathewson    nyg
6    f robinson    bal
18    r yount        mil
25    w johnson    was

Sticky Fingers
6    m teixeira    nyy
7    j reyes        nym    4
9    b phillips    cin
12    o hudson    min    3
15    j bartlett    tb

Wall Climbers
1    t hunter    laa    2
3    n swisher    nyy    4
5    r davis        oak    3
8    m brantley    cle
9    j heyward    atl
10    D Dejesus    kc    2

Base
5,8,10,10,10,10,11,11,12,16,18,27,27,28,28,28,37,40,40,41,49,51,55,
55,57,57,59,59,60,66,70,70,72,74,79,79,80,83,87,88,102,102,104,
104,106,106,106,107,107,115,123,123,123,130,130,138,
154,154,154,156,157,157,158,167,172,178,186,187,189,196,
197,197,200,200,200,200,203,204,204,212,213,217,218,227,227,
229,234,234,234,235,236,236,245,245,247,250,254,254,
257,265,265,270,270,272,281,282,282,284,285,290,296

SP
300,300,300,312,317,319,344,344

WANTED

Future Stars (wanted)
8,10,13,17

Great Ones (wanted)
3,8,10,11,12,14,19,22,23,26,27,28

Homerun Heroes (wanted)
1,3,10,13,14,17,22,25

Sticky Fingers
1,3,10

BASE (wanted)
2,17,19,25,29,32,34,35,39,53,68,84,100,101,108,111,113,117,128,131,132,
133,140,141,143,144,152,164,165,174,179,184,194,208,217,221,222,
230,233,241,243,,258,
269,273,280,286

SP (wanted)
302,309,311,314,318,322,324,325,331,333,334,336,338,339,341,348,349,350

Double Discount OPC

2011-05-24T23:01:00.000-04:00

Every now and then, when Wal-Mart or Target doesn't have whatever's hot at the moment, I'll pick up one of the discount blasters at Wal-Mart. Lately the supply of these has been getting pretty thin at my store, so when I was there a few days ago a snagged 2 of the 3 remaining 2009 O-Pee-Chee blasters. They've had a steady supply of these showing up on the shelves, and its a design I like, reminiscent of the '76 Topps set, so I've begun putting the set together. While I like the cards, I've never pulled anything real nice from these. The Face of the Franchise is really the only insert I care for, and I've never seen a hit from one of these. So would these blasters be any different?

A couple rookie stars. Not sure why these were inserts and not just part of the set. Its a big set, what's 10 more cards?

Not bad, but again, nothing special. Seems like inserts should be special in some sort of way.

Insert sets like this are why everyone except their fans HATE the Mets and Yankees.

That's more like it. These are nice, although if somebody offers me some Indians I'd probably trade them.

You can't tell from the scan, but this is a mini black parallel. Not sure how heavily these were seeded, but I've only pulled a few of them. I have a stack of the full-size black parallels, as they're seeded 1 per pack, so I'd guess the minis are maybe 1 in every 20-30 packs, but I'm too lazy to look it up. Up to this point, this is the nicest card I've pulled from this set.

I really don't know what this was doing in a pack of baseball cards. The Standard Catalog titles this subset 'retro'. Its listed there, and books for $5, so I guess it was supposed to be in the pack. That doesn't mean I have to like it though. Rotten Canadians need to keep their hockey cards out of my baseball cards (yes, I realize they're now owned by an American company, it just sounded good. O-Pee-Chee SHOULD be a Canadian company, and I should mention that all the Canadians I've ever met have been wonderful people - all two of them).

A Hit! Albert, Prince, and a drunk. Well, that's nice. My mini-Albert didn't stay my best OPC pull for very long, but that's ok. Overall, I think I did alright (for once) buying 2-year-old markdowns. Makes me wanna head back over there and pick up that last blaster.

Other World Break - Conclusion

2011-05-21T22:51:00.000-04:00

Next up for the Other World break is 2009 Topps 206. I like the retro-styled sets, so this one's right up my alley. This was another odd box with the way the teams were distributed. I got 9 base Indians and 1 Royal. The single Royal was David DeJesus, and to be honest wasn't really worth the time to scan it.

Masterson looks like he's about 15 in that picture, and I thought it odd that instead of 'Cleveland', Huff's card says 'Rookie', as if I didn't notice the obnoxious 'Rookie Card' logo over his head. I like the inclusion of Tris Speaker, and Pronk looks like he's about to crush one (followed immediately by a trip to the DL). Finally, if I was a little less lazy, I'd have scanned Kerry Wood separately, and horizontally, because it just looks stupid like that, but too late now. I need to finish this post before the baby boy wakes up needing fed.

