Group Break Goodies from The Toddfather

I'm coming down from my sugar high and I just realized that I've kept the streak alive for 8 years running now.  For the 8th consecutive year, I've sat down with a bowl of candy and waited, and waited and waited.  Thats right, the average # of Trick or Treaters for the past 8 years is 0.0000000.  This year I thought it was going to be a little different because the wife and I moved to a new neighborhood back in May.  Theres even kids that live on the next street over.  My wife even went to the trouble of making little treat bags up with the small pouches of Sour Patch Kids, Swedish Fish and "Jacks and Bats" pretzels.  All of it for naught!   For some reason, in our new neighborhood, on any given night, all of the houses are lit up like the 4th of july.  Everything was dark tonight except for our house. We are usually the ones with all the lights off because we don't like wasting electricity and the racoons and possums can see in the dark just fine!

So now that I've done my little Halloween rant (candy-induced), I'm going to show off the 3 highlights of a Group Break that Tim over at Home of the Toddfather held a few weeks ago.  I wasn't quick enough to grab the Orioles so I picked the Mariners and A's to maximize my chance at some hits from the Topps Chrome boxes.  GOOD CHOICE!

I didn't get that much in the way of base cards or refractors from the 2012 Topps Chrome box but I did get the only diecut.  It's a very classy looking card of Jesus Montero.  I think out of all of the diecut inserts coming out this year, the ones from Topps Chrome look the best.

There were also 2 autographs to be pulled from the box and I got a good one!  My gamble on the A's paid off.  I'm convinced now that the A's made it to the playoffs that there will be an Athletics collector that starts a blog.  When this person does, the blogging community will be filling up the comments with trade proposal after trade proposal!  I think I'll be first in line with this red refractor autograph of Tom Milone unless somebody else wants to take it off my hands.

I was very happy with the 2 hits above and wasn't really expecting much from the 2012 Pro Debut box but I got lucky and got a pretty nice GU card of Danny Hultzen.  He played his college ball at Virginia which happens to be my favorite college team.  I hope to make it to Charlottesville sometime soon to see a game!  Hultzen has a shot to break training camp with the Mariners next spring with a spot in the rotation. I'm rooting for him!

Thanks Tim for holding and awesome Group Break!


Speaking of Group Breaks!  My own group break will be kicking off tomorrow evening.  Stay tuned over the next few days to see the results!

Contest Winnings from the Great Kahuna

The Big Kahuna ran a contest a little while back and I was a lucky enough to be the winner.  I was sent a huge prize package that I was very grateful for.  

Turkey Red Chris Ray Relic, I love how the Orange swatch pops out against the tan motif of the entire set.

Back to back posts with Nick Delmonico.  He has baseball in his blood so I think he'll be a quick mover up the Orioles farm system.

It would't be Halloween time if I didn't post this 1999 Upper Deck SPX Albert Belle power explosion insert card.  I still think about those kids egging his house on Halloween because he wouldn't sign autographs for them!

There's one word that comes to my mind when I look at this 1999 Upper Deck SP Authentic Premier Performers Ripken:  Classy.  I really like the design of this card.

I'll close up this post with a 1994 Pinnacle Naturals Ripken.  I didn't even know this set existed until I got this card.  It's really shiny and the scan doesn't do it justice!

Thanks for the awesome prize package Kahuna, I thouroughly enjoyed looking thru the cards!

Couple of Auction Wins

I just wanted to show off a few of my auction wins that I've gotten over the last few weeks.

When I first saw these manurelic plaques, I knew I had to have the Cal Ripken version.  I really really like this card.  Topps really knocked it out the park on these shiny, heavy behemoths.  They even have the actual HOF plaque in the background for each individual player on the checklist.  It's a nice touch!

I "accidentally" won this card.  I was watching the last few minutes of the auction on ebay and put in a bid with about 1 minute left.  I was for sure that I would get outbid but luckily for me, I didn't!  I love the Orange jersey that Nick is wearing  BTW, this card is the gold refractor version and it's numbered 13/25!

