Trade with Johnny of Cards from the Quarry

Happy Memorial Day Everyone! I hope everyone is enjoying the 3 day weekend!

I just wanted to thank Johnny for trading me a bunch of 2009 Upper Deck O-Pee-Chee cards for some Rockies cards I had for him.

I am officially going to build the set and I'm going to try and do it by trading cards I already have for them. I'm just going for the base set at this point but I also am interested in the Orioles black border cards so let me know if you have any of either to trade me.

Group Break cards from Cards from the Quarry

While I didn't get anything spectacular from hiflew's inaugural Group break, I did land some nice cards to add to my Orioles binders. I'm really enjoying all the breaks that I've been able to take part in recently. Only the cards you want and none of the leftover trash (wrappers) afterwards!

I don't know what else to say about Mike that I haven't said before but I like this card a lot. With this card it brings me down to 1 card needed for the team set (Sidney Ponson).

2008 Upper Deck Documentary has really grown on me the last few months. I started off hating it now they aren't so bad. I got a huge heap of them in this break so I'm well on my way to collecting all 162 Orioles cards in the future. If you have any to trade, let me know!

I'm not sure a lot of people know that Mike Fontenot was once and Orioles farmhand. He was drafted by them but was traded in the Sammy Sosa deal. I also have an in person autograph of him floating around here somewhere that I should show in the future.

I actually won this card in the randomization at the end of the break. It's the first time in my blogging career that I have won a contest or even a randomization. I'm happy to have this card of Ichiro as I have an elevated interest in his cards since I am part Japanese. I don't have a dedicated binder or anything for him but I'm always happy to acquire cards of him.

I want to Thank Johnny for holding the group break. I can't wait to see what he comes up with next month!

Trade with Dan of the Other World

Along with the group break cards that I posted yesterday, Dan also sent along some cards to complete our trade that we agreed upon during the packs being busted. Here's a few of the nice ones:

This Aubrey Huff from 2009 Finest finishes of my team set. I'm interested to see how this year's Finest turns out.

It sure is neat to see Arthur Rhodes still around. I think this year he's pitching for Texas. I know earlier in his career when he was with the O's he was a starter but he sure didn't his his stride until converting to a bullpen arm.

And here's a nice Ripken that I didn't have before. I have the Chrome version but I actually like this one better. It just looks better as the regular version.

Thanks to Dan for the nice cards.

Group Break Cards from the Other World

Here's the first of a few group break posts that will be going up over the next few days. This break comes to you courtesy of the Other World. Dan's selection of boxes was intriguing and I definitely had to get in on this one. I'm really glad I did. I picked the Orioles (of course) and my randomed team was the Astros. Here's the goods:

I've always liked Topps Gallery but I have a very precious few of them. This Marty Cordova helps me cross another card off my wantlists. I need more Gallery Orioles!

This mini Old Mill back of Jeremy Guthrie reminds me of the miniscule amount of runs the O's score for him while he's toeing the rubber.

Here's one of the many colored paralells from 2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes of Luke Scott. I'm not able to feature many of Luke's cards because there just aren't that many of them. I don't understand why he doesn't get more hobby love because he is a legit power hitter.

Here's a pretty nice numbered insert card from the 2005 Upper Deck Classics box of Brooksie. He just celebrated a birthday last week. Here's to many more!

Here's the meat of the break for me. I think I did rather well with getting a relic card from both teams I picked. The real kicker is that I already had pulled the same exact Tejada from my own box last fall and traded it. I'm really happy with the Ripken Relic card too. One of these days I'd love to be able to pull some mojo of him out of a pack on my own. I can dream!

Here's a list of Astros that I have for trade along with Mr. Tejada from the break. Let me know if you see any you need.

Astros:

2008 Upper Deck Baseball Heroes: J.R. Towles, Hunter Pence, Roy Oswalt,

2009 Topps 206: Ivan Rodriguez, Roy Oswalt, Hunter Pence, Carlos Lee

2002 Topps Total: Jeff Bagwell, Mike Hill, Carlos Hernandez, Richard Hidalgo, Brian L. Hunter, Scott Linebrink, Orlando Merced, Brandon Puffer,

2003 Topps Gallery: Roy Oswalt, Jeff Kent

5-19-11: Bowie Baysox @ Richmond Flying Squirrels

I'm finally getting around to writing about this game nearly a week after the game has been over! This was one of the most interesting games I've been to in person and absolutely the best pitcher's duel hands down. This game started at 7:05pm and ended at 11:50 pm. Nearly 5 hours and I barely missed a pitch except for the home half of the 3rd when I left my seat to grab a bite to eat. Let's back up a bit to the pregame though.