To make up for the lack of Royals in the base cards, I received 3 minis. And no Cleveland minis. The Bannister has a Polar back, and all 3 are available for trade (as is the DeJesus that's not shown).

The final box is my favorite of the break, and also contains the best card of the break (unless you're a Royals or Bo Jackson fan). I had never seen any Topps Gallery cards, and they're some beautiful cards. Since coming back to the hobby I've seen several painted (or what looks like painted) sets - 206, GQ, Masterpieces, Nat'l Chicle, A&G - but all of them have a vintage look to the design. Gallery is painted but with a modern design, and they look awesome. I think I may have to get some more of these.

A very nice, shiny parallel...

...and my favorite card of the break.

Thanks again Dan, for putting on a great break. I'm looking forward to another one.

Other World Break - Classics and Heroes Edition

2011-05-19T22:38:00.000-04:00

When I picked the Royals to be my second team, I had the UD Classics set in mind. Specifically, I was hoping to pick up a George Brett or two from the break. Unfortunately, this box was just the opposite of the first box - 18 Indians and 1 Royal. I got doubles of all the Indians below (triples of a couple of them), so if anybody's interested, they're available for trade (as is the Saberhagen).

Balance was restored with the Heroes box

The appearance of Bo Jackson made the absence of George Brett much easier to take. I didn't realize Bo was in the Heroes set, but its nice to see him.

Nice numbered parallel

Bo knows hits! Dan does his breaks on video, and I almost never watch video breaks. Its odd, when I'm in a break where the cards are listed and/or scanned, I always read the posts right away to see what I got. Video breaks, I dunno, for some reason I can't pay attention and watch them. So I didn't actually know what I was getting before these arrived. This Bo jersey card was a very nice surprise, and it, along with the other Heroes (a set I'm making a half-hearted attempt at collecting) are the only Royals not up for trade.

Indians (and Royals) from the Other World

2011-05-18T20:59:00.000-04:00

Dan from The Other World had a group break recently, and as usual I picked the Indians. This was one of those breaks where everybody gets a second team as well, and I chose the Royals. Funny, when this break was announced I had no idea that come the middle of May those two teams would be battling for first place in the AL Central. With all the young talent between the two teams and their farm teams, this could turn into a nice little rivalry (although the last couple nights have looked a little one-sided as the Tribe's offense seems to be getting back on track).

Dan's break had a nice selection of cards, with 2002 Topps Total, 2008 UD Baseball Heroes, 2009 Topps 206, 2005 UD Classics, and 2003 Topps Gallery. Tonight's post features the Topps Total cards, a set that I know very little about. My first impression is that they're a good-looking budget set, with a nice clean design.

The team distribution on this box was a little wacky, as I got 6 Indians and 15 Royals. All the Royals are available for trade.

The backs are a little diferent, with vital stats followed by three sections: Role, Stats, and History.

In other news that I'm sure nobody but me cares about, softball season started last night. I play in a very friendly, not-so-competitive church league. There are 4 divisions for our county church leagues, and we're in the lowest division. I hit leadoff last night, for the first time in my life, and managed to go 3-3 (triple and 2 singles) with 3 runs in an 8-5 win. Granted the triple was hit down the right field line, and the opposition had an old woman (60s-ish) playing right field. And then the 2 singles were high liner / low pops to right center that dropped a few feet in front of an outfielder I later learned had been hit in the face attempting to make a catch in practice the previous week, so he wasn't really trying too hard to catch anything. Regardless, a good time was had by all, though my out-of-shape legs are now paying for it.

Something's Got to Give

2011-05-09T10:34:00.000-04:00

I have group break takes, trade packages, and contest winnings to post. I have stacks and stacks of cards on the desk needing sorted and put away. I have boxes of stuff that needs gone through so I can figure out what exactly I need. I have want lists and trade bait lists to compile and post. But most importantly, I have a one-month-old son and three-year-old daughter, and so the cards sit, and the blog waits.

Just to get caught up, I want to thank some people for some recent packages. Forgive me for not showing off some of the nice stuff I received, but I just don't have the time to scan cards right now.

Ryan from O No, Another Orioles Blog bought some '09 O-Pee-Chee awhile back, and showed off a nice Grady Sizemore 'Face of the Franchise' card for trade, and that led to nice exchange of some of my O's and cards from his want list for some of his Indians and Kimball Champions from my want list.

