Trade with Cards on Cards

I'm back from a short break (literally) because my all-in-one called it quits in less than 5 months of service. Here is a trade summary of the cards I recieved from Kerry over at Cards on Cards.

I really enjoyed this trade because Kerry did some digging in his junk wax boxes and found these capstone cards for me. That's right, he completed several team sets for me: 1992 Stadium Club, 1988 Fleer, 1991 Upper Deck , 1992 Studio, 1992 Donruss Rookies, and 1990 Topps Traded. The Topps Traded goes in my Topps Orioles binder and completes the entire year's set (base and traded). I remember watching all of these guys play on TV except Mike Young.

Here are 3 of the more interesting cards from the trade. What can I say about Brady Anderson that I haven't said before. The cameramen always captured some sort of great shot of him. I have alluded to this before in a previous post. I didn't realize that Andy Van Slyke even played for the O's before this year. Here is the photographic evidence. I have featured Ben McDonald before but don't think he was holding a bat. According to BaseballReference.com, he had one career AB in the majors. He struck out.

I will be seeing these two guys next weekend. Saturday to be exact. I will be at the National in Baltimore to get their autographs. That will complete my HOF Orioles Autograph Collection!

A big thanks to Kerry for the great cards that he sent!

7-17-10: Bowie Baysox @ Richmond Flying Squirrels

This past weekend a friend of mine and I decided to take in some live baseball The Diamond in Richmond, Virginia. Since the stadium is a short 15 minute drive it could hardly be considered a road trip. We decided to get there early so I could collect some autographs of the Baysox players. The first autograph I got was the Starting Pitcher Rick Zagone. He was pleasant enough. His autograph is featured in the middle of the ticket pictured. The next player I was able to get was shortstop Greg Miclat. He has had a resurgence this year as a prospect. His autograph is in the left column in the middle. The next player I was able to snag was Ryan Adams. The night before he hit a game winning homer in the 10th inning. I congratulated him on the homerun while he signed his 2006 Bowman Heritage Prospects Card. Brandon Waring was next and he signed his 2008 Bowman Prospects card for me. Steve Johnson, Josh Perrault and Chorye Spoone also signed my ticket and they were all rather pleasant in person. At least Baltimore drafts players of good character! Sean Gleason also signed my ticket on the upper left hand corner. He pitched in the game and gave up a few hits. He throws some serious heat. Tyler Henson was the last player I was able to get before the game started. He signed his 2006 Bowman Prospect card. I forgot to ask him why on the card his name is stated as Bobby but he goes by Tyler.

The game started and it was a pretty good pitchers duel until Richmond finally broke through with a run scoring double. I made kind of a neat observation from where I was sitting on the third base side. When Bowie lefthanded Starter Rick Zagone pitches from the windup, I could see his foot above his head before he goes to the plate. An extremely high leg kick is something rarely seen in today's game. It seemed to work for him though.

The game continued on until about the 5th inning. Bowie batter sharply fouled a ball of to the third base side and it hit a lady not paying attention in the chest. She had to leave with assistance from the Diamond Staff. The last game I went to at the Diamond a beer vendor ended up with a broken nose from a batted ball. The game continued until the end of the 6th inning. As a promotion, a Diamond staff member was "riding" a flamingo and wildly running along the third base side of the field. He was carelessly chucking hot dogs wrapped in tin foil about 90 MPH into the stands. This is where the second first aid emergency happened. Another lady wasn't paying attention and caught a hot dog with her face.

Bowie ended the game on the losing side the score was 5-2. I didn't accomplish my goal of getting Caleb Joseph's autograph but did learn a few lessons. Pay attention to what is happening on the field and that field level seats can be dangerous.

BTW: You're going to have to bear with me for the next few weeks because my 4 month old scanner is broken. I will have to post everything with picutres from my digital camera.

Nr Mt is having a Contest

Nr Mt is having a contest over at his blog. It's a Price is Right style price guessing contest of his recent ebay purchases.