Here's one of my Listia wins.  I'm still pretty new to Listia but I have had 12 or so autions.  I'm glad I was able to bid and win this card.  I hadn't seen one before and I was quite shocked to see it on Lisia!

My final auction win is this 2012 Topps A Cut Above Cal Ripken, also from Listia.  I used to love die cuts back in the day and they have made quite a comeback this year in Topps' products.  I just hope they don't overdo them so that nobody will care about pulling one after a while.

So as you can see I'm active on both ebay and Lista.  I don't have a bunch of Fans on Listia so if you have an account, don't be afraid to "Fan" Me!

Trade with Baseball Dad

I just finished up a trade with Baseball Dad who runs the Indian-centric All Tribe Baseball blog.  I'm Jack's "Orioles guy" so I usually get a good haul whenever the trade wins blow between our residences.  Here's a few of the highlight cards that I especially enjoyed from the package

This is probably my favorite Rodrigo Lopez card.  It hails from the 2003 Donruss Estrellas set.  I guess Donruss tried to fill the Spanish baseball card void left by Pacific with this set.  I took French in high school so O-Pee-Chee cards are a little more up my alley!  I love the photo on this card.  You never see this shot anymore!

You can't tell it from the scan very well but there is some serious die-cutting going on here.  The "Cuts" area looks like a bobcat scratched it and there's jagged holes in the card now.  Most diecutting these days are done to the outside borders of the card as opposed to inside like this one.

1995 Studio was quite a departure from 1994's release.  The base cards were silver but were done in the style of credit cards.  They are accually plastic like the sample credit cards that you get in those unsolicited offers you get in the mail.  Interesting concept but I'm not sure that the plastic baseball card really caught on.

Jack filled one of my needs from my 2012 Bowman Chrome Prospects list in the form of this Nick  Delmonico card.  Nick had a pretty decent 1st season in the Orioles organization all while battling a knee injury.  He bares some watching next season as he will probably play at High-A Frederick.

My favorite card of the package is this dual relic card of Javy Lopez from 2005 Donruss Throwback Threads.  I'm a big fan of Orioles relic cards that have an orange swatch in them and this one is no exception!

Thanks Jack for sending such an awesome trade package!

"O" NO!'s 2nd Group Break: 2nd Team Randomization

There were 15 spots in the upcoming break that were claimed by 10 different people.  So now we need to figure out who the unclaimed teams are going to.

I will randomize the list of teams that didn't get chosen along with the 10 group breakers 3 times each and then match them up.

Here's the list of the 11 "breakers" randomized 3 times:

And the unclaimed teams randomized 3 times:

So the here's the list of breakers and their teams (selected and random)

                              Selected                     Random(s)

Ryan H.                 Orioles                       Cubs

Community Gum   White Sox, Padres     Marlins, Astros

Buckstore Cards     Blue Jays, Expos      Royals, Brewers

Chris Mays             Braves                       Mets

GCRL                    Dodgers                     Pirates

dawgbones             Phillies, Yankees       Red Sox, Twins
Roy-Z                     Rangers, Mariners     Tigers, Diamondbacks
madding                  Cardinals                   Angels
Tim Byrd                Rockies                      Giants
Jack H.                    Indians, Reds             Rays, A's

I will permit team trading.  All trades must be completed before the 1st group of packs is busted.  Most likely this will be on Monday evening after dinner time. This weekend is going to be somewhat busy but I might be stuck inside on Sunday with Sandy moving up the coast.   I must receive an email from both of the team trading parties or comments from both parties consenting to a trade in this post only.

Box Break: 2012 Topps Update Series

I'm way late to the party when it comes to this years Update series but the longer you wait to buy a hobby box, the less you have to pay for it!  I bought this box at the CSA show the weekend of October 12th-14th for 48 dollars.  It was a bit of an impulse buy but I think I made out rather well on this box.  Actually, I can't think of a better flagship hobby box that I've opened in terms of the cards I got out of it!