Ted from Crinkly Wrappers had a post awhile back where he just wanted to get rid of some cards, and he invited collectors who'd recently returned to the hobby (like myself) to comment and receive a nice package of cards from the past 18 years or so. I think the oldest cards were from around '93, which was right around the time I stopped collecting. It was a very nice box of about 150 cards, with a lot of samples from sets I'd not seen, and I'm very thankful to have received it. The kindness and generosity of the bloggers / collectors in this hobby continue to surprise and impress me, and make me grateful to be a part of this community.

I've been in a couple group breaks from Colbey from Cardboard Collections. He does affordable breaks (the kind I like) and I've received some nice cards to add to my Tribe collection. He's just opened a new break and there are plenty of teams available starting at $5.00. Click here if you'd like in.

Also received a nice haul from the recent break at Community Gum, with all sorts of recent Fleer goodness. Most of these sets I'd never seen, and this was a really enjoyable break.

The Mojo and Beardy Fantastic Card Blog (and it really is fantastic - 3 great bloggers over there) had a contest recently, and I was winner #2, with a great prize that had a Josh Hamilton relic/auto as the centerpiece. The rest of the cards were football, so you all may see those again when football season rolls around (assuming there IS a football season), for a possible re-gift contest.

I think that brings things up to date here on the blog. Now if I can just get something done with all these stacks of cards... Hopefully I can get back to posting semi-regularly again.

Diamond Giveaway Trading - Its About Time

2011-03-30T10:32:00.000-04:00

From the Topps Cards Facebook page. Trading has finally been enabled. This should have been done when the site went live - better late than never I guess.

It's a Boy!

2011-03-27T21:59:00.001-04:00

Of course, we knew that already, but still, much excitement here as the big day has finally arrived! Joshua Dylan Cline, 6 lb. 8 oz., was born at 458pm on March 30, 2011.

In celebration of my son's birth, here are a few more famous Joshuas:

I mentioned in one of my earliest posts that I started collecting again after reading Cardboard Gods and seeing some other card blogs. However, the thought of having a boy - someone I can share this with, and hopefully watch experience some of the same joy in collecting that I had - that had just as much to do with taking up the hobby again.

I started collecting again before we knew what we were having, but my gut said we were having a boy. My gut told me we were having a girl before we found out with our daughter, so I kind of trusted my gut, even though my rational mind knows there's no logical reason I should be right, other than I had a 50/50 shot at it.

I held off writing about the expected bundle of joy for reasons I'm not really even sure of. It was almost like I didn't want to jinx it, sort of like not mentioning a no-hitter as its being pitched. I did cheat a little bit with this post though, and I'm scanning the cards and writing a draft on Sunday, March 27. The only thing left to fill in will be the time and date of the birth. I'm taking a week off from work, so hopefully I can get a few posts in during that time, although there probably won't be any for a couple days while I'm staying at the hospital with the Mrs and baby.

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Buried Treasure

2011-03-26T23:34:00.000-04:00

I'm going to try to make this a regular series, short posts of cards I run across as I'm going through the collection; sort of a random card feature. I need to do some sort of short posts, as I've just not had much time lately.

Anyway, tonight I'm digging through some older stuff looking for something to trade Ryan at "O" No! Another Orioles Blog and I saw this gem:

Is he calling Brain Wilson?

Best Bookmark Ever

2011-03-20T23:30:00.000-04:00

So the County Library had their annual "Friends of the Library Book Sale" at the Fairgrounds this weekend, and I thought I'd go pick up some books on the cheap. Hardcovers were only 2 bucks apiece, and I was hoping they'd have some decent baseball books. I ended up taking home four, including one with a special prize inside.

First up is The Last Good Season, by Michael Shapiro, about the Brooklyn Dodgers' final pennant race. I'm by no means a fan of the Dodgers, but I really love baseball history, and the relationship between Brooklyn and their Bums was a special one.

The next find was The Teammates by David Halberstam. Not your typical baseball book, its a story of friendship and growing older between 4 old Red Sox teammates: Dom DiMaggio, Johnny Pesky, Bobby Doerr, and Ted Williams.

The first two books I had seen before but never read. This third one I don't remember seeing, ever, and I'm really looking forward to reading it. Games, Asterisks, and People: Memoirs of a Lucky Fan by former Commissioner Ford C. Frick.

