7-1-11: Baltimore Orioles at Atlanta Braves

A good friend and co worker of mine have been planning a trip down to Atlanta since the Braves played in Baltimore 2 years ago. He's a big Braves guy mostly because of his grandfather, and the triple-A Braves playing in Richmond.

From an Orioles fan's standpoint, it was a terrible game as Adam Jones produced the only O's hit. Jair Jurrjens held the Orioles offense in check for the entire game. We had great seats as we were sitting in the seats right beside the ball boy on the right field line. That lucky kid got to warm up Jason Heyward every inning! As luck would have it though, he didn't get one single foul ball the entire night!

So the game ended and I was going to try my luck at getting some autographs at the players entrance. This was the first time I had ever staked out the players entrance so I wasn't really sure what was going to happen.

I was able to get the tough-luck Orioles starter from that night Jeremy Guthrie on this 2009 Upper Deck card.

I also got Craig Tatum as he exited the stadium as well as Robert Andino and Jason Berken. Berken has been in the majors for 3 years and Topps hasn't produced a card other that this When They Were Young card. They could have taken one of Buster Posey's 3 regular Topps cards (ROY, Rookie Cup, or regular card) out of the set and given Jason a proper rookie card. That is why we need Topps Total!

I was also able to get Buck Showalter as he drove out in his rented Chevy SUV. He was nice and didn't seem to mind signing for an Orioles fan.

After the team bus left, I decided to head back to the hotel to get some sleep and get ready for day 2. Upon meeting up back at the hotel my friend actually got some Braves Autographs on some cards that I gave him. The most notable card he got that night was Jair Jurrjens on his 2008 Topps card. He was stoked!

Saturday was a big day so I can't wait to write about it... Stay Tuned!

Context Clues

Can anybody figure out where I was this weekend? I've got a lot of great things to blog about so keep and eye out this week! Happy 4th of July everyone!

Cal Ripken Cardboard Appreciation #14

2001 Stadium Club Diamond Pearls #DP8

The pink you see on this card actually has a pearlescent shine to it. It obviously brings the theme of Diamond Pearls together! This card does look better in person... I had never seen the pearl finish on a card before now.

Cal Ripken Cardboard Appreciation #13

2000 Bowman Chrome Metoric Rise #MR7

This is one of the my favorite cards that I got at the card show last weekend. As with most Chrome cards, the scan doesn't do it justice.

BTW, Cal did have a quick rise through the minor leagues. He made it in a little bit over 3 years. by today's standards, that is lightning quick for a player drafted out of high school.

Card Show Pickups: Dime Box Diver Edition

I'll admit that I am a sucker for dime boxes at a card show. I think everybody loves a great deal. One particular dealer at the card show had 2 tables on the end of a square of tables that was full of monster boxes of cards. He probably bought a large collection and just put them all out there for team set builders (like me!) and player collectors to pick out what they wanted. Here we go:

I pulled this card out because I remember seeing somebody's havelist of their Rey Ordonez player collection. I don't remember who it was/is so anybody who knows, please let me know. This is a certified on-card autograph as the back says so I hope the person who needs it may come forward.

These were the dime boxes so I picked up the regular and gold signature Bowman rookie card of CJ Wilson. Since he is the best starting pitcher on Texas' roster right now, I though why the heck not.

I always liked the Spirit of the Game inserts that Donruss had in the mid 90's. I remember pulling the Roberto Alomar one from a pack that I bought at the drug store in town. Man, when was the last time I saw baseball cards at a drug store?
This Robby Cano rookie card was in an unopened opened pack shoved in one of the monster boxes. I guess everybody else who searched through the boxes before me were too lazy to open the wrapper of an already opened pack! Their loss is my gain! I've learned you must be proactive at a card show to get the good deals!

These last two hail from the 1996 Donruss set. Both of these cards are numbered out of 10,000. Ahhh, the 90's! Regardless, they were both decent players so they might be good trade bait!

That's it for the card show. I can't wait until the next one!

Card Show Pickups: Future Orioles Edition

While scouring some of the tables I picked up a few "future" Oriole investment cards. While I'm not a full blown prospector, I do keep up with who's hot in the minors and try to keep their cards around. I mostly just stick to Orioles Prospects though.

My first card I picked up was this year's 6th round pick, Nick Delmonico. He has 2 brothers (one in the Dodgers system, and one at University of Georgia) and is committed to going to join his older brother as a Bulldog at UGA. He is going to be a tough sign probably commanding late first round - early second round money. He was considered by many GMs as unsignable because of his strong commitment to Georgia and was regarded in the top 40 prospects of this draft. I hope a deal can get done with Nick and he starts tearing up the Minors on his way to Camden Yards.

Nick had 2 cards released last year in his USA uniform... I'm hopeful I can find the one that was release in regular Bowman.

I picked this autograph of 2009's O's first rounder Matt Hobgood on the cheap. He has struggled so far in his minor league career. He just returned from a shoulder injury so I hope he can get going in the right direction now.

Speaking of tearing up the minor leagues, Jonathan Schoop (pronounced Scope), has been on a tear all season long. Starting at low-A Delmarva, he has been promoted to High-A Frederick. He has also been selected to play in the Futures game that takes place along with the All-Star Break Festivities.

Card Show Pickups: Vintage Edition

I went to the card show with a clear goal of putting a dent into my Vintage Orioles list. A lot of what I saw at the show were too nice for my collection and they were a little bit more that I was willing to pay. I found one vendor that had 2 monster boxes of "1 dollar" deals". I think I accomplished my goal by adding 26 cards for 20 bucks! They all ranged in the 1959 to 1964. I got (4) 1959's, (14) 1960's, (1) 1962, (6) 1964's and (1) 1967. Here's my favorites of coup de grace:

Hank Bauer was the first Orioles Manager to deliver a World Series win in Baltimore. I think he is more known for playing in all those years with the Yankees.
This card is a semi-hi number shortprint of a player I know little about. The back of the card shows he had some pop in 1963. He hit 31 home runs for Toronto when they were in the International League.
While searching through the 1964's I stumbled upon a beat up version of this card. Luckily I was able to dig this one out a little bit later down the row. None of my vintage cards are in great shape but probably average in the VG range.
Bob Boyd was the Orioles first baseman for a few seasons. The trivia on the back says that Bob had never hit below .300 in any complete season (to that point, obviously).
I've seen this card several times before but it was either in such crappy condition, or was badly off-center. This one is a good mix of condition, centering and price. I love the stands of Memorial Stadium in the background.

Card Show Pickups: GU Edition

As I mentioned in my last post, I attended the Inside Pitch show in Raleigh, NC this past weekend. I got many, many great cards but I'm only going to show the Game Used cards in this post. I lucked out and found a vendor who was doing his last show before retiring to Hawaii. I was able to scoop up all 4 of the following cards from him for a great price:

This one is from 2005 Upper Deck Trilogy. Notice that it is serial numbered 20/99.
I really like this one because of the orange swatch. I haven't seen a lot of Ripken GU's that have an orange jersey piece.
Here's my first Eddie Murray Game Used card. This is a really nicely done card by Upper Deck in 2004 SP Legendary Cuts. I'm really digging the Gold Stamped cartoon bird logo.
This one is perfectly round, but I think it is too skinny to be the handle of the bat. This card reminds me of a dollar bill because of the green motif of the card.
I also picked up this one from William. I added the random piece of dust that you can see on the jersey piece. I might keep this one or trade it for the right offer.