I picked the second to the last box from the bottom of the pile.  Apparently I got the right one since there were 3 Orioles parallels in the box.  Strangely enough, the Jason Hammel gold sparkle came out of the same pack as the base card did.  As a matter of fact, most of the gold sparklies came out of the same pack as the base card did.  I got a ton of the regular gold parallels that I'll be listing at the end for trade.  I need pretty much all of the Orioles except Hunter and Hardy.

I also did fairly well on Orioles inserts too.  I got the Ripken and Jones Golden Moments, as well as the Palmer Golden Greats!  Not too shabby but I still need another copy of each to finish out the team set since each of these will be heading into their respective PC binders.

I was pretty stoked when I got Matt Kemp's SP variation card.  Then I realized that there would be a feeding frenzy between Spiegel, Plaschke, and Night Owl to see if they can trade me for it.  Anybody want to take bets on who sees it first?  HAHA!  I think the SP variation cards are pretty cool ever since Topps has been inserting them into packs.  The jersey variations and the diamond sparkles are/were stupid.  I really want a Jim Thome Orioles card but I don't have 200 bucks to spend on one.  The Jose Reyes and Albert Pujols jersey variations were dumb too.  If you really wanted them in their Marlins or Angels jerseys that bad, why not wait another month and a half and get them in Heritage as base cards?

 I think I may have bought into the whole Harpermania hype a little bit.  I haven't gone crazy buying his cards or anything but I have been lucky and pulled quite a few from packs.  I guess that happens when you buy a lot of Bowman products!  The streak continues with the Golden Moments, the 1987 mini, and the All-Star card (not shown).  I think he does have a bit to learn about playing baseball at the top level but I do respect the way he plays the game with his hair on fire.  I think the maturity will come with age and as long as he keeps his mouth shut and lets his bat do the talking, he'll win over more fans.

Here's my hit of the box, and it's a goodie!  Yonder Alonso seems to have a bright future out there in San Diego.  There are regular versions of this insert and then there's the #'d to 10 gold sparkly version that I have!  These cards are one in 16,680 pack pulls!  Holy Crap!  That's 463 hobby boxes worth!  I haven't quite decided what to do with the card yet but I'm leaning on putting it on eBay or COMC if no Padres fans can blow me away with an offer.  What do you think I should do with it?

Here's all of the inserts and parallels that I pulled from the hobby box and the retail packs I opened.  Everything is for trade!

Gold Sparkle: US63 Laird, 65 D. Norris, 78 Durbin, 108 Loe, 140 Duensing, 159 Sheets, 191 Abreu, 239 L. Scott, 257 J. Quintana, 261 Oliver, 278 Pettitte
Gold Bordered: 57 Betancourt, 254 Humber, 199 Dunn, 262 Marcum, 331 Pujols, 334 Rizzo (missing some foil on the front), 351 Hart, 369 Street, 373 Car-Go, 425 C. Zambrano, 436 C. Perez, 453 Garrett Jones, 515 Bloomquist, 519 Gio Gonzalez, 546 Thornton, 600 Kershaw, 656 C. Santana, US11 Ankiel, US49 Burnett, US82 Wigginton, US83 C. Lee, US109 Marte, US153 Maholm, US161 Dozier, US223 Logan, US293 Victorino, US300 Kotsay, US328 Soto
Blockbusters: BB-2 Sabathia, 4 G Carter, 6 Buhner, 9 Ryan(2), 13 Cespedes, 17 Hunter, 20 D. Ortiz, 24 Carlton(2), 28 J. Santana, 29 M. Ramirez
Golden Greats:  GG-81 Banks, 88 Griffey Jr, 89 Brock, 92 R. Jackson, 97 Boggs, 98 Spahn, 99 Stargell
1987 Minis:  TM-101 Goldschmidt, 107 Bumgarner(2), 112 Darvish, 115 Beltran, 118 A. Jackson, 121 Latos, 132 Rice, 136 Beachy, 144 Trumbo
Golden Moments: GM-U5 J Santana, 9 M. Cabrera, 12 Granderson, 15 Castro, 17 Price, 21 Banks, 26 Yount, 45 Tulowitzki

Lastly, here's my needs list to complete my set:

13, 17, 25, 33, 41, 45, 47, 54, 55, 57, 60, 67, 100, 111, 123, 127, 159, 166, 171, 186, 197, 224, 232, 247, 249, 251, 267, 270, 288, 293, 305, 316, 327

Something a little different

First off, I want to thank everybody for their quick action in claiming and subsequently paying for their teams in my latest group break.  The boxes have been ordered and hopefully I can start ripping and posting the results soon.  The end of this week thru the beginning of next week is looking awfully busy though!