Finally, the book that held my prize. When I was a kid, I loved to watch Pete Rose play. He played the way I wanted, and tried, to play: all out, all the time. Looking at him, he was like me, and didn't look like an athlete. He busted his ass though, and worked hard, and became one of the greatest hitters in the baseball histroy. He played in the field wherever his team needed him: I've got cards of him as 2B, OF, 3B, and 1B. So when I saw the spine of a book with the title Hustle, I knew it would be about Rose. When I looked at the front, and saw the rest of the title - "The Myth, Life, and Lies of Pete Rose" - I realized I probably don't want to read it. Look, I know Rose gambled on baseball, and he deserved to be kicked out of the game. But it still makes me sad, his whole sorry life from about the time he started managing the Reds to pimping himself out at casinos to signing books at Bench's HOF induction and on and on. I'd love to just erase all that from my memory and just remember the head-first slides, running to first on a walk, spiking the ball on the astro-turf at the Vet after the third out, and on and on. Pete Rose, baseball player. The book though, had something in it, something marking someone's place. Perhaps the original owner of this book was like me, and didn't want to read about sleazy gambling Pete, and stopped before it got too bad, and never picked the book up again, except to donate it to the library. And what was marking the place where the previous owner abandoned the story of Charlie Hustle?

This was in a top-loader, marking the page. It's a little off-center vertically, though not as off-center as it appears, as I think I cropped off a little bit of the bottom of the card, and horizontally its centered, I just didn't do a great job scanning it. What I like is the edges are nice and sharp, unlike nearly every single card from 1980 that I own. When I was 10 I put my cards in rubber bands. I'd sort and re-sort, and the edges would get all torn to hell. And we'd play games with the cards, lay them out on an imaginary field on the floor, all the players in their positions, and flick a marble with a pencil. So the cards were getting pelted with marbles as well as being abused by rubber bands. Anyway, I know I have at least one of these (maybe 2) in lousy condition, so it was really cool to find one that looked so good. Needless to say, I bought the book, but I don't think I'll be reading it anytime soon.

Heritage Black Parallels from Target

2011-03-16T22:26:00.000-04:00

As promised, here are the black parallels I forgot to scan last night. With the Topps base set, I'm not a fan of the black parallels that are found in the Wal-Mart products. For some reason they just look cheap to me. These, on the other hand, I think look great, even better than the Heritage base cards (at least in my humble opinion).

As much as I like these, there's no way I'm gonna try to chase them. The base set is hard enough to put together without trying to chase parallels. The only one's I'm interested would be Indians and Thome, which I didn't get. The cards pictured are all available for trade.

Just as a follow-up to my last post, I asked about the white star on Mangini's rookie, and I've since searched on eBay, and all the Manginis there have the white star. I'm thinking its in homage to the'62 set, where I believe there were some oddball printing variations. Also when discussing the Mangini I said something about blue tints; I meant green, like in the original '62s, but I think Wal-Mart is going to have some blue tints and Target some red tints as well. And finally, in regards to pricing, my Target finally got the rest of their Heritage product out on the shelves today, and the blasters, oddly enough, are the cheapest option:

pack - $3 - 9 cards - .33 card
blister pack (3pks + 3blk parallel) - $9 - 30 cards - .30 card
value/jumbo - $5 - 16 cards - .31 card
blaster - $20 - 72 cards - .28 card

Of course, I guess it depends on what you value. I'm sure there are collectors out there who would gladly pay the extra couple cents per card for the black parallels. I'll have to see how happy I am with the blaster I bought today before I decide what to buy next. Oh, and I know I'd be better off going the hobby route, and I really don't blame those of you out there that shun retail in general. However, my local card shop is not at all local (45 minutes away), and I try to avoid having too many packages showing up on my doorstep, so I'm sort of stuck with Target and Wal-Mart.

Now I must say goodnight, as there's a blaster sitting in front of me that desperately needs broken.

Hunting for Heritage

2011-03-16T09:21:00.000-04:00

Went to Target at lunch yesterday, made my way to the card aisle, and no Heritage. Started to leave and saw a brown cardboard box sitting atop the empty checkout lane next to the cards. The box was open. I took a peek, and there they were. The boxes containing the $3 packs weren't open yet, and I didn't see any blasters or jumbo packs, but I did see some hanging packages that contained 3 9-card packs with 3 'exclusive' black parallel cards. These were $8.99. I got 3 of them, and I like them. I'm a big fan of Heritage. The sets they were based on were mythical sets to the young me collecting in the late '70s and early '80s, and I like how Topps honors those classic designs. Here are some highlights:

Does anybody know why Matt Mangini's star is white instead of yellow? Is this some sort of variation Topps is doing, like with the blue tints?