I arrived at The Diamond at about 5:30 in hopes of collecting some 'graphs of the Orioles farmhands. I'd say it was a successful outing in that regard. I ended up with 6 of my "Top Prospect" cards, and 5 regular cards signed. Among the regular cards I got signed was this card of Dan Klein. I asked him if he had ever seen one and he said it was the second. He really studied the card hard and pointed out to me that they (Topps) must have airbrushed the Orioles onto his jersey because he only used an Easton Glove in college. I told him Topps is famous for airbrushing cards.

Nick Bierbrodt was a spring training invite pick up for the Orioles this year. I remember him when he pitched with the Diamondbacks a while back among other teams. He asked me if he really wanted me to sign this card because "I think I'm past the Top Prospect part of my career". I insisted and he signed it anyway! He would go onto play a large role much later in the game. His veteran arm pitched 4 scoreless extra innings in relief and showed the youngins how it was done! Hats off to you, sir!
So the game started and with Richmond scoring in the first inning and Bowie fighting back for 1 run in the third. The score remained tied until the 10th inning when Bowie Outfielder Xavier Avery got a BROKEN BAT single deep into the 5-6 hole and later came around to score. All Bowie needed was to get 3 outs and the game was over.... Not this night!

After some shoddy defense, Richmond scored a single run in the bottom of the inning and the marathon game was on.

Now I capitalized the BROKEN BAT for a reason. I seemingly was the only Orioles fan in the stands near the Baysox dugout and pitcher Eddie Gamboa gave me a nod and thumbs up pointing to my hat. So after Avery broke the bat, Gamboa was playing around with it in the dugout and talking with his teammates. In the bottom of the 15th he looks at me (the only person within 30 feet of me) and gives me a look like "You're still here? You must really be a fan!" I put my hands together like I was holding the bat and he motions for me to come and get it!!! BADASS! Here's the Picture of it:

Though it's cracked on the handle and isn't good for anything but kindling. BUT I HAVE A GAME-USED BAT!!!

Anyways, back to the game, the Baysox were able to push across one run on a walk, sac bunt, and a double by Ronnie Welty (his only hit of the game). Richmond went quietly in the bottom of the 16th.

The Fireworks after the game was almost postponed because of a city ordinance that wouldn't allow them after 12 midnight. Luckily for the few hundred fans that stayed, the fireworks were really nice. It kinda got me in the summer mood. Then I realized that I needed to be on my way to work in 5 hours!

It was a long night considering the night before I had watched the Orioles on TV go 14 innings and end just after midnight. In two days I had watched 30 innings of ball but it was all worth it!

So I'll leave you with a question, What was the longest game you have been involved in or watched in person?

The Bowman Retail Bug

So in an effort to fill out my base set and prospects set I've bought a metric ton of 2011 Bowman rack packs. Searching various forums, the blogs, and trusting my own gut, I've determined that rack packs are the way to go with just about any product. This year's Bowman is no exception. These things are loaded! I've feel that I've been extremely lucky with my pulls so results are not typical. Here's some of the goods that I've pulled out of roughly 20 rack packs from various stores around my area (2 different Wal-Marts and 2 different Targets).

Here's the 4 autographs I've been fortunate to pull. I think Choice might be the best out of the bunch but I'm happy to have them all.

Here's a few of my Army of Green parallels. Why did Topps number them to 450?

I got a few Orange and Blue parallels too:

And the Internationals I got. I'm pretty happy to get the Matusz so I don't have to chase that one down on eBay.

I pulled 4 purple refractors but 1 was a double of the Red Sox guy (of course)

and one regular refractor

I also was able to get lucky and get 6 Bryce Harpers. 3 Chromes and 3 regular prospect cards. I'm keeping 1 chrome and 2 regulars so the others are for trade. The crazy thing is after getting none in my HTA box, my first rack pack yielded a Chrome and a base in the same pack!