I've got a case of the Mondays, so here's something a little different to show off:

I requested this autographed picture from the official Wheel of Fortune website. The wife is a big fan of the show so I also got her a copy too.  I can tell that they are actually signed and not an autopen signature because the signatures are oh-so-slightly different and the placement is a little different too.

Pat is a pretty big baseball fan and hosts his own radio show about it.  He's attended Orioles games in the past and has actually been in the booth during a 2011 Spring Training game vs the Red Sox!

Vanna, has one of the nicest smiles on TV, and is never hard on the eyes to look at.  She's always dressed to the T's in fancy evening gowns.  She was also crowned "TV's most Frequent Clapper" by the Guinness Book of World Records in 1992!

Group Break Announcement: November 2012 "O" No's Affordable Group Break

UPDATE: ALL SLOTS ARE FILLED!!!

I think since everybody enjoyed the October break so much, I've decided to hold another group break for the month of November.  I had a lot of fun busting the packs and posting the results too.  It's a lot of work but also very rewarding.  So without further babbling, Here's the products that were going to break this month:

1999 Topps Stars:

There's a lot of cards to get excited about here.  Yeah the checklist is somewhat confusing, but the late 90's were like that for baseball cards.  Inserts are a tough pull but there are plenty of serial numbered goodness to be had here.  There's also a remote chance that we could pull and autographed rookie reprint card of Ernie Banks, Yogi Berra, Bob Gibson, Frank Robinson, or Tom Seaver.  Those are some heavy hitters (and good pitchers!).  Maybe we'll get lucky!

2002 Upper Deck Victory:

There's not a whole bunch of inserts in this box but there are gold parallels that are 1:2 pack pulls.  There's 360 cards in this box so everyone should get a nice pile of cards from their team of choice.

1998 Fleer Sports Illustrated World Series Fever:

This is another exciting box.  I remember opening a few blasters of this set back when it was on store shelves.  I've been a fan of this set for it's interesting insert sets and great photography.  I remember pulling a Magglio Ordonez rookie card that was the Extra Edition parallel.  As a 14 year old kid at the time, I felt like I had won the lottery!

So, 3 really nice boxes of cards to open.  I hope to start busting and posting the results on November 1st as everyone is coming down from their sugar highs of Halloween.


There's going to be 15 slots.  8 dollars gets you one team of your choice and a team to be randomly selected from the remaining unchosen teams. 14 dollars gets you 2 chosen teams and 2 randoms.  If you want more than 2 let me know, we can work something out. I'm not going to discourage international collectors, I just may ask for just a couple dollars more for shipping.

In the event we get cards with multiple teams on them, they will be randomed off as fair as possible among the participants.

***ALL SLOTS ARE FULL!!!***

Atlanta Braves - Chris M. - PAID
Arizona Diamondbacks -
Baltimore Orioles - Ryan H. - PAID
Boston Red Sox -
Chicago Cubs -
Chicago White Sox - Community Gum  Jon - PAID
Cincinnati Reds - Baseball Dad - PAID
Cleveland Indians - Baseball Dad - PAID
Colorado Rockies - Tim B. - PAID
Detroit Tigers -
Florida Marlins -
Houston Astros -
Los Angeles Angels -
Los Angeles Dodgers - GCRL - PAID
Kansas City Royals -
Milwaukee Brewers -
Minnesota Twins -
Montreal Expos - BuckStoreCards - PAID
New York Mets -
New York Yankees - dawgbones - Payment on the way
Oakland Athletics -
Philadelphia Phillies - dawgbones - Payment on the way
Pittsburgh Pirates -
San Diego Padres - Community Gum Jon - PAID
San Francisco Giants-
Seattle Mariners - Roy-Z - PAID
St Louis Cardinals - madding - PAID
Tampa Bay Rays -
Texas Rangers - Roy-Z - PAID
Toronto Blue Jays - BuckStoreCards - PAID