Those are some really big rookie trophies.

Floating Heads and Invisible Chairs!

I like the look of the All-Stars, with the Sporting News logo up top. The cards are different enough from the base cards to give them a special look, yet the wood-grain background tells you immediately they belong to this set.

Then and Nows are back, and this is a good series if done right. Sometimes Topps grasps at straws to come up with a way to link players from the past to the present.

The stamps are really nice. I like these a lot, although again it seems like they randomly throw 2 stamps on a card. There's no link between the 2 players. I don't collect either of these guys or their teams, so this is up for trade.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this first batch of Heritage, although it would have been nice if I'd pulled at least one Indian. 81 cards, 0 Indians, but I'm gonna try to collect the base set, so I've got a start on that at least.

I forgot to scan the black-bordered parallels last night. I'll try to get to it tonight, as they'll all be up for trade. I think I like the looks of them better than the base, but I have no desire to attempt to build that set. I'd love to get all the black-bordered Indians, but that can wait for now.

Beginnings

2011-03-11T22:44:00.000-05:00

Monday I mentioned how reading Cardboard Gods lead me back into collecting, and that got me reminiscing about the earliest days of my card collecting. It was 1976 when I got my first baseball cards, and I wish I could show some cards and say 'this one was my favorite', or 'I remember how excited I was when I got this one', but I was 6 years old, and I don't remember much from that year, and somehow, between the end of the '76 season and the beginning of '77, those 1976 cards disappeared.

The one thing I do remember from 1976 is the true beginning of my love for baseball. I had a glove, and Dad played catch with me and taught me how to swing a bat, but I'd never actually played a game of baseball. We moved that summer, to a house that bordered the High School property. Behind our backyard was the football field, fenced in, with a field for parking lying between the property lines and the fence. One summer evening, the first week in the new house, I looked out the back patio door. Two doors down, at the back of the yards, was a baseball game. There were 7 or 8 kids playing and an old man pitching. The kids all looked bigger than me. I sat and watched, mesmerized. The old man saw me and stopped. He waved me to come out. I was scared, excited, nervous, but above all thrilled at the chance to get in the game. It turned out the old man was our neighbor, and he had 4 boys, the youngest a year older than me. I think I played in the outfield that day, and I don't remember if I got a hit or not, but I didn't embarass myself - THAT, I would remember. For the next few years we played out there every chance we got, and those summers were a magical time.

As for the 1976 cards, who knows what happened to them. Maybe I threw them out. Maybe, like the stereotype, Mom threw them out. Or maybe my cousin stole them. He was a year older than me, and I remember getting older and enviously eyeing his collection whenever we'd go to their house, seeing the loudly colored '75s, and all the '76s that I no longer had. The Aaron cards were what I most coveted on those trips, even if it was Hank as a Brewer. By the time I started actually saving my cards, Aaron had retired, and I'd be 12 years old before I got a Hammer of my own. I don't really think my cousin stole my '76s, but it used to drive me nuts that he'd never trade with me.

I eventually added some cards from '76 into my collection. In fact, I'm pretty close to having the set, although I'm somehow still missing Aaron's base card. I've got the RBI Record Breaker...

...and one of my all-time favorite cards...

I either never saw this Bench (unlikely) or just didn't realize how completely awesome it was until I started collecting again last year. Its feature in Cardboard Gods, and was one of the first vintage cards I sought out when I rebooted the collection.

There's also a few other guys who've been enshrined in the Hall...

...and one who should be in the Hall...

I know the '76 set has been covered pretty extensively in the blogs (Project Baseball 1976 is great, and is currently featuring some of these in card of the year posts), but its always been one of my favorites. It's just got a nice, classic look to it, and I love the stars they used on the all-star cards. Most of all, it takes me back to summer evenings, where everything is new and I'm playing a game I love.

Group Break @ Community Gum

2011-03-08T11:48:00.000-05:00

Community Gum has a nice group break going on with 7 boxes of various Fleer products from 2000-2005. Only 7 teams have been claimed so far, so go check it out.