Check it out here: http://nrmtcards.blogspot.com/

Not so LCS pickups

During the Fourth of July weekend I went out of town with my Girlfriend to visit her Grandmother. While there I decided to try my luck at finding a Card Shop. I found one in town but it was a total bust. The shop had a few Yankee vintage singles, no loose packs or boxes for sale, and a few supplies for sale. If I was interested in Nascar Diecast I would have thought I died and went to heaven. The place was chock full of the stuff. Disappointed, I left the shop empty handed. The rest of the trip was great. On the drive back home, I spotted a card shop in a shopping center just of the road. Jackpot! Here are some of the cards I got:

I first spotted a whole heap of vintage O's in a glass case. I was able to knock quite a few '66 and '67 Topps cards off my vintage list for 50 cents a piece. Here are 3 of my favorites:

Moe looks like he is thinking of his next prank to play on his teammates with a sly grin on his face. Camilo Carreon. I don't know much about him but the card back says he enjoys building model cars. Dave McNally we instrumental in their 1966 run to the World Series win.

I next I asked for his box of Orioles and was able to find Mike Mussina and Rafael Palmeiro's credit cards in the box. Nah it's just their 1995 Studio Gold Series cards:

I also Finished a Team Set! Oh the JOY! My 1995 Topps Orioles Team set is now complete with this card:

I already had one copy of the card in my Cal Binder and now I have completed the team set in my Topps team set binder!

I grabbed about 50 or so Orioles that I needed off of my Orioles Wantlists that I won't bore you with here. I also Picked up 2 packs of 2010 Topps Allen & Ginter because I can't help myself. I'm not a big fan of A&G mostly because of all the "other" cards that are in. The Invisible Man, some dancing dude, and a revolving door just turns me off to an extent. I will probably get a blaster box when they come out just to hold me over until Topps T-206 comes out in September. I didn't get anything noteworthy out of the two packs I bought.

If you are ever headed thru La Plata, Maryland, be sure to stop in to BC Sportscards and spend some of your hard earned cash. The prices are pretty reasonable in my opinion compared to other shops I have visited.

Until next time Blogland!

Ye Olde Trading Post

Since I'm not a huge fan of Allen and Ginter, and I have way too many base Topps cards, I'm going to list them here for everybody to fill their needs lists. First come, first served. I haven't traded in a few weeks so I'm itching to get a few going! I'm looking for things on my wantlist located on the top right of this blog. I would also be willing to trade any of these for any 2009 Topps T-206 cards you may have. I am going to try and build the set without opening any more packs. I've already done 1 blaster box, a couple rack packs, and a couple retail packs so I really don't have that much of the set to post a wantlist yet.

2010 Allen and Ginter

SP's: 329, 338, 347, 348

This Day in History: 8, 15, 20, 22, 35, 43, 52, 59, 64, 65, 66, 71, 72

Baseball Highlight Sketches: 4, 15

Base Mini : 240, 297

SP Mini: 302, 342

A&G Back Mini: 194, 289

Black Bordered Mini: 190

No Number Mini: Mark Buehrle

National Animals: 34

Sailors of the Seven Seas: 3, 4

Lords of Olympus: 13

World's Biggest: 1

Framed Autograph Redemption of Alexei Ramirez

2010 Topps

Base: Too many to list here. Send me your list

Base Variations: #100 Stan Musial, 175 Roger Maris

Turkey Red: 4, 7, 8, 9(3), 12, 19, 20, 34, 41, 68, 78, 83, 90, 93

Peak Performance: 11, 19, 22, 23, 27, 32, 40, 47, 53, 54, 55, 56, 57, 61, 65, 66(2), 72,75, 80, 83, 84, 95, 96

Legendary Lineage: 1, 2, 3, 12(2), 13(2), 17, 20, 22, 23(2), 26, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 37, 39, 40, 42, 45, 48, 51, 52, 55

Cards Your Mom Threw Out: 16, 25, 48, 59, 62, 64, 65, 72, 84, 88, 97, 101, 105, 115

Cards Your Mom Threw Out Original Back: Maris '62, Pujols/Ichiro '04

Vintage Legends: 2, 5, 6, 8, 9, 12, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22(2), 25