*** ALL SLOTS ARE FULL!!!***

Paypal is my preferred method of payment but I will except other methods as well.  Please contact me if you are paying a different way.  Please send your Paypal payments as a gift to family or friends to XXXryanhughes12XXX@XXXyahoo.comXXX . (Don't forget to remove the XXX's)

After claiming your team(s) and you pay, please send me an email (same as paypal address) with your name and address along with the team(s) you've claimed.  The sooner we get this filled up the quicker we can get to busting these boxes!

Don't Forget!

Check back here in less than one hour for the details of my second Affordable Group Break.  See you then!

Here's a teaser for the 3 boxes:

The night sky.
Top Level Win.
MLB Top Game Illness.

Just for fun, any guesses?

A Group Break is Coming....

Tonight at 8pm EST, I'll be revealing the details of the November 2012 "O" No!!! Affordable Group Break. I think this break has the potential to be better than the last one and the buy in price is actually going to be cheaper!

Once again, look back here at 8pm tonight and see what boxes will broken and the sign ups!

All Upper Deck Group Break at Community Gum

The good guys over at the Community Gum blog are running a group break that includes a bunch of great Upper Deck boxes from the past 10 or so years.  There's a couple of teams left including the Red Sox, Tigers, and Giants!  Head on over and sign up for a slot right here.

You've got about one day left to claim your teams so don't delay!

Trade with Dennis of Too Many Verlanders

My latest trade with Dennis of Too Many Grandersons Verlanders was born out of my group break that I ran back at the beginning of the month.  I really enjoyed the couple of Mosaic inserts that came out of the Pinnacle Zenith box and was jealous of the teams that got one.  Dennis was not in the group break but he happened to read that specific post and said that he had the Orioles version of the insert.  We were able to strike up some trade talk since I got randomed the Tigers as my second team.  Strange how that worked out right?.  Here's the crown jewel of the trade right here:

I really like this card, I has 3 of my favorite O's on in and plus its shiny!  Why aren't there more of these type of inserts these days?

Dennis went above and beyond the call of duty and included several team bags full of Orioles cards I needed.  I think there were about 25 Mike Mussina cards in the package, many of which go straight into my Moose PC binder.

John Maine was a highly regarded prospect when he was in the Orioles farm system.  So highly regarded that we sent him to the Mets for Kris Benson.  It's hard to say who got the better of that trade.  What do Mets fans think about the trade?  This card is going into my One Card of Every Oriole book, which I'm slowly but surely chipping away at.  Check out my  wantlist and see if you can help me out!

Dennis also included 2 TTMs that he sent "back in the day" .  This Chris Hoiles is his Fleer Update rookie card from 1990.  I think 1990 Fleer is underated but that doesn't mean I'm going to be putting this set together anytime soon!

Here's the other TTM of Ryan Minor.  I've been meaning to send him one myself since he's the manager of the Orioles single A affiliate the Delmarva Shorebirds.  I guess I'll be saving 2 stamps now!  I also think that 1999 Topps is underated too, and this would have been the card I'd send to Ryan to have him sign.

Thanks Dennis for the awesome trade package that you sent.  I really enjoyed the cards!