This n That: Contests and Books

2011-03-07T11:11:00.000-05:00

First, thanks toThe Daily Dimwit for a recent contest he held, I'm one of the runner-up winners who gets a surprise prize. Looking forward to it. Also on the contest front, Baseball Cards Rule is having a nice contest, giving away a Duke Snider auto.

Elsewhere on the web Josh Wilker at Cardboard Gods is doing a team-by-team preview for 2011 by pulling a random card from a different team every day. Josh is actually a big reason why I'm collecting again. Last summer, I saw a review of his book, (available in paperback next week) and it looked really interesting. It's the story of his childhood, related through the baseball cards he collected. He's only a couple years older than me, so many of the cards featured were part of my collection. His writing is wonderful, and the book put me right back in the '70s again. After reading it, I missed my cards, and my parents were kind enough to load up the trunk of their car with all my monster boxes and albums on one of their trips from Ohio to see the grandkids in Maryland and Virginia. Within days of getting my cards, I was at Target and picked up a couple packs of Heritage, and that was it: I was hooked all over again.

Finally, I saw last week that it was Willie Keeler's birthday, which coincided nicely with the book I just finished. Where They Ain't: The Fabled Life and Untimely Death of the Original Baltimore Orioles, the Team That Gave Birth to Modern Baseball, by Burt Solomon, is a great read about the history of Baltimore baseball. There was a lot of history that I either didn't know, or had forgotten, like the O's being a NL team, John McGraw being a great 3B for the O's, not to mention the story of Keeler, one of the all-time greats. Before I picked this up the only thing I really knew about him was the 44 game hit streak record (shared by Rose) that remains the NL's longest. This was really a fascinating read, and despite the title, it's more than just a history of the original O's; it tells the story of the National League at the turn of the century and touches on the origins of the American League as well.

Tomahawk Chopping is Having a Contest

2011-03-01T14:09:00.000-05:00

Tomahawk Chopping is having a contest. Derek will pick out and buy some cards for you personally, based on your want list and teams you collect. Head over there now to enter.

Mailbox Goodness

2011-02-28T21:50:00.000-05:00

Got 2 packages in the mail last week from Colbey at Cardboard Collections; one my take from a recent group break, another from the first One Out Away trade. I meant to do this post a week ago, but last week was just one of those weeks where there was no time for anything. I'll go ahead and start with the group break, which began with some '92 O-Pee-Chee.

MLB Network had the 1995 "Baseball Seasons" show on the other night, and it was a little bittersweet to watch. The Tribe made it to the World Series for the first time since 1954 with what they referred to as a "modern day Murderers Row" lineup. Unfortunately, they ran up against the preeminent pitching staff of the '90's, and Colbey's Braves got their lone World Series win* against my beloved Tribe (*the lone win for Atlanta - the Braves won the Series once each when they were in Milwaukee and Boston).

In 1992, the pieces were starting to come together for the Indians to make a run. The team was still very young, and they had a couple guys still in the minors who would make huge contributions to the playoff teams a few years down the road.

These two played a big role in that pennant winning season, and it's amazing how young they look here. 19 years and over 1100 HRs later, these guys are still at it. Assuming the Indians aren't going to be contending for the title this year, I'm pulling for the Twins to win it all. I'd love to see Thome get a ring before he retires. He seems to be one of the genuinely good guys in the game.

This guy played a big, but not so obvious, role on that pennant winning team too. Cleveland traded him and Willie Blair for Dave Rohde (I have no idea who that is) and a 17th round draft pick, some guy named Lofton. One of the most lopsided trades of my lifetime. Thank you, Houston. If there are any Astros fans reading this, I'm sorry, but I think Biggio and Bagwell would have loved having Lofton hitting leadoff for them.

In 1992, we thought this was our future in Center Field. He hit .295 with a .386 OBP and 27 SB, so he was solid at the top of the order, but if I remember correctly, he was dreadful in the field.

In the winter of either '92 or '93, I attended my one and only Indians press tour event. I honestly don't remember much about it, other than Herb Score and John Hart were there, and Steve Olin was there as well. I've got a card somewhere with his autograph. Olin was a talented young reliever who'd won the closers job in '91, and in '92 had 29 saves with a 2.34 ERA. Tragically, he would not get to share in the later success of his teammates, as he died in a boating accident with fellow relief pitcher Tim Crews during 1993's Spring Training. He was just 27 at the time of the accident.