History of the Game: 8, 12, 15, 16, 18, 19, 21

History of the World Series: 1, 2, 3, 7, 20, 21, 23, 25

Tales of the Game: 7, 11, 12, 15, 18

Ticket to Toppstown: 3, 4, 5, 11(2), 12, 13(2), 14, 16(2), 18, 19, 20, 22, 24

Ticket to Toppstown Gold: 2, 6, 11(2), 19, 21

Topps AttaxTown: Gallardo, J. Johnson, Berkman, D. Lee, Lester, Kemp, Utley, Kinsler, Alexei Ramirez, S. Drew, Sandoval, J. Bay, Butler, Greinke, Sizemore, F. Hernandez (2), T. Hunter, Lincecum

When They Were Young: B. Roberts, R. Martin, R. Doumit, J. Damon, D. Ortiz

Topps 2020: 2, 11,

Topps Red Backs: Jeter

More Recent TTM Successes

Back in May I sent out some fan mail to 7 O's players and to this point I had only gotten 1 return. Jeremy Guthrie was the only player to oblige my request of an autograph. I had nearly given up on getting any others until on back to back days I received 2 envelopes back. In the first envelope, Luke Scott sent my card back along with the customs I made. Here is a scan of those goodies:

The next envelope contained the custom postcards I had sent to left-hander Will Ohman. Here is a scan of the better one:

Colossians 3:17 reads: And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Here's to hoping that the other 4 O's players get around to opening up some fan mail!

6-26-10: Washington Nationals @ Baltimore Orioles

I am waaayyy late in posting this but I wanted to share my recent trip to Camden Yards with everyone. I have been busy playing baseball and going here and there so that leaves little time for blogging. Bear with me.

My interest was piqued earlier in the Spring for this game when the Orioles announced that they were going to have a celebration of the 1970 World Series Champion team on this particular day. I wasn't around to see any of that team because it was 13 years before I was born! I admit I don't know all that much about older Orioles teams so this was a great chance for me to learn.

I always enjoy going to Camden Yards to see games because it is perfectly placed within walking distance of many local attractions. My girlfriend and I arrived early and ate lunch in the inner harbor and just took in the sights of Baltimore for the balance of the afternoon. We decided to walk to enter the park around 3pm for the 4:05 start time so it would give us time to walk around and peruse the merchandise stands, play the MASN skeeball game (it was rigged, I swear, they didn't want to give away the T-shirts they were offering as a prize) and to maybe grab some of the autographs of some of the '70 teams players who were signing on the concourse of the stadium. The autograph idea was a bust because the lines were way to long(as I expected them to be) so we decided to find our seats in time for the video that was to be shown on the Jumbotron of the championship team. I purchased the tickets from Stubhub and apparently whoever sold them to me really wanted to get rid of them badly. I was able to get front row seats in left field for 25 bucks a piece. These seats were worth every penny!

Soon after we sat down, the video began to play as the living members of the Championship team were introduced. They all took their places on the field around the pitchers mound. The video was fairly educational for me as I learned a lot about the team that wowed Baltimore many Summers before I was even though of. After the team was introduced, Jim Palmer, Brooks Robinson, and Frank Robinson threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

So now onto the game. The Orioles wore throwback uniforms that I thought were really sharp looking. The Nationals actually wore throwback uniforms that were also true to the 197o team. Instead of the Potomac River Swamp Nats they got to be the Senators for the day. They game started out in typical 201o Orioles fashion, falling behind by 5 runs before Brad Bergesen was chased out of the game by the "ferocious" Nats offense. Usually getting down by even 1 run this year has been the kiss of death but not on this day. There must have been some Orioles Magic in the throwback unis or the WS champions from 4o years ago just being in the building allowed the O's to scratch out a 6 - 5 win!

I really enjoyed my day at OPACY because the O's won, there was Orioles Magic in the building, and most of all I got to spend sometime with my girlfriend. The only downside to the day is that I forgot to bring my camera! That and the ignorant Nationals fan next to me heckling Corey Patterson for no other reason than being annoying to people trying to enjoy the game. When the Orioles started their comeback, he started yelling "Bring in Strasburg to close this game out!" I guess not everybody is caught up in Stras-mania. Til' next time, Go O's

The Blah Post

I've been away from the blog-o-sphere for about a week or so for several reasons. This post may (will) contain adult language not meant to be read by anybody sane. The author of this post was either on or off of his psych meds when he wrote this post. You have been warned.