Card Show Report: CSA October 2012

     I went to a card show this past weekend.  It's the one I normally attend at the Dulles Expo Center in Chantilly, Virginia.  It happens 3 times a year so luckily there is enough time for me to save up enough money to make going there worthwhile.  I usually go on Saturday or Friday afternoon but I had prior commitments this time that prevented me from going either of those 2 days.  I had to go on Sunday once before  and the crowd was not as large but everything seemed to be picked over.  This time was no different.  The crowd was small, dealers started packing up at noon, and everything seemed to be picked clean. I did get some good deals but I'll try my hardest to make it on Friday or Saturday next time.
     I had a plan that I formulated in the car that I was going to try to knock out a bunch of sets that were on my wantlist, pick up a bunch of Orioles cards for my team sets, and buy some much needed boxes and 9-pocket pages.  Once I walked thru the doors, I think I forgot why I was there.  I got some cards from my set wantlists, almost totally struck out on my team sets, but thankfully restocked my supply of storage boxes and binder sheets.  One and a half out of three isn't too bad.
     The show wasn't a total loss though.  I picked up a bunch of cards for sets I'm beginning to build like 2011 Allen & Ginter, 1980 and 1979 Topps.  I knocked some wantlists down to next to nothing including 2012 Topps series 2, 2012 Allen & Ginter, and 2012 Bowman Chrome Prospects.
     I also picked up a bunch of great cards out of the bargain bins including those starter sets.  I didn't see any nickel bins but there were plenty of dime bins.  Here's a few that I picked out of the dime bins:

Yeah, a 1982 Donruss Jim Palmer does not belong in the dime bin.  It belongs in my Palmer binder!  Can't beat this one for a dime!

Not minis but great rookie cards of awesome players.  Pudge and the Big Hurt will end up in Cooperstown one day and Kid K's career has been great so far.  If he keeps it up, he might soon be mentioned in the same breath as Koufax, Drysdale, Valenzuela, and Hershiser.  Each of these cards set me back a dime!

Whoever put this in the discount bin must have known I was coming to take a look see.  Davis has really grown on me during this past season.  He mashed 30 home runs and they all seemed to come in bunches.  Unfortunately for Birdland, he didn't hit any in the playoffs.  Instead he spent most of his time flailing at pitches in the dirt.  If he ever learns some plate discipline, he could hit over 40 bombs!  I still need a ton of Topps Chrome Orioles from 2012 including baseb card, regular refractors, Xfractors, Purple, and Orange.  Even if you have just one of them, please contact me.

Not everything came from the dime boxes but I did get great deals on these cards

I paid a buck for this sweet Nick Markakis from 2009 Topps Heritage Chrome.  I really think that if Nick wasn't out with a broken thumb (thanks a lot F.F. Sabathia), our playoff outcome could have been better.  Nick is the best pure hitter on the team and he's the most clutch out of anyone on the roster.  I'm pretty sure he could have come up with that key hit we needed.   That's baseball though, there's always next year.

There's no way I could resist this classy looking relic card of Jonesy.  It's numbered 28/35 which is pretty cool (right below his forearm).  I can't afford buying expensive boxes  like the ones that relics like this pop out of, so I let the suckers bust those boxes and capitalize buy buying the singles as they desperately try to recoup their loses.  I win every time because I only paid 6 bucks for this card.

I bought this card from the same dealer that sold me the Markakis Chrome above.  He had just traded a guy for it while I was walking up to his table so I got this card for 3 bucks.  WIN AGAIN!

I'm going to close here with another Ripken game used card.  I picked this one up for a measly 4 bucks!  I'm going to focus on the darkside of Cal's face.  I think that's the side of his face that likes the Yankees.  He sure had plenty of praise for the pinstripers during the TBS broadcasts of the ALDS and not much to say about the O's.  I understand that he's just doing his job but I think it not only broke my heart to hear him praise Arod and Jeter but it probably hurt a lot of Orioles fan's perception of him.  He probably felt he had to compensate because people that aren't normally baseball fan is a Yankee fan come playoff time (well except they don't show up to the park!) and he didn't want to sound like a "homer" .  He ended up over-compensating and .angering his fanbase instead.  It's OK to piss of the Evil Empire, Cal!  You're still my favorite all-time player though.  I'm sure he could win some of that fanbase back by doing some MASN broadcasts next year.  (GET ON IT MASN, SERIOUSLY!!!).

So, overall I had a decent time.  I think the crowd was small because football is in full swing and the O's and Nats had just lost on Friday night.  While not the best CSA show I've been to, but I still got some great cards!