I've got a bunch of inserts that I am too tired and lazy to list here so if you are looking for a specific player, please leave a comment.

Box Break: 2011 Bowman HTA Jumbo

Since I am a big Bowman Collector, I pre-ordered a Jumbo box of the 2011 iteration way back in January. I always enjoy reading the backs of the prospect cards and gleaning out which are are the true Major League quality prospects and the set filler guys. Probably my favorite section on the back is the "Up Close" section. There are always interesting tidbits of information on the player that any self respecting Jeopardy fan would love (I'm addicted to the show!).

I know a lot of collectors that arent' huge fans of Bowman for various reasons (crazy-ass numbering system, prospects that never pan out, etc...) but I look forward to it year after year. I'm not a "Rookie Card Investor" by any means but I do like to see the next wave of players on the way to the show. So, here's the goods from my box:

I got loads of base cards, prospects, golds and Chrome prospect cards. It's a good start on the set. Nobody wants to see anymore of these so I'll spare you. But if you have needs, let me know and I'm sure we can trade.

Chrome Prospect Refractors seem to be a little more rare this year. I got two: Chris Dennis, Brandon Guyer. Guyer already made the majors this year and jacked a homer in his first At-Bat.

Gold Refractor: Everett Teaford 17/50. I did get some color in this box (more farther down) so that's exciting I guess. I don't know if Teaford is a hot prospect for the Royals or not. They have so many nice young players down on the farm to keep track of.

The box also produced the promised amounts of regular parallels too. I got one Orange Border; Adam Dunn and three blue borders; Josh Hamilton, Michael Spina and JA Happ. No Orioles but I'll take'em for trade bait. I also got one International Parallel of Jack Shuck. I'm happy to see these back after a 10+ year lay-off. I wish they were one per pack though in place of the gold bordered parallels

I feel that this year there are a couple too many inserts. I like the Topps 100 Prospects, Bowman's Best and Finest Futures but I think I could go with out the others. I don't even remember the names they are so forgettable. The one notable Bowman's Best card I got was Bryce Harper. Again, everyone has seen this card before. It is interesting to note that this was my only Harper I got out of the entire Jumbo box though. I'm a little disappointed.

Printing Plate: Bowman Prospects Nate Freiman. Well what can I say about Printing plates... I just don't see the point in Topps putting them in products. Yeah they are one of a kind but I don't even consider them "Hits". They are worthless pieces of junk to me.

Bowman Chrome Prospect Autograph Matt Hague. According to the back of the card, Matt is not a bad Prospect. We'll see how he turns out in a few years. First Base Prospects haven't panned out well for Pittsburgh recently. Rico Washington, Brad Eldred, Walter Jones or Steve Pearce ring any bells?

Orange Refractor Autograph Sean Coyle 2/25. This is a pretty rare card I believe. Leave it to me to pull a BIG MOJO HIT of an AL East rival of the Orioles. It's either dumb luck on my part or that Topps is swayed towards the Red Sox and Yankees that I keep pulling these cards. I haven't decided whether or not to hang on to this card or not.

Here is my third promised autograph card of the box. I don't get really upset with pulling redemption cards. I understand their place in the hobby. I know that the players have lives and don't have all day to sit around autographing cards all day long and that Topps has printing deadlines that must be met. It's a minor inconvenience to type in the redemption code or mail the card in but I think it's worth it in the long run.

From doing a little bit of research, I have found out that the three possible rookie autographs I could possibly get are Freddie Freeman, Aroldis Chapman and Lars Anderson. I would really be thrilled to get Freddie, happy with Chapman and disappointed with Anderson. Since Anderson plays in the Red Sox Organization, I wouldn't be surprised if I got him!

Well there you have it. I'm pleased with what I got but not overwhelmed. I didn't get a Chrome or base Harper prospect so I'll have to buy some retail to hopefully get lucky. I've already started my retail binge of Rack Packs and I've already got some nice cards to show off from those packs at another time.... Until then I will leave you in suspense.

Thanks for reading!

Take a Closer Look at your 2011 Bowman cards

One of my favorite things about Bowman is the Scouting Reports on the backs of the cards. I like the Resume part that tells about what the player has done in the past, the Skills portion that tells about the player's tools and specifically the Up Close Portion. I'm going to hold just a little contest for fun.