Another one of the better trades by Mr. Hart, the Tribe got Alomar, along with 2B Carlos Baerga, for Joe Carter following the 1989 season. Sandy would win the Rookie of the Year and make the All-Star game in 1990, and was an All-Star again in '91 and '92 despite being hampered by injuries. After his rookie season, he didn't play more than 90 games in a season until 1996, when he returned to the All-Star game for the first of 3 more consecutive trips. Sandy returned to the Indians after the 2009 season to coach first base for Manny Acta, which can be nothing but beneficial to the development of Carlos Santana and Chun Chen (Chen is 22 and spent last year in Class A ball and hit .315 with 69 RBI in 110 games, and was selected to play for the World team at the All-Star Futures Game).

Well, he was a great hitter to have in the lineup at the time, but I can't really find much good to say about him. He was the first of the Tribe's stars to leave as a free agent, and I think most of us were kind of like "Oh well". He was such a lousy person that it was no big deal. When it started to get painful was when Manny, and then Thome left.

"Hard Hittin'" Mark Whiten, he missed out on most of the Tribe's glory days of the 90's. He was traded to St. Louis after the '92 season, where he would gain a small amount of fame by tying single-game records for most HR (4) and RBI (12). Looking at his career, I feel kinda bad for the guy. Think about the good teams of the 90's, and then look where Whiten played: Toronto, Cleveland, St. Louis, Boston, Philly, Atlanta, Seattle, the Yankees, then back to Cleveland to finish his career. Zero World Series rings, zero World Series appearances. His only postseason appearance came near the end of his career with Cleveland in 1998 when they lost to the Yankees (where he'd played the year before).

Citizen of the Day

2011-02-19T22:49:00.000-05:00

Picked up a discount blaster box of Goodwin Champions @ Wal-Mart the other day. I'd previously only purchased a few packs of these in the discount multi-pack thingies at Target, and it's a set I really like. I'd pulled a couple minis in those earlier packs, but no other inserts. I didn't even know about the Citizens of the Day inserts, so it was a nice surprise to see this. Then I thought, 'Wait, wasn't Cap Anson a racist? Didn't I read about how he refused to take the field against teams with African-Americans on them, and how he played a role in the major baseball leagues of the time segregating? Am I remembering this right?' So I did a little reading, and yes I remembered right. So why is he featured on an insert called "Citizens of the Day"? Did I miss something? Did he maybe open an orphanage or something after his playing days and I wasn't aware of it? Maybe the back of the card can educate me on Cap Anson's citizenship:

No such luck: Cap was "one of baseball's first great hitters and the first to 3,000 hits". I knew about the great hitter. I also knew about the manager. I did a little more research - Wikipedia and a nice little bio with a chapter titled "Cap's Great Shame" that delves into his racism - and my memories were correct. He was by all accounts a racist, and on more than one occasion he refused to take the field against black players. After baseball he was a failed businessman in several ventures, including "ginger beer that exploded on store shelves".

His role in the actual segregation of the game may be a bit overstated by some, and I honestly don't think the opinions of one player, regardless of whether he was a superstar like Anson, would have made a difference in the way segregation in the game played out. Baseball was no more and no less segregated than restaurants, hotels, buses, or any number of businesses in the 50 years following Anson's career, so I get that it was a different time and his attitudes and actions were somewhat representative of white ballplayers in the late 19th century. However, if I see a subset with the word "citizen" in the title, I'm thinking "good citizen". Does anybody else think that way? If I'm trying to explain citizenship to my kid, Cap Anson is not the example I'm going to be using.

Leading Off

2011-02-17T11:31:00.001-05:00

Saw an article this week that this guy,

probably the greatest leadoff hitter in Indians history, is going to be in Indians camp this year, primarily to help out this guy:

Its great to see Lofton, as well as Mike Hargrove, back with the Tribe. Hopefully they can teach some of these kids how to win.

I've got both these cards at home, somewhere, but since I'm at work I grabbed the images from Check Out My Cards.

Also, thanks go to Justin at Justin's World for mentioning One Out Away in his 30 Teams, 30 Blogs post.

Contest Plug - Clear Cut Cards Infinite Baseball Pack

2011-02-15T22:09:00.000-05:00

Clear Cut Cards is having a contest and giving away a pack of cards from the Infinite Baseball Card Set. You can get up to 3 entries by commenting, following his blog, and/or plugging the contest.

Diamond Giveaway 1

2011-02-15T22:00:00.000-05:00

OK, finally got to enter a code. I've got 7 of these, but I'm gonna stop at one tonight since I managed to get something from the '70s. Not a great card, but it is one I needed. This guy doesn't look like a basketball player, but I could picture him selling shoes after his playing days were done.