First, my own baseball pursuits have been taking a lot of time away from collecting lately. Our team win loss record is 2 and 4 right now. I'm currently batting .357. Three losses came in a row against the 3 best teams in the league. We were mercy ruled in all 3 games. Yours truly had the only hit in one of the games. There is a serious competition issue in the league where 3 teams dominate because all of the players played in college and or in the minors. The other 6 teams are made up of guys who play for love of the game, weren't quite good enough to play at the next level, or thought that going to school and getting a decent paying job was a better idea. I feel I fit into the latter category and I guess I am better for it.

Secondly, the current state of the hobby has really gotten me down recently. The whole Topps monopoly really has me miffed. Monopolies are never good no matter what industry, or hobby you are in. The Baseball card monopoly has lead to laziness and total lack of innovation this year. I will say that Topps has been extremely lazy this year in their releases. How many truly new ideas have been released this year? One might argue that the National Chicle release was a new idea but they released a Football set last year by the same name so I say it's a borrowed idea. In my opinion, I thought that National Chicle was a total crap anyways. It was just Topps Gallery with much, much worse artwork. Looking forward to the next few releases there is nothing new. Just rehashing of the same old stuff from Topps. Topps Tribute and Topps Triple Threads is way out of my price range. Then comes T206, Topps Chrome, Bowman Chrome, Topps Update Series (as it is now known), the inevitable Bowman Draft Picks, Overpriced Bowman Sterling and Overpriced Topp$ Sterling.

Don't get me started on the Topp$ marketing of Strasburg either. It has been one Fuck up after another on Topp$' part by trying to rush him into its newest products. The whole Bowman Thing is not Topp$' fault by any means because that is just a supply and demand issue. That aside, the first screw up was putting him into the Million Card Giveaway bingo ball machine that was already horribly flawed. Next is the speculation on which Finest Redemption and Red Hot Rookies Redemption he will be featured on. In my opinion the only reason he is Finest Redemption #6 is because of so much out cry from the public Topp$ felt the pressure to save face and not hold out until Redemption #10. Who knows which Red Hot Rookie he'll be. Then we get the A+G mini card fiasco. People have ripped cases and cases and come up empty. Topp$ purposely was quiet on which iteration he was going to be featured on until after the release. They finally come out at say that he is a nearly impossible mini card pull. Topp$ is really got us all by the balls. So now there are going to be 2 different 2010 Topps #661's floating around causing even more confusion among casual collectors. Adding to the confusion is there is going to be autographed copies of the card too! You can get this card signed for a measly $350 bucks. What a great deal. I wonder which marketing ploy Topp$ will use next?

To top it all off Strasburg is struggling with his control and is actually looking human. Teams have figured him out. He's good but not All-Star worthy. Thank You Charlie Manuel for leaving him off of the All-Star roster and giving the spot to a deserving player like Omar Infante...? Really? This brings me to my next rant.

The "ALL-Star(-Inclusive) Game". What a joke. I have did not vote, and haven't for years. With Yankee and Red Sox fans stuffing the ballot box for league average players I see no point in casting 1 ballot for players that truly deserve being there ( Joey Votto, anyone?) Not every team needs a representative. This just cheapens the term All Star. Do you associate All-Star more with Roberto Clemente or Ty Wigginton? Ty Wigginton is a good player but he is NOT an All Star. I haven't watched the All Star game since 2001 (Cal's last) or the Homerun Derby since I was 11 or 12.

I really think that giving home field advantage to the AS game winner is the biggest joke of all. I really don't think when Wigginton comes off the bench to pinch hit (because God knows he's not going to go in for defensive purposes) in the 5th inning he is thinking "Man I really need to do something great here so that the American League can HFA in the WS". It just feels like MLB is trying to create a soap opera like the Lebron James Circus in the NBA or the Terrible Owens Ass-Clown show in the NFL. It doesn't create buzz for the game, it just cheapens the image of the sport.

Well now that I have probably angered every single one of my blog readers I think that I will go out on my front porch and yell at kids to get off my lawn.