Go look at the backs of your 2011 Bowman Prospects cards and find the oddest or coolest fact that you can and post it here. Post it here along with the card # and the player. Also feel free to add a snarky comment or two

I'm not giving away any prizes but I think everybody can have some fun with this.

Here's an example of the one I found:

BP73 Kevin Rivers..... Says he is afraid of birds. (I hope he never gets traded to the Jays, Orioles or Cardinals)

Trade with Ted of Crinkly Wrappers

Ted and I have been trading partners for about a year now and I believe this is the 3rd card swap we've completed. Ted always seems to have some great Orioles cards for me and I usually can fit the bill with something that he likes. Ted bought a hobby box of Gypsy Queen from his LCS and the cardboard gods really shined on him. Check out his good luck Hobby Box right here. Well if you checked out the link, you could probably figure out what cards I was interested in. Here's a scan for those of you who may be too lazy to click the link:

That's not all of the relic goodness he sent me either:

I've been fond of Bo Jackson since I was a little boy. I can only imagine what he could have been if he hadn't gotten hurt playin that "foosball". A bunch of overgrown gorillas manhandling each other....

This is my second Javy relic card but first bat card. I enjoyed his time in Baltimore near the end of his career. I guess all those years of punishment donning the tools of ignorance finally took its toll and his playing days ended in the blink of any eye.

One of my favorite sets in recent memory is 2009 Topps 206 (the 2010 version was total crap though). This autograph hails from that set. I have several TTMs of Koji where he only signs his first name. All of the certified autographs I've seen have his entire name spelled out.

I'll round out this trade with a vintage goodie. A 1957 Topps Willie Miranda. I haven't had many vintage additions to my collection lately so I'm glad to have this card.

A big thanks to Ted for the awesome trade package. I can't wait to do another trade with you!

Trade with Cam of The Bullpen Cardboard

I have traded with Cam before and when he saw a post of my lamenting about how slow things were on the trade front for me, he offered to send me some cards of the Orange and Black to get the ball moving again. I sent him some nice Astros cards and here is a sampling of the goodies he sent me back:

I was really excited to see this card pop out of the package! Get well Nick (at the time I'm posting this, he is fighting the flu).

This is an interesting card of the Tim Raines JR. Cam got this card In Person at an Independent League game. I'm happy to give it a good home.

I've just recently taken a liking to Donruss Team Heroes. The sets have a pretty decent mix of old stars and modern (early 2000's) players. Sort of like Gypsy Queen... but not really.

Also, I've taken a liking to UD 40-Man. I guess I just like having sets that have the entire teams.

And this card just because it's my blog and I can. The Thrill is wearing a great # (12 was/is the number I wore/wear on my back when I play/played)

Thanks again Cam for the trade!

5-7-11: Tampa Rays @ Baltimore Orioles

So I was able to get great tickets to this past Saturday's Rays @ O's game from StubHub way back this winter right after tickets went on sale. I always enjoy my trips to Baltimore mostly because of the great atmosphere of the stadium and inner harbor. The stars aligned to put a Saturday Afternoon home game in Early May in line with my fiancee's hectic work schedule and great tickets (2nd row from the field) for the right price. We were blessed with sunny mid 70's, low humidity weather. It's nice to spend some quality time on a warm spring day with some one you love while taking in a ballgame.
I hope I was able to brighten a few youngster's days. I have been accumulating a very large amount of Orioles base cards for a while now and I haven't been able to figure out what to do with them. I remembered reading on the great Play at the Plate blog a while back about "planting seeds." After some thinking, I decided to pack up these doubles in 20-25 card packs in team bags and just give them away to any kids I saw at the park. There were tons of kids there so I was out of cards by the time I had made it all the way down Eutaw Street! I'm talking like 300 to 400 cards gone in the blink of an eye. Hopefully the kids that I gave the cards to enjoy them and maybe spark their interests in our hobby.
After the great Orioles double card giveaway extravaganza was over I bought a 2011 Media Guide for some informative bathroom reading over the next few weeks. We then perused the souvenir stand, had some sticker shock on some items, and left empty handed. I stashed the media guide away in my fiancee's handbag for safe keeping (thanks babe!) and we decided to find our seats(great idea).
We found our seats about 30 minutes before game time and about 5 minutes later, Vladimir Guerrero stepped out of the dugout and started stretching within spitting distance of our seats. At this time, I grabbed the last stash of cards I had with me (my special autograph pack) and the blue sharpie and took up a calculated position near the wall where he would have to walk by. After stretching his aging back and knees, he made a beeline right for the rugrats that were standing in front of me and commenced signing away. After all the kids had their balls signed, he took my card, looked at it for a moment (like it was the first one he had seen of it's kind) and signed it! Here it is:

Man, on the way to the ballpark I was thinking that Vlad's 'graph was the one I wanted the most out of all the O's right now and how sweet it would be to get it. Maybe I was just lucky or maybe it was karma but I got the future HOF'ers autograph!
So coming down from cloud nine, I returned to my seat for the drubbing that was about to take place right in front of me. There's really not much to say about the game but I think my financee's summary will best describe the events: "Man, they look like a bunch of broken, tired, old men hobbling around out there" I can only affirm this assessment by reading the daily news and notes it seems like they don't know how to stretch properly because of all the "tight muscles" and "ligament pulls" and "sore shoulders" that they have. Just go on the DL and let somebody hungry from the minors come up and take your spot.
She also asked me if Cal Ripken could come out of retirement and play. Other than Opening Day, that is the only way Camden Yards will fill every seat in the house. He could probably roll out of be tomorrow and outplay everybody on the team just with pure determination.
So the game ended up at 8-2 after Evan Longoria and BJ Upton made O's starter Jeremy Guthrie look like a BP pitcher by taking him deep and putting the game out of reach. Surprisingly enough my two "FAVORITE" Orioles pitchers, Kevin Gregg and Mike Gonzalez pitched well and saved themselves from the scrap heap for another day.
It was a disappointing game for me to see because the fans that did bother to show up were indifferent to what happened on the field. There was hardly any cheering going on and they didn't even get excited when the O's loaded the bases (and left them loaded). I guess after 13 years the fans just get used to losing. On an even sadder note, the O's players even seemed like the could care less about what happened on the field too. It just looked like they lacked the fire and passion for winning the game.
It was nice to get out of the house, take in a ballgame, and spend sometime with my fiancee. I just wish the results of the game were better because that sure would have made it a more perfect day.

I Finally Got My Hands On Some Gypsy Queen

I was finally able to get some today at Target. I'm still a little torn on the design of the base cards and inserts. Regardless, its been a long while since I busted any wax so I was hoping to get some nice trade bait out of the product. Here's the damage from 2 blasters and 2 value packs:

Base: A rough estimate of about 60 to 70 cards. Just send your list if you need specific cards:

Base SP's: 316 Gehrig (2), 330 Morrow

Regular Back Minis: 54 Thomas, 78 Sandberg, 84 Lincecum, 86 Fielder, 95 Sisler, 155 Dickey, 172 Zimmerman, 185 Morrison, 206 Hunter, 223 I. Rodriguez, 225 Wells, 241 Roberts, 243 Thome, 259 Huff, 283 Ankiel, 288 Wilson, 291 Young

SP Regular Back Minis: 313 Minor (claimed), 335 Freeman (claimed)

Gypsy Queen Red Back Minis: 124 Hardy, 128 Haren, 152 Maholm

Green Framed Paper: 2 Halladay, 24 Jones, 30 Ramirez, 33 Kinsler, 45 C. Gonzalez, 74 Seaver

Bronze Framed Paper: 55 Longoria #d 364/999 (claimed):

Future Stars: FS1 Matusz(claimed), FS11 Posey(claimed), FS12 Feliz, FS16 Price (2), FS19 Beckham

Great Ones: GO5 Mathewson, GO7 Sisler (2), GO15 Mantle, GO16 Ryan, GO18 Yount

Home Run Heroes: HH3 Bautista (claimed), HH16 Andre Dawson, HH17 F. Robinson, HH22 Ott, HH24 Hornsby (2)

Sticky Fingers: SF1 Jeter, SF2 Utley, SF4 Castro, SF7 Reyes (2) SF11 H. Ramirez

Wall Climbers: WC1 Hunter(2), WC5 Rajai Davis, WC6 Ichiro, WC10 David DeJesus

Gypsy Queens: GQ6 Sheerah Valkrev:

And the Big Mojo Hit of the Break:

Mini Framed Relic: FMRC-RC Robinson Cano(claimed)

Why do I always pull damn Robinson Cano relic cards? I've really piled up relics of the Yankees and Red Sox the last two years!