Trade with Michael of Nomo's Sushi Platter

Michael of Nomo's Sushi Platter and I have become pretty good trade partners over the past few years.  I think out of everyone here on the blogs, I have traded with him the most times.  Every trade seems to get better too.  Here's just a few of the cards he sent me this time:

 Since Mark could become a free agent if his option isn't picked up, I think the Orioles should keep him one way or another.  I'd rather have another year of Mark playing 1st base than say James Loney or Carlos Pena.

 I'm not sure what the Orioles plans at second base are at the moment.  Ryan Adams is definitely not one of the top options right now.  He was outrighted to the minors late in the season after battling injuries and somewhat disappointing play.  Maybe he can play his way back into the future of the O's but he has Robert Andino and Ryan Flaherty blocking his return to the majors.

Mike also sent over a bunch of late 70's Topps cards of Dodgers for my growing set building project.  I'm still just gathering any and all so if you have any you'd like to send my way, don't hesitate to contact me.

Thanks for the cards Michael,  I really enjoyed them all!

Trade with Joe of The Sandlot

Since the offseason is upon most of us, I think there's going to be a lot more time for me to trade some cards around the blogosphere.  Joe from the Sandlot emailed me a little while back offering me a bunch of cards from my wantlist.  I couldn't resist and all he asked for was some Mets cards.  Here's a few of my favorites from the trade:

Eric Davis is one of my player collections that I recently started paying more attention to.  I really liked him as an Oriole and his bout with cancer while he was in Baltimore is truly inspirational.  How many people do you know that have had chemo one day and hit a home run in the ALDS the next day?  2 Eric Davis and Raul Ibanez!

 I read the back of this card of Mike Timlin and it said he had a great second half of 1999.  All I seem to remember of him is the gas can that he normally brought to the mound during his pitching appearances.

I barely remember Manny Alexander.  He was a crappy player and is partly responsible for the steriods probe of the early 2000's.  I read it on the Mitchell Report.  I haven't finished reading the whole thing but it has given me a little more clarity on the whole issue.

Thanks for the great cards Joe!

The Countdown to Opening Day 2013 begins...

Well, now that baseball season has officially ended, I'm already looking forward to the Orioles storybook run to winning the World Series next year.

I don't think I'll ever eat another avocado because "That's bush league, Bro"

I will not buy a Samsung S3 because I'm an Apple guy.

I will not be eating at Red Robin at least until their Oktoberfest promo ends.

Also, Cal Ripken and John Smoltz will not be able to insult my baseball intelligence anymore.  They both suck at calling games and who the fuck is Ernie Johnson.

Eat my balls TBS.  Your coverage of baseball has sucked since you stopped carrying all the Braves games.  We should be seeing reruns of Big Bang Theory and NCIS on your family of stations, not live baseball.


I will be headed to the ABC Store right now to get a bottle of Captain Morgan Black Spiced Rum to help dull the thought of a Yankees/Nationals WS.  At least TBS had one good sponsor.

"O" No's 1st Group Break: Round 6

So we've arrived at the last round of packs.  We'll get to those in a second but one last word for our sponsor.  Thanks to Baseball Card Exchange for sponsoring my break.  Check them out if you haven't done so yet.

Here we go:

'96 Zenith
Pack #21
14 Tino Martinez - Yankees
35 Edgar Martinez - Mariners
100 Sammy Sosa - Cubs
99 Alex Rodriguez - Mariners
124 Chan Ho Park - Dodgers
117 Paul Wilson - Mets

Pack #22
96 David Cone - Yankees
93 Derek Jeter - Yankees
56 Brian Jordan Cardinals
47 Raul Mondesi - Dodgers
103 Chad Mottola - Reds
129 Terrell Wade - Braves

Pack #23
39 Tim Salmon - Angels
50 Henry Rodriguez - Expos
59 Melvin Nieves - Tigers
63 Reggie Sanders - Reds
144 Barry Bonds Honor Roll subset - Giants
120 Wilton Guerrero - Dodgers

Pack #24
53 Wally Joyner - Padres
44 Andre Dawson - Marlins
26 Jim Edmonds - Angels
19 Barry Larkin - Reds

132 Cal Ripken Jr. Honor Roll subset - Orioles
142 Manny Ramirez Honor Roll subset - Indians

That was a really solid pack to finish up the Zenith box.  We got an extra Mozaics insert which I'm pretty happy about.