The site, and the digging, as reported by others, is extremely slow right now. I guess that's to be expected with it being the first day the site's live.

Diamond Giveaway Live at Last

2011-02-15T10:27:00.000-05:00

Just saw the Topps Facebook status update that the Diamond Giveaway is live. Too bad I'm at work and all my code cards are at home. Oh well, its something else to look forward to tonight.

Cardboard Idiot

2011-02-14T23:33:00.002-05:00

It seems the local card shop could use some competition, as his offerings are somewhat limited. As far as unopened product, there's a better selection at Wal-Mart or Target. The first point of ignorance, for me, was not knowing there are 'hobby boxes' and 'retail boxes'. I didn't buy any paxes there because they were more expensive than at the big retailers.

I dug out a lot of Indians from his commons box, and it seemed odd that there were some really nice cards now considered common. When I stopped collecting, inserts were a pretty new idea. The only ones I can remember are the Upper Deck Baseball Heroes, and I remember the big deal made about there being Reggie Jackson autos inserted. I had no idea that now, base cards seem to be viewed on nearly the same level as commons, and it's the inserts and 'hits' that everyone is after.

The owner saw me looking over his meager display of packs and apologized for the lack of product, then said he was expecting a shipment in the next couple days, including some T-206's. This was my greatest point of ignorance. I said something like 'wow, that's cool', while thinking to myself 'its not like I can afford to buy any T-206's, how about getting some more new stuff in here.' About a week later I saw something online about the TOPPS 206's, and felt like a fool, even though I never actually voiced my ignorance.

I feel I've done a lot of catching up on the hobby's happenings over the past few months, and I've got mixed feelings about it. I've seen many good posts the past few days on 'how to fix Topps', so I'm not going to re-hash all that. I will say one of the trends I really like is the retro/vintage products. My latest purchase (ordered before Topps 2011 hit the stores, but somehow just now making it to my mailbox) is a box of 2003 Topps 205s. I really like the design on these, but I'm not sure I get the reason for 3 totally different designs for the base cards. Anyway, here's the 3 designs, plus 1 of the really cool 3 section fold-out inserts:

Shiny Happy People for Trade

2011-02-12T00:32:00.000-05:00

Unlike a lot of other collectors out there, I'm not chasing these. All my Diamond parallels, other than the Strasburg, are up for trade. The list is on the side. What I am chasing is the Kimball Champions minis, and that list is on the side as well. Sorry about the Strasburg, but I've got a special place in an album reserved for this, right next to this -

First Post

2011-02-11T16:15:00.001-05:00

If you're thinking "Oh great, another baseball card blog, just what the world needs", well, I don't blame you. Problem is, it's gotten to the point where I NEED to do this. I got back into collecting last August, and there are several card blogs that I read regularly now. I see the camaraderie among the bloggers, the trades, the shared experience of enjoying this wonderful hobby, and I want to be part of that.

I spent the first 27 years of my life in Ohio, primarily in a small town halfway between Cleveland and Columbus. I headed south and spent 7 years in North Carolina, then settled in Southern Maryland in 2003. I don't know any colletors here, so I've got no one to trade with locally. I only know a few people here who are even big baseball fans. So, I need this outlet.

It took several weeks to decide on a name. I'm an Indians fan, obviously, but I wanted this to be about more than just the Indians, more perhaps than just about cards. I thought about what it is to be an Indians fan. Every Spring filled with hope, every Autumn falling short. In my lifetime the closest the Indians, or any Cleveland team for that matter, have been to a world championship was 1997. After looking up the box score of that 7th game, I see they were actually two outs away from winning it when Jose Mesa blew it in the 9th, and one out away from getting out of the 11th with the score still tied. I always forget it was Charlie Nagy who was the loser. I think I'll always feel like it was Mesa who lost it, no matter what the box score says. One Out Away just feels like the Indians to me.

Hopefully this weekend I can get some more elements of this thing put together. I need to put up a want list section, a blog roll, a header picture, etc. I'm not real crazy about the overall design of the page, but haven't had time to re-do it. I started using google connect just in the last few days and have become an official follower of several card blogs (as opposed to unofficially just reading them regularly). Oddly enough, I'm about to publish this first post and I see I've got 3 followers already. Cool, thanks guys.

I've rambled enough, its time for today's card: probably the best Mesa card I've got, from one of my favorite early 90's sets, '93 Flair.