Cal Ripken Cardboard Appreciation #16

1985 Topps Super #48

I know this looks like the regular base card with one BIG difference.  It measures in at nearly 7 inches high by 5 inches wide.  1985 Topps really has grown on me in the past few years.  Actually a lot of different sets have as I have begun to "appreciate" cards more instead of just "collect" them.

Moldy, FTW!

Nolan Reimold hit a walk-off home run!  Way to go Moldy!

Another Contest!

I just stumbled upon another contest at a blog I didn't know existed until today.  This contest is over at the Cheap Card Collecting blog.

Here's the link to sign up right here.


Good Luck!

The Daily Dimwit's Contest!

Sam of the Daily Dimwit is running a contest with a nice lot of cards as the grand prize.  Here is a link so you too can get in on the drawing:

The Daily Dimwit's Contest

Time is running out for you to enter.  Good luck to all the contestants!

My Bridal(?) Shower haul

My Fiancee had her Bridal shower last weekend and I was lucky enough to get some baseball loot along with all of the kitchen hand towels, mixing bowls, and silverware sets.  I wasn't in attendance but several of her friends were nice enough to think about me while shopping for gifts that are (mostly) for her.  To say the least, I was surprised to see that I actually got some gifts of my own.

First off I got this book  "Orioles Essential" by Thom Loverro.  Its got Cal Ripken on the cover so I'm pretty sure its a good book.  I'm still learning about the Orioles history so this book will come in handy when I get around to reading it.

Another one of her close friends bought me a pack of this year's Topps series 1.  While I got nothing of real interest in the pack, it was still nice of her to think of me.

And last but not least, one of her former co-workers and still close friend gave me a small gift bag filled with VINTAGE CARDS.  This is the same friend that had me look up some values last summer for a '66 Pete Rose and couple of vintage Yankees for her.  Apparently, she had been cleaning out her mother-in-law's house and came across these old cards.  I'm sure glad she did.  Look at some of the nice cards that I now have:

'58 Ernie Banks!

'66 Lou Brock!

'68 Ron Santo!

A couple '68 Topps Game cards

A few '65 Topps Embossed inserts

This is just the tip of the iceberg.  There was probably over 100 cards in the gift bag so I'm very grateful to have them.  My vintage collection is lacking good quality cards (condition wise) so I couldn't be happier with these.

If my haul was this good, I wonder what I might get as wedding gifts when the big day comes?

TTM Success: Gus Triandos

Since receiving the Orioles Encyclopedia for Christmas last year I have been reading bits and pieces of it off and on this year.  I had always known Gus Triandos was a good player for the Orioles back in the day yet he doesn't get the credit he deserves.  Most of the Oriole teams he played on from 1955 thru 1962 were fairly forgettable but Gus stands out as the only superstar on the team during that period (other than Brooks Robinson when he started to come into his own).  He was the Orioles All-Star Representative for 3 years (57,58,59) and was a solid backstop from what I can tell.

I began to become intrigued with his career and decided to send him an autograph request.  Ryan from The Great Orioles Autograph Project hooked me up with his home address and now after about a 3 week turnaround, I have these to add to my collection:

These are definitely my favorite TTMs that I have received so far this year.  Thanks Gus for taking time out to sign these cards for me.

OH NO!!!'s Poor Vintage Collection #5

The cards that are featured in this recurring theme were found by my father strewn about the floor of an abandoned farm building near my childhood home. There were approximately 1000 cards that laid undisturbed from the late 60's to early 90's when he discovered them. Most are in poor condition because exposure to the elements. He recently gave them to me and I will feature them here on my blog.

1953 Bowman Color #18 Nellie Fox

This card I've been wanting to post for a while now, watermarks and all.  This poor card seems like it could fall apart at any moment and I was scared to take it out of the penny sleeve and toploader to put it on the scanner.  Nevertheless, it is being shown here in all its vintage-y goodness.

I never gave Nellie much of a thought before but he was one hell of a ballplayer.  I knew that he was in the HOF but I never really looked at his stats as closely as I did for this post.  While he was not much of a base stealer, he wasn't a big power guy either.  The stat that really jumps off the page at me is that he only struck out 216 times in his 19 year career!  Mark Reynolds has surpassed 200 strikeouts in each of the last 3 seasons.  Nellie Fox seems like the kind of ballplayer who was just solid all around and did all the little things to help his team win.  I guess that's how you stick around so long and end up in the Hall of Fame.  Unfortunately for him, he was posthumously honored in Cooperstown 22 years after his death.  

He was born on Christmas Day 1927 and passed away December 1 1975 at the age of only 47 in Baltimore, MD.

2011 Bowman Platinum pack break

Since I haven't opened a lot of packs of cards lately, I decided to stop at Target on the way home and see if they had some new Bowman Platinum.  I decided on 2 of the value packs.  3 regular packs and a value pack exclusive 3 purple prospect cards.

From what I've seen from my small sample size break, I like what I see so far.  Last year's product wasn't terrible but this year's is really nice looking. All of the base cards are refractors so thats something I haven't seen before.

Heres some of the highlights of the break:

A bunch of base cards, most notably Aroldis Chapman, Jason Heyward, Tim Lincecum and Albert Pujols.
A few prospects: Manny Banuelos and Tyler Skaggs
3 Prospect x-Fractors (these look great!): Jonathan Singleton, Eduardo Escobar and Kyle Russell
6 Purple Prospects (I'm not crazy about the color of these): Brad Brach, Brad Holt, Matt Lipka, Dustin Ackley, Jared Mitchell and Ronnie Welty

I got one gold parallel: Aroldis Chapman

and I was lucky enough to pull an autograph card:

Hayden Simpson.  According to Baseball Reference, he hasn't had a great first pro season but he still has plenty of time to turn it around.

I guess I did pretty well for just a few packs.  I'll probably pick up another pack or two in the near future and see if I can get lucky again.