'99 Sports Illustrated
Pack #21
24 Barry Bonds Season Highlights - Giants
29 Tony Clark Season Highlights - Tigers
16 Roger Clemens/ Greg Maddux - Blue Jays/Braves

HL-8 Cal Ripken Jr. Headliners - Orioles
WOW, I'm really happy to pull this card.  It's going straight to the PC binder!
126 Jason Kendall - Pirates
131 Jeff Kent - Giants

Pack #22
5 David Justice Postseason Review - Indians
98 Chipper Jones - Braves
33 Mark McGwire Season Highlights - Cardinals
165 Damion Easley - Tigers
111 John Smoltz - Braves
116 Edgar Reneria - Cardinals

Pack #23
4 Sterling Hitchcock Postseason Review - Padres
97 Ken Griffey Jr. - Mariners

FF-4 Greg Vaughn Fabulous Forties - Padres

I'm glad to see that we pulled another one of these inserts and that the Padres get a sweet insert card!

HL-16 Darin Erstad Headliners - Angels
Double inserts in this pack!  Nice looking card for the Angels...
119 Rondell White - Expos
129 Johnny Damon - Royals

Pack #24
10 Ken Griffey Jr/ Mark McGwire - Mariners/Cardinals
92 Todd Helton - Rockies
32 Dennis Eckersley Season Highlights - Red Sox
105 Jim Edmonds - Angels
133 Trevor Hoffman - Padres
114 Albert Belle - Orioles

That does it for the SI box.  The Fabulous 40's inserts overproduced for this box which I'm pretty happy about.  I enjoyed this box!  There's a nice stack of cards that will be randomed off that have multiple players on them along with the Rays and Diamondbacks cards.

'94 Finest
Pack #21
180 Charlie Hough - Marlins
178 Tony Phillips - Tigers
58 Danny Darwin - Red Sox
79 Pat Listach - Brewers
140 Pete Incaviglia - Phillies

211 Juan Gonzalez Refractor - Rangers
We've landed a 3rd refractor from the box!  All 3 are big name players (at the time) so you can't beat that!
21 Kevin Tapani - Twins

Pack #22
122 Jay Buhner - Mariners
27 Jeff Blauser - Braves
142 Darryl Hamilton - Brewers
85 Darren Lewis - Giants
32 Charlie Hayes - Rockies
211 Juan Gonzalez - Rangers
88 Rob Dibble - Reds

Pack #23
72 Joe Girardi - Rockies
146 Joey Cora - White Sox
25 Ken Hill - Expos
23 Jose Offerman - Dodgers
128 John Valentin - Red Sox
211 Juan Gonzalez - Rangers
112 Chili Davis - Angels

Pack #24
120 Pete Harnisch - Astros
134 Dave Stewart - Blue Jays
138 Jose Mesa - Indians
127 Don Slaught - Pirates
64 Tom Henke - Rangers
202 Robin Ventura - White Sox

And the last card is....

73 Eduardo Perez - Angels

Well that does it for the break.  I really hope everyone enjoyed it.  If you have any feedback on the break, I'd love to hear constructive criticism. I hope to have another break in November so keep it tuned here to the blog for an announcement later this month.

I hope to have Everybody's package was mailed within the next few business days. Columbus Day on Monday will prevent me from sending some until Tuesday since all the PO's will be closed in observance.   Let me know when you get yours and I hope you enjoy the cards that were pulled!

Here's the final card count:

Cubs - 24
Red Sox - 13
Yankees - 24
Brewers - 5
Pirates - 11
Blue Jays - 14
Marlins - 14
Astros - 16
Cardinals - 21
Braves - 31
Rangers - 21
Phillies - 14
Tigers - 16
Giants - 12
Mariners - 15
Rockies - 15
Padres - 11
Reds - 11
Expos - 13
White Sox - 14
A's - 18

Indians - 18
Mets - 13
Angels - 15
Twins - 9
Royals - 11
Dodgers - 17

Orioles - 22