Since I was in the Daily Dimwit's group break I was able to get a good start on my Orioles Team set. I've decided that I'm going to build the base, and regular back mini team sets. I'm also going to go for the Great Ones and Future Stars of the Orioles too (and their respective minis!). All of the regular size and mini cards makes a nice and tidy 36 card set so they will all fit nicely into (4) 9 pocket pages when all is said and done!
I've also done quite a bit of eBay and Sportlots shopping too so here is what I need to complete this little project:

Base: 334 Nick Markakis SP

Regular Back Mini: 7 Jim Palmer, 167 Cal Ripken Jr., 334 Nick Markakis SP

Great Ones: GO4 Brooks Robinson, GO6 Frank Robinson

Let me know if you have any of the cards I need or if you need to claim any cards for your teamsets or what not.

Group Break Loot from the Daily Dimwit

I went to my mailbox the other day and got my Group Break package from that Dimwit who lives in Texas. Let see what's was in the package:

This is my favorite card from the Dimwit's Gypsy Queen group break for obvious reasons. I like getting new Ripken cards, especially ones right hot of the presses. I'm not totally in love with Gypsy Queen's design but it's nice enough for me to want to open a few packs of the product.

Here's just a couple of the mini's that I got too:

I think I did rather well with the mini's from the Gypsy Queen boxes. I ended up with a total of 7. I'm not 100 percent sure but that might be the most out of all the other teams. I like the black bordered Vlad. I'm not sure what the seeding ratio is of them into packs but I know they are sweet looking.

I am a little worried about the collation in these boxes. This is not a knock on Sam or his group break in any way. It's not his fault that he pulled 4 Adam Jones, 3 Vladimir Guerreros, and 3 George Sislers, and 2 Cal Ripkens (I'm not complaining!) out of the 2 boxes. I'm still missing most of the team set which I though I would have gotten had there been proper collation. I would think that after 60 years Topps would have had this issue licked by now but I guess it's just wishful thinking on my part. How could I expect the base cards to be properly collated when there are many, many reports in blogland and other forums that many hobby boxes have been short one autograph or even bereft of either of the promised ink cards?. I can't make a final judgement on this product until I am able to rip some packs open myself though. I still have yet to see any at my local retail establishments so I can sample the latest and greatest Topps has to offer.

Thanks to the Daily Dimwit for the group break.

Trade with Adam of Thoughts and Sox

Adam and I did a trade that I am just now getting around to posting due to me being out of town, being busy while in town and the Gears of War 3 beta taking up a lot of my free time. You can read about the Red Sox cards that I sent him here. (That's right people, I'm stepping into the 1990's and learning how to do HTML now!!) At the time when his portion of the trade turned up at his house, it was the best package he had gotten all year. Understandably I have been dropped to the second spot, but that's ok by me, second place isn't too bad!

My portion of the trade only contained 3 cards but each of them are awesome cards! Check them out:

I'm very proud to own this vintage 1960 Topps card of the Say Hey Kid. I do own a vintage mays card but not in as good of shape as this card. While Willie has a worried look on his face, I still love this card.

1960 Topps is one of my favorite vintage sets for several reasons. I like the horizontal orientation of the cards. The player's names, teams, positions, and logos are all on the front, easy to read. The two pictures, one black and white and another full color, also adorn the front of the cardboard rectangles. It's amazing how all of these elements come together and don't look cluttered. Maybe one of these days when I win the lottery, I'll think about putting together this set!

The "other" two cards in the package are from Adam's trip to his new LCS. He picked up these refractors of Jones and Markakis from 2010 Topps Finest along with a bunch of others. The Markakis is actually a Green Refractor numbered 63/99. I don't say this really often but, this card actually looks better scanned than in person. The green background doesn't really show up as well in person as it does scanned. I just find it odd because most of the time cards look worse scanned than the do in person!

I want to take the time to sincerely thank Adam for the trade. I hope to do more in the future!